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

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

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THE BEST IN COMICS AND LEGO MAGAZINES!

ALTER EGO #105

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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 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. 29 /October 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

MONSTERS MALICIOUS & MIRTHFUL Section

Production Assistant Eric Nolen-Weathington

Cover Artists Frank Brunner Pete Von Sholly

Contents

Cover Colorists Tom Ziuko Pete Von Sholly

And Special Thanks to: Gary Arlington Mark Austin Randall J. Barlow John Benson Chris Brown Frank Brunner Mike Burkey Orlando Busino Nick Caputo Gene Colan Dave Cockrum Jon B. Cooke Al Dellinges Roger Dicken & Wendy Hunt Shel Dorf Shelton Drum Tim Easterday Bill Fraccio George Gladir Stan Goldberg Paul Handler Dustin Harbin Daniel Herman

Richard Howell Thomas G. Lammers Stan Lee Steve Leialoha Pablo Marcos Michael Mikulovsky Mile-High Comics Fred Mommsen Brian K. Morris Dave O’Dell Jerry Ordway Tom Palmer John G. Pierce Larry Rippee Paul Rivoche Trina Robbins Pete Von Sholly Marc Swayze Dann Thomas Alex Toth Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Michael J. Vassallo Hames Ware Michael Zeno

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

William Woolfolk

Special Halloween Hulkorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 “I Didn’t Want to Draw Superman and Captain America!”. . . . . 3 A brief Halloween-oriented interview with the fantastic Frank Brunner.

“And Men Shall Call Him... Prototype!”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Tom Lammers looks at the foreshadowing—or something—of the Marvel Age of Comics.

“Doing Comics Was a Fun Learning Experience!” . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Bill Fraccio to Jim Amash on his years as a comic book penciler—and as half of “Tony Williamsune.”

A Talk with John Benson (Part III). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Bill Schelly concludes his conversation with the editor of the EC fanzine Squa Tront.

FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) #88 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 P.C. Hamerlinck presents Swayze, Colan, Ordway, Palmer, Cockrum, Marcos, and Pierce— plus a brief tribute to the late great Bill Woolfolk.

Horror, Terror, & Love Goddesses Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About Our Cover: It was a toss-up between two fabulous Brunner Batman pencil illustrations as to which would become our cover—definitely a no-lose situation! See them both in the pages that follow—plus lots more Brunner artwork drawn with the macabre in mind! [Art © 2003 Frank Brunner; Batman TM & © 2003 DC Comics.]

Above: “Rorgg, King of the Spider Men” beat your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man into a Martin Goodman mag by nearly two years—but does that mean there was a cause-and-effect relationship between them? Read Tom Lammers’ microscopic scrutiny of the problematical, even controversial Marvel “prototypes,” beginning on p. 14. [© 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

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Special Halloween Hulkorial!

Sneakily, Halloween has gradually become America’s second-biggest holiday. Since the horrific themes of that day (or rather, night) are intertwined with so much comic book work, I decided to see how a special Halloween issue would turn out. No big exhaustive interview this time—though Frank Brunner has some interesting things to say about his early horror work, Tom Lammers analyzes Marvel’s monstrous “prototypes,” Trina Robbins details the evolution of Timely’s Venus from romance to terror, Jim Amash interviews no less than three monster-related comics people, Michael T. Gilbert presents some EC homages, Bill Schelly concludes his interview with EC fanaddict John Benson, Alex Toth ponders the “mysterioso” factor in comics, Ware and

Vadeboncoeur handle Ernie Schroeder and The Heap, Doc V. and others herald a few Joe Maneely monsterworks left over from last issue, P.C. Hamerlinck’s FCA presents Captain Marvel in some creepy company, and painter Pete Von Sholly gives us a window onto a world where Classics Illustrated went whole-hog adapting the works of H.P. Lovecraft and other masters of the macabre. Is it any wonder we don’t have room for even a short writer/editorial on our flip side?

So I’ll let this circa-1970 cartoon by Frank Brunner, sent to us by Tim Easterday, have the final word (see the story behind it on p. 10), and let you decide if this issue is more trick... or treat.

Bestest,

P.S.: Our letters page will return next issue.

[Art ©2003 Frank Brunner; Hulk TM & ©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

COMING IN NOVEMBER NOW MONTHLY! ™

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THE SILVER AGE JUSTICE LEAGUE

Art ©20

—Plus THE GOLDEN/SILVER AGES OF FRENCH SUPER-HEROES • Color-splashed covers by ALEX ROSS and STEVE (Nexus) RUDE!

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de; teve Ru 2003 S Semic S.A. n art © 3 Homicro TM & ©200 n Homicro

Comics

• “Just a League of Their Own!” ALEX ROSS on his love for the JLA! ROY THOMAS, MICHELLE NOLAN, & WALT GROGAN on the first great days of the 1960s JLA, with awesome rare art by MIKE SEKOWSKY, DICK DILLIN, et al.!

• Blue Hawk! White Archer! Red Mask! Fantômas! A French Superboy (no relation)!

Heroes now starring in Strangers from Image! JEAN-MARC LOFFICIER on the super-doers of 1940s-1980s France! Art by STEVE RUDE, STEPHEN BISSETTE, LADRÖNN, JEAN-JACQUES DZIALOWSKI, NEAL ADAMS, & an artistic French Foreign Legion!

• “Ghost Writers in the Sky!” Golden Age scripters KIM AAMODT & WALTER GEIER talk to JIM AMASH about writing for JOE SIMON & JACK KIRBY (Boys’ Ranch and beyond!), Magazine Enterprises, Standard/Nedor, and others!

• Plus: ALEX TOTH—MICHAEL T. GILBERT—BILL SCHELLY—FCA with MARC SWAYZE, C.C. BECK, and the SHAZAM! cartoon show!—& more!!!

Edited by ROY THOMAS • 108 PAGES!

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Frank Brunner

3

“I Didn’t Want to Draw Superman or Captain America!”

A Brief Halloween-Oriented Interview with Formerly Far-Out FRANK BRUNNER Conducted by Roy Thomas (via e-mail) [Unless otherwise indicated, all art accompanying this interview was provided by the artist.]

ROY THOMAS: In the interview in Comic Book Artist #6 you said that you originally had it in mind to be an underground cartoonist. Why was that, and what made you change your mind?

FRANK BRUNNER: Back in 1968-69, it seemed as though the underground press was where things were happening. These were comics produced by young creative people without restrictions on style or content. After meeting some of them, I realized we had a lot in common. We listened to the same music, smoked the same “stuff,” spoke in similar terms, and dressed quite colorfully and, of course, we all were against the war going on at that time. So I set my cap and worked up some ideas for my entry into this subculture of comics. However, just as I was about to join them, they all left New York and headed (no pun intended) west to San Francisco!

Well, that ended those plans, and I began to take another look at doing “overground” comics. My fanboy roots began to flourish and I started meeting new eager young writers and artists, who also were just breaking into the business. We all had ideas about changing comics, working around the Comics Code if possible, sneaking little things past management, and in general trying to expand what comics looked like beyond the very prevalent “house” styles that were fairly well entrenched at companies like DC and Marvel.

RT: Your first published work appeared in black-&white horror mags. Did you always have an affinity for horror comics, or was it just a way you saw as your entrée into the field? You have said, after all, that you never saw yourself as a superhero artist.

BRUNNER: Actually, my first solo story was published in Web of Horror #3 (“Santa’s Claws”).

And by solo, I mean solo. I wrote it, penciled and inked it, and lettered it, too! Yes, I was an EC Comics fan, especially the horror and sci-fi books, but when the Code came along, all that ended for

Photo of Frank Brunner taken at the 2003 Heroes Con—and a black-&-white version of his penciled Batman/graveyard commission drawing that was used as this issue’s cover. To learn how to contact Frank to buy or commission original work, see the end of this piece. With thanks to Shelton Drum & Dustin Harbin of the Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find comics shop in Charlotte, NC; check out their website at <www.heroesonline.com>. [Art ©2003 Frank Brunner; Batman TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

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“I Didn’t Want to Draw Superman or Captain America!”

Splash page of Frank’s first professional solo art effort, from Web of Horror #3 (April 1970). WoH was a “Warren wannabe” black-&-white horror comic which featured the developing work, in its three bimonthly 1969-70 issues, of newcomers (and future stars) like Jeff Jones, Bernie Wrightson, Michael Kaluta, Bruce Jones—and Frank Brunner. To learn more about their Web experience, pick up Comic Book Artist Collection, Vol. Two, available from TwoMorrows; see its ad bloc in this issue. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

Brunner also drew an introductory page, featuring the magazine’s inhuman host, on the inside front cover of Web of Horror #3. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

color comics. Then came the Warren magazines (without the Code) and a chance to do some work that had teeth!

I liked reading super-hero comics as a child, but after discovering those old pre-Code EC comics (while in my teens), I saw what could be done in the medium beyond just super-heroes! I didn’t want to draw Superman or Captain America, especially at a time when my country was trying to get me killed (or make me a killer) in Vietnam! And finally, yes, horror was the way I got into the business; not everyone could (or wanted to) draw the dark and stylish art these stories required.

RT: Anything else you can remember about the Web of Horror experience besides what you said in Comic Book Artist #6, about how editor Terry Bisson left the company and so they canceled the mag right away? What was the second story you had done for Web, the one you wound up selling to Warren?

BRUNNER: As you say, I don’t want to go over what happened to Web again. But when the publisher canceled Web (he really only wanted to do Cracked magazine), I had already completed stories for issues #4 and #5. Word got out that Warren was lusting after most of the artists who had done work for Web, so I took the stories over to his office and he instantly bought the story called “Eye of Newt, Toe of Frog,” written

by Gerry Conway. The other story, “Sword of Dragonus,” he wanted also, but I got it published in a very slick “pro-zine” entitled Phase #1. I had plans to continue doing “Dragonus” stories and wanted to retain the rights to the character. [See Star*Reach #3.]

RT: You did three stories for Marvel’s color comic Chamber of Chills.

The splash page of a story Frank drew for James Warren’s Creepy or Eerie. It was never published. [© =2003 Frank Brunner.]

Frank Brunner The first of these was the Robert E. Howard adaptation “The Monster from the Mound,” scripted by Gardner Fox—at least I’m assuming you drew them in the order in which they were published.

Any particular recollections of that story? It was reprinted a few years back by Cross Plains Comics, the REH-based company, under its original Howard title “The Horror from the Mound.”

BRUNNER: Well, it was my first solo story for Marvel, and my first full-color comic book story, and that first printing (in Chamber of Chills #2) was the best printing it ever got. Later, Marvel reprinted it in one of its black-&-white magazines, and somebody put in all these dark marker tones obscuring most or the drawing. Then, as you say, Cross Plains Comics reprinted it again, using the terrible stats that Marvel used to make. (Marvel’s stat machine seemed to have only one setting, and only the thick and darkest line work would reproduce), so just about all my feathering work dropped out! I offered Cross Plains the opportunity to shoot from my originals, but they wanted to avoid paying me anything, so that’s why it looks the way it does!

RT: I think Cross Plains’ idea was to pay, if its comics had made money; but they didn’t, because, though they sold well in comics shops, most store owners wouldn’t order more than the absolute

5

handful they knew they could sell three seconds after they arrived.

The REH comics sold well where they got out, so it was a very shortsighted view on their part. Anyway—I presume Gardner wrote a full script for that story, right? Did you make any changes, or feel that you could have? Did I or someone else talk with you about the story before you drew it? Did you read Howard’s original prose story before doing the art, as well as the script?

BRUNNER: I’m pretty sure it was a full script, and no, I made no changes I can remember. We might have talked briefly about the story, but I was most concerned about getting it in on time. I’m a slow inker, and this was my debut appearance for Marvel as penciler. I did not read the original Howard story. I didn’t own a copy at the time, and besides I was mainly into his barbarian stories. For horror I read mostly Lovecraft in the early ’70s.

RT: Did you feel any particular restrictions because of the Comics Code (besides the name change, of course)?

BRUNNER: You bet your fetid bones I did! We (the artists) were not even allowed to depict red blood, and if any blood were shown it was black.

(Left:) The first Brunner-drawn story in a Marvel comic—and a color mag, at that—debuted in Chamber of Chills #2 (Jan. 1973), based on a Robert E. Howard vampire story from Weird Tales pulp magazine for May 1932. In 1972 the Comics Code still objected to the use of the words “horror” or “terror” in story titles or on covers... though they didn’t object mentioning the story’s original name in the credits. (Right:) In August 2000 the Fox/Brunner adaptation was reprinted

by Cross Plains Comics under editor/publisher Richard Ashford—in black-&-white with grey-tones added, with the original credits moved to the inside front cover, with the first caption “typeset”—and with the “Monster” in the title altered to the correct “Horror.” Too bad the exclamation point wasn’t omitted, too; but the $5.95 comic, Robert E. Howard’s Horror, was well-received and well-reviewed, and also contained art by Gene Day, Sandy Plunkett, and Steve Lightle. [©2003 Robert E. Howard Properties, LLC.]

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“I Didn’t Want to Draw Superman or Captain America!”

BRUNNER: It’s funny how you can read a story with no pictures, and the description sounds a lot more horrific than when you turn that description into a visual. I would have preferred to keep the monster mostly in the shadows with its strange shape and glistening eyes and red blood dripping from its jaws. But this was a Code comic, and probably would have upset management if I did it that way.

RT: Your third story was with a third writer—John Jakes, who soon went on to fame and fortune as an author of historical novels. He was adapting his own short story, a sequel to Edgar Allen Poe’s “A Cask of Amontillado.” Did he write a full script, or did you pace it out first from a synopsis?

BRUNNER: I received in the mail from Jakes’ literary agency a handtyped copy of the story as it originally appeared. I then broke it down into penciled panels and pages. Then it was sent off to Jakes for final scripting and lettering, then back to me for inking.

RT: What was the difference, if any, in working with these three writers?

BRUNNER: Fox was adequate; your scripting was more dramatic, and I liked it a lot better. Jakes—well, what can I say? That story was his baby from the get-go, and he handled it just right!

The final page of Frank’s second Marvel effort, “The Thing on the Roof,” scripted

by Roy Thomas from another Robert E. Howard story, from Chamber of Chills #3 (March 1973). This adaptation was likewise reprinted in Cross Plains’ Robert E. Howard’s Horror. The prose version had originally seen the light of the moon in Weird Tales for February 1932. Repro’d from a photocopy of the original art, courtesy of Frank. [©2003 Robert E. Howard Properties, LLD.]

RT: There are a lot of color shadings in the published Marvel version of that story—almost Wood-style lighting effects, that kind of thing.

Did you indicate any of those, or do you feel they were inherent in the way you drew the story? Do you know who colored the story (maybe Marie)?

BRUNNER: I was in no position to give coloring advice; after all, I was still learning how to do color comics! But I think the colorist went with the lighting and mood I had drawn. Marie is a good guess as to who did it, and she had colored a lot of the EC horror stuff years before.

RT: Your second story was the one you did with me, “The Thing on the Roof,” based on another Robert E. Howard story. Did I just give you the story and the page count and trust you to do it right, or did we discuss the story at all?

BRUNNER: I think you gave me a synopsis and perhaps a copy of the original short story. And I seem to recall you were most concerned with that big splash ending showing the creature over the dead tomb-raider’s body.

RT: Did you draw the creature on the final page more or less the way you wanted to, or did you feel especially constrained by the Code, or

by Marvel’s interpretation of the Code?

As Marvel’s associate editor, Roy Thomas spotted Brunner’s art for the story “What Rough Beast” in the pages of Creepy #45 (May 1972), decided that Farout Frank had developed his storytelling skills considerably since his earlier stint in the Bullpen, and gave him assignments for Chamber of Chills #2-4— and, ere long, on the troubled “Dr. Strange” series in Marvel Premiere. [©2003 Warren Publishing.]

Frank Brunner

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Third time’s the charm—or maybe the curse! John Jakes, a best-selling novelist since a very few years after this tale was published, adapted his own short story, aided and abetted by Frank’s moody art, in Chamber of Chills #4 (May 1973). By tale’s end, the unforgettable cry of Poe’s doomed protagonist, Fortunato (“For the love of God, Montressor!”), is echoed in “For the love of God, Fortunato!”—as the ghost of the walled-in man takes his vengeance on his killer’s descendant. [Marvel art ©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.; original story ©2003 John Jakes.]

RT: I recall that I got in touch with you to work for Marvel a second time after seeing a Warren or Web of Horror story you drew called “What Rough Beast” (from the Yeats quotation) or some such thing.

Did I call you and then put you on the three Chamber of Chills stories, or did you do those stories, and then “Beast,” and then I made the call re Dr. Strange?

BRUNNER: Well, according to my copy of The Brunner Mystique, “What Rough Beast” was published before I did Chamber or “Dr. Strange,” so you must have made that fateful phone call before my three stories for Chamber of Chills. I remember you said you really liked my monsters... but I suspect you had me in mind to eventually draw “Dr. Strange,” who was in a temporary limbo at the time.

RT: You covered in CBA how you did an issue or two of the “Dr. Strange” series in Marvel Premiere that you didn’t much like, with writer Gardner Fox, then quit—and that, when I called you to come back, I asked you what writer you’d like to work with. You said Steve Englehart, and that was certainly fine by me... and I never had any reason to regret that choice, since your and Steve’s run together on the book was one of the few times Dr. Strange ever sold competitively with the other Marvel titles, percentage-wise. But, since you had earlier written some things, why didn’t you say you wanted to try writing an issue? (I might just have let you.) Or did you say you wanted to write it, but I felt I wanted someone else doing it with

you? I can’t recall... but then you’d have more reason to remember such things than I would.

BRUNNER: It’s kind of interesting that you tell me this now... but seriously, yes, I was unhappy working with full scripts from Fox, and when I met Englehart we talked about all the amazing possibilities for Doc. I really thought we could write this together; besides I’d never written a series before—mostly short stories and an outline for a graphic novel entitled Redman’s Odyssey—so Steve was the perfect person to bounce all my plot and storyline ideas off of. I knew my dialogue was a bit weak, and his was really great. Also, it enabled me to spend more time on the drawing end of things.

But to answer your question, I didn’t ask to write and draw it because that was not the Marvel way at that time, and maybe I was a little insecure about taking it all on myself.

RT: Your artistic approach to “Dr. Strange,” while hardly identical to Steve Ditko’s, probably had more in common with his later cosmic approach than did the in-between work by Bill Everett, Marie Severin, Dan Adkins, and Gene Colan. How do you feel about the other artists who did “Dr. Strange” before you? Or after, for that matter—like Marshall Rogers, for instance?

BRUNNER: Ditko really was so great on Doc, and his art and stories

8

“I Didn’t Want to Draw Superman or Captain America!”

Pilgrim’s progress—Marvel style! Frank Brunner came onto the “Dr. Strange” in Marvel Premiere #4 (Sept. 1972) as an inker and finisher to rough pencils

by Barry (Windsor-)Smith—returned in #6 (Jan. ’73) as penciler, with inker Sal Buscema—returned again, this time in tandem with writer Steve Englehart, in #9 (not pictured). Shown is the splash to #10 (Sept. ’73), inked by Brunner and others. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

were popular with the counterculture too, so Dr. Strange was just about the only Marvel character that transcended and appealed to both the overground readers and the underground! I also really liked your work with Colan and Palmer. Great stuff, with all those crazy panel shapes!

(Something that I would carry over into my own work.) But I did not particularly like the attempt to further super-heroize Doc. He didn’t have or need a secret identity, so why wear a mask? Everyone knew who lived in that weird mansion in Greenwich Village!

RT: You’ve said that, along with horror and science-fiction, you sortof liked doing parody art, the Mad kind of thing. Did you feel your stint on Howard the Duck gave you something of a chance to do that kind of story?

BRUNNER: Yes, Howard was as out of this world as Marvel ever got.

He could get away with criticizing the stupidity of the human race—in fact that was his charm—and the Duck immediately appealed to me from the first glimpse I got of him in “Man-Thing”! Gerber was very interesting to work with. His sense of satire meshed quite well with mine. But unfortunately and sadly, that came to an all too abrupt end for me... Marvel’s fault, in this case!

RT: You turned me down on doing Red Sonja, except for a few covers, but I feel we could’ve done some great things with that character.

Not a question... just an observation.

Frank Brunner

9 version of The Shining, but hated King’s TV adaptation.

Sometimes I think he’s his own worst enemy when it comes to film. On the other hand, his non-horror stories make excellent movies, like Stand by Me, Misery, and The Green Mile.

RT: Have you ever thought about writing a horror (or other type of) novel yourself? Or do you feel you turned your back on that some time back? Because you have written a number of comics, of course, and at least co-plotted quite a few more.

BRUNNER: I’d like to write some more sci-fi/adventure stories (with a dash of social commentary). I have a couple of projects that I’m interested in doing. DinoForce is one, Star Samuroids is another (a sequel to my earlier graphic novel, Seven Samuroids), and a new comic character by the name of “Falcon Dark” (some where, sometime). Also if any of the readers would care to take a peek at what DinoForce looks like, please check out my website at www.frankbrunner.net.

RT: With Dr. Strange behind you, did you ever consider seeing if DC would give you a crack at Dr. Fate or The Spectre? I think you’d have done a killer job on either character. What about DC’s more “adult” line of comics? Ever considered submitting anything over there?

BRUNNER: A long time ago, when Englehart started writing for DC, we wanted to do for Dr. Fate what we did for Dr. Strange—in other words, make him a success! (I was even brushing up on my Ancient Egyptology.) But there was a writer there who had written one or two Dr. Fate comics and now held

In Marvel’s Savage Sword of Conan #30 (June 1978) Brunner illustrated the second Conan story ever written by Robert E. Howard, “The Scarlet Citadel,” with script by Roy Thomas. Here’s Frank’s finished art for a key page in that awesome adaptation, minus all captions and word balloons, repro’d from a photocopy of the original art. [©2003 Conan Properties, Inc.]

BRUNNER: Yes, I agree, and have some regrets about not taking you up on the offer. I loved the character and really loved drawing women, especially in fantasy times and places! But you know me—I probably would have wanted to change some things, like maybe make her an antiheroine.

RT: In some other areas: who are your favorite horror-type artists, if any—both in comics and in other areas? What about writers? In fact, do you ever read horror novels, like Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and the like? Or the oldtimers besides Howard and Lovecraft, whom you’ve already mentioned you read?

BRUNNER: Hmmm... Harry Clark (an illustrator who did, I think, the best Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Poe)—Graham Ingles (the EC artist)—Jack Davis, James Whale (movie director), Rich Corben, Wrightson, Robert Bloch, Lovecraft, Derleth, many others I don’t recall just now.

Yes, I’ve read some of King’s stories; I liked the Dark Tower trilogy.

But I really don’t think a lot of his horror stuff translates well to movies or comics. It’s mostly about what’s going on inside the mind of his characters, which is not all that visual, and yet they turn every little story he’s written into junk movies. For instance, I liked Kubrick’s

Frank’s rough pencils for a commission drawing. Thanks to Michael Zeno.

[Art ©2003 Frank Brunner; Dr. Strange and Clea TM & ©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

10

“I Didn’t Want to Draw Superman or Captain America!”

Frank says this penciled piece was his preliminary for an oil painting commission. Betcha the oil’s a real beauty! [Art ©2003 Frank Brunner; Hulk TM & ©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

RT: What’s the story behind that great Headless Horseman pencil?

BRUNNER: That piece was also a commission, by someone who collects Legend of Sleepy Hollow illos by his favorite artists, and I’m certainly a fan of classic horror/fantasy. In fact, years ago when Marvel was doing calendars, I asked if I could do October, and have the Marvel monsters scaring the hell out of Ichabod Crane.

RT: Do you prefer just leaving things in pencil these days? Do you feel it’s redundant to ink something after you’ve penciled it tightly?

Of course, you probably don’t pencil so tightly when you know you’re going to ink.

BRUNNER: Both have their own special qualities. Pencil is softer and more flexible, while ink is harder-edged and more dramatic. I like them both. And for your readers who might like to see more of both, may I recommend they get a copy of my recent collected works from Vanguard Publications, Eyes of Light: The Fantasy Art of Frank Brunner. The softcover is now in its second printing, and hardcovers can be ordered directly from Vanguard, or from me at my website.

RT: That Vision/Scarlet Witch drawing is nice, too. Was that a commission? Is that some gypsy version of her costume she’s worn in recent years?

BRUNNER: Yes, that, too, was a commission, and I saw that gypsy outfit on an Avengers cover, and thought, that’s rather cool—besides, I

some power over there. He didn’t want us to touch it, acted like he created and owned the character, so no green light for that project. Boy, talk about office politics!

RT: You generously sent us a few pieces of art you thought would especially fit with this issue’s Halloween theme, so I’d like to ask you about them. Why and when did you do that nice Hulk pencil shot, for instance—the one with The Hulk just standing there, framed by the moon?

BRUNNER: That was done as a preliminary for an oil painting commission, which I completed several months ago.

RT: Did you ever have a desire to draw The Incredible Hulk? I know you’ve done a number of interesting drawings of him over the years.

BRUNNER: It would have been fun to do a few issues of The Hulk. I did put him in Dr. Strange #2.

RT: One odd drawing of The Hulk is the one you did, must be thirty-plus years ago now, of him threatening me and telling me to shut up. [NOTE: See p. 2.] Can you tell me the circumstances of that one? I don’t recall ever seeing it till someone sent it to me a few months back.

BRUNNER: I didn’t recall doing it until you sent me a copy recently. Sorry about making you the brunt of a joke, but as I recall, it was requested by a fan at a convention, who seemed to think you talk too much. (I don’t know where he got that idea.)

This commission drawing would give even Washington Irving nightmares! [©2003 Frank Brunner.]

Frank Brunner

11

Wanda & her favorite android. [Art ©2003 Frank Brunner; Scarlet Witch & Vision TM & ©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Alter Ego highly recommends the 2002 Vanguard publication Eyes of Light: Fantasy Drawings of Frank Brunner. You can obtain a copy from Vanguard Productions at <creativemix.com/vanguard>, or directly from Frank himself at <www.frankbrunner.net>. [Art ©2003 Frank Brunner.]

12

“I Didn’t Want to Draw Superman or Captain America!”

What can we say? A powerful pencil illo!

[Art ©2003 Frank Brunner; Batman & Joker TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

prefer the flowing robes treatment as opposed to all the spandex costumes.

RT: As for Batman—what’s the story behind the Batman-in-thegraveyard cover that we’ve reproduced from pencil, both here and on our cover? Really like that one.

BRUNNER: That was suggested by a client of mine—Batman mourning at the grave of his murdered parents. The single white rose in the urn on the tombstone is for his mother!

RT: Your Batman-crucified-by-Joker pencil drawing is equally fine, and was a virtual toss-up to be the cover of A/E #29. I’ll probably never be sure if I made the right choice, but maybe there wasn’t a wrong choice. Did someone ask for that particular scene? Do you sometimes just do a drawing and figure someone will want it?

BRUNNER: As a matter of fact, that one was entirely my idea.

Someone wanted a Batman piece, and I was racking my brain for a scene that I at least had never seen before. Batman crucified by The Joker is what I came up with! It’s hard, when a character has been in print for over sixty years, to think of anything that hasn’t been done before, and Batman has been through a lot of bad periods as well as good times , but the character remains potent!

RT: I know I’ve only covered up through the Dr. Strange years in your career in this interview, at least partly because Alter Ego’s

Marvel's Fear (called Adventure into Fear with The Man-Thing on the covers) was blessed with some great covers in 1972-73 by Gray Morrow, Neal Adams, and others—including Frank Brunner. This scan of the original art for the cover of #15 (Aug. ’73) was sent by Dr. Michael J. Vassallo from his personal collection. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Frank Brunner

13 unofficial “franchise” is through the mid-1970s, when I started phasing myself out of comics, at least mentally—so I may not be aware of everything you’ve done since then.

