Alter Ego #37 by TwoMorrows Publishing

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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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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!

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Vol. 3, No. 37 / June 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

Cover Artists/Colorists Wayne Boring C.C. Beck

And Special Thanks to: Neal Adams Bob Bailey Brian H. Bailie Mike W. Barr Sy Barry John Benson Luciano Bernasconi Doug Bost Chris Brown Gary Brown Garrie Burr Mike Catron Bob Cherry Leone Cimpellin Shaun Clancy Russ Cochran John L. Coker III Ray A. Cuthbert Brian Cutler Teresa R. Davidson Al Dellinges Joe Desris Wayne DeWald John Doliber Al Feldstein Shane Foley Joe Frank Keif Fromm Jean-Peal Gabilliet Janet Gilbert Dick Giordano Scott Goodell Walt Grogan Jennifer Hamerlinck David G. Hamilton Keith Hammond Wally Harrington Ron Harris Hurricane Heeran Jan Alan Henderson

Bob Hughes Alan Hutchinson Richard Kolkman David Anthony Kraft Richard Kyle Tom Lammers Bob Lane Pat Lang Michael Lark Jean-Marc Lofficier Chris Malgrain Andy McKinney Tobi L. Miley Jason Millet Sheldon Moldoff Will Murray Lee Nail Franco Oneta John G. Pierce Richard Pryor Jerry Ordway Ed Rhoades Charlie Roberts Ethan Roberts David Siegel Marc Swayze Dann Thomas Anthony Tollin Alex Toth Jaume Vaquer Jyrki Vainio Dr. Michael J. Vassallo Mark Waid Tom Watkins John Wells Marv Wolfman Glenn Wood Joanna Martine Woolfolk Michael Zeno

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Philip Wylie, & Rudy LaPick

K-METAL & GLADIATOR Section

Contents Writer/Editorial: Our Cup Runneth Over––and Spilleth! . . . . . . . . 2 Gladiator of Iron, Man of Steel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Will Murray on how a 1930 novel by Philip Wylie probably influenced Superman— plus a visual synopsis by Ron Harris & Roy Thomas.

The Kryptonite Crisis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Secret origins of the 1940 “K-Metal” story that could have changed Superman forever! “It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s––Noel Sickles!”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Alex Toth tells how the genius behind Terry and the Pirates nearly drew Superman. ComicCrypt:“My World:The Al FeldsteinInterview––PartI” . 33 Michael T. Gilbert talks to the man behind Tales from the Crypt—about Ray Bradbury, et al. RudyLaPick:“RudyLovesEverybody&EverybodyLovesRudy!” . 39 A brief tribute by Jim Amash to a renowned Archie artist. Gary Brown, Comic Book Reporter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Bill Schelly converses with a major editor from the Golden Age of Comic Fandom. Sy Barry: His Life and Times Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About Our Cover: During his retirement, Wayne Boring—either the first or second person hired by creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster to help produce Superman material—began to draw and paint re-creations and new color paintings like this one featuring the Man of Steel. Thanks to Charlie Roberts for supplying, from his own collection, this 4th of July artwork drawn in 1981 by the man who became Superman’s most influential artist during the 1950s. [Art ©2004 Estate of Wayne Boring; Superman TM & ©2004 DC Comics.] Above: So-called “ashcan editions” of comic books were published quickly, often virtually overnight, by publishing companies to secure the trademark for titles of projected new magazines. The art on ashcan covers didn’t really matter—and neither did the precise contents—only the name was important. This Superman Comics ashcan from 1940, for instance, utilized (in black-&-white—no sense wasting money on color!) Joe Shuster’s cover art from Action Comics #7, and interior story and art from #8. Nowadays, however, possession of such publications is a rarity; only two copies of this particular ashcan edition are known to exist! [©2004 DC Comics.] 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

Our Cup Runneth Over–and Spilleth! Sheesh (as somebody I know used to say)! These issues of A/E seem to get more and more crowded, with less and less space for my erudite writer/editorials. (Not that I’m complaining, mind you—nor, last time I looked, was anybody else.)

This time, we had no room for any editorial at all on the flip side of the issue, so we’ll use this space to say how overjoyed we are to present there Jim Amash’s in-depth interview with Golden Age comic book artist and longtime Phantom illustrator Sy Barry. Not only was The Phantom (as created by writer Lee Falk with the aid of artist Ray Moore, back in 1936) influential on several generations of super-hero costumes that came after—The Ghost Who Walks even sports the trunks-over-tights look!—but Seymour “Sy” Barry restored the newspaper strip to its rightful glory when he began drawing it in the 1960s. Our only regret is that, because his interview appears in an issue which was already scheduled to front Captain Marvel art by C.C. Beck, we couldn’t feature any of Sy’s Phantom work in color—an oversight we hope to find an excuse to remedy at some time in the future.

As for the rest of this issue—well, we got in all our regular departments, with a double-size FCA section, Bill Schelly on comics fandom’s Golden Age, Alex Toth on Noel Sickles, and Michael T. Gilbert’s interview with Al Feldstein, one of the most important writers and editors in the history of comic books—and, to boot, we’re spotlighting not one but two articles by the esteemed Will Murray. What’s more, they’re on a pair of topics of real significance to comics history—the “KMetal” story of 1940, which nearly introduced Kryptonite into comic books before it so famously made its debut on the Superman radio series, and a close look at major author Philip Wylie’s 1930 novel Gladiator, which many believe (Will Murray and myself most definitely among them) to have been a major influence on the creation of Superman, and thus on the entire history of the American comic book. If that isn’t enough to whet your appetite to read both sides of this issue—well, we hear there’s an interesting sex survey in Cosmopolitan this month. (It’s totally different from the sex survey they featured last month.) Bestest,

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COMING IN JULY NOW MONTHLY!

ALLSCHWARTZ COMICS!

Special Full-Issue Tribute to JULIUS SCHWARTZ! He Left His Mark on the Golden Age—and Spawned the Silver!

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Gladiator of Iron–Man of Steel How a 1930 Science-Fiction Novel by PHILIP WYLIE Probably Influenced SUPERMAN by Will Murray

The two fathers of the super-hero! Philip Wylie (left) and Jerry Siegel—flanked by their landmark creations. The Wylie photo appeared on the dust jacket of his 1972 novel The End of the Dream, Siegel’s in Les Daniels’ exhaustive 1995 tome Superman: The Complete History—one of whose few flaws was its failure to mention either Gladiator or Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars as potential influences on Superman.

Siegel, Science-Fiction, Superman— and Philip Wylie

The cover of Manor Books’ 1976 paperback reprint of Gladiator (left) seems to acknowledge the connection with the phrase “American superman”—while 1/3 of its back cover is taken up by the two words “Super Powers.” Too bad that somehow the hero’s name got rendered on the covers as “Henry Danner,” not Hugo—and that a superfluous “The” was added to the book’s title. Joe Shuster’s Superman illo at right, from an early issue of Action Comics, shows some vestigal suggestion of his original laced-up sandals; they’re certainly in evidence in Action #1. [Superman art ©2004 DC Comics; Gladiator cover ©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

On those rare occasions when he talked freely about creating Superman, Jerry Siegel was pretty consistent.

In 1941, he said, “I am lying in bed counting sheep when all of a sudden it hits me. I conceive a character like Samson, Hercules, and all the strong men I ever heard tell of rolled into one.” Years later, he put it like this: “The idea came to me in bed one night. A champion for good with the strength of Atlas, as invulnerable as a perfect Achilles, plus the morals of Galahad.” There are some who believe that Siegel should have been citing more contemporary pulp fiction characters like Zorro, John Carter of Mars, and Doc Savage. Regarding the Doc Savage influence, Siegel deflected the issue by saying, “I read enormous quantities of eerie-hero-oriented pulps like The Shadow.” That may be, but the early Superman demonstrates some very specific Doc Savage tricks, such as putting people to sleep via pressing on a neck nerve and climbing brick walls by the sheer strength of his fingertips. Several early “Superman” plots are lifted straight from the pages of Doc Savage magazine with minimal changes. In the case of Clark Savage, the Man of Bronze, vis-à-vis Clark Kent, who eventually became known as the Man of Steel, I suspect Siegel of being disingenuous, if only out of legal necessity. Then there’s Philip Wylie. As far as I know, Siegel never commented in print on the impact that reading Wylie’s 1930 novel Gladiator had on his own formative hero. It

has been rumored for years that he reviewed it glowingly in the May 1933 issue of his fanzine Science Fiction, but no one to date has ever produced the review.

That Siegel did read it, and was influenced by Wylie’s prototypal superman, Hugo Danner, seems an inescapable conclusion. If there was a seminal influence on Superman, more than any other work, Gladiator almost has to have been it. Wylie’s biographer Frederick Keefer says as much in his book: “One of the main challenges to Wylie in writing Gladiator was the need to devise spectacular feats for Hugo to perform and then to make them seem probable. Our exposure to the Superman comic strip unfortunately obscures the originality of many of these inventions, which, according to Wylie, as well as recent scholars, were ‘borrowed’ from Gladiator. Hugo hurtling across a river in a single leap, bounding fifty feet straight up on the air, holding a cannon above his head with one arm, killing a shark by ripping its jaws apart, felling a charging bull with a fist between the eyes, lifting an automobile by its bumper and turning it around in the road—all of these were, in 1930, fresh and new and very exciting to read about.”

The Coming of Hugo Danner The story behind Gladiator is intriguing. Philip Wylie wrote the book in 1927. It was his first novel. Perhaps wisely, his publisher held it back, thinking that before releasing such an improbable work, Wylie should first establish himself. When finally released by Alfred A. Knopf in 1930, Gladiator constituted Wylie’s third published opus:

How Philip Wylie's 1930 Novel Gladiator Probably Influenced Superman

Bonomo, or Charles Atlas. Just as baby Clark Kent will do in his first published story, baby Hugo breaks his crib apart. (A cage of iron replaces it.) And, like the young Superman, he learns that he is not simply stronger than normal, but possesses unbelievable speed, endurance, and leaping abilities. Hugo is only ten when a run through the woods turns into a paroxysm of self-discovery: In those lonely, incredible moments Hugo found himself. There in the forest, beyond the eye of man, he learned that he was superhuman. It was a rapturous discovery. He knew at that hour that his strength was not a curse. He had inklings of his invulnerability. After Hugo demonstrates his powers to his father, Professor Danner tells him of his earlier experiment, and explains: (Above:) This 1934 house ad for Street & Smith’s Doc Savage Magazine suggests one place Jerry Siegel might’ve picked up the idea for a character called Superman—except that Siegel’s prose story “The Reign of the Superman” appeared in a science-fiction fanzine dated January 1933, while Doc’s pulp only started with a March ’33 cover date! Of course, the word “Superman,” a translation of the German term “Übermensch” coined by philosopher Friedrich Neitzsche, had already been around since the late 19th century. [©2004 Condé Nast Publications, Inc.]

“That medicine changed you. It altered the structure of your bones and muscles and nerves and your blood. It made you into a different tissue from the weak fibre of ordinary people. Then—-when you were born—you were strong. Did you ever watch an ant carry many times

At the turn of the 20th century, Colorado scientist Abednego Danner is fascinated with the disproportionate strength possessed by certain insects. Ants are capable of lifting several times their weight. The grasshopper can jump the equivalent of a mile. Can these attributes be transferred to other species? Danner’s successful experiments with creating supernaturallystrong tadpoles lead him to inoculate a newborn kitten he dubs Samson. At six weeks, Samson can bring down a full-grown cow as prey. Danner finally decides to inject this serum into his unborn child. His goal? “To produce a super-child, an invulnerable man.” He succeeds beyond his wildest dreams. Later, when Hugo proves to possess astonishing power, Professor Danner tells his wife: “He’s strong. Stronger than a lion’s cub. And he’ll increase in strength as he grows until Samson and Hercules would be pygmies beside him. He’ll be the first of a new and glorious race. A race that doesn’t have to fear—because it cannot know harm.” The parallels between Professor Danner and Jerry Siegel talking about their super-offspring are striking, but possibly coincidental. It’s interesting that neither invokes folklore figures such as Paul Bunyan or John Henry, or a professional strongman like Eugene Sandow, Joe

Wylie biographer Frederick Keefer states that, in 1930, the idea of a man “killing a shark by ripping its jaws apart” was “fresh and new and very exciting to read about”—and Marvel writer/editor Roy Thomas felt that story deserved to be told in comic books, even 4 H decades later. Thus, in the black-&-white Marvel Preview #9 (Winter 1976), Roy scripted the first of his three comics-style adaptations of Gladiator—although that issue’s 53 comics pages covered only half of Wylie’s novel, and there was never a “part two.” Since Marvel’s Daredevil had a villain named Gladiator, and since there’d been Titans (of the Teen variety) at DC, it was decided to title the Marvel version “Man-God.” Cover painting by Earl Norem; interior art by John Buscema & Tony DeZuniga. Thanks for the nice scans to Garrie Burr. [©2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Gladiator of Iron––Man of Steel its weight? Or see a grasshopper jump fifty times its length? The insects have better muscles and nerves than we have. And I improved your body till it was relatively that strong. Do you understand?” “Sure, I’m like a man made out of iron instead of meat.” “That’s it, Hugo. And, as you grow up, you’ve got to remember that. You’re not an ordinary human being. When people find that out, they’ll—they’ll—“ “They’ll hate me?”

Strongman Eugene Sandow, born in Germany in 1867, first gained notoriety by breaking Try-Your-Strength machines, and came to America in 1893. He died suddenly of a hemorrhage at age 58 after single-handedly lifting a car out of a ditch. Note the laced-up sandals which were carried over, along with elements from the garb of circus acrobats, into the early Superman costume.

“Because they fear you. So you see, you’ve got to be good and kind and considerate—to justify all that strength. Some day you’ll find a use for it—a big, noble use—and then you can make it work and be proud of it. Until that day, you have to be humble like all the rest of us. You mustn’t show off or do cheap tricks. Then you’d just be a clown. Wait your time, son, and you’ll be glad of it. And—another thing—train your temper. You must never lose it. You can see what would happen if you did. Understand?”

He might have been Jonathan Kent counseling his adopted son Clark.

Men and Supermen There had been inhumanly strong characters in fiction before—those whose powers bordered on superhuman. John Carter, future Warlord of Mars, gained superior strength and the ability to leap great distances after being translocated to the weaker gravity of the red planet in the first novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs. A similar idea drove John W. Campbell’s Aarn Munro, the hero of his 1934 novel The Mightiest Machine. Having been born on heavy-gravity Jupiter, Munro possessed inhuman strength on Earth. Pulp precursors like Frederic Dey’s Nightwind and Max Brand’s Whistling Dan Barry had pushed the limits of human pulp potential into tall-tale territory. Outside of the pulp magazines, an obscure turn-of-the-century newspaper strip character called Hugo Hercules could lift a fire engine and outrun a streetcar, and once kicked a house into the next block. (This particular case of parallelism would seem to be pure coincidence.

Roy T.’s second adaptation of Gladiator was a one-issue affair in The Young All-Stars #10 (March 1988), as related in a journal written by Hugo Danner—and read by his son, “Iron” Munro, of whom more on p. 6. The cover depicts Hugo in battle during the World War I; the interior panels show him revealing his powers to his father, building his own early “fortress” of solitude (see p. 12), and working briefly as both boxer and strongman. Art by Brian Murray—though the cover may have been inked by Dick Giordano. Thanks to Bob Cherry. [©2004 DC Comics.]

How Philip Wylie's 1930 Novel Gladiator Probably Influenced Superman

An “Aarn” by any other name: the strange nomenclatural journey of Aarn/Iron Munro. (a) Although Aarn Munro, a future Earthman raised on Jupiter, was the “mental and physical superman” hero of John W. Campbell, Jr’s., cosmos-spanning 1934 novel The Mightiest Machine, serialized in Street & Smith’s Astounding Stories pulp science-fiction magazine, it was the space ships that were emphasized on the covers. [©2004 Condé Nast Publications, Inc.] (b) In Street & Smith’s Army and Navy Comics, Aarn Munro became “Iron Munro, the Astounding Man” in an out-of-place sf series. He seems to have no super-powers in issue #2 (Aug. 1941), wherein he fights the forces of the alien dictator “Itler.” Artist unknown. [©2004 Condé Nast Publications, Inc.] (c) When Roy Thomas was asked by DC main editor Dick Giordano in 1986 to develop a series to replace All-Star Squadron, the result was The Young All-Stars, which introduced several new heroes to spell those whose existence and history had been negated by Crisis on Infinite Earths. Arn Munro, nicknamed “Iron” (always in quotes) and named after Campbell’s character minus an “a,” became the stand-in for the Man of Steel. Arn (which was short for Arnold) was the son of Hugo Danner and his teenage paramour Anna, who had married a man named Munro (whose last name hadn’t been revealed in Wylie’s novel). Arn was only half as powerful as his father—following the pattern established by Edgar Rice Burroughs for Carthoris, the son of John Carter and Martian princess Dejah Thoris. The reason for the chain-bursting scene on Brian Murray’s splendid cover for Young All-Stars #1 (June 1987) should be obvious. [©2004 DC Comics.] (d) Michael Bair’s cover (inked by Giordano?) for YAS #11 (April 1988) depicts “Iron” Munro in action, watched symbolically by daddy Hugo, and is a bookend to that of #10 (see p. 5). #11 included several more flashback scenes from Hugo Danner’s life, drawn by Michael Bair & Malcolm Jones III. [©2004 DC Comics.] (e) As a penciling sample for Young All-Stars, inker Malcolm Jones III drew (and partly inked) this previously-unpublished 1988 illo of Arn stopping a vehicle carrying several hoodlums. Malcolm got the job; he soon penciled a back-up tale in an annual. [Art ©2004 Estate of Malcolm Jones III; “Iron” Munro TM & ©2004 DC Comics.]

Gladiator of Iron––Man of Steel

Oddly, although John Carter, hero of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ 1912 A Princess of Mars and other books, possessed great strength and leaping ability on the red planet, the illustrations in the novels of the Martian series eschewed such super-heroic scenes in favor of aliens, romance, and swordplay. But in 1941—three years after the first appearance of “Superman”—John Carter finally made his debut in a Sunday newspaper strip, drawn by ERB’s son John Coleman Burroughs. (And don’t forget: the capital of ERB’s Mars was Helium, and Superman was born on Krypton—named after another inert gas.) [©2004 Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.]

Wylie was born in 1902. Hugo Hercules only ran from 1902-03.) But Hugo Danner was something new. A quantum leap forward in the concept of the preternaturally-powerful protagonist. Not just powerful by human standards, Danner was strong by superhuman standards. Whether by the criteria of literature or pulp fiction, this was a daring and revolutionary concept, which required an almost-superhuman suspension of disbelief on the part of the reader. Gladiator follows the roller coaster career of Hugo Danner from child of iron, through college (which is he forced to quit after accidentally killing an opposing player in a football game), into a period as a circus strongman, and another wherein he renounces his powers, only to suffer misunderstanding when, to rescue a clerk locked in a bank vault, he secretly frees him by strength alone—and is accused of doing something underhanded. Confused and unhappy, Hugo drifts over to Paris. When World War I breaks out, Danner joins the French Foreign Legion, and in the muddy trenches discovers the ultimate secret of his power: Across the gray ashes was a long hole. In front of it a maze of wire. In it—mushrooms. German helmets. Hugo gaped at them. All that training, all that restraint, had been expended for this. They were small and without meaning. He felt a sharp sting above his collar bone. He looked there. A row of little holes had appeared in his shirt. “Good God,” he whispered, “a machine gun.” But there was no blood. He sat down. He presumed, as a casualty, he was justified in sitting down. He opened his shirt by ripping it

down. On his dark-tanned skin there were four red marks. The bullets had not penetrated him. Too tough! He stared numbly at the walking men. They had passed him. The magnitude of his realization held him fixed for a full minute. He was invulnerable! He should have known it—otherwise he would have torn himself apart by his own strength. Suddenly he roared and leaped to his feet. He snatched his rifle, cracking the stock in his fervor. He vaulted toward the helmets in the trench. There, he makes short work of German troops. For, beyond simple strength, Hugo possesses a gift others who came before him lacked: invincibility. Not since Achilles’ mother dipped her son in the River Styx, conferring upon him virtual invulnerability to physical harm, had there been such a hero. But, unlike Homer’s creation, Hugo Danner possesses no vulnerable spot. He is invincible from head to heel. Following his father’s advice to keep his powers a secret, Hugo explains his mighty with a fable. He asks a curious French general: “Have you ever heard of Colorado?” “I have not heard. It is a place?” “A place in America. A place that has scarcely been explored. I was born there. All the men of Colorado are born as I was born and are like me. We are very strong. We are great fighters. We cannot be wounded except by the largest shells.” Change Colorado to Krypton, and it could be Superman talking— right down to the upper limits of his invulnerability in his earliest adventures. Wylie actually describes his hero in action as “a being of steel.”

How Philip Wylie's 1930 Novel Gladiator Probably Influenced Superman

A one-man army, Hugo Danner accelerates the cessation of hostilities. He swiftly becomes a battlefield legend: He was a great man—a man feared. The Colorado of the Foreign Legion. Men would talk about what they had seen him accomplish all through the next fifty years—at watering places in the Sahara, at the crackling fires of country-house parties in Shropshire, on the shores of the South Seas, on the moon, maybe. Old men, at the last, would clear the phlegm from their skinny throats and begin: “When I was a-fightin’ with the Legion in my youngest days, there was a fellow in our company that came from some place in wild America that I disrecollect.” And younger, more sanguine men would listen and shake their heads and wish that there was a war for them to fight. After the Armistice, Hugo doesn’t know what to do with himself. War lost its glory for him when, in an episode Wylie clearly took from The Iliad, Hugo, like Achilles, loses a close friend to war and vents his unstoppable wrath upon the Germans.

Science-Fiction or Satire?

J. Koerner’s 1902-03 Hugo Hercules strip was surely the first “superman” in comics format—but since Philip Wylie was born in 1902, most likely he never saw the feature. (Still, both characters are named Hugo!) This 3-panel 1903 Sunday strip, taken from Bill Blackbeard and Dale Crain’s 1995 two-volume masterwork The Comic Strip Century, is slightly distorted at left because of the book’s binding. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

Returning to New York, he ponders his future: What would you do if you were the strongest man in the world, the strongest thing in the world, mightier than the machine? He made himself guess answers for that rhetorical query. “I would—I would have won the war. But I did not. I would run the universe single-handed, literally single-handed. I would scorn the universe and turn it to my own ends. I would be a criminal. I would rip open banks and gut them. I would kill and destroy. I would be a secret, invisible blight. I would set out to stamp crime off the earth; I would be a super-detective, following and summarily punishing every criminal until no one dared to commit a felony. What would I do? What will I do?” This is the pivotal point in the novel, the beginning of the critical last act in the strange saga of Hugo Danner, formative superman.

Wylie referred to it when he penned a rarely-seen introduction to Gladiator for its pre-hardcover publication appearance in the March 1930 issue of The Book League Monthly: A temperamental consciousness of material force brought Hugo Danner into being. The frustration of my own muscles by things, and the alarming superiority of machinery, started the notion of a man who would be invincible. I gave him a name and planned random deeds for him. I had him tear down Brooklyn Bridge and lift a locomotive. Then I began to speculate about his future and it seemed to me that a human being thus equipped would be foredoomed to vulgar fame or to a life of fruitless destruction. He would share the isolation of geniuses and with them would learn the inflexibility of man’s slow evolution. To that extent Hugo became symbolic and Gladiator a satire. The rest was adventure and perhaps more of the book derives from the unliterary excitement of imagining such a life than from a studious juxtaposition of incidents to a theme. It would be interesting to speculate on where the career of Hugo Danner might have taken him had he followed the super-detective impulse in the traditional heroic mold. Interesting, but ultimately fruitless. Hugo Danner is a walking tragedy.

The Superman behind the Curtain On the eve of this crusade, Hugo is summoned home by Professor Danner. Rushing to his father’s deathbed, Hugo lays out his intentions:

Hugo Danner demonstrates his powers to officers of the French Foreign Legion in this Buscema/DeZuniga panel from Marvel Preview #9. Repro’d from a photocopy of the original art, courtesy of Bob Lane. Script by Roy Thomas. [©2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

“I expect to go to Washington soon to right the wrongs of politics and government. Vicious and selfish men I shall force from their high places. I shall secure the idealistic and the courageous. The pressure I shall bring against them shall be physical and mental. Here a man will be driven from his house mysteriously. There a man will slip into limbo. Yonder an inconspicuous person will suddenly be

Gladiator of Iron––Man of Steel

braced by a new courage; his enemies will be gone and his work will progress unhampered. I shall be as an invisible agent of right—right as best I can see it.” True to his vow, Hugo goes to Washington. Danner foreshadows the very early Superman when he confronts the first public enemy he decides to make an example of, a corrupt prowar lobbyist named Willard Melcher. After making short work of a bodyguard (“The tough one drew back his fist, but he never understood afterwards what had taken place. He came to in the kitchen an hour later.”), Hugo gives Melcher an ultimatum to get out of Washington, or face his wrath. “I happen to be more than a man, I am —” he hesitated, seeking words—“let us say, a devil, or an angel, or a scourge. I detest you and

Like Hugo Danner before him, Clark Kent hoped to “secure the idealistic and the courageous.” A penciled Neal Adams Superman figure, first printed by collector Hurricane Heeran in CFA-APA a few years back, is flanked by two images of Superman’s “public-spirited” side: the U.S. Navy edition of Superman #34 (May-June 1945), and panels from a so-called “institutional page” drawn (and supplied in b&w proofs) by Shelly Moldoff circa 1960. [Adams Superman art ©2004 Neal Adams; other art ©2004 DC Comics; Superman TM & ©2004 DC Comics.]

what you stand for. If you do not leave—I can ruin your house and destroy you. And I will.” Melcher appeared to hesitate. “All right. I’ll go. Immediately. This afternoon.” Hugo was astonished. “You will go?” “I promise. Good afternoon, Mr. Danner.” Hugo rose and walked toward the door. He was seething with surprise and suspicion. Had he actually intimidated Melcher so easily? His hand touched the knob. At that instant Melcher hit him on the head with a chair. It broke in pieces. Hugo turned around slowly. “I understand. You mistook me for a dangerous lunatic. I was puzzled for a moment. Now—“ Melcher’s jaw sagged in amazement when Hugo did not fall. An instant later he threw himself forward, arms out, head drawn between his shoulders. With one hand Hugo Hugo’s wartime berserker rage was handled more circumspectly in 1976’s “Man-God” tale in Marvel Preview #9 (left) than in 1988’s Young All-Stars #10 (right), which came closer to graphically depicting what “the Colorado” did to soldiers of the German army during the Great War. Art by Buscema/DeZuniga and Brian Murray, respectively. Thanks to Bob Cherry. [Marvel art ©2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.; DC art ©2004 DC Comics.]

How Philip Wylie's 1930 Novel Gladiator Probably Influenced Superman

Prof. Hardin, with whom Hugo goes on an exploring expedition, advises the tormented hero to found a new super-race in the Yucatan rain forest, who are referred to as “the new Titans, the sons of dawn.” (Above:) This panel from The Young All-Stars #11 illustrates a scene from Danner’s journal (and Philip Wylie’s novel), in which he sees scions of that new race locked in a violent civil war, with disastrous collateral damage. Art by Brian Murray; script by Roy Thomas. (Right:) Roy made Prof. Hardin’s concept the starting-point of the “Sons of Dawn” story arc in 1989’s Young All-Stars #28-31. In this splash from #29 drawn by Lou Manna and Bob Downs, father finally meets son: young “Iron” Munro faces Hugo Danner, who in this version had faked his death by thunderbolt years earlier and had secretly established a cross-breeding super-species in the jungle—in Arthur Conan Doyle’s Lost World, no less!. [©2004 DC Comics.]

imprisoned his wrists. He lifted Melcher from the floor and shook him. “I meant it, Melcher. And I will give you a sign. Rotten politics, graft, bad government, are doomed.” Melcher watched with staring eyes while Hugo, with his free hand, rapidly demolished the room. He picked up the great desk and smashed it; he tore the stone mantelpiece from its roots; he kicked the fireplace apart; he burst a hole in the brick wall—dragging the bulk of a man behind him as he moved. “Remember that, Melcher. No one else on earth is like me—and I will get you if you fail to stop. I’ll come for you if you squeal about this—and I leave it to you to imagine what will happen.” Hugo walked into the hall. “You’re all done for—you cheap swindler. And I am doom.” The door banged. This personifies still another Siegel summation of his original Superman inspiration: “a combination Samson, Hercules, and Atlas plus the morals of Sir Galahad, whose mission is to smack down the bullies of the world.”

A Thunderbolt in the Yucatan Moving on, Hugo discovers only disappointment and frustration. He takes on Washington with the idea of reforming the nation, only to A previously unpublished sample page by artist Ron Harris (Crash Ryan, The Young All-Stars, et al.) from the third Gladiator adaptation developed by Roy Thomas. In the mid-1990s, Ron drew (and colored) this pre-dialoguing sequence in which, being feared as a menace to banks after he rescues a clerk trapped in a vault (see p. 7), Hugo is tortured by a corrupt police detective and his men to learn the secret of how he got the man out. Knowing the flame of the acetylene torch will eventually harm him, Hugo breaks free. Ron wisely avoided drawing Danner as particularly muscular, to fit the novel… but alas, he and Roy failed to find a publisher for their planned six-issue rendition of the novel. Mildly ironic, since so much of the comic book industry is founded on Wylie’s concepts. [Art ©2004 Ron Harris.]

Gladiator of Iron––Man of Steel

“You’ve gotta be a football hero…!” [Left:] One of the first truly tragic moments in Gladiator occurs when Hugo Danner accidentally but fatally snaps an opposing player’s neck in a college football game, as per this Buscema/DeZuniga art from Marvel Preview #9. Script by Roy Thomas. [Below:] This may have influenced a Siegel & Shuster story in Action Comics #4, reprinted in Superman #1—but with the Man of Tomorrow effectively controlling his strength. [Buscema/DeZuniga art ©2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.; Superman art ©2004 DC Comics.]

bolt of lightning.

discover that no matter how powerful one is, the schemes and foibles of greedy humanity are greater still. The grandiose plan to reform the world crumbles in disillusionment. His dream in collapse, he once again ponders his fate: Hugo realized at last that there was no place in this world for him. Tides and tempest, volcanoes and lightning, all the majestic vehemences of the universe had a purpose, but he had none. Either because he was all those forces unnaturally locked in the body of a man, or because he was a giant compelled to stoop and pander to live at all among his feeble fellows, his anachronism was complete. Deciding to join an expedition to Mayan ruins in Yucatan, Hugo Danner finally meets someone who understands and appreciates his value to the world. Atop a rainswept mountain, Hugo Danner meets his ultimate fate. He challenges God himself—and is burnt to a crisp by a

Reading the final chapter of Gladiator, you get the feeling that Philip Wylie simply didn’t know what to do with his modernday superAchilles. How could he? He was not writing escapist pulp adventure, but literature. He had no guideposts, no fixed star to follow. By the conservative standards of early 20th-century literature, the superman was doomed by virtue of being a superman. It took Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster to show that that wasn’t necessarily so. After 1938, it was okay to be Superman. Provided you bent your abilities to constructive ends, and didn’t attempt to run the world for humankind.

The Science-Fiction of Philip Wylie Gladiator became a best-seller—a rare accomplishment for a science-fiction novel at that time. Wylie went on to write more science-fiction novels, such as The Murderer Invisible, When Worlds Collide, and its sequel After Worlds Collide. The latter two, which were co-written by Edwin Balmer, were adapted as a newspaper comic strip called Speed Spaulding in 1938, the year “Superman” debuted in Action Comics.

Super-powered football action was also a key theme of the 1938 Columbia movie “adaptation” of Gladiator, starring mammoth-mouthed comedian Joe E. Brown; but it’s not evident either in this wrestling still from the film—which was titled The Gladiator—or in the French poster for Le Gladiateur. Little of Wylie’s story remained, with the hero even rechristened Hugo Kipp. As per one summary of the plot: “The milquetoast son of a famous athlete goes to college and receives a strength serum in order to become a star football player.” The scientist who gives the serum to the young-adult Hugo is named Prof. Danner—and Hugo gets involved romantically with a girl named Iris, as in the novel—but that’s pretty much where the similarity ends. Brown, mostly remembered today for his pursuit of the gender-disguised Jack Lemmon in Billy Wilder’s 1962 screwball comedy classic Some Like It Hot, had had movie hits earlier in the 1930s playing a yokel who was a fabulously skilled baseball player. The comedian was less happy with The Gladiator, since he developed a double hernia wrestling the famous Man Mountain Dean for scenes in the movie! Critics disagree about the film’s worth: some call it lackluster, while one history of Columbia Pictures describes it as one of Brown’s best. Ironically, the movie was released the same year “Superman” debuted in comic books. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

In When Worlds Collide, a rogue planet enters the solar system on a certain collision course with Earth. Earthmen build rockets to escape the doomed Earth, which will take them to a new life on a newly-discovered Earthlike planet. People point to Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars and Jack Williamson’s novella The Girl from Mars as probable inspirations for the infant Superman’s flight to Earth, but Wylie’s best-selling 1932 novel is just as likely a source. As Joe Shuster put it, “Jerry reversed the usual formula of the superhero who goes to another planet. He put the super-hero in ordinary, familiar surroundings, instead of the other way around, as was done in most science-fiction.”

Convergences Jerry Siegel is said to have denied ever reading Gladiator. There are rumors that Philip Wylie threatened to sue DC Comics for copyright infringement in the early 1940s, and that DC management had Siegel produce a point-by-point refutation of the charge. No suit was filed, as far as anyone knows. Rumor has it that Wylie backed down when he discovered his publisher had neglected to copyright Gladiator in the first place, so he hadn’t a legal leg to stand on.

How Philip Wylie's 1930 Novel Gladiator Probably Influenced Superman just super-strength, but the fresh concept of super-speed, with the addition of near-total invulnerability—is simply too much for coincidence. Like Wylie, Siegel invokes the ant and the grasshopper as a rationale for Superman’s powers on the very first page of Action Comics #1. Why not take a page from Tarzan and say that Superman possesses the strength of a hundred gorillas? Just as the pre-flying Superman would literally race across states to get somewhere, Hugo charges around at speeds that eclipse even upper-limit human endurance. And the number of times the early Superman outraces locomotives to save a human life makes one suspect Siegel was already running out of amazing feats for his Man of Tomorrow to perform.

(Left:) The title page of Wylie’s best-known book, his non-fiction 1942 essay Generation of Vipers. As sf historian Sam Moskowitz wrote in 1963, it “excoriated the transgressions and lapses of his countrymen, sparing neither church, school, medicine, economics, morals, statesmen, educators, businessmen, military men, nor mothers. The last attack, epitomized under the now-generic term of ‘Momism,’ caused the greatest reaction, for mothers had previously been sacrosanct when it came to social criticism.” (Right:) The End of the Dream, published in 1972, the year after Wylie’s death, was described on its dust jacket as “a novel about the end of the world—the destruction of the earth by man himself through his willful poisoning of the atmosphere, the land, the seas and rivers, and ultimately of the human race itself.” Cover art by Josh Kirby. [Art ©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

Of course, over a long career, Superman could be expected, perhaps, to eventually find himself on the battlefield, the gridiron, or even in the ring. But these striking parallels all occur in the first year of his career. It’s as if Siegel was squeezing every last drop of plot and situation out of the Wylie novel in an effort to meet those monthly deadlines. Even so, there are parallels that are probably coincidence. As a boy, Hugo Danner assembles out of huge boulders a hilltop fortress where he can play in solitude. It may be too much of a stretch to link this to Superman’s classic Fortress of Solitude, since the latter didn’t show up until the 1950s and was out of Doc Savage anyway. But it does smack of the unchristened mountaintop fort Superman built in 1942 as a retreat from the world.

But if you read through the earliest issues of Action Comics, the coincidences sure do pile up, starting with Clark Kent’s decision to keep his origin and powers a secret. Some of the earliest challenges Siegel gives his superhero are right out of Gladiator. In the two-part story published in Action Comics #1 and #2, once Superman and Clark Kent are introduced, Kent is assigned to cover a war in the South American republic of San Monte. Instead of following his editor’s instructions, he goes instead to Washington, DC, where he bullies an unsavory lobbyist named Alex Greer. This leads the Man of Tomorrow to the munitions magnate behind the war, Emile Norvell. Superman runs him out of town and down to San Monte where, in a series of scenes reminiscent of Hugo Danner’s mighty exploits in the Great War, the comic book super-hero enforces his own brand of peace. In Action #4, a disguised Superman infiltrates a college football team, becoming the tackle to end all tackles, in an effort to root out criminal influence. In college, Hugo Danner proved to be a one-man football team, albeit with tragic results. At one point in Gladiator, Hugo does some prizefighting, but walks away from a lucrative career in the ring. One of the earliest Superman newspaper sequences puts its hero in a similar situation. And while World War I was long over by the time the Man of Tomorrow reached adulthood, Superman was interceding in European ground wars on the eve of World War II, performing much the same cannon-crushing feats as Hugo Danner had, a generation before. The peculiar and definite combination of powers—not

The front and back covers of perhaps the first paperback edition of Gladiator—sporting a blond Hugo Danner. The only copyright inside the Ace printing is that of the original 1930 hardcover; but mention in a last-page ad of Mike Todd’s film Around the World in Eighty Days suggests it was printed circa 1956. Wonder what people thought when they bought a book about an “uninhibited superman” who “affects profoundly the lives of wives and husbands, good girls and bad,” and encountered what Wylie had actually written. Oh, and on the title page inside, the book is referred to as “A Frankly Adult Novel About A SUPERMAN’S SEARCH FOR LOVE—the astounding story of a biologist’s experiment on his own son—and of the powerful, potent male that resulted.” They don’t hardly write blurbs like that anymore! [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

Gladiator of Iron––Man of Steel

A classic pose of Superman by Curt Swan, one of the hero’s most important artists—done for collector Michael Zeno at a Kansas City comicon in 1993— flanked by the front and back covers of the most recent (to our knowledge) mass-market paperback edition of Gladiator. We didn’t want you to miss reading Lancer Books’ cover copy, either! This edition carries no dates inside except the original 1930 copyright and 1958 renewal, but was probably published in the late ’60s or early ’70s. Actually, when Roy Thomas inquired on behalf of Marvel in 1975-76 about adaptation rights, Harold Ober Associates admitted the book had lapsed into the public domain (so maybe it hadn’t really been renewed in ’58, at all), but they requested that a smallish three-figure sum be paid to Philip Wylie’s widow. Roy saw to it that it was. [Art © Estate of Curt Swan; Superman TM & ©2004 DC Comics; Gladiator art ©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

Even Hugo’s straightforward reformist idealism is mirrored in the early Superman, who was forever shaking crooked mine owners and unscrupulous politicians in his mighty fists. These were not the approaches of Doc Savage—or of The Shadow, for that matter. They are the actions of a naive protagonist in Hugo Danner’s case, and of naive creators in Superman’s.

