Alter Ego #36 by TwoMorrows Publishing

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No. 36 May 2004

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Special Simon-ized Section!

JACK KIRBY CARL BURGOS BILL EVERETT BOB POWELL ANGELO TORRES AL WILLIAMSON JIM SIMON JIM AMASH

Interviews 1940SS ARTIST

ELMER WEXLER GEORGE WOODBRIDGE DON LAWRENCE BOB DESCHAMPS FAWCETT FRENZY WITH

TERRY AUSTIN MARC SWAYZE JOHN G. PIERCE P.C. HAMERLINCK C.C. BECK Plus:

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

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

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

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THE BEST IN COMICS AND LEGO MAGAZINES!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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“Kirby 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. 36 / May 2004

™

Editor

Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout

Christopher Day

JOE SIMON & FRIENDS Section

Consulting Editor John Morrow

FCA Editor

P.C. Hamerlinck

Comic Crypt Editor Michael T. Gilbert

Editors Emeritus

Contents

Production Assistant

Writer/Editorial: Simon Says . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 The Creator of Captain America Meets the Creator of The Human Torch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1939: Joe Simon’s first encounter with Carl Burgos—and a couple of others.

Jerry Bails (founder) Ronn Foss, Biljo White, Mike Friedrich Eric Nolen-Weathington

Cover Artists Joe Simon Michael T. Gilbert & Ronn Sutton

Cover Colorists Joe Simon Michael T. Gilbert

And Special Thanks to: Ger Apeldoorn Mike Aragona Terry Austin Bob Bailey John Balge John Bell Bill Black Mike Burkey Russ Cochran Chet Cox Janet Gilbert Darryl Gold Scott Goodell George Hagenauer Jennifer Hamerlinck Ron Harris Richard Howell Greg Huneryager Stephen Lipson Robert Macmillan Nadia Mannarino Joe Monks Will Murray Rik Offenberger John G. Pierce

Robert Pincombe Larry Ripee Ethan Roberts Mark Shainblum Dave Sim Jim Simon Joe Simon Jamie Smith Keith Sparrow Super-Hero News Ronn Sutton Greg Theakston Dann Thomas Alex Toth Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Dr. Michael J. Vassallo Rob von Bavel Pete Von Sholly Meerten Welleman Marv Wolfman Alan R. Woollcombe Chad Wrataric John Wright

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Bob Deschamps, Don Lawrence, & George Woodbridge

The American Dream Come True . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 One comic book legend—Joe Simon—talks about another—Captain America. IJimRemember Weird Mysteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Simon this time—and the secrets behind that 1959 black-&-white horror comic. “IElmerThink I Was Basically Lucky!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Wexler talks to Jim Amash about his brief sojourn in the Golden Age of Comics. Tributes to Bob Deschamps, Don Lawrence, George Woodbridge . . 23

Fandom across the Puddle–––Part Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Bill Schelly interviews John Wright about South African comics fandom. re: [comments from Alex Toth, Terry Austin, and others] . . . . . . 31 FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) #95 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 P.C. Hamerlinck spotlights Marc Swayze, John G. Pierce, and C.C. Beck. Canada’s Golden Age Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About Our Cover: To head A/E #13’s transcribed 1974 comicon panel featuring Joe Simon and Ye Editor, among others, Joe generously allowed us to use as a cover a Captain America drawing he’d done. He sent other art for the issue, as well, including a fabulous acrylic painting of one of the greatest 1950s heroes, Simon & Kirby’s Fighting American! We asked if we could save it for a future cover, and Joe graciously agreed. The time has come. Enjoy! [Art ©2004 Joe Simon; Fighting American TM & ©2004 Joe Simon & the Estate of Jack Kirby.] Above: Captain America—Sandman—Manhunter—The Guardian—Stuntman—Captain 3-D —Fighting American—The Fly—even another Sandman! As half of the Simon & Kirby team, Joe’s taken part in the creation of numerous memorable super-heroes. One sleeper that Roy fondly remembers is the 1940s tale in which the prizefighter Kid Adonis slugged it out with a suspiciously familiar guy called Superior Male in—was it in Stuntman or Green Hornet? No matter—it was a great story, and, as we learn in Joe and son Jim’s book The Comic Book Makers, it was a Simon solo performance. Bravo! [©2004 Joe Simon.] Alter EgoTM is published monthly by TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: 32 Bluebird Trail, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. 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.

writer/editorial

Simon Says...

Back in the mid- to late 1940s when I was still in my first decade, there were two credits I looked for on a comic book story: “Joe Kubert” and “Simon & Kirby.” While Kubert’s signature would appear on one or two stories a month, it often seemed as if the “Simon & Kirby” byline—sometimes with the names “Joe” and “Jack” added—was all over the place! Even on unsigned stories, their signature style was unmistakable—despite the fact that, as we’d learn later, S&K were a virtual industry, with inkers and letterers and sometimes even other writers and pencilers spelling them, working under their direction to achieve that Simon & Kirby magic. Nowadays, because he was indeed such a seminal talent, Jack Kirby often gets the lion’s share of the credit for everything that was good about S&K. Me, I’ve never felt that way. Joe and Jack were an entity in the ’40s and ’50s, and attempts to dissect precisely who did what and when and where and how and why are foredoomed to failure. Probably rightly so. Witness, for instance, the “Kid Adonis” splash that graces the preceding page. For nearly six decades I’ve remembered that mini-epic, in which an alien named Superior Male goes several rounds with the series’ boxer hero. For years I thought of it as a Simon & Kirby production, because it has all the flamboyant touches in story and art I expect from that fabulous team. It was only when I read Joe and son Jim’s book The Comic Book Makers that I learned that particular tale

was a Simon solo effort. No matter. For me, it ranks up there with S&K’s “Captain America,” “Newsboy Legion,” “Fighting American,” et al. Thus, this issue, we celebrate Joe Simon as the co-creator of the above features and many more (including the whole romancecomics genre, of course)—even, as Jim Simon relates in his article, in a format Joe’s not generally associated with. And when we back all that up with Jim Amash’s interview with Golden Age artist Elmer Wexler, Bill Schelly’s Comic Fandom Archive, and P.C. Hamerlinck’s alwaysengaging FCA—well, isn’t that worth turning a magazine upside-down for? Bestest,

P.S.: And, just in case you missed our display ad last issue, don’t forget that the corrected second printing of our long-sold-out All-Star Companion goes on sale in June! See TwoMorrows’ ad bloc at the end of this section.

COMING IN JUNE NOW MONTHLY!

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SLAM BANG

4 TH OF JULY SPECIAL! SUPERMAN, CAPTAIN MARVEL, UNCLE SAM—& SY BARRY!

k; ics. .C. Bec te of C 2004 DC Com 04 Esta Art ©20 arvel TM & © M Captain

• WILL MURRAY on the fabled 1940 Superman “K-Metal” story, and on PHILIP WYLIE’s GLADIATOR—the 1930 novel that foreshadowed the Man of Steel! Rare art by JOE SHUSTER, WAYNE BORING, CURT SWAN, NEAL ADAMS, GIL KANE, MICHAEL LARK, JOHN BUSCEMA, RON HARRIS, et al.! • Special double-size FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) section, featuring C.C. BECK, MARC SWAYZE, DON NEWTON, & The Shazam!-Isis Hour! • Golden Age great SY BARRY talks to JIM AMASH about DC Comics, his artist brother DAN BARRY, and lots more—with vintage art by ALEX TOTH, MORT MESKIN, CARMINE INFANTINO, MURPHY ANDERSON, & many others! • Plus—MICHAEL T. GILBERT interviews AL FELDSTEIN about EC & RAY BRADBURY— BILL SCHELLY on comics fandom—& MORE!! Edited by ROY THOMAS • 108 PAGES!

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The Creator of Captain America Meets The Creator of The Human Torch

When JOE SIMON Encountered CARL BURGOS in 1939—and Vice Versa by Joe Simon

“When Creators Clash!” Vintage photos of Joe Simon (left) and Carl Burgos (right)—along with early pages of their greatest creations. The photo of Joe, taken around the time of the 1939 first meeting chronicled herein, appears in his and son Jim’s important history The Comic Book Makers, recently reissued in a handsome hardcover edition by Vanguard Press (see ad on p. 16)—while the self-portrait (?) of Carl Burgos first appeared in Human Torch #2 (Fall 1940), actually the first issue. As for the art: This landmark Simon & Kirby splash from Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941) can be seen in color in the gorgeous Marvel hardcover Captain America: The Classic Years (Volume 1)—if you can still find it. The “Human Torch” art, however, is some of the rarest of the species! While the origin story from Marvel Comics #1 has been reprinted a time or two, Burgos’ splash page from Marvel Mystery Comics #2 (Dec. 1939) recaps that origin, complete with typed entries from the journal of his creator, Professor Horton. Thanks for this gem to collector Greg Huneryager. [Art ©2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

[A/E EDITOR’S INTRO: In 1990 Marvel decided to put together a hardcover volume that would be basically a reprint of the 1939 Marvel Comics #1, the first comic book ever published by Martin Goodman. Because from 1965 till his death in 1973 I had been a friend (and even sometime roommate) of “Sub-Mariner” creator Bill Everett, Marvel editor Bobbie Chase phoned to ask me to write a reminiscence about Wild Bill for inclusion in the book. I was particularly flattered to learn that the complementary coverage of “Human Torch” creator Carl Burgos would be written by Joe Simon, Timely Comics’ first editor—the man who, with Jack Kirby, gave the world Captain America Comics and so many other wonders.

[A few weeks later, however, editor Chase asked me to write the text about Burgos, as well. I replied that I’d never met him, only talked to him twice on the phone… and besides, wasn’t Joe Simon writing about him? She replied that Marvel wasn’t using the piece by Simon, though she gave no particulars. So I wound up scribing the Burgos article, too. However, I did talk Bobbie Chase into sending me the Simon piece—“for inspiration,” as I put it—and was fascinated by Joe’s time-capsule vignette of the day two major comics creators met. Ever since, I’ve wondered why the short article wasn’t used. I’ve always suspected it was because Joe refers to himself in its title as Cap’s “creator”—nor would it have helped if he had written

Joe Simon & Carl Burgos

“co-” in front of it, since after all he had once sued Marvel over ownership of the Sentinel of Liberty—but perhaps it was simply the fact that he attached his own copyright to the piece. [Be that as it may, I thank Joe Simon for his gracious permission to print his 1990 article for the first time ever. And, yes, it is indeed copyright ©2004 Joe Simon. —Roy.] The first time I saw Carl Burgos, he was leaning over a sticky, ink-stained table at a rundown place on West Forty-Fifth Street in New York City known as Funnies, Incorporated. Carl looked to be my age—23. He stood about five feet eight, was of medium build with dark, curly hair and gray horn-rimmed glasses sliding down his nose. The shirtsleeve on his right arm was rolled to his elbow, while his left sleeve skillfully dodged the dirt and ink that surrounded the page of drawings he was working on. A gruff-looking teenager sat next to him, punching on a battered Underwood typewriter. Burgos was putting the finishing brushstrokes to a page of black-&-white cartoon figures darting about, leaping and pointing wave-like outlines that would not come to life until the red and orange colors turned them into fire. I asked him where he got the idea for “The Human Torch.” Burgos stopped his work to look me up and down, lingering for a moment on the shiny new patent leather portfolio which held my precious art samples. “What?” “Where did you get the idea for ‘The Human Torch’?” “Where did you get that suit?” he countered. The teenager at the typewriter smirked. Just then, Lloyd Jacquet walked into the room. Jacquet, a ramrod-erect former Army colonel, was sole owner and proprietor of Funnies, Inc. It was six p.m. and he had just put in a day working at his regular job as an editor of a newspaper feature syndicate. “You Simon?” Jacquet asked. “Yes, sir.” “Would you come into my office, Simon? Follow me.” Jacquet’s office was painted battleship gray. The

(Top left:) Lloyd Jacquet, founder and boss-man of Funnies, Inc.—in a detail from a 1942 newspaper photo we printed in full in A/E #22, courtesy of Russ Cochran and Comic Book Marketplace. Thanks again, Russ. (Above:) Jacquet’s most important client at the time of the events related by Joe Simon was Martin Goodman’s Timely Comics, for whom Funnies, Inc., produced the entire contents of each issue of Marvel Mystery Comics. Even more rarely seen than “Torch” art from MMC #2 is that month’s “SubMariner” story by Bill Everett, since on his first two Prince Namor tales the writer/artist used Craftint paper whose various shading tones made it difficult to wash out the color and reproduce only the black-&-white line art. In fact, we’re not certain this second “Sub-Mariner” splash page has ever been reprinted before. Ah, if only the House of Ideas would publish a third Golden Age of Marvel volume! Thanks again to Greg Huneryager—and how! [Art ©2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

The Creator of Captain American Meets The Creator of The Human Torch

“What about The Human Torch?” “The Human Torch is one of Goodman’s hottest characters, “Jacquet said proudly. “The Human Torch and Sub-Mariner. Fire and water.” I picked up my unopened portfolio, then shook hands with Jacquet. “I’ll take a crack at it,” I promised as I headed for the exit. Burgos waved at me. The kid at the typewriter looked up. “Hey, Simon,” he called. “Yes?” “Nice suit!” The kid was scriptwriter and freelance editor at Funnies. His name was Mickey Spillane. I was thoroughly confused about doing a knock-off of “The Human Torch,” but what the hell, it was work. There were no page limitations. It was not necessary or even acceptable to submit a script or even sketches. The entire finished package could be accepted or rejected by Funnies, Inc. The risk was entirely mine. After all, this was the tail end of the Great Depression, with men lined up in the streets to get a free apple. I did a lengthy piece called “The Fiery Mask.” Goodman liked it and ran it as the lead feature in Daring Mystery Comics. I was paid seven dollars a page (after publication) for the work. It took several months to collect. Goodman offered me twelve dollars a page to work directly for him, thus bypassing the middleman, Funnies, Inc. He was setting up shop on his own.

furnishings were sparse, his desk ancient but scrubbed and neat. His black, high-topped shoes, polished to a high sheen, reflected a military presence as he sat upright in a straight-back chair to address me.

Martin Goodman confided to me why he wanted a second and third fiery crime-fighter. It was a tactic to discourage other publishers from imitating the popular “Human Torch.” Goodman would use this same strategy throughout his career as a comic book publisher, well into the Marvel years, sometimes suffering temporary losses himself in an effort to choke out the competition.

“I’ve seen your work. Harlan Crandall recommended you. He thought you could fit into our comic book schedule—and so do I.” Harlan Crandall was art director for Macfadden Publications. He was giving me assignments on small “spot” illustrations for his magazines, but I was far from busy in the first few months since I came to the big city. I had worked on three different newspapers as an artist and writer in Rochester and Syracuse, NY. Two Hearst newspapers had folded under me, as newspapers all over the country were closing or merging with other local dailies. Jacquet continued: “Funnies, Inc., is a service that supplies comic book features for publishers who don’t have the staff or expertise to turn out their own comics. Our biggest client is Martin Goodman and his company, Timely Publications. Mr. Goodman wants a new character that can turn into fire and fight crime.”

Mickey Spillane a couple of decades (and mountains of money) after his 1939 encounter with Joe Simon—and after he had pummeled his way to astonishing success with his novels of hard-boiled private eye Mike Hammer, starting with I, the Jury. Before that, he had written a multitude of comic book stories and text fillers, much of it for Lloyd Jacquet’s Funnies, Inc.

Later, when Jack Kirby and I brought “Captain America” to the company, I became editor. Part of my duties was to work with Funnies on the two remaining features they were still contributing to Timely—“Human Torch” and “Sub-Mariner.” Goodman was superstitious and didn’t want to risk changing partners when the dancers were in step. I worked with Carl Burgos on plots and ideas for almost two years, until Kirby and I got fired for signing a contract with DC Comics. Carl was bright, creative, and fun to be with. At times we worked at his home in Franklin Square, Long Island, just a

Joe Simon & Carl Burgos

The first and last pages of Joe Simon’s first “Fiery Mask” outing, from Daring Mystery Comics #1 (Jan. 1940); the story was reprinted in The Golden Age of Marvel, Volume 2. Based on the hero’s recitation of his powers, his face was the only thing about him that was fiery, so ’twould seem Joe was able to make the sale without simply copying Burgos’ Torch. Goodman and/or Jacquet likewise had Bill Everett create a second-rate Sub-Mariner in “The Fin”—and once Captain America was a solid smash, he was quasi-cloned into a host of Timely imitators: The Patriot, The Defender, American Avenger, Miss America, Citizen V, Mr. (later Major) Liberty, The Victory Boys, even Timely’s own hero named Fighting Yank! [Art i©2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

few decibels away from the tumult of Belmont Race Track. With Bill Everett, we contrived a showdown between The Human Torch and SubMariner. It was truly fire vs. water, as the two characters continued their popularity and Timely’s prosperity throughout the war years. Burgos stayed with me until the early 1960s, when the two of us did penciled layouts and scripts for a new character called The Fly, but he will always be remembered for one of the great heroes of the early days of comic books—the volatile master of fire and thrillers: the original, invincible Human Torch. (Right:) Publishers and editors come and go— but there’s always been only one real Human Torch, one actual Sub-Mariner—and one true Captain America! Thus we close with this early Timely ad for Captain America Comics (here called a “Magazine”], with a Cap figure drawn by Joe Simon. Thanks to Nadia Mannarino of All-Star Auctions. [Art in this montage ©2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

The American Dream Come True One Comic Book Legend–––JOE SIMON–––Talks about Another–––CAPTAIN AMERICA! [A/E INTRO: The following article appeared in Comics Feature #10 (July 1981). It was, in essence, an interview with early Marvel creator Joe Simon conducted by future Marvel executive Carol Kalish, but with her questions edited out. All art and accompanying captions have been newly added for this re-presentation in A/E, and the piece has been edited slightly… although it’s still a time capsule of a time more than two decades ago, when the question of the ownership of Captain America was still very much up in the air; it has since been settled, apparently to Joe’s and Marvel’s mutual satisfaction. The article first came to Ye Editor’s attention when it was quoted in Bradford W. Wright’s mostly excellent 2001 study Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America, published by The Johns Hopkins University Press. Our thanks to Joe Simon and to Richard Howell for their blessing to reprint this slightly abridged article, which is ©2004 the Estate of Carol Kalish. —Roy.]

March 1981 is the fortieth anniversary of Captain America. For many comics fans, this sentinel of liberty still remains one of the most striking and memorable characters ever to have their adventures chronicled in four colors. Originally created in 1940-41 by the now-legendary team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, Captain America has always been presented more as a symbol of the American Dream and a representative of a particular ideological position than have most other comics characters. Comics Feature talked with Joe Simon at the Newcon convention held in Boston, Massachusetts, last November, and recorded his reminiscences about how Captain America came to be, the way Joe remembers developing the character, and what he believes Captain America holds for today’s readers. —Carol Kalish.

Joe Simon and friend at the 1998 San Diego Comic-Con (photo courtesy of Joe)—plus the legendary Simon & Kirby cover of Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941). That issue would have gone on sale in late 1940 or the turn of ’41, but all stories therein would’ve been written and drawn in 1940—which means Joe and Jack had Cap slugging Adolf Hitler well over a year before Der Führer declared war on the United States in December of ’41. All ten Simon & Kirby issues have been beautifully reprinted in the hardcover two-volume set Captain America: The Classic Years. [Marvel art ©2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.; Alfred E. Newman is TM & ©2004 EC Publications, Inc.]

Joe Simon & Captain America

Talk about speedy merchandising! The very first appearance of Simon & Kirby’s Captain America was in the above-left ad from Human Torch #3 (Winter 1940)— and, with a cover date only one month later than Captain America Comics #1, this tie-in ad utilizing Cap and Bucky ran in Daring Mystery Comics, Vol. 2, #1 (April 1941). Thanks to Ronn Sutton for the Comicscope ad. [Captain America TM & ©2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Let me tell you first about how we created Captain America… This country was not at war. Yes, there was a war over in Europe, but there was a lot of controversy in this country about whether we should get involved. There was a lot of opposition… lots of demonstrations and lots of marches and rallies by the America First Group, the American Nazi Party, the Nazi Bund. The opponents to [American entrance into] the war were all quite well organized. We wanted to have our say, too. We didn’t want to go to war, but we felt very intense about what was going on over in Europe. So we had this new character, Captain America, reflect our attitudes about the war. He didn’t want to fight, but he knew that the Nazis had to be stopped and he was prepared to do his best to stop them. When the first issue came out, we got a lot of bad mail, a lot of threatening letters and hate mail. Some people really opposed what Cap stood for. I could never understand that, because he stood for America— freedom and justice. How can anybody be against that? But anyway, after the first issue we got so many threats that for a while we had a policeman in the office watching over us. It was kind-of funny. There we were, working on a comic book, and there was this guard making sure that we weren’t attacked or something. I guess we did quite a bit to promote patriotism in this country. We felt very good about making a political statement through [Cap] and taking a stand. It was a bit frightening, though, with all the reaction we got. The book sold well; it was a tremendous success, so that proved we

had more friends than enemies. We often used Adolf Hitler as our prime villain. Now, other companies had been doing very well with colorful villains—The Batman in particular had The Penguin and The Joker—but we wanted to use a real-life villain. Cap might have been only a symbol, but we wanted him to fight a real menace, something that was a real threat to our country. So we used Adolf Hitler. We had him on the first couple of covers. Captain America was always crashing through windows and beating him up. Captain America was very much a reflection of his times. He was patriotic when the country was patriotic. He was willing to fight for his country when his country was getting ready to get into a horrible war. We saw him as a political statement fleshed out to be an active force. We would have him go through an exaggerated adventure and his actions, and the story would all be making a political statement. I don’t know what I’d do if I had to do him today. I’ve lost touch with the book. I haven’t read it for a long time. I’ve worked with other patriotic characters. Jack and I did The Boy Commandos for DC, and we later did Fighting American, which was a takeoff of Captain America. The kid gang book did very well. It was a tremendous success, but it didn’t have the ingredients to last through the ages the way Captain America does. It might be because he has the uniform and is the patriotic symbol, but one can’t ever really be sure. I

The American Dream Come True

Yes, Virginia, there is life after Captain America! When Joe and Jack ankled Timely, they created “The Boy Commandos” and “The Newsboy Legion” (with The Guardian) for National/DC, and revamped the gasmasked “Sandman” into a more streamlined hero—as per these three cover re-creations done by Joe a few years back. [Re-creation art ©2004 Joe Simon; Sandman, Sandy, The Guardian, and The Newsboy Legion TM & ©2004 DC Comics;.]

(Above:) Two post-WWII hero-creations of the Simon & Kirby team were Stuntman (for Harvey) and Captain 3-D (for St. John). AC Comics’ Men of Mystery Comics #15 & #17 featured loads of restored vintage art, plus the neverbefore-printed cover art for Captain 3-D #2, enlarged from a house ad and inked by publisher Bill Black. To see AC Comics’ full range of quality Golden Age reprints, visit their website at <www.accomics.com>—and tell ’em Alter Ego sent you, willya? Bill would like to know where people first hear about his great little company! [Restored art ©2004 AC Comics; Stuntman and Captain 3-D are the intellectual property of Joe Simon and the Estate of Jack Kirby.]

Joe Simon & Captain America

(Above & left:) The Simon & Kirby team worked in wondrous ways, from first to last. Jack Kirby apparently penciled the splash (not seen here) of the “Vagabond Prince” story in Black Cat #7 (Sept. 1947), and Joe drew the rest of the 10-pager, which co-starred the Prince, his young Chief Justice, and his Jester. These three great pages from that tale are repro’d from photocopies of the original art, courtesy of Ethan Roberts. [©2004 the respective copyright holder.]

The American Dream Come True

Simon & Kirby’s Cold War creation Fighting American was sadly discontinued after seven fabulous issues in 1954-55. However, in 1966 Harvey Comics published a second and king-size #1, mixing reprints and stories originally slated for 1955’s #8. Hence both notations “#1” and “#8” on these two pages from a “new” story in the 1966 comic, repro’d from photocopies of the original art. Happily, Marvel Comics (of all companies!) published the entire series in a beautiful full-color hardcover edition in 1989. Thanks to Mike Burkey for the photocopies. [©2004 Joe Simon & the Estate of Jack Kirby.]

don’t think so, though. I think it’s something more, something unique to the character. You see, we also used a camp, patriotic costume for Fighting American, and he also was a patriotic symbol. We enjoyed doing him, but he never caught on the way Captain America did. He was always a marginal character. That’s why I think there must be something special about the Cap character. No matter how times change, there are always kids who want to read about his adventures. But anyway, to get back to Captain America… I guess I’d have to first read [his current comic] and see what he’s been doing all these years. I haven’t followed the book, so I don’t know what people have had him do or have been doing to him. I think the important thing would be to keep him contemporary. Get him involved in adventures based on real world events. See, Captain America is the expression of the American ideal. He stands for what America should do if we could do anything we wanted. He’s our nation’s wish fulfillment. For plots, I guess I’d draw on all the interesting things going on in the world that you could turn into a springboard for a story. I’d

probably have him involved with real things: the [Iranian] hostage thing, terrorism, street gangs, that sort of thing. I would get him involved with what is really going on today. The character has a real pull. He’s been around too long just to be tied to one time period. He can be adapted to fit into any situation, any social climate. He’s a reflection of us. I think he’s our ultimate fantasy. He’s a comic book character, an ideal, a political statement, whatever, who can get involved in an adventure that involves real contemporary problems. Superman can’t fight a mugger because he’s too strong. He has to fight aliens and things. But Captain America is like us. He can fight a mugger and it would be an exciting adventure fantasy that really has meaning, because it is still real, still familiar. I think that is the key to the character. I think that is why there is still a Captain America.

Joe Simon & Captain America

JOE SIMON Checklist [NOTE: The following is a slight abridgement of information provided by Jerry G. Bails from his online Who’s Who of 20th-Century American Comic Books, which can be accessed at www.nostromo.no/whoswho/. Additions or corrections are invited, either to Jerry or through Alter Ego. Names of features and comic books below are generally not put in italics or quotation marks because in some cases there were both a magazine and a feature with the same title; Captain America, for instance, appeared in other Timely mags besides Captain America Comics. Key: (a) .= full art; (p) = pencils only; (i) = inks only; (w) = writing.] Full Name & Date of Birth: Joseph H. Simon (b. 1915), a.k.a. Joe Simon - artist, writer, editor, publisher Pen Names: Gregory Sykes, Jon Henery Education: Syracuse University Son: James (Jim) Simon Wife: Harriet Simon Illustrations: Macfadden Publications, Hearst Papers c. 1939; Chelsa Clinton News, early 1960s Commercial Art: advertising; Guide for the Blind (TV); New York Times supplement 1965–67 Staff: Paramount Pictures Art Dept. c. 1937-38 Art Direction: Two U.S. Olympics supplements; plus posters, illustrations Art Editor: Syracuse Journal-American c. 1937–38 Assistant Art Director: Rochester Journal-American 1932–34; Syracuse Herald 1934–1937 Executive Art Director: Burstein, Phillips, & Newman (did advertising comics, 1960s)

Although Joe and Jack were briefly reunited by DC to develop a third version of Sandman in the mid-1970s, their last vintage co-creation was The Adventures of The Fly for the Archie group. Here’s another rarely-seen 1959 item—Joe’s original, unused logo for the comic. Thanks to Greg Theakston (as well as Joe Simon) for his blessing to reprint both it and the Spider Fry sketch (p. 10) from his groundbreaking magazine Pure Images, Vol. 3, #1 (1990). Greg’s latest offerings are Thrill Book, 160 pages of science-fiction and horror from pre-Code comics, and The Basil Wolverton Reader, same format and price. Send to 516 State St., Brooklyn, NY 11217, or contact Greg online at teasemag@mindspring.com. [©2004 Joe Simon.]