Besides your work in animation for years—did you ever actually do the story to go with that drawing you did years ago of an Amerindian paddling a canoe through space?

Always loved that one.

BRUNNER: You mean Redman’s Odyssey. No, I have not.

Back in 1970-72 I took it over to the publishers of Eisner’s A Contract with God graphic novel. I had a pretty darn good presentation and proposal to offer them. But evidently a sci-fi future mythology about Native Americans was not their cup of motza ball soup. They incredulously asked me, “Who’s gonna buy this book? Indians?” (Quite an intelligent attitude!) Anyway, I’ve lost the “fire in my gut” to do it anymore, and what might have been a ground-breaking book 33 years ago might just be considered exploitative now by many Native Americans.

RT: Any other Halloweeny thoughts?

BRUNNER: Yeah. Anyone want to see something really scary? Watch how sausages are made! Or watch how Congress makes new laws! Now that’s frightening!

An evocative drawing for Brunner’s once-projected graphic novel Redman’s Odyssey. [©2003 Frank Brunner.]

As this issue of A/E was in the final stages of preparation, Frank e-mailed us a scan of this commission illustration he had just completed—a fabulously-realized and nightmarish scene from Edgar Allen Poe’s horrific short story masterpiece “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” What better way to end this tour of the artist’s work? It even jibes perfectly with our halcyon Halloween theme!

Hey—interested in obtaining Brunner original art of your very own? Frank is currently accepting art commissions for re-creations of covers, splash pages, or pin-ups—also for ideas for new art—whether penciled-only, inked, or in full color (paintings)—minimum order $150. Write Frank directly for details and prices at 312 Kildare Court, Myrtle Beach, SC 19588—and be sure to send a selfaddressed envelope (that’ll net you a free autographed Brunner Star Wars Galaxy trading card!). Meanwhile, for a visual treat, visit Frank’s new website at <www.frankbrunner.net>. [©2003 Frank Brunner.]

14

“And Men Shall Call Him... PROTOTYPE!”

“And Men Shall Call Him...

PROTOTYPE!” A Look at the Foreshadowing––––or Something–––of the Marvel Age of Comics

by Thomas G. Lammers [All art, unless noted, provided by the author or by Alter Ego’s editor.]

Part I Pre-Hero Prototypes Everybody knows them. We’ve all seen them. Amazing Fantasy #15.

Journey into Mystery #83. Fantastic Four #1. Tales of Suspense #39.

Strange Tales #110. Those crucial first appearances of the heroes who defined what Stan Lee dubbed the Marvel Age of Comics. Some of the most highly desirable (and outrageously expensive) properties in all comicdom.

But what if those were not exactly the first appearances of those heroes? What if one could find earlier incarnations of Iron Man or Ant-Man or Dr. Strange in the company’s pre-super-hero books? To see a “market test” of Spider-Man or The Hulk—wouldn’t that be great fun! And wouldn’t that make an otherwise pedestrian comic much more desirable... and much more expensive?

We know that editor Stan Lee did such things—at least once. Before resurrecting the company’s Golden Age standard-bearer, Captain America, in Avengers #4 (March 1964), we were treated to an ersatz Cap in the “Human Torch” story in Strange Tales #114 (Nov. 1963). At the end of the story, Lee made it clear that he was indeed gauging the potential for a comeback: “You guessed it! This story was really a test! To see if you, too, would like Captain America to return!

As usual, your letters will give us the answer!” If Lee (or publisher Martin Goodman) didn’t want to bring back a former top-seller without a try-out, how much less A trial balloon that flew—or did it? As related above, a bogus Captain America (the villainous Acrobat in disguise) appeared in the “Human Torch” tale in Strange Tales #114 (Nov. 1963), of which we’ve repro’d the cover and a key page. (Interestingly, Cap’s trunks are colored an incorrect red throughout the story, while, on the cover, blue seems to have been laid in over red trunks, making them purple.) The real Cap returned just four months later, in The Avengers #4 (March ’64)—hardly sufficient lead-time to have gauged reader reaction, since Avengers #4 would likely have been in the works by the time S.T. #114 went on sale. Either the Marvel offices were bombarded with letters almost instantaneously upon Cap’s faux comeback and the Real McCap was rushed into print—or else editor Stan Lee and publisher Martin Goodman made up their minds to revive him without waiting for readers’ response (let alone sales reports!). A/E’s editor holds with the latter view, but he’s open to arguments.

Thanks to Mark Austin & Chris Brown for the art scans. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

The Foreshadowing–––or Something–––of the Marvel Age of Comics likely would he be to inaugurate totally new characters untested?

And so was born the concept of the Marvel Pre-Hero Prototypes.

Searching through earlier issues of Marvel’s comics reveals any number of stories that in one way or another remind us of our beloved superheroes of the 1960s and beyond. These stories have come to be regarded as prototypes of that which came after.

The concept of super-hero prototypes is most closely associated with The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide. In the most recent (32nd) edition1, 34 pre-hero issues of Amazing Adult Fantasy, Journey into Mystery, Strange Tales, Tales of Suspense, and Tales to Astonish are identified as “prototype issues.” In fact, the concept is even applied to stories pre-dating the May 1957 “Atlas Implosion” that reduced Goodman’s empire from over 60 titles to a mere 16: three stories in Mystic and Uncanny Tales are likewise considered prototypes. All these stories allegedly foreshadow the development of major heroes (e.g., Spider-Man, Hulk, Dr. Strange) as well as villains (e.g., Dr. Doom, Sandman, Mr. Hyde).

15

“What Do You Mean, ‘Prototype’?”

My dictionary5 defines prototype as “an original model or pattern from which subsequent copies are made, or improved specimens developed.” It is very much a word associated with manufacturing: companies frequently create prototypes as part of marketing research and product development. Before Boeing delivered the first B-17 Flying Fortress to the Army Air Corps in 1936, it produced the Model 299 prototype as a testbed for the production of four-engine heavy bombers.6 Before General Motors introduced the Buick Skylark in 1953, it created the XP-300 concept car and put it on the auto show circuit, to test the reaction of the motoring public.7

Although it is not stated explicitly, it seems to me that a prototype of this sort embodies the concept of intent. In my view, an object is a prototype only if its creator intended to use it as a model or pattern from which to develop subsequent specimens. Therefore, a pre-hero character can be regarded as a prototype for a subsequent character only if there was a conscious Until recent editions, intent to use it to gauge the Overstreet Guide reader reaction and sales carried a very explicit potential. For example, Stan account of how these issues Lee says to Jack Kirby, “I came to be identified as wonder what readers would prototypes. For example, think about a series the 28th edition2 stated (p. featuring a guy inside a 963), “Some of today’s powered metal suit. Let’s popular super-hero whip up a little story for characters were developed Tales of Suspense with a from or after earlier forms guy like that and see what or prototypes. These kind of mail we get. If the prototype characters response is good, maybe I sometimes were introduced Beginning in 1974, Marvel produced an annual calendar featuring its most popular can sell Goodman on a to test new ideas and heroes at that time, with a cover by John Romita. Dracula and Conan the Barbarian regular series.” If such were concepts which later had pre-existed Marvel Comics, and were themselves virtual prototypes for every later the case, I would say such a developed into full fledged vampire and sword-and-sorcery hero. [Conan TM & ©2003 Conan Properties, Inc.; story could fairly be super heros [sic], or old other characters ©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.] considered a prototype, “an material sometimes would original model or pattern from which... improved specimens [were] inspire new characters. Below is a list of all known prototypes. The developed.”

Marvel/Atlas issues have been verified by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and Jack Kirby.” Curiously, such a statement is not found in the 2002 But what if there was no intent? What if, when the earlier tale was edition. first prepared, it was just another story, with no thought given to possible future development of the character? Later, a certain type of Many have criticized the whole idea of Marvel Pre-Hero character is needed, and the writer or artist harks back (consciously or Prototypes.3 Though the concept is well known among buyers and unconsciously) to this earlier work for ideas or inspiration, thus creating sellers of comics, it is not found in most published histories of the the perceived similarities between the two. Rather than a “prototype,” Marvel Universe.4 In this series, I want to explore this concept in some might it not be better to call such a story or the character in it a detail. We first will consider what it means to be a prototype, and ask precursor or forerunner of the later character? These words denote a whether this is the best term to describe the perceived similarities thing that precedes subsequent development, but do not carry the between pre-hero and later characters. Then, we will examine the stories connotation of intent or deliberate planning. In fact, it allows for the listed by the Overstreet Guide as prototypes, judging their status. possibility that the perceived similarities are entirely unintentional.

Finally, just for the fun of it, we will examine additional stories, some Furthermore, while the word “prototype” is associated with manufacgoing back to the early ’50s, that have not been identified as prototypes, turing, a precursor or forerunner has a more naturalistic, almost evolubut which might seem to have as much claim to such a designation as tionary implication, which seems to me more in tune with the nature of some of the others. the creative process.

16

“And Men Shall Call Him... PROTOTYPE!”

How Can You Recognize a Prototype?

If we wish to distinguish true prototypes from mere precursors, how do we judge intent? How can we ascertain, 40 years after the fact, whether a particular story was intended to serve as a trial balloon for a subsequent super-hero or villain? The seemingly obvious answer—“Ask the creators!”—might actually yield the poorest results. In numerous interviews over the years, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and others who worked at Marvel in the early 1960s have been asked repeatedly about various events surrounding the creation of the Marvel Universe.

For whatever reasons, their memories in many cases have proven unreliable. Not only are the recollections of different individuals in conflict; in some cases, a given person’s memories also have changed over the years. If we cannot rely on creators’ memories, we must per force seek internal evidence of intent—evidence from the books themselves.

What form might this take?

The most obvious evidence would be an editorial note seeking reader input, similar to the one at the end of the Captain America story in Strange Tales #114. Such invitations of input were not infrequent in books edited by Stan Lee, both during the ’50s and into the ’60s. For example, World’s Greatest Songs #1 (Sept. 1954) carried a half-page plea headed “Now YOU Tell US...” in which Lee invited readers to “write and tell us what you like and don’t like about ‘World’s Greatest Songs.’”

Similarly, on the first page of Patsy Walker #124 (Dec. 1965), we read: “Important! In order to find out which kind of story you, the readers, prefer... we’re presenting three Patsy and Hedy adventures this month!

There’s one tale of romance, one of glamour ... and this fun-filled action story! Please write, and tell us which one you liked best!!” Lee clearly was not shy about asking for feedback. If reader input is explicitly solicited in an alleged prototype story, it could be taken as a sign of

intent. It is significant that not a single one of the alleged prototype stories contains such a plea.

Very close correspondence between an alleged prototype and its supposed derivative might also count as evidence of intent. As we shall see, the perceived similarities that suggest relationships between pre-hero and subsequent characters are of four types: (1) close correspondence in character attributes; (2) close correspondence in story plot; (3) strong visual resemblance; or (4) possession of the same name. One would think that either of the first two might be a better indicator of a true relationship between character and alleged prototype than either of the last two by themselves. Furthermore, if the similarity involved three or all four of these aspects, it might be interpreted as an indication of intent.

It is only fair to note that the opportunity for close resemblance will be somewhat constrained by the difference in genres. None of the alleged prototype stories are super-hero tales, as the titles in which these stories appeared were anthologies devoted to various kinds of fantasy or mystery stories. The most prominent were the “giant monster” stories, no doubt inspired by the many films of that sort produced during the 1950s, e.g., The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), Them! (1954), and The Beginning of the End (1957). In such tales, an enormous creature of some sort menaces the human race, and is overcome by an otherwise unremarkable protagonist. Other stories were modern morality plays, often with O. Henry twist endings, of the sort popularized by the Twilight Zone television series of the day. In these, a criminal or otherwise disreputable character would get his comeuppance or learn a lesson in some ironic, often supernatural way. Still others were straight science-fiction tales, with spaceships, robots, alien invaders, and distant planets. Because of these differences in genre, none of the alleged prototypes will precisely match the super-hero character supposedly derived from it.

If a story were truly intended as a market test for a new character, one might expect it would be depicted on the cover. In the newsstand era, covers were widely regarded as a key factor to sales. An intriguing, eye-catching cover could mean the difference between sellthrough and massive returns to the distributor. If the whole point of a prototype was to gauge a character’s potential to generate sales, it would only make sense to have featured it prominently on the cover.

Patsy Walker #124 (Dec. ’65) asked whether readers preferred “romance,” “glamour,” or “fun-filled action”? The Al Hartleydrawn Patsy soon vanished from newsstands—to return a decade later in Avengers #144 (Feb. 1976) as a super-heroine called Hellcat. Maybe this was considered “fun-filled action”? Cover art by Gil Kane & Frank Giacoia. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

One other factor bears mention in our attempt to evaluate the claims of these stories to prototype status.

Stan Lee is widely credited with creating or co-creating the super-hero characters that became the Marvel Universe.8 Almost every one of those key origin stories, in Fantastic Four #1 and the rest, was scripted (or at least plotted) by Lee. He seems to have signed

The Foreshadowing–––or Something–––of the Marvel Age of Comics

17

time when he was in the habit of doing so if he felt he deserved the credit, is a point worth noting. In a similar vein, one might suggest that a character is more likely a true prototype if it was drawn by the same artist who drew the subsequent character it resembles.

The Canonical Prototypes Analyzed With these distinctions and clarifications in mind, let’s reexamine the 37 stories listed as Pre-Hero Marvel Prototypes in the 2002 edition1 of The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide. They cover eight super-heroes and/or their associated characters, and will be discussed here in the order of appearance of the main characters.

Fantastic Four Even prototypes can have prototypes! Superman, of course, was a prototype for all super-heroes who came after 1938—even if the Man of Steel had a few precursors himself. This 1971 illo was penciled for a Mattel puzzle by Jack Kirby, who would cocreate most of Marvel’s 1960s super-heroes, and was inked by Mike Royer, with Supes’ head redrawn (as per usual in that era) by Murphy Anderson.

And, on the heels of the 1953 re-release of King Kong, a horde of (mostly radioactivityinduced) giant monsters was unleashed, starting with The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. These, of course, inspired all those post-Atlas, pre-Marvel “monster comics”

by Lee, Kirby, and company. Pay no attention to that scaly tail (from a photo of Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion monster) jutting into the autographed movie poster!

[Superman art ©2003 DC Comics; Beast art © the respective copyright holder.]

virtually everything he ever scripted. Even the paper doll pages used as fillers in Millie the Model, Patsy Walker, and other teen humor titles bore Lee’s signature, though the “script” seldom amounted to more than a list of readers who had sent in fashion designs. So it is interesting to note that only two of the 37 alleged prototype stories cited by the Overstreet Guide were signed by Lee! Lee clearly did not feel he deserved credit as the scriptwriter of those stories; it is believed most were written by his brother, Larry Lieber. It is possible that, in his capacity as editor, he nonetheless originated the concepts found in stories he did not script; in later years, when credits were more explicit, he often took a plotter credit for stories he did not write, e.g., the “Iron Man” origin in Tales of Suspense #39. Nonetheless, the fact that Lee only claimed a writing credit on two of the alleged prototype stories, at a

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s most enduring creation, the Fantastic Four, burst on the comics scene in Fantastic Four #1 (Nov. 1961).

The group—Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards), Invisible Girl (Susan Storm), The Human Torch (Johnny Storm), and The Thing (Benjamin Grimm)—defied many comic book conventions and, in doing so, rewrote the rules for super-heroes to come. No prototypes of the group as a whole have been identified, though two of its members are supposedly represented among the prototypes identified by the Overstreet Guide.

The earlier, an alleged prototype of The Human Torch, appeared in Strange Tales #76 (Aug. 1960). The story in question, depicted on the cover, is “I Am Dragoom! The Flaming Invader!” (7 pp.), with pencils by Jack Kirby and inks by Dick Ayers. Dragoom is an alien from the planet Vulcan (Trekkies take note) who appears to be living flame. He does indeed closely resemble The Human Torch as drawn by Kirby in the first two issues of Fantastic Four, and possesses similar powers. On the other hand, he is an alien and flaming by nature, not a human who has acquired the ability to “flame on!”

Some might protest that Dragoom could not possibly be a prototype, because the original Human Torch debuted two decades earlier in Marvel Comics #1 (Oct. 1939). However, in 1961, he had not been seen in comics since his appearance in Captain America #78 (Sept. 1954). It is not inconceivable that the 1960 story was a test for a second revival of

18

“And Men Shall Call Him... PROTOTYPE!”

A King Kirby triptych! We reprinted the Kirby-Sinnott splash of “Pildorr” in A/E #26, so here’s a panel from Strange Tales #94 (March 1962)—plus a Thing sequence from F.F. #1, repro’d from Paul Handler’s 1961 production photostats—topped off by the splash page of “The Two-headed Thing.”

The latter cover story appeared in Strange Tales #95 (April ’62)—four months after the F.F. made their auspicious debut. Given the name and the strong family resemblance, does that make ever-lovin’, blue-eyed Benjy Grimm a prototype for that subterranean monster? (The ol’ double-header resurfaced, courtesy of writer Roy Thomas and artists Herb Trimpe & Carmen Imperato, in 1994’s Fantastic Four Unlimited #7.) [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

the Golden Age Human Torch, analagous to the Captain America tryout in Strange Tales #114. Featuring Dragoom on the cover adds some support to this hypothesis. The Torch’s bold primary colors and aerial acrobatics on a comic cover apparently sold books; note that of the three Golden Age super-heroes revived in 1953, it was the Torch who was featured on the covers of all seven anthology issues of Young Men and Men’s Adventures. Lee or Goodman may very well have wanted to see if their flaming character could attract readers’ dimes once more. Despite the seeming illogic of a 1960 prototype for a 1939 character, Dragoom may very well have been a true prototype. Based on its very similar appearance and creation by the same artist who drew the subsequent character, it certainly can be considered a precursor.

The second member of the F.F. to be represented among the alleged prototypes is The Thing. The story in question is “I Was a Decoy for Pildorr the Plunderer from Space!” (7 pp.), in Strange Tales #94 (March 1962), with pencils by Kirby and inks by Sinnott. The claim of this story to prototype (or even precursor) status can be rejected immediately on the grounds that it appeared9 four months after Ben Grimm debuted in Fantastic Four #1! It’s a little difficult for a prototype/precursor to be created after the character allegedly developed from it! Furthermore, Pildorr doesn’t even look that much like The Thing. He is a bit lumpyskinned and craggy-faced, but clearly is not made of stone as Grimm is; he is green, not orange; and he does not wear blue swimming trunks (though he does wear a blue helmet a bit like the one Grimm donned that same month in Fantastic Four #3. Furthermore, he is an alien, not a transformed human. Though Pildorr is featured on the cover and was co-created by Kirby, his post hoc appearance means he cannot possibly be considered a prototype or even a precursor to The Thing.

In addition to these members of the group, one of their foremost adversaries is also included among the alleged prototypes. Diabolical mastermind Dr. Doom (Viktor von Doom, ruler of Latveria) first appeared in Fantastic Four #5 (July 1962). He is supposedly foreshadowed by “The Monster in the Iron Mask!” (7 pp.), the cover story for Tales of Suspense #31 (July 1962), with pencils by Kirby and inks by Ayers. Once again, this alleged prototype may be dismissed out of hand due to timing: he appeared9 the same day Dr. Doom debuted, 10 April 1962! Furthermore, aside from the iron mask, he has virtually nothing in common with Dr. Doom. The Monster in the Iron Mask is the vanguard of an alien invasion, not a scarred human; furthermore, the “mask” turns out to be his actual face. This story has no claim to prototype or even precursor status.

The Watcher was a supporting character in the Marvel Universe, a wise and seemingly omniscient alien who watches human affairs but

The Foreshadowing–––or Something–––of the Marvel Age of Comics

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The Torch is passed—or should we say “past”? [Left to right:] By the time of Jimmy Thompson’s splash for Marvel Mystery Comics #69 (Feb. 1946), the original Human Torch had been blazing for six-plus years; he’d be doused in 1949, to be briefly relit in 1953-54. Dragoom came along in 1960—the Johnny Storm reincarnation of the Torch, a year later. If nothing else, Jack Kirby, who penciled both ’60s stories, drew the new Torch’s flames more like Dragoom’s than like those of the first Torch.

This page from Fantastic Four #1, by the way, has been repro’d from the original black-&-white production photostats of the issue, courtesy of Paul Handler; Paul’s definitely got a collector’s item classic there! Thanks to Mile-High Comics for the MMC art! [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Separated at birth? “The Monster in the Iron Mask” (splash from Tales of Suspense #31) and Dr. Doom (the cover of Fantastic Four #5) apparently hit the newsstands the same day! [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

20

The pseuo-alien “Zarkorr” in Tales of Suspense #35 (Nov. ’62) visually foreshadows The Watcher, seen at right in Fantastic Four #13 (April ’63)—which is natural enough, since Jack Kirby penciled both stories. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

“And Men Shall Call Him... PROTOTYPE!” (supposedly) never interferes. He debuted in Fantastic Four #13 (April 1963), and had his own series in Tales of Suspense from #49 (Jan. ’64) to #58 (Oct. ’64) and in The Silver Surfer from #1 to #7 (Aug. ’68 to Aug. ’69). He is supposedly presaged by the title character in “I Accepted the Deadly Challenge of Zarkorr!”

(7 pp.), the cover story for Tales of Suspense #35 (Nov. 1962).

The story is unsigned but was clearly penciled by Jack Kirby.

Zarkorr is an alien who tells Earth it must pass a test of maturity or face quarantine or even destruction by the Galactic Federation. Though he resembles The Watcher in his bald pate, he is clearly no passive observer of human affairs. In fact, as it turns out, he is not even an alien, merely a human in disguise. I do not find this a credible prototype, because the core concept of The Watcher—a passive alien observer of human affairs—is missing. The simple physical resemblance of the two is most likely coincidence.

The Invisible Girl’s own precursor, the comic strip heroine Invisible Scarlet O’Neil, briefly starred in a Harvey comic book in 1950-51... while Mr. Fantastic owed his powers to Jack Cole’s Plastic Man. Only, Plas was no scientific whiz like Reed Richards, as per the two panels below from Police Comics #100 (June 1950). F.F. #1 art courtesy of Paul Handler’s 1961 production photostats. [Marvel art ©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.; Plastic Man art ©2003 DC Comics; Invisible Scarlet O’Neil art ©2003 the respective copyright holders.]

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“Where do they get their ideas?” Well, when writer/director Kenneth Johnson did the original Incredible Hulk TV movie circa 1977, he insisted to his assistant director, who was a friend of Roy Thomas’, that he had totally ignored the Marvel comics and had based his film on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Frankenstein.

Like, what did he think Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had done a decade and a half earlier? These Hollywood guys have a vested interest in always thinking they’re reinventing the wheel—though Johnson did turn out a pretty good pilot. The above Frankenstein poster (from the French release of the film) and a Jekyll and Hyde window card are both from 1931; the monsters were even green on both. The Amazing Colossal Man came along 26 years later. [©2003 Universal, Paramount, & American-International, respectively.]

The Hulk Exposure to the blast of a “gamma ray bomb” caused mild-mannered scientist Dr. Bruce Banner to transform periodically into a rampaging green (well, originally gray) brute in Incredible Hulk #1 (May 1962).

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created a character who combined elements of Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Universal Pictures’ 1930s version of the Frankenstein monster, and a variety of atomic-themed low-budget sci-fi movies, from Mickey Rooney’s The Atomic Kid (1954) to The Amazing Colossal Man (1957). Three stories are identified as prototypes of Marvel’s own jolly green giant by the Overstreet Guide.

As we will see, these claims to prototype status rest largely on the name “Hulk.” For this reason, it is worth considering the meaning of this word in detail. My dictionary5 defines “hulk” as “the body or hull of a ship, no longer seaworthy... a large ship, difficult to maneuver... a big clumsy man.” The transformed Banner received his sobriquet in that first issue, when a soldier cried out, “We’ve got to find that—that HULK!!” and a comrade rejoined, “Don’t let the hulk get his hands on you!” One presumes they were thinking of the last definition, “a big clumsy man,” though that is hardly the first word that would have come to my mind had I seen him lumbering out of the night toward me.

The first alleged prototype appeared in Journey into Mystery #62 (Nov. 1960) in “I Was a Slave of the Living Hulk!” (13 pp.), with pencils

by Jack Kirby and inks by Dick Ayers. The story was showcased on the cover, with the blurb, “Here Comes... the Hulk!” In the story, a small town electrician finds the sole survivor of a spaceship crash, a furry metal creature. “He—he’s just like a huge HULK!” the electrician declaims. In this context, perhaps he was thinking of that first dictionary definition cited above; after all, the metallic creature is as big as a boat

and no longer functional. The electrician revives the alien, only to learn that he is Xemnu, an escaped criminal with the power of hypnosis, who plans to conquer earth. The creature is eventually defeated and sent into exile in space, but manages to return in Journey into Mystery #66 (March 1961), in another Kirby and Ayers cover story, “The Return of the Hulk!” (13 pp.). Of course, he is once again defeated by the humble electrician.

Xemnu clearly has nothing in common with Ol’ Greenskin save their nickname. All of the elements of the Hulk mythos are missing. He is not a human changed by a nuclear accident; he is a criminal from an alien world. He does not transform from intelligent weakling to clouded savage brute. His strength is not particularly noteworthy; he gets his way via hypnosis. He has no teenage sidekick who feels a debt of gratitude. His nemesis is not a military officer but a simple electrician, nor is he in love with the nemesis’ daughter. He is quite articulate, and never speaks of himself in third person. Xemnu doesn’t even look much like Bruce Banner’s alter ego. He is neither green nor gray but orange, and not smooth-skinned but furry and metallic; he does not wear ragged purple pants. In fact, it has been suggested10 that Xemnu far more closely resembles the large hairy monster in tennis shoes who appeared in the Bugs Bunny cartoons “Hair-raising Hare” (1946) and “Water, Water, Every Hare” (1952). It really is difficult to accept Xemnu as a prototype or even a precursor of The Hulk. At most, it may have been a market-test for the name rather than the concept: Goodman or Lee may have been trying to see if the word “Hulk” on the cover would sell books. Other than the name, the two characters simply have nothing in common.

The third alleged prototype similarly has little in common with ol’ Jade-jaws save name. This Hulk appears in “It Happened on ‘the Silent Screen’” (5 pp.), a Steve Ditko story in Tales to Astonish #21 (July

22

“And Men Shall Call Him... PROTOTYPE!”

Will The Real Incredible Hulk Please Stand Up!

The Lee-Kirby Hulk, inked by Paul Reinman, from the splash of The Incredible Hulk #1 (May 1962), flanked by three earlier proto-Marvel Hulks. (Clockwise from top right:) Kirby and Ayers’ Xemnu, from Journey into Mystery #62—the Ditkodrawn movie-poster from Tales to Astonish #21—and the robotic/exo-skeletal Hulk from Strange Tales #75 (June 1960, of which more next issue). There was even a cowboy bad-guy of that nomenclatural persuasion in an issue of Gunsmoke Western as far back as 1960; more about him in #30, too. Xemnu, by the way, was orange in his original appearances, but white when he faced The Defenders a decade later. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

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Take a deep breath and see if you can follow this: Xemnu, the Living Hulk, may (or may not) have been inspired by Bugs Bunny theatrical cartoons (above), as Tom Lammers reports—but Xemnu’s stint pretending to be a Big-Bird-type puppet on a kiddie-TV show (top right) in the Ross Andru/Bill Everett-drawn third “Defenders” outing in Marvel Feature #3 (June 1972) reflected the impact made in 1952 on 11year-old future scripter Roy Thomas by the Gaines/Feldstein/Orlando story “The People’s Choice” in EC’s Weird Science #16 (below)—a chilling send-up of the early TV puppet show Kukla, Fran, and Ollie (photo at right), wherein Allie Gator turns out to be an alien, who is elected President and promptly takes over the Earth for his kind. See? Everything has prototypes—or at least precursors, or forerunners, or something. [Defenders art ©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.; EC art ©2003 William M. Gaines, Agent; Bugs Bunny art ©2003 AOL Time-Warner; Kukla & Ollie TM & ©2003 Estate of Burr Tillstrom.]

