Alter Ego #4 by TwoMorrows Publishing

Roy Thomas ’ Legendary Comics Fanzine

No. 4 SPRING 2000

THE FLASH by Harry Lampert

Sixty Years Ha ve Gone By In A FLASH--and

HAWKMAN’s Been There All Along! SPECIAL SALUTE TO

THE SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF

FLASH COMICS REMEMBERING THE LATE GREAT

GIL KANE Featuring Featuring Rare Rare Art Art & & ARTIFACTS ARTIFACTS BY: BY:

Joe Kubert Shelly Moldoff Harry Lampert Gardner F. Fox Robert Kanigher Carmine Infantino Michael T. Gilbert Lee Elias E.E. Hibbard Moebius

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

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

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

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THE BEST IN COMICS AND LEGO MAGAZINES!

ALTER EGO #105

ALTER EGO #106

ALTER EGO #107

ALTER EGO #108

DRAW! #22

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

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

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

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

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

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

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BRICKJOURNAL #17

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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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™

Volume 3, No. 4 Spring 2000 Editor Roy Thomas

Associate Editor Bill Schelly

Contents

Design & Layout Jon B. Cooke/ GREAT SWAMP GRAPHICS Janet Sanderson

Consulting Editors John Morrow Jon B. Cooke

Winged Lightning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Writer/Editorial celebrating 60 years of Flash(es) and Hawkmen. What hath Superman and Flash Gordon wrought?

re:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

FCA Editor

Only space for a few corrections, due to our last-minute Gil Kane tribute.

P.C. Hamerlinck

A Moon… a Bat… a Hawk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Contributing Editor

A candid interview with Golden Age artist Sheldon Moldoff about Hawkman, Batman, Moon Girl… and EC.

Michael T. Gilbert

Editors Emeritus Jerry G. Bails Ronn Foss, Biljo White Mike Friedrich

Special Kubert Consultant Al Dellinges

Two Short Conversations with Joe Kubert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Al Dellinges and Roy Thomas talk with the only man to draw the Winged Wonder in both the Golden and Silver Ages.

Joe Kubert and Me . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Cover(s) Artist

Al Dellinges writes about his half-century-old obsession with the art of one of comics’ most honored illustrators.

Joe Kubert

Cover Color Tom Ziuko

The Life and Good Times of Gardner F. Fox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Mailing Crew

Letters and records from the late co-creator of The Flash and Hawkman.

Russ Garwood, D. Hambone, Glen Musial, Ed Stelli, Pat Varker

And Special Thanks to: Mike W. Barr Lamar Blaylock Jerry K. Boyd Lynda Fox Cohen Ray A. Cuthbert Chris Foss Jeff Gelb David Hamilton Mark Hanerfeld Roger Hill Tom Horvitz Carmine Infantino Robert Kanigher Joe & Muriel Kubert Harry & Adele Lampert Randy & JeanMarc Lofficier

Dave Manak Scott McAdam Eugene L. Meyer Moebius Sheldon & Shirley Moldoff Rich Morrissey Albert Moy Jerry Ordway Ethan Roberts Kurt & Dorothy Schaffenberger Robin Snyder Tom Stewart Marc Swayze Dann Thomas Joel Thingvall Mike Vosburg Jerry Weist Marv Wolfman

The “Save Hawkman” Campaign. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 What? No regular title for Hawkman? Bill Schelly tells how comics fandom reacted to that fact in the 1960s.

Remembering Gil Kane. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 A very personal reminiscence of the late great comic book creator by his friend and collaborator Roy Thomas.

Special Flash Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About our cover: Kubert’s dynamic Hawkman graced the cover of Alter Ego, Vol. 2, #1, and now Joe’s generously allowed us to print—for the first time ever in color—his Hawkman vs. Shadow Thief drawing done for the 1977 Bay Con (San Francisco). Whenever the Feathered Fury starred on a Flash Comics cover in the 1940s, it sported a cameo image of the Fastest Man Alive—and vice versa—hence Harry Lampert’s Flash here. [Hawkman and Flash ©2000 DC Comics Inc.] Alter EgoTM is published quarterly by TwoMorrows, 1812 Park Drive, Raleigh, NC 27605, USA. Phone: (919) 833-8092. Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: Rt. 3, Box 468, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@oburg.net. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Single issues: $5.95 ($7.00 Canada, $9.00 elsewhere). Four-issue subscriptions: $20 US, $27 Canada, $37 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. Alter and Captain Ego ©2000 Roy Thomas & Bill Schelly. The Atom, Batman, Batwoman, The Black Pirate, Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., Don Caballero, The Flash, Ghost Patrol, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Hawkwoman, Hawkgirl, Hourman, Ibis, Johnny Quick, Johnny Thunder, Kid Eternity, The King, Marvel Family, Mary Marvel, The Ray, Red, White & Blue, The Ring, Rose & The Thorn, Sargon, Sgt. Rock, Steve Malone, Superman, Viking Prince, The Whip, Wildcat ©2000 DC Comics Inc.; Moon Girl ©2000 William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc. The Golem ©2000 Protestant Digest. Tor ©2000 Joe Kubert. Lori Lovecraft ©2000 Mike Vosburg. All-Winners Squad, Angel, Blazing Skull, Bucky, Captain America, Captain Marvel, The Fin, Hulk, Human Torch, Iron Fist, Morbius, Patriot, Silver Surfer, Spider-Man, Sub-Mariner, Super Rabbit, Terry Vance, Thing, Toro, Vagabond, Venus, Vision, Warlock, Whizzer ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.; Conan ©2000 Conan Properties, Inc.; Flash Gordon ©2000 KFS. Mr. Monster ©2000 Michael T. Gilbert. Droopy ©2000 Harry Lampert. Pogo ©2000 Walt Kelly Estate. The Flame, Samson, U.S. Jones ©2000 Fox Publications. Magno & Davey, Raven, Unknown Soldier ©2000 Ace Magazines, Inc. The Wizard ©2000 Archie Comics Group. Flyin’ Jenny ©2000 Bell Syndicate. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING

Writer/Editorial

Winged Lightning

or me, one of the greatest things about bringing back Alter Ego after three decades has been re-establishing contacts, even friendships that had lain dormant for years… or simply to give me an excuse to get in touch with old friends, or (hopefully) to make new ones. That renewed contact, of course, is a doubleedged sword, as detailed below… but first: In 1939—the year Flash Comics #1, whose heroes Flash and Hawkman this issue of A/E celebrates, made its debut— events must have been seen as moving very fast indeed.

Adolf Hitler, six years into his proclaimed “Thousand Year Reich,” had established Nazi Germany as a power to be respected, or at least feared, by old foes France and England. In September, only weeks after abruptly signing a peace treaty with the hated Joe Stalin and the U.S.S.R., Der Führer sent troops storming into neighboring Poland, overwhelming it swiftly in what became known as Blitzkrieg. “Lightning War.” By late 1939 things were moving quickly in the lesser world of comic books, too. Only a year-and-a-half after he had flung his first flivver on the cover of Action #1, Superman’s attributes had already been cloned by a whole passel of imitators: First Wonder Man, then Captain Marvel and Master Man, matched the Man of Tomorrow power for power; Batman borrowed the costume and secret identity; Human Torch and Sub-Mariner mutated his ability to survive fire and the briny deep into specialties of their own.

Mitchell’s antebellum South, “gone with the wind.” It all makes me wish I’d brought A/E back years ago… or that I had more time. But don’t we all? For, the flight of time is, indeed, swift— Hawkman and The Flash, put together. Winged lightning, indeed. As I readied this issue, time caught up with two friends of mine—one the consummate comics professional, the other a longtime fan just as devoted to comics in his own way. From 1959-60 forward, Gil Kane became one of the artistic kingpins of the Silver Age, after two decades of laboring in the shadow of other artists. After Green Lantern, then The Atom, and later a significant body of excellent work for Marvel, DC, and other companies (including publishing on his own, more than once), he never again stood in any artist’s shadow. Gil, whom I was privileged to call friend for just over thirty years, passed away on January 31, 2000, after the return of the lymphoma he had staved off more than a decade earlier.

Though news of his passing came as this issue was in the final stages of And over at All-American Comics, a new company production, I’ve written a memoir of our allied with Superman’s publisher, National/DC, two more friendship and collaborations which of his attributes—speed and flight— appears in the issue. And in June, as would be spun off into separate Gil Kane (1926-2000) was justly proud of the oft-overlooked run of already planned, A/E will feature one Superman stories he and Marv Wolfman produced during the 1980s. This characters by writer Gardner F. Fox, of Gil’s last interviews, which deals powerful sketch reminds us why that work should not be forgotten. editor Shelly Mayer, publisher M.C. with the early days of comics. [Superman ©2000 DC Comics, Inc.; courtesy of Jeff Gelb.] Gaines, and a few talented artists. Another who has left us too soon was Mark Hanerfeld.

Mentioning my esteemed correspondent Gardner Fox brings me back to the first two paragraphs above. Perhaps I simply had to wait until I had grown old enough myself (I turned 59 last November, incredible as that seems to me) to be able to fully appreciate the notion of “time in its flight.”

I’d known him since the late ’60s, when he palled around with Marv Wolfman, Len Wein, et al. in New York, winding up as an assistant editor (and occasional scripter) for DC, and as the model for Abel, the host of The House of Secrets.

Since the early-’98 revival of Alter Ego, it’s been a real pleasure—if occasionally a bittersweet one—to again have an excuse to question both my contemporaries and my elders. After all, they, and only they, can truly document a world that is now, every bit as much as Margaret

As Mark Evanier detailed in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1367 (1/26/00), Mark H. was a lifetime booster of comics. Indeed, he’d planned to write for A/E about the Silver Age Flash, with the cooperation of his admired friend Carmine Infantino; and a Kubert Hawkman sketch which Mark

3 owned for years is reproduced in this issue. I had enjoyed getting to know Mark again by phone, years after my exodus from New York. I knew his health wasn’t good, but it was still a shock when he suddenly disappeared, incommunicado, into a hospital or convalescent home (I was never quite certain which). I was not overly surprised when Marv phoned to tell me he had passed away; but being prepared for a loss doesn’t make one accept it any more readily.

moving… and I promise that your voyage through these pages will be far more upbeat than this somewhat wistful and melancholy writer/editorial. It will be, as I said, a celebration. This issue of Alter Ego is dedicated to the memory of Gil Kane and Mark Hanerfeld—Kane and “Abel,” by an odd coincidence of assumed names—two extraordinary men who, between them, encompassed so much of what was good about the field of comic books.

Winged lightning.

Two men I was proud to call “friend.”

Times flies; tempus fugits. All the more reason to enjoy time’s mad dash while we may, by honoring the people and things we love now—and those we loved once. Mark Hanerfeld. He loved comics all his life. It is my fervent wish that Alter Ego be an ongoing celebration of those comics and of their creators. So let’s get [NOTE: Because of the last-minute addition of our memoir of comics titan Gil Kane, we’ve regretfully been forced to postpone all letters and responses till next issue, and have only space to list a few corrections from the previous one.—R.T.]

re:

New reader Shaun Clancy wrote to inform us that he had introduced (via mail) FCA editor P.C. Hamerlinck to Nat Champlin and Ginny Provisiero, who were covered last issue, and Paul is happy to acknowledge that.