Feature Writer: Syracuse Herald Producer: New York Sunday Times advertising supplements Honor: Eisner Award – 1999 Hall of Fame Autobiography: The Comic Book Makers (with Jim Simon) 1990 Syndicated Credits: Adventure Is My Career (w/a) (reprints from Parents’ Magazine) Comics for Parents’ Magazine: World War II period Sports Cartoonist: Rochester Journal-American 1932–34; Syracuse Herald 1934–c. 1937; Syracuse Journal-American c. 1937–38 U.S. MAINSTREAM COMIC BOOKS: Co-creator: Boy Commandos, Boy Explorers, Captain America, Challengers of the Unknown; Fighting American, Manhunter, Newsboy Legion (& The Guardian), Red Skull, Stuntman, Young Allies, romance comics Creator: Blue Bolt Staff: Archie (editor) c. 1959-60; Charlton (editor) 1955; DC (editor) 1973–75 (romance comics); Feature/Crestwood (editor) 1952–58; Fox (editor) 1940–41; Harvey (editor) 1946-58, 1962-67; Mainline (co-owner & business manager) 1954–55; Timely/Marvel (editor) 1940–41; Mayfair Publications (editor) 1975. Publisher (?): Cockeyed (a) 1955; National Crumb (a) 1975 Shop Work: Funnies, Inc. (?) c. 1939; Simon & Kirby (w/a) 1940–43, (w/a) 1946–54

COMICS CREDITS: Archie/MLJ/et al.: covers (a) 1959-60; The Adventures of The Fly (w/a) 1959; Pipsy (w/a) 1947; The Double Life of Private Strong (a) 1959 Centaur (incl. Chesler 1930s, Ultem, et al.): covers (a) 1940 Charlton Comics (& precursors Charles, Levy, et al.): Bulls-Eye (w/a) 1955; covers (i) 1955; Foxhole (w/a) 1955; Police Trap (w/a) 1955; Win-a-Prize (w/a) 1955 DC (incl. AA & imprints): Boy Commandos (w/a) 1942–45, 1947, 1972; Brother Power, the Geek (w) 1968; Challengers of the Unknown (w) 1957; Champion Sports (w) 1973-74; covers (i) 1942–44, 1968; fillers (p) 1970; Foxhide Sailor (w/a) 1946; Green Team (w) 1975, 1978; Just Imagine (filler) (w/a) 1951, 1971; Manhunter (1) (w/a) 1942; Manhunter (2) (w) 1971; Mis-Adventures of Penelope Potter (p) 1970; Newsboy Legion (w/a) 1942-45; The Outsiders (w) 1976; Prez (w) 1973-74; public service page (w/a) 1944; Real Fact Comics (w/a) 1946; Sandman (1) (w/a) 1942-44; Sandman (2) (w) 1974-76; Secret Hearts (p) 1970; Strange Adventures (w/a) 1950 Fawcett: Bulletman (a) 1941; Captain Marvel (w/a) 1941; Mr. Scarlet (w/a) 1941 Feature/Crestwood/Headline/Prize: Black Magic (w/a) 1950-54, 1960-61; black Owl (w/a) 1940; Charlie Chan (w/a) 1948–49; covers (a) 1960; crime stories (w/a) 1947–c. 1955; Fighting American (w/a) 1954–55; Sick (ed/cover) late 1950s, 1963-; Ted O’Neil (w/a) 1940; Young Love (w/a) 1949-62; Young Romance (w/a) 1948-62 Fox Comics: Blue Beetle (w/a) 1940–41; covers (a) 1940; Dynamo (w/a) 1940; Samson (w/a) 1940 (all three heroes = solo Simon)

The American Dream Come True

The above circa-1940s photo of longtime partners Joe Simon (left) and Jack Kirby appears in Joe and Jim Simon’s The Comic Book Makers. The pair worked solo, too: flanking the photo are drawings Joe and Jack did in the late ’60s for the personal sketchbook of Marv Wolfman, around the time the future scripter of Tomb of Dracula and The New Teen Titans was turning pro. Joe drew The Fly, while Jack depicted Fighting American. But the team’s premier and most enduring creation will always be Captain America, as per this splash from the one “Cap” story not reprinted in the Marvel hardcovers—because it originally appeared in All Winners Comics #1 (Summer 1941). But it was featured in the 1999 trade paperback The Golden Age of Marvel, Volume 2. Photo courtesy of Joe and Jim Simon. [Art spots ©2004 Joe Simon and the Estate of Jack Kirby, respectively; The Fly TM & ©2004 Joe Simon; Fighting American TM & ©2004 Joe Simon and The Estate of Jack Kirby.]

Harvey & precursors: All-New Comics (w/a) 1946; Black Cat (cover) (a) (dates?); Boy Explorers (w/a) 1946; Boys’ Ranch (w/a) 1950–51; Champ Comics (cover) (a) 1942; covers (a) 1942–53; Danny Dixon, Cadet (w) 1946; Davy Crockett (w) (dates?); The Demon (w) 1946; Dick Tracy (covers) (a) 1950–53; Duke of Broadway (w/a) 1947 (Simon solo); Green Hornet (cover) (a) (dates?); Harvey Hits (cover) (a); Humphrey (cover) (a); Jim Bowie (w) (dates?); Joe Palooka (w/a) 1946; Joe Palooka (covers) (a) 1950–53; Kid Adonis (w/a) 1946; The Phantom (cover) (a) 1950–53; Speed Comics (cover) (a) (dates?); Stuntman (w/a) 1946, 1948; Terry and the Pirates (w/a) 1947; Vagabond Prince (w/a) c. 1946–47 (solo Simon); Weaver (w) 1966 Hillman Periodicals: covers (i) 1947–48; crime stories (w/a) 1947; Flying Fool (w/a) 1947; My Date (w/a) 1947–48; Sunny Daye (i) 1947; Swifty Chase (i) 1947 I.W./Super Comics: covers (a) 1960s Lev Gleason & precursors: covers (a) 1940; Silver Streak (w/a) 1940-41 (solo Simon); Solar Patrol (w/a) 1940 Mainline Comics: Bulls-Eye (w/a) 1954-55; Foxhole (w/a) 1954-55; In

Love (w/i) 1954; (a) 1955; Police Trap (w/a) 1954-55 Marvel/Timely: The Angel (a) 1940; Black Marvel (w/a) 1941; Captain America (w/a) 1941–42; Captain Daring (w/a) 1941; covers (a) 1940–41; Electro (w/a) 1940–41; Fiery Mask (w/a) 1940; Hurricane (w/a) 1941; Marvel Boy (w/a) 1940; Mercury (a) 1940; Phantom Bullet (w/a) 1940 (Simon solo); Trojak (a) 1940; The Vision (w/a) 1940–41 Novelty/Curtis: Blue Bolt (w/a) 1940–41; T-Men (a) 1941 Work Featured in Reprint Collections: The Great Comic Book Heroes (Dial Press, 1965); America at War: The Best of DC War Comics (Simon & Schuster/Fireside, 1979); Real Love: The Best of Simon and Kirby Romance (Eclipse Enterprises, 1988); Fighting American (Marvel Entertainment Group, 1989); The Greatest Golden Age Stories Ever Told (DC Comics Inc., 1990); The Kid Cowboys of Boys’ Ranch (Marvel Entertainment Group, 1991; All Star Comics Archives, Vol. 3–5 (DC Comics, 1997, 1998, 1999)

I Remember Weird Mysteries by Jim Simon [EDITOR’S NOTE: In Alter Ego #31-32, Michael T. Gilbert, in his “Comic Crypt” feature, examined the obscure 1959 black-&-white horror comics, Weird Mysteries and Eerie Tales. Michael and his correspondent Michael Feldman felt they were probably published or at least co-published by Robert Sproul, the man behind Cracked magazine, the longest-running Mad competitor. Soon after the second part of MTG’s series appeared, I received an e-mail from Jim Simon, son of comics legend Joe Simon and himself the co-author with Joe of the excellent history/memoir The Comic Book Makers, mentioned in conjunction with the two preceding articles. Jim had some additional (and conflicting) information, so Michael and I invited him to “put it in writing” for this issue of A/E. And it turns out that, apparently, it wasn’t Robert Sproul at all! —Roy.]

Jim Simon (in a photo from his and Joe’s The Comic Book Makers) and George Tuska’s cover painting for Weird Mysteries #1-and-only, as it appeared in Alter Ego #31. [Art ©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

I remember Weird Mysteries. Pastime Publications published Weird Mysteries. The mystery men behind Pastime Publications were Joe Simon, who started up the imprint with his friend and newspaper colleague, Martin (Marty) A. Bursten. In addition to Weird Mysteries, they published other magazines together, such as Campus Howl, a black-&-white humor magazine. Pastime Publications was based in the New York area, though the indicium indicates it was published out of Holyoke, Massachusetts, which was the address of their printer, Holyoke Printing. I hung around the office on a couple of occasions (though most of the work was done off-site), and I assure you it wasn’t in Holyoke. Often publishers listed the printer’s address for second-class mailing privileges. Joe and Marty had known each other before Joe’s involvement in comic books, having met in Syracuse, New York, when Joe was cartooning for the Syracuse Journal-American and Marty was a rookie reporter/photographer working the police beat. After each found his way to New York City, they hooked up again and Marty worked on scripts for several of Joe’s projects, including Captain America. Marty later owned an advertising company. Joe handled the art department. Republican Party politicians such as Nelson Rockefeller, Kenneth B.

Keating, and Jacob K. Javits, even Richard Nixon, constituted some of his clients. For those readers interested in the rest of the back-story, you can look it up in the The Comic Book Makers. It is not a major part of the book, but it is important to the little revelations that become known herein. Weird Mysteries came out in 1959—the same year Joe was creating Sick magazine and a couple of new super-hero comics: Adventures of The Fly and The Double Life of Private Strong. Sick magazine was similar to Weird Mysteries in that both were black-&-white publications, magazine rather than comic book size. Joe’s usual suspects—George Tuska, Gray Morrow, Carl Burgos, Bob Powell, Angelo Torres, Al Williamson, among others—contributed to Sick, Adventures of The Fly, and/or The Double Life of Private Strong. The artists provided their talents on Weird Mysteries, as well. And what of Eerie Tales? According to Joe, Eerie Tales most likely evolved out of the second issue of Weird Mysteries. Intended as a follow-up to the first issue of Weird Mysteries, it was about to go to press when, at the last minute, Joe and Marty changed plans and agreed to sell the unpublished pages to

I Remember Weird Mysteries

an unknown company represented by Arthur Weiss, a comic book engraving salesman. Weiss was working for Koppel Photoengraving of Connecticut at the time, but it is not known if Koppel had been involved with Eerie Tales. “We dumped the weird genre because we were publishing political publications, and the political guys felt our being involved with comic book horror stuff might turn out to be an embarrassment,” explained Joe as to why Pastime got out of the horror field. On a personal note: while I was at a loss about Eerie Tales, I was blown away by Weird Mysteries and its horrific wackiness. And it was graced with a wonderfully painted cover which reminded me of a scene from the movie The Phantom of the Opera that had scared the heck out of me when I first viewed it. The woman doing the revealing wasn’t too shabby, either. I tacked a couple of the Weird Mysteries art boards on the wall above my bed. They remained there only a couple of weeks before the paste-on type dried and started dropping, piece by piece, the effect a little too much like the atrophied limbs of a rotting corpse or two in one of the stories. (In those days, type was composed via hot metal typesetting machines, after which proofs were made and then pasted on the art boards.) I had the gift of over-imagination. If those boards had been hand-lettered as in traditional comic books, I probably would have slept a whole lot better those nights. That is, unless the hand-lettering began to fall!

As Jim relates, at about the time in 1959 that Simon & Kirby were preparing The Adventures of The Fly and The Double Life of Private Strong for the Archie people, Joe Simon was also getting Sick—Sick magazine, that is, which Joe and Jim say was for some time Mad’s best-selling competitor, ahead of Cracked. One of the oddest things Joe ever did was to utilize the key Simon & Kirby transformation panel from 1954’s Fighting American #1 into the cover of Sick #42 (Feb. 1966)! Jim says: “I was working with Joe in his studio at home when he was doing Sick. Kicking around ideas for a cover, I thought it would be funny to put the brain of Sick’s mascot Huckleberry Fink in the body of a superhero. Joe had another take on the concept—to put the super-hero’s brain in Fink’s body!—and immediately knew what great artwork would make it special.” Thanks to Joe and Jim for the scan. [Sick, Fly, & Lancelot Strong art ©2004 Joe Simon; Fighting American TM & ©2004 Joe Simon & the Estate of Jack Kirby; The Shield TM & ©2004 Archie Comic Publications.]

A few interesting side items: On the Weird Mysteries cover as it is reproduced in Alter Ego #32 (Jan. 2004), the name of the distributor appears on the left top area— “DC”—but it was not DC Comics, as some collectors might assume. It reads “DC” because its initial letter, “P,” got cut off on the reproduction. The actual cover reads “PDC,” the magazine’s distributor (Publishers Distributing Corp.). And I can vouch for the fact that my uncle, Jack Oleck, wrote some of the stories. I remember Oleck sitting around Joe’s home with the typed script. Oh, and Stanley Morse’s accounting and tax preparation clients included Archie and Crestwood, but not Harvey, as stated in the Comic Crypt pieces.

Jim Simon

Weird Mysteries’ host, Morgue’n, was a takeoff on Zacherley, a popular tongue-in-cheek horror personality of the day, or more accurately of the night. Zacherley hosted live TV shows, first in Philadelphia, and later in 1959 he hosted a New York TV show on Channel 7 before moving onto Channel 9. The shows televised reruns of original horror movies, especially those that involved Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolfman, and other creatures of the night. If you remember his television shows, you will notice the resemblance to the fellow on that Weird Mysteries cover, which was a beautiful oil painting by the great George Tuska.

This Zacherley comic book, starring the legendary TV horror host and published by Chanting Monks, went on sale in April. Special thanks to Joe Monks and artist Basil Gorgos for this scan of the cover. See website <www.chantingmonk.com> [Comic cover ©2004 Chanting Monks.]

I am glad to report that Zacherley is alive and well in New York City. I had an interesting telephone conversation with him while researching this article. He remembers James Warren’s monster publications, though not the titles or any specifics. He also mentioned that his parents didn’t permit him to read comics when he was a boy, which I found strange since the comic book field as we know it, beginning with “Superman,” was not in existence until he was probably in his twenties. When I asked him what he had thought about Weird Mysteries and Eerie Tales, he told me he had no idea those magazines were even around in 1959.

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“I Think I Was Basically Lucky!” ELMER WEXLER Talks about His Time in Comic Books Interview Conducted & Transcribed by Jim Amash Elmer “Red” Wexler, circa 1960s— and two samples of his comic art work. Wexler is credited with drawing this cover for Exciting Comics #9 (May 1941), which featured the debut of The Black Terror—while the panel from the Vic Jordan newspaper strip was also printed in 1941. [Black Terror & Vic Jordan ©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

[INTERVIEWER’S INTRO: Elmer “Red” Wexler had an artistic talent that was the envy of his peers. Though he made his mark in comic strips and the advertising world, Wexler spent some time in the comic book field, as well. His brief stay therein was fruitful, so I couldn’t miss the opportunity to talk with him about it. The fact that his comic book work is fondly remembered by so many who have seen it (more so than by Red himself) leaves me wondering what Wexler might have accomplished in comic books had he remained in it. In the meantime, here’s a glance at the man and his work. —Jim.] ELMER WEXLER: How are we going to do this interview?

I was very lucky in that I was knowledgeable about drawing, and I was offered a free night class. The art director was the head of Street & Smith magazines, which were popular at that time. They published The Shadow, Black Mask... you name it. The only students who were allowed to take this class were those the director thought would make it. I started illustrating for Street & Smith even before I graduated. Every year, the school had an art exhibit and my stuff won, so I got a scholarship. On top of that, I was earning money from Street & Smith. JA: Who did you go to school with that we would know today? Was Bob Powell there?

JIM AMASH: Well, you say the secret word and the duck will give you $50. [laughs] But we can start with where and when were you born.

WEXLER: Yeah. How’d you know about Bob Powell? He came out of Buffalo.

WEXLER: [laughs] Okay. I was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, August 14, 1918. I went to Pratt Institute and graduated in 1938. It was a three-year course. The first year was general courses: we studied illustration, advertising layout, copywriting, and architecture. We also got some engineering, although we were in the school of illustration. The second year, we had to make a decision about what we were going to specialize in. I was interested in illustration.

WEXLER: Chuck and I were in the same rooming house. He was across the hall from me. Chuck was a nice guy and we went out to eat a few times, along with my roommate. The guy who roomed with me was studying decorating and became one of the world’s greatest decorators. His name was originally Goldenberg, and he changed his name to Yale Borge [pronounced “Burg”]. He chose Yale because he came from New

JA: Chuck Cuidera told me that Powell went there when he did.

“I Think I Was Basically Lucky!”

Haven, and Borge because it was short for Goldenberg. We had a good group of artists there. JA: Was Bob Powell going under that name then, or was he using his real name? WEXLER: Bob Powell was not his real name. His name was Stanley Pulowski, but as soon as he got to Pratt, he changed his name. A lot of

immigrants’ children went to the school. My father came from Lithuania and my mother came from Poland. They got married when they met in the United States. That was another case of when immigrants merged. [laughs] JA: How did you manage to develop so quickly as an artist? WEXLER: I think I was basically lucky! I was a pretty damn good artist

Two 1940 MLJ pages with (signed) art by Wexler. “Hercules” appeared in Blue Ribbon Comics #4-8 (June 1940 to January 1941); “Zambini the Miracle Man” ran in Zip Comics #1-35 and lasted from February 1940 through March 1943. [©2004 Archie Comic Publications.]

Elmer Wexler WEXLER: I was illustrating for pulp magazines when I graduated: Street & Smith, Popular, and Standard. They were the biggest pulp publishers at the time, and I worked for them all. A year after I got out of Pratt, the bottom fell out of the pulp business because the war started in Europe. Comic books came in to fill the void and I switched to comics. JA: Did you do the Shadow or Doc Savage pulps? WEXLER: Oh, yes. They were the most popular books in those days. I also worked with the Hollywood studios, doing black-&-white ads for newspapers, so I was doing art for the top movies of the day. I got a very good offer from Warner Bros. to work on their staff, but I felt if I did that, I wouldn’t see where the best opportunities were. In those days, we were getting $10-15 an illustration for the pulps. When I worked for the studios, I was charging the same, and that wasn’t making me wealthy by any means. I had moved to New York City by then and needed to do better. Borge and I and two other friends were renting a house when I got a call from P.M. magazine, which was a liberal newspaper. A lady there had seen my work in comic books and wanted to know if I’d try my hand at comic strips. I asked who’d do the writing, and she got a guy by the name of Kermit Jaedeker and someone else. The strip was called Vic Jordan and it was fun to do. As for comics, I don’t remember where I started, but I think it was for Donenfeld’s group [National Periodical Publications, better known today as DC Comics. —Jim.]. JA: Do you remember working for Standard Comics? They were also known as Nedor. I have you listed as doing “Black Terror,” “Fighting Yank,” “Lone Eagle,” and “Ted Crane,” among others.

WEXLER: I’m not sure what I did for them. I don’t think I did “The Fighting Yank,” though. And I don’t recall signing anything for them, either. I do remember doing “Miss America” for Quality, but nothing else.

in high school, and my art teacher talked me into going to Pratt. He said that was where I belonged and that I’d have a good career, and he was right. Then, I was lucky enough to win art shows and got free tuition. Pratt was a nice place to be in those days. It was low key, and we had a pretty good basketball team. I sat on the bench most of the time because I wasn’t tall enough. The school had several teams within itself, so I joined the artists’ team and we did pretty well. Bob Powell was on that team and he was a pretty good player, but not as good as I was. [laughs] JA: How did you get from Pratt to comic books?

Rusty and Dusty was a commercial “comic strip” drawn by Wexler through Johnstone & Cushing Art Service for insertion into Sunday color comics sections in newspapers, pushing Vaseline Hair Tonic. A third tier below, in non-comics format, often displayed the product and a bit of hard-sell copy. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

“I Think I Was Basically Lucky!”

21 wide open if you go with them.” Ernie said, “They’ll take care of me. I’ve been through things like this before.” I said, “Just remember that I told you so.” The next morning, my C.O. came in and asked where was Ernie’s sea bag. I asked what happened and he said, “Ernie got killed this morning when he went in with that Army group. I’m returning his stuff to stateside.” I said, “Gee, I was just sitting here in this spot doing a sketch of him when I told him not to go.”

Regrettably, we couldn’t locate the drawing Elmer Wexler did of Ernie Pyle in May 1945, shortly before he was killed by a Japanese machine gun on the Pacific island of Ie Shima. Above is a photo of Pyle (third from left), who was World War II’s most celebrated print reporter, which appeared in Yank: The Army Weekly, as he shares a cigarette with the G.I.s who called him “Ernie.” After he was shot, the rough draft of his next newspaper column was found on his body. It dealt with the “dead men… by the multiple thousands” on both the Allied and Axis sides that he had seen in his more than four years of war reporting, and how sickened he was by all the killing. [Photo ©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

My C.O. said, “You did a sketch of him last night? Where’s the sketch?” So I gave him the sketch, and it went out to all the news services and covered the world. And I don’t even have a copy of it to this day! I saved things, but not that. It was a nice pencil sketch of his face, well-lit because he was working under a lantern at the time I drew it. After I got out of the service, I went to work in advertising and illustration and left comics behind. I did a lot of work for

JA: You also worked for MLJ on “Hercules” and “Zambini.” WEXLER: Yes, I remember those. I don’t remember anything about the company, though. I don’t really remember who I worked for at Donenfeld’s, either. JA: Do the names Vin Sullivan or Whitney Ellsworth sound familiar to you? They were the editors there in the late 1930s. WEXLER: Their names sound familiar to me, but with my 85-year-old mind, things don’t come to mind as well as they used to. I didn’t work there too long, because I started making a lot of money with Vic Jordan. But that didn’t last because of the Second World War. At one point in the Marines, I was a Master Technical Sergeant in Okinawa. I was given charge of all the civilian correspondents and took care of them so they wouldn’t get killed. We were in a town called Sobe, which we’d taken over from the Japanese. Among the correspondents was Ernie Pyle. He had come from Europe, where he had become well known. Ernie was older than the rest of us—a nice, quiet guy—and I gave him a bedroom to sleep in. It was only a short while after that, and we were sitting there. He was typing out his copy for the day under the light of a Coleman lantern because we didn’t have electricity. I was sketching him, and he was telling me that he wasn’t going to be with us the next day, because he was going with an old Army group to take over one of the little islands off the coast of Okinawa. I said to him, “What do you mean ‘old Army group’? There’s no such thing. Maybe you know some of the guys there, but most of them are recruits and they don’t know anything about taking an island. You’re leaving yourself

Wexler writes that this art is from “an envelope of cartoons I originated way back in the ’60s (I think)! I was doing some promotions for the American Newspaper Service, an organization which sold ad space to national product advertisers in small town newspapers. Since the ANS didn’t seem to be able to promote much business, I originated this cartoon service [“American Feature Service”] for local papers to help sell local ads to local businesses. I can’t say that I was successful, since I had other irons in the fire at the same time, namely a Hometown magazine for local papers which would include national advertising. McGrawHill was an interested backer until Mr. McGraw, Senior, died.” The service included one continuing character, “Old Doc Gaffer.” [©2004 Elmer Wexler.]

Elmer Wexler

[commercial art service] Johnstone and Cushing, where I got know Gill Fox and Lou Fine. JA: What do you remember about Lou Fine? WEXLER: Just that he was a damn good artist and a nice, quiet guy. I worked with a lot of great artists at Johnstone and Cushing. Dik Browne and I were very good friends. Joe Maneely worked there, too. He used to come in from Connecticut, late 1940s and early 1950s, and was one of the more successful artists. I started my own studio after Johnstone and

Cushing. A number of guys worked there, including Howard Nostrand. Howard was a very good-looking guy and he had a lot of girlfriends. When I’d leave at the end of the day, his girlfriends were soldiering in. [laughs] He used to sleep in the place. He had so many girlfriends that he never went home. Comic books were really a small part of my life, but it helped pay the bills for a little while.

ELMER WEXLER Checklist [NOTE: Our thanks once again to Alter Ego founder Jerry G. Bails for providing information from the online Who’s Who in 20th Century American Comic Books, which can be accessed at www.nostromo.no/whoswho/. The following is an abridged version of the Who’s Who listing. The names of comic book characters below are generally neither italicized nor put in quotation marks, because some features appeared both in their own titles and in anthologies. Key: (a) = full art.] Full Name: Elmer Wexler (b. 1918) – artist Nicknames: El, Wex Education: Pratt Institute Member: National Cartoonists Society Illustrations: newspapers Magazine Illustrations: Life, et al. Commercial Art: advertising and sales promotion; Howard Nostrand Studio – c. 1959; Johnstone and Cushing – mid-1950s

Syndicated Credits: Jon Jason (daily) (a) 1941 and 1946-47; Vic Jordan (a) 1941-42 COMIC BOOK CREDITS (Mainstream U.S. Publishers) Archie/MLJ: Hercules (a) 1940; West Pointer (a) 1940; Zambini (a) 1940 Better/Pines/Standard/Nedor: Black Terror (a) 1941-42; covers (a) 1941-42; Fighting Yank (a?) 1941-42; The Ghost (a) 1940-41; Lone Eagle (a) 1940-42; Ted Crane (a) 1942 DC/National & Related: specifics unknown (a) c. 1938-39 Quality: Miss America (a) 1941

(Left:) Quality Comics' “Miss America” (no relation to the later Timely heroine of that name) appeared in Military Comics #1-7. This page, scanned for us by Bob Bailey, is from issue #2 (Sept. 1941), the last of Wexler's work for the series, and demonstrates her transmuting powers. In his stories, she wore a red dress; she didn't don the red-white-and-blue costume seen in late-1980s All-Star Squadron and Secret Origins until an issue or two later. (Above:) Wexler also drew this Jon Jason strip, done in 1946. [Miss America TM & ©2004 DC Comics; Jon Jason art ©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

In Memoriam

George Woodbridge

(1930–2004)

Timely and Mad Artist Extraordinaire by Dr. Michael J. Vassallo I’m sad to report that on Tuesday, January 20th, longtime Mad magazine artist George Woodbridge passed away from emphysema at the age of 73 in Staten Island, New York. A lifelong New York resident, he was born in Flushing, Queens, NY, in 1930 and attended the School of Visual Arts in New York, where he became friends with future comic book greats Frank Frazetta, Angelo Torres, and Al Williamson, a trio dubbed “The Fleagle Gang.” Breaking into commercial comic books in 1954, Woodbridge drew The Masked Ranger for Premiere Magazines in 1954-55, and also contributed to that company’s Horror from the Tomb, Mysterious Stories, and Police against Crime in the same period.

featuring an hysterically complicated game utilizing equipment as diverse as polo helmets and swimming flippers. Woodbridge’s work also appeared in numerous Mad paperback compilations. Concurrent with his work at Mad, the artist expanded on his lifelong interest in military history by illustrating such tomes as the three-volume American Military Equipage, 1851–1872. He also did hardcover book illustrations, including for titles in the Bookshelf for Boys and Girls series. George Woodbridge is survived by his wife Deborah and by his first wife Ines, as well as by three children from his first marriage.

[NOTE: For those interested in Woodbridge’s Timely/Atlas war, western, and mystery art, it appeared in the following issues: Adventure into Mystery #8 (July 1957); Annie Oakley Western Tales #8 (Dec. 1955); Astonishing #63 (Aug. 1957); Battle #52 (May 1957) & #55 (Dec. 1957); Battle Action #28 (April 1957) & #30 (Aug. 1957); Battlefront #45 & #46 (March & April 1957); Commando Adventures #2 (Aug. 1957); G.I. Tales #6 (July 1957); Gunsmoke Western #48 (Sept. 1958); Journey into George Woodbridge (top left) inserted President Mystery #47 (July 1957); Kid Colt Outlaw #81 (Nov. Nixon into Grant Wood’s “American Gothic” for 1958); Navy Combat #14 (Aug. 1957); Outlaw Kid #8 a 1970s issue of Mad. Photo courtesy of (Nov. 1955); Rawhide Kid #26 (Feb. 1962); Strange Stories Doc Vassallo. [©2004 E.C. Publications, Inc.] of Suspense #15 (June 1957); Strange Tales #59 & #60 (July & Dec. 1957); Six-Gun Western #4 (July 1957); In late 1955 Woodbridge began and Western Gunfighters #27 (Aug. 1957). Special thanks to freelancing for Timely/Atlas. He drew numerous stories in mystery titles Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., for some information in this tribute.] and westerns, as detailed in the Checklist below. But it was in the Atlas war titles that he would shine the brightest. Utilizing a cross-hatched and detailed inking style, Woodbridge illustrated roughly a dozen super post-Comics Code war stories with historically accurate details. These tales allowed the artist to bring his love of military history to the drawing board, and the results are finelyrendered war vignettes a step above the usual Atlas post-Code war entries.

After Atlas imploded in early 1957, Woodbridge began to branch out to Gilberton on Classics Illustrated (The First Men in the Moon and With Fire and Sword) and The World around Us in 1958–59, with Feature/Crestwood on Black Magic in 1960, and on Lassie for Western (Dell). It was for his contributions to Mad, however, that George Woodbridge will be most remembered. In 1957 he began an almost 40-year run at the magazine of social satire on the urging of his friend, associate editor Nick Meglin. Not really a cartoonist, Woodbridge’s work at Mad utilized a realistic style which served him well on humorous features sporting everyday people. One Mad feature with which he is particularly identified is the 1965 “43-Man Squamish,”

In Memoriam

Don Lawrence (1928-2003)

A British Legend by Alan R. Woollcombe Don Lawrence, best-selling British adventure strip artist who came to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s, died in Jevington, Sussex, England, at the age of 75 on December 29, 2003. Although he drew for most of the British anthology comics of that era, his principal claim to fame rests on two long-running science-fiction series: The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire in the UK and Storm in the Netherlands. Born and raised in London, Donald Southam Lawrence passed through private schooling and National Service (the British equivalent of the draft) before discovering his true metier while studying art at Borough Polytechnic. A chance encounter with a letterer led him to consider drawing comics as a career, and a sample Marvelman page won him a job in 1954 with Mick Anglo, whose studio supplied British publishers with pre-packaged stories. Over the next four years, he became the principal artist (and occasional writer) on Marvelman, as well as on such western series as Davy Crockett, Wyatt Earp, and Daniel Boone. Turning freelance in 1957, Lawrence turned his hand to historical sagas in various genres: westerns (“Wells Fargo” for Zip and Swift and “Billy the Kid” for Sun and Lion), Roman (“Olac the Gladiator” in Tiger), Viking (“Karl the Viking” in Lion) and Saxon (“Maroc the Mighty” for Lion). British comics at the time contained a mixture of black-&-white and color pages, and Lawrence’s strips were confined to the cheaper, monochrome section; but the chance to paint a story in color for an annual led to the full-color “Herod the Great” strip for the

Bible Stories educational weekly in 1964. The following year came his big break: a commission to illustrate the lead strip in a new comic Ranger. The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire was Don Lawrence—and art from the 1987 hardcover the brainchild of The Trigan Empire, published by Chartwell scriptwriter Mike Books, Inc., New Jersey, under license from IPC. Sadly, the volume contained no credits Butterworth, who threw for Lawrence or for writer Mike Butterworth. together elements of the Thanks to Ger Apeldoorn and to Rob Roman Empire, von Bavel & Meerten Welleman & barbarians, monsters, the Don Lawrence Collection (e-mail = and modern technology collection@donlawrence.ne) for the photo. to come up with a science fiction tour de force. Combined with Lawrence’s stunning double-page tableaux, the series proved a huge hit, being reprinted right across Europe and running for seventeen years (although Ranger itself barely lasted nine months). Yet, despite being publisher IPC’s top-selling artist for several years, Lawrence never saw any extra money in his pay packet and finally resigned in 1976. That very day he was offered a job by a Dutch publishing house, Oberon, on their new weekly title Eppo. After one failed attempt, Lawrence and editor Martin Lodewijk fashioned a Flash Gordon-like character called Storm who became an even bigger success than The Trigan Empire, with Europe-wide sales of over two million albums. Sadly, a botched eye operation in 1995 forced Lawrence to stop painting. Although recognition largely eluded him in the UK, he was feted throughout the rest of Europe, winning numerous accolades including—uniquely—a Dutch knighthood. Much of his work has been reprinted many times over (though rarely in English); and his Dutch fan club, the Don Lawrence Collection [www.donlawrence.nl], has recently announced plans to publish his entire Trigan and Storm oeuvre in English-language hardback editions, starting later this year. They also published a still-available tribute to him in 1998, called Pas 70. Lawrence was married to Julia Wilson from 1954–78, and married Elizabeth Clunies-Ross in 1979. He is survived by his wife, his brother, his sister, five of his children, and his step-son. [Alan R. Woollcombe has been a comics journalist and historian since 1988, and has also written Rupert Bear. He is currently researching a book on artist Frank Bellamy.]