1961). He is the star of a monster film, an apparently enormous alien from outer space. He has a generalized anthropoid shape, with somewhat bumpy orange skin. Again, all of the elements that make The Hulk what he is are absent. This is no prototype, nor much of a precursor; the only commonality is the name. (Yet another “Hulk” will be described in Part II of this series, under Iron Man.) One of the Hulk’s earliest adversaries, the Toad Men from Incredible Hulk #2 (Jul 1962), allegedly got a try-out in Tales to Astonish #7 (Jan. 1960).

In “We Met in the Swamp” (5 pp.), penciled by Kirby and inked by Ditko, an old hermit recounts an encounter with alien creatures. These creatures are short, rather silly-looking, and carry guns, thus resembling the alien invaders defeated by The Hulk. Much of this resemblance may be due to the fact that the Toad Men were also drawn by Kirby and inked by Ditko. Although it is difficult to accept that Goodman or Lee would want to test-market a minor opponent for a super-hero who hadn’t been created yet, the numerous similarities argue for at least regarding these earlier aliens as precursors of the Toad Men.

24

“And Men Shall Call Him... PROTOTYPE!”

Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko is serializing his own account of the Wall-crawler’s early days in Robin Snyder’s monthly “first-person history” fanzine, The Comics! The above Ditko-drawn rebus was used there to stoke interest. While no one can ever have the absolute last word on the creation of a character, especially in such an obviously collaborative effort, nobody interested in the Silver Age should miss a single installment of Steve’s reminiscences. See the ad for The Comics! elsewhere in this issue. [©2003 Steve Ditko.]

Spider-Man Marvel Comics’ corporate icon first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15 (Aug. 1962), when the bite of an irradiated arachnid gave high school nebbish Peter Parker the proportionate powers of a spider. Like the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man challenged super-hero orthodoxy. If we are to believe the “prototype” school, the company was already exploring the possibilities for a spider-like super-hero almost eight years before Stan Lee and Steve Ditko created Spider-Man. Prior to the May 1957 collapse of his distributor, Martin Goodman published a diverse array of comics under the “Atlas” logo. Many were fantasy and mystery anthologies, similar in content to the pre-hero issues of Journey into Mystery and Strange Tales. One of these books, Uncanny Tales #26 (Nov. 1954), intriguingly carried a cover story entitled “The Spider Man,” illustrated by Atlas mainstay Ed Winiarski (the cover itself was by Joe Maneely—as seen in last month’s issue of Alter Ego). This unhyphenated Spider Man is not Peter Parker, but an eccentric Hungarian schoolteacher named Prof. Kravadka, who plans to enslave the world with an army of giant spiders. Unfortunately, the original pair he created, from which he will breed his army, turn out to both be male. Instead of a high school science geek, we have an amateur arachnologist who can’t tell males from females! No one is bitten, no radiation is involved, no one gains extraordinary powers. The two characters really have nothing in common but their name, and that is not particularly convincing because of its obviousness. As this earlier story has virtually nothing in common with the subsequent Wall-crawler, it seems to be neither prototype nor precursor.

Surely one of the most unusual of all alleged prototype stories is “The Spider Strikes!” (8 pp.), a Kirby and Ayers feature in Journey into Mystery #73 (Oct. 1961). The Overstreet Guide describes this as a story “where a spider is exposed to radiation & gets powers of a human and

John Romita, who inherited The Amazing Spider-Man when Ditko walked at the end of ’65, drew this scene recapitulating Spidey’s origin for a much later paperback produced by Byron Preiss Books. Thanks to Mike Burkey, the pre-eminent Romita collector, who can be reached at MikeBurkey@aol.com or by phone at (330) 296-2414. Tell ’im Alter Ego sent you, okay? [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

shoots webbing; a reverse prototype of Spider-Man’s origin.” A reverse prototype? How one might gauge the sales potential of a character from a “reverse prototype” is beyond my understanding. Perhaps if sales decline...?

In any event, in this story, an ordinary spider is indeed exposed to radiation in the course of a scientific experiment, thus paralleling events in the seminal Spider-Man tale. In this case, however, The Spider begins to grow enormously, becoming sentient and acquiring the power of speech. As a spider, he does indeed capture hapless humans with his webbing. All in all, it doesn’t seem much of a prototype, reverse or otherwise, nor even much of a precursor. Although one element of the Spider-Man concept is present—an irradiated arachnid—all the others are missing: the socially inept high school science student, the burden of guilt over the death of a loved one, the doting elderly aunt....

Speaking of elderly aunts, prototypes of May Parker are allegedly found in two stories, both drawn by Steve Ditko. The earlier appears in Tales of Suspense #7 (Jan. 1960) in “I Come from the Shadow World!”

(5 pp.). This “Aunt May” is indeed a dead ringer for May Parker, but can scarcely be considered a character in the story. She is literally a nameless face in the crowd, seen in a single panel, with no lines of dialogue.

The second story (one of the few alleged prototypes scripted by Stan Lee) is billed by the Overstreet Guide as the “First appearance Aunt May & Uncle Ben.” And indeed, in Strange Tales #97 (June 1962), the title character of ‘’Goodbye To Linda Brown’’ (5 pp.) is cared for by her doting Aunt May and Uncle Ben! This Aunt May is again a (younger) dead-ringer for Peter Parker’s, right down to her white chignon; her husband, however, is thinner and more gaunt than his well-fed namesake. When this story was reprinted in Marvel Tales #83 (Sept.

1977), the following blurb was added to the splash page: “Everyone

The Foreshadowing–––or Something–––of the Marvel Age of Comics

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(Clockwise from top left:) Veteran artist Ed Winarski (“Ed Win”) drew “The Spider Man” in 1954’s Uncanny Tales #26. Here are the highly symbolic splash and a few panels from the story; we printed Joe Maneely’s cover last ish. A bit closer to Spidey’s 1962 debut were the Kirby-penciled “The Spider Strikes!” in Journey into Mystery #73 (Oct. ’61), with its origin that’s a reverse-anticipation of Amazing Fantasy #15—and “I Dared to Battle Rorgg, King of the Spider Men!!” in JiM #64 (Jan. ’61), an alieninvasion story which was reprinted in Monster Menace #4 (March ’94).

Thanks to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo for copies of art from UT #26, and to Chris Brown for that of JiM #73. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

26

“And Men Shall Call Him... PROTOTYPE!”

knows that May & Ben Parker first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15... or did they? Two months before that fabled issue, a couple named May & Ben appeared in this short feature in Strange Tales #97. The resemblance is startling! Are these people the Parkers?

Only Stan and Steve know—and they’re not talking!”

As Blake Bell11 has pointed out, elderly women with white hair in a bun were a stock character in Ditko’s repertoire, cropping up as early as Charlton Comics’ Out of this World #6 (Nov. 1957). In light of the profound similarity in appearance and behavior, I think it is fair to consider the pair precursors (or “Aunt Mayday! Aunt Mayday!” (Left:) A Ditko-drawn old lady with a familiar face “visual templates,” to use Bell’s term) of Peter Parker’s Aunt May from a crowd scene in 1960’s Tales of Suspense #7. (Above:) Aunt May and and Uncle Ben. The fact that they have the exact same first Uncle Ben (whose last name may or may not be Parker) from Strange Tales #97. names, and that neither name is especially common or stereoThanks to Michael T. Gilbert for the latter. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.] typical (as compared, for example, to “Mary and John”) is very discretion. According to Overstreet Guide, this super-villain concept interesting. But to consider them intentional prototypes of Peter Parker’s was test-marketed in Journey into Mystery #70 (July 1961) in the Kirby guardians would imply that Marvel was conducting market research on and Ayers cover story, “The Sandman Cometh!” (13 pp.). This the sales potential of a comic book starring... an elderly couple?!?

Sandman is not a radiation-transformed human, but rather an alien One of Spider-Man’s earliest foes was The Sandman, a Stan Lee and invader, bent on conquest. His body is exactly like Marko’s, able to Steve Ditko creation who first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #4 dissociate and reform at will, and to take on various forms. In fact, he is (Sept. 1963). When ruthless prison escapee Flint Marko hid out at an able to arrange his sand particles finely enough to simulate a human atomic test site, the blast of a nuclear weapon merged his molecules with appearance. There clearly is a close correspondence in appearance and the sand upon which he abilities between the pre-hero monster and the Spider-Man super-villain. stood, making his body like The coincidence of names is not especially impressive: given the living sand. He could existence of the legendary bedtime character who sprinkles sand in transform at will, in whole or sleepy children’s eyes, what else could you call a character made of sand? in part, from a normal human It is conceivable that the pre-hero Sandman was indeed an intentional to a pile of sand; furthermore, prototype; had sales of Journey into Mystery #70 been especially good, the sand particles might perhaps we’d have seen a sand-based super-hero in the Marvel Universe. dissipate individually, or stick At the very least, due to the close correspondence of name, appearance, together in a wide variety of and abilities, we can score it as definite precursor. shapes and densities, at his A second Spider-Man foe, Electro, is allegedly represented by two prototypes. In Amazing Spider-Man #9 (Feb. 1964), Lee and Ditko told the story of electric company lineman Max Dillon, who was struck by lightning while grasping electrical wires atop a high tension pole, and thus imbued with electric energy he could discharge at will in the form of powerful bolts. This villain was allegedly presaged by the Kirby and Ayers cover story for Tales of Suspense #13 (Jan. 1961), “Elektro! He Held a World in His Iron Grip!” (7 pp.). This Elektro originates as a super-computer, created by scientist Wilbur Poole, which becomes self-aware. Through hypnosis, it compels Poole to create an enormous robot body for its circuitry. Due to his sheer mental power, Elektro has the ability to generate an impenetrable force-field, Let’s all sing that great Irving Berlin standard, “Sand Gets in Your Eyes!” rearrange atoms, hurl bolts of gamma rays (not The DC comic book hero called The electricity), nullify gravity, and make cities Sandman had been around since Bert vanish. Taking the name Elektro, he sets out to Christman first drew his gas-masked conquer mankind, but is defeated when Poole version in 1939; it was revamped by literally crawls into his Achilles heel and Joe Simon & Jack Kirby, among others, removes the “one small transistor” that was his in 1941-42. But the super-baddies of entire source of power. This character clearly the Kirby-penciled Journey into has little save name in common with the Mystery #70 in 1961 (above) and Spider-Man villain; and even there, one sees a the Ditko-drawn Amazing Spider-Man minor difference in spelling. Furthermore, it in 1963 had a lot more in common! [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.] seems that the super-villain’s nom de guerre

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“space and time warp” during his travels through space, he lands on Earth to renew his “electric vitality.” Doing so drains a wide area around his landing point of all electricity. After befriending a radar operator and fending off an angry mob, he finishes recharging and continues on his journey across space. The Blip is a little more like Spider-Man’s foe, but still differs markedly.

He is an alien who is electrical by nature, not a human empowered by a freak accident; he is benign, not a cruel criminal. He is by no means a prototype, nor even a very convincing precursor.

As Tom Lammers recounts, the Kirby-penciled Elektro (left) and Blip (above right) both appeared in protoMarvel comics cover-dated January 1961—three years before the shocking debut of Spidey’s foe Electro-witha-“c.” The Ayers-inked “Blip” story was reprinted in Fear #2 (Jan. 1971)—and again in the 1989 trade paperback Monster Masterworks. We’ll be back with more Marvel prototypes in thirty days—oh, and flip off the lights when you leave, okay? [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

refers to electricity, while the monster’s refers to electronics.

The very same month that the first alleged Electro prototype appeared in Tales of Suspense, a second appeared in her sister title, Tales to Astonish.

The cover story in #15, also drawn by Kirby and Ayers, was “I Learned the Dread Secret of the Blip!” (7 pp.) The Blip is an alien creature of an electrical nature, with a generalized anthropoid body made up of jagged bolts of electricity (and thus having a slight visual similarity to the super-villain’s costume). Depleted by escaping a

Acknowledgments I express my sincere appreciation to Randall J. Barlow, Nick Caputo, and Dave O’Dell for providing information on stories not in my collection; and to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo for identifying the artists who drew some of the unsigned stories.

Endnotes 1 Overstreet, R. M., The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, 32nd ed. (Gemstone Publishing, Timonium MD, 2002).

2 Overstreet, R. M., The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, 28th ed. (Gemstone Publishing, Timonium, MD, 1998).

3 Gartland, M., “Were They Prototypes?” The Jack Kirby Collector, vol. 13, p. 15 (Dec 1996).

4 Daniels, L., Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World’s Greatest Comics (Harry N. Abrams, New York, 1991). Jones, G., and W. Jacobs, The Comic Book Heroes (Prima Publishing, Rocklin CA,

Next: Of Thunder Gods, and of Men Ant-sized, Iron, Mutated, and Strange.

[Thomas Lammers is a college professor in Wisconsin, teaching biology, especially botany.

Born in Iowa in 1955, Tom says, “I was a big comics fan in the ’60s—DC war books first, then Superman family, then switched to Marvel super-heroes when the ABC cartoons debuted Fall ’67. When comics went to 15¢, I decided I was “too grown-up” for “kids’ stuff” and gave away a stack of over 300 Silver Age Marvels.

Around 1995, my ten-year-old son asked me to take him to the local comic shop. I took one look at all the back issues, suffered a major nostalgia attack, and started collecting 1939-69 Timely-Atlas-Marvel comics. On the Internet, I discovered the Timely-Atlas group and learned a great deal from Michael Vassallo and others.” And we from you, Tom! (And we’ll learn still more, two short issues from now!)]

1997). Lee, S., Origins of Marvel Comics (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1974). Lee, S., Son of Origins of Marvel Comics (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1975).

5 The New Lexicon Websters Dictionary of the English Language (Lexicon Publications, New York, 1989).

6 Angelucci, E., The Rand McNally Encyclopedia of Military Aircraft 1914-1980 (The Military Press, New York, 1988).

7 Anonymous, “Buick XP-300 Engine,” Automotive Industries Journal (1 Sep 1951), pp. 49, 108.

8 Brodsky, B., “Stan the Man Lee, Maestro of the Marvel Mythos!”

Comic Book Marketplace, vol. 2, no. 61, pp. 28-36, 45-54 (July 1998).

9 Marvel Comics Group and the Silver Age of Comics website (www.angelfire.com/comics/mcg-sac/), accessed 10 March 2003.

10 Shaw, S., “The Secret Origin of the Original Hulk?” The Jack Kirby Collector, vol. 13, p. 39 (Dec 1996).

11 Ditko Looked Up website (www.ditko.comics.org/ditko/visual/), accessed 5 March 2003.

28

Bill Fraccio

“Doing Comics Was A Fun Learning Experience!”

Veteran Artist BILL FRACCIO Talks about His Years as a Penciler—and as Half of “TONY WILLIAMSUNE” Interview Conducted and Transcribed by Jim Amash

(Top:) Bill Fraccio today—and (at right) a recent illo (drawn for Roy Thomas) of two squabbling 1960s Charlton superheroes, Son of Vulcan and Blue Beetle. Actually, back in early ’65, Bill penciled the first two scripts Roy sold—for Son of Vulcan #50 (Jan. ’66) and Blue Beetle #54 (Feb.-March ’66).

Since the covers of those mags were printed in Comic Book Artist #9 and Alter Ego #20, respectively, and both main splashes appeared in A/E #8, on this page are a pair of secondary Fraccio & Tallarico splash pages from those issues.

Photo & original art courtesy of Bill Fraccio. [New art ©2003 Bill Fraccio; previously published art ©2003 DC Comics; Son of Vulcan & Blue Beetle TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

“Doing Comics Was A Fun Learning Experience!”

[INTERVIEWER’S NOTE: Bill Fraccio (pronounced Frah’-chi-oh) was the first artist to draw a script written by A/E’s editor, Roy Thomas. While Charlton’s Son of Vulcan was hardly the highlight of either man’s career, I mention it because my purpose in doing this article was twofold. The first was to surprise Roy, which it did; but of primary importance is the recording of Bill Fraccio’s career, which deserved and needed documenting. There have been many unanswered questions in this regard, and now Bill tells us his side of those stories, including the secret of late-’60s Warren artist “Tony Williamsune”! Bill’s career involves more than just Charlton and Warren, but he’ll tell us about them, and about Hillman, Fawcett, and Graham Ingels—starting right now. —Jim.] JIM AMASH: When and where were you born?

BILL FRACCIO: In Mount Vernon, New York, July 9, 1920. They didn’t have comic books when I was young, you know. [laughs] JA: Right, but you had the newspaper strips. When did you decide to become a cartoonist?

FRACCIO: When I needed to make a living. I went to the same art school [American School of Design] as Fred Kida. He got out of school before I did, and started working at Hillman Publications.

Fred was the one who got me into comics. He was a nice, softspoken guy. His father was Japanese and his mother was Norwegian, I think. And we were both big Milton Caniff fans.

I started out as an inker on Bob Fujitani’s “Iron Ace” feature. Bob was a real character and he was at the American School of Design with Fred and me. Bob was one of the stars of the school... actually the three of us were. His pencils were tight and easy to ink. He was a very conscientious, personable guy. He met his wife at the school. Bob was a talker and a wild and crazy guy; you had to like him.

I inked a lot of Fred’s and Bob’s work. I’d go over to their houses and work. “Airboy” was Kida’s big feature. Kida and I used to play the clarinet while we were doing these jobs. It sort-of relaxed us in between, because there was a lot of pressure to meet those deadlines. I don’t remember how much we were paid, but it wasn’t much. Kida’s brotherin-law was an agent and he could have gotten better-paying work for Fred, but he wanted to do comics.

JA: Do you know if Kida and Fujitani experienced any racial prejudice during the Second World War? FRACCIO: I don’t think they did, but you must remember that there were several Japanese working in comics during this time. There was one guy, George Greg, who changed his last name from Mabuchi. He penciled and inked and was good. I helped him on a few jobs; he later got into doing portraits. George was born in Japan but his brother was born here. He got into trouble for that, and George got into all kinds of crap because of his brother, but it wasn’t really all that bad. It was just a pain in the neck.

I also remember Dan Barry from those days. He was a live wire. I didn’t see him that much, though. He’d push his personality on you, so you had to like him.

Barry worked so fast that I don’t think he was really looking at the pages when he drew. He turned out so much stuff that he was like a printing press. Dan always needed money.

World War II was on and the companies needed artists, so Fred took me over to meet editor Ed Cronin at Hillman. Fred gave me some pointers. I practiced with a brush before I saw Cronin, taking with me both penciled and inked samples.

Cronin was a nice guy—a little fussy, but he was watching out for his job.

They had a whole floor where Hillman did comics and magazines, like Pageant.

They had a little room for artists, but that was mainly for corrections. I didn’t have to do corrections very often.

Cronin had an assistant editor, but I don’t remember his name.

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Bill has drawn many a genre in his day. These three pencil drawings were “teaching demos at school.” [©2003 Bill Fraccio.]

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Bill Fraccio

Tex Blaisdell was my brother-in-law. He was the first guy that we knew who got into comics. Kida, Fujitani, and I knew of him. I think he went to Cooper Union Art School and then he went to work for Will Eisner. He did a lot of stuff because comics were what he wanted to do.

He was a real amiable guy, and he was teaching at the Joe Kubert School when he died. Joe is a great artist and so is Alex Toth, who was a better artist than Dan.

though it wouldn’t last too long. He could be a hell-raiser. I used to go to his house sometimes; he lived in Whitestone on Long Island. He drank beer most of the time and he never took the empty bottles back.

He had a room that was filled with big empty beer bottles, stacked to the ceiling. He’d empty about five or six of these big bottles in the time I was with him. I don’t know where he put it all, because he never went to the bathroom. He must have had a hollow leg.

JA: How’d you end up being Tex’s brother-in-law?

They had a few romance titles. What was that one? A Moon, A Girl... Romance? [laughs] That I remember because it was originally Moon Girl and they changed it to that silly title. I was doing complete art on those jobs. I left them because I was getting tired of the tight deadlines, and they didn’t pay a lot, either.

FRACCIO: I married his sister. She went to the same art school that I did. I think Tex was the only guy who didn’t go to our school! [laughs] I heard about Tex through his sister. She was a good artist, too, but she was too good for comics. You got to be tough to do comics, because you beat your brains out doing it. Tex’s real name was Philip and he was born in Texas, but he was a baby when the family moved away. He didn’t have a Texas accent, but the nickname stuck.

I remember Arthur Peddy and Bernie Sachs because they were doing a lot of work for Hillman. They worked as a team.

JA: You also worked for Charlie Biro and Bob Wood at Lev Gleason Publications.

FRACCIO: That’s right. I did back-up features for them. I don’t remember that much about them, except for the fact that Bob Wood

JA: Milton Caniff and Frank Robbins were two of your big influences. What was it about their work that you liked?

FRACCIO: The looseness and the broad, open way they used light and shadow. They knocked that stuff out so it’d look great. It had a nice, solid look to it, which I wanted to get in my own work. In fact, I was in line to take over Scorchy Smith from Frank Robbins, but I was drafted and missed that opportunity.

JA: You also worked for Fawcett on “Commando Yank.” How did that come about?

FRACCIO: You hear things through the grapevine about different places needing artists, so you go there and take a shot at it. But I only did one story for them before I went into the Army. I went and joined Commando Yank. [mutual laughter] JA: Who was your editor?

FRACCIO: The editor there was Mercedes Shull, but Hillman was my main account before I was drafted. I was really 4-F, but after a while they pulled me in anyway. I was in the infantry from 1944 until 1946.

When I came back into comics, I went back to Hillman and did a little work, but not much. There wasn’t much work there, so I had to look around. I went to EC Comics, and Bill Gaines was running the place.

Graham Ingels was doing some editing for Gaines. And he was doing a lot of drinking. I don’t know where he put it all, and he could still stand up. I’m sure he drank on the job, but it didn’t bother him. He could handle himself.

He was a good man and I liked him very much. He’d go down 42nd Street, towards the East Side during “Happy Hour,” and get free lunches in the bars. He got those free lunches so he could drink. Graham knew every bar on 42nd Street, and he used to drag me with him. I’m not a big drinking man; I couldn’t stand the flavor of the stuff. But I had a lot of fun with him.

JA: Was Ingels a big talker? A joke-teller?

FRACCIO: He was everything! He had a great personality, but he could get into a depressive mood once in a while,

Bill writes that this was “part of a 3-page ad for stamp-collecting fans, about Texas and the Alamo, possibly from a Charlton publication in the ’60s.” But Bill mentions in the interview that he drew for Youthful’s Stamp Comics from 1949-53, which makes that title a likely candidate, as well. Repro’d from a photocopy of the original art, supplied by the artist. We assume Tony Tallarico inked it? [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

“Doing Comics Was A Fun Learning Experience!

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name.

JA: I was told that his wife thought their last name was too ethnic and she made him drop the “o” in Carino.

FRACCIO: That may be, but Frank was always suspicious about people being prejudiced. I think he made that story up to cover his real feelings.

JA: In 1949 and ’50, you worked at the Lloyd Jacquet shop—Funnies, Inc. Why did you do that, since you had other work?

FRACCIO: I don’t know. It sounded good so I thought I’d try it. I did complete art on the stories and they didn’t pay good, either. I didn’t work in Jacquet’s office; I worked at home. Jacquet was like General MacArthur. His speech reminded me of him, and he had sharp, chiseled features. He and his wife handled everything. They were supplying several companies, but I don’t remember who they did it for.

JA: I have a credit for you which I don’t understand. You worked for a company called Friedman from 1949 until 1953. They were also known as Youthful Comics. I never heard of this company.

FRACCIO: Bill Friedman was a lawyer and some kind of operator. When he saw that a lot of people were selling comics, he decided to get into it. I’d go up to his law offices and show him my stuff. We did the same stuff that everyone else was doing: westerns like Gunsmoke [NOTE: not related to the later TV series. —Jim.], Redskin, Famous Western Badmen, mystery comics like Beware and Chilling Tales— and Stamp Comics. They had no comic offices. He did everything from his law office, like calling the printers and seeing the artists. He used to print a quarter-million copies of everything. If they sold better, then he’d up the print run.

JA: You also worked for someone called Unger. Who was that?

Put William Fraccio’s pencils together with Tony Tallarico’s inks, credited to the first names of each, and you get—Tony Williamsune, artist of numerous stories for Warren circa the late 1960s. This splash is from Creepy #25. [©2003 Warren Publishing.]

later went to jail for killing his girlfriend.

JA: Everyone who knew Wood remembered that about him. You worked for Magazine Enterprises, too. Do you remember the editors, Ray Krank and Vin Sullivan?

FRACCIO: He was another lawyer. I don’t know if he was partners with Friedman or not, but he put out a line of comics, too. I started working for Friedman, and then Unger got into it and I worked for him, too. They started their own type of Playboy magazine, but it didn’t last long. I did black&-white tone illustrations for their men’s magazines.

JA: You also worked for Trojan Comics. I have you as doing crime and romance comics for them. Attack was one of their titles, which started out under Friedman’s Youthful Comics company.

FRACCIO: Not really. I didn’t work there too long.

FRACCIO: I think that was Unger’s company. I’m sure they were in comics together. I never knew their company names. These guys didn’t have editors. I don’t know where they got the scripts from, either.

JA: In 1950 and ’51 you did a feature for them titled “Sunny Sunshine Bread.”

JA: What did you think of Dr. Wertham’s attack on comics in the 1950s?

FRACCIO: Oh, yes! That was with Frank Carin. We did that for Sunbeam Bread. Carin had that account, and he was doing advertising comics. They were small, paperback-sized books, and he did them for a few different bakers. We did a series of them. Frank had been a comic book artist, but what he was really best at was selling stuff. I don’t mean that his work was bad, but he spent so much time selling stuff, I don’t see how he had the time to draw. I did the complete art for these books.

Frank was a nice guy and he had a wife and a kid. His real name was Carino, and when he didn’t get work he’d claim that it was because they were prejudiced against Italians. [laughs] That’s why he changed his

FRACCIO: It was stupid. They put that seal of approval on the comics.

It wasn’t a good time for me.

JA: As far as I can tell, you started working for Charlton after you left Friedman and Unger, in 1954. Was Pat Masulli your editor?

FRACCIO: Yes. I don’t remember much about him.

JA: It looks like you stopped working for them for a while and then you went back in the early 1960s. Why were you out of comics?

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Bill Fraccio Tony and I didn’t do that much comics work during the time you mentioned. We were doing coloring books and some work for Treasure Chest.

JA: You did some work on Jungle Tales of Tarzan for Charlton; they were sued over that because they didn’t have the rights to Tarzan.

FRACCIO: That sounds like them, but I don’t remember the book. Charlton bought up all these titles that other companies dropped. They did The Phantom, Blue Beetle, and God knows what else. I can’t remember them all. I did a bunch of romance comics for them, like Love Diary, Romantic Secrets, Romantic Story, and many others. I also did a bunch of war and western books for them.

JA: How did you get the work? Did you just go in and they’d tell you what to do next? I ask because you did such a wide variety of genres for Charlton.

A bit of creative recycling. Bill penciled the splash for “The Final Solution” in Eerie #17 (Sept. 1968), and later created the “Vampire Invasion” splash as “a teaching demo at school.”

[Eerie art © 2003 Warren Publishing; vampire art © 2003 Bill Fraccio.]

FRACCIO: I wasn’t, really. I started working as a team with Tony Tallarico. We didn’t sign our names after a while... we made up a name.

