Alter Ego #46

TWO AMAZING MEN!

BILL EVERETT LEW GLANZMAN ON ATLANTEANS, SHARKS, & FINS! PLUS: PLUS:

Art ©2005 ©2005 Marie Marie Severin Severin & & Estate Estate of of Bill Bill Art Everett; Sub-Mariner, Sub-Mariner, Venus, Venus, & & Fin Fin TM TM & & Everett; ©2005 Marvel Marvel Characters, Characters, Inc. Inc. Other Other characcharac©2005 ters TM TM & & ©2005 ©2005 the the respective respective trademark trademark & & ters copyright holders. holders. copyright

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

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THE BEST IN COMICS AND LEGO MAGAZINES!

ALTER EGO #105

ALTER EGO #106

ALTER EGO #107

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DRAW! #22

See comic art and script BEFORE and AFTER the Comics Code changes, with art

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

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

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

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

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Vol. 3, No. 46 / March 2005

™

Editor

Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout

Christopher Day

Consulting Editor John Morrow

Contents

FCA Editor

P.C. Hamerlinck

Writer/Editorial: “Read Alter-Ego –––Or Else!”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Everett on Everett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Comic Crypt Editor Michael T. Gilbert

Editors Emeritus

The great Bill Everett interviewed by Roy Thomas in 1969-70, from A/E V1#11.

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

Production Assistant

Eric Nolen-Weathington

Cover Artists Bill Everett & Marie Severin

Cover Colorist

E. Nelson Bridwell on monsters as comic book super-heroes, from A/E V1#7.

The Birth of Alter-Ego. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Bill Schelly details the 1961 creation of the first super-hero comics fanzine.

“I Wanted To Be An Artiste!”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Golden Age artist Lew Glanzman—an “Amazing Man” interviewed by Jim Amash.

Comic Crypt: Warren Confidential: Part 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Tom Ziuko

And Special Thanks to: Heidi Amash Richard Arndt Michael Baulderstone Bob Beerbohm Mrs. Peggy Broome Susan Burgos John Coates Russ Cochran Lynda Fox Cohen Ray A. Cuthbert Teresa R. Davidson Al Dellinges Tim Doyle Mark Evanier Wendy Everett Shane Foley Carl Gafford Janet Gilbert Lew Glanzman Sam Glanzman Scott Goodell Ron Goulart Jennifer Hamerlinck David G. Hamilton Wally Harrington Greg Huneryager

The Tragic Monster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Glen D. Johnson Robert Justice Sam Kujava Robert Knuist Joe Latino Mark Lewis Herb Lichtenstein Jean-Marc Lofficier Don Mangus Matt Moring Brian K. Morris Mark Muller Bill Pearson Alvin Schwartz John Selegue Marie Severin David Siegel Marc Swayze Dann Thomas Maggie Thompson Alex Toth Hames Ware Tom Watkins Robert Wiener Marv Wolfman Dr. Michael J. Vassallo Jeff Youngquist Michael Zeno

This issue is dedicated to the memories of

Bill Everett, E. Nelson Bridwell, Bob Haney, & Irwin Donenfeld

Michael T. Gilbert on future pros’ fan art in Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella.

Tributes To Bob Haney & Irwin Donenfeld . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 “Blood Was In Both My Eyes” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Alex Toth on his fabled 1952 face-off with Julie Schwartz.

re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 FCA (Fawcett Collector Of America) #105 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Marc Swayze—and Otto Binder’s unused 1953 Marvel Family/Captain Marvel stories.

About Our Cover: Because the cover of A/E (Vol. 1) #10 had worked out so well in 1969-70, with its wonderful caricature of Gil Kane drawn by Marie Severin, surrounded by a frame of figures done by Gil himself, I decided to continue that style of cover for #11, which was originally slated to come out in 1970. Accordingly, I prevailed upon Mirthful Marie to visually skewer Bill Everett this time, which of course she did beautifully. Bill then framed that art with several of his most famous heroes: Sub-Mariner, The Fin, Hydroman, Venus, Amazing-Man, and Bull’s-Eye Bill (from Novelty’s Target Comics). I’ve kicked myself ever since for not asking him to add Marvel Boy—and even Daredevil. Whether it was Bill or Marie who touched up the caricature a bit, putting Bill in a black sweater and only using part of the drawing, I don’t know to this day; but the cover was a masterpiece, all the same. (And Marie’s entire caricature saw print in A/E V3#3.) Unfortunately, as I got ever busier writing and editing for Marvel, A/E #11 was long delayed… until in 1978 Mike Friedrich, friend, fellow writer, and now alternativecomics publisher, volunteered to take over publication. As co-editors, we utilized the Severin/Everett cover. Still, I’ve always wanted to see it printed in full color, rather than the green-and-white of ’78—and we know that all things come to him who waits, especially if he takes up editing the same mag again, after more than two decades. Thanks to Ron Goulart for advice on coloring Bull’s-Eye Bill. [Art ©2005 Marie Severin & Estate of Bill Everett; Sub-Mariner, The Fin, Venus, & (now) Hydroman TM & ©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.; other characters TM & ©2005 the respective trademark and copyright holders.]

Above: Marie Severin drew a mean Sub-Mariner herself in 1969-70. Here’s a 2002 cartoon she drew for collector Michael Zeno, to explain why she hadn’t done a Sub-Mariner sketch for him yet. [©2005 Marie Severin; Sub-Mariner TM & ©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.] 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.

2

Title writer/editorial

“Read Alter-Ego––Or Else!”

W

ith the above words lettered on a placard held aloft by the ever-lovin’ blue-eyed Thing in a 1962 drawing by none other than Jack Kirby, the wondrous world of pro comics met the wacky world of super-hero comics fanzines.

For, that illo—done unasked for Jerry Bails’ Alter-Ego (Vol. 1) #4, and reproduced (though hardly for the first time) on page 36 of this issue—became the very first artwork created by a professional especially for any of the burgeoning new fanzines which were emerging in the early 1960s. A/E was lucky—it started right off with the King!

It was 44 years ago this month—late March of 1961—that the first slim, spirit-duplicator-produced issue of the hyphenated Alter-Ego was released to the tender mercies of the US Post Office by Jerry, up in Detroit. As his official (but undeservingly titled) co-editor, I knew the ’zine to which I’d contributed art and articles was coming in the mail, and I was on pins and needles till it arrived safely. It seemed to me like the most beautiful and precious thing I’d seen since the vintage days of Kubert, Toth, Infantino, and Hasen drawing All-Star Comics, or Simon and Kirby doing Fighting American. That initial issue of A/E had a pro guardian angel, too—none other than DC editor Julius Schwartz, who from the very beginning sent Jerry news of upcoming issues of The Flash, Green Lantern, Justice League of America, et al. A/E V1#1 even contained a code message which announced the forthcoming new “Atom” in Showcase.

Alter Ego has come a long way since those days, of course—as was seen by those who bought the 1997 trade paperback Alter Ego: The Best of the Legendary Comics Fanzine which Bill Schelly and I coedited for his Hamster Press. The Everett interview appeared therein,

Everyone deserves a

Golden Age!

plus other historic items—but not everything we deemed worthy of reprinting for a latter-day audience. Several items were dropped only because they were too long (such as the majority of Fred Patten’s article on 1965 Mexican comics, which was finally reprinted in full in issue #43)—while others barely lost out to other choices.

Thus, to celebrate this 44th anniversary, I decided to reprint a few goodies from the eleven issues of Volume 1. Oh, I had such grandiose plans for what I was going to squeeze into this issue! But then reality asserted itself. In order to do justice, at long last, to my interview with Bill, I realized I’d only have room for one or two other items—plus a chapter from Bill Schelly’s 1995 book The Golden Age of Comic Fandom, which relates the story of “The Birth of Alter-Ego.” So I settled for an illustrated reprinting (in FCA, with the blessing and help of P.C. Hamerlinck) of Otto Binder’s last 1953 synopses for unpublished adventures of “The Marvel Family” and “Captain Marvel”—something scheduled originally for A/E V1#8 but which didn’t quite make it then—plus an article from 1964’s A/E V1#7 by the late E. Nelson Bridwell, who was probably the very first letter-writing fan ever to get a professional job in comic books. Both these pieces, like the Everett interview, are far more profusely illustrated than they were the first time around… so, in a sense, this is the 1961-78 Alter Ego, Vol. 1, the way we’d have liked to do it.

Several things planned for this issue had to be cut, to bide their time for another day: a short piece by Len Darvin, the attorney who oversaw the Comics Code Authority during much of the 1960s and ’70s… Jerry Bails’ prophetic “farewell address” to fandom when he handed over the publishing reins of A/E to Ronn Foss in 1962, a whole year and a half after he started… and my own uneven efforts from A/E V1#9 at parodying classic poetry with a comic book slant (“A Treasury of Mortal Verses”), along with my mostly-inadequate attempts at accompanying artwork.

Well, actually, I am going to regale you (on the page facing) with one of those nine “poems” and my accompanying sketch—partly because last month I advertised there’d be Steve Ditko art in this issue, and both my poem and the Ditko illo deal with Spider-Man. The poem parody is “The Spider” (a takeoff on William Blake’s evocative “Tiger, Tiger” which I really should have titled “Spider, Spider”)… while the Ditko piece is one that Sturdy Steve drew especially for use in Alter Ego in late 1964, after he received (through Marvel) his copy of V1#7, and which of course duly appeared in V1#8. It’s been reprinted many times in many places, but I wanted to see it, just once, in the pages of an issue of Alter Ego, Vol. 3.

The Ditko drawing, done on a piece of typing paper if I recall aright, is one of the best and most imaginative drawings ever done by any pro for inclusion in any fanzine… yet somehow it gives the appearance of simply having flowed out of Steve’s pen, almost without effort or thought on his part. But the best pros make it look easy. I was, and remain, more thrilled and honored than I can yet say to have received this piece… and I still can’t believe, to this day, that somewhere along the line, many years ago, I let someone talk or trade me out of it.

I know it’s still around out there somewhere, commanding high prices whenever it surfaces in the comic art market—and, while I wish I still had it, I’m mostly just glad to know that it still exists.

GiVE BACK TO THE CREATORS WHO GAVE YOU YOUR DREAMS.

It will always remain, to me, one of the great memories of being Alter Ego’s editor forty years ago—a generous gesture from a favorite comic artist to an ardent admirer. Thanks again, Steve!

Bestest,

www.ACTORComicFund.org Captain America is a trademark of Marvel Characters, Inc. Copyright © 2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.

writer/editorial

3

“The Spider” Spidey, Spidey, spinning high, ’Twixt skyscrapers and the sky, Who but Ditko and Stan Lee Could frame such profitable symmetry?

In what distant ocean’s ebbs Were designed your arty webs?

On whose typer did you spawn?

Whose the hand that you has drawn?

And what fingers and what nails Could letter all your teenage wails?

And when the atomic spider bit— Who’s the genius thought of it?

Whose the pencil? Whose the ink?

Who decides just how you think?

Whose the brainchild? Who’s the gent Made Peter Parker like Clark Kent?

When F4 began to move And old Spidey hit the groove, Did Lee smile his work to see?

Or give a bonus to Steve D.?

Spidey, Spidey, spinning high, ’Twixt skyscrapers and the sky, Who but Ditko and Stan Lee Could frame such profitable symmetry?

[“Poem” and its art ©2005 Roy Thomas; Ditko art ©2005 Steve Ditko; Spider-Man, Peter Parker, Aunt May, J. Jonah Jameson, Dr. Strange TM & ©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

™

47

#

COMING IN APRIL

A/E Spotlight (Or Is It “Headlight”?) on MATT BAKER!

A Golden Age Good-Guy Who Drew “Good Girls” —And A Few Bad Ones!

PHANTOM LADY! TIGER GIRL! FLAMINGO! SHEENA! SKY GIRL! CAMILLA! SOUTH SEA GIRL! WONDER BOY! (Huh? How’d he get in there??)

Art ©2005

• Full-color MATT BAKER cover featuring Phantom Lady! (Dr. Wertham, avert your eyes!)

• “Baker of Cheesecake!” The 1940s-50s life and art of MATT BAKER! A guided tour by ALBERTO BECATTINI—plus surprising interviews with the artist’s kinfolk by JIM AMASH— and an aesthetic appreciation by JOHN BENSON! With loads of lush art of luscious ladies and lusty lads from the pages of Fox Comics, Fiction House, St. John, et al.!

• Rare art from BAKER contemporaries ROBERT WEBB—MAURICE WHITMAN— ALEX BLUM—AL FELDSTEIN—VINCE COLLETTA—ARTHUR PEDDY—FRANK BORTH— JACK KAMEN—RALPH MAYO—and others!

• FCA with MARC SWAYZE & BILL BLACK—BILL SCHELLY talks to bookseller (and comics fan) BUD PLANT—MICHAEL T. GILBERT on AL WILLIAMSON—& MORE!!

ht holders

tive copyrig

the respec

Edited by ROY THOMAS

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Submit Something To Alter Ego! Alter Ego is on the lookout for items that can be utilized in upcoming issues: • Convention Sketches and Program Books • Unpublished Artwork • Original Scripts (the older the better!)

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5

Everett On Everett The Classic BILL EVERETT Interview from Alter Ego (Vol. 1) #11 Conducted by Roy Thomas

Editing Assistance by Don & Maggie Thompson

E

ither in late 1969 or in 1970, I finally took my friend, Sub-Mariner creator Bill Everett, up on his long-standing promise to do an interview for Alter Ego, which I had revived with a 10th issue at the end of 1969, after a four-year hiatus due to my hectic writing-andediting schedule at Marvel Comics. I can still recall precisely where we sat—in the fair-size cubicle where Marie Severin and others labored from 9:00 to 5:00, after everyone else had gone home for the night. Bill was amiable and expansive even with my tape recorder running, although I tried without success to get him to repeat a few anecdotes he’d told me when we’d roomed together in New York City—first at 177A Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village, and a bit later on E. 87th Street.

The interview lay still untranscribed, I believe, when Bill passed away in February 1973, because, despite good sales of A/E #10, I kept getting busier and busier at Marvel and couldn’t find the time to do all the work needed to put out another issue. In fact, it was only because former DC & Marvel scripter Mike Friedrich, who’d begun publishing the alternative comic Star*Reach, asked if he could take over the magazine that the Everett interview was published even in 1978, in that final 11th issue of “Vol. 1” of A/E. I believe it was only then that I asked longtime fandom associates Don and Maggie Thompson to transcribe the tape. They did a bit of clean-up and editing as they went along—and indeed, the italicized “Ed.” notes in the text below are theirs, not mine. Since the audio tape itself is apparently forever “lost in darkness and distance,” as Mary Shelley once wrote in another context, this is probably as close as we shall ever have to a “definitive” Bill Everett interview. (Even so, there was one other in-depth Everett interview in an issue of Martin Greim’s Comic Crusader fanzine, which hopefully will be reprinted one day—and the long rambling letter Bill wrote in 1961 to the late Jerry de Fuccio, then associate editor of Mad magazine, and which was reprinted in A/E V3#3, is equally informative. Put those two together with the interview that follows, and you have about as clear a picture of Bill Everett as we are likely to have.)

Naturally, when Bill Schelly and I

(Top right:) Wild Bill Everett behind the podium at one of Dave Kaler’s New York comicons, in either 1966 or ’67— in a photo supplied by the late Mark Hanerfeld—above Bill’s first and last “Sub-Mariner” splashes.

The former, of course, appeared in Marvel Comics #1 (Oct. -Nov. 1939)—and, probably a bit earlier, in Motion Picture Funnies Weekly #1, from whose pristine black-&-white pages we were sent this art by benevolent Bob Wiener.

Bill’s last new art of any kind appeared in Sub-Mariner #61 (May 1973), on sale circa February—the very month in which he passed away. Amazingly, he was able to draw (and even ink) much of the art for pp. 1-3 before he went into the hospital for the final time. He also received “story” credit on Sub-Mariner #63 (July ’73), which was dialogued by Steve Gerber.

[Art ©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

6

The Classic Bill Everett Interview From Alter Ego (Vol. 1) # 11

edited the now-outof-print trade paperback Alter Ego: The Best of the Legendary Comics Fanzine in 1997, the Everett interview was included. However, being very tight for space, we edited it down very slightly.

Also, for that volume, we did not add anything to the relatively few drawings and photos that been printed with the piece in 1978. Ever since I revived Alter Ego in 1999, however, it’s been in my mind that, sooner or later, “Everett on Everett” Photo of Bill as a child. would be reprinted en Courtesy of Wendy Everett. toto in the magazine itself, with many more illustrations added, to document Bill’s talk more fully. I would also correct a handful of typos which made it into previous printings, based on my recollections of what Bill actually said. At last, with the help of several generous collectors, this rereprinting has finally come to pass.

RT: Where did your Merchant Marine career come in here?

EVERETT: That went back to when I was back in junior high school. I went away for approximately two years. I was 15 when I went in, 17 when I came out.

RT: Not thinking too much about Sub-Mariner, just then?

EVERETT: I wasn’t thinking about it.

RT: What about some of the influences on your art? Were there any commercial artists, or comic strip artists, whom you particularly emulated when you were first getting started?

EVERETT: I can only tell you honestly that there were certain artists that I admired, both in the illustration field and in comics, but I couldn’t emulate them because I never could copy—I couldn’t do anything well enough in those days. I think my favorite illustrators were Dean Cornwell, Mead Schaeffer—and if anything resembled comic work, it would have been Floyd Davis’ illustrations. As far as the comic artists are concerned, I don’t think there were any during my school years that I really admired. There were none that I followed explicitly. I suppose the first comic artist that I truly admired as an artist was Milton Caniff.

There were a lot of strips that I liked, that I enjoyed reading, but as far as the artwork was concerned, the ones that I enjoyed the most were the humorous things—stuff like Smokey Stover, but before that, even, there were Salesman Sam and a bunch of others.

For more on Wild Bill, as Stan Lee playfully christened him, see the aforementioned A/E V3#3—as well as issue #22, which utilized one of his Sub-Mariner drawings as a cover, and #35, which examines the revival of Prince Namor (as well as The Human Torch and Captain America) in the mid-1950s. Oh, and special thanks to Brian K. Morris for retyping this interview. —Roy. ROY THOMAS: Bill, of all the comic book professionals that I know, you go back at least as far as any. Could you tell us a little about your career and your life before comics?

BILL EVERETT: Before I got into comics, I’d been in advertising and publishing work. I got into advertising right after I got into the art field.

After I’d left school, I started in newspaper work in advertising and went from there to magazine publishing. And when I returned from Chicago after my last big advertising job, I was without any work at all.

I was looking for free-lance work, and I met a friend who was just starting in the comic business. As far as my experience before that is concerned, it had practically all been in magazine and newspaper publishing.

RT: What got you interested in the comics medium?

EVERETT: I wasn’t actually interested in it at all; I was talked into it.

Not only because this friend wanted me to do it, but because I’d done cartoons just on my own, just kidding, fooling round with them. And I suppose maybe I had dreamed about being a daily comic strip artist, but never had done anything serious about it.

RT: Your art training was mostly on-the-job, then?

EVERETT: Right. I had two years of art school. [The Vesper George School of Art, 1934-35 —Ed.] I dropped out of that, too, because I was anxious to get to work, and most of what I learned was in actual working.

Some of Bill’s earliest professional work was this cover for Centaur’s Uncle Joe’s Funnies #1, dated only “1938” but apparently published in September of that year. Thanks to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo. [©2005 the respective copyright holders.]

Everett On Everett

Skyrocket Steele Conquers the Universe Whether Bill Everett wrote “Skyrocket Steele” may be uncertain—and did it ever really run in any newspapers as a syndicated strip in 1939, as per the Checklist on p.

34?—but it was his ticket into the wacky world of comics. At center is Bill’s cover for the feature’s first publication—Centaur’s Amazing Mystery Funnies #1 (Aug. 1938)—surrounded by four pages from the “Skyrocket Steele” story in AMF V2#4 (real #8; April ’39), courtesy of Greg Huneryager. [©2005 the respective copyright holders.]

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The Classic Bill Everett Interview From Alter Ego (Vol. 1) # 11

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RT: Were there any particular writers that influenced you?

EVERETT: Jack London was one of my favorites.

Any adventure. As far as humor was concerned— Thorne Smith (which was a little too sophisticated; then, of course, you couldn’t use anything of his comic-wise).

RT: You were in comic books about as early as just about anybody with

characters. I created Amazing-Man with Lloyd Jacquet and John Harley. I don’t remember the circumstances, how his creation came about. I honestly can’t recall. It was too long ago. But it was the first successful one. “Skyrocket Steele” was not really a success. But Amazing-Man had his own book. “The Amazing-Man,” named “John Aman,” began in Amazing-Man #5 [Sept., 1939]. I think I only did about the first five issues. [1939-1940; the comic ran through #27, Feb., 1942. —Ed.] RT: Several people feel that this was your best early work. You worked for Timely—before it was Timely. How did that association come about?

EVERETT: Well, I left Centaur with Lloyd Jacquet and another chap whose name was Max; I cannot remember his last name. Lloyd had been an editor for Centaur. He had an idea that he wanted to start his own art service—to start a small organization to supply artwork and editorial material to publishers.

RT: In other words, whole comic books packaged and then sold?

EVERETT: A package deal, right. He asked me to join him. He also asked Carl Burgos. So we were the nucleus of what was later to

That’s Amazing, Man! Bill as a dapper young man about town—date uncertain. Thanks to Wendy Everett.

regard to original comic book material, as opposed to the reprints. What was your first comic book experience? Was that with the Centaur Comics group?

EVERETT: Yes. That was John Harley Publications. They were just starting with original comics. They were picking up from what Famous Funnies had done. That was the first work I did. That’s where I met Carl Burgos. We both started at the same time.

RT: For them, you did especially two strips which are remembered. One, I think this was the earliest, “Skyrocket Steele”?

EVERETT: That was the very first one I ever did. It was a Buck Rogers type of thing.

There were no big influences. I don’t even remember; I think I may have been asked to do something concerning space

“Amazing-Man” by “W.B. Everett” debuted in Amazing-Man Comics #5 (Sept. 1939). Apparently there was no #1-4, not even under another title! The first page of the 10-page story explicates his origin pretty well. Aman’s first “test” was to win a tug of war with an elephant (which he did, in a single panel)—his second was the cover scene of catching a cobra with his teeth while bound—and his third (“your capacity for withstanding pain”) is seen at right. He also had to be able to speak “the languages of all the civilized and uncivilized countries.” [©2005 the respective copyright holders.]

On a 1970 convention panel transcribed for A/E #22, artist/critic Gil Kane told Bill: “You were always, in my estimation, one of the best writers that comics ever produced.” The influence on Kane of Bill’s early work shows in particular in the “Iron Fist” origin he and Roy Thomas did for Marvel Premiere #15 (May 1974).

Everett On Everett

9 the two elements and what we could do with them. I think, if I’m not greatly mistaken, that the Human Torch idea came first— the idea of a character turning himself into flame. And then, for an adversary, we decided, well, what better natural adversary for flame than water? So what can we do with somebody with water? So that part of it was my idea. But it was so dovetailed that it’s hard to remember this many years later just exactly how it commenced.

RT: There is a story, Bill, in an old Timely comic about you and a storm at sea and a hand that shoved you out of the storm’s way when you were in the Merchant Marine. The story claims that this might have had some connection with your later coming up with The Sub-Mariner.

How much of this was fact and how much fiction?

As can be deduced from these two panels from the later pages of issue #5, Amazing-Man had a rather casual attitude toward being a costumed hero. Bill’s best and last cover for Amazing-Man Comics (#11) is on display in A/E #22. [©2005 the respective copyright holders.]

become known as Funnies, Incorporated. And one of the members of the organization was the sales manager, Frank Torpey, who had a friend, Martin Goodman, who was in the publishing business, and Frank talked Martin into going into publishing comics, as I recall. It was through that contact that Mr. Goodman started in the comic field and we sold him the first package deal.

RT: So you did the entire comic, coming up with Sub-Mariner (in your case) and with The Human Torch (in Burgos’ case)—and then the other characters. And then Mr. Goodman, of course, bought the entire package?

EVERETT: Right.

RT: Didn’t you become, at some point along here, art editor of Funnies, Incorporated?

EVERETT: Yes. It was sort of—I don’t know how to explain it, but I was still on a free-lance status. That was the agreement we had. The artists, including myself, at Funnies, worked on a free-lance basis. But it got to the point where there was so much editorial work and so many correction to be done that someone had to be in charge of it, and I was made (in name at least) the art director.

EVERETT: We can be honest about it now. I think I wrote the story myself, and we needed filler. It was something that I dreamed up. It just seemed apropos at the time. It was just a little incident that happened when I was at sea, and it was dramatic, and it did scare me. But that is not where I actually got the idea for the Sub-Mariner. It just seemed like a good idea to say that it was.

RT: Don’t you think that your having been in the Merchant Marine had some influence in the creation of good Prince Namor?

EVERETT: Definitely! Sure! Because I had always been interested in anything nautical, anything to do with the sea—ever since I was born, I guess.

RT: Both of these characters (Human Torch and SubMariner) were what you might call “supermen with a difference.” In other words, they

A/E: Which means that you did the dirty work?

EVERETT: That’s right. I had to assign and edit all the artwork.

RT: One thing that made Marvel Comics #1 particularly interesting was the fact that the two feature characters had the twin gimmicks of fire and water. Was this pairing in any way conscious? Did you know, for example, that Carl Burgos had created a Torch when you created a SubMariner, or vice-versa?

EVERETT: No, it was done almost simultaneously, and I’ve been trying and trying to remember just how it came about. I honestly can’t remember the exact instant. We were asked to develop new characters, and Carl and I were quite close friends. Between us somewhere—I don’t know whether it was his idea or mine or a combination—we came up with

Bill E. and the Other Forces behind Funnies, Inc. (Left:) Bill in 1939—a detail from the photo he gave Roy Thomas thirty years later for use with this interview. In the full photo, printed first in A/E (Vol. 1) #11, later in A/E V3#3 and elsewhere, the splash page of an “Amazing-Man” story is tacked up in the background.

(Center:) Funnies, Inc., founder Lloyd Jacquet (on the left) and Frank Torpey, the man Bill refers to as Jacquet’s “sales manager,” in a 1942 photo from The New York World-Telegram, with thanks to Russ Cochran of Comic Book Marketplace. The whole photo was printed in A/E #22.

(Right:) Artist and friend Carl Burgos. This entire photo will be seen in A/E #39, when Jim Amash interviews Burgos’ daughter Sue, who kindly provided it. Don’t miss all the rare Burgos artwork on view just three short months from now!

10

The Classic Bill Everett Interview From Alter Ego (Vol. 1) # 11 EVERETT: We worked together but didn’t work on the strips together, necessarily. But we always discussed them.

RT: In a friendly way?

EVERETT: Well, not always. When we discussed the story, sure! Because this was prior to the time that we got the two characters going.

RT: Was there friendly rivalry of any sort going on between you and Burgos, because of the fact that both your characters were fairly popular?

EVERETT: No, not until we conceived the idea of bringing the two together to fight each other. Because, up until then, the circumstances surrounding both characters were entirely different. There wasn’t any rivalry.

Fire and Water!

(Left:) The cover of Marvel Comics #1 (Nov. 1939) depicted The Human Torch, but was drawn by pulp artist Frank R. Paul rather than by Carl Burgos. Seen here is the cover of Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Marvel Comics, Vol. 1, which reprints the first four issues of what became, by its second issue, Marvel Mystery Comics. With thanks to Jeff Youngquist. Marvel admits to production problems with the volume, but it’s still worth the money. And Roy says that as someone who actually purchased a copy, besides the one he got for writing the intro! [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.] (Right:) This Everett cover rough of Sub-Mariner for the second issue of Marvel was never used, and popped up in 1991 to be sold at auction by Sotheby’s. Instead, The Angel hogged the next two covers, and Prince Namor didn’t make the cover spot till Marvel Mystery #4. [©2005 the respective copyright holders; Sub-Mariner TM & ©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

were obviously inspired by the character Superman who had originated about a year before by the time the book came out. And yet they were supermen, each with his own gimmick. Was this because of the fact that National had successfully sued a couple of other publishers over alleged copyright infringement?

EVERETT: I don’t think it had anything to do with lawsuits. Because I don’t recall ever being afraid of anything like that. My point, in particular, was to be different! Not because we were afraid of plagiarism or infringing on anyone else’s copyright. It was just the idea that, when I did anything, I wanted it to be different, entirely and totally different, from anything else. It was pretty darn hard to do, because almost everything was being done at that time. This happened to be a lucky guess and it was something that had not been done.

We tried to outdo Superman, but, because Superman had come from another planet and therefore was not an Earth person, and my character was, I had to dream up some reasons for this character to have these prowesses that he has. To be able to fly, he had to have wings. I didn’t want to put wings on his back and make him look like an angel, so we put them on his feet—which was inspired by the statue of Mercury.

[Giovanni Bologna, 16th century. —Ed.] This gave him speed and the ability to fly.

RT: You have mentioned Carl Burgos several times. You two, then, were working fairly closely together off and on during the early days?

This one-page “biography” from Human Torch #1 (one-third of which was devoted to a “Sub-Mariner” tale) related Bill’s tongue-in-cheek tale of being saved at sea by a mysterious force which he said he would always think of as “my friend… THE SUB-MARINER.” [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

RT: What led to the Torch/Sub-Mariner battles? There were several which filled entire issues and even had other superheroes as minor characters. What led to that? Any particular inspiration? Just the idea that it might be a good sales gimmick? Or was it just because you worked together?

