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No. 27 August 2003

VIN SULLIVAN ––GOLDEN AGE GODFATHER TO THE TWO GREATEST SUPER-HEROES OF ALL!

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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!

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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

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

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

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

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

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Vol. 3, No. 27 / August 2003

™

Editor Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout Christopher Day

Consulting Editor John Morrow

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 Jack Burnley Jack Kirby (with Randy Sargent & Shane Foley)

Cover Colorists Tom Ziuko Shane Foley

And Special Thanks to: Heather Antonelli Dick Ayers Jill Baily Regina Baily Robert Beerbohm Blake Bell John Benson Jay Disbrow Shel Dorf Ken Dudley Harlan Ellison Tom Fagan Michael Feldman Creig Flessel Patricia Floss Shane Foley Ken Gale Glen David Gold Ron Goulart George Hagenauer Peter Hansen Ron Harris Larry Ivie Bill Jourdain Bunny Lyons Kaufman Adele Kurtzman

Richard Kyle Joe Latino Mark Luebker Maurizio Manzieri Fred Mommsen Brian K. Morris Will Murray Vittorio Pavesio John G. Pierce Devon Raymond Charlie Roberts John Romita Randy Sargent Warren Sattler Romano Scarpa Barbara Seuling Carole Seuling Gwen Seuling David Siegel Marc Swayze Alex Toth Jim Vadeboncouer, Jr. Michael J. Vassallo Hames Ware Bill Warren Ray Zone

VIN SULLIVAN & THE GIANTS OF DC! (And Fawcett,Too!)

Contents Writer/Editorial: Vin and Vigor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Vin Sullivan––Present at the Creation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 A candid conversation with the late godfather of Superman and Batman.

The Golden Girl and the Silver Slipper. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Comics great Jack Burnley writes about his wife Dolores Farris—Broadway dancing star of the 1920s.

“I Wrote Batman in the 1940s!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Move over, Bill Finger! Here comes Ruth “Bunny” Lyons Kaufman.

FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) #86 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 P.C. Hamerlinck presents Jay Disbrow, Marc Swayze, and more. “New” Jack Kirby Covers––and Some “Great Unknowns” . . Flip Us! About Our Cover and Illo Above: Jack Burnley—co-creator of Starman and ofttime artist of the Superman and Batman newspaper strips—has done occasional re-creations of his classic 1940s art. The drawing he graciously allowed us to use as this issue’s cover was a quasi-re-creation of the one he’d done for the cover of World’s Finest Comics #29 (July-Aug. 1946)—except that, as seen above, on the original drawing Robin the Boy Wonder was winning a race with his bemused elders. Was the fix in? [Cover art ©2003 Jack Burnley; WFC cover ©2003 DC Comics; Superman & Batman TM & © 2003 DC Comics.]

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Mrs. Dolores Farris Burnley, Lester Zakarin, & Al Hartley

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, $11.00 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

Vin and Vigor While I’m pleased to present Bill Jourdain’s piece on little-known “Batman” scripter Bunny Lyons Kaufman, and P.C. Hamerlinck has worked his usual wonders in assembling an entertaining and enlightening edition of FCA, the other thing I want to talk about here is Golden Age artist Jack Burnley’s “The Golden Girl and the Silver Slipper.”

Vin Sullivan must’ve been one amazing individual. It wasn’t enough for him to have been in on the ground floor at the creation of DC Comics—or to have been the editor of Action Comics #1, with its debut of “Superman”—or to have had (apparently) the original idea for New York World’s Fair Comics of 1939, which became the forerunner of World’s Finest Comics—or to have suggested to a humor cartoonist named Bob Kane that he might increase his income by creating a new super-hero (the result, of course, being Batman).

My introductory comments on page 27 speak for themselves, but I should state right here and now that this is an article which—for the first and perhaps only time in A/E’s history—has no connection whatever with comic books. Oh, it’s illustrated with a bit of Jack’s artwork from his days drawing superheroes, as well as several of his sports and other cartoons... but it’s basically a non-comics outing. Jack poured his heart and soul into writing the short book of which this entry is an abridgement—and we hope that, even in necessarily truncating it, we’ve been able to let that love and enthusiasm for his subject matter shine through.

No, for Vin, that was just the beginning—as he went on to co-found first the Columbia comics group—and, a bit later, the wonderful Magazine Enterprises company, which endured for a decade and a half. Yeah, Vin Sullivan was a pretty amazing guy—and I’m happy that, one evening at the San Diego Comic-Con in 1998, I got to meet him and tell him so. Now, thanks to a quartet of dedicated comics fans, you can hear what Vin had to say, in his own modest way, about his life and times.

Along with drawing the cover of the 1940 edition of New York World’s Fair Comics, the first time Superman and Batman had ever been depicted together, Jack Burnley also illustrated the “Superman” story which led off that magazine. [©2003 DC Comics.]

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Present At The Creation

Vin Sullivan-Present At The Creation A Candid Conversation with the Godfather (or Is It Midwife?) of Superman and Batman Conducted Oct. 8, 1994, by Joe Latino, Rich Morrissey, Ken Gale, & Tom Fagan Edited by Roy Thomas

Transcribed by Brian K. Morris Corporation and launch such titles as Big Shot Comics, Skyman, The Face, and Sparky Watts. However, dissatisfied with that company, he left in 1943 to start his own well-remembered Magazine Enterprises, which became a reasonably prominent player in the field through most of the 1950s with such other-media adaptation comics as Straight Arrow, Tim Holt (later Redmask), and Durango Kid, and with such original material as the western Ghost Rider, Siegel and Shuster’s Funnyman, The Avenger, Strong Man, and others. [The portion of this interview which dealt with Magazine Enterprises saw print in Alter Ego, Vol. 3, #10, along with a severalpage article on Vin Sullivan. That issue is still available from TwoMorrows; see its ad bloc in our flip side. —Roy.]

“We Were Putting Out a New Comic Book” In the beginning...! Since we lack the facilities for turning videotape images into reproduceable photos, here’s a shot of Vin Sullivan and two dawn-of-DC colleagues snapped in May 1993, a year and a half before this interview was conducted. [Left to right:] Creig Flessel (at whose Long Island home it was taken), Fred Guardineer, and Vin. Read about all three on the pages that follow. The accompanying art, of course, is from Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s “Superman” debut in 1938’s Action Comics #1; more about it coming up, too! [Photo ©2003 Charlie Roberts.]

[EDITOR’S NOTE: On October 8, 1994, four knowledgeable comics fans/collectors interviewed Vincent Sullivan, who along with Whitney Ellsworth had been one of DC Comics’ first editors, back in the latter 1930s—including at the time of Action Comics #1 and Detective Comics #27. The interview, according to one of them—Joe Latino, from whose videotaping of the session our transcript is taken—took place in “a parlor room in his home” on Long Island, New York. “He was friendly and cordial to all of us. Totally absent from the walls in any of the rooms that I saw,” Joe writes, “were any comic art of any kind, although we did not walk by many rooms. The interview took approximately two hours before we broke and went out for dinner. We treated Vince to dinner at a local steakhouse... where Ken Gale and I got into a ‘heated’ discussion on capitalism and landlord/tenant issues.” Joe has long since left the profession of tenant lawyer, but Ken says that “Vin really seemed to enjoy the argument. He was smiling broadly the whole time, didn’t give his opinion on what we were arguing about. After the dinner he said we made him feel young.” [Vin Sullivan, who had been born in 1911, passed away in 1999. This interview—despite lapses while the videotape was being changed, etc.—deals with his accomplishments, primarily at DC Comics. In 1940 Sullivan left DC to co-found Columbia Comic

JOE LATINO: Okay, would you like to introduce yourselves? Name, identity, what your interests are.... KEN GALE: I’m unwrapping tapes so I can record this whole thing for playing on WBAI, because I do a comic book show every two weeks, interviewing different people in the industry. My name is Ken Gale, and I guess the first time I knew of Vin Sullivan’s work was when I started buying Golden Age comics in the late ’70s.

Vin Sullivan SULLIVAN: Well, I guess it was Sheldon Mayer, but Charlie Gaines brought the thing to me. He knew we were putting out a new comic book.

“We Would Just Buy Things” RM: Maybe we should start at the very beginning. How did you get into comics? SULLIVAN: I really don’t remember the beginning of this thing, how I got in touch with Nicholson [Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, founder of National Allied Comics, forerunner of DC]. He may have had an ad in the paper, or something, for an artist or cartoonist. Nicholson was the fella who started the comic books, originally. In any event, I met him, and I think Whit Ellsworth came into the picture at that time, and we started off as editors of his book [New Fun]. RM: How did you and Ellsworth divide up the responsibility? He had some books and you had some? SULLIVAN: Actually, there was no official technique for getting out a book. We would just buy things as the public came in. We did a lot of work ourselves on a book, both Whit and I. We’d draw cartoons, covers, and things. KG: So you started out as an artist? SULLIVAN: As a cartoonist. I am not an artist. I haven’t tried to sell comic strips of my own stuff, The founder of the company that in time became DC Comics was depicted last issue in a World War I-era photo. Here, courtesy of Charlie Roberts, is a 1926 cartoon by “Hinky” (full/real name unknown—any ideas out there?) which, Charlie says, was “probably published in a Major Malcolm WheelerNicholson pulp.” [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

TOM FAGAN: I’m Tom Fagan, and I’m from Rutland, Vermont. The first time I heard of Vin Sullivan’s work was when I bought Detective #31. JL: Mr. Sullivan, you’re still incredibly photogenic. VIN SULLIVAN: Yes, I am. [laughter] RICH MORRISSEY: My name’s Rich Morrissey. I’ve been a Superman and Batman fan since early childhood, and I’m really thrilled to be the guest of the man who first launched them as editor and to hopefully shed some light on his career and how these characters, and so many others, came into existence. SULLIVAN: This is a new experience for me. KG: Have you been interviewed on radio before? SULLIVAN: Not that I know of. One of the groups that came in, they had the microphone on the coffee table here, but what happened with it, I don’t know. Creig Flessel and Fred Guardineer live out here on the Island, too. If you ask the questions, I’ll try to answer them. I have that Comic Buyer’s Guide. RM: That’s when you and several others all got together? Now, there were a few things [in the CBG piece] that really didn’t make a lot of sense. It says at one point that DC’s official story was that Harry Donenfeld discovered Superman. I’ve never heard that. The stories I’ve heard say it was either M. C. Gaines or Sheldon Mayer or both who spotted the feature and brought it over. Everything I’ve heard about Donenfeld indicated he thought it was a silly idea at first.

This 1990s illo by veteran artist Creig Flessel, first published in The All-Star Companion, is a recollection of three of DC’s founding fathers and himself in the mid-to-late 1930s. (Left to right, standing:) Vin Sullivan, Major Malcolm WheelerNicholson, and Whitney Ellsworth. Creig drew himself seated at the drawing board, where else? Courtesy of the artist and David Siegel. [©2003 Creig Flessel.]

Present At The Creation

5 SULLIVAN: They brought them in. I would buy or turn them down. The word had gotten around among the artists and writers at that particular point. I don’t remember soliciting any work. KG: How closely did you work with any of the artists and writers? Did you discuss stories before they were written? SULLIVAN: Occasionally. Most of the time, they would come in with the complete story—first it would start with the story, of course—and then I’d go over that. All that stuff—I’d be working with them, editing the thing. TF: How much editing did you do? SULLIVAN: Not much, quite frankly. It wasn’t needed. If something had to be changed, we’d change it. RM: Had Nicholson been editing the book himself before you came with Ellsworth?

Vin Sullivan apparently did the drawing above left of his character “Spike Spaulding” for a fan circa 1937— and the cover of the landmark Detective Comics #1 (March 1937) a bit earlier. That’s not really Sax Rohmer’s Oriental mastermind Dr. Fu Manchu, but rather Fang Gow, enemy of feature star “Barry O’Neill.” According to comics historian Ron Goulart: “Had Major Nicholson not had money problems, this title would have appeared months earlier and been the first comic book devoted entirely to detectives.” But the proto-DC title has lasted a wee bit longer than Comic Magazine Company’s Detective Picture Stories—like, 66 years and counting! “Spike Spaulding” cartoon courtesy of Charlie Roberts. [Detective #1 cover ©2003 DC Comics; VS cartoon ©2003 Estate of Vin Sullivan.]

not as a success, really. So, yes, I think you could call me a cartoonist, because I’ve done some cartoons for the newspapers and also for the magazines themselves. TF: We know you did the cover to Detective #1 with “Fu Manchu.” JL: How did you get involved in cartooning? SULLIVAN: I guess it was born in my body. [laughs] The first cartoon I ever had printed, I believe, I was in high school... or it could have been even before high school. I came from Brooklyn and our paper, The Brooklyn Eagle, had a Buttons and Fatty cartoon on the front cover of this small supplement they had for kids. They had school kids sending in cartoons and poems to be printed. I became friendly with one of the editors, a woman. I would keep feeding her these different strips, and one day she decided to print one. “Jibby Jones,” as a matter of fact, was it. A little boy. RM: Ah, you ran that a bit later at DC when you came. KG: But not the exact same strips? SULLIVAN: Oh no, no. RM: When, exactly, were you born? SULLIVAN: [laughs] I hate to give my age away. 1911. I guess that makes me 83 years of age. I lived in Brooklyn all my life, really, until I got married and came out here. I wasn’t married until I left DC. I went with the North Syndicators, Frank Marky. We formed this company called the Columbia Comic Corporation. It was right after that when I got married. RM: When you worked at DC, did artists generally come to you and make submissions, or did you go out to them?

SULLIVAN: Well, he was the publisher. He was trying to raise cash for the operation all the time. TF: Why was Nicholson always trying to raise cash?

SULLIVAN: He first had the idea, which turned out to be a fabulous idea—but he hadn’t any money of his own or he couldn’t raise money to put this operation on the road. When you’re buying artwork, you must have money; and half the time, he wouldn’t pay the artists.

RM: I’ve heard that he was often very slow in paying and sometimes he wouldn’t pay them at all. Were you generally paid on time? SULLIVAN: I think we were. Because if we weren’t, there wouldn’t be any business at all. But it was difficult, really. We had space in—I guess you’d call it a warehouse type of building, on 4th Avenue. I believe the address was 432. Around 30-some-odd Street in New York City. KG: That’s right where Park Avenue South is now. TF: And how many people would be working in the office in those days? SULLIVAN: Just Whit and I. Freelancers would bring the work in. Any work [that] had to be done on the strips or the pages, either Whit or I had to do it. We were, presumably, professional cartoonists. It was a skeleton crew.

“We Were Looking for Work” TF: And Nicholson, what was he all about? What was he like? SULLIVAN: He was a very charming man, I’ll put it that way. TG: I think he had to be charming to get a printer to change his entire printing system just for him. SULLIVAN: Well, they didn’t change anything, really, at that time. The printers were printing cartoon pages, the Sunday papers. KG: I heard a story that he’d convinced the printer in Sparta {Illinois]

Vin Sullivan That’s where I first met them. They were looking, the same as I had been looking, to place their various strips in the newspapers. They got word, I suppose, about Nicholson and his organization being in operation, so they came down to see him. RM: They lived in Cleveland. They actually came to New York to see you rather than doing it by mail? SULLIVAN: They didn’t come just to see us, let me put it that way. I think we were the very last ones, perhaps, to look at the stuff that they had. TF: So they were literally just shopping their strips around? Had they created “Slam Bradley” already? SULLIVAN: Yes, that was one of the first features that we ran. He was in Detective Comics—I don’t know what other magazine. We had started Detective Comics, too, down there. Detective Comics, New Comics, and More Fun. TF: They had done some work for More Fun [earlier New Fun] with “Dr. Occult.” SULLIVAN: Yeah, and “Henri Duvall” and some other thing. Early DC artist and editor Whit Ellsworth did this “Little Linda” drawing for a fan or friend, circa 1937... complete with a note on the back. Linda was a soul sister to Little Orphan Annie. Courtesy of Charlie Roberts. [©2003 Estate of Whitney Ellsworth.]

to make his two two-color presses into one four-color press—that he’s the one who convinced them to do that so there would be comics, and he promised to fill up their press time. SULLIVAN: [shrugs] He might have. I don’t know what arrangement he had with that printer. World Color Printing, I think it was called. Nicholson was very affable and good company and a good storyteller. As a matter of fact, he had been writing stories for years in the pulp magazines, so he and I had a fairly good idea of what stories should be like and structured in a comic book. TF: What was it about him that made you want to work for them? Was it the need for a job, simply? SULLIVAN: Neither Whit nor I had any work at the time, I suppose. We were looking for work ourselves. I had been constantly going around to the newspaper syndicates, trying to land a job of some sort. So we decided to go along with this. It looked promising. Cartoons had always appealed to me, and I thought it might appeal to other people, particularly kids. RM: But you didn’t aim at any particular age bracket the way most comics do now; say age 12 or 10-to-14 or whatever? I know that, especially during the war years, a lot of older people, especially soldiers, were buying the books. SULLIVAN: Well, at that particular time in my life, the appeal was for adults, I think—for instance, the soldiers. The soldiers were all young fellas anyway: 17, 18, 19 years of age. So they were more into comic books at that time, too.

“They Didn’t Come Just to See Us” RM: I’d like to talk a bit more about the specific people you worked with. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, I believe, did their first work for you on “Slam Bradley.” SULLIVAN: Yeah. That came out of the office on Fourth Avenue, yes.

Siegel and Shuster’s “Slam Bradley” made his debut in 1937’s Detective Comics #1. Put Slam in a blue-and-red suit, and he’d be able to leap tall buildings with a single bound. Jerry and Joe had earlier done “Dr. Occult” for the Major’s New Fun Comics #6 (Oct. 1935). [©2003 DC Comics.]

Present At The Creation

Magazine]. And what about a strip called “Little Linda”? I remember that sort of vacillated between comedy and adventure. SULLIVAN: That sounds like something Whitney Ellsworth had drawn. RM: Yes, he did. It was sort of based on— SULLIVAN: Little Orphan Annie. Yeah, that was his idea. KG: Did you buy most of what came in? SULLIVAN: In the beginning we did, because we had to fill up the book. That’s why we had some features that were a little more adult in appeal. Now, the other day when I stopped to see Creig Flessel, he mentioned that “Pep Morgan” was a feature that ran in More Fun that he had started. RM: Later it moved into Action Comics for a while. When we get up to that point, I brought some comics to show you. They’re mostly reprints, because I can’t really afford to buy Action #1 any more. I think the price now is something like $30,000 in mint condition.

An early “Pep Morgan” drawn by Creig Flessel—whose major work was on covers, such as that of Detective Comics #4 (June 1937). “Pep Morgan” started out as a Frank Merriwell type in More Fun, was later moved to Action Comics with art by Fred Guardineer and others. [©2003 DC Comics.]

KG: Can you tell us a little bit about how all those comics got started—New Fun, Adventure, Detective? SULLIVAN: Nicholson was the one who had it in his mind to produce this type of book, if you want to call it, for the juvenile audience. So you have to give him credit for starting it. KG: What was Gaines’ role in all this?

KG: [to Sullivan] That’s more than you got paid your entire time there, isn’t it? SULLIVAN: For many years. [laughs]

“I Didn’t Want to Go to College”

SULLIVAN: Well, he had nothing to do with the beginnings of Detective Comics.

TF: How old were you when you got into the comic book business? When you were out of high school?

RM: Before we get into the famous stuff like “Superman”—there were some other interesting strips that ran in the backs of books at that time. Back then, you always had a sort of variety—some straight adventure strips and some comedy strips, and some sort-of went between. I guess you just wanted a wide variety, like the Sunday comics sections in newspapers?

SULLIVAN: I didn’t go to college. I didn’t want to go to college. I wanted to pursue this field—although my brothers, at that time, they all went to college.

SULLIVAN: Well, it was probably because we couldn’t get any other type of material to put in the thing, so we started running these more adult-type features for that reason. Scarcity of material, don’t you know? RM: But you had some things like—“Ray and Gail” [in New Comics] comes to mind. It was about a brother and sister who traveled, and there was some strip about a Mexican peasant and his two kids—“Chikko Chakko,” or something like that [in New Comics/New Adventure Comics, and in the non-DC Comics

JL: What kind of family were you from? How many brothers or sisters? SULLIVAN: I had two brothers and two sisters. I was the secondoldest. My older brother Frank became an attorney. My second sister Isabel lives in Garden City, over here; she was third. My sister Eileen and my brother Jack, both have died. TF: What was life like for you when you were growing up? Were both of your parents employed? Did they suffer any of the effects of the Depression at the time? SULLIVAN: No, no, no. We had a very nice life, I will say that, very

Vin Sullivan pleasant. My father had been in the banking business, New York Clearing House. No, we didn’t have anything that would affect us, family-wise. KG: What year did you start at DC? SULLIVAN: I don’t remember. It could have been 1937, ’39. When did More Fun start?

“They Became Dissatisfied with Nicholson” RM: More Fun, I think, started around 1935, 1936. [NOTE: It was 1935, as New Fun. —Roy.] I think the first major event in DC’s history which happened when you were there was when Harry Donenfeld took over from Nicholson. Do you remember when and how that came about, and how it affected you? SULLIVAN: Well, I don’t remember the exact date [NOTE: Apparently it was 1938, just prior to the publication of Action Comics #1. —Roy.], but how it came about was that originally the books that Nicholson was producing, which Whit and I were editing, were being distributed by the SM News Company. This was a company that had Popular Science and McCall’s magazine—and they were distributing

As “Leger & Reuths,” Siegel and Shuster began the two-page continuing feature “Dr. Occult” in New Fun Comics Vol. 1, #6 (Oct. ’35), just before the title was changed to More Fun Comics. One chapter jumped companies to appear as “Dr. Mystic”—using the creators’ real names!—in The Comics Magazine, Vol. 1, #1 (May ’36). Then, picking up the same storyline, he was “Dr. Occult” again in More Fun, Vol. 2, #2 (Oct. ’36), pen names and all (bottom two images). Doc got a costume of sorts in the latter episode, with a blazing triangular chest insignia. A dry run for “Superman”? [Dr. Occult ©2003 DC Comics; Dr. Mystic ©2003 the respective copyright holders.]

Present At The Creation those books through their own distribution operation called SM News. And it got to the point where, I guess, they became dissatisfied with Nicholson, or the books weren’t selling, or maybe Nicholson got into them for money—I don’t know what the story was there. But the next thing was, he switched the distribution of the books to the Independent News Company, which had been owned by Harry Donenfeld and Paul Sampliner, I think his name was. I guess, from that point, he started borrowing money from them to keep the magazines going. They were interested in selling the magazines because that was their business, the distribution of it. But it got to the point where, I suppose, he was into them for too much money, and they finally decided to take the books over. In other words, they bought his company out. [NOTE: For more information on this subject, see our previous issue’s interview with Irwin Donenfeld, son of longtime DC publisher Harry. —Roy.]

SULLIVAN: In effect, yeah. JL: Was there an intentional awareness of that at the time? Do you recall saying, “We’re about the only ones publishing comics. We’re the only ones publishing new comics that aren’t reprints”? Were you involved in the marketing at all? SULLIVAN: Not too much, no. JL: What I’m talking about is in-house. Usually, there’s a strategy within any kind of business to say, “Look, here’s what we want to do: we want to compete with the strips. We don’t want to do repeats of the Sundays. We think there’s a whole new market out there for new comic art. We’ll put it together in a magazine or book format.” SULLIVAN: Oh, of course. Yeah. JL: But how much, in terms of putting together the format of the book itself, were you involved in the beginning in terms of saying, “Are we going to have a complete book or are we going to have a series of strips?” Was it simply an attempt to take the strips and put the strip format into a comic book?

RM: I believe Donenfeld’s earlier publishing had By mid-1937 “Dr. Occult” had stretched from two pages per issue to four to face “The Master been things like Spicy of Corpses.” In this first-page sequence, the Dick Tracy-like Doc faces a cop named Detective Stories and the “Ellsworth.” Siegel and Shuster—excuse us, Leger and Reuths—were neither the first like. My friend Will nor the last creators to butter up an editor. [©2003 DC Comics.] SULLIVAN: In a sense, Murray wanted me to ask that would have been the you about some of the idea. But it was Nicholson’s idea to have original art instead of the pulps, because that’s his main area of expertise. He’s done a lot of reprints. investigation of Donenfeld’s history and what he had done before this. KG: Did you simply pick up on that lead and say, “Okay,” to new writers and artists, “we will simply take in what is being brought and SULLIVAN: I only know just by hearsay. Donenfeld was still we will take them and put them in a book form”? Who, in-house, producing these pulp magazines, even though I moved from 432 Fourth would have been the one in charge of saying, “Okay, we’re going to Avenue up to the Grand Central Building. have this artist do a cover for the comic book?” Who, in-house, would RM: Was that 480 Lexington Avenue? I know that was the address have been the one saying, “We’re going to have Story A, Story B, for a couple of years. Story C”? SULLIVAN: I thought it was 480. Later, after I started out on my own, I had an office at the Graymarr Building at 420, sort-of next door, you might say.

SULLIVAN: That was yours truly. [laughs]

RM: Okay, I think we’re getting close to “Superman” now.

RM: You decided which story would go on the cover, for instance, and which one would be at the beginning of the book, and so on?

KG: When that started, there wasn’t a lot of competition. There weren’t that many comic books being published. SULLIVAN: Oh, no, no. RM: I think most of the ones that did exist were reprints of newspaper strips. They had Famous Funnies and Popular. SULLIVAN: I don’t recall those books at all. KG: So you almost had the market to yourself.

KG: That’s what I thought.

SULLIVAN: Out of my hands, the whole thing. Nicholson’s position in the organization was similar to Donenfeld’s. He didn’t particularly care what went into the magazine, actually.

“Nobody Knew of Us” KG: Well, then, you, in essence, had a lot of power, because you controlled and you chose the cover artists and whose stories were going to appear. And I assume—and correct me if I’m wrong on any

Vin Sullivan

of this—that, because of the times, you could have selected from any number of people that were coming to you. SULLIVAN: Yeah, if they came in. We would have been very happy to have had more artists and writers, but there was a scarcity of them. Nobody knew of us. RM: I had the impression that most of the people who did work for you were people who hoped to get into newspaper strips and hadn’t yet been able to do so. You didn’t pay as much as the syndicates did, but it was a way to get their stuff before the public and to sharpen up their abilities in the hopes that, one day, they’d get their own strips, and a lot of them eventually did. SULLIVAN: That’s the way the ink formed itself. Of the percentage of fellows who have their strips running in newspapers, you got about 98% of artists and cartoonists who are struggling to get into newspaper syndicates but they don’t make it, like the Hollywood scene where three or four people who become stars and six or seven hundred are trying to become stars. RM: I think what Joe was getting at was, since there were so many people who wanted to get into newspapers and haven’t made it as yet, how come you didn’t get more submissions than you did? SULLIVAN: Well, there weren’t, probably, that many, but certainly the novices outweighed the professionals, you might say, that came in. As time went on, word got around. I suppose the artists talked among themselves and things started to come in. Certainly, the quality of the thing was not good half of the time and so you had to turn them down or tell them to work on something and come back. KG: And so the more you got, the choosier you got to be? SULLIVAN: Oh, yeah, sure. TF: How would you determine, even in the beginning—to say, “Creig, you’re going to draw the Adventure cover here, or you’re going to draw this cover on Detective Comics there”? How did you determine that he, as opposed to, maybe, Joe Shuster—? Clemens Gretter, who illustrated some of the Hardy Boys books from 1932-36 and worked at the Harry “A” Chesler shop from 1935-37, did a nice job on “2023 Super-Police” in New Fun #1. The script was by Ken Fitch, who would later become the original writer of the “Hour Man” super-hero feature in Adventure Comics. Thanks to Jerry Bails & Hames Ware’s Who’s Who in American Comic Book for some of this info. [©2003 DC Comics.]

SULLIVAN: Well, I knew that man’s particular style would fit a certain type of story. We saw the story first and assigned whoever the artist happened to be. We hadn’t too many artists to pick from, anyway. JL: Do you recall the names of the artists in the early days? SULLIVAN: Yeah. [displaying the Comics Buyer’s Guide photo of himself with several other Golden Age creators and Ron Goulart] This is a small group of us that got together last year. Here’s Ron Goulart, Creig Flessel, Fred Schwab—now he’s one of the fellows doing cartoons. But this pretty well tells the whole story right there. My story, anyway. Some early National Allied artists stuck around in comics for a long time—such as Henry Carl Kiefer (here using the name “de Kerosett”), who drew “Wing Brady” in the first issue of New Fun. From 1935-53 Kiefer eventually drew for just about every company there was, including Quality (“Red Torpedo”), Fiction House (“Wambi”), Fox (“Sub Saunders”), Timely/Marvel (“Silver Scorpion”), Prize (“Yank & Doodle”), Eastern Color (“Hydroman”), Rural Home (“Steel Fist”), EC (“Buckskin Kid”), Fawcett (“Nyoka the Jungle Girl”), and Gilbert’s Classics Illustrated (including the adaptation of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues under the Sea)... to name just a few! [©2003 DC Comics.]

Present At The Creation

SULLIVAN: Charlie Gaines was down at the McClure Newspaper Syndicate. If I’m not mistaken, they were printers, too, and they were printing comics for the newspapers. He may have been connected—I don’t know if he was with Famous Funnies or not. But he had something to do along those lines. RM: He started up a lot of their reprint comics. He had worked for a number of publishers. I gather he hooked up with your outfit because you were the only ones, for the most part. SULLIVAN: He may have been looking for business for his printers, for the printing end of his operation. RM: I believe that is the case. In fact, I know that before he had worked at DC, Sheldon Mayer had been doing “Scribbly” for him. It’s thought of as a DC feature now, but Mayer had done him for Gaines, I think, at the last company they worked at before. They both came over and brought the character with them. KG: It was Popular Comics. “Scribbly” appeared in Popular. “Sometimes... I think I drew the covers!” The Gerbers’ magnificent Picto-Journal Guide to Comic Books lists the cover of New Comics #1 and #3 as Vin Sullivan’s work; only the first is signed. Whit Ellsworth did numerous others. Gradually the title evolved into the long-running DC title Adventure Comics. [©2003 DC Comics.]

SULLIVAN: “Scribbly.” Did I buy “Scribbly”? RM: I think Sheldon Mayer did, when he became editor. SULLIVAN: And I thought I had. Maybe I was mistaken.

“I Think I Drew the Covers” RM: I’ve noticed sometimes the cover would be from a story in the issue and sometimes it wouldn’t be. It would just be a cover that had characters—or sometimes it didn’t have characters—from inside. I wondered why that was, that you didn’t at least have characters from one of the stories in the issue.

RM: You might have done it for you. I’ll have to get to that a little bit later. Didn’t you run an Oswald the Rabbit strip—which I think is the first cartoon character who had an original strip in comic books? SULLIVAN: This fellow, Fred Schwab, might have done it, because that would be in his line of work.

SULLIVAN: I never thought of it. I never thought of taking a character from a story in a magazine and put that character on the cover, though I sometimes did, I think. RM: So what were the other covers supposed to be? Did you think about what they should be, why “C” would be on the cover if he had nothing to do with it? SULLIVAN: Well, sometimes like with the New Comics, where I think I drew the covers—there would be a scene like the one, with a kid and the snowball coming towards his head. It was supposed to be funny. RM: I can see with cartoons, and such. But when you had a dramatic scene with somebody in a fight at the docks—you never thought the reader might have been disappointed to open up the book and not find it in the story? SULLIVAN: I never thought about it, one way or the other. You’re saying the story should have tied into some story in the magazine? TF: Yeah. Did you ever get any feedback from the readers? SULLIVAN: I don’t recall. I suppose we did, but there weren’t floods of letters coming in, I’ll tell you that. I don’t think there was that much interest in the books. KG: What were you thinking when you chose between different submissions? Was it artistic, or was it you thought it would sell? SULLIVAN: Well, would it be interesting to read it, first of all. And of course I’d buy a supply of that particular feature, so I started stockpiling the pages. If it happened to be an interesting story or a character, I’d just buy it. I wanted diversity and variety in the magazine, too. There wasn’t any set rule or regulation for purchasing something. RM: M.C. Gaines had been involved to some extent before Superman came into existence? How did you two meet?

Before Sheldon Mayer became editor in 1939 of M.C. Gaines’ new All-American Comics line and brought “Scribbly” with him, the boy cartoonist was a one-shot cover star on Dell’s The Funnies #26 (Nov. ‘38). Later, in All-American Comics, after taking a back seat first to aviator Hop Harrigan, then to costumed types like Ultra-Man and Green Lantern, “Scribbly” got its own super-hero(ine), The Red Tornado. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em! These panels are from All-American #22 (Jan. 1941). [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

Vin Sullivan

“That’s Where Superman Started” RM: Okay, do you think it’s time to get to Superman now? SULLIVAN: Let’s start with my going up to Donenfeld’s office. And that’s where Superman started. TF: Okay, just tell us how it started, from your point of view. SULLIVAN: Well, they were working for me—Siegel and Shuster—before Donenfeld took over More Fun and Detective Comics, so they just continued on. They were constantly feeding me different ideas that they thought would be successful. And they brought in, one day, this “Superman.” RM: So they brought it in directly? It wasn’t M.C. Gaines?

Jerry Siegel (standing) and Joe Shuster hard at work during the early days—probably on the Superman newspaper strip, as seen in the DC/Kitchen Sink volume Superman: The Dailies —1939 to 1942. But they could’ve just as easily been slaving over “Slam Bradley,” “Spy,” “Federal Men,” “Dr. Occult,” even “Radio Squad.” These guys kept busy! [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

SULLIVAN: They could have been sent up to me by Gaines, I don’t know. Because Siegel and Shuster had been to every newspaper syndicate office in New York City, I think. They would come on every so often. They lived in Cleveland, and they would come to New York every so often to make the rounds. Just nice guys, you know? Joe Shuster was very quiet, and Jerry Siegel was the fellow who did most of the talking. Negotiating, if you want to call it that.

TF: What did you think of them? Did you think that their work was phenomenal, really, or did you think, “Okay, these guys, their stuff will do”? SULLIVAN: No, I didn’t think they were phenomenal, by any means. They had some pretty good features there. “Slam Bradley” was a good one. And what were some of the others? RM: “Spy,” “Henri Duvall,” we mentioned. SULLIVAN: They were all different types of action stories and adventure stories and they appealed to me. That’s the reason I ran them. TF: And what would you pay them?

To our sorrow, some of the discussion about Vin Sullivan’s early memories of “Superman” was not recorded on this videotape—but here’s a 1990s photo of Vin with a copy of Action Comics #1, taken by David Siegel.