“Man Is Small” Siegel’s denials may have been simply to avoid legal action against him. It’s hard to accept them at face value against the parallels between Gladiator and the Superman of 1938-40. Even if by some extreme unlikihood he never read the novel, as a huge science-fiction fan he could hardly have been unaware of it. It was one of the most important science-fiction novels of the Great Depression. And it was reviewed in Amazing Stories, June 1930. Throughout the 1930s, Philip Wylie stood head and shoulders above all other contemporary sf writers. Not stuck in the pulp magazine ghetto, he wrote for the best slick magazines and book publishers, not to mention adapting the works of H. G. Wells for Hollywood. At a time when science-fiction was confined to the literary backwaters of pulp magazines and comic strips, Philip Wylie was the genre’s Great White Hope. Being unaware of Philip Wylie and Gladiator is like a modern science-fiction fan not knowing who George Lucas is. Siegel himself admitted this: “Well, as a science-fiction fan, I knew the various themes in the field. The superman theme has been one of the themes ever since Samson and Hercules....”Could Jerry Siegel really have been ignorant of the most famous superman novel of the 1930s? Then there is this: in his first appearance, and only in his debut, Superman wore, instead of the now-classic red boots, a type of footgear normally associated with Roman legionnaires or gladiators. Jerry Siegel did comment on this. Again, he was consistent: “I had

classical heroes and strongmen in mind, and this shows in the footwear… Superman wore sandals laced halfway up the calf. You can still see this on the cover of Action #1, though they were covered over in red to look like boots when the cover was printed.” It’s hard to imagine Siegel and Shuster taking their emulation of Gladiator to such an obvious extreme, but one never knows. Yet, precursors and influences aside, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster accomplished something Philip Wylie never did. They created an enduring myth, the first full-blown super-hero, an American culture hero that may never expire. This is a mighty achievement, no matter where they found their inspiration. Immediately after Gladiator, and before returning to the kind of science-fiction themes that dominated his career, Philip Wylie wrote two mainstream novels to please his publisher, Heavy Laden and Babes and Sucklings. In his Book League Monthly introduction, he said of them: Both are realistic stories of people and places which I had known. The brief I held for realism convinces me less and less. Space is wide. Man is small. That he exists is romantic. The novelist now usurps the chair of the educator, the pulpit of the preacher, the columns of the journalist. Yet his original purpose of entertaining may have been his highest purpose. In that instance, Philip Wylie and Jerry Siegel may have found themselves on exactly the same page... [SPECIAL NOTE: As mentioned earlier, during the early-to-mid1990s writer Roy Thomas and artist Ron Harris tried without success to market a six-issue comic book adaptation of Gladiator. An inkedand-colored sample page by Ron from that proposal can be seen on p. 10. Roy also scripted, and Ron penciled, a four-page summary of the novel that depicts its highlights; it was lettered by Jean Simek. This comics-style synopsis appears on the four pages following, and is copyright ©2004 by Roy Thomas (text) & Ron Harris (art).]

Philip Wylie

Gladiator

Philip Wylie

Gladiator

The Kryptonite Crisis The Secret Origins of the 1940 “K-Metal” Story by Will Murray

[A/E EDITOR’S INTRO: Ever since The Steranko History of Comics, Vol. One (1970), featured smallish reproductions of four pages from a never-published early “Superman” tale, it’s been known that that “circa-1939” story was once intended to introduce a “fragment from Krypton” that robbed the Man of Steel of his powers, and that Clark Kent had learned of his Kryptonian origins in that never-printed adventure. Over the years since, several more pages (from what was clearly a preternaturally long comics story for that era) have surfaced, repro’d in dealers’ catalogs and elsewhere. [In an article in Alter Ego #26, comics writer Mark Waid told how he ran across a copy of the long-lost “Superman” synopsis, script, and related materials to that unpublished story— which turned out to be dated 1940—and had painstakingly retyped the script, word for word. An overview of that story and several of its pages, along with three pages not printed in the Steranko History, appeared in A/E #26. Surprisingly, the 1940 “K-Metal” tale turned out to be 26 pages long—twice the length of a normal “Superman” story at that time—and to show Superman revealing his Clark Kent identity to Lois Lane, and announcing that they would henceforth be partners. As a side effect, this early version of what later debuted as “Kryptonite” (both Will Murray and I prefer to capitalize the word) also bestowed Superman-like powers on any Earthling who came into contact with it, even as it weakened the hero himself. [As soon as Mark’s article and accompanying artwork appeared in A/E, they set noted comics

[Top center:] Superman’s co-creators Jerry Siegel (writer; standing) and Joe Shuster (artist), flanked by two rare pieces:

[Top left:] An original 28” x 21” sketch by Superman co-creator Joe Shuster done with ball-point pen and markers on July 26, 1976. According to the art catalog in which it was first printed: “This drawing was created during the San Diego Comic Book Convention and is one of the largest known Superman ‘bust portraits.’” [Page ©2004 DC Comics; sketch ©2004 Estate of Joe Shuster; Superman TM & ©2004 DC Comics.] [Above right:] How in the world did we miss this “K-Metal” page the first time around? Jim Steranko used four in his History… we printed three more in A/E #26… and here’s an eighth page of original art known to exist from that legendary 1940 story—page 9, as seen in a 1993 Sotheby’s comic art catalog, autographed by Shuster! On this one, Superman feels pain for the first time ever. Talk about a Kodak moment! [Page ©2004 DC Comics; sketch ©2004 Estate of Joe Shuster; Superman TM & ©2004 DC Comics.]

The Kryptonite Crisis

19 in 1939-40, not simply seen with the hindsight of knowing what direction the Man of Tomorrow’s four-color life has taken in the years and decades since. As such, we find this article on the first and foremost comic book super-hero fascinating—and we kinda suspect that you will, too! —Roy.]

I Love a Mystery I love a mystery. I’ll admit it. Give me the imponderable and I’ll ponder it. Riddle me a riddle and I’ll attempt to unravel it. Offer me a puzzle, and I’m taking it apart just so I can put it together correctly.

[Left:] An early ad for the Superman newspaper strip emphasizes both the hero’s alien origins and his relationship with Lois Lane—two aspects of the feature that would’ve been altered drastically, had the “K-Metal” story been printed. [Right:] A rare 1941 trade-mag ad had Batman and Robin (whose Columbia movie serial would actually debut in 1943) congratulating Superman for his theatrical cartoon series, and hinted of more multi-media DC-related events to come. Thanks to collector Richard Pryor. [©2004 DC Comics.]

I’ve long been aware of the inexplicable “Superman” story scripted and drawn back in 1940, but never published—even though it was the work of Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster—which introduced Kryptonite (there called simply “K-Metal”), which was destined over time to become a crucial component of the Superman mythos. But why was that story suppressed? It made no sense. True, in the climax Superman revealed his true identity to Lois Lane; but, if the editors or publisher changed their mind about that aspect of the story, there are a million ways around that— including simply redrawing the ending or stringing out the continuity over several issues until Superman discovered a clever but decisive way to disabuse Lois of the truth. That, too, later became a Superman staple. Nor is it

historian Will Murray to re-thinking certain longaccepted aspects of Superman’s long career… especially its relationship to the Adventures of Superman radio program that began in early 1940 and to published “Superman” stories of that period. After several e-mails back and forth, Will agreed that he would write an article detailing his speculations “when I have the time”—but he soon found the subject so obsessing him that he wrote the piece only a few weeks later. He’s been revising it piecemeal ever since—and we’re proud and happy to finally get it into print. [Much of what Will has to say, naturally, cannot be proven. Some of it is pure blue-sky speculation, and he has labeled it as such— yet always proceeding from a careful, logical examination of the situation re “Superman”

[Above:] Model sheets prepared in June 1941 by and for Fleischer Studio animators for the Superman theatrical cartoon features. The one for Supes was pictured back in A/E #11. But even this one for Lois shows Shuster’s influence; and indeed, he spent some time in Florida with the animators. Note the Superman block figure, to show his height compared to Lois. [Right:] In the 1980s the late Gil Kane was one of various artists involved in the TV animated series of that era, as well as drawing some great “Superman” stories working with writers Marv Wolfman and (once) Ye Editor. We’ve shown other samples of his style sheets in previous issues; this one is composed of head shots of Clark and Superman. [©2004 DC Comics.]

The Secret Origins of the 1940 "K-Metal" Story

The published cover of Superman #1 (1939) has been reprinted a zillion times, so here is Joe Shuster’s recreation of his art for that issue, done in the 1970s for an art house auction. [Art ©2004 Estate of Joe Shuster; Superman TM & ©2004 DC Comics.]

likely the story was shelved because, in it, Superman, after learning that a fragment of the planet Krypton was headed toward Earth, showed that he knew he was from another planet— knowledge that, in published comics, he didn’t acquire until the Nov.-Dec. 1949 issue of Superman. If that had been a major issue in Superman’s life, his creators would have shown him wondering about his true origins. They never did.

title. That changed with issue #4 (Spring 1940), when it went all-new. A quarterly, Superman #5, was dated Summer 1940. But so great was the demand for new “Superman” material that, with #6 (Sept-Oct. 1940), the magazine became a bi-monthly.

“Three Months Ahead” We know that Jerry Siegel worked “three months ahead.” He says so in the 1940 radio interview also published in Alter Ego #26. Superman #6 was already on the racks. So that’s out. Cover-dated “Nov.-Dec.,” Superman #7 had a release date of September. Thus, if the “K-Metal” story was a rush job, it might just possibly have gone into that issue. But Superman #8 would have hit the stands in November, which better fits the three-month lead time. One clue to its placement is that Siegel’s script describes a full-page splash. The first “Superman” splash appeared in #6, but only a single story therein sports one. The tale in Action #29 (Oct.) also features a full-page splash—the only one in Action that year. In Superman #7, all four stories have full-page splashes. With #8, for some reason, again only one story was splashed large. After that, the stories revert to the old half-splash format. So “K-Metal” belonged to a brief format experiment, quickly abandoned, circa Superman #7 and #8. Starting in the summer of 1940, in addition to writing “The Spectre,”

What was known of this strange story was limited to a handful of surviving unpublished pages that had been penciled, inked, and lettered, four of which were published only in The Steranko History of Comics. So it remained a mystery. Not until the entire script was outlined in Alter Ego #26 did sufficient pieces of the puzzle become available for unpuzzling. Figuring out the mystery behind the “K-Metal” story is not a question of what scenario might explain it, but which of several equally plausible scenarios best fits the facts.

Superman at the Crossroads First, let’s date this event: Jerry Siegel’s cover letter for the script (see A/E #26) bears the notation “8/7/40.” So we know with some certainty the date it was produced. (The “10/1/40” notation on the synopsis (also printed in #26) might have been Siegel’s memorandum of when the finished art was due at DC. Siegel claimed he always wrote a synopsis first, then executed the script; and this synopsis is marked by handwritten editorial suggestions later incorporated into the script.) In the summer of 1940, Superman had turned a corner. He was now a national phenomenon. Prior to that, he had been strictly a magazine marvel, a publishing freak, and a potential fad, perhaps soon to burn out. That all began to change with the launch of the Superman newspaper comic strip at the beginning of 1939, followed by the syndicated Adventures of Superman radio show in February 1940. Down in Florida, the Fleischer Brothers were gearing up to produce a series of Superman animated cartoons which would debut in 1941. Licensing deals were gearing up through Robert Maxwell’s in-house Superman, Inc., operation. In 1940, Superman continued to be the lead feature in Action Comics. Launched the previous year, Superman had been started as a reprint

The Shuster shop may have been producing more and more “Superman” stories in the early to mid-1940s, but that doesn’t mean all of them got printed! Here, from a 1990s art catalog, is a page from the never-published “Riddle of the Iron Zoo.” [©2004 DC Comics.]

The Kryptonite Crisis “Slam Bradley,” “Federal Men,” “Spy,” and “Red, White, and Blue,” Jerry Siegel was gearing up to script even more “Superman” stories every month. As comics historian Ron Goulart observed in the intro to The Superman Archives, Volume 2: “The increased demand for Superman material meant an increased amount of work for the offices of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, which were still based in Cleveland, Ohio. The standard comic book of the period contained 64 full-color pages and sold for 10 cents. When you forked over your dime for Superman you got four 13-page adventures of the Man of Steel, plus assorted ad and filler material. The monthly Superman yarn in Action also ran to 13 pages. So now, in a given year, Siegel and Shuster were responsible for 36 stories and 468 pages of artwork. On top of that, 18 covers showcasing the Man of Tomorrow were used each year. Not to mention over 300 dailies and 50 some Sunday pages for the newspaper strip. Promotional material was needed, too.” That year, DC began producing some “Superman” art in-house, bypassing the Shuster Studio. Jack Burnley was selected. His first story appeared in Action Comics #28 (Aug. 1940), and he drew every “Superman” appearance in Action between #28-34, including the solitary Action #29 “Superman” splash.

Lester Dentisms. One story in Superman #8 blended the approximate plot of the 1934 Doc Savage novel The Monsters with a super-magnifying glass gimmick right out of a 1935 Doc called The Fantastic Island. (To be fair, a story in in Batman #1 and the “Sandman” chapter in AllStar Comics #3 also copied The Monsters.) The bizarre “Superman” story in Action #30 involving Arabs from a lost city is a naked steal from the Doc novel Murder Mirage. The opportunity to write a 26-page “Superman” yarn might have been seen by Siegel as the comic book equivalent of a pulp novel, or at least a novelette. It also afforded the busy writer a chance to tell fuller, richer stories and to go into character development not possible in 13 pages. Having read the “K-Metal” script, I have to say it was the most ambitious comic book story written up to 1940. Two seeminglyunrelated plotlines run parallel, only to dovetail expertly in the climax. Additionally, Superman’s character is explored in dramatic new ways as he struggles to cope with his first experience with human pain and defeat after the loss of his powers.

Simultaneously, Joe Shuster was relying more and more on art ghosts Paul Cassidy, Wayne Boring, and Leo Nowak, all of whom seem to have contributed to the surviving “K-Metal” pages. Their work, particularly Cassidy’s, dominated Superman’s own title during this period. Amid this expansion, competition was growing fierce. Every publisher in comics launched its own costumed heroes. Some, like Wonder Man, DC successfully quashed with legal help. Others, especially Captain Marvel, quickly grew to rival the Man of Steel in sales.

Why “K-Metal”? Superman was everywhere, his imitators hot on his heels. Simultaneously with the first all-original issue of Superman, Batman got his own magazine. Comics readers now had a virtual universe of costumed choices to chose from. What could be done to keep the superbubble from bursting? First, let’s look at this from Jerry Siegel’s point of view. Why would he write the “K-Metal” story in the first place? Although his pre-“Superman” work included modest two-page stories, Siegel wrote a number of longer ones, as well as serials such as “Dr. Occult” in More Fun Comics. The relentless grind of fixed 13-page “Superman” stories may have begun to stifle him after two years of it. Back in Action #13 and #14 (June & July 1939), Siegel did a two-part story involving his first super-villain, the Ultra-Humanite, who kept returning for months. An early-1940 Action two-parter with Clark and Lois covering a European war (and which introduced arch-foe Luthor) was also a significant push in this direction. In the Superman newspaper strip, Siegel grew accustomed to writing longer sequences and seemed to enjoy it. So much so that, in 1941, he went hog-wild with a super-serial called “The League to Destroy Superman.” It ran from March 10 to November 15—a full eight months… Siegel had grown up on hero pulps like The Shadow and Doc Savage, which featured long novels. Although Siegel tended to shy away from suggestions that Clark Savage, the Man of Bronze, in any way inspired Clark Kent, the Man of Steel, you need only read his early “Superman” stories to see that he plainly did. Siegel’s dialogue is full of

In the years following the 1938 debut of “Superman,” Jerry Siegel would probably have killed for the chance to produce a 64-page comic book story like the 1999 Superman: The War of the Worlds by writer Roy Thomas and artist Michael Lark. This Elseworlds graphic novel was set in 1938, with H.G. Wells’ Martians attacking Earth in the same year a more humanoid alien first donned his red-yellow-and-blue costume. Repro’d from the original art, from R.T.’s collection, courtesy of Michael Lark. [©2004 DC Comics.]

The Secret Origins of the 1940 "K-Metal" Story “What can you do with a guy like that? Obviously nothing.

Oddly, there seem to be a few never-published Superman daily strips, as well as comic book stories—such as this one by from the 1940s by Jack Burnley, the first artist to draw “Superman” stories directly for National/DC rather than for the Siegel-Shuster studio. Repro’d from an art catalog. [©2004 DC Comics.]

It’s worth noting that the growing competition was pushing the story envelope, too. DC features typically ran either 6, 8, or 11 pages; “Superman” and “Batman” were unusually long at 13 pages. But Timely routinely ran longer stories. Their big experiment took place in Marvel Mystery Comics #9 (July 1940), wherein The Human Torch and SubMariner slugged it out for an unprecedented 22 pages. And Nedor’s “Doc Strange” had debuted in a 37-page origin story in Thrilling Comics #1 back in February. Even the now-forgotten “Phantom Fed” led off Sure-Fire Comics #1 with a 15-pager. DC might have determined that longer tales were necessary to keep up with the fast-moving competition. Specifically, they might have been responding to the appearance in June of Fawcett’s Special Edition Comics #1, which pre-dated Captain Marvel Adventures #1. Normally, “Captain Marvel” stories ran 11 or 12 pages, but this issue contained four 17- and 19-pagers.

“The readers of Superman know he can’t be hurt, that he’s never in danger. Other heroes don’t lose, although they seem always on the verge of losing. Superman can’t. He’s invulnerable.

“Yet these kids who follow their hero avidly each night as soon as the paper comes, vicariously identifying themselves with Superman each time he pulls a new feat of strength out of his inexhaustible store, are the pulp and slick readers of tomorrow. What change will result from their diet of invulnerability? “This: the pendulum has, with Superman, reached the end of its swing. It’s starting back. Heroes are going to be less tough, progressively more ordinary and more vulnerable. Any tough mug who can lick his weight in wildcats is going to be mild stuff to a graduate of the Superman school. “He can’t go on. Superman is the ultimate in invulnerability, strength, and toughness. He has spoiled all taste for semi-supermen.”

While the timing of his letter postdates Jerry Siegel’s cover letter to the “K-Metal” script by about three months, suppose Siegel and the powers at DC were asking themselves, “Isn’t it about time Superman

A similar one-shot intended by DC cannot be ruled out. Nor can it be ruled in. There’s no evidence either way.

Is There Such a Thing as Being Too Super? Then there was the letter written by mystery pulp writer Fredric Brown, which appeared in the October 1940 Author and Journalist. Headed “After Superman, What?” it began: “Recently one of the media of fiction, the comic strip, has brought forth a concept that is genuinely new. Its newness is revolutionary in the truest sense of that term: Superman, by his complete invulnerability, upsets the twin icons of adventure fiction: menace and suspense. The guy can’t lose. “Pick up the Empire State Building and drop it on Superman’s head and it doesn’t even muss his hair, but it cracks the Empire State Building. Sit Superman on a ton of nitroglycerine and set it off and it doesn’t even affect his super-sensitive eardrums, which can hear a conversation in a closed building across the street. Let a mob of gangsters fire tommy-guns at him and he can sit there with his mouth open and eat the bullets for lunch.

[Left:] Superman accrued greater and greater power over the years, until writer Denny O’Neil once said, “He could destroy the universe just by listening hard.” It took Kryptonite, as on this Curt Swan/George Klein cover for Action Comics #319 (Dec. 1964), to humanize him. Repro’d from a photocopy of the original art. [Right:] After the Man of Steel had arguably grown far too powerful over the decades, editor Julius Schwartz, writer O’Neil, and artists Swan and Murphy Anderson suddenly made him weaker, but immune to all 37 varieties of Kryptonite in Superman #233 (Jan. 1970), with Neal Adams’ instant classic cover labeled with a big “1” to herald a new beginning. [©2004 DC Comics.]

The Kryptonite Crisis

Daily Planet editor George Taylor made his last bow in two stories in Superman #6 (Nov.-Dec. 1940)—and Perry White debuted with no fanfare (and no first name) in #7 (Jan.-Feb. 1941). Note the apparent re-lettering of the word “White.” Was the “K-Metal” tale, whose Siegel script features White, produced in between these two issues? Repro’d from the 1990 Superman Archives, Vol. 2. [©2004 DC Comics.]

faced some real challenges? Do we need to give him a weakness?” Creating K-Metal was their response.

Superman vs. Action Comics? But there are other possible, non-creative motivations. With Superman going all-new, perhaps the publishers feared that Action Comics, showcasing only one “Superman” story and backed up by lesser features like “The Black Pirate” and “Tex Thomson,” would slump in sales. Action’s sales climbed to 800,000 a month in 1940, compared to Superman’s approximately 1,300,000 circulation. That’s a spread of 500,000 copies. If Action could only close that gap.... The solution? Include a double-length “Superman” story to hold the readers. And if those longer stories led with continuity and series-changing storylines, then Action Comics would be assured of remaining DC’s flagship title, a status it was in danger of losing now that Superman and Batman had their own titles. It makes perfect sense. To run the “K-Metal” story in Superman would have meant running it as the lead story, then following it with two shorter, anti-climactic stories. Doable, but awkward. Unless, of course, the original idea was to run it in Superman, and follow it in the same issue with another 26-pager, in the form of the promised sequel to the “K-Metal” tale. That’s not so far-fetched. One of the considerations that must have entered editorial thinking was that it would be easier to tell fewer, longer “Superman” stories than to continue grinding out all those short ones. You’d need fewer plots, and the artists might prefer sinking their teeth into longer tales. Maybe the plan was to run one 26-pager in Action and two of identical length in Superman, meaning that Siegel would have only three long “Superman” stories to produce a month instead of five. While that may seem unlikely given the rigid “Superman” format, consider that earlier in the year Jerry Siegel launched “The Spectre” with an unusual two-part origin story, continued over two issues of More Fun Comics. He kicked off “The Star Spangled Kid” in Star Spangled Comics a year later with an unheard-of 20-page tale, followed in the same issue by a 15-pager of the Kid and Stripesy. Superman never had so much room to work in. Another advantage of running “K-Metal” in Superman was that it

reduced the number of stories Siegel would need to write to only four a month. If published in Action, he was actually doing more work.

Superman Times Three? There’s also the distinct possibility that the “K-Metal” story was intended for a third title. But which? World’s Fair Comics had published its second and final annual issue that spring, again with a 15¢ price tag. When revived in 1941 as World’s Best (by #2, renamed World’s Finest) Comics, it ran normal-length stories. The possibility that the “K-Metal” tale might have been intended for World’s Best might fly except for two factors: the absence of a 26-page “Batman” story that would have accompanied the “Superman” entry, and the improbability of launching a dramatic change in “Superman” in a fledgling title. More Fun? Unlikely. Jerry’s “Spectre” was holding his own in that space. He had just been introduced. DC had yet to see how he’d sell in the long run. Adventure Comics? This is the only other reasonable possibility. “Hour-Man” was not working out there. He would soon be replaced on covers by the Superman-like “Starman,” drawn by Jack Burnley. In fact, during the early 1940s, Adventure kept changing lead features, not settling down until the introduction of “Superboy” in 1946. If DC planned to insert Superman into any existing non-Superman title, Adventure Comics was it. Perhaps the thinking was that an extra-long “Superman” lead story would give it a competitive edge against both Superman and Action Comics. Arguing against that is the same question that throws the World’s Best Comics scenario into doubt: would DC have launched a continuity-altering sequence in Adventure and risk confusing Action and Superman readers? Possibly. But probably not. So we’re back to considering Superman and Action Comics as candidates for the “K-Metal” tale’s intended destination.

An Editorial Matter What we can pinpoint with striking accuracy is in which issue of either main Superman title the “KMetal” story would have appeared.

The Superman Archives, Vol. 2, preserves the sequence in which Lois’ life is saved by a transfusion of Clark’s blood—but that fact is never mentioned again in published comics. Was that event once intended to lead “Superman” in a new direction? [©2004 DC Comics.]

I believe I can say without fear of contradiction that it was planned to go in either Superman #8 or Action #31, both cover-dated December 1940. How can I be so precise? Simple. In Siegel’s synopsis for the unpublished story, Clark and Lois are working

The Secret Origins of the 1940 "K-Metal" Story When he gets to Lois, she’s hurt badly. He rushes her to a hospital, where she receives a blood transfusion from Clark Kent, who surreptitiously pierces his own skin with a fingernail because no hypodermic needle could do it. Lois makes a sudden and miraculous recovery, saying, “I feel stronger than I ever felt!” At story’s end, there’s this exchange: “You have my eternal gratitude, Clark! I won’t forget that your blood saved my life.”

[Left:] Radio’s “Superman,” Bud Collyer, reading (yeah, right!) a Superman comic in this publicity shot. Collyer went on to host TV’s Beat the Clock and To Tell the Truth. [Right:] The show’s deep-voiced ofttimes narrator, Jackson Beck, was also the guy who yelled “It’s Superman!” at the outset of each episode, after fellow passers-by opined that the object streaking overhead must be a bird or a plane. Jackson also played the recurring role of Daily Planet copyboy Beany Martin. Thanks for the photos (and much of the info) to former DC colorist Anthony Tollin, who has written booklets for innumerable inspired packagings of old-time radio shows of all types for Radio Spirits and others. Tony has directed Beck in re-enactments at old-radio conventions. Jackson Beck and Roy Thomas, who for years lived in the same building in Manhattan, met in an elevator circa 1970, when Mr. B. noticed Roy was carrying some Marvel comics and volunteered that he’d once been Superman’s announcer on radio. Without missing a beat, R.T. replied, “Oh— you must be Jackson Beck!” The latter was startled, saying Roy was the first person he’d casually mentioned that to who’d responded with his name! (Truth to tell, Roy’d seen the name “J. Beck” on the list of tenants of the 20story building, and wondered if it just might be…!) Ye Ed showed Jackson some LPs then being marketed of the old shows—Jackson inquired to the producers about (and got) a token royalty, and used the proceeds to throw a party, which Roy and then-wife Jeanie attended. In recent years Jackson has done voice-overs on Little Caesar pizza commercials, among others. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

for Daily Planet editor George Taylor. But in the finished script, the editor’s name is suddenly Perry White. George Taylor last appeared in Superman #6 and Action #30, both dated October 1940. Perry White first shows up without fanfare in Superman #7. What’s fascinating about this is that, when introduced, the new character is just called White. His full name is not revealed until Superman #19 (May-June 1941). And a close examination shows that “White” was lettered in after the fact on two stories in Superman #7, undoubtedly replacing “Taylor.” The first tale in Superman #8 shows similar doctoring. Yet he’s Perry White in the “K-Metal” script. Only one conclusion can be drawn from this: during the writing of the “K-Metal” script, Jerry Siegel transitioned from Taylor to White. Nothing could be more perfect to date it. Since prior stories already were in inventory, it was easy enough to re-letter in-production stories for issues on sale in September and after. Everything fits, chronologically speaking.

The Almost-Transformation of Clark Kent? This adds yet another piece to the puzzle: why did Siegel feel the need to change Daily Planet editors? A clue can perhaps be discovered at the very end of the last story in Superman #6, which might in fact be a hitherto-unsuspected setup for the “K-Metal” tale. In that tale, Superman faces a terrible choice: rescue Lois from falling debris, or save a group of children. Lois heroically calls out, “Never mind me! Save those children!” Superman, of course, does exactly that.

“It’s nice to hear those kind words, Lois,” Clark says. Thinking to himself, he muses, “With Lois more friendly, I’m tempted to forget my identity as Superman—but of course I must go on as I have!” Up to this point, Lois has been contemptuous of Clark due to his pose as a weakling and a coward. No more. A new Clark Kent was about to emerge. More forceful, and less timid. In Superman #8, we see the first story of this type, when Clark Kent is framed for murder and threatens to shoot the real killer unless he confesses. Other stories in this issue waffle on his true personality. The meek Kent is still in evidence in places. Inasmuch as one element of the “K-Metal” story was to set up the concept of Superman and Lois becoming partners, the blood transfusion episode might have been a bit of foreshadowing to help make the transition work for the readers. With the Clark-Lois relationship set to change, it marked the perfect opportunity to fix a growing problem. Since his introduction on radio in February of that year, editor Perry (called “Paris” in a pre-broadcast audition transcription) White gave Clark and Lois their assignments. With the radio show inching from mere syndication to nationwide broadcast, the tail was beginning to wag the dog. The confusion would have to be cleared up. It was easier to do it in the comics, where an identifiable voice actor wasn’t involved. Changing George Taylor to Perry White was as simple as using a different name for the same character. There was no discernible difference between the two as Joe Shuster drew them. In fact, the point where Taylor ends and White begins in Action Comics is difficult to pinpoint. After the last Taylor appearance in Action #30, the Planet’s editor is simply called “Chief” until #34, when he’s suddenly Perry White. The thinking here might have been: “If we have a new Clark Kent, a new Daily Planet editor would smooth the transition. George Taylor was used to the timid Clark. (Interestingly, Taylor continued as the editor in the syndicated Superman strip well into 1941. Longer lead times might explain this.) Hold that thought. Because there’s more to the thread of this theory.

Up, Up, and Away! Another important change going on at this time was the switch from the leaping Superman to the flying Superman. This seems to have started with Superman #6 or #7, depending on how you interpret some depictions. Supposedly this ramping up was instituted because of the upcoming theatrical cartoons, which were going to depict him that way. Joe Shuster went to Florida sometime in late 1940 to do model sheets for the series. However, other sources report that Superman first switched to flying on radio. In the “K-Metal” script, it’s ambiguous. He’s described as “streaking” through the air, but in one scene, he struggles to summon his failing strength for what he himself calls a “sky-jump.” All the evidence keeps pointing back to the Superman radio show as

The Kryptonite Crisis driving events. When the Daily Planet was introduced on radio in February 1940, it was only a month or so before the comic book’s Daily Star was renamed to match. (Previously, the name had not been used in the newspaper strip for fear of jeopardizing sales of the strip. There were of lot of actual papers named the Star—and a newspaper might not have wanted to give a local rival with that name a free plug on its own comics page!) Also on radio, the producers soon learned that portraying a spineless Clark Kent just wouldn’t work on the air. Actor Bud Collyer played Kent as a tenor, changing to a dramatic baritone for the Man of Steel. Since he was Clark for most of each episode, it undercut his character. So he modulated his Clark. Ultimately, this led to a more normalized relationship with radio’s Lois Lane. There was no hint of a Clark-Lois crush. And Lois didn’t play a central role. At this point, Jimmy Olsen (who was created for radio and had yet to appear in comics) was Superman’s primary foil over the air waves. All in all, the conclusion seems inescapable that the changes going on in Superman were a consequence of radio refinements to the Man of Steel. And the “K-Metal” story seems to fall smack where this shift and transformation was coalescing.

The Secret Origin of Action Comics #31? For reasons previously stated, I think it’s less likely that the “KMetal” story would have gone in Superman #8 than in Action Comics #31. The former simply didn’t need any sales help, and, format-wise, a 26-page story was a difficult fit. It’s obviously a lead story, but since it changes format, how do you handle the stories backing it up? Unlike radio, it was a rare “Superman” comics story wherein Lois doesn’t appear. Action, on the other hand, seems the perfect place for it. If “K-Metal” was destined for Action, then it almost certainly was meant for issue #31 (Dec. 1940). There’s circumstantial evidence that DC was gearing up for changes in that title. The backup strips had stabilized to “Clip Carson,” “The Black Pirate,” “Three Aces,” “Pep Morgan,” “Tex Thomson,” and “Zatara the Master Magician.” With Action #27, suddenly “Tex Thomson” loses two pages of his monthly 10-page allotment. Normally, this would suggest the strip was losing favor. Artist

Bernard Baily once claimed in print that DC wasn’t happy that Tex’s arch-foe, The Gorrah, got almost as much fan mail as Superman. Whatever the case, “Tex” lost pages. Then, with Action #31, two strange things happen. “Zatara” drops from 11 to 9 pages permanently. And the lead “Superman” tale is 12 pages instead of 13. The former suggests more space-clearing, perhaps in anticipation of an extra-long “Superman” lead. All DC needed was 13 pages. Suppose they were planning to drop the failing “Tex Thomson.” With the two reclaimed “Zatara” pages, that would open up 10 pages. The others could be had by dropping the 4-page “Black Pirate” or miscellaneous filler material. Suppose that was the plan. Then the “K-Metal” story was killed. Imagine that, at the last minute, they needed an emergency “Superman” story. Having the in-house Jack Burnley whip one out, cutting it by a page, would fill that hole. “Tex Thomson” is reinstated. And the deadline is made. It may be significant that, in the very next issue, “Tex Thomson” is revamped into a new costumed super-hero called “Mr. America.” “Zatara” remains at 9 pages, despite his popularity. It wouldn’t be long before “The Vigilante” and “Congo Bill” were introduced to build up sales. It worked. Action sales climbed to 900,000 copies a month in 1941. Of the two most logical scenarios, my money is on the “K-Metal” story going into Action #31. On sale in October 1940, it fits Jerry Siegel’s three-month lead time perfectly.

The Killing of the “K-Metal” Story Now let’s speculate on why DC killed this important story. Up until 1940, Superman was virtually invulnerable. That was his chief appeal. While it did constrain the dramatic possibilities, the novelty of the invincible Man of Tomorrow had yet to wear off. The introduction of K-Metal would change that forever. Well, not permanently. There was only one fragment on Earth. It would take only one story to find and destroy the K-Metal. There was no absolute necessity that another would ever surface to vex the Man of Steel. So that by itself was probably not a motivation for killing the story, any more than Lois Lane’s sudden discovery of Superman’s true identity. You could change that in any number of ways, either by redrawing the ending or doing a switch in a later story. Or by cutting and pasting until one of the two running plots was salvaged for print. Perhaps because the story shows a weakened, powerless Superman—-the premise of this early form of Kryptonite was that, while robbing Superman of his powers, it bestowed identical abilities on any human exposed to its radiation—DC was afraid it would take away from Superman’s uniqueness. Maybe it was just too much change for one story, and editorially too difficult to coordinate with a series appearing in two different titles.

Round Up the Usual Suspects So—who killed “K-Metal”? The usual suspects, plus one: [Clockwise from left: TV “Superman” George Reeves with producer (and DC editor) Whitney Ellsworth in 1951—DC business manager/co-publisher Jack Liebowitz—and DC publisher Harry Donenfeld. The latter two photos are seen in Les Daniels’ 1995 official history DC Comics: Sixty Years of the World’s Favorite Comic Book Heroes; that of Ellsworth and Reeves appears in Jan Alan Henderson’s fine 1999 biography Speeding Bullet: The Life and Bizarre Death of George Reeves. Special thanks to David Siegel. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

At first glance, the prime suspect would naturally be head editor Whit Ellsworth. New to the job, he was already exerting strong editorial control. It was he who, before Batman #1 went to press, decreed that a new villain called The Joker, who died in the last story, be spared so he could be used again. After the Monsters-inspired “Batman” story in that same issue garnered complaints about Batman machine-gunning some giant criminals, it was Ellsworth who ordered that Batman never again carry a gun.

The Secret Origins of the 1940 "K-Metal" Story

George Lowther, original director of the Superman radio series and probable writer of the storyline that introduced Kryptonite, flanked by a few related artifacts. [Left:] The page of the 1943 Superman radio script on which the K-Metal meteor falls to Earth. [Top right:] A lobby card from the 1948 Superman movie serial shows Clark Kent (actor Kirk Alyn) being weakened by Kryptonite for the first time in a visual medium. Script page and lobby card courtesy of Anthony Tollin. [Right:] ’Twas only in Superman #61 (Nov.-Dec. 1949) that the Man of Steel first encountered Kryptonite in a comic book. Turns out Swami Riva’s turban gem was pure Kryptonite—not that that smalltime conman knew it! Pencils by Al Plastino. Clearly, once Superman began appearing in other media than comics, the tail started wagging the dog—and we don’t mean Krypto! [Superman TM & ©2004 DC Comics.]

Perhaps stung by negative reaction to having let that mistake go to press, Ellsworth chose to look at the drawn “K-Metal” story with a magnifying glass—and killed it. Dead. But this theory is undermined by evidence. His distinctively bold handwriting adorns Siegel’s very detailed synopsis, showing conclusively that Ellsworth okayed the serieschanging plot in its entirety. Jack Liebowitz seems an unlikely candidate. The script was submitted directly to him, rather than to Ellsworth, either indicating its importance, or the possibility that Ellsworth was on vacation that month. Liebowitz evidently okayed it all the way through the art stage, indicating that no one saw a problem with the concept until it was executed and ready to print. Harry Donenfeld is an improbable suspect. All accounts are that he was hands-off, editorially-speaking. Whatever happened came suddenly and unexpectedly. While we can’t rule out any of these principals’ having had second thoughts, we can assume that somewhere in that three-month production window, someone certainly objected. His reasons? It would change the formula too much, too fast. It was too risky to print. Superman sales were roaring based on a simple formula: a hero so powerful nothing could defeat him. Why tamper with success?

Round Up the Un-usual Suspects Of course, the story was not forgotten. In 1943, it appears to have been ransacked for the revamped Adventures of Superman radio program. Beginning on June 3rd of that year, a 7-part serial called “The Meteor” recounts the curious effect a falling meteor has on Clark Kent. He faints. When he and Lois investigate the fallen object, he faints again under the influence of the diamond-like stone, mumbling the unfamiliar word “Krypton.”

After the meteor is removed to the Metropolis Museum, Clark visits its astrophysicist, Dr. John Whistler, and deliberately reexposes himself to the glowing meteor, which the scriptwriter dubbed “Kryptonite.” Again succumbing, he has a vision. Memories of his brief childhood on Krypton come flooding back:

“I see a city—such a city as you would think never existed! There are great halls and tall towers encrusted with jewels that gleam and sparkle in the sunlight!... Ohh, what a magnificent city this is! The streets are paved with gold. The people I see walking about wear costumes of the finest satins and silks, and in colors that I’ve never seen before. Doctor—Doctor, it’s all coming back to me now. This city—it’s Krypton!” When he recovers, Superman knows two things: one is that there is now on Earth a substance which can destroy him. And the other? As he tells the doctor: “I am in your debt, Dr. Whistler. I know now, for the first time, who I really am, where I came from. You see, that man was my father—that woman, my mother. I was the baby they placed in the space-ship. That’s how I came to Earth.” This short serial, apparently written by director-writer George Lowther, author of the 1942 Superman novel, appears to function as a device to tell the Man of Steel’s origin for new radio listeners. This was during the critical first season of the show on the nationwide Mutual network. Kryptonite doesn’t appear again on radio for another two years, when Dr. Whistler dies and his stolen piece of Kryptonite launches a major new storyline that was ultimately adapted as the 1948 movie serial Atom Man Vs. Superman. Kryptonite didn’t surface in the comic book until late 1949, in “Superman’s Return to Krypton”—the same story in which Superman finally learned he was from Krypton. The Atom Man serial seems to have forced the origin issue into the open. The parallels between “The Meteor” and the “K-Metal” script are many and compelling. Both describe the fragment of Krypton in the same terms. In “The Meteor” it’s referred to as a “mass of metal, which glows like a green diamond.” In Siegel’s script, K-Metal “glows with a penetrating green brilliance.”

The Kryptonite Crisis

Both stories feature a scene wherein Clark Kent visits a similarlynamed scientist (Prof. Barnett Winton vs. Dr. John Whistler) and falls ill. In Siegel’s script, he simply passes out, while in Lowther’s he falls into a delirious faint. In both scenes, he realizes he’s from Krypton. The way it plays in the “K-Metal” script, when Winton shows that his meteor— which he speculates is from the destroyed planet Krypton—imbues him with terrific strength, Clark thinks, “I myself must be from Krypton.… While I lived on Krypton I derived great strength and powers from the planet, but after my removal to Earth contact was broken in some mysterious fashion. When the fragment nears Earth, the effect upon me is negative!”

This ad appeared in two consecutive issues of Superman and Action Comics. It reads as if it’s a part of a larger push, one that suggests the concept of K-Metal/Kryptonite was created as a key element of a licensing tie-in.

Upon reviving after his first exposure to K-Metal, Clark thinks: “So that’s what it’s all about. At last I know the secret of my origin!”

Could the “K-Metal” story have been part of a larger plan? The use of the phrase “never-ending fight against crime” is right out the Superman radio show. Could the powers-that-were have been planning to introduce Kryptonite on the radio in 1940, with the “K-Metal” story as a lead-in, and all of it tied in with the Krypto-Raygun toy?