EVERETT: Everything then was done with an eye for sales, because we had such tremendous competition. I can’t honestly remember how it started, or whose idea it was. At the point that we began discussing it, Mr. Goodman himself was

Everett On Everett

11

A photo of Bill at work on a “Sub-Mariner” page circa 1939-40 (courtesy of Wendy Everett)—flanked by three classic pages from that period: (Top right:) This final page of the black-&-white Motion Picture Funnies Weekly #1 “Sub-Mariner” installment, dated April 1939, was sent to us by Bob Wiener. Talky— but a true landmark.

(Bottom row:) Namor wasn’t much friendlier to ”Americans”—as he then called all surface-men—in these two panels from Marvel Mystery Comics #11 (Sept. 1940), first raking a “super-yacht” with the humans’ own machine-guns, then blowing it up. In all fairness, its “American adventurer” captain had vowed to capture him “dead or alive.” On another page, the fish-men’s green-skinned Emperor refers to the humans as “stupid white men.” Where have we heard that phrase since?

Repro’d from photocopies of the original art—the splash of which was seen in A/E V3#3. [Art in this montage ©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

having an awful lot to say about what the editorial content was. And whether this idea came from his office, or whether it was Lloyd’s idea, or whether it was a combination of Carl’s and mine, I can’t honestly say. I do think that Carl and I dreamed it up. But just the fact that the two opposite elements had had their own stories—now what would happen if we ever got them together as rivals to fight each other?

RT: How did you work this? You drew “The Sub-Mariner,” obviously.

And Burgos always drew “The Human Torch.” So how did you work out these stories in which they appeared together?

EVERETT: It was written by a team of writers, and Carl and I would get together on several occasions discussing plots and working them out until the story was finally formed up so that we could then start on the drawing. The drawing was worked by both of us. We worked together on the pencilings, for example. In the actual completed work, if I recall, one would be “The Human Torch” and The SubMariner would be the incidental character. So the majority of that was done by Carl. And then I would do the work on “The Sub-Mariner.”

RT: How about on the longer stories—20 or 30 pages in length?

EVERETT: We worked those out together. There were quite a number of people involved—two or three writers and pencilers, people we had doing backgrounds, for example. But the actual breakdown of the story—I don’t even remember how we did it.

RT: Was the pace pretty frantic in those days?

EVERETT: It was extremely frantic! It might not have been if we were ever on time, but we did a lot of playing as well as working, and we were usually behind on our schedules. But, yes, the deadlines were pretty tight. We didn’t have nearly the artists available that we have today. We were shorthanded. I only had one or two guys I could count on to assist me, and the same with Carl. Whereas, today, you can get any number of people to do the odd jobs—the dirty work, the backgrounds

and the inking, putting in solids and blacks and so forth.

RT: Wasn’t there a story about how one of these whole books was completely done over a weekend?

EVERETT: Yes. I don’t remember how many days we had to do it; it was a very limited amount of time that we had to produce it. As I recall, it was a 64-page book, and we did turn it out something, like between Wednesday or Thursday and the following Monday. The only way we could get it done... I think the basic plot may have been established. We may have had a synopsis, but we still had to write the entire book and draw it and have it completed and ready to delivery by—well, we’ll say Tuesday. So our deadline would have been Monday. There were quite a few of us that got together and went to my apartment and did the whole thing. We just stayed there the entire weekend. Nobody left except to go out to get food or more liquor and come back and work. We had four or five writers, and we had at least six artists including Carl and myself.

Oh, anything up to a dozen people, in and out constantly, working on this thing. It was a pretty wild weekend!

The Classic Bill Everett Interview From Alter Ego (Vol. 1) # 11

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As seen in A/E V3#3, Carl Burgos drew The Human Torch on the last two pages of the Everett “Sub-Mariner” story which led off Marvel Mystery #8 (June 1940)— while, on the above last pair of pages of Burgos’ “Torch” story later in that issue, the same events were replayed from the flaming android’s POV, with Namor drawn by Bill E. This first Torch-Subby battle continued into MMC #9 and even into one page of #10, as seen in the recent Marvel comic-style reprint—which for some reason wasn’t repro’d from the photocopies of the original art which Ye Editor turned over to the company several years back. Did they get tossed out in some ill-advised space purge? [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

RT: One other point I want to mention is the name “The SubMariner,” which even today is often mispronounced. Was Coleridge’s poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner any influence on that word “mariner”?

badly, so it was pretty muddy. The second issue was much better. It was much cleaner.

EVERETT: Very definitely.

RT: Along with the word “submarine”?

EVERETT: Because it still wasn’t good. You see, you had a crosshatching effect and then put a Ben-Day color over it—you put a dot on top of the cross-hatching, which gave a very muddy effect.

EVERETT: Yes, very definitely!

RT: And you didn’t do the coloring?

RT: One of the reasons that no one was able for years to reprint the first two “Sub-Mariner” stories in comic books is the rather strange process that you used in those issues.

EVERETT: No, we had no control over coloring whatsoever in those days. It just looked sloppy. We decided to heck with it! We’d go back to the black-&-white. It was an experiment. It just didn’t please us.

EVERETT: That was my own idea. I wanted to get a sort of a thirddimensional, or a painting-type effect, rather than the flat black-&-white and color. We used what is known as a Craftint board, which is chemically treated, an illustration board, in which you use chemicals to bring out cross-hatching for tonal value. And we thought this might be a very good idea to get grays into it and to get, particularly, the feeling of water—of depth under water.

RT: Tell me a little more about the name “Sub-Mariner.”

RT: It worked fairly well.

EVERETT: Well, the first issue didn’t, because the printer who printed the first issue had never done a comic before. He wanted to break into the field. He just didn’t know how to handle it and slopped it up pretty

RT: Why was it abandoned with the third issue?

EVERETT: OK. You were asking me if the Ancient Mariner had anything to do with it. It did, because I liked Coleridge’s stuff, and I particularly loved The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. I just thought that, this being a sub-marine creature, I could combine the two, the “Submarine” and “Mariner,” and by hyphenating, it would then become the “Sub-Mariner.” But so many kids just didn’t know what a hyphen was. They ignored the hyphen and put it all as one word and pronounced it “Submareener,” because all they could think of was a submarine.

During the war, particularly when it was beginning, there had been

Everett On Everett

13

newspaper stories and talk full of submarines and submarines and submarines. And who ever heard of a mariner? I mean, there were darn few who ever used the term. The term “mariner” is just not a popular term, even today. So it was logical that it would be mispronounced.

RT: But you didn’t have any compunctions about using that name?

EVERETT: Heavens, no! I thought anybody with any intelligence could read it as “Sub-Mariner.” If they didn’t have that much intelligence, that’s too bad.

RT: They could look at the pictures. About the name “Namor”: why did you choose that name, and where did it come from?

EVERETT: It came from the word “Roman,” but I can’t remember why.

RT: To suggest nobility—?

As per this page from Marvel Mystery #2 (Dec. 1939), the Craftint art board used by Everett for the first two “Sub-Mariner” stories was an attempt to reproduce an underwater effect. But Bill decided the experiment was a failure and dropped it after that issue. With thanks to Greg Huneryager for the photocopy. [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

EVERETT: I think you’ve hit as close as you could to the reason I used “Roman.” I don’t honestly know, but there had to have been a reason.

That part of it I can’t recall. I can remember sitting down with a pad of paper and writing all kinds of names and writing them backwards to see which ones could make sense and which would fit the character. Why I had the word “Roman” and transposed it to “Namor” I don’t honestly remember, but everyone liked it.

RT: And how about “Dorma”?

“It was a pretty wild weekend!” Nobody’s ever satisfactorily 100% pinned down, to Ye Ed’s satisfaction, exactly which Torch/Namor fight may have been written and drawn over one several-day period—but certainly the main contender would have to be Human Torch #5 (Fall 1941), the second issue of that numbering, with its cover and 60-page story. Here’s the splash of that classic slugfest, with art by Carl Burgos and Bill Everett (and perhaps an assistant or two), repro’d from the 1999 Marvel publication which reprinted the entire issue directly from the comic itself, to good effect. Check out if it’s still available from Bud Plant or somebody! It even contains a multi-artist house ad for HT #5.

Roy and several other researchers have long wondered if at one stage that tale might’ve been slated not for Human Torch but for an issue of Marvel Mystery Comics, since it guest-features the Torch and Namor’s fellow MMC heroes The Patriot, The Angel, and Ka-Zar, but no other Timely stars (like for instance Captain America). [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

EVERETT: I don’t know where I dug that one up. I named all the characters and I had no outside influence, no help on it, so I’m the one to blame, but I just don’t honestly know where I got going from. I might have been influenced by some other characters in some stories I read somewhere. [Rearrange “Namor” and you get “Norma”— change the “N” to “D” and it becomes exotic instead of prosaic. — Ed.] RT: In your strip all the men were large, bug-eyed green freaks, while the women were somewhat more attractive and colored in what we used to call “flesh.” What was your intention?

EVERETT: That was not my doing. My concept was that the SubMariner race—whatever I called them—

14

The Classic Bill Everett Interview From Alter Ego (Vol. 1) # 11 wanted him to be more human. I think, in fact, somewhere along the line in one of the early issues, I sort-of got into the genetics of it. I think I intimated somewhere that his mother already had some human blood.

She was like a quadroon or something like that. The reason he looked so human, which he really shouldn’t have, if you could combine the two, was that she had some human blood in her, anyway, before she ever met MacKenzie, the kid’s father. I don’t know, I had to explain it somehow along the line. I was forced into it, I think—but I’d have rather left it alone. I picked the Antarctic for his origin because, again, that was a fascination.

I used to read all of Byrd’s exploits and expeditions. I can tell you all the geography of the Antarctic. I could rattle off every camp that was ever put up there, I mean, how deep they were and everything, because it was something I wanted to do. I muffed a beautiful opportunity—two of them. I could have gone on one Byrd expedition if I’d wanted to, and I could have gone on an around-the-world cruise with John A. Salmon, Jr., too, which I muffed beautifully. I didn’t muff it, actually. I had the job; it got muffed for me. But at any rate, I thought, well, here’s the Antarctic, and who knows very much about it? Not too many people; I mean, the general public didn’t know much about the Antarctic, and who knows very much about it? And here’s a case of educating kids to some degree, to teach them something about it.

Because everything that I wrote was factual. Because everything I drew was factual. The icebreakers, the depth of ice, even. I didn’t go into too much historically or geographically, because there wasn’t any point

Subby’s cousin Dorma was no shrinking violet in Marvel Mystery Comics #13 (Nov. 1940). Here, garbed like Namor in armor and gas mask, she battles attacking Germans on a French-held island. It’s unclear whether this story was produced before or after France surrendered to the Nazis in June 1940, after which most of that nation and its territories were ruled by a Germanfriendly government in Vichy, France. [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

RT: You didn’t call them the Atlanteans at that time.

EVERETT: No, they had nothing to do with Atlantis. I don’t know what I called them. At any rate, they were closer to the fish species.

They were actually mutants, I suppose you’d call them. But I tried to make them resemble fish, which is why the big eyes. But his father, SubMariner’s father, was an American—a human—and the mother, she looked pretty much like a fish, too. She had the big eyes and all that. But I had to make her look a little glamorous. She had long eyelashes and stuff like that.

RT: You didn’t worry at that time about being accused of miscegenation?

EVERETT: No, no. We didn’t worry about anything in those days. You did what you thought was right—you did your own thing, just like the kids today—and this was mine. This was the way I conceived him. There may be a little bit of Jules Verne and a little bit of fantasy that I’d read somewhere along the line, and I liked that sort of thing. I used to edit some dime novels of science-fiction for Teck Publications, and I bought a lot of artwork from guys—you know, comic illustrations—that were really great, and I think I was influenced by a lot of those. I may have picked up characterization from one of them. I don’t know. But at any rate, as far as the coloring, I had nothing to do with that. I did want all characters to be green except The Sub-Mariner.

He had the flesh tone because it was inherited from his father, and I

This page from Marvel Mystery #11 demonstrates the realistic feel of Antarctic ships, garb, and gear at Everett’s command, more authentic than one would find in most comics of the day. Repro’d from a photocopy of the original art. [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Everett On Everett

Madame Blavatsky, founder of Theosophy.

15

Edgar Cayce, psychic.

Harry Houdini, master magician and escape artist.

EVERETT: Yes, and even some of Houdini’s investigations. It really is tremendous. You’ve got to believe it. By the time you finish you do believe that Atlantis existed and that this book was written by an Atlantean who had passed into the beyond and then his spirit would come back and— RT: It was interesting, then, that you didn’t call your submerged world “Atlantis.”

EVERETT: No, I didn’t want to, because Atlantis to me was another world and a world that existed and I still believe it does, somewhere. I don’t think it’s alive, but I think the remnants and relics are there somewhere. I think it was a continent that did exist at one time, so I didn’t want to go that far. But the idea of the submerged continent came from Atlantis.

Atlantis—Or Not Atlantis!

The Everett page above, from Marvel Mystery Comics #19 (May 1941) shows Namor’s sub-Antarctic race in their “aerial-submarines” battling the Nazis in the South Polar regions. (Thanks to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo for the photocopy.)

In this interview, Bill E. confirmed that, though he never referred to Atlantis in his 1940s/50s “Sub-Mariner” stories, he believed in its existence and that his “idea of the submerged continent came from Atlantis.”

The book he refers to, A Dweller on Two Planets, subtitled The Dividing of the Way, by Phylos the Thibetan, was written in the 1880s by Frederick S. Oliver via so-called “automatic writing” (i.e., the writer is supposedly under the control of an alien force which dictates what he writes). It was Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky who had given impetus to the idea of a sunken continent of Atlantis in her 1877 tome Isis Unveiled, even postulating that the Atlanteans had had flying machines. That was five years before Ignatius Donnelly, often called “the father of modern Atlantis research,” published Atlantis: Antediluvian World.

Bill Everett was undoubtedly familiar with at least some of the above, as well as with the works of Edgar Cayce, the psychic healer who often “channeled” the inhabitants of lost Atlantis. As the artist says, there’s a Houdini connection, too… but we can’t go into everything in a comics fanzine.

[Sub-Mariner art ©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

to it, really. I created a mythical kingdom underneath the ice, which is possible to have in that area, and I thought it would just be different enough and just unusual enough so that it would click.

RT: It obviously did.

RT: Did you think of your work you were doing as anything that would be collected later?

EVERETT: Never.

RT: At twenty, forty, or fifty dollars a copy? Some of the very early issues of Marvel Comics #1 would sell for hundreds of dollars, or more.

EVERETT: Never! I never saved a comic book! I don’t have one.

RT: Do you wish you had saved the books?

EVERETT: Sure I do! Stan started to ask me the other day if I had—but I cut him short. I didn’t even know what he was referring to. He said, “Do you happen to have any comics—” That’s as far as he had to go, because my answer is, “No, I don’t have any comics.”

RT: You don’t even save your own work?

EVERETT: No. I still don’t.

RT: Not even through the last few years?

EVERETT: I guess my kids have got them, but I don’t. I just don’t do it.

I never did. I used to collect covers—originals—I had a whole bunch of those, and I threw those out. And they’d be worth a fortune today. Just threw them all out.

RT: You worked on “The Sub-Mariner” only up to about the beginning of the war, as I recall.

EVERETT: Atlantis did have something to do with it. Another book I’d been fascinated with was A Dweller on Two Planets. I don’t know if you’ve read it. Get it and read it. It was supposedly written through a medium, like spirit writing, written by an Atlantean. You can get halfway through the book and you believe it.

RT: Several other people worked on “The Sub-Mariner,” both as writers and, of course, as artists—in particular, Carl Pfeufer.

RT: Like Edgar Cayce? [NOTE: Bill had mentioned Cayce to me before. —Roy.]

EVERETT: Yes. I think he was the first one who took over when I went into the service.

EVERETT: Right. I went into the service in late ’41, at the very beginning of the war.

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The Classic Bill Everett Interview From Alter Ego (Vol. 1) # 11

From 1940 through late 1941 when he went into the service, Bill also labored for Novelty Press, through Funnies, Inc. These four cover sketches probably originated in Jacquet’s comics shop during that year or so when the “Target and the Targeteers” series was cover-featured on Target Comics; one of them seems to be dated “July 1941.” They were sent to us by collector/researcher Bob Wiener, and are a real find.

Bob wonders if the one at top left is by Everett, or perhaps Bob Wood. The one in which Target is poised atop a tall pedestal, looking down at running figures (the Targeteers?) inside a maze made up of the letters of the word “TARGET,” looks the most like Everett’s work to him and Ye Editor—and, if so, that means the sketch with the even huger namemaze is probably by Bill, as well. Maybe even the one with the eight-ball about to bowl a strike? Anybody out there got any ideas or info? Either way, it’s great to have these artifacts of the Golden Age—even if none of them was used as the basis of an actual Target cover! [©2005 the respective copyright holders.]

Everett On Everett

17

the same. I know there were a few of the daily strip artists who branched out and tried something different. Their attempts were never very successful, but I thought I might be. I tried several different styles and they worked all right for their day.

RT: There were a handful of people who did their own lettering, who managed to achieve a style that somehow went with the artwork.

EVERETT: Yeah, that was very important. I also tried to incorporate it, particularly, in the title page. To get something in the lettering of the title which would tie in somehow with the story.

RT: How did the famous Bill Everett signature evolve?

EVERETT: Oh, Lord!

RT: Was that on purpose? It was a very distinctive signature, which people keep asking you to duplicate, you know, to sign for them.

Bill Everett in uniform(s). Could the photo on the left, in which he looks a bit younger, be his Merchant Marine outfit? Courtesy of Wendy Everett.

I was gone for five years. I suppose a great number of people did “Sub-Mariner.” I had absolutely no interest in it at all during the fiveyear span. I didn’t watch it; I didn’t know what happened. I don’t know who worked on it besides Carl. He was one of the first, if not the first, to take over from me. But I didn’t see any of them during the war, so I didn’t know what had been done until I came back to it in ’46 or ’47.

EVERETT: Well, it’s changed a lot from the original. It was developed—I don’t know why I started with the big “E” and the two screwy “T’s” at the end of it. I don’t know, everybody was looking for a distinctive signature—one which would stand out.

When I came back from the service, I developed the signature I use now (which was based, if you look at it carefully, on an artist’s palette, and the two “T’s” are supposed to be the brushes. I doubt if it’ll change again.

RT: One of the more interesting characters about the time that you came back to work on the strip was Namora, Namor’s cousin, which was just the word Namor with one letter added. How and why was she brought in? [Namora was introduced in Marvel Mystery Comics #82, May 1947. —Ed.] EVERETT: I had wanted to feature a girl counterpart of The SubMariner, almost from the beginning. Again, I don’t recall whether it was Stan’s idea. It might have been. But Rob Solomon, I think [or Al Sulman? —Roy.], was handling the editorial work then. It might possibly have been my own idea; maybe I sold them the idea of using it.

The name—I think it was my own, but Stan may have had something to do with it. But the costume is mine. The costume was changed several times—changed editorially, that is, by the people at Timely. I’m sorry I’m vague on that. I always felt it was my character, but I could be wrong.

RT: Well, she was obviously popular. She even had a couple of issues of her own book. So they must have felt she had some potential.

EVERETT: It was a good character, but I guess it was a little bit late to bring a gal in. I had also wanted to feature Dorma more than I did. But I wasn’t allowed to do it then.

RT: You did your own lettering mostly, too, through the ’40s and ’50s, didn’t you? The very tall lettering which was quite distinctive?

EVERETT: Yeah. Lettering was a real problem in the beginning, because no one was a professional letterer as far as comics were concerned. They just weren’t in a separate category. The artist did his own or he got a friend to do it. It just wasn’t an established business as it is today, an established part of the business.

And, again, I wanted to be different, and I didn’t care much for any of the styles of what was being done at the time.

Newspaper lettering on newspaper strips all looked exactly alike. Every strip looked

Carl Pfeufer, seen here in a vintage photo provided by Marc Swayze from his days at Fawcett, was one of first and most important artists to draw “Sub-Mariner” after Bill E. went into the Army soon after Pearl Harbor.

The above Pfeufer page is from Marvel Mystery Comics #41 (March 1943). [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

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The Classic Bill Everett Interview From Alter Ego (Vol. 1) # 11 be submitted to them for approval before they got back to the artist. Then we worked very much as National does today.

RT: Was The Fin created to be a clothed version of The SubMariner?

EVERETT: We needed a filler, if I remember correctly, something like a four- or fivepage story for a book. I don’t honestly know, but it was something dreamed up real fast.

“We need a story for a book,” is what Lloyd told me. “So see what you can come up with.”

“How about another water character, but not like the SubMariner?”

“OK, do anything you want to!” So I came up with that.

[Daring Mystery Comics #7, April, 1941 —Ed.] RT: I don’t believe he breathed underwater, did he?

Bill’s splashes for the first two stories in Namora #1 (Fall 1948). Oddly, the other two issues of the short-lived series were dated “Oct. 1948” and “Dec. 1948.” Thanks to Doc Vassallo. [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

RT: What happened if the editor wanted to change something in the art or in the lettering back in the early ’40s? Was this mostly done by people, on staff, as it is today? Or was the artist called in to make the change in lettering, or especially in art?

EVERETT: That’s a good question, because I don’t remember ever making any changes. The story was scripted first, then the lettering was done right from the script, and usually the script was pretty accurate— was edited well enough so that when you read it, you weren’t fighting with time as they are now. The rates being low, the letterer has to turn out a hell of a lot of work. In those days, we got 50¢ a page or something like that, but this was part of the creative work. We didn’t consider this a separate business. We didn’t have to make our livelihood lettering. As an artist, I lettered my own stuff. This was just additional money. I wanted to letter it, anyway. So we took out time and we could edit our own stuff as we lettered it. I don’t remember all the paste-ups that we have today. I don’t recall that we had that many corrections and changes. If I ever had any, I did them myself. They weren’t assigned to anyone else. There were changes on titles, on any masthead lettering.

Very frequently, I would use something that Stan or Al Sulman didn’t like; then they’d want me to change it. But as far as the content of the story is concerned, the dialogue, I don’t remember making any changes.

really a frogman.

RT: How about Hydroman?

EVERETT: Hydroman—now that was something else again. That was with Famous Funnies or Eastern Color [Printing] and Steve Douglas, who wanted me to do something original for him, for his books. I guess it first appeared in Heroic, didn’t it?

RT: I believe that was the comic: Reg’lar Fellers Heroic.

EVERETT: And the thing I did best, of course, was the water bit. I couldn’t think of anything that wasn’t just a copy of The Sub-Mariner or The Fin. I knew a guy who was the foster brother of a kid I’d grown up with—who was not in the business at all but very much interested in what I was doing—and he came up with the idea of Hydroman. It was his idea, and I thought it was utterly preposterous. It was so ridiculous that I couldn’t do anything with it. And he said, “Why sure! He could change himself into water, he can run through the sewers of New York and water mains. You could turn on the tap in the kitchen and out comes Hydroman!”

RT: With your own story when you were doing “The Sub-Mariner” or any other character, did you usually write out a whole script for yourself, or did you make up the exact dialogue as you went along?

EVERETT: I made up the dialogue as I went along—usually when I lettered it. In the beginning, I did it any way I wanted to because I had no supervision, but later when Timely became more active in editorial work, then scripts had to

EVERETT: No, because I gave him an aqua-lung, and he was

Bill’s trademark signature evolved over the years. At left is one from 1941—at right, one from a Timely comic ten years later. [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.?]

“Oh, come on! This is ridiculous! How can you draw it? You can’t even illustrate a thing like that!” But he sold me a bill of goods. He kept hounding me and hounding me and hounding me.

Finally, I said, “All right, I’ll see what I can do,” and this is what I came up with. Steve liked the idea, and so they published it. I used the name “Bob Blake” for Hydroman’s alter ego, because the foster brother—the guy that created the idea— his name was Bob, and Blake was a good name phonetically to use. It was one way I could give Bob credit for giving me the idea for the story without having to pay him.

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RT: During this period, were you trying some non-comics writing and art as a sideline that you haven’t mentioned?

EVERETT: I did. I tried, but I never sold anything spectacular. I wrote a lot of stuff, but my heart wasn’t really in it. I could probably paper several rooms with the rejection slips.

RT: Talking about being forced into anything: when the United States entered the war and The Sub-Mariner switched from being a general bad guy (who spent most of his time tearing up New York and related places and invading and so forth) to a Nazi-fighter and a fighter of the Japanese, was this made with your full consent, or did you prefer to keep The SubMariner a bad guy?

EVERETT: No, this was a natural formula. You could wave the flag like crazy. Most of us were flagwavers, and I was one of the biggest.

I wanted to do some of that redwhite-and-blue stuff as much as

Bill Everett’s other two memorable waterlogged super-heroes: “The Fin,” from Daring Mystery Comics #7 (April 1941)— and “Hydroman,” from his cover for Reg’lar Fellers Heroic Comics #4 (Jan. 1941). In relatively recent years, Marvel has added a Hydroman villain with the same powers. Thanks to Doc V. for the “Fin” scan.

[Fin art ©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.; Hydroman art ©2005 the respective copyright holders.]

anyone did—and this was a beautiful outlet and a change of scenery, a geographical cure, what-have-you. I was getting tired of dreaming up situations for him, and here was a built-in, ready-made situation; it was a patriotic thing, and it was the thing to do. So it was a natural, and it went that way.

RT: When you came back after the war, and the strip didn’t have that anymore, did you have trouble finding the right kind of motivation for The Sub-Mariner?

EVERETT: Well, he had begun to change after the war, or during the war. And there are a lot of things that I didn’t like; I can’t be specific about them right now. I know that I was annoyed with a lot of synopses or story ideas that I got—and I was annoyed that a lot that I submitted weren’t accepted, were changed. I was really fighting a losing battle and I guess I knew it, and so I would naturally have to agree to whatever the editors wanted. I didn’t like it much, therefore I don’t think I did my best work. I did what I could with it, but it was a constant battle; I didn’t enjoy doing it. I wanted to take him back the way he was and do it my way.

RT: In other words, you wanted to go back to his being an enemy of the human race or having troubles with them, while the editors had decided to make him into a standard super-hero.

EVERETT: Yes. That was one point... petty things like cops-androbbers, very mundane in nature. It was beneath his dignity. He had to go for something bigger than that, and he wasn’t allowed to. And I didn’t like this humanizing of him at all, but it was the trend, and that’s what the kids were buying. I think that was a weak period; at that period, I didn’t enjoy doing it. I did it; I enjoyed Venus much more. But even Namora I thought was getting too humanized. They got her into all kinds of situations which could happen to anybody. She could have been anyone.

Bill also did spot illos for those pesky two-page text stories, like this one from Mystic Comics #1 (Aug. 1940). Thanks to Doc V. [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

RT: You said you hadn’t cared much about “Sub-Mariner” while you were out of comics. Did you feel any sense of loss in ’49, when he was dropped?

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The Classic Bill Everett Interview From Alter Ego (Vol. 1) # 11

EVERETT: I felt a slap to my pride, I guess. Everyone must feel that way. “What the heck! You mean The Sub-Mariner, it’s not selling? I don’t believe you. It’s impossible—my character, my baby, he’s not selling? This is ridiculous! This just doesn’t happen!” I think my pride was hurt a little bit, but after all, if it isn’t selling, there’s nothing you can do about it. I think, also, you always have a moment of panic—what else are you going to do? Are you going to continue working? Are they going to find something else for you to do, or are you just suddenly out of a job?

RT: It has been said that some of the “Sub-Mariner” stories back in the ’40s, some of the particularly bloody ones, were written by Mickey Spillane. As far as you know, did Spillane ever really write any comics?

EVERETT: He wrote for comics, yeah. He usually wrote the text stories. As far as the strips are concerned, he tried to write them for me. Now, he sold a few to other people; I don’t think I could ever buy one. I don’t remember ever buying one. I may have, and as I say, it’s too confused in my memory now. I know that Mickey and I became very

Not that Bill worked totally for Timely during The Sub-Mariner’s early-40s heyday, since Funnies, Inc., packaged comics for several different companies—and, though Martin Goodman hired away much of Lloyd Jacquet’s talent to work on staff at Timely, he left Jacquet the creators of “Human Torch” and “Sub-Mariner.”

(Left:) Everett’s cover for Hillman’s Air Fighters Comics #1 (Fall 1941). But Hillman must’ve been unhappy with the lineup, ’cause when #2 came out a year later, it introduced “Airboy” and a whole new cast!

(Right:) Bill’s cover for Novelty Press’ Target Comics #5 (June 1940). [©2005 the respective copyright holders.]

friendly enemies because I had to edit his stuff in the ’40s. I had to edit the stuff, and I couldn’t buy it. And of course, he was a pretty arrogant little guy. He couldn’t understand why his stuff wasn’t the greatest in the world. Well, it was great, but it wasn’t printable. And you couldn’t translate it. And he wasn’t bitter then, not as bitter as he became later, but it was very direct and hard-fisted stuff—and you had to edit it so much.

RT: What kind of strips did he try writing?

EVERETT: Detective stories, crime stories— RT: His own characters or other established characters?

EVERETT: He’d just dream up a story, just like you write a mystery story today. No set character.

RT: He didn’t have a Mike Hammer character then?

EVERETT: No, we would buy his two-page text stories.

RT: Why those and not his— EVERETT: Well, because he could just knock those out. We could take the violence out, clean them up, and they weren’t terribly important. We didn’t think anybody read ’em anyway.

RT: They were in there mainly for mailing.

EVERETT: Just to conform to the postal regulations. I don’t know if they were read or not. We just figured they weren’t. I wrote a whole bunch of them myself...

RT: Under pseudonyms, usually?

In this page from “Doom from the Sun!” in Sub-Mariner #30 (Feb. 1949), Namor and Namora are captured by the evil scientist Iron-Brain. Bill may or may not have written this story, less than a year before all Timely’s “big three” hero titles were abruptly canceled. Thanks to Doc V.—who apparently does purchase a super-hero comic now and again. [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Everett On Everett

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EVERETT: Yes. You’ll see Mickey’s name and Stan’s name.