The fans said they knew who the hell “Tony Williamsune” was, anyway.

They wrote fan letters to Warren Publications. We took Tony’s first name and my first name, which is William. I was the penciler and Tony was the inker.

I met Tony through Frank Carin. Tony was still in high school, I think. We teamed up together at Charlton because I was getting tired of doing complete art jobs. I always hated to ink, anyway. Once I created the art and solved all the drawing problems, I didn’t want to go over it again. It aggravated me a little bit. I was writing stories because of the time factor and I had enough going on, so Tony handled the inking.

“Tony Williamsune” art from Eerie #15 & #16. [©2003 Warren Publishing.]

FRACCIO: That’s how we worked. I never knew what was coming next. Tony and I had a studio in New York and designed plastic bags for underwear

“Doing Comics Was A Fun Learning Experience!

companies and the like.

We did the artwork and the lettering; it was like doing comic books. It was time-consuming work because we had to do overlays and such.

I also worked for Dick Giordano at Charlton. He was a good guy. The pay stunk but at least it was work.

JA: You drew the first comic book story that Alter Ego’s editor, Roy Thomas, wrote. It was Son of Vulcan.

FRACCIO: I remember that feature. I also did Blue Beetle, which I liked doing. The Blue Beetle had a long publishing history and it was good stuff... once. [laughs] I liked it because it had plenty of action.

JA: Did you have a favorite subject matter?

Another recent Son of Vulcan illo done for Roy T. (top left:), plus (top right) the splash of Tales of Unexplored Worlds #48 (Sept. 1965, before the name of the mag was changed to Son of Vulcan), and a Charlton house ad from that issue for six of the company’s titles.

Counting the ill-fated Jungle Tales of Tarzan, Bill drew for at least three of them. For the cover of Unexplored Worlds #48, see Comic Book Artist #9, still available from TwoMorrows. [Tarzan is a registered trademark of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.; other art and characters TM & ©2003 DC Comics; sketch at top left TM & ©2003 Bill Fraccio.]

FRACCIO: That’s hard to say. I did books like Gunmaster, Hot Rods and Racing Cars, Raggedy Ann and Andy, Teen Confessions, and Drag Strip, which was the same as Hot Rods and Racing Cars. The stories were the same; just the titles changed. Joe Gill wrote a lot of the stories.

I also did Dracula and Frankenstein for Dell in 1966 and 1967.

Tallarico got those jobs and I penciled them.

JA: Did you like those books?

FRACCIO: [laughs] Not really.

(Above:) Like all “Blue Beetle” and “Son of Vulcan” stories of that incarnation except the last of each, Blue Beetle, Vol. 2, #3 (Oct. 1964) was scripted by the prolific Joe Gill, who was interviewed in Comic Book Artist #9. We owe a copy of A/E to the valiant soul who sent us the above two splashes, but carelessly misplaced his name. [©2003 DC Comics.]

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Bill Fraccio

Probably the best-known effort of the Fraccio/Tallarico team was 1966’s The Great Society Comic Book, which was distributed by Pocket Books, sold for $1, and received considerable media publicity. This parody of President Lyndon Johnson’s ballyhooed blueprint for a “Great Society” of civil rights and social entitlements used the Justice League/Justice Society as its model in those days when Batman was the hottest thing on TV. Tallarico got art credit because he sub-contracted the penciling to Fraccio. As per the “S.P.E.C.T.R.E.” and “U.N.C.L.E.” models of the day, the letters of “G.R.E.A.T.” stood for “Group Resigned to End All Threats.”

For those A/E readers to whom the LBJ Presidency of 1963-69 is ancient history, some of the super-heroes on the splash (top right) are stand-ins for members of the Johnson administration: Captain Marvelous = Secretary of Defense Robert (“More Bang for a Buck”) MacNamara—Wonderbird = First Lady “Lady Bird” Johnson— The Shadower = V.P. Hubert Humphrey—and the guy with the “D” on his chest is Senator Everett Dirksen. The bespectacled civilian next to Wonderbird may be historian (and JFK holdover) Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.—and is that young Bill Moyers playing the “unassuming reporter” at right? “Bobman and Teddy,” G.R.E.A.T. Society members who’re in hiding at the outset of the story, are obviously none other than Robert and Ted Kennedy, who were out of favor with the LBJ White House.

Even a temporarily out-of-power Richard Nixon pops up as The Along Ranger (to whom Colonel America/Barry Goldwater quips, “People say you’re dead, but somehow you keep showing up again and again and again!”); he rides a checkered horse named Checkers—and that historical reference goes all the way back to 1952! Incidentally, when SuperLBJ finally gets free, he defeats the villains—Fu Man Lai (Chairman Mao), Dr. Nyet (Nikita Khrushchev), the Sicko Kid (Fidel Castro), the evil Businessman, et al.—pretty much all by his lonesome. Hey, writer D.J. Arneson must’ve read the second “Justice League” story, in The Brave and the Bold #29! [©2003 Parallax Comic Books, Inc.]

JA: I guess I shouldn’t say this, but those comics are considered to be among the worst comic books of the 1960s.

Pat Masulli was in on this, too. This wasn’t a Charlton product, though many of the people we thanked worked there, like Dick Giordano.

FRACCIO: I wouldn’t be surprised. The books were Tony’s idea. He somehow convinced the people at Dell to put those books out. The stories were terrible and we cranked them out. I didn’t write them.

We also did The Great Society Comic Book for Pocket Books.

Again, my pencils and Tony’s inks. It was written by D.J. Arneson. It was a nuthouse working on this thing; I even did some inking and lettering on it. Tony was good at getting work for us to do. He even appeared on television shows promoting the book.

JA: That’s some redemption, at least. [mutual laughter] Why did you two use the “Tony Williamsune” name?

FRACCIO: We did it as a gag, but everyone knew who we were. I think it was Tony’s idea to use that signature. He got those jobs and paid me to pencil them. I was a better penciler than Tony.

JA: Same deal at Warren?

FRACCIO: Yes. I didn’t have any direct contact with Warren. By the way, Tony Tallarico and I started a correspondence cartooning course.

JA: Why did you quit doing comic books?

FRACCIO: I was worn out. Tex used to have two sayings, and he was saying them when I first met him: “This is a young man’s job,” and “It’s a man-killer.” He was right. He was saying that right up until he died.

After comics, I went into teaching at the Connecticut School of Art, which was more relaxing. Looking back, doing comics was a fun learning experience.

Title Comic Fandom Archive

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A Talk with John Benson The Editor of Squa Tront Talks about WILL EISNER, WALLY WOOD and witzend, His Alter Ego Interview with GIL KANE, His 1966 New York Comicon, & Much More!

Part III

by Bill Schelly Introduction [In the first two parts of this interview, John filled us in on his early years, his love affair with Mad and EC comics, and the many comics fanzines that were published in the late 1950s, such as Ron Parker’s Hoohah! We also found out how his ground-breaking interviews with Harvey Kurtzman and Bernard Krigstein came about. In this concluding segment, we move into the mid-1960s and even the early ’70s, as John reminisces about comic fandom in the NYC area, including the informal monthly meetings of comic book fans and pros that took place in the apartments of various pros.

[This interview was conducted in January 2003, and was transcribed by Brian K. Morris.

It was edited by John Benson and Bill Schelly. [©2003

by Bill Schelly] BILL SCHELLY: How did you get Will Eisner to agree to that great interview for witzend?

JOHN BENSON: Even earlier than that interview, I was, I’m pretty certain, the first comic book fan ever to contact Eisner. Maybe there were readers who contacted him when The Spirit was being published, but I’m talking about after.

I was a big fan of The Spirit, so I thought, “I’ll go up and talk to the guy.”

That was in August 1961.

So I just walked in.

BS: [laughs] I guess that’s a pretty good method, huh?

BENSON: Well, it wasn’t that good. I walked into his office and I told him I was a fan of The Spirit,

[Above, left to right:] Dick Blackburn (mentioned in this interview), Bill Pearson (ditto; back to camera), John Benson, and convention co-host Phil Seuling at the 1968 SCARP-Con cocktail party; photo courtesy of JB. “SCARP” stood for “Society of Comic Art Restoration & Preservation.” [Center:] From the late 1960s on, Will Eisner was supportive of comics conventions; here’s his Spirit-ed drawing from the second San Diego Comic-Con (1971), with thanks to Shel Dorf. [Below:] Eisner and fans at the 1968 SCARP-Con, covered later in this installment; thanks to Fred Mommsen.

[Art ©2003 Will Eisner.]

and all. And I remember that he was absolutely desperate to avoid having me sit down, because if I sat down, then I would be there for more than thirty seconds. [laughs] He was very cordial, but he immediately stood up and came around his desk and kept standing. He was obviously anxious to get me out of his office as soon as he could. He seemed very surprised that someone would be interested enough in The Spirit to visit him at that time. It seemed very much in the dark past to him. Rather different from my contact with Feiffer around the same time.

Arnold Roth had invited me to a lecture Feiffer gave in Philadelphia. I wrote about this in the latest issue of Squa Tront. I was able to talk to Feiffer at the cocktail party afterward. He was a little surprised that I knew of his connection with The Spirit, but he quite understood my

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Comics Fandom Archive

fascination with the strip. Anyhow, I reported on that first contact with Eisner, not the part about not sitting down, in my fanzine Image, which I reprinted in the most recent Squa Tront. I think I must have said to Eisner, “I’ve interviewed Harvey Kurtzman,” and he said, “Oh, well, why don’t you talk to Kurtzman, then? He knows all about me.” You know, “What can I say to get this guy out of my office?” So I interviewed Kurtzman again for Image.

BS: Why didn’t Eisner want to talk to you himself?

BENSON: Well, that was in 1961, and I was just some kid, twenty years old, walking into his office where he was publishing commercial stuff, and he was busy. Again, The Spirit seemed much further in the past then than it is now. So it was like Krigstein being amazed that somebody even remembered the stuff.

BS: But you eventually did get to interview him for witzend in, I think, 1968.

about Wally was when I took him up to the Boston NewCon in 1978.

The transcript of the Wood-Krigstein-Kurtzman panel at that convention is in the latest Squa Tront. He was living in Connecticut then, and I stopped off on the way up from New York to pick up Wally and Bill Pearson. Wally sat in the back seat, and when I got back to the city I discovered it was like the Peanuts character Pigpen had been back there. There were empty cans, and papers and wrappers and potato chip crumbs all over. [laughs] He was already in decline by that time, obviously.

BS: Let’s move on to comics conventions.

BENSON: Yeah, you have to go back to ’64. It was one day, a weekday, and I think Dick Lupoff wrote a review of that convention...

BS: I ran it in The Golden Age of Comic Fandom.

BENSON: ...where he spends half of the time complaining that it was on a weekday afternoon.

BENSON: Right. By that time he was aware that there was some fan interest in The Spirit. He was a guest at the 1968 SCARP-Con. I remember, during that interview, he hinted that possibly he may not have been very enthusiastic about the war in Viet Nam, but he cut that out in the published transcript. The Army was still a client at the time.

All through those early conventions, first thing, I would go around to every table and say, [excited] “Do you have any Spirits?” I built a complete set that way. I got virtually a complete set of the tabs from Ron Goulart. God, I was making, like, a hundred bucks a week, or something, and I would be sending him these $250 checks. I don’t know how I did it. “Don’t sell them to anyone else, Ron. I’ll send you a check in a couple of weeks. Hold on.” I bought them in three or four batches.

BS: And then the other half complaining that there were young kids around, and that everybody was scrambling for issues of Jimmy Olsen and Superboy, which I just know wasn’t the case.

At left, Wally Wood relaxes after an editor’s panel at the 1968 SCARP-Con (photo from program book sent by Fred Mommsen).

At right is Wally’s superlative cover for the April 1959 issue of Galaxy science-fiction magazine, courtesy of Michael T. Gilbert. [©2003 the respective copyright holders.]

BS: That Eisner interview appeared witzend #6, when Bill Pearson was publisher, but weren’t you also connected with the magazine at the beginning when Wally Wood was publishing it? What did you do on witzend then?

BENSON: I don’t remember exactly. Probably a lot of miscellaneous stuff like pasting things up, writing captions and incidental editorial material, stuffing envelopes, I don’t know. My name is in there as “Staff” for a few issues.

At that time, Wally lived in a tenement walk-up about five blocks from my apartment. I think it was the same apartment that he had in the EC days. The stairs going up to his apartment sloped inward towards the central shaft. You always felt that someday the stairs would collapse.

The apartment had a fairly large kitchen, and Wally had a little studio set up at one end. Someone recently wrote a piece, I wish I could remember where, about working with Wood in those days. [NOTE: It was artist Dan Adkins; see Alter Ego V3#8. —Roy.] This writer described these balls of dust suspended on wires from the ceiling, which he eventually realized had been model airplanes once. Wally was a really nice guy, but he perpetually lived in a world of disappointment. He just knew somebody was going to screw him; I don’t mean his personal friends, I mean professionally. And, darn!—they always did. My favorite anecdote

BENSON: I’m not so sure. I went to that convention. I was in New York in ’64.

However, I had a job... basically the same complaint as Lupoff’s. I was literally there, but didn’t exactly attend. I went there after work, and I arrived just as it was breaking up. It was in a tiny room in, I believe, Academy Hall. I think it was the same building where William Everson had the Theodore Huff Film Society in for years. There was nothing but kids left there when I was there. Well, Seuling was one of four or five dealers lined up in the back, and they were still doing business, like, after

the thing had disbanded.

BS: So then comes 1965 and the first full-fledged attempt at a comic con, which we covered in Alter Ego in exhaustive detail. [laughs] Wasn’t that when you actually met Gil Kane and decided to interview him?

BENSON: Yeah. I described that meeting in my introduction to the Kane interview, which you reprinted in your Best of Alter Ego book. I had been sitting there, rather bored. It was the last panel of the convention, and I hadn’t found the panel the day before very interesting.

It seemed to me at the time that, to the pros on the panels, it had been just a job of work. But then, in the last panel, there were these two firebrands, Jim Warren and Gil Kane. I thought Kane was saying exciting stuff... although if the excerpts printed in Alter Ego #20 are an indication, it must have been his style as much as what he said that impressed me. I ran up to him right after that panel and said, [excited] “Mr. Kane, I’ve gotta interview you! [laughs] You know, I did this other interview and can we just get together and do an interview?”

I didn’t mention in that introduction that I thought he was Bob Kane

A Talk with John Benson when I went up to him. [laughs] I didn’t hear his full name when he was introduced. I said, “Your work is so important to comics history.” And he said, “How’s that?” I said, “Well, didn’t you create Batman?” He said, “Oh, that’s Bob Kane.”

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BENSON: I said, “I don’t care! What excited me was what you said today, not the fact that I thought you created Batman.”

was their life’s dream. They had to just see it come off the press. I shouldn’t say I had no interest in Gil’s work. I was looking at comics and... I still have comics with Gil’s work. He did Conan for a while, right? I was a real fan of Conan for a long, long time. I can’t say that I read Conan in the original, but I loved Buscema. I also liked Barry Smith’s stuff when it got sophisticated. And I did like the stories, although I felt [clears throat] that they were over-written, which I certainly told Roy about. [chuckles]

BS: That interview wasn’t published until several years later.

BS: Back to that 1965 convention...

BENSON: It wasn’t done until several years later. But on that day he said, “Yeah, okay. Let’s do it.” Later, I got to be quite friendly with Gil. Actually, I did another interview with him. Harvey Kurtzman called me up. He had been working on this book, From Arrgh To Zap, and his editor had left the company, and they were no longer interested. So he finally got another publisher, but they said they had to have the manuscript right away. Well, he didn’t have a manuscript, so he called me up and he said, “Listen, I’ve got to do this book on the history of comics right away, but I don’t really know the history of comics. But Gil Kane does. John, I want you to go with a tape recorder and sit down with Gil, and do an interview with him, which would not be for publication but which would be, like, a baseline for me to write my history of comics.”

BENSON: The worst thing about that convention was that the hotel, the Broadway Central, wasn’t air-conditioned, and it was a very, very hot weekend. Other than that, it was fun. At the end of the convention, Dave Kaler said, “I’m never going to put on another convention,” and I thought, “Boy, this was a lot of fun. We should have another one next year.” That’s the reason I put on the 1966 convention.

BS: Oh—that’s painful.

So I went over to Gil’s. And through the afternoon, he kept having another drink. I gave it to this young woman at my office to transcribe, and when it came back, toward the end, she couldn’t understand everything.

So she left blanks when she couldn’t understand it. Before I sent Gil the transcript for correction, I filled in all these blank spaces with really dirty words. [laughs] I thought he would think it was funny, but he thought it was real. When he got it, he thought the typist had not typed them out of modesty.

When he got it, he called, and we were talking, and he said, “Gee, I got a little bit filthy there towards the end, didn’t I? I must have been sloshed.” But then, of course, Kurtzman’s new publisher crapped out, too, and that manuscript was lost. It was lost to Kurtzman, anyhow. When From Arrgh To Zap finally came out, he didn’t use it. The book was largely ghost-written.

The Committee listed in the program book was Mike McInerny as co-chairman, Roy Thomas, Andy Porter, Ted White, Jon White, and Chris Steinbrunner, who did the movie program. Ted and Jon, who are not related, just said they’d offer advice. Andy Porter ran off a few things on his ditto machine. Roy, I think, wrote the piece on Kirby for the program book. You know, today’s conventions are so huge, they have a huge staff. I didn’t have any staff. Mike was the only one who really committed to any time. Mike was essential because he knew about science-fiction conventions, and he knew how to deal with the hotel, and all that, so he gave me a lot of information that was essential for me to do the job, and I think he went with me to negotiate with the hotel. But he really didn’t do that much, and he

I don’t know what happened to the Kane manuscript. Well, it wasn’t really mine, exactly, it was Kurtzman’s. But I still have the tape and I recently sent it to Fantagraphics and they re-transcribed it. When I read the new transcript, I said, “Gee, boys, this would be great for an oral history library, because Gil has interesting and salty things to say about every aspect of comics history and every artist. It should be on file so that whenever anybody is writing about some comic book artist, they could go to it and spice up their piece with some personal comments from Gil. It would be terrific.” But just being published by itself, I don’t know. It wasn’t designed for that.

BS: Did you find it to be true that Gil absolutely couldn’t take a compliment graciously, that he just couldn’t handle compliments about his art?

BENSON: I never talked to him about his art. I had no interest in his art. No, actually, I did, somewhat... I read His Name Is Savage. It was kind of a disappointment after hearing all of his theories. I remember Gil telling me how he had a partner who was the angel who put up the money and lost his shirt. I actually met him. He was an old buddy of Gil’s who was in business. Gil told me how he and his buddy went down to the printers on the day Savage was being run off, because this

Gil Kane (at left) in a photo that accompanied John Benson’s groundbreaking interview published in Alter Ego (Vol. 1) #10 in 1969-70; different photos were used when the piece was reprinted in Hamster Press’ 1997 trade paperback Alter Ego: The Best of the Legendary Fanzine. The layout page above from Gil’s His Name Is Savage was printed in Daniel Herman’s 2001 book Gil Kane: The Art of the Comics, still available from Hermes Press; contact them at (724) 652-0511 or at Geerherm@sgi.net.

[Art ©2003 Estate of Gil Kane.]

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Comics Fandom Archive

[This page and the next:] The front cover of the program book told me in advance, “Right before for John Benson’s 1966 convention featured art penciled by the convention, I’m going to be Jack Kirby for The Black Panther’s debut in Fantastic Four #52 out of town for two weeks.”

(July ’66)—panels deleted by editor/writer Stan Lee, who felt it [laughs] I said, “Okay, fine. I’ll do de-glamorized the Panther to have him stopped by Wyatt all the preparation, but on the day Wingfoot rather than one of the F.F. The back cover featured an of the convention, you’re going to illo by Wally Wood. [Black Panther TM & ©2003 Marvel have to be there and help run it.”

Characters; other art ©2003 the Estate of Wallace Wood.]

Well, some people came in town for the convention, and Mike blocks. I had a stayed up all night, and he didn’t get to the convention until, like, two in conversation with the afternoon. I was basically there, pretty much alone, running that the insurance convention, as I recall. company where I tried to argue that BS: Then Kaler changed his mind and did do a con in 1966, so there the only danger were two cons, just a month or so apart. Which do you think was was at the hotel, better? but I guess traditionally the BENSON: I couldn’t say, because I didn’t go to his, because I was up in danger with the Poconos. I wasn’t really boycotting it; I just wasn’t in town. I know traveling art Larry Ivie told me he thought mine was better, which I took as a real exhibitions is in compliment, because I knew the costume parade was important to Larry, transporting the and we didn’t have one, and Dave did. I didn’t go to Dave’s con the art. I’m sure following year either, for the same reason; I was not in the city at the there were early time.

Batman covers BS: Then, 1968 was the SCARP-Con. because of Robinson’s BENSON: I was very active in Seuling’s conventions. I did the program association with books with Bill Pearson for, like, three years. I edited them, Bill did the the character. I wish production work. Then I think Sal Amendola took over. And even then, I had a photo of that exhibit. I’ll bet Robinson still has all that art.

I did transcripts of the prior year’s events for awhile.

Another highlight of the convention may have been the famous exchange with Leonard Darvin and Ted White where Leonard Darvin BS: They were printed in the program booklet. said, “Gaines should thank us for killing his horror comics because now BENSON: Yes. I did a lot in those early conventions. Not a lot in terms he’s making a lot of money with Mad.” [laughs] Ted ripped into him! of percentage of the convention’s total effort, but a lot for me. At the BS: Whose idea was it to invite Leonard Darvin? convention, I was helping out, I did some of the introductions on the podium, and I considered myself a part of the convention staff for BENSON: It was most likely the Thompsons’ idea; Don was sharing several years. We had Jack Kirby at our convention, and Kaler had Stan the dais with him. I have that on tape, and most of the whole Lee. convention, too. I actually transferred it to a cassette recently because Jay Kennedy wanted to hear it because Bhob Stewart has claimed that BS: Would you consider your convention more oriented to comic strips the first time the term “underground comix” had ever been used than Kaler’s? publicly was by him at that convention. Maybe you could run some of it BENSON: Not at all! There was nothing about strips as I remember, in Alter Ego. I’ve got a ton of tapes from conventions, but the one that I and it wasn’t in any way EC-oriented, either, which some people have missed, the Holy Grail of missing tapes, is that time in 1968 that Charlie assumed. We had one panel on comics of the ’40s, one on the ’50s, and Biro showed up. one on the then-current comics of the ’60s. Klaus Nordling was on the BS: We have that tape. I just got it from Randy Cox and we’ll be ’40s panel, and that was the only convention he ever attended, I think. I running it in Alter Ego. patterned it after Kaler’s convention of the prior year to some extent. I tried to do what I wanted within the context of what I thought the BENSON: Oh, my God! I’ve been looking for that tape forever since it attendees wanted. That’s what I do with Squa Tront, too. happened. I saw that some young person had a tape recorder up there, and later I thought, “Oh, that tape is lost to history.” I even put ads once BS: What would you consider the highlight of your convention? in The Buyer’s Guide: “Who’s got that tape?” That’s the most BENSON: Probably it was the fact that we had the most spectacular wonderful news, because I recall that it was a very, very interesting Golden Age original art on display that you ever saw. I’d say there were session. That was the only time Biro ever was at a convention. at least thirty covers, probably more, from the earliest DC Golden Age BS: What are your overall impressions of your con in 1966? Were you period, with all the classic characters. They were from Jerry Robinson. I happy with the way it went? have no idea how that came about. Most likely, Robinson contacted me.

I remember that I went up to his apartment, which was only three BENSON: I found that when you’re running a convention, especially if blocks from me, but was a beautiful big place in a pre-war luxury you’re doing it almost all alone like I was, you don’t really have time to building that overlooked Riverside Park and the River. He wanted the enjoy it. You miss the panels, you’re running around, and you can’t art insured, and he wanted a commercial guard to watch them. Because really judge the quality of the convention. It was a small convention, of that, they were only on display for a few hours. about the same size as the 1965 one in terms of attendees. There were 200 people or less, I suppose. We were in a very nice hotel, the Park The insurance and the guard were the biggest expense of the Sheridan, which is still there. That convention led to some other interconvention. I think the insurance cost about the same as the convention esting things. One was that the dealers were a little pissed that we’d have rooms at the hotel. I recall that the insurance was high partly because it these events, and everybody’d run out of the dealers room and go in and included transporting the art to the hotel, which was only about 25

A Talk with John Benson listen to the panels.

Times have changed! I went to a really large convention in the last six months where Al Feldstein came to New York for the convention. There was a huge room, and in one little corner of this room were some chairs set up behind a little curtain. And Feldstein is doing his presentation in there and there were literally about fifteen people in the audience. But in those days, people went to conventions to go to the panels. So I talked to Phil Seuling at my convention and said, “You know, Phil, there is a dichotomy here where we’re doing these panels and you’re selling comics. People need a venue to buy comics. You know what would be great? If there was a show where you’d just sell comics.” Well, maybe six months later, Phil started something called “Second Sunday,” which was a monthly show with just dealers.

BS: Right, those were all through the 1970s.

BENSON: They ran for years. Now I won’t say for sure that he got that idea from me. But I certainly suggested it to him and he didn’t say, “Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that.” I’m not sure, but maybe one reason I suggested that was with the idea that it would be possible to have conventions where there were no dealers rooms. Anyhow, the other thing that came out of the 1966 convention, of course, was that we started the comic book meetings.

BS: Right. Let’s talk about those meetings.

BENSON: At that time, I had been going to the Fanoclast biweekly meetings at Ted White’s apartment in Brooklyn. Ted met me and Bhob one time, and he said, “I keep asking you, Bhob, why don’t you come to the Fanoclast meetings?” I guess Bhob had been a regular earlier, when he was art director for Xero, but he was no longer interested in fandom at that time, and he didn’t want to go. But Ted said, “Why don’t you two guys come to the Fanoclast meetings?” All he got was me. There would be, like, maybe thirty people there. The thing was, the Fanoclast meetings were a social evening. In fact, you didn’t even have to know anything about science-fiction to fit in, because the subjects discussed were just about everything. Pop music, politics.... Comics actually were talked about regularly, because that was the era of the Marvel resurgence.

Everybody would talk about what was happening in the latest Marvel comics.

BS: Were you reading them?

BENSON: I was buying them. About the only one I was actually reading regularly was “Dr. Strange” in Strange Tales, which I loved.

Anyhow, it was a social occasion, and I thought, gee, they’re really fun and wouldn’t it be great if we had a group like that which was sort of comic book-based? I talked to Phil Seuling about it right after my 1966

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convention, and I talked to Roy Thomas, and they said, “Yeah, that would be great.” Phil was really enthusiastic. “Oh, yeah,” he said, “Otto Binder, that would be a great guy to ask. He’d love that.”

And so we worked up a list of about fifteen people we thought would be interested, and Roy said he would host them. I didn’t have an apartment big enough to host them. We quickly talked to several people and found that weekends were not too good. People go out of town, and people who work in town but don’t live in Manhattan want to leave early on Friday, and so forth. So they were once a month on Tuesdays.

And Otto Binder either never came, or came once, I can’t remember. But I was the one who started those comic meetings. They met at Roy’s. But for a long time I sent out monthly notices. Then when it became established, I didn’t send out notices, but I still was the one who sent out notices when the venue changed.

BS: So you were, more or less, the glue.

BENSON: Yes, but I didn’t choose who was coming, except with Roy at the beginning, because, after it started, the people attending invited other people. For a few months in the middle period I kept a list. For the first year or so, a typical evening would be 10 or 12 people, then it picked up to 15 or 20 for a long time. Archie Goodwin was a regular.

Archie even hosted it once or twice. Bill Pearson was another regular, and he hosted it when Roy gave it up after a year or so. Bill hosted it for quite some time.