KG: Did you talk to Jerry about the stories before they were drawn or did he just give you stories? SULLIVAN: Most of the time, he’d bring them in already written and often times drawn. No, I don’t recall making many changes. He wouldn’t have sent me the script before. He may have talked to me, but they’d both come in to me with the finished work, the finished feature. TF: When you said that sometimes changes would be made—what kind of changes? SULLIVAN: Well, it could be the lettering or not so much the cartoons themselves but something that just didn’t appeal to me in certain pictures. I’m trying to think of what it was that wouldn’t have appealed. Some change where I thought it might be better to have a man this way instead of that way. [motions as if moving someone around] TF: Or sometimes where they were talking and a character on the left would be answering something that someone on the right might be saying? SULLIVAN: Or a close-up of the character instead of one in the distance. Very few changes, believe me. RM: Or you would correct a word that was misspelled.

SULLIVAN: I think it was $10 a page.

SULLIVAN: Oh yeah. Of course. Everyone does that. Every so often you’d come across it.

TF: How would that be done? They would give you the actual artwork and what would happen?

RM: I did notice that, in those days, they didn’t misspell words very often. I think they’re more apt to misspell words now than they would then.

SULLIVAN: Well, once we decided to run it, make any corrections that we had to make, I would send it to the engravers. The engraver had to shoot from the original artwork.

TF: What would happen to the artwork after the engraver? SULLIVAN: It would come back to us. It would be thrown out or destroyed. There was no control, really. RM: There was no re-sale value. People weren’t interested in buying it. TF: Then what about just keeping it in terms of reprints? Did the idea exist back then that, “Gee, we might want to reprint these stories”? SULLIVAN: No, that was never thought of back then.

Present At The Creation RM: We’ll get back to “Superman.” So you bought the feature and you put it in Action Comics. I brought along a reprint of this to show you and ask you a few questions at this point. [hands Sullivan a copy of Famous First Edition C-26, which reprints Action #1] SULLIVAN: Somebody sent me a copy of this. [At this point there is a break in the videotape. Joe Latino recalls stopping his video camera so Ken Gale could change an audio tape he was making for his radio show. Joe believes that during the “pause” there was “a brief discussion about how the Action book was put together.... What is missing is my questions concerning the Shuster art. My recollection is that Sullivan said he never saw any of the original art, that what he and others worked with was ‘stats,’ which I found very odd. I asked him if he knew where the original art was or what happened to it. His response was that he had no idea... that Siegel and Shuster were out of town [i.e., back home in Cleveland] and that, rather than send the original art, which might get lost or damaged, sending stats was less problematic.” When the videotape recommences, the participants are discussing early comics writer Ken Fitch’s relationship with artist Bernard Baily.]

“We Were All in our Twenties” RM: —because he seemed to work a lot with Baily. He wrote “Tex Thompson,” he wrote “Hour-Man,” and I wondered if Baily paid him to do it or he came in with a script and you gave it to Baily. SULLIVAN: It could have been that Baily paid him. In other words, Baily was paid by us, and he, in turn, paid Ken Fitch. RM: That happened, apparently, with a lot of people. There were several things in there by “H. Fleming.” That’s “Homer,” I believe his name was? SULLIVAN: Yeah, Homer Fleming. At that time I considered him an elderly man. He was not certainly of our ages. He was couldn’t have been considerably older, but he was older than we were. We were all in our twenties, I think, and he was very old—in his thirties! RM: And who is this “Sven Elven” who did “The Adventures of Marco Polo”? SULLIVAN: I can picture him now. He was a tall fellow. I think he was Swedish. RM: And this has “Pep Morgan.” I know he started out in one of the other books and moved over to this book. There’s lots of good things in there. We’re putting together a very intriguing book. [points to a page] “Captain Frank Thomas.” Now, who is he? SULLIVAN: Captain Frank Thomas is sitting right here. RM: Oh, that’s you? [laughs]

Nearly two years before Bernard Baily (above) drew “The Spectre” and “Hour-Man” in More Fun and Adventure, he and writer Ken Fitch launched “Tex Thompson” in Action Comics #1 (June ‘38). Bowing to the rise of costumed heroes, they transformed Tex first into “Mr. America” in Action #33 (Feb. ’41)— then, after Pearl Harbor, into “Americommando” with #52 (Sept. ’42). DC’s recent Spectre Archives, Vol. 1 features 200 pages of Baily’s work, mostly with Jerry Siegel. Baily was one of the best of the early comic book artists. Photo courtesy of Mrs. Regina Baily and Mrs. Jill Baily. [Art ©2003 DC Comics.]

Vin Sullivan

Creig Flessel

Fellow DC alumnus Creig Flessel says the name “Sven Elven” is a diminutive of the words “seven eleven,” indicating that may not have been the artist’s real name. Below is the beginning of his “Cosmo, Phantom of Disguise” from Detective Comics #27 (May 1939). The note on the back of the 1937 Elven sketch at left reads: “Cooksburg [?] N.Y. Oct 23 - 37. My Dear Friend: I am eternally sorry to have taken so long, but time is not always my own. Thank you for your very kind compliments, would you be interested in my contributions in ‘Fun Comics’ and ‘Detective Comics,’ the ‘Three Musketeers’ etc. Sincerely Sven Elven.” Very obliging to their fans, some of the early comics artists! Courtesy of Charlie Roberts. [Art ©2003 Estate of Sven Elven.]

“Chuck Dawson” artist Homer Fleming later drew “The Whip” in Flash Comics, but Vin Sullivan revealed that he himself was “Captain Frank Thomas.” Apparently this pseudonym shouldn’t be confused with “Franklyn Thomas,” who drew early filler stories for DC as well as “Fantom of the Fair,” et al., for Centaur and “The Owl,” among others, for Dell/Western. Both these art specimens are from Action #1. [©2003 DC Comics.]

Present At The Creation

SULLIVAN: I was doing all the short stories and Creig did these illustrations. RM: Oh, they look very nice. I didn’t realize that was his. So most of those text stories in those early comics were by you, then? SULLIVAN: Probably all of them. I don’t think anybody read them. The only reason they were put in there was that postal regulations required a percentage of the book had to be in text to get your Second-Class Entry. That was a filler. [flips through the tabloid] Here’s Fred Guardineer with his “Zatara.” RM: I think he wrote that first one and Gardner Fox would get to it in a little while. Now, I noticed that a lot of these had black&-white pages in them, and it was only a little bit later they went to two colors, and then finally, four colors throughout. SULLIVAN: Well, because it was expensive. KG: How would you decide which to do four-color and which to do black-&-white? SULLIVAN: At that time, the printer indicated that the presses he had would take only a certain number of pages in four-color, and the rest black-&-white. So I had to decide: “This particular feature looks pretty good, we’ll put it in color,” and say it ran eight pages and the next pages were black-&-white, I had to break it down that way. RM: So “Pep Morgan” didn’t get to be in color but “Superman” did. SULLIVAN: Well, “Superman” did, because I thought he was probably a little better than “Pep Morgan.”

Anybody with a little initiative can scrounge up a copy of DC’s excellent Millennium Edition of Action Comics #1, in which Fred Guardineer drew (and probably wrote) the first “Zatara” story. Even in the 1939 New York World’s Fair Comics, as shown here, the Master Magician hadn’t yet acquired his technique of working magic by speaking words backwards. Writer unknown—may be Guardineer, Gardner Fox, or another. At least, by ’39, Zatara had sprouted the mustache he kept for the rest of his run, which lasted through Action #141 (Feb. 1950), and into early 1951 in World’s Finest Comics. [©2003 DC Comics.]

“Superman... Was Different” RM: Even then, you saw that “Superman” had an appeal that most of the others didn’t. You put him on the cover and put him in the lead position inside. SULLIVAN: Oh, yeah. Well, it was different. I mean, even looking at it now, it’s different from the other features. RM: Now, I have heard this different ways. Had you decided to do “Superman” as the lead in a new book, or had you just decided to start putting a new book together and thought it would be a good place to use the feature? SULLIVAN: Well, I think the returns of the first Action—the figures came in from the distributor—indicated that this Action Comics seemed to be quite lively and was catching on. In other words, it was selling. Knowing that, we—it could have been Donenfeld and [his associate Jack] Liebowitz and whoever it was—we got together and decided we’d get out a complete book of this particular character. RM: I see, but what I was asking was what made you decide to put out Action Comics in the first place? You were already doing three comics. Why did you decide to do a fourth? SULLIVAN: I don’t know. I guess they just wanted more books.

RM: So they just told you to put a fourth book together and basically decided, after they brought in “Superman,” that it would be a good lead feature for it. TF: Do you have a recollection as to why Superman didn’t appear again on a cover until #7? SULLIVAN: Yes, because they wanted to – well, they didn’t know if this would sell or not, and if Donenfeld thought it was silly, maybe he decided that he wouldn’t want to stick him on that third or fourth cover. “Superman” was not well-known at all at that particular time. TF: But when you started getting those financial returns, how did you determine that it was “Superman” doing the sales? SULLIVAN: I don’t know. I didn’t determine the profitability of the character or the figures, actually, of the sale. But it’s reasonable to suppose that of the several books we were gunning out, this suddenly leaped ahead and sold, say 80% or 90% of its print run while the others were selling 55 and 60%, and probably not making too much money. And if that one particular book, and this was the first issue—if that sold much better than the other books like New Comics or Detective Comics, then it stands to reason that there was something here that appealed to people. KG: And if sales went down with the second issue... SULLIVAN: That’s right. Even though the character was in the second issue and maintained its sales, and even increased it, then you know you have something that’s pretty good.

Vin Sullivan

At left, courtesy of Devon Raymond, is a truly classic, full-figure drawing of Superman by Joe Shuster, and autographed by both Siegel and Shuster, drawn circa 1942. Devon says, “It was my grandfather’s, passed down to my father, who is deceased. I know that my grandfather managed a Lowe’s movie theatre in Cleveland, Ohio [longtime home of Superman’s co-creators] in the 1940s, and that must be where he met Jerry and Joe.” Devon sent us a scan of the illo as it was being auctioned over eBay. The handwritten dedication, probably all but Shuster’s signature by Jerry, says: “To Mr. Raymond—With kindest regards from SUPERMAN and Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster.” Maybe he let the boys into the movies free when they were kids? [Art ©2003 Estate of Joe Shuster; Superman TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

RM: I read in an article that it wasn’t too far long after that some people there, someone with a view for doing marketing research, sent people around to newsstands to find out why it was selling, and they learned kids were asking not for Action Comics but for “the book with Superman in it.” In any case, as you said, at one point, you soon realized that it was “Superman” that was selling and you decided to do an all-Superman book. SULLIVAN: As far as to how that came about—right after that, of course, I left these people. RM: I thought you were still around when they put out Superman #1. Did you edit that? SULLIVAN: I don’t remember.

You never know where things will turn up! In early May, Ye Editor was a featured guest at the “Torino Comics” convention in Turin, Italy—and one of the first things he spotted there, in an lavishly-illustrated biography of noted Italian Disney artist Romano Scarpa, was a sketch of Superman—drawn not by Joe Shuster, but by “Superman” writer/co-creator Jerry Siegel! Thanks to publisher Vittorio Pavesio and his sales manager Maurizio Manzieri for their blessing to reprint this unique drawing (date unknown)—as well as for their unfailing hospitality during Roy and Dann’s stay. The pizza in Turin and Rome was pretty good, too! [Art ©2003 Estate of Jerry Siegel; Superman TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

Present At The Creation

“Was It a Reprint?” RM: You told us earlier they never saved the art because they never could see that they might want to reprint something; and now suddenly, when you put out Superman #1, you were reprinting the first few stories from Action Comics. SULLIVAN: Was it a reprint? I don’t remember. RM: [shows Sullivan the Famous First Edition C-61, reprinting Superman #1] These first six pages of the first story are obviously done with color in mind. There you have outlines, and when you get to the—this is where it switches over. This was the second page of the story in Action #1, and suddenly we have the dark shading. In fact, this is the daily strip that would have been run in black-and-white. Also, the lettering is a bit different. This is “#10”—they were numbering the panels at this point. Someone thought that they had done this whole thing as a story and that it had been reduced in

length, but Jerry Siegel said that, no, he had done this first as a newspaper strip and then it had been cut and pasted. Do you remember who did that? Sheldon Mayer says he did it. SULLIVAN: You mean cut them apart and pasted them on a page? I don’t know who did it. JL: Do you remember an artist by the name of Harry Lampert? SULLIVAN: No, I can’t say I can. JL: He says he cut and pasted these into newspaper strips and then later he redid the stories from the first four Actions into this Superman. SULLIVAN: He could have. RM: Something we’ve learned, too, in recent years, is that when you did this, you weren’t at all sure there would be another Superman book, so you reprinted this several times in 1939. SULLIVAN: I don’t recall this at all. I do recall the cover. RM: [indicating the cover to Superman #1] This was, we found out, cut out of Action #10. Did you work with Leo O’Mealia? SULLIVAN: Oh yeah, yeah. RM: He said he did this cover. We know he photostatted and cut out Shuster’s figure and drew this ornate background around it. We found out there were several printings of this. They went back to press with it at least three times. Apparently, it did sell very well. KG: How did you find that out? RM: My friend [name unclear] noticed that the ad on the back [indicates the back of the magazine], different copies of Superman #1 have different ads on the last page. It’s for the same issue, but one of them says “Now on sale” and another one says “On sale June 14th.” Apparently they just ran several printings to see if it would continue to sell.

The final tier of panels from the sixth story page of Superman #1 (1939), directly above the top row from p. 7. As Rich Morrissey points out in the interview, the former panels were probably prepared specifically for that comic book, because the hero’s figure is left “open for color”—while the latter tier, with many diagonal lines in the “blue” area, was clearly cut-and-pasted from the original daily strips, which had been drawn to be printed in black-&-white. Which begs a few questions: since the “Superman” story in Action #1 starts in medias res, as “a tireless figure races through the night” carrying a bound and gagged blonde, what happened to the earlier comic strip version of the beginning of the tale? Surely it existed at some time; Siegel and Shuster wouldn’t have started their comic strip samples in the middle of a story, so why wasn’t it used? Were those strips lost by the time of Superman #1—or did Shuster think he could do better by that point, so that he redrew the sequence? We’ll probably never know. But it’s fun to compare the two versions today in the initial volumes of the Superman—Action Archives and the Superman Archives. So when are we going to get an Archive of the “Superman” stories from World’s Fair Comics 1939 through the early issues of World’s Finest? [©2003 DC Comics.]

SULLIVAN: The story here, if I’m not mistaken, is made up from the comic strips that they were trying to sell to the papers. They brought it in, in comic strip form, and I said we could use it in the magazine, but they’d have to rearrange the panels and the cover and all that, which they did. They may have got somebody to do it, but— RM: I think they remember doing it themselves, but Sheldon

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Present At The Creation

Vin Sullivan believed he drew the illustration used in the above contest ad on the inside front cover of Action Comics #1; note his credit as editor. That page and the inside back cover—the work of Sheldon Moldoff—were omitted from the Millennium Editions reprint, but were included in the 1974 Famous First Editions No. C-26 oversize version. [©2003 DC Comics.]

Mayer thought he had done this. But again, Shuster is dead and so is Mayer. A lot of latter-day fans were pretty ticked off because there was this contest where a kid could color the first page of the “Chuck Dawson” story and mail it in to you—which mean that, when the kids were tearing off the first page of the “Chuck Dawson,” they were also tearing off the last page of the “Superman” story. As a result, it’s hard to find a mint copy of this. SULLIVAN: [points to this inside cover of Action #1] Speaking of a figure, I think I drew this one. I may be wrong. The second cover, if you want to call it.

RM: What’s interesting is what Mort Weisinger, who came later as editor, did. Since they had to have a page of text, instead of writing a story, they would print letters and answer them. And that not only increased the appeal because it proved there were actually people out there who were interested, but also gave them ideas. A lot of people wrote in and said, “I’d like to see Superman meet some Indians.” Then they would make up a story where Superman would go to an Indian reservation. SULLIVAN: That was long after I left, I guess, because Whit took over after I left... in ’40, ’41. [NOTE: As mentioned earlier, it was 1940. — Roy.]

RM: Do you remember any of the all-Superman books once this started out as a regular title?

“I Thought of the Zatara Character”

SULLIVAN: I honestly don’t recall. I mean this thing has been—

RM: Gardner Fox told us when he was alive that you were the one who had gotten him into the business.

TF: —a long time. RM: But you were continuing to get stories from Siegel and Shuster. It definitely was something they weren’t sure of, because otherwise you’d have gotten four new stories from them to make it an all-new book rather than reprinting ones that already appeared. Was this around the time you were beginning to get more feedback, that you were getting a lot of letters saying, “We love Superman. Can we see more?” SULLIVAN: I wouldn’t have gotten the letters. They probably went to Donenfeld’s office, or Jack Liebowitz’s.

SULLIVAN: Well, we went to grammar school—elementary school, if you want to call it—together. He became a lawyer. But he always liked to write anyway, so when I got into this business, I thought of Gardner. And I had seen him occasionally, and asked him would he be interested in writing some stories. He said he would and that’s how he got started. RM: How did you start using him? Because up to that point it seemed either the artists would come up with a complete story the way Siegel and Shuster did, or they would hire somebody to write for them. I believe, also, that you gave Fox a lot of features that somebody else had already started out. You gave him the second “Zatara” story and the third “Batman” story.

Vin Sullivan

A real find, courtesy of cover and “Sandman” artist Creig Flessel! A couple of years back, Creig sent Ye Editor a good photocopy of a photo taken at Vin Sullivan’s bachelor dinner, held at the Rivoli Cocktail Lounge in New York City on April 6, 1940. Vin Sullivan and his brothers John and Jack are the three right-most gents sitting against the mirror at one side of the room; Vin is the one with the obviously striped tie. But wait—that’s not all! The man at our far left in the shot, his fingers in his jacket pockets (and his name scrawled in ink across his vest by Creig), is none other than “Zatara” artist Fred Guardineer—while Creig Flessel himself is the smiling guest in the middle front of the pic, with the big beaming smile and the words “Bachelor Dinner” written across him. The man directly behind him (with a notation and even an arrow pointing to him) is none other than Vin’s childhood chum Gardner Fox, who by this time had already co-created The Flash and Hawkman and was probably scripting the first “Justice Society” story for All-Star Comics #3. Alas, Creig doesn’t know if any of those in the photo besides Vin, Fred, Gardner, and himself are comics pros—so we don’t, either. Thanks for sharing this historical gem with us, Creig—even if we had to print from that photocopy and hope for the best!

SULLIVAN: Well, of course, I thought of the Zatara character, which was a copy of Mandrake the Magician, and I needed someone to write the story, so I think I gave him that.

asking other people to come up with features, something like that? I believe that’s how “Sandman” and “Batman” came into existence, and “The Crimson Avenger.”

RM: Didn’t Fred Guardineer write the first story?

SULLIVAN: “The Crimson Avenger” was my tagline. I started that. When I say I started it, I thought up the name and the character. “The Sandman” was started by Bert Christman, I think was his name.

SULLIVAN: I don’t know whether he wrote it or Gardner Fox wrote it. RM: I think Guardineer wrote the first story, and we wondered why he didn’t continue. Did he not want to write it?

RM: Didn’t Gardner Fox write that feature first?

SULLIVAN: Could have been. I don’t know. TF: But you came up with the Zatara character?

SULLIVAN: Well, he could have written the thing, but the idea of this character was started by Bert Christman. He was a cartoonist—an artist, I think we should call him.

SULLIVAN: Oh, yeah. I just thought it sounded like a good name.

TF: Can you tell us a little more about him?

TF: Wasn’t the magic done by reversing the words? Was that your idea?

SULLIVAN: Let’s see, it was at the beginning of the war. As a matter of fact, before this country was in the war, they had a—what was that group in China? [NOTE: The Flying Tigers.] Anyway, he was an aviator, too, and he thought up this thing. He was killed, eventually, and that’s why Creig Flessel took over. I’m sure it was Christman’s idea. It was his title. He thought it up and it was his idea, because he was drawing it.

SULLIVAN: Sounds like it. I don’t know. It could have been Gardner Fox’s idea. RM: I think it was probably Guardineer’s, because he did it several times with other magicians. But there were other features that were starting up. After “Superman” was a success, were you specifically

RM: He did the story. Gardner Fox said he was inspired by The Grey

Present At The Creation

21 SULLIVAN: I don’t know. I think I was so concerned with getting out of this organization and going syndicate. I didn’t particularly like the way these people behaved, the way they did business. I don’t know all the things that were happening there, but I do recall Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster having a run-in with Donenfeld and Liebowitz. And I do recall telling Jerry Siegel, or suggesting, that he should get an attorney. He was talking about some sort of contract that they wanted him to sign. I said he should get hold of an attorney. I said, “In fact, my older brother is an attorney.” [chuckles] But he never came into the picture. Apparently, they never did see an attorney because they were taken over the coals. TF: What was it you saw as injustices going on in the business?

The top half-page of an early “Crimson Avenger” yarn from Detective Comics. “The Crimson,” as he was called in the stories drawn by Jim Chambers (who may or may not have also written the feature), was a Green Hornet copy, as was the original Sandman. Though he beat “The Batman” into print in Detective by seven issues (starting in #20), he was cover-featured only twice. He acquired a real super-hero costume in Detective #44 and was even one of the Seven Soldiers of Victory in Leading Comics #1-14, but never gave Batman a real run for his money. [©2003 DC Comics.]

Seal, a pulp character, when he was writing that. It was apparently quite successful.

“I Didn’t Particularly Like the Way These People Behaved” KG: Do you remember the first Superman imitator? SULLIVAN: Who was it? RM: Wonder Man. He was supposedly started up by Donenfeld’s [former] accountant [Victor Fox]. The legend is that he saw the sales figures on Action Comics and quit, and by the next day he was publishing his own comics. The character was as close to Superman as possible. KG: Do you remember hearing, “Oh, somebody else is doing a ‘Superman’ now. Everybody’s getting into the act”? SULLIVAN: All I know is that the Fawcett company came out with “Captain Marvel.” That was the only imitation—if you want to call it— that I remember. RM: Well, he was the most successful. There was also one called “Master Man” that was even closer to “Superman.” And DC successfully sued him out of existence. TF: They changed “The Shield” around to rip off “Superman.” They had bullets bounce off him; he had invulnerability like Superman. KG: That’s interesting, because they sued Marvel over Captain America’s shield. [laughs] TF: When the others in the industry started to copy what you folks were doing, what was your response, or did you respond?

We think Bert Christman drew this “Sandman” story in the 1939 New York World’s Fair Comics, though some have claimed it’s the work of Bernard Baily. The only byline was that of the pseudonymous “Larry Dean.” [©2003 DC Comics.]

Vin Sullivan something of that sort—and it annoyed me because it was my idea. There were many things there that—I remember Charlie Gaines came to me prior to when it came out and he said he would buy my share in this New York World’s Fair Comics and I said no. I turned him down, because I didn’t know what it was going to be. I passed up five or six thousand dollars, and that was a pretty good sum of money then. TF: So you made out pretty well on the deal. SULLIVAN: No, I didn’t, because I didn’t make five thousand on it. I kind-of think Donenfeld short-changed me on this, too. RM: Do you remember what year it was you left? SULLIVAN: You say it could have been 1940? Because they did a second World’s Fair comic the next year. They brought out the 1940 one and I was no longer there. I had nothing to do with the second issue. RM: So you were sort-of already on your way out after that one. That’s interesting. It shows that you had a lot of personal integrity, because this was an ongoing big success story and you were a part of it and you basically left to do something else. SULLIVAN: Yes, you don’t like to be dealing with dishonest people. TF: That’s the bottom line and that’s what I sense. It seems to me you’re trying to be polite here. SULLIVAN: I am trying to be polite. [laughs] I don’t want to tarnish the fellows but they were dishonest, as far as I’m concerned. TF: They, basically, had very sharp dealings, and they made a buck as quick as they could, isn’t that the truth? SULLIVAN: Absolutely. And the type of book that Donenfeld produced prior to being in the comic book business seems to indicate that he was always skirting with the law, and all that. I just didn’t like the atmosphere and the group of people, and so I thought I’d get out.

The cover of Vin Sullivan’s brainchild, the 1939 New York World’s Fair Comics, sported Zatara, The Sandman—and a blond Superman. It’s quite likely that editor Vin drew the kid standing in front of the Fair’s theme icons, the Trylon and Perisphere. [©2003 DC Comics.]

“Why Don’t You Go Home and See If You Can Create Something, Too?” RM: So how did “Batman” come into existence? Did you ask Bob Kane to come up with a character like that?

SULLIVAN: Well, the little things in the operation of the company itself. I just can’t put my finger on one particular instance, other than the Siegel and Shuster thing.

SULLIVAN: Well, he was always doing some pages in the books before creating “Batman.”

RM: Can you tell us the story about World’s Fair Comics that you told at San Diego? How it was your idea, that you were involved with the Fair?

RM: He did comedy stuff like “Ginger Snapp” and “Clip Carson” and “Rusty and His Pals.” But I gather it wasn’t just him—you asked Fox and Christman and all these other people to come up with—

SULLIVAN: Oh yeah, it was my idea. I thought I had the contract—I knew people who were going to run the World’s Fair—like Grover Whalen, his name was. I succeeded in getting the rights to the World’s Fair comic. Then I went to Liebowitz and Donenfeld and asked would they want to join Whalen as a co-publisher. And they did. They put up the money.

SULLIVAN: According to the story that Bob himself mentioned in People magazine—and he mentions my name—he said this Friday he came in and he asked about these two fellows, Siegel and Shuster, if they were making a lot of money. Of course, I said, “Certainly. Why don’t you go home and see if you can create something, too?” And he says next Monday he came in and he had “Batman.”

RM: And that’s how you were able to use all their characters. They had Superman and Sandman. SULLIVAN: I don’t know what percentage I’d get of the sales.

RM: Actually, it came out after the fact that he got a friend, Bill Finger, to do the script for him. And then I think you assigned it a different writer—Gardner Fox, I believe. He said you gave it to him with the second or third.

TF: So you got a percentage of the take on it.

SULLIVAN: You mean Gardner Fox wrote “The Batman”?

SULLIVAN: Just of that particular book, and he had some difficulty about that. If I remember, when the time came for the breakdown of the sales and all that, Donenfeld had a check made out to me and he said something about, “You know, I really don’t have to give you this,” or

RM: He wrote it for six months. We visited him and we checked his cards, and my friend [Martin O’Hearn] has analyzed the style, and Bill Finger wrote the first two and Fox came over—

Present At The Creation

KG: Wait, wait, wait. I’d like to hear what Mr. Sullivan has to say in response to that. SULLIVAN: I don’t recall. As a matter of fact, that would have been outside my range of interests. If they were writing for Bob Kane or working with him, I had nothing to do with it. As long as he brought in the completed feature. RM: Then you would have been responsible for hiring Gardner Fox [i.e., assigning Fox to write “Batman”]? SULLIVAN: I don’t recall. Since that time, a lot of the fellas had their own writers, you might say, or writers would get with the artists. I would have nothing to do with them. I would take the finished product. If the finished product was assembled by two or three people, it didn’t matter to me as long as it was a good-looking page. RM: I know that a lot of people were bothered by Kane getting these stories from Finger. He was paying Bill Finger a lot less than you gave Gardner Fox. Also, Finger never got any credit for it. Kane did create “Batman,” no doubt about that, but Finger created Bruce Wayne and did a lot of the other ambience. SULLIVAN: That was after I had left that company. TF: Do you know how Kane managed to keep some control of the character? SULLIVAN: Well, he knew of the difficulty Siegel and Shuster had, and he wasn’t going to have that repeated. Now, what the deal was he made with Donenfeld and Liebowitz, I don’t know. But apparently he made a better deal with them than Siegel and Shuster. RM: Some say that Kane may have partially owned it right up to the ’60s and that he definitely made out really well with the TV show. He’s a millionaire now, and Finger died in poverty. That’s one of the sad things about it.

Bob Kane’s (and Bill Finger’s) Batman made his debut on page 3 of Detective Comics #27 (May ‘39), as per top tier. Just below that is a Kane-penciled page from Batman #11 (JuneJuly 1942), which Batman expert Joe Desris has identified as being tightened up by Jerry Robinson and inked by George Roussos. It appeared in an art catalog a couple of years back, offered in the $2000-$4000 price range. Original “Batman” art from the early 1940s is rare—and this page even features The Joker! [©2003 DC Comics.]

Vin Sullivan

“Just Work” RM: [continuing] Something else that was happening in the field then is that there were shops springing up that would present completed stories to publishers. I gather DC was one of the few that didn’t use these. Harry Chesler ran a shop like that, and Will Eisner and Jerry Iger co-ran one. Later, Eisner went to Quality and did The Spirit by himself. Have you any familiarity with this system? SULLIVAN: No. The only one I might have that I had any dealing with was Bob Powell. I think he had a group of artists that worked for him. RM: He had been associated with the Eisner-Iger shop. SULLIVAN: All I know is, I bought a lot of material from Bob Powell after I got into my own business. I think he had a number of artists— and probably writers, for all I know. RM: I think he may have been one of the other people, along with Eisner, who was sort-of managing that business as well as producing artwork. KG: Did you have a favorite of the stuff you were doing? Was there anything you looked forward to getting? [pause] Just work, right? [laughs] SULLIVAN: Right, just work. One was the same as the other. I know that I had a liking for a certain feature at one time or another, but I can’t say that I particularly liked this over that.

“I bought a lot of material from Bob Powell after I got into my own business”— by which Vin Sullivan means his own company, Magazine Enterprises. Here are two exciting pieces of art by Bob (with or without assistants)— the original art for the cover of 1955’s Africa—Thrilling Land of Mystery, starring Cave Girl and Thund’a, and a splash page from Strong Man #4 (Sept.-Oct. 1955). Thanks to Peter Hansen for the great scan of the original Africa art. [©2003 the respective copyright holders.]

RM: Now, when you decided to leave, did you discuss it with Whit Ellsworth to get his perspective? I take it he wasn’t one of the people you were talking about. SULLIVAN: No. Creig and I were just talking about the deal prior to my talking to you, and it seems the story was, at that time Whit was going with a girl named Jane Dewey. Very nice, very pretty girl, and she was connected with the movies somehow. And then she went out to the Coast and she got a job out there. Whit was very much in love with Jane, so when the blow-up came with Nicholson and things started to fall apart, I guess Whit didn’t see any future in the thing so he went to California, to hitch up with Jane out on the West Coast. RM: You said a blowup with Nicholson. But I thought Nicholson was out of the business. SULLIVAN: Yeah, but Whit and I were together with Nicholson. And when Donenfeld took over the business, I went along with it, and Whit said he had nothing to do with it—he went to the West Coast. So he wasn’t there when the “Superman” things took place. And after I had some words with Jack Liebowitz and left, I think they got in touch with Whit. I don’t know who took over as editor when I left. RM: I think it was Whit.

Present At The Creation

In his later years, Vin Sullivan enjoyed meeting fans knowledgeable about his work, as well as renewing his acquaintance with fellow pros. Here are two photos from the ’90s. Above: a 1993 shot of (l. to r.) Sheldon Moldoff (whose work appeared in Action Comics #1), super-fan Dave Siegel, Paul Norris (first “Aquaman” artist, holding a drawing of the Sea King), and Vin, with a reproduction of his cover for Detective Comics #1. On the right: a slightly dark photo taken at the 1998 San Diego Comic-Con, with Vin seated next to longtime DC editor Julius Schwartz. Standing are John Severin (barely seen at left), Roy Thomas, Joe Simon (leaning forward), and Shelly Moldoff. [Photos ©2003 Charlie Roberts & David Siegel, respectively.]

SULLIVAN: Well, he eventually did. I think they contacted him out in California and he came along to take over where I left off. RM: Possibly. That was when they were starting the All-American line which was tied into DC. They had more newspaper reprints and some of the traditional stuff. KG: Was Sheldon Mayer working there when you were?

[NOTE: At this point, the tape jumps. When it resumes, Sullivan is talking about the World War II years at his own comics publishing company, Magazine Enterprises. This part of the interview was printed in Alter Ego, Vol. 3, #10, and is thus not repeated here.] RM: I know [onetime DC co-publisher Jack] Liebowitz is still alive and very wealthy.

SULLIVAN: No, he wasn’t, unless I bought cartoons from him.

SULLIVAN: He lives in Great Neck, which is the next town West of here.

RM: When you left DC, how did you get to your new job with the McNaught Syndicate?

RM: Oh, do you ever get in touch with him?

SULLIVAN: Well, they, McNaught and Frank Marky, had a deal. He had his own newspaper syndicate, the Frank Marky Syndicate.

Monthly! Edited and published by Robin Snyder

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

SULLIVAN: No. I have no desire to talk to him. He made out very well.

[The preceding was printed through the courtesy of the four interviewers. Ken Gale’s radio program “’Nuff Said!” on WBAI-FM in New York City currently runs as a series of monthly specials, though he hopes to return to a weekly format; you can find out about the show at www.comicbookradioshow.com. Rich Morrissey, sadly, passed away in May of 2001, and permission was granted by his friend and executrix, Pat Floss. Tom Fagan is retired and still lives in Rutland, Vermont, where in the 1960s and ’70s he was the genial host of a series of Halloween parties celebrated in Marvel and DC Comics. Joe Latino, who has been a comics collector since the age of eight and attended his first convention in 1968, is a lawyer. The preceding interview is ©2003 by Joe Latino, Tom Fagan, Ken Gale, and the Estate of Rich Morrissey.]

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BACK ISSUES OF THE ISSUE!

TWO FOR THE PRICE OF TWO! This month, we’re plugging two back issues you’ll enjoy if you dug this one! Don’t miss our in-depth interview with “Starman” artist JACK BURNLEY in Alter Ego V3#2—and the rest of our VIN SULLIVAN interview in V3#10, in which the legendary editor talks about his own company, the fabled Magazine Enterprises! Order both today from TwoMorrows Publishing. (Since you can’t order them tomorrow from ToDay Publishing.) See the Alter Ego back issue ad on the inside cover of this mag!

The Dolores Farris Story

The Golden Girl and the Silver Slipper The Dolores Farris Story: A Tale of the Twenties Excepts from the Book by Jack Burnley Edited and Abridged by Roy Thomas [INTRODUCTION: This entry is a bit unusual for Alter Ego, and really should have appeared in an issue with a February cover date. For it is indeed a Valentine—from Golden Age great Hardin “Jack” Burnley, 1940s artist of Starman, Superman, and Batman, to his beloved wife of more than six decades, Dolores Farris Burnley. I felt our readers might enjoy, as a change of pace, reading this piece which, though written by a legendary comics artist, deals with non-comics subject matter, although we’ve scattered a few of Jack’s comic book images throughout what follows. Here’s how it came about:

Jack and Dolores Burnley in 1992, holding some of Jack’s most noted comic artwork: a Macy’s Department Store giveway featuring Superman, printed as a Sunday advertising supplement in the New York Journal American for Nov. 24, 1940, and the cover of New York World’s Fair Comics—1940 Issue, the first drawing ever to depict Superman and Batman together. Photo courtesy of Jack Burnley.

my decision... and I trust you’ll agree with it. The abridgement that follows is copyright ©2003 Jack Burnley, and is, with minimal editing, just as written by Jack, and studded with liberal quotations from Dolores herself. Even in the italicized/bracketed stitching I have written between sections of the text, I have tried to paraphrase Jack to the fullest extent possible in the space allowed.] [Sadly, Dolores Burnley passed away on May 22, 2003, while this abridgement was being readied. Jack, however, gave us his blessing to go ahead with its publication... and it thus becomes his, and now in a sense our, parting gift to a most remarkable lady. —Roy.]