In Memoriam

Bob Deschamps (1928-2004)

“There’s Nothing Like Being in the Sky!” by Jim Amash I had just finished interviewing Dave Gantz about his art career, especially his tenure at Timely Comics, when he dropped a bomb on me: “You know who you ought to talk to? Bob Deschamps. Bob worked on staff at Timely in the 1940s as an inker and could tell you a lot of stuff. He’s a really good guy and was a member of the Berndt Toast gang before he moved out to California. I’m sure he’d be happy to talk to you.” Because Dave and I had discussed a number of Timely staffers, I was surprised he hadn’t mentioned this Deschamps guy before. Even more surprising to me was the fact that he wasn’t listed in Jerry Bails’ Who’s Who of American Comic Books. Well, there’s nothing more enticing about researching comic book history than finding someone new. I immediately called Bob. Bob was eager to talk, and I was eager to listen. It wasn’t just the wealth of new information he related that made me hang on his every word. Bob was one of the funniest storytellers I’ve ever heard. At one point—after three funny stories in a row—I found myself doubled over with laughter, with tears streaming down my face. I had to cover the mouthpiece. Once I settled down, Bob said, “I like people with a hearty laugh.” I said, “You won’t if I drown your voice out on the tape and you have to repeat all this.” Luckily, we didn’t have to do that. Between laughs, Bob told me about his career. He worked for Timely from 1945 until 1949 or ’50 (he wasn’t sure when he was let go, since Timely disbanded the staff in waves). He worked on Hedy Devine, Mighty Mouse, Millie the Model, Nellie the Nurse, Silly Seal and Ziggy Pig, Georgie, and others, though he couldn’t recall them all. Then he teamed up with Leon Winick and they produced westerns for Toby Press; he also did short stints on the syndicated strip Jeanie and on Archie Comics’ Super Duck. Bob left comics in 1957 to become an editor/artist for Dell Publications’ crossword puzzle books through 1963. He also became an advertising illustrator, and branched out into illustrating books and magazines. Bob drew and painted posters for such films as The Bad News Bears, Around the World in 80 Days, and Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice. He retired in 1998, primarily for health reasons, but continued to think

To accompany his A/E interview, Bob Deschamps sent this 1999 photo to express his love for flying. Though Bob was unable to positively identify stories he’d inked, even when Timely researcher Dr. Michael J. Vassallo sent him hundreds of romance and Georgie pages, Doc provided the splash below (from a story penciled and signed by Dave Berg) from Georgie #31 (June 1951). “Is it Deschamps inking? I don’t know,” says Doc. But he, like Roy and many others, is grateful for Jim Amash’s landmark interviews with artists such as Bob and the late Vince Fago. “Both gave us new names and new insights into the Timely period we’d never have without their recollections. And it’s so important to make sure their work and experiences are recorded and never forgotten.” We heartily concur. [©2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

up ideas for projects he wanted to publish. Bob’s interview was historically important because his colorful stories about the Timely staffers brought them to life in a way no one else had before. Those times and the people he’d shared them with were very special to Bob. His friendship with Dave Gantz lasted for over 50 years, demonstrating great loyalty and comradeship. Roy and I were so excited over this interview that we rushed it into print in Alter Ego #20. Bob was extremely pleased with the issue, and proudly showed it off to his family and friends. He expressed profound thanks, but the true pleasure and honor were ours. I’ll miss Bob. He was funny, witty, charming, sensitive, and full of life—a real artist. He had two other great passions in life: the gracious Annette Cummings (who shared 16 years with Bob), and flying. Bob and Annette were devoted to each other, and though I never met them, I could hear the affection in their voices when they spoke to each other. Annette was strong and caring in the face of Bob’s worsening physical problems. Bob also loved being a pilot. He told me that he felt freedom and relaxation in the skies in a way he never felt on the ground. One of the last times we talked, he said, “If only I could get up in the air and fly again! You just don’t know how it feels to be in the cockpit, looking down at the world below, and forgetting about all your problems. There’s nothing like being in the sky.”

Title Comic Fandom Archive

Fandom Across The Puddle A/E Interviews South African Comics Fan JOHN WRIGHT

Part II by Bill Schelly [NOTE: Last issue we met John Wright— “the only active comics fan in the 1960s who lived in South Africa.” John explained how he had become interested in the American comics that made their way to his homeland during and after World War II, plus a few South African reprints, then skipped briefly ahead to touch on the writing and selling of his first novel, Suddenly You’re Dead. At the end of Part One, we returned to the early 1960s, as John related that two of the first and most important connections he made in fandom were Jerry G. Bails (founder of Alter Ego in 1961 and of other fandom magazines and traditions) and Australian fellow fan John Ryan. At this point, we take up discussion of Wright’s fanzine, The Komix.]

BILL SCHELLY: How did your fanzine The Komix come about, and how did you sell it in America, from a practical standpoint? JOHN WRIGHT: Without a doubt, right after seeing that first issue of Alter-Ego and discovering by what means it had been printed. At the organization where I was employed, there was a Ditto duplicator to which I’d given scant attention. It was simply a machine used for printing inter-office memos. But now I took a closer look, learned how it worked, and in the stationery room found not only the box of masters and purple carbons, but also two sample sheets of red carbons, and one of green. A night or so later, I drew the cover of The Komix #1, purely as an experiment to see how it would print. The following Saturday morning, after the rest of the skeleton crew had gone home, I cranked out the first copy. Apparently I liked the result, because I must have run off about 150 or 200 copies. Now I had a cover that seemed to ask for a story. From then on it just grew, item by item, until finally a back page was printed. The Komix #2 boasted a cover by American fan (and one-time Alter Ego editor/publisher) Ronn Foss, based on a sketch by John. It also introduced John’s heroes Union Jack and The Black Panther. Despite there being an earlier British general-comics magazine titled Union Jack, A/E’s editor freely admits it was John’s use of that name for a character that led him, in 1976, to design a quite different Union Jack for his Invaders comic at Marvel. John’s Black Panther predates Marvel’s by a few years, too, though it’s not likely Jack Kirby or Stan Lee ever saw or heard of the South African’s creation. Hmmm… come to think of it, John may have put an “x” at the end of his “Komix” before anybody in the US underground coined the word “comix,” as well! [©2004 John Wright.]

John Wright carried contributions from a number of US fans. Who were some of your original international correspondents? WRIGHT: The first issue contains a few different names, but they’re all pseudonyms. For the second issue, Ronn Foss provided a cover based upon a rough sketch I’d sent him, and a few other illos came from Mike Vosburg, Rick Durell, Larry Kopf, and Biljo White. Once again, out of necessity, I used a bunch of pen names. Ronn, by the way, was also kind enough to point out that one of my illos in the second issue featured a very crosseyed character. And he was right.

Ronn Foss sent this illustrated letter to John Wright on July 22, 1962. It features Ronn’s trademark self-portraitwith-pipe and his take on John’s White Dragon, as well as Foss’ own still-earlier Black Panther. Ronn mentions that Mike Vosburg, now a veteran comics pro, had created his Black Panther in 1961. There must’ve been something in the air! Incidentally, Ronn’s White Dragon was mostly in red and white, while his “Black” Panther wore blue and red. [©2004 the Estate of Ronn Foss.]

In between, I met the sales representative of the company supplying stationary for the Ditto machine. Would you believe, an American? He gave me a batch of sample carbons, colors that never sold—blue, black, green, and yellow. Copies of The Komix were sent to a few fanzine editors—dear Biljo White, Parley Holman, and possibly one or three others. They were good enough to review and advertise it in their publications. The revenue derived from sales was used to buy new comics, and an occasional item from the Golden Age. Very soon afterward, Jerry Bails offered his much-appreciated services. BS: What were the issues that you as a fan editor faced, from a geographical stand point? WRIGHT: The biggest problem was access to research material. The hundreds of Golden Age issues I’d once owned were history. I didn’t know anyone else with a large collection of old comics. To a large extent I had to rely upon memory. Which explains the fiction content in The Komix. I needed something to fill the pages. Postage wasn’t a major problem, though an airmail letter took about two weeks to reach the US, and surface mail four to five weeks. Which, believe it or not, is much faster than today’s surface mail, which can take anything from eight to twelve weeks. BS: I notice that The Komix

BS: Your original super-hero The White Dragon eventually appeared in StarStudded Comics around 1965. Was this a character you invented totally on your own, or did the input from Ronn Foss help shape him?

WRIGHT: I’m afraid I have to take the rap for everything, including all the characters. As mentioned earlier, The White Dragon was created for no other reason than to have something by which to test the office duplicator. The colors and design of his outfit were determined only by the fact that I had a couple of sheets of red carbon. Ronn did provide me with an illustration, but by then the first story had been run through the old Ditto machine. I believe I still have his illo somewhere. And I did use it—by tracing the basic lines and fitting it into Union Jack’s uniform.

BS: Could you give me a description of The White Dragon, and a rundown of the character’s publishing history? WRIGHT: I no longer have a copy of Komix #1, but as I recall, he was a character stranded in China during WWII... helped by priests who regarded him as part of a prophecy being fulfilled... presented him with the outfit, the cape of Con-Dor which gave him the power of flight... taught him Mind Fire. He appeared only twice, in The Komix, and in the story I wrote for Howard Keltner, and for which Buddy Saunders provided the type of illustration I can but wish I were capable of producing. I saw ads announcing the reprinting of the origin story in a zine called Bat-Wing, but was never sent a copy. I believe “Union Jack” was also to be reprinted in a zine called Royal, for which Ronn Foss had illoed a cover. But it was the same story there.

(Left:) John once received a birthday card from Mart Bailey, the artist of “The Face” from Columbia’s Big Shot Comics. Inside, the card was signed by various names, including “Tony Trent”— The Face’s secret identity. (Above:) A 1943 “Face” panel, as reprinted in Jerry Bails & Hames Ware’s 1970s Who’s Who of American Comic Books. [The Face TM & ©2004 the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

At one stage I was working on a project that would have used The White Dragon and The Black Panther in booklets to be given away by an ice cream company. But I was then often working eleven hours a day, traveling all over the country on business trips, often away from home from Monday to

Comic Fandom Archive Friday, and so it bogged down. BS: You were known as one of the better writers of prose fiction in comicdom. Were you able to turn that into a writing career?

29 being given a break by the best producers in the business, and churned out about 200 scripts. Sadly, that sort of radio is no more. BS: You offered to see about selling some cartoons by Grass Green in local publications. Did you have any luck?

WRIGHT: Yes, gratefully. It’s never WRIGHT: No. made me rich, but it’s provided pretty Nor in the well. It took me on some great rides, United and brought me into contact with so Kingdom. At many wonderful people... Joe Simon, that time, in Writing novels and radio must indeed have been as lucrative as Mart Bailey (of “The Face”), Mickey both countries, John says—hence this photo of John and wife Cory “on one of our Spillane, Gene Autry, Sax Rohmer, Ray the type of spot first sea trips,” aboard the R.M.S. Windsor Castle, flanked by two Whitley (Western actor, singer, and cartoons used by magazines and of his pseudonymous westerns. John sure had a knack for naming western towns, huh? [©2004 the respective copyright holders.] songwriter) and his entire family, and newspapers were—well, rather staid. Sir John Kennedy (one-time Governor Grass’ work, I truly believe, was too General of Southern Rhodesia). Each advanced, too slick for them. I did contributed something special to my life. I’ve indeed been fortunate. however write a book called Big Profits from Simple Cartoons. I wish I Along the way I found that most people of real stature, of real achievement, were often the most down-to-earth. Most gratifying was to find that, without exception, my boyhood heroes—some named above—turned out to be even better than the mental images I’d carried around for so long. How fortunate can one get? BS: Relatively few of the writers in fandom’s original heyday went on to successful writing careers. Steven King did, but he wasn’t really involved in comics fandom, though he had an early story in a fanzine. WRIGHT: I’ve been freelancing for the past thirty years, on the odd occasion leaving writing to serve as a trouble-shooter to small businesses, implementing systems, training sales staff—trying to reverse downward trends. The Bart Condor (PI) series was written in what I hoped might be the Spillane style, but probably was miles from it. I believe I explained how Suddenly You’re Dead came to be written. In haste, and the hope of getting rid of a mortgage. The character’s name, by the way, was borrowed from two comic book characters: Bart Hill (the original Daredevil) and The Black Condor. These stories are set in New York, and like most of what I’ve written, are in the American idiom. There are six novels in this series, all written under the pseudonym Wade Wright. I preferred working on the Paul Cameron (PI) series, possibly because I was a lot more comfortable doing so. These books take place in southern California. There are four of these, with a fifth just completed but not yet in print. The first was Shadows Don’t Bleed. Both the Condor and Cameron series were published by Robert Hale, Ltd., London. Over time, I got turned off by most of the current crime fiction. While no one has ever accused me of being a prude, I’ve never been able to appreciate the need for graphic sex, foul language, and the brutalism (as opposed to violence) that appears in so much of today’s crime fiction. So I switched to westerns, which I enjoyed and which have proved pretty lucrative. I’ve written a total of eight western novels, all under the pseudonym Ray Nolan, also published by Robert Hale, Ltd. Writing for radio was fun. And lucrative. I had the good fortune of

John intended to retitle The Komix as Ace High Fantasy for its third issue— what he calls “the zine that never was.” It was to feature a “revamped” version of his cover hero Zephyr. [©2004 John Wright.]

John Wright which I think I’d planned to retitle Ace High Fantasy. It never happened, and eventually all the equipment was given to the Salvation Army. BS: If you want to purchase comic books nowadays, are there comics specialty stores in your country, as there are in the US?

had been able to help Grass reap some of those profits. BS: Do you have anything else to add about your working relationship with Grass? WRIGHT: Actually, I’ve never thought of it as such. I’ve been blessed by the people who have touched my life, and Grass was certainly one of them. His letters were always a delight, frequently littered with tiny drawings in order to emphasize or better explain something. He was one of many I’d dearly have loved to know at closer range. In addition to being a fine humorist and artist, I recall that he was also an accomplished guitarist and tap-dancer. BS: What were your favorites among the American fanzines? WRIGHT: Like most things I regard as favorites, my list runs in a horizontal line. But if forced to name three I’d have to say Alter Ego, Komix Illustrated, and Comic Art. But I liked and enjoyed all I was privileged to secure. Each had something special to offer. Sure, some were better than others, but each had its own special character. Each publisher, I’m sure, put in his all. BS: Did you phase out your contacts with American comics fandom over time? What about differences in currency? WRIGHT: I never really thought about phasing out. But working conditions, as I’ve mentioned, were cutting into my time. I was then holding down the post of general sales manager for a large organization involved in the marketing of everything from earth-moving plant, to electrical switchgear, to industrial chemicals, building equipment, and a number of other things. I’d signed a three-book contract. I wound up in hospital, undergoing thyroid surgery, and not long later to have a bullet removed. It was quite a time. But I’d also purchased an electric ink-type duplicator, an electronic and a thermal stencil cutter, with the idea of producing a Komix #3,

Monthly! Edited and published by Robin Snyder

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

WRIGHT: There were a few, but I doubt any still exist. The rotten currency exchange rate pushed the price of books and magazines through the roof. For instance, the last time I picked up a copy of an Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, it was wearing a price sticker of nineteen bucks. And that was over ten years ago. It’s a while since I’ve looked, but when last I did, there were few comics on offer at the major chain stores, and those were priced beyond the reach of the average kid. BS: Has your interest in comics remained constant over the years since 1961, or has it fluctuated, and if so, how? WRIGHT: It’s fluctuated. While my feelings about the pre-1961 editions, and many of a later date, have not changed, I feel hardly anything of the same for current titles. For me, the gustiness, the magic, and the sense of wonder the early books offered have gone thataway. I’ve especially not enjoyed how some of the new kids on the block have taken so many of the creations of the really talented and distorted them, often far beyond recognition. Uh-huh, I know that nothing can stand still, but... BS: Do you receive fan magazines like Alter Ego, or is it just too expensive to subscribe with current postal rates? WRIGHT: On occasion a friend might send over something, but that’s it. Exchange rates and very high postal tariffs have killed all thoughts of purchasing magazines or books from overseas. BS: Looking back, what aspects of comic fandom in the 1960s did you enjoy most? WRIGHT: Most all. But especially the people who were involved. Back then few were thinking of making big bucks from collections. Instead each tried to help the other. Ronn Foss, Grass Green, Raymond Miller, Howard Keltner, Capt. Biljo, and Jeremy A. Barry—none were ever slow in offering a helping hand. Why, there were even guys like Alex Almaraz, God bless him, who sent me dozens of Golden Age titles. We were also pretty naïve about future values, I guess. I recall Roy Thomas offering a copy of the pulp magazine Black Hood Detective for 25¢! BS: Any closing thoughts about comics and comics fandom? WRIGHT: If nothing else, it’s been colorful. And I’ve been so darned fortunate to have been part of it all. Best of all, there’s still a 14-year-old living inside of me. Trouble is, the little jerk too often refuses to recognize the fact that he’s residing in an aging abode. [Bill Schelly’s latest book, Words of Wonder: The Life and Times of Otto Binder, has been getting rave reviews from both fans and professionals. Copies can be purchased by sending $21.00 (price includes postage) in check or money order to: Hamster Press, P.O. Box 27471, Seattle, WA 98165. Our intrepid Associate Editor’s other fine books are displayed on his web site www.billschelly.com, and can be bought on line using PayPal.]

re:

31 Next, here’s a missive from Chet Cox, who runs Alter Ego’s unofficial website at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ alter-ego-fans: Dear Roy—

EDITOR’S NOTE: We can’t seem to win for losing! Our letters section’s been squeezed out of the last two issues, so we intended to “triple up” this time around—but our extensive Canadian comics coverage, added to Joe Simon, Elmer Wexler, and our regular departments, forced us to print only long-delayed comments about A/E #29. Next issue, hopefully, we’ll print art and commentary relating to issues #30–32—and boy, have we got some great stuff! Meanwhile, though it’s still a bit too early to reveal the Big Secret concerning the super-hero named Alter Ego, above is our costumed mascot in a panel from the third issue of his 1986 comic book series. [Art ©2004 Ron Harris; Alter Ego is a trademark of Roy & Dann Thomas.]

As a Classic Comics/Classics Illustrated collector, I thrilled to Pete Von Sholly’s “Classics Not Illustrated.” Pete may want to know that, by the time publisher Al Kanter changed the title to Classics Illustrated, the series was trying to live down its earlier reputation for horror comics (with the notable exception of the original cover to #41). So, though Pete’s painted covers were appropriate for the later (1951+) Classics Illustrated issues, the chance for HPL stories would have been during the early, line-drawn covers for the Classic Comics line. (Trivia note: the first issue with the Classics Illustrated title was #35—drawn by Jack Kirby.) Please let Pete know that Little C’lulu’s actual name is Little C’thululu, and she appeared almost twenty years ago in Capa-alpha [the first comics-related apa-zine, still going strong after forty-plus years]. It was established that her facial tentacles were drawn to resemble the famous Little Lulu “tube” curls. (How often does one get to use the

Now, on to our letters section, starting with an e-mail from artist Terry Austin, who counts among his other accomplishments being the valued (and invaluable) inker on most of the classic issues of the Chris Claremont/John Byrne run on The Uncanny X-Men: Roy— I greatly enjoyed the article on Venus in your Halloween issue (outstanding Everett art!) and wanted to send you copies of this 1997 story from the Marvel Valentine Special #1, which is, as far as I know, the last appearance to date of Venus in comics. Writer Frank Strom apparently did his homework, as he mixed the romance, super-hero, science-fiction, and horror elements mentioned in Trina Robbins’ article to fine effect, in a story that wraps up Venus’ saga with a happy ending. Besides Venus and Whitney Hammond, Frank also managed to mix in several other Atlas and Timely comics notable: Chili Seven and Mr. Hanover (from Millie the Model), Hedy DeVine (Hedy DeVine Comics, Hedy of Hollywood), Cindy Smith (Cindy Comics, Cindy Smith), an unnamed dimwitted blonde (judging by the hairstyle, it’s Irma from My Friend Irma, which was licensed from the inexplicably popular radio/TV show), an unnamed dark-haired woman (any guesses, folks?), and finally, Goom, the Lee/Kirby monster, who finds a mate through Mr. Hanover’s computer dating service in this story (which is odd, since we all remember “Googam, Son of Goom,” which should cause us to wonder what became of the previous Mrs. Goom?!). This job was significant for me personally because it led to a deep friendship with the penciler, Dan DeCarlo, and his wife Josie, that continues to this day. And isn’t it interesting to see Dan draw a woman, namely Venus, in a realistic style? Oh, and thanks for using my Don Newton painting on one of the covers of #28. I’m happy for the chance to remind people how talented Don was! Terry Austin So are we, Terry. Now if only we could locate Don’s son Anthony, who seems to have moved from the Arizona address where we were last in touch with him! Anybody out there got any info?

re: including paperbacks and “men’s-adventure” magazines. He was responsible for the host of delightful “turkeys” published during this period, the Frankenstein and Dracula superheroes, that awful Fantastic Four clone, and my favorite, “Tramp Doctor” in the back of Linda Lark, Nurse. “Tramp Doctor” was the story of an alcoholic surgeon traveling the South Pacific after losing his license; every issue he would shake off the DTs long enough to save someone’s life by doing surgery under the worst possible conditions. (Anyone got some art from this turkey? It all exists, as does most of the Chili-period Dell art.)

term “facial tentacles”?) Meanwhile, Jim Amash was interviewing Bill Fraccio on the opposite side of the magazine—and Bill’s sometime partner, Tony Tallarico, was a prolific Classics artist. Most of his work was for the Classics Illustrated Junior series, but he did three of the regular series and painted at least one cover. Something of a coincidence, I’d say, that these two pieces ended up in the same issue! Chet Cox Thanks for the info, Chet! Here’s a note from collector and A/E benefactor George Hagenauer about the aforementioned Bill Fraccio that’s long enough that it’s darn near an article—and, we think, a very interesting one: Hi Roy: Ernie Schroeder, covered in A/E #29, is one of my favorites (as is Airboy—the one Golden Age comic of which I own a complete set). But the Bill Fraccio interview was a complete surprise. Like you, my first comic book story was illustrated by Bill Fraccio and Tony Tallarico—a Warren job with “Silver Shroud” in the title. I wrote it when Reed Crandall and Steve Ditko were drawing stories for Warren, but it was published after they had left. While Bill and Tony’s style worked well on some stories, it was a bit of a mismatch to a barbarian werewolf story conceived for Reed Crandall.

Pete Von Sholly sent us this new Classics NOT Illustrated cover he’s painted, for an issue adapting H.P. Lovecraft’s horrific poem Fungi from Yuggoth. Think the kids of the ’50s and ’60s could’ve cobbled together a book report from that sonnet cycle? [Art ©2004 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 here purely for historic and parodic purposes.]

Still, it was a thrill to see myself in print in comics (I was 18); but that experience and others led me to decide to work at making history first and writing about it second. So whereas Fraccio and Tallarico led you to a life writing comics, they led me to a different path—one of organizing dropout programs for youth, adult literacy work in Chicago’s inner city, and now working on child care for children. Now in my 50s, I can spend some time writing after years of a different kind of struggle. Actually, it’s not surprising that Fraccio and Tallarico drew both of our first stories, when you consider their careers during this period. Most of the major publishers had a house style in the 1960s, and DC and others tended to be using artists and writers that had worked for them for years. Artists like Fraccio didn’t fit the pre-existing mold at any of these places. Charlton had nothing resembling a house style (Nicholas/Alascia were published in the same issues as Morisi and Ditko)—though they did on occasion have an artist like Giordano do most of their covers so the comics at least looked the same on the stands. If you could draw for the low wages offered, you could work for Charlton. As such, it was the logical place to run into Fraccio and Tallarico, as you did, especially when Charlton was expanding as they were when they started the superhero line for which you wrote your first two stories. The other places that team worked were publishers who had recently gone through major changes and were scrambling to re-create their lines. One example is the “dark ages” period of Warren, between when Archie and the EC guys left and when Warren brought in the Spaniards. Another strong example is when Dell broke off from Western Publishing, causing the creation of Gold Key. Dell farmed the whole comics line out to Joe Chili to put together. Chili was a former horror artist of the 1950s who packaged art and projects in a number of fields,

These transitions or growth periods when there is no standard house style are where Fraccio and Tallarico turn up. They are also times when publishers are open to trying new writers. In your case it was the new Charlton super-heroes. In my case it was Warren, where, if my memory is correct, Doug Moench and Don Glut also sold their first work. So, as a new writer, unless you started on romance stories for DC or Marvel, your entry point into the field was likely a publisher who was using Fraccio and Tallarico. That meant your chances of doing a story with them were quite high. Warren, by the way, paid me $3 a page. One 8-page story for Warren earned me as much money as one page in Cracked. To be fair, $3 went a long way back then—six to eight Burroughs paperbacks or twenty comics.