Hank Chapman, John Compton... Gosh, another guy used two names, and he was prolific as heck. He could bat those things out in an hour. You would just tell him, “Hey, I need a story!” and an hour later, you got the story, typed and all. Delancey, Jack Delancey. That wasn’t his real name; he had another name. At any rate, you only got a couple bucks for them, $5 at the most, so it was just hack writing.

Mickey sold us some; and he did sell comics elsewhere, but he couldn’t sell any after the war. That’s when he got mad and wrote his first novel. It took him four weeks to write it.

RT: Four whole weeks to write I, The Jury?

EVERETT: It took him four weeks.

RT: Did you still know him at that period?

Bill, of course, wasn’t the only person who drew “Sub-Mariner” stories after the end of World War II. Here’s a threesome of examples, all ©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.: (Top left:) Artist(s) unknown—the bottom tier of a page whose top 2/3 was printed in A/E #32. By this point, Namor had become almost civilized. (And that’s Namora in the evening gown.)

(Above right:) This splash from Sub-Mariner #22 (Spring 1947) by another unknown artist—probably not Lee Elias, but perhaps influenced by his postwar version of the hero—underscores Bill’s point about the late-’40s Subby dealing with “petty things like cops-and-robbers.” With thanks to Matt Moring.

(Above left:) Five panels from a Mike Sekowsky-penciled story in Human Torch #31 (June 1948), with thanks to Matt Moring and Doc Vassallo.

EVERETT: I wasn’t in touch with him. Sure, I knew him, but I’ve seen him several times since.

Whenever we see each other, we’re buddy-buddy, but I never followed along with his record, like some of the other guys do.

He’s a great storyteller, that guy. He’s a wonderful storyteller.

RT: He sounds a little like your characterization of The Sub-Mariner in some ways.

EVERETT: Yes, I guess so.

RT: I imagine he would have loved The Sub-Mariner as he was originally created in 1939, 1940.

Through Funnies, Inc., Mickey Spillane apparently did write comics tales for Timely as well as text stories, though it’s impossible to document which ones.

Photo from the collection of the late Jerry de Fuccio.

EVERETT: It’s too bad we didn’t recognize that fact at that time, because we could have been a good team. We could have collaborated. He could have given me some wonderful ideas, but he and I didn’t jell that way at that time.

RT: A little later than Namora’s creation [1947], during the period when the super-hero was really dead [1950-51], you worked on a couple of characters which were sort-of bridging the gap between the horror comic that was then popular, and the super-hero. One of these was “Marvel Boy” [Dec., 1950–June, 1951] and, in particular, the “Venus” series [Aug., 1948–April, 1952], which you worked on for quite a time. How did you feel about this idea of trying to reconcile the super-hero/super-heroine type of character with the ghosts, goblins, and werewolves of the horror book? Did you think they’d work out? You did a lot of Venus books, I believe.

EVERETT: Yes, but I didn’t have any aesthetic feelings about it at all.

RT: Did you do any of the writing on any of those “Venus” stories?

EVERETT: Yes. I did. Of course, it was not my character to start with.

The original stories I got, all I did was illustrate them. I guess about the time that Stan was taking over, I began to write them, as well.

RT: You must have been glad when [in Young Men #24, Dec. 1953] The Sub-Mariner came back for a while.

EVERETT: Yes, but I wasn’t greatly thrilled. By that time I was doing other things.

RT: You were mainly on the horror books?

EVERETT: Yes, and I was happy with those, so it didn’t matter too much whether Sub-Mariner came back or not. I never had that much

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The Classic Bill Everett Interview From Alter Ego (Vol. 1) # 11

real pride in creation. I would create something like you manufacture something. It was to sell and if it sold, fine; if it didn’t, all right, I’d go create something else. But it wasn’t my baby, and I didn’t pet it and mollycoddle it or anything like that. In my mind, if the thing didn’t sell, it didn’t sell, and that was my tough luck.

RT: You had children at that time, didn’t you?

RT: How did you feel about the horror work that you did? Did you enjoy that?

EVERETT: Yes, I loved it.

RT: You did quite a few covers back then, I remember.

EVERETT: Yeah, those were a picnic. I really enjoyed those—again, my perverse nature.

RT: Did you write some of the stories there?

EVERETT: I wrote a lot of them.

They were fun, but again, I was that kind of a buff when I was a kid. I loved anything gruesome. I read ghost stories, horror stories, anything I could find. I really lapped it up. This was really a picnic.

RT: You didn’t feel, as Wertham said, later on, that you were corrupting— EVERETT: —the morals of the minors?

Hell, no!

Hero Comics—or Horror Comics?

(Above:) With issue #2 (Feb. 1951), Bill Everett took over the drawing (and probably the writing) of Marvel Boy, a young hero first drawn by Russ Heath.

Bob Grayson was an Earth-boy raised on Uranus when his father fled there with him to escape World War II—and he returned to his home planet wielding lighttossing wristbands that made him a super-hero. His other identity was… an insurance investigator.

Thanks to Doc V. (Left & right:) As detailed in A/E #29, Venus started out as a quasi-humorous, quasi-romance comic, and underwent a transition into science-fiction and horror for her latter issues— especially those written and drawn by Everett! “The Ashes of Death!” is from Venus #16 (Oct. 1951), “The Kiss of Death!” from the final issue, #19 (April 1952).

Do we detect a trend here, titlewise? Repro’d from photocopies of the original art. [Marvel Boy & Venus art ©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

EVERETT: Yes, but they couldn’t read. Later, when Wendy got old enough to read, she didn’t care anything about it. It didn’t faze them, because they saw it every day and they grew up, immune to it. It didn’t mean anything to them. I didn’t have any pangs of remorse about it, or feel that I was doing anyone any harm, because that sort of thing was available anywhere. And if you come right down to it, that little kid in Washington who wrote the rebuff in Saturday Review, David Wigransky [in Saturday Review, July 24, 1948. —Ed.]—a scathing rebuff of Wertham’s picnic—he made more sense than any letter or article I’ve ever read. It was widely published. This kid was 14 years old at the time, and the kid got all kinds of publicity. He lived in Washington and was up before committees and all that crap. But he quoted from the Bible. He said, “If Wertham is looking for bones to pick, let him read the Bible.” And he picked out sodomy, incest, murders, and the fratricide, patricide, matricide, and all these things, that occur in the Bible.

“You could read it in the best books that are published, but why are you picking on comics?” And then he came up with the story—I think he did [Actually, Wigransky did not —Ed.] or maybe I did—about the two kids who

Everett On Everett

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He was involved, I think, with Goodson-Todman and a few things. He had an idea to produce a Sub-Mariner series. He had been a great SubMariner fan. He had Herb Shriner, the Hoosier comedian, who was also a Sub-Mariner fan.

[2005 NOTE FROM ROY: I’ve always suspected that the last name of the TV producer Bill mentions above may have been the more common “Saperstein” rather than “Saverstein.” Interestingly, a Frank Saperstein has produced TV animation in the past few years—he may or may not be related to the earlier version—and back in the 1950s a Henry G. Saperstein produced some of the post-UPA Mr. Magoo cartoons… but I’ve never run across the name “Saverstein” in any other context. Indeed, when I did an Internet search for “Frank Saverstein TV producer,” a question appeared on my screen: “Did you mean: Frank Saperstein TV producer.” The only reference to a “Saverstein” that popped up turned out to be—my own mention of the name in Jon B. Cooke’s interview with me in Comic Book Artist #2 in 1998!]

RT: This was also during the time when the Superman show had been very popular. [It began in 1953. —Ed.] That was probably the influence.

Since we covered the 1953-55 revival of Sub-Mariner, Human Torch, and Captain America in detail in A/E #35, we’ll content ourselves with a relatively few images from what Ye Editor and numerous others feel was Bill’s very best period as an artist. This splash panel is from Sub-Mariner #39 (April 1955). [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

EVERETT: Yes, they figured if you could do it with Superman, you could do it with The Sub-Mariner. And it would be different, quite a different thing and difficult to film, and novel. And so then they got the money interests; they had Arthur Godfrey backing them, moneywise.

They went so far as to buy a PT Boat and get all kinds of underwater equipment, even before they got to the business negotiations. They were that sold on the idea of making the pilot.

RT: Did they have a star in mind?

stole an airplane and flew all the way to Texas with a comic book for instructions. And they would have been dead if they hadn’t had a comic book in their laps that told them how to fly the aircraft.

EVERETT: Yes, they wanted to use Richard Egan. I guess he’d agreed to do it. I couldn’t quite see it, but that was beside the point.

RT: When the super-hero characters were revived for that brief period [Dec., ’53–Oct., ’55], The Sub-Mariner outlasted The Human Torch and Captain America by approximately a year—quite a long time.

Was there any particular reason for that, as far as you know, besides sales?

EVERETT: I don’t know anything about that. All I know is that Frank

RT: Was Egan personally acquainted with the Sub-Mariner character?

EVERETT: I don’t know, because I didn’t have anything to do with that. I guess it was all the sales picture; it must have been the popularity.

RT: During this time, I understand that there was some talk of negotiation of a possible Sub-Mariner TV series. Could you tell me a little about that?

EVERETT: Yes, I can tell you as little as I know about it. I was called into the business manager’s office, one day, just out of a clear blue sky.

RT: This was about ’53 or ’54?

EVERETT: About ’54, I’d say, ’54 or ’55. And I was introduced to a man by the name of Frank Saverstein, whose father was a producer, and he was following in his footsteps, and producer of some pretty good stuff.

“Out of their skulls!” Two of Bill’s most striking horror covers—for Strange Tales #11 (Oct. 1952) and Spellbound #17 (Oct. 1953). Thanks to Doc Vassallo; Tim Doyle also sent the latter. [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

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The Classic Bill Everett Interview From Alter Ego (Vol. 1) # 11

When Bill’s son and daughter got old enough to read, he says, they weren’t bothered by the horror comics he drew. Here, Bill and young Wendy are surrounded by a montage of her dad’s horrific splashes.

See? They don’t faze her a bit! (Clockwise from top left:) Mystic #9 (June 1952)— Marvel Tales #108 (Aug. ’52)—and Adventures into Weird Worlds #10 (Sept. ’52) & #25 (Jan. 1954). Stan Lee wrote “It Happened in the Darkness!” Photo courtesy of Wendy Everett; art photocopies thanks to Doc V.—with John Selegue also sending the “Pit of Horror!” splash. Photo courtesy of Wendy Everett. [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Everett On Everett

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During 1954-55, when Hollywood producers were negotiating with Martin Goodman for rights to do a Sub-Mariner TV series, Namor was suddenly given back his ankle-wings, power of flight, and super-strength. Bill’s impression that two of the producers were “fans of the original Sub-Mariner, as he was before the war,” may be one reason the hero was restored to the greater powers he’d had in the early 1940s, as in this splash from issue #41 (Aug. 1955).

After all, he was going to have to compete with the popular Adventures of Superman! [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.] Two of those involved in the projected Sub-Mariner show were the ultrapopular radio and TV personality Arthur Godfrey (seen above “noodling around” on his ukelele while swingmeister Benny Goodman blows clarinet)— and comedian Herb Shriner (with mike), noted for his “dry and subtle humor” on such programs as Alka-Seltzer Time.

said they had the actor picked out. They wanted Richard Egan and he had agreed to make the pilot. That’s all I know. I don’t know how much interest Egan had in it.

acceptances were not, but that’s only a personal opinion. But it never went through and maybe it’s just as well. I don’t know. It would have been very difficult to film it.

RT: You never met him in connection with the negotiations?

RT: When one considers the fantastic financial success that Superman was, to the point where it’s kept National together during periods when it was in trouble—Sub-Mariner might have had a good chance to be popular. When you think of Sea Hunt and these other programs...

EVERETT: No, no, not at all. I was only in on the sessions that determined what we could do. Actually, it was designating responsibility. I was to be the story consultant, but the scripts would be written by their company. But I was to okay them and to advise them as to what The Sub-Mariner could and couldn’t do. I think that they wanted to go with the original Sub-Mariner, as I understand it. Frank and Herb both were fans of the original Sub-Mariner, as he was before the war, but wanted to bring him into modern situations.

RT: Probably with the same antiCommunist thing which you were doing in comics.

EVERETT: We didn’t get as far as discussing actual story material. Main discussions were about who’s going to get credit and who’s going to get paid for this, how we were going to run the operation.

But it fell apart somewhere along the line, in a session that I was not involved in, and nothing ever came of it. I think demands were made that shouldn’t have been and

EVERETT: Well, that’s what I had in mind. The success of Sea Hunt was rather phenomenal; it wasn’t a great moneymaker, but its staying power was really unheard-of. I never expected it to last as long as it did, even on reruns.

And I thought it was a great show, and it showed me that The Sub-Mariner could be filmed.

RT: And the popularity of the Jacques Cousteau TV programs under the sea shows that there is a lot of interest in the ocean bottoms. The sea seems to be very popular because it has this frontier feeling.

Bill seems to have had his doubts about Richard Egan playing his aquatic creation—but, in this juxtaposition of Egan from the 1954 film Khyber Patrol and a Namor head from Sub-Mariner #40 (June 1955), the actor seems a reasonable choice for the part. [Art ©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

EVERETT: Right. It’s unexplored, and you can do all kinds of fantastic things with it because we still don’t know what’s at the bottom of it. It ain’t known. So it had unlimited possibilities, and it’s just a

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The Classic Bill Everett Interview From Alter Ego (Vol. 1) # 11

Before what Timely fans called “the Atlas Implosion” of 1957, Bill drew beaucoup types of comics for publisher Martin Goodman and editor Stan Lee—such as this splash from Love Diary #9 (Oct. 1950), and the covers of Marvin Mouse #1 (Sept. 1957) and Jann of the Jungle #15 (Feb. ’57). Thanks to Doc V. for all three. [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

despite the age difference, got along beautifully at the time, because he was an extremely talented kid.

darn shame that it didn’t go through, at least as an experiment. And I love Sea Hunt, and it struck me that Lloyd Bridges would be a perfect Sub-Mariner. I mean, even the features—just alter them very, very slightly, and he’s The Sub-Mariner. He was ideal for the role and he looked great underwater and he certainly could have adapted to the role beautifully—and every time I see a Sea Hunt I get a little twinge because it could have been The SubMariner. It’s just one of those things that didn’t come to pass. Maybe good, maybe bad—I don’t know.

RT: You mentioned that Herb Shriner and Frank Saverstein were long-time Sub-Mariner fans. Why don’t you mention the story about Jack Lemmon now?

I asked you at various times about whether you had much contact at all with any fans. Any interesting stories about that during the early years?

RT: Very interesting that years later he made this movie, How to Murder Your Wife, in which he was a cartoonist. Mel Keefer drew the cartoons for that particular movie. One other thing I wanted to ask you very briefly: during the middle ’50s, weren’t you and John Severin and Joe Maneely pretty well the three mainstays of the entire Timely operation? It seems as though your names were on everything.

EVERETT: “The Three Musty Beards.”

“Lloyd Bridges would be a perfect Sub-Mariner.” Thus spracht Wild Bill of the late Sea Hunt star. Bridges even looked a bit like Bill—as did Namor!

RT: As Shakespeare would have put it, “The triple pillar of the world.”

EVERETT: Well, I don’t know. We were supposed to be the kingpins of Marvel—or Timely Comics, as we were known then.

EVERETT: Well, I don’t know how it originally came up, but I think somebody must have mentioned something about one of Jack Lemmon’s pictures. I RT: We still get packages that say “Timely.” happened to mention he used to be one of my fans. Actually, he did, but EVERETT: For some reason we were just set aside a little bit from the he was quite young. When he was about 12 years old, my cousin was a rest of them. We worked together—not as a team—but we worked the very close friend of Jack Lemmon’s mother. I was about 20 or 21 at the same hours, the same desks, sort of away from everybody. We were sort time. We went to their house in Weston, Massachusetts, several times. of the “white collar workers.”

Jack was just a little fellow, quite talented. He was interested in music; he was interested in drawing, and he was very much interested in the RT: And I understand you used to lose Fridays. comics (such as they were at that point, which was very, very early in the game). And he was a fan of mine, a fan of my work. I Jack Lemmon can’t recall whether it was When Roy Thomas looked up and spotted this talented mega-star standing only a few feet away from the beginning of “The Subhim in the outer office of Interscope Productions one day in early-1980s L.A., his first impulse was to rush Mariner” or whether it was over and ask him if he remembered Bill Everett! Roy’s second impulse was to stay seated right where he “Amazing-Man” that he was, and not blow the deal he and Gerry Conway had for a screenplay called Doc Dynamo. (A screenplay was particularly fond of. He which will soon be published, incidentally, by Jean-Marc & Randy Lofficier’s Blackcoat Press.) was quite a follower of Later, Roy wrote to Lemmon through his agent—even mentioning that fact that Felicia Furr (the alter ego comics then and I think for of Alley-Kat-Abra in his and Scott Shaw!’s Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew! comic for DC) had the ensuing years through been named after Lemmon’s wife, actress Felicia Farr. But the agent wrote back that Lemmon didn’t recall his early teens. He and I, ever knowing the comic book artist. Still, memories have been known to be faulty… and not just Bill’s.

Everett On Everett EVERETT: Fridays were completely lost. They were real short until noontime and they then just sort-of disappeared and the whole day disintegrated from then on. Yep, that was kind-of nice.

RT: So you were a good friend of Joe Maneely?

EVERETT: Yes, we were good buddies. John, Joe, and I had that in common: that we did the key stories for the books. Our stuff happened to sell better, perhaps, than anybody else’s. Although there was Russ Heath; his stuff was very good, and Gene Colan was coming on pretty strong. But they worked at home, so this separated us. When they came in, it was to pick up stories or pick up checks or put in vouchers or something, whereas we worked in the office on staff as well as free-lance.

We were putting out books like Snafu, oddball things such as Nellie the Nurse and junk like that, which we did on staff.

RT: Millie the Model?

EVERETT: No, but that sort of thing—and that was just done on staff. Covers were all done on staff, but the rest of it we would take home. But that sort of set us aside, so we were just The Three Musketeers off in a corner. We were Peck’s Bad Boys.

RT: When Timely more or less went out of the comic publishing game around ’57, did you quit the field and go into other things?

EVERETT: Well, yes, we had to. We had to

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do something. Some of the kids got caught short; they just couldn’t believe that it would happen. But a few of us were lucky enough to see the handwriting on the wall, and we were told what was going to come and it would be a pretty bad thing. So I didn’t hang around and wait for it to happen. I went out and lined up another job in another business, which was greeting cards. [Norcross. —Ed.] So when the break did come, I wasn’t without work. I went to work right away, but a lot of guys didn’t. It’s too bad—they didn’t think the break-up would be that complete. So I got into the greeting card business and stayed there for a few years.

RT: Yes, some of these things are decided quite suddenly. The Fawcett company was the same way. One day they were publishing quite a few comics, and the next day they were publishing absolutely none, because Fawcett decided publishing comics wasn’t profitable enough and if they were going to stop Captain Marvel, they would just stop everything. What were some of the factors, as you understand them, that led to the almost-dissolution of the Timely Comics empire in the late ’50s? Was it merely the merger of the distributing arm, Atlas, with American News?

[NOTE: As detailed below, it was not a merger. —Roy.] EVERETT: I would say that was a big factor. We always had distribution problems, anyway. When this thing happened, as I understand it, Martin had

Rather than photos, we couldn’t resist reprinting this John Severin cartoon of Bill Everett, Joe Maneely, and himself drawn at the time of the Timely “implosion” of 1957, which originally appeared with Doc Vassallo’s in-depth study of Maneely in A/E #28, courtesy of daughter Nancy Maneely.

We’ve juxtaposed this caricature with examples of art by all three comics greats: (Left:) “The Parrot!” splash by Everett, from the English b&w reprint comic Creepy Worlds #167. We’re not sure of the US mag in which this story had originally appeared. [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.] (Center:) Maneely’s splash for the second story in Yellow Claw #1 (Oct. 1956). [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.] (Right:) A rare John Severin super-hero drawing—an unnamed Human Torch in an ad takeoff in the parody mag Cracked, probably from the 1960s, sent to Ye Ed a few years back by John’s relative, Mad associate editor Jerry de Fuccio. [©2005 the respective copyright holders.]

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The Classic Bill Everett Interview From Alter Ego (Vol. 1) # 11 The Sub-Mariner and then all the other characters, I figured comics must really be doing pretty good. So it was worth a long shot, so I sent a wire to Stan. It was a weekend, and I couldn’t call him; I just sent him a night letter. The following Monday he called me up and said, “Come back to work,” so I did. It was as simple as that.

RT: Didn’t the Playboy article appear after the first issue of Daredevil? It seemed to me that it appeared after.

Two dogs’ heads which Bill drew during his inter-comics career in commercial art—though even Wendy E., who provided them (and the other two we ran in A/E V3#3), isn’t sure quite when or for whom they were done. Perhaps for Eton? Norcross? [©2005 the respective copyright holders.]

always wanted to get another, big distributor—United or American, anybody who had something to offer—but he couldn’t crack ’em. They wouldn’t take the product, so he formed his own and called it Atlas.

And they did all right. I guess they worked through Cadence at first.

Atlas did their own distribution, as far as I can remember. I might not be completely accurate on it.

EVERETT: Yes, Daredevil came out first, when I was still working for Eton. I must have called Stan, had some contact with him, I don’t know why. I know we tried to do it on the phone. I know he had this idea for Daredevil; he thought he had an idea. And we tried to talk it over on the phone, and it just—it wouldn’t work. With a long distance phone call, it just wasn’t coming out right, so I said, “All right, I’ll come down this weekend or something. I’ll take a day off and come down to New York.” I know I was still with Eton because I did take a couple of days off from work, and I came down and talked to him. I did the one issue, but I found that I couldn’t do it and handle my job, too. It was just too much. I had to work overtime on the job, because it was a

But at any rate, he did have a chance, finally, to go with American. So he sold Atlas, and that was a mistake—not a mistake, but an unfortunate happening. It looked good, very fine, and the contract was signed, but there wasn’t any way he could keep Atlas. So he sold it and put a lot of people out of work and then, as I understand it, American News defaulted on a contract and defaulted with Dell, also, and left us high and dry with absolutely no distributor. And since we had dropped Atlas, all our customers were mad because now they were getting no magazines at all for their customers.

So it left Martin in a pretty bad spot—cordially detested by a lot of people because he wasn’t producing and he couldn’t. How could he? So this was a bad, very bad, period, and there wasn’t anything you could do, because there was no income because you couldn’t sell anything. So he had to disband and he had to cut the payroll down to nothing— which he promptly did and then, of course, gradually got straightened out.

RT: What brought you back to comics in the early ’60s? Of course, you did Daredevil #1, and later you came back and have been with Marvel ever since.

EVERETT: That was just a matter of circumstance, more than anything else. Then, I was art director for Eton Paper Corporation in Massachusetts, a very good job, and I didn’t like it. I was there for about four years, and we agreed to disagree, so I left. I didn’t have anything to do. Not that I needed anything particularly at that time, but I would eventually. I had absolutely no idea of going back to comics; I didn’t even think about it. I had a couple other prospects elsewhere. I wasn’t really working on them, just waiting for things to develop. I picked up a copy of Playboy magazine which had Jules Feiffer’s article in it [Playboy, Oct. ’65, “The Great Comic Book Heroes” —Ed.], and saw the pictures of Sub-Mariner in it— RT: Which was actually a shortened form of his book, which later came out.

EVERETT: It was the first I even thought about the comics, and of course it was kind-of a shocker to see a whole article in Playboy about comics. They must be doing all right, you know?

RT: With a picture and several mentions of Bill Everett’s SubMariner.

EVERETT: Well, just a picture and a caption, that was all. But to see

The Everett “Sub-Mariner” story from Marvel Mystery Comics #7 (May 1940) was reprinted in Jules Feiffer’s seminal 1965 hardcover collection The Great Comic Book Heroes. In fact, panel 4 from this very page was reprinted in an excerpt from that book which ran a month or so earlier in Playboy magazine!

Namor was back—and so, ere long, was Wild Bill Everett! Repro’d from photocopies of the original art. [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Everett On Everett

contributed most to comic books—as opposed to strips—who do you think would be some of the giants in the field? Not necessarily so much influencing your own work, but influencing the entire field.

managerial job; I didn’t get paid overtime but I was on an annual salary, so my time was not my own. I was putting in 14 or 15 hours a day at the plant and then to come home and try to do comics at night was just too much. And I didn’t make deadlines—I just couldn’t make them—so I just did the one issue and didn’t do any more.

RT: Then when you came to Marvel full-time, you immediately started to work on “The Hulk.” This is not a particularly profound question, but how did you feel about that character? You did him longer than most people. There are about four or five artists associated with the Hulk, but you did a fair number of the stories. How did you like working over Kirby’s breakdowns?

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Daredevil’s wasn’t the only name comics readers would be hearing again—they’d hear Bill Everett’s, as well—but not for a year or so, as his moonlighting on Daredevil #1 (April 1964) didn’t work out well either for him or for Marvel. Rumors abound that Ditko and others had to work on the issue to whip it into shape at the last minute, but, even if that’s true, it still came out looking like Everett! The two flanking snapshots of Bill appeared in A/E (V1) #11. [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

EVERETT: There was a lot of controversy about how the Hulk should look. Stan kept trying to tell me what he wanted and tried to express himself, but to describe that character would be pretty hard for anybody. And so, finally, he just threw up his hands and said, “Well, draw him the way you want to. Give me your conception of what he should look like.” So I did and he liked it. So that’s the way I wound up doing it, but you notice that the first two or three issues I did, he was a little bit different in each issue, because Stan kept saying, “Well, this issue let’s try to do him this way, make this change, make that change,” so eventually he said, “Well, do him the way you want to.” And I was doing it that way when I stopped doing him and started doing “Doc Strange.”

EVERETT: That has to be categorized, I think, like Westerns, whatever type of thing it is, you’ve got to break it down that way. One guy will shine in one field and another in another.

Some of them are still in the business: Al Williamson, Wally Wood, Reed Crandall, John Severin, Joe Maneely (I don’t think he was a Great, but had he lived, he would have been; he would have come on real strong). Paul Gustavson was influential. Guys in the field like Kirby and Simon, Joe Shuster, those guys; I didn’t know enough about their work at the time. So, I don’t know, there are probably a lot of candidates there. Toth, for example, and guys who came into the field in the early ’50s that I didn’t know.

RT: Well, how did you feel about that character?

EVERETT: I liked it. It was a challenge, because I tried to do Ditko-like work and that was next to impossible. There are very few people who can imitate Ditko. Call the artwork good, bad, or indifferent, it doesn’t make any difference; it definitely is stylized. Ditko is Doc Strange and vice versa. Nobody else can do it like he does. Very difficult. I tried to keep my drawing and Ditko’s influence. And it was very difficult, but it was fun. I enjoyed doing it. It was, again, decorative design work.

RT: You’ve been in the field a very long time if you count the total span, even though you’ve been in and out of it for the war and other jobs. If you were asked to name a handful of people that you feel had

The first Everett “Hulk” splash—penciled and inked over Jack Kirby breakdowns—from Tales to Astonish #78 (April 1966). Bill and Stan Lee never came totally to terms over the look of the monster. [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

RT: Who do you feel is doing the best work today? Some of the people you mentioned, of course, are not in the field.

EVERETT: Today? Again, I’m not prejudiced, but the only things that I see and read are mainly Marvel’s.

John Buscema, I think, is absolutely great. I think Neal Adams is terrific; some of his work is just out of this world. I was looking at some of his stuff this morning, and it was tremendous. I don’t know if I’d call him a Great; I think his work is great. I think Colan’s great. I think Russ Heath should be considered.

Will Elder, definitely. Eisner, of course. Those guys go without saying. Jerry Siegel... those guys are already established—and know that they are—and if there is a Hall of Fame, they should be in it, anyhow.

But of today’s crop, I can only speak for the Marvel guys.

Steranko, I think, made a dent in the field with his very modern kind of interpretation, and I think he’s quite a genius in his own right. He made a switch, because he developed this technique which is a little different, which we all wanted to do, and we’re all mad as hell because Stan accepted his work when he wouldn’t accept ours. It’s not a matter of jealousy—because it’s deeper than that. It was hard to get editors to accept something different. It had to be the same form

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The Classic Bill Everett Interview From Alter Ego (Vol. 1) # 11

“Some Of [The Greats] Are Still In The Business.”

Among those artists whose work from the 1940s-50s Bill Everett admired were: Al Williamson, represented (top left) by a panel from Strange Tales #53 (1956), repro’d from Dark Horse’s recent book Al Williamson: Hidden Lands by Thomas Yeates, Mark Schultz, and S.C. Ringgenberg. [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.] Wally Wood (top center), who drew stunning women and startling worlds like these from EC’s Weird Science #14 (July-Aug. 1952). [©2005 William M. Gaines Agent.]

John Severin’s splash for EC’s Two-Fisted Tales #40 (Dec. 1954-Jan. 1955), repro’d (top right) from the Russ Cochran b&w hardcovers. [©2005 William M. Gaines Agent.]

Joe Maneely, as per splash page (center left) from Timely’s Combat Kelly #7 (Nov. 1952), with thanks to Doc V. [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.] Paul Gustavson, seen (above, center) in a 1945 “Rusty Ryan” splash (albeit with an unfortunate racial stereotype) from Quality’s Feature Comics, repro’d from a b&w Australian reprint, thanks to Michael Baulderstone. [©2005 the respective copyright holders.]

Simon and Kirby, well-represented (center right) by a splash intended for the never-published Fighting American #8 in 1955, first printed in the 1966 Harvey special. Repro’d from a photocopy of the original artwork. [©2005 Joe Simon & Estate of Jack Kirby.]

Reed Crandall, some of whose best work appeared in EC's short-lived Piracy—as per the cover (left) of #2 (Dec. 1954-Jan. 1955). [©2005 William M. Gaines Agent.]