[In 1995 Jack Burnley wrote a biography of Dolores’ early life, when she was a dancer and headliner on Broadway during the 1920s and ’30s. The book contains some eighty pages of text plus dozens of pages of photos and art, documenting not only her show business career and the famous personalities she encountered, but the whole panorama of the 1920s. It also recounts her love affair at that time— years before she and Jack met—with a prominent Broadway nightclub owner and, yes, racketeer. (But not gangster. Jack draws a firm distinction between the two: a racketeer is “one engaged in an illegal business”; a gangster is “a member of an organized group of criminals.” The man Dolores Farris loved was definitely the first, but probably not the latter.) [It is rare to find a biography written by the subject’s spouse—far rarer to find one dealing largely with that husband or wife’s earlier romance with another person. But such was the strong bond between Jack and Dolores Burnley that he wrote just such a book, for which Dolores gave unstintingly of her honesty and memories... and the result, I found, is a book which touches the heartstrings and, at the same time, brings alive a decade that became an era. Jack gives copies of his book only to those he believes will appreciate it... and he was decidedly correct in deciding I was one of those. [Early this year, I suggested to Jack that a brief abridgement of his book be featured in the issue of A/E fronted by his cover of Superman and Batman. Only 10% or so of its text could be included here, and a like percentage of the accompanying visuals. But I assumed our readers would appreciate, just this once, a piece by a comics master, yet not about comics. The fact that some of the real-life characters you’ll meet herein, even in truncated fashion, are at least as colorful as Dr. Sivana or Dr. Doom could ever be, helped me make

“The Gangster and the Bubble Dancer.” Illustration by Jack Burnley for the Damon Runyon short story collection Guys and Dolls, source of the popular Broadway and Hollywood musical comedy. Runyon’s tales were a major source of popular mythology about the “Roaring Twenties”... and Burnley’s gangster could’ve done a walk-on in his Batman newspaper strips of the 1940s. Dolores, of course, was never a bubble dancer. [Art ©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

The Golden Girl and the Silver Slipper

Preface This is a tale of the Roaring Twenties and of a great dancer who made the Twenties roar with applause. The dancer is my wife, Dolores Farris, originator of the jazz toe dance, which she introduced in the Jazz Age. I was motivated to write the story after seeing television re-runs of the film versions of two classics—F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Damon Runyon’s Guys and Dolls. Although Fitzgerald and Runyon are the acknowledged literary spokesmen for the Twenties, it occurred to me that Dolores’ life and career could express the spirit of that exciting time even better than their books and the movies based on them. The Farris scenario combines the romanticism of Gatsby with Runyon’s Broadway atmosphere in a sparkling show business setting with a Prohibition-era gangster background. The 1992 edition of The Great Gatsby has a preface by Professor Matthew J. Bruccoli in which this scholar complains that the Twenties “have been trivialized and vulgarized by people who weren’t there.” Dolores Farris was there, right in the middle of the action on Broadway’s Great White Way. Here is an authentic memoir of the Jazz Age, the true story of a remarkable dancer’s meteoric rise and starcrossed romance in the most colorful decade of the century.

Making It in the Big City When a little blonde dancer from Kansas City, Missouri, arrived in Manhattan in 1922, she was just one of many thousands of aspirants from all parts of the country who came to New York hoping to make good in the big time of show business. Dolores Farris was one of the few who succeeded. Scott Fitzgerald was the first to call the Twenties the Jazz Age. Dolores combined classical ballet technique with the rhythm of the day and came up with an entirely new creation: the jazz toe dance. Her youthful exuberance and sensational dancing style matched the frantic

tempo of the time, and she went on to become the golden girl of the nightclub era and the epitome of the Roaring Twenties. It was a dream she had always believed in, never doubting for a moment that it would come true. She wasn’t awed by the Big City, but her self-confidence was not egotism; Dolores knew what she could do, and all she wanted was a chance to show it to blasé New Yorkers. The opportunity came when she was given several featured parts in A Fantastic Fricassee, a revue which opened September 11, 1922, at the Greenwich Village Theatre. Thanks to a Kansas City friend who had preceded her to New York and sang her praises (and showed her pictures) to the producer, she was given a part in the new production. The cast included Jeanette MacDonald, who later starred with Nelson Eddy in popular Hollywood musicals. Future literary lights Ben Hecht and Maxwell Bodenheim contributed a one-act play to the revue. Reviews of A Fantastic Fricassee singled out Dolores. The drama column of the New York World called the Fricassee “a dish worth trying.... Dolores Farris, who has the burden of the dancing, as Columbine in the pantomime and in two specialties, carried off the honors of the dish. She has better things than this present engagement ahead of her.” [Dolores attracted the attention of producer Daniel Frohman, but the role he offered her in a traveling stock company involved acting, not dancing, so she politely declined. However, leading musical comedy producer J.J. Shubert offered her a dancing part in his Winter Garden revue set for the following year. After Fricassee closed, she remained in the Village to open at a swank nightclub, Barney Gallant’s. Dolores recalls:] “This was the first time I had ever danced in a nightclub; in fact, it was the first time I had ever been inside a nightclub. I was incredibly naive; I didn’t drink and paid no attention to the problems caused by Prohibition. At that time it never occurred to me that these places were breaking the law by serving liquor; I regarded them as entertainment showplaces where I could dance for a big city audience. I had no idea that gangsters owned the clubs or at least controlled the liquor supply. I would find out about that later.” [Dolores was next a featured dancer in Hitchy-Koo, a revue which went on a Midwestern road tour. Among the dancers in the show was Busby Berkeley, who in the 1930s would become Hollywood’s top choreographer. Hitchy-Koo closed in Cincinnati, but Dolores’ reviews were wildly favorable, including one that referred to her as a “ginger cookie”—evidently high praise. She was soon booked into one of the resort hotels in the Catskill Mountains in upper New York state, which were patronized by prosperous Jewish vacationers, the so-called “Borscht Circuit.” There she worked with young Milton Berle, whose mother traveled everywhere with him.]

The Dance Age In his book America in the Twenties, Geoffrey Perrett points out that the Jazz Age might with greater accuracy have been called the Dance Age. There was always a new dance sensation. It was the Charleston that became for all time the wild and happy symbol of the Twenties: flappers with flying beads, knocking knees, and crossing hands. “I used steps and swinging hand movements from the Charleston in my jazz toe routines,” recalls Dolores. “It was such a contrast to the slow, graceful, classical ballet style that it surprised and delighted audiences everywhere.” “The Girl with the Iron Toes.” Dolores Farris shows her inimitable Russian toe step. Jack writes: “No other dancer has ever been able to do this.” Photo courtesy of Jack Burnley.

The basic Farris jazz toe dance had several elements that made it unique and inimitable. The most difficult part was the Russian toe

The Dolores Farris Story Paul Muni (left) was the star of UA’s 1932 blockbuster Scarface, but former Broadway dancer George Raft— not even billed in the credits on the movie’s original posters!—stole the show. Sorry we couldn’t find a still of “Georgie” flipping a coin—but in 1946 Jack Burnley would draw Batman’s nemesis Two-Face doing so, and even using the weighted half dollar as a weapon! Raft’s trademark had doubtless inspired Bob Kane and Bill Finger a few years earlier. Inks by Charles Paris. Repro’d from a photocopy of the original art. [©2003 DC Comics.]

sequence. Russian dancing is strenuous enough as it is; to perform these steps on the toes would seem impossible if Dolores hadn’t done it. At first she introduced just a few Russian steps into her jazz dance; eventually her exceptionally strong toes enabled her to close her dance with a full chorus of Russian toe stepping. For a spectacular finish, she hopped all the way across the stage in the Russian position, squatting on one toe with the other leg extended. This would bring down the house. It was an exhibition of virtuosity that showed remarkable toe and leg strength; no other dancer has been able to duplicate it. This tour de force earned her the title of “The Girl with the Iron Toes,” and stopped the show many times in nightclubs and on the stage. The whole dance showed off her toe strength; Dolores was on her toes from the time of her entrance until she left the stage. Classical ballerinas remain on their toes for no more than three minutes at a time in the course of a ballet; this new jazz toe dancer stayed on her toes for a full seven minutes in her routines.

29 musical shows and movie theatre engagements, the toe dancer was featured in the leading Broadway cabarets, including the famous El Fey Club. Its owner, Larry Fay, was one of the most colorful racketeers of the Twenties and, Dolores says, “one of the ugliest men I have ever known.” He died by the bullet, but not one from a gangster’s gun. He was shot by a drunken doorman who resented a salary cut. [The El Fey Club was often called “the Guinan Club” after colorful cabaret hostess Mary “Texas” Guinan, “Queen of the Night Clubs,” who in 1929 was featured in a film with that title. Her life was the subject of a 1940s Broadway review, Billion Dollar Baby, and a Betty Hutton film Incendiary Blonde (1945). In Damon Runyon’s stories, Texas Guinan appears thinly disguised as Miss Missouri Martin. Guinan “opened the nightly entertainment with her famous greeting, ‘Hello, Suckers’—a cheerful insult the customers loved, even though it obviously referred to the padded checks, watered booze, and inflated prices of the Prohibition night spots.” [Two dancers who worked with Dolores at Guinan’s—George Raft and Ruby Keeler—later

It is traditional that entertainers have to struggle through a long and difficult climb if they hope to get to the top. Dolores was a featured performer from the outset and went from one success to another without experiencing any setbacks. [The grand new movie houses of the 1920s were “the most spectacular Broadway theatres” in existence at the time, and featured elaborate stage shows, of which Manhattan’s later Radio City Music Hall became, in time, the last survivor. In spring and summer of 1925 Dolores made a hit as a “premiere danseuse” alternating between Broadway’s famous Rivoli and Rialto [movie] Theatres. One critic remarked that “Miss Farris is an unusually pretty chick, and production managers this week should not pass the Rialto.” Nor did they—but, Jack reports, “the constant presence of her overly protective mother Bessie... was enough to discourage amorous sentiments.” Her father, Merl, generally kept to himself.]

The Nightclub Era Returning to New York after J.J. Shubert’s latest show, Innocent Eyes, closed in Cleveland, Dolores was in demand. This was the Jazz Age, the Dance Age... and it was also the Nightclub Era. In between

gained movie fame. Fred Astaire once said that “George Raft did the fastest and most exciting Charleston I ever saw,” and Dolores concurs. When, following a small role in Queen of the Night Clubs, Raft made a big hit as a coin-flipping gangster in Scarface in 1932, he returned to New York for public appearances to help publicize that movie. “Wherever Raft appeared, the crowd went wild. He was the toast of the town, as New Yorkers welcomed him back after his Hollywood success.”] At this time Dolores didn’t pay much attention to the movies; she was concentrating on her own dancing career, and when George Raft made an unexpected appearance at a big benefit show in which she was one of the performers, she was not impressed. She liked George, but still thought of him as just another fine dancer she had worked with in the Guinan years. However, everyone else was excited when the great Hollywood star walked in, accompanied by his bodyguards just like the big shot gangsters he portrayed on the screen. Raft looked around, and when he saw Dolores his face lit up, and with one exclamation— “DOLORES!”—he went over and hugged her happily, while other

The Golden Girl and the Silver Slipper

well-known performers looked on with surprise. Afterward, she said, “I never thought I’d see the day when a greeting from Georgie Raft would impress everybody.”

Romance in the Silver Slipper Dolores was working at the Beaux Arts, a fashionable club on 40th Street, when Nils T. Granlund, well-known radio personality and producer of nightclub shows, asked her to headline his first production at the Silver Slipper. This would be an important turning point in her life and career. The Silver Slipper occupied the tiny island of land on West 48th Street that stands as a buffer between 7th Avenue and Broadway, in the heart of the Great White Way. Granlund said later: “Broadway night life reached its peak in the Silver Slipper. Never before or since has anything surpassed it.” The young dancer opened at the Slipper on September 9, 1925, and made an immediate hit. She also made a hit with one of the club’s owners, Frank Marlow, who began paying special attention to this “unusually pretty blonde,” as Variety called her. According to a contemporary newspaper description, “Marlow was a striking figure in Broadway night life. Tall, well-built, and impeccably clad, he dressed like a Beau Brummel.” Frank was a decidedly masculine type with dark hair and handsome Latin features. He was soft-spoken, polished, and personable, and was genuinely well-liked by the cynical Broadway crowd, including [columnist and, much later, TV host] Ed Sullivan and Damon Runyon. Prominent in the worlds of sports and entertainment, he owned a stable of racehorses and managed boxers, as well as being part owner of the Silver Slipper. He moved in the most prominent and powerful circles, being on friendly terms with famous politicians and infamous gangsters. The unsophisticated Kansas City girl knew nothing about this background when she started at the Slipper. She and Frank liked each other from the moment they met, and that was all that mattered to her.

backgrounds, and each found the other intriguing. Marlow, who lived in the fast lane of Broadway night life, was surrounded by beauties in the club, which featured scantily-clad showgirls. But Dolores was different. She didn’t drink or smoke, and her naive innocence and youthful enthusiasm were like a breath of fresh air in the smoke-filled nightclub atmosphere. Naturally, the little blonde was pleased by all the attention from the handsome club owner, who was so different from the fellows she might have met in a conservative Midwestern environment. Meanwhile, she became a great favorite at the Slipper: “Dan Healy, the MC, would tell the people at the tables in back to stand up so they could see my Russian toe sequence, which always got the crowd’s applause.” The Farris jazz toe dance was so popular that the Slipper management kept her on for nine months, an unprecedented run that ended temporarily when she returned to musical comedy. Other clubs wanted the sensational young dancer for their shows, but Slipper owner Marlow was not about to let her get away, for personal as well as business reasons. Her long run at the club gave him the opportunity to spend more time with her, taking her to the best Manhattan restaurants and introducing her to the fascinating and exciting world of big-time professional sports. Dolores recalls: “We went to the racetrack and to the fights and six-day bicycle races at Madison Square Garden. All the celebrities and prominent athletes would greet us at these events. This was the start of my lifelong interest in sports. One of my good friends over the years, Damon Runyon, was a sports writer as well as a famous author, and I eventually married a sports cartoonist, so it seems that from the time I met Frank, sports always played a part in my life.” Many years later, in 1952, columnist Jimmy Cannon, in a nostalgic piece, wrote of his memories of the Twenties. There were two that stood out in his mind—the six-day bicycle races at Madison Square Garden, and the Frivolity Club “where Dolores Farris pranced on her toes.” As time passed, the friendship between the young dancer and the nightclub owner became a romance. For the first time in her life, Dolores found herself falling in love. Frank was devoted to

They say that opposites attract. These two came from completely different

Star-crossed Broadway lovers Frank Marlow and Dolores Farris, flanking an image of the Silver Slipper’s marquee during the Roaring Twenties. Photos courtesy of Jack Burnley; the Marlow illustration seems to be a drawing made from a photograph.

The Dolores Farris Story

happy to hear of Dolores’ success, but he missed her and decided to spend a few days in Chicago via the fastest and most famous train in those days, the legendary Twentieth Century Limited from New York to Chicago. His Chicago visit turned out to be profitable as well as enjoyable; while there, he sold his prize racehorse, Anna Marrone, for $35,000, a fabulous sum that would be equivalent to half a million in today’s currency. Money meant little to the free-spending sportsman; what he valued most was the precious time with Dolores and the chance to see her show-stopping act in a musical comedy setting for the first time. In 1926, the First National movie studio produced a film with a New York City setting called Subway Sadie and, to make it seem more authentic, included a sequence set in a Broadway nightclub. Dolores’ dance was deemed perfect for the nightclub scene. The movie, including the Silver Slipper scene and the Farris jazz toe dance, was released in September 1926. “I was in Chicago with Le Maire’s Affaires and never saw the movie,” says Dolores. When she returned to New York after her Chicago triumph, a new Pierce Arrow—the automobile which represented class and prestige in the Twenties—was waiting for her... a “welcome home” present from Frank.

This Burnley cartoon, issued by King Features, probably illustrates a scene from one of Damon Runyon’s stories with a racetrack setting; Frank Marlow would have felt right at home. [©2003 King Features Syndicate.]

her. Theirs was a true and deep love, because it was not a superficial attraction based on passion. There was a real affinity between them; they liked each other and enjoyed being together. This perfect match-up seemed to good to be true, and it was. There was trouble ahead for the happy couple. It turned out that Marlow had a marital problem and was trying to get a divorce. He wanted to marry Dolores, but there were troublesome legal and family complications that had to be resolved before that would be possible.

Rising Star In February of 1926, during her long first run at the Silver Slipper, Dolores doubled at the famous Palace Theatre. It was the ambition of every act in those days to “play the Palace,” and the greatest names in show business appeared there at some time in their careers.

Shortly after Le Maire’s Affaires closed, the blonde dancer was given a featured spot in a new show, Oh Please, starring the famous British comedienne Beatrice Lillie and with a score by Vincent Youmans, “the quintessential Twenties composer” (his “Tea for Two” was one of the greatest hit songs of the period). Oh Please, had a New York opening on December 21 at the Fulton Theatre. But Beatrice Lillie, who was on stage 90% of the time, resented anyone who might take the spotlight away from her. Originally, Dolores had an attractive number with the boys in the ensemble, but the British star liked the song and the presentation, so she took it away from the dancer. In spite of Lillie’s overpowering presence, Dolores’ dancing caught the attention of the crowds and critics in every city. Daily News critic Burns Mantle summed up the New York reaction in one line when he described Dolores as “a blonde baby with marvelous toes.” Oh Please closed in New York on February 26, 1927, after a disappointing run of two months. It was a case of too much Lillie, as The Billboard complained. By March 20th the iron-toed dancer was back at her headquarters, wowing the Silver Slipper patrons and occasionally doubling at the great Broadway movie palaces.

In July Dolores left the Slipper for another musical comedy engagement, Le Maire’s Affaires, with Sophie Tucker and Ted Lewis, two of the hottest stars of the time. This elaborate and costly extravaganza opened in Detroit on July 2, 1926. On opening night the Farris jazz toe dance received such an ovation that it brought the star, Sophie Tucker, out of her dressing room in a hurry, asking loudly, “Who’s getting all that applause?” This oversized production featured 28 principals besides Lewis and Tucker, so it’s surprising to note that Dolores is the only principal mentioned in several reviews. Back in New York, Marlow was

Dolores dancing in the 1926 (silent) movie Subway Sadie. Courtesy of Jack Burnley.

The Golden Girl and the Silver Slipper

The Gangster Era

Action in the Roaring Twenties

As time passed, it was inevitable that Dolores would become aware of Frank Marlow’s underworld connections. Though wrapped up in her career and oblivious to much that was going on around her, she eventually realized that a special group who came regularly to the Slipper were gangsters and racketeers. There was a section reserved for them, just as the Amen Corner was for show people. As Dolores was usually with Frank, she soon became familiar with them and recalls names like Joe Adonis, Little Augie Carfano, Ben (Bugsy) Siegel, Jack (Legs) Diamond, Arthur (Dutch) Schultz, Owney Madden, Frenchy DeMange, and Charles (Lucky) Luciano... even if she didn’t know much about their activities. She knew them all, but they didn’t use the nicknames popularized in the press. This was truly the place “where the underworld meets the elite,” as Dolores’ sometime friend Ruby Keeler later sang in the film Forty-Second Street.

As with the fictional Gatsby, there is an air of mystery about some of Frank Marlow’s activities. There were times when he would leave the Silver Slipper on unspecified business, saying only that he had to go “downtown.” “Downtown” probably meant “Little Italy,” the Lower East Side of New York. This was the headquarters of Joe the Boss Masseria, the chief of the New York Mafia that controlled much of the city’s liquor supply. Marlow had to occasionally consult him and pay his respects to the “boss of bosses.” (Joe the Boss was “deposed” in 1931 when he was shot while dining in a Coney Island restaurant. Charlie “Lucky” Luciano took over as head of the Syndicate.)

Dolores laughs when she sees the way Twenties gangsters are portrayed in the media. “They weren’t like that at all. They didn’t look like ‘tough guys’ or sinister characters; the racket fellows I knew were always well-dressed, courteous, and friendly; they looked and acted like successful businessmen. Their business may have been illegal, but certainly they were successful. None of the fellows I sat with in the Slipper’s racket corner resembled the crude, foul-mouthed characters you see in movies and television’s fictional ‘documentaries.’ All can say is, they never used gutter language around me.”

Dolores observed that some mysterious meetings were held behind closed doors in the upper room of a restaurant where they often dined. “I sat outside in the lounge and could see the men as they came up the stairs. They arrived singly or in pairs and were greeted by Frank and ushered into the room. They were not the racket guys I knew at the Slipper. The conversation as they arrived was all in Italian; the only time English was spoken was when they gave me a brief greeting. I told Frank that I’d like to learn to speak Italian; all he said was, ‘No. Don’t learn Italian.’ I know now that he was trying to protect me; it wasn’t safe for me to understand all that was said by Italian racketeers.”

Dolores had a unique opportunity to record an accurate account of the informal conversations of these influential operators who were more powerful than the politicians and the police in the Prohibition era. But she was more interested in dancing than their machinations and paid little attention to their conversations. She regretted this later. On the other hand, to have done so might have been hazardous to her health. Frank told her a cautionary tale about a chorus girl in a show who had a spat with her gangster sweetheart and threatened to tell what she knew. This girl was “accidentally” killed when one of the hundred-pound sandbags that pull up theatre curtains fell on her. However, the mobsters and bootleggers in the racket section liked the little bobbedhaired blonde and accepted her presence as a trusted insider because she was with Marlow. (Columnist Ed Sullivan recalled an occasion when gangster Linky Mitchell used “gutter language” in the presence of girls at Frank Marlow’s table, and Frank slapped him across the mouth.)

Several unreliable sources have alleged that Marlow was a member of the Unione Siciliane, a legitimate fraternal association which during Prohibition became in part a front for bootlegging and other racketeering activities. Frank was obviously of Italian descent, and Dolores realized Marlow was not his real name. He never told her what that was, only saying, “At the right time, I’ll tell you.” Later, the New York Times reported his name was Gandolfo Curto. This is a fine Italian name; the Pope’s summer residence has the centuries-old title of Castel Gandolfo.

Slipper Highlights [Among show business people who frequented the so-called Amen Corner of the Silver Slipper were Ginger Rogers, Barbara Stanwyck (real name: Ruby Stevens), and songwriter Harold Arlen.]

In Adventure Comics #66 (Sept. 1941), Jack drew Starman battling a pair of thugs. The super-hero would probably have been happy to take on Dutch Shultz and his boys (see photo), as well. The complete Burnley run on the Astral Avenger is on view in the beautiful hardcover Golden Age Starman Archives, Vol. 1. [Art ©2003 DC Comics.]

Among the sports celebrities Dolores particularly remembers were the great boxing champions, Jack Dempsey and Mickey Walker. Dempsey was a frequent visitor, because there were long intervals between his title defenses in those days, and he was especially friendly with Dolores. On September 27, 1927, a huge crowd of

The Dolores Farris Story

worked at the Slipper, perhaps her closest friends, besides Patrice Runyon, were Imogene Coca and MC Dan Healy. In 1927 the Silver Slipper band included such stars as Jack Teagarden and Jimmy Dorsey. And on one memorable night, as Dolores went into her number, she was startled by the exceptionally beautiful sound of a horn that soared above the rest of the band. At the end the crowd gave an ovation to Dolores and the band soloist, and for the first and only time in her long career she turned and bowed to the band instead of the usual bow to the audience. The soloist was the legendary Bix Beiderbecke, sitting in with his friends Teagarden and Dorsey while he was between engagements. [In the fall of 1927 Dolores returned to musical comedy with a brief appearance in The Sidewalks of New York. Perhaps the most remarkable tribute to her reputation as a crowd pleaser came during benefit shows, when all the biggest stars would perform for various charities. All the performers knew Dolores was the applause hit of every show with her jazz toe dance. On one of these occasions, Broadway singing star Ethel Merman was heard insisting very emphatically in her usual loud voice: “I won’t follow Dolores Farris!” As the saying goes, she was a tough act to follow.]

Bullets and Triangles Sunday night at the Silver Slipper was “wives night” for the racket fraternity in the area reserved for them. Frank and Dolores often joined the racket group on Sundays, as well as other nights. Dolores recalls:

145,000 saw Dempsey floor Gene Tunney for the famous “long count” in one of the most controversial bouts in boxing history. Dolores was rooting for her friend Dempsey. All of the racket crowd, including Al Capone, favored Dempsey, but the alleged gangster “influence” didn’t help Jack. The referee may have saved Tunney’s title by delaying the count until Dempsey went to a neutral corner. The extra seconds were enough for Gene’s head to clear, and he got up to win the decision. A Slipper habitué was Damon Runyon, Hearst’s top reporter and sports writer. It was a few years later than he began writing the tales of the Roaring Twenties for which he is remembered today. The hard-boiled Runyon could frequently be seen at a ringside table with a certain Spanish dancer named Patrice who was in the show. Eventually they were married after his wife died in 1931. Dolores feels the ambitious Patrice was never really in love with Runyon; she was interested in fame and fortune. But perhaps we wouldn’t have Guys and Dolls and all the other great Broadway stories if Damon Runyon hadn’t been so enthralled with an obscure Spanish dancer at the Silver Slipper. Among those with whom Dolores

“Early in 1928 I was sitting with a prominent racket fellow and his wife. On a previous night I overheard others in the racket crowd talking about this man, and from the conversation I learned that he was on a hit list and that it was only a matter of time before they got him. It was a strange feeling to be sitting with this couple, knowing all the while that the fellow probably had only a short time to live. I felt so sorry for his wife, who was cheerful and enjoying her night out at the club, unaware that she would soon lose her husband.”

This ad for a collection of Damon Runyon’s famous and influential Broadway stories shows the importance given to Jack’s illustrations in the 1930s. Note the use of his given first name, Hardin. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

The Golden Girl and the Silver Slipper

Frank Marlow was trapped in a bad early marriage. While still in his teens he married a neighborhood Italian girl, a mistake he soon regretted. By the time he met Dolores he had been separated from his wife for at least eight years. Only the strict New York state divorce laws prevented him from regaining his freedom. But now his love made him determined to get a divorce. He was under no pressure from Dolores; she was completely wrapped up in her career and wasn’t particularly interested in getting married at this time, although she was in love with Frank and expected to marry him eventually.

Old contracts show that Dolores was paid $600 a week for her movie theatre appearances at the Capitol and Paramount during November 1927 and January 1928. All the while she was doubling at the Slipper, which brought her weekly earnings close to the $1000 mark. That was a lot of money in the Twenties, many times what it is today.

Ruby Keeler (left) and Dolores Farris (right) were featured in Broadway shows in 1927, as per this Daily Mirror newspaper story from February 6 of that year. Courtesy of Jack Burnley.

On July 1, 1928, a black sedan pulled alongside another car in Brooklyn and riddled it with bullets. Dead amongst the wreckage was Frankie Yale, the man who had been sitting with his wife and Dolores that night at the Slipper. Yale had been Al Capone’s biggest East Coast supplier of liquor, but Capone had found out he was being ripped off by Yale. Frankie Yale had the biggest and most expensive underworld funeral in New York history. Later in 1928, another shooting made newspaper headlines: that of multi-millionaire gambler Arnold Rothstein, who had ruled a gambling, bookmaking, and bootlegging empire so extensive that he was popularly viewed as “the J.P. Morgan of the Underworld.” There were no convictions and the case remains officially unsolved.

What happened to all that money? “I didn’t spend that much on myself,” said Dolores. “Very expensive clothes and furs didn’t mean that much to me. Actually, I was more interested in my costumes; I had so many of them I wore a new one almost every night at the Slipper. I didn’t care about the money and just handed it over to my mother Bessie.”

Star of the Show [Dolores wouldn’t be able to do her jazz toe dance in the lead role in the Eastern company of Good News, the collegiate musical comedy which had made a big hit in New York. It was a perfect vehicle to show off her acting ability, but she did have some featured dancing in the show, whose songs, written by the famous team of DeSylva, Brown, and Henderson, included “The Best Things in Life Are Free.” It opened at Boston’s Majestic Theatre on March 19, 1928.]

On the night of the shooting, Dolores recounts, “I was having dinner with Frank at a restaurant in the West Forties that was a meeting place for the racket group. Frank was called to the phone, and when he returned he told me Rothstein had been shot at the Park Central Hotel. Suddenly a man came hurrying into the restaurant. He looked agitated, and immediately Frank and several important racket fellows got up from their tables and went into a huddle with him in a corner of the room. After a whispered conversation, the man left as quickly as he had arrived. Later, as we were leaving, Frank said to me, ‘He did it!’” The man who “did it” was George McManus, one of several men who, not long before, had been in a poker game with Rothstein in which the latter had refused to pay off a $320,000 loss, claiming the game had been fixed. Arnold Rothstein was the inspiration for Meyer Wolfsheim in The Great Gatsby and appears as The Brain in Damon Runyon’s stories.

One of Jack’s vintage drawings of New York hoodlums (and a sinister bearded visitor), next to photos of three real-life racketeers. From the top: Frankie Yale, Arnold (“The Brain”) Rothstein, Lucky Luciano.

The Dolores Farris Story Good News was the high point of Dolores’ theatrical career, and she returned to New York on September 24 as an established musical comedy star. It was a happy reunion with Frank Marlow after seven months away with the show, but she didn’t go back to the Silver Slipper because the club had been padlocked by the hated Federal agents. She soon went into the Frivolity Club, where she headed a show. Meanwhile, Frank had used a pretext to have his wife served with notice of a divorce action in Cleveland, taking advantage of Ohio’s less stringent divorce statutes. Marlow probably feared his embittered wife and her relatives would try to harm Dolores, perhaps beat her up or even disfigure her by throwing acid in her face. He wanted to protect the girl he loved without alarming her. His solution was to give her a trained police dog named Bill as a pet for a time. [Dolores, tired of waiting for the Slipper to reopen, went to work at the Rendezvous with the super-popular Jimmy Durante. Soon she was signed to act, sing, and dance in a comedic operetta called The New Moon—in London, England!] On the night before sailing, Dolores had dinner with Frank at their favorite downtown restaurant. Marlow had mixed emotions; he hated to see her go, but his marital problems had reached the boiling point as he pressed for a divorce, so he was relieved that the girl he planned to marry would be out of the line of fire for a while until things could cool down. When the couple finished dinner, they left the restaurant and Frank hailed a cab, directing the driver to take them to the apartment house where Dolores lived with her family. And so it was on the cold winter night of February 27, 1929, in front of 240 Riverside Drive that the star-crossed lovers said what turned out to be their last goodbye. Frank held her tightly and put all of his devotion into the parting embrace. Then he got into the waiting cab and she watched it disappear into the night. Dolores and Frank never saw each other again.

Shining in The New Moon The luxury liner Leviathan took Dolores and Bessie to England. At one point, heavy seas smashed the ship. One casualty of the storm was Frank’s parting gift, a large vase of roses, which fell to the floor and shattered. If this were a movie, the camera would zoom in on the broken

vase and crumpled flowers, pause for a moment, and then focus on the card: “With all my love, Frank.” Years later, as she tried to recall details of her London trip, Dolores was struck by the symbolic fall of the flowers, foretelling Frank’s downfall and shattered dreams and the end of their romance. The New Moon opened on April 14, 1929, at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, with the orchestra conducted by composer Sigmund Romberg, who had collaborated with Oscar Hammerstein on the score, which included “Lover, Come Back to Me,” “Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise,” and “Stouthearted Men.” A special spot was arranged for Dolores’ jazz toe routine. The London Post reviewer said, “On the comic side it must be confessed that the laurels go to a visitor. This is Miss Dolores Farris, the altogether delightful little American soubrette... She dances brilliantly... and generally puts life and merriment into every scene she is called on to adorn.” The original cast recordings of the music from The New Moon were reissued in the 1960s, and once again the bell-like Farris lyric soprano came over loud and clear, just as it filled the huge theatre in 1929.

Dolores was called by one London critic “a most welcome arrival from the other side of the Atlantic.” Courtesy of Jack Burnley.

Dolores’ success as a dancing comedienne in such a prestigious operetta marked a high point in her career, even though she didn’t care much for London itself, with its infamous fog. Nor did she like the restaurant food.

While she was enjoying her London success, back in New York Frank Marlow was planning a bright future for the couple. He had three main objectives: to finalize his divorce and marry Dolores; to back her in a starring role in a Ziegfeld show; and to leave the rackets and establish himself as a legitimate entertainment impresario, sportsman, and restaurateur when Prohibition ended and liquor was legalized. The divorce proceedings were under way in Cleveland, where Marlow had legal connections. When Frank heard that Bert Wheeler was leaving for London, he showed the comedian a gorgeous diamond engagement ring he had purchased for Dolores. He started to give Wheeler the ring, then changed his mind: “No, I’d better give it to her myself. I’ll be going to London as soon as I can arrange to take several weeks off for the overseas trip.” It didn’t happen that way. Tragedy struck without warning. A rare memento of Twenties night life. This fuzzy picture (cropped here to show only four of the 16 people in the original) is the only surviving photo of the performers in a 1926 Silver Slipper show. (Left to right:) Dark-haired Imogene Coca, later co-star of Sid Caesar’s famed TV variety series, Your Show of Shows... unknown dancer... MC Dan Healy... Dolores Farris. Courtesy of Jack Burnley.

The Golden Girl and the Silver Slipper assumed he was “taken for a ride” in the typical gangland style. His murder was a mystery, and the case remains unsolved.

Final Curtain On the night of June 25, 1929, Dolores was in her dressing room at the theatre, preparing for the evening performance, when a cablegram arrived from New York: Dolores dear it breaks my heart to tell you that Frank was fatally injured in an accident last night. His last words were of you. I am sending letter immediately and you can cable me at Graphic if there is anything you wish me to do. STOP It is needless to tell you Dolores that all of my sympathy is extended to you in this tragic hour. Ed Sullivan Of course, it was not an accident. Sullivan just put it that way in case others saw the cablegram. Frank Marlow was shot after he was seen entering a car with two unidentified men in front of a West 52nd Street restaurant on the night of June 24th. Dolores had never thought it would happen. “I knew Frank was in a dangerous business, but he always told me not to worry, because he could talk his way out of any threatening situation. I was alone in my dressing room when I got the awful news. Because of the great emotional stress, I can’t remember much about that night.” [Dolores was unable to go onstage that evening. She returned the following night, but a United Press account reports listeners hearing sobs through her dressing-room door. The Drury Lane audiences knew nothing of the tragedy, for “the London papers ignored the death of the New York nightclub man, although it was a page one story for a week in Manhattan.” Being in the show gradually “lifted her spirits and enabled her to forget her sorrow while she was performing for an enthusiastic audience.”] “I still couldn’t believe it had actually happened,” she recalls. “Somehow I felt that I would see him again when I returned, and the cruel finality of his loss didn’t really hit me until I was back on Broadway.”