BS: Can you can rattle off some names of who attended?

BENSON: Let’s see. Ted White, Wally Wood, Gray Morrow, Mike Hinge, who was a science-fiction artist, Roger and Michelle Brand.

Larry Ivie was there fairly regularly. Roy Krenkel was often there. John Verpoorten came from time to time. Steve Ditko was a regular for quite a time, and Rocke Mastroserio, too. Dan Adkins, Angelo Torres, Dick Giordano, Steve Stiles, Al Williamson. Dick Blackburn, who had written an interesting article about Carl Barks for Cheetah magazine, but it folded before it appeared. Gil Kane, but not too regularly. Denny O’Neil was a regular. Neal Adams—did I mention Neal Adams? Neal was there all the time. And very vocal, as you may imagine. He was a good person to have.

BS: Didn’t Stan Lee show up at least once?

BENSON: Stan Lee, I believe, showed up twice. [laughs] There were a number of people who showed up once or just a few times. Some of them didn’t live close by, and some were out-of-towners who came when they were in town. Who knows, maybe some of them came once and didn’t like it. Ralph Bakshi showed up once. Some others who were there once or a few times were Wayne Howard, Leonard Starr, John Romita, Art Spiegelman, Bill Everett, Trina Robbins, Flo Steinberg, Jay Lynch, Vaughn Bode, Joe Orlando, and Steranko. Sid Check came several times near the end. I really regret not trying to get an interview out of him. We lost track of him later. I’ve reeled off a lot of names, but there were quite a few others who attended occasionally, or even frequently, that I haven’t mentioned.

BS: It sounds like a tremendously fun group of people to get together with.

BENSON: It was an evening of social conversation, and it was about anything you could imagine, anything. I can remember Steve Ditko arguing about whether the fact that we killed the Indians, whether that was genocide or just the natural expansion. I would say at least half the conversation was not comics. But we would talk about comics, especially because there were a lot of professionals there, so we’d talk about, “Oh, that was really great, what you did last month.” These discussions would be... I wouldn’t say they were necessarily on a high plane, but they would be aesthetic discussions. Then the meetings moved to Jeff Jones’ place. Then, after a while, a lot of the younger, newer

40

Comics Fandom Archive BENSON: I got a more demanding job in 1981, and I really didn’t have time. I knew that issue 9 would be the last for a while. Now I’m semiretired and I have more time. Squa Tront never was a magazine that was published just for the sake of filling pages, including when Jerry was publishing it. I started it up again because I had material from “back when” that I still wanted to see published, more than any other reason.

Then I tried to find interesting new material to give the issue balance. I’ll keep going until I’ve used up my inventory and as long as new things come in that are interesting.

BS: You also published two issues of Panels during your first stint on Squa Tront.

Another snapshot from John’s 1996 con. [Left to right:] John Benson (with back to camera), then-Charlton editor Dick Giordano (he draws, too!), and Clark Dimond (partly obscuring D.G.). As recounted last issue, Dimond was a college pal of John’s who wrote a few black-&-white comic stories.

Courtesy of John Benson.

people in comics started coming, which was great. I think Bernie Wrightson was an early attender, but there was Mike Kaluta, Bruce Jones, people like that. They were a great addition.

But eventually it grew to, like, forty people. And, finally, some of these people, nobody, even Jeff, knew, and I didn’t know, and Roy didn’t know. Finally, Jeff’s neighbors complained about the noise on a weeknight, and we moved it to Friday, and then Jeff moved out of town, and they ended. Eventually, somebody restarted them again as First Friday. That’s why I’ve heard the original group called First Friday. It was never Friday in the original incarnation, except for the very end.

When Jeff left town, there was a very long hiatus. The later group was really a completely different group. I don’t know when it started up again.

BS: Let’s move on to Squa Tront. How did it come about that you took it over from Jerry Weist?

BENSON: Jerry had definitely stopped publishing it for good. I just thought it would be fun to do. Maybe the fact that Bill Pearson, a close friend, was publishing witzend at the time influenced me to get back into publishing. I think Jerry was living in New York then, and I just asked him if I could take over and he said yes. If you look in my first issue, #5, you’ll see that he’s listed as publisher. He did some very significant publishing chores. He made arrangements to have that issue printed at his old printers in Wichita. He also arranged for its distribution, which included trading copies for other stuff for the store he was starting in Boston by that time.

BS: Do you have any anecdotes about doing Squa Tront?

BENSON: You know, publishing a fanzine is somewhat solitary. You sit in a room and put it out. I notice that that’s a problem with interviewing comics artists. They sat down and drew it, what can they say? I did an awful lot of the work myself. My major assistance was from Bill Peckmann on issues 5 through 9, and Greg Sadowski on issue 10.

BS: Do you find that the material is becoming exhausted? So much has been written about EC. BENSON: That’s part of the charm of it. Here’s this subject that is so limited, but yet it’s also inexhaustible.

BS: You published five issues, ending in 1983, and now you’ve started it up again after almost 20 years. Why the hiatus?

BENSON: Yes. A high-class magazine, with one issue focusing on Eisner, the other on Barks. Before those two creators were done to death. There are several things in those two issues that I’m really proud to have published. One is an essay on Jesse Marsh, written by Alex Toth.

Toth wrote in a unique style, and his manuscript was in his distinctive lettering. It read really great in his lettering, but when you type-set it, it lost a lot. But his manuscript was really a draft manuscript. It had a number of cross-outs, it didn’t have consistent margin width, and it needed a few corrections. Toth hadn’t written it with the idea that his lettering would actually be used. So I got Nancy Carey to take a copy of his manuscript, cut it up, and do a paste-up job, sometimes word by word, to get it in shape for publication and still retain Toth’s lettering.

Then Bill Peckmann did a great logo, using March’s and Toth’s signatures. It was a wonderful, thoughtful article by Toth, and I think we really presented it the best way possible.

BS: Of all the pieces Alex Toth has written over the years, I think this one on Marsh is my favorite. It’s just great, and it inspired me to take another look at Marsh’s Tarzan work.

BENSON: Also, I wrote an essay on Kurtzman’s war comics for Panels 2 that I think is probably the best thing that I ever wrote. Another thing I did for Panels is, I sat down with Jules Feiffer with a run of The Spirit, and I got him to try to identify every story that he wrote, and I ran a checklist with his individual comments on the stories. Eisner was rather upset about that. He called me when the book came out and ventilated a little. The thing is, if people view Eisner as Feiffer’s mentor or teacher, that’s very flattering. But if they view Feiffer as Eisner’s ghost, that’s not so good. Eisner had a point, because whatever Feiffer did, he did under Eisner’s direction, and the strip was always shaped and controlled by Eisner.

I also got a call from Jerry Iger when that issue came out. He was a lot angrier than Eisner, for a lot less reason. He threatened to sue me for things Eisner said. But Eisner had gone over the interview carefully, and had specifically taken out anything he thought might possibly offend Iger! I really couldn’t see what Iger was complaining about. Of course, I never heard from him after that phone call. I placated him by saying that I’d do an interview with him, actually, and even tried to get someone to do that. I didn’t know enough about Iger to do it myself, and also it didn’t sound like it would be a very high-yield interview. A lot of people think that those two issues of Panels were the best things I ever did.

BS: So why didn’t you revive Panels instead of Squa Tront?

BENSON: I did have some material planned for a third issue, and some people had promised to write articles, but I didn’t have very much compared to the Squa Tront material I have from back then. Also, what little I had wasn’t my material, it wasn’t stuff that I’d done. And Squa Tront is more fun! I have great affection for Squa Tront.

BS: Are you going to be bringing Squa Tront out more often?

BENSON: More often than once every 20 years? [laughs] Well, my plan is to bring out one a year for about another three or four issues.

A Talk with John Benson BS: The upcoming issue of Squa Tront is a John Severin issue, right?

BENSON: Yes. Many years ago, Jim Vadeboncoeur worked up a lot of stuff, including an interview with Severin and a detailed checklist, and he’s been as patient as a saint about my not publishing it. I haven’t blocked out the issue yet, but I’d say most of the next issue will be about Severin. Good, solid, interesting stuff, too. Beyond that— when it became known that I was reviving Squa Tront, several people sent in interesting ideas for new articles. I haven’t gotten much in yet, but that’s because I’ve given generous and/or vague deadlines. I’ve always been reluctant to talk too much about future plans. I like to wait until things are actually completed before talking about them. The next issue is very definite, though.

BS: Do you read any comics today?

41 they could write about the real world, real people, and real events. Atlas published an incredible number of war comics, so naturally there’s a lot of crap in there, but a surprising number of their writers looked at what Kurtzman was doing at EC, and said to themselves, “Hey, you can tell real stories about war, you can tell short stories of value in comics.” Often, they didn’t swipe or even slavishly imitate him, they just tried to do good things on their own.

BS: Do you have a favorite?

BENSON: I have a lot more to read; there were so many. I feel there’s a lot more to discover. There are a few stories that I think are even better than Kurtzman in some ways. The art was not always that strong.

Some of the art was terrific, Russ Heath, for example, but the great art and the great scripts didn’t always match up.

BS: Did Stan Lee write a lot of those?

BENSON: I don’t read current comics much. I read Ben Katchor’s strip every week.

BENSON: Very few. What with the writing His famous strip was Julius Knipl, Real credits in the books themselves, and the Estate Photographer... but now he does a John says that Youthful Magazines’ Captain Science, credits from payment books and such that similar strip without a continuing character. often with art by Wally Wood and Joe Orlando, “was Robyn Snyder and Michael Vassallo have But when I say that I don’t read new comics, a funky comic with a lot of interesting ’50s sub-texts.” ferreted out, there are quite a number of it’s not necessarily because I disdain them.

This is the cover for issue #4 (June 1951). [©2003 the stories where the writing credit is known.

Spiegelman tells me, “You should be reading respective copyright holder.]

Hank Chapman is credited heavily in the this, you should be reading that, there’s books themselves. I’d like to know what important stuff out there.” Chris Ware is percentage of his total contribution is credited. Robert Bernstein, Carl obviously one of those people he’s talking about. But the effort of Wessler, Paul S. Newman, and Don Rico all wrote quite a few stories for looking at all the material that’s coming out and trying to sift through it the war comics. to find the material that I would be sympathetic with is too much of an effort. I’m surprised how well Spiegelman keeps up with it all. But then he’s a tastemaker so I guess he has to.

I also read old comics, maybe one a week, nearly all from the ’50s era, 1949 to 1956. When I read a comic, I read it very thoroughly, and I generally write a few notes, so that I can remember it later. Now, when it comes to interest in old popular culture, I think a lot of people are hung up on the time that they grew up. In general, that’s not true for me. But I am attracted to the horror comics of the ’50s partly because they’re so cheesy and trashy, and partly just nostalgia for the era. I love the stuff the Iger shop did for Ajax and Superior, especially the scripts, which I believe were written by Ruth Roche. There’s a certain type of story that they did that I call “the world upside-down,” where evil triumphs and the innocent die with the guilty. Strange stuff. I’ve also become interested in the Story horror comics, and I’ll be writing something about them for Squa Tront. I was also reading Captain Science recently. There was a funky comic with a lot of interesting ’50s sub-texts.

BS: Even though you weren’t reading them back then, they’re nostalgia for you now?

BENSON: Right. But I spend a lot more time on romance comics, and also, lately, on the Atlas war comics. As I get older, I find that the content is more and more important when I read comics. When you’re young, the visuals are often enough, either the way the story is told, a sort of intellectual interest in that... or just the flashy pictorials alone could grab me the same way they do everyone else, that was enough.

But now I find that I’m generally less tolerant unless there’s content there that really interests me. ’50s comics featured the short story format rather than continuing characters, and the romance and war genres were subjects which, if the writers so chose, they could write about real things. They generally recycled clichés and crap, but if they wanted to

Interestingly, I’m beginning to be able to recognize the styles of some of the writers. The easiest one is Chapman, not only because he signed so many stories, but he had a very recognizable style and content. He was very anti-Communist. But a very good writer. It’s really a thrill to go through those war books and discover a great story. I don’t think very many people today have looked at these war comics for the writing.

BS: I think you’re in almost virgin territory.

BENSON: As far as the writing goes, I agree. I believe the two Vs, Jim Vadeboncoeur and Michael Vassallo, have catalogued these books quite thoroughly, even though I guess they haven’t published much of their scholarship. But their emphasis is on the art, I think. I do plan to write some stuff about the Atlas war comics for a future issue of Squa Tront.

BS: In terms of romance, I know you have a book coming out about St. John romance.

BENSON: Yes, Fantagraphics is coming out with my anthology, Romance without Tears, at the end of the year. I’ve read all of the St. John romance stories, many of them more than once, so I want to say that this is really a carefully-edited anthology, not a bunch of randomly selected stories. I’ve got a second book on the St. John romance comics, too, which is made up of interviews with people who worked there, a biography of St. John, a complete detailed checklist, with all the reprints cross-indexed, and a lot of other stuff. That one doesn’t have a publication date yet.

BS: Was St. John the only one that was publishing romance comics that were adventurous or outside strict formula?

BENSON: I do suggest that in the introduction to my book, but that’s only half true. It’s true in that the message that St. John’s chief writer

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Comics Fandom Archive

Dana Dutch concealed in his seemingly innocuous stories was revolutionary, and that the quality of his writing was subtle and rather remarkable when you study it. Deceptively understated, like the work of John Stanley on Little Lulu. But I have to be honest and say that, first of all, St. John published a lot of crap, too. Later in the run, St. John had less concern for a uniform quality. Dutch and Matt Baker still did their great stuff, not always together, unfortunately, but also mixed in were some lousy scripts and art by others. Also, viewed in terms of writing quality, and originality and sincere concern for the readers, there were other romance comics that were good.

BS: I just thought of the Standard romance comics. The Alex Toth stuff is great, and the scripts weren’t bad.

BENSON: Oh yeah, Kim Aamondt, the writer that Toth liked, he wrote some really good stories. [NOTE: Kim will be interviewed in the next issue of AE.] You’re right, that’s one example, I’d forgotten that.

Another was Ray Herrman’s two titles at Orbit, Love Journal and Love Diary. Interesting stories could pop up almost anywhere: ACG, Gleason, Atlas...

BS: I think we’ve covered a lot here. Is there anything you’d like to say in conclusion?

BENSON: Yes, I’d like to mention how much I like Alter Ego. I really like how it focuses exclusively on the contents of comics and the people who created them, and stays away from the whole rarity/condition/value thing. And I like how Roy goes after pictorial material. He tries to get pictorial material that is related to the article and yet is not generally something that you’ve seen before, either at all or in that format. I try to do the same in Squa Tront. Another thing is... so many comics publications nowadays just reproduce the covers of comics, maybe because people have them all sealed up and don’t look at anything but the covers.

But Alter Ego typically runs excerpts from comics stories, and that’s nice, too. I must say, Alter Ego is so voluminous and comes out so often that I have a hard time keeping up on reading it. But I really do like its approach and I’m glad it’s coming out.

BS: You mentioned real life... that’s probably why super-hero comics don’t have much appeal for you.

[Thanks, John, for that unsolicited endorsement of A/E. We ourselves give “two enthusiastic thumbs up” for Squa Tront, which truly is the ultimate EC fanzine. We urge fans who haven’t yet become familiar with this intelligent, beautifully-laid-out fanzine to see John’s ad on this very page, as well as to stock up on back issues.]

BENSON: To some extent. But I’m not opposed to fantasy. I’m kind-of charmed by horror comics and sf fantasy. In fact, as I mentioned, I love “Dr. Strange.” I don’t consider Dr. Strange a super-hero. One of the things I liked about the character as conceived by Ditko and Lee is that he often operated from weakness. He wasn’t always a strong as his opponents, but he beat them by using his wits, by making them think he had powers that he didn’t really have, for example. I also liked that he had these titanic battles but he was alone and unknown.

[If our timing is right, Bill Schelly’s new book Words of Wonder: The Life and Times of Otto Binder should be back from the printer any day now. We can’t imagine how any true-blue reader of Alter Ego wouldn’t want this fabulous biography of one of the greatest comic book writers of all time, who was a sort of “patron saint” to A/E back in the 1960s. Copies of Words of Wonder can be had by sending a check or money order for $21.00 (includes postage) to: Hamster Press, PO Box 27471, Seattle, WA 98165.]

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.

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HALCYON HALLOWEEN ISSUE!

[Art ©2003 Gene Colan & Jerry Ordway; Captain Marvel TM & ©2003 DC Comics; Marvel version of Dracula TM & ©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

No. 88 Our 30th Year!

1973-2003

44

Marc Swayze

By

mds& logo ©2003 Marc Swayze; Captain Marvel © & TM 2003 DC Comics] (c) [Art

[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, “Captain Marvel Introduces Mary Marvel (CMA #18, Dec. ’42); but he was primarily hired by Fawcett Publications to illustrate Captain Marvel stories and covers for Whiz Comics and Captain Marvel Adventures. He also wrote many Captain Marvel scripts, and continued to do so while in the military. After leaving the service, 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 topselling line of romance comics. After the company ceased publishing comics, Marc moved over to Charlton Publications, where he ended his comics career in the mid-’50s. Marc’s ongoing professional memoirs have been FCA’s most popular feature since his first column appeared in FCA #54, 1996. In this issue, Marc backtracks to discuss his associations with comic strip creators Russell Keaton, Zack Mosley, and Rick Yager.

—P.C. Hamerlinck.]

Russell Keaton once said, “Carey Orr didn’t recommend solid blacks in backgrounds.”

An inked 1996 sketch of Mary Marvel by Marc Swayze. [Art ©2003 Marc Swayze; Mary Marvel TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

Keaton, originator of Flyin’ Jenny, the first aviation comic strip to feature a female pilot, was making a final inspection of the week’s work, prior to mailing. When the statement was made I had no idea who he was talking about, but I knew what he was talking about. College art classes, helpful and appreciated as they had been, did not go into the subject of “solid blacks in backgrounds” as did comic strip artists.

Carey Orr, I learned, was a popular editorial cartoonist with the Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate. He was also a widely admired instructor at the Chicago Academy of Art, which may have been where Keaton came to know Zack Mosley. Or maybe it was when the two were co-workers and pals at the John F. Dille Syndicate.

Mosley, creator of the long-lasting newspaper strip Smilin’ Jack, has been rightfully accorded a place in the history of aviation comics. He could also be credited with having been one of the pioneers possessing

A Swayze-drawn “Captain Marvel” splash page from Whiz Comics #38 (Dec. 1942). The racially-stereotyped Steamboat, developed before Marc came to work for Fawcett, was dropped shortly thereafter. [© 2003 DC Comics.]

The influence of Smilin’ Jack accounted for the “great number of pen-line mustaches and crooked smiles seen around the airports of the day.”

Sketch by Marc Swayze. [Art ©2003 Marc Swayze; Smilin’ Jack ©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

We Didn’t Know...

45

Zack Mosley’s comic strip aviator, Smilin’ Jack. Although, as seen above left in panels from a 1939 daily, Jack didn’t originally sport a mustache, he did wear one for most of his airborne career—as per the letterhead on the above 1941 Mosley missive to Marc Swayze. Of course, there were bigger things to worry about just then than Mosely’s deadlines, since the letter was posted Dec. 15, 1941—eight days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Daily panel taken from Vol. 2 of Smilin’ Jack in the excellent reprint series from Dave Clark’s Classic Comics. Anybody know if they’re still available? Letter courtesy of Marc Swayze. [©2003 the respective copyright holders.]

the ability to write and draw the then-new, more serious dramatic comics and maintain at the same time the humor of the traditional “funnies.” In Smilin’ Jack, there often appeared a disheveled character who simply loafed around the airports, playing no part in the story. Fat Stuff was overweight around the middle and wore his shirts so tight that a button kept popping off at the front. And there was always a stray chicken there to catch the button! The scene rarely, if ever, changed… and yet it was always funny. Zack Mosley could do that!

The ladies in Zack’s cast of characters were attractive, busty, and curvy, often standing by in a Mae West posture, taking little or no part in the action, but nice to have around. It’s a safe bet they were popular.

I met Zack Mosley through Russell Keaton and got to know him thereafter when occasionally he requested my assistance. I was working with him temporarily at the Mosley home in Port Washington, New York, when his wife burst into the studio with news of the 1941 surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.

There should be little question that the comic strip Smilin’ Jack had an influence on American aviation. That has been attested by the great number of pen-line mustaches and crooked grins seen around the airports of the day. And artists drawing aviation stories in the Golden Age comic books obviously felt the influence of that and other newspaper strips. In Wow Comics, when Mickey Malone— the Phantom Eagle—was flying through his adventures in his Comet plane, I must have relied heavily on knowledge accumulated earlier from Smilin’ Jack, and, especially, Flyin’ Jenny. I would have had to, having no interest in planes other than as a means to get places!

Dashing, devilish Smilin’ Jack flew through newspaper pages for 40 years, coming in for his final

landing in 1973. The creator, Zack Mosley, I considered a true friend. His support and encouragement during my efforts to land a syndicate contract have not been forgotten.

That was a bonus that came along from having worked with Marc Swayze’s two old friends—C.C. Beck (left) and Zack Mosley—at OrlandoCon, 1979.

Russell Keaton… the Photo courtesy of Gladys Beck. friendships made during the experience. Another in particular was Rick Yager, artist and writer for years of the Buck Rogers Sunday page. Like Mosley, he had worked with Keaton at the John F. Dille Company in the early ’30s.

Rick occasionally motored down from his home in Chicago to a family camp on the Gulf coast.

When doing so, he usually made a stop at our town for a visit with Keaton.

I’m certain Rick looked forward to those visits. When there was the slightest evidence of a pressing Flyin’ Jenny deadline, he would insist on clearing off a spare drawing table and lending a hand, extending the visit a day or two.

Those occasions were great for me, barely out of school, still intent upon shedding a milkman image, working side by side with two seasoned pros!

And it was good to know a guy like Rick Yager.

Affable, upbeat, always in sporty, casual attire, hat tilted at a rakish angle and turned up front, college style. The single word for Yager was “optimism”… everything seemed to be accomplished so easily, confidently.

Fat Stuff, Smilin’ Jack’s dimensionally-challenged buddy, as seen by Marc Swayze in a recent sketch (at left) and in a detail taken from Mosley’s strip (right). [©2003 the respective copyright holders.]

You had to watch him, though, warned his old friend, Russell Keaton.

46

Marc Swayze loud… enough to turn every head in the place our way. It was easy to see the color slowly rise in Keaton’s face… heavy red… from collar to scalp! When we reached a booth Rick would fling himself into the corner and place one foot up on the seat beside himself. The more Russell suffered, the happier he appeared.

After witnessing the incident the first time, I couldn’t resist speaking to Keaton about it when Yager left for the Coast: “And the hat! You’d think he knew better than to keep it on his head at the table!”

“Of course he does,” laughed Russell. “Rick Yager has perfect manners. It’s that merciless heart of his I was telling you about!”

Of course, when Russell Keaton spoke of Rick Yager’s “merciless heart,” he was speaking of one of the kindest, most generous hearts he or I ever knew. It was my good fortune to have known Rick. Over a decade would pass before I was to realize a satisfactory syndicate arrangement for my own idea, The Great Pierre. During that time there were several possibilities in the Chicago area. Rick never ceased to help with his encouragement and hospitality… arranging appointments, introductions… offering suggestions; he made those calls easy!

I admired him… the man and who and what he was. When I met him at Keaton’s the feature Buck Rogers still took up a large part of the Sunday comics sections all over the world. It had been around for almost ten years. So had Rick Yager. Somehow, to me, that meant forever. He and Russell Keaton were extraordinary people. I liked the way they handled the special kind of non-fame enjoyed by comic strip creators.

[Marc Swayze will return next issue with more memories of the Golden Age of Comics.]

Early newspaper aviation strips had an influence on comic book features such as The Phantom Eagle, which ran from 1942-48 in Wow Comics.

Art by Marc Swayze. [©2003 DC Comics.]

Somewhere behind that cheerful disposition, Keaton chuckled, thumped a merciless heart! I had to learn what he meant by that!

Rick had been through our community a number of times… enough to know it as quiet, dignified, steeped in traditional good manners. The character of the locale was reflected in the residents, not one among them more polite, well-mannered, considerate… or sensitive… than Russell Keaton.

Yager knew all that. At mealtime, as the three of us approached the town’s largest restaurant, he always managed to dominate our conversation. As we entered, he increased the volume… nothing profane, just

Marc says that Rick Yager, seen here in photo, “addressed me by a nickname tacked on in college... ‘Doc.’” In this July 1941 note he told Marc to buck up after another syndicated comic strip rejection, and invited him to stay at the Yagers’ abode in the Chicago area. At left is part of a Yager Buck Rogers Sunday strip from 1939. [Buck Rogers art ©2003 The Dille Trust.]

Those Marvel-ous Monsters

47

Captain Marvel and Those Marvel-ous Monsters

by Michael Mikulovsky As a kid growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the 1970s, I always loved monsters. Not only on Shock Theatre on TV, but also all those great monster mags of the time: Famous Monsters of Filmland, Eerie, and Creepy.

Then Marvel’s second “monster explosion” hit the scenes in the early ’70s. I went nuts! All my favorite monsters—plus some new ones—by all these great writers and talented artists!

Even though I was always a so-called “Marvel zombie,” in the late 1980s I became a huge fan of the original Captain Marvel, because of the release on videotape of the old Republic serial and Jerry Ordway’s beautifully-painted graphic novel.

Every fan has his/her own dream project which they would love to write or draw or just see published. Mine would be to see Captain Marvel star in a whole month’s worth of weekly titles. With a story with a Halloween theme that ties it all together—Cap battling an array of classic monsters, drawn by their Marvel Comics artist counterparts: Dracula by Gene (The Dean) Colan, The Zombie by Pablo Marcos, an updated Creature from the Black Lagoon by Dave Cockrum or Frank Brunner—also the Werewolf

by Night and Frankenstein’s Monster by Mike Ploog. And all inked by Tom Palmer or Jerry Ordway.

I’m still hoping to finish my personal quest by getting Frank Brunner and Mike Ploog to do the characters I mentioned above, but I’ve made a good start—and I’d like to thank all the artists for all their hard work, and Jon B. Cooke for all his help!

And best of luck to producer Michael Uslan and screenwriter William Goldman, the announced team supreme on the upcoming Shazam! movie.

FCA EDITOR’S NOTE: You sure have made a good start, Michael! And thanks for sharing your prizes with the readers of FCA and Alter Ego! Maybe by next year you’ll have even more goodies to lay on us!

You’ve already glimpsed the Jerry Ordway-inked version of Gene Colan’s Captain Marvel-vs.-Dracula pencils on our FCA interior cover a few pages back. Above is the same cover inked by Tom Palmer, renowned as the inker of Gene’s Tomb of Dracula work for much of the 1970s. Alas, Michael had to photograph this version through glass, in a way that left a pattern, but we figured you’d want you to see it, all the same. Used by permssion of the artists. [Art ©2003 Gene Colan & Tom Palmer; Captain Marvel TM & ©2003 DC Comics; Marvel version of Dracula TM & ©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

(Left:) Pablo Marcos illustrated most adventures of the title character of Marvel’s black-&-white comic/magazine Tales of the Zombie, which ran from 1973-75. That he or Dracula would have given the Big Red Cheese as hard a time in person as they do in these drawings done for Mike Mikulovsky is problematical, but what the hey—Big Mike was payin’ the bills, so...! Pencil sketch and finished art used by permission of the artist. [Art © 2003 Pablo Marcos; Captain Marvel TM & ©2003 DC Comics; Zombie TM & ©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

48 Captain Marvel and

Those Marvel-ous Monsters

49

Gentleman Gene Colan’s penciled illustration, used by permission of the artist. [Art ©2003 Gene Colan; Captain Marvel TM & ©2003 DC Comics; Marvel version of Dracula TM & ©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

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As he revealed in his interview in Alter Ego #24, Dave Cockrum dearly loves the Creature from the Black Lagoon, star of three 1950s Universal horror movies! Dave had briefly drawn Captain Marvel Jr. for DC back in the ’70s, and this is an equally rare crack at the World’s Mightiest [Adult] Mortal! Used by permission of the artist.