As is perhaps almost inevitable, we ADDITIONS AND CORRECneglected to credit one or two generous TIONS TO A/E V3#3: Rich Morrissey, contributors. We misplaced the name writer of this issue’s history of Flash of the stalwart who sent us a copy Comics, pointed out to a surprised R.T. of Don Rico’s 1970s drawing of that “the Superman strips you Captain America—and though Blake reprinted (from the 1958 sequence Bell was credited with Bill Everett’s late-’60s featuring Bizarro) were written by sketch of The Hulk, we forgot to include the eAlvin Schwartz, not by Otto mail address of his website, which contains loads Binder. (Both Martin O’Hearn of information on Everett, Steve Ditko, and and I recognized the style… other prime artists. It’s <ditko37.interlog.com>. very different from Binder’s… Give it a try. when we first read the story; Schwartz has since confirmed it.) Binder did script In a caption under a Super Rabbit page Bizarro’s first appearance in comic books in the Gil Kane confab, third Timely editor(in Superboy #68, which appeared several in-chief Vince Fago was confused with his months before the strip sequence), and all late brother Al, who was a comics artist. other early comic book stories with the Fortunately, Vince was correctly ID’d in character, including the two two-parters in the interview proper. We’ll be interAction Comics that first introduced Bizarro viewing Vince in a near-future issue! as an adult and introduced the Bizarro A pair of references to World. [Editor] Mort Weisinger may have Human Torch #1 should given Binder’s plot to Schwartz for the newshave been to #3, from which paper strip (he did that a lot), or he may have several art spots were reprobrought the plot over from duced. A vintage drawing of our marvelous mascots, Alter and Captain Ego, by the comic book (he did that Biljo White, which originally appeared (in green and yellow outfit and a lot, too), or even vice At one point in the Alex bare legs, yet!) on the back cover of Alter Ego (Vol. 1) #8, for Winter 1965. versa. (Note that Schwartz Ross section, I accidentally typed Captain Alter and the Captain both appear—in their first adventure in years—in had Bizarro with a ‘B’ on Marvel Jr. artist Bud Thompson as Ben Hamster Press’ Heroes vs. Hitler comic, with story by Roy Thomas & Bill his chest, whereas Binder Thompson; there was a Ben Thompson in Schelly and art by Bill. See ad elsewhere in this issue. [Alter and Captain gave him a more logical ‘S,’ comics, but he drew for Timely, Eastern Ego ©2000 Roy Thomas and Bill Schelly.] since he was a duplicate of Color, et al., not for Fawcett. Superman. Presumably that Also, in his 1961 letter reprinted in the issue, Bill Everett spelled was in the script, since when Curt Swan drew Bizarro later in the comic the name of his wife “Gwenn”; I spelled it with one “n” elsewhere. books, he gave him the ‘S,’ as well.” By the time V3#3 was printed, I believed the 1973 inker of Marie [ED. NOTE: Since Otto personally sent me those several weeks’ Severin’s full-page tribute to Bill was probably Frank Giacoia, not Mike worth of 1958 dailies in 1963-64, I assumed that they, like everything else Esposito as stated; in the last-minute crunch this change was not made. in that packet, were scripted by him. Perhaps, instead, they were merely Even so, I’m not 100% certain who the inker was. given to him as samples to follow when he took over the strip—if indeed continued on pg. 44 he ever did. Now, onward:]

A Moon… a Bat… a Hawk—

A Moon... A Bat... A Hawk A Candid Conversation With Sheldon Moldoff

Interview Conducted and Edited by Roy Thomas Transcribed by Jon B. Knutson [EDITOR’S NOTE: Under his quasi-pseudonym Shelly, Sheldon Moldoff would be the Hawkman artist from Flash Comics #2-61 and in All-Star Comics #1-23. But Shelly’s accomplishments go far beyond even the Winged Wonder.] ROY THOMAS: Shelly, you and Irwin Hasen [the second regular artist of the Golden Age Green Lantern] are about the same age, and you seem to have one of the very same major influences: sports cartoonist Willard Mullin. SHELLY MOLDOFF: Irwin and I only found that out maybe twenty years later. When I got out of school—or I may have even still been in school—I admired Mullin’s sports cartoons. Their strength was his ideas, and his little sketchy cartoon characters, which I loved. So I got on the subway and went down to the New York World-Telegram office and just introduced myself, and he was very nice. This had to be about 1936 or 1937, or maybe a year earlier.

everybody, I adapted that style to comic books, because I thought it was the best. I really loved comic books when they started, not only because of the medium it was—a complete story, which was terrific—but the fact that it was a chance to sell work. Because if you had to wait for an opening in a newspaper or syndicate, you could wait forever! There are only so many strips that a newspaper carries. RT: Some people still think of the comic strip as being automatically superior; but when you realize a comic book can do five-, ten-, even 100-page stories—that makes it a whole different medium, and just as valid in its own way. MOLDOFF: That’s why the comic book became so successful. It wasn’t a cliffhanger. You didn’t have to wait till tomorrow to see another four panels, and the next day another four panels. You sat down, and you read a complete eight- or ten-page story. RT: I understand another well-known comic book artist had something to do with your starting cartooning… Bernard Baily [artist of “Hour-Man,” “The Spectre,” et al.].

I would go watch him work. Sometimes when I was there he’d be stuck and he’d say, “I’ve got to do something on baseball. Got any ideas, Sheldon?” And I’d say, “How about this or that?” Several times he did take my suggestions, and he’d let me just sit there and watch him, and it was great. I think I learned a lot just from the way he moved his little cartoon characters. RT: It’s no surprise that you list Hal Foster and Alex Raymond as influences—every comics artist back then admired those two, and Milt Caniff—but I’ve read that in your high school yearbook in 1937 you listed Walt Disney as the man you most admired.

Shelly Moldoff with a recent re-creation of his first Hawkman cover for Flash Comics (#8), and what he calls “my favorite cover.” [Photo courtesy of Sheldon Moldoff; Hawkman, Flash, Johnny Thunder, Whip, King, and Cliff Cornwall ©2000 DC Comics Inc.]

MOLDOFF: I was the staff cartoonist on the high school paper, and I thought animation was fantastic. I remember when Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs came out, and everybody said to me, “Oh, a fulllength cartoon? That’s ridiculous… it’ll fall on its face!” I said, “No, this is going to be a classic!” Sure enough, it opened in the Radio City Music Hall in New York, and it played to sell-out crowds for weeks and weeks and weeks! He proved it could be a great new art form and story form. In those days, we wanted to be cartoonists, and we didn’t even know what super-heroes were. My ambition was to learn how to draw, and then have a funny cartoon character and sell it to a newspaper. I never thought in terms of straight adventure. And then, when Flash Gordon started to make an impression on

MOLDOFF: Yeah, he lived in the same apartment house I did in the Bronx. He was a few years older than me; he went to James Monroe High School, and he was also his school’s newspaper cartoonist. He was a very good-looking guy, and I think he was class president. I was drawing in chalk on the sidewalk—Popeye and Betty Boop and other popular cartoons of the day—and he came by and looked at it and said, “Hey, do you want to learn how to draw cartoons?” I said, “Yes!” He said, “Come on, I’ll show you how to draw.”

So we went across the street and sat on a bench in the park, and he showed me how to start with a circle, and how to make the body, and how to make a smile, and the proportions for cartoons. He said, “Keep practicing. I live on the fourth floor, and if you want to show me some of your work, I’ll be glad to look at it.” So we became friendly, and I’d periodically go up and show him my stuff, and he would help me and criticize me. Then he moved away while I was still in high school, and then a few years later I was at National bringing in some filler pages for Vin Sullivan and in walks Bernard Baily! He looked at me, and he said, “Sheldon?” I said, “Yeah, Bernie, how are ya?” He said, “Well, you made it, huh?” [laughs] I said, “Yeah, yeah, thanks to help from you and other people, I’m a cartoonist!”

No moon in sight, but bats and hawks we’ve got! This beautiful 19” x 14” color commission piece, done in 1991, is from Ye Editor’s private collection. [Art ©2000 Sheldon Moldoff; Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Batman, Batwoman ©2000 DC Comics Inc.]

The same thing happened when I was admitted into the National Cartoonists Society in the early ’40s. At a meeting, when they announced the new members, I stood up… and you get a little round of applause and greetings… and who comes out of the crowd but Willard Mullin! He came over to me and said, “Shelly, I’m so glad to see you’re here! You’re one of us now.” Irwin Hasen had a similar experience. RT: Although the recent “Millennium” reprint of the first issue of Action Comics [1938] listed the author of the sports cartoon in that issue as “Unknown,” that was your work, wasn’t it? MOLDOFF: Yes. I did those things because of my interest in sports and because of Willard Mullin’s advice. The one in Action #1 was one of the earliest things I sold. I also sold such filler pages to several of the other magazines. It would be sports oddities, or movie oddities, or “Believe It or Not” Ripley-style facts. Vin Sullivan and I got along great, and I sold many, many pages to him. That’s how I began in comic books. RT: One area of your career we won’t deal with much here, because it was covered in A/E, Vol. 2, #5 [flip section of Comic Book Artist #5], is one of your first jobs— assisting Bob Kane on “Batman” back in ’39.

funny cartoon strip, “Rusty and His Pals.” RT: How much professional comics work had you done by this stage? MOLDOFF: Maybe a couple of filler pages… no strips [i.e., stories]. Someone told Bob about me, and he called me, and I went over to see him in the Bronx—we both lived in the Bronx—and I started working for him. I met Bill Finger there, and we were gung-ho. A lot of people have asked me, “Should Bill Finger’s name be up there [on “Batman”]? The only thing I can say is, at that time, we were all excited that we were working, you know? Bill Finger was a frustrated writer. There were not too many markets. Then, all of a sudden, here’s Batman, and his friend Bob needs as many scripts as he can provide. As soon as he finishes one, he’s got another one to do. All of a sudden, we’re making money!

RT: After all, that was the tail end of the Depression. And I remember what Jack Nicholson said when he won an From Shelly’s high school Oscar for One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest: “I’m still yearbook. Even then, he getting used to working steady!” [laughs] knew what he liked! [courtesy of S.M.]

MOLDOFF: He had just started “Batman,” and he needed help, because he was also doing a strip called “Clip Carson” and another

MOLDOFF: That was the main thing, you know? Nobody thought “Batman” was going to go for sixty years and be the industry that it became. All we wanted to do was make a couple of bucks, plus we’re in print—which is every writer’s or artist’s ambition, to be in print—so we were satisfied at the time.

A Moon… a Bat… a Hawk— even the very first “Batman” cover by Bob Kane [for Detective Comics #27, 1939] was a Flash Gordon swipe—which nobody ever seems to have noticed before! Kane’s cartoonier style hides it, but the pose is a swipe. Which is okay. Everybody uses swipes; there’s nothing wrong with that.