At the end of the “K-Metal” story, Superman learns that Prof. Winton’s sample has been stolen, and now presents a future menace to him. On radio, the identical terrible threat rears its glowing head after Dr. Whistler dies in 1945. The radio Kryptonite storyline is simply too similar to the “K-Metal” tale to have been arrived at independently. The executive producer of The Adventures of Superman was Harry Donenfeld’s longtime crony Robert Maxwell, whose Maxwell Productions was headquartered at DC’s familiar 480 Lexington Avenue address. Getting access to that “KMetal” script could have been no more trouble than getting on an elevator. It certainly seems that in comics, on radio, and in the newspaper strip, a joint decision was made that Superman not know his true origins—a taboo first broken on radio.

Anybody Out There Remember the Krypto-Raygun? But there’s much more to the mystery of Kryptonite. Just months after the “K-Metal” story was written, Kryptonite was mentioned in an issue of Superman. But it wasn’t in a story. The weirdest aspect of this whole baffling mystery first surfaced in Superman #7 (Sept-Oct. 1940). Quoting from the back cover ad for Daisy’s Krypto-Raygun: “[It] looks exactly like the KRYPTORAYGUN used by SUPERMAN in his never-ending fight against crime... like the one SUPERMAN had made of KRYPTONITE—that amazing metal from SUPERMAN’s birthplace—the planet KRYPTON!”

The Krypto-Raygun did make a solitary appearance—in Action #32 (Jan. 1941). It’s accompanied by a new ad that includes two panels from the story—but omits the weapon’s Kryptonite origin references. In the story, Superman builds his Krypto-Raygun from Earthly materials. There are no references to either Krypton or Kryptonite—which makes one wonder why Superman dubs it the Krypto-Raygun!

“K-Metal” or “Kryptonite”? If so, then who invented Kryptonite/K-Metal? Both terms sound like Jerry Siegel names. “Kryptonite” could easily have been coined by the guy who pitted Superman against the Ultra-Humanite. “K-Metal” sounds like Siegel on a bad day. A close examination of the “K-Metal” script unearths the intriguing fact that the term “K-Metal” is used only once—in the final caption promising a startling new challenge for Superman, a foe in possession of K-Metal. It’s quite plausible to speculate that the name was changed during the art production stage—changed as easily as George Taylor was transformed into Perry White in this same time frame. If that final page of art is ever discovered, I would not be surprised to learn that the metal had been re-dubbed Kryptonite from the beginning. Of all people, Mort Weisinger, who didn’t join the DC editorial staff until 1941, weighed in on the controversy in a 1975 interview recently reprinted in the TwoMorrows volume The Legion Companion edited by George Khoury. Early in the interview, Weisinger states that “green K… was the invention of Robert Maxwell, producer of the radio series which featured Superman; Maxwell also introduced Jimmy Olsen there.” In an addendum, Weisinger seemingly takes the credit himself, saying, “I developed and stimulated the entire Superman mythology, which included the introduction of kryptonite and Jimmy Olsen on the original Superman radio show, then was later transplanted to the magazines.”

An early-1940s Superman Krypto-Raygun was sold via an art house auction a few years back—and described as a “No. 49 pocket projector raygun complete with bulb-battery lenses and seven 16mm films, in its original box.” The box is pictured above. As per the surrounding panels from Action #32, it was a small wall-projector—although the one Clark invented could also take photos. For the full story, pick up Superman: The Action Comics Archives, Vol. 2. [©2004 DC Comics.]

The Secret Origins of the 1940 "K-Metal" Story

It’s hard to know exactly what to make of these conflicting statements. Perhaps Weisinger was under the mistaken impression that Kryptonite was Maxwell’s invention. And could Weisinger himself have scripted that first Kryptonite radio sequence? There is evidence that Weisinger had some connection to Robert Maxwell before formally joining DC. Pulp writer Howard Wandrei once recalled visiting Maxwell’s offices late in 1940 to talk about scripting Superman for radio. Weisinger was present in some unknown capacity. We may never know in exactly what capacity. [See Weisinger photo on our flip side.]

The Secret Origin of the Powerstone? What of the promised sequel? No script has ever surfaced. But, two years later, in an unusual three-part story that cycled between Action Comics to Superman, the Man of Steel and Luthor struggle for control of the Powerstone, a jewel from another planet that gives the evil scientist super-powers, and as well as the ability to dampen Superman’s own abilities. It’s a reasonable bet that Siegel’s original intention was to give Luthor the K-Metal weapon. Perhaps Siegel salvaged the core idea as the Powerstone, thereby sidestepping the whole Krypton issue. One chapter even features an unusual full-page panel, such as the “K-Metal” story had.

Whodunnit, Redux But we’re still left with the unresolved issue of who killed this critical comics story, and why. The three main suspects appear to be out. But there was a fourth individual who possessed both the power and influence to weigh in on the matter. The man who was almost single-handedly responsible for taking the Man of Steel out of comic books and into the mainstream culture. The one who was unquestionably the architect of the KryptoRaygun, and who probably even wrote the ad copy. The producer of Superman on radio—Robert Maxwell. He had both the clout and the motivation. Innovations Maxwell oversaw on radio changed the direction of the comics series. What if, in attempting to align the DC Superman with the radio

version, Jerry Siegel had gone too far in altering the critical SupermanLois Lane relationship? Perhaps only Maxwell, who had so far landed just a dozen radio stations for his show but sought a national network sponsorship, truly understood the implications of what Siegel had done. It’s important to realize that it was not until February of 1941 that the radio Lois actually encountered the radio Superman. Up until this time, the show was literally a variation of the extremely popular Terry and the Pirates program, with Jimmy Olsen substituting for Terry. In fact, Bud Collyer had played Pat Ryan on the popular Terry radio show, with (first Jimmy Olsen) Jackie Kelk portraying Terry Lee! There was no love interest, never mind partnership potential, between the Planet’s sob sister and the Man of Steel. Only Maxwell would have had the urgent motivation to lobby against Siegel’s new direction. Perhaps it was at this point that control over their own creation first began to slip from Siegel and Shuster’s hands. There’s clearly more to this story than we can know. But the available evidence appears to point to this time frame as the tipping point where Superman shifted away from being a comic book character to a truly multi-media superstar. Until more definitive evidence surfaces, we must assume that Maxwell and his Superman, Inc., licensing office was smack in the middle of the Kryptonite debacle.

It’s a Bird... It’s a Plane... It’s Superwoman! There’s still another wrinkle to all this. It wasn’t just Action Comics that dropped story pages at the end of 1940. Across the board, all DC books temporarily did so, the result of the company’s first influx of lucrative national advertising. Could Robert Maxwell’s licensing push have forced DC to abandon the move toward longer Superman stories in order to save space for future ads? Now, there is yet another unexplored option here. Suppose, just suppose, the “Kryptonite” story was not intended for either Action or Superman, but for a third original, never-issued title? Here, admittedly, we are really entering speculative territory. But what if the purpose of this

Were the “Powerstone” stories that appeared in Action Comics #47 (April 1942) and Superman #17 (July-Aug. 1942) a reworking of elements from the “K-Metal” story? Will Murray suggests they very well may have been! In the latter, the Man of Steel loses his super-strength, just as he had in the scrapped tale. [©2004 DC Comics.]

The Kryptonite Crisis

unusual tale was not just to change the course of Superman’s career, but to introduce a new character? As set up, the “K-Metal” story suggests that Superman and Lois Lane would henceforth be partners. What did Siegel mean by that? What could Lois do for Superman that he couldn’t do for himself? Unless the plan was to imbue her with permanent superpowers via Kryptonite. But logically, how could that work? For Lois to be super, she has to be under Kryptonite influence. If she were, then Superman, if present, would be simultaneously depowered. What kind of effective team could they make? Unless... unless one purpose of this story was to set up for a never-written sequel—a sequel introducing an important new spinoff. A book called Superwoman.

Photos of Superman radio producer (and suspected “K-Metal” story killer) Robert Maxwell are evidently rare as hen’s teeth, but we managed to come up with two of them. Above left is a newspaper photo of Maxwell as reprinted in Russ Cochran’s wonderful 1988 book The Adventures of Superman Collecting. Above right is a photo supplied by oldtime radio expert Anthony Tollin from the book Superman: Serial to Cereal, of a real Superman summit meeting: [l. to r.: Maxwell, DC publisher Harry Donenfeld, Mrs. Donenfeld, and DC editor (and later Superman TV producer) Whitney Ellsworth, apparently taken at the Selznick Studios in Culver City, in the L.A. area, in July 1951. “After eventually being axed by DC,” Tony tells us, “Bob Maxwell purchased the rights to Lassie and produced the popular TV series until he sold out to Jack Wrather for over $3 million. Wrather, in turn, sold the rights to Rudd Weatherwax a year or so after the introduction of Jon Provost’s ‘Timmy’ character. There was a big story in Life magazine on the changeover, but no photo of Maxwell, as I recall. Rudd Weatherwax was succeeded in the family business by his son Bob and his grandson Bob, Jr., who trained the golden retriever for the Flash TV series. The Weatherwax family are still among the major animal trainers in Hollywood, and have owned all eight generations of the world’s most successful female impersonators—namely, Lassie!”

No such title is known to have been planned. But in 1942, DC did trademark an ashcan edition called Superwoman. Possibly this was simply a defensive measure, just in case Fawcett or Timely decided they could safely produce their own Superwoman. I know I’m going out on a limb here, speculating on a third title. But there’s a certain logic to it. First, consider Lois’ comment after receiving the blood transfusion from Clark Kent in Superman #6. Her miraculous recovery and feelings of new-found strength are a dangling plot thread if I ever saw one. Suppose that was Jerry Siegel’s way of creating a Superwoman out of Lois Lane, but someone decided at the last minute against following through with that plotline? This was another gimmick to which Siegel later returned repeatedly. In Action Comics #60 (May 1943) appeared “Lois Lane—Superwoman!” After suffering a brain concussion, Lois dreams that she receives a blood transfusion from Superman, and gains his powers. She makes a cute version of his costume and calls herself Superwoman. Over the decades that followed, this transfer of superpowers via blood donation would become a reliable tool in Siegel’s bag of plot tricks. Seeing it here for the first time suggests to the longtime “Superman” reader an inevitable payoff: Super-Lois. Okay—so Siegel or somebody decides against the blood transfusion gimmick, if only because it would point back to Clark Kent, and link him to Superman. Enter Kryptonite. And a fresh new way to expand the ever-expanding Superman franchise. Once Superman helps set up the new character, he could depart the book, leaving Lois to have her own adventures. Would you think for a minute that DC would give Lois powers and deny her a colorful costume? Or an obvious name like Superwoman? Perhaps saner heads prevailed on that. Perhaps they decided they were better off developing Wonder Woman, who, coincidentally or not, may well have been conceived circa Summer 1941 as “Suprema, the Wonder Woman” (as detailed in an article I wrote a while back for Comic Book Marketplace)—and who was certainly created around that

time, under whatever name. No need to share royalties with Siegel and Shuster on that one!

Super-spinoffs? It was not too soon in Superman’s career for thoughts of a spinoff character to be offered. Early in 1941, in a Saturday Evening Post interview, Siegel offered his formative ideas on a “Superboy” feature. “It will be about Superman before he developed a social conscience,” Siegel explained at the time. So we know spinoffs were in his thinking. What if ultimately the point of the Kryptonite story was not to introduce a weakness? What if Kryptonite was merely a device created to give Superman a sidekick, similar to Robin, who had been introduced in “Batman” earlier that year? There may have been another, more personal reason Siegel decided to modify the Clark-Lois relationship. There’s no question that Superman was an ego projection of his creators. In June 1939, Jerry Siegel married his first wife, Bella. Suddenly the awkward guy who couldn’t get a girl had a wife, and success. Could Jerry Siegel have been bringing poor luckstruck Clark Kent more in line with his creator’s new lifestyle? The publishers of Superman had previously published girlie pulps like Spicy Detective Stories. They had old-fashioned sensibilities. Maybe they thought the role reversal would deflate the character of Superman forever, and make him a laughingstock in the eyes of his readers. And so that path was not followed. Like all great riddles, this one may never be totally resolved. But it’s fascinating to see how, in one 26-page script, Jerry Siegel first developed concepts that he and his “Superman” successors continued to mine 20 and even 60 years later. It reaffirms the obvious: the first “Superman” scripter was also the most creative. For his time, Jerry Siegel was truly a comic book genius. [Special Thanks to Richard Kyle, Anthony Tollin, and John Wells for their expert advice and input on this article.]

The Secret Origins of the 1940 "K-Metal" Story

“I Am Superwoman—watch me roar!” [Clockwise from top left:] Whether or not DC ever pondered seriously the notion of an entire Superwoman comic, they once produced a so-called “ashcan edition” with that title and a Jan. 1942 cover date, to make sure nobody else could do it—though the cover art was simply an old Howard Sherman “Dr. Fate” cover from More Fun Comics. In Action Comics #60 (May 1943), they took the concept one stage further, in a story that turned out to be Lois’ dream. Thanks to Mike Catron for the scan. In 1946 DC published a second story with the very same title; this time, Superman merely tricked Lois into thinking she had his powers for a short time. It wasn’t till Kal-El’s cousin Kara landed on Earth in Action #252 (May 1959), with script by Otto Binder and art by Al Plastino, that the concept metamorphosed into a true Supergirl—and even then, she wasn’t Lois. Still, Lois did get another one-shot crack at being Superwoman in Action #275 (March 1960), as per this Curt Swan/George Klein cover repro’d from a photocopy of the original art! Was the latter story done to keep up the trademark on the name? [©2004 DC Comics.]

The Kryptonite Crisis

SUPER-POSTSCRIPT by Roy Thomas [Superboy’s four-color debut, first conceived at least by early 1941 and probably well before, was delayed for several years—and thereby hangs a tale, or at least a part of one, from A/E’s editor:] In 1966-67, Jerry Siegel worked at Marvel as a proofreader for a brief time. As Stan Lee’s associate editor, I oversaw him to some extent, and he and I had casual and pleasant day-to-day contact. I studiously avoided asking all the questions or saying most of the fanboy things I wanted to, because I knew his and Joe Shuster’s late-’40s lawsuit over Superboy and Superman and its aftermath was understandably a sore point with him. After a few months, Jerry had to resign, because his family was moving to California so his daughter could attend college there, far less expensively than in New York. He was selling off some old comics to help finance the trip, mostly ones from his tenure as editor at Ziff-Davis, I believe; and, since I’d mentioned I had enjoyed the likes of Space Busters, Crusader from Mars, and Wild Boy of the Congo, he asked if I wanted to come home with him and take a look at them before they were scattered to the winds.

had suddenly appeared. Jerry professed no doubt whatever that Junior had been rushed into print to scoop DC, which after all was already (at least) threatening legal action against Fawcett over Captain Marvel. Under the circumstances, he said, DC decided to delay the introduction of Superboy… though I don’t recall his stating whether or not he had concurred in that decision.

I eagerly concurred, and one night, virtually on the eve of his and wife Joanne’s move, we shared a subway ride to whichever borough they were living in at the time… Queens or Brooklyn, probably. During the ride, we discussed comics more than we had in the preceding months, and one of us (probably me) mentioned Captain Marvel in passing. At this point, Jerry said he had something to tell me, but it would have to be off the record (and so it has been, for a third of a century). He told me he had come up with Superboy several years before he appeared in comics, but that, while he and DC were kicking the idea around, developing it, somebody from DC—I’m positive he didn’t mention his own 1941 Saturday Evening Post interview Will Murray writes about, of which I then knew nothing—had discussed the Superboy concept in an interview. He said that, only a few months after the Though “Superboy” debuted as a feature in More Fun Comics #101 interview was (Jan.-Feb. 1945), he and that mag’s other mainstays (Green Arrow, published—about as Johnny Quick, and Aquaman) were switched over to Adventure quickly as it was Comics with #103 (April 1946), putting former cover star Sandman to possible to write and sleep and launching Starman off into space. The above splash is from draw a story— Adventure #127 (April 1948). Collectors Bob Hughes and Pat Lang suspect this art, or at least the inking, is by George Roussos, with "a Captain Marvel Jr. lot of John Sikela swipes." [©2004 DC Comics.]

At the same time they were trademarking Superwoman in late 1941/early 1942, DC was doing the same with the Siegel-Shuster concept of Superboy, using old Batman and Robin art by Bob Kane and company for the cover of that “ashcan edition.” [©2004 DC Comics.]

Little if any more was said about the matter during the ride, but for the first time I suspected an answer to a question I’d pondered for years—why Cap Jr. alone, unlike the other seven heroes who’d been spun off from the Big Red Cheese in the 1940s (three Lieutenants, Mary, Unc, Freckles, and Hoppy), wore a costume that wasn’t colored like Captain Marvel’s. Jr.’s mostly-bluewith-red-cape costume came closer to Superman’s—and in that moment, sitting beside Jerry Siegel on a subway at 6:00 o’clock or so on a weekday evening, I felt I finally understood why, at least in part. Whiz Comics #25, which introduced Cap Jr., had a Dec. 1941 cover date—which means it went on sale no later than October, had gone to press during mid-to-late summer, and had almost certainly been plotted and drawn in early summer at the latest—which coincides fairly well with Will Murray’s mention of an early-1941 interview in the weekly magazine founded by Ben Franklin. But did the Fawcetts read that article and decree that Captain Marvel Jr. be created at once—even appropriating the colors of DC’s projected Superboy— or was it just an unfortunate coincidence? We’ll never know for certain. I say “unfortunate” because it’s pretty much a matter of record that a major incentive for Jerry’s decision to sue DC after World War II was the company’s launching ‘Superboy’ while he was in the Army, with himself not connected to it. Of course, Jerry—and, I presume, Joe Shuster—had additional reasons for the lawsuit. However, had DC gone ahead with plans to introduce Superboy in 1941 or so, with Jerry fully involved, he might have been less inclined to seek legal redress later—and might have spared himself much unhappiness. Of such roads taken and not taken is life composed.”

Alex Toth

ALEX TOTH on Scorchy Smith & Superman

[A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: Ever since Milt Caniff himself revealed it several decades ago, it’s been known to cognoscenti of Terry and the Pirates—one of the greatest and most influential adventure comic strips ever— that Caniff was often assisted, even ghosted on that feature in the late 1930s by his friend Noel Sickles, who also wrote and drew the aviation strip Scorchy Smith for a couple of years. But leave it to Alex Toth, a Caniff/Sickles devotee who’s cut quite an artistic swath himself over the years, to unveil a startling secret behind the comics that includes Sickles—and the Man of Steel. —Roy.]

In this June 1936 Scorchy Smith daily, “Bud” Sickles worked in airplanes, heroic figures (Scorchy and Terry’s Pat Ryan sure had a family resemblance!), a great use of grey tones minus line art for the dunes—and wonderful use of white space in panel 3. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! sci-fi fan! I’d never read many sci-fi stories.

Al Feldstein is truly an original in the comic field. He started out illustrating stories for Fiction House and other comic publishers in the ’40s. In 1948 he began working for Bill Gaines’ Entertaining Comics (EC) group, where his abilities as a writer and editor soon turned a failing company into one of the great success stories of the ’50s.

After the success of the EC horror titles, Bill Gaines and I were brainstorming ideas for innovative additions to our “New Trend” title line to replace the tired old imitations he’d inherited from his father. Bill confessed to his addiction to John Campbell’s Astounding Science Fiction magazine and to sci-fi in general. I confessed that I’d never read sci-fi, so he gave me a few copies of the magazine to read. I brought them back in, after reading just a few stories... and stated that I could write that stuff... and that sci-fi, as I saw it, might be a successful topic for comic books.

Feldstein repeated his success when Mad founder Harvey Kurtzman quit Mad magazine in 1956. Gaines briefly considered canceling the magazine, then asked Feldstein to take over as Mad’s new editor. Gaines’ decision proved to be a wise one. Under Feldstein’s 29-year editorial reign, Mad became a sales phenomenon and a beloved cultural icon.

And so our two sci-fi titles were started: Weird Science and Weird Fantasy. Everybody, of course, knows how Bill and I worked. He would read voraciously for more than half the night (being wired from taking diet pills that contained Dexedrine!) and he’d come in each morning with “springboards”... the simplified basic plots of the stories he’d read... and we’d proceed to use them as inspirations for what we felt were new and original “variations,” “permutations,” and “combinations” of them.

This issue’s Al Feldstein interview is the first presented in the “Comic Crypt.” We’d like to thank Mr. Feldstein for generously taking time from his hectic schedule to answer our questions. The following e-mail interview took place between August 7 and October 18, 2002, and was instigated by John Benson, editor of Squa Tront magazine.

My World: The Al Feldstein Interview Part 1

Mainly, we’d steal the ideas... but change them.

by Michael T. Gilbert Ray Bradbury and the EC Writers MICHAEL T. GILBERT: You adapted over 24 Ray Bradbury stories for EC. Ballantine reprinted many of these in their Autumn People and Tomorrow Midnight paperbacks in the mid-’60s. I was very impressed with your versions when I read them as a teenager. When I finally saw the original Bradbury stories years later, I was amazed at how successfully you had transferred the poetry of Bradbury’s tales, while cutting little of the original story. Considering how seamless these adaptations were, it wasn’t unreasonable to assume that you and Bradbury had worked closely together on those EC tales. However, I was surprised to discover that the two of you met for the first time only a few days ago, during a panel discussion at the 2002 San Diego Comic-Con. Those who saw that meeting said it was a very emotional experience. While it’s still fresh in your mind, could you tell us what Ray Bradbury meant to you as a writer when you were working at EC––and what you were thinking when you two finally met after 50 years? Did the two of you have a chance to talk after[Left:] Ray Bradbury in the 1950s, as seen in the hardcover EC Tales of Terror! by Fred von Bernewitz and Grant wards? If so, do you recall what Geissman, from Fantagraphics Books. [Right:] “In the living room the voice-clock sang…” was the first line in Ray you discussed? Bradbury’s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains.” However, when Feldstein adapted the tale for Weird Fantasy #17 AL FELDSTEIN: First of all, you have to understand that I was never a

(Jan.-Feb. 1953), he created a striking splash-page image by pulling a description from a later paragraph. The result? The beautiful Wally Wood splash above! All EC art in this “Crypt” repro’d from Russ Cochran’s beautiful hardcover reprints of the EC line. [©2004 EC Publications, Inc.; original story ©1950, 2004 Ray Bradbury.]

My World: The Al Feldstein Interview––Part I

crime, and sci-fi books at the time (save for Johnny Craig’s lead “VaultKeeper” story, etc.). I was totally inspired by Ray’s wonderful use of descriptive phrases, the lyrical quality of his prose, and his inventive coupling of adjectives and nouns, which transmitted to the reader those fantastic visual images. And so, aside from the direct adaptations, Bill and I would plot, and I would attempt to write, poor imitations of Ray’s story-telling technique. But, as the pressures built by the negative publicity directed at comic books by various people with various agendas grew, Ray (at the urging, I understand, of his literary agent), first asked that his name be taken off our covers... and then finally that the adaptations be halted. And that was nearly fifty years ago. When I was invited to the 2002 San Diego Comic-Con as an Honored Guest to help celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Mad magazine, I eagerly accepted. And then I discovered that Ray Bradbury was coming to the Con to do a “panel” moderated by Julie Schwartz! This splash from Weird Science-Fantasy #23 (March 1954) demonstrates how faithfully Feldstein adapted Bradbury’s “The Flying Machine.” Check out Ray's original prose version! [Art ©2004 EC Publications, Inc.; original story ©1953, 2004 Ray Bradbury.]

One day, among his “springboards” were two plot ideas that attracted me, and I proposed combining both of their themes into a single story... which I did. When it was published, Ray Bradbury wrote us a kind and tactful letter, suggesting that we’d neglected to pay him his royalties for the two stories of his that we’d published. At the time, I had never read a Ray Bradbury story... and Bill had not informed me who had written the pair we’d swiped and combined and embellished. Bill wrote back that he had always intended to pay Ray his royalty, but didn’t know how to get in touch with him. Along with the check, he asked Ray if we could continue to adapt his stories into our EC line. And Ray (probably hungry at the time!) agreed. And that’s how it all began. I was supplied with several collections of Ray Bradbury stories: The Golden Apples of the Sun, The Martian Chronicles, and The October Game, and Bill told me to adapt a story for each issue of our sci-fi (and later, horror) titles. So I started reading Ray Bradbury, and I immediately became a devoted, addicted, and idolizing fan. In attempting to adapt Ray Bradbury’s stories into the comic book format, I found myself intent upon capturing as much of his wonderful, visual inspiring, lyrical prose as I could... much to the consternation of the artists I assigned to illustrate them, whose space for their illustrations was severely diminished by the resultant heavy captions and dialogue balloons.

I immediately wrote to my contacts at the Con telling them that I had never met the man, despite having adapted all those stories of his and assigning the proper artist to illustrate them, and that I would love to participate in his panel. I was quickly informed that, sorry, it was a “one-man spotlight”... ...and that was that! I figured that I’d have to be content just being in the audience, and maybe I’d get a chance to say something to him when the panel was over. But several days before I left for the Con, I was informed that they would be calling me up from the audience as a “surprise” for Ray. And the rest is history. It was a terribly emotional and moving moment for me to finally meet my idol... and (I just couldn’t help it!) I cried like a baby as I tried to tell him what those two years of adapting his stories had meant to me... and the profound effect they’d had on me, not only on my writing, but also on my art. I explained to him that I considered him to be a virtual artist, using his words as colors and his phrases as brush strokes. Unfortunately, my own “personal spotlight” was scheduled immediately after Ray’s... so I did not have a chance to have any further conversation with him, much as I’d have liked to. My “Program Schedule Guide” quickly spirited me off... and I don’t know where Ray went afterwards.

This went on for over two years... adapting over 25 of Ray’s best stories... while never meeting, writing, or talking to the man. Bill Gaines, of course, kept up a running correspondence with Ray... and occasionally he would pass on to me the news that Ray was absolutely delighted with what we were doing with his creations, both prose- and art-wise. I believe that Bill wanted to stand between Ray and me, acting as the go-between and discouraging any personal contact... for whatever reasons he may have had at the time. Meanwhile, of course, adapting Ray’s stories had a profound effect upon my own writing... and I was writing almost every story in our horror,

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! The first Eando Binder EC adaptation, “The Teacher from Mars,” drawn by Joe Orlando, appeared in Weird Science-Fantasy #24 (June 1954). Three of Otto Binder’s “Adam Link” stories followed in WSF #27-29. [Adaptation ©2004 EC Publications, Inc.; original story ©2004 Estate of Otto Binder.]

FELDSTEIN: Johnny Craig was at EC before I arrived upon the scene... as a competent freelance artist, working for Bill’s father. When I began to write my own stories for EC, Bill Gaines urged Johnny to do the same. Johnny was an exceptional writer and succeeded in delineating and improving upon the character and story-telling technique of “The VaultKeeper”...while treating interesting and off-beat subjects with inspired originality. Harvey Kurtzman walked into our offices one day... and showed Bill and me something called “Hey Look!”... and we rolled on the floor, laughing. I immediately offered Harvey a job, writing his own stories and doing the artwork for my science-fiction titles (because he detested our horror titles, and... except for maybe one or two stories... refused to participate in them). Harvey was a genius. He was inventive, innovative, and original. And he had a wonderful knack... the ability to be able to ruminate on suggestions that were offered to him... until, after enough time, he would initiate them as his own.

God, this is a protracted answer to a simple question. Sorry about that!

As for Carl Wessler, Jack Oleck, and the other freelance writers I was forced to hire after Bill Gaines withdrew from our collaboration... they were all wonderful, competent, inventive, and original talents, plotting their stories with me in script conferences, writing them, and handing them in for my final re-writing of them directly onto the artists’ illustration boards, just as I had been doing during the previous years when Bill and I would plot each story in the morning, and I would write it after a fattening lunch at Patrissy’s... our favorite Italian restaurant... in the afternoon.

MTG: Apology accepted! You also adapted four Otto (Eando) Binder sci-fi stories for Weird Science-Fantasy, illustrated by Joe Orlando. These include “Teacher From Mars” plus three of Binder’s “Adam Link” tales. Binder’s warm, humorous stories were always a delight. Were these adaptations done to replace Bradbury’s when he phased out?

Much to the dismay of modern-day collectors... there are no Al Feldstein original scripts. Not one! All of the stories were written directly onto the artists’ illustration boards... lettered... and given to the artists, fully laid out.

FELDSTEIN: Otto Binder showed up at our offices at about the time we were asked by Ray to stop adapting his stories. He was looking for original script assignments. As part of his portfolio, he showed me the Eando Binder “Adam Link” stories (“Eando” Binder being the nom de plume for his and his brother Earl’s collaborations).

They were all invaluable assets to EC and its continuing exploration into the “New Direction” title line, after we were forced to drop all of our horror and crime titles by the implementation of the Comics Code Authority and its EC-directed, restrictive, self-castrating code of rules.

Since I felt that publishing adaptations of successful science-fiction writers was a very salable item, I jumped at the chance of continuing the policy by adapting the Eando Binder stories and filling the place vacated by Ray Bradbury. MTG: And did you have a similar affinity for Binder’s work? FELDSTEIN: Eando Binder’s stories were good science-fiction... but nothing will replace my affinity for Ray Bradbury’s masterful, poetic, lyrical, artistic prose.

The EC Crew MTG: Could you give us your thoughts on some of the other EC writers? I’m thinking specifically of Carl Wessler, Jack Oleck, Johnny Craig, and Harvey Kurtzman. What were your impressions of the respective strengths and weaknesses?

But back to Wessler, Oleck, Keyes, Bernstein, etc., etc.

MTG: In retrospect, it seems odd that you didn’t credit yourself and the other writers, if only on the letters page. You and Gaines went out of your way to make stars of the artists. Why not the writers, also? It’s especially strange considering the importance you and Gaines placed on the writing, eventually paying artists and writers equal page rates at Mad—unheard-of at the time. FELDSTEIN: Back when I was doing my writing and editing for EC, I was not really interested in stroking my ego by demanding credit for all the stories I wrote. But, yes, I had adopted the policy of crediting the artists with their work... which was directly in line with my policy of encouraging the artists to do their illustrations in their own “signature”... in their own “handwriting”... in their own personal and individual style. I wanted to make each of our EC titles unique in its appearance, each having a totally newer, more varied and interesting look than had been prevalent in most of the industry, and then to make each of the artists who were contributing to that unique new look a “star.”

My World: The Al Feldstein Interview––Part I Hence the “Artist of the Issue” inside front covers, including bio material and a picture of each artist featured. Hence, also, discussions of their individual talents in our letter pages.

Were you aware of their work? If so, did it have any effect on your writing?

Influences?

FELDSTEIN: When Simon & Kirby initiated the “romance comics” and Bill Gaines wanted to jump onto the bandwagon with EC imitations (before I convinced him that it would be much better, businesswise, to be “innovators” rather than imitators!), he asked me to write and illustrate my own “romance” stories for his imitations.

MTG: Did any non-EC comic book writers influence you? I’m thinking specifically of Charles Biro, who wrote the densest scripts this side of Al Feldstein! Your career has a number of interesting parallels to his—including the fact that you both began as cartoonists, before graduating to writing and editing. Biro worked for Lev Gleason publications in the ’40s and ’50s, scripting Boy Comics, the original Daredevil, and Crime Does Not Pay, among other titles. He and cartoonist Bob Wood edited the line, which sold phenomenally well in the Golden Age, and continued to do so until the Comics Code derailed the company in the mid-’50s. Biro’s brutal stories were essentially morality plays—like your own EC stories. And, like you, Biro used huge amount of text in his stories to build atmosphere and create convincing characters. Were you aware of Biro’s work at all, and did it have any influence on your own scripts for Crime SuspenStories? FELDSTEIN: I was a teenager, just breaking into the comic book illustrating business, working as an apprentice runner, eraser, and fledgling background artist for S.M. Iger Studio (the successor to Eisner & Iger Studio) when Charlie Biro and Bob Wood were riding high with Crime Does Not Pay… but I must embarrassingly admit that I never read any of his work! MTG: Another popular team in the 1950s, Simon & Kirby, wrote sophisticated stories for Young Love, Boys’ Ranch, and Black Magic.

I remember perusing one of the Simon & Kirby “romance” comics to see what they were doing, and then attempting to improve the genre with my own approaches.

MTG: Were there any other non-EC comic books or comic book creators such as Lou Fine, Will Eisner, or Jack Cole whose work you did follow? Or did you just read comic books as research? I assume you enjoyed newspaper comics, but were you ever a comic book fan? FELDSTEIN: Until I heard that Norman Maurer, a High School of Music and Art fellow student, was making “big money” drawing comic book pages, I had never read a comic book! Who had the dime?! I immediately borrowed a few to study and imitate for the “samples” I drew up when I went looking for my chance to make “big money,” too. And thereafter, as I progressed in my career from comic book artist to comic book artist/writer to packager of entire titles for publishers... yes! I only read other comic books for reference and only in my early career years... at Fox for my “headlight” imitations of “Archie”... and at EC for the “romance” imitations we did. However, when I first started working at Jerry Iger’s studio, erasing pages and running errands and progressing on to doing backgrounds, etc., I was surrounded by and exposed to the art of some of the “greats” in the comic book industry... fantastic talents like Lou Fine, Reed Crandall, Mort Leav, Bob Webb, Bill Williamson, Aldo Rubano, Matt Baker, Alex Blum, Raphael Asterita, Mort Lawrence, etc., etc. And I’d always admired the masterful work of Will Eisner, Jerry's old partner. They, of course, had a powerful, lasting impact upon me and upon my aspirations. MTG: Most of the EC artists, such as Kurtzman and Crandall, approached EC looking for work. Others, such as Orlando, Frazetta, and Evans, were recommended by other EC artists. Did you and Bill ever take the initiative and approach artists you admired, as you sometimes did with writers?

Editor Feldstein had a knack for picking the perfect artist to illustrate his Bradbury adaptations. Here, Bradbury’s prose for the ethereal story “The One Who Waits” from Weird Science #19 (May-June 1953) is matched by writer Feldstein’s adaptation and by Al Williamson’s delicate art. [Comic art ©2004 EC Publications, Inc.; original story ©2004 Ray Bradbury.]

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

FELDSTEIN: Aside from Johnny Craig and Graham Ingels... who were “house” artists for M. C. Gaines, Bill’s father, and who stayed on with EC when Bill took over the business after his father was accidentally killed, developing into valuable assets to the EC line... all of the other talented artists, including me, were recruited because they visited the EC “recruiting office” with their portfolios of fantastic comic book art.

my deadlines. With my tight schedule, that was totally unacceptable. I needed dependable “professionals”... and as those came aboard the EC ship and joined our crew, the undependable ones were quietly set adrift. MTG: It seems that artists like Bob Powell, Howard Nostrand, Lou Cameron, and Bill Everett would have been great additions to EC.

Bill and I were fortunate to be in the wonderful position of having artists constantly dropping by our offices, looking for assignments... which is how the comic book business worked back in those days. Freelance artists, scrounging for story assignments. Which is how we accumulated one of most talented stable of artists any comic book publishing company ever had.

FELDSTEIN: No doubt about it. There were many fine artists out there. At least they had time to have a photo taken together! (Left to right:) Al Feldstein, Ray Bradbury, and Julie at the San Diego Comic-Con, 2002. From the Julius Schwartz collection.

MTG: Can you tell us anything about George Roussos? Most of your artists were either regulars like Wood or Williamson, or artists like Sid Check or Jack Oleson who had brief tryouts but never became part of the EC crew. Roussos seems to fall somewhere in the middle. He actually did quite a few stories for you in the early days—and was even given the nickname “Radioactive” Roussos. But I was wondering why he never quite became a regular, and why it took so long to make a final decision. Were you and Bill on the fence about making George a permanent member of the EC crew?

brought on board.

MTG: Were you simply too busy to pursue them? FELDSTEIN: There was absolutely no need. Our requirements were being amply met by the talented guys we’d already

Next: “WHOSE World?” In part 2 of our Feldstein interview, besides giving his brief impressions of most of the EC artists, Al reveals some surprising information concerning his script for “My World!” This EC story is generally regarded as artist Wally Wood’s signature piece. But was it really? Find out two months from now (following our Julie Schwartz tribute issue) in Alter Ego #39. Till next time,

FELDSTEIN: As I recall, George Roussos, although extremely talented, had some serious problems that affected his ability to effectively meet

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:

mgilbert00@comcast.net

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

In Memoriam

Rudy LaPick (1926-2004)

“Rudy Loves Everybody and Everybody Loves Rudy!” found his work embellished by Rudy at one time or another. Rudy’s inks were razor-sharp— his pages neatly balanced with textures and black areas. Rudy’s style lent a sense of “fun” to his pages, not just because he was good at his job, but because he was having fun, too. Rudy was dedicated to making good comics and was proud of his work and his association with Archie. One of his closest friends was editor Victor Gorelick. Rudy was still working at the time of his passing.

by Jim Amash Rudy LaPick had the longest inking career in comic book history, undoubtedly doing more pages than any other person—a fact Rudy himself was unaware of. And, to be honest, I don’t think he ever thought about it. When I mentioned this to him, Rudy said, “Oh, yeah?” and then changed the subject. Rudy was actually quite humble about his comic book work. He didn’t understand why I made a big deal about his being comics’ most prolific inker. Records were not something Rudy dwelled on. People were what mattered to Rudy. Having said that, Rudy wasn’t surprised when I suggested that long-time “Archie” writer George Gladir may actually have the record for writing the most comic book pages. In fact, he thought a lot of George’s work. No matter who the writer or penciler was, Rudy liked the stories he worked on, because they dealt with warm, likable characters and represented a culture that was maybe a bit more gentle than what currently seems in vogue.

Rudy started his comic book career as a staffer at ACG (the American Comics Group) in 1945, and by 1947 was a staffer at Timely Comics (now known as Marvel), always specializing in inking humor features. It was there that Rudy formed his life-long friendship with Gene Colan and a long-time association with Dan DeCarlo. Rudy was let go in the Timely staff purges of 1949, but found his way back in short order when Stan Lee started re-hiring ex-staffers as freelancers. Rudy worked for Timely through most of the 1950s. Sometime in the early ’50s, Dan DeCarlo asked Rudy to become his personal inker and share a studio. When DeCarlo started working for Archie Comics Publications, Rudy continued as his inker. They shared a studio together until the mid-1960s, though Rudy continued to ink DeCarlo’s work for years afterward. Following that, Rudy freelanced directly for Archie and spent the rest of his career delineating the adventures of Riverdale’s favorite teenagers. Nearly every humor penciler who worked for Archie during those years

and laughing with perfect strangers.

More than anything else in this world, Rudy loved to make people laugh. He was a born comedian and could do a wide range of impressions, from John Wayne to Jack Benny. Rudy had a funny punch line for every occasion. He loved movies, often quoting his favorites lines when talking about them. I loved talking to Rudy because he always kept me laughing. He did the same thing to the staffers at Archie. He was also good friends with many of the Archie freelancers, like Stan Goldberg. As Stan once said, “Rudy loves everybody and everybody loves Rudy.” Rudy would be in line at a checkout counter and start talking

Rudy was proud of his family and talked about them quite often. His wife passed away some years ago, but Rudy’s love for her never dimmed. He talked about her almost as if she were still alive and of course, she was—in Rudy’s heart. Rudy also loved food. He was always giving out recipes to friends. Twice, while I was interviewing him for Alter Ego #24, Rudy gave me recipes. He could describe food in such a way that you became hungry, even if you’d just eaten. I think about him every time I eat the steak and greenbean recipe he gave me. Rudy’s work was as endearing as the man himself. He spent his life entertaining millions of readers and those who of us who knew him. It meant a lot to him that he was helping to bring joy to the people who read Archie Comics. Rudy wanted everybody to be as happy as he was—and we were, thanks to him. A wonderful legacy for a wonderful man.