Incidentally, I own the art to that single Warren story I wrote. Twenty or so years ago I was passing through New York on my way to a meeting of literacy groups in Syracuse. I stopped by an art dealer in the Bowery to pick up one of Outcault’s Buster Brown originals (which thankfully had been misidentified as the inker’s whose estate it was in). The Warren art had just been dumped on the market and the dealer had a lot of it. I had no money (you don’t earn much working to help adults learn to read—it’s not valued much in this society), but there was my (and Bill and Tony’s) story. The dealer had also just gotten in a load of “men’sadventure” magazine art. I had the magazines to three of his paintings, so we swapped. The magazines at that time were worth about $5. I’m glad Bill Fraccio is getting some recognition for the years he toiled in the industry. Now if only I could find some my early Cracked work, I’d own it all! George Hagenauer Box 930093 Verona, WI 5359 This next e-mail was actually sent by underground cartoonist Larry Ripee to Comic Crypt artist/writer/editor Michael T. Gilbert, who forwarded it to us: Hello, Michael, It’s always good to see Gary Arlington get some acknowledgement. A lot of veteran comic artists are getting their place in history due to Alter Ego—a noble effort. Possibly you’ve already caught this: Nickel Library #54 seems to have been done by Larry Todd. I kept squinting at this one trying to turn it into an Irons piece, but it didn’t quite fit (admittedly, it’s an unusual piece for Todd, as well). To determine this, I used the technique

re:

Here, thanks to Mike Benton’s 1991 book Superhero Comics of the Silver Age: The Illustrated History, are the covers to the Fraccio/Tallarico-drawn Dracula #2, Frankenstein #4, and Werewolf #1 from 1966-67. Personally, we always thought the sheer concept of the mags had a certain audacious charm. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

you demonstrated for me on that George Evans page I asked you to identify—I read the signature (lower right-hand corner). Keep up the good Crypt-dredging. Larry Ripee Michael’s red-faced reply: “D’oh! Well, I never claimed I could read! Actually, Larry Todd’s style in this does remind me of Greg Irons, but you’re right, of course. I was thrown off because Irons did an entire coloring book of pirates around that time. Next time I’ll triple-check!” Jim Amash checks in next with a few additional comments from writer George Gladir, whose work with Orlando Busino on Archie’s Bats! comic in the 1960s was spotlighted in our first Halloween issue— and who comments here on a quite different subject, namely Jerry Iger: Roy, George Gladir remembers that he worked briefly at Iger’s shop for a couple of months in 1942. They put out a Christmas card and George, who unfortunately has lost his, was drawn on that card. He was an apprentice: lettered, erased pages, and remembers delivering pages to Fiction house. He was studying art at Cooper Union in NYC, and decided to get a job at Iger’s. He drew up four pages of samples, Iger liked them and hired him. George was seventeen at the time, and he wasn’t really looking for an art job, but wanted to be involved in comics. He wasn’t thinking about being a writer at that time. George remembers a writer coming in with pages once, and was struck by the fact that the writer worked at home. That appealed to him, as riding in the subways wasn’t the most pleasant of experiences during rush hour. He did remember Al Grenet from those days, and I passed on his phone number. After 62 years, George was delighted to discover that he still remembered Grenet’s voice—and his name, as George doesn’t really recall who all worked at Iger’s during that time. He does remember Iger’s secretary, Ruth Roche. George wanted to thank us for putting him in touch with an old friend after so many years. Jim Amash So—first Allen Bellman and Sam Burlockoff (as recorded in A/E #32), and now George Gladir and #34’s interviewee Al Grenet! Always great

to perform that kind of service for old-time pros who may have drifted apart over the decades. Our final letter is an e-mail from Chad Wrataric about aspects of issue #29, which we’ve had to print in a greatly abridged form (as per the ellipses below): Dear Roy, I do apologize for the familiar opening, but Alter Ego always reads as though it were a letter between friends. I hope you’ll let it slide. At any rate, I had to pound out this letter to tell you that, in my opinion, you should definitely make the Halloween horror-theme issue an annual event…. The Venus article was something I’d been waiting to read ever since I heard that the comic would change genres in the time it takes to blink…. The Classics NOT Illustrated and the Comic Crypt pieces were great. The “never-made” covers you’ve been running lately are a treat, and I hope they continue…. The Ernie Schroeder article was an extra-special treat for me. I’ve longed for art from the Golden Age “Airboy” and “Heap” stories and was much obliged that you provided a wonderful look into those books…. With all the wonderful work that Joe Maneely did, his horror pieces were his strongest, and I wished that more had been included with the preceding issue’s article. Glad to see my wish granted…. Alex Toth’s writings never fail to captivate. His musing on “mysterioso” characters was spot-on, and the fact that he’d like to do a new “Batman” story and isn’t is a crime of epic proportions. Someone get on the horn to DC! The Gladir and Busino piece was a very interesting look into Archie Comics, a line I truly know nothing about. Any other material covering the company would be appreciated. On the flip side, the Brunner interview was something I’ve come to expect from Alter Ego…. The “Prototype” piece looks to be interesting, and I cannot wait to read the complete work…. The final part of the John Benson interview was a great conclusion to a great interview. The earliest days of comic fandom have really interested me as of late, and

re: Finally, I get to the reason I wrote this long-winded letter in the first place: “Captain Marvel and Those Marvel-ous Monsters” in FCA. Now, it wasn’t the fantastic Gene Colan/Jerry Ordway Cap/Dracula piece nor the great Dave Cockrum Cap/Creature piece that prompted this letter. It was the excellent Pablo Marcos Cap/Zombie piece. What makes that so special? It’s because seeing the caption to that piece brought to a close a year-plus search regarding a picture I saw in the book Eaten Alive: Italian Cannibal and Zombie Movies by Jay Slater. It printed a poster for a movie called A Virgin among the Living Dead. At the center of the poster was a zombie with an “S” medallion around his neck and a look that I knew from somewhere. I searched copies of Alter Ego, Wizard, and every book I had on comics history, but I turned up nothing. It wasn’t until I saw that Marcos piece that I could put a name and comic to that zombie. Chad Wrataric

The poster art used on the DVD of the movie A Virgin among the Living Dead does indeed smack of Marvel’s 1970s Zombie quasi-hero, especially the Pablo Marcos interior art or Earl Norem’s later covers... as, for instance, his work on Tales of the Zombie #10 (March 1975). [Poster art ©2004 the respective copyright holders; Zombie art ©2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

any info I can get is absorbed like a sponge. The FCA section is something I look forward to a lot more now than when I read my first issue. I knew nothing of Fawcett and didn’t care to learn. However, when boredom set in and I started reading FCA and didn’t just scope the art, I was hooked. Marc Swayze’s “We Didn’t Know…” never fails to entertain and inform. “Captain Marvel Faces Fear” was great, and I hope you will consider more pieces like it. With Marvel Family reprints hard to come by and DC’s Archives schedule always in flux, I would love to see more articles like this in future issues.

Thanks, Chad. The Zombie figure on the DVD/poster art you sent is indeed based on covers of Marvel’s Tales of the Zombie #1-10 (1973-75) which were painted by Boris Vallejo and Earl Norem for Yers Truly as editor. It’s closest to the Norem figure on the final issue, but doesn’t appear to be a total swipe. Maybe it’s a painted version of an interior drawing by Pablo Marcos, who illustrated most of the “Zombie” stories. Okay—that’s all the letters we can fit in this time. Actually, we also have a late-arriving missive about A/E #28’s Joe Maneely article we wanted to print—but it, and Dr. Michael J. Vassallo’s response, were too long to squeeze in. Hopefully next month. Incidentally, Scott Goodell, who penciled an Aquaman art spot for A/E #30, informs us that the name of the comic for Moonstone Books in which his art appears has been changed from The Longest Pleasure to simply Slam! Since it went on sale in March, we wanted to give out the new name as soon as possible! Finally, below is a two-sided postcard from master artist (and regular and welcome A/E contributor Alex Toth on the subjects of the late Richie Rich artist Warren Kremer, and the gender of Kim Aamodt, one of his favorite oldtime scripters: Thanks, Alex! Even when A/E gets crowded to the gills, we can’t stand the thought of two issues in a row going by without your always-fascinating commentary! We’ll be back to a full page or two of Alex Toth next time, people—we promise! Meanwhile, send those cards and letters and e-mails and spare cash to: Roy Thomas 32 Bluebird Trail St. Matthews, SC 29135 Fax: (803) 826-6501 E-mail: roydann@ntinet.com Keep ’em flying—or running at supersonic speed—or stopping bullets with their teeth—or whatever!

No. 95 May 2004

MARC SWAYZE’s “We Didn’t Know... It Was The Golden Age!” JOHN G. PIERCE’s “Levity, Learning, & Lightning Bolts” Part 3 C.C. BECK’s “The Decline And Fall Of The Hero”

Marc Swayze

[FCA EDITORS NOTE: From 1941–53, Marcus D. Swayze was a top artist for Fawcett Comics. The very first Mary Marvel character sketches came from Marc’s drawing table, and he illustrated her earliest adventures, including the classic 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 in 1944, he made an arrangement with Fawcett to produce art and stories for them on a freelance basis out of his Louisiana home. There he created both art

and story for The Phantom Eagle in Wow Comics, in addition to drawing the Flyin’ Jenny newspaper strip for Bell Syndicate (created by his friend and mentor Russell Keaton). After the cancellation of Wow, Swayze produced artwork for Fawcett’s top-selling line of romance comics. After the company ceased publishing comics, Marc moved over to Charlton Publications, where he ended his comics career in the mid-’50s. Marc’s ongoing professional memoirs have been FCA’s most popular feature since his first column appeared in FCA #54, 1996. Last issue, Marc discussed his affiliation with the Flyin’ Jenny newspaper strip. This time, he touches upon his layouts, his years in obscurity, and his original goals as a cartoonist. —P.C. Hamerlinck.] Telegraphy was a major means of communication in those pre-World War II days. Today, there are probably many adults who never laid eyes on a telegram and think “Western Union” was a wedding that took place on a cattle ranch. It was a telegram from Eddie Herron in New York City that requested me to come for an interview: “But be prepared to stay!” I stayed, of course, affiliated with Fawcett Publications most of the rest of my career in comics.

(This page and the next:) Marc insists that his layouts were “messy affairs,” cluttered with scribbled notes and reminders—but the finished product was what counted, of course, as per these splash pages of The Phantom Eagle (from Wow Comics). Note that he even receives a byline at the bottom of two of them. [Phantom Eagle TM & ©2004 DC Comics.]

We Didn’t Know... It Was The Golden Age

There was the controversy, however, shortly after my employment, when it appeared that the relationship would be a brief one. I had altered the work of the layout artist! Layout artist? I had never heard the term. In my mind the laying out of a page of art was done by the same individual who did the penciling... the inking. The question at hand was resolved pleasantly with the understanding that I would not be involved with the assembly line teams being organized for the preparation of Fawcett comic book art. A result was my working alone... “doing it all”... the way I liked to work, from then on. It was the beginning of a period in which I became most familiar with comic book art... and the “layout.” I respected the layout. It was the preliminary plan, the blueprint, the roadmap to any respectable art endeavor. In comic books it was where the story was converted from the author’s words to the artist’s pictures... where the artist became director of the play. To my way of thinking, each panel of the comic book page represented a span of time. The object of the laid-out art panel was to capture the spirit of the moment! The layout meant having the events of the story acted out with hastily sketched, easily repeated “dummies” representing the characters, primarily for size and placement... and, as much as possible, expression and emotion. The art, usually rendered with soft pencil, included backgrounds blocked in, with notes regarding detail, for further development.

Layouts from my drawing board were for my benefit alone... often messy affairs, covered with notes... reminders pertaining to the composition of panels and full pages. Of the several stages in the preparation of comic book art, the layout certainly could not be considered the least in importance. “NOBODY KNOWS WHO YOU ARE!” It was the remark of an agent friend who called a few years back to say he had a buyer for a painting, should I care to produce one. His startling words had come after I scoffed at the purchase price he quoted. “It’s the career,” he continued. “Some of the others were in comics fifty years or more. Yours was so short by comparison ... and so long ago. People just don’t know you and don’t associate your name with the work you did.” With that I gave up on the painting idea. I shoved aside the several Mary Marvel paintings I had done and went out and mowed the lawn. I thought about it. It was true. I was an unknown. On occasions when I was introduced as a former writer and artist of the comics, the expression on the face before me invariably seemed to say, “Oh, yeah? Which one? How come I never heard of you?” It was difficult not to be affected by the conversation with the agent. The prices suggested as appropriate for the work discussed... paintings of characters I had drawn for the comics... were a fraction of

Marc Swayze

the prices of paintings with subjects totally unrelated to comics. My “goal” came to mind... my aim to do a syndicated newspaper strip of my own idea, my own characters. What was it about that goal that appealed so much? Not fame and fortune, I realized while in an Army hospital. It was the lifestyle that went with it... the liberty to do the work I loved to do... wherever I wanted to do it. I’m not sure I had the “wherever” in mind, but it eventually became clear that it was back home... my hometown. That, I thought, could only be accomplished by way of a syndicated newspaper feature. But I was wrong. The deal with Fawcett assured a regular assignment, on a freelance basis, to be mailed in from “wherever.” The word “regular” made the difference. I wouldn’t have been satisfied without it! [Marc Swayze will be back next issue with more memories of the Golden Age.]

From 1944 to 1953, Marc’s work in his later years with Fawcett included mostly the romance titles, such as Sweethearts, Vol. 13, #76 (June 1949) (left). Below are some Swayze layout “prelims” from that period, if not from that particular story. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

The Serious Side of a Smiling Super-Hero

Levity, Learning, and Lightning Bolts Part III: The Serious Side of a Smiling Super-Hero by John G. Pierce Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck

Post-War Peak In the first part of this series of articles, I discussed the Golden Age “Captain Marvel” stories which presented moral values to the readers. The second chapter concerned itself with humorous adventures, as well as with stories which had humorous or whimsical touches within them. (By the way, I didn’t mean to imply that these categories were mutually exclusive. Most of the “Mr. Tawny” tales, for instance, would fit comfortably into both of these areas.) For this third installment, I take up Captain Marvel’s more serious, straightforward tales— “serious” always being a relative term when dealing with Captain Marvel, or for that matter any superhero—but especially Captain Marvel. As with the other categories, there is no way that this will be or can be an exhaustive treatment. Rather, these are selected adventures. I have chosen to concentrate on stories from the late 1940s, as I

C.C. Beck and Pete Costanza drew “The Men of Destiny” in Captain Marvel Adventures #86 (July 1948). The script for this and most stories covered in this article was most likely by Otto O. Binder. [©2004 DC Comics.]

feel the “Captain Marvel” tales reached their peak during that era. The post-war era of the World’s Mightiest Mortal’s adventures easily offered the greatest quality and variety of stories within the red-suited hero’s colorful career.

Weird Science Science-fiction has always been a staple of the superhero genre, and even though Captain Marvel’s origins were magical/mystical/mythical in nature, he was not exempted from having this type of story. In fact, given that his number-one writer was Otto Binder, who had already made his mark as a science-fiction and pulp scribe, it would be surprising if he had avoided such stories. I will list just a few examples.

In Captain Marvel Adventures #86 (July 1948), our hero meets “The Men of Destiny,” men who can disperse their atoms so as to pass through solid matter, as well as teleport. They lose their power, however, when cut off from the sight of the “morning star,” i.e., Venus, leading

Levity, Learning, & Lightning Bolts Captain Marvel to deduce that they are descendants of Venusians, but who have grown up not knowing their true origin. In the end, Cap dispatches them safely back home. That same issue also contained “Captain Marvel Unites a Split Personality.” Due to a great deal of pressure and strain of an overworked banker named Walker, he becomes a criminal named Reklaw. Captain Marvel uses shock therapy to cure Reklaw. Literally. He captures him, puts him into a rigged electric chair, and gives him a mild shock, thereby tricking him into thinking that he has died. When he awakens, he is once again Walker. (Whether he could be so easily released to resume his normal life is another matter, of course, but most readers back then probably didn’t give that a thought.) CMA #75 (Aug. 1947) contained “The Yeast Menace,” about a blob of yeast which almost inundates the city. CMA #114 (Nov. 1950) had two such tales, “The Magnetic Menace” and “The Apes Who Could Make Fire,” both stories in the science-fiction genre. Also in the science-fiction field were the three classic stories featuring Mr. Atom, the atomic-powered robot who declares he will never submit to being man’s tool. “I was not meant for inglorious serfdom,” says this robot who was perhaps a symbolic reminder of the atomic threat hanging over mankind’s head. He battles Captain Marvel in CMA #78 (Nov. 1947) and #81 (Feb. 1948), before finally meeting

The splash page from “The Hand of Captain Marvel” from CMA #90 (Nov. ’48)—and the splash of “Mr. Atom and the Comet Men,” CMA #81 (Feb. 1948). Bill Woolfolk seems to have written the first Mr. Atom story, so perhaps he wrote this second one, as well. Art in both cases seems to be by \C.C. Beck on his own. [©2004 DC Comics.]

The Serious Side of a Smiling Super-Hero

his end in #90 (Nov. 1948). As with Black Adam from Marvel Family Comics #1, Mr. Atom has been utilized far more by DC Comics than by Fawcett Publications. (There was also the somewhat comical take on Mr. Atom in Filmation’s 1981 Shazam! cartoon series. While artistically not shying away from C.C. Beck’s original version, Filmation’s version resulted as an example of a humorous approach to a villain not designed for such.) Speaking of robots, CMA #90 also contains “The Hand of Captain Marvel” (the symbolic splash panel of which shows Cap’s left arm stretching out to capture a criminal, in Plastic Man fashion—a scene which doesn’t appear in the story itself). In this tale, a criminal called Gimmick Gus steals the work of an eccentric sculptor, Dorian Jones, who sculpts only hands and forearms of famous people, sculptings which are authentic even down to the fingerprints. By stealing these sculptings and outfitting them with his robot apparatus, Gus can commit crimes while others get the blame. After Billy Batson—in an Captain Marvel may have started out this story in CMA #62 (June 1946) to prove he really possessed the wisdom effort to ferret out the true villain— of Solomon—but you’ll notice that he still winds up slugging the villains in the splash. Art by Beck and Costanza. announces he has solved the [©2004 DC Comics.] mystery, Gus sends Captain Marvel’s arm after him. But Billy, in that, in this case, it turns out to be a ruse by Cap’s first and most the nick of time, as always, says “Shazam!” Captain Marvel traces the persistent foe, Dr. Sivana. Mary Marvel also appears in this story. radio transmission in the arm back to Gus’ hideout and captures him. “And you two are going to jail!” Cap says to Gus and his henchman as he flies off with them. “How does it feel to be in the hands of Captain Marvel?”

Murder and Mechanix Illustrated

In the final story of CMA #62 (June 1946), Captain Marvel, tired of being known only for his strength and muscle (apparently the public at large never has much opportunity to see him utilize the wisdom of Solomon), decides to demonstrate his intelligence by creating an atomic motor. But when he attempts to demonstrate his engine to an aircraft company, sabotage causes matters to go awry, and Cap is advised to “stick to catching crooks.” Cap himself is half-convinced; until he uncovers the sabotage and goes on to prove that his motor actually does work. In the end, he simply gives away the patents free of charge, having achieved his goal of proving his intellect. In the last panel, Billy announces to his listeners that “in the future Captain Marvel hopes to work on more inventions! He likes the mental exercise for a change, instead of using his muscles so much!” I’m not sure how many other inventions Captain Marvel may have undertaken, aside from ‘Marvelium’ from “The Plot against the Universe,” the classic story from CMA #100. Invasions from outer space are a staple of super-hero adventures, and Cap experiences a few along the way, such as that in CMA #65 (Sept. 1946), in a story entitled, aptly, ”Invasion from Outer Space.” Except

Incidentally, though it is hard to categorize, the immediate follow-up story in that issue, “The Mechanix Illustrated Adventure,” deserves mention, if only because it is a curious example of Fawcett crosspromotion and marketing. Fawcett’s leading magazine, Mechanix Illustrated, provides the basis for a story of a boy named Tom Tinker (even in more serious stories, names were often puns) whose home workshop is full of gadgets built from plans found in Mechanix Illustrated. The story is, in essence, one long advertisement, yet hardly gratuitously or offensively so. (It stands in great contrast to those onepage Hostess story ads featuring various DC, Marvel, and other characters from comics back in the ’70s.) “Scenes Out of the Past,” from CMA #68 (December 1946), is somewhat intriguing for a couple of reasons. In this adventure, Billy meets an inventor (whom he initially considers “a screwball”) who has a camera with which Captain Marvel can film the past by overtaking light rays from the earth as they travel out in space. Does this sound familiar? Superman would, somewhat later, use this same method (but with his own super-eyesight, which Cap lacks) to uncover his past. In this story, Captain Marvel is accused of murder, and to prove his innocence, utilizes the camera to capture scenes from his own past, at the

Levity, Learning, & Lightning Bolts times he is purported to have committed the murders. One scene, dated 3-6-42, shows Cap dealing with Macro the Giant, while another, from 1-7-43, finds Cap and his sister Mary Marvel fighting crooks. A scene from 5-10-45 shows our hero having captured Mr. Mind, while the final one depicts his 12-6-45 capture of Sivana. These are all scenes from actual stories in Cap’s history, showing the importance of continuity—even in the Fawcett comic book line— long before it became an obsession of “fanboys.” Golden Age comic book readers will forever be in awe of the variety of themes and the extent of the imagination that was utilized in the old “Captain Marvel” stories. I have only scratched the surface of the many sciencefiction and semi-serious adventure stories which Captain Marvel experienced during those halcyon days. Some of these stories envisioned a bright future in which science would make life easier and better, as well as ones in which caution would be necessary (as when dealing with atomic energy, for instance). It is amazing the extent to which some of the stories anticipated the tenor of the decade of the 1950s, with its mixture of paranoia and optimism.

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(Top left:) Does it count as a cross-over when Captain Marvel had an adventure that involved the Fawcett magazine Mechanix Illustrated in CMA #65 (Sept. 1946)? Lessee now… is that vertical or horizontal integration? Art by Beck and Costanza. (Right:) C.C. Beck’s cover for Captain Marvel Adventures #68 (Dec. 1946) contained both time travel—and one of the Big Red Cheese’s famous visits to American cities. [©2004 DC Comics.]

The Decline and Fall of the Hero

The Decline and Fall of the Hero A Previously Unpublished Essay by C.C. BECK, the Original Artist of “Captain Marvel” Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck I never cease being amazed by the way people misunderstand and misinterpret pictures and words. The word “hero,’ for example, is defined by the dictionary as “a man of extraordinary courage, one who performs great deeds, the principal figure in a story or play.” Very few people ever consult a dictionary, however, so there are almost as many different understandings of the word “hero” as there are people in the world. A C.C. Beck self-caricature, done in 1980 in the style of Mad artist Don Martin for the magazine’s longtime associate editor Jerry de Fuccio—and a Sept. 2, 1969, Captain Marvel sketch he did for fan and future pro Marv Wolfman. Below the date on the latter a line was accidentally cut off by Marv’s copier which said: “(30 years from the time I first drew him in 1939)”! Thanks, Marv. [Art ©2004 Estate of C.C. Beck; Captain Marvel TM & ©2004 DC Comics.]

The word “hero” is masculine, its feminine form being “heroine.” An article about heroes, or magazines with titles such as Amazing Heroes, should therefore only contain material about males, not about females. Strident feminists would raise such a hullabaloo over the rank discrimination thus displayed (in which they would be joined by hordes of gay rights advocates, civil libertarians, and various peaceniks, pro-lifers, and “professional protestors”) that no editor would dare to publish such material without throwing in a few female heroes, also. He would be careful not to call them heroines, of course, as doing so would arouse an even greater hullabaloo. The editor may know that he’s mis-using the word “heroes,” but his readers will not. When a drawing is made of a hero there is even more misunderstanding of the term. The third definition of the word hero is “the principal figure in a story or play.” The principal figure in a story or play may be male or female, old or young, black or white, human or animal, or even a force of nature such as a flood, an earthquake, or fate itself. In ancient Greek plays, “Fate” was always the principal figure; the men, women, children, and animals in Greek plays were no more than the helpless victims of this superhuman agency. It’s impossible to make a picture of a superhuman agency, so writers and artists created the super-hero. The original super-hero in the world of comic books was a large male figure dressed in a distinctive costume with an identifying label on his shirt front, or a mask, a cape, boots, or gloves to indicate that he was not just your ordinary man-in-the-street. This super-hero ran around displaying his extraordinary courage, performing great deeds, and being the principal figure in his stories, thus conforming to all three definitions of the term as given by the dictionary. He was a great success—for a while. Then misinterpretation of his role started to creep in.

“We’ve got a lot of readers,” the publishers of super-hero comic books told their editors, “but they’re all young boys. Let’s put some girls in our comics, too, and while we’re at it let’s add some elderly characters, a few animals, some ethnics, handicapped people, and people with problems and hang-ups like drug addicts, sex deviates, and perverts of one kind or another. That way everybody will buy our comics, not just young boys!” As soon as this was done, sales fell off disastrously. Young boy readers didn’t like to see the girls and different kinds of un-heroic characters in their super-hero comics; and the various kinds of perverts didn’t like to see themselves caricatured in comic books, where they thought they were being misinterpreted and held up to ridicule.

To counter this reaction, the “anti-hero” was invented. This character was cowardly, weak, and very ordinary looking. He would put on a ridiculous costume—a caricature of a super-hero’s costume—and run around falling over his own feet, performing great deeds by accident. Sometimes he was not the principal character in a story, thus not fulfilling his third role at all. The villain became the hero, and what few readers there were left began to emulate the villains instead of the heroes. The Equalizer- and the Rambo-type of sneering, shirtless characters began to appear in reality instead of staying in films and the pages of a comic book. Terrorists today wear masks and hoods and carry machine guns and grenades. And not only old men and old ladies but young children now blast each other with shotguns, carve each other with knives, and run around in silly costumes and freakish hair styles and

C.C. Beck

disrupt everything they can find to disrupt. This sort of behavior is not caused by reading comic books, of course, although some people think that it is. It’s perfectly natural behavior for some people to lie, steal, torture, kill, and act like uncontrollable maniacs. I have no idea how to stop such behavior, which has been going on since long before there were any comic books in existence. But why do comic book publishers now put stories and pictures of such behavior in their magazines, thinking somehow that it will increase their sales? Such people won’t buy their magazines; they’ll steal them or publish their own and give them away. Why don’t comic book publishers go to their dictionaries, learn the true meaning of the word “hero” (not of “super-hero,” which is not in a standard dictionary), and put out magazines featuring real heroes— courageous males who perform great deeds and are principal figures in the stories and plays in which they appear? They did once, back in the late ’30s and the early ’40s. Comic book sales were in the millions in those days. Then their publishers forgot what they were supposed to be doing and began to pander to the tastes

of people who didn’t even know that there are such things as dictionaries... and that they should always be consulted by writers, artists, and publishers before they write, draw, or publish anything. Fawcett’s characters are all dead and gone forever. Their most famous character, Captain Marvel, was not the hero of his stories; Billy Batson was. Captain Marvel was never a “super-hero” in the traditional sense, either; and the villains in his stories were often much more interesting than he was (much to Fawcett’s dismay). As for Captain Marvel Jr., Mary Marvel, Uncle Marvel, Hoppy the Marvel Bunny, Aunt Minerva, and Mentor (in the Shazam! TV series), they were all added by people who didn’t know what they were doing. [C.C. Beck, the original Captain Marvel’s chief artist, passed away in November 1989.]

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Vol. 3, No. 36 / May 2004

™

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

CANADA’S GOLDEN AGE Section

Cover Artists

Contents

Cover Colorists

Writer/Editorial: Canadian Sunset–––in Four Colors. . . . . . . . . . 2 The Golden Age of Canadian Comic Books and Its Aftermath . 3 John Bell on super-heroes and others north of the 49th parallel, 1941–1966.

Michael T. Gilbert & Ronn Sutton Joe Simon Michael T. Gilbert Joe Simon

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Bob Deschamps, Don Lawrence, & George Woodbridge

“Living in a World of Fantasy” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Dave Sim talks with Canadian comics pioneers Adrian & Pat Dingle and Bill Thomas. “My Teacher Was Just Alex Raymond Strips”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 A conversation with Canadian artist/writer Jerry Lazare. Comic Crypt: Fred Kelly–––An Appreciation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Michael T. Gilbert relates the secret (and not-so-secret) origin of Mr. Monster. Les Barker, a.k.a. Leo Bachle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Robert Pincombe’s fast take on the creator of Canada’s iconic Johnny Canuck. Joe Simon & Friends Section. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About Our Cover: What a dilemma! As soon the decision was made to spotlight Canada’s heroic comics of the 1940s, Ye Editor asked Michael T. Gilbert to draw the cover. After all, Michael developed his own Mr. Monster from a barely-seen Canadian hero of that name, as he revealed years ago. But both Roy and Michael (and feature-article writer John Bell) felt a Canadian should be involved with the cover art, as well. Enter artist Ronn Sutton, penciler of Claypool’s Elvira (and many other comics over the years). Michael designed the cover and did a rough draft of it, with Ronn doing finished pencils; Michael then inked and even colored it. Hey, that’s what a Good Neighbor Policy is all about! [Art ©2004 Michael T. Gilbert & Ronn Sutton; Mr. Monster TM & ©2004 Michael T. Gilbert; Nelvana TM & ©2004 Nelvana, Ltd.; Commander Steel, Active Jim, The Dreamer, Thunderfist, The Brain, The Polka-Dot Pirate, & The Penguin TM & ©2004 the respective trademark & copyright holders.] Above: Murray Karn’s “Thunderfist” splash from Active Comics #3. The most amazing discovery made by Ye Ed this issue is that an overwhelming majority of the Canadian comics stories sported artist (and often writer) credits—nor were most mere house names! If only US publishers and creators had been as progressive during America’s Golden Age of Comics! Thanks to Robert Pincombe for the photocopy. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.] Alter EgoTM is published monthly by TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: 32 Bluebird Trail, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. 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

Canadian Sunset–In Four Colors Way back in 1964, after roaming around Mexico for a month, I eagerly accepted an offer from sf/comics fan Fred Patten to write an article on Mexican hero comics for Alter Ego [Vol. 1] #8–9. And ever since reviving A/E a few years ago, I’ve planned to deal with comic book super-heroes of other lands during the 1940s through at least the 1960s.

Darryl Gold, Keith Sparrow, Rik Offenberger, Stephen Lipson, and Jamie Smith, who e-mailed us various art scans…

#30’s survey by Jean-Marc Lofficer of the French comics scene of that era was always intended to be followed by coverage of Canadian, Mexican, Spanish, British, Australian, and other “Golden Ages.” With this issue, part of that promise has been kept, as we present five easy (and entertaining) pieces on the heroes of Canada’s own Golden era, which flowered briefly during World War II and immediately afterward.

…and Robert Pincombe, who’s preparing a documentary film about Bachle and sent both our page 52 teaser—and enough photocopies of Canadian comics pages to choke a moose!

Mark Shainblum, publisher of Canuck Comics and co-creator of Northguard, whose interview with artist Leo Bachle couldn’t be squeezed into this issue (but it’s definitely slated to appear ASAP!)…

John Bell, author of the 1986 book Canuck Comics, who wrote this issue’s overview of Canada’s Golden Age and sent numerous art scans to accompany it…

Although in the ’70s I attended a comicon or two in Toronto, and though I’ve read both Canuck Comics and Michael Hirsh & Patrick Loubert’s 1971 tome The Great Canadian Comic Books, much of what follows was as new to me as it will be, perhaps, to you. But we all need to expand our horizons beyond our own borders—even those of us (like my wife Dann and me) who watch several hours of Canadian TV a week, from The Red Green Show to This Hour Has 22 Minutes to Royal Canadian Air Farce to Rick Mercer’s Monday Report to The Newsroom.

Dave Sim, creator of Cerebus the Aardvark, who gave us permission to reprint two interviews with 1940s Canadian comics artists from his 1970s fanzine Now and Then Times…

Now to figure out which near-future issue will showcase Fred Patten’s “¡Supermen South!” with Relámpago, Santo, Neutrón, SuperCharro, and Criollo el Caballo Invencible. ¡Ay carmada, eh?