One theory had Marlow deeply in debt due to heavy racetrack losses, yet known to be preparing to back Dolores in a Ziegfeld show and planning to go to London to meet her; thinking he might run out on them, his underworld creditors had sent hit men to get him before he could leave the country. But this theory was rejected by the two men who headed the investigation, Police Commissioner Grover Whalen and Mayor James J. Walker. Whalen hinted the shooting might have been a family affair, related to Frank’s wife and relatives. However, there was not enough evidence to back up these suspicions, and no arrests were made. Although the papers were not unkind in most of their references to Dolores, their lurid smear headlines and stories about the man she loved caused irreparable harm to her reputation at the time. Two days after his death, the Graphic’s front page screamed in huge black letters: “MARLOW LINK TO AL CAPONE.” There was absolutely no basis for this headline, or to many others that followed. Even the respected New York Times smeared Marlow by tying him in with the murdered Arnold Rothstein. These headlines ended Dolores’ chance to star in a show produced by the legendary producer of The Ziegfeld Follies. Ziegfeld would have gladly accepted Frank Marlow’s financial backing while the nightclub man was alive, but the negative publicity caused by his mysterious death ended Dolores’ hopes of musical comedy stardom. Four years later, Ed Sullivan, in a newspaper column in the New York Daily News, told the story of Dolores and Frank tactfully without mentioning names: “Blonde, beautiful, and talented, you’d never associate tragedy with this particular girl. Yet she was involved in one of Broadway’s greatest love affairs. The fellow idolized her and she idolized him. I knew him

That came sooner than expected. Despite the lavish production, The New Moon closed on August 10, 1929, after a rather disappointing run of 148 performances. On the voyage back, Dolores remembers sitting by the ship’s pool with a girl friend and taking her first alcoholic drink. “It’s amusing that I went through the wild times of the Jazz Age working in nightclubs where everyone was drinking, and yet I never took a drink of liquor until the end of the Roaring Twenties.” Dolores was glad to get back to America, but the familiar New York scenes revived painful memories, and the full realization of Frank’s loss finally hit her. The first to call and offer his condolences was Ed Sullivan, probably Frank Marlow’s closest friend outside of the rackets. All Dolores says she can remember of those first days back home is “walking down the familiar streets of Broadway at night with the bright lights glittering, and it all seemed unreal and meaningless.” It had been fortunate that Dolores was in London at the time of the shooting of Frank Marlow, but even so her name was dragged into it, and the tabloids put large pictures of her on the front page under huge headlines about a gang-style murder. Because he was shot in a car, it was In July 1935, syndicated sports cartoonist Jack Burnley met Dolores when she was featured in Dan Healy’s Broadway Room. In a newspaper interview in 2000, Jack related how they were dancing there one night when “this ugly, nastylooking little fellow” asked Dolores where she was going after the show. Jack shot back, “She’s going with me.” The man said he “didn’t mean it like that” and merely wanted to tell her he could get us into Jack Dempsey’s place. After he left, Dolores told Jack the man he had just talked back to was Pretty Amberg, a gangland killer referred to in one crime-history book as “the most vicious criminal in gangster history.” “As far as I know,” Jack says, “Dolores was the only person he ever liked or offered to do a favor for.” Material courtesy of Jack Burnley.

The Dolores Farris Story well. He was forever showing newspaper clippings in which she was mentioned. ‘She is the greatest dancer in all the world,’ he’d say. To him, she was tops in everything. While she was in England, justifying his predictions in an Evelyn Laye show, he died in New York. Now she dances at the HaHa, and when they slide back the roof, exposing a slice of sky, I sometimes think that I can hear him applauding, calling her back for an encore.” More than anything, Frank had wanted to see Dolores attain musical comedy stardom; but, by a cruel twist of fate, it was the notoriety caused by his death that prevented her from reaching that goal just when she was about to make it. A master of fiction like Fitzgerald or Runyon couldn’t have invented a more ironic finish to a Broadway love story.

Dolores in the 1929 London show Good News, and a newspaper notice of her late-’30s appearance in an Ed Sullivan show—juxtaposed with an early1940s (?) photo of Jack and two panels from his Superman Sunday strip of January 30, 1944. Two super people—with careers that entertained millions, and a love that transcended the twentieth century. Courtesy of Jack Burnley. [Art ©2003 DC Comics.]

Dolores was the Golden Girl of the Twenties, and her life and career paralleled the rise and fall of the Jazz Age. Her meteoric career reached its peak and her happy romance flourished during the boom years of prosperity, and just as her love affair and stage career ended dramatically with a tragic death in 1929, the whole carefree era collapsed with the Stock Market crash on Black Tuesday, November 28. The popular dancer was still always in demand in nightclub shows, and continued working steadily through the worst Depression years. However, she was still suffering from the psychological depression caused by the shattering loss of her first love. It was only her love of dancing that pulled her through. In autumn of 1929 the Silver Slipper was about to reopen. Ben Marden and Bill Duffy, Marlow’s former partners, wanted her back for that event, because she was so identified with the club. “I was afraid the memories might be too painful if I went back so soon after his death,” she says. “I guess Benny Marden must have talked me into it.” While waiting for the reopening, she appeared as a featured dancer in a lavish nightclub production staged by Nils T. Granlund. His elaborate movie theatre productions set the pattern for Ed Sullivan’s Dawn Patrol shows of the Thirties, which also featured Dolores. Sullivan used the same variety show format when he headed one of the most popular television shows in the Forties, Fifties, and into the Sixties. Dolores stayed with Granlund’s Midnight Revels of 1929 until the Silver Slipper reopened on December 1. She was the star of the show, called Biff Boom Bang. This was her last appearance in the historic Silver Slipper, which closed its doors forever in 1930. “I can’t recall anything about my return to the Slipper,” she says. “I guess I just tried to think of the happy times.”

Epilogue The Twenties crash was followed in the Thirties by the Great Depression, a slow recovery, and the arrival of the New Deal, with the slogan “Happy Days Are Here Again.” During these two decades,

Dolores, too, experienced loss, depression, slow recovery, new love, and the return of happy days in the Thirties. In July 1935 the “Night Mayor of Broadway,” Dan Healy, who had introduced Dolores in so many Silver Slipper shows, opened the Broadway Room, which recreated the Jazz Age atmosphere by featuring the Farris toe dance and the great Joe Venuti’s jazz band. In this reincarnation of the Slipper, it was almost as if the past was repeated. Romance began again for Dolores, but this time it was not the club owner but a New York cartoonist who was entranced by the blonde dancer. She became Mrs. Jack Burnley in 1936, and we are still happily married after more than 65 years. Looking back at her Twenties romance, Dolores can see it objectively from the proper perspective. “The ending was so awful and caused me so much pain that I tried to block it out of my mind and refused to think about the whole affair for some time afterward. Time healed the wounds, and after I married Jack I was able to discuss that period of my life freely with him. He found this whole story fascinating, and now, more than half a century later, decided to write this book about my career and romance in the Twenties... with so much understanding and sympathy. This has helped me to look at it in a more positive way. “It’s sad that Frank had to die that way, and it was a bitter experience for me, but I believe that his violent death was inevitable. He could never escape from his unfortunate involvement with the rackets during Prohibition. He knew too much about the mob’s operations, and if he had tried to leave the rackets after marrying me, they would have gotten him sooner or later. I was too young and naive at the time to understand the situation, and I was blinded by the emotional intensity of first love. If I had married Frank, I would have missed the real love of my life.”

“Bunny” Kaufman

“I Wrote Batman in the 1940s!” RUTH “BUNNY” LYONS KAUFMAN Probably the First Female Ever to Script the Darknight Detective by Bill Jourdain As the webmaster of the Golden Age Batman website, I receive interesting e-mail from around the world asking questions about Batman. While I don’t profess to be an expert on the topic, I love to discuss the Golden Age Dark Knight with the various fans that take the time to write. Imagine my surprise in June of 2000 when I received an e-mail with the subject: “I wrote Batman in the 1940s”! The receipt of that e-mail from Ruth “Bunny” Lyons Kaufman has led to the discovery of a wonderful woman who wrote a few Golden Age stories for DC Comics in 1942. Apparently, her contribution to the Golden Age of Comics was unknown before now.

some Golden Age comic book covers and what appeared to be a copy of a four-page 1942 letter on Detective Comics letterhead. The note was as delightful as the e-mails had been. My friend wrote, “Enclosed, finally, are photo-copies of the Batman, Shining Knight, and Aquaman 1942 comic books.” “Frankly, those early scripts had a lot more story-line, but less blood and gore than today’s comic books.” She then went on to describe the attached letter: “To me, the letter from Jack Schiff is far more interesting. Jack was a great guy and a very good editor. He applied the same in-depth editing to Batman as he would to a Nero Wolfe mystery novel! Hope you enjoy this bit of comic book memorabilia. See you on the E!” Upon reviewing the rest of the contents of the envelope, I knew that her story was true, and she had indeed written these Golden Age stories. I also knew that she deserved the credit for her work, so here it is!

When I first received the e-mail containing this claim, I must admit I was skeptical. I didn’t know this person, and upon checking sources such as the Grand Comic Book Database Project (www.comics.org), I found no reference to her. In fact, the “Batman” story she claimed to have written was credited to the great Bill Finger. She told me that she had written other stories as well, and upon checking references for those stories, I found that the scripters were listed as “unknown.” Despite my skepticism, my interest was piqued, and I began to exchange e-mails with this “mystery writer” from the Golden Age. After we exchanged a few more e-mails, in late June she emailed me that she had copies of the books in which her stories appeared and would be happy to send me color copies of the covers. She also told me, almost as an aside, that she had a letter from a DC editor in which her “Batman” story was discussed and that she would send me a copy of that, as well. I gladly accepted her offer and told her that I would look forward to her package. Two months later (I had almost forgotten about the package by then), I received a large manila envelope from my e-mail friend of the Golden Age of Comics. Upon opening the envelope I was astounded by what I found inside. Inside the package was a handwritten note clipped to color copies of

A couple of years back, Ruth Kaufman sent Bill Jourdain the photo at left, which she says was taken about the time she wrote the story for Batman #16. Interestingly, if DC ever does a fourth volume of its Dark Knight Archives, “The Grade A Crimes” will finally be reprinted after more than six decades. Photo courtesy of Ruth Kaufman. Thanks to Ken Dudley for all scans from the “Batman” story which accompany this article. Art by Dick Sprang & Charles Paris. [Art ©2003 DC Comics.]

“I Wrote Batman In The 1940s!”

When writer/historian Ron Goulart interviewed Jack Schiff for Pioneer Books’ 1985 book The History of DC Comics: Fifty Years of Fantastic Imagination, the above photo of the longtime DC editor appeared with it. Alas, we couldn’t turn up copies of Adventure Comics #84 or More Fun Comics #90, in which Mrs. Kaufman’s “Shining Knight” and “Aquaman” stories appeared, by deadline time. But here are the classic covers to those two issues—by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby, and by George Papp, respectively. Can anybody out there supply us with interior art for a follow-up piece? [Art ©2003 DC Comics.]

Ruth “Bunny” Lyons Kaufman wrote three stories for DC Comics in 1942. Under the name Bunny Lyons, she submitted her stories to editor Jack Schiff. She wrote “The Grade A Crimes,” which is the second story in Batman #16 (AprilMay, 1943); “Riddle of the Rodeo,” the “Shining Knight” story in Adventure Comics #84 (March 1943); and “Somewhere in the Pacific,” the “Aquaman” story from More Fun Comics #90 (April 1943). How do we confirm that she wrote these stories? Other than her word (which is more than good enough for me), there is no way identify with certainty her work in Adventure and More Fun. However, the 1942 Jack Schiff letter confirms that Bunny Lyons, not Bill Finger, scripted “The Grade A Crimes” for Batman #16 (a “key” book because it features the first appearance of Alfred, Batman and Robin’s loyal butler and friend). Not only does this letter confirm Bunny’s authorship; it also provides a wonderful historical glimpse into the creation of a published Golden Age comic book story. Here is Schiff’s letter, dated August 14, 1942:

“Bunny” Kaufman

“I Wrote Batman In The 1940s!”

As I read Schiff’s singlespaced critique, explaining in detail the faults of the story, and the ways for Bunny to make it better, I couldn’t help but wonder why he had not simply rejected the story. I was also amazed that he took the time to work on the story with Bunny to guide her through the proper way to script a Batman story for DC. Yet he manages to end on an encouraging note. What a great mentor he must have been to young writers! I guess Bunny was able to “catch the drift” of his letter, because her submission became “The Grade A Crimes,” and joined the long list of great Golden Age Batman stories (A reprint of this story can be found in Batman #260, Jan.–Feb. 1975). After reading Jack Schiff’s letter, I found a copy of “The Grade A Crimes” and read it. I then read his letter again, and read the story again. Without question, the letter indeed relates to the story that became “The Grade A Crimes.” It was exciting to read the genesis of the story in its very raw form and then have the opportunity to read the final, polished version. It made me feel as if I was back in 1942 at the height of the Golden Age! I also wondered if other original scripts (or letters like Schiff’s) survived to provide us a better historical perspective of the foundation of these early stories. I suppose most did not survive, but I would be curious to hear from collectors and dealers out there who may be able to answer this question. Bunny’s letter to me also raised another question in my mind. How many others have written Golden Age stories and never been credited? While we know the identities of most, if not all, of the premier scripters of the Golden Age, what about those unsung heroes who wrote a few stories (or more) and were never recognized for their achievements? The reality is that we will likely never know all of them, but we can certainly continue to look through old, musty files, and give credit where credit is due when new identities are discovered. These unknown writers and artists are certainly just as important a part of the development of our hobby as those that we honor year in and year out. To me, they are the “unknown soldiers” of the Golden Age. So here we are, more than six decades after Ruth “Bunny” Lyons Kaufman wrote three published but uncredited Golden Age stories for DC Comics. Bunny was kind enough to take me on a trip back in time to 1942 to show me how one of those great stories was written. It was the least I could do to make sure she got the credit she deserved. Thanks, Bunny! I’ll see you on the “E!”

A recent photo of Ruth “Bunny” Kaufman (top right)—and the final page of “The Grade A Crimes!” Oddly, along with Bill Finger, Gardner Fox was briefly credited with writing this story, since its name pops up in his archival records—but now we know the real skinny! Photo courtesy of Ruth K. Art by Sprang and Paris. [Art ©2003 DC Comics.]

[Bill Jourdain has been collecting comics for over 25 years. He is particularly devoted to the Golden Age Batman and maintains the Golden Age Batman website at www.goldenagebatman.com. When he is not reading comics, Bill practices law in Dalton, Georgia. His email address is bjourdain@ocsonline.com. This article is ©2003 William F. Jourdain.]

No. 85 Our 30th Year! 1973-2003

LEVITY, LEARNING and LIGHTNING LIGHTNING BOLTS MARC SWAYZE OTTO BINDER JAY DISBROW

by by John John G. Pierce

Marc Swayze at the end. Billy, who invariably set the stage for the solution to the problem. Billy, who had merely to speak the magic word... and have done with it! So where did the “thinking” come in when these stories were being conceived... the... if I may use the word... the creativity?

[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. Upon leaving the armed services in 1944, he made an arrangement with Fawcett to produce art and stories for them on a freelance basis out of his Louisiana home. There he created both art and story for The Phantom Eagle in Wow Comics, in addition to drawing the Flyin’ Jenny newspaper strip for Bell Syndicate (created by his friend and mentor Russell Keaton). After the cancellation of Wow, Swayze produced artwork for Fawcett’s top-selling line of romance comics. After the company dropped its comics line, 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, he related more about the fun atmosphere that prevailed in the Fawcett art department in the early 1940s. This time, he talks about how he came to write a number of the Captain Marvel scripts, citing several examples from his repertoire. —P.C. Hamerlinck.]

It was essential that each story be different... distinctive… unlike any that had ever been spoken, written, or printed. Put more simply... and truthfully... if one tale was to be about a frog, the next one should not be about a frog. Anything else... but not a frog! I recall that as being the way editor Ken Crossen described it long ago in relating the trials and tribulations of editorial work. A book full of frog stories, said Ken, could cost an editor his job... his career... his sanity... if any. His sobriety, for sure! France E. Herron, Fawcett executive editor of comics, had a knack for transmitting his editorial... and marketing... theories without lecturing. You could have lunch with him and chat the whole time about the rising cost of Automat peach pie, and come away with new knowledge of the necessity for an element of the unique to the comic book story. Uncanny. Herron had excellent people on the comic book staff. Crossen, Mercy Shull, Stanley Kauffman, Tom Naughton, Henry Perkins... and others. They all

I didn’t go to Fawcett Publications as a writer. It is doubtful that the résumé sent to them made the slightest reference to the college semester of short story composition... or the later library study of the literary novel. They weren’t looking for a writer. They were looking for an artist... to draw Captain Marvel. My writing for the super-hero began simply as an offer to fill an immediate need. Wish I could remember its title... or what it was about... or the book in which it appeared. Not much was made of that story. The only obvious benefit from the experience was a possible degree of respect among the Fawcett comic book editors... as an artist who could write. Apparently not a common combination in those days. If I had a system, a formula, for writing the comic book story, I have no idea what it might have been. I had carried around in the back of my mind, for I don’t know how long, a set of fundamentals that I thought, if followed, might make sense... a character, a problem of some kind... some obstacles, then a solution by way of the main character’s special abilities. Nothing to it, was it? Three major elements, two of which... the character and the solution... had been provided originally by Fawcett writer-editor Bill Parker, with pictorial assistance from C.C. Beck. The hero, as one would expect, was Captain Marvel. Or, to be more specific, Billy Batson. Billy, who was always there... at the beginning and

Last issue, we saw the splash of Marc’s 1943 Captain Marvel story titled “The Baron of Barracuda Bay.” To avoid using that title again five years later, Marc metamorphosed a Phantom Eagle tale with the same tentative name into “The Horror of the Swamp” for Wow Comics #64 (Sept. ’48). It featured P.E.’s old enemy, The Black Flamingo. [©2003 DC Comics.]

We Didn’t Know...

45 that with, “Anywhere... everywhere.” When I was writing, if I had an answer, I wouldn’t have told anyone. I wrote a couple of stories with no more to begin with than a title. I don’t know how it got in my head in the first place, but “The Baron of Barracuda Bay” had a nice lilt to it that struck my fancy. All I knew about the fish was that it loved to dine in great numbers, and its favorite menu was people. Enough to go with! I went to work on it, learning a little more from the reference books, passing it on to Billy Batson, who in the story passed it on to Cissie, and thence to the reader.

played the comic book game the way Herron wanted it played.

I had a tendency to ask myself questions when attempting to write. Always among the first was, “Captain Marvel and the The farcical “Henry’s Grandmother” in Captain Marvel Adventures #14 (Aug. 42) “What’s it going to be about? How Baron of Barracuda Bay” had the Big Red Cheese running around page after page in a dress and white is it going to be different?” That appeared in Captain Marvel curls. Written and illustrated by Marc Swayze. [©2003 DC Comics.] was usually followed by the story’s Adventures #30, Dec. 1943, but problem... its trouble and to whom it was to befall. Billy? Not always when the title crept into my head half a decade later, I had forgotten it. I Billy! Then who? His loved ones? His friends? Strangers who deserved was busy typing an outline for “Phantom Eagle and the Baron of his help... the “good guys”? Were they so vulnerable as to need his help? Barracuda Bay” when the memory began to warm up... and bother me. I Was the problem so ominous, so resistant to Billy’s aid, that he would looked through the old books, and there it was... different plot, different have to rely on his magic word? Was it of such force as to be an characters, but same title. I yanked the outline from the typewriter, took adequate adversary for Captain Marvel? a walk, returned, and wrote Phantom Eagle and “The Horror of the Swamp” (Wow Comics #64, Sept. 1948). If each story was to be singular, distinctive... one of its kind, and all that... where in the story was it to be accomplished? In the locale? In the “Henry’s Grandmother” (Captain Marvel Adventures #14, Aug. characterization of the “good guys”? The “bad guys”? Elsewhere? 1942) was simply a take-off of the Broadway legend, Charley’s Aunt. The “Henry” in the title was borrowed from Perkins of the editorial It is probable that the question of most significance, the one that department. It was a completely ridiculous farce that had Captain provided answers to many of the repeated questions, was, “What is the Marvel running around page after page in a flowered dress, his head story about?” Most frequently asked, however, was, “Where did you get shrouded in white curls. It’s a wonder the super-hero overcame that one. the story ideas? Where did they come from?” Today I would answer “Where do story ideas come from?” Don’t forget news items. I remember back about ’41 or thereabouts, the papers were carrying tongue-in-cheek accounts of professional pilots attributing mysterious malfunctions of aviation equipment to small gnomes. Captain Marvel had experience with that sort of thing... in previous adventures with trolls, dwarfs, and midgets. But I had to hurry… I had a feeling this was going to be a fast-fading fad. And it was! I made it through with “The Pledge of the Gremlins” (Captain Marvel Adventures #27, Sept. 1943). Just in time, however. I haven’t seen a news item or anything else about gremlins since! It was a pleasure, writing those Captain Marvel stories. There were more... not all that many... but more. There was no pay involved, my being a salaried member of the art staff, and none expected. If pay, and credit, ended up having been directed somehow to others, so be it. My benefit was higher esteem, I like to think, around the Fawcett offices. Whenever editor Wendell Crowley introduced me as the “journeyman pro, the guy who could do it all,” I tried to keep from outwardly swelling with pride. But it was a good feeling!

This Swayze-scripted story in Captain Marvel Adventures #27 (Sept. ’43) was inspired by a news item. The WWII-born gremlins have popped up on occasion since then, such as Froggy the Gremlin on the old Smilin’ Ed’s Gang (later Andy’s Gang) on radio and TV, in a famous William Shatner-starring episode of Twilight Zone, and, in name, at least, in two Spielberg-produced movies in 1984 and 1990. And of course there was American Motors' Gremlin! Now there's a great idea—naming an automobile after an imp that causes mechanical problems! Art by the C.C. Beck shop. [©2003 DC Comics.]

I am thankful to have been able to write tales about our great superhero. Though the scripts never came anywhere near the level of literary acclaim, they must have provided pleasure, and perhaps peace of mind, for a lot of folks. And isn’t that what really counts? [Marc Swayze will return next issue with more memories of the Golden Age of Comics.]

Bill Schelly

Words of Wonder: The Life and Times of Otto Binder An Interview with BILL SCHELLY, Author of the New (and First) Biography of One of the Greatest Scripters of Comics’ Golden Age Conducted by P.C. Hamerlinck PCH: When was the first time you discovered (knowingly or not) Otto’s work? List specific comics, pulps, and books. BILL SCHELLY: In the opening chapter of my book Sense of Wonder: A Life in Comic Fandom, I describe my experience of discovering the magic of comic books. In 1960, when I was eight, my family was on a crosscountry trip to visit my grandparents, and my dad bought me the Giant Superman Annual #1 to give me something to read on the train. It was a life-changing experience for me, getting a large dose of some of the better “Superman family” stories of the late ‘50s. Later, I learned that six of the nine stories in that annual were written by Otto Binder. I was especially touched by the story introducing Supergirl, and Lois Lane as “The Witch of Metropolis!” I guess

Giant Superman Annual #1 (1960) was Bill Schelly’s first exposure to the work of Otto Binder, and began a lifelong love for comics— but, as Bill relates, “There is a playful, almost childlike quality to much of [Binder’s] comic book work,” especially in his Fawcett stories. Panel at right is from Captain Marvel Adventures #115 (Dec. 1950)— story by Otto Binder, art by C.C. Beck. [©2003 DC Comics.]

you could say that, in that sense, Otto Binder changed my life. I became a lifetime fan of comics, and it all started with that one wonderful annual. PCH: Besides the comics, did you also read Binder’s Adam Link stories? SCHELLY: I first encountered Binder’s Adam Link stories through a comic strip adaptation of “Adam Link’s Vengeance” in the fanzine Fantasy Illustrated, in 1964. I didn’t get to read the prose stories in the series until a year later, when they were collected into a paperback book. I loved them. PCH: Why did you want to do a book on Otto Binder?

A photo of the Binder brothers and their wives, circa 1947. At left: Jack and Olga Binder. At right: Otto and Ione Binder. These and numerous other rare, even never-before-printed photos appear in Words of Wonder.

SCHELLY: The inspiration for actually doing a book came during a discussion that Roy Thomas and I had about the lack of books about comic book writers—not writer-artists like Will Eisner, but people who “just” wrote the scripts. That’s when I thought of Otto. Here was a man whose work was read by millions over the years, who wrote for the two most successful characters of the Golden Age, yet is completely unknown to all but the people in comics fandom.

Words of Wonder

At DC, there’s no denying that the introduction of Bizarro in Superboy is among his best, and is actually quite touching. For nostalgia reasons, my favorite of all his stories is “The Supergirl from Krypton!” I found it incredibly moving when I was a boy—and I still do, forty years later. And it wasn’t the art by Al Plastino that grabbed me. It was the story. PCH: What was the greatest thing you learned about the man as you compiled the book? SCHELLY: One of the biggest surprises was the amount of writing Otto did for Timely in the ’40s—not only “Captain America,” but “SubMariner,” “Young Allies,” and most of their secondary characters. After Fawcett dropped their comic book division in 1953, Otto did more than just dabble at EC. He wrote a couple of dozen stories for Bill Gaines, including a few of the most memorable. Beyond that, I had no idea how many paperback books Binder wrote after leaving comics in 1969—dozens! He was truly obsessed with UFOs. They were his primary interest in the last five years of his life. PCH: What aspect of Words of Wonder do you think will most surprise readers? SCHELLY: That it’s not a mixture of articles and interviews, but a chapter-by-chapter story of Otto’s life. The text alone is approaching 70,000 words. It’s a true biography. Of course, there are hundreds of illustrations and photos, so it’s not just page after page of solid text. “Binder based Tawny’s faults and foibles on himself.” A scene from the first Mr. Tawny story, in Captain Marvel Adventures #79 (Dec. ’47). [© 2003 DC Comics.]

PCH: The fact that Otto Binder has been gone for almost thirty years must have made the project a real challenge.

When I started looking at what had been written about Binder, I found very little about his career as a pulp writer, and not much beyond his period as chief writer for “Captain Marvel” and the rest of the “Marvel Family” comics. I wanted to know more about him, so I began the research and found out all kinds of fascinating stuff. That’s when I knew for sure I would have enough material to justify a book, and the project snowballed from there.

SCHELLY: Yes, but I had an incredible stroke of luck. Through sheer chance, I came into contact with Randy Cox, a fellow who had taperecorded almost three hours of his visit with Otto in 1973. I got to hear Otto expounding on all sorts of subjects, like his relationship with Mort Weisinger and his feelings about Dr. Fredric Wertham… and lots more. Somehow, in listening to this “lost interview,” I almost came to feel that I had met Otto myself.

PCH: What do you feel separates Otto Binder from other writers? SCHELLY: There is a playful, almost childlike quality to much of his comic book work that is extremely beguiling. Also, there’s a fundamental sense of decency and humanity at the core of most of his work. Otto was always interested in exploring our obligations as individuals, as citizens, as members of the human race. The central question of Adam Link was, “What does it mean to be a man? How do we define humanity?” This came through in the background of his “Marvel Family” and “Superman” stories, too. PCH: What are some of your favorite stories that Otto wrote—both for Fawcett and at DC? SCHELLY: My favorite “Marvel Family” story would have to be the Black Adam tale in Marvel Family Comics #1. I wish more had been done with Black Adam, that he had become an ongoing villain. I also think Otto’s “Captain Marvel” stories featuring Tawky Tawny, the talking tiger, are all first-rate. Binder based Tawny’s faults and foibles on himself.

Bill Schelly PCH: Do you think your book can help new readers discover his work? SCHELLY: I would think so. The book is certainly an attempt to increase fandom’s awareness of the length and breadth of Binder’s contributions to the comic book medium, as well as the science-fiction field.

Bill Schelly (left) and Julius Schwartz. The legendary DC editor contributed in several important ways to Words of Wonder, whose cover is shown small below. Photo courtesy of Bill Schelly. [Superman, Marvel Family, Supergirl, Krypto TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

PCH: Future projects: do you plan to write other comic creator biographies?

One of the greatest pleasures was interviewing his surviving relatives—both his brother Jack’s daughter Bonnie, and Otto’s wife’s sister-in-law Alice Turek and her daughter Patricia. So people who knew the subject of my book intimately were able to tell me all kinds of little things that added up to a vivid portrait of Otto.

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SCHELLY: I would like to write another biography, but the subject would have to be someone whose work I really enjoy. I also hope to do some more writing for DC. I really got a kick out of writing introductions for the Dark Knight and Plastic Man Archives. On the fiction side, I definitely want to write a novel that I’ve already mapped out. It just depends on what grabs my attention next. [FCA highly recommends that you search out Hamster Press’ ad for Bill Schelly’s brand new book, Words of Wonder: The Life and Times of Otto Binder, elsewhere in this issue of Alter Ego!]

John G. Pierce

Levity, Learning, & Lightning Bolts by John G. Pierce [Based on previously published articles concerning the many facets of the original Captain Marvel, by JGP; rewritten in 2003.] Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck Part 1 of 3:

Learning from Captain Marvel When “Captain Marvel” was made into a live-action television series, Shazam!, in 1974, many fans of the character were initially excited about the show, until they had their first actual look at the program. Gone were the whimsy, humor, action, and adventure of his old tales. In their place were highly censored stories which attempted to teach kids moral values. In addition, Captain Marvel or Billy would later appear after each episode to explain the point of each story, just in case the young viewers had somehow missed it! Although most fans highly approved of Jackson Bostwick (or even his successor John Davey) as Captain Marvel, and most may have tolerated the too-old Michael Gray as Billy Batson, and even the animated “elders” who consulted Billy, overall most fans of the World’s Mightiest Mortal felt the show’s approach fell short. However, it may come as a surprise that moralistic stories were not really anything new, or a departure from Captain Marvel tradition, but rather were somewhat of a staple of the Big Red Cheese back in the ’40s and early ’50s. (DC, in its revival of the character, never attempted this type of story, per se.) Although Filmation, the studio which produced the Shazam! TV series, probably didn’t know it, they were simply reviving an old style of story of the original Captain Marvel. Alas, because of the incredible restrictions on Saturday morning television at the time, one of the show’s many writers, Don Glut, once told me that even the word “atomic” was forbidden. The morals were not wrapped in entertaining adventures. No guns or knives were ever pulled or even hinted at. Most of the conflict was emotional, not physical. But these were not hurdles to jump during the Golden Age days at Fawcett Publications, where Captain Marvel’s moralistic stories were neither lacking in adventure or excitement. In this series’ first installment, I’d like to examine a few of those stories which not only entertained readers, but provided good values and lessons which could, and still do, last a lifetime. Jackson Bostwick as Captain Marvel, in the moralistic 1970s TV series Shazam! [Captain Marvel TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

Many of the best such tales featured the talking tiger, Mr. Tawny, all of whose stories were written by prolific “Captain Marvel” scripter Otto Binder and illustrated by the Captain’s chief artist, C.C. Beck. It is sad that many comics researchers of past years completely missed the point of those stories because they couldn’t get past the concept of a talking tiger (yet they could swallow a boy turning into a man who could fly!). Jules Feiffer, in The Great Comic Book Heroes, dismissed Mr. Tawny as a villain, which he never was, while Dick Lupoff, in All in Color for a Dime, wrote that he had “never warmed to Mr. Tawny.” Later, the author of the RBCC Special #8 stated that he’d automatically skipped over any story containing Tawny. These individuals really should have read and closely examined those stories. First of all, though a tiger, Mr. Tawny was actually as human as two more famous talking animals, Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge. Except perhaps for his origin story (Captain Marvel Adventures #79), virtually every tale that featured Mr. Tawny as the main player (with Captain Marvel being a secondary figure) contained some sort of moral or special lesson. Usually it was Tawny himself who had to learn the lesson, with the assistance of his friends Billy and Captain Marvel. The loquacious feline was lionized by Hollywood in CMA #92, lost faith in mankind in #96, had a persecution complex in #98, daydreamed of himself as a hero in #102, was turned against Cap in #113, and went on a culture craze in #137. He sought new personalities in #115, looked for happiness in #117, engaged in a sales campaign in #119, had to go on a diet in #121, faced a

Levity, Learning & Lightning Bolts lady has!” Eventually Sauer realized it was only his own bad thoughts which had been getting him into trouble, whereupon the gnome appeared and removed the curse from both Jasper and Captain Marvel. (Jasper had learned the truth of Proverbs 23:7: “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he,” as well as Phillippians 4:8, wherein the Apostle Paul urged his followers to meditate on whatever was noble, true, lovely, just, pure, and praiseworthy.) Still another story of extraordinary moral content was Captain Marvel Adventures #113’s “The Imperfect Perfection,” in which Billy Batson visited a town called Perfection, a village devoid of noise, dirt, and slums. As Robert Ajax, head of the Perfection Civic League, explained to Billy, “We insist on nothing less than perfection itself.... Notice how everybody is handsome and noble in appearance. The ancient Greeks gave us our ideals of human form and face. Our citizens must conform to those standards.” Ajax then proceeded to point out some “disgusting freaks” in Perfection—people who had oddly-colored hair, or were too skinny, had big ears, etc.—in short, anyone who did not look like ancient Greek statues. These “freaks” had banded together in an “Odd Fellows Club.”

“Pleasure Peril” in #128, went on a quest for youth in #131, marketed bouncing shoes in #134, and became a hermit in #149. Throughout it all, Mr. Tawny usually remained a hard-working individual. His occasional dissatisfactions were excellent reflections of emotions and experiences most people have undergone at one time or another. If young readers could identify with Billy Batson, older readers—and apparently there were more than a few—could certainly identify with Mr. Tawny. Some stories concerned themes that might even surprise those who believe that “relevance” in comics began with Green Lantern/Green Arrow. In Captain Marvel Adventures #90 (Nov. 1948), Mr. Tawny moved into a new neighborhood, only to be met with prejudice and bigotry. (He was evidently the first tiger to live in that area.) He was ready to pack up and leave, but Captain Marvel convinced him to stay. When the local bigot and his friends tried burning down Mr. Tawny’s house, Cap saved the day, while Tawny rescued the neighborhood children from spreading flames, thus proving that the suspicions against him were unfounded. Incidentally, in the house-burning scenes, the bigots wore blackhooded outfits not unlike those of the Ku Klux Klan.