[Art ©2003 Dave Cockrum; Captain Marvel TM & ©2003 DC Comics; Creature from the Black Lagoon TM & ©2003 Universal Pictures, Inc.]

50

William Woolfolk

William Woolfolk (1917-2003)

A Few Words about a Great Golden Age Comics Writer

by P.C. Hamerlinck This past summer, the world’s greatest super-heroes stopped briefly from their everyday battle against evil for a moment of silence, paying tribute to the man who pioneered the groundwork for so many of their early adventures.

William Woolfolk, a professional writer, novelist, essayist, newspaper columnist, magazine writer and publisher, playwright, screenwriter… and one of the most talented and versatile writers of the Golden Age of Comics... passed away on Sunday, July 20th, 2003, of congestive heart failure at the age of 86 in Syracuse, New York (where he had lived for the last six years).

I feel very fortunate to have known Bill the last few years of his life, thanks to Golden Age fan Shaun Clancy, who gave me Bill’s address. A lively correspondence began (which included Bill’s sending charming post-scripts to my wife Jennifer, letting her know that if it didn’t work out between her and a certain FCA editor, he was available!). Our alltoo-brief friendship resulted in two in-depth articles: his autobiographical essay “Looking Backward… from My Upside Down Point of View” (Alter Ego V3#6) and my follow-up interview, which he titled “The Human Side of the Golden Age” (Alter Ego #24). By perusing these two articles, you’ll see just how important Bill was to a fresh new art form called “comic books.”

In between those two pieces, I urged and helped David Siegel to get Bill out as a guest of honor at the 2002 San Diego ComicCon, where he received an Inkpot Award for his outstanding achievements in the field. It was Bill’s first, and sadly last, comics convention.

Bill was a first-class gentleman. He also had a wickedly funny, dry sense of humor… and had mastered the art of coming up with some very quick-witted, hilarious Henry Youngman-like one-liners. Sure enough, he was in top form when I finally got to meet him in person at the San Diego Comic-Con. After I greeted him, he replied, “Okay, but where’s your beautiful wife?”

Bill was one of the most sought-after and most highly-paid writers during the Golden Age. He wrote many classic tales of Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., Ibis the Invincible, Bulletman, Superman, Batman, Plastic Man, Blackhawk, The Shield, The Spirit, Captain America… the list goes on and on. Jack Cole, Lou Fine, and Wendell Crowley referred to him as “The Shakespeare of Comics.” He even seems to have initiated Billy Batson’s classic exclamation, “Holy Moley!”

Bill left comics work in the 1950s and turned his attention to other forms of writing. He became the head writer for the popular television series The Defenders. Two of Bill’s scripts from the show were nominated for Emmy Awards. He wrote over 18 novels (including the 1968 bestseller The Beautiful Couple and The Builders in 1969) and two works of nonfiction, selling a total of over 8 million copies.

Bill was married twice. Surviving are a daughter, Donna Woolfolk Cross (author of Pope Joan); a son, Dr. Donald Woolfolk; and four granddaughters.

We’ll miss him... but we’re glad he walked among us for so many years.

Monthly! Edited and published by Robin Snyder

(Above:) 1948 photo of Bill Woolfolk. Art at top right by C.C. Beck from Captain Marvel Adventures #100 (Sept. 1949). Otto Binder wrote that particular story, but the picture reflects our feelings at Bill’s passing.

[Art ©2003 DC Comics.]

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

Captain Marvel Faces Fear

51

Captain Marvel Faces Fear Captain Marvel Adventures #89 Examined by John G. Pierce

Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck

[FCA EDITOR’S NOTE: This piece was originally published in the first issue of John’s marvelous, short-lived late-’70s fanzine The Whiz Kids in 1976, and is ©2003 John G. Pierce. —P.C. Hamerlinck.]

Preface The Bible, in I John 4:18, tells us that “perfect love casts out fear.” In the “Captain Marvel” story I discuss in this review, knowledge casts out fear.

We fear the unknown, and often fear what we don’t need to fear at all. That seems to be the message of this story– a story, like so many “Captain Marvel” tales, not meant just to entertain, but to enlighten and inspire.

Largely due to the misinterpretation of Captain Marvel by DC Comics, and the fact that comics historians generally have failed to chronicle the full scope of Captain Marvel’s adventures of the past, today’s readers frequently tend to think of the original “Captain Marvel” stories as having been strictly in a humorous vein.

But even a perfunctory C.C. Beck’s cover for Captain Marvel Adventures #89. glance at some of the old Fawcett comics would easily dispel any such mistaken notions. And one prime example is Captain Marvel Adventures #89 (Oct. 1948), and particularly its lead story, “Captain Marvel Faces Fear!”

Fear is presented as a tangible entity with flowing white robes and a Spectre-like hood. Inviting the reader to witness his power, Fear introduces the story with a scientist who, having completed an invention, turns it over to a delivery boy. When the boy gets a look at the package’s label, which says ‘Atomic Engine,’ he jumps to the conclusion that he is carrying an atomic bomb. The youngster promptly disposes of the package in a trashcan, while Fear gloats that “The news will spread like contagion.”

A garbage disposal unit empties the trashcan contents into a truck, while the boy, still on the run from the “bomb,” smashes into Billy Batson, who promptly says “Shazam!” (Contrary to what some people, including C.C. Beck himself, have reported, Billy didn’t always wait until moments of extreme danger to say his magic word, as this example shows. Or perhaps Billy had either a low threshold of excitement or a newsperson’s instinct for danger.)

Captain Marvel stops the boy long enough to get an explanation.

Cap flies the lad back to the trashcan, and thence to the scientist’s office.

While the delivery boy takes off again, Captain Marvel learns from the scientist that the atomic engine is “absolutely harmless.” But it’s too late, as the delivery boy/messenger has gone, and “news travels fast on the wings of Fear.” As crowds flee the city, “the tiny voice of reason is lost in the clamor of…Fear!” Billy, at station WHIZ, attempts to broadcast that there is no danger, but to no avail. He changes to Captain Marvel, who almost succeeds in quelling a riot. But Fear decides, “I’ve got to do something…” A passing truck backfires, convincing the crowd that the “bomb” exploded.

“Fear is presented as a tangible entity” in CMA #89. [©2002 DC Comics.]

But Captain Marvel spots Fear. “Who’s that fellow sulking around in that queer outfit?” he wonders, and gives pursuit. Fear, being “stronger

52

Captain Marvel Faces Fear

than any man,” strikes at Cap, who recoils. Cap counters by grabbing the hood of the strange figure, but– “For the first time in his career, Captain Marvel knows the full terrible meaning of…Fear!” Fear escapes while Cap leans against a building.

Quickly recovering from his shock, Captain Marvel determines to find the engine and prove that it is harmless. Meanwhile, a hobo finds the engine at the city dump.

Spreading the word to his fellow hobos, the deluded bum leads them in a rapid flight from “the bomb,” while Fear [©2002 DC Comics.] observes that “even the lowliest of men, though devoid of hope, can’t escape from me!”

But Captain Marvel’s arrival calms the hobos, who trust him long enough to allow him to show them that the object is only an engine.

Captain Marvel, who resists the power of the spectral figure, pounces upon fear, attempting to regain control of the situation.

Demanding to know the identity of his foe, Captain Marvel gets the following response, which reads as if it might have originated in a textbook or theological tome: “Since the beginning of time I have existed only in the minds of people who have not known the truth!

For those who know the truth… I don’t exist at all!” As Fear fades away, leaving Cap holding empty air, the bewildered hobos look on. The story concludes with the scientist who invented the atomic engine, as a guest on Billy Batson’s program, intoning, “The panic comes from fear, and fear thrives on ignorance! When men learn the facts, unreasoning fear and all its terrors disappear forever!”

subtly, but seldom more forcefully.

The issue’s second story, “Captain Marvel’s Melancholia,” concerns itself with a murder which Captain Marvel almost witnesses, and the after-effects on Cap, who, upset because his testimony will send a possibly innocent man to the electric chair (leaving behind him a wife and two children), plunges into a state of melancholia which he is unable to shake until he visits the scene of the crime once more. There, he finds conclusive evidence that the accused man is innocent.

“Captain Marvel and the Pride of Mr. Morris” is a considerably

[©2002 DC Comics.]

The modern critic, accustomed to “realism” in comics, might easily question the use of such a figure as Fear in the story. Was Captain Marvel, by virtue of his Shazam powers, able to see the figure? Or could Fear make itself visible to anyone? The scene with the hobos gives no clue, as no indication is given whether they can or cannot see him. But such questions avoid the real meaning of the story. That meaning has been expressed at other times, perhaps more directly, sometimes more

lighter story, in which Billy and Captain Marvel try to help Billy’s boss make a home movie for entry in an amateur TV contest. (How the president of a large TV station like WHIZ could even qualify as an amateur is a bit puzzling, but it’s a very minor point, which I didn’t even consider the first time I read the tale.)

Finally, the cover story, “Captain Marvel Fights the Silent Sound” is a good but basically typical Dr. Sivana adventure in which our favorite little rat is foiled in another attempt to take over the world.

Theology, drama, suspense, humor, and adventure… they were all there in Captain Marvel Adventures #89. How long has it been since you’ve read a comic book with any sort of variety in it at all? To say nothing of the variety offered in a single issue like CMA #89.

And people still ask why the original Captain Marvel was so great!

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had said it another way in 1933: “We have nothing to fear... but fear itself.” [©2002 DC Comics.]

Now—FLIP US for our Horror, Terror, & Love Goddesses!

Art ©2003 Pete Von Sholly; King Kong TM & ©2003 the respective trademark & copyright holders.

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Vol. 3, No. 29 /October 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

HORROR, TERROR, & LOVE GODDESSES Section

Cover Artists

Contents

Pete Von Sholly Frank Brunner

Four Touches of Venus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Cover Colorists

Trina Robbins on the Goddess of Love as a comic book heroine of infinite variety.

Pete Von Sholly Tom Ziuko

Classics NOT Illustrated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Pete Von Sholly shows you how to fake a book report—in an alternate universe!

And Special Thanks to: Gary Arlington Mark Austin Randall J. Barlow John Benson Chris Brown Frank Brunner Mike Burkey Orlando Busino Nick Caputo Gene Colan Dave Cockrum Jon B. Cooke Al Dellinges Roger Dicken & Wendy Hunt Shel Dorf Shelton Drum Tim Easterday Bill Fraccio George Gladir Stan Goldberg Paul Handler Dustin Harbin Daniel Herman

Richard Howell Thomas G. Lammers Stan Lee Steve Leialoha Pablo Marcos Michael Mikulovsky Mile-High Comics Fred Mommsen Brian K. Morris Dave O’Dell Jerry Ordway Tom Palmer John G. Pierce Larry Rippee Paul Rivoche Trina Robbins Pete Von Sholly Marc Swayze Dann Thomas Alex Toth Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Michael J. Vassallo Hames Ware Michael Zeno

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

William Woolfolk

The “Dark and Haunting” Art of Ernie Schroeder . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Hames Ware & Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., present a Heap of great artwork.

Maneely Monsterpieces! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 A handful of horror for a haunted Halloween—served up by 1950s artist Joe Maneely.

“Melt Figure into Black Shadows” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Alex Toth writes about “mysterioso, blackgarbed nightcreature hero/villains, etc.”

The EC’s That Never Were!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Michael T. Gilbert on The Nickel Library and its five-penny horror-comics covers.

Tales Calculated to Drive You BATS! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Jim Amash interviews George Gladir & Orlando Busino—the men behind the madness.

Monsters Malicious & Mirthful Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About Our Cover: The Eighth Wonder of the World! Many of the great horror-lit scenes (see pp. 17-22) painted by Pete Von Sholly would’ve made fabulous covers for this issue of A/E in the vein of Classics Illustrated. But, since Ye Editor is a guy who last year shocked the dean of a university liberal arts department by telling her (when asked) that his favorite movie of all time is King Kong—well, what other choice could Roy have made?

[Art ©2003 Pete Von Sholly; King Kong TM & © the respective copyright holders.]

Above: Bill Everett was noted for drawing heroes like The Sub-Mariner—and great Timely/Atlas horror comics. He got a chance to do both in the 1950s Venus series— as in this splash from #16 (Oct. ’51). More eldritch Everett coming up inside! [©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.

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Four Touches of Venus

Four Touches of Venus Super-hero! Horror! Science-Fiction! Romance! Timely/Marvel’s Golden Age Love Goddess Did It ALL—and BILL EVERETT Was There!

by Trina Robbins

Romance! A 1950 house ad treats Venus as a love comic—pairing it with the shortlived cowgirlromance title Reno Browne. Artist uncertain. Reproduced from a photostat of the original art. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Science-fiction! On the cover of Venus #10 (July 1950) the heroine and a male are “Trapped on the Moon!”

—but you’ll notice that only he needs a space suit. See Jim Vadeboncoeur’s checklist on p. 15 for possible artist. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Super-hero! Long before Thor’s 1962 debut in Journey into Mystery, the Roman goddess Venus swoops down at the bad guys in issue #13 (April ’51), though she didn’t use flying powers in the stories themselves— except to transport her back to Olympus. Bill Everett had a hand in the art. Repro’d from a photostat of the original art. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Horror! The splash of the lead tale in the penultimate issue, Venus #18 (Feb. ’52), is horrifically detailed. Art

by Wild Bill Everett, repro’d from a photostat of the original art. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Super-hero! Horror! Science-Fiction! Romance!

3

Fifteen years before Dr. Don Blake discovered the magic Uru hammer that turned him into the Norse thunder god, Thor, Stan Lee created a comics series starring a different mythic deity—this one female.

Timely Comics, under Stan Lee’s editorship, had been successfully producing comic books aimed at girls and/or featuring female protagonists since the 1944 debut of Miss America. In its first five issues, that title spotlighted Miss America, a young crime-fighter from Marvel Mystery Comics who sported a patriotic costume and (sometimes) cat’seye glasses, making her the only near-sighted super-heroine in comics.

With issue #6, the magazine devoted itself solely to teenage girls without super-powers, and Miss America was demoted to guest spots in other Timely comics.

Next to get her own book was Blonde Phantom in 1946, the only super-heroine to fight crime in a red evening gown and matching highheeled pumps. Blonde Phantom was still going strong when, two years later, Timely came up with Sun Girl, Namora—and Venus, who eventually saw some pretty frenzied action in an evening gown herself.

Namora, Sub-Mariner’s cousin, and Sun Girl, billed as “The Mysterious Beauty,” lasted three issues each; but Venus, the ancient Roman goddess of love, was another story, surviving through 1952 and owing her comparative longevity to her (and Stan Lee’s) ability to change with the times.

1948 was also the year that the film One Touch of Venus opened in theatres across America. Based on the 1943 musical comedy with songs

by Kurt Weill and Ogden Nash, it starred Ava Gardner as the goddess who comes down to Earth. (In the earlier stage musical, Mary Martin had played the title role. Because she later become so identified with her role as the nurse in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific, I can’t help but imagine her singing, “I’m Gonna Wash That Mars Right Out of My Hair!”) It’s very likely that the movie version was the inspiration for Stan Lee, who always had his eye on the latest trend. In a recent telephone interview, he couldn’t remember whether or not he had been inspired by One Touch of Venus, but he said, “If it makes your article any better, you can say the movie was my inspiration.” He also believes that he did write some “Venus” stories, though he can’t remember how many or which ones.

The first splash page from Venus #1 (April ’48). Experts disagree concerning the artist; see both the article and the checklist on p. 15. Repro’d from photostats of the original art. Thanks to Trina Robbins. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

The photo of dark-haired Ava Gardner in the 1948 film version of One Touch of Venus (left) was quite likely the inspiration for the art spot seen at right, whose comely blonde image topped Timely’s 1951 “Venus” stories.

The movie dropped most of the songs from the 1943 stage musical, although singing idol Dick Haymes did get to croon the beautiful “Speak Low” to Ava. Haymes was no stranger to so-called “love goddesses,” once being married to Rita Hayworth; but in the film, after a department-store mannequin of Venus comes to life, he loses Ava (herself often styled a “love goddess”) to boyish Robert Walker—before Venus returns to Olympus in one of those “it-wasall-a-dream” endings. Note that Ava Gardner’s autograph is backward on the reversed photo. Thanks to Trina Robbins.

[Art ©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

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Four Touches of Venus

The splash page to Venus #2 (Aug. ’48)—if we read the notation on the black-&-white photostats a-right—juxtaposed with art from another story therein, in which Venus uses her powers to confound poor mortal men. Artist uncertain, but inking may be by George Klein. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

In the first issue of Timely’s Venus comic book, the beautiful blonde goddess paces the halls of her “castle of the gods on Mount Luster,” located—where else?—on the planet Venus. Bored with her perfect life, she wishes herself upon the planet Earth, soars through outer space, and lands on a busy street in New York City, causing a traffic jam. At that moment, along comes handsome publisher Whitney Hammond, thinking, “There must be a new idea which I can use in Beauty Magazine... something different, fresh, exciting!”

The “new idea,” of course, is Venus. Although Hammond never really believes she is a goddess come to Earth, her looks are all he needs, and on the spot he hires her to edit the magazine.

Venus was originally a sort of supernatural version of Timely’s “girl comics.” These were mostly about teenage girls like Patsy Walker, Cindy Smith, Jeannie, or Margie, but there was also a sub-genre of “career girl comics”: Millie the Model, Nellie the Nurse, Tessie the Typist, and Hedy DeVine, who was a movie star. The career girls were older than their teen counterparts—maybe as old as 21!—and, as editor of a beauty magazine, Venus fit into this category.

The earliest “Venus” stories were drawn, at least according to some sources, by Ed Winiarski, who also drew the career-girl character Hedy DeVine. “Hedy DeVine” stories in both teen and career-girl comics tended to revolve around the Archie/Betty/Veronica-type love triangle of blonde-vs.- brunette, with some guy in the middle. In the case of blonde Venus, the other end of the triangle is Hammond’s jealous

Super-hero! Horror! Science-Fiction! Romance!

brunette secretary Della, who wants the editor job and wants Hammond, too. Of course, no matter what scheme poor mortal Della cooks up to discredit Venus, the goddess, being a goddess, wins in the end.

It hardly seems fair!

Venus went through her first change with issue #4. Ed Winarski (or whoever) was out, and Venus was now drawn in a more realistic style. The lead story is titled “Whom the Gods Would Destroy!” This may have been the first time a Timely mag used one of Stan Lee’s favorite titles, but it was not to be the last. The story also found Lee merrily mixing his mythologies, placing Sampson [sic] on Mount Olympus along with the gods Apollo, Mars, and Bacchus. When Venus brings the Biblical hero back to Earth with her and introduces him to Whitney Hammond as her new boyfriend, Hammond laughs at his beard. The infuriated Sampson introduces another phrase that would see use in the future, when he shouts, “This puny mortal laughs at me?”

Later that issue, Venus rebukes a guy who makes a pass at her in similar words: “You dare to touch me, the goddess Venus? You puny mortal, you!” (While we can’t be 100% certain Stan himself wrote this particular story, since he rarely signed stories besides those of My Friend Irma in

5

The penciler and inker for the above splash from Venus #4 (April ’49) is disputed. See both the main article and artist checklist; researchers Jim Vadeboncoeur and Dr. Michael J. Vassallo think Ken Bald had a hand in this story. And dig the story title! This time it referred to the Biblical hero Samson/Sampson; in Thor #126 (March 1966), of course, the Graeco-Roman god Pluto would be after the soul of the demi-god Hercules. A variation of the same title was used in Venus #9 (top left). Thor art by Jack Kirby and Vince Colletta; script by Stan Lee. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

this period, it’s tempting to believe he did, because of the title and dialogue.)

The year 1949 saw Stan Lee (as editor, at least) still trying out new concepts for Venus, and her stories grew more serious in tone. In the full-length tale “The Earth Is in Danger!” (in #6, Aug. ’49), still mixing mythologies, the series introduced the Norse god Loki into the pantheon of Graeco-Roman deities as “the king of the lower regions... the prince of evil!” The “Hedy DeVine” filler story was gone, and in its place was a five-page love story penciled by Mike Sekowsky and inked

by Chris Rule, “Stolen Love!”

Romance comics, the newest genre to hit the newsstands, were selling in the millions, and, as always, Stan Lee and his crew were on top of the change. The next issue of Venus (#7, Nov. ’49) featured a full-length story, “The Romance That Could Not Be!” But romance or no, Lee couldn’t bring himself to lose the supernatural element that made Venus what it was, so he brought back the evil Loki, who threatened to invade

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Four Touches of Venus

(Left:) Venus took a giant step toward becoming an adventure comic in #6 (Aug. 1949), but with #7-8 she returned to the romance look, with quasi-painted covers. The splash below is from #8 (Feb. 1950).

Incidentally, the goddess’ blonde hair was left white on #6’s cover—also the last cover on which her gown was white. From #7 on it was always red on covers, as it had been on #3; it had been light blue on #4, and she’d worn a red two-piece outfit on #5. The gown was still sometimes white in interior pages, though.

Hey, with all these fashion notes, maybe Venus should’ve done a crossover with Millie the Model!

Artists uncertain. Interior art repro’d from photocopies of the original art. [© 2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Olympus unless Venus married him. That issue’s filler story was again a straight romance tale, “Leave Me Never!” #8 (Feb. 1950) continued mixing romance with the supernatural with the full-length “The Love Trap!” and a filler drawn by Bob Powell, “Without Love.”

Lee must have loved Loki, because he was back in issue #9 (May ’50), “The Man She Dared Not Love!” But in issue #10 (July ’50), which has a definite Christopher Rule look to it, the villain had changed, in a story titled “Venus and the Son of Satan!” This wasn’t the last time that Stan Lee would use that name, either—even if, in the 1970s, it would be suggested to him by his associate editor, Roy Thomas. “The Son of Satan,” a guy in horns and tights, looks a lot like Loki, and inexplicably is also named Satan (Satan, Jr.?). This issue’s filler is a three-pager titled “The Last Rocket!” with art by Joe Maneely.

Super-hero! Horror! Science-Fiction! Romance!

7

Timely sure went all-out to plug its Venus comic, as in this splash from one of the company’s most popular titles, Patsy Walker #24 (Sept. 1949). Thanks to Tom Lammers. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Anecdotes abound that, back in the Timely days, Stan Lee used to sit around the office playing an ocarina (or a recorder, or some such instrument). Says Tom Lammers (author of the “Prototype” article in this issue): “In the cover story in Venus #9 [May 1950], (which I incredibly just acquired on eBay in my price range!), there is a silly commercial artist character in a bow tie named Marvin Klee who sits around the office playing a piccolo! A caption tells us he’s ‘talented but naive.’ The god Apollo describes him as ‘one with no appeal... no interests... unliked... unpopular! Look at how stooped and unmanly he is... how unsure... how so much without glamor!’” Well, one thing you can say for sure about Stan Lee: even half a century ago, he was a good sport! Thanks to Tom for the art scan. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

The last “Venus” story in the book is “Journey to the Moon”—one of the relatively few story titles in the complete run that doesn’t end with an exclamation point. This latter tale includes yet another example of Stan Lee mixing his Graeco with his Roman. Right after Venus has visited with Jupiter, king of the gods, on Mount Olympus, she exclaims, “Great Zeus!” Jupiter, of course, was the Roman equivalent of Zeus— i.e., the exact same character. Lee was not one to let traditional mythological continuity get in the way of a good epithet.

Future X-Men penciler Werner Roth may or may not have had a hand in the art in the Venus #10 (July 1950), but the mood was definitely non-romantic. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

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Four Touches of Venus

Venus did some fence-straddling in #13 (April ’51). Besides the “Living Dead” story whose splash appears on p. 2, that issue contains a science-fictional tale about a dishonorably-discharged Army major who builds monstrous machines that nearly destroy the world—and another whose plot closely anticipates the movie The Blob a decade later. “The Last Day on Earth!” is at least partly by Bill Everett (see next page); artist of “The Creeping Death” at right is unknown. Repro’d from photostats of the original art. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

EC’s Weird Science had been launched in 1950, and science-fiction must have seemed like the newest trend. So, sure enough, two stories in Venus #11 (Nov. ’50) were titled “The End of the World!” and “Beyond the 3rd Dimension!”—while the filler story “The Plot!” featured a war between men and robots. Venus had once again switched to a new genre.

But not for long! Both The Crypt of Terror (soon to become Tales from the Crypt) and The Vault of Horror had also debuted in 1950. So the lead story in Venus #12 (Feb. ’51) was “Trapped in the Land of Terror!”—and the word “terror” was lettered in a very EC style. Stan Lee, or whoever was writing the comic, tried something else new with this issue. The lead tale featured a large blurb declaring itself “A Story to Stagger Your Imagination!” The four-page filler story—“The Strange Rocket!” drawn by Gene Colan—also bore that subtitle; and the second “Venus” story, “The Lost World!,” was subtitled “Another Strange Tale to Stagger Your Imagination!” (italics mine). Issue #13 (April ’51) continued the trend: “The Last Day on Earth!” was proclaimed “A Story to Stagger Your Imagination!” and “The Creeping Death!” was “A Story So Weird... So Fantastic... It Will Startle Your Senses!”

Super-hero! Horror! Science-Fiction! Romance!

9

Jupiter appears in all three stories in Venus #13—Mars in one—and the decidedly non-Graceo-Roman god Thor in two! Hey, maybe Tom Lammers should’ve included this issue in his article on “Marvel prototypes” on our flip side! And note that 1950s-style patriotism at bottom left. Repro’d from photostats of the original art. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

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Four Touches of Venus

A terror-triptych of splash pages: “The Graveyard Waxworks” (Venus #15, Aug. ’51), in which a race of “underearth men” is out to (dare we say it?) rule the world—”The Day That Venus Vanished” (also from #15; Della is featured, though no longer as Venus’ rival for Whit Hammond’s affections)— “The Stone Man!” from #17 (Dec. ’51). Three other great Everett Venus splashes from this period were repro’d, likewise from photostats of the original art, in Alter Ego #3, 18, & 22. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

All that staggering of imagination and startling of senses must not have produced the desired result in sales, because the blurbs were gone with the next issue (#14), when Bill Everett took over as artist for the remainder of the run. Although the first two stories in Venus #13 have an Everett look to them, they’re not signed. But “Fountain of Death!”— the lead story in issue #14 (June ’51)—is signed, and is pure Everett, from the pencils and inks to the uniquely Everett-style lettering. He probably took over the scripting, too. At any rate, the writing in Venus became more sophisticated—if a story about a refugee from Hitler who discovers the Fountain of Youth on Mars can be considered sophisticated—and much wordier.

Everett excelled at drawing women, and his Venus was much more beautiful than any of the earlier incarnations. The reader could almost believe the comic’s premise: that she was a goddess and so gorgeous that she knocked the socks off any man who looked at her.

Unfortunately, Everett seemed to forget that Venus is supposed to be a goddess, and after issue #14, although she continues to wear her trademark goddessy robe, there are no further visits with the gods on Mount Olympus—even Loki disappears—and Venus seems to have

Super-hero! Horror! Science-Fiction! Romance!

only the powers of an ordinary mortal woman, albeit one who, in Whitney Hammond’s words, is “always stumbling into weird and fantastic adventures.” Her dialogue also changes, and she goes from lines like “Puny mortals!” to “hard-boiled dame” talk: “Oh brrother! I gotta get out of here! This I wouldn’t believe....”