Alex Toth, who in the 1960s did some of his best work for Warren Publishing, as in this splash (bottom right) from Creepy #5 (Oct. 1965), as reprinted in the 1991 volume Creepy: The Classic Years. [©2005 Harris Publications, Inc.]

Everett On Everett

Among those whose work he followed circa 1970, Bill singled out: John Buscema, whose Conan sketch appeared in The Art of John Buscema, Vol. 1 edited by Sal Quartuccio and Bob Keenan.

[Art ©2005 Estate of John Buscema; Conan TM & ©2005 Conan Properties, Inc.] Neal Adams, cover of The Phantom Stranger #15 (Sept.-Oct. 1971), inked by Dick Giordano; with thanks to Scott Goodell. [©2005 DC Comics.]

Gene Colan’s work can be seen today in its full glory when repro’d from his pencils, like the commission drawing done for Robert Knuist (or was it Robert Justice?).

[Art ©2005 Gene Colan; Daredevil & Dr. Doom TM & ©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.] Russ Heath’s Johnny Thunder cover for Showcase #72 (Jan.-Feb. 1968). [©2005 DC Comics.]

Will Elder, whose story “Mole!” (written and laid out by Harvey Kurtzman) was an instant classic in Mad #2 (Dec. 1952-Jan. 1953). [©2005 E.C. Publications, Inc.] Will Eisner’s 1991 cover for the Kitchen Sink reprint title The Spirit #85. [©2005 Will Eisner.]

Jerry Siegel, the only pure writer Bill mentioned—whose “Superman,” seen here as drawn by another great, Joe Shuster, for the first week of the newspaper comic strip, revolutionized comic books, making “Amazing-Man,” “Sub-Mariner,” “Daredevil,” and all the rest possible. [©2005 DC Comics.]

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The Classic Bill Everett Interview From Alter Ego (Vol. 1) # 11 modern for a comic book, I don’t know. Basically, a comic book’s a comic book, and you’re just there to tell a story and to illustrate it in a dramatic way.

RT: Everybody I know argues to what extent the comic books were, are, should be, and will be a cinematic medium. Do you have any feelings on this, and were you and are you influenced by motion pictures.

EVERETT: No. Not at all, to my knowledge. I never was much of a movie-goer. I like to go and see a good movie, and I occasionally see a movie where I would like to use the technique in a comic strip, but it’s only if I happen to be working in comics at the time. And it’s strictly commercial; it’s not from an aesthetic standpoint at all.

RT: What were some movies, for example, which you saw?

To clarify Bill’s quote on p. 29—“We’re all mad as hell because Stan accepted [Steranko’s] work when he wouldn’t accept ours”: Bill was referring to the fact that, earlier, both he and Roy had separately broached with editor Stan Lee the possibility of trying a few minor innovations in their Marvel stories, such as lettering titles or logos as part of the art—something which hearkened back to Will Eisner and his influence on the early Quality Comics. Stan, content with the then-current style of titles, turned them down.

In his “S.H.I.E.L.D.” series, especially starting with Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #1 (June 1968), newcomer Jim Steranko, being both writer and penciler of his material, just did some of the things Bill and Roy had earlier asked permission to do. Thus, in the 1969-70 interview, Bill was expressing his displeasure that trying such things later made one appear to be imitating Steranko. For his part, Roy simply stopped asking permission in certain areas and worked the story title into the art in the splash for The Avengers #56 (Sept. 1968)—roughly lettering-in the story’s title after John Buscema had penciled the bridge.

However, even in 1978, Roy winced to see in print Bill’s statement that Steranko’s work “fell on its face,” since S.H.I.E.L.D. was a moderately decent seller under the skilled young writer/artist… although it’s true that that mag and the much-praised Thomas/Colan/Palmer Dr. Strange of the same era were Marvel’s two poorest sellers among the features which gained their own titles in 1968. But sales are hardly the sole criterion of worth, even in a commercial-art field like comics. [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

or formula right down there. We wanted to use Zipatone, we wanted to use impressionistic scenes, we wanted to use superimposition and all kinds of modern stuff, and were never allowed to do it. And suddenly, this little kid comes along and is allowed to do it and does a great job of it, and it’s great.

RT: I know the feeling.

EVERETT: Of frustration: “Why the hell didn’t you let me do this ten years ago, when I wanted to?”

RT: Of course, then, the fact that Steranko’s stuff did not sell any better, perhaps not as well, as many other people’s—EVERETT: He didn’t have the knowledge or the experience to incorporate his technique with the style, with a set style and formula of writing comics. In other words, I think the two can be compatible, but not without the basic knowledge of what is an old-time comic. Take a guy like Kirby, who can tell a story with a pencil. If Kirby’s style of telling a story could be combined with Steranko’s technique of illustration, then we have something, I think, because the style would have to be tempered to suit Kirby’s storytelling and vice versa. But for one guy who hasn’t been in the business very long to try to do it, it’s next to impossible, if not impossible. That’s why I think Steranko’s stuff fell on its face. It shouldn’t, because it is a good style; it may be a little too

EVERETT: Offhand, I can’t think of one right now. I only saw one James Bond thing, and I really didn’t see anything that could be depicted. What I get mainly out of movies is plot material or some gimmick that I think can be used.

RT: What about television?

EVERETT: Television I’ve seen a lot of, but I don’t think it’s influenced my comic work at all.

RT: You were one of the first people, I suppose, to ever use television in a comic book. When we reprinted one of your early Torch/Sub-Mariner fights you and Carl Burgos did, there was one of the old type of television sets in it, in which the picture was projected on a screen from below, and someone wrote in saying that we had redrawn that and taken out a radio to put in a television set. [“The Human Torch Versus the SubMariner” from Marvel Mystery #9, July, 1940; reprinted in Fantasy Masterpieces #8, April, 1967. —Ed.] [2005 NOTE: And more recently reprinted in the softcover Marvel 65th Anniversary Special #1. —Roy.] I just wanted you to know that.

EVERETT: My influence there comes from another experience I had; I was art editor for a radio magazine, a technical equipment publication, which indirectly was the beginning of my comic career (which is kind-of a weird thing). But, before I had anything to do with comics, I was in publishing and I worked for a tech publication and I was art editor for them, and we put out two radio news magazines. They were all technical, no fan stuff, no radio stars or anything like that. Strictly for hams and professionals. And we had all kinds of TV equipment, and this was 1936 and we had television then. And we had our own laboratory, so I was in constant touch with it. I had to edit all the pictures that were sent in by hams. They had done this in their basement—“And here’s a way you can do a TV receiver or facsimile receiver” or whatever. And new burglar alarms—anything electronic—and I was quite fascinated watching this television.

Everett On Everett

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The only personality that was on TV in those days was announcer Dennis James, and he started in 1938 in TV. He’s really the king of television, as far as the stars are concerned. Everything was test patterns or maybe an hour show a day, something like that—it was all experimental. So naturally, when the opportunity came up, I had to throw it into my story.

RT: Are there any thoughts that you’d like to state?

EVERETT: Like any other artist, I could go on for hours, but they would just be the small stories. But I don’t think of anything important, because we weren’t—at least I didn’t consider myself or anybody else— terribly important in the field from the beginning—or even through the ’50s, RT: Alter Ego is basically a super-hero-oriented fanzine, and one of the reasons I wanted to cover you and The Sub-Mariner was because he seems to be one of the handful—and I mean really small handful—of old-time characters that had any depth. It didn’t mean that you had to work very hard; all you had to do was write him naturally, instead of in some stilted kind of style.

EVERETT: There wasn’t any depth to him; that’s the whole thing which is surprising. The fact that he had any durability at all is surprising, because there was no depth to the character.

RT: But compared to the other characters, the Supermans and the Batmans, and even the Torches, there was a depth.

EVERETT: It was there, except I didn’t know it. Had I known then what I know now, we really could have played it up beautifully. The only work involved was to get a plot and to keep him in character throughout the plot, when I brought him up to New York City and got him involved with Betty Dean and these other people that I invented.

RT: You did “The Sub-Mariner” again for a while. How do you feel about that character now, with the fact that he’s been changed? Do you feel he’s been changed so much that he’s no longer The SubMariner you created, or do you just feel there have been a few slight adjustments here and there?

EVERETT: Well, he’s not the original Sub-Mariner, by any means. I think there was a place for him and a time for this change. In other words, it was—I can’t think of the word I want, but let’s say “contemporary.” It was needed. Something like that was needed at the time that Stan made the change, and I think that’s why the kids bought it and it was good for that reason. But from my own personal standpoint, no, I mean, it’s not The Sub-Mariner. He never talked that way, he didn’t act that way. He was arrogant, but in an entirely different way, in a more human way. He never thought of himself as God Almighty, as is the concept now.

RT: The Sub-Mariner has been accused in a number of letters and fanzine articles of being a bigot, perhaps a racist, and so forth. Do you feel that your character would have had the same charges leveled at him? Did you ever get any mail?

EVERETT: No, we didn’t get that much fan mail. If we got one letter a month, it was amazing. The kids didn’t write letters much.

RT: Of course, you never did any letters pages, either.

EVERETT: No, we didn’t. The fans didn’t write. But I don’t think The Sub-Mariner could ever be accused of being a bigot, because he had no message, for one thing. His only message was that he wanted to get even with the human race, because he thought they were trying to destroy his race. So it was all retaliatory; all his ideas were. I don’t think he looked down on the human race. They were just his enemies, maybe on equal terms, except he was one man fighting the entire race of beings.

Bill’s “Dr. Strange” had a certain flair. From Strange Tales #149 (Oct. 1966). [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

RT: Well, he did occasionally mention that he was going to make himself emperor of the entire United States.

EVERETT: All right, it probably did evolve to that at some point.

RT: I believe that was the story where he was talking to the mayor of New York. Which mayor was that, by the way?

EVERETT: LaGuardia. I even had him, using the caricature.

RT: That was the one that was in Feiffer’s book. [Marvel Mystery Comics #7. —Ed.] EVERETT: I don’t think I ever wrote it consciously that way. I had my little hang-ups like everybody else—although I liked LaGuardia. And it didn’t make any difference if I happened to like somebody; if they were a public figure that you could pick on, you do it anyway. He might be a hero, but you could pick on him because it’s current. But I didn’t have any ax to grind, really—I must have, underneath, or I never would have created this anti-hero—but I wasn’t conscious of it.

RT: Of course, then, you didn’t call him an anti-hero, either.

EVERETT: No, I’m using that kind of term; but no, we didn’t have any fancy names for him. He was a bad guy or he was a hero, that’s all.

RT: Thanks, Bill.

34

The Classic Bill Everett Interview From Alter Ego (Vol. 1) # 11

BILL EVERETT Checklist [NOTE: The following is, as usual, taken from information generously provided by Dr. Jerry G. Bails in his Who’s Who of 20th-Century American Comic Books, which can be accessed online at www.nostromo.no/whoswho/. Additions and corrections are invited. The names of features which appeared both in anthology magazines and in their own titles are not generally rendered in italics below. There is some likelihood that Everett wrote as well as drew some of the early features such as “Skyrocket Steele,” “Amazing-Man,” “The Fin,” and “Hydroman,” among others. Key: (a) = full art; (p) = pencils only; (i) = inking only; (w) = writer; (d) = daily comic strip; (S) = Sunday comic strip.]

Name: Bill Everett (full name: William Blake Everett) [1917-73] (artist, writer, colorist, editor)

1955, 1957, 1960; Best Love (a) 1950; Bible Tales (a) 1953; Black Rider (i) 1959; Black Widow (i) 1970-71; Combat Casey (back-up Pen Names: Everett Blake; Bill features) (a) 1953; Captain America Roman; H. Varela; William Blake; (i) 1971; The Cat (a) 1973; Willie Bee; Herbill (with Herb Chamber of Chills (i) 1973; Trimpe) Chamber of Darkness (w/I) 1970; Crazy (a) 1953-54; covers (p/I) Education: Vesper George School 1950-59, 1968-77 (?); Daredevil (a) of Art (Boston) 1964, (i) 1966, 1971-72; Dr. Strange (a) 1966-67; Fear (a) 1972; The Fin Influences: Mead Schaffer, Floyd (a) 1941-42; Girl Confessions (a) Davis, Dean Cornwall, et al.

1952; Gullivar Jones (i) 1972; Illustrator: retail advertising, late Gunhawk (i) 1971; Hulk (a) 1966; 1950s/early 1960s Hulk (w) 1968; Human Torch (w/a) 1941; Human Torch & Sub-Mariner Artist: Gag Cartoons: Collectors of (w/a) 1940-41; Inhumans (i) 1971; Humor 1967 Iron Man (plot/p/i) 1973; Journey into Mystery (a) 1950s/1957; Promos: Adventures of the Big Journey into Unknown Worlds (a) Boy (a) 1956 for Big Boy 1950, 1956-57; jungle (a) 1951-60; Restaurants Prince Namor bats New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia around in Marvel Ka-Zar (i) 1971; Love Adventures Mystery Comics #7 (May 1940). [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.] Art Director: Radio News (a) 1952; Love Diary (a) 1950; Love Magazine (late 1930s), Ziff-Davis Romances (a) 1951; Love Tales (a) 1952; letters page illustration (a) in Publications (asst. art director, dates unknown) Loveland 1951; Man Comics (a) 1953; Marvel Boy (w/a) 1951; Marvel Tales (a) 1949-52, 1956; Marvin Mouse (a) 1957; Men’s Adventures (a) Syndicate Credits (Newspaper Comic Strips): Skyrocket Steele (a) 1951-53; Menace (a) 1953-54; Millie the Model (i) 1950s; Mystical Tales 1939 (a) 1956; Mystic (a) 1952, 1955-57; mystery/occult (w/a) 1970, 1972-73; Namora (w/a) 1947-49; Navy Action (a) 1954-55, 1957; Navy Combat Comics Studio (Shop): Funnies, Inc. (w/a) 1939-42 (a) 1955, 1958; Nellie the Nurse (a) 1957; Nick Fury (i) 1968; Not Brand Echh (i, some p) 1967; Patriot (a) 1941; Quick-Trigger Western COMIC BOOK CREDITS (Mainstream US): (a) 1956; Rawhide Kid (i) 1972; Rawhide Kid (w/a, misc. backups) Centaur & related companies: Amazing-Man (a) 1939-40; covers (a) 1966-68; Riot (a) 1956; Romance Tales (a) 1950; Sgt. Fury and His Uncle Joe’s Funnies #1; covers & illustrations (a) 1938; Skyrocket Steele Howling Commandos (w) 1970; Snafu (w) 1956; Spellbound (a) 1952, (a) 1938-40 1956; Spider-Man (p/i) 1966-68; Spy Cases (a) 1950; Strange Stories of Suspense (a) 1955-57; Strange Tales of the Unusual (a) 1956; Strange Charlton & related companies: Public Defender (a) 1955; Rookie Tales (a) 1951-58; Sub-Mariner (a/some w) 1939-42, 1947-49, 1953-55, Cop (a) 1955 1966-67, 1972-73; Sub-Mariner and Dr. Doom (p) 1975; Suspense (a) 1950-53, sports (a) 1950, 1952; Tales of Asgard (i) 1967; Tales of Justice DC Comics & related companies: All-American Men of War (a) (a) 1955-56; Thor (i) 1967, 1969-70; True Secrets (a) 1954; True Tales of 1960; covers (a) 1960 Love (a) 1956; Two-Gun Kid (w/a, misc. backups) 1966, 1968; Uncanny Eastern Color Printing & related companies (incl. Famous Tales (a) 1952-53, 1955-56; Venus (w/a) 1951-52; War Comics (a) 1952; Funnies): covers (a) 1940-41/1950-53; Dickie Dare (a) 1941; Heroic Wild (a) 1954; Young Men (a, some w) 1952-54; Zany (a) 1958-59 Comics (a) 1947/1950-51; Hydroman (a) 1940-41; Music Master (a) Novelty Comics/Curtis: Bull’s-Eye Bill (a); Chameleon (a) 1940-42; 1942; New Heroic Comics (a) 1948-50; romance (a) 1951 covers (a) 1941; Dick Cole (a) 1941; Sub-Zero (a) 1941; Twister (i) 1941; Feature Comics/Crestwood/Headline/Prize: Personal Love (a) 1953 White Streak (a) 1940 G & D Publications: Blast! (a) 1971 Hillman Periodicals: Conqueror (a) 1941; covers (a) 1941 Lev Gleason & related companies: Rex Reed in the Americas (a) 1942 Major Magazines & related companies: covers (a) 1958-60 for Cracked magazine Marvel (incl. Timely & related companies): Adventures into Weird Worlds (a) 1952; Amazing Detective Cases (a) 1952; Astonishing (a) 1951-52, 1955-57; Battlefield (a) 1953; Battlefront (a) 1957; Battle (a)

Orbit Publications & related companies: crime, romance, & Western (a) 1950 Parents’ Magazine Press: True Comics (a) 1941-42 Quality Comics: various features (a) 1940 Satire Publications: Loco (a) 1959 Skywald Publishing Co.: cover (paint) for Psycho, 1971; horror (a) 1971-72; romance (i) 1971

In Memoriam

Bill Everett

35

The Ancient Sub-Mariner – A Tribute by Roy Thomas This early-1970s photo of Bill Everett accompanied Roy’s short tribute when it first appeared in Alter Ego (Vol. 1) #11 in 1978. Ye Ed continues to believe that Bill’s art reached an all-time high with the Timely/Atlas hero revival of 1953-55, so we’ll close with this splash page from Sub-Mariner #40 (June 1955)—and a never-before-published pencil sketch of Namor, drawn circa 1970 by Bill for Marv Wolfman’s fabled sketchbook.

[Sketch ©2005 Estate of Bill Everett; Sub-Mariner TM & ©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

I

am, I’m afraid, no expert on the life, times, and career of the late and very talented Bill Everett.

Others more diligent than I will have to record the precise dates of his birth and death. Others more artistically aware will have to analyze the strengths, the weaknesses, the influences of his artwork. And still others more meticulously painstaking will have to catalogue his work, from “Skyrocket Steele” through those final “Sub-Mariner” tales on which he was working when, most unexpectedly and far too soon, he died.

Myself, I could never reconcile Bill the man with “Bill Everett,” creator of The Sub-Mariner. After all, even though I began to read Prince Namor in his first declining period (1946-49), and even though the powers-that-were had forced Bill and others to turn Namor from a sea-going hell-raiser into a mere catcher-of-smugglers, Subby was still one of the great heroes of my youth. When I played at mock heroics in a Missouri swimming pool at the age of eight or so, it was always The Sub-Mariner (pronounced by me Sub-MaREENer) I portrayed, not Aquaman. Anyone who had predicted that Aquaman would survive as a solo star after The Sub-Mariner had passed from center-stage would have been laughed out of the deep end. It still seems vaguely unjust to me... not unlike Gene Autry being unseated as King of the Cowboys by Roy Rogers while Autry was off at war.

Yet, despite all the above, Bill Everett slowly, surely, became a person to me during 1965 and 1966, soon after I came to Marvel Comics. I had heard the stories by then (from Stan Lee and Sol Brodsky, both of whom truly liked the guy) of how Bill’s Daredevil #1, drawn while he was working full-time at another job, was so late coming in that it cost the company thousands of dollars. Literally thousands. Comic book economics being what they are and were, I was surprised that Stan was still willing, even eager, to have Bill finally dump his commercial-art job and take up comics again on a regular basis.

But, that’s the way Bill affected people. Though he was the most human of men, he nonetheless inspired a kind of awe mixed with a genuine liking and respect. Over the next few years he’d be given staff positions, freelance status—whatever he seemed to need to give him a chance to realize his potential. When his penciling failed to sell comics in the 1960s, he became a top-notch inker ... later one of Marvel’s best colorists (see Silver Surfer #1, for example). Stan (as well as thenpublisher Martin Goodman, who had bought that first “Sub-Mariner” story some three decades before) was always willing to take a flyer with him. So were the rest of us.

Did I mention that Bill and I were roommates off and on in the 1960s, when I was single first time around? We were—first when I lived

in Greenwich Village, later on East 87th Street.

Though others such as Gary Friedrich and later Mike Friedrich were probably closer to him on a personal basis in his last few years, I spent a lot of time with him during his re-introduction to comics in the late ’60s. I was enthralled and entertained, hour upon hour, by stories of the early days of comics—many of which I could not get him to remember or repeat when I pulled out a taperecorder. Though he left ink-stained handprints on the wall of my first uptown apartment, it’s the mark on my life and heart that I feel the most.

Bill had his problems. Alcoholism plagued him for much of his adult life, though he kept it under control until the later years, especially after the death of his beloved wife a few years before his own. The story has a happy ending of sorts, though: Bill joined Alcoholics Anonymous and became a moving force in the New York chapter during the final couple of years of his life... and I don’t think he’d want to read an accounting of his life that didn’t mention that.

There are a goodly number of people in New York City who hardly were aware that Bill was an artist or writer, yet who grieved when he died because of what he had meant to them as a friend: a pillar of strength in their own weak moments, after he had found himself.

When he died, something went out of all of us. With the exception of the death last December of my good friend John Verpoorten, no passing from the comics scene during my thirteen years in the field has touched me—hit me, really—like Bill’s. He died too young, in his 50s only, doubtless partly because nothing could totally undo the ravages worked on his body in earlier years.

But he left a legacy in four colors, and that’s more than most folks do. I still think of him, rather more often than I do of most living people I know. It still doesn’t seem real that he’s gone, even after half a decade.

He used to say to me that I reminded him of himself, when he was a young firebrand. He never told me, though, if he meant that as sincere compliment or amused dig.

I prefer to take it as a compliment... because Bill Everett was quite a guy.

36

by E. Nelson Bridwell [This article first appeared in Alter Ego #7 (Fall 1964). The original title and art above were done by the author, and are © 2005 Estate of E. Nelson Bridwell.]

T

he current fad for monsters as super-heroes in comic-books may be said to have started with the appearance of The Thing in the first issue of The Fantastic Four.

With the success of that magazine, Lee and Kirby immediately imitated themselves and came up with The Incredible Hulk, whose spotty career seems at present to be on the uphill grade once again. And the trend has spread; witness The Doom Patrol (Robotman), and Eclipso.

Yet these are but the latest embellishments on a tradition as old as history.

One of the earliest works of literature which we possess—though in somewhat fragmentary form—is the Epic of Gilgamesh, which was to Sumer and Babylonia what the Iliad and the Odyssey were to Greece.

Gilgamesh and keep him busy.

Aruru therefore made a man from clay— Enkidu.

It treats of Gilgamesh—two-thirds god and onethird man, with superhuman size and strength, the ruler of Uruk (or Erech)—one of the first known “superheroes.”

And here, in a tale over 4,000 years old, we meet our first monster super-hero!

His arrogance became unbearable to his subjects, for he could take whatever he wanted with impunity. (And what he wanted was for the men to go hunting with him when they had other things to do—and for the women to fill his insatiable desire.)

So the people prayed to the goddess Aruru to create a man to match

Enkidu had shaggy hair that covered his entire body. The hair on his head was long like that of a woman. Furthermore, he is represented in the art of the times with the legs and tail of a bull (see picture; the horns were a symbol of divinity). All in all, he looked rather like a premature Greek satyr.

OF MONSTERS AND MEN! (Top left:) E. Nelson Bridwell, a longtime comics fan, had written numerous letters to “Superman” editor Mort Weisinger before he became the latter’s editorial assistant in 1964—not long before this article saw print in A/E V1#7. Roy, who had only exchanged a letter or two with Nelson, was probably unaware of his new pro status, or he’d have mentioned it in the issue. By coincidence, in 1965 Roy was hired by Weisinger as Nelson’s replacement, though Roy quit after one paid four-day week. Nelson was rehired, and worked for DC until his untimely death in 1987. He is best remembered for his co-creation of The Inferior Five, a parody of super-hero groups, and for assembling many of DC’s reprints of Golden Age material in the late 1960s/early 1970s. This photo of ENB appeared in The Amazing World of DC Comics #16 (April 1976).

(Center:) In 1964 ENB gave credit (blame?) for the “current fad for monsters as super-heroes” to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s creation The Thing, who had debuted in Fantastic Four #1 three years earlier—and who remains one of the most popular comics figures, despite the later primacy of The Incredible Hulk, who started out as a quasi-clone of Ben Grimm. This drawing penciled by Kirby especially for Jerry Bails’ Alter-Ego #4 in 1962, when both The Thing and A/E were only a year old, has often been reprinted—but we wanted to print it again, since it was probably the first drawing ever done by a pro for a super-hero comics fanzine.

Inking by Jerry Bails. [Art ©2005 Estate of Jack Kirby; The Thing TM & ©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.] (Right:) Though Nelson doesn’t mention the 1942-53 Hillman character The Heap, we know he was familiar with that earlier monster-hero, but probably felt that he (it?) was outside the scope of his article. This panel by Ernie Schroeder is from Airboy Comics, Vol. 9, #5 (real #100). Schroeder’s work on “The Heap” and “Airboy” was spotlighted back in A/E #29 & #42. [Art ©2005 the respective copyright holders.]

E. Nelson Bridwell

37 He grazed with gazelles and drank with wild asses (like a forerunner of Mowgli and Tarzan), and he loved to foil hunters by filling their pits and tearing up their traps.

Finally one unhappy hunter complained to Gilgamesh, who sent him back with a temple woman; for, even then, Beauty could tame the Beast. She disrobed before Enkidu, who was filled with ardor and made love to her for a week, which certainly ought to classify him as a super-hero.

ENKIDU Times Two! (Above:) Gilgamesh’s beast-man buddy, as drawn

by ENB in 1964 in imitation of the art on an Assyrian cylinder. [Art ©2005 Estate of E. Nelson Bridwell.]

(Right:) Writers Roy & Dann Thomas and artist Tony DeZuniga capsulized the story of Enkidu in two pages of Arak, Son of Thunder #42 (March 1985).

The second page depicted Enkidu’s death at Ishtar’s hands and Gilgamesh’s failed quest for immortality. [©2005 DC Comics.]

At the end of this time Enkidu tried to return to his animal friends, but they avoided him. He had become a man and was no longer one of them.

Bowing to the fait accompli, he clothed himself and went to Uruk, where he challenged Gilgamesh. They wrestled furiously, and finally Enkidu forced Gilgamesh down. But (like Robin Hood after him) Gilgamesh immediately liked his adversary, and they became fast friends. Together they battled and killed the monster Humbaba.

Then the goddess Ishtar tried to seduce Gilgamesh, who upbraided her with reminders of her past misdeeds. (Remind anybody of early “Blackhawk” stories?) In vengeance, Ishtar got her father Anu to send the Bull of Heaven (a storm spirit). But Enkidu killed it and hurled its thigh at Ishtar’s face, which shows a certain lack of common sense.

For this the gods caused him to sicken and die. This scared the devil out of Gilgamesh, who had never before stopped wrestling long enough to recall that he was a mortal, even if he was the world’s mightiest one.

The rest of the Epic tells of Gilgamesh’s fruitless search for immortality, and includes the story of Utnapishtim, the Babylonian Noah, the only human in ancient Mesopotamian myth who ever gained eternal life.

The Greek pantheon, as well, had its ugly gods. Chief of these was Hephaestus, the lame smith-god, whom the Romans identified with Vulcan. In Book XVIII of the Iliad. Homer tells how his mother, Hera, hurled him from Olympus because he was born lame. Though ugly, Hephaestus forged objects of great beauty, and was eventually reinstated to his rightful Olympian status.

More easily comparable to today’s omnipotent uglies was Pan. In “The Great God Pan,” as he was called in the title of a classic horror/fantasy short story by Algernon Blackwood, often popped up in Golden Age comic books—as witness this final page from the “Hawkman” story “Magic at the Mardi Gras” in Flash Comics #75 (Sept. 1946). Art by Joe Kubert; script probably

by Gardner Fox. Thanks to Al Dellinges. [©2005 DC Comics.]

38

The Tragic Monster

the Homeric Hymn to Pan, an anonymous poem of perhaps the fifth century B.C., it is related that when his mother beheld her child— horned, goat-footed, and bearded—she fled in terror. But his father, Hermes, was pleased, and took the infant to Olympus, where he delighted all the immortals; hence they called him Pan, meaning “all.”

Pan grew up to be a lusty god; but his aspect was hardly the kind to inspire a maiden’s dreams. The nymph Syrinx, as Ovid tells us in his Metamorphoses, fled from his advances. Finding her way blocked by a stream, she prayed to be rescued from the famed fate worse than death.

And, just when Pan thought he had her, he found himself clutching a handful of reeds, out of which he made the first Pan-pipes, called “syrinx” after the nymph.

The Cyclops Polyphemus, who appears most notably in the Odyssey, hardly seems a likely hero; yet he is one of our “tragic monsters.”

Theocritus, in his eleventh Idyll, tells of his love for the sea-nymph Galatea. Though he doted on her beauty, she scorned his ugliness. Later, when she fell in love with a prince named Acis, Polyphemus killed him.

As everybody knows, however, Polyphemus eventually got his in the end—or, rather, in the eye.

One could go on literally forever in the classical world, but equally good examples are available in what historians refer to as “the modern world”—meaning anything during or after the Renaissance.

A year or two before Nelson wrote his article, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby put Polyphemus (or an unblinded Cyclops very much like him) to good use on an island to which The Sub-Mariner exiled Reed Richards in Fantastic Four #9 (Dec. 1962). Inks by Dick Ayers. Love those Marvel Essential volumes! [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Shakespeare’s Caliban, in The Tempest, was truly a monster: “A freckled whelp, hag-born,” son of the witch Sycerax and the devil himself. Forced to serve the magician Prospero, he was filled with bitterness and hate: “You taught me language, and my profit on’t Is, I know how to curse.”