When Ajax and his committee attempted to drive these “odd fellows” out of Perfection, Billy said “Shazam!” and Captain Marvel intervened: “You don’t like people with purple hair, eh? Well, I don’t like people with two ears! My reasons are as good as yours!” Still, since Captain Marvel seldom, if ever, contravened the vested authorities, the Odd Fellows gave up and left town. Cap then crashed a meeting of the Perfection Civic League, declaring Ajax had been right: “But you didn’t go far enough. Let’s make it a rule that all men in town must be just as tall as I am!” Cap then proceeded to measure all the men and to toss out of the window anyone who was too short—which included all of them. When Ajax protested that Cap had simply made up that rule, Cap responded, “That’s the trouble with all such rules made by snobs and bigots like you. Who ever gave you or me or anybody the right to make such stupid rules?” Actually, he asked this question while he punched Ajax into the wall. Robert Ajax learned his lesson and soon returned the Odd Fellows to

But there were many moralistic tales which didn’t star Mr. Tawny. One of the greatest, “The Man Who Thought Aloud,” appeared in Captain Marvel Adventures #119 in 1951. Jasper Sauer (names of one-time characters in Captain Marvel stories were seldom subtle) was an employee of Station WHIZ who always had negative thoughts about everyone and everything. (Incidentally, if giving people names which reflected their personalities seems unrealistic, I refer you to the Old Testament, where everybody’s name, in the original languages, had a meaning connected to their personality, attributes, or mission in life.) A gnome, the “collector of all bad thoughts that you humans have,” had to work overtime because of Sauer’s outlook on life, so he placed on Jasper “The Curse of Spoken Thoughts.” Jasper soon found that his thoughts, spoken aloud, got him into all sorts of trouble, even cost him his job at WHIZ. When Captain Marvel attempted to intercede, the gnome placed the same curse on him. Jasper gloated over the trouble he imagined Cap would soon get into. Soon a rather plump woman approached, but a caption informed us that “Captain Marvel never has bad thoughts.” Rather, he muses, “What a jolly and pleasing face that

John G. Pierce

the author of the hoboing book, only to discover the man now living in a ritzy apartment: “My dear man! I agree with you that the book is a lie. But it made me a lot of money. I live in luxury now. I wouldn’t go back to hoboing to save my life.” Captain Marvel sums up (as he or Billy often did): “I guess it all goes to show that it doesn’t do any good to envy anyone else. We all have our troubles—and our joys. Nobody yet has cornered the market on either of those things.” In Whiz Comics #92 (Dec. 1947), we join Captain Marvel for a visit to “The Land of Opportunity.” Opportunity in this story is the name of both a rundown ghost town, and an old, long-bearded, robed figure who appears as the personification of the concept embodied by that very word: “Greetings, folks! I’m Opportunity! And Opportunity knocks but once, you know. So many people ignore my call, it’s sad. But come with me and I’ll show you what I mean.” The narrator leads the reader to the town of Opportunity, and to two men, Roger Crandall and Thomas Worth, who have lost their business and all their money and are looking for a new start—or even just, at the moment, a meal. As they enter the ghost town, they find a piece of paper which turns out to be the deed to the town. Deciding that perhaps there is silver or gold to be found hidden in the town, the pair split up to search. “The Man Who Wanted To Be Poor,” from CMA #95 (April 1949). Art by Beck. [©2003 DC Comics.]

Perfection, even joining himself. “You see,” Billy informed his listeners at the end, “he admitted that he was the oddest of them all, for ever having thought them different from anybody else.” It is important to note that, in the two foregoing summaries, especially, the possibility of redemption was set forth. Jasper Sauer and Robert Ajax were not villains, in the classic sense of the word, but misguided human beings capable of choosing a better path once it was set before them. Genuine villains, such as Dr. Sivana or Mr. Atom, never reformed; nor, I think, would most readers have wanted them to. But one-shot characters were different.

Billy Batson is riding into town on a bicycle when he hears a crash and a yell for help, and shouts “Shazam!” Captain Marvel saves the two men. The latter explain their quest to Cap, while the glum-faced narrator intones, “Isn’t it sad, folks? How silly for them to seek gold. Can’t they see opportunity staring them right in the face? When will they catch on?” Cap must save the pair several times as they desperately search for treasure or oil in the town. They’re about ready to tear up the deed, when strangers enter: “Are you folks building here? I’d like to rent a room or buy a house! Anything you got.”

Another misguided person who learned his lesson was “The Man Who Wanted to Be Poor” (Captain Marvel Adventures #95, April 1949). Henry Blake, tired of the corporate life, reads a book called The Happy Hobo and decides that the “poor but happy” life is for him. He resigns from his job, gives away his house, possessions, and money, and heads for the open road. But when he attempts to join a group of hoboes, they assume from his “fancy talk” that “he must be a swell,” and attempt to rob him. Even so, “Hank the Hobo,” as he now calls himself, isn’t dissuaded, and attempts to get a handout at a farm. Meanwhile, back in the city, Henry’s former boss enlists Billy Batson’s aid to try to get Henry to return, at double his previous salary. Captain Marvel soon finds Blake, who’s collapsing from the exertion of chopping a pile of wood. Cap swiftly finishes the job, and presents Blake with his old boss’s offer. But “Hank” wants neither a job nor a boss: “Nobody can tell me what to do anymore. I’m free.” Then, however, the local sheriff orders every able-bodied man to help break a logjam in the river. Blake pitches in, doing what he pronounces as “the hardest w-work I ever did in my l-life,” though it is Captain Marvel who quickly clears the logjam. Even so, Blake is only dissuaded after he takes a swim in a river, only to go over a waterfall. After Cap rescues the unhappy hobo, Henry declares he’s had enough. Back in the city, the ringing phones which previously drove him to distraction are now “music to my ears!” Later, he visits

Levity, Learning & Lightning Bolts Universe, with other earthlings following suit. Thoth leaves, with a lady commenting, “He’s not a monster. He has a beautiful soul,” and a nearby male agreeing, “Right! And I’ll lick any man who calls him a monster again!” We see embodied in this tale not only a vision of peace (though a rather fanciful, idealistic, unworkable one, as the United Nations has shown in our own world and time), but also the view (which appeared in at least one earlier “Captain Marvel” story, as well) that one cannot judge solely by external appearances. Another story in that same issue, forthrightly entitled “Captain Marvel Fights the Menace of Greed,” drives home the point that greed, not money itself, is the evil, as Cap uncovers an investment fraud scheme. Again, more Biblical teachings seem to crop up when reading “Captain Marvel” stories. There is an oft-misquoted passage about money as the root of all evil, but the actual verse, I Timothy, 6:10, plainly states that the evil is the love of money, not money itself. This story says exactly the same thing. “Citizen of the Universe,” from CMA #111 (August 1950). [©2003 DC Comics.]

“Now do you get it?” Captain Marvel asks the two men. “There’s a housing shortage. And look—you’ve got all the lumber you need to build homes.” Finally the men realize that the big opportunity staring them in the face all the time was—the real estate business. As Billy explains, “And today, folks, the Worth and Crandall Real Estate Development is a thriving business. Opportunity sure knocked for them, although they didn’t know it at first.” But Opportunity, the narrator, has the last word: “Yes, they answered my knock—but only through the help of Captain Marvel. Well, now I must get along and visit other doors.” In the final panel, we see a closed door, with Opportunity’s voice coming from the other side. “Good-by now. And if you hear a knock at the door, be ready, for it may be the knock of... Opportunity!”

So, you see, the Shazam! television series wasn’t entirely off-base in its approach. Had the morals been presented in an entertaining fashion, with plenty of action and adventure, the program could have been an extremely memorable one. As it stands, it was only a hollow, if unintended, echo of some of the best stories of the Golden Age, from the talented and imaginative crew at Fawcett. In the realm of super-hero comics, Captain Marvel stands as a figure who imparted great lessons through his adventures and by his example.

COMING IN A NEAR-FUTURE ISSUE: PART II— Science-fiction and Adventure Themes of the World’s Mightiest Mortal!

Readers of Captain Marvel Adventures #111 (Aug. 1950) were treated to two moralistic outings. Opening the issue is “Citizen of the Universe,” in which a “fearsome monster” (a green scaly figure who actually looks somewhat comical) arrives on Earth and promptly scares the local populace, though proclaiming he comes in peace. In time, the “monster” explains to Captain Marvel that he is Thoth, from the “faraway world called Brazzia,” and that he is on Earth to enlist as many people as possible as “citizens of the Universe.” The hope is that “if all the people of all worlds sign up as Citizens of the Universe, pledged to eternal peace with each other, then no scheming dictators or munitions makers could ever start a war of worlds.” Captain Marvel endorses the idea, but the populace and the police are not convinced. As the police take Thoth off to jail—with Captain Marvel saying that he “can’t interfere with the law”—uniformed men show up to “take that prisoner off your hands.” They explain they are from a world near Thoth’s, that Thoth is a criminal and must be taken back to incarceration. Cap is convinced Thoth is one of the good guys, and follows as they lead him away. He overhears one alien say that they are actually “part of a small band of munitions makers. Our policy is to make all the worlds of space hate each other. Then, after we start a gigantic war of worlds, we will sell our munitions and reap a vast fortune.” Captain Marvel intervenes before they can execute Thoth, then lets them escape and follows them to their headquarters in outer space and destroys the munitions. Back on Earth, he signs up as a Citizen of the

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Vol. 3, No. 27 / August 2003

™

Editor Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout Christopher Day

Consulting Editor John Morrow

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 Jack Kirby (with Randy Sargent & Shane Foley) Jack Burnley

JACK KIRBY & Some “Great Unknowns”! Contents Writer/Editorial: A Dream! A Hoax! An Imaginary Tale!. . . . . 2 I Remember Monster!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Michael T. Gilbert & Co. speculate: “What if The Incredible Hulk hadn’t been cancelled in 1963?”

The 1948 Comic Art Convention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Cover Colorists

And Phil Seuling asks: “What if there’d been a comicon 16 years earlier than 1964?”

Shane Foley Tom Ziuko

“I Never Really Stopped Doing Comics!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Mrs. Dolores Farris Burnley, Lester Zakarin, & Al Hartley

Inker Les Zakarin talks with Jim Amash about John Romita and other phenomena.

About “The Black Pirate” and Alfonso Greene . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Comics great Alex Toth on the career of an African-American Golden Age artist. Mike Suchorsky, a.k.a. “Mr. Photo” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Hames Ware and Jim Vadeboncouer, Jr., on one of the best of the “Great Unknowns”!

A Talk with John Benson (part one). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Bill Schelly interviews the editor of Squa Tront, greatest of the EC fanzines. In Memoriam: Al Hartley (1925-2003) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 A few words about the talented artist of Patsy Walker, Archie, and Christian comics.

re: [comments, criticisms, & corrections]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Vin Sullivan and the Giants of DC––plus FCA . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About Our Cover: Randy Sargent and Shane Foley did such a fabulous job creating “new” Jack Kirby covers using the King’s early-’60s art that, when they composed their own pseudo-Marvel Collectors’ Item Classics cover harking back to that latter-’60s reprint mag, we just had to use it as our flip cover! [Art reconstructed by Randy Sargent & Shane Foley; art ©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.] Above: This Kirby-penciled panel of the ever-lovin’ blue-eyed Thing was previously printed in TwoMorrows’ flagship title The Jack Kirby Collector—even in the recent issue #38—but when Glen David Gold sent us a copy, we couldn’t resist. This is a “rejected” final panel from page 3 of Fantastic Four #15 (June ’63)—around the time The Incredible Hulk was cancelled. Stan Lee had Jack replace it with a new panel showing Ben joining his three fellow heroes—but here’s the original, in all its glory! [© 2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.] 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, $11.00 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

A Dream! A Hoax! An Imaginary Tale! conventionmeister Phil Seuling did imagine just such a 1948 convention, back in 1978— and we thought it was time we gave that con the kind of writeup we gave the 1964 and ’65 NYC cons in earlier issues.)

Remember those early-1960s days when many a Superman-starring DC cover (or so it seemed) blurted out: “Not a dream! Not a hoax! Not an imaginary tale!” Well, if you don’t, take my word for it— before long, that phrase became a trifle amusing, even ironic—because its mere usage underscored the fact that numerous “Superman” stories in those days were dreams (“Thank heaven I was only dreaming!”), hoaxes (“And it was really a Superman robot, all along!”), and imaginary stories (forerunners of today’s Elseworlds series).

Oh, and what if Classics Illustrated had adapted the works of H.P. Lovecraft and— oops! Sorry. We decided not to print that piece this month, saving it for our Halloween issue, just two months from now!

So what the hey—we thought we’d put together part of an issue of Alter Ego that was an “imaginary tale,” and proud of it! What would the stories and covers of The Incredible Hulk have been like if that mag hadn’t been cancelled after six bimonthly issues in 1962-63, and its green-skinned star reduced for a time to Before the Silver Surfer, there was—Captain America, as guest shots in Fantastic Four and The drawn by Jazzy Johnny Romita! And long before he was Avengers? (Well, Mr. Monster, Michael T. drawing commercial art spots like this one, John was Gilbert, Randy Sargent, and Shane Foley are ghost-penciling for this side’s feature interviewee, Les here to tell you what happened in that Zakarin. Read on....! [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.] alternate-1963.)

But don’t let anybody tell you that the little-known artists covered on this side of the issue—Les Zakarin, Alfonso Greene, and Mike Suchorsky—aren’t real. They not only existed, but they did some damn fine work—which Jim Amash, Alex Toth, Hames Ware, and Jim Vadeboncouer, Jr., are going to tell you about—while Bill Schelly talks to the editor of the legendary EC fanzine Squa Tront, and our letterwriters correct our goofs, as per usual. One of these days, we’ll put together an issue without a single mistake in it. Now there would be a dream, a hoax, and an imaginary story!

Also—what if the first New York comic book convention had been held not in 1964 on the second floor of a building in Union Square, but sixteen years earlier? What might that have been like? (Well, longtime

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

Submission Guidelines Submit artwork in one of these forms (in order of preference): 1) Clear color or black-&-white photocopies. 2) Scanned images—300ppi TIF (preferred) or JPEG (on Zip or floppy disk). 3) Originals (carefully packed and insured). Submit text in one of these forms: 1) E-mail (ASCII text attachments preferred) to: roydann@ntinet.com 2) An ASCII or “plain text” file, supplied on floppy disk. 3) Typed, xeroxed, or laser printed pages.

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4 Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt

Michael T. Gilbert

I Remember Monster! by Michael T. Gilbert It was 1962, and my mom and I had just walked from our Levittown, Long Island, home to the A&P grocery store a few blocks away. While she searched the aisles for dented cans and other dubious bargains, I dashed to the drugstore next door to look at comics. One book in particular caught my attention among the dozens on display at the drugstore’s spin-rack: a strange comic featuring a green monster called The Incredible Hulk. (It was issue #2.) Before I knew what was happening, Jack Kirby’s dynamic art hooked me, and Steve Ditko’s dark, moody inks reeled this poor fish in! Who was this Hulk guy? Another Marvel monster threatening Earth for the umpteenth time? Or some kind of gruesome super-hero? My 11-year-old brain burned with curiosity! The Hulk sure looked like a monster, but the weird Toad Men he was fighting looked even worse. Predictably, I begged Mom for 12¢. Equally predictably, she refused.

Rats! A couple of months later, the third issue of The Incredible Hulk was on the same spin-rack. This story began with The Hulk trapped in a dark, gloomy cell, somehow imprisoned by a terrified teenager named Rick. How could any kid do that? And was Rick a friend of The Hulk, or his enemy? I was dying to find out more, but I’d only read a few pages when Mom returned. Try as I might, no amount of whining convinced her to buy me that glorious comic. Double rats! A few months later I finally scored my first Hulk comic. I was studying for my upcoming Bar Mitzvah, and every Saturday my dad took me to his tailor shop, where I’d cool my heels until Hebrew School started. Happily, a soda shop around the corner had a great comic book display on the wall. Most Saturdays Dad would spring for a hamburger and a couple of comics. One Saturday, we went there for lunch, and I spotted not one, but two different Hulk comics on the rack. Issues #4 and #5, to be exact. #4’s cover was only so-so, but issue #5 more than made up for it. That one showed an enraged Hulk smashing through a solid stone wall in the foreground as the villain ordered his minions to kill the brute. It was glorious! Dark grey coloring made the cover even more mysterious and appealing. The villain, Tyrannus, was an arrogant blond Adonis. Even as a kid I was struck by the originality of a villain handsomer than the hero. Superman was never like this! I read my comics while Dad gulped his food and “schmoozed” with the waitress. Between bites I learned that the teenager who’d trapped The Hulk in issue #3 was Rick Jones, a friend of Bruce Banner, The Hulk’s alter ego. Aha! Bruce’s girlfriend Betty Ross didn’t know her skinny scientist boyfriend was really The Hulk. Good thing too, since The Hulk made her skin crawl. And what about The Hulk? Well, he was a good guy, sort of. I mean, he was always saving Earth from Toad Men and Commies and stuff. But half the time you didn’t know if he was going to save someone or kill them! He was kind of unpredictable that way. That very unpredictability made those early Hulks incredibly exciting. Stan and Jack were making it up as they went along, and that was half the fun. The Hulk might be a half-witted brute one issue, and a cunning savage in the next. Once he even became a mindless puppet controlled by Rick. Then there were the transformations. In issue #1, Bruce Banner involuntarily changed into The Hulk at night. Later, it took a blast from his Gamma Ray machine to make the change. And you never knew how that would turn out. Those darn Gamma Rays always seemed to screw things up. Either The Hulk would wind up with Banner’s brain, or Banner would wind up with The Hulk’s muscles. One time The Hulk even got stuck with Bruce Banner’s head and had to wear a Hulk mask. Talk about schizophrenic! Half the time, The Hulk was afraid he couldn’t change back into Bruce Banner, and be trapped in this monster’s body forever. The other half he worried that he would turn back into his puny alter ego.

The first Incredible Hulk series died with issue #6 (March 1963). Jack “King“ Kirby penciled the first five, while “Sturdy“ Steve Ditko drew both cover and interior art for that final outing. But “what if” Kirby hadn’t left? Well, his cover might have looked like this imaginary cover (on facing page), rather than the published Ditko version (above). Us, we love ’em both! Art by Steve Ditko. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Around the same time, I discovered a second monster-hero in another offbeat Marvel comic. Fantastic Four #11 was a tongue-in-cheek job starring The Impossible Man, with a guest appearance by Lee and Kirby, no less. This issue, my first, also introduced me to The Thing, a hero almost as ugly as The Hulk. Needless to say, I loved the comic, even if I didn’t quite understand it. But things really kicked into high gear the following issue. Dad took me to the same drugstore a couple of months later, where I

found a mint copy of Fantastic Four #12 perched on the rack. Jack Kirby’s moody cover promised a knockdown battle between The Thing and The Hulk! Both Marvel monsters? Man, I couldn’t wait! And if that weren’t enough, a new issue of The Hulk’s own mag waited right below it. Geez! I literally didn’t know which one to read first! Hulk #6 featured a battle with a new villain, The Metal Master. Pitchhitter Steve Ditko replaced star slugger Kirby on that issue, but I didn’t mind. I loved both artists, and Ditko did a bang-up job. I read the issue over and over, riveted by Ditko’s storytelling and Lee’s exciting, punchy dialogue. It was arguably the best of the series. It was also the final one. Despite a brilliant run, Marvel pulled the plug on The Incredible Hulk after issue six, due to low sales. When they reprinted those early Hulk stories, first in the 1964 Marvel Tales Annual, then in Marvel Collector’s Item Classics, I finally got to read the issues I missed the first time around. In 1964, new “Hulk” stories began appearing in Tales to Astonish, but it just wasn’t the same. The stories seemed to lack focus, and Steve Ditko’s art was far less menacing than before. Perhaps Stan figured the first series didn’t sell because his green monster was too monstrous and asked Ditko to tone it down. Whatever the reason, The Hulk was never quite the same after that, for me at least. Still, that first short-lived series had a surprising number of unforgettable moments, starting in issue #1 with the dramatic Gamma Bomb explosion that transformed Bruce Banner into You-know-who. Later in that same comic, our hero fought a twisted Communist version of The Hulk, the Gargoyle. In a surprising plot twist, Bruce Banner befriends the poor creature, using his scientific skills to change the monster back into to a man. In the touching final scene, The Gargoyle repays by sacrificing his own life to save his former enemy. Lee’s script may have been corny, but it sure packed a punch. A couple of issues later, our boy found himself a reluctant exhibit in the Ringmasters’s Circus of Crime. In a scene reminiscent of the King Kong captivity scene, Kirby made the fearsome Hulk look almost pitiful slumped on a platform, shackled and bowed. Then there was Tyrannus, the villain whose stunning looks lured Betty into his underground kingdom. When The Hulk tries to rescue her, he’s caught and forced to become a gladiator in Tyrannus’ arena of

death. Later, he meekly submits to a series of humiliating tasks, rather than risk Betty’s life. Battered and exhausted, The Hulk refuses to quit. Finally Rick manages to rescue Betty, and it’s payback time. In a final scene worthy of Cecil B. DeMille, an enraged Hulk shoves two huge bracing columns apart, literally bringing down the house! Samson himself couldn’t have done better. Issue #6’s battle with The Metal Master was equally exciting. In one memorable scene our hero finds himself caged in an indestructible concrete bunker. He pounds the thick wall, but it won’t budge. Nonetheless, The Hulk simply refuses to give up. Minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour, he continues pounding until the wall slowly begins to crack. Then, in a brilliant 4-panel sequence, an exhausted Hulk finally punches his way out of the thick concrete prison. To this day, it remains one of my favorite sequences from those early Marvel comics. As a kid, it seemed like it took dozens of pages for The Hulk to escape. Rereading the story recently, I was astonished to learn that Lee and Ditko told that entire sequence in a mere seven panels, interspersed over two consecutive pages. Amazing! Still, all good things must come to an end. The early Lee/Kirby/Ditko issues were a heady blend of raw talent mixed with the infinite possibilities of a fresh, unknown character. You can’t keep up that level of raw excitement indefinitely. Back in the early ’60s, those stories hit me like a sledgehammer, and I suspect back then many kids my age had a similar experience. Even today, reading those issues takes me back to that old lunch counter, eating juicy burgers amid the delicious smell of fresh newsprint. Randy Sargent (48) and Shane Foley (45) are old enough to remember that magical feeling and have somehow managed to recreate that old Lee/Kirby magic in a series of “let’s-pretend” early Marvel covers. The two met online on a Jack Kirby chat group a couple of years back and thought it would be fun to create a series of covers drawn in his style. In this case they tried to imagine what The Hulk’s original 1963 series might have looked like if it hadn’t been prematurely cancelled.

A young Michael T. was greatly impressed by The Hulk’s refusal to give up, until he’s finally punched his way out of his stone prison—and it remains a favorite sequence of his to this day. Script by Stan Lee, art by Steve Ditko. Stan's caption turns what may have been visually intended as a single punch into an onslaught that lasts for hours! [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

These covers, complete with pitch-perfect simulations of Stan Lee’s bombastic captions and punchy dialogue, perfectly capture the fun and innocence of those early comics. The illusion of new, unseen Jack Kirby art is no less convincing. Shane achieves this uncanny effect by freely swiping and altering classic Kirby drawings, but with entirely new layouts. Randy completes the illusion with period-authentic logos, balloons, and color. We think the end results are nothing short of amazing. But don’t take our word for it, Effendi. See for yourself. Who knows —you might just think that it’s 1963, and you’re twelve years old again, sitting at the counter reading comics. Just don’t drip any catsup, OK?

Michael T. Gilbert

A couple of pages back, we saw what a Kirby cover for The Incredible Hulk #6 might’ve looked like. Now, let’s see what might have happened if that mag hadn’t been cancelled after that issue, to be replaced in the schedule by the debut of Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos. First—

Hmmm... and check out the dates on these babies. Hulk #6, the last real bi-monthly issue, was cover-dated March 1963, but Randy and Shane‘s “what if” #7 has an August date. Apparently, even in their imaginary universe, the first Hulk series was still cancelled, briefly—only to return as a monthly title with the numbering continuing where it left off.

Real or Memorex? These are the actual covers to Incredible Hulk #2, 3, and 4. But #8 and #9 look pretty convincing, too. If you don’t believe me, just turn the page!

Ol’ Greenskin was a founding member when The Avengers debuted in September of 1963, but he quit soon after. If there had been an Incredible Hulk #7 in ’63, however, maybe he'd never have joined The Avengers, but only battled Thor and Iron Man in his own mag. Love that hyphenated "IRON-MAN" in the cover blurb—Stan was always doing stuff like that! Everybody remember the reference to "THORR" at the end of the story in Journey into Mystery #83?

Fin Fang Foom was just another Marvel monster when he popped up in Strange Tales #89 (Oct. 1961), though he has since become fully integrated into Marvel continuity, as emblematic of the best of the Lee-Kirby behemoths. But a battle with the jolly green giant as might well have happened in this imaginary Incredible Hulk #8 would have ushered him into Marvel Age immortality even sooner. And what a clash it would have been!

Michael T. Gilbert

Hulk VS. Hunk! That hunky heel Tyrannus was clobbered by The Hulk in issue #5 (below, right). But if The Incredible Hulk had continued, Tyrannus might have been our hero’s first returning villain, as imagined in the “What If” Hulk #9, above.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt

You can’t see it in black-&-white, but issue #10’s “what-if” cover features the old gray Hulk on the left, while the newer green-skinned version watches at foreground right. Wonder if our Hulk will help The Thing and Giant-Man, or team up with his earlier self? One can only imagine!

Hmmm (again)... looks like issue #11’s villain, Merlinnus, took a left turn at Asgard—or maybe Camelot!?

Michael T. Gilbert

Well, not really. Our jade-jawed hero didn’t actually get his first giant comic until 1968 (see top right), with a cover by Jim Steranko; and the first comic officially called the Hulk Annual wouldn’t appear until 1983 (right). But the imaginary battle with the Sub-Mariner shown above would have been a doozy!

If 1963 was a great year for The Hulk, 1964 was even better! That’s when Marvel finally published its first Hulk Annual!

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt

...the real Astonish #62 (Dec. 1964)...

As we noted earlier, The Hulk lost his own book in March 1963. Seven months later, he began co-starring with Giant-Man in the monthly anthology Tales to Astonish. In 1968 The Hulk took over that title completely, and it became his second series. But “what if” The Hulk’s original series hadn’t been cancelled? Well, maybe Giant-Man and the wonderful Wasp would’ve taken over Astonish, finally getting a book of their very own. And it might have looked like the cover above!

Till next time... ...and Randy Sargent & Shane Foley’s imaginary Tales of Giant-Man #60. Don’t worry—we printed a larger version of this “what if” cover in Alter Ego #24.

Phil Seuling

[INTRODUCTORY NOTE: By 1978 comics conventioneer Phil Seuling, a Brooklyn high school English teacher, had been putting on his annual New York shindigs for a decade, beginning in 1968 with the SCARP-Con in affiliation with others. To celebrate this tenth anniversary, he wrote for the ’78 Comic Art Convention’s program book a fanciful account of a comicon he had attended thirty years earlier—which of course had never existed. But what if it had? Ye Editor believes Phil’s spoof catches the spirit of the ’40s, and what such a convention might’ve been like. Our thanks to Phil’s daughters Gwen Seuling and Heather Antonelli for permission to reprint this piece—to Fred Mommsen for providing a copy of the program book—to Phil’s ex-wife Carole Seuling for putting us in touch with all of the above—and to Barbara Seuling, Phil’s artist sister, for allowing us to reprint several of the illustrations she did to accompany the spoof in 1978. All art except Barbara’s drawings has been added for this reprinting. All events in this article are fictitious—on this Earth. —Roy.] A teenage Phil Seuling arrives at the ’48 comicon—as depicted in 1978 by his sister Barbara. [Art ©2003 Barbara Seuling.]

The 1948 Comic Art Convention As It Very Well Might Have Been, If It Had Been At All A Report by Phil Seuling (Who Would Have Been There, of Course!) When I got to the Hotel Pennsylvania opposite Penn Station in Manhattan, I was nervous and my anticipation was rising minute by minute. I didn’t know what to expect, so I didn’t know why I was excited, but I really was trying to keep myself calm. A fourteen-year-old kid biting his nails doesn’t look too cool, and I tried to resist every time I found myself chewing at a thumbnail. On the trip to the Convention by subway, I had already cursed myself out plenty of times for forgetting things I should have remembered to bring. A shopping bag or something. Those comics without covers I wanted to dump on someone in a trade. My want list (but anyway I knew it by heart). Now I was here. And I was weak in the knees at what might be there to see. Maybe my folks would turn out to be right. The convention would be just another way of taking advantage of kids who were too stupid to stop reading comic books. “Especially at your age,” they would add. They had a mental warehouse of examples of my misplaced trust which they would heap on me every time I wanted to make another venture into collecting comic book stuff. “Where’s that subscription for a year? You only got three issues, didn’t you?” That one hurt. “Did you ever get the Tom Mix ring you sent for?” No, I didn’t. But I did get a badge, a de-coder, and all that went with it from the Junior Justice Society of America! Anyway, there were things my folks didn’t know because I’d never tell them. Once I waited weeks for a Tom Mix comic book which had the criminal’s name hidden somewhere in the book—the criminal

from the radio series, of course. It was a contest: who could find the name first and send it in? They announced the winner three weeks before I received the comic book! Maybe I was stupid. I was beginning to feel uncomfortable telling people about my fascination with comic books. I was now in high school! It’s true I didn’t feel odd telling people about my other manias— baseball, softball, skating, reading—but comic books? They sounded like kid stuff to most people. It wasn’t often that I could find others who would laugh and enjoy themselves as much as I did when we recalled our favorite books, stories, characters! The comic book collectors’ convention might be the place I would encounter more of my kind of people. I arrived at the registration area, paid my fifty cents, and walked in. It took me a minute to absorb the scene. It wasn’t what I expected, but it wasn’t different, either. It was only that it caught me unprepared. The room was long and narrow and I couldn’t see what was down at the end. I saw first of all the banners strung across the room by National Comics, which was made to look as if it was supported on one side by Superman and on the other by Batman. Somebody next to me said, “It looks symbolic. Those two have always supported the company.” That was funny, and I wondered who this guy was who was both clever enough to use words like “symbolic” in ordinary conversation, and comical enough to make me laugh. We

The 1948 Comic Art Convention

At the time of the 1948 comicon, World’s Finest Comics #37 (Nov.-Dec. 1948) was about to go on sale, with a cover depicting Superman, Batman, and Robin holding up each other if not precisely National/DC—while, some months earlier, the “Hey Look” page at right, by future Mad and Little Annie Fanny creator Harvey Kurtzman, had appeared in Timely’s Hedy Devine #25 (Feb. ’48). (Above:) Late1940s photo of Kurtzman courtesy of Adele Kurtzman and Blake Bell; it can be viewed in full in Blake’s TwoMorrows volume “I Have to Live with This Guy!” [WFC art ©2003 DC Comics; “Hey Look” art ©1992, 2003 Kitchen Sink Press.]

told each other our names (just so we at least knew someone else at the show, I guess). He was Harvey Kurtzman. He said he was a writer for Timely Comics. That was interesting! But it turned out it was only a once-in-a-while page called “Hey Look!” which was in Millie the Model when they had to fill some space. He drew it, too, but it didn’t look like much to me. I didn’t have the self-confidence to give him my advice, which would have been to learn to draw super-heroes and lay off the funny stuff. Comics aren’t really comic. Who reads the funny stuff? Maybe when there was nothing else around, I’d read Archie or even Donald Duck or Looney Tunes. I didn’t know or care who wrote or drew them, though. Who would? I kept my ideas to myself, as I said, because he was a nice guy and I didn’t want to hurt his feelings.

“It was raining money! For sci-stories I was getting one cent per word. Comic book publishers were paying 2¢ per word. I couldn’t believe it, but the checks kept coming in. I phoned Jack and told him to get down to New York quick before the golden goose died!” Jack added that he had replied, “Yes, but how long could it last?” And Otto had told him it didn’t matter. They could earn big dollars while it lasted. He knew comic books were only a passing fad!

We wandered further in and separated to look at the different displays. Fawcett Comics was drawing the biggest crowds, as might be expected. National Comics may publish the most titles, but, like other fans, I reach for Captain Marvel or The Marvel Family first! That’s probably why there are rumors of an everlasting lawsuit against Fawcett by National to get them to stop publishing Captain Marvel. That kind of legal stuff must be a joke! At the Fawcett Comics booth were three men with name tags on, artists and writers who produced the largest part of Fawcett’s total output. They were C.C. Beck (I recognized his name from “Captain Tootsie” ads) and Jack and Otto Binder. I listened in on part of a conversation as Otto Binder reminisced about his reason for leaving science-fiction writing to write for comic books.

We all laughed. Otto added, “I’m still trying to convince him of that!” And we laughed some more. These were my kind of people. I was beginning to warm up to the idea of people with the same interests getting together to spend some time on their favorite subject. I hoped conventions were here to stay!

In 1948 writer Otto Binder (left) and his artist brother Jack (right) worked together on various features for Fawcett Comics, especially “Mary Marvel.” The above Binder Brothers script and art is from Mary’s chapter in the book-length story in Marvel Family #10 (April 1947), as reprinted in the 1977 black-&-white volume Shazam! from the 40’s to the 70’s. The full photo of Otto and Jack, sent to Roy Thomas by Otto circa 1964, will soon be seen in Bill Schelly’s new biography Words of Wonder: The Life and Times of Otto Binder. [Art ©2003 DC Comics.]

The next exhibit was a display of all the Classics Illustrated titles, which I passed by without much pause. I read them only when they were all there was to read, not by choice, and I still called them Classic Comics. I didn’t even use

Phil Seuling

“classics.” I agreed with the idea, but not enough to call them that. That title bored me, as I previously explained. And why collect comics, when there were always new ones coming out? Wasn’t it enough to read them? Sure, I had a bunch, but only for the sake of having to trade 50 or 100 for someone else’s 50 or 100 which I hadn’t read. Jerry, though, made his comics sound like books worth saving. This was a new way of looking at comics, the second oddest thing I heard of that day. Wait till I get to the first, later! You won’t believe me. Jerry knew more about comics than anyone I ever met. He knew artists’ names, and even writers’ names. I only knew the names which appeared on the pages of the comics, and most comics didn’t identify the creators. He gladly told me even more than I asked him about the artists who worked in this field. Setting up his collection on display was his way of contacting other collectors, maybe, and a way to meet some artists, too! I sat with him for an hour, like someone would sit by a gold mine he just discovered. When I left, it was with the strong feeling I’d stay in touch with him. When it came to comic books, he was maybe even more nuts than I am. So far it was the people, not just the books, which were making this convention a good time for me. I backtracked a bit to see a display across the aisle from the others. It was put on by Timely Comics, and it looked kind of skimpy. I loved this company’s characters, and I wished they were as big as the other companies. The Human Torch, The Sub-Mariner, The Angel, The Young Allies, and especially Captain America—there was a list of great reading! The war was over for three years by now, but I still got a patriotic kick out of Captain America. Veteran comics artist Warren Sattler, who worked at various times for Charlton, DC, and Marvel, drew this cartoon dream-image of longtime Mad associate editor and comics historian Jerry de Fucchio (a.k.a. “Fooch”) some years back. It was sent to A/E by Jerry for reprinting shortly before his recent passing. Warren says he never even saw a photo of Jerry, though, let alone met him. [©2003 Warren Sattler.]