Everett seems to have been given free rein to do whatever he wanted with Venus, with no editorial interference. As his art gets more obsessive and darker—he must have used up dozens of bottles of India ink!—his stories grow wordier, at times threatening to crowd the people out of

11

their panels. The stories also become increasingly bizarre, featuring killer flowers and characters from a cartoonist’s horror comics coming to life.

The creator of The Sub-Mariner, The Fin, and Hydroman also shows a distinct preference for—are you surprised?—sea creatures. Four stories in the last three issues of Venus feature monsters that came from underwater. In the story “Tidal Wave of Terror!” (#18, Feb. ’52), the “monster” is Neptunia, daughter of Neptune, who resembles a cross between Everett’s earlier creation Namora and Katherine Hepburn.

Covers and splashes aren’t everything—comic books are about storytelling! So here are two pages from #15’s “Day That Venus Vanished,” in which the goddess, reduced to a two-dimensional image by a mad photographer, returns the favor. Imaginative work, probably scripted as well as drawn by Everett. Gil Kane once said, as recorded in A/E #22, that Bill was “always, in my estimation, one of the best writers that comics ever produced.” [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

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Four Touches of Venus

Splash and a panel from “Tidal Wave of Terror” in Venus #18 (Feb. ’52). The resemblance of Diana Seacrest, alias Neptunia, to the late great Katherine Hepburn was no doubt intentional. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Super-hero! Horror! Science-Fiction! Romance!

“Tidal Wave of Terror!” is the last time Venus actually appears as the goddess she had originally been. She identifies herself to Neptunia thus: “I am Venus! Remember? Venus!!! Goddess of love and beauty!” Many readers may not have remembered. I would guess that, by then, the comic, bereft of romance or romantic triangles, had long since lost its original girl audience.

(What about that “original girl audience”? I haven’t seen any demographics, but I can give you anecdotal evidence of a little girl, stuck in a—to her—boring Judeo-Christian world, wherein, whatever your religion, there was only one god and he was a He. To that little girl, a comic about a goddess opened up the possibility of a female deity, one

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who came complete with glamor, romance, and adventure. Yes, Venus made me what I am today.)

Venus gave up the ghost in 1952, after 19 issues, although Bill Everett brought her back—beautiful as ever—in 1973, in the last issue of SubMariner that he wrote and drew before his final illness.

We’ll never know where he intended to take her.

[Retired cartoonist Trina Robbins is the author of Tender Murders: Women Who Kill and The Great Women Cartoonists. Check out her website at www.trinarobbins.com.]

One of the weirdest of Everett’s Venus extravaganzas was “The Cartoonist’s Calamity” in #17 (Dec. ’51), in which a comic strip artist’s creations come to life to haunt him—and the goddess of love must draw a hero to vanquish them. When that hero gets uppity in turn, Venus has the cartoonist draw him jumping into the artist’s inkwell—and the hero is forced to follow suit. The wondrously mad splash of this story was repro’d, also from photostats of the original art, in an earlier A/E. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

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[Clockwise from top left:] Venus the comic book ended with #19 (April ’52)—but Bill Everett drew a beautiful new page featuring her to introduce a vintage reprint story in Marvel Spotlight #2 (Feb. ’72)—he later guest-starred her in his Sub-Mariner #57 (Jan. ’73). She also appeared in the 1950s proto-Avengers grouping in What If #9 (June ’78), with cover pencils, seen here, by Jack Kirby. Venus is still fondly remembered, as witness the striking illo by Steve Leialoha which was printed in the 1998 San Diego Comic-Con program book; Steve says it was done for a proposed Marvel revival that never materialized. Thanks to Richard Howell and the Howell-Kalish Collection for the Marvel Spotlight art, and to Steve for his blessing to use his drawing. [Marvel art ©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.; 1998 art ©2003 Steve Leialoha; Venus TM & ©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Four Touches of Venus

Four Touches of Venus

15

Addendum: The Artists of Venus

by Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr.

#11: (a) Roth pencils. (b) Splash by Don Rico; I’m guessing Hy Rosen on pencils.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Because the artist credits (forget about the writers!) on the Venus series are very much in dispute at least until issue #14, when Bill Everett takes over as full artist (and most likely scripter), we asked two of the pre-eminent Timely/Atlas researchers, Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., and Dr. Michael J. Vassallo, for their opinions on tentative IDs for the artists. Doc V. had some thoughts, but suggested we print the notes sent by his colleague. Here is Jim’s take on the artist credits for the 18-issue run of Venus. —Roy.] #1: (a) First story is definitely inked by Lin Streeter. I don’t know the penciler, but see no signs of Ed Winarski. (Look at p. 7, panel 6, and p. 6, panel 5, in the second story. The artist repeats this pose again in issue #2 on p. 3, panel 2, of the first story there. This is not a Winarski pose that I am aware of, yet it runs rampant through these first two issues.) (b) In the second story, I don’t detect either Winarski pencils or George Klein inks.

#12: Cover by Werner Roth. (a) & (b) Chapters 1 & 2—Roth. (c) I have no idea. #13: Cover—Bill Everett. (a) & (b) Everett & unknown inker. (These are lettered by Everett, but I don’t believe he inked them; note and compare with signed Everett in #14.) (c) Unknown. #14: Cover—unknown.

All the rest of the run is by Everett Dat’s my take on all the issues.

#2: All three stories: Klein inks, almost assuredly, but penciler is probably the same as on first issue, story 2. Note the excessive use of speed lines in these strips. I’m not suggesting him, but this is typical of Carl Burgos. #3: (a) & (b) Almost positive these are Ken Bald and a very slick inker.

Lots of nice cross-hatching and details on the inks, and it appears as if the inker was emulating Klein on a few panels showing Venus, or else Klein assisted on the main character inks for a bit of stylistic continuity. (c) “Special Feature on Venus” looks like Don Rico pencils. #4: (a) I call this style Ken Bald inked by Pete Riss. (b) & (c) Looks almost like a Dan deCarlo splash, Klein inks, perhaps Bald pencils. #5: (one long story) I just don’t know. #6: (one long story) Appears very much the shop [i.e., multi-artist] job.

I see Pierce Rice, Chu Hing, Don Rico, and Pete Tumlinson, to name a few. There may be a panel or two that looks like Violet Barclay, but I don’t see her as a major inker here. #7: (one long story) My notes say Don Rico pencils and, upon review, I’m sticking with that, although there may be other hands at work here. I don’t recognize the inker(s). #8: (one long story) Another shop effort. I can’t detect a major recognizable penciler or inker. #9: Chapter 1—pencils probably by Werner Roth, inks unknown.

Chapter 2—unknown pencils, some Klein inks.

Chapter 3—back to Roth pencils, inks unknown. #10: Cover probably by Hy Rosen. (a) & (b) Chapters 1 & 2—Roth pencils, and Chris Rule is an excellent possibility for inker. (c) Roth pencils, inker unknown.

With the lead story in Venus #14 (June ’51), Bill Everett began signing (and even lettering) the stories. The title lettering got weirder, too—and the stories remained an oddly hybrid mix. Azrael, angel of death, figures into this tale set partly on the planet Mars—while in the final story the handsome Greek demi-god Adonis (as well as Roman Jupiter) pops up in an otherwise mundane murder mystery. Repro’d from a photostat of the original art. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

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Pete Von Sholly

17

NOT

Classics Illustrated Cover Paintings from a World That Never Was—But Ought to Be!

by Pete Von Sholly [Art on the next five pages ©2003 Pete Von Sholly; “Classics Illustrated” is a trademark of Frawley Corporation and its exclusive licensee, First Classics, Inc., a subsidiary of Classics International Entertainment, Inc., and is used herein for historical and parodic purposes.]

Did you ever have one of those dreams where you go into a store and find all these great things (comic books, magazines, toys, or other childhood pleasures)—even though they’re ones that never really existed? You can see them clearly—savor their rich colors, their images, their titles, etc. You can’t believe it, but there they are, tangible and within your very grasp: unsuspected treasures that are yours for the taking!

“The Dunwich Horror” was the second of his stories that I read, and the one that warped my whole life—and got me in trouble with my American history teacher for reading it in class. (I couldn’t help it... I had to see what was going to happen at the end of the story!) It’s really a long short story, like most of HPL’s work, but certainly long enough to provide material for an entire issue of Classics Illustrated if they had done one:

And then something happens—perhaps the store closes, or you don’t have any money, or the treasures begin to fall apart on you, and you awaken to realize that you can’t have those wonderful things, after all.

Even the details fade frustratingly as consciousness returns.

Well, I have had such dreams, and this piece describes an attempt to bring some of those items into the real world for my own pleasure, and hopefully for that of a few kindred spirits.

When I was a lad, there was a line of comics called Classics Illustrated (née Classic Comics in the early 1940s), published by the Gilberton Company, which adapted famous literary works into comics form. Many of us may remember these as being very handy for doing book reports on novels we didn’t actually read. I admit it: I liked “real” comic books much better, but once in a great while the Classics guys would accidentally put out something cool. The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Frankenstein, and The Invisible Man are the ones that come most readily to mind.

Mostly, however, Classics Illustrated were the four-color equivalent of Novacane for me. But what if things had been different?

Here are my “Earth-Von Sholly” versions of at least the painted covers of some classics that the Gilberton Company didn’t adapt in illustrated form—but should have.

Let’s start with H.P. Lovecraft, the supreme horror writer of the first half of the twentieth century—if not of the entire century. His stories appeared mostly in the lurid Weird Tales magazine in the 1920s and ’30s before his death from cancer in 1937 at the age of 47, and he never made much money from them—nor did literary critics hail his stories and occasional novellas as “classics,” although the cognoscenti among horror-fiction fans did. Horror writers from Stephen King forward have acknowledged Lovecraft’s influence on them, and he is now commonly acknowledged as the 20th century successor to Edgar Allan Poe—except that HPL’s work has one foot in terror, the other (surprisingly enough) in science-fiction.

Yes, I know I shouldn’t really have shown the monster on the cover, since its size and shape are unknown until the very end of the story, as in so much of HPL’s fiction—but I couldn’t help that, either.

18

Classics Not Illustrated

Next we have “The Shadow over Innsmouth,” on which cover I also show the monsters, perhaps with a bit more justification:

And then there’s At the Mountains of Madness, a short novel, which possibly looks the most like a real Classics Illustrated cover and does not show the monster, or at least shows only a hint of it.

The preceding three tales are among my favorites by the illustrious Old Gentleman of Providence, Rhode Island. And it would have been a warm day on Yuggoth before the Classics folks would have touched them, Lovecraft being a mere pulp writer and beneath the notice of serious academia!

Pete Von Sholly But not beneath mine! In fact, here are five more covers of imaginary Classics Illustrated adaptations of Lovecraft. If you know the stories, I leave it to you to judge them.

19

20

Classics Not Illustrated Now we arrive at The Lost World.

Nooooo, not the one by Michael Crichton, the great genius who can’t even come up with an original title but chose instead to just lift one from Arthur Conan Doyle. (Sorry for the rant; it’s just that I love the original so much. Don’t get me started.) Doyle’s book was the first to feature dinosaurs surviving in an unknown part of the modern world and is very exciting, entertaining, and funny as hell besides. A true classic, and one the Gilberton people really should have adapted, as they did some of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories.

Also from the renowned creator of the world’s greatest detective is The Maracot Deep. While not quite in the same league with The Lost World, this is the wonderful story of a scientific expedition that discovers sunken Atlantis. It’s brimming with action, sea monsters, a lost civilization, and even reincarnation.

Pete Von Sholly

21

Of course, King Kong was planned as a movie first, and the novel was just an adaptation thrown together to cash in on it (and to secure copyright), but it’s really not a bad book. I’ll admit it’s not a literary “classic“ in any real sense, but I would have traded many Ivanhoes for it. Kong is the ultimate story of a lost island, the greatest dinosaur movie ever made, and the best re-creation of a “lost world” yet put on the screen. Would have made a good Classics Illustrated, too!

“Who Goes There?” is a great short story; read it if you can find it.

It inspired no less than two movies called The Thing, both of which have huge followings; but the central concept of a creature that can change shape and flawlessly imitate its victims comes from this fine John W. Campbell tale. The idea was ignored in the 1951 film and was taken to glorious heights of monster imagery in the second. Yet neither film truly captured the essence of this tense tale.

In closing, let me just say that I hope you will feel that I have succeeded in bringing a little something back from one of those wonderful but bittersweet dreams.

22

Classics Not Illustrated

Addendum: The Covers Out Of Space!

The so-called Cthulhu Mythos tales by Howard Phillips Lovecraft, which originated in Weird Tales magazine in the 1930s, were continued during HPL’s life and even after his death by some of his colleagues, correspondents, and disciples such as August Derleth, Robert Bloch, and others.

Cthulhu and the long-running Dell/Western comic book Little Lulu just happen to kind-of sound alike, so I looked over some old Lulus and found a great cover with a bunch of goofy ghosts drawn by John Stanley, scanned it, and started to vandali—I mean, adapt it to my purposes. By the way, the book which Little C’Lulu is holding is Collected Ghost Stories by M.R. James, one of Lovecraft’s favorite writers, and mine.

From there, crazed with success, as Robert Benchley used to say, I launched right into C’Thurok, Son of Shoggoth, which started out as a

straight imaginary Turok, Son of Stone cover. When the monsters began to creep in, I could sense a little “series” coming....

C’Thor followed. I was getting more ambitious now, tricking out the Comics Code emblem and the rest of the details. In fact, it was at this time that I painted the Call of Cthulhu cover which appears with the Classics Not Illustrated covers.

Lastly, I turned to my other favorite comic book genius, Carl Barks, and knocked out Wal Purgey’s Uncle C’Thooge. The title figure was modified from an actual Barks drawing showing the world’s richest duck lolling in a pile of money. But what would a respectable Elder God want with mere money? Ah, the bones of his myriad victims seemed more like it, so I went with bones instead.

At this point, enough seemed to be enough... so I stopped.

Well, not quite.

Here’s one more cover painting—for an imaginary issue of Dell/Western’s fondly-remembered Turok, Son of Stone in which the hero watches a fight between a dinosaur and the alien creature (often called “Ymir,” though not in the film itself) from Ray Harryhausen’s 1957 stop-motion masterpiece Twenty Million Miles to Earth.

Harryhausen’s film is one more classic which deserves to be illustrated!

[All art on this page ©2000 Pete Von Sholly; Turok TM & ©2003 Acclaim; “Ymir” TM & ©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

[Pete Von Sholly has been a movie and cartoon storyboard artist, from live-action to animation and back, for the past twenty years or so. His credits include Darkman, The Blob (remake), Mars Attacks!, The Cat in the Hat, The Shawshank Redemption, and many others. But comics are his first love. By the way, this would seem to be Pete Von Sholly Month! His book Pete Von Sholly’s Morbid, a 96-page full-color collection of thirteen stories, is available as of this month from Dark Horse; and his Crazy Hip Groovy Go-Go Way Out Monsters, a spoof of 1960s monster magazines, has just been published by TwoMorrows!

[Check out Pete’s website at www.vonshollywood.com.]

Title “The Great Unknowns”—Part III of a Series

23

The “Dark and Haunting” Art of ERNIE SCHROEDER

by Hames Ware & Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. [Unless otherwise noted, all art accompanying this piece was provided

by Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr.] Of the three “S” artists we’ve covered so far in this series (the two previous being Henry Enoch Sharp and Mike Suchorsky), none to our knowledge ever signed his work in comic books. And, as delighted as fellow comic art detective Jerry de Fuccio was with our finally pinning a name to the art of Mike Suchorsky, the identification that delighted our late friend the most was when Hames was able to provide the name “Ernie Schroeder” as the primary early-1950s artist on Hillman’s two major features, “Airboy” and “The Heap.” It seems that not only was he one of Jerry’s favorite artists, but the longtime Mad magazine associate editor had also acquired a great deal of original art by him, yet Jerry had had no success getting a name for him.

The way Hames had come across Schroeder’s ID was certainly not from the comics, for, as with Suchorsky and Sharp, Schroeder never signed a single thing he did in the comic books. No sneaks... no nothin’!

But, to let Hames put it in his own words:

Ernie Schroeder started out doing super-heroes like so many others— Black Cat, Captain Freedom, and The Young Defenders on the cover of Harvey’s Speed Comics #37 (May 1945), and the “Captain Freedom” tale in Speed #44 (Jan.-Feb. ’47). [©2003 the respective copyright holders.]

“When I was a kid, I used to kill time waiting for my turn in the barber chair at the local small barbershop by perusing the mostly men’sadventure magazines (especially if they included illustrations) that were scattered about for the patrons. This particular time, I was leafing through stories with titles like “I Hunted Killer Sharks in Dangerous Oceans,” and I suddenly felt a sense of excitement, and not about killer sharks. It was because I realized that the illustrations I was looking at were unmistakably done by the longtime ‘Heap’ and ‘Airboy’ artist at Hillman! None of these illustrations was signed, either, but as I flipped back to the first page of the magazine story, I held out hope that maybe the magazine might have given a byline to the artist, as they sometimes did in those days. And there, at long last, were the welcome words:

24

Ernie Schroeder so it was, years later, that I was able to make Jerry de Fuccio a very happy man and, better still, make sure that Ernie Schroeder would find his rightful home in The Who’s Who of American Comic Books, of which I was co-editor with Jerry G. Bails.

Since then, we’ve located Schroeder’s art at Ziff-Davis, where, like our first two ‘Great Unknowns‚’ he also chronicled the adventures of ‘G.I. Joe.’ But he goes back much further into the Golden Age and was one of the lighthearted delineators at Harvey on many features in Speed Comics.”

Alas for de Fuccio’s longerterm purposes, unlike the dogged determination that enabled him to turn up relatives for Mike Suchorsky, try as he could, Jerry was never able to trace Ernie Schroeder even drew fairytales, as in this story from Parents’ Calling All Kids #12 (Sept. ’47)—and light-hearted war stories Schroeder beyond the such as this one from Ziff-Davis’ G.I. Joe #51 (June ’57), the final issue of the series. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.] shipyards where initial leads ‘Illustrations by Ernest Schroeder.’ The ‘Heap’ and ‘Airboy’ artist had said he had gone to work after the art markets dried up in the 1950s. finally been given an identity!

Consequently, there’s little more to add to the Ernie Schroeder story, “This was one of the first times that cross-referencing of other media unless perhaps some of Alter Ego’s readers can fill in the blanks. In the would yield long-sought names of never-signing comic book artists. meantime, the best thing Hames and Jim can do now is to pull back the (Anyone who knows Jim will understand why I had a major advantage curtain of time and let A/E’s readers see the dark and haunting style that over him regarding this type of barbershop research.)

Schroeder used so well to capture the atmosphere that intertwined the two features he will always be identified with—“Airboy” and “The Heap”!

“I went home after my haircut and dutifully logged this great new find in my ledger where I maintained my lists of comic book artists. And

An Airboy–Heap Addendum

by Jim & Hames In December of 1948, the title feature in Airboy Comics was passed from the capable and recognizable hands of Dan Zolnerowich and Fred Kida to a new artist who would draw the lead feature longer than anyone else. Moody and dark and noirish, this artist immediately took Airboy’s adventures from the skies to the sewers with a two-part chiller called “Airboy and the Rats.”

A year later, with the December 1949 issue, this artist, Ernie Schroeder, also took over the other continuing series in Airboy Comics, “The Heap.” And down underground went the original swamp monster—into a cave in some central-European mountain range. In fact, with Schroeder at the helm, both characters began to face and overcome antagonists more in tune with the growing trend of the times—horror comics. In addition to the intelligent rats and sub-human cave creatures, there were horrendous “crabmen” in the sewers of Paris, frozen icepeople with no eyes, threatening asteroids, weird life from space, lost Roman cities and legions in Africa, monstrous sea slugs, strange Tibetan great white apes, rampaging prehistoric monsters preserved in ice, revived Egyptian mummies, and ghosts and wizards and vampires and centaurs and such. And all that was just in the first two years!

Panels from “Airboy and the Rats” in Hillman Periodicals’ Airboy Comics, Vol. 5, #11 (Dec. 1948). This Schroeder art is a far cry from most of the blond young hero’s previous aerial adventures—though one should never forget his wartime Fred Kida-drawn encounters with the entity called Misery! [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

The Great Unknowns

Splash page from Airboy’s swamp adventure in Vol. 6, #12 (Jan. 1950). By now, Schroeder was also drawing that other marshland monster, The Heap. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

25

Many of The Heap’s later exploits were reprinted in British “boys’ annuals” (hardcover combinations of prose stories and British and U.S. comics) not long after their American publication—including this tale, with its final page from a sea-going adventure. Thanks to Roger Dicken & Wendy Hunt. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

By 1951 both Airboy and The Heap were simply used as linchpins to anchor whatever stories the writers wanted to tell. Airboy’s unique and fabulous plane, Birdie, continued to give him a link to the skies, but his adventures were more and more grounded. Schroeder’s ability to draw just about anything gave the writers leeway in subject matter. The Heap’s stories often began sometime in the distant past, and Schroeder would have to draw ancient Egypt or the Middle Ages. He was always up to the task—just as he was more than capable of rendering some of the science-fiction elements that were used to spice up the “Airboy” stories. Still, watching Airboy in his red leathers and omnipresent aviator’s goggles wandering fog-shrouded London train yards was somehow more believable due to Schroeder’s atmospheric style. And how many artists could convincingly depict a shambling swamp monster in battle with aliens from outer space, as he did in the March 1952 issue?

Finally, in April of 1952, more than three years after he began working in Airboy, Schroeder replaced Dan Zolnerowich as the cover artist—placing The Heap on the cover instead of the blond young titular hero! On the July 1952 cover, Schroeder depicted both main characters, together for the first time, though they had separate adventures inside.

With Volume 10, #4 (May 1953), the Airboy title faded away. Schroeder was still drawing both features, with Airboy saving the world from a power-mad clown who wasn’t content with criminal success on the The Heap goes underground in Airboy Comics, Vol. 7, #1 (Feb. 1950). [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

26

Ernie Schroeder

Times had changed! In Vol. 9, #5 (June 1952), Airboy worked undercover disguised as a shipyard worker throughout his own story and never once donned his aviator outfit. The cover blurb reads as if The Man of Moonlight had fought The Heap before, but apparently he hadn’t. Interior page supplied by Roy Thomas, an Airboy/Heap fan since the late 1940s. [©2003 the respective copyright holders.]

stage, and The Heap thwarting the scheme of a wicked countess and her evil tricks to win a spirited Irish horse—a far cry from the World War II adventures (The Heap was actually a downed WWI pilot whose body was mystically resurrected as neither animal nor vegetable) that had launched the characters more than a decade earlier.

While the characters may have lost their way, Ernie Schroeder was certainly up to the task of depicting their various latter-day journeys.

A shame that Ernie Schroeder never got a chance to draw Airboy and The Heap together except on a couple of covers, such as this one for Vol. 9, #6 (July 1952). Still, they’d have been an oddly-matched team. Both the shaman and Thunderbird come from the “Heap” tale inside, which was sent to us by Roger Dicken & Wendy Hunt from its reprinting in one of those vintage British annuals. [©2003 the respective copyright holders.]

Joe Maneely

27

Maneely Monsterpieces!

A Handful of Horror for a Haunted Halloween [EDITOR’S NOTE: Our previous issue of Alter Ego spotlighted the life and work of Joe Maneely, one of the premier Timely/Atlas artists of the 1950s. Even so, thanks to all the specimens of his work sent us by article-scribe Dr. Michael J. Vassallo and a few others, we had lots of art photocopies left over—including a goodly number from the horror comics that sent Fredric Wertham, M.D., screaming for cover in the first half of that decade. So, even though we used up some of the very best terror-art last time, here’s another horrific helping of Atlas scare-fests, to show you why Joe Maneely and Halloween are all but synonymous in horror-minded households everywhere. Except where noted, copies were provided by Doc V. Except for the final example, all art in this 3-page section ©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc. —Roy.]

Joe’s cover for Mystic #29 (April 1954).

Splash from Suspense #17 (April 1952).

An early Maneely horror splash, from Suspense #5 (Nov. 1950).

28

Maneely Monsterpieces

Mystic #24 (Oct. 1953).

Adventures into Terror #10 (June 1952).

Doc Vassallo informs us that Joe Maneely didn’t draw the figure at left, but he drew the rest of this cover for Speed Carter, Spaceman #6 (July 1954), including the alien monster—and that’s good enough for us!

We printed the splash of this story from Suspense #28 (March 1953), with its protagonist visually based on actor Peter Lorre, with Stan Goldberg’s interview back in A/E #18. Here, again printed from photostats of the original art, courtesy of Stan G., is the final page from “With Intent to Kill.”

Joe Maneely

This final page of “You’re Gonna Live Forever” from Menace #3 (May 1953) is creepy enough itself, as written by Stan Lee—and its final caption (in negative) actually heralds a story in the very next issue, titled “The Madman!” and featuring “a cute character that you won’t wanna miss!”

Photocopies of original art courtesy of Stan Goldberg.

29

The title character of the Lee-Maneely tale “The Raving Maniac” was a hyperventilating critic of horror comics who invades the office of a comic book editor pattered after the story’s writer and editor, Stan Lee. We printed other pages of this minor masterwork from Uncanny Tales #29 (April 1953) in issues #18 & #28. Photocopies of original art courtesy of Stan Goldberg.

Since we had to drop our letters section this time, at left are two panels featuring one of our miraclous mascots— Alter Ego, from the 1986 comic book by Roy Thomas and Ron Harris—in dubious battle with Uriah Heap, our homage to the Ernie Schroeder-drawn Hillman horror. [Art ©2003 Ron Harris; Alter Ego TM & ©2003 Roy & Dann Thomas.]

(At left:) Even under the more sedate auspices of the early Comics Code, Maneely could still deliver a chilling cover. This one’s from World of Suspense #1 (April 1956).

Happy Halloween, Horror-Hound!

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32

Alex Thoth

“Melt Figure Into Black Shadows”

[Art ©2003 Alex Toth.]

Golden/Silver Age Artist ALEX TOTH Writes “about Mysterioso Blackgarbed Nightcreatures Heroes/Villains, etc.”

An intriguing Shadow & Batman composition/sequence/page

by Toth. [Art ©2003 Alex Toth; Batman TM & ©2003 DC Comics; The Shadow TM & ©2003 Condé Nast.]

I’m now aware of what should always have been obvious, since boyhood, thru all forms of graphic storytelling, yet missed connecting the dots, of revelation/discovery, but now, I’m convinced of the validity of my theory.

Which is—to maintain that mysterioso quality of a Batman/Shadow/Zorro/Bat/Spider/Green Hornet (badly-misdesigned/colored)—in film/video/fotos/pulp/comic art/illos, I’d now avoid, like the plague, ever again coming in close-up on any of the above—keep them away—midground/full figure/backdrop shadows to conceal/not reveal the masked/cowled/helmeted face/head and, when practicable, melt figure into black shadows. This voids undue familiarity!

Part of Alex’s handwritten original 4-page article. [©2003 Alex Toth.]

“Melt Figure Into Shadows”

Batman & friend (foe?). [Art ©2003 Alex Toth; Batman TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

* Re 6 Nov./yesterday: My ‘allnighter’ at table, doodling, to radio, the 5 AM newscast told of ‘Batman’ Bob Kane’s passing, 83, during the night, by stroke, suddenly so, I gathered— tho’ we were near-neighbors, Hollywoodites, just minutes apart, we never met—but it was sad news, indeed! His pen and ink hero left a helluva legacy since 1939! Squeezed, squashed, this way and that, via every media form, ‘Batman’ lives! Despite many unfortunate reworkings and ‘updated’ horrors, of too many cooks, spoiling the stew—‘Batman’ just rode thru it all—I’m a fan, indeed, of the generic/median pre-high-tech well-designed costumed basically three-toned, b/w/gray, just-right character—very fine mysterioso creature of the night/shadows—I enjoyed drawing/inking/interpreting him— only twice/thrice, yes—20-odd yrs apart, too! I’d have liked much more of him— but—ah wellllll—so be it! A few pinup/covers/one story was it for me.