SOLD OUT

Title Comic Fandom Archive

GARY BROWN, Comic Book Reporter The Editor of Comic Comments, et al., Talks about Fanzine-publishing, C. C. Beck, and the “Lost” 4th Issue of FATMAN! by Bill Schelly Introduction To state the obvious, we wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for the fans who stepped into the breach when Jerry Bails, Ronn Foss, Biljo White, and other early pioneers lowered their fannish profiles. In the mid-1960s, a new generation of enthusiasts rose to the fore, thus ensuring that comics fandom would become an ongoing, selfsustaining movement. A large influx of such individuals—dealers, fanzine editors, writers, artists, convention organizers, and collectors—bid fair to propel fandom’s Golden Age toward the decade’s end. The Comic Fandom Archive would be neglectful indeed if it didn’t plumb the memories of this group of torch-carriers, and chronicle their indelible contributions to fandom and comics alike. One such second-generation fan was Gary Brown, whose name will be familiar to fanzine fanatics of the late ’60s and early ’70s, including Rocket’s Blast-Comicollector, where he was a regular columnist for several years. Although I’ve known Gary for decades through the mails, it was a great pleasure to finally meet him at the 2002 San Diego Comic-Con and to interview him at length a year later. So multi-faceted was Gary’s fan “career” that Roy and I decided to split this chat into two halves. The interview was conducted by telephone on October 2nd, 2003, and was transcribed by Brian K. Morris. BILL SCHELLY: Let’s start with when you were born and related details. BROWN: I was born in Cleveland, Ohio, February, 1947. My mom was a housewife for a while; then she worked for as a secretary for Goodyear

Alan Hutchinson’s intricate illo for Gary Brown & Wayne DeWald’s Gremlin #2 fanzine was a parody of the cover of the Beatles’ legendary 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. [©2004 Alan Hutchinson; characters TM & ©2004 the respective trademark and copyright holders.]

in Miami for a year when we moved there. My dad was a carpenter and worked for several places in Cleveland. After we came down to Miami in 1956, he worked for Eastern Airlines until he retired. I have one sister, two years younger than I am. BS: Why the move to Miami? BROWN: One branch of the family moved down there, and really liked it. We came down to visit with them, and my mom and dad said, “Hey, let’s do this. We’re tired of shoveling the snow, and ice, and sleet.” So we did. We moved, and I grew up not in Miami, but in Hialeah, which is sort of a suburb in Dade County. BS: I have a lot of friends who were born in 1950, ’51, ’52 … so our pasts of the comics, the distance we reached back in the ’50s with our memories, were about the same. But you remember buying earlier comics off the stands than I did, because you’re a bit older. When did you first discover comics, and what were they? BROWN: My parents always bought comics for me to read. They were never against them. My dad read them in World War II, and occasionally picked up some throughout the other years. We had sort of a ritual. Every Saturday night, we’d go down to the corner Both Gary and his dad loved Blackhawk, but Gary really started collecting comics after he picked up Action Comics #256 (Sept. 1959). The circa-1960 Blackhawk cover is by Dick Dillin & Chuck Cuidera; “Superman” pencils by Wayne Boring. [©2004 DC Comics.]

Comic Fandom Archive

drugstore, or one of the drugstores, and I’d get a comic book or two, and my parents would get something. We’d get what we called “The Little Funnies,” which was the daily news. It’d come out early, so my parents would go through that, and I could read the comics there, too. My dad loved Blackhawk, so I remember that from early on. They bought some Superman for me because I liked the TV show. I’d also get Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories, some Archie stuff, Looney Tunes, and things like that. It was a wide variety. I don’t ever remember getting any ECs, unfortunately.

I could lean back on, “Oh, this guy does this, too!” BS: In this period before you heard about fandom, did you write any letters to comics? BROWN: Oh, yes—especially when more and more comics had letters pages. I wrote stupid letters like, “Gee, I’d like to see Lois Lane and the Blackhawks team up,” which has some interesting implications, I would guess. [laughs] That one never saw print, but I did have a couple published in either Adventure or Superboy, and a few other places. When Julie Schwartz started to give away scripts and art in the Flash letter columns, and his other titles, I thought, “What can I do to make my letter stand out?” So I wrote a poem about Flash’s powers, and sent it in… and I won the cover of The Flash #119. BS: It was so embarrassing, and so difficult, to go in and buy comics when you were in high school, and supposed to be past the “comic book” age. You found that stigma, too? BROWN: Oh, yeah. I felt it. Maybe much of it was my own perception, because I later found out that other guys in high school collected. For example, I played football in high school, and basketball, and was on the track team. When I would go to buy comics, I’d look around to make sure nobody was in the store that I knew, because I was a little afraid they were going to go, “Hey, guess what Gary Brown does!”

BS: You would have been about eight when EC comics were gasping their last breath. BROWN: Right. Still, I knew they were horror, because I’d visit my cousins and they’d have all these really great horror comics in their bedroom, and I thought “Oh, I never saw those.” BS: So you had a ringside seat for the onset of the Silver Age, for the return of The Flash, and so forth. BROWN: Yeah. Actually, it’s funny. I remember when I started collecting. It was when I bought the Action Comics with “The Invulnerable Enemy.” I rode my bike back to my place, sat on the stoop and read it. I went, “Wow, this is great!” Then I got drawn to indicia somehow, where it said this was #226, published monthly, and I thought, “Wow, I wonder if anybody has all 226 issues of this comic book.” That’s when I thought, “Well, I’ve got to start looking around.” So I began to go up there once a week and buy comics on my own and keep them, not toss them out or give them to friends. This is 1957, after we moved to Hialeah. BS: Were you one of those collectors who read and appreciated comics on his own? BROWN: Yes, thinking I was the only one who did this. It was a very interesting time. I sometimes wonder if there were other kids on the block and around the neighborhood then who collected comic books like I did. Some kids had a few, but they weren’t really into them. They’d say, “Oh, yeah. I’ve just got a pile of them. I didn’t collect Blackhawk.” But then I did find a guy, who became a good friend of mine, who collected Blackhawk and Batman. We started feeding off of each other. Up till then, I never bought Batman a lot. He never bought Superman, but he started to buy it, too, after we got together. After that,

BS: What about Marvel? Did you jump whole-hog onto the Marvel bandwagon?

BROWN: Right at the beginning, yeah, I was there. I wasn’t buying those monster titles, “Fin Fang Foom” and all that. I was into DC. Amazing Adult Fantasy was the first thing from Marvel that really caught my eye. And then “Spider-Man” was in the last issue, and I was introduced to him that way. We were on a vacation to California, at the Farmer’s Market, right across from CBS, which had this enormous newsstand with all these comic books. They had a stack of maybe 200 copies of Fantastic Four #1 sitting there, and I bought one. I wish I would’ve had ten bucks on me then….

BS: And the foresight to see what a landmark comic that was. Let’s jump ahead. You graduated from high school in 1965, right? Where did you go to college? BROWN: University of South Florida, in Tampa. BS: Was this when you met Wayne DeWald? BROWN: No, we’d become good friends in high school, working on the school newspaper, but I didn’t know he’d collected comics at the time. Wayne is a very knowledgeable, outgoing person—much more outgoing than I was. For example, when we later met C.C. Beck, he’d get on the phone and call Beck. I was a little more reticent. Later on, I became better at it when I became a reporter. But he was very outgoing and willing to get into just about anything. BS: How did you finally tell him that you collected comics?

Gary Brown, Comic Book Reporter BROWN: Our first day at University of South Florida, we were walking down to get a soda or something, and I just said, “Hey, I collect comic books.” He was the first guy I ever told. But I knew that, since we didn’t have cars, and we’d be going places together, just walking then, I’d better tell him. And he said, “Oh, I used to do that, too.” I got him back into it, and we’d make our weekly trips to Web City to buy our comic books. BS: That must have been quite a moment, when you realized your close friend would accept this little eccentric hobby you had. BROWN: It was. It was like revealing a big secret about yourself. But I knew him well enough by then that, even if he didn’t think too much of my hobby, it wouldn’t bother him. BS: As it turned out, he took the lead in some ways. For example, wasn’t he the one that actually started the fanzine Comic Comments? BROWN: Yeah. He decided to do his own fanzine, and did two issues where he made just three or four copies with carbon copy paper. BS: We kind-of forget that there are a number of fanzines that were started using carbon paper—for example, the first issues of Rocket’s Blast. It wasn’t that unusual back then, if you were trying to tip your toe into the water of publishing, to start out making four, or maybe as many as six copies, with carbon paper between multiple sheets in a typewriter. BROWN: Yeah, and you’d have a limited number of friends you’d send them out to, and that’d be it. We picked up on some of the plugs in the comics of the day. The first one we sent for was Batmania. It totally knocked us out. It was such a personable fanzine, and Biljo White’s art was so great. So we started ordering other zines. I would order a couple, and Wayne would order a couple of different ones, and soon we had a sense of what was out there. We couldn’t get enough of it. BS: That was handy, having two people to buy them, so you could share because, for most of us, money was a little hard to come by. BROWN: Even though some of the fanzines only cost, like, twenty cents. [laughs] Of course, that was part of my allowance that I hadn’t planned on.

BS: After Wayne showed you a copy of Comic Comments, and you got involved, was that what awakened your interest in journalism, which later became your career? BROWN: No, no, my interest in journalism came long before then. As a five-year-old kid, I wrote a Roy Rogers book with help from my cousin and parents—dictated it, you know. I always had drawn up newspapers and wanted to be a sports writer for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and I loved newspapers from being a little kid. The smell of them, and reading them, and trying to write like them. I’ve always known I wanted to be in journalism in some way. BS: Later, Comic Comments was a sort of a news fanzine. It had a strong journalistic slant. BROWN: One of the reasons I wanted to publish it was just to get more news out there, because I loved to get news from the industry, and there wasn’t always all that much news filtering into the zines at that time. BS: The publishing history of Comic Comments divides into two different periods. There was the period when it was started by Wayne and then you jumped aboard as a contributor—that was 1966 and about halfway through ’67. Then there’s the second period, about three years later. The first period saw the publication of your general fanzine, Gremlin #1. So I see that as kind of dividing into two different periods in the history of CC—and, in a way, there was a third period that came later. Obviously, one of the key events of the first period was your association with Alan Hutchinson, who became one of the most popular fan artists of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Alan became what I guess you would call your staff artist. BROWN: He was really a true partner. Wayne and I noticed Alan’s work when he did a couple of covers and illustrations for On the Drawing Board. We thought, “Wow, this guy is great. Look, he lives in St. Pete!” That was just over the bay from Tampa, where we were. It was maybe a 40-minute drive going through traffic and everything else. He was a high school senior when we first met him in mid-1966 or thereabouts. BS: Alan could do funny stuff as well as straight, serious stuff. One of

Alan Hutchinson did a great pseudo-Ditko and pseudo-Wood on the covers of Comic Comments #9 and Gremlin #1—and also captured the spirit of 1960s (Joe Simon-created?) Harvey heroes Jigsaw, et al. [Capt. Atom TM & © 2004 DC Comics; T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents TM & © 2004 John Carbonaro; Harvey heroes TM & © 2004 the respective copyright & TM holders; art © 2004 Alan Hutchinson.]

Comic Fandom Archive his best early pieces was that fabulous Captain Atom cover which kind of marked the beginning of the glory days of Comic Comments. It was very similar to Ditko’s style.

BROWN: Yeah, Alan’s very talented. If he wanted to, he could mimic a style better than most fans could. We became friends, and whenever we’d ask, “Gee, can Getting a pro like Rocke Masteroserio to draw a cover you do this? Can for Comic Comments #10 was a real coup. [Art ©2004 you do a Rocke Masteroserio; Dr. Graves TM & ©2004 cover?,” he was the respective copyright & TM holders.] always willing to do whatever we asked him to do. That really helped us a lot. He was the one who came up with the gremlin drawing that inspired us to name our gen-zine after it. BS: I think Alan really added an important ingredient. But then, all three of you contributed things that made that first run of CC improve so quickly. It started out as a carbon paper fanzine; then, when you came on board, you went to mimeograph, but that was still pretty crude-looking. It all kind-of coalesced by the end of ’66, and Alan Hutchinson’s artwork signaled that. BROWN: What surprised me when I did the zine was how our circulation jumped and we really didn’t have any copies left over. It started to really jump there after a while. A hundred, 200, may not seem like a lot now, but it was then. BS: It sure was. I think one of the factors was that, not only was it well done, but it came out regularly. The first period is 16 issues… and for a while there, especially into the later ones, into ’67, you were coming out on a monthly schedule, or it seemed like it. That builds confidence in your readers, and gets them excited. They want to send in money, because they know they’re going to get something on a regular basis. BROWN: Yes, and as you know, in that era, a lot of people sent money for fanzines that never came out. Or, you’d get them a year later than promised. When we hit that stride, you’re right, we were doing it monthly, and that really lent itself to our popularity. Our peak circulation was about 300 copies. BS: Was that later or was that in the first run? BROWN: That was the first run. BS: What was the breakdown of tasks between you and Wayne during that first period?

BROWN: We were both going to school, and we were roommates, so it was real easy. It was mostly a letterzine at first. We’d take turns doing the typing. We’d get a letter from you, or Roy Thomas, or we’d get something from another fan, and type it in as we got it. When we ran it off, we’d collate it together. It was a 50-50 proposition all the way around. BS: You guys quickly got some nice pro contributions. Soon after Alan’s great Captain Atom cover, you came up with a wonderful Mastroserio cover. How did you get in touch with Rocke Mastroserio? BROWN: That was through me. I had seen he was a good inker at that time. He was inking a lot of Ditko stuff. I wrote him—I can’t remember exactly why—and Rocke wrote me back. I have a series of about a dozen letters we exchanged, over the years. He told me about some of his art techniques, that sort of thing. At one point I said, “We’ve got this fanzine. Here’s a copy. Would it be possible to do a cover?” And he said, “Sure, I’d be glad to.” BS: You also seemed to have a good connection with Dick Giordano. BROWN: Yeah. He was editor of Charlton at the time, and answered our letters—probably it was just part of his job. BS: I noticed in Gremlin #1, which I associate with this first period of Comic Comments, there are some other pro items, like interviews with Kubert and Murray Boltinoff. Was it just a matter of writing in to these people in care of the company and asking questions? BROWN: It was. We would just ask, “Could we do an interview?” Some never responded, but some of them, like Kubert, did. We had a good relationship with Murray Boltinoff, so he agreed to do the interview. These were short interviews, a couple of pages. They were very nice about responding to our requests, and that really made us feel good, and it also helped the fanzines. BS: You got a friendly reception from C. C. Beck, who had been chief Captain Marvel artist for Fawcett, when you got in touch with him. Your contact with Beck and the scoops that came out of it were the crowning achievement of the early period of Comic Comments. How did that came about? BROWN: I forget how we found out he lived in Florida, or even in Miami. It was in some fanzine. And, like I mentioned before, it was Wayne who looked in the phone book, and lo and behold, there’s Charles Clarence Beck listed in North Miami! So Wayne called him up, and Beck was just as nice as could be. He said, “You want to come over? We can talk.” And I think, “Great!” So the two of us drove up there and to see Beck.

Photo of fanzine editors Gary Brown and Wayne DeWald with three non-fan friends, taken October 1966 in a dormitory parking lot at the University of South Florida, Florida. [L. to r.:] Paul Moran, Wayne DeWald, Jim McMullen, Dan Autrey, Gary Brown. Photo taken by Alan Hutchinson around the time Comic Comments #8 was published.

BS: What was his house like? BROWN: Very small, Florida-type home. Two-bedroom, maybe three. It wasn’t very big at all. He had been doing these weapons, recreating these replica weapons: swords, and then guns, as a hobby. He had a bunch of those all around. He was working as a freelance artist. He was doing a lot of freelance work. He was doing design work for architects in the Miami area, and several firms, working out of his home. We met his wife Hildur. She was real nice, but we didn’t talk that much. BS: What was his studio like? BROWN: From what I recall, he had a small corner of a room with a drawing board. At that time, he was starting to do Fatman, so he had that all up. He had a bunch of stuff prepared to

Gary Brown, Comic Book Reporter show us, which we knew nothing about. He said, “Oh, I guess you’ve heard about Fatman.” And Wayne and I looked at each other and almost flipped out. Because by this time we were big fans of Captain Marvel, so this was a very big deal. I think he had an issue done, because he gave us a stat of a page. BS: This was, like, November or December of ’66? BROWN: Yeah, something like that. He was working on the second issue, I think. He told us talks were going on about the Captain Shazam book. They were kind-of knocking ideas back and forth. Beck said Fatman was going to be 25 cents and all that other stuff. He showed us a lot—he didn’t have any original work there because I think he sent it all in, but he’d made stats of every page. He did everything after the script was written: the lettering, penciling, inking, and coloring. He also showed us a sort of secret technique he used, to save time. He would make stats of, say, Fatman’s face, or the robot, Tin Man—and if he needed to use them somewhere else, he might flip them, and trace them into a new panel. He said he didn’t do a lot of it, but he did a little of it, just to kind of help him out from time to time. BS: Did he say anything about how he felt about the Fatman project? Was he high on it, was he not sure about it? BROWN: As long as I knew Beck, I think that was the most enthusiastic I’d ever seen him. He was still low-key, but he was really happy, I think, to be working with Binder again. He really liked that a lot. BS: And of course, other people from Fawcett, too, were involved: Will Lieberson, Wendell Crowley, Rod Reed. BROWN: They were all his people. BS: The ending must have been a real downer for him. BROWN: Without a doubt. I know he was very disgusted that things ended like they did. He told us that he did some Canadian comic books right after that, and they didn’t prove too good. That’s when he just got out of the comics altogether.

[Above:] A letter from Wendell Crowley, Fatman editor who at Fawcett had edited the “Captain Marvel” titles from 1944 till the end in 1953, shows that Milson/Lightning Comics was less and less a happy ship, as time went by. [Right:] The dependable and talented Alan Hutchinson did a great cover for the special fanzine that reprinted what little there was of Fatman #4. [Fatman TM & ©2004 the respective copyright holders; Fatman #4 fanzine cover art ©2004 Alan Hutchinson.]

BS: So you had a big scoop announcing Fatman to fandom, and also publishing an interview with Beck. How did you get hold of materials for the unfinished issue of Fatman? BROWN: We stayed in touch with Beck. For about six months, Fatman sat in limbo, and there was still a possibility #4 might be published, or he might do something else for the same people. Then he got the word there would definitely be no more. Shortly after that, Alan and I visited him and Beck just asked, “Would you guys like these?” And he gave us all, gee, 20, 25 incomplete pages of original art from the fourth issue. I’d say half of them were sketched out, inked. He would ink in the panel borders and letter them first. Then he’d do a sketch of… here’s Fatman, and here’s so-and-so, and so a number of the boards were just sketches of the panels and then the inked-in lettering. But he had done several splash pages, and a couple of them were completely, or half-way inked. Years later, I published a zine for CAPAAlpha with all the scripts and all the original art we had with art that looked decent enough to print.

To Be Continued [Next issue, Comic Fandom Archive talks about Julie Schwartz; and then we’ll takes a breather as a super-long Jerry Robinson interview fills most of A/E #39. Then, in #40, Gary and Bill discuss the later days of Comic Comments, his scoops involving Hal Foster and others, his experiences at the 1969 New York Comicon, and how he came to partner with Jim Steranko on Comixscene magazine. [If you’re a fan of C. C. Beck, you won’t want to miss Bill Schelly’s latest book, Words of Wonder: The Life and Times of Otto Binder, which features some details about Fatman, the friendship between Otto and C.C., and a good deal of artwork by Beck. Check out the ad in this issue, or order on line at www.billschelly.com.]

PLUS:

1994--2004

5.95

BECK•SWAN•SWAYZE•RABOY NEWTON•WEISS & More!

In the USA

No. 37

SPECIAL FEATURE! JIM AMASH INTERVIEWS

June 2004

GOLDEN AGE & PHANTOM ARTIST

SY BARRY!

Vol. 3, No. 37 / June 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

Cover Artists/Colorists C.C. Beck Wayne Boring

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Philip Wylie, & Rudy LaPick

SY BARRY: HIS LIFE AND TIMES Section (plus FCA!)

Contents re: [correspondence & corrections]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 “ISy Barry, Gotlegendary to Realize My Dream!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 artist of The Phantom—and many a comic book—talks to Jim Amash.

FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) #96 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 P.C. Hamerlinck’s Marvel-ous mix of Curt Swan, C.C. Beck, Marc Swayze, and more. K-Metal & Gladiator Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About Our Cover: A 1980s re-creation by C.C. Beck, the original artist and thus co-creator (whether he called himself that or not) of Captain Marvel, of the cover of Captain Marvel Adventures #16 (Oct. 1942). P.C. Hamerlinck, who owns the original, had to take the painting down off his wall to photograph it. But what more fitting subject could there be for an issue that heralds the 4th of July—even if it goes on sale in June so as not to come out after Independence Day—than this one of the Big Red Cheese and his Uncle Sam, getting set to knock Hitler and Tojo back on their Axis? [Art ©2004 Estate of C.C. Beck; Captain Marvel TM & ©2004 DC Comics.] Above: This dramatic illo by Sy Barry of The Phantom, the masked comic strip hero he drew so ably for many years, shows the artist hasn’t lost his touch. Its dramatic lighting from below does indeed give a foreboding spectral appearance to “The Ghost Who Walks.” With thanks to Sy and to Ed Rhoades. [Post-1995 art ©2004 Sy Barry; The Phantom TM & ©2004 King Features Syndicate.] 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.

re: there was a rave letter or three about the interview Alex and Walt Grogan arranged with the family of longtime Blackhawk/Justice League artist Dick Dillin—while Alex Toth’s comments on Jim Amash’s talk with his oldtime scripting colleague Kim Aamodt were seen last issue. Anyway, here’s a healthy helping of comments on A/E #30-31— starting with a comment from our old pal (and longtime DC writer and editor) Mike W. Barr: Dear Roy:

EDITOR’S INTRO: The late Biljo White wrote and drew the first and only full-scale “Alter and Captain Ego” story for A/E [Vol. 1] #7 in 1964, then left the field to others. John G. Pierce, regular contributor to FCA, wrote several authorized “A&CE” prose stories which were published in fanzines with illustrations. The above illo was done for John’s very first one, which appeared in The Comet #1 (Spring 1973), with art by the fanzine’s editor, Larry Johnson. Thanks to John for sending it, so that we can keep our alternating mascots appearing in each issue of the new Alter Ego. [Art ©2004 Larry Johnson; Alter & Captain Ego TM & ©2004 Roy Thomas & Bill Schelly.]

The contents page of #31 contains a Marie Severin drawing of The Thing, which is said to have been “mailed out to charter members of Stan’s first fan-club brainchild, the Merry Marvel Marching Society.” As just such a charter member, I’m here to tell you I never got one. In fact, I’m still waiting for my name to be published in a Marvel mag just as the Smilin’ One promised he’d do with all MMMS members. Think I can get my dollar back? Mike W. Barr Statute of limitations and all that, Mike. Or maybe Ye Ed was wrong, and it wasn’t MMMSers who got it, after all. Anybody out there know for sure? Next, a short but sweet note from another old friend and colleague, who has drawn covers for A/E #9 & #32. When you read it, you’ll see why this mini-letter from Dick Giordano was music to our ears: Hello Roy, I’ve been meaning to write for some time to tell you how much I’ve been enjoying Alter Ego! I’m most assuredly a convert. I had little or no interest in the history of the Golden Age… past tense… until you and Jim and Marc Swayze (whom I haven’t seen since his Charlton days) and Bill and all the contributing historians started force-feeding me! Aside: do you or Jim ever sleep? Anyway… HUZZAH!!! Keep it going!

As for what follows: we’d hoped to play catch-up this time, but weren’t able to squeeze in missives sent concerning three issues of A/E. Still, here are communiqués about two issues, anyway—#30 & #31. For some reason, despite its very healthy sale, we seem to have received a bit less mail on A/E #30 than on some issues. Our suspicion is that people were so bowled over by Alex Ross’ great JLA artwork in #30 that there wasn’t much left to say about that half of the mag—while the flip side dealt with French super-heroes, and few North American readers felt they had much to add to the subject. So most letters re #30 just said they liked those pieces, and/or one of our other regular features, and let it go at that. Oh, and

Dick Giordano

Reader Wally Harrington enjoyed both the original “Manhunter from Mars” series and Michelle Nolan’s “How Green Was My Martian” article in A/E #30, so he sent us a scan of some original art he owns: the “J’onn J’onzz” splash from House of Mystery #159 (1966). “On the back of the piece,” he says, “is written ‘Joe Certa.’” Thanks, Wally! Penciler Joe Certa had originated the “Manhunter from Mars” series in Detective Comics #225 (Nov. 1955) and drawn most if not all “MfM” stories in that monthly. [©2004 DC Comics.]

Hmmm? Whazzat? Oh, sorry, Dick—Ye Editor must’ve dozed off at the typewriter—or the PC screen—or whatever the heck he’s typing at nowadays—as he labors on that surprise project the two of you are working on together! (More about that next issue, people.)

re: Above, we mentioned enthusiasm for our Dillin family interview in #30. Here’s a sample, from reader Toby L. Miley: Alter Ego: I just want to say “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” I buy Alter Ego every month, and am always enlightened by the articles and interviews and even the letters, but it was extra glee that I felt when picked up #30. Finally someone saw fit to print an article about one of the greatest comics artists ever: Dick Dillin. For far too long, I’ve felt that Mr. Dillin has been underrated and overlooked. He had an unsurpassed run on Justice League of America, as well as doing some great stories for World’s Finest Comics and DC Comics Presents. Blackhawk was before my time, but his work shines through in the reprints I’ve seen. It was mainly Dillin’s artwork on JLA that made me want to collect comics in the first place. Thanks again for giving this fan a look back at part of what made comics in the ’70s and ’80s for me. Tobi L. Miley

3 That’s far from the last you’ll read about Dick Dillin in Alter Ego, Tobi. He and his Blackhawk run, of course, have since been covered in issue #34, and we’ll keep an eye out for more opportunities to spotlight him. Now, re my longtime friend and oft-collaborator Jean-Marc Lofficier’s coverage of French super-doers in #31: most people who responded were astounded and elated to learn about this “parallel universe” of Gallic heroes. However, we received the following missive from Jean-Paul Gabilliet which took issue with parts of it, so we asked Jean-Marc to comment on aspects of his fellow Frenchman’s epistle. JeanPaul’s letter is thus interspersed with bracketed and italicized commentary from Jean-Marc: Dear Roy Thomas: Congratulations on the consistent quality of Alter Ego! I’m running off this mail because I just got hold of A/E #30 featuring JeanMarc Lofficier’s account of French super-hero comics. I can’t say I was impressed by the quality of his scholarship on the topic he addresses, for two main reasons: (1) He basically puts on equal footing huge popular titles and obscure publications whose posterity has been minimal (to say the least) despite their occasionally considerable print runs. I’m not saying that those minor comic books should be relegated to oblivion: my point is that Lofficier provides an excessively biased overview of the super-heroic sub-genre in French comics and makes them appear to you guys, (mostly) American A/E readers, as much more significant in the total [re: continued on p. 28]

Calling all Dick Dillin fans! (Left:) Another page from the JLA-JSA team-up in Justice League of America #113 (Oct. 1974), featuring this issue’s cover boy, Superman. Inks by Dick Giordano, script by Len Wein—repro’d from photocopies of the original art, courtesy of Brian H. Bailie. (Right:) A nice Dillin Blackhawk pencil sketch, done in the late 1960s, gives credit to Chuck Cuidera as the character’s creator—just like Chuck said in A/E #34! Thanks to Marv Wolfman, from that great vintage sketchbook of his. [©2004 DC Comics.]

“I Got To Realize My Dream!” SY BARRY on His Career in Comic Books— The Phantom—and His Big Brother DAN Interview Conducted & Transcribed by Jim Amash [INTERVIEWER’S INTRO: Sy Barry was known as one of the best inkers in comic books, lending his unique talents to heavyweight pencilers such as Alex Toth, Gene Colan, and his own brother, Dan Barry. Sy’s work, from Lev Gleason to Timely to DC Comics and other publishers, was imbued with a lushness that few could equal. And let’s not forget that Sy often penciled, as well, providing top-notch work for a host of comics well-remembered to this day. But Sy had other ambitions. The dream of most comic book artists of his time was to draw a newspaper strip. Though he had assisted his brother Dan on Flash Gordon, it was The Phantom with which Sy was to make his mark in syndication. For over thirty years, Sy gave life to “The Ghost Who Walks,” keeping the adventure strip a vital commodity in newspapers. In this interview, Sy gives life to the days in which most of the men who created comics now seem just as ethereal as The Phantom. —Jim.]

JA: You were born in 1928, so you were the right age to discover comic books when they started. BARRY: I sure was. I remember when “Superman” first appeared in Action Comics in 1938. Before that, I had seen other adventure features, like Flash Gordon and Hal Foster’s Tarzan, which they put into Big Little Books, too. I was very torn, because I did want to be an illustrator, but I just had the drive to do comics. It was my second year in high school when I decided to go in that direction and study cartooning. Of course, cartooning took in the illustrative style as well as the humorous stuff. When my anatomy teacher saw that I was switching to this, he was furious with me; he felt I would make it as an illustrator. But I stuck it out and got to meet people like Al Scaduto, who did They’ll Do It Every Time. Al was in my class at the time, as were Joe Giella and Emelio Squeglio, who liked being called Mel. He looked like New York’s Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia... he absolutely did not look like a “Mel” to me. He still calls me “Seymour” and I still call him Emelio; I

“I Can Do That Stuff” JIM AMASH: What got you interested in becoming a cartoonist? SY BARRY: I originally wanted to be an illustrator in high school and attended the School of Industrial Arts, which is now the School of Art and Design. I took an illustration course and my anatomy teacher liked my work very much. I discovered that artists I had known were making money in cartooning, doing adventure work. It looked very illustrative to me and I thought, “I can do that stuff, so why not get into it and make some money a little quicker?” It also had a certain excitement to me, because I felt that comics had more flair to them than illustration did. There were more themes to explore and lots of action, as opposed to illustration, which I felt was a little too quiet for me.

(Top left:) Sy Barry hard at work circa 1990, in a photo by Ed Rhoades—and primo specimens of his comic book and comic strip art. (Above left:) Sy’s splash from Strange Adventures #22 (Oct.-Nov. 1954), for what editor Julius Schwartz called in A/E #26 one of his science-fiction titles’ “Earth-in-a-strange-position” stories. With thanks to Chris Brown. (Above right:) This 2001 drawing of The Phantom and Devil was used as the cover of the 23rd issue of Friends of The Phantom magazine (Fall 2002), published by his friend Ed Rhoades. Thanks to Sy, and to Ed Rhoades for his assistance with scanning, for all photos of Sy which appear with this interview, unless otherwise noted. [Strange Adventures art ©2004 DC comics; Phantom art ©2004 Sy Barry; The Phantom TM & ©2004 King Features Syndicate.]

“I Got To Realize My Dream!”

can’t bring myself to call him “Mel.” [NOTE: Emelio Squeglio will be interviewed in A/E #41.] JA: You’re unusual in the sense that your older brother Dan was also a cartoonist. How much older than you was Dan? BARRY: Five years. That’s a big difference when you’re young, because he was hanging out with an older crowd. There was another brother in between us. My parents had eight children—five boys and three girls. The only ones left now are my youngest sister and me. Dan and I were the only artists in the family. My younger brother Ray went to the School of Industrial Arts, but he didn’t like it and went to another school. He became a plumber and was more successful than Dan and I put together. [laughs]

“I Pounded the Pavement” JA: I never asked Dan this, but I always assumed he wanted to be a cartoonist at an early age, too. Did he influence you at all?

Smilin’ Ed’s Gang was a popular kids’ radio show in the 1940s-50s, hosted by “Smilin’ Ed” McConnell, with, er, help from Froggy the Gremlin. It also featured short radio melodramas starring heroes such as Ghanga and his elephant Teela (inspired by Rudyard Kipling’s “Toomai of the Elephants” and other stories from his Jungle Books and the pre-Disney films of same), little Kulah and his Jinni, and other rotating concepts. The sponsor was Buster Brown Shoes. Here are a pair of covers drawn by Dan & Sy Barry for giveaway issues of Buster Brown Comics. Thanks to Sy & Ed Rhoades. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

BARRY: Yes, he did. First, let’s go back to when Dan was in high school at Straubenueller Tech, in Brooklyn. He left there while in the twelfth grade to draw comics. But I mainly looked at pulp illustrations and full-color ones in magazines. I read books and wasn’t an avid comic book fan.

probably bit all his nails off, always worried about pleasing his boss. A couple of times, around Christmas, we’d play tricks on him, making him think his boss was on the verge of firing him. It was very zany stuff and we’d tell his boss, so he wouldn’t fire him.

Dan got out of the service around 1946, before I graduated from high school that year. He was already married and had a child while in the service. They were living in Brooklyn then. I was doing spot black-&white illos for a furniture company. I also started doing little fillers for Quality Comics, Standard Publications, and I think for DC, too; they were called National back then. Actually, I started doing this work in 1945, when I was seventeen.

We’d put work on his desk that we did for other companies, to make it look like Ed was moonlighting in his own office. [laughter] To Ed, it was like the roof had fallen in; he was afraid of what his boss would say if he saw it.

For Quality I was doing full-page fillers. Some were ads that advertised future books. I’d draw a couple of name characters in the ads, like the Blackhawks, and I’d leave room for dialogue.

JA: What were the Hillman offices like, and who was Cronin’s boss?

George Brenner was the one who hired me to do this, but my memory of him is very vague. I was only working there intermittently, because I was doing work for other places, too. I’d call him up and get work when I could. There wasn’t any steady work there, so I pounded the pavement and did those fillers when they became available.

“Ed [Cronin] Did Have Something Going On…” BARRY: I can’t remember his name. The offices were just a little bit smaller than DC’s. In those days, DC’s offices at 480 Lexington Avenue were small… just a few editorial offices and one reasonably-sized art room where art production was done. Cronin had a secretary. He did have help, but whether it was an actual assistant editor, I can’t say. I did crime comics for him.

JA: In 1946, you did a feature called “Treasure Keeper” for Crestwood Publications.

Actually, Ed did have something going on that his boss didn’t know about. Ed was an agent for Buster Brown comic books. Buster Brown was a shoe chain, and with every pair of shoes that were sold to a child, they’d give out a Buster Brown comic book with three 8- to 10pagers in each one. Dan and I did some stories for those books, around 1948. Ed would line up the printer and a couple of people to letter and do production. Dan and I made the color work-ups, and the printer followed them.

BARRY: I think they were called Feature at that time, but I don’t remember anything about it. By 1947, I was working for Charlie Biro and Bob Wood at Lev Gleason Publications, as well as for [editor] Ed Cronin at Hillman Publications. Ed was a wonderful guy, but uptight and extremely anxious about his job. He was the kind of guy who

There are two more funny stories about Ed. Whenever I brought work in, it had to be at the exact proper moment, because his staff couldn’t be around. Ed didn’t want them to know about the outside work he was agenting out. He had to be totally by himself. On one occasion, I was actually in the supply closet, can you believe it? He had

JA: Did you happen to meet Jack Cole? BARRY: No, but I did ink a couple of “Plastic Mans,” and they asked me to imitate his style. I got to be known as an inker, but I also penciled. I never worked steadily for Quality. I’d just do a couple of stories a year, but this was later, in the early 1950s.

6 the light on in the closet. I couldn’t even go into his office! The most important thing was that you had the right number of pages. I’m standing in the supply closet and the stuff is leaning on the shelf, along with other stacks of paper. Ed said, “Don’t mix your pages up with the other pages. Don’t mix them up now.” I said, “Oh no, I wouldn’t dare.” Ed starts counting, and here’s how he counted: “One, one, one, two, two, two”... he went through every one of the 12 pages, counting them three times. Then he went backwards, starting at page 12 and counting back to page 1, making sure all 12 pages were there. He did not want to lose one page! He must have lost something in his childhood and he never found it. [mutual laughter] Maybe it was a couple of marbles? I don’t know! He was an obsessive, compulsive type of person. Unbelievable!

Sy Barry my inks. You have to apply drawing, sensitivity, and form to the pencils. You can’t just trace them, or everything looks dead.

“Murphy Anderson… a Wonderful, Wonderful Sweet Guy” JA: Very true. Dan already had a studio by this time and he helped you. Did you work in his studio? BARRY: At the very beginning, in 1946, when I started working for Dan, we worked out of his home in Brooklyn. Then he took a space in New York City with a couple of other artists, and I worked there, too. But there wasn’t much room for me, so I rented a space with a couple of nonartists for a couple of months. It was in a printing place, and I had a little space of my own to work in. In 1947 Dan and I rented a large loft at 31st Street, between Fifth and Broadway.

Another incident happened the first time I delivered something to him. Dan and I were still living Sy and his wife Simmy in 1949. in Brooklyn; that’s how early it was in my career. Now, Dan didn’t tell me what to do if Ed wasn’t there. I had my work Murphy Anderson shared the loft with us. He was always a in a portfolio and asked if Ed was in. Someone said, “Gee, he was here a wonderful, wonderful, sweet guy. We were great friends for a long time. moment ago. Maybe he went to the bathroom.” So, I waited and waited I even knew him before he got married. He was from Greensboro, and waited until it got kind-of late, and I had to get back to the studio. North Carolina. Someone came in, saw me, and said, “You’re still here? Well, maybe Ed’s not in the bathroom. He must have gone out for a while.” JA: Actually, he was born in Asheville, NC, but grew up in Greensboro, which is where I live. Murphy’s dad owned a cab I went into his office and laid a 15-page story on his desk, and papercompany here. clipped a note on it. I wrote, “Here’s the 15 pages from Dan. He asked that you call him once you’ve looked at the story,” and signed my name BARRY: I remember that! to it and left. I went back, and Dan’s waiting at his house with a sour JA: Murphy’s sister used to own a car shop that fixed Mazdas. I used look on his face, so I knew something was wrong. Dan said, “Are you to own a Mazda, and Murphy’s nephew used to work on my car. His crazy?” I said, “What are you talking about?” Dan said, “How can you nephew would ask me, “Have you talked to Uncle ‘C’ lately?” leave a whole story on his desk like that? It’s supposed to be a secret. Ed Murphy’s middle name is Clyde. called me up and he’s hysterical. He was crying on the phone. He said, ‘How could Sy leave that story on my desk?’” BARRY: Murphy and I used to have the nicest, intimate conversations. He was such a wonderful guy to reach out to. These lofts had been I said, “You never told me that this was a secret and nobody was converted from factories, and if they’re still there, they’re probably supposed to know about it! How was I supposed to know?” Dan said beautiful apartments by now. We had a second room in that loft, and that, fortunately, nobody had come into Ed’s office. Ed was so worried Murphy worked in there, but we could still see each other. These rooms about his job that he bit his nails and stammered for months, because he had windows, probably so the factory managers could look through was worried someone had found out what he was doing on Hillman’s them to see who was working and who wasn’t. time. We were able to laugh about it for months, and Dan got hysterical about it because of the impact it had on Cronin’s nerves. Any time Ed got Now, Murphy was a big comic book collector. Murphy kept buying on the phone with Dan, he’d start stammering! [mutual laughter] He more and more books, and eventually set up a wall of books around was so afraid Dan would pull another stunt like that and send his silly him. This wall went up to his shoulders, all around his desk. [laughter] brother over with another story. That’s the kind of worry wart he was. All you’d see is his eyes and part of his face. Then the stacks got still higher and all you’d see were his eyes. He never let the books pile up I must say that Ed greatly respected Dan’s work. He never criticized any further than his eye level, because he’d look over the books and talk it. Many times, Dan wrote the stories as well as drawing them. And to us over them. Dan would lose patience and be whispering, “My God! there was never any kind of editorial criticism. He’s got those damn books everywhere! If he gets any more books, I JA: He was too busy worrying to bother! Were you inking Dan’s wouldn’t be able to see him. How does he breathe behind those books?” work on those Buster Brown stories? I said, “Dan, relax. He’s got his toys; leave him alone. What do you BARRY: I inked Dan’s work and also did layouts on a couple of stories. want?” I loved Murphy! He was working on Buck Rogers for the The work I did for Hillman was all ink work, though I did pencil and Chicago Tribune at the time. He hadn’t even done Lars of Mars yet. ink a couple of stories on my own. When I started with Dan, I was only Murphy was a real hometown boy, and I loved his conversations. He inking backgrounds. As I told you, I had already started getting jobs on loved his hometown, but also loved New York and said he’d never move my own, so it didn’t take long before I was doing full inks for Dan. out of here. Now he lives in New Jersey, but he lived in Queens for many years. Dan always did full pencils for me or anyone else who helped him. When he inked it, he didn’t put quite as much into the penciling. I was JA: Murphy told me the story of what happened when Bobby the same way when I inked my own pencils. I left things like shading Thomson hit that dramatic home run in October 1951, and the and blacks for the ink stage. That’s where I would correct anything I saw Giants beat the Brooklyn Dodgers in the playoffs. that needed correcting. Working this way added the necessary vitality to

“I Got To Realize My Dream!” BARRY: Oh yeah! I wanted to throw Dan out the window. I remember there was a post office across the street and all the employees came running out into the street, screaming, “They won! They won!” It was incredible! JA: Murphy said Dan must have jumped two feet out of his chair when he heard the news. BARRY: Absolutely! And he was laying it on me, because I was a Dodger fan. It broke my heart. It was so awful! And Dan just couldn’t stop yelling and giving me a hard time. It wasn’t funny then, but it’s funny now. JA: You know, I always thought I saw a very slight resemblance in Murphy’s ink line and yours, at least in the early 1950s… especially in your treatments of hair. BARRY: Really? That’s funny. Well, there was a time when I was doing science-fiction stories at DC and Murphy was doing war stories there, and I was inking his work. Maybe that’s why you see a similarity. Murphy used to come over to my desk and look over my shoulder. I remember one time he was standing there and I was whipping out some hair treatments, and Murphy said, “Gee, I really like the way you ink hair.” He also liked the way I inked shrubbery and would say, “That’s very nice.” And I would look at his work and see how he laid out a page and added in his blacks. JA: Murphy told me he felt most of his approach to hair treatments came from Lou Fine, and that you must have had that same influence.