The guy behind the table was in his very early twenties, and I figured that he was some office worker who was paid to come and

them for book reports in school. I always read enough, without having to fake it. There were displays I would rather use my time seeing. I stopped by a small exhibit of Big Little Books for a quick glance. I didn’t even know they were still making them. Nothing interesting, though, and I kept going. The next table looked more interesting to a super-hero fan like me. The young guy (college age) had a table and the wall behind it covered with comic books. They were samples of all my favorites and more—and were they in good shape! They looked as if they were never read, which turned out to be a ridiculous thought when I got to know the guy behind the table. He was Jerry de Fuccio, who had read each and every one of his books thoroughly. He was a doctor’s son whose father disliked comics. But Jerry kept the faith, and accumulated a library of what he called

Barbara Seuling’s depiction of a young Stan Lee at the con, and a vintage photo of Stan, plus the cover of Marvel Mystery Comics #88 (Oct. 1948), which would’ve been on the newsstands in summer of ’48. However, Phil’s math was a wee bit off; in 1948, Smilin’ Stan was in his mid-, not early, twenties... though still a youngster to have been running Timely/Marvel for the previous seven years! The photo at right was seen on the cover of Writer’s Digest magazine for Nov. 1947, as covered back in A/E V3#1. [Cartoon ©2003 Barbara Seuling; MMC art ©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.; photo ©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

The 1948 Comic Art Convention

Bill Gaines circa 1947, the year he inherited his late father’s troubled comic book empire following a freakish boating accident—and a house ad from Gunfighters #5 (Summer 1948) showing EC’s pre-New Trend titles: superhero, humor, western, and—ominous foreshadowing—crime! The photo appeared in Digby Diehl’s excellent 1996 history of EC Comics, Tales from the Crypt; the entire run of Gunfighters was published in two mostly black-&white hardcover volumes that same year by Gemstone Publishing, Inc., thanks to the prodigious efforts of Russ Cochran, et al. [Photo ©2003 the respective copyright holder; art ©2003 William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.]

take care of their display. He turned out to be the editor! He was Stan Lee, who had already been working at Timely for seven years! He had begun when he was 16 or so, and during the war had gradually become the only one left who knew what he was doing! Now he was in charge, and at an incredibly young age. If he continued this way, he’d be a publisher before long! He was giving away the original artwork which had been done for the comic books, but not many people were taking the pages. They were too big! I did take two pages, one by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, from Captain America, and a Sub-Mariner page by Bill Everett. Later on, I put them down somewhere and forgot them, but it doesn’t matter. From what I can see, those pages of artwork are available by the hundreds, and I can always get more. Stan gave away comics to everyone, also, a pretty nice thing to do. I got a USA and a Marvel Mystery. After I read them on the train ride home, I got rid of them in a trade, so I felt like I made out pretty good. I walked around the tables to the second aisle and started my way down. I came to the Entertaining Comics display, with their big EC symbol overhead. There were some interesting things for me here, but I was one of only a very few who bothered to stop and look. I’m a devoted radio listener. Whenever I’m home, I’m listening to one show or another, from The Shadow on Sundays to the fantastic Lights Out! or Inner Sanctum during the week. On Saturday mornings I still listened to shows for kids. I’m never going to be too old for the imagination of Let’s Pretend or Land of the Lost. And to get to the point, EC publishes Land of the Lost comics. “I wish more people liked our books,” said the guy behind the table. “We’re losing enough money to pay off Japan’s war debts!” I had to listen. It was the first time I’d head anyone say anything negative about his own product. I asked if his Bible stories and his history comics weren’t going well. I didn’t read them (because I always knew how the stories would turn out), but I guessed most people would like them. “Not my Bible and history stories; they were my father’s ideas. He

loved the idea of being a beneficial influence on kids. Me, I just want to destroy their minds.” He was OK. I was going to enjoy this. “Does your father still like the idea, if the books don’t sell?” I probed for more talk. He was willing to keep the conversation going. “My father’s gone, passed away last year. But it isn’t easy to change, even though it’s up to me now. I’m looking for new trends. What do you like to read?” “Batman, Captain Marvel, all the costumed heroes.” “How about suspense or horror stories?” he continued. I told him about my love for fantasy shows on the radio, but that you couldn’t find much of that in comic books. Maybe in Planet Comics, but that’s all. I finally asked him his name. “Bill Gaines, publisher of EC comic books, and son of M.C. Gaines, who invented comic books,” he answered, and I wondered if this very pleasant guy was ever really serious. But he wasn’t kidding. His father really had created the idea back in 1933, as a newspaper sales promotion. It was some story! Wherever I went, there were great stories! This convention was the place for me to be. Mr. Gaines was willing to talk some more about his plans for his company, his castles in the air, but I wanted to see the rest of the place and left him talking to some other people. I remembered something I had wanted to do as soon as I came in, and I went back to the registration desk.

Phil Seuling

“Who organized this convention?” I asked. The guy next to the ticket seller said, “I’m Julius Schwartz. I organized it. If you have a complaint, I’ll listen, but I’m not giving your money back!” I was in good spirits, and I was sure that this was his kind of humor, but I’ll bet plenty of people would have taken him seriously! “Congratulations,” I told him. “How did you get the idea?” “From science-fiction. I organized, or helped to plan, the first science-fiction convention back in 1939. This is very similar, because comic books are an offshoot of science-fiction. Did you know that?” I thought he was very wrong. Comic books came from comic strips, originally. “Not original comic books! Which was the first original comic book hero? Superman, from Krypton, right? Those two kids...” “What two kids?” “Jerry and Joe. Siegel and Shuster. They were young fans who made up their own science-fiction story, called ‘Superman.’ And now look!” I’m still not sure I consider comic books a science-fiction subdivision, but I enjoyed his argument. He told me I could see Siegel and Shuster in the next room. [Art ©2003 Barbara Seuling.]

I got there in the middle of a spirited talk by the best-known artist and writer in the comic book field. Jerry Siegel was doing most of the talking, with Joe Shuster in full support. The topic was supposed to be “The Creation of a Legend,” or something, but I guess someone in the audience had asked a leading question, and now the discussion was

By summer of 1948, Julius Schwartz had already been an editor at National/DC/All-American for more than four years, of such mags as Comic Cavalcade #29 (Oct.-Nov. ’48), the last super-hero issue, including this “Green Lantern” story probably penciled by Irwin Hasen. The editing was technically attributed to Whitney Ellsworth, of whom line editor Schwartz has said: “I’m not sure he even read the comics before they came out.” Julie’s importance in sf fandom, however, stretched ’way back into the 1930s, and he had helped organize the First World Science Fiction Convention, held in conjunction with the 1939 New York World’s Fair! Seen in this fuzzy 1939 photo are [standing, l. to r.:] Marojo, Julie, Otto Binder, Mort Weisinger, Jack Darrow; [sitting, l. to r.:] Forrest J. Ackerman, Ross Rocklynn, Charles D. Hornig, and a very young Ray Bradbury. This photo appeared in Sam Moskowitz’s 1954 book The Immortal Storm: A History of Science Fiction Fandom. [Photo ©2003 the respective copyright holder; art ©2003 DC Comics.]

The 1948 Comic Art Convention

The famous illo at right of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster with their legendary creation appeared in Martin Sheridan’s 1942 book Comics and Their Creators. By 1948, amid legal tangles, a Superman movie serial starring Kirk Alyn was setting boxoffice records... but Jerry and Joe (with various artistic ghosts and assistants such as John Sikela and Dick Ayers) had to settle for launching their new hero, Funnyman, as a comic book and newspaper strip. Alas, the slaphappy sleuth didn’t make it. Pictured at bottom right is the splash page from the first actual Funnyman tale, in issue #1 (Jan. 1948). [Superman TM & ©2003 DC Comics; illo at top right ©2003 the respective copyright holder; Funnyman art ©2003 Estates of Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster.]

about who owned the rights to the character of Superman. These men were arguing with National (or Detective Comics) about that subject at this time, and threatening to create a new hero for a rival publisher! That would be something to read if it ever happened. But surely the matter would be settled quickly. I couldn’t stay to the end. There was too much to see elsewhere. I paused where a small crowd had gathered around a table to watch some very young artists doing sketches and handling them out to the kids. One of them, Al Williamson, was talking about having visited and worked with Alex Raymond. The other one, Frank Frazetta, only kept asking the Dodgers score. As a Brooklyn Dodgers fan myself, I knew how much the latest score mattered. I watched a while, then went into another small room. There was another speaker, and he had plenty of listeners. This was Charles Biro, a ruddy-faced man who obviously loved what he was talking about. He published Daredevil and Boy and Crime Does Not Pay. These were favorites of mine because I liked stories first and art second. I hoped his kind of book—“illustories,” he called them—would be copied by others. They were genuine reading, not just picture books, and they were not only for children. An intelligent person could become involved in one of those stories and not be finished in two and a half minutes. He wound up his talk with a promise of more and better books to come. I joined in the applause with enthusiasm, even went up to shake his hand. But no one was enthusiastic about the next speaker. He took his place at the microphone while Mr. Biro was signing autographs, and made it plain that he was annoyed at this interruption of his time. When the crowd cleared, only a few people remained to listen to him. Which isn’t surprising, since he was not an artist, writer, or anything in comics. He introduced himself as Dr. Frederic Wertham, a psychologist, and began to tell us how comic books were a detrimental influence on young people, just as radio and crime movies were. What an idea! And look who he was telling it to! I got up and walked out. For all I know, he’s still talking. Who cares?

Phil Seuling

I needed more comic books and less talk. I went back to the main room, and straight to the NationalDetective-All-American display under the SupermanBatman banner. Two men were hosts, showing the audience their exhibit. One was Bob Kane, who drew “Batman”! A larger drawing stood beside him, and he used it to point to when he discussed his character. He insisted that Batman was In 1948 comics readers and pros could more popular than Superman, still afford—just barely—to ignore the which no one believed. The anti-comics pronouncements of Fredric other man was Sol Harrison, Wertham, M.D., as per Charlie Biro’s cover a production man, who for Crime Does Not Pay #48 (Nov. ’46). explained all the technical By 1954, however, his polemic Seduction points of printing comic of the Innocent had tapped into latent books—the coloring, the fears concerning the causes of juvenile inking, the lettering, the delinquency, and crime and horror comics printing processes—everywere not long for this world. Thanks to thing. He had even worked Jim Amash for the loan of the comic. [Photo & art ©2003 the respective on the very first comic books copyright holders.] in 1933 and 1934, doing the etching on the glass plates that were used at that time. Interesting. I finally made it to the far end of the room, where I really got my money’s worth of crazy ideas. Here was a guy from upstate New York who had traveled all the way down to the city to set up a booth where he was selling comic books. Now, that wasn’t too strange, because I’ve sold comics myself. When they pile up, you have to get rid of them somehow, so you set up an orange crate for a seat and another for a table

and a sign that says “2 for 10¢” if they are pretty new, or “2 for 5¢” if they are older. Without covers, a penny apiece. But this guy, Claude Held, was selling old comic books for more than 10¢ apiece. I didn’t see anyone buying, but there were plenty of kids laughing at the guy, who was just grinning and taking it good-naturedly. He was a rare coin-andstamp dealer from Buffalo who had built up a mail correspondence with people like that Jerry de Fuccio I had met before. Only those people would pay high prices for books they wanted. I almost fell over when I saw Claude Held’s price list! Captain America #1 was on it for $2! Can you imagine a comic book worth two dollars? He showed me a copy of Superman #1 with his price tag on it, and it said $15! This was the wildest idea I had ever heard, and not just at this convention. Every kid I knew would be a millionaire if comic books were worth dollars instead of pennies. And think of the fortune I must have turned in to the waste paper collections during 1941-1945 when the war was going on! At least we all had a good laugh, even if Held’s idea was a nutty one! I hung around to talk to him when some of the other kids left, and he introduced me to a kid named Mickey Sullivan. Then the conversation got serious. There really were comic book collectors who paid to get rare books they needed. Mickey was one of them. He told me of a daylong bus trip he once took to get to Claude Held’s store, because Claude had gotten the first eight copies of Jumbo Comics for him in excellent condition. The Jumbos were the size of Life magazine for their first eight issues. (I never knew that!) Mickey paid Claude $100 for those eight books. I stopped considering the idea crazy at that moment. Or maybe I lost my mind and the idea then seemed sane. I don’t know. But some day you might see me and my orange crate filled with comic books with dollar signs on them! I mean it.

The convention was not over yet, not by a long shot. In the next couple of hours I met some of the great comics artists. Jack Cole, who

The 1948 Comic Art Convention company had its titles on display and some oversize artwork. The artist whose work was the most impressive of all was Bob Powell, who did “Sheena” and other features for Fiction House. Somehow, in comic books, I had missed his incredible ability to do not only action and figures, but also expressions on faces. I became a Powell fan when i saw his black-and-white artwork! I encountered interesting people who were not artists or writers, too. A couple of very young kids were the center of attention for a large group of people, who kept asking questions of them. The kids, one of whom was seven while the other was fifteen or so, knew the answers to all the challenges on their favorite topic—All-Star Comics! I wrote down their names: Roy Thomas and Jerry Bails. They were smart kids. A fellow named Bill Thailing was another collector I met, but he was primarily interested in newspaper comic strips. Speaking of comic strips, I should mention some newspaper artists who were there. For instance, George McManus of Bringing Up Father, and Hal Foster of Prince Valiant, and Burne Hogarth of Tarzan, and Milton Caniff of Terry and the Pirates. They were like royalty, another world from comic book artists. At least that’s how everyone treated them, and it appeared that was how they expected to be treated. All but Mr. Foster did “chalk talks,” which were very popular! They were excellent guests.

Legendary partners Jack Kirby (left) and Joe Simon would pose in 1949 with several of their “shop” artists. For the entire photo, see TwoMorrows’ Jack Kirby Collector #25 (Aug. 1999), still available wherever back issues are sold—like right in this very mag! The above powerful splash for a story from Young Romance, Vol. 3, #5 (1950) was printed in black-&-white in the book Real Love: The Best of the Simon and Kirby Romance Comics: 1940s-1950s, edited by Richard Howell and published in 1988 by Eclipse Books. Photo courtesy of John Morrow. [Art ©2003 Joe Simon & the Jack Kirby Estate.]

did Plastic Man; Creig Flessel, who did early “Sandman” covers and stories; Will Eisner, who did the Spirit sections I was sometimes lucky enough to find (we didn’t get that newspaper in my house!); Jerry Iger, who along with Mr. Eisner started Jumbo Comics ten years ago; Joe Kubert, just barely out of his teens and already working steadily; Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, who did Captain America and dozens of other comic book characters. Only the last two were any disappointment, and not because of who they were or what they did. After all, they were two of the friendliest and most magnetic people you could meet. We even teased them about all their “boy” books. After doing Boy Explorers and Boy Commandos, they were planning something called Boys’ Ranch, and someone suggested doing a comic book called Boys’ Town, with Spencer Tracy as a priest who wears a cape and a mask in this version. The disappointment came with their statement that their current project was called Young Love. They said it could be the biggest-selling comic book ever, but we all groaned. Who wants romance comic books? Less popular men would have been booed! I stopped to watch part of the movies which were being shown during the convention. They had serials (Batman, Captain Marvel, Captain America) and some Blondie films. But I couldn’t sit still. There was too much else to do. I visited the exhibits of some of the smaller companies, such as Fiction House, and MLJ, and Quality, and Fox. There were some companies obviously missing. Dell, for instance. Each

There was a comics fan panel, which was pretty noisy. They argued about the price of comic books. They used to be 64 pages for a time, and now they had dwindled to 48 pages (after a brief dive to 56 pages). Some people figured the trend to fewer pages might continue, but I can’t see how they can charge a dime for less than 48 pages, so what can they do but stick to what we are used to? I never would have believed it could happen, but by the time the convention ended, I was tired and filled to the gills with comic books! I had indulged myself in my favorite passion for twelve hours, and I had had enough for a while. I knew, though, that the convention itself had become an excitement of its own. Just as I wanted each new comic book with fresh enthusiasm, so I would want the next convention! But who knew if there would be any more conventions? After all, this was maybe the only one ever. It was nice to think of conventions coming up each year, maybe even in various cities everywhere. But not every good thing that should happen actually does happen. Sure, the convention was great, a really good thing. But how long can a good thing last? [Phil Seuling was a Brooklyn native who during the 1960s taught high school English and was a “used comics” dealer. After co-hosting the SCARP-Con in New York City in 1968, he launched his own New York Comics Conventions in 1969, with the help of then-wife Carole and others; these events were the biggest in the country during the 1970s. Phil passed away in August 1984. [His sister Barbara Seuling has been a children’s book editor, writer, and illustrator, and has produced more than fifty books for children, her most recent being Oh No, It’s Robert and several sequels. Her website is www.barbaraseuling.com.]

Phil Seuling

On the Earth we know, comics fans Jerry Bails (left, who turned 15 in summer of ’48, but is only ten or so in this photo) and Roy Thomas (7, going on 8, and just 6 or 7 in this second grade photo), would first get in touch via the U.S. mails twelve years later; the result would be the first incarnation of the Alter Ego magazine you hold in your hot little hands. But in Phil Seuling’s mythical 1948, at a comics convention the pair somehow made it to from opposite sides of Missouri, they were just happy to discuss the latest issue of All-Star Comics—#42 (Aug.-Sept. ’48), with script by John Broome, pencils by Arthur Peddy, and inks by Bernard Sachs. Not that there were any credits in the mag except for those of executive editor Whit Ellsworth! Photos courtesy of JGB & RT. [Art ©2003 DC Comics.]

In 1948, after this dream-con, it was back to reading comics while waiting for the subway for young Phil Seuling, as depicted by his sister Barbara—who also sent the circa-1950 photo above of herself flanked by Phil and younger brother Dennis. The 1969 photo of Phil (center) appeared in Alter Ego, Vol. 1, #10, with the allegedly humorous balloon added by Roy Thomas. [Art ©2002 Barbara Seuling.]

Les Zakarin

“I Never Really Stopped Doing Comics!” LES ZAKARIN Talks about Timely, Quality, and Other Things—Including JOHN ROMITA Interview Conducted & Transcribed by Jim Amash (Left:) Les Zakarin says he never penciled, “only” inked—as if that weren’t accomplishment enough! Alas, however, though he sent us a beautiful full-size copy of the original art of the above splash page for a tale called “The Matterhorn”—complete with a tear at the bottom center—he never got around to telling us who the penciler was— let alone the date, comics title, or company. Still, it’s a beauty! (Above:) A caricature of Les drawn, circa the late ’40s, by his friend and colleague Ray Osrin. [“Matterhorn” art ©2003 the respective copyright holder; caricature ©2003 Estate of Ray Osrin.]

JIM AMASH: I have a novel way of starting interviews: when and where were you born? LES ZAKARIN: March 17, 1929, in Brooklyn, N.Y. That was St. Patrick’s Day, and they’ve yet to ask me to lead the parade in New York. [laughs] JA: At least they haven’t put your picture up in any of their post offices. What art training did you have? ZAKARIN: In essence, I went to the High School of Industrial Arts in Manhattan. They focused more on art than a regular high school, so I graduated with a high school diploma and a degree in cartooning. John Romita went to school with me. He majored in illustration and I majored in cartooning; we graduated at the same time and we went our separate ways. We didn’t meet again until later, when I was trying to get work from Stan Lee. Stan didn’t hire you unless you were able to give him a complete art job. I was only an inker. JA: How did you get your start in comics?

[INTRODUCTION: Les Zakarin, a fine gentleman, passed away in early 2003, as this interview was in preparation, a year or two after it had been recorded. He worked in the comic book business for a decade. He had a few interesting stop-overs during that time, and introduced a future legend into the field. Les’ story affirms some comic book history that we already knew, and adds a new chapter or two that we didn’t. Before he takes us first to Quality Comics, then to Timely (where Stan Lee handed out assignments to Les and an anonymous friend who was destined to be a Lee collaborator for many years), let’s peek inside the famous Jerry Iger shop, which was covered at length back in Alter Ego #21.... —Jim.]

ZAKARIN: I started working for Jerry Iger’s studio right after high school, in 1947. He had a little studio that produced work for Fiction House, on 51st Street, down in the basement. There were five tables there. Ray Osrin, Bob Webb, and another guy were there. They also had a letterer and a colorist. I don’t remember their names, except that the colorist was a woman. JA: Was the other guy Matt Baker? ZAKARIN: That name rings a bell; I think so. Anyway, I sat there and cranked out ink work all day long. It was easy to ink Bob Webb’s stuff, like “Sheena,” because he put in every little detail. If a guy had seventeen eyelashes, there were seventeen lines there. It was good working with him. I inked other features and pencilers for Iger, too, but “Sheena” is the only one I really remember. JA: What do you remember about Jerry Iger?

“I Never Really Stopped Doing Comics!”

JA: Did you consider yourself to be a fast inker? ZAKARIN: Yes. I can’t say how fast, but I could get it done. I was the type of inker who could look at a page and visualize how to ink it. While looking through some old stuff of mine, I found the original fullpage inking sample I made when I was freelancing for work. I’m sure it was the first thing I showed Stan Lee. I actually penciled it myself, but you will see it was penciled so I could show off my inking prowess, not my penciling ability. You can hide poor penciling with good inking. When John Romita and I worked together, he complained that I used too small a brush. I used a number three. When John started inking his own stuff, he worked his way up to a larger brush. JA: What do you remember about Bob Webb? ZAKARIN: I would guess he was a good ten or fifteen years older than I was then. He was an extremely astute penciler and loved drawing “Sheena.” He was very good and extremely detailed in his work. He was very quiet and sat in his corner and worked. He wasn’t a great conversationalist. He was a stocky guy. We got along well. If you work in a studio with someone and don’t get along with them, you are in big trouble. It was a very fun time for me. It was the first time that I really got involved in comics and I enjoyed the guys I worked with. JA: What do you remember about Ray Osrin?

We’ve no way of knowing if Les Zakarin inked this splash page, which was reprinted in the 1985 Sheena 3-D Special produced by Ray (3-D) Zone and his associates for Blackthorne Publishing... but it’s definitely Bob Webb pencils, so could be! [Art ©2003 the respective copyright holder; Sheena TM & ©2003 Aratow/Columbia.]

ZAKARIN: He was a taskmaster, but a great guy to work for. He ran the place himself. If he came over and said, “This is the way I want it done,” and if you did it that way, he would never argue with you. JA: Did you have to produce a certain amount of pages per week? ZAKARIN: It wasn’t like that. We were told, “This is the stuff. We have to get it done.” I don’t remember how many pages we’d have to do except that it had to get done. It was not a leisurely activity, that’s for sure. JA: Was there ever a discussion about why no one could sign their work? ZAKARIN: No. Nobody did in those days. That’s when I started hiding my name “ZAK” in the foliage or some other place. One day, Bob Webb noticed and asked me what I was doing. I told him and we used to have a little fun with it. He’d say, “Let me find it.” As an aside, a couple of years ago, I was down at the International Museum of Cartoon Art in Boca Raton, Florida. They had a display of a few old comic book pages, and one of those pages was a romance page. I was there with a friend of mine, and the title card under the art said, “Artist Unknown.” I told my friend I did that page, and he was skeptical until I showed him that I had put about thirteen “ZAKs” in the trees and branches. He immediately called the curator over, and I became a celebrity.

A year or so ago, Les sent us a color photocopy of the above cover for Hit Comics #65 (July 1950)—coincidentally, the very last issue of that long-running mag—and we assume he did so because he had inked Reed Crandall’s pencils on this “Jeb Rivers” scene. Incidentally, A/E has an in-depth interview with Al Grenet, Quality’s last editor—who oversaw this issue—coming up in just a few short months. Watch for it! [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

Les Zakarin

ZAKARIN: The two of us literally cranked out all the inking in that studio. The last I heard, Ray had moved to Cleveland and was doing political cartoons for a Cleveland newspaper. We were about the same age. He was a fun guy, and we’d joke with each other while we worked. We also did caricatures of each other. [NOTE: Sadly, Ray Osrin passed away on April 3, 2001. —Jim.] JA: How long did you work at Iger? ZAKARIN: About two years, and then they went out of business. JA: Then you went to Quality Comics? ZAKARIN: Yes. Busy Arnold hired me as a staff inker. To my recollection, I was the only inker in the office. I don’t remember who was editing, but I do remember that I inked Reed Crandall on Blackhawk. Reed Crandall had an absolutely blueprint look to his work. Before he let me ink his work, he gave me a test. He inked half a page, and I had to ink the other half and make it look like his work. That’s how I became his inker. He was very particular about how his work was to be inked. I really didn’t get to know him on a personal basis. He just

Or—maybe Les inked this one—the splash of a Reed Crandall-penciled “Captain Daring” story that may or may not ever have been published by Quality. The entire story was printed, courtesy of one Mike McKenney, owner of the original art, in G.B. Love’s The Golden Age Collector #3 in 1974. Only thing is—we couldn’t find a record any “Captain Daring” feature anywhere except at Timely in the early ’40s, where that name was used for two different super-heroes that appeared briefly, in Daring Mystery Comics and U.S.A. Comics. Anybody out there know if and where the Quality “Captain Daring” ever saw print? [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

brought in the pages and I inked them. He was one of the tops of the trade. I wouldn’t have said this then, but I’d have inked his pages for nothing. I was just a newcomer... he was a “name” in the comics. It paralleled my inking for Bob Webb. I also inked other Crandall stuff: Buccaneers, “Jeb Rivers,” as well as Blackhawk. JA: Did you ink other people besides Crandall? ZAKARIN: Oh, yes, because I was a staff inker and inked whatever was given to me. The only guy’s pencils I remember by name was Reed Crandall, because we had the interplay about matching his inking style. This enabled him to spend more time penciling. At least 50% of my time was spent inking Crandall. JA: So you didn’t ink any Plastic Man? Les mentions inking Reed Crandall on a comic (or feature?) called Buccaneers—but the cover photocopy he sent us was from this 1964 Super Comics reprint, so again we assume he was saying that he had inked the cover. Interviewer Jim Amash opines: “The penciler looks like Joe Simon. It appears to be a reprint by Israel Waldman,” who of course launched the short-lived Skywald Comics at the turn of the 1970s. Once more we throw ourselves on our readers’ tender mercies—does anybody out there know if Simon and/or Zakarin definitely worked on this cover? Also, does anybody know what was inside? We couldn’t find any record of a comic book feature called “Black Roger,” either! [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

ZAKARIN: I never did, and I never met Jack Cole, either. I do recall that I didn’t ink any of the super-hero characters. JA: So you worked for Quality and then left to work at Timely? ZAKARIN: No, they overlapped. I also worked for Arnold when they closed up shop. I remember when Arnold told me they were closing down. He said, “You can go into the library and take any of the original art you want.” I took four covers that I inked over Crandall. I could

“I Never Really Stopped Doing Comics!”

Brooklyn, while he went over some work with me.

have backed up a truck and taken everything out of there. He’d have given it all to me. Hindsight is wonderful, isn’t it?

Whenever I brought a story to Stan, he’d always want something changed. I’d tell Stan how my father loved to see me work. My father had a ladies’ belt-manufacturing factory that was about six blocks away from the Timely offices. I said I’d do the corrections there and bring it back later that same day.

JA: Tell me how you teamed up with John Romita. ZAKARIN: One day, I bumped into John in the subway and we chatted a bit. I said, “Hey, let’s make up a sample and make believe I did it and I’ll show it to Stan and maybe we’ll get some work.” John liked comics back then, but at that point he was doing illustration. I don’t know if he was interested in doing any comics work. My recollection is that when I mentioned this idea to him, his reaction was, “Cartooning? I don’t know if I want to do comics.” But I twisted his arm a little bit and he did a sample, which I inked and took to Stan. The next thing I knew, we were getting a helluva lot of work together. And we felt like it was foreign intrigue.

John always knew when I took the work in, and he knew there would be changes, so we arranged to meet at the library on 42nd Street. We sat in the reading room, did the corrections, and I took the work back to Stan in the afternoon. It was a little bit of comic intrigue, but it worked. It thrilled my father during the time when John and I collaborated. He never knew Stan thought I was doing both penciling and inking. He just liked how we were productive. “I know your friend draws it, but you are the one who finishes it,” he said. “That’s the name of the game.” He was a true production man. JA: Did Stan ever figure out what you were really doing?

In conjunction with our earlier interview with him, John Romita sent us photostats he had of the black-&-white art of two pages of crime comics he had penciled for Les Zakarin to ink for a Timely/Atlas comic, circa 1949-50. We printed one of them in A/E V3#9—so here’s the other. John insists he’s improved as a penciler since then—honest! [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

JA: Tell me about the young John Romita. ZAKARIN: He’s pretty much the way he is right now... pretty straightforward. We had a wonderful relationship, and one of the major reasons was because we didn’t B.S. each other. He was going his way and I mine, but we meshed because I couldn’t get work from Stan Lee. I think, at this point in his life, John wasn’t certain which way he wanted to go professionally, but our collaboration worked out well for the comic industry. I can truthfully say that I got John his first comic book work, though John probably would have gotten comics work anyway.

ZAKARIN: I don’t think he figured it out while we were doing it, but things changed when John and I were both going into the service. John was looking for more work, in addition to what I was getting for us. All the other work I was getting was primarily ink work, so he needed more work. I think that once John was in the service, he made some samples and went to see Stan on his own. John was still in uniform and he had never met Stan. He introduced himself as my penciler. If Stan suspected what we had been doing, he never let on, then, not to my knowledge.

JA: Do you think Stan wanted the complete art job done by one artist because it cut down on the trafficking of the work? It certainly would have made his job easier.

JA: When you and John worked together, were you social friends, too? ZAKARIN: We weren’t really social friends, but we got together a few times. I remember meeting his future wife, Virginia. I lived with my parents then, and John brought her to the house in

Actually, Les Zakarin did add penciler John Romita’s name to his own in the credits on at least three Timely/Atlas splash panels, one of which we printed in issue #9. Here are the other two, from [left] All-True Crime #44 (May ’51) and [right] Crime Cases Comics #7 (Sept. ’51)... courtesy of Dr. Michael J. Vassallo. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Les Zakarin JA: When did you start there? ZAKARIN: 1949 or 1950. It was before 1951, because I was drafted in March of ’51, and one thing I do remember is that, a month before I was drafted, I drove up to Montreal for a vacation. I got out of the service in March of 1953. JA: How were you able to do freelance inking while in the service? ZAKARIN: Because I was stationed in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, and it was easy to get in and out of the city. I was then shipped out to Signal Corps training in Camp Gordon, Georgia. But early on, I was able to do a lot of freelance work and, if I remember correctly, John was stationed at Governor’s Island for a while. In addition to my freelance ink work, I also did training aids for the Signal Corps. JA: Did you work with John while you were in the service? ZAKARIN: No. By that time, John had decided that he was going to get into comics on a full-time basis, and it was not advantageous for him to sit back and wait until I got work from Stan. So he started doing other work. I think one of the first things he got was work at Trojan Comics, but don’t quote me because I’m not sure. I know that John felt that he had left me in the lurch when he started getting other work, but that was not the case. It just got to the point where he needed to get other work. He developed his inking so he didn’t have to wait for me to generate work. And with his ability, once he

By December 1951 cover dates, John Romita was penciling, inking, and even signing his own work for Stan Lee. Here’s a nice splash page from Suspense #20 (July ’52), courtesy of Doc V. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

ZAKARIN: I can’t say with certainty, but that’d be my first thought. But there are times when a guy can pencil very beautifully but he can’t ink. I think he wanted one guy to take the responsibility for the whole job. JA: How did you end up working for Timely? ZAKARIN: Well, I was already working in the comics business and I ran around like a chicken with its head cut off, looking for more work. Timely was one of the places I checked out. I don’t remember the first time I went in to see Stan, but that was when he let me know he only hired people who did the penciling and the inking. My penciling left much to be desired. JA: Did Stan have an assistant editor? ZAKARIN: I refuse to answer on the grounds that I don’t remember. [laughs] I’m sure that there was someone there, because you just didn’t walk in the door and say, “Okay, Stan, I’m here.” My experience with Timely was strictly freelance; I never socialized with the staffers. JA: Do you remember how much he paid? ZAKARIN: The penciling was around $20 per page, and the inks were twelve or thirteen. Somewhere in that general vicinity. In those days, that was decent income.

“I inked a House of Terror 3-D story for St. John over Joe Kubert.” Since Les sent us a photocopy of the cover of HoT #1 (Oct. 1953), it must have been the tale from which this page is taken. Thanks to Ray (3-D) Zone—who’ll be covering 3-D comics in a near-future issue of A/E. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

“I Never Really Stopped Doing Comics!”

27 JA: What did you think of the 3-D comics? ZAKARIN: I was young and I thought they were really going to be big, but they didn’t go very far. The timing was lousy, because that’s when there were those Senate investigations about comics being bad for kids. JA: Did that scare you? ZAKARIN: It scared me because I’d been in the business for almost ten years, and was married with a little boy and my wife was pregnant again. I realized that comics were not where my future lay and enrolled at City College in New York. I got my degree in engineering (it took me nine years at night), and that’s what I did full-time as a professional engineer from 1962 until 1994, when I retired as an engineer. JA: Was Quality the last company you worked for?

ZAKARIN: Yes. But at that point, freelance comic work became secondary to my going to school at night. I took a job at the Federal Power Commission. I’d pick up the comic book work in the morning, go to work, go to college at night and sit all night and ink. I even freelanced coloring for comic book publishers, but I don’t remember who I did it for, aside from continuing to do inking. My wife Iris helped me with the coloring while I did the inking. We had a hectic schedule then. On weekends, she would introduce me to our kids.