The real heroes, though, are the colorful Canadians (and a few others) who came through like champs:

Ronn Sutton and Michael T. Gilbert, who co-drew our cover featuring Michael’s permutation of the Canada-spawned Mr. Monster plus other super-doers from north of the border…

Bestest,

COMING SOON FROM ROY THOMAS!

WORLD WAR II!

YOU ONLY THINK YOU KNOW WHO WON! OUR SIDE LOST—BUT THAT WAS BEFORE TM

In Alter Ego V3#9 (2001) you read about this full-length, ongoing comic book created by Roy Thomas and published by Dude Comics of Spain. Now, at last, this darker saga of an alternate Earth is coming to U.S. comics for 2004! Learn the startling, world-shattering secret of— “ROCKETS” REDGLARE • BOMB-BURST STARS & STRIPES • DAWNS EARLYLIGHT LIBERTY • AGENT 76 • STONEWALL JAXON

Art by Daniel Acuna, Jorge Santamaria Garcia, & other stellar talents!

Canada’s Golden Age part one

The Golden Age of Canadian Comic Books and Its Aftermath

Super-Heroes & Others In English Canada, 1941–1966

by John Bell Prelude 1934–1940 Canadians have been involved with comic books almost from the very beginning.

During the early 1930s, as various entrepreneurs in the US experimented with the new periodicals, Windsor, Ontario, businessman Jake Geller decided to try his hand at the fledgling business. Inspired by the success of the British comics papers then available on some Canadian newsstands, Geller acquired the rights to several UK strips, opened an office in New York, and began publishing a comics weekly entitled Comic Cuts (named after one of Britain’s most famous comics periodicals). Launched in May 1934, the tabloid lasted only nine issues; today, it counts among the rarest comics publications ever issued in North America. Discouraged by Comic Cuts’ poor reception, Geller returned

John Bell’s 1986 book Canuck Comics, from Matrix Press, featured this great wraparound Ken Steacy cover illustration. From left to right, with their creators and/or copyright holders after their names, are: Stig (Ty Templeton)… Mister X (Vortex Comics)… Samurai (Barry Blair)… The Electric Warrior (Ken Steacy)…Onésime (Albert Chartier)… Le Sombre Vilain (Jacques Hurtubise)… Ududu (Bernard E. Mireault)… Capitaine Kébec (Pierre Fournier)… Nelvana of the Northern Lights (Adrian Dingle)… Red Ketchup (Réal Godbout & Pierre Fournier)… Kelvin Mace (Klaus Schoenfeld Estate)… Cerebus (Dave Sim)… Northguard (Mark Shainblum & Gabriel Morrissette)… Doc Stearne, a.k.a. Mr. Monster (Fred Kelly)… Brok Windsor (Maple Leaf Publishing, Ltd.)… and Neil the Horse (Arn Saba). Quite a collection of Canadian content! Thanks to publisher Mark Shainblum for his blessing to reprint this artwork. If you wanna see it in color, and learn even more about Canadian comics of all kinds, copies of the Canuck Comics trade paperback are still available from Matrix Press; see display ad on page 35. [Illustration ©2004 Ken Steacy; characters TM & ©2004 their respective trademark and copyright holders.]

Super-Heroes & Others In English Canada, 1941–1966

The comic book fortunes of the USA and Canada were linked from the get-go. Here, Joe Shuster, Canadian-born artist/co-creator of Superman, is juxtaposed with his hero on a Canadian poster advertising the hero’s popular radio series. We hardly need point out that his trademark “S” has here been replaced by his entire name! The photo appeared in Les Daniels’ 1998 volume Superman: The Complete History. [Art ©2004 DC Comics.]

became active in the US comic-book field. Among them were the Quebec artist Albert Chartier, who contributed to various Columbia Comics titles, and Charles Spain Verral, a pulp-magazine writer who also wrote for Street & Smith’s Bill Barnes Comics.

to Canada. He would soon regret his departure from the New York comic book milieu, which was about to be rocked by the improbable, heroic visions of a young Canadian artist. The early comics magazines had, for the most part, reprinted US newspaper strips, but increasingly, through 1936-37, more non-reprint titles appeared. At the outset, the new comic books were only moderately successful, but their popularity increased dramatically following the release, with a June 1938 cover date, of Action Comics #1, which featured the adventures of Superman, the first significant comic book super-hero, co-created by two young science-fiction fans, Jerry Siegel and Toronto-born Joe Shuster (the cousin of noted Canadian comedian Frank Shuster of the “Wayne and Shuster” team). Although it is now obvious that Superman and comic books were made for each other, the potential of the character was not immediately recognized. In fact, starting in 1934, the strip was rejected by numerous publishers, due to its unrealistic nature. According to some accounts, even its eventual publisher, Harry Donenfeld of National Periodicals (now DC), was nervous about the outrageous cover of the debut issue of Action, which depicted Superman holding a car above his head! To say the least, Donenfeld’s doubts (if any) proved to be unfounded, and Action was soon followed by a flood of American super-hero comics, which found a huge audience not only in the United States, but also in Canada. One of the young Canadians who eagerly devoured the thrilling new publications was Mordecai Richler, who would later become one of Canada’s most distinguished writers. For Richler, the primal appeal of the early super-heroes was obvious: “Superman, The Flash, The Human Torch, even Captain Marvel, were our golems,” he later observed. “They were invulnerable, all-conquering, whereas we were puny, miserable, and defeated.” As tens of thousands of kids north of the 49th Parallel embraced America’s most colorful and fantastic export, more Canadians creators

With the advent of war for Canada in September 1939, the popularity of American comics continued to grow. However, as Canadian government officials responded to the overwhelming demands of the war economy, emergency measures were being formulated that would abruptly deprive kids in Canada of the breath-taking adventures of Superman, Captain Marvel, and the multitude of other American superheroes. From the beginning of its development in the 1890s, comic art in Anglophone North America had been largely American. In English Canada, that was finally about to change. While US strips would still dominate in the newspaper funnies sections, strange new comic books would soon offer Canadian kids their very own heroes.

The Canadian Golden Age of Comics 1941–1946 On September 15, 1939, shortly after Canada’s declaration of war on Germany, the Foreign Exchange Control Board was established to oversee the rationing of foreign currency, something it would do with varying severity until 1951. In December 1940, as Canada’s trade deficit with the US grew, and British gold shipments were curtailed, government intervention in the economy broadened with the introduction of the War Exchange Conservation Act. Aimed at countries outside the sterling bloc, it was primarily designed to conserve American dollars by restricting the importation of non-essential goods from Canada’s largest trading partner. Among the items banned were fiction periodicals, a category that encompassed pulps and some other newsstand magazines, including comic books. As a result, the government inadvertently laid the groundwork for an indigenous comics industry. (This period also saw the publication of Canadian pulps such as Uncanny Tales and Eerie Tales.) As long as American comic books had flowed freely into Canada, none of the nation’s publishers could afford to compete. Printing costs, market size, distribution obstacles, and various other factors all militated against the possibility of a Canadian firm wresting any appreciable portion of the market from major US publishers like Fawcett and

The Golden Age of Canadian Comic Books and Its Aftermath

National Periodicals. Nevertheless, this did not mean that publishers in Canada had been unaware of the phenomenal popularity that the new medium enjoyed. In fact, several entrepreneurs in various centers across the country were more than a little envious of the obvious success of US comics. However, it was not until the American periodicals were abruptly excluded at the end of 1940 that would-be comics publishers in Canada could seriously contemplate the creation of a national comic book publishing industry. Working independently of each other, four publishers rushed to take advantage of the vacuum created by the sweeping economic legislation. One of these, Maple Leaf Publishing, was located in Vancouver, British Columbia; the other three—Anglo-American Publishing, Hillborough Studio, and Commercial Signs of Canada—were all based in Toronto, Ontario. Both Maple Leaf and Anglo-American managed to hit the newsstands with comics by March 1941, while Hillborough and Commercial made their debuts in August and September, respectively. The voracious appetite that Canadian kids had developed for funny books was about to be assuaged by new heroes.

Maple Leaf’s Better Comics #1 (March 1941, with cover probably by Vernon Miller) and Anglo-American’s Robin Hood and Company were released in the same month. The issue of Robin Hood depicted above is Vol. 1, #6 (Dec. 1941-Jan. 1942), with art probably by Ed Furness; the “and Company” had been dropped by this time. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

Although Maple Leaf’s first title, Better Comics, was released the same month as the inaugural issue of Anglo-American’s Robin Hood and Company, it was distinguished by its content and format. Unlike its rival, which initially appeared as a tabloid-size collection of reprint strips, Better consisted entirely of original material and was published in

a regular comic book format. Consequently, Maple Leaf should probably be viewed as the publisher of the first true Canadian comic book. Whatever the case, Better also had the distinction of introducing the first Canadian super-hero, Vernon Miller’s The Iron Man. Miller, who had returned to BC following a stint with the Walt Disney studio in California, apparently played an instrumental role in launching Maple Leaf, convincing the Vancouver magazine vendor Harry Smith to invest in the promising new comics industry. Smith and his associates were obviously encouraged by the response to Better, as the title was soon followed by three more comic books: Bing Bang Comics, Lucky Comics, and Rocket Comics (initially entitled Name-it Comics). Like the majority of pre-1945 comics produced during Canada’s Golden Age of Comics (the period from 1941 to 1946), all four titles had color covers and black-&-white interiors, thus giving rise, among young fans, to the term “whites” (actually, the first few issues of Better featured some color). As well, they often relied on serial stories to induce kids to fork out their hard-earned dimes, issue after issue.

Two of Maple Leaf’s early titles were Lucky Comics (this is the June-July 1942 issue) and Name-it Comics (#1 was cover-dated Nov.-Dec. 1941). As for Name-it, the publisher later re-named it Rocket Comics. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

In addition to Vernon Miller, Maple Leaf employed several other notable artists, including Bert Bushell, Ernie Walker, Ley Fortune, and Jon St. Ables. The latter, whose best work surpassed that of most of his North American comic art contemporaries, was responsible for an elegantly rendered Burroughsian-fantasy strip, “Brok Windsor.” Set in the Canadian north, in the “land beyond the mists,” it debuted in the April–May 1944 issue of Better. On the

Super-Heroes & Others In English Canada, 1941–1966 Red Rover, Commander Steel, Terry Kane, and Dr. Destine. In an effort to bypass the government’s restrictive foreignexchange legislation, AngloAmerican also acquired scripts from Fawcett Publications in the US, producing original Canadian versions of that company’s American super-hero stories. This arrangement led to some curious results. Commando Yank, for instance, fought his Canadian adventures with a Union Jack emblazoned on his chest. Among the other Fawcett heroes redrawn by AngloAmerican were Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., Bulletman, and Spy Smasher.

Like Maple Leaf, AngloAmerican quickly expanded its line of comics. By the end of 1941, it was publishing four more titles: Freelance, Grand Slam, Three Aces, and Whiz. In Better Comics #1 introduced the first Canadian super-hero, The Iron Man, written and drawn by Vernon Miller; at left is the first page of his initial tale. A slightly later star of Better was Brok Windsor, seen on the cover of Vol. 3, #3 (April-May 1942 these would be augmented 1945), with art by Jon St. Ables. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.] by two more Fawcett-related books, Captain Marvel and Spy whole, Maple Leaf comics were probably the most professional products Smasher. (Early in 1941, Anglo-American also apparently issued a few of Canada’s Golden Age. All of the company’s titles were well-drawn reprints of comics originally produced for the US publisher Fox. It is and designed, featuring engaging, rather sophisticated characters like Deuce Granville, Señorita Marquita, Bill Speed, Stuff Buggs, and The Black Wing. Maple Leaf’s first competitor, Anglo-American, was owned and operated by four Toronto businessmen, Thomas H. Sinnott, John M. Calder, John G. Baker, and Edward C. Johnston; but its creative force derived primarily from two creators, Ted McCall and Ed Furness. McCall, the writer responsible for the Canadian newspaper adventure strips Men of the Mounted and Robin Hood and Company, brought both with him when he joined the company. In addition, he worked on a number of original characters with AngloAmerican’s talented chief artist, Furness. Among the firm’s major heroes, which An ad for a “Glo-Crest” premium (minus coupon) from an Anglo-American mag—intermingling original Canadian heroes with Fawcett’s Captain Marvel—and juxtaposed with the cover of the “Wartime Economy Edition” of Whiz Comics, Vol. 2, #5, drew upon complete with explanation of how readers go two pages for the price (but not at the size) of one. Whiz cover may be by Ed virtually every adventure genre, Furness. [Art ©2004 respective copyright holders; Captain Marvel TM & ©2004 DC Comics.] were Freelance, Purple Rider,

The Golden Age of Canadian Comic Books and Its Aftermath

7 Artist Ed Furness, seen here circa 1942, was a driving creative force at Anglo-American. (Mostly clockwise from top left:) An illo by Furness of many of the heroes he drew for “Double-A Comics”… a cover and pair of splash pages from his stories starring Freelance… and Furness Grand Slam Comics cover art featuring Commander Steel, as reprinted by Capt. George Henderson’s Memory Lane Publications some years back. The photo and Furness pin-up appeared in John Bell’s book Canuck Comics. Thanks to Keith Sparrow for the “Freelance” scans. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

Super-Heroes & Others In English Canada, 1941–1966

not clear how they managed to circumvent the provisions of the War Exchange Conservation Act. In any event, this experiment was shortlived.) Unlike most Canadian companies of the 1941-1946 period, AngloAmerican avoided serialized stories; nor was their product particularly Canadian. While undeniably patriotic, in so far as they supported the war effort, the firm’s comic books lacked the fervent nationalism evident in many Canadian Golden Age comics. Although a number of artists worked on Anglo-American’s titles, they all tended to emulate the clean, square-jawed Fawcett style developed by the famous American artist C.C. Beck. This deliberate “house style” resulted in a somewhat homogenized product. Furthermore, Anglo-American’s comics were initially the least impressive of the Canadian Golden Age comic books in terms of production values. Printed slightly oversize on cheap newsprint, they utilized flimsy two-color covers during the first few years of their existence. Like all Canadian comics, though, they improved markedly over the course of the war. While both Maple Leaf and Anglo-American represented fairly substantial publishing ventures, the third Canadian publisher to enter the comic-book field, Hillborough Studio, was founded by three unemployed artists, Adrian Dingle and the brothers René and André Kulbach, who were joined by a

single anonymous investor. Their primary title, Triumph-Adventure Comics, made its debut in August 1941. It would appear for only a few more issues under the Hillborough imprint (the firm also published one issue of Top Flight Comics, which featured art by Dingle, Clayton Dexter, and other artists), before the firm’s lead creator, Dingle, decided, in 1942, to throw in his lot with what would become the best-known Canadian comics publisher, Bell Features. Most of Dingle’s Hillborough colleagues followed him to Bell. Prior to joining Bell, though, Dingle created one of the most memorable characters of the Golden Age: the super-heroine Nelvana of the Northern Lights, the first Canadian national super-hero. Dingle would later credit the artist Franz Johnston, a member of Canada’s most prestigious art coterie, the Group of Seven, with the concept of Nelvana, who predated Wonder Woman, the best-known US female super-hero, by three months. Initially garbed in a fur-trimmed mini-skirt, Nelvana was a very powerful heroine, and her adventures often had a Flash Gordon super-science flavor, an aspect of the strip that Dingle obviously relished as he developed the character further at Bell Features, Canada’s fourth Golden Age publisher. During the 1930s, Cy Bell and his brother, Gene, ran a Toronto-based commercial-art firm called Commercial Signs of Canada. In 1939 they had been approached by a French-Canadian artist, Edmund Legault, who hoped to find a publisher for his comic art. The Bells were forced to turn Legault away; however, late in 1940, when Cy Bell learned of the impending ban on US comics, he re-established contact with Legault, acquired capital from businessman John Ervin, and began work on an adventure comic book entitled Wow Comics.

Visit the website of artist Ronn Sutton at: <www.ronsutton.com>. Over 60 pages of comics to see and read.

Cover co-artist Ronn Sutton—whose gun-toting illo is seen above—sent us these two Captain Marvel drawings, with the following note: “In 1971 I was completing my final year of Art training, and students were being assigned ‘work week’ placements in actual art studios. The head of the Art Department was openly hostile to me, and I think he was trying to demeaningly punish me by sending me to a military base art department (instead of a prestigious ad agency). But wouldn’t you know it—working there was Jim Fleming, who had worked on Canadian black-&-white comics during World War II. He said he had been mostly an assistant to the older artists, but claimed to have worked on original Canadian ‘Captain Marvel’ strips. He immediately whipped out a pencil and brush and drew the two enclosed illos. Sorry to have taken thirty years to get around to sending these to you. Better late than never…” Right on, Ronn! Jim Fleming may have been a bit rusty on the Big Red Cheese by 1971, but it’s great to find out about him. [Captain Marvel TM & ©2004 DC Comics; Sutton art ©2004 Ronn Sutton.]

The Golden Age of Canadian Comic Books and Its Aftermath

A cornucopia of Commander Steel from the 14-page Grand Slam story reprinted by Capt. George (see p.7). Since his real name was “Jack Steel, world traveler and adventurer,” his secret identity would seem easily blown. Art by Ed Furness. And yes, A/E editor Roy Thomas did borrow this character’s name when, in his 1980s DC series All-Star Squadron, he promoted the newly-inducted Conway/Heck hero Steel to “Commander.” Hey, there were plenty of Captains running around already in comics, so Ye Ed wanted Steel to outrank ’em! Oh, and by the way, Michael T. Gilbert assures us that Steel really did sport that big scales-of-justice chest symbol (seen on our cover) in Grand Slam Comics #53 (July 1946). [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

Super-Heroes & Others In English Canada, 1941–1966 not been able to resist the temptation to incorporate into his “Johnny Canuck” stories references to his friends and enemies at school. Needless to say, it was enormous power for a teenager to wield—the ability to transform a high-school rival into a Nazi villain. Not surprisingly, the heroic and dashing Johnny bore more than a passing resemblance to his creator. More than fifty other freelance artists contributed to Bell’s titles, including René Kulbach, Ted Steele, Manny Easson, Jack Tremblay, Mel Crawford, and veteran newspaper cartoonist Leo Skuce. Bell’s pool of freelancers also included the artist Doris Slater and the writer Patricia Joudry, two of the few women involved in Canadian comics during the 1940s. Given the number of contributors to its comic books, it is not surprising that Bell would prove to be the most prolific publisher of the Canadian Golden Age, eventually issuing nearly twenty different titles (including several compilations). By the end of 1943, the firm was selling more than 100,000 comics a week. The success enjoyed by Maple Leaf, Anglo-American, and Bell soon encouraged other publishers. Accordingly, late in 1942 they were joined by a fourth firm, Educational Projects of Montreal, Quebec, which was owned and managed by Harry J. Halperin. Although it adopted the same format as its predecessors, Educational, as its name suggested, sought to produce a more edifying type of periodical for children. As a

The cover of the one and only issue of Top Flight Comics (Feb. 1942) was drawn by Clayton Dexter. This Hillborough Studio title, starring The Rapier, is perhaps the rarest comic book issued during the Canadian Golden Age. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

The inaugural issue of Wow, which was dated a month later than Triumph, was a huge success. Initially it appeared in poorly-registered color, but eventually, like subsequent Bell titles, it switched to the familiar Canadian “whites” style of black-&-white interiors with color covers. Early in 1942, around the time that Commercial absorbed Hillborough Studio, Bell changed his firm’s name to Bell Features and hired Hillborough’s Adrian Dingle as his art director. Shortly thereafter, Bell launched five new titles: Active, Commando, Dime, The Funny Comics, and Joke. He also later employed the Canadian pulp writer John Hollis Mason as his managing editor. Although somewhat uneven in terms of quality (after all, many of the strips were written and drawn by adolescent comic book fans), Bell’s line of comics was unabashedly Canadian. Among its major hero features were both “Nelvana” and “The Penguin” by Dingle, Legault’s “Dixon of the Mounted,” “Phantom Rider” by Jerry Lazare, Edmond Good’s “Rex Baxter,” and Fred Kelly’s “Doc Stearne” (a character that was resurrected in the 1980s, as “Mr. Monster,” by American artist Michael T. Gilbert). Another particularly notable Bell character was Leo Bachle’s Johnny Canuck (the second Canadian national super-hero), who made his debut in the first issue of Dime Comics in February 1942. Created by a comic book fan then in his teens, Johnny became a vehicle for his creator’s adolescent fantasies of wartime heroism. In fact, Bachle, who quickly became a celebrity at his high school, later admitted that he had

Archetypal Canadian hero Johnny Canuck, here stripped to the waist after disguising himself to gain entry to Hitler’s inner sanctum, has already slugged Der Führer once in Dime Comics #4 (1942). Adolf figures it’s time for a little firepower—but we’re betting Johnny gets away after pasting him another one. Art & story by Leo Bachle. Thanks to Robert Pincombe. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

The Golden Age of Canadian Comic Books and Its Aftermath

Curiously, just as Canada had its own edition of Whiz Comics, with oft-redrawn “Captain Marvel” stories, it also had its own Wow Comics—another Fawcett title. But Bell’s Wow and Fawcett’s had entirely different casts! The latter had debuted Stateside starring Mr. Scarlet for “Winter 1940-41”; Bell’s Wow debuted with a September 1941 cover date. Dart Daring appears on the cover of #1, Canada’s own Penguin (no relation to the Batman villain, natch) dives into action on #25, and The Dreamer charges ahead on #26. The latter two covers were drawn by Adrian Dingle. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

Nelvana of the Northern Lights and her Great Dane, Tanero, in a great page from the third issue of Triumph-Adventure Comics, the mag’s original Hillborough incarnation—and an ad for Triumph Comics #9, after it had become a Bell title. Thanks to Robert Pincombe. Art & story by Adrian Dingle. [Nelvana TM & ©2004 Nelvana, Ltd.]

Super-Heroes & Others In English Canada, 1941–1966

A montage of some of Bell Features’ greatest heroes. (Top row:) Leo Bachle’s “The Brain”… Ross Saakel’s “Captain Wonder”… Adrian Dingle’s “Penguin”… Ted Steele’s “Speed Savage”… (middle row:) René Kulbach’s “Tang” (a horse can’t be a hero?)… Fred Kelly’s “Doc Stearne” (read more about him in this issue’s Comic Crypt)… Jerry Lazare’s “Jeff Waring”… (bottom row:) Ross Mendes’ “Polka-Dot Pirate”… Lazare’s “Nitro” and “The Wing” in a Canadian cross-over (!) in the former’s feature… and E.T. Legault’s “Dixon of the Mounted.” The “Thunderfist” page is taken from a Cap’n George reprint—Robert Pincombe sent the illos from “Captain Wonder,” “The Penguin,” and “Jeff Waring”—the “Doc Stearne” splash came from Michael T. Gilbert (who else?)—and the remaining art was seen in 1971 volume The Great Canadian Comic Books by Michael Hirsh and Patrick Loubert. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

The Golden Age of Canadian Comic Books and Its Aftermath

A “Rex Baxter” ad (with Edmund Good art) from Active Comics #6—and a house ad for the entire Bell line from Commando Comics #6. As Capt. George Henderson said when he reprinted another Bell house ad: “The above titles are the most famous Canadian whites published.” Thanks to Robert Pincombe. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

result, its main title, Canadian Heroes, focused on such wholesome fare as profiles of Canadian prime ministers and governors general, historical narratives, and Royal Canadian Mounted Police cases. Although never especially inspired, the rather didactic stories found in Canadian Heroes were generally handled in a competent fashion by the company’s stable of freelance artists, which included Joseph Hillenbrand, George M. Rae, Sid Barron, and Fred Kelly. In fact, Rae and Barron were among the most accomplished comics artists of the Canadian Golden Age. While Canadian Heroes’ approach appealed to parents and government officials (some issues of the comic book actually featured laudatory endorsements from Canadian cabinet ministers), even the publisher Halperin came to realize that Canadian children had developed an appetite for somewhat more thrilling narratives. As a result, when George M. Rae suggested that Canadian Heroes depart from its focus on true stories and feature a fictional character, a national super-hero named Canada Jack, Halperin gave him the go-ahead. However, the publisher insisted that the realistic nature of the character be emphasized, so as not to detract from his firm’s wholesome image. Assisting Jack in his efforts to protect the Canadian home front from a host of Nazi agents and dupes were the members of the Canada Jack Club (CJC). While many wartime heroes were joined by young sidekicks, the CJC was unique in that it existed both in the pages of Canadian Heroes and in the real world. Organized by Educational’s publisher, who worked with children before and after the war, the CJC

attracted hundreds of members across Canada from among the readers of Canadian Heroes. Once the club was up and running, each issue would feature CJC news and contests and also a profile of a CJC “honour member” who had made a signal contribution to the war effort. In 1943, Maple Leaf, Anglo-American, Bell, and Educational Projects were joined by a fifth publisher, F.E. Howard of Toronto, which, taking its cue from Anglo-American’s reprint arrangement with Fawcett, acquired the publishing rights to material from the US publisher MLJ Magazines. Howard’s first title was Super Comics, comprising black-&white and, it seems, partly-redrawn versions of stories that had originally appeared in the US comic book Pep. Among the popular MLJ characters featured in Super were Archie, The Shield, and Captain Commando and the Boy Soldiers. Like Fawcett’s Commando Yank, MLJ’s Shield was obliged to alter his ultra-patriotic American costume for his Canadian adventures, replacing the stars and stripes with the Union Jack—at least for his appearances on the covers of Super. Howard published a total of six issues of Super Comics and would later issue several more comics titles, mostly one-shots. (A single undated and unnumbered issue of Super Comics was also apparently issued by Citren News of Canada, which may have been connected with Howard. It is possible that the Citren issue preceded the Howard issues.) Not surprisingly, the growing popularity of Canadian comics encouraged further publishing ventures. In 1944 yet another Torontobased publisher, Features Publications, was launched by sometime Bell

Super-Heroes & Others In English Canada, 1941–1966

The Shield, the first super-hero ever to wear an American flag as a costume, had to have his outfit’s details altered to the British Empire’s Union Jack when his stories were reprinted in Canada—as per the US and Canadian versions of the cover of Pep Comics #22 (Dec. 1941), which became Super Comics #1 north of the border. Note that, on the heel of the huge descending hob-nailed boot, the Nazi swastika has been enlarged and the Rising Sun eliminated, probably because Great Britain and Canada weren’t at war with Japan till early December of 1941, months after these covers were drawn. Matter of fact, neither was the United States—but MLJ and artist Irv Novick don’t seem to have cared much. Thanks to Stephen Lipson and Rik Offenberger for the scans. By the way, several Super Comics covers featuring the customized Shield have appeared on Rik’s website: <www.mightycrusaders.com>. Check it out! [©2004 Archie Comic Publications.]