BARRY: Exactly! I was a Lou Fine fan, and studied his use of folds, because they followed the human form so well. He knew how to wrap the folds around the body. I saw some of that in Murphy’s stuff, as well. I learned by studying the greats. How else do you learn? If you’re not studying how the greats do it, then you’re not learning. Your work will remain static and amateurish-looking; you’ll never develop a professional technique. You have to learn how to use white and how to spot blacks so your drawings will be effective. Blacks bring out white areas. That’s one of the most important principles to learn when working in black-&-white. Sometimes the negative space is more important than the positive space, and you have to know that. If you put black on black and smother the work with grays and blacks, you smother the white areas and have nothing to look at. You’ve lost the graphic effectiveness of the work. The eye just looks past everything. Getting back to Murphy, I have to say he had a very nice style. It wasn’t as dynamic and dashing as Dan’s stuff was, or quite as dramatic. But Murphy had a good style for science-fiction; it fit him. I appreciated the hard work Murphy gave to his stuff and would tell him so. You have to do that. If you respect a man’s work and recognize that he’s got it and is doing it right, then tell him! I did. I really enjoyed inking work, too. Murphy appreciated that. Occasionally, there’ll be a period when two artists are working for the same place and a jealousy starts to erupt. Why that happens, I don’t know. If they have any confidence or get any satisfaction in their own work, then they shouldn’t be jealous of any other artist. Irv Novick, who was one of my favorite artists, had a style and technique I loved

Printed art from two “Captain Comet” stories by Murphy Anderson (pencils), with probable Sy Barry inks. The splash of “The Revolt of the Thinking Machine!” from Strange Adventures #49 (Oct. 1954) was sent by Chris Brown; and the splash of “The Counterfeit Captain Comet!” from S.A. #27 (Dec. 1952), was scanned by Bob Bailey. Sy concurs that “Revolt,” in particular, looks like his inking. [©2004 DC Comics.]

Sy Barry

looking at. There were times I wished I could ink a story of his, because I knew I could really do something with it. There were certain artists like that. Bob Lubbers was another such artist. Norman Maurer, too. He married Moe Howard’s daughter. [NOTE: For the culturally deprived, Moe Howard was one of the Three Stooges. —Jim.] I met Norman on several occasions when I went up to Biro’s. He had a pretty good pencil style, but also had a great ink line. I didn’t get to know him, though we did go out to lunch once. He wasn’t very gregarious, but was pleasant and quiet. He wasn’t the typical crazy outgoing comic book artist type. But there were a lot of guys like that. John Belfi was extremely, painfully quiet, but very pleasant to be with. A very dedicated artist. And there was Sam Burlockoff, who worked with Dan, too. He freelanced stories for him now and then. Sam did some of the Buster Brown stuff, and I think some crime stuff, too. Sam and his wife were two very sweet people. Sam was a big guy; he wasn’t very heavy, but he was about six three, six four. He had very straight eyebrows, and his eyes were set deeply under these eyebrows. I remember him so vividly.

“How Could Anyone Do This to My Mort Meskin!?” JA: While you were with Dan, you were doing other work, too, right? BARRY: I was working for DC, too. I broke into comics on my own, but they knew my work because of what I did with Dan. DC would have a rush job and ask me to handle it, which I was glad to do. They weren’t features that were part of regular books, like “The Vigilante” in Action Comics, which I inked over Dan’s pencils. On my own, I did some Gang Busters. JA: You mentioned Mort Meskin, and I remember Dan telling me he shared a studio for a short time with him. Do you remember that? BARRY: Yes. Mort was a helluva sweet guy and a genius of an artist. He had a slight stammer, and got to the point where he’d had enough of comics. There is one thing I’ll never forgive Bob Kanigher for, though I generally had very good dealings with him. I remember coming in to deliver a story to Bob. He was busy, so I waited outside. I was talking to a couple of guys when I heard this hollering coming from Bob’s office. The offices there had glass partitions between them, so you could see offices all the way down that room. One office was next to another. I looked into Kanigher’s office and saw someone crawling on the floor. It was Mort Meskin. He was showing Kanigher how this soldier would be crawling on the ground. Bob had yelled at him, “You show me how a guy could get on the ground and do this and that. You get on the floor and show it to me!” To Mort Meskin! Just a couple of years past, he’d been everyone’s idol, but had begun to diminish at this point. Here he was down on his knees, showing how a soldier could carry a rifle and crawl on the ground. Bob put him through these awful, embarrassing situations. I was thinking, “How could anyone do this to my Mort Meskin!?” To me, he was a God! He was like Simon and Kirby! He was just as good as they were. Could you imagine Jack Kirby crawling on the floor? Forget it! But because Mort stammered and was mild-mannered and needed the work, this little Napoleon was taking advantage of him. JA: I’m sure you knew back then that Mort Meskin had suffered severe emotional problems and was institutionalized for a while. BARRY: Yes, I was very aware of that. This incident happened after Mort got out. Kanigher exploited Mort’s weakness; he could never have done that prior to Mort’s problems. But it was the kind of guy Kanigher was. I must say that, as difficult as he was, and I’ll never forgive or forget what he did to Mort, Kanigher treated me with the greatest respect.

Chances are reasonably good that Sy worked on this Dan Barry-signed “Vigilante” story for Action Comics #150 (Nov. 1950). A real beauty, huh? Thanks to Ethan Roberts for photocopies of the original art; he owns the whole story! We’ll show you more of it one of these days. [©2004 DC Comics.]

JA: Joe Simon told in his book The Comic Book Makers about Meskin being unable to draw on a blank page. While I know that can be a tough thing to do at times, did you ever see that happen with Mort? Simon claimed someone had to draw lines and circles on the page before Meskin could bring himself to draw. BARRY: Yes, I did see that. I saw it happen with Frank Giacoia, too. Frank had a very severe problem with that. He’d have to get himself into another world, a trance state, if you will, and get all other thoughts out of his mind to order to focus on drawing. He’d also spend hours getting his reference together. That’s a terrible phobia that seems to consume the individual. I never experienced it myself, but I’ve seen it happen to others. Meskin didn’t have that problem until after his emotional problems started.

“They Were Freelance Artists…” JA: Mike Roy also worked in Dan’s studio for a while. BARRY: Ah, Mike Roy! Little Mike Roy with a little moustache; a wonderful guy! He worked quite fast and spoke quite fast. Everything he did was fast. Mike had a great sense of humor and was great to work with. JA: When everybody worked in Dan’s studio, they weren’t just working on his projects, were they?

“I Got To Realize My Dream!” BARRY: They were freelance artists and only worked for Dan on a freelance basis. Mike shared the office space; he didn’t really work for Dan, though he did work on some things with him. Mike had his own work. This was a big loft where you just rented space; it wasn’t like a shop where everyone worked for one guy. All you had to do was to find an outlet, set up your board, plug in your lamp, and you were in business! John Belfi worked there, too. He also did some work for Dan, including some of that Buster Brown work, in addition to his own work. JA: Let’s get back to Biro and Wood for a bit. What were they like? BARRY: Bob Wood was a very fair and opened-minded individual. He knew how to deal with people, especially temperamental artists. He knew how to compromise and placate them—whereas Biro was an extremely strong, egotistic personality. If you were the same type of person, and butted up against Biro, you were constantly in an abrasive position. You had to know how to deal with Biro and show him you knew what you were doing. If he had a criticism that sounded legitimate—and many times, it was—you listened. Biro knew the comics business and understood what made a good picture and a good story. I respected him for his opinions. When he butted up against someone like Dan, who had his own points of view [laughs] in every area, they’d argue. They never got along, but I got along fine with Biro. He knew how to put together a book and was a very good editor. JA: What do you remember about the division of labor between Biro and Wood, since they seem to have been equal partners?

wrote Daredevil out of his own series and turned the book over to the Little Wise Guys. BARRY: Yeah, I think that was Biro’s idea. Later, in Flash Gordon, Dan used a group of kids in a series. I think that was a take-off of the Little Wise Guys. Would you think that Charlie Biro got that idea from Simon & Kirby’s kid gang strips [“Newsboy Legion” and “Boy Commandos”]? JA: He might have. “The Newsboy Legion” wasn’t as big a hit by this time [they lasted till January 1946], but “The Boy Commandos” were still going strong, with their own title up until 1949. I always wondered whether Biro was influenced by the Simon & Kirby kid gangs. BARRY: So did I. Simon & Kirby were absolute geniuses and were first with the kid gang features. I used to see Jack Kirby up at DC. He was such a wonderful guy to talk to, so outgoing and friendly. I met Joe Simon a couple of times and did a couple of ink jobs for them, around the mid-’50s. Those jobs were mystery stories; one had to do with a mystic character. I remember meeting Marvin Stein, who was one of their top pencilers and did a lot of work for them. JA: A lot of the Lev Gleason books give Charlie Biro the writing credit, but Bob Fujitani told me [see A/E #23] that Bob Bernstein actually did most of the writing. Did you know Bernstein? BARRY: Oh, yes. An excellent writer and a very bright guy with a lot of ideas. He wrote a lot of stuff for DC, too. I remember seeing him up there, going over stories with an editor, maybe Mort Weisinger. But taking the writing credit was just part of Biro’s ego. None of us were getting writing credits. There were some stories that Dan wrote, and he

BARRY: Bob was excellent with storylines. Biro was excellent in two areas, creating ideas being one of them. Let me give you an example. Daredevil was dressed in a red and blue suit, and the colors alternated on different sides of his body as you go from top to bottom. The concept was wonderful, and it was Biro’s concept, from what I was told. Biro described the costume to Jack Cole [the feature’s first artist] and Cole drew it. Biro was an artist himself, so he could design things like that. Bob Wood was the writer/editor. Biro oversaw the writing and the artwork. One of his strong points was creating new ideas, like Crime Does Not Pay. One of the best stories I remember doing with Dan involved a character named Juaquin Marietta, and took place down in Mexico. Marietta was very much like Emile Zapata. He suffered some of the most brutal experiences under the army. Dan and I liked working on Daredevil. He was a very good character. JA: I thought it strange that Biro

(Left:) Dan Barry showed the influence of his talented “Johnny Quick” predecessor Mort Meskin (cf., the use of multiple images to represent speed) when he drew this splash for Adventure Comics #144 (Sept. 1948); it was reprinted in the hardcover The Greatest Golden Age Stories Ever Told. Wonder if brother Sy had a hand in the inks, as he so often did? And when’s DC gonna get this great book back in print? William W. Savage, Jr., author of the 1990 scholarly study Comic Books and America, 1945-54, calls it “a splendid collection of comic-book material from ca. 1937 to 1950.” (Right:) By the 1950s, Meskin was having emotional problems, and his work, while still highly competent, had lost some of its creative edge, as in this DC “Mark Merlin” splash, repro’d from black-&-white photocopies from an Australian reprint comic provided by Shane Foley. For much more about the magnificent Mort Meskin, including his own “Johnny Quick” art, see the still-available Alter Ego #24. [©2004 DC Comics.]

Sy Barry wrote that way for Lev Gleason; in fact, he wrote an even tighter synopsis for them. Bob Wood would read it, and he liked Dan’s stories, so he’d usually check them off. He might give a couple of suggestions; they had a very good professional relationship. Once the story was approved, Dan wrote and drew from the synopsis as he drew the story. JA: I know Dan liked to have total control of his work. He also saw himself as more than just an artist.

BARRY: Dan was a writer/artist. He saw himself as an intellectual writer, storyteller, world traveler. I think he enjoyed writing more than drawing because he was a storyteller, but you have to look at him in different stages of his life. Prior to his going to Europe, For Lev Gleason’s Crime Does Not Pay #50 (March Dan was getting a little weary of 1947), editor/writer/artist Charles Biro drew the writing and drawing. He just cover, as per usual. The mag’s 68-page length, rare wanted to write and get away in that day of 52- and 36-page comics, was no doubt doable because of its stellar sales, and from the drawing for a while. contained stories drawn by George Tuska (two), Jack He wanted to go out in the Alderman, Bob Fujitani, Walter Johnson—and Dan world and see art from a Barry (perhaps with a bit of help from Sy?). The latter tale’s splash made good use of zip-a-tone, unusual in comics in different perspective. This was those days. Oh, and the “More Than 5,000,000 Readers” figure was arrived at by estimating that each issue was passed the 1950s, and he was painting, around or traded, and thus read by several kids; still, CDNP’s sales were indeed high in those post-World War II days. too. When he came back to the Thanks to Jim Amash for the loan of the comic. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.] United States, he was still painting and did see art in a signed those. Dan wouldn’t let Biro put his name on them. different perspective. He was painting more when he came back than JA: That makes sense, because some of Dan’s stories don’t read like when he left. Biro or Bernstein stories. Offhand, I don’t recall seeing Dan get JA: Is it fair to say that, as an artist, Dan felt he’d outgrown comics? writing credit, but I have seen his signature on many stories. BARRY: If Dan didn’t get a writing credit, then he didn’t write it. Unless it was the early stories, where he didn’t get credit, and Dan had some battles with Biro over that. Some artists just hacked stuff out there, and Biro probably didn’t want those stories signed by the artists. But Dan tried to get his credit on the stories as much as he could. DC would not allow us to sign our stories. Even the editors couldn’t get their credits on the stories they wrote; it just wasn’t done back then. It didn’t really bother me, because I knew there was nothing I could do about it. If the top people couldn’t get their names on the stories, what could I say?

BARRY: At that point, yes. Just remember, Dan was a very changing kind of personality. He had many moods, changing opinions and attitudes. What went well at one time and what excited him at that point, well, nothing else would matter then. Later on in life, he’d look back and “pooh-pooh” whatever he had done, because what he was currently doing was much more exciting to him. JA: When did Dan return from Europe?

JA: I have seen a few stories with both your name and Alex Toth’s.

BARRY: I can tell you exactly when he did, because Dan was on board ship when President Kennedy was shot [Nov. 22, 1963]. I met him at the dock when he came back. What a time to return home! It was a very tragic homecoming.

BARRY: That’s funny, because I don’t remember that. Maybe our names were added on after I turned the story in? Maybe Toth insisted on that?

JA: You assisted Dan on the Tarzan newspaper strip in 1948. How did Dan get that job?

JA: When Dan wrote the stories himself, did he write a script first or as he drew it?

BARRY: Burne Hogarth came to Dan. Burne was doing the Sunday, and both he and King Features thought it was a good idea to have a daily strip as well. Flash Gordon was still Sunday-only at this point. Tarzan was starting to flounder, and the syndicate felt a daily would make the feature more attractive to newspapers. This was the late ’40s, and Tarzan’s heyday was really the 1930s, even though they were still making Tarzan movies.

BARRY: On the first story or two he did for DC, he submitted a script idea first… a pretty through synopsis, but not a full script. Dan also

I only helped Dan on the strip for a year, because once we moved to that loft in New York, it became easier for me to get my own work. Dan

“Dan… Saw Himself as an Intellectual Writer, Storyteller, World Traveler”

“I Got To Realize My Dream!”

was disappointed that I was spreading out on my own and not doing much for him. He felt that, because he broke me in, that he owned me... that I was his property. [laughs] I had no idea of spending my whole life working for him. I’d let him know in the early stages that I did have other work and I was going to do it. He wasn’t very happy about it, but that was his concept, not mine.

Biro. My memory of him is very vague. I do remember Biro showing him something that Biro was very excited about. I think Gleason just said something like, “Keep up the good work.” [laughs] He kind-of just patted him on the head. Gleason left almost everything to Biro and Wood. He mainly dealt with the distribution end and the business financing.

I was very grateful that he broke me in, and I always let him know that. But if I hadn’t broken away then, I’d have done it a year or two later. It happened sooner for me, because he taught me a lot. But that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t have developed on my own or developed the same standards that I had set for myself. It just would have taken a little longer.

JA: Did Biro and Wood have a piece of the company?

JA: Dan was always interested in teaching people. He taught me a lot and wouldn’t spare the criticism. But he was always gentle with me, even though he had a bad temper at times. He liked my fine art, and wanted me to do more and go further. BARRY: Dan must have seen something in your work that he really liked. He always responded to artists. If you disagreed about a type of art that he liked, he’d give you a real battle, but it was always a friendly battle. I find myself that way, too. I’m not soft-spoken in my opinions, but that’s because of all the feeling and passion I have for certain areas, especially art. JA: I remember one time I had drawn something that Dan liked. Dan told me how much he liked it, and then said, “Let me show you how to make it better.” He took some tracing paper and did just that. I sure learned a lot from Dan that day, and many other days, too. BARRY: Dan did that because he respected what you were trying to do. I do the same thing when artists show me their work. I use tracing paper to go over their art and make suggestions, because I have a tremendous respect for an individual’s work and don’t want to harm it. I’m not about to take a pencil and start going over the actual work. If they don’t agree with it, then fine. Dan gave you good advice. That’s why it’s vivid in your memory.

BARRY: I don’t know, I’m not sure. I have a hunch that, because Biro and Wood put the books together, they had some kind of incentive. They may have had a small percentage, depending on how well the books were selling. They worked their butts off to make them as competitive with Timely and DC as they could. I know about Bob Wood’s problems later, but I never saw anything like that when I worked for him. Whatever friction Dan or I had with Biro, it wasn’t that way with Bob. That’s why I was so shocked when I heard that Bob got drunk and killed his girlfriend. I said, “Are you sure it wasn’t Biro?” Biro had that kind of personality; he could have gone off the deep end. But not Bob. I knew Bob drank, but as far as I knew, it was always under control. Biro would have a drink, but he was a social drinker. JA: When you worked for them, were you mainly inking Dan, or did you do your own stuff, too? BARRY: I was mainly inking Dan. We were still in Brooklyn when we started with Biro, and then we moved into the city. JA: Being a baseball fan, I always try to ask this question of people who worked for Biro. There were two people who worked there and they had famous baseball names: Carl Hubbell and Walter Johnson. Did you know them? BARRY: Walter Johnson? Oh, that is funny. I’ve never heard of that artist. I didn’t know Carl Hubbell, but I knew his work. He drew in a very simplistic style, kind of like Wilson McCoy [artist on The Phantom before Sy Barry]. I didn’t meet many of the people who worked for Biro. I did meet Fred Kida, who was a wonderful guy and a terrific artist. Fred became a very good friend of Dan’s, and they’d get together quite often. Fred worked at our studio, too. He’d come in and do some work, like Buster Brown, for Dan.

“Keep Up the Good Work” JA: Right. I’ll always owe Dan for his help. Now, let’s finish up with Lev Gleason. What were the offices like there? BARRY: They were small. They had a small staff. Irv Watanabe had a desk, but he also lettered at home. They did have some space for you to work if you had to do some touch-ups or a job to finish. There were one or two artists who worked on staff there, but the working space wasn’t very large. It was definitely smaller than Hillman’s, and Hillman wasn’t very large. The only office that had any space to it was Lev Gleason’s, and he wasn’t always there.

JA: You did some work for their magazine, Tops, which was a more upscale type of book than their comics. What do you remember about it?

JA: Did you ever meet Gleason? BARRY: Yes, a very sharp, nicely dressed older man. He was older than

BARRY: I did that for them directly; I didn’t do it with Dan. Tops was a bold experiment for the time, and they took a daring chance with it. But financially, it was such a heavy burden to produce. They had to charge more for it, and I don’t think the audience was ready to spend the extra money. I did get a higher rate for the work

Sy Barry

on that magazine, which is why I’m so sorry it didn’t last. I would have loved to see it maintain itself. I got almost double my rate. I think they paid about $22 a page. My rate for the regular comics was around $13 or $14 a page at that time. This was the 1940s. In the ’50s, it went up to $17, then $19, and $21. It always seemed to go up a couple of dollars at a time. What an odd amount! It never seemed to go up from $10 to $15 to $20... it was always two more dollars. [laughs]

ink Murphy Anderson on Lars of Mars?

JA: It’s generally accepted today that Dan was Biro’s top artist, along with George Tuska. Would you agree with that?

JA: It’s strange to me that Murphy, who was a great inker himself, wanted you to ink for him. Why didn’t he want to ink that stuff?

BARRY: Yes, I would, except I’d include Bob Fujitani in that group, though he called himself “Bob Fuje” at the time. Everyone thought Bob’s work was really great. My, he worked forever with Dan on Flash Gordon, and did great work. You really got to respect some of these guys, because they were geniuses.

BARRY: Because he enjoyed penciling it more, and that gave him a chance to do more penciling. ZiffDavis was really just a side account for me, so there’s really not much I can say about working there. It’s funny, but every time I did something for another company besides DC, Julie [Schwartz] had a way of making me feel guilty about it. I’d tell him, “Remember, Julie, I’m not under contract to you, you know. This isn’t like a Hollywood studio, where they keep you under contract. I can freelance for other people. I’m not affecting your schedule.”

Bob’s work on the Flash Gordon dailies and Sundays contained some of the most exciting and dramatic shots I’d ever seen on Flash. The marvelous angles and use of blacks were incredible, as was his stirring storytelling. Dan’s stories were quite complex, but Bob illustrated them with great clarity. Those who knew Bob’s work all admired him. I just can’t say enough about his work.

BARRY: I have a hunch that Murphy may have asked to have me ink it. He was beginning to build up good contacts at Ziff-Davis. They paid a better rate than DC, too. In fact, both Timely and Ziff-Davis paid me more than DC did, but DC was my breadand-butter. I had regular accounts there, and I knew DC was going to be solvent no matter what changes occurred in the comics field.

Writer Jerry Siegel and artists Murphy Anderson and Sy Barry combined science-fiction and super-heroes in “The Terror Weapon” in Ziff-Davis’ Lars of Mars #11 (July-Aug. 1951), actually just the second issue (of two). According to Eclipse’s 1987 Lars of Mars 3-D reprint, Sy inked pp. 2-6 of this story. [©2004 the respective copyright holders; Lars of Mars TM Estate of Jerry Siegel.]

JA: When you quit Biro and Wood, it was mainly to work at DC, right?

Julie would say, “Yeah, but in a way you are. You might get too tired and won’t be able to do my work.” I said, “Don’t worry about it. I’ll stay awake.” I never really gave the side accounts the same attention I gave my bread-and-butter accounts. Those side jobs were my chance to loosen up and experiment a little, which I did.

BARRY: Mainly, yes. There was nothing personal about it. I just got too busy at DC and just gravitated there.

“Good Contacts at Ziff-Davis” JA: While you were at DC, which we’ll detail later, you also worked for Ziff-Davis. Who was your editor there? Jerry Siegel? BARRY: No. I don’t remember who the editor was, but it wasn’t Jerry. I met Jerry a few times at DC, later on, though. He liked to talk and was a little gruff in his conversation. I don’t mean that in a bad way, because I never had any problems with Jerry. He was a very assertive individual. It had to be tough on him to work there after all that happened, losing the lawsuit against DC. JA: A few people I’ve spoken with described him as disheveled and not very well kept. BARRY: Wellll... his weight gave him that appearance because he was a little on the chunky side. He didn’t dress very well or take good care of himself; I’ll attest to that. JA: You did several things at Ziff-Davis, like romance and horror stories, which were all pencil-and-ink jobs. So how did you come to

“Stan Was a Delight!” JA: Speaking of side accounts, you spent a fair amount of time working for Timely around 1952 and ’53. Was Stan Lee was only editor you dealt with? BARRY: Yes. Stan had other editors doing stuff, but he was the main man. Stan was a delight! He felt that anything he could get out of me was taking something from DC. Stan had that kind of ego. JA: I’d like to throw a few names your way and see if you remember if any were editing at Timely. Starting with Sol Brodsky. BARRY: Sol was there, and he was important to Stan. I think he was doing some editing, but I couldn’t tell you what the books might have been. JA: Al Sulman. BARRY: I remember that name, and I believe he did some editing. JA: Don Rico. BARRY: Sure. I don’t know what editorial capacity these guys were

“I Got To Realize My Dream!” working in, though. Joe Giella did more work there than I did. Joe knew the structure there because he had worked on staff and could tell you more. JA: I notice you did a lot of inking for Stan, which is unusual, because he preferred to have his artists do the complete art job back then. Why were you different?

before you knew it, they had a story together. I primarily inked for Kanigher, but occasionally I’d pencil, too. He liked my dramatic use of blacks. He liked my storytelling when I penciled and thought I added to the drama. I remember him calling me up once and saying, “Sy, you’re one of the few artists who give your characters individual facial expressions. Most artists put a stone face on their characters, and you’re one of the few who give expression and emotion to the characters.” I nearly fell off my chair! He did have a good editorial eye, I must say. He was a terrible individual, but he really knew his business.

BARRY: Because I did that work in my spare time, so I was only doing a story every month or so. Hiring me allowed some pencilers to do more work, and they were glad to have me ink them, because they knew I would do a good job over their work. My inking had a strong influence at DC, so they liked the idea that they were getting that influence on their work.

JA: When you were inking other people’s work, were you correcting their work, too?

JA: You did a lot of war, romance, crime, and horror stories for Timely. But no westerns, which is odd considering the amount of westerns you were doing at DC.

BARRY: Oh, all the time. DC knew I’d do it; they were depending on me to do it, so they didn’t have to bother asking. I was more of a finisher than an inker. They never art-directed me.

BARRY: I’m sure Stan would have loved to have me do westerns for him. It may have been that he didn’t have any western artists who wanted to give up the inking part of the assignment. There was a period when John Buscema was doing westerns. He drew so well and had a great inking style. He was a very well-rounded artist.

JA: Tell me about Murray Boltinoff.

I don’t remember much about the work I did there or who the pencilers were. As I said, this was my secondary work. The stories were all very short, about five or six pages long, in anthology books with no recurring characters. And I didn’t want Julie Schwartz to know I was doing them. It was stupid of me, because when I looked back, I thought, “Why didn’t I want Julie to know what I was doing? I was doing his work, and that came first. It was none of his business what else I was doing. I had a right to do it.” So I tried to keep it quiet. I didn’t sign those stories, though I could have. Why inflame a situation that could be kept quiet? I quit doing the Timely work because DC started taking up all my time.

“[DC Editors] Never Art-Directed Me” JA: I’d like to hear about the people you worked with at DC. BARRY: Jack Schiff was my first editor at DC. After he became a managing editor, I started working for Murray Boltinoff. Jack was a wonderful guy, a sharp guy and a very fair man, but you knew never to play a trick on him. If you ever played games with him, you heard about it. Jack was a jittery sort, but he was very secure in his job and he knew it. He had nervous habits. I also did some work for Bob Kanigher, as we discussed. He was a little Napoleon, but he had a lot of respect for me, and I had very good dealings with Bob. I appreciated his skill at writing and editing. He was a very good editor, even though he could be very difficult. He knew what made a good story and could pinpoint any weaknesses. Many times he’d insult a writer, and after he insulted him, he’d help him out. He’d knock him down, then pick him back up, and help him on the storyline, and

BARRY: Murray was another person who was forever looking behind himself. He was always worried about how they thought he was handling his job. He’d do something he thought was really brilliant and take it to the managing editor, who was Whitney Ellsworth, who’d say, “That’s nice.” [laughter] Whitney Ellsworth. You know, it’s amazing. The bigger they are, and the more secure they are.… Ellsworth was so secure in his job that he didn’t have to tell guys off or be a bastard. He could tell you something with just a couple of words, in a diplomatic way, and you understood him. He was very pleasant about it, but you caught exactly what he was saying, without any question. You knew you either acted on it or you’d be out on your ass. He commanded respect, but was a soft-spoken, intelligent guy who was always on top on things. He always knew exactly what was going on among the editors and in the business. He always knew what was going on in production. A beautiful person and a wonderful guy. There was another guy who edited named Mort Weisinger. He had started taking over more of Ellsworth’s chores because Ellsworth was on the West Coast producing The Adventures of Superman television show. But Mort did it from his desk; he didn’t move into a bigger office. Mort was a pretty sharp, shrewd guy, though he wasn’t the sophisticated diplomat that Ellsworth was. He was a cold and difficult man to reach. You couldn’t have a normal conversation with him; he was all business. If you didn’t try to be too arrogant and just showed an appreciation for your work instead of showing off your talent, he would be a very decent human being. He could treat you quite well. JA: Aside from Dick Sprang, you’re the only freelancer I’ve ever heard say a nice word about Mort Weisinger.

We printed this once-rare photo in A/E #26, and it had popped up earlier in the wonderful hardcover Batman: The Sunday Classics – 19431946, but how many vintage pics do you think we run into of three DC editors together? (Left to right:) Mort Weisinger, Bernie Breslauer, and (seated) Jack Schiff. You can sneak a peek at Whitney Ellsworth on the flip side of this issue. Thanks to Joe Desris.

BARRY: Well, he was strictly professional. There was nothing personal about him, understand me. But he had an extremely good, professional attitude about his work. He set a standard and expected you to meet that standard. Many editors there will tell you that he revolutionized the

Sy Barry

A quintet of 1953 Timely/Atlas splashes by Sy Barry. (Clockwise:) “Back from the Dead!” from Adventures into Weird Worlds #15 (Feb.)—“The Man in the Mud” from Strange Tales #16 (March)—the Korean War story “Evacuation” from Man Comics #25 (April)—“The Shriek of Araby” from Adventures into Weird Worlds #19 (June)— and a “Rocky Steele” series splash from Young Men #23 (Oct.). (Sy also drew the “Rocky Steele” sluggfest in #22.) At some point, Barry may indeed have preferred to avoid run-ins with DC editor Julius Schwartz over his work for Stan Lee by not signing his Timely stories; but in 1953 alone he at least signed all but one of the six mentioned above—and Dr. Michael J. Vassallo, who provided the scan for the unsigned “Back from the Dead!,” wonders if another inker may be involved in that one. Thanks to Doc V. also for “Evacuation” and “Idol of the Ring!”—and to Chris Brown for the other two splashes. [©2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

“I Got To Realize My Dream!”

way the work was done at DC. Mort set a standard that became a very consistent mode of operation. It was very effective and helped that company succeed for many years. I must say that he was a very professional editor—cold and calculating, but he knew what made a good story and a good book.

buck and a half or $2H a share. I heard him on the phone once buying 2000 shares of the stock. Imagine that! He told me this company was going to revolutionize the world. He even predicted that one day they’d make color copiers. Mort was a shrewd investor and made a lot of money; he always knew what he was doing.

Mort really loved his books and his characters. The company mattered to him, and his characters mattered to him. Sometimes he may have had an old maid’s attitude about your changing something and doing something a little more exciting and stimulating. It’d take him a long time to be convinced about something, because he didn’t take to change too easily. But once he agreed on something, he’d do it. Everything he did was for the benefit of the company. I gained a certain amount of respect from my editors. If I recognized that they knew what they were talking about, and if they gave me an editorial comment that was good and effective, I respected them. And I’d show them that respect, so they gave it back to me.

JA: Did you ever deal with Harry Donenfeld or Jack Liebowitz?

I’m not preaching... I’m just telling you how business operates. It’s not only the personality and the craft and the love for the business; it’s more than that. There’s a certain amount of business attached to the work we did. If it’s selling and the public likes it, then really use it. And Weisinger knew how to do that. He could really commercialize his book and make money at it, which is what his bosses wanted. Everybody respected him for that. He really revolutionized how comics were done at DC! Mort had the golden touch. When Mort filled in for Ellsworth, he dealt with the editors, helped devise strategy for the books... that type of stuff. He was doing this even in 1961, when I left DC. By that time, Irwin Donenfeld was the managing boss. I think he started doing that by the mid- to late 1950s. One more thing about Mort that I remember: he was one of the early investors in Xerox. He started buying stock in that company when it was a

BARRY: Not with Harry Donenfeld. I did deal with Jack Liebowitz, but very casually. I didn’t do any business with him. They didn’t have anything to do with the work I was doing. I met him on many occasions, though. I dealt with Jay Emmett, who was Liebowitz’s nephew. He was an up-and-coming young man, a Joe College who came out of an Ivy League school who got a nice, cushy job there. Irwin Donenfeld took over for Harry. JA: Why do you think Murray Boltinoff was so insecure? BARRY: He didn’t have to be; it was just his personality. He was always cow-towing to Mort Weisinger. Weisinger was moving up the ladder and Boltinoff, poor guy, was concerned about that. He was thinking, “This guy was the same rank as me. We were both privates and now he’s become a colonel.” He had to get a response from Mort, who spent most of his life sitting at the desk next to him. It was a very strange change of events.

“I was [Julie Schwartz’s] ‘Repair Contractor’” JA: Speaking of desk arrangements, Julie Schwartz shared an office with Kanigher. When you worked for Julie, did you work for Kanigher at the same time? BARRY: Yes, but when I worked for Bob, he was in his own office. Julie wanted me to work for him all the time, so I had to get permission from him to work for Bob. Of course, Bob would defer to Julie. Bob would ask me if I was available and I’d say, “I have to finish this for Julie,

Julius Schwartz (above) was Sy Barry’s editor on many a science-fiction story, including (left to right): Mystery in Space #21 (Aug-Sept. 1954)— Strange Adventures #60 (Sept. 1955)—and Strange Adventures #59 (Aug. 1955). Photo of Julie taken by Jim Amash at the 1984 AcmeCon in Greensboro, NC. Thanks to Chris Brown for the “Interplanetary Merry-Go-Round” splash, and to Bob Bailey for the other two. Bob reports that the scripter of “World at the Edge of the Universe” was Otto Binder, while John Broome wrote “The World That Vanished.” [Art ©2004 DC Comics.]

Sy Barry

but I think I’ll be free after that.” So Bob would go and ask Julie if he could use me on a story. Editors didn’t trust artists, because they had a habit of taking on too much work. Since editors worked in the same office together, Bob wasn’t going to take my word for it; he’d check with Julie first and make sure it was okay. JA: What was it like to work for Julie Schwartz? BARRY: Julie had a calendar and a schedule. It was almost like... do you remember back in school, when they had Delaney cards, and on these cards they’d give you credit for conduct, and if you responded to questions in class, they’d give you credit for being involved, and being either a good student or a bad one? [laughs] Well, Julie kept a private diary; it was a schedule of a schedule. He’d have a schedule for his work: what books had to be produced, what stories had to go in them, when the scripts had to come in, and when stories had to be ready for the pencilers, inkers, and the rest of the creative teams. Julie mapped every detail of his schedules out.

But on the negative side, if there was a story that you were having a problem with... like a penciler whose work you were inking, or if there was a script that you were working on and it was absolutely impossible because the writer was putting too many situations into one panel, Julie didn’t want to hear about it. He would say, “I want it done. I don’t care how you do it. You’re a professional, so get it done. Don’t come crying to me.” There was one occasion where I had a Hopalong Cassidy story to ink. Gene Colan was penciling it, and he had a style that was impossible to ink. Now, if I say, after all my years of experience, that that story was impossible to ink, you can rest assured that it was impossible to ink. JA: That’s because he drew with the side of the pencil and you can’t reproduce that in ink. BARRY: Right. The half-tones made it impossible to ink. One time, I caught him in the hall, grabbed him by the arm, and took him into Julie’s office. The job was waiting on Julie’s desk, ready to be inked. I said, “Gene, you’ve got to look at this.” Gene thought I was going to show him someone else’s work. He came in and asked, “What’s up? Did Toth bring in a job or something?”

Aside from that, Julie made side Collector Lee Nail scanned this beautiful Gene Colan-penciled splash commentaries, like, what kind of from Hopalong Cassidy #87 (March 1954). Researchers credit Sy Barry stories does this guy like to write and with inking it, with script by Don Cameron. Lee says: "The only what kind of stories this guy likes to comment I can make with certainty is that someone has re-drawn draw. Is this guy better at inking this Hoppy's face in virtually every panel. It could be Sy Barry... or it kind of subject matter or this particular could be Joe Giella. Both guys are credited with inking [stories in] I said, “This has nothing to do penciler? Julie knew the creative this issue." [Art ©2004 DC Comics; Hopalong Cassidy TM & ©2004 with Toth; it has to do with you.” I strengths of his people, and was able to the respective copyright holders.] showed him the job and said, “See get the best work out of each one. He these half-tones? You show me how I’m going to ink these half tones. I was very smart, and a super-efficient editor. want you to show it to me. Here’s a brush and some ink—show me Because of this, sometimes he’d run across your own personality. I what I’m supposed to do with these half-tones.” I did this right in front wasn’t that super-efficient type of guy; I was much more relaxed in how of Julie, because he wasn’t listening to me. Julie just said, “You solve it.” I dealt with editors and artists. I had a much more casual lifestyle and I said, “That’s not the way to solve the problem. You can’t hand this was a different kind of personality. It seemed so unusual for me to see kind of work to someone and expect them to do the impossible. I can’t someone keep a diary on people’s personalities and what they were best do this in wash, and these pencils call for a wash job because of the halfat or what they were worst at. tones Gene put in. I’m not about to pick up zip-a-tone and handle those tones with it. Forget it.” JA: How did Julie categorize you? JA: Let me stop you for just a second. DC seldom, if ever, used zip-aBARRY: He always needed my work. Editors always called on me when tone in their stories during that period. Did they discourage that? they needed the most intensive repair job. Julie always had me listed as “repair contractor.” I was his “repair contractor.” [mutual laughter] I’d BARRY: Yes, they did. They felt that if you threw color over it, then come in his office and say, “You want a contract?” That was typical of half-tones become ineffective... and they do. The only time it might be the crazy stuff that went on in comics, keeping track on people that way. effective is if you’re using Duo-tone board in the way Roy Crane did in the newspapers. Hal Foster used it some, but he did it very subtlety so it But Julie was a beautiful guy. If he had an artist, and that artist had a wouldn’t stand out. But you can’t do it on regular comic book art and problem and something went wrong, Julie would back that man up to make it look great. the hilt. He was that kind of man. If you had a personal problem, you could go to him and he’d sit and listen, but it had to be on his time So when I was talking to Gene, he said, “Sy, that’s the way that I schedule. You couldn’t take three seconds longer than he allowed you... pencil.” I said, “If that’s the way you pencil, then you’re penciling it had to fit into his time slot. He was like a mentor. Ask Joe Giella and unrealistically. You have to allow for inkers to take your pencils and turn he’ll tell you the same thing. them into black-&-white art. If they were printing from your pencils and then slapped color over it, then it’s okay. But what you’re doing JA: I take it that most of the other editors were not like that. can’t be inked or reproduced.” BARRY: No, they weren’t. That was what was so wonderful about Julie.