Since Les Zakarin is sadly no longer with us, we’re going out on a limb with this one, too... but we think he’s the one who sent us a color photocopy of the cover on the right of Ribage Publishing Corporation’s Crime Smashers #7 (Nov. 1951), so again we assume he meant that he had inked it. In any event, the Gerbers’ indispensable Photo-Journal Guide to Comic Books lists the cover of C.S. #4 (on left) as being signed “Zak”—the signature Les often put on his work (even if it can’t be seen here)—and the artwork on #4’s cover looks quite similar to that on #7. Hey, not all the detectives are in the funnybooks, y’know! [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

decided to do it full-time, penciling and inking, a separate inker was not only superfluous, it made no economic sense. We both knew this was the right thing to do for him. JA: And he became a great inker, too. As an aside, John helped get me my first break in comics. He used to criticize my work, and one day he was in an elevator with another editor (whom I had been trying to get work from). The editor said he needed an inker really quick and John said, “Why don’t you give Jim Amash a chance?” The guy did, and that’s how I got my first break. ZAKARIN: That’s the type of guy John’s always been. JA: Do you remember any of the writers who wrote your stories? ZAKARIN: No, because it wasn’t that important. They’d give you a job and say, “We need it by Thursday. ’Bye!” Then you’d go home and get it done. The writers didn’t put their names on the work, and we inkers had to hide our names in the art, as I told you before. JA: I’d like to backtrack to something we discussed earlier. You said that “Busy” Arnold invited you to take any original art you wanted when Quality closed up. Had you ever asked a publisher for your original art? ZAKARIN: No. It probably occurred to me before, though. JA: Do you remember who you worked for at Standard Comics or Comic Media? ZAKARIN: No. I inked romance and horror stories for Toby Press. I also inked a House of Terror 3-D story for St. John, over Joe Kubert. I did something on the Tor 3-D comics, and the Three Stooges comic, too. I don’t remember much about working there except that Joe Kubert was there.

JA: Did you miss doing comics once you left? ZAKARIN: No, because I never really stopped doing comics work. Although I worked full-time as an engineer, which I loved, I continued to do comic work in many areas: inking, submitting cartoons to magazines, making greeting cards, and fitting cartooning into engineering. In the 1980s, as Village Engineer in Mamaroneck, N.Y., I created a character called Sammy Terry, a dog in a policeman’s uniform who went around showing children how to fight pollution. In collaboration with Archie Comics, whose home base was in Mamaroneck, I wrote and helped illustrate and ink a four-page comic with Sammy Terry and Archie as the main characters. I’ve also done cartoons for advertising and restaurant menus. Retired, I spend a lot of time teaching cartooning, particularly to kids, on a volunteer basis, in special education schools like Boces and sleep-away summer camps. I also do cartoon teaching for special activities for the Scouts, Gilda’s Club, and other volunteer groups, as well as freelance comic work. I make my own greeting cards... haven’t bought a card in forty years. Cartoons and caricatures make it easy to personalize the cards. I have a lot of hobbies and collectibles and I keep busy. I’ll keep you busy, too, by sending you copies of my comic work—and you can count all the “ZAKs” hidden in the trees or my beard. [laughs] [And we’ll still be counting ’em, Les—now, and for years to come. That’s the legacy you and the other creative pioneers in the comics field have left us.]

Alex Toth

About “The Black Pirate” —And Alfonso Greene!

ALEX TOTH on One of the Unsung Talents of the Golden Age

“The Black Pirate” was originally written and illustrated by Sheldon Moldoff in Sensation Comics, but later, when it had become a secret-identity feature, it was given to Alfonso Greene. This Greene-drawn story appeared in All-American Comics #73 (May 1946). [©2003 DC Comics.]

“Who Cares?” I Do!

In a previous Toth column, we printed part of this splash page, |signed “Al Greene,” from Timely/Atlas’ Western Kid #17 (Aug. 1957)— mainly because it was the only art we had handy by the artist. This time, we’re making sure you see the whole page. Thanks to Jerry G. Bails. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Page 5 of the same 7-page “Black Pirate” story. Oddly, this tale drawn by Greene was in the only “Black Pirate” story in All-American before #83 (March 1947)— when Jon Valor and his young masked ward made the leap from Sensation for good, with art by Paul Reinman. [©2003 DC Comics.]

Title “The Great Unknowns”–––Part II of a Series

Mike Suchorsky, a.k.a. “Mr. Photo” by Hames Ware & Jim Vadeboncouer, Jr. A top-ten list of the finest artists to draw for comic books in their first decade would provoke little contention on the first six to ten names. For most who’ve studied the subject: Lou Fine, Reed Crandall, Will Eisner, Carl Barks, Jack Kirby, Walt Kelly, and a number of others, for a variety of reasons, would vie for these slots without protest—but if you only have ten slots, you’ve gotta get Jack Cole in there too somehow, and....

Well, obviously it’s tough. So tough, in fact, that just by randomly selecting the above we’ve already omitted a bunch of other contenders, some of them equally worthy. But what if you saw such a listing, and wedged in between some of these giants of the comic art world you spotted the name—Mike Suchorsky!? Your first reaction, altogether understandable, might be: “Now, Mike Sekowsky may’ve been the fastest good artist... but he sure doesn’t deserve to be in the top ten!!” (Note: several artists may’ve equaled Sekowsky’s speed, but few combined fast and good the way he did!) Actually there are probably some who might argue persuasively that Sekowsky does deserve such a designation—only, we’re not talking about Mike Sekowsky or committing a typo. We mean Mike Suchorsky, and here’s why! As an adjunct of the art-detecting done for the original Who’s Who of American Comic Books, Jim and I began an unofficial list of top ten “Unknown Artists” whom we were determined to identify. These were the Golden Age talents who, despite all the research Jerry Bails, Jim, and I had done to uncover their identities, alas, remained unknown. Heading the list, with no other artist even close, was an unknown whom Jim dubbed “Mr. Photo” because of his crisp, realistic style. A Suchorsky page from “Ginny,” a teenage feature in My Date Comics #2 (Sept. 1947), published by Hillman. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

What made this artist so worthy of being credited was that, among

Mike Suchorsky

Then, as Hames pored back over the Who’s Who, looking for somebody, anybody who might be able to help, he stumbled upon a name that held promise. Herb Rogoff had been at the prestigious ZiffDavis company when it forayed briefly into comics. Further, he had been a gracious respondent when Hames and Jerry had plumbed his memory for many of the unsigned greats that graced Ziff’s comic book art staff. “Mr. Photo” had worked at Ziff (as had our previous column’s subject, Henry Enoch Sharp). Jim and Hames wrote a joint letter to Mr. Rogoff. Jerry de Fuccio was on the edge of his seat: “Hames, this is one we really need to nail!!” Would Herb, after all these years recall this long lost genius? He did! “Of course I know who this is,” Herb replied. EUREKA!! Herb went on to say that, though he was uncertain of the spelling “Sukorsky” or “Suchorsky,” the art was indeed that of one Mike Suchorsky, and that he had died in a boating accident in the mid-’50s in New Jersey. De Fuccio was elated, but also slapped his forehead during a phone conversation with Hames, saying, “I’ve heard this name before and I just

other things, he/she was simply one of the finest artists ever to have drawn for comics. Maddeningly, unlike some other “Great Unknowns” who may well have been slick or hardcover types simply moonlighting in comics for brief periods, “Mr. Photo” went all the way back into the 1930s and had rendered features at all the major companies. He had drawn “The Green Lama” at Prize and “Lando, Man of Magic” at DC, and had rendered one of fellow comic art detective Jerry de Fuccio’s favorites, “Shipwreck Roberts” for Fawcett. Throughout this long tenure, while the artist just kept getting better and better, he handled every genre from war to teenagers with equal ease and good humor, regardless of the setting. And yet, not once, not even in a sneak, did this artist ever sign his/her name! Every attempt we made to pin a name on this wonderfully gifted artisan came to a crashing dead end. Hames ran samples past two regular correspondents who themselves were contemporaries of “Mr. Photo.” Golden Age great Rafael Astarita had worked at the same Harry “A” Chesler Shop where “Mr. Photo” had begun his career in comics. The great Lou Cameron had shared pages in the same companies where “Mr. Photo” had finished out his career (ACG, et al.) in the mid-’50s. Each artist paid high compliments to the work—but as to who had rendered it, both shrugged their shoulders and wished us good luck in our search.

A page from the “Alpha the Slave Pirate” feature in Hillman’s Pirates Comics #3 (July-Aug. 1950). This was several years before EC’s title Piracy, which of course had no continuing characters. Charles Laughton seems to have been the visual inspiration for this Roman emperor. Well, our researchers did call Suchorsky “Mr. Photo” for years, after all! [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

“The Great Unknowns” ested in handling the big-name features. Instead, he seemed to prefer to become like a gifted character actor, able to handle diverse assignments and never wear out his welcome. It was as the perfect utility artist that he seemed happiest, with every story rendered in the unmistakable photographic style that always seemed to contain an element of humor, no matter what the subject matter. And we suspect that the half dozen samples of his art scattered over these three pages will demonstrate precisely why we list Mike Suchorsky as one of the “Great Unknowns”—perhaps the least-known “best artist” the comics ever produced! [Hames Ware, who did the basic writing on this piece, was co-editor with Jerry G. Bails of the 1970s masterwork The Who’s Who of American Comic Books. Jim Vadeboncouer, Jr., who (besides also researching) provided the six art samples that accompany this article, is editor/publisher of ImageS, a quality magazine of vintage magazine and book illustration, and can be reached at 3809 Lagune Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94306—or view samples from the magazines online at images@bpib.com.]

Last issue, the first installment of this series showed us Henry Enoch Sharp’s version of Ziff-Davis’ G.I. Joe. Here’s Suchorsky’s interpretation, from issue #12 (June 1952). [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

didn’t know it! Years ago, an artist—I don’t recall who—burst into our offices at EC and proceeded to tell us that Mike Suchorsky had died in a boating accident. I of course thought he must be referring to Mike Sekowsky, and after the guy left I remember one of the other guys saying, ‘That can’t be right. I just talked to Sekowsky this morning,’ and I gave it no further thought!” De Fuccio, that great comic art detective who left us far too soon a couple of years back, now had all the clues he needed. He scoured the New Jersey area and phoned all the names even remotely resembling “Suchorsky,” and eventually turned up several of Mike’s relatives; he even visited with them. At last our “Mr. Photo” not only had his name back, but a personal life history as well! (For a beautiful reprise of all this, plus a great piece of writing, please see Steve Duin and Mike Richardson’s oral history Comics between the Panels. Steve’s tribute to Suchorsky is one of the finest things in this huge book.) Suchorsky’s career spanned from the Golden Age to just prior to the Silver Age. He worked for all of the major companies: Prize, Fawcett, Hillman, etc., including very brief stints at DC and Timely. There simply wasn’t a genre that he couldn’t handle, and over a career lasting more than 15 years, he tackled ’em all... war, westerns, romance, teen, detective. There’s no record that he ever did any funny-animal work, but if he had, there’s little doubt he could have done that, too—though he still wouldn’t have signed his art. Mike Suchorsky never seemed inter-

A page from a Suchorsky-drawn story about a robot (Adam Link and Robotman, move over!) from Adventures into the Unknown #67 (Oct. 1955). This American Comic Group title, of course, was the first regularly-published “horror” comic, though it never reached the heights/depths of EC, Timely, and various other companies... most likely by choice. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

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A Talk with JOHN BENSON An Overdue Interview with the Editor of Squa Tront, the Ultimate EC Fanzine, about His Days in Comic Fandom’s Formative Years BS: What did he do?

by Bill Schelly

BENSON: That’s always a tough question to answer. By trade, he was a printer. I may have gotten some of my interest in amateur publishing from his interest in printing. But he was really a theologian, although he hated the term because he thought the term implied an academician. He was the leading authority on George Fox, the founder of the Quakers, although he wasn’t probably recognized as that until late in life. Among other things, he created a concordance of Fox’s works on Rolodex cards that has now been published and is a standard reference.

Introduction Few fans have had the kind of wideranging experiences that characterized John Benson’s years in EC and comics fandom from 1956 to 1972. You may know him from his legendary A/E interview with Gil Kane, or from his later articles and reviews for Graphic Story Magazine and Graphic Story World. Or as the fellow who conducted the first in-depth interviews with Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman, and Bernard Krigstein. But did you know he organized a full-fledged New York Comicon in 1966? Wrote stories for Warren Publishing? Assisted on Wally Wood’s witzend? When I sat down with John on January 26th, 2003, I had no idea how much fun it would be to pick the brain of this fascinating fellow—and the resulting interview was so long, we couldn’t fit it into one issue, or even two issues. Therefore, sit back, relax, and enjoy the first of three parts of this fascinating foray into Fandom Past.

BS: Where did you live in New Jersey?

A lady in deadly peril, and not a super-hero in sight! In the late 1960s, John Benson's wife Friedel was an art director at MacFadden Publications, so the two of them tried their hand at producing photo covers. This is the only one actually published. John is the one wielding the knife; the other pair are personal friends who would probably prefer to remain anonymous. Friedel took the photo. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

BENSON: Mount Holly, which is a small town in south central Jersey. My parents were caretakers of something called The John Woolman Memorial. John Woolman was one of the earliest of the Quaker abolitionists. It was a tiny, very old house, but on a large block of land, with a big, beautiful yard. It went way back to a little stream, with a little glen with bamboo and weeping willows and a stone bench, the whole thing. I lived there for the first seven years of my life. BS: Would you say it was semi-rural?

BILL SCHELLY: John, let’s start by going back to ancient history.

BENSON: Yes. There were small-town type houses on one side, and on the other side there was a huge apple orchard. Beyond that there was woods, at that time. My recollections of Mount Holly remind me a lot of The Night of the Hunter. [Schelly laughs] I mean in terms of the town. The barber shop was like that one in the famous Norman Rockwell painting. It had these unfinished wide plank wood floors. When I was a little kid, I was fascinated that they’d lift a section of board and just sweep the hair into the hole.

JOHN BENSON: I was just a green kid!

BS: What was the population of the town, roughly? Five thousand?

BS: [laughs] Go back to before you were just a green kid. Back to when and where you were born, and what your father did for a living, that sort of thing.

BENSON: Probably, yeah. Small town. My father worked in a print shop, in a 19th-century building, which operated in 19th-century fashion, with hand-set moveable type. Later my father bought his own press, and I think some of the type he got was from that shop. He was only in business for himself for a short time, but he kept some equipment for most of his life. He had some large wooden headline type of nineteenth century vintage, which I later used to print a headline for my fanzine Image. I remember going down there as a very small child, and there were these old characters hanging around. They remind me now of the old codgers in the machine-shop strips in J. R. Williams’ Out Our Way. Really a different age, different even from the ’50s.

Part One

BENSON: I was born in Chicago, in December 1940, but we moved to New Jersey before I was a year old. Other than that, I’ve hardly ever been in Chicago. My parents both came from the East; they were just in Chicago long enough for me to be born. BS: Was that because your father took a job there? BENSON: Right.

John Benson Blue Fairy Book. My vote for the best book of all time for any age is Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows, the edition with the Arthur Rackham illustrations, of course. Then, when I got a little older, I read all the juvenile mysteries, which was a wonderful genre that’s totally dead now. One of my favorites was Shadow in the Pines by Stephen Meader, which took place in the Jersey pine barrens. The Jersey pines were actually settled very early, before Philadelphia even, with industries like bog iron and charcoal, so there actually are ghost towns, lost towns, in the pines. The book was written during World War II, and the kid, the hero, found spies living in a ghost town. In fact, there probably were spies living out in the pines then. BS: So you read quite a bit as a kid.

“Jack Benny... was the penultimate, and Edgar Bergen was the ultimate.” Benny (left) was perhaps radio’s all-time best-loved comedian, while Bergen’s dummy Charlie McCarthy got all the laughs. A ventriloquist on the radio—now there was a “high concept”!

BS: Do you have any brothers or sisters?

BENSON: I probably read as many books as a kid as I did the rest of my life. [laughs] You know, I recently had a discussion with Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., about this. Jim says he read tons of books as a kid and hardly read any comics until he was 18. And look at him now. So I’m in good company. Jim, by the way is a major contributor to the next issue of Squa Tront, with an interview with John Severin and other interesting stuff. BS: Did you read comics in the newspaper? BENSON: Not when I was little, no. In fact, later, my parents told me that when they bought the Sunday paper, which probably wasn’t too often, they actually took the funnies out. [laughs]

BENSON: I’m an only child. When we left Mount Holly, we moved to Philadelphia, where we lived in a great, huge grand Victorian house in Germantown with my maiden great-aunt. We were there for about three years, and then we moved back to Haddonfield, New Jersey, which is a larger town than Mt. Holly, a more typical ’50s Saturday Evening Post small town, close to Philadelphia. BS: So you would have discovered comics around the time that you moved to Philadelphia. BENSON: Well, I have to tell you, popular culture was not a significant part of my childhood. BS: Is this due to the Quaker thing? BENSON: Only partly. I would say it was more a cultural aversion on my parents’ part. [laughs] No, not exactly religious in nature in the way you mean it. The only radio I ever listened to was Sunday nights, which was the lineup of Jack Benny... he was the penultimate, and Edgar Bergen was the ultimate. And when I was very small there was Fred Allen after Bergen. I remember his last Sunday show, where he said he was moving to Saturday night, and I knew we were never going to be listening to the radio on Saturday night. Later, the Sunday line-up started at 5:30 with My Friend Irma, My Little Margie, Our Miss Brooks, then a half-hour of silence in our house while Amos and Andy was on, and then Benny and Bergen. BS: So it really had to do with the fact that your parents felt that it should be sort of occasional or a limited amount of ... BENSON: Yeah. And that was not something that I particularly objected to. I had a wonderful childhood. I mean, I had the same kind of problems that every kid has in childhood. I was shy, for one thing. But I lived in a wonderful world. BS: How did your exposure to the world of fantasy and popular culture come about? BENSON: My exposure to fantasy was all from books. My childhood was made up of the Mary Poppins books, Winnie the Pooh, all the Doctor Dolittle books, all the Oz books, the Ruth Plumly Thompson Oz books, and Freddie the Pig. When I was very young my mother read Kipling’s Just-So Stories to me, and also The Red Fairy Book and The

“The Spirit was pretty impressive.” Since John was reading Will Eisner’s tabloid comic at the age of eight or so, here’s one he might have seen at the time—the splash page of the story for March 21, 1948. [©2003 Will Eisner.]

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[Left:] A pair of panels from a Carl Barks story John remembers: “Luck of the North” from Donald Duck Four Color #256 (Dec. 1949)... as reprinted in The Carl Barks Library of Walt Disney’s Donald Duck (1949-1971), Vol. 1, in 1986. [Right:] John may have been only moderately interested in Superman, even in as a kid in 1949—but since he quotes a line from Citizen Kane in the interview, here’s the Man of Steel rescuing Orson Welles, in a tale from that year inspired by the latter’s infamous 1938 War of the Worlds radio adaptation, as reprinted in Superman from the 30’s to the 70’s. Pencils by Wayne Boring. [Donald Duck art ©2003 The Walt Disney Company; Superman art ©2003 DC Comics.]

BS: Oh, my God. BENSON: That must have been when I was very little, before I would have known the comics existed. Later, I read the strips, and I actually, for about six months or so, collected The Phantom and Tim Tyler’s Luck dailies and pasted them in a scrapbook. I read all the daily comic strips in Haddonfield. But I thought a lot of them were lousy, and they were. The myth of classic newspaper strips is bull****. The few that were great were truly great, absolutely. But if you look at a paper from the ‘20s or ‘30s, and certainly the ’40s and ’50s, 90% of the strips are awful. They always were and they still are. It’s Sturgeon’s Law. Actually, one of the few rather significant comics experiences I had before I saw Mad was when we’d go to Quaker meeting on Sunday. After meeting, everybody would stand around and talk, and I’d go into the back where the janitor was, who had the Sunday Philadelphia Bulletin, which had The Spirit in tabloid size. I would read all the Sunday comics, including The Spirit. At age 8 or 9 The Spirit was pretty impressive, especially in tabloid size, and especially since I didn’t have much contact with similar material in any other media. BS: Can you remember your first comic book? BENSON: Yes, actually, I can. You know, my parents didn’t have any money. But my mother’s parents, my grandfather, was a Philadelphia industrialist Quaker who was president of a family business, a steel warehousing company that took up a big city block in North Philadelphia. And so I had all the advantages of wealth, but no actual money, which I think is a good way to grow up. BS: You don’t get spoiled, but yet you get some of the benefits. BENSON: Right. We lived modestly, but we had all these great family places to go to. It was probably hard on my parents, especially my father, but it was great for me. Of course, my grandfather did everything in a very simple way. He spent whatever he had to spend but it was unostentatious. One of the greatest places, to me, when I was a kid, was this house on the Jersey shore, which actually was my great-uncle’s, not

my grandfather’s. It was a huge Victorian house that looked like the house in Joe Mugnaini’s cover painting for the first paperback edition of The October Country, only more grand [See p. 42.]. A great Victorian house that was built in the 1870s on the beach at Sea Girt, New Jersey. It sat right up on the dunes facing the sea, and was on a three-acre lot. There was a stretch of wilderness park with dune vegetation behind it. The name of the house was Cedar Mer, and to paraphrase Bernstein in Citizen Kane, there’s probably not a month that goes by when I don’t think of that wonderful house. The beach was a public beach, but there was hardly anyone on it. There was a raised public boardwalk over the beach, and way down at the end of the boardwalk there was a little pavilion that sold hot dogs and candy, and they had comics. When I was six, when we happened to be staying at Cedar Mer, my parents started me on a weekly allowance of ten cents a week. Ten cents every week— wow! So with my very first dime, I went down to the end of the boardwalk and I bought a comic book at the pavilion. I sought it out again in the ’60s or ’70s out of curiosity. It was Looney Tunes 72. [laughs] BS: Did that seem like an important event? BENSON: Compared to being at Cedar Mer? I don’t think so. Well, I guess it was another aspect of the special feeling of being on vacation, like riding on the Ferris wheel at Asbury Park or feeding the swans at Spring Lake. Because I don’t remember seeing any comics in Mt. Holly. The next comic I remember is an Our Gang with Tom and Jerry about a year later. I probably didn’t get many more comics until another year again after that, when I would regularly get a Dell comic or two. I had a subscription to Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories for probably three years. I would scrape up that dollar, or some relative would kick in. And I’d get on my bicycle from time to time and go down to Neumeyers to get a Dell comic.

John Benson towards where his father worked and meet him on the way home to make sure they were going to the movies. [laughs] And they always were. That would be before 1920. My first movie, I think, was Life with Father, in 1947, ’48. While we’re talking about popular culture in general, though, I should mention one or two ways that I became more acquainted with popular culture. One was when I went to summer camp for a week or so in the summer of 1951. In the evening, we would listen to dramatic radio. The Whistler, and stuff like that, which was about the only time I ever listened to dramatic radio. And I became more conscious of popular music. But the main story there is about comics. This was a Quaker camp, so one of the things they did was they had this kid who was, like, a troubled kid. Our counselor was considered the best in the camp, so he stayed in our cabin. We were told, “Be nice to this kid. He’s, like, [laughs] a juvenile delinquent. We’re trying to improve him by sending him to this healthful camp, so don’t be too tough on him.” And when this kid came, he had a huge footlocker full of horror comics with him. [laughs] BS: Wow. BENSON: He was anti-social, and he was a pathological liar. Remember, this is 1951, kind of at the beginning of the horror comic era, but he had this huge footlocker chock full of horror comics. We all read his comics. BS: They didn’t inspire you to seek out more horror comics, either? BENSON: No. That was some kind of sick culture; it had nothing to do with me. [laughs] That was the only time I ever read horror comics as a kid. And that was the only guy I ever met that ever read horror comics until six years later, when I had contact with EC fandom. [laughs] Literally, I don’t think I ever met any other kid that read horror comics, other than this one juvenile delinquent. I love that anecdote! The Harvey Kurtzman-Wally Wood “Blobs!” in Mad #1 was an off-the-wall adaptation of E.M. Forster’s classic science-fiction story “The Machine Stops”—not that most readers of the comic book version in OctoberNovember 1952 were aware of that fact. [©2003 EC Publications, Inc.]

BS: No super-heroes, though. BENSON: No. But that reminds me... when I was about nine, I visited my cousins in Nashville. It was really hot and humid so we went down in the cellar where it was cooler and read a pile of Superman comics. BS: What did you think of them? BENSON: Well, I was happy enough to read them. At age nine you like the fact that Superman is all-powerful and can do anything. I didn’t feel that they had much to do with me, though. I never read any after that. Up to this day, more or less. The thing that I really remember with fondness from my earliest comics reading were those Carl Barks longlengths, the single series. Maybe the only long-lengths I read were “Voodoo Hoodoo,” “Luck of the North,” and the forest fire story in Vacation Parade, but I really loved them. I thought of the Barks stories as part of my world, the same way I thought of the books that we talked about. Whereas I thought of The Spirit as sort of coming up against an alien culture that was fascinating, but outside my sphere. BS: What about movies? BENSON: We would go to the movies once or twice a month as a family. My father loved movies. He went to the movies as a kid. BS: What was your Dad’s first name? BENSON: Lewis. My mother, Sarah, had never seen a movie until she was eighteen. But my father told me that when he was a kid, in Weehawken, New Jersey, on Fridays, he would go three blocks up

BS: So Wertham was right! BENSON: I also had an older cousin who introduced me to a lot of popular culture. He got me to read Fantasy and Science Fiction. He also tried to get me interested in Astounding, but I never got into it. The first sf story he gave me to read, actually, was E. M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops.” That just amazed me. The strangeness of it, the idea that you could imagine the future. I almost didn’t want to read more sf, because I thought it couldn’t be as marvelous as that. Then a year or so later he showed me Mad, and there was Kurtzman’s “Blobs!” in the first issue, which is essentially “The Machine Stops.” So I really thought that was the sf story, the original, archetypical story, sort-of. I’d say that F&SF had a lot of influence on me. I started reading F&SF when I was about eleven. BS: So your cousin also introduced you to Mad. What was his name? BENSON: Tony Potts. All my relatives are on my mother’s side. He was two or three years older than me. But he was living in Philadelphia. I was living in Haddonfield, so I didn’t see him a whole lot. Once, when we went over to visit, he showed me the first four issues of Mad all at once, right after the fourth issue came out. That knocked me out. That was the first, and almost the only, popular culture thing in these years— until rock ’n’ roll a few years later, anyhow—that knocked me out, totally knocked me out. BS: What was it about it ...? BENSON: Well, they’re so strange and so different; and yet so funny. And they were so perfect. That still amazes me about those Mads, is that they’re perfect. They’re whole, complete works of art that, even now, you wonder where... how did it come to him to do something so totally organic?

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Flip #1 (April 1954), published by Harvey, with a Jack Davis-influenced cover and interior art by Howard Nostrand (including “V...- for Wampire!” which is clearly derivative of the Wood-drawn “V-V-Vampire!” in Mad #3) was one of the best of the many imitators of the early four-color Mad. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

BS: And you had enough background, at that time, in your reading and your exposure, that you could see that perfection, like it hit you. BENSON: I didn’t go away saying, “Boy, these things are perfect.” There was something about them that was mysterious. They were also so funny, they were... well, they touched a lot of people certainly, because they went like wildfire. You know, in that recent big comics encyclopedia... BS: Between the Panels? BENSON: Right. I remember that I wrote a regular column called “Between the Panels” a number of years ago. I took the title from a comment that Krigstein made, “It’s what happens between the panels that’s so important.” Anyhow, in that book they take me to task for asking Kurtzman too-obscure questions. I asked Kurtzman, “Gee, you know, you must have been reading Mickey Spillane because of these references.” And Kurtzman says, “I’ll take your word for it.” They thought that was a great put-down: “I’ll take your word for it.” [laughs] They really pissed me off. I did the annotations for the Cochran Mad books. There was a blank page that had to be filled up for each issue, and I thought I’d just have Kurtzman talk about them instead of writing a lot of heavy commentary. I felt a little bad hauling him in front of a recorder one more time, but there’s one point where I was so glad that I did it, because he says something I thought was very important, that I don’t ever remember seeing him say anywhere else. He said something like, “When you add a touch of mystery to the work, it imparts a depth to it. It makes the reader feel that they’re not getting everything.” He goes on about that

for a bit, and it’s a great, revealing statement about his Mad. And we wouldn’t have that comment if I hadn’t interviewed him in depth about Mad. When he said that, I said to myself, “It wasn’t an accident!” [laughs] All that wonderful, mysterious stuff that Kurtzman did in those early Mads... BS: To me, it almost feels like it just came out of him and probably surprised him a little bit. BENSON: Yeah, he wasn’t entirely aware of it. But I was interested to see that, years later, he was aware. So, what happened was I saw those four issues, they knocked me out. I got home that night and called my cousin in Philadelphia long-distance, which you didn’t do at that time. You had to go through the operator, and the whole business. I called to find out the address of those comics so I could send for them and get a subscription. I wrote to EC and I said, “Send me a subscription to Mad, starting with #1.” And instead of sending me a subscription starting with #6, or whatever, they sent the money back and said, “We don’t have any back issues.” That pissed me off a little, and I just never got around to sending in again. So, actually, there was a period there for almost a year where, after that, I didn’t see any Mads. For its size, Haddonfield actually didn’t have many places where you could buy comics, and I never really looked for it. The one store that I went to only carried Dell, I think, and Classics Illustrated. BS: It wasn’t that you resented their sending it back... BENSON: I did, a little, but mainly I just didn’t get around to it. But then, somebody showed me a copy, like a year later, of Mad 11, I think. And I got really excited all over again.

John Benson BS: Did Mad open up EC to you? BENSON: Much later, yeah. BS: So mainly, for a while, it was just Mad as far as EC went for you.

BENSON: Oh, absolutely. Where I branched out was in the Mad imitations. I’d buy them in between Mads. I remember, one time I went into a store that was a drug store, really, but they had a little pile of comics back in one corner. A lot of stores would have a magazine rack, with newspapers in front, and then they would just have one big stack of comics, maybe a foot high. There were so many comics they couldn’t display them all, and anyhow, they just John Benson, age 13 in 1954, taking in thought of them as interchangeable. the sights in London’s Trafalgar Square. You were supposed to buy the top Another photo taken at about the same one, I guess. Anyhow, this drug time appeared in John’s Squa Tront 7. store didn’t even have magazines, I think. I went through the whole stack of comics, and I found Flip #1, which has that great Nostrand cover. BS: I’m not familiar with it, but I’ll take your word for it. BENSON: You and Kurtzman, eh? It’s an incredible cover. When I saw it I said, “This is amazing. I’ve got to have this!” Because I’d been seeing cruddy stuff like Eh! But Nostrand understood that sense of mystery that we were talking about; he understood what Kurtzman and Wood and Davis were doing, and he captured it. He did a cover that was, like, almost more Mad than Mad. So I went up to the counter, and this woman said, “Oh, I thought we had pulled all of these out. You can’t have this.” I said, “Why not?” She said, “Well, we don’t sell horror comics.” [chuckles] I said, “No, no, no! This isn’t a horror comic! It’s a funny comic! No, no, you’ve got to sell it!” And she looked at it, and there was this long, long, suspenseful pause, like my life was in the balance. And finally... she did sell it to me. [laughs] Another thing I should mention is that that spring I sent for the Mad back issues. In Mad 13, which I see is dated July 1954 but must have come out in May, because we left for England around June 10th, they had a little line in the letter page that back issues were for sale, which is the only time EC ever sold back issues through the mail, except for the 3-D issues, I think. Of course I sent for them right away, and I remember well the day that they arrived. A really exciting day! There was a rain shower, and I sat on the front porch going through them. I think that’s the only time that I talked to another kid on the block about comics. Someone came over while I was reading them, and I tried to explain how thrilling it was to get this package with the first ten issues of Mad! I think that the

first issue I bought on the stands myself was issue 12. So I guess I only got two issues on the stands before we went to England. Mad 5 wasn’t in that back-issue shipment, by the way. Later, I thought that was because of their problems with the distributors on that issue, but I once talked to someone who did get a back-issue copy at that time. I was so thrilled to get that big stack—the most exciting comics haul I’ve ever gotten in my life—that I was in no mood to complain. Later, my friend gave me his copy of Mad 5, which some kid had traded him in study hall, because he recognized that I was more into Mad than he was. BS: You mentioned going to England.... BENSON: In 1954 we went to England for a year. I was thirteen, and it was a really big change for me. We lived in a little hotel in London all summer, and I had my own room, which was two floors up from my folks. I became friends with the hotel manager’s son, who was exactly my age. So I kind of ran around London, and began to be very independent, suddenly. My father was doing research. He went to England as a fellow, at a university there. Also, he read a lot of Fox’s unpublished manuscripts, which were on file in London. And I went to boarding school in York. That was different. It was strange. BS: How did an American boy fit in over there? BENSON: They were kind of tolerant [laughs] of this crazy American. Back then it was a different world over there. We really do live in a global village now. It wasn’t that way then at all. It would be the same as living in Russia today, or something. Except they spoke the same language, more or less. My friend sent me the Mads from the States, and once my mother brought me one that had come to London, when she came to visit. The school was strict about not allowing comics, but because she’d brought it for me they couldn’t very well confiscate it. In fact, she gave it to me in the headmaster’s private sitting room, right in front of the headmaster. And I got more interested in movies there. I saw my first subtitled film... a Fernandel film. I think it was The Little The first postcard John received (in early 1956) from Fred von Bernewitz, compiler of the EC Checklist, which ushered John into EC fandom— and a Von Bernewitz self-portrait, done in March 1957. [Art ©2003 Fred Von Bernewitz.]

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Larry Ivie would often embellish his letters to John with drawings such as these. The “Shazam!” and Human Torch are obvious. “The ‘dorf,’” says John, “is a comment on how I signed my letters, which I did because that’s what Ernie Kovaks said at the end of his TV show. Note the nice caricatures of Ron Parker (editor of Hoohah!) and Archie Goodwin, in addition to a self-portrait.” Larry’s other self-portrait, at extreme right, shows him in Army gear. Used by permission of Larry. [Art ©2003 Larry Ivie.]