There is something tragic as well as pathetic about the fantastic Caliban. Nor was the Bard the only great writer ever to see his intrinsic possibilities. Browning, famed for his poetic monologues, never wrote a better one than his “Caliban upon Setebos,” which portrayed the misshapen dwarf worshiping his equally grotesque god.

However, it was the second wife of another poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley, who created the most famous monster of all. The plot of Mary Godwin Shelley’s Frankenstein is too well known to need repeating here; but no reasonably intelligent reader of today’s “Thing” and “Hulk” tales can be oblivious to the affinity which exists between them and the loquacious monster of this classic example of the Gothic tale of horror.

Speaking of classics, another world-famed hero of uninspiring appearance is Victor Hugo’s Hunchback of Notre Dame. When Victor was nine, his father sent him to the College of Nobles in Madrid. Here he was awakened each morning by a hideously deformed hunchbacked boy. This kind “monster” inspired him to create one of his greatest characters, one who has left his mark in the comic book field as surely as in great literature or the movies.

A few years after “The Tragic Monster” was written, Shakespeare’s Caliban inspired Jack Kirby’s creation Kalibak the Cruel, seen here in a pin-up from The New Gods #4 (Aug.-Sept. 1971). [©2005 DC Comics.]

Hugo’s description of Quasimodo bears repetition here, if only for its sneakiness: “We shall not attempt to give the reader any idea of that tetrahedron

E. Nelson Bridwell

nose, of that horse-shoe mouth, of that little left eye stubbled up with an eyebrow of carroty bristles, while the right was completely overwhelmed and buried by an enormous wen; of those irregular teeth, jagged here and there like the battlements of a fortress; of that horny lip, over which one of these teeth protruded, like the tusk of an elephant; of that forked chin….”

It’s a good thing Hugo didn’t really want to revolt us, eh? Still, Esmeralda liked him; she and The Thing’s girl, Alicia, must have been tired of the pretty-boy type.

Quasimodo was not Hugo’s only monstrous hero, however. Not long after, he created Triboulet, the hunchbacked jester whose pandering of the lusts of King Francis I brought dishonor and death to his own beloved daughter in Le roi s’amuse (The King Amuses Himself).

This unsavory view of royalty was banned; and the same fate came to Verdi’s operatic version, which later was altered to become Rigoletto.

Years later Hugo created a different kind of monster in The Man Who Laughs. This was Gwynplaine, a victim of the Comprachices, who bought children and turned them into freaks, to be jesters and clowns. They gave him “a mouth opening to the ears, ears folding over to the eyes, a shapeless nose,” and other sterling features.

One need hardly say that Robert Louis Stevenson’s “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” is the prototype of both the Hulk and Eclipso. Jekyll discovered a potion which could isolate the dual natures of man. Finally, having lost control of the process, he took poison.

39

Three of DC’s most intriguing “tragic monsters” of the 1960s were Eclipso, Metamorpho, and Robotman (of The Doom Patrol), drawn here respectively by Alex Toth, Sal Trapani/Charles Paris, and Bruno Premiani. The first two pages are repro’d from b&w Australian reprints sent by Mark Muller—the third from a notebook photocopy of the original art printed by Joe Latino in CFA-apa #49 (1995). The sources of the latter two pages are Metamorpho #8 (Sept.-Oct. 1966) and Doom Patrol #101 (Feb. 1966)—but we’ve no idea which issue of House of Secrets the “Eclipso” art appeared in. The 1968 Trapani Metamorpho sketch above is courtesy of Tom Watkins.

[Comics pages ©2005 DC Comics; sketch art ©2005 Estate of Sal Trapani; Robotman TM & ©2005 DC Comics.]

40

The Tragic Monster

Forever Frankenstein!

(Left:) Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein had been adapted in 1945’s Classic Comics #26, which was reissued in 1958, by which time the series’ title had been changed to Classics Illustrated. Script by Ruth A. Roche; art by Robert Webb & Ann Brewster. [©2005 Frawley Corporation and its exclusive licensee, First Classics, Inc., a subsidiary of Classics Illustrated International Entertainment, Inc.] (Above:) In 1973-74, Marvel would star the Monster in its own series, recently collected in The Essential Frankenstein. This previously-unprinted concept sketch by artist Mike Ploog — printed at a slight angle, because it was photographed through glass—comes to us courtesy of Greg Huneryager. The 1940s-50s, of course, had seen both grim and humorous versions

by Dick Briefer at Prize. For an illustrated history of Frankenstein in the comics, see A/E #41. [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Edmond Bostand created what could be considered a “monster” hero in Cyrano de Bergerac. Cyrano and most of the other characters in the play were real, but the plot was Bostand’s invention. Cyrano was a 17thcentury poet with a huge nose—and a ready sword to battle those who derided it. He was not really a monster, of course, but he did display a few of the same character traits as our friend Ben Grimm.

The list, of course, could go on and on.

For the benefit of those interested, and those who otherwise would besiege both the writer and the editor with letters demanding to know what all this has to do with comics—I append a note on the Classics Illustrated versions of these stories: The Odyssey, in which the occasionally sympathetic character Cyclops appears, is out of print.

Today’s CI #13, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, is not the original (and very poor) CI issue. The current version contains good

No, they’re not monsters, but we wanted to give you a sampling of E. Nelson Bridwell’s most noteworthy creations—“The Inferior Five,” in panels from Showcase #75 (Oct.-Nov. 1966) which lampoon Marvel’s X-Men, as reprinted in an Australian b&w comic sent by Shane Foley. The membership of the Inferiors was White Feather, Merryman, The Blimp, Dumb Bunny, and Awkwardman. Script by ENB, art by Mikes Sekowsky & Esposito. The neverbefore-printed sketch of Dumb Bunny at left is a specimen of that rarest of Silver Age items—pencil art by Mike Sekowsky—and is courtesy of Marv Wolfman. [Showcase art ©2005 DC Comics; sketch ©2005 Estate of Mike Sekowsky; Dumb Bunny TM & ©2005 DC Comics.]

E. Nelson Bridwell

41

The covers of Classic Comics #13, 18, 71, & #79—three of which depict the “tragic monster” of their titles, while #71 doesn’t. But the makeup of Conrad Veidt in the 1927 film version of The Man Who Laughs (laid on by Jack Pierce, who’d later turn Boris Karloff into the Frankenstein Monster) may have been one influence on The Joker in “Batman” more than a decade later. Oh, and for an invaluable and entertaining study of the comics series that launched a thousand thousand book reports, seek out a copy of William B. Jones, Jr.’s Classics Illustrated: A Cultural History, with Illustrations. [Art ©2005 Frawley Corporation and its exclusive licensee, First Classics, Inc, a subsidiary of Classics Illustrated International Entertainment, Inc.]

artwork by Lou Cameron. It omits the origin of Hyde and has some incidents out of sequence, but otherwise is quite good.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame, CI #18, is again not the original, but a later and better adaptation. It features excellent artwork: pencils

by George Evans; inks by Reed (Blackhawk) Crandall. One outstanding error: a cresier (crook) is depicted as a cross.

The CI version of Frankenstein, #26, is likewise fairly good. This was the first issue to be originally published as a 48-pager (#45 was the second) and is consequently uncut, whereas several which were formerly 56-and 64-pagers were later cut to 48 pages. The art by Robert Hayward Webb and Anne Brewster is superior to most early CIs. Victor Hugo’s The Man Who Laughs, #71, is not the early CI version, either, but a new one (1962), better adapted and with excellent art by Norman Nodel.

And, last but not least, we have #79, Cyrano de Bergerac. This is the Jose Ferrer film version, with changes, added screams, etc.—and some of the best passages absent. The art was done by Alex Blum.

It is perhaps too early to judge how long the “tragic monsters” will continue to enjoy a heyday in the comics. Until a stricter Code decides green skin will give a child nightmares, I suppose.

(Above:) The Thing and The Hulk have clashed many times over the years, starting in Fantastic Four #12 (March 1963). These Herb Trimpe/John Severin panels, with script by Gary Friedrich & Roy Thomas, are from The Incredible Hulk #153 (July 1972). Thanks to Shane Foley for the photocopy from a b&w Aussie reprint. [©2005 Marvel Characters.]

However, for the present, it would appear that gruesome super-doers are a monstrous success!

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Comic Fandom Archive

The Birth of Alter-Ego

by Bill Schelly

Excerpted from his book The Golden Age of Comic Fandom (Hamster Press 1998) 2005 Introduction In the early 1990s, when I began researching the origin of a fandom just for comic art fans and collectors, the early years of comicdom had become shrouded in mystery. Over thirty years had passed since the original fanzineformat Alter Ego had made the scene amid the excitement of the return of the heroes in DC and Marvel comics. Many of the folks who were movers and shakers (or merely spectators) during those years were no longer around, or if they were, they tended to be much less visible.

In Sherlockian mode, I began to answer the question: “Why, when, and how did comicdom arise?” The answer was not entirely clear.

Some felt it could be traced to science-fiction fandom before it, which began in the early 1930s, and there was no doubt that a number of sf fans did play a part in fanning the embers of interest in comic books into flame, in the form of articles in their various fanzines, and notably in Dick and Pat Lupoff’s Xero #1, which made its debut at the 1960 World Science Fiction Convention in Pittsburgh.1 Another contributor to the incendiary sparks of the early 1960s was the remnants of EC comics fandom, which had been simmering on a low flame all through the latter part of the 1950s, often in publications with circulations of fifty copies or less, which tended to revolve around Mad magazine and the post-EC work of a gaggle of talented artists who had helped make EC great. Some of those fans maintained interest in comics beyond EC, and were ready to leap to the fore when those fannish embers had burst into flame.

But, it also became clear that the rallying point of those comics aficionados found a focal point when a college professor named Jerry G. Bails, Ph.D., brought a fanzine named Alter-Ego into the world.

Devoted to “heroes of the past, present, and future” (as the zine’s eventual slogan would announce), Alter-Ego created a genuine sensation, and fueled a grassroots movement that made sure that comics fandom would be an ongoing, self-sustaining movement.

If comicdom began with Alter-Ego, I wondered exactly how it all happened. What possessed Jerry Bails—whose contacts with prior fandoms was minimal at best—to take the rather audacious step of putting out a publication devoted exclusively to costumed heroes?

And that was followed by a slew of other questions: How did he meet Roy Thomas? How did Jerry and Roy gain a certain respect for their publication even among professionals in the comics industry? It

Since this issue’s Archive is a chapter excerpted from Bill Schelly’s fabulous 1995 book The Golden Age of Comic Fandom, which is still available from his Hamster Press, we’ve tried to use different images than you’ll see there. The photo by Dann Thomas shows (left to right) Roy Thomas, Jerry Bails, and Grand Comic Book Database overseer Ray Bottorff, Jr., at a dinner during a spring 2002 comicon in Detroit—41 years after Alter-Ego #1.

Above is Roy’s cover of 1961’s Alter-Ego #1 (traced and partly repositioned by editor Jerry) the way it should’ve looked—but the speedline of Lean Arrow’s flying shaft, being only on a green master, vanished on many copies of the printed fanzine. The cover was restored by Jerry in full color via computer in 2004. [©2005 Jerry Bails & Roy Thomas.]

wasn’t enough that it had happened; I wanted to know the details!!

What follows, then, is the final result of my detective work over a three-year period, gained from interviewing the principals, piecing together data from old faded issues of Alter Ego and other obscure fanzines, and collating information from every available source. Here is the story of not only the birth of a fanzine, but the birth of a genuine grassroots movement that formed a true American subculture.

And it began with one fan’s simple idea to rally support for his favorite new comic book: Jerry G. Bails had been yearning for a return of the Justice Society of America since All-Star Comics became All-Star Western in early 1951 and the JSA went into limbo. He was a tireless fan of the JSA, no doubt because he encountered them at an early age on a newsstand in Kansas City, Missouri, when he was growing up.

Born on June 26, 1933, his earliest recollection of comics was marveling at the covers hanging by bulldog clips in the window of his favorite shop that sold comics. It was a dry goods store across the street from what would become his father’s pool hall.

“In early 1941, the Great Depression was just ending, and families were finally beginning to come into some disposable income,” Jerry said in a recent interview. “This translated down to seven-year-olds as a weekly allowance—a quarter, as I recall. I was free for the first time to spend it as I chose. It went for comics first and foremost.

“One of the earliest covers I recall from my youth was on Flash

The Birth of Alter-Ego Comics #20, where The Flash was hurling a crook onto overhead telephone lines,” Bails remembered. “That issue was dated August 1941. At almost exactly the same time, I spotted All-Star Comics #6. It marked the very first time I would witness the Justice Society of America, starring all my favorite heroes teaming up in a booklength adventure. That comic book had the most profound longterm effect on me.

Spotting the covers of #6 and #7 were ecstatic moments for me.

I can still feel a rush of endorphins just recalling the covers.”

Two of Jerry’s earliest close encounters of the comic book kind were with Flash Comics #20 (Aug. 1941) and All-Star Comics #6 (Aug-Sept. ’41). [©2005 DC Comics.]

Though Bails had spent the last several years obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from the University of Kansas City, and then going for a Master’s in Math, he had corresponded with Gardner Fox in the late 1950s regarding the JSA, and worked steadily toward re-building his personal collection of All-Star. “Gardner Fox was a most generous and compassionate man and it is clear to me that he had influenced my basic values through the vehicle of the Justice Society,” Jerry said. “He made a big difference to me.”

Immersed in his studies, Bails had missed the first couple of issues of DC’s Showcase book—the ones that tentatively brought back a retooled Flash for a new generation of readers. When he first noticed that revival, in Showcase #13 around January of 1958, Jerry was 24 years old and well on his way toward becoming a professor of mathematics. But the sight of that colorful comic book on the stands struck him like a thunderbolt, for it implied the possibility of further revivals—even his beloved JSA. Bails unleashed a flurry of letters, with renewed energy, at Fox and Schwartz. Around this time, mid-1959, he and Fox worked out a deal for the writer’s bound editions of All-Star, and Jerry’s JSA collection was complete.2 From the time he saw Showcase #13, Bails had to wait nearly two years for the day to arrive when the JSA was back in its new incarnation: The Justice League of America. The Brave and the Bold #28 hit the newsstands at the very end of 1959. Of course, he had other things on his mind, like completing his doctorate in Natural Science. Around the time Jerry G. Bails, Ph.D. (with his wife Sondra), had moved to Detroit to take his new post as Assistant Professor of Natural Science at Wayne State University, JLA #1 appeared, and Bails was thinking of ways to support and encourage this exciting development. (In that issue, Schwartz indicated that further hero revivals were probable.)

Then, another spark plug fell into place, and that was Roy Thomas, an English and history major in his senior year at Southeast Missouri State College in Cape Girardeau, about a hundred miles south of St. Louis on the Mississippi River.

Thomas, though several years younger than Bails, had learned to read in the pages of All-Star, and was so taken with the “new JSA” that he’d written his first letter to editor Julius Schwartz. (In an earlier contact with DC, a youthful Thomas had been informed that trading and selling old comics could not be officially sanctioned by the company, for it

43 might spread disease.)

This time, when Roy inquired about obtaining back issues of All-Star, Schwartz gave him Gardner Fox’s name and address.

Fox in turn referred Roy to Jerry Bails, informing the Missourian that Jerry had recently purchased all his back issues. Roy was disappointed, but immediately dashed off a letter to “Mr. Bails” on November 21, 1960, the day before his twentieth birthday.

Just five days later, he had his reply.

“I can’t tell you how happy I am to find another All-Star enthusiast after all these years,” Jerry wrote. “In 1945, I began my campaign to collect all the back issues of this magazine, and in 1951, when the JSA was dropped, I began my campaign for the revival of this old favorite. Just last year, as you know, my efforts finally paid off. Now, I’m off on a new campaign—to make the Justice League of America more popular than Superman. First, I want to see the JLA published monthly; then I want to see it published in a giant edition. I hope you will join me in working for these goals.”3 Along with the letter, Jerry sent dog-eared copies of AllStar #4 through 6, the first Roy had ever seen of them. This generosity on Bails’ part cemented their friendship.

Thomas and Bails began a long and voluminous correspondence, each writing two or three letters a week to the other, with queries and responses often crossing in the mail. Their letters were filled with trading proposals and comments about recent acquisitions from the few sources available to them.

“We both bombarded DC with scores of letters,” Bails recalled years later. “JLA #4 is filled with letters from me under different pen names.

Don’t blame Julie for this. I did everything I could to fool him, including mailing the letters from all across the country.”

Jerry revealed that he had suggested to Gardner Fox (in a letter dated August 29, 1960) that a revival of The Atom would be the next logical step after Hawkman, who was slated to make his debut in December. He and Roy set about concocting a concept for the new Atom, which they planned to submit to Schwartz. (Jerry envisioned a new, more Doll Manlike Atom.)

Bails put the outlines of their suggestions in a letter to Schwartz on December 8th, which reads in part: “A brilliant young experimenter [Al Pratt, a physics professor in ordinary life] discovers how to compress the atoms of his body to make himself only six inches tall. In this metastable state, the mighty mite has the power to leap great distances and to smash through ordinary matter in his battle against crime, but he can only safely remain in this miniature form for one hour.”

Schwartz wrote back on January 6, 1961, “Many thanks for your ideas on the Atom revival, but by a fantastic coincidence I had already had some similar ideas on the same subject; even went so far as to have artist Gil Kane do some sketches.” Both Bails and Thomas believed, probably correctly, that their enthusiastic letters and suggestions played a part in DC’s decision to revive The Atom.4 Bails urged Thomas to consider revival ideas for Dr. Fate.

In that same letter, he mentioned (for the first time) that he was thinking about publishing a “JLA newsletter” that he would distribute to contacts made through the letter pages in Julie’s comics. Schwartz had

44

Comic Fandom Archive

decided, toward the end of 1960, to begin running complete addresses in his letter columns. Full addresses appeared in Brave and Bold #35 (May 1961) with pre-publication comments on the Hawkman revival from Jerry, Roy, and others.

Now fate intervened to bring Jerry Bails and Julie Schwartz face-toface. Near the end of January, Bails was invited to visit and lecture at Adelphi College on Long Island the following month. Jerry and Sondra decided to make the visit the occasion of a long-awaited holiday, and he scheduled a visit to the DC offices. “I am going to suggest my plan for a JLA newsletter and see if I can get their support for it.”3 A few days later, in a letter to Roy, Jerry wrote, “My thoughts for a newsletter are still pretty muddy. I can have the thing hectographed for nothing, but I would prefer to at least have it mimeographed, [and] that costs money. So does postage if the number of copies is very great. I don’t want to charge for it, because that involves all sorts of complications and DC might not give their approval, and their approval is essential if I am to get the kind of advance info I need for a good sheet.

“Right now I think I’ll send The JLA-Subscriber (as I might call it) only to adult readers who write in to one of Julie’s magazines,” Jerry continued. “This audience would supply many new ideas and help to boost the JLA with the younger set. They would also be interested in gossip about old JSA stories and other DC comics, and might want to trade old mags, just as we have.

Jerry and Sondra saw the Broadway shows Camelot and An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May, and various other big-city sights, and of course he gave his lecture, but undoubtedly the highlight of the trip was his visit to DC. When Bails broached the subject of a JLA newsletter to Julie Schwartz, he received an entirely positive response, for such amateur publications were well-known to Julie. With his amateur publishing background, Schwartz may have seen Jerry and Roy as something of successors or counterparts to himself and Mort Weisinger, in terms of their fannish pursuits. (Weisinger, of course, was then editor of the Superman family of comics.) Certainly Schwartz was impressed with Jerry’s academic credentials. All this came into play in helping Bails receive Julie’s approbation.

It was Julie who told Jerry that amateur magazines and newsletters were called fanzines. (The credit for coining the terms “fanzine” and “prozine” goes to sf fan Louis Russell Chauvenet, who first used the words in print around 1941.) “Julie had shown me copies of ... Xero, which was running a series on the old comics,” Bails later wrote. “I was happy to learn that there was a segment of science-fiction fandom that was devoted to the old comic-book heroes.”5 Bails’ visit with Schwartz in mid-February kicked his publishing plans into high gear. He returned to Detroit loaded with information about upcoming DC comics, fairly bursting with energy and enthusiasm.

“The number of JLA fans over 18 shouldn’t be so great that I couldn’t afford the postage myself, and perhaps different issues of the newsletter could originate from different fans. In other words, any one at any time might get a newsletter off to other fans. What do you think? I think that each editor might include an editorial. I have one I want to write on the good and bad effects of the Comics Code. And I’m sure you could write many interesting features.”3

He wrote to Roy: “My five-hour visit to the DC offices, my luncheon with Julie and Gar, my private conversations with writers and artists, and my perusal of AA [All-American] classics, gives me more than I could relate in a half dozen king-sized letters; and besides, I don’t want to steal all my own thunder, because I know now (for sure) that I want to bring out a ‘fanzine’ devoted to the Great Revival of the costumed heroes.

“I even have what I consider to be a brilliant title and format. It will be called Alter-ego [small-case “e” at first]. I have enough background info, promise of advance previews, support in Julie’s letter columns, and hope for fresh ideas from a guy named Thomas to make this fanzine go, go, go, as Snapper [Carr] might say.”3

It’s fascinating to see the workings of Bails’ mind. Jerry may have had some indirect awareness of sf fandom at this point (for there are indications that he advertised for comics in The Fantasy Collector as early as 1959), but if he did, it was obviously vague and incomplete. His candid letters to Roy Thomas certainly reveal no knowledge of the workings of sf fandom and fanzines.

Jerry immediately sent out dozens of feelers to people like Ronnie Graham and Ron Haydock, whose letters had also appeared in Brave and Bold #35. Graham and Haydock had been active in other fandoms, and In fact, Bails was very close to quickly helped get the word out about conceiving of a “fandom” on his own.

Alter-Ego. Schwartz had loaned Jerry The idea of various editors putting out his copies of the early Xeros, and their own newsletters is just another Bails wrote to everyone in the way of envisioning different fanzines Lupoffs’ letter columns. Soon, Jerry being published. Yet, these thoughts reported that he was receiving two were very embryonic, for he and Whether Jerry’s letter of 8-29-60 suggesting a Doll Man-size Atom had any or three responses daily. These Roy had no idea how large a influence on the creation of a new Tiny Titan around the turn of 1961 can people would receive the first issue probably never be resolved one way or the other—but see A/E V3#2 for a potential readership an amateur free of charge. From then on fully-documented and lavishly-illustrated examination of this question. publication on comic book heroes copies would sell for 20 cents Either way, Gardner Fox (writer), Gil Kane (penciler), and Julius Schwartz would have. They were still unless the person had an article, (editor) developed that hero very much along the lines Jerry had suggested— operating in semi-isolation. Would a letter, or advertisement in it. including having him shrink down into sub-atomic worlds, as on this Sid newsletter meet with indifference?

Greene-inked page from The Atom #32 (Aug.-Sept. 1967). Thanks to Shane By early March, Jerry had Foley for the photostat from a b&w Australian comic. [©2005 DC Comics.]

The Birth of Alter-Ego

Chapter One centered around the heroes gathering together, and squabbling over who would pair off with Wondrous Woman, Queen of the Glamazons.

outlined tentative contents of the first issue.

He would write the first part in a history of the JSA, and an article on the Comics Code Authority; Roy would contribute his proposed ideas (in a text narrative) for a revival of the Spectre, as well as the first part of a JLA parody strip. The issue would also feature ads for the sale and trade of comics, and news of coming events at DC. In mid-March, Bails changed his mind about one feature planned for A-E. He didn’t want to duplicate Jim Harmon’s “All in Color for a Dime” article on the Justice Society in Xero #3. Therefore, he scratched his own general history of the JSA and started over on a related piece.

Fandom’s godfather—the late great Julie Schwartz (left)— with Golden/Silver Age super-star artist Murphy Anderson at a 1990s Acmecon in North Carolina. Photo courtesy of Jim Amash and photographer Teresa R. Davidson.

By March 28th, the masters for Alter-Ego #1 were completed; it was printed via a portable spirit duplicator that Jerry had purchased. Copies were in the mails by the end of the month. What would the response be like? Would Julie be favorably impressed by this initial effort? Would the readers? If Bails had any doubts, he was nevertheless charging forward with preparations for a second issue without stopping to catch his breath.

What did the readers receive for their expression of interest? At 22 pages, Alter-Ego #1 (March 1961) was slim by later standards, but it had grown considerably from Bails’ initial conception.

The cover was a multi-colored scene featuring Roy’s parody of the JLA, known as the Bestest League of America. The formation of the “new Justice Society” had been the energizing factor that inspired Bails to launch Alter-Ego, so it was fitting that the first issue was headed-up by this spoof of DC’s team of superstars.

Inside, after the contents page was “A Matter of Policy,” the brief editorial which announced, “This is the first issue of Alter-Ego, a new comic fanzine devoted to the revival of the costumed heroes.” From there, Bails launched into four pages of pro news in a feature called “On the Drawing Board.” It carried advance word of the forthcoming “Flash of Two Worlds” story (Flash #123) which brought back the Golden Age Flash, previews of the upcoming Batman and Secret Origins annuals (with a cover reproduction of the latter), and hints of the Atom revival slated for Showcase #34.

“The Wiles of the Wizard - Portrait of a Villain” was Jerry’s two-page substitute for a JSA profile. On pages 10 through 12, Roy Thomas presented the first part of his “Reincarnation of The Spectre,” which proposed a new version of The Spectre as a man divided into two characters representing good and evil, ego and id: The Spectre and Count Dis. Instead of the piece on the Comics Code Authority that Jerry had planned, he ran “Merciful Minerva: The Story of Wonder Woman.”

(Perhaps he felt that criticizing the Comics Code might not be taken well at DC.) Then, on page 17, the issue was rounded out by the first five-page chapter of “The Bestest League of America” by Thomas. The members of the BLA were Wondrous Woman, the Cash, Aquariuman, S’amm S’mith, Lean Arrow, and the Green Trashcan. The ostensible leader of the group was the Green Trashcan, whose motto went: In little shack or circus tent, No evil shall escape this gent; Let those who are of evil bent, Beware my power —Green Trashcan’s scent!

45

That was A-E #1: three JSA-related articles, two columns, and an amateur comic strip. The lay-outs were neat, for Sondra Bails had done a careful job on the typing, and the lettering was accomplished with plastic lettering guides. There were two spot illustrations and a couple of small ads from Jerry and Roy to even out the pages. Much of the printing was done from black ditto masters, which proved to be shorterrunning than regular purple ditto masters, thus making the printing rather light on the later copies.

Interestingly, another fanzine by the name of Comic Art #1 from Don Thompson and Maggie Curtis was published about the same time as A-E #1. There is some uncertainty about which one came first. The best available information is that AlterEgo preceded Comic Art by no more than a month, and possibly as little as a few days. Still, there is little point in splitting hairs, since the two fanzines played very different roles in the history of comic fandom.

Comic Art and Xero were published by double-fans and were read mainly by sf fans who generally had little interest in (or disdain for) new comics, even the Schwartz revivals. The focus of AICFAD was strictly nostalgic. And, by their own admission, the Thompsons’ interest was in just about every aspect of comic art but the super-hero comics of 1961.

Bails had a fiery urgency, an almost messianic fervor, in his effort to support the super-hero revivals of the era he dubbed “The Second Heroic Age of Comics.” That was, indeed, the stated mission of AlterEgo. As a result, the fanzine had an interesting double-focus. It linked the current super-heroes (many of them revivals) with their antecedents (alter-egos, in a sense). With this attention to both new and old, A-E not only differentiated itself from its predecessors, but established a mix that had something for fans both young and old.

Excitement crackled through its pages, a result of Jerry’s almost breathless “what’s next?” attitude about upcoming revivals. His enthusiasm was contagious. Yes, the high standards of the writing and lay-out were important to the zine’s success. Certainly, timing played a great part, too. But it was Bails’ interest in current developments that caused his recruitment efforts to catch fire across the country (and around the world) within a very short time.

This is not to take anything away from the Lupoffs and the Thompsons. Xero’s “All In Color for a Dime” series continued with well-written, often eloquent tributes to comics of the past. AICFAD put forward baseline facts about each of its topics, which subsequent writers would attempt to enlarge upon. Comic Art printed excellent pieces by Harlan Ellison, Jerry de Fuccio, Larry Ivie, Robert Coulson, and many others over the next couple of years.

But it was Jerry Bails who reached out to the names in the letters pages, and to those who were mainly comic fans, with a magazine that was decidedly down-to-Earth (even a little “gosh-wow,” in Ted White’s words). It was Bails who wanted to bring as many people into fandom as possible, since it would further the goals of Alter-Ego. And it was Bails who frankly had the organizational skill, desire, and vision to lay the groundwork for an ongoing comic fandom.

Don and Maggie later wrote, “Alter-Ego’s editors were trying to get it distributed to the largest possible number of fans—thus earning its reputation as a seminal point in comics fandom. We tried, as did Dick

46

Comic Fandom Archive

A Couple Of Fandom Firsts!

(Left:) Page 2 of Roy Thomas’ “Bestest League of America” parody segment which he wrote and drew at twice-up size over Christmas/New Year’s 196061 college break when he should’ve been studying. The entire 5-page chapter first saw print in Bill Schelly’s 1997 volume Fandom’s Finest Comics, still available from Hamster Press.

(Right:) Because of the virtual impossibility until recently of getting good reproduction from the purple lines printed by an old-style spirit-duplicator machine, this version of that “BLA” page has never been reprinted since it debuted in Alter-Ego #1 in spring of 1961. Though its storytelling and dialogue are very close to the earlier twice-up version, Roy had redrawn the entire 5-page chapter from scratch on typing paper. This was then traced by Jerry Bails onto a spiritduplicator master. In the process, Jerry moved Green Trashcan’s oath from the splash page to panel 4. Special thanks to A/E’s ace layout man Christopher Day for his extra efforts on this page. [©2005 Roy Thomas.]

and Pat Lupoff with Xero, to keep our circulation as small as possible.”6 Had Jerry Bails not come along when he did, surely someone else would have come up with the idea of a comics fanzine devoted to the resurgence of the super-heroes. Jerry himself acknowledged, “Had there been no Jerry or Roy or Don or Maggie, someone else would surely have come up with the idea.” In the coming years, one thing became clear: fans with Bails’ vision and organizational ability were few and far between.