RT: How long did you work for Bob Kane that first time? MOLDOFF: Oh, I’d say a couple of months. But I wanted to do my own work, and Sheldon Mayer offered me the chance. So I started drawing “Cliff Cornwall” [in Flash #1]. It was written by Gardner Fox, who was Sheldon Mayer’s main writer. Also, I kept doing “Clip Carson.” RT: “Clip Carson” and “Cliff Cornwall”… how did you keep them straight? MOLDOFF: Well, one is in the jungle and the other is a detective! [laughs] “Cliff Cornwall” lasted a few months in Flash, but that was a period of great change in comic books. All of a sudden everybody wanted super-heroes. RT: As of Flash #3, Dennis Neville, the first “Hawkman” artist, was gone, and Harry Lampert had left “The Flash,” and you and E.E. Hibbard were doing those features. Did you ever find out why these big changes?

MOLDOFF: I had met M.C. Gaines when I first walked into Sheldon Mayer’s office, and he took a shine to me. I started working. Later on, I did special things that Gaines had me do… not in comic books, but publicity-type things. He’s the one who said, “We’re going to put you on ‘Hawkman,’ and do whatever you want with it. Do a good job; I know you can do it.” And that was it! RT: How did the idea come to you to employ the Alex Raymond approach? Neville hadn’t done the strip that way. MOLDOFF: No, his version was completely different. But when I looked at “Hawkman” and read a couple of stories, I said to myself, “This has to be done in a Raymond style.” I could just feel it, like Raymond—or Foster. RT: How did you work it? Had you kept a collection? Because you obviously couldn’t go out and buy a collection of Flash Gordon or Prince Valiant in 1939 the way you can now. MOLDOFF: Oh, I saved those Sunday pages and the daily papers for years! There isn’t an artist around that does not have a file… a “morgue.” RT: Arlen Schumer discovered, while composing a cover for A/E V2#5, that

MOLDOFF: As a matter of fact, I met Albert Dorne early in my career; he had a cousin my age who introduced me to him. At that time he was considered the top commercial artist in New York City. He did ads for everybody; he was unbelievable. He had several different styles. He had a tremendous drawing board, and on it were tacked different swipes. When he got a job from an agency, regardless of what it was, he’d first get swipes. That would bring him up to date on every possible angle that would benefit the illustration. Then he went to work! Dorne was a master craftsman, but he found that, using swipes, you had something to lean on, and it could enhance your work! It could be photographs, it could be drawings, it could be color, it could be anything! But it helps you to get a better finished product.

RT: What was the first cover you did? MOLDOFF: It was for More Fun Comics. A scene of a hunter being attacked by two wolves. Another early one was a pirate cover for Adventure Comics. [See illustrations on p. 8.] RT: What quality do you think your work had—like that of Creig Flessel, Howard Purcell, Irwin Hasen, a few others—that made DC’s editors say, “We want you, rather than the interior artist, to do the cover of Flash Comics #1 or the first Green Lantern cover on All-American [#16]?” MOLDOFF: As I said, M.C. Gaines took a shine to me. He liked my style; he liked the realism. We were competing with the newspapers. When he picked up the Sunday papers, he saw Flash Gordon, Prince Valiant, Terry and the Pirates. When he picked up a comic book, there was a tremendous difference in the quality of the art.

In 1939, Shelly was serving as Bob Kane’s assistant on “Batman”; sixty years later, he did this Kane-style commission piece for fan/collector Jerry Boyd. [Art ©2000 Shelly Moldoff; Batman ©2000 DC Comics Inc.]

And then, all of a sudden, he saw me… an 18-year-old coming around, and I’m almost a student of Raymond, and by God, the stuff looks good—it looks like Raymond!

Sheldon Moldoff Interview We all leaned on these guys to learn—and we were very lucky, because while we were learning, we were selling the product, and I guess I was probably one of the best at that. I spent a lot of time on it. I had books on anatomy and shadows and wrinkles; I studied, and I worked very hard on it, and I think it showed. RT: You probably didn’t turn out that much work in any given month. MOLDOFF: No. As a matter of fact, that was a problem. At one point Gaines said he wanted to put out a quarterly of Hawkman, but he said, “I want you to do the whole book!” [laughs] And the problem was that, doing all these other covers and all these other things, I just couldn’t do a whole book of Hawkman!

7 Lantern covers; I did, I think, seven or eight of each of those. All he was interested in was, “Shelly, your covers are selling. Get an exciting scene in there.” The covers often had nothing to do with the inside of the magazine! But then Sheldon Mayer started getting letters from readers saying, “I bought the magazine, but I couldn’t find that scene in any story!” So Gaines and Mayer decided the cover better represent one of the stories. RT: It’s interesting to hear you say they were getting letters, because they had no letters pages in those days, so no fans would have known if there was anyone besides themselves reading the things!

MOLDOFF: No, there were plenty of letters that would come in. I remember RT: This must have been soon after Flash and M.C. Gaines told me once, “You know, Green Lantern got their own titles. It was Shelly, you get a lot of fan mail.” I said, “I clear that “Hawkman” was next in line (along do?” with maybe “The Spectre,” briefly), because he was on every second Flash cover. There’s always In fact, I got a letter in those early days from the been a question about why Hawkman NEA Service Syndicate in Cleveland, didn’t ever get his own book. Perhaps The Flash in a patriotic mood (against the red-and-white stripes of Ohio. It went to National [DC], and you’ve answered that. I’ve never heard the U.S. flag) in a 1993 drawing—and Hawkman in a classic pose they forwarded it to me. I opened it, that before. done for the 1997 Heroes Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. and they were offering me a job in the [Art ©2000 Sheldon Moldoff; Flash and Hawkman ©2000 DC Comics syndicate, cartooning! I got all excited “Hawkman” was generally nine Inc.; Flash illo courtesy of Scott McAdam. Scott’s store, Treasures of about it! pages in Flash Comics, and since All-Star Youth, in Hayward, California, has a website we encourage you to was quarterly, later bimonthly, you were visit at www.treasuresofyouth.com.] A few days later, I was bringing doing maybe three or four pages a some work in to National, and Gaines month there of “Hawkman,” too. When you was there. He said to me, “Shelly, I see you got a were doing “Hawkman,” were you still letter from NEA Syndicate in Cleveland. What doing “Black Pirate”? did they do, offer you a job?” MOLDOFF: I was doing both at the same I said, “Yeah, they did. And I’m thinking time. I was working seven days a week, about it, because every artist wants to work for a trying to keep up with the deadlines! syndicate, hoping for a newspaper strip.” RT: But we’re still talking about trying to So he said, “Shelly, I think your future is draw 15 or 20 pages a month, tops, right? really in comic books, you know? Think about Did you ever consider having someone else it.” ink your pencils or assist you in some other way? At that time I’m still living with my MOLDOFF: After I came out of the service and was working for other companies, I had fellows ink my stuff when I had a deadline or something. But up until the time I went into the service, I was a one-man show. RT: For the first five issues, every Flash cover features a different hero—first Flash, then Hawkman, then Cliff Cornwall, The Whip, and The King. The Flash didn’t repeat until #6, when he and Hawkman started alternating. Do you feel the publishers didn’t know right away that it was Flash and Hawkman selling their book? That, even a year or two after Superman had debuted in Action, they still hadn’t figured out what sold? MOLDOFF: Well, I guess they weren’t geniuses around there. [laughs] I do know that Gaines liked the Flash and Green

parents—and a week later I got a letter from National, and it’s to my mother! She read it and she said to me, “Sheldon, look at this beautiful letter I got!” And it was typed and signed by Jack Liebowitz and M.C. Gaines, and they said they liked me, and they would like me to stay in comic books, and that my future was in comic books, and that they would match any offer that NEA gave. My mother said, “Isn’t that wonderful? You don’t have to go!” I said, “Yeah, but that’s a syndicate, so I’m really seriously considering it.” She said, “Well, you’d be away from home… you’re going to go out to Ohio, and I’ll miss you,” and all that kind of parent stuff. The next time I went down to the office, I said, “Thank you for that letter.”

A Moon… a Bat… a Hawk— M.C. Gaines said, “Sheldon, we’ll match anything they offer you; you’re going to have a big future in comic books and we think you should stay here.” Jack Liebowitz came out. Both of them talked to me. From then on, I decided to stay, and I have to say that—until Gaines’ accident—they always treated me wonderful. I never asked for any favors. I never went to them and said, “I need more work,” or anything like that; I respected them. I’m grateful to them. RT: I know Gardner Fox wrote all, or nearly all, of those early “Hawkman” stories. Did you ever work directly with him, or did you just get your scripts from Mayer?

RT: Did you know Dennis Neville, your predecessor on “Hawkman”? MOLDOFF: No. But I used to watch when some of these artists and writers came in, and some of them were older people. And there would be friction between the editor (and sometimes even between Gaines) and some of these people, because they couldn’t produce that much work. They weren’t used to it, and there was a heavy demand, and now there was a lot of competition coming up. I saw some of them treated pretty shamefully. Sheldon Mayer was very tough on a lot of people. That’s why we had our parting of the ways. RT: What kind of editor was Shelly Mayer? I realize in retrospect that he edited many of my favorite comics in the last half of the ’40s… All-Star, Flash, Green Lantern, All-American, Wonder Woman… but naturally you hear stories, both good and bad, from different people… as you would about nearly anybody, I guess…. MOLDOFF: Sheldon Mayer was very clever, a very good cartoonist, and he knew what he wanted. He was never crazy about adventure stuff. He preferred the “Scribbly” type of thing. Unfortunately, those things weren’t selling; the bread-and-butter was the adventure stuff, the super-heroes. He was a very eccentric guy, and we were friends for years. We double-dated—my Shirley, who I was not married to then; and he had a couple of different girlfriends—and we went horsebackriding together. And then Shelly and I had a falling out before I went into the service.

MOLDOFF: The only contact I ever had with Gardner would be on the telephone, or if I met him in the office by Top: Moldoff’s first cover was done for More accident. We were Fun Comics #51 (cover date Jan. 1940—same as Flash Comics #1!), the issue before Jerry friendly. Then I started Siegel and Bernard Baily’s “Spectre” began in “The Black Pirate.” I More Fun #52. The pirate illo, his second wanted my own idea, my cover, was done for Adventure Comics #49 own creation, and there (April 1940). [©2000 DC Comics Inc.] was a silent picture with Douglas Fairbanks by that name I must have seen as a kid. I wanted that swashbuckling type of guy. I loved the name “The Black Pirate,” and who knows from copyrights? I wrote the first half dozen “Black Pirate” stories in Sensation Comics. And then Sheldon Mayer said, “You know, you’ve got too much to do. You can’t handle all this, and Gardner Fox is going to write ‘The Black Pirate.’” You know, it’s always a search for sales, and when a character isn’t doing well, then the editors and the writers get busy seeing how they can hype it up. None of us knows the answer; otherwise we’d all be geniuses. You just have to keep trying. RT: So having Gardner write the feature just saved you time? MOLDOFF: Yes. But you know, Roy, it was also a question of everybody trying to make a living. Maybe Sheldon Mayer figured I had enough to do drawing, and Gardner Fox could use a little more work, and gave him the writing. You know what I’m saying? These things all come into consideration.