Gene began to open it up a little bit on his next job, but two jobs

“I Got To Realize My Dream!” after that, he was back to doing half-tones again. I told Julie that I just had to get off of Colan’s stuff. I said, “I’m losing money on it. I can’t ink his work at the rate of speed I need to in order to make a few dollars.” Julie said, “How about if I get someone to help you with it?” I said, “I don’t want to do it. Don’t tell me you’re going to get someone to do it with me.” Julie said, “I’ll get Joe Giella, who’s been inking Gene and is familiar with how to ink him.” I said, “Nobody can ink his stuff the way I can ink it, if I had something clean to work with.” Finally, Julie said, “I don’t care what you tell me. If you want the other work, you’ll do this.” I said, “Are you threatening me? Julie, you’ve never done this to me. Is this so desperately important that you can’t get the kind of pencils that we need? Don’t tell me to change the pencils; tell Gene to draw in the black-&-white style, no half-tones.” Julie said, “Well, I’ll work on that. Meanwhile, I have these pencils, and you have to ink them.” I said, “All right, get Joe in, then. If I’m going to lose time on this, I’m going to charge more on the next set of inks.”

“Alex [Toth] Had a Great Deal to Say about Art” JA: How much were you making at this time? BARRY: I think it was about $19 a page for inks, then, which was the early to mid-1950s. So I got together with Joe and said, “Let’s do the outlines first.” We did that. I said, “I’ll ink the heads and give them the same outline treatment. After we outline the whole story, we’ll go back with a kneaded eraser and erase the grays and blacks.” We did that and put our own black areas in. That’s how we solved the problem. DC paid us together. They’d pay Joe for half the story and pay me for half. So, if it was twelve pages, then Joe and I got paid for six each. That was the kind of run-ins I had. If Julie had an assignment written down in his book, he wasn’t going to change it. It was stuck there, and you could not change that guy one iota. Julie didn’t want his schedule disrupted, but he was disrupting it, because that kind of insistence made everything go slower. Of course, in my anxiety and annoyance, I was going slower and couldn’t produce it. It was slowing things down and disrupting his schedule, but Julie couldn’t see that. JA: Since you were the repair contractor [mutual laughter], when you had these kinds of problems and had to do a lot of fixing, did you get paid extra? BARRY: No. But I

was making $19 a page and other guys were making $15 and $16 a page, so I couldn’t say anything. Then I went in to see Jack Schiff, who was managing editor at the time, and said, “Look, Jack, I’m losing time on some of the work I’m being handed, and I just can’t do it at this rate. I just can’t do it at $19 a page. Either I get off this work, or I have to get a raise.” Jack took me by the arm and we went into Julie’s office. Jack said, “Whenever Sy works on Gene Colan’s pencils, he gets three extra dollars a page. Okay?” I said to Julie later, “You’ve been my mentor. Why were you so worried about asking for a raise for me? Was this a mark against you? Did I really have to go over your head? Was that right to force me to do something like that?” This was one of the few times he had no response. He said, “I didn’t think they were ready to give you a raise.” I said, “Well, I found out that they were ready.” JA: That shows it pays to stand up for yourself. Now, during this time, you were also inking Alex Toth’s work. I thought you were one of the best inkers he had at that time. BARRY: Well, I always got tremendous joy out of inking his stuff. The one thing I found about Toth’s work was that, as marvelous as his layouts were, and how tremendous his drawing ability was, that there was a certain coldness about his pencil technique. It just lacked a sense of softness that I felt it needed in the finishes. I think that was probably what made my inks stand out so effectively as far as the combination of Al Toth and Sy Barry was concerned. JA: I must say that you have the lushest ink line, and that you made everybody’s work shine. Would you say that Alex’s pencils were very analytical, since he was so into design and working towards a greater

Not one, but two, tales penciled by Alex Toth and inked by Sy Barry were included in the 1990 color DC hardcover The Greatest 1950s Stories Ever Told. The “Johnny Thunder” adventure had originally appeared in All-American Western #121 (Aug.-Sept. 1951)—the “Johnny Peril” in Sensation Comics #107 (Jan.-Feb. 1952). The first is signed by both men, the second by neither. The “Johnny Thunder” scripter was Robert Kanigher. [©2004 DC Comics.]

Sy Barry

economy of line?

eventually, they did. He had a final falling-out with Julie, because one day Alex wanted his check and Julie didn’t want to interrupt his lunchtime card game to give it to him.

BARRY: Yes, I would. He had a lot to say in his drawing. He expressed a great deal in the angles of his blacks and the areas he put them in. In the days that I remember him, when I inked him, he was forever changing his concepts: how he used his blacks and the camera angles he chose. He was always looking for greater dramatic effects, forever reaching and searching, like he was experimenting with a new camera. He was always a very deep and sensitive and aesthetic kind of artist. Alex’s pencils were very clean, and you could hardly see his underdrawing. It was amazing! It was like the way composers marveled over Mozart’s sheet music... the way he put it down with almost no hesitation. You could almost print his pencils as they were. He was so certain and so sure. JA: Did you get to know him during that time? BARRY: Sure. I knew him from school. He was a year or half a year ahead of me. I hadn’t seen him for quite a while, and then I saw much him more frequently up at DC.

An Alex Toth/Sy Barry splash page from Strange Adventures #12 (Sept. 1951), scripted by John Osgood—and three panels from a Toth/Barry “Sierra Smith” story from that same period, repro’d from scans of the original art. Of the latter, Bob Bailey, who provided all art on this page, says: “I may have gotten these from John Belfi back when I was at the Kubert School. They were probably from the artwork that was chopped up, but I’m not sure.”

And that was Julie Schwartz. I don’t care how many years you worked for Julie Schwartz or how high you were up on the ladder, Julie had his lunch hour and he didn’t want to be disturbed. Listen, Julie could have been out for an hour, and what would Alex have done if Julie wasn’t there? He wouldn’t have been able to do anything. So, because Julie chose to have his lunch hour in his office, he should suffer for it because this blond fair-haired boy, who was one of the best artists in the business, was asking for his paycheck? Should Julie suddenly drop everything and cow-tow to him? No, nobody should do that. It was Julie’s lunch hour and he knew it was Julie’s lunch hour, but Alex chose to come in then and get his check. He knew better, because he knew how Julie has, but he figured because he’s the top artist there and respected the most, that they would cow-tow to him. But it wasn’t so, and in that case, Julie was right.

I never had a bad time with Alex. I always had the greatest respect for Alex had a great deal to say about him and gave him that respect. art, and he would express those Whatever run-ins he ever had with feelings. I appreciated that, because I the editors, he never had with me. We respected what he was saying. Alex Of “Brain-Master,” Bob notes: “Nice lettering by Toth, as well as good got along very well. was striving to be better all the time. A movement that draws you into the story. Sy’s inks add a little detail to few guys called him a wise guy and the faces without taking away from the bravura of Toth’s style.” There’s JA: I imagine Alex had respect for said he was blowing his own horn, and a credit box for Toth and Barry on the final page. [©2004 DC Comics.] you, too. He was always I said, “No, I the type of don’t see him guy to that way at respect good all. I think this work, guy really has especially something to when it was say. He’s done over his trying to pencils. Was verbalize what Alex one of he’s trying to your favorite do and you people to ink? have to respect him for it, BARRY: Yes. because he isn’t I can’t think of just talking. A lot of you jerks do a lot of talking too many people in his category. There were some stories of my brother and try to sell yourselves, but you don’t perform the way that he Dan’s that were wonderful to ink, especially on “Vigilante.” I wasn’t too performs. Take it from me; I work on this guy’s stuff and I know what crazy about some of his Flash Gordon work. It was a little too heavily he puts into it. He’s always reaching for more and trying to improve. penciled, and I thought we were putting too much into it. The reproAnd not just improve, but trying to view things from a different duction didn’t allow for all that work to come through. I kept trying to perspective.” get him to cut down on it. I said, “You’re going to draw yourself out of Yeah, Alex did blow his own horn, but he deserved to. There were times when he had some crazy arguments with Julie Schwartz. One time, he stormed out of there and said he’s quitting. They didn’t let him quit; they gave him more money. They had to, because there were other outfits that would have loved to have Alex work for them full time. And

recognition. You’re putting so much in there that people won’t want to look at it.” It was sad, because Dan put his heart and love into it. He drew everything he could, putting in everything but the kitchen sink, and it didn’t call for all that. It was too much to look at, as well as his dialogue. People want to read it quickly. You can’t have a strip that has a lot to look at as well as read. It’s not going to work.

“I Got To Realize My Dream!”

“I Was Never Crazy about Doing Costumed Characters” JA: I’m looking at a list of your work and the sheer variety of subjects is amazing. You’re not only doing westerns, like Hopalong Cassidy, where you’re also having to do likenesses of a real person [actor William Boyd], but you also did Alan Ladd, and you did heroes like “Robotman,” war stories... the list goes on. Did you have a favorite genre? BARRY: I think I liked the detective work the best. I always looked forward to them. There were a couple of things I did for Biro and Wood at Lev Gleason. I loved the flavor of Dashiell Hammett’s work. I loved the movies that adapted his work to the screen. I was never really crazy about doing costumed characters. When I was a kid, I’d read The Phantom in the Journal-American. At that time, Ray Moore and Wilson McCoy were drawing it. When I got to be a teenager, I saw more of McCoy’s work in the strip, and it began to get more open and simplistic. It lacked a lot of what I looked for and wanted to see. There wasn’t much drama in the drawings. I thought to myself, “If I ever get to draw a comic strip, it would be The Phantom.” I said that as a kid, and little did I know that that dream would come true.

JA: You also inked Gil Kane. BARRY: Yes, on Rex the Wonder Dog. Gil’s pencils were just pure line, though exciting in their concepts. It reminded me of Carmine’s work in that he didn’t spot black in the pencils, or add any depth to the pencils. But his work was a little more refined than Carmine’s work. It wasn’t my favorite stuff to ink. The pencils were exciting, but I had to add a lot to the work. Kane did have a sureness to his pencil line. I used to see him at the offices quite often and we talked quite a bit. Gil was a frustrated philosopher. He tried to be very philosophical about his art. Guys like Carmine would say, “Quit b.s.’ing and just go draw!” He’d try to give them all this philosophy, but his pencils never changed. No matter what he said he was trying to do, his pencils still looked the same way. He could never make up his mind about who he was. Gil had a sense of sureness about himself, but he always had to reassure himself that he was good enough. He was always debating with Bob Kanigher, and every once in a while Bob would tell him that he was full of crap. Gil’d be talking all these platitudes, and Bob was completely right. Those platitudes meant nothing to the artwork or to the story or to anything else. Gil was trying to make comics more than they were.

When the managing editor at King Features, Sylvan Byck, told me that I had the strip, I was so excited! My wife was pregnant with my son at the time, and I told her, “That little child is our good omen.” [laughter] He wasn’t even born yet, but he did turn out to be a good omen. JA: Before we get into The Phantom, I’d like to talk about DC a little more. What do you remember about Irwin Donenfeld? BARRY: He was an aloof person. He didn’t talk very much to me. He was pleasant enough, but pretty much off to himself. I remember his wife would come to the office, and they’d go off to see a show. Irwin would come in the next day and talk about the beautiful restaurant they went to. He was a little bit on the snobbish side. JA: Was he a good manager? BARRY: He doesn’t stand out in my mind as a Whitney Ellsworth or a Jack Schiff. He doesn’t stand out in my mind as a C.E.O. or a leading figure in the firm. JA: When he took over, did he take responsibilities away from Schiff or Weisinger? BARRY: I didn’t see that there was much of a change in responsibility. In fact, Weisinger was still taking on a lot of responsibility. JA: I’d like to ask you about a couple of DC features. One of them is “Detective Chimp.” BARRY: I liked that one. Carmine Infantino penciled it. Now, Carmine was a great layout man, but his drawing lacked a dimension and there was some distortion in his work. Sometimes that distortion was effective and I’d leave it in, when it carried impact and meant something. There were redeeming features in that distortion, but there were times the distortion wasn’t effective because he didn’t know how to draw the perspective. He also penciled with a straight line, meaning he didn’t spot blacks, which made his drawings look two-dimensional. That was just my feeling about his artwork. He was a wonderful designer, and that’s all he was interested in. In fact, his sketches on the backs of the pages had some wonderful, magnificent designs—beautiful thumbnailed layouts. Having said all of that, I must say that I greatly respected his work. He just needed a little more meat in his work, like in spotting blacks.

The splash of “Mars—on Channel 8” by Carmine Infantino (pencils), Sy Barry (inks), and Gardner Fox (script), from Strange Adventures #28 (Nov. 1952). “A unique TV story for 1952!” says Bob Bailey, whos sent the scan. A “King Farraday” story by Infantino and Barry was reprinted in 1990’s The Greatest 1950s Stories Ever Told. Next issue we’ll show you “Detective Chimp”! [©2004 DC Comics.]

Sy Barry

JA: I always thought there was a lot of Burne Hogarth in Gil Kane. Not just in his artwork, but in his personality, too.

romance work for DC. I did work in a couple of those magazines; they were anthology titles with no recurring characters. My editor was Phyllis Reed, who was quite a good editor. She did quite a bit of the writing herself and knew how to write a good story. She was very easy to work with, and if you needed a little extra time on a story, she’d manipulate the stories around so you’d have a little more time. She was very flexible.

BARRY: I’d agree with that. Gil learned from Hogarth, not just in his compositions, but in his concepts, too. Both men could talk a blue streak. They were always trying to be serious.

“I Don’t Want to Just Ink” JA: At one time or another, Bob Kanigher was editing all kinds of books, like Wonder Woman, various war books, and later on, romance. Do you think he had a preference?

John Romita worked for her, too. We’d see each other once in a while at DC. I usually did pencils and inks for Phyllis, but occasionally there’d be a story that needed inking. John Romita did some of that, and I handled some others. Bernie Sachs also inked stories for her; he had a good inking technique. One of the artists I enjoyed inking was Tony Abruzzo. He was a very good artist, a very sensitive person who was very pleasant to talk to. He was a real gentleman. I did some romance covers, but Tony drew most of them. He had a wonderful style for romance and was very into fashion styles; a very dedicated artist.

BARRY: I think he preferred the war books. I remember when he’d be dealing with writers. I’d be nearby and hear him really get into it. He was really into doing war stories. JA: You did Strange Adventures for Julie. BARRY: Yes, and earlier, I did some science-fiction stuff for Jack Schiff. I liked doing sciencefiction and even inked a couple of Toth’s stories there. JA: Speaking of Schiff, did you ever ink Batman when he was editing it?

BARRY: Yes. I inked one of Jerry Robinson’s stories, either in ‘49 or ’50. And I did ink a few of Bob Kane’s, or whoever was ghosting for him at the time, in the early or mid1950s. I do remember that one story was actually his pencils, or at least a few pages of it was. His pencils had a very basic technique. He had a tricky way of drawing the figure and I had to follow that campy look. If you changed one thing, you had change everything, so there was no point in doing that. For instance, if you changed an arm, you had to change the whole body so they’d relate properly. So I had to follow what he did, but I added my own blacks and gave it a little more drama. Jerry Robinson’s stuff was beautiful. He really could draw and spotted blacks so well that his pages were always balanced. I also inked a handful of Curt Swan’s “Superman” stories in the early or mid-’50s. I enjoyed inking Swan’s work; it was hip. He had a very distinctive style; it was Superman! He gave the character a great deal of significance and respect. He was also a wonderful guy.

JA: Did you ink Jay Scott Pike’s work?

BARRY: No. About the only romance penciler’s work I took on was Tony’s. JA: Did you prefer inking to penciling? BARRY: I preferred penciling, but for some reason I got hung up on inking because of Julie Schwartz. Julie had this habit of categorizing artists into the places he felt they were most proficient. He felt he’d get more production out of me if I just inked. JA: Julie probably felt he’d get a more consistent look to his books if he used you in that way. BARRY: And that’s the way it was. I must admit that. Once he established the fact that I could be his “repair contractor,” then that’s what I would be to him. Julie was a creature of extreme, compulsive habits. That’s how I got into being an inker. When I worked for Jack Schiff, Boltinoff, or Kanigher, they let me pencil and ink my own work.

BARRY: Yes. If I penciled and inked a story, I got $45 a page. I believe I got $50 for penciling and inking covers. That’d be an insult today, and I think it was an insult then. I really should have gotten a lot more.

When I started doing the romance work for Phyllis, I cut back on the work I did for Julie, which didn’t make him very happy. I told him, “Look, I want to start penciling full-time. I don’t want to just ink.” So I gradually got away from working with Julie and did romance work full time. I worked for Phyllis from about 1957 to 1961.

JA: While you were working for DC, you worked at home, didn’t you?

JA: When you were penciling, did you ever talk over scripts with the writers?

JA: You inked a lot of covers. Did you get a higher page rate?

BARRY: Yes, though I did have an office. We haven’t talked about my

“I Got To Realize My Dream!” BARRY: No. I just got the script and followed the schedule. If I had any questions, I’d call the editor. There were no story conferences with either writers or editors. I do remember that I worked on a couple of Bob Bernstein stories. JA: Did you feel that, in working for DC, that you were working for the number one company? BARRY: Oh, sure. Absolutely. At that time, they were called National, and they, along with Timely, were the main outfits. Hillman was growing in the 1940s and started getting their own name in the market. But Timely absolutely flooded the market, so the smaller companies couldn’t get much of a toehold. EC Comics came along strong in the early 1950s, with Jack Davis, Harvey Kurtzman, Will Elder, John Severin, and the others. JA: Do you think that Timely flooding the market caused companies like Hillman to go under?

21 him out and it’d screw up my own schedule. JA: You did that all through the 1950s, didn’t you? BARRY: Yes. As a matter of fact, there was a period of eight years, when Dan went to Europe, that I practically carried the strip from the pencils and inks to doing my own work. It was a very difficult period, because I was losing money trying to do the strip. We were only doing the dailies, but there was more work in those dailies than what other artists were doing. Big scenes with armies and detailed backgrounds... there was an overwhelming amount of detail in those stories. Dan would have whole fleets of airships rocketing through the universe. And I’d have to do some research, too, to draw different kinds of galaxies. We had to be technical. It was no easy task working on Dan’s work.

One time, a script got lost in the mail, and Dan had to wire the story to King Features. It was BARRY: I think it contributed. insane! Another time, I got a Hillman was starting to really pick couple of weeks of script so late up in the marketplace when Timely that I had to get Joe Giella to help started flooding the market. So, if me. I did the figures and Joe did you’re in a shaky financial position the backgrounds, but there were In A/E #26 we showcased the beautiful splash page penciled and and you can’t get rack space, you go other dailies where we reversed inked by Sy Barry for “The Gorilla Who Challenged the World” in under. that. That batch was sent directly Strange Adventures #55 (April 1955). Here, courtesy of Bob Bailey, to Joe, and he sent them from his is the final page from that story, likewise repro’d from photocopies house in Astoria to King Features, of the original art. Script by Edmond Hamilton. [©2004 DC Comics.] and the work got lost! We were already a day late, and it didn’t get there. Days went by and the work JA: Did you try to get work from EC? never showed up. I had to get Mike Sekowsky, Frank Giacoia, and Joe to BARRY: I never tried. I never had to. Even when they were in their come over to my house, and overnight we managed to redo all that heyday, and Harvey Kurtzman did some writing for Dan on Flash work. My wife had the coffee going all the time. Mike, Frank, Joe, and I Gordon, I never tried. Harvey liked my work and asked if I was interwere screaming laughing in hysteria. The more we laughed, the more ested in working for him, but I was just too busy. Not only that, I also delirious we got and the faster we turned it out. Our pencils and brushes had to allow for those crazy moments when Dan ran into his crises and were moving like crazy, but we got it done. You know who Mike called me, hysterical, because he was so far behind on the strip. I’d help

“Crazy Moments”

Sy reports that, in addition to assisting his sibling Dan on the Flash Gordon newspaper strip through much of the 1950s, he ghosted the feature entirely, both pencil and ink, for most of one eight-year period when Dan was living abroad. Whether one or both Brothers Barry worked on it, here’s the daily for Dec. 29, 1951. Repro’d from a photocopy of the original art, courtesy of Ethan Roberts. [©2004 King Features Syndicate.]

Sy Barry him?” Frank had that way about him; he could have a tremendous influence over you. He was really a great guy, but he had a psychological problem: he couldn’t do his work. He couldn’t face a blank page.

Sekowsky was, right? JA: I sure do, but I’d like to hear what you have to say about him. BARRY: Mike lived near Levittown in those days. His pencils were very exciting; his blacks were great, and he had a great feel for comics and action. Mike had some distortion in his work, but his pencils were so exciting that it covered up some of the flaws in his figure drawing and draftsmanship. He’d use these wonderful effects, like his spotting of blacks, but he’d let things fade out, so that a hand would sort of slip off into nothingness, with no drawing on it. When you have to finish it, you’d see these hands looking like a blur. Even though his work had such a nice appearance to it, when you tried to ink it, you had a certain amount of problems to solve. You had to have some drawing ability in order to finish off his work.

He’d stall and stall, read his reference material, and then call you for help. [laughs] A real procrastinator. There are a lot of wild stories about him. But he’d also drop everything and help you out when you needed him. He was wonderful that way; no matter what stage he was at, he’d drop everything and help you. It’s hard to find a man like that; he was extremely generous. But he demanded a lot from his friendships. He was a great friend on one hand and a great nuisance on the other. [mutual laughter]

This photo of artist Frank Giacoia appeared in 1975 Mighty Marvel Comic Convention program book. Frank was a top inker for DC and Marvel for several decades.

In 1961 Frank Giacoia and I got together and worked up a newspaper strip, which I submitted to King Features. It was a Civil War strip called Summer Storm. It was based on a Scarlett O’Hara type. The central character was not a Rhett Butler type, but the central male was a guy called Jim Hawks, who kind-of looked like a cross between Randolph Scott and Buster Crabbe. It was a very interesting story. What we intended to do with it was to show not only the end of the Civil War, but to show the pioneers. Hawks was a Kit Carson type, and we were going to have him go out West and maybe get involved with railroads. We would have showed his kids growing up and how the West was born. We were going to show how one generation developed into a another generation. This was Frank’s idea. He wrote the first three weeks, and I helped him write the next three weeks.

So as we submitted this strip idea, Wilson McCoy became ill and couldn’t continue drawing The Phantom. King Features called me simply because I had just submitted this strip idea and I was prevalent in their minds. They also remembered that I had helped Dan on Flash Gordon for eight years. Sylvan Byck knew me very well, as did Joe D’Angelo, who later became the president of King Features but was an accountant at this time.

“The Phantom” JA: You quit working for DC in 1961 because you got the Phantom strip, right? BARRY: Right. I regretted leaving. DC asked me if I would do a story now and then. I said, I’d try, but I thought the strip would be a full-time job, and it was.

JA: Giacoia must have been a real nice guy, because there was always someone helping him finish off his work. They must have liked him a lot to keep bailing him out.

There was a legal problem to solve before I could take over the strip. First, Wilson McCoy passed away. They told me they wanted me to do the daily. Bill Lignante was drawing the Sunday at the time, because he had temporarily taken it over from McCoy. Lignante was being considered for the daily, too. I’d have been grateful just to take over the daily. The legal problem was that Ray Moore, the original artist, was suing over his legal percentage of the strip. He didn’t have a percentage with the syndicate; it was a private contract with McCoy. When McCoy passed away, Moore no longer had a hold on the strip.

BARRY: We all loved his art. He was a tough person to deal with. When he needed you, you always felt compelled to help him, because he was always in such dire need. You felt that if you didn’t help him... well, you thought about his wife and child and thought, “How can I not help

JA: This is confusing to me, because I’d have thought Lee Falk would have

JA: Were you aware of Frank’s earlier strip, Johnny Reb? BARRY: Oh, yes. In fact, Frank called me a couple of times to help him finish it off. I did breakdowns a couple of times on Johnny Reb. JA: Everybody helped Frank on that strip! Jack Kirby, you... BARRY: And Joe Giella, too. Joe and Frank lived a couple of blocks from each other.

(Left:) The daily Phantom strip for Dec. 8, 1937, drawn by Ray Moore. (Right:) This “Peaceable Kingdom” panel appeared near the end of Wilson McCoy’s tenure as Phantom artist. Writer/creator in both cases is Lee Falk. [©2004 King Features Syndicate.]

“I Got To Realize My Dream!”

been sharing the percentage with Moore, since they started it together. BARRY: Oh, no. I don’t know what impression Lee Falk left with everyone. Lee Falk’s ownership was his 25% of the strip’s income. That’s it! He had some say-so in the strip... certainly in how the strip was written, and some say-so in side issues, such as television, radio, movies, whatever. He did not own the whole strip. King Features owned 50% and Ray Moore owned 25%, because he was the original artist. Now, when Ray Moore became ill, he set up a contract with Wilson McCoy. At the beginning, McCoy had a small percentage of the strip, something like 8%. Later on, McCoy took over that 25% of Moore’s almost completely. He didn’t want to leave Ray Moore out of it, so they reversed the arrangement. So Moore only had 8% and McCoy had the other 17%. That contract had nothing to do with Lee Falk or the syndicate. Lee had nothing to do with controlling them; he had nothing to do with controlling me. When I took over, I got 20% and he got 30%. The syndicate still kept their 50%. Falk had nothing to do with me or influence on my art work. If he made Three sequential daily Phantom strips from 1983 by Sy Barry, repro’d from photocopies of the original art sent by Jaume Vaquer of Spain. He gets around, our Phantom! [©2004 King Features Syndicate.] suggestions in the artwork, that was fine. If he rubbed me the wrong way, BARRY: Yes, we all did, but I’d call the managing editor. I’d tell them to get him off my they wouldn’t give it back. back if there was a disagreement, but rarely was there ever a They burned it. I asked for it disagreement. His writing and my artwork worked out very back, but they said, “Once beautifully. The only time I ever had to go above Lee’s head you sign your checks, the was when I wasn’t getting the scripts on artwork isn’t yours anymore.” time. He was making me late They were afraid we’d take because I would have to make up the artwork and reproduce it the time. I couldn’t take a elsewhere. Now, how could vacation or a break without we do that? We’d have been killing myself. sued out of our homes if we tried that. JA: When you started doing The Phantom, were you JA: But was that a real fear or just an excuse to keep the artists getting your art returned? down? BARRY: Yes, but there were a BARRY: They were afraid of us taking it and reusing it. Remember, couple of years when Lee the field was so competitive, and there was an underground where took my work. He didn’t work got reproduced, so, yeah, they were terribly afraid of that have my permission. We happening. They made sure that, if they couldn’t properly had a violent argument protect it, they’d burn it and just keep the printing plates. over the phone. My wife thought I was going to JA: So if you asked Charlie Biro for a page, he wouldn’t give have a heart attack. Oh it to you? boy, did I let him have it! BARRY: Biro might have, but DC or Timely never would. I JA: I don’t blame you. never asked Biro for pages. We just didn’t make a practice of it (Left:) This Phantom drawing at left seems to be giving But when you were his glance of approval to the panel of The Phantom, his then. I think we never thought we’d be able to get our artwork working in comic books, stallion Hero, and his dog Devil which he signed in 1996 back, because they were busy destroying it. didn’t you want your for fan Jyrki Vainio. Thanks to J.V. for sending us a copy. [Post-1993 art ©2004 Sy Barry; The Phantom TM & ©2004 JA: Did you just assume that they were buying the physical artwork back? King Features Syndicate.]

Sy Barry

artwork as well as the printing rights? BARRY: Yes, just like if you’re buying a jacket. It wasn’t just the page that had value, because they made plates of it and could use it any way they wanted. It’s the other things they could do with it that was important, not the piece of paper itself. They had copyrights on all that stuff and the plates. They shouldn’t have worried about the art itself, but they were insecure. It was a legitimate excuse, because they wanted to keep what they’d bought since it was their property. We waived all further claims to the artwork once we signed the back of that check. The contract was written on the back of that check. Once the legal issues were resolved, it was decided that Ray Moore had no legal claims to money for The Phantom, and I was given both the dailies and the Sundays. When I started, we were in just over 600 newspapers. When I left, we were in over 900.

“They Had an Artist Who Cared about Doing His Strip” JA: The circulation went up!? That’s unusual, because the newspapers have spent decades killing off the adventure strip. BARRY: It was not unusual, because they had an artist who cared about doing his strip. I broke my ass to make this strip much more recognizable than Wilson McCoy did. People began to write letters, and the

Sy Barry Sidebar [EDITOR’S NOTE: Ed Rhoades, a longtime friend of the artist, helped Sy Barry assemble many of the art materials printed with this interview, scanned them, and transferred them to CD for Alter Ego. He also wrote the following appreciation of Sy.]

syndicate forwarded batches of them to me, because they couldn’t find room for them all. The letters were all positive. People said they liked the art much better now, and really looked forward to reading it. Many had stopped reading The Phantom under McCoy, but were reading it again and asking other papers to run the strip. One by-product of my taking over was that merchandising picked up. I was doing art for games, costumes, headgear, and all other kinds of Phantom-related material. JA: That makes sense, because McCoy’s work was very simplistic and cartoony, while yours was illustrative and lush. I believed I was in the jungle with The Phantom, and McCoy didn’t give the reader that sense of believability. BARRY: That’s exactly how I felt. The Phantom deserved an illustrator and not a cartoonist. That’s why I treated it that way. I spotted more blacks in the art, making it dynamic and graphic, so that it stood out on the printed page. I wanted to play up the unusual mystery and fantasy elements that the strip needed. When you think of The Phantom, you think of a mysterious spectre, not a super-hero. He needed to be surrounded by that kind of environment. I needed to get that feeling of darkness and ghostliness, but at the same time, get some of the humor and characterization of the characters, as well. That’s what I tried to get into the strip. Not just the intrigue of The his visits to Australia and Scandinavia. Crowds lined up and waited patiently for his autograph. He was featured on television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and on Internet interviews. To coincide with his visit, his painting of The Phantom on his stallion Hero graced the covers of Fantomen and Fantomet. His oil paintings of The Phantom were also made into two popular prints in Australia, and an upcoming Scandinavian Phantom comic will feature an exclusive Sy Barry illustration for a tribute to the 70th anniversary of Donald Duck.

Drawing an adventure comic strip is grueling… meeting those unforgiving deadlines, constantly searching for source material while trying to His art has been used for many licensed products such as magnets, keep it fresh. Even when you have help, it’s complicated… just getting posters, collectors’ cards, and bumper stickers. Artists have copied his the work from the layouts to the letterer to the tight pencils and to the drawings countless times for interiors and covers of comic books, and final inking. And no strip is more demanding than The Phantom. It his work continues to be influential on a global level. requires reference from every geographic locale, people from every conceivable ethnic background, every animal imaginable, and 400 years In addition to his popular Phantom strip, he has made an of technology, including weapons, architecture, machines… cars, planes, outstanding contribution to comics in diverse areas, where his powerful rockets, boats, ship, art was influential submarine, even though he helicopters… and lots received little official of detailed jungle credit. Early in his foliage. You need career, he assisted his expressive imagery, brother Dan Barry dramatic shadows, and on the syndicated enormous genre scenes Flash Gordon strip, such as military battles, and later he ghosted while making room for the strip for years, dialogue and narration. filling in for his The entire sequence brother. has to clearly illustrate the script, while His diverse body Sy dedicated this original art from 9-21-72 to his friend Ed Rhoades. [©2004 King Features Syndicate.] remaining interesting of work included but not too demanding romance comics, for the readers. And it has to look good when reduced to two-inch action comics (such as “Johnny Thunder,” Gang Busters, and Big panels. It’s a chore that would have taxed Leonardo da Vinci. Town. Highly regarded as one of the finest inkers ever, he inked Alex Toth’s pencils for “Johnny Peril,” Curt Swan’s pencils for “Superman,” Sy Barry did it all with style… using graceful, eloquent ink strokes, and Jerry Robinson’s for “Batman.” dramatic lighting reminiscent of Rembrandt, fluid compositions inspired by Edgar Degas, never losing the point of effectively telling the story… In addition to doing occasional comics covers and prints, he has and he told the stories for 33 years for over 60 million readers spent his post-retirement years creating oil paintings. Like that of The worldwide. Phantom, Sy’s popularity and appeal seem timeless. As a Phantom artist, he is a legend. He received a hero’s welcome on

—Ed Rhoades.

“I Got To Realize My Dream!”

Sy and wife Simmy on the artist’s Australian tour, before a large print of one of Sy’s oil paintings of The Phantom and his ancestors—flanked by a full reproduction of that gorgeous painting (in black-&-white, alas), and the cover of the “down-under” Phantom - 2003 Annual Special. The latter was painted by an artist signing himself “Antonio,” but this fat b&w paperback volume features 50 pages of classic 1940-41 Phantom strips by writer/creator Lee Falk and original artist Ray Moore, and 200 pages of vintage Falk and Barry—sent by the ever-generous Shane Foley of Oz. Ye Editor (that’s Roy) was amazed in 2001 to see the sheer amount of reprinted Phantom material on sale at comics conventions he attended in Australia and New Zealand. [Art ©2004 King Features Syndicate.]

Phantom, but the facial and body expressions of the characters he dealt with, in order to match the dialogue that Lee was writing. Sometimes you’d see other artists drawing stone faces when the characters are supposed to be screaming at each other. You’ve got to show the expression—how the guy’s mouth is open, and maybe look down his throat a little bit, or get a hand reaching out to grab you. My Phantom was alive! I asked myself, “What does this strip really need?” I knew I could draw better than McCoy, but that wasn’t enough. What kind of story is Lee writing? What can I add in the artwork to emphasize what Lee was writing? That’s what I did. I managed to capture all the elements that would make The Phantom real and worth reading every day. JA: Did you ever offer story ideas to Lee Falk? BARRY: Never. That was only because Lee gave me very strong signals that the writing was his area. By the same token, I gave very strong signals back that the art was my territory. JA: So if you’d started giving story ideas to Falk, he might have felt free to start art-directing you, right? And you didn’t want that. BARRY: [laughs] Right! That’s a very good analysis. JA: Do you have a favorite time period on The Phantom? When was it the most fun for you?

long periods where I had people doing layouts for me, because I was doing art for myself. Sometimes it’d be illustrations for local companies, too, so I’d get someone to do breakdowns for me on the strip. Joe Giella was one of those guys. He didn’t do that much for me, because he was doing his own work, but he’d ink for me at times. There were periods when I penciled everything and inked the Sundays, and Joe would ink the dailies. I penciled a little looser when I was the inker, a little tighter when Joe was inking. Joe had his own style and wanted the pencils to be more defined. George Oleson did breakdowns for me. He worked for me for quite a few years and took over the pencils when I retired. JA: Why did you retire from The Phantom? BARRY: I came to a point when I hit a brick wall. It was physically becoming very difficult for me to keep producing and fighting deadlines, and fighting Lee on scripts. I just got to the point where I was no longer having fun. I came to dislike it. When it came to that point, I was financially able to retire and not have to work with all this difficulty anymore. I felt I’d done everything I could do on The Phantom. The creativity wasn’t there any more. I’d done it all. I just wasn’t going to live that way.

“What Makes The Phantom So Popular?”

BARRY: Probably the 1970s to the mid-1980s. I was hitting my stride then. I felt I’d hit my own personal level of maturity and development, and was reaching a stage where I was very happy with my work, within the limits of the time I had to do the work. In other words, I had the stamina to do what I wanted to do; I put demands on myself and had the stamina to accomplish it. I was also happy that I had set a standard for myself that I was happy with.

JA: Why is The Phantom so popular in Australia?

JA: How often did you use assistants?

Why in Australia as opposed to other countries? You might as well ask why in Scandinavia? It’s even bigger there... much more intense! I went there in October of 2001 and the reaction was unbelievable! I

BARRY: A good deal of the time. I’d get someone to do some inking for me here and there, or layouts for me here and there. Then there were

BARRY: It is quite incredible. I think they see The Phantom as not just a strong hero type, but they are drawn to the fantasy attached to the character. Not just his great heroics in his fight against evil, but there’s the wonderful fantasy. The 400-year-old legend of The Phantom has a powerful mystique. The idea that he’s assumed to be 400 years old was a fresh idea, and he remained dedicated to this concept.

Sy Barry

went to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The strip is compiled into books there, and they are extremely popular. There was even a Swedish comic book translated into Danish. I was on this two-week tour before I did a book signing for Eggmont Press in Oslo. In each country, my wife would go to the book staffs and discover there were multiple series of books being published with my strip. There wasn’t just one Phantom book, there were several series of them. It was incredible to see how much work was being produced with The Phantom—not just my art, but they were using their own artists and writers, too. There, he’s called Fantomen. I was at many book-signings, and the crowds were huge. In Norway, Eggmont produced a four-book series with 13 years of my black-&white dailies. In Sweden, they had a hardcover book of my 33 years of Phantom Sundays. The first one had just come out... it’ll be a series of eight books printing all those dailies. They had me there in Stockholm and Guttenberg to help kick the series off. There were hundreds of people at each signing, and my hand would get cramped signing all these books. One little boy, about ten years old, came along with a card of The Phantom, wanting me to sign it. I asked him if he had a book for me to sign and if his father had bought him one. He said, “Not so much money.” He was trying to tell me he didn’t have enough money to buy the book. I thought, “Wait a minute. This can’t go on.” I nudged the managing editor of Eggmont, who was sitting next to me, and said, “We have to do something for this kid. Either you give him a book, or I’m going to buy it myself.” The kid had started walking away from the table, and I stopped him and gave him a book. I just couldn’t let him go without one. That kid was so happy that he had tears in his eyes. He just about shook my hand off my arm. I personally inscribed the book to him. He was so excited, and he’ll be grateful to me

for the rest of his life. This is the kind of thing that goes on; people were so excited to see me. They’d say, “Mr. Barry, I’m so sorry about what happened in New York [9/11]. You don’t know how terrible we feel.” One woman starting breaking down, crying, thinking of the people who had died in the buildings. It was so heart-ripping! But my tour was a wonderful experience. What makes The Phantom so popular? Well, Lee Falk wasn’t my favorite type of personality, but I must say the guy was a genius in the kinds of stories he devised. The Phantom was a brilliant concept, and it’s lasted because he kept this unique idea consistent. He kept this great idea alive all these years. And of course, the artwork, which tried to depict what Lee was writing. It was a little remiss during the Wilson McCoy years, but he tried, he really tried. But The Phantom was too strong a character to be destroyed by the artwork. The Phantom was a great concept. You know, during World War II, The Phantom was considered as such a heroic concept that the strip was banned in Norway. The Nazis stopped it from being printed. But even then, it was being printed underground. They couldn’t stop The Phantom. He was a hero like Joan of Arc—a hero fighting evil. JA: And even more than that, he was a character who represented the best ideal of what a man can be. BARRY: Precisely! Like you, I always loved The Phantom. When the character started in 1936, I was eight years old, and even then I always said I wanted to draw that strip. I got to realize my dream, and how many people can say that?

Phantom, Phantom, Everywhere! (Left:) Sy’s cover of a 2001 Sy Barry Special edition of Fantomet, published to coincide with the artist’s trip to Norway. (Right:) Barry cover for a 1998 Yugoslavian edition spotlighting his Phantom work. [Art ©2004 Sy Barry; Phantom TM & ©2004 King Features Syndicate.]