So great was the impact of Alter-Ego #1 that Jerry found himself at the center of a maelstrom of activity. Had he ever seriously questioned whether his efforts would receive an enthusiastic reception? If so, then the torrent of mail he received in response put all doubts to rest.

Alter-Ego was launched, and all systems were “go.” Soon, like stages of a NASA rocket, its various sections would separate, each part

becoming a key building block of the new fan movement.

The Golden Age of comic fandom had begun.

The above excerpt is just a small portion of the information to be found in Bill Schelly’s excellent book The Golden Age of Comic Fandom. Now in its third printing, copies are available through Schelly’s website (www.billschelly.com) by sending a check or money order to Hamster Press, P.O. Box 27471, Seattle, WA 98165. Needless to say, it is highly recommended to anyone who wants a full picture of comicdom’s first formative years.

Next issue, Bill returns with a chat with none other than ubiquitous bookseller Bud Plant—and yes, there really is a person named Bud Plant!

Footnotes on “The Birth of Alter-Ego” 1 Will Jacobs and Gerard Jones, The Comic Book Heroes, Crown Publishers, Inc., New York, 1985.

2 Gardner Fox had two bound volumes of All-Star, consisting of #1-12 and #13-24. Bails paid $75.00 for the lot.

3 Roy Thomas, “The Alter-Ego Story,” then-unpublished manuscript, written circa 1964.

4 The fact that DC included both Jerry Bails and Roy Thomas in their

Fifty Who Made DC Great booklet celebrating the 50-year anniversary of DC Comics seems to tacitly acknowledge that they influenced Schwartz’ thinking about hero revivals.

5 Jerry Bails, “Out with the Old, In with the New!” The Comic Reader #12, August 20, 1962.

6 Don Thompson and Maggie Thompson, “Fandom’s Origins: The Marvel Age of Comics,” Comics Feature, New Media, 1980.

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48

“I Wanted To Be An ‘Artiste’!”

Golden Age Artist LEW GLANZMAN—Another “Amazing Man” Interview Conducted & Transcribed

by Jim Amash

Afraid Lew Glanzman never quite got around to providing us with a photo of himself—but he did do the great cartoon caricature below, which he sent to interviewer Jim Amash a couple of years back, along with several photocopies of his comic book art repro’d above: the cover of Centaur’s Amazing-Man Comics #14 (July 1940)—“The Shark” splash probably from Amazing-Man #9 (Feb. ’40)—and “Fighting ‘Uncle Joe’ Stilwell!,” a more or less true story that may be from Parents’ Magazine’s Real Heroes or True Comics. [©2005 the respective copyright holders.]

L

ouis S. Glanzman was part of a brother act in comics that included Sam and Dave (sounds like a rock and roll band, doesn’t it?), though apparently the three of them never worked together on a story.

Lew’s (or should it be “Lou’s”?) comic book days were really just a stepping stone to his illustration career, but still memorable enough for us to cover. No matter what name Lew worked under, his style was as distinctive and energetic as the man himself. —Jim

“I Got My Art Training In Comics” JIM AMASH: I usually start off with this question: when and where were you born?

LEW GLANZMAN: I was born in Baltimore, Maryland, February 8, 1922.

My brother Sam is three years younger than me. My other brother Dave is three

years younger than Sam. All of us eventually worked in comic books. I was Sam Decker and Lew Glanz, among others.

JA: What art training did you have?

GLANZMAN: None. I got my art training in comics. My parents were amateur painters, though. I did go to the School of Industrial Art in New York, but most of the time I played hooky at the burlesque shows on 42nd Street.

JA: Well, you could learn a lot there. [laughs] GLANZMAN: [laughs] Yes. Well, it turned out that the school was more of a hangout than it was an art school. It was a shame, because there were teachers who worked hard to teach their students. But we weren’t paying any attention.

JA: Then your art influences were your parents? Did you paint when you were a kid?

“I Wanted To Be An ‘Artiste’!”

49 Comic Corporation of America [later known as Centaur] and they took me in.

JA: Who was the editor there when you started? Lloyd Jacquet?

GLANZMAN: His name is very familiar to me, and it may have been him. There were two guys who ran the place, who started out publishing sheet lyrics for music.

They called them “song sheets.”

JA: What did you start out doing there?

GLANZMAN: Yes. There was a lady in Rockaway Beach, Long Island. She said she’d buy me a set of oil paints if I painted pictures for her. I was probably fifteen or sixteen at the time. I liked to draw the boats out on Sheeps Head Bay and occasionally I’d sell one for two or three dollars to the guys who had boats out there.

As far as a career was concerned, the trick was to make money, because it was the Depression. I was the oldest son, so whenever I could find some kind of work, it’d help the family. I wanted to be an artist and if I could find a way to sell a drawing for a few dollars, then that’s the way I did it.

There used to be a pulp magazine called Blue Book. I admired the artists in it, so I made some samples and showed them around. The art directors chased me away, saying, “Go back to school, kid. We can’t use you.”

“Comic Corporation Of America…Took Me In” JA: This was before comic books, wasn’t it?

GLANZMAN: I had seen Famous Funnies, which was all newspaper strip reprints. Not too long after that, “Superman” started. Since I couldn’t get work in the pulps, I went to the

GLANZMAN: They told me to do a story and I did. Then I got the idea to do “The Shark,” which was not an imitation of “The SubMariner,” by the way. I started out making 7H bucks a page, for the entire job: writing, penciling, inking, lettering, and coloring. My biggest problem was getting the panel borders straight. [laughs] And spelling. One of the editors corrected my spelling.

The Water Is Full Of Sharks!

(Above:) Lew sent us these two splashes—the leftmost one marked “Amazing-Man 1939”—and they look to us as if they may well be from two of the very first “Shark” stories. That superhero made his Glanzman-drawn debut in Amazing-Man #6 (Oct. 1939), so….!

(Below:) Bob Beerbohm sent us scans of this apparently later, more polished pair of pages—the splash and 2nd page of the “Shark” tale in Amazing-Man #10 (March 1940). [©2005 the respective copyright holders.]

JA: Did they have a big office?

GLANZMAN: No. There were just two rooms.

JA: Tell me about the “Shark” feature.

GLANZMAN: It was about a character

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Golden Age Artist Lew Glanzman GLANZMAN: No, but I got more pages to do. I think that’s why I got the work. I was a kid and could draw. I was just happy for the work. All I thought about was getting more pages to draw.

“Bright Idea(s)” JA: Were you a fast artist?

GLANZMAN: I was fast. I’m still fast. That was a big plus for me. I could do a cover for Time magazine overnight. I continued to do “The Shark” while doing “Amazing-Man”; then I got the bright idea to do another feature so I could do some more pages. And I would also come up with even more features to do, but they never lasted very long. I did what I could to get more pages to do. “Dopey Danny Day” was one of those features, as was “Air Man.” JA: You told me that your father saved your published stories.

GLANZMAN: Yes, he did. Unfortunately, he tore my stories out of the magazines and threw the rest away. I also did covers as well as doublepage spreads in the middle of the books.

JA: Did you get a higher rate for doing the covers?

GLANZMAN: Yes, but I don’t remember how much it was.

This photocopy Lew sent of the cover of Amazing-Man #12 (May 1940) is probably one of those his father tore off the published comics, since a binder obscures the left side of the page. Note that Lew’s signature was simply “Glanz.” [©2005 the respective copyright holders.]

who lived underwater. His father was Father Neptune, and The Shark did all kinds of heroic and miraculous stuff. It was all my creation. They liked my work, and before long I was doing feature stories, like “The Amazing-Man.” But I still had to do the lettering!

JA: Bill Everett had done that feature before you did. Did you know him or know why he left the company?

GLANZMAN: I had just met him briefly. Everett was in the office with the editor when I came in looking for a job. I don’t know why he left the company, but he left a few months after I started there. My editor told me that “Amazing-Man” was now mine, and I was delighted.

JA: Did you write “Amazing-Man”?

GLANZMAN: No. I haven’t the slightest idea who wrote it. It might have been the doorman.

JA: Is there anything else about Bill Everett that you recall?

GLANZMAN: No. I was too damn young for things to register in my brain. I was raised in the country in Virginia, and New York was a big deal to me. I was walking around with my mouth open half the time.

JA: Did they give you a raise when they moved you up to the more important features?

This story from a 1941 issue of Amazing-Man is credited to “S. Decker”—and, according to Jerry Bails and Hames Ware’s 1970s Who’s Who of American Comic Books, the pseudonym “Sam Decker” was used by both Lew and his brother Sam. Ron Goulart, in a 1986 comics history, identifies the artist as Sam—but is he right? [©2005 the respective copyright holders.]

“I Wanted To Be An ‘Artiste’!”

51

GLANZMAN: Just a couple of people. One of my fondest memories of working there was the time they offered me a full book. I wrote and drew the stories and the cover at home. When I delivered the book a few weeks later, I discovered the place was empty. The phones were gone, the furniture was gone... nobody was there. I had no warning.

JA: Did they stiff you for anything besides the work you were delivering?

GLANZMAN: No. They just stiffed me for that book. But it worked out better for me, because Parents’ Magazine was putting out comics [Real Heroes and True Comics], and that was a high-class company.

They paid good bucks. And I tell you, it wasn’t too long before I was the first kid to own a Packard car. It was second-hand, of course.

“I Fought The War On Park Avenue” JA: This was in 1941?

GLANZMAN: Yes. I also worked up some samples for a syndicated strip, Lawrence of Arabia, which Parents’ was talking about selling. But it didn’t happen. I also did something for Harvey Comics—“Just Call Me a Doc”—but I don’t remember anything about the company. A guy with the last name of Kelly was the editor.

JA: So you were mainly working for Parents’ when World War II broke out. Were you drafted?

GLANZMAN: No. I enlisted. My father was a great patriot. He was a World War I hero and won the Purple Heart and other medals. His boys were going to go to war. The guy who really saw the war was Sam. I didn’t see the war at all. I fought the war on Park Avenue. [laughs] JA: How did you manage that?

Another “tearsheet” sent by Lew is this photocopy of the cover of Centaur’s Wham Comics #2 (Dec. 1940). We presume that’s the super-hero called The Frost on the apparently (but unsigned) Lew Glanzman-drawn cover. Note that Wham had stars named “The Frost” and “Blue Fire”—and that the latter is said to “walk through walls to melt The Frost.” The cover ballyhoos the “Most Exciting Battle you have ever seen Between FIRE and FROST.” Martin Goodman might’ve got a wee bit miffed to see his muchheralded Human Torch/Sub-Mariner fights imitated. Oh, and by the way, Bails and Ware’s Who’s Who attributes “Blue Fire” to Lew, as well. [©2005 the respective copyright holders.]

JA: It must have felt great to be that young and earning a good living.

GLANZMAN: It was terrific.

JA: Why did you occasionally use pseudonyms when you did comics?

GLANZMAN: The editors didn’t want it to look like one person was doing the whole magazine. It didn’t matter to me. I just wanted to work.

JA: Did it ever occur to you to save your original art?

GLANZMAN: I did save a few pages, but I threw them out long ago.

Sam keeps telling me what they were worth.

JA: So you liked your work enough to save some of your originals?

GLANZMAN: I couldn’t save them all, because they disappeared once I handed them in.

JA: If you had asked for your originals back, would they have given them to you?

GLANZMAN: I doubt it.

JA: How many people worked in the office?

GLANZMAN: I didn’t manage it. The Army did. [laughs] I was in the Army Air Force.

What happened was that they had a long list in basic training of schools you could go to. There was a cooking school in New York and that’s the school I wanted to go to. I wanted to get back home. I put that school down as my choice.

They gave aptitude tests and it turned out I was a charming success in mechanics. So instead of going to cooking school, the Army thought I’d make a great Air Force mechanic. I went to school in Philadelphia and Ulp! We weren’t able to score any art by Lew that was just as Glanzman for “Air Man,” another feature he drew for Centaur, by deadline time, so we settled for good, so far as I was showing you Ben Thompson’s cover for Keen concerned.

JA: Were you a good mechanic?

Detective Funnies #23 (Aug. 1940), the issue that introduced the hero—who’s not to be confused with “Airmale and Stampy” three years later over in Prize Comics. [©2005 the respective copyright holders.]

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Again, we have no other information, but we suspect this cartoon by “Glanz” may be of post-World War II vintage. [©2005 the respective copyright holders.]

A montage of other early comics work by Lew Glanzman: “Dopey Danny Day” (the “Danny” is lettered extremely small)—“Sidekicks” (dated “Jan. 1940” on the photocopy Lew sent us)—and “The Wasp,” probably from Real Heroes or True Comics. [©2005 the respective copyright holders.]

Golden Age Artist Lew Glanzman

“I Wanted To Be An ‘Artiste’!”

53

The funny part of it was... of course, I wanted to go to New York, but I always wanted to go to the Pacific where Sam was. When I was in mechanics, I kept bugging my Sergeant to have me transferred as a gunner or something. It never happened. I wanted to be with my brother.

JA: Maybe that was because the Army thought about what happened with the five Sullivan brothers. They all perished together when their ship was sunk.

GLANZMAN: I don’t know about that. But this was different, because Sam was in the Navy and I was in the Army Air Force. But I figured if I got over there, I could find him. One of the stories my father told was about meeting his brother in France during the First World War. When you’re young, you believe in such fairy tales. By the way, I did a story about the five Sullivan brothers for Real Heroes.

“I Wanted To Be A Painter” JA: Once out of the service, you didn’t go back to comics. Why? GLANZMAN: Because I wanted to be an “artiste.” I wanted to be a painter. I’d felt that way ever since I had gotten that set of oil paints.

JA: So comics were just your way of making a living?

GLANZMAN: Yeah. I didn’t have to worry about making a living because I was living at home, but I wanted to make a buck and get that Packard.

This photocopy of a splash page sent by Lew is probably from Real Heroes or True Comics, both published by the (ahem) parent company of Parents’ Magazine. [©2005 the respective copyright holders.]

GLANZMAN: No [laughs], but I graduated and got my stripes. I worked on the line for a while, working on planes. Whenever one of us finished working on a plane, a mechanic had to go with the pilot in case something went wrong. I don’t know what the hell they expected us to do.

But I was on the line making sketches; I was always drawing. They’d always yell, “Get Buck (they always called me that) to fly.” I flew all over Alabama. [laughs] I was stationed there after Philadelphia.

JA: The Air Force didn’t make much use of your art ability, did they?

GLANZMAN: I did stuff for the post paper, like complaining about the laundry, and the brass was always after me for it. Finally, I was called in by the Persification Officer and we got to talking.

He said, “Maybe we can find something for you.” Before I knew it, there was a magazine called Air Force Magazine, which was published on Park Avenue in New York City. And I was transferred there.

This partial promo sheet, featuring the Glanzman-drawn newspaper strip Lawrence of Arabia which The Bell Syndicate was trying to sell in 1942, was likewise sent by Lew. Note that the credit line reads “By TRUE COMICS.” [©2005 the respective copyright holders.]

When the war was over, I got married and had responsibilities. I ran into the same kind of trouble I had when I started. I went to publishers and they’d tell me to “go back to school.” I started painting and my first big break was with True Magazine for Fawcett Publications. I was a jazz buff and I had the good fortune to do work with an original manuscript and have it in my hands. I still tremble when I think about it. It was a manuscript Louis Armstrong wrote about New Orleans. I painted a picture for it in my first house. It was an enormous painting, and I knew I had hit the big time. I’ve been an illustrator ever since then.

JA: So you weren’t even thinking about comics then.

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Golden Age Artist Lew Glanzman

(Above:) Lew’s brother Sam posing with a tank—flanked by a powerful page from Sam’s long-running semi-autobiographical series “U.S.S. Stevens” he wrote and drew for DC (this one’s from the story “Kamikaze,” in Our Army at War #235, Aug. 1971)—and a sketch Sam drew in 2002 for collector Michael Zeno of Wind-Runner. The latter is one of the identities of the Flash hero now known as Max Mercury (originally called Quicksilver in 1940s Quality Comics). Mike Z. tells us Sam can be reached for commission work via <lawrenceshell@comcast.net>. Sam has produced some of the best and most authentic war comics stories ever done—try getting hold of a copy of his graphic novel A Sailor’s Tale from a few years back! Thanks to Don Mangus for the photo. [Page ©2005 DC Comics; sketch ©2005 Sam Glanzman; Wind-Runner TM & ©2005 DC Comics.]

GLANZMAN: No. By that time, comic books were a big business; it was hot. When I was in it, I was just a trench boy. I wasn’t anybody.

JA: But Sam went into comics.

GLANZMAN: Yes, he did. He stayed in the comics.

JA: Did you two ever do comic work together?

GLANZMAN: We worked together on comics and children’s books.

JA: When you did comics, whose name was used?

GLANZMAN: God knows! Probably mine. I’m the older brother. I’m the boss. [laughs] JA: Was it your idea to get Sam into comics?

GLANZMAN: I suppose so. It was a way to make a buck. Sam and I were always very close.

JA: You’ve never stopped working. What are you doing now?

GLANZMAN: I have a book coming out soon. It’s called The Dream Catchers. It’s a story about me, though I didn’t plan it that way. I did three books for my grandchildren for the fun of it. I got in contact with a young woman who writes books. She fell in love with one idea I had, took the pictures, and we worked it into a book. It’s about a grandfather who teaches his grand-kids how to live in their imaginations.

It’s a children’s book published by Marsh-Media in Kansas City, Missouri. I hope it sells.

“I Wanted To Be An ‘Artiste’!”

55

LEW GLANZMAN Checklist [NOTE: This information was primarily taken from Jerry Bails’ online Who’s Who; see preceding Everett interview for details and key. All work is as artist (a) unless otherwise noted.]

Name: Louis S. Glanzman [b. 1922] (artist, writer) [NOTE: His first name is spelled “Lew” throughout the foregoing interview because that is the way he generally signed it.]

Paperback covers: Paperback of Great Opera 1948; other covers 1949-81

Pen Names: Lew Glanz, Sam Decker (the latter used both separately and in tandem with Sam Glanzman)

Member: Salmigundi Club

Brothers: Sam Glanzman, D.C. Glanzman Major Influence: George Bridgman Magazine Illustrations: Boys’ Life 1964-66, 1968; Collier’s, Saturday Evening Post, Life, Seventeen, 60 children’s books 1948+. Covers: True magazine 1948+, Time 1948+, National Geographic, National Lampoon 1970; et al. Listed in The Illustrator in America.

Book Illustrations: Incredible Incas and Their Timeless Land 1975; Mighty Aztec 1981; Pippi Longstocking 1960; The Mule Skinner 1945; Sword of King Arthur 1968; Tony Tyler n.d.; The Vikings 1972; Wild Shores: America’s Beginnings 1974 Advertising Work: Dunn & Bradstreet 1955 Fine Arts Painting: Bob Jones University 1979-81; Suffolk Marine Museum 1981-84

Syndicated Credits (Newspaper Comic Strips): Lawrence of Arabia (w) 1942 COMIC BOOKS (Mainstream US Publishers): Centaur: (1939-41) The Shark (w/a), Amazing-Man, Capt.

Cury, Blue Fire, Air Man, Dopey Danny Day, World Famous Heroes Harvey & precursors: Just Call Me a Doc 1941 Parents’ Magazine: (1941-42) True Comics, Real Heroes.

Still no photo of Lew—but, thanks to the heroic efforts of Don Mangus, interviewer Jim Amash was able to come up with the above painted self-portrait of the artist, so here ‘tis—along with another “tearsheet” cover by “Glanz”—this one from Amazing-Man Comics #13 (June 1940). Visit Lew (or Louis’, as it’s listed there) website at <http://www.louisglanzman.com/bio.html>. [©2005 the respective copyright holders.]

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[Except where noted, all art on pp. 58-62 ©2005 Warren Publishing, Inc.]

58

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt

Welcome to our second installment of Warren Confidential! Once again we sift through the moldy fan pages of Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella searching for gold nuggets hidden among the pyrite. Last issue we noted that James Warren often used fan pages of his horror comics to spot budding talent. As a result, a surprising number of upand-coming pros later sold work to Warren Publishing. See how many you recognize.

Let’s begin with the ghoulish pic at right by Creepy Fan Club member #520, Berni Wrightston. Berni’s fan art from Creepy #9 (June 1966) was his first published comic book art. By the mid-’70s, the talented teen had developed into one of Warren’s finest artists, and achieved comic book immortality as co-creator of DC’s Swamp Thing.

(He’s now gone back to spelling his first name “Bernie,” but we’ve hewed to the way he wrote it at the time.)

[©2005 DC Comics.]

Scripter Len Wein was Berni’s partner-in-crime on the legendary Swamp Thing series. Back in his fan days, Len was also an aspiring comic book artist, as demonstrated by the macabre group portrait below, from Eerie #22 (July 1969). Len went on to become an awardwinning writer and editor at DC and Marvel.

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[Batman TM & ©2005 DC Comics.]

Warren Confidential: Part 2

Last issue we featured two drawings by Creepy Fan Club member #44, Frank Brunner. We ran out of room before we could print his spooky Vampire-Batman pic above from Creepy #14 (April 1967). Neat, huh? Fearsome Frank’s pencils for Marvel’s Dr. Strange and Howard the Duck in the ’70s remain fan-favorites.

[©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Coincidentally, Frank’s Howard the Duck inker, Steve Leialoha, also contributed three fan-page illos. The first two (top right and center right) appeared in Eerie #32 (March 1971). The bottom drawing was printed the very same month in Creepy #38. Following their fan page appearances, both artists eventually received professional assignments from Warren (Frank in 1971 and Steve in 1980).

[Blackhawk TM & ©2005 DC Comics.]

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt

When you study the old Warren fan pages, expect the unexpected.

Painters? We got ’em! Check out Ken Kelly’s horned monster above left from Creepy #27 (June 1969). Ken later became one of Warren’s top cover artists in the ’70s.

Then there’s the Werewolf vs. Vampire picture above from Eerie #17 (Sept. 1968), drawn by a young Michael Whelan, long before he became an award-winning cover artist and fantasy painter.

Foreign art? How about these drawings by Phillippe Druillet (France) and Jose Munoz (Argentina)? Munoz’s poorly-reproduced illustration appeared in Vampirella #14 (Nov. 1971). Praised for his superb art on series like Alack Sinner and Sophie Goin’ South, Munoz won a 1994 Harvey Award in the US for his Billie Holiday graphic novel.

[Vampirella TM & ©2005 Harris Publishing, Inc.]

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Druillet’s dragon-riding damsel at left appeared in Vampirella #8 (Nov 1970). Five years later, Druillet, along with fellow artists Jean (Moebius) Giraud, Jean-Pierre Dionnet, and Bernard Farkas, published the first issue of Métal Hurlant—later spun off in the US as Heavy Metal magazine.

Warren Confidential: Part 2

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Uncle Creepy also had fans in the world of fanzines and underground comix. The three small drawings above from Eerie #16 (July 1968) and the corpse-breaking-out-of-his-grave pic at top left from Eerie #23 (Sept. 1969) were drawn by Beastly Bruce Jones. Bruce also went pro that year, selling a story to the first issue of a competing horror mag, Web of Horror. Slick prozines like Heritage and Abyss also featured his work. In 1971, Bruce began selling scripts to Warren, quickly becoming a fan-favorite.

Underground comix legend Richard Corben illustrated many of Bruce’s Warren scripts. Rich also made an appearance on the Warren fan pages, shortly before becoming a Warren mainstay in the ’70s. The two beastly illos at top right were printed on the fan pages of Eerie #16 (July 1968).

Finally, the gruesome monster-under-the-stairway pic at left from Creepy #43 (Jan 1972) was drawn by Tim Boxell. Throughout the ’70s, Grim Tim wrote and drew numerous horror stories under the pen name “Grisly” for such underground comix as Image of the Beast and Commies from Mars.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt

[Flash Gordon TM & ©2005 King Features Syndicate.]

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Last but not least, we have Art Suydam’s Flash Gordon illo from Eerie #30 (Nov. 1970) and Pat Broderick’s barbarian from Eerie #34 (Dec 1971). Within a couple of years, Pat began drawing mainstream comics for DC and Marvel. The Micronauts and Captain Atom were two popular titles that featured his work in later years. Art Suydam (the correct spelling of his name) went pro, too. His lushly-painted comics often appear in slick magazines like Heavy Metal and Penthouse Comix.

And that’s it for this go-round. Special thanks to Richard Arndt for helping us track down the art this issue. We have a few stray nuggets of future-gold left to sift through, but we’ll save that for another time.

Next month: More cool comic oddities from Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Till next time…

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

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64

Bob Haney

In Memoriam

(1926-2004) “A Great Fixture of the Silver Age of Comics”

by Mark Evanier

T

his tribute to comics writer Bob Haney first appeared on Mark Evanier’s website www.newsfromme.com, and is used with his permission.

A great fixture of the Silver Age of Comics, veteran comic book writer Bob Haney, died Thanksgiving day at a nursing facility in El Cajon, California. He was 78 years old and had been hospitalized for some time, recovering from a stroke that had left him unable to speak or recognize people. He was reportedly making a decent recovery when additional complications ended his life, which comes as sad news. He was among the most articulate and outspoken writers in the field, and someone I always enjoyed talking with on the few occasions when I had the opportunity.

Raised in Philadelphia, Haney always credited vintage comic strips (especially Prince Valiant and Flash Gordon) and the radio dramas of his youth as inspiration. He received an M.A. from Columbia University and put it to work writing novels under an array of pen names and, beginning in 1948, comic books. Between ’48 and ’49, he worked, mostly on crime and war comics, for a number of publishers—Fawcett,

An “Aquaman” Trio: Bob Haney (on right), Nick Cardy, and Ramona Fradon.

Haney wrote “Aquaman” stories for both artists; Nick assumed the art chores on the feature when Ramona dropped it at the turn of 1961. Photo taken at a comicon in the 1990s by David Siegel.

Standard, Hillman, Harvey, St. John, et al. Most of these firms went out of business during the period, but around 1955 he connected with DC Comics, and that became a long and happy association, with Bob eventually writing just about every kind of comic that company published.

He is best remembered for co-creating the original “Teen Titans,” “Doom Patrol,” and “Metamorpho the Element Man,” and did a long and memorable stint writing team-up stories (mostly Batman and someone else for The Brave and the Bold). Among the other features he worked on were “Superman,” “Aquaman,” World’s Finest Comics, “The Unknown Soldier,” “Johnny Cloud,” “Sea Devils,” “Eclipso,” “The Viking Prince,” “Mark Merlin,” and “Sgt. Rock.” The character of Rock is generally associated with writer-editor Robert Kanigher, but Haney authored a number of memorable “Sgt. Rock” tales, including the first one. He also produced scripts for the ’60s Superman and Aquaman cartoon shows and worked for Rankin-Bass on several animated shows, including Thundercats, Silverhawks, and Karate Kat. He wrote for DC until the mid-1980s, occasionally clashing with younger editors and struggling to produce material they considered fresh and contemporary. When work dried up, he turned his attention to other forms of writing, including the authorship of a book on another of his passions, carpentry. His last few years, he resided in San Felipe in Baja, Mexico, and occasionally ventured North to appear at one of the ComicCon Internationals in San Diego. We never knew if he was coming, for he was difficult to reach down in Mexico; but when he showed up, he was a welcome and valuable addition to our panels. One visit a few years back led to his writing a new story of old “Teen Titans” for DC, though it has yet to be published. I hope someday it is, as I always enjoyed his writing, especially on “The Unknown Soldier” and “Metamorpho.” DC ought to reprint the early issues of Metamorpho, one of the freshest, liveliest comics that came out of the company in the ’60s.

José García-López’s cover for The Best of The Brave and the Bold #3 (Dec. 1988) reprinted a Batman/Aquaman team-up written by Haney and drawn by Neal Adams for The Brave and the Bold #82 (Feb.-March 1969). [©2005 DC Comics.]

In Memoriam

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A Few Thoughts Concerning

Irwin Donenfeld (1926-2004)

by Robert Beerbohm

Irwin Donenfeld a few years back… and a panel from his favorite comic book, Sheldon Mayer’s Sugar and Spike, as reprinted in The Amazing World of DC Comics #5 (March-April 1975). [Art ©2005 DC Comics.]

B

eginning in the late 1990s, I was blessed to come to know and interview Irwin Donenfeld as part of my preparations for a long-researched book on the history of the business of comic books in America. Over the course of several years and over 18 hours of taped interviews, we became friends as I jogged his mind and he guided me through his memories of his earlier glory years before his “uncle’s” subterfuge forced him out of DC Comics. If he remembered certain details of the past, he told me what he knew. If he had no knowledge of something or someone, likewise, he said so.

His earliest direct memories were of working subscriptions on his father’s Spicy pulp line prior to Superman’s debut in 1938. He told many a person of how he was 12 years old when he got to read the original art for those early “Superman” stories prior to publication. By 1948, after stints in the US Army and college, he went to work full-time in the family business, learning both the publishing side and the distribution networks. Irwin grew to run his father’s comic book company for some 15 years, from 1953 through 1968. He showed me documents proving that Harry Donenfeld was always the vast majority stockholder. This stock passed on to Irwin and his sister Sonia upon Harry’s death in 1965.

Irwin had been away from the comic book business for many decades

Monthly! The Original First-Person History!

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by the time I interviewed him. There was still readily-apparent bitterness over what had happened after DC combined with Kinney Corporation, which we know today as Time Warner. He left because he had been promised a seat on the board of directors, but was instead forced to do site demographics for funeral parlors and parking lots.