This page from a “Hawkman” chapter in All-Star Comics #9 (1941) is one of the few (perhaps the only) pages of original Moldoff “Hawkman” art from the 1940s known to exist. [©2000 DC Comics Inc.; courtesy of Joel Thingvall.]

Sheldon Moldoff Interview RT: What happened? MOLDOFF: I came into the office one day and I said, “Shelly, I’m really working hard, and I’d like a raise.” And he said, “Oh, no, you’re getting top dollar now.” I said, “Well, I think I deserve it. I’ve worked very hard, I’m doing all the covers and things like that. Would you mind if I asked Mr. Gaines?” He said, “Well, I can’t stop you if you want to see Mr. Gaines.” So I went to Gaines’ office, and asked the secretary sitting outside if I could see Gaines. And he heard my voice from the hallway—you know, the office had walls that went only halfway up, there were glass partitions; everything was like cells, separated, so it was easy to hear somebody if they were outside. He said, “Is that you, Shelly? Come on in!” So I walked in and said, “How are you, Mr. Gaines?” He said, “Fine, what’s up?” I said, “I would like a raise.” He said, “You want a raise? How much do you want?” I said, “I’d like another five dollars a page.” He said, “You’ve got it!” RT: That was a lot of money then! MOLDOFF: So I walk out, and I’ve got a big smile, and Sheldon Mayer is there, and he says, “What happened?” I said, “I got the raise.” He said, “How much?” I said, “I got another five dollars a page.” And he looked at me and said, “You son of a bitch. You’re making more money than I am.” And that was the end of our friendship! I went into the service two or three months after that, and when I got out, he wouldn’t give me back “Hawkman” or “The Black Pirate.” He would have nothing to do with me. You know, Irwin Hasen tells a similar story. RT: Did you socialize much with other comics people back in the ’40s? MOLDOFF: Not much at all. I’m kind of a loner, I guess. I just came in to deliver my work. I lived close to the city, in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

for it. Sometimes I’ve seen some of the stuff that’s been done lately with the characters, and I can’t criticize, because I’m not really “with it.” I don’t know what the demands are today, what type of person is buying or reading it, but I just find that the books themselves, in general, don’t put enough attention to a good story. The stories have a lot of flair, but there’s nothing on the page! RT: I know what you mean. Anyway, around 1942, in addition to all the work you were doing for DC, you drew the first “Kid Eternity” story for Quality, for Busy Arnold, didn’t you? [See p. 11.] Sheldons squaring off! Shelly Mayer (l.)

MOLDOFF: Yeah. I was and Shelly Moldoff (r.) clowning around in always a freelancer. I the early 1940s. [Photo courtesy of never had a contract, and Sheldon Moldoff.] DC didn’t prohibit you from doing anything. Quality called me, and I took a shot at it, but it didn’t work out, and I just did maybe a couple of stories, and that was it. RT: About that situation with Shelly Mayer—companies were really supposed to give veterans their old jobs back after the War, weren’t they?

But I did enjoy meeting these guys in the city when I came in with my work. Usually Joe Kubert, Curt Swan, and Murphy Anderson would be working in the office at National Periodicals. Some artists can’t work at home; they have to get out and work in the studio.

MOLDOFF: Not only publishers—everybody was supposed to give servicemen their jobs back. But Mayer said, “No, you’re not working for me!” I was never on a contract, and that was probably the “out.” You know, my nature is, if I feel I’m not wanted, I’m not going to force it, you know what I mean?

RT: For the most part, I discovered your “Hawkman” work in the early 1960s when I started to collect old issues of All-Star, but I liked it at once. Hawkman was my favorite comic character. And it seems he was almost always blessed with better artwork than most features had.

RT: What did you do when you discovered you weren’t going to get any work at all from DC? Where did you go first? MOLDOFF: It may have been Fawcett—I’m not sure. I started with them in 1946. I did Captain Midnight, Tex Ritter, the cowboy strip, and I did a few Don Winslow of the Navy, not many.

In terms of sales, I guess the period when you were drawing it was when Flash Comics was at its height, because it was the early- to mid-’40s. Between you, you and Joe Kubert did the great, great majority of “Hawkman” stories in both Flash and All-Star. MOLDOFF: We were the base

In those days, the way they worked was so much different from the way they work today. [Fawcett executive editor] Will Lieberson called me in and said, “We want you to do some Captain Midnight

A Moon… a Bat… a Hawk—

stories. We’ll give you some of the old issues, and just keep that character.” And that’s what they did. [Editor] Stanley Kaufman gave me a script and some old back issues for reference. [See p. 12.] Same thing happened later, when I was with DC again and Murray Boltinoff wanted me to do Blackhawk. He gave me some of Chuck Cuidera’s inks and said, “Just follow this style. Dick Dillin’s going to pencil them, so just ink it the way Chuck Cuidera would ink it.” And that’s the way I did it. Today, each artist draws in his own independent, individual style.

“Shelly, could you use more work?” Because “Batman” didn’t take all my time, I said, “I can always use work.” He said, “I’m going to call Jack Schiff, because he mentioned to me they needed some artists.” Jack Schiff and Murray Boltinoff and George Kashdan worked in the same cell, and they all gave me work. Then Mort Weisinger came in, and I ended up doing a lot of Curt Swan inking. RT: This was after Shelly Mayer left in ’48? MOLDOFF: Yeah. He was a head case, and they had sent him home. They put up with him for a few years in the office, and then finally they disconnected him, and he went home to work. He kept working on his own little strips, but he worked at home.

RT: You had signed “Hawkman” and “Black Pirate” as “Shelly.” Did you have any desire to sign the work at Fawcett later on?

RT: You also did some work for Pines, on “Tigra”?

MOLDOFF: Fawcett didn’t want you to sign it. But I found working for Fawcett very good. Will Lieberson and I became friends, and we socialized. I did a lot of work for him. I did some comics for a movie producer, some comic books they used in their ads.

MOLDOFF: She was like “Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.” And for [editor] Dick Hughes I did “The Black Terror.” RT: That was a beautiful-looking hero. I used a lot of his costume when I designed my DC character, “Mr. Bones,” in the early ’80s.

RT: Didn’t you do some of Fawcett’s movie adaptations? MOLDOFF: One of mine was The Day the Earth Stood Still or something like that. RT: Actually, Fawcett didn’t adapt that particular movie. But they did adapt films like When Worlds Collide and The Man from Planet X.

This one’s a real scoop! When Shelly created Jon Valor, “The Black Pirate,” for Action Comics #17, he drew and even colored this model sheet for himself, dated April 14, 1939. Later he gave it to his nephew, who still owns it; only a few years ago, he surprised Shelly with a copy of it. It has never before been printed! [Art ©2000 Sheldon Moldoff; Black Pirate ©2000 DC Comics Inc.]

MOLDOFF: I also did Commander Battle and the Atomic Sub.

RT: I loved that book! That was in the early 1950s. It reminded me of a sub-sea Blackhawks. There were only a few issues, one or two of which had this weird supposed “3D effect.”

MOLDOFF: They also sent me to somebody who was editor at True Story Magazine, and I did an editorial page for one year in every issue, called “The Little Woman.” It won the Valley Forge Awards. So there was always something coming along.

MOLDOFF: That was the whole purpose, to get a 3D effect. We worked on Craft-Tint paper. What happened is that it came at a time when sales were awful, so it had a short life.

RT: Didn’t you do “Sargon the Sorcerer” and Mr. District Attorney later? How did you wind up working again for DC after your situation with Mayer?

The same thing with Max Gaines before he died. I started Moon Girl for him at his new company, EC [originally “Educational Comics”]: Moon Girl and The Prince. The same thing—it started out nice, but sales weren’t good, so then they dropped The Prince and just called it Moon Girl. And then, unfortunately, Max Gaines was killed in a motorboating accident.

MOLDOFF: I started ghosting for Bob Kane. And while I was doing all his pencils, he once said to me,

RT: Moon Girl was another of example of your work I enjoyed in that period, without knowing who drew it. Wasn’t Gardner Fox the writer? MOLDOFF: I think maybe he was.

RT: It was such a blatant swipe of Wonder Woman as a concept—even down to the origin. MOLDOFF: Well, I didn’t have anything to do with that. RT: [laughs] I didn’t figure you did. She didn’t particularly look like

Sheldon Moldoff Interview Wonder Woman; she was just written like Wonder Woman. MOLDOFF: As a matter of fact, when it first came out, Max Gaines said the people at DC were bitching about it. RT: Can’t say I blame them! Still, I’m very proud of the color drawing you did for me of Moon Girl and The Prince. [See p. 12.] MOLDOFF: Yeah, a few people ask for that nowadays, along with Batman and Hawkman. RT: EC changed the title to Moon Girl Fights Crime, and then dropped Moon Girl totally and turned it into a love comic called A Moon… a Girl… Romance for four issues. I guess she just never caught on in that time when super-heroes weren’t the big thing anymore. MOLDOFF: Well, as I said, you’ve got to come out at the right time and the right place. An interesting part of my career—and I have written proof, since I’ve kept all my records from ’way back— When Max Gaines was killed in his motorboat accident, his son Bill took over EC. I had met Bill before, but now he was in charge, and I was doing some work for him. I asked him, “How’s things going?” He said, “Lousy. The family’s considering closing up and getting out of the comic book business.” I said, “Bill, if I give you an idea which I think will be the next trend, will you give me a contract and a percentage of sales if it shows a profit? I only want it if there’s a profit; I’d get paid a percentage of the profit. I think I know what’s going to come in next.” And he said, “I’d be glad to!” I said, “Okay, I’m going to bring you a couple of titles and a little breakdown, and show you what I have in mind.”

contract. I’ll have Dave Alterbaum draw up a contract.” I went home and I started on it. I got Johnny Craig to draw two stories and a cover. Gardner Fox wrote a story; another fellow also did one, I drew a story, and I put the book together. Meanwhile, Dave Alterbaum drew up a contract. I knew him; he had been Max Gaines’ lawyer. RT: And now he was Bill Gaines’ lawyer. MOLDOFF: He was the family lawyer! So I bring the work down, and Gaines has the contract ready, and I sign it, and I’m all excited about it, you

So when I came back, I showed him two titles. One was Tales of the Supernatural, and the other was This Magazine Is Haunted. And I said, “This is going to be it: horror. This is going to come on strong.” RT: What made you think that? Was it the former success of radio shows like Inner Sanctum? MOLDOFF: I just had a feeling. You know, Roy, I have a box of ideas I showed to different people over my career. Many of them have become reality, but not for me! Do you know what I’m saying? I was always trying, and I just had a feeling this was it, that horror was going to come in. So he said to me, “I’m going to give you a

After 1944 it was hail and farewell to DC/All-American for a few years. Years later, Shelly did this montage of characters he drew (mostly for DC) in the early 1940s— though the Batman cover is from 1963, and This Magazine Is Haunted was done for Fawcett in the early ’50s. [Art ©2000 Sheldon Moldoff; Batman, Flash, Hawkman, Green Lantern, and Black Pirate ©2000 DC Comics Inc.; This Magazine Is Haunted ©2000 Charlton Publications.]