Educational Projects’ Canadian Heroes featured soldiers, explorers, sports stars, et al.—and had its US equivalent in mags like True Comics and Real Heroes (pictured are covers of Vol. 3, #2, and Vol. 5, #6). Famous Adventure Stories #1 (circa 1944) was a rare E.P. one-shot. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

The Golden Age of Canadian Comic Books and Its Aftermath

American market (as well, Rucker appears to have briefly exported to Britain). It was probably the only strategy that might have allowed for the survival of original Canadian comics. The result, in the case of Anglo-American, was a line of polished adventure comic books that received some US distribution (a young Harlan Ellison was among the comics’ most ardent American fans). Regrettably, their quality did not translate into sufficient success on the newsstands. Faced with unsatisfactory sales, by late 1946 the firm was forced to abandon its own titles, as was Rucker Publications. Anglo-American, however, was eventually able to resume comics publishing as a reprint operation. A more or less similar fate befell Bell Features. As the war neared its end, Cy Bell borrowed $75,000 and purchased a huge offset press from the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Determined not to be displaced by the influx of American comics, in 1946 he both issued two color comic books, Dizzy Don Comics and Slam-Bang, and planned for an ambitious line of new titles. As well, he began to arrange for distribution not only in the US but also the United Kingdom. Bell apparently encountered a major obstacle, however, when the federal government refused to authorize the purchase of newsprint in the quantities that his company required. Deterred by this and other problems, Bell Features ceased publishing its own titles and began reprinting US comics for the Canadian and British markets. Even though Bell, and later, Anglo-American, managed to remain, however tenuously, in the comic book business, by the end of 1946, Canada’s Golden Age of Comics was clearly over. Where there once had been four major publishers regularly issuing more than twenty original titles, there were now, with the exception of the relatively untested Superior Publishers and F.E. Howard, only reprint houses.

contributor Edward Schecter. Features Publications’ sole title was Lightning Comics, a rather amateurish monthly that showcased the unrestrained adventures of such characters as Captain Daring, Dr. Future and Pee Wee, and Nemesis and Rover the Wonder Dog. Although 1945 would see two more new firms, Al Rucker Publications (A.R.P.) and Superior (a.k.a. Century) Publications (a.k.a. Publishing, Publishers), become active—and it is possible that Rucker and Superior actually began publishing comics late in 1944—the year would prove to be disastrous for the Canadian comics industry. As the Allied victory over Nazi Germany approached, Canada’s vulnerable comic book publishers were all too aware that the war’s end would mean the full resumption of US comics distribution in Canada. (American comic books apparently started to trickle back into Canada during the latter part of 1944.) Some firms revamped their titles in the face of this formidable threat, while others, without the resources to survive American competition, accepted the inevitability of their demise. Two publishers, Educational Projects and Feature Publications, folded almost immediately, in the fall of 1945. Maple Leaf, on the other hand, boldly switched to color in an effort to hold its own on the nation’s newsstands. Creating such an expensive product exclusively for the limited Canadian market, though, was not a viable undertaking over the long term. Consequently, Maple Leaf began exporting comics to the UK; however, by the end of 1946 the firm had failed. Both Anglo-American and newcomer Al Rucker Publications tried to avoid Maple Leaf’s fate by not only adopting US production values (color interiors and glossy covers), but also by penetrating the lucrative

Super-Heroes & Others In English Canada, 1941–1966 The few artists who chose to remain in the comics business were largely obliged to pursue their careers south of the border. Edmond Good (Bell Features) worked on such strips as Scorchy Smith, Casey Ruggles, Red Ryder, Bruce Gentry, and Dixie Dugan. He also freelanced for a number of US comics (and pulp) companies before launching his own title, Johnny Law, Sky Ranger, in 1955. Johnny Canuck’s creator, Leo Bachle (Bell Features), worked for the American firms Prize and Croydon prior to abandoning comics for a career as a comedian and nightclub performer, under the name Les Barker. John Alton (Bell Features), co-creator of The Doodlebugs, contributed to various EC, Fox, and Gleason comics titles. Most prolific of all the Canadian artists working in the US was Mel Crawford (Bell Features), who became one of the major artists at the US company Western Publishing. Although Crawford would entertain thousands of Canadian children throughout the 1950s and 1960s, his Canadian roots would no more be in evidence than copies of the Canadian “whites” to which he had contributed. (Among Crawford’s contemporaries in the US comic book field was another extremely prolific Canadian artist—Winslow Mortimer, especially famous for his covers depicting Superman and Batman.) In the US, the first post-war decade witnessed a veritable explosion in the comics industry (it is estimated that, at its peak, over 60,000,000 comics were appearing every month). Inexorably, it seemed, comics in Anglophone North America (with the exception of a few newspaper strips) were becoming an exclusively American medium. This did not mean, however, that Canadian publishers could not profit from the popularity of US comic books. As had been the case in 1940, growing government concern over Canada’s foreign-exchange situation would

Anglo-American’s Grand Slam and Three Aces were merged as Grand Slam Three Aces for #44-50 (as per the above cover of #49, Dec. 1946–Jan. 1947), though the title reverted to simply Grand Slam for six issues before it was discontinued with #56 (Jan. 1947). [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

Nevertheless, the glory days of the years 1941-1946 would never be forgotten by those who had partaken of their magic. All in all, it had been an exhilarating explosion of Canadian popular culture. At no time since have English-Canadian children grown up with such a wide array of indigenous heroes and super-heroes. The experience also represented an unprecedented opportunity for dozens of (mostly young) struggling artists, who were afforded an opportunity to emulate mentors such as US comic art giants Milton Caniff, Will Eisner, C.C. Beck, Alex Raymond, and Lou Fine. Unfortunately, most of the Canadian comics creators of the 1940s drifted into anonymity. A few, however, went on to make their mark both inside and outside the comics field. Adrian Dingle (Bell Features) and George Rae (Educational Projects), who became friends after the war, both worked as illustrators while pursuing careers as fine artists. Patricia Joudry, who had written scripts for Bell, became an important playwright, while Harold Town (AngloAmerican) would later emerge as one of the country’s leading modernist artists. Maple Leaf’s Bus Griffiths became a commercial fisherman, leaving comics behind until the 1960s, when his graphic narratives depicting the logging industry were discovered by the British Columbia provincial museum. Jerry Lazare (Bell Features), Vernon Miller (Maple Leaf), and Jack Tremblay (Bell Features and Educational Projects) all became accomplished illustrators, as did Harold Bennett (Bell Features), who worked in the US as a paperback cover artist. Sid Barron (Educational Projects) emerged as one of Canada’s foremost political cartoonists.

The Golden Age of Canadian Comic Books and Its Aftermath

short-lived. American competition, it seems, proved to be too overwhelming for both firms. Superior Publishers, on the other hand, not only survived the difficult transitional years of 1946-47, but also began to display a particularly aggressive and innovative approach to comics publishing. Not long after releasing a single issue of Nomad Comics by former Maple Leaf, Bell, and Howard contributor Edward Letkeman, early in 1946 the firm published another comic book by the artist. Entitled Zor the Mighty Comics, it featured heroes such as Zor, Dr. Justice, and Sir Guy. A few months later, a second issue appeared. In June 1947 it was reprinted as Red Seal Comics #19, a title Superior had acquired from the American publisher Harry “A” Chesler. (These Letkeman comics also seem to have been repackaged by Superior under the titles Jungle Comics and Jungle Adventures, both of which received distribution in the UK, as did a third issue of Zor the Mighty and several other Superior titles.) Apparently owned by William Zimmerman, the company tended to dominate the Canadian comic book scene from 1947 until 1956. In addition to using its own name, Superior (Publishing or Publishers) published under at least four other imprints: Century Publishing, Herald Printing, Duchess Printing, and Randall Publications. Although it initially eyed the post-war UK market, it soon shifted its attention to the larger and more accessible US market. The US orientation of Superior Publications and the few other publishing houses active in 1947 was attributable, of course, to

This Canadian Black Hood #1 cover from 1946 has no equivalent in the US, and may well be an interior splash page doing double duty. Interestingly, The Black Hood’s yellow shirt and tights are rendered in red on the northern edition. Thanks to Jamie Smith and Rik Offenberger. [©2004 Archie Comic Publications.]

provide the basis for Bell, Anglo-American, and a host of new firms to survive in the comic book industry.

Crackdown On Comics 1947–1956 By early 1947, Bell and at least one or two other reprint firms were operating in Canada. They were joined by three intrepid publishers issuing a handful of original, full-color Canadian comics: Superior Publishers, F.E. Howard, and Export Publications. All of these companies were located in Toronto, and all were involved not only in comics publishing, but also in the production of pulp magazines and early paperbacks (mostly digests). Determined to keep the Golden Age alive, F.E. Howard, which had published a small number of original and reprint comics during the 1943-45 period, obtained the rights to various Bell Features characters and published two titles, Super Duper and Dizzy Don, which were distributed in both Canada and the US. (Howard also produced a few other titles, including Carousel Comics, which apparently received some distribution in the UK.) Export, which had been responsible for a oneshot Canadian fantasy pulp, Eerie Tales, issued an educational comic book, Captain Hobby Comics, in February 1947, and similarly arranged for distribution south of the border. However, as was the case with Howard, Export’s foray into the production of original comics was

Super-Heroes & Others In English Canada, 1941–1966 Canadian-born artist Winslow Mortimer drew many classic stories and covers for DC (and occasionally others) during his long career, but none more famous than the cover of Superman #76 (July-Aug. 1952), depicting the first actual costarring of the Man of Steel and the Caped Crusader. [©2004 DC Comics.]

economic realities. If they no longer had the national market to themselves, and the British market had ceased to be a viable long-term alternative, the country’s publishers were obliged to either reprint US comics for distribution in Canada and/or sell Canadian comics in the US. Late in 1947, though, conditions changed dramatically. As was the case in 1941, Canada’s financial position vis-à-vis the US was entering a crisis. Although the Canadian economy was experiencing a post-war boom, an alarming trade deficit with the US rapidly developed as consumers rushed to obtain the many goods that they had been denied between 1941 and 1945. Although reluctant to introduce trade barriers which ran counter to the new international trade agreement, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the Mackenzie King government was forced to preserve US exchange reserves by reintroducing an import ban (the Emergency Exchange Conservation Act). Once again, American publishers were excluded from the Canadian market. However, unlike 1941, the new regulations permitted publishers in Canada to purchase the rights to reprint and repackage American comics. Overnight, a new comic book industry sprang up in response to the government’s actions. There was no thought, however, of resurrecting the indigenous titles that had flourished during the war years. American hegemony was a fait accompli. Anyway, it was much simpler—and

The cover art for Zor the Mighty #1 (1946, at left) is a reprint of that of US publisher Rewl’s Blazing Comics #3 (Sept. 1944), and features Rewl’s shortlived super-hero The Green Turtle rather than the jungle lord. Of the “Zor” splash at right by E.G. Letkeman, from Zor #2, John Bell writes: “Note the Superior Comics logo and the UK price sticker. This is an example of the coverless Canadian comics that were sold in the UK during the 1946-47 period.” [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

The Golden Age of Canadian Comic Books and Its Aftermath

cheaper—to acquire reprint rights than it was to establish the infrastructure needed for a distinct national industry. Moreover, publishers could not help but be aware of their vulnerability. The entire reprint industry was predicated on a form of government intervention that was ultimately unacceptable to many Canadians, not to mention the country’s powerful neighbor to the south. Those firms, like Bell, which were already reprinting US comics, quickly expanded their lines. Other companies arose and acquired rights from the various American publishers unrepresented in Canada. By 1948 numerous publishing houses were involved in the burgeoning new industry, including Bell, Anglo-American, Export, Superior, Wilson, Daniels, Publication Services, Derby, Gilberton Publications (which issued some Canadian editions in 1946), and Better Publications. The last two were American subsidiaries. Many of these companies were also active in paperback publishing. While Superior was among the leading reprint firms, by the end of 1948 it was the only company also releasing original comic books. Although published in Canada, these were only nominally Canadian. In addition to continuing with Red Seal, the firm acquired two titles that had been previously associated with the US publisher Farrell: Aggie Mack and Brenda Starr. Like all subsequent original Superior comics, these would be produced by Jerry Iger’s New York comic art studio. “Everything old is new again!” (Top left:) One of many Canadian licensed comics of the postwar years was Brenda Starr, featuring the Dale Messick comic strip heroine, with the cover of Vol. 2, #4 (Sept. 1948) being produced by S.M. Iger Studios. It may or may not have featured reprinted comic strips inside. (Top right:) The Canadian edition of Gilberton’s Classics Illustrated #43 (dated March 30, 1948), with art by Henry Kiefer. (Right:) Also reprinted was Quality’s Police Comics starring Plastic Man; seen here is the cover of the Canadian edition of #92 (1950). [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

Super-Heroes & Others In English Canada, 1941–1966 Maybe not all reprints were good ideas—e.g., this Canadian edition of Timely/Marvel’s Crimefighters #3 (Aug. 1948) was the kind of thing that raised the ire of would-be censors and do-gooders above the 49th parallel as well as south of it. [Art ©2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

the images of mayhem conveyed by the medium was not new. In fact, opposition to comics portraying crime and violence had been evident in Canada as soon as the war had ended. However, by 1948 the alarm felt by a few scattered individuals had been transformed into a mass movement, one with determined and persuasive leaders like Eleanor Gray of the Victoria and District Parent-Teacher Council and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kamloops, British Columbia, E. Davie Fulton. Increasingly, the anti-comics crusaders came to see legislation as the only solution to the crime-comics problem. Their position would be bolstered late in the year by events in northern British Columbia. In November 1948, two boys, aged thirteen and eleven, stole a rifle and hid by the highway at Dawson Creek. Playing highwaymen, they eventually shot at a passing car. A passenger in the vehicle, James M. Watson, was fatally wounded. The senseless, random nature of this crime perpetrated by two young boys shocked the people of British Columbia, and the provincial Department of Health and Social Welfare launched an immediate investigation. It was soon discovered that both juveniles were avid readers of crime comic books. According to the authorities, the

Among the many unsigned Iger Studio artists who worked on Superior’s fifteen post-1947 titles were such American luminaries as Jack Kamen, Al Feldstein, and Matt Baker (one of the few black comic artists active during this era). Another frequent contributor was Iger’s partner, writer Ruth Roche. Written and drawn by American artists for American readers, Superior’s line was a far cry from the original Canadian comics that had preceded them. Although 1948 marked the resumption of Canada’s comic book industry, albeit in a branch-plant form, it also witnessed events that would have a profoundly negative impact on the development of North American comic art for many years to come. Across the country, parent-teacher associations, community groups, and church organizations were becoming increasingly vocal in their opposition to so-called “crime comics,” which they perceived as an insidious threat to the moral development of the nation’s children. According to their critics, such publications were to be blamed for everything from illiteracy to juvenile delinquency and sexual deviancy. Marshall McLuhan would later attribute this facile equation of comics with anti-social behavior to “naive literary logic,” noting that even the “dimmest-witted convict learned to moan: ‘It wuz comic books done this to me.’” Whatever the case, this concern over the possible ill effects of The cover of Superior’s Our Secret #6 (March 1950); art by the Iger Studio. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

The Golden Age of Canadian Comic Books and Its Aftermath

The US-based Iger Studio provided the covers and art for such horror comics as Superior’s Journey into Fear #6 (March 1952) and #14 (July 1953)—but it was |the Canadian publishers who had to take the heat up north. [© the respective copyright holders.]

older boy read about fifty crime comics a week, while the younger regularly devoured thirty. The equation was obvious: crime comics engendered criminal behavior. Accordingly, during the trial that followed, both the Crown Prosecutor, A.W. McClellan, and the presiding judge, C.S. Kitchen, blamed comic books for the death of James Watson. Furthermore, they recommended that measures be taken to ban the periodicals. “I am satisfied,” proclaimed Judge Kitchen, “that a concerted effort should be made to see that this worse-than-rubbish is abolished in some way.” Needless to say, the case provided powerful ammunition to the opponents of crime comics in Canada and the US. In fact, Chapter 11 of the most influential anti-comics tract ever published, Dr. Frederic Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent (1954), would be entitled “Murder in Dawson Creek.” In 1949, the crime-comics campaign gained substantial momentum as community groups across the country lobbied for the passage of an anticomics law that had been drafted the year before by E. Davie Fulton. Among those who supported a legislative response to the crime-comics problem was Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King, who was wholeheartedly opposed to the publishing of “comics which are calculated to incline the minds of children in the way of murder and immoral acts, etc.” When King had learned in 1948 that most members of his cabinet were initially opposed to anti-comics legislation, he had been dumbfounded, confiding to his diary: “It is something I cannot understand.”

Eventually introduced as a private-member’s bill, the anti-comics legislation was intended as a revision of Section 207 of the Criminal Code, which dealt with obscenity. The act, which came to be known as the Fulton Bill, made it an offense to print, publish, distribute, or sell “any magazine, periodical or book which exclusively or substantially comprises matter depicting pictorially the commission of crimes, real or fictitious.” For Fulton, there was no question about the perils of comic books: “The evidence shows that there is a real menace to the youth of this country in the widespread publication and circulation of crime comics.” After months of intense, nation-wide campaigning, the bill was given first reading on September 28, 1949. The federal Minister of Justice, Stuart Garson, welcomed the legislation, but requested that it be submitted to various provincial attorneys general to ensure that it was enforceable. As a result of their feedback, Bill 10 was reformulated as a complete revision of Section 207, and changes were made to give it more bite. Following its revision, the bill passed the House of Commons unanimously, underscoring the degree of support that the crime-comics campaign enjoyed. The legislation was next sent to the Senate. By this time, the comics industry had finally awakened to the threat of censorship and asked to appear to make representations against Bill 10. The Senate obliged by referring the legislation to a standing committee. The key industry witness to appear before the Senate committee was William Zimmerman of Superior. Much like William Gaines of the noted US comics firm EC, who would make a famous appearance before a US Senate committee five years later, Zimmerman

Super-Heroes & Others In English Canada, 1941–1966 No one, however, had reckoned with the audacity of Superior Publishers. In 1949, the company launched Bruce Gentry, Ellery Queen, and My Secret, three comics that were not only often racy, but not always devoid of depictions of crime. Although Superior did not inaugurate any new titles the following year, the firm did acquire the rights to William Gaines’ line of New Trend EC comics, a clear indication that Zimmerman was not particularly intimidated by the Fulton Bill. He did, however, make one small concession to his opponents: in Canada, EC’s Crime SuspenStories was retitled Weird Suspense Stories. While Zimmerman defied the ban by shifting his purview to love and horror comics, most other Canadian companies acted swiftly to reassure parents and legislators that the comics industry could behave in a responsible manner. In much the same way that their American counterparts would band together four years later, Canadian comics firms formed the Comic Magazine Industry Association of Canada (CMIAC), which promised to review all US comic book printing mats shipped into Canada to ensure that offensive material would not find its way onto the nation’s newsstands.

endeavored to defend the crime comics, pointing to their role as a welcome outlet for children’s natural impulses. Zimmerman made the fatal mistake, though, of circulating samples of what he represented as harmless entertainment for kids. As long as the debate centered on intangibles like freedom of speech and child psychology, many senators had shown some sympathy for the businessman’s position. However, once they saw what was actually being peddled to impressionable children, the passage of the Fulton Bill was guaranteed. Sent back to the Senate without amendment, the bill passed by a vote of 92 to 4. As a result, on December 10, 1949, Bill 10 became law, and everyone, from the PTA to the Communist Party of Canada, breathed a collective sigh of relief. The nation’s young people had seemingly been rescued from the nefarious influence of foreign cultural trash. It wasn’t all crime and horror from Superior in the early 1950s, as per this cover for Super Western Funnies #3 (June 1954), produced by the Iger Studios. A/E editor Roy Thomas recalls seeing various Superior Comics at the time, and wondering why they chose a leaf as their company symbol! [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

The Golden Age of Canadian Comic Books and Its Aftermath

joined by Mysteries Weird and Strange in 1953. As well, Superior both issued more love comics and diversified slightly with Super Funnies and United States Fighting Air Force. Meanwhile, as the US campaign against crime and horror comics escalated, Canadian anti-comics crusaders resumed their activities. Spearheaded by E. Davie Fulton and Eleanor Gray (who were in regular contact with Dr. Frederic Wertham), parents, educators, and religious leaders were concerned that the ban was not being enforced with sufficient vigor. In fact, not a single prosecution had occurred since the bill’s enactment in 1949. Accordingly, pressure mounted on both the political and the judicial systems to act against the publishers, distributors, and retailers who were brazenly exploiting children with lurid crime, horror, and love comics. Finally, in 1953, a conviction was obtained against a Winnipeg distributor. Later that year it was upheld in appeal. Not surprisingly, antagonism to Superior was exacerbated throughout 1954, both north and south of the border. In the spring, Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent (which cited some Superior titles) effectively fanned the flames of anti-comics sentiment. Furthermore, one of Zimmerman’s most formidable adversaries, the MP E. Davie Fulton, appeared before the US Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency hearings in June. A few months later, the censorious Comics Code Authority was created in the US in an effort to avoid government regulation of the American

Later that year, however, the CMIAC encountered a far more serious threat than censorship. The Emergency Exchange Conservation Act was relaxed sufficiently to allow certain businesses with unused import quotas to bring US comics into the country. All of a sudden, the specter of an American deluge began to worry Canada’s publishers. In 1951 their worst fears were realized. Stimulated by the Korean War, the Canadian economy was sufficiently strong to permit the removal of the restrictions on US imports that had been imposed in 1947. Most American firms resolved, naturally, to ship directly into Canada and thereby sealed the fate of the Canadian comics industry. As was the case during the years 1946-47, a few companies tried to hang on by competing with the US comics giants. Export, for instance, published its second original title, Science. By the end of 1951, however, only Superior remained, largely because it had never depended on protectionism for its survival. In addition to continuing with his EC reprints, Superior’s Zimmerman was extremely successful in penetrating the US comics market with what were essentially American comic books. Thumbing his nose at Section 207, he launched two horror comics in 1951: Journey into Fear and Strange Mysteries. These were

Super-Heroes & Others In English Canada, 1941–1966 A somewhat more benign invader: the cover of a Capp Enterprises promotional brochure produced circa 1950 for the Canadian market. Art, of course, by Al Capp, creator of Li’l Abner. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

Another Vancouver-based organization, the Pontifical Association of the Holy Childhood, offered an even greater inducement to children. The organization formed an anti-crime-comics club, in which boys and girls pledged to forfeit the reading of “bad comics” in order to preserve the purity of their immortal souls. Clearly, crime and other comics genres were no longer merely contested—they were being demonized. Because Superior was the only publisher to survive the import deluge of 1951, the firm’s withdrawal from the comics field in 1956 marked the death of the Canadian comic book industry that had been born in 1941. Ironically, but perhaps appropriately, given the American domination of the field, Canadian newsstand comics disappeared just as the so-called Silver Age of Comics began in the US with the appearance of the resurrected wartime super-hero The Flash in DC’s Showcase #4. What might be deemed Canada’s own Silver Age was nearly two decades away. A fascinating, but somewhat ignominious, chapter in Canadian publishing history had ended. Comics in North America would now be sanitized—and American.

industry. To make matters worse for Canadian comics publishers, there was another murder purportedly involving comics, this time in Westville, Nova Scotia. In 1955 the legal assault against comics mounted, with several prosecutions against Canadian distributors. Like the US publisher William Gaines, William Zimmerman of Superior issued his last horror comics early in 1955. By the spring he was left with only four titles: G.I. War Brides, My Secret Marriage, Secret Romances, and United States Fighting Air Force. Although the company had successfully appealed a crime-comics conviction in 1954, its days were obviously numbered. At one school (and probably others), St. Bernadette’s in Hull, Quebec, the anti-comics moral panic of the era would even culminate in the spectacle of the senior students being assembled on the school grounds to witness the ritualistic burning of a large pyre of comics and other objectionable publications. Apparently, no one was troubled in the least by the spectacle of a place of learning engaging in a public book-burning. In Vancouver, the Junior Chamber of Commerce had earlier sponsored a comic-book-burning rally, where kids could exchange ten offensive comics for a single wholesome book.

An Adrian Dingle-drawn house ad from Wow Comics #23—in which Bell Features offers to buy back 10¢ comics for 50¢ apiece! As Robert Pincombe, who provided us with this anomaly, says: “Already the rush for back issues was on! If they were scarce then, no wonder they’re so hard to find now!” Why ’twas done, ’tis hard to say—nor do we know of any other comics publisher that ever made such an offer! [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

The Golden Age of Canadian Comic Books and Its Aftermath

A parting montage of some of the greatest heroes of Canada’s Golden Age, courtesy of Robert Pincombe. Johnny Canuck (by Leo Bachle, from Dime Comics #4)… Speed Savage and Captain Wonder (both by Ross Saakel, from Triumph Comics #8)… Nelvana of the Northern Lights and The Penguin (by Adrian Dingle, from Triumph-Adventure Comics #3 and Wow #21, respectively)… and Nitro (by Jerry Lazare, from Dime #25). [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

Super-Heroes & Others In English Canada, 1941–1966 own giveaways. These one-shot publications would harness the undeniable power and reach of comic art for educational and promotional purposes. Issued by various levels of government and by corporations, the giveaways were primarily created by two studios, Ganes Productions and Comic Book World. Based in Toronto, Ganes Productions was founded and operated by an advertising executive named Orville Ganes. Between the late 1950s and the early 1970s, Ganes Productions would produce dozens of comic books, mostly for federal and provincial government agencies. Orville Ganes, who was a skilled and innovative promoter, achieved great success in selling governments on the efficacy of the comics medium for reaching children with educational messages. Not surprisingly, the messages were often admonitions aimed at potentially wayward teens. Accordingly, hundreds of thousands of Canadian adolescents would be introduced to the dangers of alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, and venereal diseases in small, digest-size Ganes Productions comics that were distributed free for many years in classrooms across the country. Ganes’ major competitor in the promotional-comics field was the Comic Book World studio (originally known as Comic Page Features), based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The brainchild of Owen McCarron, a Chronicle-Herald advertising director who had contributed some artwork to a few Charlton comic-book titles, the studio was launched in the mid-1960s and was ultimately responsible for nearly thirty different giveaway comics. Unlike Ganes’ comic books, which were often smaller than regular comics and generally devoid of word balloons, McCarron’s giveaways more closely resembled conventional newsstand comics. Assisting McCarron on many of his projects was the Halifax writer Robin Edmiston. Comic Book World produced mostly full-color comics that were distinguished by bold, engaging artwork and reasonably solid story lines. This professionalism would eventually bring McCarron to the attention of Marvel Comics and Whitman Publishing in the US.

The Lean Years 1957–1966 For English-Canadian kids growing up in the latter part of the ’50s and the early ’60s, the reading of US comics was a major part of childhood. However, encounters with comics would become a curiously alienating experience; for not only were most comic book stories set in the US, but even the enticing back-cover ads for sea monkeys, toy soldiers, and other products were American—and often, much to the frustration of Canadian boys and girls, only available to residents of the USA. Comics thus served to reinforce the notion that Canada was a backwater. Nor was this a short-term problem. In English Canada, only US comics would be available on the newsstands until the 1970s. This hegemony reflected, of course, the broader American domination of Canadian culture throughout the period. With the exception of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s radio and television programming and a few notable magazines, Canadian mass culture mostly originated in the US, much to the chagrin of those who viewed a national popular culture as one pillar of a separate Canadian identity. Despite the paucity of Canadian newsstand comics, some indigenous comic books were in evidence during the 1957-1966 period: Canada’s

John Bell.

While far from representing the resumption of the Canadian comics industry, Ganes Productions, Comic Book World, and the other smaller giveaway studios that operated during the 1950s and 1960s, helped to keep the national comic art tradition alive during what were extremely lean years. Moreover, in the person of Owen McCarron, the giveaway studios would serve as a link between the comic art activity of the 1940s and 1950s and that of the late 1960s and early 1970s; for, unlike his main rival in the giveaway market, Orville Ganes, McCarron was very much a comic book aficionado, and one who aspired to work on newsstand comics, especially super-hero comics. A fan of the Canadian Golden Age, he would later help to inaugurate Canada’s Silver Age of Comics— but that is another chapter in the history of Canadian comic books. [John Bell is a senior archivist at the National Archives of Canada and a leading authority on the history of English-Canadian comic books. His contributions to the comics field include two books, Canuck Comics (1986) and Guardians of the North (1992) and two National Library of Canada websites, Guardians of the North [www.nlc-bnc.ca/superheroes/ index.html] and Beyond the Funnies [www.nlcbnc.ca/comics]. He has also contributed an essay on English-Canadian comic books to the Canadian Encyclopedia and has curated exhibitions on Canadian comics for the Canadian Museum of Caricature and the National Library of Canada. In 1995 he assisted Canada Post with the creation of its popular Superheroes stamp issue. Bell has also been active as an editor and writer in other areas of Canadian cultural history. His most recent books are Against the Raging Sea: Stories from the Golden Age (2002) and Confederate Seadog: John Taylor Wood in War and Exile (2002).]

Canada’s Golden Age part two

“Living In A World of Fantasy!” CEREBUS Creator DAVE SIM Talks with Canadian Comic Book Pioneers ADRIAN & PAT DINGLE and BILL THOMAS

[NOTE: This interview originally appeared in the Now and Then Times, Vol. 1, #2 (Oct. 1973), a fanzine published in Canada. Thanks to John Bell for sending the material to us. Adrian Dingle died in 1974, and John says, “My guess is that his wife Pat has also passed away.” But we wanted to present this interview with them and Adrian’s fellow artist Bill Thomas in conjunction with John’s coverage of the Canadian comic book industry. —Roy.]

Original 1973 Introduction On January 28, Sunday, the third day of York University’s 1973 Comic Convention, Adrian and Pat Dingle, and Bill Thomas, met with Dave Sim and John Balge to talk about their involvement with the Canadian comic books published during the Second World War. Adrian Dingle started his own Triumph Comics in mid-1941, but was forced to sell out to Bell Features because of financial troubles early the next year. He was editor and art director at Bell until 1946, when the company closed. “I’ve never regretted those exciting days of fantasy. The experience has been most beneficial to me as a painter. We had to draw fast and produce for a tight schedule. While I was endeavoring to pull my weight as art director for Bell, I was still writing and drawing four or five strips till the wee small hours. We all had dreams, although shortlived!” Bill Thomas first worked for Bell Features in 1944. After Bell folded, he did a number of strips for another Toronto comic book company, Superior Publishing. “But they seemed to publish only under American story titles. One of these was allotted to me and was called ‘Punch and Cutey.’ I both wrote the story and drew the strips for only a few months, until this operation also folded. I did not see any of the printed material and was never sure whether these books were distributed in Canada or only in the US. I still have a couple of the original strips which were returned to me as unpublished.” One of these unpublished strips was “Jungletown Showboat,” which preceded this article [in Now and Then Times]. Mr. Thomas brought the strip to Comicon and, as the conversation opens, Adrian Dingle is paging through it… ADRIAN DINGLE: Well, it’s very nostalgic, Bill, to see this style of yours again after all these years. It was a very fresh style that you had. It was very individual. And you’re very fortunate to have it. BILL THOMAS: I believe this was an American strip, actually, and Superior had a franchise or something to do it here in Canada. So I sort-of took over the name and developed my own style. DINGLE: Developed your own style, obviously. It was very fresh, and it always reproduced well, Bill. You had nicely distributed solids, which for black-&-white is very essential. You did your own lettering, too, didn’t you, Bill? THOMAS: Oh, yes. (Above:) Adrian Dingle. (Top right:) The “Nelvana of the Northern Lights” splash page from Triumph Comics #8 (circa 1942). Thanks to Darryl Gold for the early-1950s photo of Dingle, from a prospectus for the Doon School of Fine Arts in Doon, Ontario—and to Robert Pincombe for the comics page. [Nelvana TM & ©2004 Nelvana, Ltd.]

DINGLE: That was rather fun in a way, you know. DAVE SIM: Mrs. Dingle, I’d like to know exactly what you thought when Mr. Dingle said that he was coming out with

Adrian & Pat Dingle and Bill Thomas

Triumph Comics with some of his friends, the first time that he told you.

DINGLE: He spoke seven languages, so that qualified him to turn a turnstile?

PAT DINGLE: I thought, “Isn’t this great, now maybe we’ll be able to get married!” I thought it was a marvelous idea.