World of Don Camillo. And I saw Chaplin’s Modern Times, and like that. Not a whole lot of movies, but more variety. And I began to realize that they could be Art, you know. And entertaining in a broad range of ways. I started keeping a record of all the films that I saw when I was 13, and I’ve kept that list until this day, with a couple of hiatuses totaling about 15 years. When we came back from England after a year, I went to Westtown School, which is a Quaker boarding school. I like to describe Westtown as the only school where both Richard Nixon and Norman Thomas [perpetual Socialist candidate for President] gave commencement speeches. Not the same year, though. [laughs] In the fall of my first year there, in 1955, which would be tenth grade, some guy came back from the town one Saturday with an issue of Incredible Science Fiction. Now I’d seen the ads in Mad for the New Direction comics, and had picked up the last issues when I got back to the States, but I didn’t start seriously reading ECs until I got hold of the last issue of Incredible. Because that issue had the unauthorized plug for Fred von Bernewitz’s EC Checklist. I sent away for the checklist and... I wrote about this in Squa Tront 8, in the article on Fred’s Checklist. BS: Not everyone reading this has all the Squa Tronts. BENSON: Well, they should! [laughs] But we wouldn’t be talking today if I hadn’t ordered Fred’s Checklist. That was my first contact with fandom. I still have all my correspondence from Fred, about 100 letters from 1956 up until the time I moved to New York in 1963, and we were both living here. So maybe you can print the first letter I got from him. BS: You heard about Larry Ivie through von Bernewitz? BENSON: I heard about everybody, directly or indirectly, somehow through that sticky quarter I sent to Fred. I also visited Fred not too long after that, in August 1956. He was the first fan I ever met in person. He lived in Silver Spring, Maryland. It happened that my parents were going down to Washington for some reason, so I said, “Gee, can’t we stop off at Fred’s?” And they dropped me off at Fred’s and picked me up a couple hours later. His room was very neat, with his collection neatly stacked up. We didn’t have a lot to talk about on that first visit. He opened his closet, and stacked in the closet was a complete run of Ace Double paperbacks. I said, “My God, did you read all of those?” He said, “No, I didn’t read them.” That was my introduction to collecting. Fred and I got to know each other really well later, partly because of

our common interest in movies. When I moved to New York for good in August 1963, Fred kindly put me up for two months while I hunted for a job and got settled, for which I am eternally grateful. I remember that Fred was working on the final full edition of the EC Checklist then, and I couldn’t figure out who his readership was going to be at that point. Well, he was doing it for himself, I’m sure. By the way, I visited the EC offices even before I visited Fred, in July 1956. BS: I didn’t know that you’d actually visited EC. BENSON: Yeah. Again, when my parents came to New York, I came up with them. Fred sent me a hand-drawn map on how to get there, because they were still down on Lafayette Street, and it was a little hard to find. I poked around and went into Gaines’ office, and I asked if I could look at the bound EC volumes, and he said, “Let me see your hands.” [laughs] You know, are your hands clean? BS: Otherwise, it was fine? BENSON: Well, it wasn’t that exciting. They weren’t publishing comics any more. They’d stopped, I guess six months before, and all they were publishing was Mad. Kurtzman had left by that time, too. The first issue with Feldstein listed as editor had just come out. Or, rather, it hadn’t come out yet, but they had copies in the office. So I got one—I think I paid for it—and I got Feldstein and Gaines to autograph it. BS: You corresponded with Larry Ivie, too, at this time? BENSON: Yes, I got his address from Fred. Initially, I saw more of Larry than Fred. My parents were going up to New York for some reason, and I went along and visited Larry. I would say that was in late 1957 or early 1958. That first visit was kind of brief. I think we even took Larry out to dinner, with my parents, or my mother. BS: Larry was living in Manhattan at the time? BENSON: Yes. He was going to Cartoonists and Illustrators School. It’s now the School of Visual Arts. Larry was living on 23rd Street, on the west side of Manhattan, and the School of Visual Arts is on 23rd Street on the east side, so they’d walk across and back every day. I would come up and visit Larry from time to time on my own. I was living in Philadelphia. BS: Okay, when did you move from Haddonfield back to Philadelphia?

John Benson

BENSON: When we came back from England, we lived with my grandmother in another wonderful, very grand house in Germantown. But I didn’t live there that much because most of the time, I was boarding at Westtown, and so on, but Philadelphia was my home base. So later I’d occasionally come up and stay with Larry overnight. At one time, Archie was living in the same building in an apartment on the first floor. Larry was on the third or fourth floor. And on the next floor above him, in another apartment, were Bill Pearson and Dan Adkins. BS: You’d almost have to come up with a name for it, like “the apartment building where fandom was born.” BENSON: Right. [laughs] Several years later they tore down that building to build a huge apartment complex. They knocked out, like, two full blocks of buildings and built high-rises. BS: Ah, I’m sorry to hear it. Now was this kind of a ramshackle type building? BENSON: It was a typical New York tenement apartment building, like the one I’m still living in. Larry’s apartment was a great big room with a little alcove or two and a bathroom, and it was crammed with comics and stuff.

BS: And didn’t he have comics that were cut up? BENSON: Well, he used Boorum and Pease archival paper, reinforced three-hole paper, and he would get two copies of stuff and paste it down. I think you’re referring to things like, he would take all the different versions of Sub-Mariner’s origin that Bill Everett did over the years and cut them up and integrate them into a single pasted-down story. That’s the sort of thing people like to tell about Larry. But even that had a point: he wanted to show that Everett had a remarkably consistent vision of The Sub-Mariner and his origin over the years. Most of his pasted-down stuff was straight out of the comic. He had a pretty complete Spirit collection on Boorum and Pease paper in loose-leaf binders. It was really like a library. Anybody could go in there and read these Spirit stories in a very permanent package. He had a lot of other stuff, but I can’t really tell you the extent or the breadth of his collection. I looked at what I was interested in, which was mainly The Spirit and the ECs. BS: Larry was something of a comics expert, or was the closest thing to a comics expert that existed at that time. BENSON: Definitely. Ted White, of course, was also very knowledgeable about comic books. There was once an article in a Washington paper about Ted titled “The Boy with 10,000 Comic Books.” There’s a lot about Ted’s early comics activity in Squa Tront 5. I don’t know just when he moved to New York, but I remember the first time I met him. Larry had offered to sell me a year of Spirit sections, 1950, for twentyfive bucks, which was a lot of money then. The next time I went up to New York, Larry was out of town. I believe this was in December 1959. He said, “I’ll leave these with Ted and you can pick them up from him.” Ted was living in the Village, on Christopher Street. I was walking up the street, and I saw a guy and a girl come out of a building about where I thought his number would be, and they came towards me. I looked at him, and he was kind of tall, and he looked a little bit like the selfportrait that he’d drawn for Hoohah! So when he went past, I said, “Excuse me, are you Ted White?” [laughs] And he said, “Well, yes, I am. That’s the first time a stranger came up to me in the city and asked me if I was Ted White.” So we went back and he gave me the Spirits. I didn’t meet him again for quite a while. BS: You mentioned Hoohah! Let’s talk about that. BENSON: I don’t offhand remember when Hoohah! started, because when I first wrote to Ron Parker he sent me all the back issues at the time, the first six issues, I guess, and then I got the rest of them as they came out. BS: That would have been in ’56, when you got back from England. Wasn’t Hoohah! the leading fanzine of its day? BENSON: Absolutely. It was a bridge between what I call “First Fandom,” the fandom of the EC era, and what I call “Second Fandom,” which was the considerable fan activity between 1958 and 1963. BS: So it’s like Hoohah! kind of kept it alive and, maybe, almost made possible that Second Fandom.

Larry Ivie eventually illustrated numerous books, including some by Edgar Rice Burroughs for Canaveral Press, and also had his own monster mag/comic book, Monsters and Heroes. John writes of this illo: “During one of my visits... he asked me to pose for a Polaroid shot as reference for a commercial assignment. I posed as the center figure, holding Larry, who posed as the bearded man. Larry wasn’t trying to put a friend into the drawing; he just wanted figure reference, but the characters does look a little like me. I think it’s one of Larry’s better drawings.” It appeared in the July 1961 issue of If magazine, illustrating John Rackham’s story “The Stainless Steel Knight.” [Art ©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

BENSON: To some extent, I’d say that’s true. Hoohah! lasted for a long time, and it was a very substantial fanzine, a very substantial publication. In your Alter Ego article on Xero, you talk about the difficulty of using multiple colors in the mimeograph process, and it almost seems as though you were suggesting that Xero pioneered in multi-color mimeography, and also using multi-colors mixed in the same pass through. You were right about how difficult and time-consuming it was to completely clean the drum and run the pages through again with a different color and achieve good register. The effort was tremendous, particularly when you realize that it was done for only 100, or maybe 200, copy runs. But that wasn’t new. Ted White had done that a lot, and others had, too. In fact, around 1953 Ted did a color cover for his Facts

Comic Fandom Archive

behind Superman. That had black, red, blue and a fourth pass that had multi-colors in the same pass for the background. And he did it all on a post-card mimeo that couldn’t print anything larger than 4 by 6 inches. The point is that Hoohah! also had quite a bit of color mimeo in the later issues. BS: At what point did you want to contribute to a fanzine? BENSON: I contributed to Hoohah! Parker had a theme section in one issue where he asked a lot of people to write about what they thought about the new Mad, because Kurtzman had just left Mad. As a matter of fact, I sent him my piece first, and that gave him the idea to solicit the other pieces, all of which were certainly better written than mine. I wrote a very, very critical article about the new Mad, which embarrasses me today. Not so much the sentiment, which I pretty much still subscribe to, but the unfair way it was expressed. BS: I’ve read it and I thought, “Wow, it’s pretty negative.” BENSON: Yes, and I know that Feldstein read it and remembered my name years later. [laughs] Nevertheless, I did contribute to Hoohah!, so that’s my claim to fame. By the way, I want to say here that one thing that really impressed me about Hoohah! was Archie Goodwin’s contribution. You know, he built such a tremendous résumé over the years that no one remembers this early obscure stuff. BS: It was so clever. BENSON: Those first two covers that he did. You look at them and, like with Kurtzman, you say, “This is completely original, and perfect in its way.” BS: He could have become a Shel Silverstein, or something. BENSON: Yeah, he could have done that. And his writing, also, is very clever in Hoohah! BS: Didn’t Archie also do some later covers for Hoohah!? BENSON: Oh, that’s right, he did. He did some wonderful covers with a strong sense of design, completely different from those two funny earlier covers. He was so talented. BS: Your article on Mad in Hoohah! seems to tie in with the fact that you liked Mad the best of all the EC stuff. BENSON: Well, by that time, I considered myself an EC fan. But really, as I look back on it, the other EC comics were not material that I would have otherwise discovered or become interested in, if it hadn’t been for Kurtzman. Also, if you look at Hoohah! and most of the fanzines of that era, they were not completely limited to one subject. Hoohah! had science-fiction movie reviews and science fiction book reviews, for example. BS: Were you getting science-fiction fanzines too at this point?

John says he only seriously began reading ECs besides Mad after he saw Incredible Science Fiction #33 (Jan.-Feb. 1956)—ironically, the final issue. Artwise, Wally Wood delivered both a striking cover and the story “Big Moment.” [©2993 EC Publishing, Inc.]

BENSON: Not much, no. But I loved the idea of fandom as a loose confederation of people who exchanged letters and fanzines and ideas by mail. I loved that picture in your book [The Golden Age of Comic Fandom] by Mike Vosburg, of reading the mail, even though I never got mail in the kind of context that he showed. I’d go down to my box at Westtown, and if there was a big fanzine, that was great! BS: So prior to that issue of Incredible, you had no involvement in the New Trend when it was coming out? BENSON: I saw the ads in Mad, but I had no interest in them. I thought only juvenile delinquents read horror comics. BS: But not the science-fiction titles? Being a science-fiction reader, it would seem a more logical fit. BENSON: I understand your point, but I think it was actually partly the other way around. It was only when I started reading EC sciencefiction comics that I got interested in Bradbury, for example. Because I remember that special page with Bradbury’s picture. I think EC turned me on to Bradbury. In my senior year at Westtown, I wrote my term paper on Ray Bradbury. I still have it somewhere. BS: But you must have read quite a bit of Bradbury at the time. BENSON: I think he had about four books out then, not counting Dark Carnival, which was out of print and was an early version of The October Country, which was my favorite. They were all short story

John Benson

collections. No, Dandelion Wine had just come out, actually. I wrote a review of that for Larry Ivie’s fanzine Concept. I wasn’t too positive; I felt it was the beginning of his decline. [laughs] BS: Have you ever met Bradbury? BENSON: No, but I wrote to him when I was writing my term paper, and I asked him why, if he was so down on popular culture— in Fahrenheit 451 mainly—how was it that he let his stories be printed in comics? I was actually being a little provocative, because obviously I didn’t really believe that he was staining his reputation, or ruining his stories by having EC adapt them. I liked the EC adaptations, but I tried to provoke him. And he wrote back, and he told the now-famous story. I was the first fan ever to learn the famous story about how EC had printed unauthorized adaptations of his stories, and how he wrote to them and offered to... He presented it to me as a strategy to prevent unauthorized swipes elsewhere. I immediately turned around and wrote an article for Larry Ivie’s Concept. I had a scoop!—why Bradbury’s stories had appeared in EC. I’m embarrassed to say that I didn’t reveal how I found out about it. That was in 1958. I’ll probably print that Bradbury letter in Squa Tront sometime.

GUARANTEED TO SET ANY EC FAN’S HEART TO RACING

SQUA TRONT 10 After a twenty-year hiatus, the legendary EC magazine is back with an all-new issue! It’s more than worth the wait, too, with a recent interview with Al Feldstein (supporting art by Roy G. Krenkel); a 1978 panel discussion with Wally Wood, Bernard Krigstein and Harvey Kurtzman; a conversation with Kurtzman, Al Jaffee and Arnold Roth; previously-unseen Wally Wood art; interior color art by Feldstein, Kurtzman, Wood, and Jack Davis; early fanzine ephemera, and much more! Edited by John Benson. Only $7.95. Ask your retailer for a copy, or order direct from www.fantagraphics.com. BACK ISSUES AVAILABLE from Editor: #3 (1969/75) 80 pages. Feldstein, Bradbury, Frazetta, Evans, Crandall, Williamson, Krenkel, Wrightson, Metzger. More! $30. #6 (1975) Special Krigstein issue: revealing, heavily illustrated 28 page interview. Detailed checklist. $15. #7 (1977) Krenkel horror art; Kurtzman; Elder, Davis, Williamson, Krigstein. $15. #8 (1978) Complete transcripts of 1972 EC convention; Wood, Evans, Davis, Krenkel, Feldstein, Williamson, etc. $20. #9 (1983) 100 pages, interior color. Interviews with Feldstein, Elder, Gaines, and Kurtzman; early Wood art; EC’s writers; overflowing with art by Feldstein, Elder, Kurtzman, Ingels, Severin, Crandall, Davis, etc. $20. Please add $5 for Priority Mail postage & handling.

JOHN BENSON 205 W 80th ST (#2B) NEW YORK NY 10024 (No phone orders, please.)

The cover of an early paperback edition of Ray Bradbury’s The October Country, and Wally Wood’s splash page for the EC adaptation of one of Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles, from Weird Science #18 (March-April 1953). John’s first purchase of an EC sf comic was the final issue of the later Incredible Science Fiction, but he picked up the back issues later. [Cover art c 2003 the respective copyright holder; “Mars Is Heaven!” art ©2003 EC Publications, Inc.; the story itself is ©1948 Ray Bradbury.]

I recently pulled out my Westtown yearbook, and the quotes and characteristics section under my listing have some fannish references, like, “But I tell you, Mad isn’t any good any more.” That was me after Kurtzman had left. Another was, “Haven’t you put the mail out yet?” [laughs] And then there’s “Potrzebie Bounces.” That refers to a little escapade I remember with fondness. I printed up a huge number of 5” x 8” signs that said “POTRZEBIE BOUNCES,” and my roommate and I got up in the middle of the night and went through the whole school and put up hundreds of these signs everywhere, which caused quite a stir. Most of them were gone in a few days, but some of them lingered a long time. I got a thrill when I went back to the school a couple of years after I graduated and discovered that the one high up over the dean’s desk in his office was still there! The yearbook gave my ambition as “to be a second Ray Bradbury.” My “destiny,” which was always something deflating, was “to be a ghost writer for Confidential.” I’ll leave you to decide whether I’ve achieved my destiny.

[More about John Benson’s “destiny” next issue! Meanwhile, we heartily recommend that you check out John’s ad at left, and order some back issues of Squa Tront. For those who want to find out more about Bill Schelly’s books on the history of comics fandom, check out his website: www.billschelly.com.]

Title In Memoriam

Al Hartley (1925-2003) by Jim Amash Al Hartley always believed in reaching out to people through his work, as his later comics proved. He started out drawing gag cartoons for a few publications, but needed more income, so he went to Street and Smith Publications and drew a western. He may have done a little more than that for them, but that was what stuck in his mind when I interviewed him early in 2003. After the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Al immediately enlisted in the Army Air Corps, but wasn’t called to service until 1942. He was a real war hero, flying twenty missions over Europe. When he was discharged from the service, Al needed a job. He made the rounds of various companies, doing a variety of teenage and humor fillers such as “Jim Trent,” “Pop Jones,” “Speedy Hopper,” and “Front Page Peggy,” among others, for Standard Publications. He drew “Dotty” and some romance stories for Ace Comics, plus features for the American Comics Group. In 1949 he walked into the Timely offices, and Stan Lee put him to work on stories in every genre except superheroes. Issues of Annie Oakley, Black Rider, Gunhawk, Kid Colt Outlaw, Millie the Model, Patsy Walker, Patsy and Hedy, Combat Kelly, and Rex Hart contained some of his betterknown work.

As much as he enjoyed doing the regular Archie comics, it was these Christian comics that were closest to his heart. Al dearly wanted to reach out to people, and this was his best way to do it. He created many Christian comics featuring real-life people such as Johnny Cash and Tom Landry, as well as fictional characters. The fact that his stories weren’t religious tracts Al Hartley. Photo courtesy of Dr. Michael J. Vassallo. made these comics special. He never wanted to patronize his readers, feeling that a gentle touch was more effective. This approach proved successful, and the books gained worldwide attention for him. He did children’s books as well as comics, and worked until his health no longer permitted it. There’s no telling how many people were touched by his work.

Al drew some horror stories, but wasn’t thrilled about them; he preferred doing teenage and humor stories over everything else. In the mid-1950s, Stan and Al began working in the “Marvel style,” and eventually Al began writing his own stories (as well as some for other artists). For a brief time in the early 1960s, he worked on staff as Stan’s assistant, but soon went back to freelancing. It was a good move for him (and for the readers), because Al was at his best entertaining young audiences. In 1966 he began to devote all his energies to Archie Comics and became an important writer/artist for that company, spending many years guiding the Riverdale teens through their perpetual adolescence. He also became a spiritual advisor to them, when he was given permission to use the Archie characters for a religious series published by Spire Christian Comics.

Here is Al’s cover for the final issue of Patsy and Hedy (#104, Feb. 1966), the last survivor of the Patsy Walker-starring titles at Marvel. It demonstrates his ability to draw in both humor and romance styles—and to blend them seamlessly into the same piece of art. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Al was also proud of his father, Congressman Fred Hartley, the co-author of the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947. This important if still-controversial piece of legislation set standards for labor and management that prevented boycotts, sympathy strikes, and strikes in inter-union disputes, among other things. Al also influenced other cartoonists. Stan Goldberg, prominent colorist and humor artist for Marvel and Archie, was a great admirer of his humor work. Al also influenced several Archie artists, and the staff at Archie Comics, from Richard Goldwater and Michael Silberkleit to editor Victor Gorelick, held Al Hartley in the highest esteem. On a personal note, I feel fortunate to have interviewed Al. Though his health did not permit a long interview, he was eager to help me. He was proud of his long career, his family, and his Christian faith. Near the end of one talk, he asked me if I had ever done any Christian comics. I told him I had, though it had proved to be the worst experience of my comic book career, due to the actions of the publisher. Al said that was a shame, and that people like that made it tough for people like him to reach out to others. He apologized to me for this publisher and said he hoped it didn’t darken my view of Christians. He was apologizing for the actions of another man he didn’t even know, proving the concern he had for his fellow man was sincere and deeply felt. That’s the kind of man Al Hartley was. I wish I’d known him better.

re: Team that wound up supplying some of the lesser publishers like Holyoke, during the period they published Sparkling Stars, and Fox’s Blue Beetle, right on through to the very earliest manifestation of Charlton (Yellowjacket, etc.). In fact, Jacquet actually lasted well into the early 1950s via this Charlton contact. Jacquet alumni Ray Gill and Martin Filchock helped Jerry and me with the earlier years. Edd Ashe filled in the connection Jacquet also had with Classics Illustrated. Thus the Jacquet Shop was instrumental in launching the “look” of several comics publishing houses and, to their credit, unlike the other shops gave credits to their workers! Hames Ware

re: These two panels from the 1986 Alter Ego [comic book] #1 show young Rob Lindsay’s first visual encounter with the super-hero of that name—in a mirror. And A/E is clearly pointing not at Rob but at the liltin’ letters that follow. [Art ©2003 Ron Harris; Alter Ego TM & ©2003 of Roy & Dann Thomas.]

[INTRO NOTE: As per usual, some of A/E’s rhapsodic readers knew more about many of the subjects covered in issue #22 than we did—so here are some of their cogent comments, beginning with Hames Ware, who adds to what Jack Elmy wrote about Lloyd Jacquet and his Funnies, Inc., shop:] Dear Roy,

Thanks, Hames. Only thing rarer than info about Lloyd Jacquet is an Alter Ego letters section these days without one of your chatty, informative letters. Keep ’em flying! And now here’s Dr. Michael J. Vassallo, another roisterous regular (I admit it—Ye Editor has an alliterative attitude this morning as I peruse these letters—must be a lingering effect of talking on the phone with Smilin’ Stan Lee the other day): Roy, Another great Timely issue of Alter Ego! How could you do an Everett issue without telling me? I’ll have to write a piece in the future on an unknown, overlooked, yet fantastic aspect of Everett’s career, his Timely/Atlas romance stories. Gorgeously sterling examples of wonderful Everett artwork done in a subdued, realistic style. The Rudy Lapick interview was very revealing. Another great job by Jim Amash. Rudy turned up a few new names to add to the Timely bullpen roster, giving us the names of new staff inkers who have evaded our unearthing for years, names like Larry Tullipano and John Cuddy. He also placed known artists who later freelanced for Atlas as pencilers back into the Timely bullpen, names like Bill Savage and Tom Cooke. Also a revelation was the naming of John Cuddy as Dan DeCarlo’s inker prior to Rudy Lapick’s arrival. I don’t recall anyone placing Cuddy at Timely. Somewhere here I have some features drawn by Mario Acquaviva. This Timely staff letterer seems to be known by bullpen staffers as alternately an inker or a letterer, depending on who is being

The Jacquet Shop was distinct from the other major shops. It was set up more like a clearing-house than a conventional shop. While at the other classic shops there were actually buildings and offices housing several to many artists who often collaborated on jobs, most of Jacquet’s artists worked from home and did solo work and, also unlike other shops, got credit for whatever job they did. (Jacquet also allowed writer credits from time to time). Jacquet’s connections to early Timely/Marvel have already been written about, but his primary long-term customer was Curtis, the owner of the Saturday Evening Post, who put out the Novelty line of comics. Thus, to get a grasp of who was at Jacquet, one has only to leaf through the Blue Bolts, Target, 4-Mosts, and other Novelty titles (also Parents Publishing Company titles like True Comics). Jacquet was also very important to Fawcett, as his top artists like Carl Pfeufer, Edd Ashe, John Jordan, Eddie Robbins, and several others filled many a feature for several years, from “Commando Yank” to “Tom Mix.” The other unique thing about Jacquet that Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., and I discovered was that he seemed to maintain an “A” Team of artists that worked on the prestige titles and features mentioned above, while also maintaining a “B”

Hames Ware says Lloyd Jacquet maintained “A” and “B” teams of artists, and that the latter generally serviced Fox’s Blue Beetle and The Frank Publishing Company’s Yellowjacket. Not that the cover of YJ #6 (Dec. ’45) looks that bad, especially compared to that of BB #35 (Oct. ’44)! Too bad these two couldn’t team up with Green Hornet, Red Bee, and a couple more guys and form a Bug Battalion! Hames and Jerry Bails’ Who’s Who says Al Fagely drew some Yellowjacket circa 1945, so maybe he did this one? [Blue Beetle TM & ©2003 DC Comics; Yellowjacket ©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

re: interviewed and when said artist worked for Timely. Mario needs a good in-depth probing, as he spanned the Timely bullpen for almost the entire length of the 1940s. As for Lapick’s ink art, I wish I had had more time to turn up some Millie the Model pages, but what we used was decent DeCarlo/Lapick work. Lapick’s mention of Bill Vigoda has a Timely connection. Both Bill and his brother Hy had Timely work appear in the early 1940s on features including possibly the big three, namely Cap, Subby, and/or the Torch. I haven’t ever been able to confirm whether they were briefly on staff or appeared by virtue of Funnies, Inc., where they were working in 1942-43. The Namora splash on page 34 is not Mike Sekowsky’s work on pencils. I unfortunately don’t have an identification for you, but I’m just about positive it is not Sekowsky. [NOTE: See Harlan Ellison’s comments at the end of this section. —Roy.] The mention of Chic Stone is also very satisfying to me. I just knew he was likely there, but have never been able to place him. I only wish I could determine how long Chic toiled in the bullpen. There is a possible appearance by him in an early Timely humor issue of Joker Comics #7 (Feb. ’43), where the “Eustis Hayseed” features is signed “Chic,” and we’ve debated as to whether it’s actually Chic Stone. The fact that he was on the Funnies, Inc., roster in 1939-40 may explain this as possible inventory, or the dates could actually be wrong. The previous issue (#6) is signed “Robin,” who may be Ed Robbins, and the next issue (#8) is signed “Roy,” and possibly may be Mike Roy. Very strange, and worthy of deeper digging! Let me also comment on Jack Elmy’s piece on the search for Lloyd Jacquet. Jack turned over all the stones in his exhaustive search for answers. I’m confounded about how little is actually known about such an important figure in 1940s comics history. Hopefully Jack can pin down some additional contemporaries of Jacquet’s while they’re still with us and mine their remembrances before it’s too late. Overall, these interviews with surviving Timely bullpen artists are simply invaluable. We’ve learned more from the lesser-known guys than we ever did from the bigger guns like Carl Burgos, Stan Lee, or Syd Shores. I have an interview with Allen Bellman almost completed, and I’ve a line or two on additional Timely staff interviews in the future. Both are little-known yet prolific Timely artists. Michael J. Vassallo Lots of food for thought from Doc Vassallo, as always. But of course A/E #22 contained far from the last coverage of Bill Everett’s work in these pages. Matter of fact, we’ve invited Doc to do a piece on—but, as Stan Lee used to write, that would be telling! And look for his interview with Allen Bellman and Jim Amash’s with Sam Burlockoff in an early upcoming issue! Now, here’s collector George Hagenauer with a long postscript to Jim Harmon’s Captain Midnight coverage in issue #22: Hi Roy— The Captain Midnight daily strip was done by Erwin Hess, with occasional assists by Henry Vallely, both Wisconsin artists with a long history of working for Whitman publishers in Racine, Wisconsin, on Big Little Books, children’s books, and other Whitman publications. I’m not sure where the “Jon” came from, but the “wan” in the “Jonwan” signature came from the Wander Company, which of

45 course owned Ovaltine. “Erwin Darwin,” credited elsewhere in the article as doing the illustrations for Joyce of the Secret Squadron, probably also is Hess, as the stipple effect was a coming shading technique he used (I have a Big Little Book illo by him from the same period with a similar effect). Why Hess used a pseudonym on these two projects, or why Wander may have required it, is unknown, especially since the Captain Midnight comic book regularly credited Leonard Franks as the artist during the same period. Hess had an interesting career. The earliest work I have by him is spot illos done for a newsboy organization publication out of Milwaukee. Kirby’s “Newsboy Legion” was actually inspired by a lot of newsboy clubs/organizations (sans Guardian, of course) that were organized among newsboys. The average newsboy of the period usually came from a low-income background, with all the attendant problems. Many papers and schools saw the need to create structures to both reduce fights over key corners, as well as to provide extra support for these kids and keep them in school. The Milwaukee public schools ran such a group, with chapters across the city, and their own monthly magazine, which was produced and illustrated by the newsboys. This probably was Hess’ first publication as an artist. His other comics work included “Gang Busters” for Popular Comics in the comic book arm of Whitman’s Western Publishing. After the war, he began the Good Old Days nostalgia comic strip, which he continued until his retirement. His last years were spent in the small southern Wisconsin town of Monroe, not far from here—home of Humber Brewing. A lot of his Whitman and Good Old Days art still exists, as well as a handful of Captain Midnight dailies—though most of the latter have long since been buried in collections. Fawcett also produced some tattoos, in addition to the comic books, as part of their short-lived attempt to do paper envelope toys in the mid-’40s. George Hagenauer 2200 Dahlk Circle Verona, WI 53593 We'd say this is “everything we ever wanted to know” about the artist of the Captain Midnight strip, George—except that, as you know, to guys like us, there's no such animal as enough info about a vintage comics feature or its creator. Also, Paul Leiffer added the info that it ran from 1942-45, and that it was written in ’42 by comic book veteran Ed Herron, and from ’42-’45 by Russ Winterbotham, later of Twin Earths and Chris Welkin, Planeteer fame. Bill Warren, longtime pal of both Ye Editor and Jim Harmon, had this additional word: Dear Roy— Richard Webb once said that he knew the Captain Midnight TV series was over when he went on a personal appearance tour. The show was sponsored by Ovaltine, so he asked the huge crowd of kids, “What’s the world’s best chocolate drink?” and, as one, they shouted, “BOSCO!” Bill Warren

Both George Hagenauer and Hames Ware clued us in as to the identity of the “Jonwan” who drew the Captain Midnight strip that ran in 1942-43: Erwin Hess. Here’s Hess in his best pseudo-Milt Caniff style for Dec. 4, 1942. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

re: Hey, Roy!

Never could stand Ovaltine myself as a kid, Bill—despite my equal love for chocolate and Captain Midnight. I remember Al Williamson’s late wife Arlene making some for me when I was visiting them in the early 1970s—and I still had problems with it.

Lindy and I are getting a new grandson in June. Connor Reed Ayers will be the first Ayers of the 15th generation since 1635, when the first Ayers settled in Newbury, Massachusetts. We are excited. Dick Ayers

Next, a word from Mark Luebker about our Marvel Family cover for #22:

Best of luck to you and the family, Dick. Now, about that longplanned follow-up interview (to go with the one about your Magazine Enterprises work we ran back in ish #10)...!

Hi Roy— I was thrilled to see my C.C. Beck Marvel Family painting on the cover of Alter Ego #22. However, I was dismayed when I looked inside and saw it credited to P.C. Hamerlinck’s collection. That painting has been in my collection since late 1988, when a couple of friends of mine tracked it down and bought it from the guy who originally won it as a door prize in a 1980 comics convention up in Minneapolis. My friends gave it to me as a kind of going-away present when I left Minnesota to work in Washington, D.C.

Additions and Corrections Dept.: Author Harlan Ellison phoned the other day to point out a couple of things about issue #22.

First, he corroborated that the “Namora” splash on p. 34 is not by The display drawing of “The Fantom of the Fair” we printed in A/E #22 Mike Sekowsky, which we already may or may not have been by Paul Gustavson, but here’s a splash we suspected (as Bogart said in assume is by that worthy—from Marvel Mystery Comics #4 (Feb. 1940)— if only because Gustavson was the original artist of “The Angel.” Casablanca: “I was misin[©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.] formed”)—but he also had a positive ID for us. He says it’s the work of Ted McCall, who drew such comics as Grand Slam and Three Aces for the Canadian company Anglo-American during World War II, and had I actually provided a scan of it to you folks a few months back (at worked for the Toronto Evening Telegram in 1933-34; he also did the P.C.’s request), and I’ve been looking forward to seeing it in print. So Big Little Book Men of the Mounties. you can imagine my disappointment at its provenance being misatSecond: Harlan says the Eando Binder story “The Life Battery,” a tributed that way. As one of the very few Beck re-creations that features page of which was repro’d with Bill Schelly’s tribute to Landon all of the Marvel Family (I don’t actually know of another), I certainly Chesney, was written by both Earl and Otto Binder, not by Otto alone do want others to have the opportunity to see and enjoy it—that’s why as Ye Editor wrote in a caption. Otto, of course, continued to use the it’s been featured on my “Captain Marvel Gallery” website name “Eando” for his science-fiction prose even after his brother <http://members.tripod.com/~mluebker/CM_gallery.html> for the past stopped collaborating with him. Thanks for all the info, Harlan. few years. Anyway, I’d appreciate a correction. Mark Luebker (via e-mail) We stand corrected, Mark—twice! Even before we received your missive, FCA editor P.C. Hamerlinck had informed us of the act. Since we’d received the scan of the cover from him along with several others, we got confused as to its original source. But at least now we’ve set the record straight. Will Murray is both a professional writer and fantastically knowledgeable comics and pulp-mag fan, so here’s a tidbit from our mailbox: Roy: I was very intrigued by the Bill Everett alternate Captain America illo you ran in A/E #22. Are you aware that, a few years ago, Marvel ran a mysterious alternate C.A. model sheet found in Jack Kirby’s files in a Captain America special? What’s interesting about it is that Cap’s uniform is largely black, as was Everett’s. It makes me wonder if circa 1970 Marvel was looking for a less star-spangled and more modern Captain America design. Maybe Gene Colan also did one. We should ask. Food for thought. Will Murray And, while it has no particular connection to A/E #22, we received this note from Darlin’ Dick Ayers the other day—and if you’re saying, “Dick who?” then you have definitely got the wrong magazine!

Richard Kyle wrote from Long Beach to assure us that, despite the credit that we picked up from a recent Heritage Comics auction catalog, “that ‘Fantom of the Fair’ splash is not by Paul Gustavson.” We’ll have to let you and Heritage argue that one out, Richard. Perhaps the art was merely assumed to be Gustavson’s because he was the regular “Fantom” artist at Centaur Comics. Any more information out there? If so, send it or other info or comments to: Roy Thomas/Alter Ego Rt. 3, Box 468 St. Matthews, SC 29135

Fax: (803) 826-6501 E-mail: roydann@ntinet.com

And don’t miss next issue’s fabulous features on Joe Maneely! P.S.: Only a few of Ye Editor’s personal spare copies of the out-ofprint Alter Ego, Vol. 3, #1, from 1999, still remain—with Roy and Jerry Ordway showing-and-telling about the early-’80s origins of Infinity, Inc. (learn where all those heroes came from that’re popping up in every second DC mag these days)—a stellar interview with Golden Age JSA/Green Lantern artist Irwin Hasen—an all-star 1995 roast of Stan Lee by his sharp-tongued peers—plus Michael T. Gilbert, FCA, Bill Schelly, a French Silver Surfer story, and more! $20 per copy postpaid—autographed by Roy if you’re in the mood. Roy also has a handful of copies of the out-of-print Comic Book Artist #2-4, each of which has its own A/E section, for $15 per issue postpaid... and a few sets of the 1986 Alter Ego comic book by Ye Ed and artist Ron Harris, only $20 for all four issues. Send checks or money orders to the address above. Sorry, but $5 extra on all foreign orders.

Edited by ROY THOMAS

DIGITAL

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

EISNER AWARD WINNER for Best Comics-Related Periodical

Go online for an ULTIMATE BUNDLE, with issues at HALF-PRICE!

ALTER EGO #4

ALTER EGO #5

ALTER EGO #1

ALTER EGO #2

ALTER EGO #3

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #6

ALTER EGO #7

ALTER EGO #8

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #9

ALTER EGO #10

ALTER EGO #11

ALTER EGO #12

ALTER EGO #13

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #14

ALTER EGO #15

ALTER EGO #16

ALTER EGO #17

ALTER EGO #18

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

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

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

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

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

(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