He was also very protective of his father’s memory. For example, when I brought up Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Irwin was quick to point out that, if Jerry and Joe had never sued his father’s company following misguided advice from an attorney Jerry had worked with in the Stars and Stripes Pacific office in Honolulu during World War II, they would have been taken care of financially, as was Bob Kane all those decades.

Shortly after Kane obtained his original contract with Harry Donenfeld, Jerry and Joe’s contract had been rewritten to be just as generous.

Furthermore, Irwin related facts to me, such as Harry’s funding eye operations for Joe Shuster when his eyesight began to wane. Jerry and Joe also received all the royalties from the newspaper comic strip.

Irwin related to me that his favorite comic book to read was Sheldon Mayer’s Sugar and Spike, which he tried to follow every month. His proudest achievement was creating Showcase, which he always referred to as Showcase Presents, as they searched for new properties to develop new titles. He told me the magazine’s title was directly inspired by the TV show of the same name. It was in Showcase that we saw the birth of what most of us these days call the “Silver Age” of comics. He also spoke in detail of the cover photo networks he created to track distribution sales. It was from these notebooks that DC’s famous gorilla fetish had its origins.

He was astounded by what I informed him had become of the comic book industry, with its many comics conventions all over the country. I invited him to come to San Diego to speak before interested persons in the summer of 2000. The text of that two-hour conversation co-hosted

by Mark Evanier can be found in Alter Ego #26. Future issues of A/E will carry further transcriptions of our prior conversations. We covered a lot of ground, and only revealed the tip of the iceberg in what has appeared so far.

I found Irwin to be a true gentleman, and I miss him a lot.

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68

“Blood Was In Both My Eyes” ALEX TOTH Himself On His Fabled 1952 Showdown with JULIE SCHWARTZ

[Art ©2005 Alex Toth.]

N

OTE: For Alter Ego #38’s celebration of the career of DC editor Julius Schwartz, I invited Alex to write down, for the record, his version of the events, often discussed among old-time pros, which more than a half century ago caused him to quit DC at the height of his work for the company—though he did return a few years later, through the good offices of Whitney Ellsworth, who by then was overseeing the Adventures of Superman TV series in Hollywood. Alex declined in #38 to comment directly on what he referred to as “my dust-up with Julie,” preferring to dwell on the positive side of things, including “burying the hatchet” with Julie at a San Diego Comic-Con some years later. Understandably, however, after reviewing Julie’s account of the episode in his 2000 memoir Man of Two Worlds, as well as reading in #38 & #40 the comments and opinions of others who weren’t present when the split occurred, Alex reluctantly changed his mind and sent a two-sided postcard which laid out his own account. While A/E has no interest whatever in controversy for its own sake, it’s generally my policy to print what people say or write, and let the reader sort out the truth of things. Below, I’ve typed out the text of Alex’s postcard for ease of reading, changing nothing except to spell out a few words he abbreviated. And here, I believe, Alex would prefer to see the matter rest. —Roy.

3 July 04 Roy—

When Alex drew this third “Johnny Thunder” splash for All-American Comics #102 (Oct. 1948), the last issue before that mag metamorphosed into All-American Western, he and Julie had only recently begun to work more closely together, after the latter succeeded Sheldon Mayer as full editor of several of DC’s titles. Script probably by Robert Kanigher. [©2005 DC Comics.]

Damndamndamn—there it is again! Another fictionalized version of how and why I walked out of NPP/National/DC Comics 50 years ago, and then some! No one wants grumpy ol’ Alex to write the definitive tell-all auto-bio exposé of his ‘last straw,’ ‘that does it’ ‘to-do’ with editor Julie Schwartz in ’52, which even he, in his auto-bio, couldn’t/wouldn’t/didn’t mean to set straight, once and for all, with perhaps a last gasp/gesture of grace, humble-pie, gentlemanly-owning-up-to-truth-telling, to pave his way to heaven or not. No—Julie went out with that fabricated concoction on his lips, mind, conscience, and signedoff on it in print—his fictionalized version of same compounds the felony of 50 years even more shamefully! [cont’d on facing page]

“Blood Was In Both My Eyes” I’m left with with an even lower opinion of him than I’ve held since ’52—he was too small to confess it, since he chose to tell it, in his auto-bio—that ‘Sorry, Alex/folks/DC Comics/et al., I was wrong, then, in letting your walkout happen—for the ridiculous reasons we shared in creating and furthering that event—here’s how it happened—etc., etc., etc.’ That would’ve been the classy, the honest thing to do—for his own sake, mine, and for friends who knew the truth—and for those who could not.

Pushed by Julie’s attitudes and ineptitudes in this instance, towards me, my work, I’d nowhere to go but out, costing me my otherwise content career there, 5 years’ worth of growth/learning/appreciating the company and its solid history/present/future/mine with it, it was a deep cut, to leave it, because of Julie!!! Damn it!!!

I’d come in that pre-noon, delivering a storyset, with my check for it in Julie’s top drawer, as usual, to be given me if all was okay—while we went over the story, another editor asked that I step into his office, a

69

room or two away—Julie excused me, so, lunchtime imminent, I knew, I said I’d, of course, be back for verdict, and check—said editor delayed me too long, I rushed to Julie’s, to see him locking top drawer/check— !!! Walking out to ‘Prodn Dept.’ for his pinochle game/brownbagging it—‘Julie—my check, please’—‘No, you’ll wait till I’m thru my lunch!’

The meanness, pettiness, of that moment, to teach me an object lesson, after years of routine? was so base, banal, thirdgrade and rate, I fumed, roared, till he walked the 20 steps back to his desk, gave me my check.

He backed-off, ’cuz blood was in both my eyes, I’d had it!! I told him off! No mistake, I’d quit! He seemed to want me to! So did I, as things stood. I left him, for Whit Ellsworth’s office, to announce the news— Whit, good guy—couldn’t dissuade me, so I said my sad ’byes to him, left! To work for ‘Standard’—etc. Julie’s petty ways with me were groundless! Like his version of reality.

Alex

[Visit the official Alex Toth website at www.tothfans.com.]

Julie’s account of Alex’s quitting, in his autobiography co-written with Brian Thomsen, was that he did indeed make the artist wait till he was done with his lunch and card game to get his check (there’s no mention of a pre-lunch conference from which Alex was called away by another editor), and that Alex resigned after lunch because of a disagreement over whether he was to draw a “Johnny Thunder” or a Strange Adventures story next. Either way, it was a no-win situation for Alex, for Julie, and for DC. The above splash from All-American Western #121 (Aug.-Sept. 1951) and page from the “Johnny Peril” story in Sensation Comics #107 (Jan.-Feb. 1952), both penciled by Toth and inked by Sy Barry, were done some months before that walk-out, but illustrate the two different kinds of stories. Both tales were reprinted in the 1990 DC hardcover The Greatest 1950s Stories Ever Told. [©2005 DC Comics.]

70 Dear Roy— I must comment on the “pushing Weisinger out the window—or was it Kanigher?” in your last issue. Despite “expert historians” like my young friend Will Murray—you’ve got it all wrong. Because I was there.

In fact, there were two separate incidents of editor-attacking, if you can call it that.

Don [Cameron] did indeed, in one of his highs after drinking, try to push Mort up against or through the window, the very window in front of which [coeditor] Jack Schiff sat. I was in the corridor and heard screaming and yelling.

Don was just being pushed off from pushing Mort up against the window.

Remember, Don was a small man, smaller than me—like a flea trying to maneuver a pachyderm. The other editors pulled them apart. But the clincher is, the next time I saw Don in the office, he said to me with a big grin: “This is one great place. Because it’s the only place where you can try to push an editor out the window and they’ll still beg you to work for them.” That line I remember clearly to this day. Of course Don was too valuable to let go.

[Art ©2005 Shane Foley; Captain Ego created by Biljo White, TM & ©2005 Roy Thomas & Bill Schelly.]

R

oy here… beneath another of the fine homage-illos drawn by Shane Foley in the style of classic comic book artists—this time, doing one of our “maskots,” Captain Ego (minus his young buddy Alter), in the style of the great Mort Leav, in a drawing Shane says was “swiped from the cover of Mad Hatter #2, as printed in A/E #19, p. 20.” Nice job, Shane—and I for one will sorry as heck when we’ve used of all the illos you’ve done of our two pairs of heroes which were named after this fanzine!

The other namesake hero—Alter Ego himself, star of the 1986 Roy Thomas/Ron Harris comic book series published by First Comics of Chicago—can be seen on p. 66, in an unabashed plug for the trade paperback full-color reprinting just out! But remember—that volume comes from Heroic Publishing, not TwoMorrows, and can’t be ordered from the latter! You’ll have to seek out Alter Ego: The Graphic Novel at your local comics shop. As it happens, though, TwoMorrows does have on hand copies of nearly four dozen back issues of Alter Ego the fanzine—plus The All-Star Companion, Vol. 1, and even a half dozen or so remaining copies of Alter Ego: The Comic Book Artist Collection, reprinting 1998-99’s A/E Vol. 2. Like we say—collect ’em all! See TwoMorrows’ ad bloc in this issue.

This is the month we make a slight start at catching up with our letters sections, partly because A/E #38 & #40 were largely devoted to the life and legacy of the late great Julius Schwartz (with a secondary spotlight on Gil Kane, plus a lengthy Russ Heath interview, in #40), with our Jerry Robinson spotlight issue (#39) covered next issue.

Only have room to print a handful of letters, so here goes, starting with a comment by the noted Golden Age comics scripter (and early Beatnik writer) Alvin Schwartz, who wrote many a “Superman” and “Batman” story in the 1940s and ’50s. He was commenting on the backand-forth between Julie Schwartz and interviewer Will Murray on who may or may not have once tried to throw Mort Weisinger or another DC editor out a window…! —Roy.

Alvin Schwartz in a late1990s dust jacket photo for his memoir An Unlikely Prophet. [©2005 the respective copyright holders.]

Now, the other incident also occurred—but it was [Robert] Kanigher and [writer] Dave Verne—some years later. Verne hadn’t arrived yet during the Weisinger incident. For reasons unknown to me, Kanigher refused to give Verne his check. What I know is that Dave then picked Kanigher up bodily and held him there, demanding his check. He got the check. But there was no attempt to talk about “throwing Kanigher out the window.” Makes sense. Kanigher, too, was small and Dave was a lot bigger. I hope this clarifies this pair of rather comic stories so appropriate to the comic business.

Alvin Schwartz It would seem to, Alvin, although you don’t state whether you personally witnessed the Kanigher incident or only heard about it. I’ve always been able to relate to that because, back in the early 1970s, I had a vaguely similar experience, which I’ve never written about or related in public. Maybe one of these days, I’ll have to do so. But I’d hate to think that I was as abusive of creative personnel as Weisinger and Kanigher were, I believe correctly, reputed to be. Hopefully, we’ll soon have an interview with you in Alter Ego. I was greatly pleased to receive the following postcard from Mrs. Peggy Broome, widow of Silver Age comic book writer par excellence John Broome, who passed away in early 1999: Dear Roy— Cordial greetings—and many thanks for the Alter Ego memorial issue about Julie! If you ever get to Paris, I’d be delighted to take you out to tea!

Mrs. Peggy Broome And Dann and I would certainly accept, Peggy… except that we’d want to pick up the tab!

Probably because we divided our Julie Schwartz coverage between two issues, two months apart, and because both were so chock-full of tributes to the man we called, with tongue firmly in cheek, “the selfstyled architect of the Silver Age,” we didn’t receive a lot of additional comments beyond general appreciation—plus, of course, the usual corrections of our goofs, happily mostly minor. This letter was actually sent by Big Bang Comics artist Mark Lewis (whose work you can see on p. 77

re:

71

A Julie Schwartz caricature by his former editor, Shelly Mayer, from The Amazing World of DC Comics #3—flanked by a Green Lantern page Gil Kane penciled and inked for him. Either Shane Foley or Mark Muller (or both!) sent us this photocopy from an Australian black-&-white reprint comic, and it’s mischievous of us to print it here, since one of Gil’s few complaints about his friend Julie as an editor was that, at least in the early 1960s, he was rarely allowed to show GL hit a foe, as opposed to taking him out with his Power Ring. Anybody out there know the issue number? [Caricature ©2005 Estate of Sheldon Mayer; Green Lantern page ©2005 DC Comics.]

of this issue) to FCA editor P.C. Hamerlinck,who forwarded it to me: Paul, Finally finished the “All-Julie, All the Time” issue of Alter Ego. It’s an interesting thing: as I was reading, I began to realize maybe why it was that the DC’s Shazam! revival was not the best fit for Julius Schwartz as editor. By the time I got to the FCA segment and others in there crystallized it for me. Julie’s sci-fi background, which made him the perfect architect for the Silver Age hero revival, probably also made him not really the right guy for the whimsy and magic of Cap and company. The book was to go in a direction that was contrary to his instincts, and, as a result, they would up with something that no one was entirely happy with.

It’s interesting to think about the fact that, in Golden Age comics, anything was possible. Things could be explained by magic or pure fantasy, or even not really explained at all! The reader would follow along, and was a participant in a great game of “let’s pretend.” When we reached the Silver Age, characters’ origins became much more scientific or pseudo-scientific. Things were more “realistic,” and some of the more fantastic and imaginative story elements began to be excluded. The ongoing quest for comic “realism” has continued to the present. The thing is, if you’re talking about characters who can fly and are superstrong, the closer to reality their world gets, the sillier they begin to look.

To get back to Julie Schwartz, you certainly didn’t pull your punches in your comments (I’d be a little irked, too, if I gave someone something and they didn’t even come back with a simple “thank you”).

But even Roy seems to at best have felt kind of ambivalent about the guy personally. Roy’s comments about his own Midwestern-ness butting up against Julie’s New York attitude makes sense. New Yorkers can be a breed apart from anyone else in the country. I’ve seen a number of guys come out here [to the L.A. area] from the New York comics scene to get into animation, and some of them have real attitudes. Like, “Hey, I was in comics, so you should hand me the keys to the animation industry!”

That kind of automatic arrogance doesn’t play well outside New York.

Not all of them are like that, but I’ve seen it more than once.

Oh, and I have to say that I found Jackson Bostwick’s writing approach and attitude refreshing. Sounds like a real decent, upbeat guy. I can see why Beck got along with him and why you’re doing the book with him.

Mark Lewis I can’t speak for P.C., Mark, but don’t get me wrong—I both admired and liked Julie Schwartz. I was simply reporting the fact that I generally felt that, despite the many things we had in common, and my gratitude to him for all he did both for the early days of Alter Ego and his inspiration to me personally, the two of us were often on different wavelengths. Oh, and just like we promised, we’ll have another Julie Schwartz issue later, featuring material we couldn’t squeeze into the combined #38 and #40! To paraphrase the Bard: “Oh, Julie, thou art mighty yet!”

Next: longtime comics colorist Carl Gafford is always a fountain of information on Silver Age Comics, and matters growing out of #38 were no exception:

Roy, Got the All-Schwartz ish in the mailbox yestidday. Coupla additions and corrections I came upon while skimming the ish: The Batgirl illo on page 6 is Carmine Infantino inked by Sid Greene, not Gil Kane inked by Greene. The scene doesn’t immediately come to mind, so it might be from Detective Comics #363 or maybe even #369 (Carmine’s last ’Tec “Batman” story, though he drew the cover for #371). Kane penciled the cover for #369, so that might’ve confused you.

“Batman’s Bewitched Nightmare” was from Detective Comics #336, not #429 (and certainly not with a two-month cover date of FebMarch, much less 1964). #336 came out in December 1964 with a Feb. 1965 cover date, and #429 was Nov. 1972. It wasn’t even a 52-pager with a reprint in the back, just a regular 32-pager (for 20¢), so I don’t know offhand where the reprinted version of that story appeared. “Bewitched Nightmare” was retroactively made a Zatanna crossover (she’s the witch under The Outsider’s influence) so that Batman could be cover-featured in JLA #51’s “Z—as in Zatanna and Zero Hour!” featuring all the heroes who’d helped Zatanna in her quest for her father, Golden Age magic hero Zatara.

There are a couple of ways to remember when an issue of Detective came out: #300 came out in December 1961 (dated Feb. 1962).

Every ish in 1962, you just add the month number to 300 (301 in Jan., 302 in Feb.) through 312 in December. Beginning with #306 in June 1962, Detective is exactly 300 issues ahead in numbering from Fantastic Four. If you can remember when an issue of FF came out, just add 300 to it.

Alfred was killed in the second “New Look” Detective issue, #328 in April 1964 (same month the FF fought The X-Men in FF #28).

Batman “met” Zatanna as the witch in #336 in Dec. 1964, and Alfred came back to life in Detective #356 (Oct. 1966 issue). It was Alfred’s return from the dead that happened in 1966 (in response to Alfred being

72

[comments, correspondence, & corrections]

in the cast of the Batman TV show); his death was one of the first changes in the “New Look,” and was written by Bill Finger in an ish on sale in April 1964, probably written about the time of that memo repro’d in A/E #38.

Yep, John Broome scripted “Slowdown in Time. And Murphy Anderson inked Joe Kubert on two “Hawkman” stories in 1968’s The Atom and Hawkman. You showed a page from Part 2 of the continued story “Yo-Yo Hangup in the Sky!” All fur now, Carl Gafford

Okay, so maybe we finally got it straight: the Schwartz-intended death of Alfred, a.k.a. The Outsider, appeared in Detective Comics #328, with script by Bill Finger, and art by Sheldon Moldoff & Joe Giella, imitating Bob Kane imitating Carmine Infantino! This and other “New Look” tales of Batman are available in DC’s Batman: The Dynamic Duo, Vol. 1, though still with Bob Kane art credits. Dick Grayson’s Aunt Harriet showed up a page or so later. [©2005 DC Comics.]

Thanks, Carl. I always liked the Kubert/Anderson teaming myself, just for a change. Yeah, I got a bit confused about Alfred’s death—but then, obviously, so did DC Comics, albeit in a different way!

Sam Kujava adds a bit of information I wish I’d had in time for A/E #38: Roy, The Justice League of America drawing on page 11 of Alter Ego #38, with each character done in the style of the artist drawing that character’s strip/title… it is indeed by a pro, as you said! Check out the inks on pp. 32 & 33 of the same A/E issue, over Carmine’s pencils… it is none other than the illustrious embellisher Dennis Jensen, who, as the

JLA “cover” shows, is also a polished pencil-pusher!

Dennis first unveiled this awesome art at the Annual Picnic-Con in Iola, Wisconsin, sponsored by Krause Publications, some years back.

Comics Buyer’s Guide editor Maggie Thompson and former Comic Reader editor Mike Tiefenbacher were also on hand to witness this most audacious artwork. It is one thing to attempt to imitate so many different art styles of one particular time period… it is quite another thing to successfully pull it off!

Sam Kujava 1157 S. Fiske St. Green Bay, WI 54304 Nice to know, Sam. Now if I could just remember who sent me that faux cover, a decade or two ago! It’s a beauty.

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Here are a couple more notes on #38: Dear Roy, I know that Garrison Keillor isn’t a comics industry figure, which is all the more reason you should have fact-checked the name, MR. EDITOR! Other than that, the Julie Schwartz tribute issue was great. One minor, minor, minor quibble: I understand that the Kurt Schaffenberger illo on p. 8 was included to accompany the Elliot Maggin reminiscence.

But why go to the trouble of identifying Maggin and Bates in the caption and stop short of noting that Kurt also drew himself into the tableau?

Herb Lichtenstein Sorry about misspelling Garrison Keillor’s name, Herb—especially since, to Dann and me, “The News from Lake Wobegon” is one of the bright spots on radio! ’Twas only a typo, I assure you, since I also have numerous books and recordings by G.K. Now, a note that I suppose applies to both A/E #38 and #40. It comes from Lynda Fox Cohen, daughter of early comics writer Gardner Fox: Roy— Hats off to you! I’m sure Max, Shelly, and Gardner are smiling, but you have given me a song in my heart. Thank you, ty, ty.

Lynda Fox Cohen Always a pleasure to deal with Gardner, Julie, Shelly Mayer, and the rest, Lynda.

Hames Ware supplied us with a few art identifications in Frank Motler’s article in the FCA section of A/E #40:

re:

73 we publish. We were certainly willing to do, but wish that we hadn’t needed to: I smelled smoke about 10:30 PM, June 2nd, 2004. I checked the stove, happened to look up at the light in the kitchen, and saw smoke circling it. I knew at once a fire had started above the ceiling and there was nothing I could do to stop it. In a sudden panic, I reached for the phone, but immediately realized the noise outside was the sound of several neighbors pounding on the side of my house, yelling for me to come out. They had already seen the flames, and smoke was thick in the neighborhood. As I opened the door, the rush of air prompted flames from above to accompany me out, a dramatic scene I’m sure for those outside. One neighbor lady collapsed, fearing I’d been trapped inside, and had to be given oxygen and be cared for by paramedics for some time.

Fire trucks, ambulances, and state police cars arrived very soon, a dozen vehicles at least, and they managed to put out the fire in a little over two hours. The roof and rafters were destroyed, and windows were broken, and a lot of water had been put inside over valuable goods, but a deputy sheriff used his flashlight to look in a window, and told me he thought my main storeroom was undamaged. The doors to that room were closed, which kept it secure. I was confident I could salvage the heart of my vast collection, and was told at least one fireman would remain on the scene all night.

A bonus feature in A/E #40 was John Wells’ piece on the various shrunken heroes that popped up in the late 1950s and early 1960s, not long before Julie Schwartz, Gardner Fox, and Gil Kane gave us The Atom. Here’s the splash page of an even earlier such story, printed from an Australian b&w photocopy sent to us by Mark Muller. Carl Gafford informs us that “Last Day on Earth!” originally appeared in Strange Adventures #41 (Feb. 1954)—and was reprinted, appropriately enough, in the oversize The Atom #35 (Feb.-March 1968). Carl tells us that the Grand Comic Book Data Base credits the script to John Broome, and the art to Sy Barry—but that he feels that Frank Giacoia (possibly even Joe Giella) may have had a hand in the inking. [©2005 DC Comics.]

Dear Roy— P. 46… Yellowjacket is by the ubiquitous Ken Battefield… Diana the Huntress by Leo Morey… Famous Tales may be Gerald Altman.

P. 52: Danger and Adventure cover w/Ibis… A.A. Blum. The D&A cover with Lance O’Casey and the dinosaur is probably by Charles Tomsey, and Golden Arrow by Art Pinajian.

Hames Ware Thanks, Hames! Hmm… we just noticed that we didn’t print any letters above regarding Jim Amash’s #40 interview with the fabulous Russ Heath. But we did get some, I assure you—mostly pat-on-the-back missives saying how great the interview was, or how great Russ’ art is, or both. When we’re showcasing talents like Julie Schwartz, Russ Heath, and Gil Kane, as we did in those three issues, most folks are just glad to read their words and look at all that awesome art—me included!

Some sad news: a fire wiped out much of the collection of our longtime fandom buddy Bill Pearson, executor of the estate of artist Wally Wood and the source of much of the Wood and related material we published back in A/E V3#8. Bill wrote the following letter, which he asked that

Long as helpful Hames Ware has ID’d Ken Battefield as the artist of the “Yellowjacket” splash seen in A/E #40, we figured we’d toss in the splash of the second story of that insectoid avenger from Yellowjacket Comics #6 (Dec. 1945). Looks to us like the same artist—but only Hames and a couple of other sharp-eyed spotters know for sure! [©2005 the respective copyright holders.]

74

[comments, correspondence, & corrections]

A neighbor offered me a bed. After most of the trucks had left, I went there about 2 a.m. and lay there listening to the loud one or two that remained. The last truck pulled out at about 3:30 a.m., and I dozed fitfully for a couple of hours.

It could have been worse.

It got worse. At 5:30 a.m. I was jolted out of bed. The neighborhood was again alarmed, and when I got back outside my house was blazing worse than it had the night before. No firemen had remained. Several people tried calling 911 and could not get through. (That was the dominant focus of the newspaper story the next day.) Finally, someone looked up the number of the nearest fire station and placed a call there. This time it took almost a half hour for the fire trucks to arrive. The men on those trucks were not the same efficient professional firemen who had done such a great job the night before. These seemed to me to be maintenance people from the fire station. They didn’t know what they were doing. The water truck that arrived was empty! It went away to get some water and didn’t get back for a full half hour.

By this time the unoccupied house next door was on fire. It hadn’t been touched the night before. One of my neighbors, legally blind, saw the top of the electric pole behind my house on fire and rushed to tell the firemen, who hadn’t noticed. They hadn’t turned off the electricity traveling down a thick wire above my house to the house next door.

That day I watched my house burn to the ground. The house next door was completely gutted, though its walls remained. Mine did not. Half the firemen spent their time putting that fire out, though the house was virtually empty, and let mine burn to the last sliver and particle.

Three unattached storerooms on my property, one forty feet long, were damaged on the outside, but it will be some time before I know how much damage the heat did to the contents of those buildings. No truly valuable, one-of-a-kind items are in those storerooms.

A few of you know I’ve been an avid collector for over fifty years.

No one will ever know the extent of what went up in flames that day. In financial terms, I estimate the total value in today’s dollars at somewhere between a quarter and a half million dollars. But to many of us in this world who truly appreciate original art and other rare items, some of it would be considered priceless.

I was like a zombie. I had walked out of the house in slippers. Didn’t get into a pair of shoes for three days. I was working at my computer when it started but would have been asleep a couple of hours later, and so would all of my neighbors. As it is, it’s a sparsely populated area, and it’s a wonder they were alerted as soon as they were.

The Red Cross came through with a toothbrush, a razor, and blades, and, which surprised me, a $400 credit card. They were quick and helpful, arranging for immediate refills of blood pressure and other pills, that sort of thing.

My neighbors were, for a day or two anyway, very considerate. I slept on a friend’s couch for a few weeks.

I haven’t had time to grieve about my loss because the real world won’t allow any time for it. I’ve been on the run since it happened. I have responsibilities, people to talk to, papers to sign, arrangements to be made. Keep in mind, I’m not asking for money. I did have insurance (will receive, in money, the only thing most people value, about 10% of the value of what I lost), so in time will be able to put a small mobile home on my property and live there peacefully.

The biggest shock after the fire was finding out what it would cost to clean up the mess. My responsibility. $4500 if they go in right away with

Russ Heath is best-known for his DC work, but both in the 1950s and later he’s worked for Marvel, as well. At top is a self-portrait (of “Rapacious Russ”) that appeared in the 1975 Mighty Marvel Comic Convention program book—and, above, a “Ka-Zar” action page (from an issue of Savage Tales? we’re not sure). The latter is repro’d from a photocopy of the original art, courtesy of an unknown but greatly-appreciated benefactor. [Sketch ©2005 Russ Heath; Ka-Zar page ©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

backhoes and other big machines and fill the dumpsters as fast as possible. An additional $100 a day if a couple of men assist me in attempting to salvage anything I can, digging into it by hand. So I spent a couple of hundred more in the hope of finding, primarily, any original art. There wasn’t much, but I had to try, in 100-plus degree heat, without shade. Our Arizona sun is pitiless.

To give you an idea, it was a pile covering approximately 100 feet by 80 feet by an average level of 5 feet high, with occasional spires of sharp metal or two-by-fours. It looked like a mini Two Towers disaster site.

For a while it was one of the sight attractions of the county. I live in a small community surrounded by sparsely populated high desert country, about 30 miles from Prescott, Arizona. Cars were going past my place in a steady stream all day long, every day for weeks, people gawking at the scene.

After they finally got the fire out (basically they just let it burn until everything was gone), a couple of men (interns?) spent hours alternately throwing water and foam over the debris. They didn’t leave until dark, and I couldn’t get past the fire lines until the next morning. I climbed into the middle of it all to confirm for myself that it was a total loss.

Everything had burned to the ground, without exception.

re: Except… several feet away from the jagged edges of the charred lumber and torn metal and mounds of lumpy black paper lay a small two-drawer black file cabinet on its side, all by itself, its outer shell doubly black, coated with dried grease and ash. It was the same file cabinet containing Wally Wood’s childhood drawings and Mad magazine roughs and various correspondence and reference material Wood had moved personally into my Connecticut apartment almost 30 years earlier, when he moved out of that state.

The drawers were welded shut. I stood it upright, got a crowbar, and managed to open the drawers. Although most of the papers were singed and charred on the edges, the heat had sealed them away from the cascades of water that followed the fire. At least 75%, hopefully more, of Wood’s childhood drawings survived it all.

How that file cabinet got 15 or 20 feet from where it had been located in my house will forever remain a mystery to me.

So that’s what remains of a dedicated fifty years of collecting original art, books, magazines, comic books, and strips: a collection I was very close to establishing as a legitimate state-accredited non-profit reference library and museum for people coming along in this new 21st century. I had everything!

It’s not my loss; it’s the world’s loss. I had every Hal Foster Prince Valiant and Tarzan full page from the early 1930s through his last page in 1970. With all due respect for the efforts of contemporary publishers, none of the various reprints of these pages show the billowing unout-

75 lined clouds, foaming seas and sparkling highlights on the swords and metal breastplates indicated with red guidelines on Foster’s originals for the master engravers of the time to create on those syndicated plates.

Those pages were works of art, and the reprints merely hint of their grandeur!

I had thousands of other full-page comic strips from the 1930s, including Flash Gordon/Jungle Jim (every one!), Popeye and Barney Google and Polly and Her Pals… thousands!

I had superior Sunday and daily originals of the greatest comic strips of the 20th century by people like Alex Raymond, George Herriman, Walt Kelly, V.T. Hamlin, Roy Crane, Stan Drake, Leonard Starr, Milton Caniff, Harold Gray, Chester Gould. Hundreds more. I bought, sold, and traded over the years, but always kept the best for myself. Comic book art, too. Whole stories. Illustrations, cartoons, and sketches.