THOMAS: He was a White Russian, I believe.

DINGLE: It looked like a way of getting some financial backing so that we could get hooked at that time. PAT DINGLE: You know, an unknown portrait painter rather starves, and that’s what he was when I met him. DINGLE: There were two or three other lads and myself who had got together—René and André Kulbach. And we had a backer who was a worry wart and used to come in every morning and say, “Well, now, fellows, what worries me is this.” And that would really start the day off at a low ebb. PAT DINGLE: Particularly as he usually paused for about five minutes to think up something to worry about. DINGLE: So we operated Triumph on a shoestring basis. I’ve forgotten how many issues we actually got out before we collapsed.

DINGLE: He was, yes. They got out here by the skin of their teeth and loss of all their health, actually. But it was an exciting time and, again as Bill remembers, we sort-of lived the world that we were working in. We got our heroes and heroines into terrible scrapes and had to get them out before the next issue. It would quite often take a lot of hashing back and forth among a lot of the lads to find out what we were doing, so we wouldn’t be stepping on the toes of somebody else’s script. So it was quite a hectic thing— working right through the night. PAT DINGLE: Well, the deadlines were very hectic. Adrian took his script along on our honeymoon and worked on the drawings. That was before Bell. DINGLE: That was with Triumph Comics, quite right; no Bell at that time. So finally we got up to the point of almost verging on full color. We were going for full color. And the contract with Fawcett Publications…

DS: When you were art director Bill Thomas’ unpublished 1940s story “Jungletown Showboat” was printed in for Bell Features, we know the the 1973 fanzine in which this interview first appeared. Thanks to John Bell. artists came in on Monday [©2004 the respective copyright holders.] afternoon and handed in all DS: What was the contract their material. You went over it, but did you ever reject any? with Fawcett Publications? DINGLE: Oh, yes. Yes, we did. I can’t remember what the occasions DINGLE: I don’t know the details of it, Dave. You see, there was an were, because I’m thinking back thirty years or so. It’s not too easy to interchange by that time. think of any one incident, but there were several times when some of the lads would bring something in that just didn’t have enough work on it, DS: So you were gong to sell their books up here. either in script or in drawing. And of course we were all doing our own thing right from the start, scripts and drawings as well. We were night DINGLE: Right, in full color. And that would, of course, vastly increase and day at it. our circulation. So we had all sorts of ideas of solid gold Cadillacs. But you were talking about the Triumph Comics start. We carried on for a few issues, then the partnership broke up—there was no more backing. And I was left with a good bundle of debts. I remember taking all the debts and the broken partnership down to Cy Bell. To my surprise, I found that the masthead for Triumph Comics was already made up and ready to roll. He was anticipating me. So he took over all the debts. And I was on salary then. And that’s how I really got started for those few years. And we met Bill and [Leo] Bachle and [Ross] Saakel. Of course, the Kulbacks were with us, too. André was doing lettering. René was extremely good with drawing animals—do you remember that, Bill? He was fantastic. [NOTE: See p. 12. —Roy.]

THOMAS: Actually, there were a couple of issues in color, weren’t there?

PAT DINGLE: And then the Air Force nabbed him and had him turning a turnstile, despite the fact that he spoke seven languages.

DINGLE: And we always seemed to manage to get paid, didn’t we? That’s quite astounding when you look back.

DINGLE: Yes, there were. Although I don’t think I saw more than one, before it fell apart. Bell had this gigantic rotary press on Jarvis Street which cost, I believe, $250,000 to bring up, and he had to fly the men up from Cleveland who were putting it all together and erecting it, and fly them back on Friday night. Poor guy was an absolute dynamo. I don’t know how he survived through that ordeal. He was a wonderful guy to work with. He was also so enthusiastic. THOMAS: He was, yes. And very active, always active, always going.

“Living In A World of Fantasy!” DS: How did it eventually end? It was obvious that somebody had to tell you that the color comics weren’t going to come out. Did you tell the artists, or did Cy Bell himself tell the artists when they came in? DINGLE: We were all pretty well in on it, we knew how it was going. I don’t think there were any secrets being held back from the artists at all. We knew that it was pretty close. And suddenly he came in and said, “No good, the bottom has dropped out of the American market, and Fawcett has broken the contract.” THOMAS: Of course, this happened all over Canada. Not just here in Toronto. There was a publisher in Vancouver…. DINGLE: Oh, sure. Same thing right across the board. Everyone lost their shirts, and their pants, and everything under the sun. So that was the end of it. PAT DINGLE: The reason why Adrian and his friends started Triumph Comics in the first place was because of the war. And because of the war, there was the restriction on American publications coming up to Canada. So no comic books came up to Canada at all, which left a void. That’s how they first started putting this together. I think it was about six or seven issues that you put out of Triumph. DINGLE: There were three or four of us who couldn’t get into the Army. My case was my ears. So we were all pretty well unemployed.

Nobody wanted an art battalion. We hoped. THOMAS: There was really nothing to advertise in those days, was there? DINGLE: No, but actually we thought we could be war artists or something like that, Bill. We got a large petition signed by a number of Toronto artists, and the result was just the usual “When we want lemon juice, we’ll ask for it.” So we didn’t have any luck there at all. So in desperation we all got together and started Triumph Comics on about a $400 budget, which was wrangled by the one and only backer. It was pretty tight. But it really began to blossom with Bell, anyway. I felt that Triumph Comics hadn’t died when Bell took it over. It had an extended lease of life, while the others didn’t. Of course, there were six or seven different books that we were working for [at Bell]. I was doing strips for each one of them. DS: Mr. Thomas, do you remember the first time you came into the Bell offices? THOMAS: Yes, I think I do. I came in with the first strip I’d ever tried to do in my life. And I brought it in and showed it to Adrian, and he accepted it right off the bat.

In Dingle’s “Nelvana” feature in Triumph-Adventure Comics #3, the heroine’s brother Tanero undergoes a weird transformation. Like, if she needed aerial transportation, there weren’t more likely choices than a flying Great Dane? John Bell’s Canuck Comics lists the original Hillborough Studios comic as publishing issues #1, 2, and 5, and there being no #3, 4, 6, or 7—with Bell Features assuming publication with #8 and shortening the title to simply Triumph Comics. Apparently the 3rd and 6th issues, at least, have surfaced since Canuck Comics was published in 1986. Thanks to Robert Pincombe. [Nelvana TM & ©2004 Nelvana, Ltd.]

Adrian & Pat Dingle and Bill Thomas DINGLE: Fred Kelly. Awfully nice guy. He became a medical draftsman. Then he went into real estate. THOMAS: Some of the boys were quite young, about sixteen. DINGLE: Jerry Lazare, for instance, was quite young. And he, of course, has now become a first-rate illustrator. And Ed Good… I never really met Ed Good. He had disappeared into the States when I came on the scene. So I was really taking Ed Good’s place [at Bell]. He had started things. PAT DINGLE: In the first Triumph, there was “Tang,” “Nelvana”… DINGLE: “Tang of the Western Plains”! And then a wacky one of an Air Force character called “Spanner Preston.” These names are strictly corn today. PAT DINGLE: And “Maxi and Mini Mum.” DINGLE: That was a Franz Johnson idea. Franz Johnson gave me that idea for a filler. I remember signing it with sort-of a pseudonym. The “Nelvana” strip was created from legend by Franz Johnson—the late Franz Johnson—who was a member of the Group of Seven painters. And he came back from an Arctic trip and he talked about this deific character called Nelvana. And he showed me a photograph [sic] of her. She was a horrible-looking old hag who was chewing her mukluks, just about ready for the bone yard. But the name stuck, and…

(Above:) Dingle’s cover for Wow Comics #21. Wonder if the quotation marks around “Wow” were meant to differentiate it from the Fawcett title—or were simply a recognition of the fact that the word reads like an exclamatory quote. (Right:) A Dingle-drawn 1945 house ad. Colossal Comics was made up of six issues of various Bell Features comics rebound in one volume. Thanks to Robert Pincombe for both photocopies. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

DINGLE: It was a terrific style. I was astounded. THOMAS: It had to be done over again because the line work was far too light, and a few things like this had to be corrected. So I redid it and brought it back again. From then on, it was just clear sailing. DS: How did most of your artists find the Bell offices? How did they find out that you needed artists? DINGLE: I don’t think there was any advertising done for artists by Bell. I think it was word of mouth. THOMAS: I think anyone who was interested at all took a look at the books in the store, looked at the address in the bottom, and showed up at the office. DINGLE: We had a lot of young kids coming down who didn’t stand a Chinaman’s chance. And they’d be bringing the stuff in, and then occasionally one had a spark and we’d cultivate that spark. PAT DINGLE: Who was that nice fellow who later became a medical artist?

“Living In A World of Fantasy!”

PAT DINGLE: Adrian changed her a bit. DINGLE: I changed her a bit. Did what I could with long hair and mini-skirts. And tried to make her an attractive-looking woman. The first issue was his own script, actually—where I got the dialogue, what the various names were for sleds and boots, and so forth. And he did a lot of translating from Eskimo so that we could get things started. Then, after that, I was on my own. Then we had to bring her up to date and put her into the war effort. And, of course, everything had to be very patriotic, didn’t it, Bill? PAT DINGLE: And, after that, we slipped in some Indian because we knew that the Canadian public wouldn’t know the difference between Indian and Eskimo in those days. And I had a book on Indian words. DINGLE: That helped a lot. And we had a detective strip, too, which my wife was very good at writing. She always wound the thing up at the end. This is nostalgic. PAT DINGLE: I wrote “Clue Catchers,” the detective story with the father-and-son detective team, and some of the one-page stories that we had which were just a printed story, not an illus(Right:) The recurring filler feature “The Mums—Maxie and Minny” was done by Adrian Dingle under the pseudonym “Jon Darian.” This specimen is from Triumph-Adventure #4, courtesy of Robert Pincombe. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

Bill Thomas also drew the quasi-“serious” feature “The Mongoose” in Dime Comics #22 (seen here) and #23, and in Active Comics. The Mongoose was a detective who was aided by his talking raven Tom. Thanks to John Bell and Darryl Gold. According to Darryl, “Thomas also did a humour feature in Dime called 'Chik ’N' Fuzz.’ It was well done, but unfortunately Fuzz was an African native drawn in solid black with big white lips.” [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

Adrian & Pat Dingle and Bill Thomas JB: You did change your style? DINGLE: A little bit, but not an awful lot. There wasn’t too much time for exploring. And as far as reference was concerned, I never had time for that. So I had to concoct my own characters. In the “Nelvana” strip, for example, there were the people under the frozen Arctic and the Ether people. It was fun trying to make up a new Shmoo of some kind. I guess, Bill, you were the same way, that whenever you thought of a character, you thought, “This is going to be immortal, it’s going to make me a big shot ijn the business.” We always thought we had the real thing, every time we invented something. As long as we thought that we were able to carry on. It was a very exciting time. It was a grand time. Wives and families were very tolerant, I think, in putting up with our constant lingo and jargon, because we were living this stuff and were part of it. And we felt very depressed when we couldn’t get the hero out of a tight spot for next month. Bell was the same way. He was living them all himself, too. He was living in a world of fantasy. PAT DINGLE: Definitely the characters were sort-of alive to us. DS: They say in the book The Great Canadian Comic Books that the artists used to retire to a bar somewhere and stand around and talk. Did you ever go with them, or were you supposed to be…

Pat Dingle wrote “Clue Catchers” as “Pat C.” The art was done by her husband under his “John Darian” pen name. Robert Pincombe sent us this page from Triumph-Adventure Comics #6, another “lost” issue. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

trated one. Some of those I wrote, but my heart wasn’t in them. I didn’t like doing them. I liked putting on the Ben-Day. DS: What about Murray Karn? He always drew like he was drawing from a model. He did “Thunderfist” for a couple of issues. DINGLE: Murray Karn? It was a rather static type of style. DS: It was very well done, and he did feathering beautifully. But it always looked like he was drawing from somebody who was standing still. DINGLE: Well, Dave, I don’t think any of us knew what the other guys were doing. We hadn’t much time. We hoped to get it through by Monday. That’s about the way it went. THOMAS: Mind you, he did nice work. DINGLE: Oh, yes, very nice work. It was very illustrative. But it was rather self-contained. I think he was quite wrapped up in his technique, rather than his content of drawing. JOHN BALGE: Mr. Dingle, how would you describe your own style? DINGLE: Hurried! No time for anything. I enjoyed trying to break up the pages a bit, having a continuity going through various shapes. And that sort-of broke up the monotony of the constant drawing—having to change your style a bit for various strips.

The Alex Raymond-influenced Thunderfist was clearly seen as a draw in Active Comics at the time this full-page house ad appeared in Dime Comics #3. Art by Murray Karn, script by E.T. Legault. Thanks to Robert Pincombe. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

“Living In A World of Fantasy!”

endeavor that was slightly connected to your own interests, that was the most marvelous thing in the world! We expected so little, we who grew up in the ’30s, because people starved. It was a bad time then. And there wasn’t any welfare, and social security and unemployment insurance, those things have all come since the war. So it was a frightening time. And if you had something to work at, you worked damn hard. Because anybody could fire you; there were also very few unions. DINGLE: And when you were working freelance, it was just as dicey. Because you’d be right down on your uppers and you had a $50 drawing and the boss would say, “I don’t like it—do it over again.” You’d go back and be very depressed and do it again for some reason or other. It was a tough school, but a very good one, I find. Drawing from imagination, if one can call it that, without very much time for research, has certainly, for me, provided a sort of mental retention by which I can see something and paint it later. Which has been very useful to me as a painter. I couldn’t have done it without this sort of experience. It’s very much like the court artists of the earlier days before photography, how they’d have to go in and draw like mad. C.W. Jeffreys, of course, developed his drawing ability tremendously through his court artwork. These things are useful, and I certainly

DINGLE: I don’t remember any bar contact at all. None of us could afford a beer. There were no bars then—beer parlors in a hotel, yes. But I never went to them and never had the time. I just took my stuff from the office back to my house, worked on it all night, and brought it down the next day. PAT DINGLE: He was supporting three hungry boys, one hungry dog, and a hungry wife. He didn’t have enough money to go to a bar! DINGLE: No way. I think that was a little bit of color such as one finds reminiscing the past. PAT DINGLE: Well, maybe the bachelors could do it. DINGLE: I think that Ted Steele and Bachle and Saakel, those three boys, clubbed together pretty well. And Bell would go out with them and have a beer. That’s possibly where the story started. But most of us didn’t have time. THOMAS: They used to say they worked all night and slept all day. DINGLE: And some of us worked all day and worked all night. But it’s fun seeing it come back. But I still can’t understand why. Some say, well, it’s a bit of Canadiana, and that’s possibly true. We loved doing it, that was the primary thing. PAT DINGLE: Plus the fact that it was just at the close of the horrible “dirty ’30s.” Anybody who was able to find something where they could make enough money to eat and subsist was absolutely overjoyed. And if it happened to be in some line of

Adrian & Pat Dingle and Bill Thomas

These two Dingle illustrations appeared in the book Logging with Paul Bunyan by John D. Robins, published in 1957 by the Ryerson Press of Toronto. Thanks to Darryl Gold. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

“Living In A World of Fantasy!”

35 don’t regret going through it. It was a very happy five-years-plus. I wish I had one page of artwork. I’d frame it and I’d insure it, take out a policy on it—I really would! [Dave Sim is the renowned creator, writer, and artist of Cerebus the Aardvark, one of the longestrunning alternate comics in the history of the field (it started in 1977!), and which has been collected in numerous big trade paperbacks that are well worth picking up and, better yet, actually reading. He was also the editor and chief interviewer of The Now and Then Times, in which this interview was originally printed.]

Under instructions from her father Koliak, a sort of gigantic Shazam-like figure, Nelvana and her faithful dog/brother Tanero get set to strike a blow for Inuit (then “Eskimo”) freedom in Triumph-Adventure Comics #3. Thanks yet again to Robert Pincombe. [Nelvana TM & ©2004 Nelvana, Ltd.]

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Canada’s Golden Age part three

“My Teacher Was Just Alex Raymond Strips” A Conversation with Canadian Comic Artist/Writer JERRY LAZARE

[A/E NOTE: This interview, too, appeared in Now and Then Times, Vol. 1, #2 (Oct. 1973), and was in all probability conducted by editor Dave Sim, with whose gracious permission it is reprinted. It has been slightly abridged. ©1973 Dave Sim. —Roy.] 1973 INTERVIEWER’S INTRO: The following interview was held at Jerry Lazare’s studio on Prince Arthur in Toronto in April of this year. Since his early years with Bell Features, Jerry has become a topnotch illustrator and a fine painter. At the time of this interview, he was preparing to embark on one of the most important projects of his career—an enormous mural in the National Art Gallery depicting the rise of civilization. After its completion, he wishes to spend one whole year just painting and then, hopefully, stage a one-man show at a Toronto gallery. —Dave Sim.

NOW AND THEN TIMES: When and where were you born, and do you recall your first inclination to being an artist? JERRY LAZARE: I was born in Toronto in 1927. The earliest recollection I have is that I had a half-brother, and he stayed with the family every once in a while. He wanted to draw just for fun from the big Saturday comic strip pages. I guess I was about four or five, and I remember lying on the floor when he was drawing and watching him. And then I started to fiddle around. That’s my first recollection of holding a pencil. When I got into high school, I read comics and was fascinated with the work of Alex Raymond [Flash Gordon], primarily because I thought he was such a great draftsman. The comics that were funny or

As shown on p. 12, Jerry Lazare’s creations Nitro and The Wing co-starred in at least one story… but they were basically solo features. This “Nitro” splash is from Dime Comics #25, and “The Wing” from Joke Comics #18. Provider Robert Pincombe writes re the former: “As you can see from the children’s illustrations [see p. 42], this is Lazare’s own style without so much swiping.” [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

Jerry Lazare into the illustration field with people like Albert Dorne—artists that weren’t into comics at all, but who were all great draftsmen and illustrators. There was another guy who influenced me tremendously and used to do a strip called The Spirit—Will Eisner. I think Lou Fine was involved with that strip. I went to New York after Dell folded to try and work down there. But when I went down, I found that I would have been drafted. I didn’t want to go into the Army, so I came back. One of the things that surprised me was that Will Eisner just penciled the pages and another guy did the inking. They showed me his penciled strips, which were just fantastic. The guy who inked them couldn’t do wrong, because they were so good. I had never heard of that before. I knew that one guy wrote them and another guy did the drawing, but I hadn’t realized that they had refined it to the point where one guy did the penciling and another did the inking. And this is the way Eisner did all of them—so they told me, anyway.

But strips like “Superman” and “Batman” I thought were poorly drawn. Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon Sunday newspaper comic strip, which began on January 7, 1934, Compared to guys like Raymond or was a huge influence on early comic book artists—and most especially on Jerry Lazare. This sterling Eisner, those guys were nowhere, I sample appeared on June 7, 1936. [©2004 King Features Syndicate.] thought. I was just interested in the people who drew well. [Harold] Foster was one the people who didn’t draw well—and a lot of them didn’t—didn’t of them and [Burne] Hogarth was another, but Raymond beat them all, I interest me. thought. I wasn’t alone. A lot of other people did, too. Raymond’s Flash Gordon was by far the most copied strip, and I guess Caniff’s strips N&TT: You became interested in art, then, as a result of comic strips? would be next. LAZARE: Yes, and primarily Raymond, just because he made things N&TT: What did you think of the style of work in New York? looks so real. And he was, I think, a great artist. But as I went on, I discovered that he was influenced by Matt and Benton Clark and the LAZARE: The atmosphere looked pretty hack when I went down there. whole field of illustration. Stan Drake, for instance, was an illustrator, The artists were all lined up in one big room like a bullpen. I had been and I saw his work long before he did Heart of Juliet Jones. Noel used to working on my own—writing it and drawing it, doing the whole Sickles, who was really the guy whose style Milt Caniff aped, is a bit myself. There I would have just been doing penciling or inking. It tremendous illustrator today. He’s illustrated for The Saturday Evening just didn’t look that thrilling to me, and I was worried about the draft Post and all the major magazines. there. Now, it would be just the last thing in the world I’d want to do. I would spend, between the ages of nine and ten until I entered high N&TT: How did you first come in contact with Bell Features? school at thirteen, a lot of time in the evenings, because I was the only child in the family and, I guess, to a certain extent a loner, sitting and LAZARE: I was in third form [equivalent of a US high school junior]. I sketching while I listened to radio programs. A lot of the inspiration I don’t know why I did it, but, for some reason I saw the Bell Features as got was from radio shows—something that wasn’t visual, things like The the Canadian comics were coming out. So I sent in some pencil Shadow and Sam Spade and I Love a Mystery. I used to sit, and things drawings, and about a week later I got a phone call from Cy [Bell] I heard on the radio I would try and draw. Or I would just copy saying, “Do you want to do a strip?” I didn’t expect anything. I was still Raymond’s style. going to high school and I just wanted criticism—what they thought of N&TT: Besides Raymond, who influenced your art? LAZARE: My influences were almost exclusively Raymond, because I never liked Caniff’s style that much. My partner Lew [Parker] knew Caniff, and he also did cartoons for Stars and Stripes [U.S. servicemen’s newspaper] during the war. He never got into the comic strips in the Bell Features area at all, though. I liked Frank Robbins, the guy who is very much like Caniff. After about the third or fourth year, I began to look at magazines and became interested in illustrators, and I realized where Alex Raymond stemmed from, and I saw Noel Sickles’ work. My influence then went

the drawing. Around that time, I started to think seriously about an art career in comic strips. I spoke to my parents about leaving school and going to an art school, but they didn’t like the idea at all.

When I went down to see Cy, Murray Karn, I think it was, had just been drafted. Cy said, “Would you like to take over ‘Jeff Waring’?” and I said, “Sure. Great.” So I tried to do the strip in the evenings and on weekends, and my marks just went whump! So it was either quit school and do comic strips or go to art school. My parents realized how serious I was, so they talked to the principal, and he said, “Look, I think he should go to a technical school.” I didn’t really last that long at the “tech,” because the whole cult that has grown up around comics was

“My Teacher Was Just Alex Raymond Strips” unheard of then—no one cared. I didn’t attend art schools at all until much later on. I was completely self-taught. No one helped me. I didn’t know any artists. My teacher was just Alex Raymond strips, and that’s all. I just took them out and copied them and learned what I did from that. N&TT: Do you remember the first time you went into the Bell offices on York Street? LAZARE: No, I don’t remember the first time, but I do remember the office. It was a long time ago, and I just vaguely remember the offices and the plant. I remember I was very young and nervous, full of humility. I was just amazed that anyone would want to buy the stuff. The other people there were mostly a few years older. They were guys who, at that point, were beginning to feel their oats, and when they got paid they went down the street and had beer at the local pub. I was just too young to do that, so I used to go home. By the time it folded, I was still only about nineteen. With Fred [Kelly]—he was much older, about twenty-seven—I sort-of learned about drinking and had my first game of poker when I had the studio with Fred. N&TT: What did you think of the others artists at Bell Features? LAZARE: The people I knew at Bell were hacks as far as I was concerned. They were just out to make a dollar and were living out a fantasy of drawing comics. There were no people except maybe [Adrian] Dingle or a few others who had, I thought—and I realize what I’m saying here is kind of alarming people—any creative ability. This is not technically true. Some of them, like the guy who went into show business [Leo Bachle], were obviously creative people. But they didn’t draw well, and they didn’t go to art school. Dingle came into the thing

as a painter—a man who had gone to art school and studied. He obviously had a lot of training. He was older, for one thing. We were just kids then. I was sixteen, and Ted Steele and people like that were maybe a little older, like Fred Kelly, whom I finally got a studio with after about a year working on strips for Bell. But most of them, I don’t think, were interested in furthering an art career, in learning how to draw well. They’d copy American strips—swipe them. I don’t want to say everybody was like that, because obviously Dingle wasn’t, but a lot were. I remember one of the turning points for me came when I was still swiping Raymond’s work. One day I took my stuff in and Dingle said, “You ought to quit doing this. You’re just swiping his stuff!” I went away and I thought, “You know, he’s right.” So I just put aside all of the Raymond strips and I tried to do it on my own. N&TT: Were you a fast illustrator? LAZARE: I don’t know if I was fast or not. I wasn’t slow. I was just as fast as anyone else, actually. I think Ted Steele and Leo Bachle were faster, but I never used a projector when I copied. The way I copied or swiped was to just have the strip in front of me and draw it or try to fit things together. And after that session with Dingle, I just stopped completely. I think the next time I brought a strip in, Dingle was absolutely shocked at the quality, because it just went right down. I had a very hard time after I decided to stop swiping, and from that point on I just did everything out of my head. However, I discovered when I got into illustration that you don’t do that—you use models or reference. From that day on, I never swiped another person’s art. Later I worked from photographs, but I didn’t on the strips. I either swiped Raymond or I made it up. Actually, when you start drawing on your own, you eventually speed up. With swiping, I think you slow yourself down, almost. When I got into advertising, I got a reputation for being very fast. The guys who would take a whole story and really steal it were very fast because, heck, that would be easy. My penciling was reasonably tight. N&TT: Did you write the story as you drew it? LAZARE: I used to write out a rough draft for the story. I wouldn’t write out every word, but I used to write a plot. Then I’d do it page by page. I’d start the story and then think of what they were going to say in the balloon. We did everything. We did our own lettering and our own stories. I don’t know if the other guys hired people to write the stories. Fred Kelly and I used to collaborate. We used to get together and talk about ideas. We didn’t work on each other’s strips physically, but we used to talk over what we were doing. Any two people together will. I was always looking for ideas, always trying to figure out plots, and I used to get a terrific kick out of the writing. (Left:) The splash to this “Jeff Waring” story by Lazare from Wow Comics #23 was seen on p. 12. Thanks to Robert Pincombe. (Above:) This considerably slicker panel with Jeff’s ladyfriend, reproduced in Hirsh and Loubert’s 1973 The Great Canadian Comic Books, reveals a heavy Alex Raymond influence in both penciling and inking. But, since Lazare says he quit swiping Raymond on some stage, at which point the quality “just went right down,” which is the earlier art? [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

Jerry Lazare just sort of on the outskirts of it all. When I was doing nine strips, I was working very hard, and I did that for about a year before it folded. I’d like to stress that that is the reason the strips have an appeal now— because they are strips about the war. The strips that would apply today aren’t as important to people like the National Gallery of Canada. N&TT: In your work for Bell, did you ever consciously inject patriotism into your stories in order to sell them? LAZARE: I don’t remember anyone ever telling me to put anything in the strip that said “Canada First” or “Our Boys Overseas” or anything like that, except maybe “Air Woman” had a bit of it. But when I was doing “Drummy Young,” any mention of the war was strictly accidental, because it was a part of our lives. It wasn’t an act of patriotism at all. It would be with Leo [Bachle], because his strips dealt directly with the war. N&TT: Were you ever worried about the financial situation at Bell, whether or not they were going under? LAZARE: No, I never knew anything about the finances at Bell. I was just a kid, and Cy didn’t tell me about such things. He might have with Ted and those people, because he used to go out and drink with them, but I never associated with him. Cy never told me about finances, so I didn’t worry about it at all. N&TT: But the question of money did enter into your decision to take the job as a fulltime comic artist. LAZARE: No, I didn’t take it because I needed money at all. But the

N&TT: After you stopped swiping Raymond, do you think you had a distinctive style? LAZARE: No. I didn’t think very much of my work at all. I didn’t really like it until very late on, when I felt something coming. Then I started to get pride in my work. But that only happened near the end. They had a party at Peter Martin’s place when The Great Canadian Comic Books hardcover was released. There was one “Air Woman” page—they had a whole mock display with curtains that they drew back. This was the first time I had seen things that I couldn’t remember ever doing. These were so far back that it was like looking at another person’s work, so I was very objective. A friend of mine was there and he thought the “Air Woman” was great—the best one there. I tried looking at it objectively; it was easy and I felt differently. I felt, “It’s not bad for sixteen or seventeen.” I teach, and if I have a student who can do black-&-white that well, I’d think it isn’t bad at all. But then, I thought it was terrible. It retrospect it’s not bad. One of the last strips I did was a color one called “Master Key.” I think I did just one or two before it folded. At that point, I thought I was drawing better than I ever had. N&TT: Of the strips you drew, which were your favorites? LAZARE: The strip I liked that I did was “The Dreamer,” which is a take-off on the Morpheus and sleep thing. I did “Drummy Young” because I was crazy about jazz. I still love jazz. I didn’t get into the war thing much at all. I don’t know why. I came along fairly late. Cy had been going for quite a while, and he had quite a stable of artists. I was

“My Teacher Was Just Alex Raymond Strips” change from that time to my early days as an illustrator was fantastic. At the end, I was earning around $90 a week, which in those days, for 1819, was a lot of dough for someone who didn’t work too much. I mean, I worked hard, but mostly my time was my own. After comics, when I went into commercial art and illustration, as soon as they saw my comic samples, they said, “Your drawing isn’t bad, but you’re going to have to get that comic strip stuff out of your blood. That’s terrible!” So I had to change my whole approach, and I started at, like, $25 a week as an apprentice illustrator at a studio. It was a struggle for two or three years before I became a senior illustrator, where I’d be earning $150 to $200 a week. There was quite a letdown from comics to that, because I was beginning to feel, “Wow! Ninety bucks a week, and this is going to go on and on!” N&TT: How deep was your interest in comic art? Did you see it as a new, experimental art form? LAZARE: I didn’t see it as an experimental art form. That phrase “experimental art form” is, to me, practically contemporary. No one talked about it in the sense that you talk about it. The fact that the work that I did at Bell is being sent around by the National Gallery of Canada I find kind-of shocking, to tell you the truth. I don’t want to put comics down, because I think they are an art form, but, to me, most comic strip artists are not good artists in the gallery or illustrative sense. They’re creators and they create either humorous or adventure strips, but they are not men who will go any further. Stan Drake hasn’t progressed, as far as I’m concerned, from the 1950s when he began Juliet Jones. It’s a

different kind of art form. The reason I like it is because as a kid I could act out my fantasies and feelings through a strip. I could write the kind of adventure story I might hear on the radio. I’ve always loved mystery stories, and I’ve always loved books like Treasure Island. To be able to draw and write for other people was something I got a terrific kick out of. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was obviously mad to draw well. I’ve always loved looking at good drawing, and I’ve always admired people who could draw a figure beautifully. That’s really my main goal. If I hadn’t been picked up by Bell, I probably would have gone to art school to learn how to draw in the traditional sense. N&TT: Did your artwork for the Bell comic books have any effect on your artwork after the war? LAZARE: I think comics gave me a head start in black-&-white illustration. As an apprentice illustrator, you get a lot of black-&-white work, and I knew how to spot blacks, and I had a feeling for using a pen and a brush. I knew nothing about color and I never had any training. I took the “Famous Artists” course years later, and I now teach at the Ontario College of Art and at Humber [College], and I teach color. But it evolved from developing it on my own. I’ve often said I wished I hadn’t gone into comics and just had a traditional art training, but Lew and a number of others say I don’t really realize how that helped me in getting into black-&-white illustration, and they’re probably right. I’m sure it would help anyone.