Maybe Shelly drew very few “Kid Eternity” stories for Busy Arnold’s Quality Comics, but he hasn’t forgotten him. This commissioned piece is printed courtesy of Scott McAdam and Jerry K. Boyd. [Art ©2000 Sheldon Moldoff; Kid Eternity ©2000 DC Comics Inc.]

know? And he looked at me and said, “Terrific.” He likes it. I said, “I’ve got some other artists lined up. Do you want me to start on the next one?” He said, “No, wait, hold it. I’ll let you know.” So I go home, and weeks go by, and I don’t hear from him. So I called him again and said, “Are you ready for a second issue?” He said, “No, just hold it; I’ll get back to you.” Months go by, and in the meantime I’m busy with other work, I’m doing other things—and now, quite a few months later, I see on the newsstand Bill Gaines’ horror books, Tales from the Crypt and all this other stuff! I say, “What the hell is this?” I look at it, and sure enough, it’s coming from EC Publications! So I went running down there, and they’re still at Lafayette Street, and I said, “Bill, what is this?” He said, “I knew you’d be here.” I said, “Well, do you blame me? We have a contract, and you’re supposed to use mine! I’m supposed to be the horror man!” He said, “Well, I decided I’m not going to give percentages. I don’t want to give percentages. I’ll give you all the work you want, but no percentages.” I said, “No, we had an agreement, and I want

A Moon… a Bat… a Hawk— I had packaged, and he put them in different magazines. One magazine article said that this story by Johnny Craig and one Moon Girl horror story I drew were the beginning of Gaines’ horror cycle. They gave credit to those two stories for starting it all. And I still have the sheet in my books which shows that I paid Johnny Craig, and the name of the story, and how much I paid him, and the date! So I have all this material, and there’s no question that I produced that first book. I’m very grateful that DC has come out with this new Batman book, and the writer, Les Daniels, finally gave me recognition and credit for all the Batmans I did. This fellow Steve Korté has been very nice, too. But I’m tired of this horror nonsense being kicked around as Bill Gaines’ hall-of-famer, you know, and I want credit for that. RT: And if you’ve got proof, there’s no reason you shouldn’t have it, even if Gaines and Feldstein developed the material later in their own way.

Another great piece done by Shelly for Jerry Boyd—of Fawcett Comics’ big boys (The Marvel Family and licensed hero Captain Midnight) in high-flying action. [Art ©2000 Sheldon Moldoff; Marvel Family ©2000 DC Comics Inc.; Captain Midnight ©2000 Ovaltine.]

you to honor it!” He said, “Well, there’s nothing you can do about it, Shelly. I decided I’m not paying anybody percentages.” So I went down to see Dave Alterbaum, and I said, “Dave, I just came from Bill Gaines’, and he’s not honoring the contract. What’s this all about?” And he put his arm on me and said, “Shelly, you’re young and inexperienced, but you’ll learn. There’s nothing you can do about it. If you try to sue, we’ll blackball you in the business.” Well, I got scared, and I said, “That’s terrible! How do you do such a thing like that?” He said, “That’s business.” So I went back and talked to my wife, and I was fretting, and I went to see a lawyer somebody had told me to see. And he looked at me and said, “Sheldon, the contract’s worthless; it doesn’t protect you at all. Next time you have an idea, you get your own lawyer, and you have him protect you! Don’t go and depend on somebody else’s lawyer, because they’ll screw you every time. Unfortunately, there’s nothing you can do about it.” RT: Not exactly the avuncular image one usually has of Bill Gaines. MOLDOFF: I ran into Johnny Craig in the subway months later. I said to him, “You know, he really screwed me, Johnny. You did two horror stories for me, and you know damn well he screwed me!” He didn’t say anything, he just shrugged. I said, “I know you’re in a tough position; you’ve got a lot of work. But you know damn well he screwed me!” He didn’t say anything, he just shrugged, and he went on to be one of the mainstays of the [EC] horror books. Gaines took the horror stories

MOLDOFF: If experts test the the paper of the documents I’ve got, they’ll see that the paper goes back to 1948; they’ll see that this is the original. I paid Johnny Craig and I paid Gardner Fox, and what I paid them is written down here. It was the first EC horror book. RT: How many of your horror stories did they end up using? MOLDOFF: There were four stories in all. The one I did myself was in Moon Girl. RT: I know that, later, This Magazine Is Haunted wound up as a Fawcett title. MOLDOFF: Right. As a matter of fact, I had shown This Magazine Is Haunted and Tales of the Supernatural to Will Lieberson before I showed them to Bill Gaines, because I trusted Will Lieberson much more. He showed it to the big guys at Fawcett, and he said, “Shelly, Fawcett doesn’t want to get into horror now; they don’t want to touch that.” Then I went to Bill Gaines! He was my second choice. But after horror started to catch on, I came back and Will Lieberson said, “Let me bring it back to Fawcett again, and see if they’ll take the title.” And so they did; they took This Magazine Is Haunted and Worlds of Fear and then Strange Suspense Stories. What they did was pay me $100 for the title, and give me as much work as I wanted, and I also did the covers. So that went on that way. RT: Until the whole horror thing collapsed. MOLDOFF: Well, it had its run, like everything else. They got a little too deadly, a little too gruesome. RT: I don’t think Fawcett’s horror comics were ever as strong as at EC and a few other companies.

MOLDOFF: Lieberson said that Fawcett wouldn’t go for it. In fact, there was a girl editor named Ginny Proviserio. I did a romance comic with her, and then she did the horror, she did Haunted. I also worked for Parents’ Magazine! I did a strip for them. They had Calling All Girls and

Sheldon Moldoff Interview

Calling All Boys. RT: At the same time you were doing the horror comic for Fawcett? MOLDOFF: [laughs] Oh, yeah! The Parents thing was about a tugboat captain; it was started by Bernard Baily, and then he couldn’t do it, or didn’t want to, and I took it over. I also did some work for—who’s that horror guy? “Ghastly”? RT: Graham Ingles? MOLDOFF: Graham Ingles. I met Graham just before the horror came One of the earliest artist biographies featured by EC—before it began its “New Trend” horror and science-fiction comics— along. He and another was this one from Moon Girl #6 (March 1949). [©2000 William Gaines, Agent, Inc.] writer were putting out some magazines for someThen he moved to Florida, and I never heard anything about him body, so I did some work for him. But those magazines weren’t doing until he died a couple of years ago. I’d say he was 40-50 minutes from well. He had some of his pages there which he did with a brush, with a where I lived. I didn’t know he was there until I read the obituary lot of black… a tremendous amount of black. I said, “Gee, I love this column. He wanted to be a painter, a serious painter, and he was stuff!” teaching painting until he died. Then it ceased; he didn’t have much work. I met him in Manhattan months later, and I said, “You know, I’ve got a deal cooking, and you’re

RT: You also did some horror for Timely/Atlas, didn’t you? MOLDOFF: I did some stories for them. I didn’t sell any covers or any magazines to them, but I did some stories. RT: Years later, didn’t you also do Sea Devils and “Legion of SuperHeroes” and Superboy for DC? MOLDOFF: Yeah, I did that for Mort Weisinger. I did Sea Devils for George Kashdan. The Sea Devils work was just inking, with Howard Purcell penciling. RT: You also did a lot of commercial comics like Big Boy and the like, didn’t you?

Shelly’s pay-out records for what was to have become Tales of the Supernatural #1 for EC Comics. [Courtesy of Sheldon Moldoff.]

going to be part of it. We’re going to put out a horror magazine, and I think your style will be great.” He asked, “How do you know?” I said, “Because I can feel it, the way you do shadows, the way you use your blacks; I think it’d be fantastic.” He just looked at me and walked away. He was a strange character, but a pretty talented guy. He ended up with Gaines. I think he did some Westerns, and then he became a great horror artist. He had a beautiful way of brushing his blacks. He barely penciled… very sketchy pencil. It was all done with the brush, and he was very good.

MOLDOFF: If I listed all those books, it would be twenty or thirty companies, including Blockbuster, KMart, Burger King, GNC Vitamins, Travelers’ Insurance, Shoney’s Restaurants, Red Lobster Restaurants, Sea Escape, Captain D’s, Auto-Nation, Golden Corral, Cablevision… All these giveaways I did in Florida, they’re all in comics style. You know, the greatest part of this was that I wrote it, I penciled and inked it, and a lot of it I colored myself, The EC line—with Moon Girl, briefly, as its titular same as an icon. [©2000 William Gaines, Agent, Inc.]

A Moon… a Bat… a Hawk—

animated cel, with acrylic paint. That’s the way I did it for Shoney’s and Big Boy, and they printed from that. I did not have an editor, I didn’t have to answer to anybody! I was my own boss, and it was great! [laughs] It was terrific. The only thing they did was proofread. I would say, out of my whole sixty years of doing comics, that was probably the most enjoyable job! RT: At what stage in your career did you do the Marco Polo Jr. animated feature? MOLDOFF: I did a Japanese animated feature, and I did 125 sevenminute films. Earlier I had written some stories and did some storyboards for a different project, and when I finished, the man, Mr. Lu [sic?], invited me and Shirley to Tokyo for a two-week vacation; that was in 1967. On the way back I got the idea for Marco Polo Jr. I had somebody raise the money, and we produced our own animated feature. It wasn’t a big, big winner like you read about today, it was no Lion King or anything like that….

done any re-creations of the host of This Magazine Is Haunted? MOLDOFF: Dr. Death? I got one in the last couple of months that wanted Dr. Death with a girl in a cemetery. I’ve done a number of re-creations of horror covers I had done. RT: I also have a re-creation of your drawing that was used for years at the top of every second Flash Comics cover… the one of Hawkman in a circle. When I was a kid, I never could figure out what his hand was doing at the bottom…. MOLDOFF: He’s drawing an arrow. [See icon on our flip cover.] RT: Yeah, I know that now. But DC had cut the arrow off the bottom; and besides, Hawkman wasn’t using a bow in any stories at that stage. But DC kept using that drawing for a year or two after you’d stopped drawing “Hawkman.” Which comics work do you look back on with the most fondness? MOLDOFF: The ones that gave me greatest pleasure were doing “Hawkman” and “Black Pirate.” “Batman” was a job, and I did it to the best of my ability and to please Bob Kane, but the most satisfaction came from doing the giveaways. I did those for eight to ten years, thousands and thousands of different stories, and I loved it.

RT: But 125 episodes of anything is something of a success. MOLDOFF: Yeah, it was— except I went to bed with a bunch of crooks! You find that story happens a lot with artists and writers. They get taken. I think we’re notoriously trustful people. You know, somebody shakes my hand and says, “You’ve got a deal,” and to me, that’s a deal!

RT: [laughs] They probably paid at least as well as comic books….

RT: In fact, you discovered that, even when you have it in writing, it isn’t always a deal. MOLDOFF: Oh, I found that out, Roy! There are plenty of people in other fields that tell the same story. RT: Tell us a little about the re-creations you do these days, for sale by mail or at comics conventions.