We shouldn’t be familiar with such heroes/villains who surface at night, for good reason, to avoid detection/ visibility/being a target—not be seen or have his presence known—until he damn well chooses so—thus, he blends into night’s shadows/uses them—to move about/hide in—to listen/observe/plan attack/or escape. Movies/TV with their own dictums and needs and commercial demands spoilt all that, with closeups of such characters, and we all got to see to much, got too close, intimate, which, in effect, ruined much of the original effect—of ‘something out there’—when someone thinks he/she saw something/someone move thru the black of night—distant silhouettes seem to hove, and are themselves just more visual/graphic devices for storytellers to use effectively to scare the hell out of us and the story’s characters, who may possibly sense, see, imagine, fear, expect, to actually experience contact with that spooky, silent, swift-moving denizen of night/shadows! Am I making my point?

33

If you saw the recent movie of ‘The Shadow,’ ridiculous in its ugly closeups of the hero’s godawful makeup and mischaracterization in toto, you may agree with me—how different a movie it would’ve been had its director/lensman kept us distant and chilled by, literally/figuratively ‘The Shadow’ as just that—a shadow!

Oh, we’d catch glimpses of slouch A 1991 drawing that shows what “mysterioso” hat and cloak and is all about. [©2003 Alex Toth.] legs and (as per his pulp origins) brace of automatics firing, his black/or charcoal gray toned haberdashery—yes, his hawknose, with clever lighting/setup—but no more than that! Let Lamont Cranston enjoy closeups in his tux, dinner jacket, tweeds, as the ‘daytime’ persona, with the lovely Margo Lane, doing their high society mixes—! Understood? No? That rule’d apply to all the other heroes I listed above—keep the mystery—but don’t let us in close—to see too much—know too much, of ‘The Shadow’ or ‘Batman,’ etc., etc.—we’ll enjoy ’em all much more! Sez I! The hallowed Hollywood Val Lewton-inspired theory was (sometimes still is now) that it’s what we don’t/can’t/aren’t allowed to see that scares the hell out of us all—(born of low shooting budgets, too, mind you!)—’tis very true! A sound, hint of movement, out in the dark of night, rainy, windy, foggy, or not, sets our nervous panicky imaginations a-spinning with all kinds of monsters/ critters/baddies coming for us—to do us in! The movies’ use of ‘subjective camera,’ the intended ‘victim’s’ P.O.V. heightens the effect—we think we saw or heard ‘something/someone’ in the black shadows! ‘We can’t be sure! Yay or nay!’ rattling us more—that horrific uncertainty! Which our nightoriented heroes—and villains—count on/use effectively to rattle the targets in such psych-warfare—no matter if movie or TV, live/animation, illustration, or comic strip/book continuity—the ingredients/aims are the same, and the technique of ‘dread of the unseen’ should be used—thru distant/peripheral hints/glimpses of the shadowed form of said nightcreature, circling or closing in—from the target’s P.O.V.—keeping our (safe?) distance from the scary hoodoo ‘out there’!!

Ohh—welllll—hmmm.

[Art ©2003 Alex Toth; The Shadow TM & ©2003 Condé Nast.]

We really don’t want to be any closer, do we? No! So you see the psychological device used—yes? And know why it is? Yes? Good! Our

34

Alex Toth eyes/minds/hands/intentions right and wrong, halfbaked and better, we’ve come much too close to him—we don’t need to, tho— shouldn’t do it—‘Bruce Wayne,’ okay, ‘Alfred,’ too, tho’ he’s become an old bore—ditto ‘Robin,’ in any manifestation! Boo! Needless appendages, both! Methinks! We’ve seen a diminution, a falling away from the essential ‘Batman’—the high-tech aspects of his tools and surroundings’ve gotten in the way—of the action/detective/hero/creature of the night/avenger/mystery-man, etc. Too bad—the outrageously lousy zillion-dollar movies didn’t help—just added ‘kinky schtick’ to the abused image of ‘Batman.’

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Thanks to Jon B. Cooke and Paul Rivoche for copies of this piece written by Alex Toth in 1998. Much of the art in this feature was provided by Al Dellinges.]

Thanks to Manuel Auad. [Art ©2003 Alex Toth; Batman TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

imaginations will do most of the work for the storyteller, better than any closeup should could/can—showing us more than we need/want to know of the ‘creature’ heard/almost seen/or momentarily so—as viewing audience, or readers of print text, or strip art—no movie made of Mary Roberts Rinehart’s mystery/horror novel ‘The Bat’ (or its stage version) equaled her written description of the evil ‘Bat’—nor, similarly, any serial/movie/comic book rendition of Charles Gibson’s/Maxwell Grant’s ‘Shadow,’ over 60 yrs of trying—no equal to his words and the Orban/Mayan pulp illo art—the painted covers distorted and, too often, uglified the image of ‘The Shadow.’ I never (even as the boy I was, buying, reading the fortnightly pulp novels in the 1930s/40s) accepted the Gladney/Rozen covers, counterpoint to inside dry-brush illo art— and original texts’ descriptions—a dichotomy I never quite savvied then, nor now! Or the radio series’ twist on ‘clouding men’s minds’ to not be seen by the villains, yet he was seen, confusing me more, week to week!

Silly, too, was comic book depiction of, truly, all-green-wardrobed ‘The Green Hornet’ when just the facemask alone could’ve/did carry the motif/logo enough to make the point—oddly, he and his faithful Japanese-cum-Filipino (due to WWII) valet/driver, ‘Kato’ rolled around the city at night in the ‘Black Beauty’ coupe! ‘The Shadow’ needed no such device, but did call upon his ‘special operative’ and cabbie, ‘Shrevie,’ to help move to and from all the action! It ‘read’ better than it ‘looked’ in any illos! When we, our minds, drew sharper or fuzzier images of the printed wordage! Yup—the radio-effect, too, ‘theatre of the mind,’ etc.—worked for us!

‘The Batman’ survived many redesigns/reworked images/personae since inception in 1939—the ‘camp’ era, to the ugly grungy attempts to spook him up into more fearsome creature of the night status again, from the 1960s on—to today—but, in comics, by scores of cartoonists’

Thanks to Jim Amash. [Art ©2003 Alex Toth; The Shadow TM & ©2003 Condé Nast.]

35

All art on the following seven pages ©2003 the original artists. “The New Nickel Library” is TM & ©2003 by Gary Arlington. All EC art & logos are TM & ©2003 William M. Gaines Agent, and are used only for historical purposes.

36

Comic Crypt

The EC’s That Never Were!

By Michael T. Gilbert In the early ’70s, underground publisher Gary Arlington began an ambitious comic art series called The New Nickel Library. These were mostly 8"x 10" single-page prints, black-&-white on cardboard stock with binder holes so they could be collected in notebooks. Gary planned a total of 500 different images on a weekly publication schedule. Truly “labors of love,” each Nickel Library print sold for the grand sum of 5¢!

The pictures included all kinds of neat stuff, public domain and otherwise. One issue might feature an old pulp drawing, the next a rare Harrison Cady cartoon or some new art from the many cartoonists who frequented Gary’s 23rd Street comic book shop. Gary also published actual underground comix under the San Francisco Comic Book Company imprint, but these single pages were far easier to produce. With the help of cartoonists Roger Brand and Kim Deitch, Gary’s vision soon became a reality.

A Deitch-illustrated flyer heralded the new series: “Because they are the labor of love, and are generally non-profit undertakings, most fanzines are years in the making. The Nickel Library too will undoubtably [sic] be years in the making. However, there is one major difference; … you the reader, can see, even share in the creation of the Nickel Library now, as it happens, page after fascinating page!”

Wow! Who could resist a pitch like that? In a few weeks, one-sheet wonders featuring vintage art by Reed Crandall, Will Eisner, Murphy Anderson, and Harrison Cady began rolling off the presses. But the best was yet to come—at least for fans of the grand old EC comic book line!

Say, did I mention that Gary was a die-hard EC fan-addict? Indeed he was, and he never quite recovered when his favorite comic company died back in the ’50s. So in true EC tradition, “Ghoulish Gary” came up with the idea of bringing his favorite comics back from the grave! Sometime in 1973, he began commissioning a series of new imaginary EC covers drawn by some of the underground comix artists who frequented his comic shop.

It wasn’t a hard sell, since many of the cartoonists were already loyal EC fans. In fact, comix like Slow Death, Skull, Last Gasp, and Bijou frequently featured stories modeled on Tales from the Crypt, Weird Science, and the old Mad comic books.

In short order, cartoonists Larry Todd, Charles Dallas, and Greg Irons drew some delightfully gruesome imitation-EC covers. Gary and crew completed the illusion by slapping down stats of actual EC logos, with numbering continued from the original series. The art may not have been as slick as the original EC artists, but the EC spirit

Nickel Library #0. This flyer announced the arrival of The New Nickel Library. In case you’re wondering, “Eric Fromm” was a pseudonym Gary used for his mail-order business. [Art ©2003 the respective copyright holders.]

Gary Arlington in 1976. Photo © 2003

by Patrick Rosenkranz.

The EC That Never Was was there. When Roger Brand discovered an unpublished Wally Wood original, it too became an EC cover—one drawn by an actual EC artist!

Gary was so pleased with the results he sent copies to EC publisher Bill Gaines.

Bad move.

It turned out that Gaines’ lawyers weren’t thrilled with Gary’s ongoing use of the EC titles and logos, and told Gary to knock it off.

Never one for half measures, the publisher pulled the plug on the entire series. His heart just wasn’t in it anymore.

37

Gary reminisced recently, saying he really enjoyed doing the EC covers, but “the 5¢ thing just ran out of gas. No money was to be made, not at five cents.”

All together, only 57 prints out of 500 were completed between 1971 and 1973 on a less-than-weekly schedule. Nonetheless, even today the Nickel Library is fondly remembered by fans of both EC and underground comix. For one brief, shining moment, the freewheeling spirit of EC flourished anew. And with it came… The EC’s That Never Were!

Nickel Library #53. Larry Todd’s creepy “Tales From The Crypt #48” cover (with the original EC logos and horror host bullets added). Larry wrote and drew sci-fi and horror stories for Eerie and other Warren magazines in the ’70s, but is best remembered for his hilarious underground comix series, Dr. Atomic. This and all other non-EC art, along with the EC mastheads & logos, that accompany this article are published for historical purposes. [©2003 Larry Todd; EC title & logo ©2003 William M. Gaines Agent.]

38

Comic Crypt

Nickel Library # 52. Charles Dallas illustrated the above new “Tales From The Crypt #47” cover in 1973. Jack Davis drew the actual final issue, #46 (at right), from 1955.

[Art top left © 2003 Charles Dallas; art at right ©2003 William M. Gaines Agent; Tales from the Crypt title & logo TM & ©2003 William M. Gaines Agent.]

The EC That Never Was

Nickel Library # 48. Larry Todd returns with his own version of an EC “Weird Fantasy #24“ cover. Weird Fantasy and its companion title Weird Science each ended with issue #22—merging into a new title, Weird Science-Fantasy (below) beginning with #23. So either the Nickel Library forgot to do a Weird Fantasy #23 cover, or we simply missed it. [Art above left ©2003 Larry Todd; Weird Fantasy #22 and Weird ScienceFantasy #23 art ©2003 William M. Gaines Agent; both EC titles & logos TM & ©2003 William M. Gaines Agent.]

39

40

Comic Crypt

Nickel Library #54. Greg Irons’ imaginary “Piracy #8.” Greg drew numerous EC-ish stories for Slow Death, Skull Comix, and similar titles before his death in 1984. Interestingly, Greg’s brutal version has more EC spirit than the actual series was allowed to have, since the latter operated for most of its run in the shadow of the then-new Comics Code—hence George Evans’ relatively sedate cover for issue #7 at right, the title’s swan song. If Piracy had begun a few years earlier, at EC’s freewheeling beginning, it might well have looked like this version by Greg! [Art top left ©2003 Estate of Greg Irons; Piracy #7 cover ©2003 William M. Gaines Agent; Piracy title & logo TM & ©2003 William M. Gaines Agent.]

The EC That Never Was

Nickel Library #57. A truly shocking “Shock SuspenStories #19” cover by Charles Dallas. Dallas, a relative latecomer to the underground scene, drew stories for Slow Death, Skull, and Psychotic Adventures.

“Gregarious” George Evans drew the cover of the true Shock SuspenStories #18, the last issue of the actual series (right). [Art top left ©2003 Charles Dallas; Shock SuspenStories #18 art ©2003 William M. Gaines Agent; EC title & logo TM & ©2003 William M. Gaines Agent.]

That’s all for now, fear-fiends! Thanks for joining us in our little Halloween horror-fest!

Thanks, too, to former Arlington assistant (and legendary underground cartoonist) Larry Rippee for his help preparing this article.

Till next time (and some non-“EC” goodies from The Nickel Library),

41

42

George Gladir & Orlando Busino

Tales Calculated To Drive You BATS! Brief Interviews with GEORGE GLADIR & ORLANDO BUSINO —Co-creators of Archie’s Horrific Humor Title (Or Was It Their Humorous Horror Title?)

Transcribed and Conducted by Jim Amash

George Gladir meets Melisssa Joan Hart (TV’s Sabrina) at the Los Angeles Festival of Books, 2002—flanked by the first-ever appearance of Sabrina in Archie’s Madhouse #22 (Oct. 1962) and the cover of Tales Calculated to Drive You Bats (the full official title) #1 (Nov. 1961).

“Sabrina” art by Dan DeCarlo; Bats art by Orlando Busino, whose interview begins on p. 45. [Art ©2003 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

I. GEORGE GLADIR, Writer [INTRODUCTION: George Gladir is one of the most prolific writers in comic book history. A few years ago, Robin Snyder’s research indicated that Paul S. Newman wrote more comics stories than anyone else—though recently, in his magazine The Comics!

Robin’s begun to wonder aloud if Robert Kanigher might just have a claim on that crown, after all—and it’s just possible that, when all is said and done, George Gladir might just take that title away from both of them! Either way, George’s amazing ability to consistently write funny scripts for several decades, whether for Archie Publications or others, is a remarkable achievement. Personally, we think George was also a horror-ble writer, as the following interview will demon-strate. (Please forgive the puns, George.) —Jim.] GEORGE GLADIR: Archie’s Madhouse was originally supposed to be a take-off on Mad magazine. I didn’t originate the series, but came on board as a writer with the sixth issue. Eventually, I got to do most of the writing, which I did for quite a while. The monster pages were sporadic at first; there was a potpourri of subjects in each issue. I tried to cover things that might interest our readers. Once Orlando Busino and I started doing the monster pages, we soon came up with the idea of doing

Tales Calculated to Drive You BATS!

43 started to complain that the book was too gory. [laughs] Can you believe that? So we had to tone it down a little. If you’ll look at the second cover, you’ll notice the change. Our original cover submission had a humorous nighttime cemetery scene with a blurb that read, “This issue is guaranteed to contain at least 26 ghoulish acts” ...or words to that effect. Archie didn’t go for it, so we came up with an innocuous preHarry Potter witchcraft school scene.

JA: How did you feel about having to tone things down?

GLADIR: I didn’t dwell on it, though I didn’t particularly like it.

We were still doing something we enjoyed.

(Above:) Splash and last pages of George Gladir’s layout-script for a Bats story—and of Orlando Busino.

(Below:) The published version of both pages. [©2003 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

our own separate monster book. You’ll notice our names were on the Table of Contents page of Bats, and on the splash page of each story.

That was something that Archie Publications hadn’t done in many years and wouldn’t do again for many years.

I can’t say enough about how spectacular Orlando’s artwork was. He did everything: penciling, inking, and lettering, while juggling his other work... selling his gag cartoons to the major magazines, a field in which he was recognized as a major star.

JIM AMASH: To whom at Archie did you present the Bats concept?

GLADIR: To Richard Goldwater, the editor and son of publisher John Goldwater.

JA: I know things were different in those days, so I’m assuming neither you nor Orlando thought much about owning any rights to the comic.

GLADIR: We didn’t even think about it then.

JA: How much freedom did you have in developing this comic book?

GLADIR: Complete and total freedom, especially in the first issue. But then, some of the other publishers

JA: Were any of those complaints from the Comics Code Authority?

GLADIR: As I recall, John Goldwater was the president of the Comics Code during that time, so the other publishers, who had felt restricted in what they could do, may have felt Archie was taking undue advantage. But in looking at the comics, the only blood we ever had was in the Bats logo, and in the lettering.

JA: Did you have story conferences with Richard Goldwater?

GLADIR: I wrote the stories and mailed them in. Richard Goldwater was then editing over a dozen other titles, so we had very little time for

44

George Gladir & Orlando Busino JA: When you created the first “Sabrina” story, was it in your mind to make her a reoccurring character?

story conferences, although we did discuss things in general. I wrote all the stories in the seven issues Bats, except for a few pages in the last issue.

GLADIR: I left it open so if Sabrina was well-received, she’d be an ongoing character. I was told that Sabrina was well-received, and was asked to do more stories with her.

Sabrina was my creation, but without Dan DeCarlo’s superb artwork I don’t know if she would have created such a stir. I storyboarded the story, but it was Dan’s genius that really put her over.

Sabrina had a slightly malicious appearance initially, but over the years it mellowed.

JA: Since the title only lasted seven bi-monthly issues, I take it that sales weren’t that good.

GLADIR: Sales were down, and it was getting increasingly difficult for Busino to turn out a full issue, given his busy schedule. Other guys drew some stories, but they weren’t in Busino’s league. When we toned down the content, sales dipped.

JA: How did you two get the writer and artist credits? Did you ask for it?

I went out to Los Angeles to work at Filmation, which was the studio producing the animated TV series. In fact, Jack Mendelson and I wrote a prime-time half hour animated special for CBS that introduced Sabrina to the Riverdale gang.

That aired in September of 1969. I was so busy then that there’s a period when I didn’t write the “Sabrina” stories.

GLADIR: Busino just put our names in and everybody was floored by his work, so I doubt they were in the mood to take them out. I think sales on the first issue must have been spectacular.

JA: The woman on the cover of the first issue reminds me of Morticia Addams.

GLADIR: It could be, because I was very much influenced by Charles Addams. I just loved his work. You know, I still get fan mail about this series.

A Gladir-scripted parody from a vintage issue of Cracked magazine (or wasn’t it “mazagine”?), illustrated by John Severin. Incidentally, Cracked has recently returned to publication of both new issues and special reprints. [©2003 the respective copyright holders.]

JA: Why do you think Bats is so fondly remembered?

GLADIR: I think there was nothing like it at the time. Many guys who went into the comics business were fans of it, like Scott Shaw and Bill Morrison, who is the editor of Bongo Comics.

JA: You covered all the bases of the horror genre, from vampires to werewolves to the Mummy, and beyond. Do you think it might have become difficult to come up with different horror ideas if you had continued?

GLADIR: You have a point there, although there are many ways to come up with variations on horror themes. I think we could have kept it up had we continued on.

JA: I got a kick out of seeing Jack Parr in the second issue. It wasn’t overly common to use current celebrities in comic books, unless they were licensed, like DC with their Bob Hope and Jerry Lewis comics.

GLADIR: By that time, I was also writing for Cracked, which was the only imitation of Mad that managed to last. I was influenced by that type of writing and, of course, was using celebrities in those stories. The witchcraft story in the second issue in which a young modern witch is compared to Aunt Hilda was the genesis for Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.

Once Bats was no longer around, I did a “Sabrina” story in Archie’s Madhouse #22, in 1962. We got some good reaction on it, so I started doing more and more “Sabrina” stories. I did some 16 or 17 in the next seven years before Sabrina became a Saturday morning cartoon show.

JA: I believe Archie got his own television cartoon series the year before that. Did you work on that?

GLADIR: Yes, a little. Remember “Archie’s Giant Juke Box” segments? I wrote those.

JA: You mentioned that you storyboarded the first “Sabrina” story. I know today’s Archie’s writers do that, too, and was wondering if this was always the standard way that writers did their scripts at Archie.

GLADIR: Some writers may not have done that, but I always did. As time has gone by, some writers have started typing stories up in script form.

JA: What made Sabrina special to you?

GLADIR: She had these magical powers, allowing me to vent my imagination in a thousand ways. Her stories had quite a bit of variety to them.

The way she was depicted by Dan DeCarlo, you couldn’t help but like her. I do better on the “wild” stories, which is why I enjoyed working on Madhouse and Cracked. Up until that point, Jughead was the wildest character in the Archie group.

I named Sabrina after a woman I knew in junior high school, who encouraged young people to go into the entertainment field. Her name had a New England ring to it, and a few years later, I realized her name wasn’t Sabrina, but was Sabra Holbrook.

JA: [laughs] What a difference that would have made! Sabra doesn’t have the same ring to it as Sabrina does.

GLADIR: No, but there was a non-witchcraft movie named Sabrina with Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart. I may have been influenced subconsciously, without ever realizing it.

Tales Calculated to Drive You BATS!

45

Self-portrait by Orlando Busino, and one of his Gus cartoons for Boy’s Life.

[Self-portrait ©2003 Orlando Busino; Gus cartoon ©2003 the respective copyright holders.]

II. ORLANDO BUSINO, Artist [INTRODUCTION: Orlando Busino is a familiar name to anyone who knows the cartoon business. He made his first professional sale at the age of 14, and since then his work has appeared in many magazines, such as The Saturday Evening Post, Good Housekeeping, Family Circle, and Reader’s Digest. For over thirty years, Orlando’s cartoon dog Gus has frolicked through the pages of Boy’s Life, tickling the ribs of Boy Scouts throughout the nation. He also drew a little comic book series, Bats, which has retained a cult audience, though it hasn’t been published in forty years.

Too bad Orlando didn’t do more comic books... but then again, with apologies to Spencer Tracy, “What’s there is cherce!” —Jim.] JIM AMASH: Your first work for Archie Publications appeared in Archie’s Madhouse, didn’t it?

ORLANDO BUSINO: Yes, I did a number of pages with George Gladir.

George created and wrote the pages and I drew them. I always worked from George’s scripts, no one else’s.

JA: When you started drawing comics for Archie, did you find it hard to adjust from doing single panel cartoons to doing panel to panel continuity?

BUSINO: No. I wanted to be a comic book artist long before I wanted to be a gag cartoonist. In high school, I drew a comic strip for my high school newspaper and studied the works of my favorite cartoonists: Will Eisner, Jack Cole, Bob Kane, Hal Foster, Alex Raymond, Milton Caniff, Roy Crane, etc. I did everything I could to learn the art of continuity and storytelling. However, before I ever made an attempt to enter the comic book field, I became interested in doing gag cartooning. Now that’s where I had to make a difficult transition! I had to start from scratch. I had to simplify my style and concentrate on putting the gag over.

I discovered a whole new set of artists to admire: Tom Henderson, Dick Cavalli, Jerry Marcus, Dana Fradon, Charles Addams, John Gallagher, Cobean, Chon Day, Robert Day, George Price, etc. There were some cartoonists whose work was primitive, but whose gags were funny! One of these was Clyde Lamb, who started his career from a prison cell. I think he was in there for armed robbery!

JA: How did you get started with Archie?

JA: [laughs] Oh-kay! Well, I’m glad you studied his cartooning instead.

Now, did you have to submit pencils to Archie before you inked your pages?

BUSINO: George Gladir recommended me to editor Richard Goldwater.

JA: Did you have to show them samples of your work?

BUSINO: As I remember it, George gave me one of his scripts, which I drew up.

They liked it and used it, so I started drawing for Archie’s Madhouse, which I did for a while.

A 1961 ad for the first issue of Bats, from Archie’s Madhouse #15.

Art by Orlando Busino. [©2003 Archie Publications, Inc.]

BUSINO: No, when I got George’s script, I just went ahead and did the complete art package: penciling, inking, and lettering. When I was young, I thought that’s what cartoonists did. I didn’t know there was a division of labor in comics, so I trained myself to do the complete job.

46

George Gladir & Orlando Busino their other books.

BUSINO: We created the magazine, so why not?

JA: Did you have much contact with your editor, Richard Goldwater?

BUSINO: I’d take my finished work in, give it to him, talk a while, pick up some new scripts, and leave.

JA: Would Goldwater critique your work?

BUSINO: No. I believe he appreciated what George and I were doing. However, when the magazine was published, I would sometimes notice a few minor changes. This was because they were under the Comics Code at the time. I once drew a picture of Frankenstein and had the bolts on the side of his neck. They took them out. I never knew why.

On occasion, even super-heroes got into the act in Bats, as in these panels from issue #3 (March 1962). [©2003 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

George’s scripts were storyboarded with the captions and word balloons written in. I had complete freedom to draw the scenes as I pleased. George also wrote and thumbnailed the covers. George could draw; in fact, I met him at the School of Visual Arts. We were in the same night class and got to be good friends.

Tales Calculated to Drive You Bats was meant to be a take-off on Mad, and Bats evolved from the Madhouse work we were doing.

JA: Well, that was probably because of copyrights. If you made Frankenstein look too similar to the Universal Pictures version, then Universal would have gotten upset. Archie was most likely protecting themselves from possible complaints. If you put the bolts on the head, like you did in this one drawing, then the character was different enough to avoid complaints. Universal owned the “look” of their Frankenstein.

BUSINO: I see. When I look over the work I did on Bats, I see things that I would like to change.

JA: That’s the artist in you, Orlando! I know I’d like to change a few things I’d drawn in the past.

Now, Bats had a seven-issue run, and towards the end, you weren’t drawing the entire issues. Why was that?

JA: Bats was a bimonthly comic. Was that because Archie wanted to see how it’d sell before investing their energies to a monthly title, or was it because your schedule wouldn’t allow you to draw a monthly book?

BUSINO: I wasn’t getting my work in on time. I was too busy with cartoon sales to magazines. The time had come to decide between comic book work and gag cartooning. I enjoyed both, but gag cartooning won out.

BUSINO: I think it was their policy to start titles out as bimonthlies. I was so busy doing other work; I wouldn’t have been able to do a monthly title anyway.

At the time, I was doing gag cartoons for magazines. Archie was just one account, but one that I really enjoyed doing.

JA: Are you surprised that fans still remember your work on this series?

JA: How closely did you follow George’s cover layouts? For example, on the cover to Bats #2, there are a couple of apples on the teacher’s desk, and one of them has “poison” written on it. Would you have added that yourself?

BUSINO: Yes. George and I still get fan mail about Bats. It’s quite amazing to me that anyone remembers the series because it’s been over 40 years since George and I did Bats. It was a fun series and we enjoyed doing it.

BUSINO: That was a nice touch. It was George’s. The only writing I did was for the center-spread masks of Frankenstein and the Wolfman. Everything else was the product of George’s genius.

JA: George told me that you were the one who put yours and his credits on the pages. That was unusual for the time, because Archie wasn’t giving credits in

Orlando Busino’s cover for Tales Calculated to Drive You Bats #3.

Wonder if George Gladir wrote the gag? [©2003 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

[EDITOR’S ENDNOTE: Alter Ego apologizes to George Gladir and Orlando Busino for not having room to print far more of the material they so generously sent us.

But we’ve still got it, so you never know... Hey, guys, what’re you doin’ next Halloween?]

Edited by ROY THOMAS

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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!

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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!

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16

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!

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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!

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(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!

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17

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!

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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!

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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!

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18

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

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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!

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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!

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

19

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!

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

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

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

(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!

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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!

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20

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!

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(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!

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(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!

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21

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

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

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(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!

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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

22

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

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

(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

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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

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