These two “Drummy Young” splash pages, from Dime Comics #22 & #25 respectively, show first the swiping from Alex Raymond (note in particular the technique in the final panel at left), and in the latter, as provider Robert Pincombe puts it, “Lazare’s own style is starting to come out here.” The feature gave the writer/artist a chance to utilize his love of jazz; at the end of some stories, there are caricatures and brief profiles of musicians such as Woody Herman. And wasn’t there a “Trummy Young” who played jazz trombone with Louis Armstrong at one time? Ye Editor recalls his appearing with Louis and Bing Crosby in the great 1956 MGM movie musical High Society. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

Jerry Lazare

N&TT: Why did the Bell Features comic books fail, even the color ones? LAZARE: I thought when Bell went into color that it was a good thing. We got more money to begin with. It seemed like we could compete. He didn’t go from black-&-white to color for aesthetic reasons; he did it because he thought he could compete with the Americans. I have no preferences between the two. I think it’s harder to do a good black-&white drawing than it is to do a color one, often because when we did the color, instead of worrying about the texture or some of the line work, we could fill in with color. So it made it easier, in a way. But I don’t think he would have succeeded. I think the writing was on the wall. The Canadian comics weren’t as good, I don’t think, as the American comics. The sort of nostalgia about Canada in the war—the important thing there is the war—is a result of the content being uniquely Canadian. Canadian soldiers were Canadian; the artists who did the strips were Canadian. To that extent they’re unique. But it ends there. The quality wasn’t as good and the ideas weren’t any better. I think Dingle was a guy who could’ve done a strip in the States and have been successful, because he was, I think, the best of the group. He was older and he knew more about drawing and painting. I don’t know

Among his fellow Canadian comic book artists, Jerry Lazare seemed to think most highly of Adrian Dingle. In one case, facing-page illustrations by both men appeared in the same volume: Great Stories of Canada, which collected the two books The Bold Heart by Josephine Phelan (about Louis Riel) and Redcoat Sailor by well-known Canadian biographer R.S. Lambert (the adventures of Sir Howard Douglas). An example of Lazare’s illustrations for the former is seen above, and of Dingle’s for the latter at right. Thanks to Robert Pincombe. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

about his ideas for the strips; I’m pretty foggy on that. But, there again, he was mad about Frank Robbins. He thought Johnny Hazard was the greatest for style and approach. We were eclectic. We weren’t originators, and I think that’s the important thing. Some of the people who went on—I think Dingle’s a good painter now in a different world, doing a different thing—became originators. Then we were eclectic, and any value we had stemmed from the stuff we copied. That’s how I feel about it.

N&TT: Were the Bell comics a freak occurrence in Canadian culture? LAZARE: Yes. Maybe I’ll change my mind, but I like people who are as fanatical as I was about Raymond’s work, and collectors, because I go to shops and collect anything I can find on Frankenstein. But I think the pretentious thing about it being an intrinsic part of our culture is a lot of crap. I think it’s a sort of folk thing and is fun, but I don’t think it’s important. Yes, that’s a contradiction, because, as a young boy, it was my whole world. I used to just live for the next issue of a certain comic, and I still feel quite nostalgic about it. But I don’t really like the way it’s being pushed. I don’t mean the magazine you put out, because I’m interested in collectors and fans, but I don’t like the idea of the National Gallery sending around a show of Canadian comic strips. There are painters out there who are fantastic artists who are starving and would just love to have a show of their work going around. Instead, they send around comic strips that were, a lot of them, swiped from American strips. It seems ridiculous to me. But the idea of publishing books like the ones I saw at Cosmic Con appeals to me, because it feeds your imagination. It’s just when people like the National Gallery get involved that it seems pretentious to me. It just didn’t seem like that great a thing. We didn’t really feel like that about them at the time, like “We’re doing something for Canada.” Either, as in my case, we wanted to draw well, or we wanted

“My Teacher Was Just Alex Raymond Strips”

Whether drawing the early-1940s “Air Woman” for Bell’s Triumph Comics, or contributing years later to books for so-called “young people,” such as the frontier illustrations below, Jerry Lazare made his mark in both areas. And who is he—or we—to say which, in the long run, will be of the greater importance and permanence? The latter art is from Hunters of the North by John E. Hood (1966). Thanks to Robert Pincombe. [“Air Woman” art ©2004 the respective copyright holders; book art © 1966, 2004 J.M. Dent & Sons, Ltd.]

this author’s point on communication. I lived in England for a year, and some of the samples I showed them showed a comic strip feeling, and they were mad about comic strips in England at that point, using them as an ad form. So I did a lot of comic strip work then. I know and follow Peanuts and B.C. I don’t know the name of the guy who does Dr. Kildare, but I think he’s a great draftsman. He draws very well and spots his blacks beautifully. Aesthetically the strip is great. [NOTE: Lazare probably meant Ken Bald. —Roy.] I don’t follow them in the comic books any more, but I was at the convention at York [University—1972’s Cosmic Con] because they asked me to go to talk about Canadian comics. I sort-of looked at everything that was going on. After Bell went out of business, I tried for about a year to get into comics, and then my whole interest in comics completely went, and I just wanted to be the greatest illustrator in the world. I got into magazines and, instead of going to see comic strip artists, I went to see illustrators. With people like Sickles, there was a merging to a certain extent. Albert Dorne was a man who really had a very good black-&white style that would have fit the comics beautifully.

the money or the ego thing of having the strips printed. We weren’t doing it for the country. N&TT: What do you think are the possibilities of Canadian comic books being published today? LAZARE: I wish we did have Canadian comic books, because there are a lot of students at the college every year who like comics and want to draw comics. I wish we had a comics culture field here that they could go into so they didn’t have to go to the States. I think it’s all money and supply and demand. You can’t compete, or rather no one wants to. I think publishers in Canada tend to be notoriously conservative people. They only publish when they’re sure they are going to make profits, or just about sure. They won’t take a flyer. N&TT: Do you follow today’s comic strips to any great extent? LAZARE: I tend to follow the school, because I still have a feeling for it. It’s entered my commercial work. People have seen some of my old strips, and they’ll phone me up. Like last year the University of Toronto phoned me up to do a comic strip for a book on communication. So I did the comic strip without balloons. It was didactic to the extent that I was not telling a story but illustrating

Then I got interested in painting and fine arts. I just completely dropped any interest in comics except for nostalgia that I’ve always had about Raymond. The rest of the field didn’t mean that much to me. Ten years ago, I cleaned out my basement and I threw out every scrapbook I had from the time when I used to cut out every day’s strips. I threw out all my scrapbooks, all my comic books, which I wish I hadn’t now, because I had all the original Action Comics, etc., everything. I kept the Big Little Books. I have the first dailies of Rip Kirby. I was really sad the day Alex Raymond died, because it was like something out of the past. It’s a real love. I’d never forget him or what he meant to me.

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

MGILBERT@EFN.ORG

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

Canada’s Golden Age part four

Comic Crypt

FRED KELLY: An Appreciation by Michael T. Gilbert Even after 30 years as a cartoonist, the legends of yesteryear still inspire me. I can’t imagine how many hours I’ve spent poring over the works of Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman, Steve Ditko, and other comic book giants. But few cartoonists have had a greater impact on me than Fred Kelly. Kelly was one of many young cartoonists during Canada’s brief but wonderful Golden Age of the 1940s. He drew a variety of oddball features including “Active Jim,” “Steve Storms,” “Betty Burd,” and “Clip Curtis.” But most important, Fred Kelly created the Golden Age “Mr. Monster.” We’ll get back to that monster-hunting hero in a minute. But first, some background on my “Mr. Monster,” and the debt I owe Fred Kelly. Back in 1983, I was busy working on the Elric of Melniboné comic for Pacific Comics. Paul Craig Russell and I split the art chores, while Roy Thomas adapted Michael Moorcock’s sword-and-sorcery stories and novels. During some downtime between issues, Pacific Comics editor Dave Scroggy invited me to create a new character for Vanguard Illustrated, their new anthology title. With a short deadline looming, I searched through my collection, hoping to find something to spark my imagination. That something turned out to be “Mr. Monster.”

Fred Kelly’s first “Doc Stearne” strip appeared in Wow #26 (at left). Its ongoing storyline featured ancient Vikings helping Doc battle evil brain-men, prehistoric cave-giants, and bloodthirsty Japanese kamikazes. The story began in Wow #26 and continued through #30, the final issue of that title. However, after Wow’s demise, Kelly’s Viking storyline concluded in Commando Comics #21. From there, Doc skipped to Triumph Comics. Triumph #31, the final issue, featured a new storyline in which Jim Stearne became Mr. Monster. The black-&-white story concluded in full color in Super Duper Comics #3. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

I’ve told this story before, so I’ll keep it short. Twelve years earlier, I had found an old coverless comic while rummaging through a bin of battered Golden Age titles at a New York comic con. Fred Kelly’s “Mr. Monster” was the lead feature, followed by “Nelvana of the North,” “Tang the Wonder Horse,” and a politicallyincorrect black kid named “Java Bean.” Years later, I learned my coverless gem was the Canadian Super Duper Comics, but at the time I was clueless.

Fred Kelly: An Appreciation

47 trademarks), I created a new character from the old, altering his costume and almost everything else. Slim, raven-haired Jim Stearne (the original Mr. Monster’s alter ego) became blond, hyper-steroid Dr. Strongfort S. Stearn. Ironically, years after the fact, I discovered that Kelly’s Stearne had originally been blond, too; Kelly had changed Doc’s hair from blond to jet-black when he transformed Doc Stearne into Mr. Monster. Decades later, I accidentally changed him back! Everything else was created from scratch, including Stearne Mansion, and a bevy of monsters for Doc to tangle with. I even invented a gal Friday for Mr. Monster—christening her Kelly Friday in honor of Fred Kelly. In July 1984 my first “Mr. Monster” story appeared in Vanguard Illustrated # 7. “The Case of the Reluctant Werewolf” featured inks by Bill Loebs and lettering by Ken Bruzenak. The same team worked with me when Mr. Monster got his very own book a year later, courtesy of Eclipse Publishing. Dozens of Mr. Monster comics, specials, and spin-offs followed. All because of Fred Kelly. So who was this mysterious cartoonist? Unfortunately, not much information about him is available. Even books exclusively devoted to Canadian comics, like John Bell’s Canuck Comics and Michael Hirsh and Patrick Loubert’s The Great Canadian Comic Books, shed little light on the subject. Here’s what I do know:

The striking 1947 “The Terror Of Trezma” splash page above was the first to feature Mr. Monster. It appeared in color in Super Duper Comics #3. When Dark Horse reprinted the story without color forty years later (in Mr. Monster #2), Michael T. Gilbert added these grey-tones. [restored art ©2004 Michael T. Gilbert.]

Nonetheless, I instantly fell in love with Mr. Monster. Fred Kelly’s simple, powerful art hit a nerve, and I really liked this single-minded hero whose sole purpose in life was to kill monsters. Now I had the opportunity to bring him back, and I went for it. I wanted to keep the character’s essence, but update it for a new generation. At the time I figured “Mr. Monster” was safely up for grabs, after lying in limbo for almost 40 years. But just to make sure (and to secure copyrights and

Kelly worked mostly for Bell Publishing in Toronto, producing art for Triumph Comics, Joke Comics, Active Comics, and similar titles, probably beginning in late 1943. His work also appeared in Canadian Heroes for Educational Projects, a Montrealbased comic publisher. Kelly’s comics covered a wide variety of subjects, including two jungle features, “Steve Storms” (in Joke Comics) and “Perils of the Jungle” (in Triumph). The latter series starred Betty Burd, a Sheena wannabe. In The Great Canadian Comic Books, authors Hirsh and Loubert briefly discuss the two strips:

Comic Crypt “Steve Storms, the clear-thinking, monocled diplomat commissioner of Kilbary, was Fred Kelly’s attempt to portray a more human and realistic jungle. The strip was, however, extremely shortlived despite certain fine qualities that should have stayed its perfunctory execution.” As for Kelly’s other jungle strip, they state: “Betty Burd, a young authoress writing a book on jungle life, goes bikini-native in JuJu swamp to gather material. She divides her time between narrow escapes from the jungle wildlife and battles against the advances of Dick Lake, her publisher and hopeful suitor. In general, the strip was a poor imitation of its more illustrious American predecessors, Sheena and Jo-Jo of the Jungle.” Indeed, both strips have a distinctly Matt Baker feel to them, and would have fit in quite nicely at Fiction House, Sheena’s own company. Kelly also drew two sports features, “Clip Curtis” and “Active Jim.” “Active Jim” (not to be confused with “Looie Lazybones”!) appeared in Active Comics (not to be confused with America’s own Action Comics!). Hirsh and Loubert had this to say about the energetic guy: “Active Jim had his own adventure story in every issue of Active Comics. Joan Brian was his girl friend—and also the club secretary. In a number of adventures drawn by Ross Saakel, Jim proved to be the most sensational sportsman of all time.” Kelly’s other sports strip appeared in Wow Comics. It featured hot-rod racer Clip Curtis, drawn in Kelly’s pleasingly-direct art style.

(Above and right:) “Steve Storms” and “Perils of the Jungle,” two of Kelly’s junglethemed series. “Steve” appeared in Joke Comics, while Betty Burd, the star of “Perils,” strutted her stuff in Triumph Comics. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

But Kelly’s most intriguing strip was a Doc Savage knock-off titled “Doc Stearne.” Dr. Jim Stearne was a modern-day twofisted adventurer who fought ancient Vikings and the like with the help of Professor Edwin Gale and his lovely daughter Gloria. Kelly drew this strip for a number of Bell titles, including Wow, Triumph, and Commando Comics. The strip itself was a fairly nondescript adventure series. However, the tone changed dramatically in Triumph Comics’ final issue. Triumph #31, published in 1946, heralded a new direction for “Doc Stearne.” Kelly drew a striking picture of a woman in chains cowering as a monster in the foreground reaches towards her! A headline above the picture screams: “The NEW adventures of Doc Stearne as MR. MONSTER!” Whew!

Fred Kelly: An Appreciation

As the story unfolds, a woman has been discovered wandering the streets, dazed. When Dr. Jim Stearne arrives at General Hospital, his colleague explains the situation. “Shock victim. She’s been badly frightened. We thought your knowledge of psychiatry might help, Doctor!” After Stearne injects her with a sedative, she mumbles an address, leading Doc to a mansion owned by a creepy guy named Drake. Drake plays innocent, but Stearne “fixes his eyes on him with a hypnotic stare” and forces him to come clean. The guy leads Stearne to a coffin with his dead wife lying inside. Drake tells Stearne she died in India and that “I couldn’t live without her… so a fakir did something to the body that gives her a semblance of life.” Uh, riiiiight! Drake claims the girl in the hospital was a servant who went into shock when she saw his wife. Drake gets a bit of a shock himself when the little lady suddenly springs to life and grabs him by the neck. She then leaps out the 3rd floor window, killing them both before Doc can stop her. Stearne deduces that Drake lied about his wife’s death and believes she was actually alive, “but kept in a death-like trance.” Intrigued by the experience, Stearne begins to study books on the occult and determines that many superstitions are based on fact. “This is the work for me!” he declares. “I’m going to spend my life tracking down these weird creatures!!” He then spends two months traveling “to the darkest corners of the world to learn its blackest secrets!!” If his vacation time hadn’t run out, he’d probably still be there.

When Stearne returns, his fellow sawbones rib him. “I think it’s about time we gave our demon-chaser a nickname!” jokes one wag. “How about Mister Monster, boys??” “Very funny!” snorts Doc. But the name sticks. In the second-tolast panel, a battered, bandaged Stearne sketches something. “That last encounter banged me up a bit. I’d better design some kind of uniform for protection. Light chain-mail would be the best bet!!” Another striking Fred Kelly splash, this time featuring racer Clip Curtis from Wow Comics. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

Comic Crypt Indeed it is! The last panel shows Mr. Monster in full uniform (sans the skull emblem shown on the cover and splash page). A caption reads: “READY FOR ACTION!!” A caption below screams: “DON’T MISS!! The first thrilling FULL-COLOUR adventures of Mister Monster as he meets … The Terror of Trezma… in Unusual Comics. They’ll be coming soon!” Unusual Comics never appeared, at least not under that title. But in May 1947 “The Terror of Trezma” did appear in “FULL-COLOUR” in Super Duper Comics # 3. Actually that was Super Duper’s first and only issue. But hey, who’s counting? “The Terror of Trezma” featured a fast-moving 8-page adventure, and remains the only actual Golden Age story featuring Mr. Monster in costume. Then the series died. So what happened? During World War II, Canadians banned American comics, leaving the field open for their own comics to thrive. After the war, the full-color American comics returned, driving out the cheaper, mostly black-&-white Canadian comics. Most simply couldn’t compete, and Canada’s home-grown comics slowly disappeared. John Bell discusses this in this issue’s lead article, and had this to say in his 1986 book, Canuck Comics: “By early 1947 Bell and at least one or two other reprint firms were operating in Canada. They were joined by three intrepid publishers issuing a handful of original, full-colour Canadian comics: Superior Publishers, F.E. Howard Publications, and Export Publications. All of these companies were located in Toronto. “Determined to keep the Golden Age alive, F. E. Howard, which had published Captain Commando and the Boy Soldiers in 1945, obtained the rights to various Bell Features characters, including Fred Kelly’s Mr. Monster. Published under the titles Super Duper and Dizzy Don, they were distributed in both Canada and the US. Export, which had been responsible for a oneshot Canadian fantasy pulp, Eerie Tales, issued an educational comic book, Captain Hobby Comics, in February 1947 and similarly arranged for distribution south of the border. However, as was the case with Howard, Export’s foray into the production of original comics was short-lived. American competition proved to be too overwhelming.” As their own comics were canceled, a few Canadian cartoonists continued their work in America. Most went into commercial art or other fields. Kelly appears to be among the latter. Canadian cartoonist Ronn Sutton recently contacted Robert MacMillian, a long-time comic book scholar with an extensive collection of Canadian comics. MacMillian has also staged art exhibits featuring Canadian comic art and contributed a chapter to John Bell’s Canuck Comics book. Earlier this year, Ronn talked to Mr. MacMillian about Fred Kelly. MacMillian’s comments are brief, but provide some tantalizing information on Kelly’s This evocative splash is from Triumph #31, the first “Mr. Monster” story—sort of! Mr. Monster only makes a cameo appearance on the last page. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

Fred Kelly: An Appreciation

post-comics career. Here’s part of Ronn’s e-mail to me: “Also, after a bit of detective work I tracked down Robert MacMillian. He said he’d had no personal contact with Fred Kelly, although he has found a number of the old Canadian Whites artists over the years. Leo Bachle (who did Wild Bill, Southpaw, Johnny Canuck, The Brain and many more) told him Kelly had gone into real estate and he didn’t want to talk about comics anymore. “He [MacMillian] said he’d hit a ‘dead end’ trying to track down Kelly years earlier.” Another collector, Robert Pincombe, adds: “Kelly is also mentioned in a circa 1973 Dave Sim article from the fanzine The Now and Then Times. Sim interviewed Adrian and Pat Dingle and Bill Thomas, who all worked for Bell. In that interview, printed a few pages back in this very issue of A/E, they state that Fred was an “awfully nice guy” who later became a medical draughtsman and then went into real estate. Unless more information turns up in the future, this may remain the final word on the elusive Fred Kelly. Like so many other comic book artists, he worked in the field briefly, then moved on. His comics are all that remain. But he’s hardly forgotten. Certainly not by me. And not by Mr. Monster, either. And certainly not by the thousands of children who thrilled to the adventures of Doc Stearne, Active Jim, and the other characters Fred Kelly drew during Canada’s Golden Age of Comics. From all of us, a very heartfelt “Thank you!” Mr. Kelly—wherever you may be! Crypt Update: Way back in Alter Ego #31 & #32, we discussed the mysterious origins of two 1959 black-&-white horror magazines, Eerie Tales and Weird Mysteries—long forgotten now, but the first in that format, preceding Warren’s Creepy and Eerie by half a decade. The publisher and editor of these historic oddities was unknown, but the Crypt concluded that the most likely suspect was Robert Sproul, publisher of Cracked, assisted by Atlas production ace Sol Brodsky. Since those pieces appeared, we discovered that was not the case. Happily, as a result of our article, the real mastermind behind these magazines was uncovered… and Jim Simon, son of Joe Simon of Simon & Kirby fame, has the story on the other side of this issue of A/E. Before we go (and while we’re on the subject!), let me heartily recommend Joe and Jim Simon’s wonderful 1990 book The Comic Book Makers. It’s one of the most entertaining comic book histories I’ve ever read––and I’ve read a lot! Vanguard Press has recently reprinted it, and I encourage you to give it a try. The Comic Book Makers is a book no true comic fan should miss. Til next time…

Canada’s Golden Age part five

Les Barker, a.k.a. Leo Bachle: The Astounding, True Life Adventures of Johnny Canuck!

by Robert Pincombe [NOTE: This is the opening page of a pitch document prepared for a documentary film on Les Barker, known during his days as a Canadian comic book artist as Leo Bachle. It was used to interest producers, broadcasters, and funding agencies in the development of the project. There was no room in this issue for Mark Shainblum and Mike Aragona’s taped 1995 talk with Barker/Bachle, so this “one-sheet” will have to whet your appetite for the full interview a few issues from now. —Roy.] “Ach! Fools… you promise arrest, but dot svine Canuck goes on destroying our war machine!” —Johnny Canuck’s Number One Fan, Adolf Hitler. It is the early days of World War II, and fifteen yearold Leo Bachle is determined to meet the Axis threat head-on. Providing a false birthdate, the boy enlists in the Canadian Army. But our underage hero is ratted out by a local woman who spots him marching in a farmer’s field. Leo is discharged, little realizing the snitch may have saved his life. Most of his regiment will go on to die at Dieppe. But her actions also save the life of one of Canada’s greatest propaganda weapons against the Axis horde… JOHNNY CANUCK! At the young age of sixteen, Leo Bachle created comic book hero Johnny Canuck: the embodiment of his boyhood dreams of heroism drawn in Leo’s own image. Leo parlayed that success into a big-time comic book career in New York. But he wasn’t satisfied with following a career path others had already walked, so he created his own. Utilizing one of his many inventions, Leo changed his name to Les Barker and created a unique, immensely popular act called “Quick on the Draw.” It combined stand-up with lightning-quick caricatures, animations, and off-the-cuff audience interaction. Les compared his act to Victor Borges’, only instead of playing a piano, he drew on his overhead. The uniqueness of Les’ act assured his success; he went from performing at drive-in theatres to the top nightclubs of the world, rubbing shoulders with some of the most famous people in show business.

Johnny Canuck was not a costumed super-hero—yet for some reason he sports a costume and cape, complete with initialed belt, on this Leo Bachle splash from Dime Comics #3. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

Les Barker’s life was a triumph of ingenuity and humour in the face of adversity. Les Barker: The Astounding, True Life Adventures of Johnny Canuck will be an insightful portrait of this underappreciated Canadian icon, from his roots on the streets of Toronto during the Great Depression, to the nightclub circuits of Canada and the world in the ’50s, ’60s, and its dying days in the ’70s. Les and his wife Lucy provide us with a humourous inside look behind the scenes of the vibrant Canadian entertainment scene, including some startling revelations about some of its biggest stars! Older viewers will be transported back to the days of their youth and younger viewers will have their imaginations captured by the man whose indomitable spirit never aged. The “real” Johnny Canuck!

“The Germans better make stronger rope if they want to hold Canadians captive!” —Johnny Canuck, about to wade into a pair of German prison guards.

Now—FLIP US for our Joe Simon & Friends Section!

Edited by ROY THOMAS

DIGITAL

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

EISNER AWARD WINNER for Best Comics-Related Periodical

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ALTER EGO #4

ALTER EGO #5

ALTER EGO #1

ALTER EGO #2

ALTER EGO #3

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #6

ALTER EGO #7

ALTER EGO #8

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #9

ALTER EGO #10

ALTER EGO #11

ALTER EGO #12

ALTER EGO #13

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #14

ALTER EGO #15

ALTER EGO #16

ALTER EGO #17

ALTER EGO #18

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #19

ALTER EGO #20

ALTER EGO #21

ALTER EGO #22

ALTER EGO #23

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #24

ALTER EGO #25

ALTER EGO #26

ALTER EGO #27

ALTER EGO #28

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #29

ALTER EGO #30

ALTER EGO #31

ALTER EGO #32

ALTER EGO #33

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #34

ALTER EGO #35

ALTER EGO #36

ALTER EGO #37

ALTER EGO #38

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #39

ALTER EGO #40

ALTER EGO #41

ALTER EGO #42

ALTER EGO #43

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #44

ALTER EGO #45

ALTER EGO #46

ALTER EGO #47

ALTER EGO #48

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #49

ALTER EGO #50

ALTER EGO #51

ALTER EGO #52

ALTER EGO #53

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #54

ALTER EGO #55

ALTER EGO #56

ALTER EGO #57

ALTER EGO #58

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #59

ALTER EGO #60

ALTER EGO #61

ALTER EGO #62

ALTER EGO #63

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #64

ALTER EGO #65

ALTER EGO #66

ALTER EGO #67

ALTER EGO #68

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #69

ALTER EGO #70

ALTER EGO #71

ALTER EGO #72

ALTER EGO #73

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #74

ALTER EGO #75

ALTER EGO #76

ALTER EGO #77

ALTER EGO #78

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #79

ALTER EGO #80

ALTER EGO #81

ALTER EGO #82

ALTER EGO #83

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #84

ALTER EGO #85

ALTER EGO #86

ALTER EGO #87

ALTER EGO #88

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #89

ALTER EGO #90

ALTER EGO #91

ALTER EGO #92

ALTER EGO #93

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #94

ALTER EGO #95

ALTER EGO #96

ALTER EGO #97

ALTER EGO #98

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO: CENTENNIAL (AE #100)

ALTER EGO #99

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

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

ALTER EGO #101

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

NEW!

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

ALTER EGO #102

ALTER EGO #103

ALTER EGO #104

ALTER EGO: THE CBA COLLECTION

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

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

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

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

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

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

HUMOR MAGAZINES (BUNDLE ALL THREE FOR JUST $14.95)

ALTER EGO:

BEST OF THE LEGENDARY COMICS FANZINE

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

COMIC BOOK NERD

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

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

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

DIEDGITIIOTANSL E

BL AVAILA

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

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

NEW!

MR. MONSTER, VOL. 0

TRUE BRIT

DICK GIORDANO: CHANGING COMICS, ONE DAY AT A TIME

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

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

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

(136-page Digital Edition with COLOR) $4.95

(204-page Digital Edition with COLOR) $6.95

(176-page Digital Edition with COLOR) $5.95

SECRETS IN THE SHADOWS: GENE COLAN

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

ART OF GEORGE TUSKA

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

OTHER BOOKS FROM TWOMORROWS PUBLISHING

PENCILER, PUBLISHER, PROVOCATEUR

COMICS’ FAST & FURIOUS ARTIST

THE ART OF GLAMOUR

MATT BAKER

EXTRAORDINARY WORKS OF ALAN MOORE

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

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

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

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

(224-page trade paperback) $26.95

(176-page trade paperback with COLOR) $26.95

(192-page hardcover with COLOR) $39.95

(240-page trade paperback) $29.95

QUALITY COMPANION

BATCAVE COMPANION

ALL- STAR COMPANION

AGE OF TV HEROES

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

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

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

(256-page trade paperback with COLOR) $31.95

(240-page trade paperback) $26.95

(224-page trade paperbacks) $24.95

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

CARMINE INFANTINO

SAL BUSCEMA

(192-page full-color hardcover) $39.95

MARVEL COMICS

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

IN THE 1960s

(224-page trade paperback) $27.95

MODERN MASTERS

HOW TO CREATE COMICS

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

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

(224-page trade paperback) $27.95

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

(128-page trade paperbacks) $14.95 each

(108-page trade paperback) $15.95

IN THE 1970s

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

FROM SCRIPT TO PRINT

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

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