“I Got To Realize My Dream!”

SY BARRY Checklist [NOTE: The following is an abridgement of information provided by Jerry G. Bails for 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. Some names below are not italicized because they are the titles of both comic books and of features in other comic books (such as Batman). Key: (a) = full art; (p) = pencils only; (i) = inks only; (d) daily, Monday-through-Saturday newspaper comic strip; (wk) weekly/Sunday comic strip.] Full Name: Seymour Barry (b. 1928) – a.k.a. Sy Barry—artist, writer Education: Art Students League, Brooklyn Museum, N.Y. School of Design Brother: Dan Barry Illustration: Picture World Encyclopedia, 1959 Promotional Comics: Buster Brown (i), 1948 (for Buster Brown Shoes) Syndicated Credits: Flash Gordon (d)(i), 1951-60; (ghost p.) 1954/56-60; Johnny Reb (ghost layout for Frank Giacoia), late 1950s; The Phantom (d)(p), 1961-62, (a) 1961-71, 1971-94; (wk)(p) 1962; (i) 1962-94; Tarzan (d)(asst i) 1948 Assistant to: Dan Barry, in early career COMICS CREDITS (Alternate & Joint Publishers): Manuscript Press (with Fictioneer Press 1989-1982): Comics Revue [The Phantom, reprints] (a) 1988-95 Eclipse Enterprises: Lars of Mars (i), 1987 reprint of Ziff-Davis material COMIC BOOK CREDITS (MAINSTREAM U.S. PUBLISHERS): DC & related Imprints (incl. AA): Adventures of Rex the Wonder Dog (misc. backups) (i), 1952; Alan Ladd (i), 1949-50; All-American Men of War (i), 1953-54; Batman (i), 1949-50 (over one Jerry Robinson in 1949), Big Town (i), 1951-52; Captain Comet (i/some p), 1951-52, 1954; covers (i & p), 1959-55; crime (i), c. 1947-49, 1951-56; Darwin Jones (a) 1955; DC Super-Stars Presents: War against Giants (i), 1976; Detective Chimp (i), 1952, 1954-55; fillers and house ads (p & i), 1945-47; Foley of the Fighting 5th (i, some p), 1951-52, 1955; Gang Busters (i, some p), 1949, 1951; Girls’ Love Stories (i), 1954-58; Heart Throbs (a), 1966; Hopalong Cassidy (i), 1954, 1958; Interplanetary Insurance, Inc. (i), 1953-54; Jimmy Wakely (i), 1950-52; Johnny Peril (i) 1951-53; Johnny Quick (i), 1952-53; Johnny Thunder [western] (i), 1951-55; King Faraday (i), 1953; Knights of the Galaxy (i), 1952; Manhunters around the World (i), 1956; Monty West (i), 1958; Mystery in Space (i, some p), 1951-55; Our Army at War (i), 1952-54; The Phantom Stranger (i), 1952-53, 1969, 1971; Police at Work (i), 1949; Rex the Wonder Dog (i), date uncertain; Robotman (a), 1950; Rodeo Rick (a), 1957; Roy Raymond, TV Detective [a.k.a. Impossible but True] (i), 1949; Secret Hearts (i), 1954; Sensation Mystery (i), 1950-53, Star Spangled War Stories (i), 1954; Strange Adventures (i, some p), 1950-57, Strong Bow (i), 1952-54; Superman (i) [over Curt Swan], early to mid-1950s; Superman 3-D (i), 1953; Tom Sparks, Boy Inventor (i), 1952; Tomahawk (a), 1952; Trigger Twins (i), 1951-54; The Vigilante (i), 1948-50.

The Sy Barry cover for one of King Features’ press kits, released in conjunction with the 1996 feature film… and Sy himself, in a photo he and friend Ed Rhoades call “Syslam,” posing outside Sardi’s restaurant in New York City with a ring identical to the one worn by actor Bill Zane in the film. The occasion was the Friends of the Phantom dinner in May 2003. [Post-1995 art ©2004 Sy Barry; The Phantom TM & ©2004 King Features Syndicate.]

Feature/Crestwood/Headline/Prize: mystery titles [for Simon & Kirby] (i), c. 1954; Treasure Keeper (a), 1946 Hillman Periodicals: crime (i), 1948; (some p), no specifics Lev Gleason & related: Tops (i), 1949; (some p), Daredevil , 1947–48; Crime Does Not Pay, 1947–49 Marvel/Timely & related: 3-D Action (a), 1954; Adventures into Terror (a), 1953; Adventures into Weird Worlds (a) 1953; Battle Action (i), 1952; Journey into Mystery (i), 1952; Journey into Unknown Worlds (i), 1952; Justice Comics (i), 1953; Man Comics [adventure/war] (a) 1953; Mystery Tales (i), 1952; Mystic (i), 1952; Rocky Steele [in Young Men], (a) 1953; romance (i), 1951-53; Spellbound (i), 1952; Strange Tales (i), 1953-53; War Action (i), 1952; War Comics (a), 1953 Quality Comics: ad filler pages (a), 1945-46; Plastic Man (i), early 1950s; various stories (i), late 1940s to early 1950s Satire Publications: Loco (a), 1958 St. John/Jubilee: Mystery (a), 1955 Ziff-Davis: horror (a), 1952; Lars of Mars (i), 1951 Book Collections Containing Sy Barry’s Comic Book Work: The Greatest 1950s Stories Ever Told (Johnny Peril, Johnny Thunder reprints) (i), 1990; Mystery in Space (i), 1999

re:

re: [re: continued from p. 3] output of French-made comics than they actually were.

[Jean-Marc’s response: The article was clearly announced to be about super-hero comics only (no matter how obscure), not French comics in general. In fact, I specifically stated that I was covering mostly small-format publishers that existed on the margins of the French comics industry.] (2) My second criticism is much more serious: most of what he writes on pages 6 and 7 of his essay is downright inaccurate. The genesis and birth of the French review board for publications for children created by the July 19, 1949, law has been amply documented by now, but it is painfully obvious that Lofficier has never read a line about it. A few examples: —The cartoonist who created Fantax was never called Pierre Mouchotte; his real name was P. Mouchot, and his pseudonym was Chott! [Jean Marc’s response: This is indeed a mistake, due to a typo which I failed to spot and correct. My apologies.] —Mouchot’s principal enemies were not Christian and conservative zealots but French cartoonists who resented his plagiarism of US-made comics. Fantax did not contain occasional swipes; most of its panels were lightboxed from US artwork, and the Fantax character was Hourman with an “F” on his chest instead of an hourglass! [Jean-Marc’s response: This is a preposterous statement, and unsupported. The organizations that sued Mouchot and eventually drove him out of business were the French Ministere de la Justice (Public Prosecutor) supported by the Christian conservative familyvalue organization “Union Departemental des Associations Familiales du Rhone.” One might also note that Mouchot was initially

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supported by his colleagues from the Syndicat National des Publications Destinées à la Jeunesse (a publishers’ trade association), up to the point when his legal troubles became overwhelming.]

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—The first Fantax series was never discontinued because of the July 1949 law in the first place. Its demise coincided with late 1949 for two reasons: 1) Mouchot’s talented editor Marcel Navarro walked out on him; 2) the cartoonist/publisher found it more prudent to stop publishing his title as he was taken to court in a plagiarism trial. On the other hand, Mouchot was indeed involved in years-long litigation with the governmental review board from 1953 to the late ’50s. [Jean-Marc’s response: That statement is also incorrect. Navarro left Fantax in early 1948 (his last issue was #29, cover-dated “2nd quarter 48”), 18 months before the fateful date of July 1949, which is also the month of the last issue of Fantax (#39, 2nd quarter 1949). Not a coincidence, of course. One might note that Satanax was also canceled by a rival publisher that same month for the same reasons: the fear of the consequences of the new law; in Mouchot’s case, those fears were well-founded.] —When Lofficier blames postwar comics censorship in France on conservatives and Christians, he apparently ignores the fact that the prime movers of that movement were communist educators. Like in the US, the French anti-comics campaign was one of the few issues generating bipartisan consensus. [Jean-Marc’s response: Actually, I did blame the educators (cf. page 7, paragraph 3).]

re:

Several of the French and Italian creators spotlighted in A/E #30 expressed their appreciation of the coverage, including artist Ladrönn from his California digs —while, from Europe Franco Oneta, artist of the jungle hero Zembla and others, sent both a drawing he did of characters he’s drawn for various folks, and the original drawing at left (love your choice of reading matter, Franco!)—Chris Malgrain mailed us an exquisite Silver Surfer drawing—from Leone Cimpellin came a drawing of the 1962 “Nembo Kid”—and “Wampus” creator Luciano Bernasconi sent an illo of Spider-Man vs. his own version of The Green Goblin. Thanks, guys— and to Jean-Marc Lofficier for forwarding the Cimpellin and Bernasconi art! [Art ©2004 the respective artists; Nembo Kid/Superman TM & ©2004 DC Comics; Spider-Man & Green Goblin TM & ©2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.; other characters TM & ©the respective copyright holders.]

re:

Those among your readers interested in that aspect of French comics history may refer to my article “Freedom of Speech and UnConsecrated Mass Media: A Franco-American Comparison on ComicBooks” in The Tocqueville Review 24.1 (2003). Those who understand French should read Thierry Crespin’s remarkable historical study “Haro sur le gangster!” La moralization de la presse enfantine 1934-1954 (Paris: CNRS Editions, 2001), particularly pp. 375-389, where the Mouchot case is discussed in depth. [Jean-Marc’s response: I would prefer to refer readers to Gerard Thomassian’s Encyclopedia des Bandes Dessinees de Petits Formats, Vol. 23, which in addition to reproducing press articles and court documents of the period also interviews Marcel Navarro.] Jean-Paul Gabilliet Maître de conferences / Associate Professor Universite Michael de Montaigne Bordeaux 3 UFR des Pays Anglophones / Department of English Domaine universitaire – 33607 PESSAC Cedex – France And there we’ll let it lie for the moment—though of course if JeanPaul has more to say, we hope he’ll communicate it to us. We’re not trying to silence criticism, or to artificially give Jean-Marc the last word, but merely to provide a forum for facts, opinions, and analyses… and that’s what we’ve done in this instance. Incidentally, A/E #30 carried an ad for Shadowmen, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier’s 300-page encyclopediac coverage of the heroes and villains of French pulp fiction. See the ad on the page facing for their justout volume Shadowmen 2, which deals in depth with French comics heroes! If you liked our “French Connection” in A/E #30, you’ll love Shadowmen 2—and the still-available first volume, as well, come to that! Meanwhile, the following letter, from Joanna Martine Woolfolk, was prompted by the brief tribute in A/E #29 to the great Golden Age comic book writer William Woolfolk, who passed away in July of last year. It was sent to FCA editor P.C. Hamerlinck, who forwarded it (and his response) to us:

with him turned out to be), and he loved it. At the time he told me about the fun he was having; it energized his spirit enormously. Also, going out to the 2002 San Diego Comic Convention was a high point in his life, and this, too, I gather was because of you. In so many ways, you gave life to Bill—your admiration, your involvement—and you lit up the last cycle of his life. So this is to thank you for your kindness and to tell you that, like a ripple in a pond, it has spread to more lives than just Bill’s. Bill Woolfolk was brilliant, funny, electric, unforgettable. I, like so many, heroworshiped him, and will adore him always. Joanna Martine Woolfolk P.C. replies: “Thank you, Joanna, for your kind words. I greatly miss my pleasurable chats and friendship with one of comics’ all-time greatest and most talented writers. Thanks again to fan Shaun Clancy for putting me in touch with Bill years ago, and to David Siegel, who called me one day to inquire which Fawcett/Golden Age comic great we could honor at the 2003 San Diego Comic-Con. Bill’s work will live on forever in reprints and in the musty old pages of Captain Marvel Adventures, Captain Marvel Jr., Bulletman, Ibis the Invincible, Superman, Batman, Plastic Man, Blackhawk, The Spirit, and many other comics, as will ‘Holy Moley,’ the famous phrase he coined for the World’s Mightiest Mortal and his alter ego, Billy Batson. While Bill was also an award-winning television scriptwriter and top-selling novelist, he himself believed that ‘comics have outlasted my writing efforts in other media.’” Tom Lammers, author of the formidable “Prototypes” series in A/E #29 & #31, forwarded this message from longtime fan Tom Watkins with regard to the mystery of whether Amazing Fantasy #15, Journey into Mystery #83, and/or Tales to Astonish #35 might’ve gone on sale at the same time in 1962. Ye Editor remembers the first appearance of “Spider-Man” as coming out a week or more before the “Ant-Man” debut, at least in Southeast Missouri… Roy— A while ago on the Kirby-List (I think), mention came up of an episode of the old Naked City TV show, “Hold for Gloria Christmas,” with a scene set at a newsstand where copies of both Amazing Fantasy #15 and Journey into Mystery #83 are clearly visible, hanging up in the background. It’s just been released on DVD. First broadcast, according to the DVD cover, was September 19, 1962.

Dear Mr. Hamerlinck, I am William Woolfolk’s former wife; we divorced in 1999 but remained close to the end of his life. Late this spring, when he and I last had lunch together two months before he died, he gave me a copy of the May 2003 issue of Alter Ego [#24] that contained part two of his long interview with you (“The Human Side of the Golden Age”). You made him very proud. (After Bill died, TwoMorrows’ Eric NolenWeathington was kind enough to send me the issue with part one—“Looking Backward… from my Upside Down Point of View,” in Alter Ego for Autumn 2000.) I am writing to thank you for so many things. First, for the loving and elegant memorial you wrote about Bill in the October 2003 issue of Alter Ego. (In addition, please thank the powers-that-be for dedicating this issue to Bill’s memory.) Yet beyond your memorial to Bill, in the last few years of his life, when I know Bill felt his career and productivity had ended, you engaged him in writing his “memoirs” (for this is what your interviews

Tom Watkins

We didn’t get mountains of mail on Tom Lammers’ masterful two-part piece on “Marvel Prototypes” in A/E #29-31, partly because so much discussion of it took place instead on the Timely/Atlas Internet list. Still, Richard Kolkman wrote that he greatly enjoyed the articles, adding: “I think I’ve discovered an overlooked cross-company ‘prototype’ inspiration for Wolverine (right down to the SNIKT sound effect). Do you agree? It’s from Jack Kirby’s Forever People #5 (Nov. 1971).” No comment, Richard—but thanks for sending it! [©2004 DC Comics.]

Alas, Tom and Tom, one or both of you sent a copy of that image from The Naked City, but Ye Ed couldn’t locate it in time to run it in this issue—and we’re not sure the comics on the newsstand in the background would’ve shown up clearly anyway, though they’re certainly visible in the still. Of course, that location shot doesn’t prove AF #15 and JiM #83 came out at the same time even in whatever city the show was filmed in—since one comic could’ve come out a week earlier and simply still be on sale…but it’s still a fascinating time capsule of comics history: a significant moment in the resurgence of Marvel Comics, inadvertently recorded in a TV drama!

re: ROUND UP THE USUAL CORRECTIONS: Both Keith Hammond and Joe Frank found the Dick Ayers-drawn 1960s “Sub-Mariner” story in which Namor briefly had fishlike powers, including the ability to inflate his body like a puffer fish: Strange Tales #107. Thanks, guys—though, truth to tell, by then we’d actually got up off our tail and looked it up for ourselves!

SHADOWMEN 2 Heroes and Villains of French Comics Written by Jean-Marc & Randy Lofficier Cover by Andrew Pacquette

Our own FCA editor P.C. Hamerlinck supplied the info, re A/E #30’s article on Bill Schelly’s then-forthcoming book on Otto Binder, that Whiz Comics #155’s cover was drawn by Kurt Schaffenberger, not C.C. Beck. Roy’s goof, not Bill’s.

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Collector Ray A. Cuthbert believes the cover for the Binderauthored late-1960s paperback novel The Avengers Battle the EarthWrecker was painted by the well-known paperback cover artist Robert McGinnis. Ray also tells us that the Wally Wood illustration Michael T. Gilbert used on p. 32 of his Nickel Library piece was originally printed in Planet Stories pulp magazine for September 1953. And Dr. Michael J. Vassallo adds that, in his letter about comics writer Ed Jurist and his daughter Libby that was printed in A/E #31, the reader is told to “flash forward to the 1993 Grammy Awards.” That, he says, should have been the 2001 Grammies, as mentioned correctly in the very next sentence. Maybe it was our typo, Doc—sorry. That’s it for this time! Send any relevant cards, letters, or e-mails to: Roy Thomas/Alter Ego 32 Bluebird Trail St. Matthews, SC 29135

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

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No. 96 June 2004

SWAN • SWAYZE RABOY • NEWTON PIERCE • WEISS BUCKLER • KANE ORDWAY CUTLER VOSBURG • BECK FAWCETT AFICIONADOS ALL!

Sketch by Curt Swan; courtesy of Walt Grogan

Marc Swayze obscurity, and his original goals as a cartoonist. This month, Marc reflects upon the talent– with names like Keaton, Raboy, and Beck—that surrounded him during the Golden Age of Comics. —P.C. Hamerlinck.]

[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 exploits, including the classic origin story, “Captain Marvel Introduces Mary Marvel (Captain Marvel Adventures #18, Dec. ’42); but he was primarily hired by Fawcett Publications to illustrate Captain Marvel stories and covers for Whiz Comics and CMA. He also wrote many Captain Marvel scripts, and continued to do so while in the military. After 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 layouts, his years in

It is probably heard of most often in the artistic creative fields... and generally accepted as a natural endowment... a gift from above. Occasionally, it has been given special names... like in music, an “ear”... in sports, an “arm” or a “leg.” We’re talking about “talent.” In many cases, perhaps too many, it has been mistakenly identified. Take when a kid, for example, can draw a pumpkin that, according to Mom, looks exactly like Peanuts. Even Prince Valiant, to some Moms! That kid has ample talent to go straight up the ladder to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and improve on the work of Michelangelo. “My baby is so talented!” Ever hear it? It’s found everywhere, and is not confined to the arts. My brother got a kick out of solving difficult mathematical problems that I wouldn’t go near. A grocery clerk in our town amused customers with immediate oral answers to baffling columns of digits. The college president, impressed with the performance, offered to collaborate with him on a book if he could explain how it was accomplished. He couldn’t. “I guess it’s just a gift, doctor” was the shy reply. Mystic gift? Talent? Regardless of what might have been said or written to the contrary, talent existed among the artists and writers of the Golden Age of Comics. So we claimed. I once heard an art instructor say that there was no such thing as natural talent. Had she sat in my chair in 1941 and looked to right and left, over the Fawcett art department, she would have seen living

We Didn’t Know...

evident in other areas: the timing of the action, composition, the clarity of the picture-story. It was the work of C.C. Beck, rendered during that very short span in his comic book career when he was unhurried... unassisted. I’ve called it “pure Beck.” Great art, great talent. Another story in that book was Dr. Voodoo, drawn by Mac Raboy. I don’t recall ever having discussed that period with Mac, but the work was definitely solo, and unhurried, and must have taken place when he first came to work for the people who not only understood the quality of art of which Mac was capable, but the time necessary to accomplish it... Eddie Herron and Al Allard. In my consideration, it represented comic book art at its finest, Mac Raboy at his best. A third super-talent that comes to mind never drew a line for comic books, although his work appeared in them as reprints of his strip that appeared in newspapers across the land during the Golden Age of Comics. The feature was Flyin’ Jenny, the artist, Russell Keaton. When Keaton left his classroom at the Chicago Academy to become assistant to the creator of Buck Rogers, his superior ability was immedi-

Here’s a pair of real rarities! [Above:] A portrait of early-1940s Dr. Voodoo (later Captain Marvel Jr. and Flash Gordon) artist Mac Raboy, as remembered by his fellow Fawcett artist and colleague, Marc Swayze. Painted in 1996, it’s repro’d thanks to Keif Fromm and P.C. Hamerlinck. [©2004 Marc Swayze.] [Right:] An early Dr. Voodoo page drawn by Raboy. Thanks to John Doliber. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

examples of how wrong her statement was. Come to think of it, from that position I discovered a few flaws in my own opinions... mainly a preconceived notion about comic books. I must confess to having had moments of doubt. My apprenticeship had been spent in the field of the greats: syndicated newspaper comics. The move from that to this new game... comic books... had I taken a wrong turn... a step backward? When I went to the company library, the question was still on my mind, but the real purpose was to study the characters, good and bad, that surrounded Captain Marvel. After all, it had been a bold vow I made to my employers... to maintain the preferred image and art style of the Captain Marvel feature. I came away with an issue of Whiz Comics. When I returned it less than an hour later, my opinion of comic books had changed completely... and forever. I was in fast company! The book was Whiz Comics #22 (Oct. 1941), and the characters with Captain Marvel in the lead story were not just well-drawn, they revealed a sincere artist interest that made them real... with feelings, emotions. That same interest, that occurs beyond the directions from the typewriter, was

Marc Swayze.

ately acclaimed. When I met him in 1939, a decade of professional experience had been added to the original talent and training. I was impressed... not only by his proficiency with pen, brush, and pencil, and his knowledge of the work... but the ease and pleasure with which he performed it. In 1945, when it became necessary that he go for further hospital tests, the work left on his drawing board bore no signs that it had been accomplished when he was enduring constant pain. Instead, it was characterized by all of the qualities that had so impressed me when we first met ... the life in his characters, the spontaneity in his drawing ... his talent. Keaton... Raboy... Beck... and there were others. The three were regaled at the mention of “talent.” There was another trait they held in common that is difficult to identify... like a refusal to back away from a challenge. I’ve never heard it expressed in words, but in drawing board language it might sound like: “Bring it on ... I can do it! May take a little more time... a little more research... but let’s have it! I can do it!”

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

COMICS’ GOLDEN AGE LIVES AGAIN!

COMMANDO YANK BLACK TERROR AVENGER PHANTOM LADY CAT-MAN DAREDEVIL CRIMEBUSTER CAPTAIN FLASH MR. SCARLET SPY SMASHER SKYMAN STUNTMAN THE OWL BULLETMAN FIGHTING YANK PYROMAN GREEN LAMA THE EAGLE IBIS The Original GHOST RIDER The above is just a partial list of characters that have appeared in AC Comics’ reprint titles such as MEN OF MYSTERY, GOLDEN AGE GREATS, and AMERICA’S GREATEST COMICS. Virtually all issues published to date are available at $6.95 each. To find over 100 quality Golden Age reprints, go to the AC Comics website at <accomics.com>. AC COMICS Box 521216 Longwood FL 32752 Please add $1.50 postage & handling per order.

The World’s Finest Big Red Cheese Captain Marvel’s “New Look” by John G. Pierce Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck New Looks for Old The mid-1980s saw unprecedented changes in longstanding comics characters, as the old gave way to the new. This was particularly true at DC, where new versions of Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, and others were brought in to replace the previous ones. The idea of injecting a fresh spark of life into old characters by revamping them is nothing particularly “new.” However, what was different was the method DC chose to accomplish the task: either killing off a character, or completely ignoring his/her previous existence, in order to introduce the new version. It was sometimes specifically stated that “the previous stories never happened,” or “haven’t happened yet.” Basically, stories previously done were mainly just ignored. This wasn’t always the case. Beginning with Batman in 1964, a “New Look” philosophy implemented by the company took existing features and revised them by introducing a new artistic style, usually in concert with a different

[Left:] Don Newton, drawn by C.C. Beck, 1980. [Above:] Newton artwork from the 1970 Rocket’s Blast-Comicollector “Captain Marvel Special,” combining realistic and traditional styles in drawing the World’s Mightiest Mortal. [Art ©2004 Estate of Don Newton; Captain Marvel TM & ©2004 DC Comics.]

writer (and often editor), and perhaps some costume changes, in an attempt to boost sales. With Batman, this surely succeeded, and for a number of years the sleeker Infantino-illustrated figure became the standard. With the Blackhawks, a few years later, an attempt to transform this long-standing para-military team into costumed heroes can only be deemed ill-advised, and doomed—deservedly so, many would say—to an early death. But with the original Captain Marvel (the term “original” might have been called into question by DC at the time), his saga is well-known: one of the most popular comic book characters of the 1940s, as published by Fawcett Publications, he eventually fell prey to the public’s changing

[Left:] In 1972 editor Julius Schwartz hired original “Captain Marvel” artist/cocreator C.C. Beck to draw Shazam!—but it wasn’t Beck’s best work any more than it was Julie’s or writer Denny O’Neil’s. Sometimes, even with an assemblage of such talent, things just don’t work out. We’ll have more to say about the DC Shazam! series next issue. This is the final newly-produced page for issue #1 (Feb. 1973). [Above:] Golden Age aficionados generally concur that the stories written by E. Nelson Bridwell under editor Joe Orlando came closest to catching the spirit of the 1940s/early ’50s “Captain Marvel” stories, as in Shazam! #28 (March-April 1977). Art by Kurt Schaffenberger. [©2004 DC Comics.]

John G. Pierce

[Left:] This splash page by Alan Weiss and Joe Rubinstein from Shazam! #34 (MarchApril 1978) heralded what John G. Pierce retroactively calls the “new look” for the former Fawcett heroes. Script by E. Nelson Bridwell. [Right:] This Weiss-penciledand-inked cover for issue #16 (April ’78) of the DC “house fanzine” Amazing World of DC Comics caught the spirit of what DC and editor Jack C. Harris were now looking for. [©2004 DC Comics.]

tastes and frivolous lawsuits brought on by DC. By January 1954, Cap and his family had flown away, until their erstwhile persecutors leased the rights to him and his junior counterparts, and resurrected them in Shazam! #1, 1973.

However, change was in the wind, as Jack Harris became editor of the book. Harris decided to eliminate the light-hearted treatment which had traditionally been associated with the feature, and go instead for serious, straight stories.

It is to DC’s credit that they made an effort—misguided though it may have been—to keep something of Cap’s original story style intact in Shazam! (not to mention wisely choosing to include Golden Age reprints in the back of the book). Unfortunately, the DC writers limited themselves in the storytelling aspect, choosing to play Cap strictly for laughs. “Captain Marvel” stories from the Golden Age contained varied styles, written with consistent high quality, and seasoned with just the right amount of a special brand of whimsy. As for the artistic side, DC logically hired Cap’s co-creator, C.C. Beck (of course making sure Cap’s artistic originator submitted art samples first!). Beck left the book after ten issues due to philosophical differences (a fancy way of saying Beck thought the writers’ stories were generally stupid and childish) and because of the unrelenting tug-of-war he had with editor Julie Schwartz over control and handling of the book (see “Can Lightning Strike Twice?” in Comic Book Artist Collection, Vol. 1—still available from TwoMorrows).

“I’d like to get some dramatic impact into the next story!” Harris reportedly told Bridwell.

But “Captain Marvel” would continue in Shazam! with other artists (Bob Oksner and Kurt Schaffenberger, the latter having previously drawn “The Marvel Family” back in the ’40s and ’50s for Fawcett), though for a while the book’s frequency went quarterly and reprints replaced new stories. Finally, under the editorship of Joe Orlando, Shazam! at last seemed to settle into a pattern. Having previously been written mainly by Denny O’Neil and Elliott Maggin, the stories became the exclusive province of E. Nelson Bridwell, a DC staffer and associate editor to Julie Schwartz, who had been a fan of the Fawcett stories in his youth. Bridwell fought hard to keep DC from trying to modernize Shazam! Teamed with artist Kurt Schaffenberger, he produced a series of stories loosely based on the then-current Saturday morning Shazam! live-action TV version, as well as on certain Golden Age stories wherein Cap traveled to a different city in each tale. It was an inspired pairing, and it seemed to work.

“Did you read the script I just turned in for #34?” Bridwell responded. “That has it!” So Harris read the script... a tale of Captain Marvel and more specifically of Captain Marvel Jr., as the latter came to grips with his ancient foe Captain Nazi, and with his own latent hostility for Nazi’s having killed his grandfather back in 1941 (in Junior’s origin story). It was a decidedly serious story, grimmer in tone than the tales which had preceded it, and seemed to demand a heavier style of art than that of regular artist Kurt Schaffenberger or fill-in artist Tenny Henson. So Harris turned to Alan Weiss and Joe Rubinstein, and thus was born the Big Red Cheese’s “new look” in Shazam! #34 (April 1978). R.C. Harvey, writing in Rocket’s Blast-Comicollector #141 (Feb. 1978), probably spoke for many when he penned the following requiem: “We regret to announce the death of one of the Golden Age’s greatest comic book heroes. Death was not instantaneous: he lingered for almost five years before finally succumbing. During that entire period, those who ministered to him demonstrated repeatedly that, despite their affection for him, they never understood him. The coup de grace was administered by Alan Weiss and Joe Rubinstein, who made the disastrous mistake of trying to render the Red Cheese realistically. While many fan artists had done the same over the years, no pro had—until Shazam! #34. It was too much for Cap; it did him in. He died, sorry to say, not with a bang, not even a whimper—but with grotesquely bulging muscles, misshapen body, and a hideous, toothy grimace. RIP” Not everyone, not even among long-time Captain Marvel fans, were so negative. Some would even commend Weiss for at least attempting to

The World’s Finest Big Red Cheese

hew to Captain Marvel’s and Billy Batson’s traditional facial features— although, combined with the heavy, exaggerated musculature and so forth, the results appeared more like satirical caricatures of the original characters. The late Rich Morrissey commented that the pseudo-realistic approach combined with Cap’s traditional slit eyes made him look as if he were staring into the sun. But this was to be the only work on the character done by Weiss, apart from his cover for the “Shazam!” spotlight issue of Amazing World of DC Comics, that company’s house-produced quasi-fanzine of the 1970s. The penciling on Shazam! was put into the hands of Don Newton, an intriguing choice.

Newton Looks for Old Don had been a Captain Marvel fan in his youth in the ’40s, and had retained his great love for the character over the years. He had done several illustrations of the Captain for various fanzines, including the 1970 RBCC “Captain Marvel Special” and Martin Greim’s Comic Crusader #15, 1973. His illustrations were done both in a realistic as well as the traditional vein—sometimes a combination of both styles— displaying his versatility. C.C. Beck, when working for DC on early issues of Shazam! and after experiencing displeasure with DC’s handling of the book, suggested hiring Newton as an artistic collaborator (and bringing on some of the old Fawcett writers such as Rod Reed and William Woolfolk). But the only time Beck and Newton would actually collaborate would be on an unpublished strip for The National Splash art from the first “Shazam!” tale in the giant-size World’s Finest Comics (#253, Nov. 1978). While seemingly ill-matched, the art team of Don Newton and Fawcett Marvel Family veteran Kurt Schaffenberger proved to be a pleasant surprise, with Kurt’s inks tending to “pull [the art] back closer to what it had been.” [©2004 DC Comics.]

Lampoon, written by Denny O’Neil and entitled “The Silencing of the Shazam-Sayer” (finally published in Alter Ego V3#11/FCA #70). Beck once commented to P.C. Hamerlinck that he was not proud of the 2page strip. It is interesting to speculate on what might have developed had DC allowed Beck the privilege of hiring Newton, both in terms of Newton’s later development as an artist, and with regard to the acceptance the artwork might have received, as contrasted to Beck’s solo work. Certainly it would have meant an easier and quicker entry for Newton into professional comics work. As it turned out, he began at Charlton, doing ghost stories and subsequently The Phantom, before being brought over to DC by Neal Adams to draw Aquaman. In hindsight, however, a Beck-Newton collaboration, with the deterioration of Beck’s relationship with DC after 1973, might have meant that Newton would have been denied the opportunity to work on “Shazam!” stories thereafter.

In this partial-page scene from Don Newton’s artistic debut in, ironically, the final issue of Shazam! (#35, May-June 1978), The Marvel Family goes to hell—something that diehard fans of the classic Beck/Binder Captain Marvel were doubtless already saying. But Don and DC had their own ideas about the direction the series should take in the modern era. [©2004 DC Comics.]

Newton was possibly an illogical choice for the World’s Mightiest Mortal—depending on how one wants to approach the whole matter— due to certain beliefs he expressed, specifically in FCA (then FCA/SOB, edited by Beck), reprinted in AE V3#11/FCA 70. Newton felt the traditional version of the character had not evolved, looked silly with his “plastered-down hair,” and acted dated, and that any character that had survived for several decades had to evolve (he cited Mickey Mouse as an example). Newton’s more realistic style gave Cap’s hair “the dry look” and extensive muscular detail, as if his costume had been “painted on him.” When Newton spoke of his art as “realistic,” he was doing so with a bit more justification than many other artists. As revealed in the Dec. 1979 issue of Muscular Development magazine, Newton had been a

John G. Pierce facial features would never quite be the same again. Cap displayed a Superman-like face, a new hairstyle, and bulging muscles never seen before. Comparing this “new look” for Shazam! to his work on other features, one could see little difference. Subtract the costumes and Cap could have been interchanged with Bruce Wayne, Aquaman, or even one of The New Gods—all being done by Newton during or around the same time period. By contrast, Schaffenberger’s Captain Marvel could never have been confused with his Superman or indeed any other character... except, of course, when Kurt was made to redraw Cap’s head for the World’s Finest letter-column heading, in which case Cap did indeed become a Superman clone. Because “Shazam!” had become a back-up feature in World’s Finest, and thus had to share the letter-column with at least four other features, it is difficult to determine the reactions of readers to Cap’s “new look.” Most of the letters which did appear were favorable, but it is unlikely that they represented folks who had been following The Marvel Family throughout their history at Fawcett, or even those who began following their exploits in DC’s Shazam! comic book. It might be predicted that older fans, remembering Captain Marvel from his Fawcett days, would be aghast at the changes. John Wright, former publisher of an early South African 1960s fanzine called The Komix, in correspondence with me, stated simply that “These are imposters!” But FCA’s founding publisher and editor Bernie McCarty, long-time fan of Captain Marvel and C.C. Beck, felt that “since no one can recapture the basic Beck style, maybe it’s time to try something completely different... I’m convinced this is the way The Marvel Family has to go in order to survive.”

skinny kid who eventually discovered his own magic word for turning into a strongman: barbells. It was with barbells that Newton built himself up, to the point that he sometimes used himself as models for his drawings. Thus, as a person who had loved the original Captain Marvel but didn’t want to draw him in the original style (in spite of having demonstrated an ability to do so), Newton began the official delineating of the adventures of his childhood hero, ironically enough, in the final issue of Shazam! (#35). The series would soon transfer to the back pages of World’s Finest Comics. In that initial outing, and in the stories which followed, Newton showed just how different his concept of how to handle Captain Marvel was. Even though his first “Shazam!” stories were inked by veteran Marvel Family artist Kurt Schaffenberger, it still must have been a shock to those who had been with Cap for a number of years, for it was so different from the economy-of-line approach pioneered by C.C. Beck back in the early ’40s, and largely continued, with varying degrees, by all the other artists who had drawn the character—until Alan Weiss. The greatest change, aside from Newton’s panel overlapping and depth of detail (always eschewed by Beck), was the appearance of Captain Marvel himself, and his alter ego Billy Batson. Formerly, they had always been instantly recognizable, with highly distinctive, simple facial features. There was never any mistaking of Cap or Billy for anyone else. When a story might call for them to wear a disguise, they were still instantly recognizable, to the readers, anyway. Under Newton’s hand, this simply wasn’t the case, as Cap and Billy’s

Kurt Schaffenberger, formerly the penciler of the Shazam! book, had now become the feature’s inker. Kurt stated to me in an interview years later that they called him in to ink some of Newton’s stuff, “to try to pull it back closer to what it had been. But that was totally impossible! It was such a totally different style.” Schaffenberger also said that he felt that it was not Jack Harris—generally given credit, or blame, for Captain Marvel’s “new look”—but more likely either Joe Orlando, Jenette Kahn, or Sol Harrison who was responsible for the idea. (Sol Harrison had previously commented to C.C. Beck at a mid-’70s convention that the Golden Age couldn’t be brought back: “We proved that, didn’t we, C.C.?”) Kurt Schaffenberger’s remarks suggesting a compromise style between the old and the new is an intriguing one. It was to some extent what Alan Weiss had attempted. Perhaps Newton could have drawn in such a style. Some of his fanzine work suggests that such an approach would have been feasible. But that was not what resulted, and Newton’s later comments in FCA/SOB reveal that he would not have favored such a style. So no compromise was seriously attempted, and while Schaffenberger’s ink work perhaps made the finished art cleaner than what it was to be under some other, later inkers, there is only the slightest trace of his style or indeed anything approaching the traditional Captain Marvel. Another individual who was disappointed with Newton’s handling of the feature was fan artist A.J. Hanley, who for years had been writing and drawing adventures of Goodguy (alternately: Major Marvel), his Captain Marvel-like creation that appeared in various fanzines, including The Comics Buyer’s Guide and Hanley’s own Comic Book. Though he was perhaps a bit too much of a gentleman to express it forthrightly, doubtless Hanley felt that he himself could have done a better job. Even C.C. Beck had once told Hanley that he would be a good choice to draw new stories of the World’s Mightiest Mortal. Hanley’s greatest lament about Newton’s Cap was that the character’s once-distinctive face had been changed. As a compromise, Hanley had suggested that DC look for an artist—such as Alex Toth—with a strong illustrative feel who could at the same time keep Cap’s traditional features intact. (Toth did do a drawing of Captain Marvel in conjunction with two TV specials produced by Hanna-Barbera, both of which featured a live-action Captain Marvel.)

The World’s Finest Big Red Cheese Finally, perhaps, there were those who felt that DC’s best bet—since “seriousness” and “realism” were desired—would have been simply to discontinue or at least minimize the use of Captain Marvel, and turn instead to Captain Marvel Jr., whose stories, from his beginnings in 1941, had been illustrated in a more realistic realm by Mac Raboy. (More on Junior later.) While Captain Marvel’s new artistic side had been radically changed, what about the writing? Contrary to customary “new look” practice, the same writer—in this case, E. Nelson Bridwell—who had been handling the feature, was retained. The only immediately discernible differences were the absence of humor in the early stories, and the presence of greater story-to-story continuity. These two elements were not necessarily betrayals of Captain Marvel’s tradition. If anything, they might have harkened back to the Fawcett era more than some realized. Many of the Golden Age stories had been basically serious adventures, with only occasional touches of humor... sometimes none at all. And the idea of continuity was a very old tradition. Even the earliest stories in Whiz Comics, as written by Bill Parker, had contained continuity. It was only as the features—whether they be “Captain Marvel,” “Superman,” or “Batman”—became more popular, and the number of titles in which they appeared, as well as the number of writers handling the stories, multiplied, that continuity tended to fall by the wayside. Bridwell was aware, however, that he couldn’t be quite as freewheeling with the humorous and whimsical touches as he had been up to this point. At the outset of the “new look,” he wasn’t certain what

use, if any, could be made of such overtly comedic characters as Mr. Mind, the criminal worm, and Mr. Tawny, the talking tiger. “But to do Captain Marvel like Superman would be wrong,” Bridwell affirmed. “The Shazam mysticism must remain!”