Shelly still makes the circuit of some of the best comics conventions, including Heroes Convention in Charlotte, NC; MegaCon in Orlando, FL (see Harry Lampert interview for info on that one); and San Diego. This drawing appeared in the Heroes Con program book for 1998, which was dedicated to Captain America. [Art ©2000 Sheldon Moldoff; Hawkman ©2000 DC Comics Inc.; Captain America ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

MOLDOFF: I’ve gotten a lot of compliments on that interview that you printed [conducted by Bill Schelly for Alter Ego, Vol. 2, #5, as part of CBA]. I’ve had people call me or write to me and say, “We got your address, we read the article, and we’re so glad you’re finally getting the credit for the stories we enjoyed all those years.” I’ve got a great response, and they all refer to your magazine. RT: I like to see people get credit, and if they can also get a little bit of money… Along with Batman, Hawkman, and Moon Girl, and a few characters you drew on covers, like Flash and Green Lantern, have you

MOLDOFF: They paid much better! Not as much as they pay today. But I did it from the middle ’70s to the middle ’80s. And I loved it because I was my own boss, my own editor…. RT: Well, thank you very much, Shelly. MOLDOFF: My pleasure, Roy.

[NOTE: Sheldon Moldoff appears at various comics conventions around the country, including MegaCon in Orlando, Florida; the Heroes Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina; and often the San Diego Convention. See end-comments to the Harry Lampert interview in our “Flash” section for information on these upcoming conventions. Anyone wishing to receive information regard Shelly’s re-creations should contact him at: 3710 Inverrary Drive 1W, Lauderhill, FL 33319. Phone (954) 485-8551.]

Two Short Conversations with Joe Kubert

Two Short Conversations with

Joe Kubert Conducted by Al Dellinges and Roy Thomas Conversation One: Kubert/Dellinges [ED. NOTE: Al Dellinges has spent years studying and even tracing the comic art of Joe Kubert. The following interview, conducted by mail, was previously printed in Al’s self-published volume Joe Kubert: A Golden Age Index, in 1978, and dealt primarily with his art during the 1940s, when Kubert was in his teens and early twenties.] AL DELLINGES: In Flash Comics #62, your first Hawkman job in that magazine, it looks as though you misspelled the name of Hawkman on the splash page. JOE KUBERT: That was apparently the act of a young, over-zealous cartoonist. And you’re absolutely right, Al—I did misspell the title name. This must be a “first” of some sort. Boy, am I red-faced! AD: The quality of the artwork in Flash #71 is quite superior to any previous issues. Did you feel you finally arrived at your potential with that story? KUBERT: It’s very difficult to look at these things in retrospect. I do know that I entered into each job with the hope and desire that it’d be better than the last. I still do, even today. Incidentally, do you notice the back-slanted lettering in the strips? These were my first experience in lettering—at the behest of Sheldon Mayer, my then-editor. AD: The splash pages of the next five issues of Flash Comics retain the same quality as #71; however, some of the artwork was tight, while some appeared loose. Was mood a factor during work on these jobs? KUBERT: I might have been the subject matter that dictated the style and approach I used. I don’t really know. All I do know is that, looking at some of this material—the distortions and the bad drawing—gives me the shudders! AD: Did you work at home or at a studio? KUBERT: Most of the years I’ve spent in the business have involved my working at home. At one time or another I’ve worked at “studios” which were set up by a group of guys including myself, fellows like Alex Toth, Carmine Infantino, Hy Rosen, Howie Post. AD: The splash page of Flash #75 is the only one in which Hawkman did not appear.

Any reason why you didn’t include him? KUBERT: I tried my best to have the splashes look as different as possible, design-wise. Other than that, I’ve no idea why I didn’t include Hawkman. Incidentally, if I’m Hawkman head by Kubert, done for a ’70s San Diego not mistaken, the Comic Con program. [Art ©Joe Kubert; Hawkman lettering (except ©2000 DC Comics Inc. Thanks to Al Dellinges.] for the first caption letters) was done by someone named Sol Harrison—now president of National Periodicals—and one of my dearest friends. AD: Most of your covers and splash pages show Hawkman on the left side of the page. Any particular reason? KUBERT: Yes. We [artists] were given to understand that the magazines on retail display racks usually showed the top [title] of the cover and the left-hand side. So we tried (and still do) to design/plan the cover with the star character on the left-hand side. AD: How do you account for the marked improvement in your work within a relatively short time? For instance, the artwork in Flash Comics up to issue #70 was okay, but Flash #71 was a professional achievement in every respect. KUBERT: That’s a matter of your own personal judgment, Al. As I mentioned before, looking at all this work today makes me cringe. But I believe it’s a good idea for the work to be shown, if for no other reason than to allow those people who are trying to break into the business the opportunity to see and learn from my early and most amateurish efforts. AD: Flash #76 has the finest total overall quality of all issues to that point. I know it was a long time ago, but were you exceptionally proud of the job you did on that one? KUBERT: I think perhaps you’re more affected by the story than the illustrations, Al.

Photo of Joe Kubert in the 1970s. [Courtesy of Muriel Kubert]

AD: Hawkman in Flash #85 lacked the quality that was present in Flash #76, and Hawkman began changing in style

Two Short Conversations with Joe Kubert this period? KUBERT: I really don’t recall. But, at one time or another, I’ve worked for possibly every [comic book] publishing house in the business. There were 25 to 30 different publishers, as opposed to today’s three or four. It was a very exciting time. AD: How long did it require to complete a nine-page [Hawkman] story? KUBERT: The time that it takes to complete a page varies tremendously, depending on the subject. Some pages may take two to three hours to complete (pencil and inks). Others may take all day. Working “by the clock” can be terribly self-defeating, I think. AD: Judging from the amount of details in your backgrounds, I get the feeling you were never overly concerned in the amount of time you spent on each sketch. KUBERT: I guess that’s true—and remains true. AD: Your drawings contain a good deal of extra artwork like pictures on the walls, frame mouldings, fireplugs, bricks in buildings, and many other items that enhance your illustrations. This must have required a lot of extra time. KUBERT: Again, time was not (and is not) the criteria. Backgrounds and detail are multipurposeful. To enhance an illustration, and to lend credence and believability to the story. If mishandled, those details can destroy the illustration/story. AD: Your angle shots are great. Your shadow effects create beautiful designs. Any particular comments on how you handled these? KUBERT: The artist/cartoonist is casting director, director, and cameraman all rolled into one. Design and composition are tools to be utilized to keep a pace—transition—and impact that will be accepted by the reader.

While Joe may not think much of his art from 1944-49, Al Dellinges and Roy Thomas beg to differ! This page from “Land of the Bird Men” in Flash #71 (May 1946) even has Hawkman in all seven panels. [©2000 DC Comics Inc. Original art from R.T.’s collection; both purchased from Joel Thingvall, acting as agent for Jon Chester Kozlak.]

and costumes. Any feelings you care to express concerning these? KUBERT: I think I tried to get a little too “cutesy-pie” on this cover, and I guess it didn’t come off. AD: Was time, or a lack of it, a major element in determining the manner with which you handled Hawkman in the later issues, say #88 through #104? KUBERT: Not really. I’d say I spent at least as much time on all the work I do and have done. As a matter of fact, one of the stories that pleased me (at the time) was “The Ghost.” So, you see—it’s all a matter of personal taste. Generally, I try to do the kind of work that pleases me, rather than anyone else. If it pleases others, as well, that’s great. AD: Your next assignment after Flash #76 was Flash #85, a lapse of about twelve months. Do you recall what other art jobs you did during

AD: How do you approach anatomy?

KUBERT: The mistake is made by many aspiring young cartoonists that anatomy may be learned from comic books or syndicated strips. Wrong! These are exaggerated (and often incorrect) examples. Figure drawing from life (both nude and draped) is absolutely essential to a knowledge of anatomy to be applied to any form of art in which the human figure is portrayed. AD: Animals—how about those lizards? KUBERT: I dunno, I guess I had a sort of “thing” for creepy-crawly things. I never realized it until I looked through these old stories. Seems like I stuck ’em in every conceivable place. And some places that weren’t conceived. AD: Do you recall any outstanding remarks or comments made to you by your peers on jobs such as “The Golem,” “Alabam,” and “Hawkman”? KUBERT: Not really, Al. “The Golem” meant a great deal to me

17 because of its religious theme. I remember that a dinner was given by the group that financed the magazine in which it appeared (I believe it was a Protestant organization), and I was introduced as “that young, talented artist,” etc. With “Hawkman,” I was following Sheldon Moldoff, whose work was almost an exact replica of Foster’s Prince Valiant and Raymond’s Flash Gordon. It was a surprise that I was allowed to do it at all. AD: How did you arrive at the method you used to ink Hawkman’s wings? The brush strokes were chisel-sharp and deliberate and gave the wings a great effect. I doubt if anyone has the skill to duplicate your lines today. KUBERT: I had done a lot of inking on other people’s pencils—like Mort Meskin and Jack Kirby. I was very impressed with a clean, clear brush stroke… thereby completely neglecting the over-all look of good drawing. I’d get involved in what was then termed as “feathering” (with a brush)—and if a stroke did not have a sharp, chiseled edge, I’d white the line out and do it over. Nuts, huh? AD: Any favorites of the Golden Age material you worked on? Can you recall being pleased with any particular assignment? KUBERT: Tor was (and is) one of my favorites.

It was conceived while I was in the army (1950) on a troopship headed for Germany. I still have the notes and sketches I did at the time. The 3D books my partner Norman Maurer and I published through the St. John Publishing Co. were exciting. But that’s a book and a half by itself, part of which involved staying up for 72 hours without sleep, in order to complete our assignments! Who says super-heroes never have fun? [from The Comic Artist #2, published by Lamar Blaylock; art ©2000 Joe Kubert; Hawkman ©2000 DC Comics Inc.]

AD: The Golem story in The Challenger #3 retains the same quality throughout the entire story, 18 pages. Do you

An amazing Kubert find! One of this pair of “Hawkman” pages was printed postage-stamp size in comic art dealer and collector Albert Moy’s ad in Comic Book Artist #1 and listed there as being from Flash Comics #97, but in actuality this 1947 story drawn by a 21-year-old Joe was never published! Repro’d here from photocopies of the original art courtesy of Albert Moy. Visit his website at www.albertmoy.netsus.com; phone him at (718) 225-3261; or write him at 36-07 162nd St., Flushing, NY 11358. (P.S.: The dialogue-hiding mark above is on the artwork.) [Hawkman and Hawkgirl ©2000 DC Comics Inc.] See next page for another unpublished page.

remember how long it took you? Do you know who wrote the story and how you came to illustrate it? Any idea where the originals might be? KUBERT: As I mentioned before, “The Golem” was something special to me, because of the subject matter. I’ve no idea how long it took to draw. A fellow by the name of Bob Bernstein wrote the script; he also

Two Short

Conversations with— AD: What is your formula for learning to handle a brush? Any tips? KUBERT: The “handling” of a brush merely takes a certain amount of physical dexterity. BUT—finishing a black-&-white drawing in ink takes a knowledge of drawing, without which all the tricks of brush-handling and inking will not salvage—if the drawing itself is not good. One must concentrate on good drawing. Style and dexterity are a result of old-fashioned, unadulterated experience. AD: Although many artists are excellent on pencils, they seem to be at a loss in the inking department. Is inking a profession by itself? KUBERT: It can be—but it is a terrible mistake, I believe. First of all, an inker is not just someone who traces over pencil lines. He must know how to draw. Otherwise, the finished results can be disastrous. There may be a conflict, as well, in that the penciler can say, “Wot the heck did that inker do to my bee-yootiful pencils?” And to counter that, the inker might say, “I corrected as much as I could when I inked those lousy pencils, but I couldn’t re-pencil the whole job, could I?” As an editor, I insist that the artist pencil and ink the whole job. AD: Your early work bears no resemblance to your present style. In fact, it looks like the work of several different people. Are you still changing? KUBERT: I think it’s important that we change constantly. And that we not be afraid to change. Yes, I believe my work has changed, because my ideas and concepts have changed. I believe I’ve learned a lot over the years, and I try to apply and introduce those things into my drawing. Perhaps that’s why it’s kind of “painful” for me to look at my old work. I see what I consider glaring mistakes—things that I wouldn’t do today. But then again, I guess it’s the only way any of us learn.

wrote “Alabam.” As far as the originals are concerned, they’re probably long gone. Destroyed in some warehouse to make room for more originals that were eventually destroyed. AD: Any desire to redraw any of your old material? KUBERT: None whatsoever—except for Tor! AD: If there were a demand for your old style, do you think you could or would draw in that technique again, or would you want to? KUBERT: A resounding “no” to both questions.