I had a vast collection of movie stills from the 1930s through the 1970s, thousands, including the finest selection of unbelievably beautiful portraits and action scenes of Sophia Loren in the world, which I’d long hoped to produce as a book. It would have been sensational.

I had an all-new 140-page volume of witzend almost ready for publication, with new stories and rare published science-fiction illustrations by the greats not seen for 50 years, all from the original art.

I had a complete ten-volume edition of Ridpath’s History of the Nations—an early-20th century edition, not the rare 19th century first edition of which only two sets are known to exist (one in Buckingham Palace), the most rare, respected, and celebrated encyclopedias produced in the 19th century.

I had a huge limited-edition German language costume book, the most detailed and exquisite costume book I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen them all) with delicately watercolored engravings of wonderfully drawn figures in fully accessorized costumes throughout the ages up until the early decades of the 1900s when it was produced, probably as a gift to the royal family, which survived two world wars in Germany only to perish in my fire on the high desert in Arizona on an otherwise peaceful summer day, 100 years after its publication.

Dust to dust. Nothing survives. Everything is memory and whatever comes next.

Bill Pearson Glad to hear that at least no one was hurt, Bill. But we share your pain of loss. It was a real tragedy—for you and the world of the graphic arts.

A Few Additional Additions and Corrections to A/E #38 & #40: Re A/E #38: Our apologies to Tom Ziuko, who colors many (even most) of A/E’s covers, for forgetting to credit him with coloring Irwin Hasen’s Julie-as-Solomon-Grundy illo on #38.

Re A/E #40: Collector Ray Cuthbert writes: “You’ve probably heard this from others, but on p. 38 of A/E #40 (Schwartz/Kane side), you have mis-identified the final panel by Curt Swan & Murphy Anderson from Superman #167 (“The Team of Luthor and Brainiac”) as ‘the final panel of the first ‘Kandor’ story… pencils by Al Plastino.’”

Whoops!

Classic Wood—a DD-vs.-Namor battle page from Daredevil #7 (April 1965). [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Artist Scott Goodell reminded us that it was Neal Adams himself, not his ofttimes-embellisher Dick Giordano, who inked the Green Lantern/Green Arrow #89 page shown. “Dick wuz the inker Neal liked best,” Scott says, “but Neal often re-inked faces and did spot inking on Dick’s faces.”

[comments, correspondence, & corrections]

76

Longtime comics fan Glen Johnson informs us that the Pete Morisi-drawn “Johnny Dynamite” page on p. 49 is a drawing of “a character with a checkered vest” that Don Heck had originally done for Comic Media, named Duke Douglas, and that “the ‘Johnny Dynamite’ story by Morisi was originally a ‘Duke’ story. Morisi added the eyepatch to make the character into Johnny Dynamite.”

John Coates adds “a couple of FYIs from the Schwartz and Kane side: On p. 6, the Strange Adventures #31 cover art shown is by Gil Kane & Joe Giella. On p. 17, the cover art shown for From beyond the Unknown is issue #25 (Nov.-Dec. 1973), the final issue, with pencil-ink art by Nick Cardy. Nick also drew the covers for issues #21, #23, and #24.”

Well, that pretty much ties the tin-can on this issue’s LP, people.

Send comments and corrections re this issue to:

Since we’ve been informed that in issue #40 we accidentally gave Al Plastino credit for a Curt Swan/Murphy Anderson panel, we’ll make up for it by printing a couple of pieces sent to us by Wally Harrington: a copy of the “Swanderson” original art for the cover of Action Comics #408, signed by Curt— and a sketch Curt drew for Wally. Are we forgiven?

[Action art ©2005 DC Comics; sketch ©2005 Estate of Curt Swan; Superman TM & ©2005 DC Comics.]

Roy Thomas 32 Bluebird Trail St. Matthews, SC 29135 Fax: (803) 826-6501 e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com And don’t miss next month’s spotlight on Golden Age “good girl” artist Matt Baker!

SEE A COMIC CREATED FROM SCRATCH! Thief of oth & M ny Finger y

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004 Dan

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[Marvel Family TM & ©2005 DC Comics.]

No. 105 March 2005

78 beer, without need of the conventional opener. Imagine… just the fingers!

Not wanting to discourage his enthusiasm, I kept quiet as he spoke. But being rather logical-minded myself about matters of that nature, I was certain no such cockeyed notion would ever work.

Still, today, occasionally when twisting the cap off a bottle of Coke, I wonder how all that turned out… legally… and hope Tony got in on it. He was a nice guy… and smart.

By

mds& logo ©2005 Marc Swayze; Captain Marvel © & TM 2005 DC Comics] (c) [Art

It was 1955. I was at Charlton until the flood in August. That incident just about devastated the building and everything in it… except John Santangelo who—in my opinion—simply refused to be devastated. The purpose in my being there was to revise previously published stories that had been purchased by the company… to assure compliance with the Comics Code. Eventually, as the need for original material increased, I produced art and writing for various Charlton issues.

[FCA EDITORS NOTE: From 1941-53, Marcus D. Swayze was a top artist for Fawcett Publications. The very first Mary Marvel character sketches came from Marc’s drawing table, and he illustrated her earliest adventures, including the classic origin story, “Captain Marvel Introduces Mary Marvel (Captain Marvel Adventures No. One item was a feature first prepared as another try for a newspaper 18, Dec. ’42); but he was primarily hired by Fawcett Publications to syndicate contract. The star was a musician, “Neal Valentine.” After illustrate Captain Marvel stories and covers for Whiz Comics and modifying the work for comic book printing… with an added title page Captain Marvel Adventures. He also wrote many Captain Marvel and several final pages to bring the story to a close, I couldn’t resist scripts, and continued to do so while in the military. After leaving the pausing over it. [NOTE: The story Marc is referring to, “Melody of service in 1944, he made an arrangement with Fawcett to produce art Hate,” appeared in Strange Suspense Stories, Vol. 1, # 27, October and stories for them on a freelance basis out of his Louisiana home.

1955. —PCH.] Explicit detail in the drawing of the musical instruments There he created both art and story for The Phantom Eagle in Wow and the surroundings were reminders that, at the time the project was Comics, in addition to drawing the Flyin’ Jenny newspaper strip for begun, I had my own trio broadcasting nightly from a local club on Bell Syndicate (created by his friend and mentor Russell Keaton).

Grand Street. Releasing that project for printing was like a wave of After the cancellation of Wow, Swayze farewell to a gang of pals. produced artwork for Fawcett’s top-selling And in it there was something more… line of romance comics, including signs of an “art style.” If during the Golden Sweethearts and Life Story. After the Age you thought of yourself as a pro, company ceased publishing comics, Marc you’d have been conscious of art style… moved over to Charlton Publications, those specifics of an artist’s work that where he ended his comics career in the distinguished it from the work of others. mid-’50s. Marc’s ongoing professional Much of the interest in style evidenced by memoirs have been FCA’s most popular comic book artists of the day appeared to feature since his first column appeared in be in the surprising number who sought to FCA #54, 1996. Last issue, Marc discussed emulate the existing styles of those at the the reworking of his syndicate strip top. The result was quite a few wannabe sample—The Great Louis—and, as Caniffs around, but only one, it is recalled, revealed in this issue, reworked again as to approach the style of Alex Raymond.

The Great Pierre—the strip which finally That was Mac Raboy. led to Marc’s long sought-after syndicate contract. —P.C. Hamerlinck.]

A detail from the promotional folder for Marc Swayze’s I never wanted to draw like anybody. strip The Great Pierre. The entire art and copy ran in There had been two periods where it was Here it was… right in my hands… the A/E #16. [©2005 Marc Swayze.] necessary to adopt existing styles, but in long sought syndicate contract… the goal each case the job called for it… Keaton’s on since ’39! Hard to believe… my own comic strip… title, characters… the Flyin’ Jenny… Beck’s on “Captain Marvel.” The “Neal Valentine” work whole works! bore some suggestion of style, but the first real awareness that I experiJoseph Agnelli of the Bell Syndicate had wasted no time getting down enced of it came with The Great Pierre. There, in the layouts, I saw the to business. He began with a reasonable suggestion that the name of the freedom of movement… the life… the “spontaneity”… first learned of in title character be changed… then went directly into a review of contract ’39. Obvious throughout the work was the reflected “backlight”… an terms. interest since college painting classes. In the cast I saw characterization… observed, studied, and developed in the early ’40s. In the inking were The hero from the Cajun country had come a long way. He was three techniques, the popular feathering, plus stippling and crosspretty much the same guy though somewhat like an actor in successive hatching… all obviously rendered with the unique, flexible 290 pen. roles, on his way to stardom… LeBone, Le Noir… and now, Le Grand… THE GREAT PIERRE! I hadn’t tried to have it. But whether I knew it or not… or liked it… or cared… I had it: A personal art style.

Agnelli’s first letter reached me in Derby, Connecticut, where I had taken a position with Charlton Publications. On a first trip to the Bell [NOTE: The four weeks of dailies prepared for The Great Pierre offices to discuss Pierre, I hitched a ride with a friend of the Derby follow on the next four pages. Several of the middle of these strips community, an expert within the Charlton production facilities, appeared in A/E #16, but are reprinted here for the sake of Anthony Conte. On the drive he confided he was meeting with New continuity.]

York attorneys to go over an idea he had… to open a bottle of pop, or

“We Didn’t Know... It Was The Golden Age!” The Great Pierre, Week 1. [©2005 Marc Swayze.]

79

80

Marc Swayze The Great Pierre, Week 2. [©2005 Marc Swayze.]

“We Didn’t Know... It Was The Golden Age!” The Great Pierre, Week 3. [©2005 Marc Swayze.]

81

82

Marc Swayze The Great Pierre, Week 4. [©2005 Marc Swayze.]

[Marc’s memories of the Golden Age of Comics continue next issue.]

83

“One Man’s In-Laws” Revisited OTTO BINDER’s Last Fawcett Synopses––– Illustrated!

by Roy Thomas

H

ang on tight, because we’ve got a lot to get through, and only one page to do it!

In Alter Ego (Vol. 1) #7 in 1964, I proudly announced that, thanks to longtime “Captain Marvel”/”Marvel Family” scribe Otto Binder, #8 would print his 1953 synopsis for a 17-page story for a never-published issue of The Marvel Family (possibly intended for #90), left undone when Fawcett discontinued its comics line that year. My grand plan, with Otto’s blessing, was to have the late Biljo White add a few illos to the mix.

There were actually four typed and handwritten Binder pages dealing with one “Marvel Family” story (“Seven Modern Wonders”)—a script page from another unused “MF” tale featuring a villain called Mr. Alias— plus a one-page rough outline for an unpublished “Captain Marvel” story involving a satyr.

However, as I reported in early 1964 in V1#8, a stern letter from a Fawcett attorney had informed me that I could not publish Otto’s material, because of the terms of the settlement of the lawsuit between DC and Fawcett over Captain Marvel’s alleged copyright infringement of Superman. So I didn’t.

In 1997, however, DC publisher Paul Levitz graciously responded to a letter of mine by saying that, since DC now owned the Fawcett heroes, Yogi Berra said it first and best: “It’s déja vu all over again!” Surprisingly, Otto Binder had already written, and DC had no objections to the Binder C.C. Beck drawn, a tale with a similar title and theme several years earlier—but it’s definitely not the same story! material being printed in A/E. (Actually, This is the splash from The Marvel Family #40 (Oct. 1949). [©2005 DC Comics.] it had already been printed once—by DC itself. In the 1970s I had supplied Oh, and maybe this is the place to mention—the beautiful “Marvel copies of the six pages to DC for a Shazam!-related issue of its own Family #90” cover that leads off this FCA section is, as you may have “fanzine,” The Amazing World of DC Comics.) Thus, with DC’s guessed, not the actual cover to any comic book that ever existed—even latter-day blessing, Binder’s pages appeared in the now-out-of-print though it perhaps should have been. Rather, it was penciled by the Hamster trade paperback Alter Ego: The Best of the Legendary redoubtable Mark Lewis of Big Bang Comics, et al., and inked by FCA Fanzine. We’re reprinting them here—with artwork added. editor P.C. Hamerlinck himself, in a style matching those of Kurt Not, of course, artwork from the 1953 comics themselves, which so Schaffenberger, who drew most of the lead stories in later issues of far as we know never existed. Rather, P.C. Hamerlinck and I searched Marvel Family, and C.C. Beck, who had set the style in the first place. through published Fawcett comics for panels to illustrate or approximate Now, on to “Seven Modern Wonders”… scenes from the shelved material. But we think they’ll help you envision how these three lost stories might have turned out, if the fates had been kinder.

84

Otto Binder’s Last Fawcett Synopses–––Illustrated!

“Kids captured.” And, of course, bound and gagged.

It happened a lot, as in this panel from Marvel Family #63 (Oct. 1951). [©2005 DC Comics.]

“Huge glacier is crunching down into this valley.” One of the two “Marvel Family” stories in MF #86 (Aug. 1953) had a similar scene, drawn by Kurt Schaffenberger. Repro’d here from a black-&-white Australian reprint. [©2005 DC Comics.]

“MF can’t talk people out of [NOTE: Otto must’ve meant to type “into” instead] leaving, so must save the valley….” In Marvel Family #86 each of the trio did his/her bit, climaxing with the Marvels tipping an ice field to stop a herd of stampeding mammoths. [©2005 DC Comics.]

“One Man’s In-Laws” Revisited

85

“Sterling Morris directly involved…” The owner of station WHIZ, as depicted by Beck in Marvel Family #70 (April 1952). [©2005 DC Comics.]

“They themselves [The Marvel Family] are the seventh wonder.”

Detail of the cover of Marvel Family #58 (May 1951). [©2005 DC Comics.]

86

Otto Binder’s Last Fawcett Synopses–––Illustrated

“Hot geyser bursts forth (creating original heat) and MF cap it with steam pipe to power plant.” In Marvel Family #86, the three Marvels created an atomic pile to heat water for a different purpose—to end a villaininduced Ice Age. Art by Kurt Schaffenberger. [©2005 DC Comics.]

“One Man’s In-Laws” Revisited

87

Before any of the “marvels” on this page could be done, Billy Batson, Mary Batson, and Freddy Freeman had to shout their magic words, as in this Beck panel from Marvel Family #63. [©2005 DC Comics.]

In Marvel Family #86, Captain Marvel had a different way of stopping a glacier. [©2005 DC Comics.]

88

Otto Binder’s Last Fawcett Synopses–––Illustrated

[NOTE: This is the single extant typed page for a “Marvel Family” script as opposed to a synopsis.]

“Holy moley! Is it a trick?” Captain Marvel looks worried in a Beck panel from Marvel Family #68 (March 1952). [©2005 DC Comics.]

“I’ve set my Earthquake Gun to send shockwaves through the ground to a distant point!”

The two earthquake scenes above might look as if they’re from the same story, but they’re actually from two different issues (left to right): Marvel Family #37 (July 1949) and #73 (July 1952). Art by C.C. Beck and Kurt Schaffenberger, respectively. [©2005 DC Comics.]

“One Man’s In-Laws” Revisited

“Old Shazam himself, the good wizard,” from Marvel Family #68. [©2005 DC Comics.]

[NOTE: This synopsis, like the preceding script page, is X’d out because it became the back of a page of the “Seven Wonders” plot. —Roy.]

“Am I getting weak?” Captain Marvel also faced that question in Marvel Family #37. Art by C.C. Beck. [©2005 DC Comics.]

“An old-time bad god, Satyr.” Otto Binder cleverly had this Satyr, in “Captain Marvel’s Apprentice,” act like a hero, not a villain—but in Marvel Family #21 (March 1948), an evil satyr had been one of “The Trio of Terror” whom the heroes battled. But don’t worry—The Marvel Family came out on top! Art by C.C. Beck. [©2005 DC Comics.]

89

Edited by ROY THOMAS

DIGITAL

The greatest ‘zine of the 1960s is back, ALL-NEW, and focusing on GOLDEN AND SILVER AGE comics and creators with NS EDITIO BLE ARTICLES, INTERVIEWS, A IL AVA NLY UNSEEN ART, P.C. Hamerlinck’s FOR O 5 FCA (Fawcett Collectors of $2.9 America, featuring the archives of C.C. BECK and recollections

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ALTER EGO #4

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

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

GIL KANE and JACK BURNLEY flip-covers!

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

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

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

by CARMINE INFANTINO and JERRY ORDWAY!

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

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

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

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ALTER EGO #9

ALTER EGO #10

ALTER EGO #11

ALTER EGO #12

ALTER EGO #13

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

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

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

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

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

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16

ALTER EGO #14

ALTER EGO #15

ALTER EGO #16

ALTER EGO #17

ALTER EGO #18

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

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

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

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

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

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ALTER EGO #19

ALTER EGO #20

ALTER EGO #21

ALTER EGO #22

ALTER EGO #23

Spotlight on DICK SPRANG (profile and interview) with unseen art, rare Batman art

by BOB KANE, CHARLES PARIS, SHELLY MOLDOFF, MAX ALLAN COLLINS, JIM MOONEY, CARMINE INFANTINO, and ALEX TOTH, JERRY ROBINSON interviewed about Tomahawk and 1940s cover artist FRED RAY, FCA, and MR. MONSTER on WALLY WOOD’s Flash Gordon, Part 2!

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

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

DAVE STEVENS and IRWIN HASEN covers!

BILL EVERETT and JOE KUBERT interviewed

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

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

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ALTER EGO #24

ALTER EGO #25

ALTER EGO #26

ALTER EGO #27

ALTER EGO #28

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

JACK COLE remembered by ALEX TOTH, interview with brother DICK COLE and his PLAYBOY colleagues, CHRIS CLAREMONT on the X-Men (with more never-seen art by DAVE COCKRUM), ROY THOMAS on AllStar Squadron #1 and its ‘40s roots (with art

by ORDWAY, BUCKLER, MESKIN and MOLDOFF), FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more! Covers by TOTH and SCHELLY!

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

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

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

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17

ALTER EGO #29

ALTER EGO #30

ALTER EGO #31

ALTER EGO #32

ALTER EGO #33

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

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

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

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

Covers by DICK GIORDANO and GIL KANE!

Symposium on MIKE SEKOWSKY by MARK EVANIER, SCOTT SHAW!, et al., with art

by ANDERSON, INFANTINO, and others, PAT (MRS. MIKE) SEKOWSKY and inker VALERIE BARCLAY interviewed, FCA, 1950s Captain Marvel parody by ANDRU and ESPOSITO, ALEX TOTH, BILL SCHELLY, MR. MONSTER, and more! Covers by FRENZ/SINNOTT and FRENZ/BUSCEMA!

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ALTER EGO #34

ALTER EGO #35

ALTER EGO #36

ALTER EGO #37

ALTER EGO #38

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

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

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

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

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

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ALTER EGO #39

ALTER EGO #40

ALTER EGO #41

ALTER EGO #42

ALTER EGO #43

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

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

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

Covers by WRIGHTSON & MARC SWAYZE!

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

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

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18

ALTER EGO #44

ALTER EGO #45

ALTER EGO #46

ALTER EGO #47

ALTER EGO #48

JSA/All-Star Squadron/Infinity Inc. special!

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

Interviews with Sandman artist CREIG FLESSEL and ‘40s creator BERT CHRISTMAN, MICHAEL CHABON on researching his Pulitzer-winning novel Kavalier & Clay, art

by EISNER, KANE, KIRBY, and AYERS, FCA with MARC SWAYZE and C.C. BECK, OTTO BINDER’s “lost” Jon Jarl story, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY on comics fandom, and ALEX TOTH! CREIG FLESSEL cover!

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

Cover by EVERETT and MARIE SEVERIN!

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

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

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

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ALTER EGO #49

ALTER EGO #50

ALTER EGO #51

ALTER EGO #52

ALTER EGO #53

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

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

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

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

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

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ALTER EGO #54

ALTER EGO #55

ALTER EGO #56

ALTER EGO #57

ALTER EGO #58

MIKE ESPOSITO on DC and Marvel, ROBERT KANIGHER on the creation of Metal Men and Sgt. Rock (with comments

by JOE KUBERT and BOB HANEY), art by ANDRU, INFANTINO, KIRBY, SEVERIN, WINDSOR-SMITH, ROMITA, BUSCEMA, TRIMPE, GIL KANE, and others, plus FCA, ALEX TOTH, BILL SCHELLY, MR. MONSTER, and more! ESPOSITO cover!

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

ALEX ROSS and ALEX WRIGHT covers!

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

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

by JACK KIRBY and PETE VON SHOLLY!

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

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19

ALTER EGO #59

ALTER EGO #60

ALTER EGO #61

ALTER EGO #62

ALTER EGO #63

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

Celebrates 50 years since SHOWCASE #4!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #69

ALTER EGO #70

ALTER EGO #71

ALTER EGO #72

ALTER EGO #73

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

Cover painted by JOHN WATSON, from a breathtaking illo by RAMONA FRADON!

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

Represents THE GREAT CANADIAN COMIC BOOKS, the long out-of-print 1970s book

by MICHAEL HIRSH and PATRICK LOUBERT, with rare art of such heroes as Mr. Monster, Nelvana, Thunderfist, and others, plus new INVADERS art by JOHN BYRNE, MIKE GRELL, RON LIM, and more, plus a new cover by GEORGE FREEMAN, from a layout by JACK KIRBY!

SCOTT SHAW! and ROY THOMAS on the creation of Captain Carrot, art & artifacts

by RICK HOBERG, STAN GOLDBERG, MIKE SEKOWSKY, JOHN COSTANZA, E. NELSON BRIDWELL, CAROL LAY, and others, interview with DICK ROCKWELL, Golden Age artist and 36-year ghost artist on MILTON CANIFF’s Steve Canyon! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

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

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

20

ALTER EGO #74

ALTER EGO #75

ALTER EGO #76

ALTER EGO #77

ALTER EGO #78

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #79

ALTER EGO #80

ALTER EGO #81

ALTER EGO #82

ALTER EGO #83

SUPERMAN & HIS CREATORS! New cover

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

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

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

MLJ ISSUE! Golden Age MLJ index illustrated with vintage images of The Shield, Hangman, Mr. Justice, Black Hood,

by IRV NOVICK, JACK COLE, CHARLES BIRO, MORT MESKIN, GIL KANE, & others—behind a marvelous MLJ-heroes cover

by BOB McLEOD! Plus interviews with IRV NOVICK and JOE EDWARDS, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #84

ALTER EGO #85

ALTER EGO #86

ALTER EGO #87

ALTER EGO #88

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

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

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

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

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

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

21

ALTER EGO #89

ALTER EGO #90

ALTER EGO #91

ALTER EGO #92

ALTER EGO #93

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

SIMON & KIRBY and NOSTRAND cover!

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

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

New cover by ORDWAY and SQUEGLIO!

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #94

ALTER EGO #95

ALTER EGO #96

ALTER EGO #97

ALTER EGO #98

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

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

Focus on Archie’s 1960s MIGHTY CRUSADERS, with vintage art and artifacts

by JERRY SIEGEL, PAUL REINMAN, SIMON & KIRBY, JOHN ROSENBERGER, tributes to the Mighty Crusaders by BOB FUJITANE, GEORGE TUSKA, BOB LAYTON, and others! Interview with MELL LAZARUS, FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT and Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, and more! Cover

by MIKE MACHLAN!

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

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

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

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

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

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

(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

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ALTER EGO: CENTENNIAL is a celebration of 100 issues, and 50 years, of ALTER EGO, Roy Thomas’ legendary super-hero fanzine. It’s a double-size triple-threat BOOK, with twice as many pages as the regular magazine, plus special features just for this anniversary edition! Behind a RICH BUCKLER/JERRY ORDWAY JSA cover, ALTER EGO celebrates its 100th issue and the 50th anniversary of A/E (Vol. 1) #1 in 1961—as ROY THOMAS is interviewed by JIM AMASH about the 1980s at DC! Learn secrets behind ALL-STAR SQUADRON—INFINITY, INC.—ARAK, SON OF THUNDER—CAPTAIN CARROT—JONNI THUNDER, a.k.a. THUNDERBOLT— YOUNG ALL-STARS—SHAZAM!—RING OF THE NIBELUNG—and more! With rare art and artifacts

by GEORGE PÉREZ, TODD McFARLANE, RICH BUCKLER, JERRY ORDWAY, MIKE MACHLAN, GIL KANE, GENE COLAN, DICK GIORDANO, ALFREDO ALCALA, TONY DEZUNIGA, ERNIE COLÓN, STAN GOLDBERG, SCOTT SHAW!, ROSS ANDRU, and many more! Plus special anniversary editions of Alter Ego staples MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, FAWCETT COLLECTORS OF AMERICA (FCA)—and ALEX WRIGHT’s amazing color collection of 1940s DC pinup babes! Edited by ROY THOMAS. (NOTE: This book takes the place of ALTER EGO #100, and counts as TWO issues toward your subscription.)

(160-page trade paperback with COLOR) $19.95 (Digital Edition) $5.95 • ISBN: 9781605490311 Diamond Order Code: JAN111351

ALTER EGO #101

Fox Comics of the 1940s with art by FINE, BAKER, SIMON, KIRBY, TUSKA, FLETCHER HANKS, ALEX BLUM, and others!

“Superman vs. Wonder Man” starring EISNER, IGER, SIEGEL, LIEBERSON, MAYER, DONENFELD, and VICTOR FOX! Plus, Part I of an interview with JACK MENDELSOHN, plus FCA, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, and new cover by Marvel artist DAVE WILLIAMS!

NEW!

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

ALTER EGO #102

ALTER EGO #103

ALTER EGO #104

ALTER EGO: THE CBA COLLECTION

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

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

Celebrates the 50th anniversary of FANTASTIC FOUR #1 and the birth of Marvel Comics! New, never-before-published STAN LEE interview, art and artifacts

by KIRBY, DITKO, SINNOTT, AYERS, THOMAS, and secrets behind the Marvel Mythos! Also: JIM AMASH interviews 1940s Timely editor AL SULMAN, FCA, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, and a new cover by FRENZ and SINNOTT!

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

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

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

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

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

HUMOR MAGAZINES (BUNDLE ALL THREE FOR JUST $14.95)

ALTER EGO:

BEST OF THE LEGENDARY COMICS FANZINE

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

COMIC BOOK NERD

PETE VON SHOLLY’s side-splitting parody of the fan press, including our own mags!

Experience the magic(?) of such publications as WHIZZER, the COMICS URINAL, ULTRA EGO, COMICS BUYER’S GUISE, BAGGED ISSUE!, SCRAWL!, COMIC BOOK ARTISTE, and more, as we unabashedly poke fun at ourselves, our competitors, and you, our loyal readers! It’s a first issue, collector’s item, double-bag, slab-worthy, speculator’s special sure to rub even the thickest-skinned fanboy the wrong way!

(64-page COLOR magazine) $8.95 • (Digital Edition) $2.95

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

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

DIEDGITIIOTANSL E

BL AVAILA

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

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

NEW!

MR. MONSTER, VOL. 0

TRUE BRIT

DICK GIORDANO: CHANGING COMICS, ONE DAY AT A TIME

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

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

MICHAEL EURY’s biography of comics’ most prominent and affable personality! It covers his career as illustrator, inker, and editor—peppered with DICK’S PERSONAL REFLECTIONS—and is illustrated with RARE AND UNSEEN comics, merchandising, and advertising art! Plus: an extensive index of his published work, comments and tributes

by NEAL ADAMS, DENNIS O’NEIL, TERRY AUSTIN, PAUL LEVITZ, MARV WOLFMAN, JULIUS SCHWARTZ, JIM APARO and others, a Foreword by NEAL ADAMS, and an Afterword by PAUL LEVITZ!

(136-page Digital Edition with COLOR) $4.95

(204-page Digital Edition with COLOR) $6.95

(176-page Digital Edition with COLOR) $5.95

SECRETS IN THE SHADOWS: GENE COLAN

TOM FIELD’s amazing COLAN retrospective, with rare drawings, photos, and art from his 60-year career, and a comprehensive overview of Gene’s glory days at Marvel Comics!

MARV WOLFMAN, DON McGREGOR and other writers share script samples and anecdotes of their Colan collaborations, while TOM PALMER, STEVE LEIALOHA and others show how they approached inking Colan’s famously nuanced penciled pages!

Plus: a NEW PORTFOLIO of never-seen collaborations between Gene and masters such as BYRNE, KALUTA and PÉREZ, and all-new artwork created just for this book!

(192-page Digital Edition with COLOR) $6.95

ART OF GEORGE TUSKA

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

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OTHER BOOKS FROM TWOMORROWS PUBLISHING

PENCILER, PUBLISHER, PROVOCATEUR

COMICS’ FAST & FURIOUS ARTIST

THE ART OF GLAMOUR

MATT BAKER

EXTRAORDINARY WORKS OF ALAN MOORE

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

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

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

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

(224-page trade paperback) $26.95

(176-page trade paperback with COLOR) $26.95

(192-page hardcover with COLOR) $39.95

(240-page trade paperback) $29.95

QUALITY COMPANION

BATCAVE COMPANION

ALL- STAR COMPANION

AGE OF TV HEROES

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

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

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

(256-page trade paperback with COLOR) $31.95

(240-page trade paperback) $26.95

(224-page trade paperbacks) $24.95

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

CARMINE INFANTINO

SAL BUSCEMA

(192-page full-color hardcover) $39.95

MARVEL COMICS

MARVEL COMICS

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

IN THE 1960s

(224-page trade paperback) $27.95

MODERN MASTERS

HOW TO CREATE COMICS

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

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

(224-page trade paperback) $27.95

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

(128-page trade paperbacks) $14.95 each

(108-page trade paperback) $15.95

IN THE 1970s

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

FROM SCRIPT TO PRINT

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

TwoMorrows—A New Day For Comics Fandom!

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