The World’s Finest (as Well as Mightiest) Mortal And thus, under his limited control, it did. The “Shazam!” feature began its World’s Finest run in #253 (Nov. 1978) with a 17-page tale which the Marvel Family confronted three villains: Dr. Sivana, King Kull, and Captain Nazi. Captain Marvel, solo, battled Satan in the next story, while tying up a subplot which had been developing since Shazam! #34. Bulletman and Bulletgirl, two other Fawcett characters from the ’40s, guest-starred in #255’s story, with Mary Marvel and Bulletgirl getting the bulk of the action. Mary appeared again in #256, as she and her brother teamed up to fight a villain who pretended to be responsible for the deaths of their parents, while the two Marvels also performed some tall feats, such as snatching a Brachiosaurus from the past, as well as turning the Earth around so that the sun would rise in the West. The story in WF #257 showed that there evidently was no restriction on the use of cartoon-like characters, as Mr. Mind appeared to vex Cap momentarily. Newton, in the aforementioned article in FCA/SOB, stated, “since many of the back-up characters in the stories have a humorous side, I use a more liberal, cartoony style when drawing the likes of Mr. Tawny, Sivana, and Mr. Mind.” Even C.C. Beck would later agree that Newton did the best version of Mr. Mind other than his own. Even more comedically inclined artists such as Schaffenberger and

In the 1970s, the late fan-artist A.J. Hanley caught much of the lighthearted Golden Age spirit. [Left:] The cover of Hanley’s Comic Book #6 (1974) showed Goodguy, a.k.a. Major Marvel, saluting some of the great talents still stalking the comics scene at that time. [Right:] C.C. Beck felt Hanley would’ve been a good choice to draw new “Captain Marvel” stories, and these Comic Book pages show why, as Goodguy conjures up a bunch of 1940s heroes—including a rechristened Captain Marvel dopplegänger whose magic word was “Shamsam!”—and a new hero, Marvelmouse, AJH’s answer to Hoppy the Marvel Bunny. Even today, his stories are a delight, and it’s to be hoped that, one of these fine days, someone will collect The Best of A.J. Hanley. [Art & story ©2004 Estate of A.J. Hanley; Captain Marvel TM & ©2004 DC Comics; other characters TM & ©the respective trademark and copyright holders.]

John G. Pierce Oksner never seemed to draw the little worm just right. Newton’s version replaced Mind’s eyeglasses with a pair of goggles (not an illogical change), but was otherwise quite faithful.

Captain Marvel Jr., apart from a few panels featuring his senior counterpart, had the next story to himself. From a standpoint of history and tradition, Newton’s art on the “Little Blue Cheese” was not a departure, but rather a return to something more like Mac Raboy’s original early-’40s style. While some later Fawcett artists of the ’40s, such as Bud Thompson, Kurt Schaffenberger, Bill Ward, and Joe Certa, would use a lighter style on the character, it was Raboy’s moodier, more realistic style which stands out in the minds “Even C.C. Beck would later agree that of most Fawcett Newton did the best version of Mr. Mind, collectors and Golden other than his own,” in the Beck-edited Age fans. So Newton’s FCA/SOB. [©2004 DC Comics.] realistic art style was not new to Junior. Ironically enough, however, the story itself—in which Captain Nazi attempted to marry Beautia Sivana (oldest daughter of the World’s Wickedest Scientist)—was basically comedic in tone. The “Shazam!” feature, which had dropped from 17 pages to 15, now took another dive down to only ten pages. WF #259’s story featured the first appearance of Mr. Tawny under the “new look.” Unfortunately, Tawny didn’t fare nearly as well as Mr. Mind had. He looked far too much like a real tiger. The charm simply wasn’t present. Try to imagine Snoopy being drawn like a real dog, yet still trying to act as he always does. It wouldn’t work, and it didn’t work with Mr. Tawny. With WF #260, Dave Hunt, who by then was also inking Kurt Schaffenberger’s pencils on The New Adventures of Superboy, would take over as inker for a period, producing the best job over Newton’s pencils aside from Schaffenberger’s. (Later, Hunt would draw a cover for The Comic Reader with Mary, Sivana, and Mr. Mind, displaying a fine traditional style which demonstrated, perhaps, that he ought to have been assigned to pencil rather than ink the “Shazam!” strip.) Mary Marvel’s first Newton-drawn solo outing appeared in World’s Finest #261. Her appearance gives a good opportunity to reflect on the artistic handling of The Marvel Family during Newton’s tenure as contrasted to both the earlier DC treatments and the Fawcett years. It is important to remember that, except when they were joined together in the Marvel Family comic, stories starring Cap, Mary, and Junior each generally had their own specific artists, thus guaranteeing distinctive flavors. “Junior” was the most inconsistently drawn, varying from the realism of Raboy’s version to the looser styles of Thompson and others later. Then, too, both “Junior” and “Cap” shared at least one regular artist, Kurt Schaffenberger, who also drew all three Marvels in the Marvel Family title. DC also varied styles of the characters when they were revived in the early 1970s, by assigning different artists to the three: Beck on “Cap,” Dave Cockrum on

“Junior,” and Bob Oksner on “Mary,” with Schaffenberger on the “Family” tales. After Beck departed, Oksner and Schaffenberger alternated on “Cap,” as Oksner continued handling “Mary.” A subsequent “Junior” tale was drawn by Dick Giordano, until finally Schaffenberger took over “Junior” once more. But with the advent of The Marvel Family’s “new look,” any attempts at plurality of style were forgotten, with Newton handling all the penciling. Then, too, the stories were a bit more fluid. The strip was simply called “Shazam!,” and any one, two, or three of the Marvels might turn up in any given story, though it is interesting to note that Junior and Mary would never team up by themselves. It should also be noted that Mary had not enjoyed the artistic consistency of her fellow Marvels. She’d had a wide variety of facial features, from Marc Swayze’s original little-girl look, to the standard Jack Binder approach, to the more mature Mary, or Schaffenberger’s found in the “Marvel Family” stories. And Bob Oksner’s style in the ’70s had been different still, giving a different yet effective “Nancy Drew” feel to Mary’s solo tales (although his Mary looked not unlike his earlier version of Supergirl). So, in spite of having been drawn by fewer artists, Mary had been treated more cavalierly. Newton’s version was just one more. Story-wise, Bridwell broke new ground in WF #262 by revealing that the wizard Shazam had, in his earlier days, been a costumed-hero himself, named The Champion. With his usual attention to detail and his love of mythology, Bridwell conveniently provided a whole new group of deities to provide the powers for the debuting hero—Solomon, Hercules, and the rest not having been born yet at the time of The Champion, circa 7000 B.C. Junior had another solo outing in WF #263, and a new “Monster Society” serial beginning in #264 (see A/E #28 for Walt Grogan’s indepth look at the Newton/Bridwell version of the Monster Society). The new “Monster Society” storyline only had four chapters, unlike the 25 memorable chapters the ’40s version had contained. There was a different inker for each chapter of the new one: Dave Hunt, Frank Chiaramonte, Joe Giella, and Bob Smith. (Some panels inked by Smith even seemed to be drifting toward at least an approximation of Cap’s more traditional appearance.) The story in WF #268 was shorter than usual—only six pages—but Bridwell used those pages as a set-up for ensuing tales, by retelling the origin of Captain Marvel Jr. This began the greatest period of story-tostory continuity (an element that had fallen by the wayside, for the most part) of the “new look” era, as Bridwell led up to surprising revelations later on. The revolving door of inkers continued in the series, as Steve Mitchell and Dan Adkins were involved during this period.

There was clearly more to come in the story of Junior’s background, but Bridwell interrupted it for a while to dwell on other matters. Captain Marvel soloed, and Larry Mahlstedt joined as inker, in WF #270, for “Our Son, the Monster,” about the longlost son of Billy’s landlords, the Potters. Another “Mary Marvel” solo tale in WF #272 introduced a new villainess named Chain Lightning.

The World’s Finest Big Red Cheese Bridwell had no shortage of foes for The Marvel Family to tackle. Not relying exclusively on old-timers such as Sivana, Mr. Mind, Captain Nazi, Sabbac, et al., Bridwell also created Dreamdancer (WF #255), Gamester (WF #256), The Superior (WF #259), and Darkling (WF #282)—not to mention utilizing to good effect various gangsters, mercenaries, and others, as well as penning some stories which did not depend on villains at all—a rarity, even back then. One such story appeared in WF #260, in which mythological creatures moved into a neighborhood and were met with prejudice and suspicion. The story was vaguely reminiscent of a classic 1940s Otto Binder tale, from Captain Marvel Adventures #90, entitled “Mr. Tawny’s New Home.” In that particular story, Mr. Tawny’s presence had also proved upsetting to the folks who’d evidently had never had a tiger as a neighbor before. In both stories, the persecuted individuals proved themselves worthy of citizenship.

From Here to Kid Eternity

It was perhaps not a great surprise to some to learn that this source was the 1940s Quality Comics hero Kid Eternity (whom Bridwell had already brought into the Shazam universe in Shazam! #27), a lad who had died before his time in Hit Comics and had been given the ability to summon figures from literature, history, and mythology by saying the word “Eternity.” (Originally, Kid Eternity had possessed the ability to take on the attributes of these figures, but this was soon changed to the more visually appealing concept of summoning the figures themselves.) We also learned, in the final panel, that Kid Eternity had been, in reality, Freddy Freeman’s twin brother, Kit Freeman.

[Above:] C.C. Beck and Otto Binder’s Mr. Tawny, from Captain Marvel Adventures #90 (Nov. 1948), in which the talking tiger confronts prejudice in his new neighborhood. [Right:] Don Newton’s rendition of Mr. Tawny. John G. Pierce feels “it didn’t work.” Art from World’s Finest #259. [©2004 DC Comics.]

In WF #273’s “Sivana’s Nobel,” an otherwise lighthearted story, Bridwell devoted five panels to the introduction of a subplot which involved Billy’s secretary, Joan Jameson, and an unseen figure. The same number of panels would be utilized in next issue’s story, which was otherwise a locked-room mystery. But it is not until WF #275 that we learn that the mysterious figure is Joan’s brother... the revelation of why she is ashamed of him will have to wait. Meanwhile, Junior disguises Magnificus Sivana (the good son of the evil scientist who goes all the way back to early issues of Whiz Comics) as Captain Marvel to help defeat a gang which has kidnapped Billy.

It is with WF #276’s “Magicians and Mercenaries” that Bridwell not only unveils the brother, but also reintroduces an earlier subplot, though at the time it appeared to be a new development. Figures mysteriously appear out of the past to help The Marvel Family defeat an attack from a magical dimension called Prenzor. Jerry Jameson, a mercenary, joins in the fight, as well, though he doesn’t immediately realize that some of his comrades who come to assist are folks who had been killed earlier (in Anzio, Inchon, and Vietnam). A Junior solo story is next, as Professor Edgewise, the absent-minded scientist/inventor from the 1940s, is reintroduced and respectfully handled by Newton and Chiaramonte. Along the way toward defeating this issue’s main menace—a plant which is designed to reach to the moon—“Junior” gets some surprise assistance from a boy named Jack, who chops the plant down. Satan is back to tangle, albeit indirectly, with the Marvels in WF #278, but again they seem to need some help from a character out of the past—in this case, Thjalfi, bondservant of the Norse god Thor. If alert readers—especially those with a penchant for Golden Age comic book study—haven’t figured it out yet, they soon will, for at the end of #279’s tale, we finally get to see the source of these strange figures who keep appearing.

One is tempted to say that either this was a stroke of genius on Bridwell’s part, or else the result of some logical thinking. Two boys who had lost grandfathers in their respective origins—two boys who used magic words—two boys who even looked a lot alike (“Cap Jr.” artist Mac Raboy had also drawn “Kid Eternity” for a while at Quality Comics). It seemed eminently logical to make them twins. (Oddly enough, no one ever commented on the fact that this meant that all three major members of The Marvel Family were twins. Billy and Mary Batson had been twin brother and sister since the Marc Swayze-drawn Mary Marvel origin in Captain Marvel Adventures #18 in 1942, and now it turned out that Freddy Freeman was also part of a matched set.)

WF #280 told the full story for the first time. The Freeman brothers, Frederick and Christopher (Kit), had been orphaned. To care for the boys, Grandfather Freeman had taken Freddy, while Grandfather Troop had taken Kit. But Grandpa Troop and Kit Freeman are killed, torpedoed at sea on Troop’s merchant ship. Meanwhile, elsewhere, Captain Marvel is battling Captain Nazi, whom he knocks into the sea. Nazi is rescued by Freddy and Granpa Freeman, who don’t realize who he is. He repays the kindness by killing Freddy’s grandfather, and crippling Freddy. Then, up in Eternity, the wizard Shazam (who is narrating this flashback) is helping out at the gates because of “so many deaths then, during World War II.” (I had always heard that there was a labor shortage during that war, but hadn’t realized that it extended so far!) He allows Daniel Troop to enter, but not Christopher, that name not being on his list. Mr. Keeper is summoned to account for his error: Frederick, not Christopher, was due in that day. To compensate for this, his first error in two million years of perfect service, Mr. Keeper is assigned to take Christopher, or Kit, back to his body, and give him the Eternity powers. Finally, Billy Batson brings crippled Freddy before Shazam, who allows Captain Marvel to pass along some of his powers to the dying boy. Thus is Freddy’s life spared, and another new hero created. “It may be,” Shazam concluded, “that a higher power decreed Mr. Keeper’s mistake—so the world would gain two new heroes.” Bridwell had masterfully interwoven two separate yet strikingly parallel origin stories of two different characters from what had been two different comic book companies in the 1940s (Fawcett and Quality). His interests in religion, mythology, history, continuity, and the Golden Age of Comics all coalesced in this action.

John G. Pierce

Possibly the whole matter ought to have stopped there. But it didn’t, as Kid Eternity and Mr. Keeper stayed around for the remainder of the Marvel Family’s run in World’s Finest. Issue #281 had all of them battling Mr. Mind, as drawn by Newton and yet another inker, John Calnan. It had begun to get a bit tiring to see the Marvels in constant need of help defeating foes and menaces they clearly could have dealt with on their own... and, in some instances, had already done so on other occasions.

for a brief time thereafter. As far as any further new stories of Captain Marvel, Roy Thomas guest-starred Cap with Superman in four DC Comics Presents outings, as well as in All-Star Squadron. [FCA EDITOR’S NOTE: Alter Ego’s editor will relate this era for FCA readers in a future issue.] Of course, Thomas’ 4-part Shazam! The New Beginning mini-series would follow a few years later. The Marvel Family also appeared in titles such as DC Challenge, Super Powers, the last story of the “old” Superman, and, like everyone else, in Crisis on Infinite Earths. This marked their last significant appearance, though it was unheralded as such. With the Legends mini-series, a “brand-new” Captain Marvel, set on the post-Crisis Earth, appeared.

But the end of World’s Finest’s days as a “Dollar Comic” anthology title was nearing. Only one issue remained—# 282—and it contained a 7-page story penciled and inked by the When Roy Thomas translegendary Gil Kane, whose ferred over to DC from artwork must have been a bit Marvel in 1980, his intentions surprising to readers who had were to create a new version of liked or had gotten used to Captain Marvel. He freely Newton’s work on “Shazam!” admitted that “Nelson after more than four years. Bridwell writes the best Otto Kane’s easily identifiable Binder-type stories since Otto drawing style is simultaneously Binder.” Love the old Fawcett modern and traditional, with hero though he did, Thomas Cap and Billy looking more like felt it was not commercially their old selves than they had viable to have him on a [Above:] Accompanied by his Keeper, Kid Eternity summons up Nostradamus in this under Newton. It’s interesting to separate world, continuing to Mac Raboy-drawn story from Kid Eternity #3 (Fall 1946). The story was reprinted in speculate what this story might try to exist in the old style of the out-of-print 1990 hardcover The Greatest Golden Age Stories Ever Told, but who have looked like if Kane and stories. While that didn’t come had the dumb idea to put the Kid in a grey sweater instead of the correct white? Schaffenberger had been the art about immediately, Roy made Some folks can’t resist tampering with perfection! [Below:] E. Nelson Bridwell, with team. But, undoubtedly, some, use of the “traditional” Big his affection for 1940s characters, brought Kid Eternity into the Shazam Universe… after viewing Kane’s job on The Red Cheese for the time being. even turning him into Freddy (Capt. Marvel Jr.) Freeman’s twin brother! At least his Marvel Family, must have been Alas, with each outing, sweater got left the correct white (by colorist Adrienne Roy) in this NewtonChiaramonte page from World’s Finest #279 (May 1982). [©2004 DC Comics.] saying to themselves, “This is a Captain Marvel maintained bit more like it!” less and less artistic consistency, with artists as diverse as Rich Incidentally, the only other tradiBuckler, Gil Kane, Arvell Jones, Tom tionally illustrated version of The Marvel Mandrake, and others handling Cap Family during this time was on Saturday with varying degrees of care. morning TV, with Filmation’s animated Perhaps, ironically enough, it Shazam! cartoon series. (The presence of remained for the ultra-realistic style The Marvel Family on television was not of George Pérez, in Crisis, to treat reflected in the comics. Paul Dini, one of Captain Marvel and the others with the authors on the cartoon series, would some artistic dignity; even his take on years later collaborate with artist Alex Mr. Tawny—though hardly Ross on Shazam! Power of Hope.) possessing the charm of the Beck version—didn’t look bad or even With the cessation of World’s Finest as incongruous in the strange setting. an anthology, the “Shazam!” strip

migrated to Adventure Comics, which had recently been revived as a digest comic. Newton and Calnan returned as artists, and Bridwell finished off the series with a 9-, and then a 10-page story, respectively, in issues #491 and 492. Satan returned to challenge The Marvel Family with his bag of tricks, but Kid Eternity and The Keeper were still around with their infinite number of rabbits ready to leap out of the hat. Readers had seen it all before, and it seemed an unsatisfying conclusion to the series.

Crisis of Infinite Marvels Fawcett Golden Age reprints—what comic-reading traditionalists had been waiting for all along, anyway—appeared

In March of 1984, Roy Thomas unveiled a new idea: a new version of Cap, to be called “Captain Thunder” (Captain Marvel’s original, unused name). It was to be drawn by Don Newton, who illustrated the AfricanAmerican hero in a costume similar to Captain Marvel’s earliest appearances. Here, at last, seemed to be the answer, to many readers’ way of thinking: don’t continue to corrupt the original, and don’t confuse matters with a new version. Simply create a new character based on the original. However, even Roy cannot recall whether this Captain Thunder was intended at first to dwell on Earth-1, Earth-2, or wherever, as a contrast to the original Captain

The World’s Finest Big Red Cheese Marvel, who then dwelt on the Bridwell-created Earth-S (for “EarthShazam”). See Alter Ego, Vol. 3, #9, for Newton’s Captain Thunder illo, although there Roy had momentarily forgotten that CT was ever intended to be an adult. Somewhere along the line, this Captain Thunder metamorphosed, at least in Roy’s mind, into a replacement not for the Big Red Cheese himself, but for Captain Marvel Jr., whose alter ego would have been a black teenager. But at that point the project stalled. Thomas eventually began to feel that DC, despite its initial encouragement given to his and Newton’s Captain Thunder(s), was reluctant to approach Fawcett with the idea of this new character. (Like, who would have owned him, in those days when DC was still basically licensing the Marvels from Fawcett, not long before they finally purchased them outright?) In addition, Don Newton’s untimely death in 1984 had left the concept without an artist in place, and DC never suggested a replacement.

A Shazamic triptych: [Clockwise:] (a) It took Captain Marvel a whole issue to regain his own body (which had been magically switched with Superman’s) in time for the splash of DC Comics Presents #34 (June 1981). This two-parter was Roy Thomas’ first real storyline for DC after departing Marvel. Art by Rich Buckler & Dick Giordano. (b) Gil Kane, in drawing this story plotted by Roy Thomas, chose to restore a bit of C.C. Beck’s look to Cap’s face, in this team-up with Superman for DC Comics Presents Annual #3 (1984). Joey Cavalieri stepped in to do the dialogue. (c) Merci beaucoup to Jerry Ordway for sending us this Nov. 2000 painting, which was used for a cover of the Comics Buyer’s Guide. [DC Comics Presents art ©2004 DC Comics; painted art ©2004 Jerry Ordway; Captain Marvel & Dr. Sivana TM & ©2004 DC Comics.]

In any event, this Captain Thunder concept never materialized past Newton’s single sample sketch, probably because the Crisis doomsday scenario, which by early 1985 was in the works from Marv Wolfman and George Pérez, soon reduced the DC Universe to a single Earth—on which the original Marvel Family now dwelt. Roy Thomas, for his part, would later conceive of a completely different Captain Thunder—with a son named Blue Bolt after still another Golden Age hero!—as a creatorowned project for Heroic Comics; new stories of that father-and-son team are planned for the near future. Roy also spent the late 1980s (again as related in detail in A/E V3#9) striving in vain to get a new Shazam! series off the ground, as a long-promised follow-up to his, wife Dann’s, and Tom Mandrake’s good-selling New Beginning. A few years after that, Jerry Ordway’s Power of Shazam! graphic novel (with yet a third origin for Captain Marvel) was followed by a monthly series that lasted nearly fifty issues.

Epitaph for a Hero But, for many readers, the Captain Marvel saga had ended a long time ago, either when Fawcett stopped publishing comics in 1953, or when Alan Weiss first put pencil to the feature in 1977. Still others, perhaps a bit more charitable, are willing to say that Captain Marvel was still alive for a while longer, through Adventure #492, at least. Cap, who had

John G. Pierce Many different writers and dozens of artists worked on the World’s Mightiest Family in the ’40, and yet integrity of art and storyline was maintained.

ended up a mere back-up feature, didn’t really look like himself, and we regretted that, however much we may have admired Newton’s art as art.

Don Newton’s Nonetheless, passing in 1984 had given the setting in ended all possibility which they of his further worked, and the involvement with various demands of the character and the time (whether cut short a too-brief explicitly stated or career in comic A montage of Newton’s “new look,” arranged by P.C. Hamerlinck: Cap & Billy, Cap Jr. & Freddy, and Mary & not), it might likely books. E. Nelson Mary, in panels from World’s Finest Comics. [©2004 DC Comics.] be concluded that Bridwell, who had Bridwell and done the most to Newton did a creditable job of keeping The Marvel Family going in an keep Captain Marvel alive and well, died in January of 1987, while the age which was not entirely hospitable to them. And if Captain Marvel company he had served faithfully for well over twenty years was in the and some of the other regulars did not look like their traditional selves, throes of great changes… changes that were making Bridwell’s type of at least they didn’t vary wildly from story to story. The stories were storytelling a no-longer-desired commodity. light and serious, traditional and modern, and generally fun to read. As The “new look” saga of Captain Marvel may not have been a great Rich Morrissey concluded in his article in Comics Feature #13-14, at one. By its very nature, perhaps it could not have been. In the 1940s, least Captain Marvel was in the hands of people—two people, anyway— Captain Marvel and family filled a few hundred pages of comics every who cared for him, and attempted to do well by him. month, as their adventures stretched across many different titles. It is perhaps fitting that, with both Newton and Bridwell Captain Marvel Adventures was even published bi-weekly for a time, gone, the last vestiges of the characters they shepherded are also and reportedly reached a peak circulation of 2,000,000. There can be no now vanished in the mist of time—and it seems unlikely that comparison between that and the situation of having all three Marvels even the magic word “Shazam! can ever truly bring them back. squeezed into fewer than 17 pages in the back on an anthology title.

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Life of Brian An Interview with ISIS Co-Star BRIAN CUTLER by Andy McKinney [Interview conducted August 2001, and edited by P.C. Hamerlinck.] ANDY MCKINNEY: When did you begin your career as an actor? BRIAN CUTLER: When I was five years old. I’ve been very fortunate and very blessed. I’ve never had to do anything else but act, sing, perform, direct, and coach actors. AM: How did getting the role of teacher ‘Rick Mason’ on Isis? CUTLER: I became involved with Isis via my agent Diane Davis of 20th Century Artists. They sent me for the audition. I went back probably three or four times before I was hired. Then they had me audition with probably 20 to 30 women until we found Joanna [Cameron] for the lead role, and then we cast the rest of the show and started working. AM: What was it like working for a small studio like Filmation? CUTLER: Filmation was an “interesting” experience for all of us… some good things, some bad things. Unfortunately, one of the problems working for a small company is that you don’t make the kind of money you do with a larger company. The crew that worked on all the shows

were wonderful, and the cast were all great. Lou Scheimer and Norm Prescott, the producers, sort-of kept to themselves. We put in long hours; we shot two complete episodes a week, which means we worked Monday to Saturday. When you’re doing a show that’s shot “on location,” they can work you Saturdays.

“Isis is something that will always be a part of my life.” Brian Cutler today—and with cast members from the Shazam! spinoff series in 1976. [Left to right below:] Brian Cutler (“Rick Mason”), Joanna Pang (“Cindy Lee”), and Joanna Cameron (Isis). [Isis TM & © 2004 Entertainment Rights.]

AM: Speaking of locations, where were the exteriors for the school filmed? CUTLER: I don’t remember the actual school, but it was in the Reseda area. AM: Russell Bates [writer of the first episode] has told me that the original concept of Isis was quite different than the school setting that ended up on the screen. Did your character have a detailed background, or was it pretty much left up to you? CUTLER: In the beginning, the show’s format was set up to be more of a “criminal investigation” thing. Some of the early scripts would indicate that. Perhaps the show would’ve had a little more appeal if they’d kept it in the mystery genre instead of the super-hero genre. However, the show was still successful, and people certainly loved it. There was nothing specific written for my character… just a general character breakdown, and then the rest was left to us. We just had to work as quickly as we could because, on a lower-budget project, you don’t have a lot of prep time. AM: How did you get along with your fellow cast members? CUTLER: Everyone got along extremely well. Joanna Pang (“Cindy Lee”) was a very close and dear friend. Joanna Cameron (“Andrea Thomas/Isis”) was a little more difficult to work with than everybody else in the cast; but all in all, everyone worked very well together. The production team was always able to meet with us and discuss things with us and, as I said earlier, the crew was a great bunch of guys and gals. We all spent a lot of time together, so the better you get along with everybody, the better it is for everybody. After shooting, most of us, sans Joanna Cameron, would usually go out to have a drink or go out to dinner or something before we all headed to our homes. AM: How did you feel about working on a children’s program? Do you feel it had an impact on children? CUTLER: Actually, the first eight or nine years I did theatre, the majority of the work I did was in children’s theatre, and I love

Brian Cutler

working with and for kids. I feel it is one of the best things you can do. I get dozens of e-mails a year from people all over the place, and I recently received one from a young man in New York. He wanted to tell me that his mother and father had been killed in a car accident when he was 9 or 10, and that if it hadn’t been for the moral issues and education that took place on Isis, he could have ended up being just a kid out on the streets and getting into a lot of trouble… but because of the message that was translated on the show, he said it kept him straight. He’s now a very successful businessman and he equates a lot of that to the show. Whenever you can do something that can have an impact like that, it’s got to be a good thing.

I don’t think that what happened to Jackson was fair. He was doing some stunts that he probably should not have been doing, and the reason we did [things like] that was because we were all eager, “hungry” actors who wanted to please and wanted to work, help and do a good job… and maybe in that mental state, you take some risks that, in retrospect, you normally wouldn’t. John Davey [Jackson’s replacement] was a wonderful guy, [but] I don’t think he had quite the same charisma Jackson did. Negativity is like a disease, and when Jackson was let go it affected everybody at the studio on all the shows. Since the talent would share the same three sound stages, we’d all get very, very close. We were all unhappy with what happened and missed Jackson.

AM: Do you believe the Shazam!/Isis shows could capture the attention of today’s children?

AM: Do you think your character of “Rick Mason” was used effectively?

CUTLER: Yes, I do believe the shows would hold up with today’s viewing audience. They’re fun, and the super-hero concept will never die. People always look for heroes… probably more so today than when we were actually doing Shazam! and Isis. I think the world is starved for heroes today.

CUTLER: You know, when you look back on character involvement, I’m sure had they kept the show [in its original detective/mystery format], that Rick would have had a lot more to do. He was sort of Lois Lane to Isis’ Superman persona. I always got a kick out of the fact that with her glasses I didn’t know who she was and without them I didn’t know who she was. [laughs] I think that my character could’ve been used a little more fully, but you just do the script. I’m sure there isn’t an actor in the world who didn’t feel that their character was quite good enough.

AM: Why were only 22 Isis episodes made? CUTLER: I don’t know why so few shows were made. We pumped them out as fast as we could. I think maybe Lou and Norm wanted to get back into the animation end of things again. Doing animation was cheaper than having live actors, which is why a lot of companies never go from animation to live action. It’s unfortunate. I wish we’d done a hundred episodes. But I’m sure it came down to a question of dollars and cents, for the studio to get more “bang for [their] buck” by doing animation than having to deal with actors. AM: Since Filmation was tight on budget, did you just wear your own wardrobe? CUTLER: Yes, we supplied all of our own clothes on the show, for better or worse. Having few variations in wardrobe, they could use stock footage and save money.

AM: Isis hasn’t been seen on American television since about 1980, but has been on the air as recently as 1999 [in the United Kingdom]. CUTLER: Isis has been shown in South America through 1982, and it was brought to my attention by a French cinematographer, teasing me about what great Portuguese I spoke [the show was dubbed]. He [jokingly] said I was a “beeg star” in South America! I didn’t realize that the show still had a following up until about three years ago, when people started e-mailing me that they loved the show, missed it, and wish their children could see it. We all loved making the show and knew it had a message and that there was something special going on. I’m very pleased that it has endured. It would be nice to have it come back on the air.

AM: There was one episode where you play the guitar. How did this get incorporated into the show?

AM: What have you been up to since Isis finished production? CUTLER: [laughs] That covers a lot of time! I went on in L.A. after Isis to do several feature films. I also gueststarred/co-starred on various TV shows, including Knight Rider, Fall Guy, Quincy, Mork and Mindy, Incredible Hulk, The Rockford Files, Charlie’s Angels, Fantasy Island, Bionic Woman, The Lucy Show, and many others. In ’84 I decided I needed a change of pace and moved to Kansas City. I went to work at the Missouri Repertory Theatre, where I worked two, three, four shows a year for the next 12 years and did A Christmas Carol there, which is a big tradition in Kansas City. I was doing everything: acting, radio voice-over work, and any kind of film work that I could do here in the area.

CUTLER: I just used to carry my guitar with me, and I’d sit and play in the park before [shooting], and they said “why don’t you do that” [on the show], and then they said “don’t play too well … make it look like you’re having trouble!” AM: Jackson Bostwick [who played Captain Marvel on Shazam!] related previously in FCA and in interviews elsewhere that, after a stunt mishap in which he sustained injuries, Filmation replaced him while he was recuperating. Did Jackson’s firing have any effect on the Filmation sets? Do you remember John Davey as Captain Marvel, who appeared with you in the Shazam! crossover episodes of Isis? CUTLER: Jackson is an old buddy of mine and I just bumped into him. He was hunting south of here [Kansas City]. His stunt accident was very unfortunate.

“We were all unhappy with what happened”: Cutler on Jackson Bostwick’s abrupt firing from Shazam!’s second season. Above: Jackson Bostwick as TV’s first Captain Marvel. [Captain Marvel © & TM 2004 DC Comics.]

In 1996 I got so busy with the Commercial Actors Studio [www.actorsstudio.com/ briancutler.htm] and so busy writing

Life of Brian

material and looking for scripts to do our own features that I just curtailed my other work. I teach acting for film, television, radio, voiceover work, and industrial training films, anything to do with audiotape, videotape, or film. About two years ago, one of my students was a corporate executive at Sprint and said he had an idea for a script, so I said “Well, let’s kick it around.” It’s called My One and Only, a coming-of-age comedy about a young man looking for love in all the wrong places. It’s a fun, sort-of quirky movie. For 50 years of my life I’ve been in front of the camera… for the next 50 I want to be behind the camera—producing, directing, writing—and then the next 50 after that, I’m not quite sure what I’ll do. AM: Do you remember seeing a Filmation “blooper” reel? CUTLER: Yeah, there was a gag/blooper reel, which was shown at some kind of wrap/end-of-the-shooting-season party. It was very, very funny. God only knows what happened to it. AM: In the unlikely event a revival of Isis ever gets off the ground, would you be interested in participating? CUTLER: I don’t know with my schedule if I would take an active role in doing that or not. Maybe I’d like to go in and direct; I think that would be fun. Isis is something that will always be a part of my life.

[NOTE: The original version of this interview appears in Andy McKinney’s Isis website: www.angelfire.com/tv2/isis/. See ad on p. 51.] Brian Cutler/Rick Mason’s comic book representation, as seen in Isis #7 (Oct.-Nov. 1977). Script by Jack C. Harris; art by Mike Vosburg & Frank Chiarmonte. [Isis TM & ©2004 Entertainment Rights; art ©2004 DC Comics.]

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Paul Bunyan and Other Great Blue Bores by C.C. Beck Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck [This article was written circa the mid-1980s by Captain Marvel’s original chief artist, and was first published in FCA #59, 1998.] “Tall Tales,” stories about fantastically exaggerated heroes like Paul Bunyan and John Henry, have always bored me. Even the stories in Greek mythology have always seemed pretty overdone to me and I’m glad that hardly anyone bothers with them anymore. When the comics came along, they took the place of all the old classic children’s tales, most of which were pretty silly if not downright stupid when you think about them. Tall tales are lies. Huge, utterly unbelievable lies. There are (or used

to be) societies whose members vied with each other in contests to determine who could tell the Bunyan by Beck, 1987. most completely unbelievable lie. [Art ©2004 Estate of C.C. Beck.] In telling a tall tale, the storyteller didn’t have to be interesting to tell his story well, nor even to be in the least entertaining. All he had to do was be completely unbelievable. For that he got a prize? Even more boring are the itty-bitty-cutesie-wootsie stories about adorable little talking animals and fairies and that sort of drivel. I have never had any objection to stories about talking animals and magic; I object only to those stories whose writers seem to be saying, “You feeble-minded little readers, I’m really poking fun at you and you’re too stupid to know it!” These writers are doing the same thing as the tellers of tall tales, that is, downgrading their audience. Personally, I don’t enjoy being downgraded, do you? The kind of story I liked as a boy, and still like today, is a story in which strange, wonderful, exciting things happen to the hero. Gulliver’s Travels, The Three Musketeers, the Tarzan and Mars books by Edgar Rice Burroughs, all kept me enthralled for years. I still have these stories, and I read them again from time to time. They’re still fine stories!

Notice that I said “a story in which strange, wonderful, exciting things happen to the hero.” I didn’t say “ a strange, wonderful, exciting hero.” The heroes of my favorite stories were Gulliver, D’Artagnan, Tarzan, and John Carter. All were ordinary men who found themselves in strange situations. Gulliver found himself among people only six inches high, among people seventy feet tall, among wizards and magicians, and among talking horses. D’Artagnan found himself in a world of nasty villains and wonderful heroes quite unlike his (and my) backwoods home. Tarzan found himself among apes and savages, among men the size of ants, among beastly villains and lovely heroines and godlike men in ancient civilizations. John Carter found himself on the

Paul Bunyan and Other Blue Bores

planet Mars among horrible beasts and villains and heroes of all sizes, shapes, and colors. What these heroes did in their strange situations was what made the heroes! And that made great stories! But the average comics publisher never seems to have grasped the simple truth that the readers want to find out what a hero pretty much like themselves will do when placed in a tight situation. He can have a knife, like Tarzan did, or a sword and a gun as Gulliver and D’Artagnan had, or all three, as John Carter had. He does not need to be able to fly, or to crash through steel walls and tear down mountains and all that silly Paul Bunyan stuff. On Mars, John Carter found that his earthly muscles enabled him to leap and run much better than his enemies could. This was because he was in a strange setting, not because he was strange himself. Gulliver was a huge giant in Lilliput, a tiny doll in the land of the giants. But he was always himself. Tarzan was a weakling as compared to the giant apes among whom he lived. D’Artagnan was a mere lad of eighteen when he went to Paris to face villains in their thirties and forties. Not one of these heroes had any special powers at all. They were often beaten up (D’Artagnan), sick to the stomach (Gulliver), horribly mangled (Tarzan), and even stripped down and thrown into dungeons (John Carter). “How will the hero get out of this mess?” was the reader’s question. “I know he will... but how? Wow! This is really exciting!” But in comics we start off with a hero who is impervious to everything, who has two or three dozen stupendous superhuman powers, who is made of steel, rock, fire, rubber, or who perhaps was put together by a demented scientist. Comic heroes must lead boring lives. “Ho-hum,” they must say, “not much happening today. I think I’ll go out and kill all the

crooks in town. Or maybe I can destroy some bad guy’s army. Let’s see, what bad guy’s army needs destroying today?” When Superman started, he was a being from another planet who found himself on Earth. Like Gulliver among the Lilliputians or John Carter among the Martians, he had powers that others didn’t. He was able to do strange, wonderful, exciting things... for a while. Then the publishers made a Paul Bunyan of him. Superman became so huge and so fantastic that he became a big, blue bore. He still is. When Captain Marvel started, he was a small boy, Billy Batson. He had the powers of certain ancient gods and heroes given to him by the wizard Shazam so that he could turn into a big, powerful man, “the World’s Mightiest Mortal.” Captain Marvel didn’t fly until his publisher made the writers put that and other nonsense into the scripts. As Billy Batson, he got into all sorts of scrapes and tight situations, some of them pretty fearsome. Every kid would like to have a big brother or a big father or a big uncle he could call on when the going gets rough. Captain Marvel was Billy’s big brother... in the days when big brothers were nice to have around. But they made a Paul Bunyan out of Captain Marvel, too. He had to fight Hitler’s army, Hirohito’s army, and fly and crash through steel walls and rip up fortifications and generally make a big, boring nuisance of himself. Finally everybody got sick of him and he went out of business. Twenty years went by. The comics were worse than ever. All the heroes were flying around aimlessly, trying to find something to do. People stopped buying new comic books and turned to reading old ones. “What do you know? These old comics are really great!” the readers said. “Why doesn’t some publisher bring them back?”

C.C. Beck “In three days your friend, the secretary, will be directed to come to your house and read before you the Article of Impeachment ...” Wow, Gulliver is going to be impeached! How will he get out of this terrible fix? Read on... “I was strongly bent on resistance, for while I still had liberty the whole strength of that empire could hardly subdue me and I might easily with stones pelt the metropolis to pieces. But I rejected that project with horror. At last I fixed upon a resolution: I would set out to visit the emperor of Blefuscu.” Now see how a real hero acts when he’s in trouble: Gulliver didn’t go into a fit of violence; he simply walked to the seashore, seized one of the largest ships in the fleet and put his clothes and blanket on it, then towed it behind him as he swam away from Blefuscu. A tremendous feat, quite violent, but not needlessly so, just sufficient to save Gulliver’s life. That’s something today’s heroes, being invulnerable, never have to consider. Maybe that’s one of the chief reasons they’re so boring.

“We’ll do just that,” one publisher said. “We’ll bring back the old characters and start them up all over again. Captain Marvel was a good character. We’ll bring him back and we’ll make him even better than he used to be. Wheee, we’re in business again!” So they brought Captain Marvel back. He was old-fashioned and actually a little silly with his short hair and his 1940s manners, but they fixed him up in short order. They made a super-hero out of him. A tall tale character. An unbelievable, utterly outrageous caricature of all the most awful heroes ever seen. Not only that, they added the cutesie-wootsie angle too. They had him flying around like an overweight Peter Pan and talking to Santa Claus. They made an idiot out of Billy Batson. They turned Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr. into adorable little sexless creatures like Barbie dolls. They made the Sivana family into cackling morons. They... but why go on? Where’s my copy of…? Ah, here it is. Let’s see now, how did Gulliver get away from his tiny captors when they were planning to blind him by shooting arrows into his eyeballs, then starve him to death? The king of Lilliput was mad at him and had decided to get rid of him.

Monthly! The Original First-Person History– published by Robin Snyder [Left to right:] Brothers Willis and Charles Clarence Beck (with pal Cliff Syness) after an afternoon of hunting, 1930… a photo from P.C. Hamerlinck’s forthcoming book on C.C. Beck.

George Willis Beck – May 6, 1912 - Dec. 30, 2003 Write to: Robin Snyder, 2284 Yew St. Rd. #B6, Bellingham, WA 98229-8899

This issue of FCA is dedicated to my friend Willis Beck, whom I will miss as much as I do his big brother, C.C. God bless you, my friend —Psalm 23. —P.C. Hamerlinck.

Now—FLIP US for our K-METAL & GLADIATOR Section!

Edited by ROY THOMAS

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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!

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

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

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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!

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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!

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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!

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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!

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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