For instance, in preparing for doing Tarzan [for DC], I undertook to study those things in the original strip as done by Hal Foster that stimulated and excited me over forty years ago. I then tried to incorporate those things into the magazine I was doing. The measure of its success is a barometer only I can read. In many places, I missed. But I did try! In addition to the foregoing, I’m involved in the creation of The Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art, Inc. The school will be housed in a 23-room mansion on seven beautifully landscaped areas in Dover, New Jersey. I’ve also just recently signed a contract to produce a hardcover, full-color offset book in cartoon media for European publication and distribution. The only problem I’m having now is trying to find three or four more hours in a 24-hour day, whereby I can do all the things in which I’m so happily involved.

—Joe Kubert

I was making an overt attempt—I can see it, if no one else can!—on a lot of the covers and interior work. I was following the pattern of blacks, the simplicity of rendering, of wrinkles, and so on and so forth, that was the mainstay of Milt Caniff.

Conversation Two: Kubert/Thomas [ED. NOTE: For Alter Ego V2#3, published as part of Comic Book Artist #2 (Winter 1999), Joe Kubert spoke with Ye Editor by phone concerning primarily the Comic Book Illustrators Instruction Course he began with fellow artist Norman Maurer at St. John Publishing in 1954. A few of Joe’s comments not related to that subject had to be dropped for lack of space, and are published here for the first time. We had touched briefly on the matter of Kubert’s debut as the third Hawkman artist in late 1944:]

RT: That probably explains why there is a subtle difference in your work between your Flash stories and your Hawkman stories, occasionally in the same issue of Flash Comics. Part of it is the angular faces on the Flash, which had this Caniff influence. KUBERT: We’re talking about things now that I never even thought about then. It’s just coming to mind. RT: You were just doing them.

ROY THOMAS: The previous Hawkman artist, Shelly Moldoff, was a pure Raymond and Foster man, and he never turned out much work.

KUBERT: Exactly. I wasn’t analyzing it, but my sons now tell me, “Dad, I don’t know how the hell you were able to turn out that much work!” The reason was that we had to.

JOE KUBERT: Shelly will tell you himself that his work was a labor of love.

RT: It’s strange that, with all the great things you and Norman Maurer did at St. John—Tor, The Three Stooges, Whack!—the most successful comic was the first Mighty Mouse 3-D book, one of the first comic books ever to be reprinted.

RT: When I see Carmine’s work on The Flash, I see the influence of Milt Caniff and [then Flash artist] Lee Elias which I don’t see as clearly in your Hawkman work. KUBERT: When I was doing The Flash,

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JUSTICE SOCIETY SPECIAL!

KUBERT: Yup. We sold over a million copies.

COMING IN JUNE 2000:

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• Never-before published CARMINE INFANTINO JSA wraparound cover inked by JERRY ORDWAY! • Interviews with GIL KANE, GEORGE ROUSSOS, MARTIN NODELL, SHELLY MAYER, and others! • Never-published Golden Age Flash, Green Lantern, & Wonder Woman art by INFANTINO, NODELL, JOE KUBERT, H.G. PETER, and PAUL REINMAN! • ROY THOMAS on the All-Star Squadron and LARRY IVIE on the Justice LEGION! • MR. MONSTER, FCA (with C.C. BECK & MARC SWAYZE) & more!

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Joe Kubert and Me

Joe Kubert and Me by Al Dellinges

s a youngster I just loved Hawkman.

At some point, however, I switched my loyalty over to The Atom, and that’s where I stayed—until the mid-1940s, when I first encountered Joe Kubert’s artwork on the Hawkman character, which seems to have had a lasting effect on me. I think it’s safe to say that I am probably Joe Kubert’s biggest fan. My qualifications are that I have copied/traced nearly every comic book story he ever worked on. In the beginning, I thought that if I became more familiar with his style of drawing, my work would become just like this. My problem was, I never learned to draw well enough to be able to incorporate his style into mine. But it wasn’t a total loss. I found enormous pleasure in tracing his lines, and the better I got at it, the more fun it was. It would be nice to find some new Kubert art to copy every day, but that type of thing stopped turning up long ago. So I just keep copying the same stories over and over, trying to improve each new attempt. In 1973 or thereabouts, I had the pleasure of working with Joe on a project that I found most rewarding. DC wanted to reprint the Tor stories Joe had originally done for St. John Publishing Company in the early 1950s. As far as I knew, he still had his original art, but preferred not to use it, and Al once wrote that “This is the asked me to copy the pages from only drawing Kubert sent me that the original comic books, which he I never used somewhere.” No would provide for me on loan. (I longer, Al! [©2000 Joe Kubert.] already had issues #1 and #3.)

The way I copied the pages was to take a 35 mm color slide of each comic book page and project it onto the wall at the desired size, which was about “twice up,” or 200%, of the size of the printed comic. Then I would attach a piece of illustration board to the wall and ink the images on the wall with a brush. It took me about eighteen hours to do each page. Joe had the lettering done later—by one of his sons, I believe. He paid me $15 a page, which was fine with me, as I valued working with him. I was in my early forties at the time and found the entire project enlightening. I copied three complete Tor stories and one “Danny Dreams” story (from the first and third St. John issues of One Million Years Ago/Tor); these were printed in issues #2, 3, and 4 of DC’s Tor in 1974. Around that time I published the Joe Kubert Golden Age Index, so it was a good time for me. After I finished the fourth story, Joe told me they had found

You name it—Joe Kubert’s probably done it—and Al Dellinges has published something about it! Joe drew a special cover for Al’s Joe Kubert: The War Years in 1990; and Al created a montage of early JK work for his Joe Kubert: A Golden Age Index in 1975. [Art ©2000 Joe Kubert and Al Dellinges, respectively; Sgt. Rock, Hawkman, Flash, Viking Prince, Sargon, Wildcat ©2000 DC Comics Inc.; Tor ©2000 Joe Kubert; Tarzan ©2000 ERB Inc.]

another way to reproduce the rest of the artwork they wanted to use, so I was no longer needed, and I moved on to other projects. Later, I worked with Roy Thomas on two Kubert/ Hawkman-related projects for DC Comics. First came a “reprint” of the “Land of the

Joe Kubert and Me Birdmen” story from Flash Comics #71 (May 1946), which was printed as a flashback in Infinity, Inc. #4 (July 1984), in order to show the origins of Northwind, one of the Infinitors. (By a weird coincidence, a short time later, various pages of the original art of this classic story turned up, in the collection of Golden Age “Hawkman” artist Jon Chester Kozlak, and Roy and I each obtained one of the actual pages from the tale.)

The second project, in 1985, was a new rendering of the “Hawkman” chapter from AllStar Comics #13 (1942), which had originally been illustrated by Shelly Moldoff. Roy rewrote the Gardner Fox script of that entire Justice Society story, “Shanghaied into Space,” as a multi-issue adaptation, and asked me to use Kubert’s mid-’40s drawing style to re-tell the story. The purpose was to create, he said, “a new 1946 Joe Kubert ‘Hawkman’ story.” That seven-page chapter was printed in All-Star Squadron #52 (Dec. 1985). In 1990 I hoped to self-publish a Hawkman 50-Year Anniversary issue and sent a mock-up copy to DC Comics for approval. Unfortunately, it was not to be.

Thus, I am delighted to be involved in this very worthwhile enterprise—the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Winged Wonder!

The Life and Good Times of—

THE LIFE AND GOOD TIMES OF

GARDNER F . FOX A Letter from the Co-Creator of Flash and Hawkman [NOTE: As anyone who has been following Alter Ego (Vol. 2-3) and/or the DC Archives series knows, Gardner F. Fox (1911-1986) was both one of the most prolific and one of the most important writers in the more than sixty-year history of comic books. While Michael T. Gilbert (with a bit of help from Mr. Monster) has been digging through the Fox papers at the University of Oregon (Eugene) from time to time, this issue of A/E would seem to be the place to take a closer look at the cocreator of The Flash, Hawkman (twice), Doctor Fate, The Justice Society of America, Adam Strange, The (Silver Age) Atom, et al. The following missive from Gardner to comics fan James Flanagan, dated March 26, 1979, was printed in Robin Snyder’s History of Comics, Vol. 2, #2, Feb. 1991. In some places Gardner appears to be answering specific questions posed to him earlier by his correspondent; the reader can generally surmise what those questions were. A few editorial notes have been added for clarity. The letter is ©2000 by the Gardner Fox estate. Now, here is Gardner in his own words:]

my junior year), and the idea sounded good. I have since discovered that I was the very first writer hired to do comic book writing—I beat Otto Binder by about six months. Using my law school background, I invented Steve Malone, District Attorney, and a story about him was my very first comic book yarn. I followed this with a Zatara, and I was on my way. The pulps I read ’way back then were Argosy, All Story, Amazing, and some of the sports pulps. My favorite authors were A. Merritt, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and in the mystery field, John Dickson Carr. There was also Harold Lamb, Jeffrey Farnol, and one or two others. I was in at the early stages of Flash Comics. I worked with Sheldon Mayer, boy-editor at the time, and came up with the Flash, Hawkman, King Standish (based on Frank Packard’s Grey Seal novels, if I recall correctly), and Cliff Cornwall. I also wrote the short stories which Flash Magazine carried in those days. All in all, I have written over four thousand comic book stories. My mind reels at this when I stop to think about it. If you figure that I wrote in the span of thirty years, and break it down, you’ll see what I mean.

o start with, I got into comics because the law, back in those Depression Days, was not something at which to get rich, so when a good friend Gardner Fox in retirement, probably late 1970s or early of mine—Vin Sullivan, whom I’d known ‘80s. [Photo courtesy of daughter Lynda Fox Cohen] since the second grade of grammar school—suggested I try my hand at writing comics (a completely new thing, back in those days), I fell in with the idea. I’d written a lot. I was on the high school paper, the college newspaper (I wound up being “Steve Malone,” from an early issue of Detective Comics, drawn by Don Lynch. Editor in Chief of [©2000 DC Comics Inc. Courtesy of Jerry Bails.] the college paper in

I worked from the beginning with the Justice Society stories, though the idea of creating the Justice

—Gardner F. Fox

23 company], I wrote for him. I imagine I did almost all his stories—and later, of course, when he went into business for himself [Magazine Enterprises], I did the same.

Society was Gaines’ (I believe). The books were selling so well, he wanted to make even more money, I guess. Shelly and I would plot the whole story (he would come up to my house for dinner, and right after it we would sit down and go to work). After a time, of course, he let me go at it by myself, but in the beginning, he wanted to have a hand in the story line; to make sure, I imagine, that when I sent in the finished product, he could just send it off to the artist without fussing over it.

During the ’40s, I branched out into writing weird tales, sciencefiction, sports, and Westerns for the pulps. It wasn’t until 1951 or so that I wrote my first novel, The Borgia Blade. I was laid up in bed with a bad cold and, for want of something better to do, began writing a novel in longhand. When I mentioned it to my agent, he said go ahead and keep on writing… it sold to Gold Medal Books, and that was the first of the hundred and sixty odd books I have written.

When Flash and Hawkman were dropped, I was writing westerns for the comics, also some animation. Times were changing, everybody was worrying about how badly television would affect comic books. I did a lot of writing during that period, all different sorts of comics, together with pulps. It wasn’t until those first paperbacks came in (in 1949? 1950?) that I switched over to them, as I’ve mentioned above, with The Borgia Blade. Yes, I enjoyed writing for Strange Adventures and Mystery in Space. I always liked science-fiction, and I could throw myself into it wholeheartedly. Which one did I like best? I just can’t remember.

We never had any such to-do as Feiffer suggests in his book. God knows what would have come out of it if we Joe Kubert’s dynamic Hawkman, circa 1946-47. had ever worked in [©2000 DC Comics Inc.] such a helter-skelter way! We got our assignments and I, for one, went home and roughed out my story on a pad in pencil and then sat down and typed it out. It was the practice at DC and also at Gaines’ outfit to work almost hand-in-glove with the editors. Story lines were always plotted with the editors with whom one worked. The idea behind this, I am certain, was that we would avoid any lawsuits for stealing stories already published. They didn’t want any legal troubles. I’ve worked with Shelly, Bernie Breslauer, Mort Weisinger, Murray Boltinoff, Jack Schiff, and, of course, Julie Schwartz. They were all good editors. I had a great working relationship with all of them. Of course, when Julie came into the business, sometime in 1944, I believe, I began working with him, and our relationship lasted for about 25 years. He was, and is, a great editor. As I mentioned, I knew Vin Sullivan since the second year of grammar school. When he left DC and went to Columbia [a rival comics

24 There were so many…. Naturally, when Adam Strange came along, I loved doing those. Of them all, I rather imagine Adam Strange was one of my all-time favorites. I don’t believe my liking for ERB had anything to do with Adam Strange, except, perhaps, subconsciously. I was not involved with the creation of the “new” Flash. I believe it was an editorial decision, made without consulting any writers. Or artists, either, for that matter. The powersthat-be made the decision.

The Life and Good Times of Gardner F. Fox reason for being published ahead of Hawkman in its own book. I enjoyed writing Atom, as I liked writing all the stories I did. The Atom’s small size naturally made me think about what situations such a tiny character would be most effective in, certainly. Yes, I was surprised at the extent of fandom. Of course, I knew it existed, but its magnitude was something none of us were really prepared for. As I’ve said at other times, if I’d known—or guessed—at what it would be, I’d have made notes about those early years, which are rather dim in my memory now. I doubt that any feedback from [Jerry] Bails or [Roy] Thomas had very much of an influence, though we always kept their ideas in the back of our minds.

The fact that those letters pages appeared in the comic books may have had some influence on the content of the stories—more sophisticated, as you call it— because we realized we weren’t just writing for children. Or maybe everyone in the industry was growing up, as far as the magazines were concerned. We First printed in the 1975 Bay Con 1 program booklet, this would seem to be Joe Kubert’s original model sheet for the really never sat Silver Age Hawkman… though we suspect the “1958/59” dating may be a late guess, since The Brave and the Bold #34 When around analyz(Feb.-March 1961) came out in late ‘60. [©2000 DC Comics Inc.] Julie was given ing this, you the Batman to do, it was just another job. Sure, I was reluctant to give must understand; we just wrote the stories and got our checks, and that up Adam Strange, but Batman offered a challenge, too—and I’d written was that. It may have been a subconscious sort of thing. so much about Adam Strange, it was getting tougher and tougher to In revamping Hawkman for The Brave and the Bold, Julie and I dream up new situations. I just rode with the punches, and swung over talked it all over in one of our plot sessions, and decided on making to Batman without any trouble. them police man and police woman—from the planet Thanagar, here on The TV Batman was very camp. It was a fun thing. I always felt Earth to study our methods of fighting crime. The success of our stories that the comic book Batman should be more evocative of chills and about Earth-One and Earth-Two had something to do with it, naturally. thrills. The Earth 1 and 2 bit came into being because we had to explain the fact that we had two Flashes, two Hawkmen; it’s an old scienceMarvel did influence the thinking at DC. Its success was like a jab fiction gimmick and both Julie and I were afficionados of that genre, so in the back to the powers-that-be. And, I suppose, for a time, there was it just sprang into our minds. a decision to emulate the Marvel books. Maybe that’s why the humor crept into some of my Atom stories. It was not my own decision, you I rather imagine The Atom sold very well, which would be its can be sure of that. Not that I have any objection to humor. I’ve written

it, but I have always felt that super-hero characters shouldn’t go through their paces having fun at every page and arguing with kindergarten kids (as Marvel’s characters always seem to do—or did). I always admired Carmine Infantino as an artist. When he became the editor in chief at DC, I left. Not, I hasten to add, because of his being made editor, but because I was to do no more work with Julie. I decided it was time for a change. The all-fighting type of story is ridiculous, in my judgment. All you have is a series of fights. I rather imagine that even the artists should get weary of those. There was no plot, or very little, and what’s a story without a plot? I went to work for Marvel because Roy Thomas asked me to.

PUT 100 YEARS OF COMICS HISTORY AT YOUR FINGERTIPS! The Second Edition of

THE WHO’S WHO OF AMERICAN COMIC BOOKS is now being published in quarterly installments in electronic form on the World Wide Web. Check us out: http://www.nostromo.no/whoswho/ Over 35 years and scores of experts have made this the best single source of data on U.S. comic books since 1900. The complete database, which will run at least 20 installments, provides biographical listing for over 19,000 artists, writers, editors, and personnel behind the scenes who help produce comics in the United States. Over 550 publishing groups are included, with special listings on animation, syndication, the small press, pulps, and scores of other genres. Each installment about 1 megabyte of information! Begin with the first installment. Get them all! On-line subscriptions: $40 for four issues Start with #1-4 and get some surprise bonuses Personal passwords are provided to subscribers for downloading from the Web. Free on-line help. Send check or money order to: Jerry G. Bails, 21221 Thiele Ct., St. Clair Shores, MI 48081 As of September 1, 1999, 14 installments have been released— one every three months.

Any more questions? Contact: JerryBails@aol.com

I was all but finished with comic work, though, and had decided to devote myself just to writing my novels. I’ve never been sorry. I do feel comics are a legitimate art form. I object to the manner in which some of the stories are presented—just a lot of fighting, squabbling, arguing. This is a story? DC always was at one disadvantage, to my way of thinking: each book had to be complete. This resulted in leaving out much that could be put in, to enhance the characterization, to flesh out the story line. Marvel used several issues to tell one story. When I was there, DC never did this. Gil Kane’s remarks about “banal and primitive” stories fits in here. The artist draws one picture at a time. He makes that good or bad. The writer is compelled by the space limitations of the comic book to cram in his story to fit into a certain number of pages. I have never regretted giving up my law work. I’ve had too much fun writing.

Sheldon Moldoff Artist of Hawkman, Batman, Moon Girl, and other Golden Age heroes is now doing re-creations and original drawings!

For information, contact:

SHELDON MOLDOFF 3710 INVERRARY DRIVE 1W LAUDERHILL, FL 33319 PH. (954) 485-8551

The “Save Hawkman” Campaign

Wheet! Wheet! Calling all fans of the Winged Wonder! Rally ’round to hear about comic fandom’s first fabulous cause extraordinaire:

The “Save Hawkman ” Campaign Focusing on the drive by 1960s comics fans to persuade DC Comics to award Hawkman and Hawkgirl an ongoing series, as epitomized by one of the Hawks’ most ardent fans, Mike Vosburg... with an assist from Ronn Foss and others.

by Bill Schelly I. FIRST FLUTTERINGS The hero revivals by DC Comics (then National Periodical Publications) catalyzed the formation of comics fandom in the early 1960s. New versions of The Flash and Green Lantern were received enthusiastically, and the introduction of a re-tooled Justice Society (as the Justice League) would inspire fans Jerry Bails and Roy Thomas to launch the first super-hero comics fanzine, Alter-Ego, in early 1961. Everyone wondered—who would be the next hero from the First Heroic Age of Comics in the 1940s to be brought forward to the era of John F. Kennedy’s “New Frontier”?

months ago [Julius Schwartz] asked me if I would be interested in drawing Hawkman again,” Kubert wrote. “My answer was a resounding yes! I believe Hawkman will benefit from my experience of two decades in the comic book business. I feel I can apply things I couldn’t even visualize 15 years ago. I sincerely hope that the readers will enjoy reading Hawkman as much as I will enjoy drawing him.” Alter-Ego #1 (March 1961) and the third Hawkman try-out issue (Brave and Bold #36, cover-dated June-July 1961) appeared within a month of each other. Comics fandom was born, and so, too—it seemed—was a new crime-fighting career for the Hawks. There was little doubt that DC had struck paydirt again. The assumption among most fans was that Hawkman’s progression to his own magazine was assured.

When DC editor Julius Schwartz announced that Hawkman would be the next of the classic heroes to return, he was already cognizant of the new breed of older, more sophisticated super-hero fans. Since the re-birth of The Flash in Showcase #4 in 1956, Julie had received first a trickle, then a steady stream of correspondence from high school and college students, teachers, and other unusually knowledgeable, perceptive readers. Mike Vosburg, 1963. [Photo courtesy of M.V.]

He valued their opinions enough to send them advance black-&white photostats of the Winged Wonder’s debut story, which was scheduled for The Brave and the Bold #34 (Feb.-March 1961), “Creature of a Thousand Shapes!,” written by Gardner Fox and illustrated by Joe Kubert. This way, the fans’ letters would be received in time to appear in a letter column in the very next issue of B&B, which would feature a second Hawkman adventure. The reception of the four “guest critics” was, overall, highly enthusiastic. Jerry Bails wrote, “There could have been no better selection of an artist for Hawkman than Joe Kubert. His drawings are superb.” Ronnie Graham was congratulatory: “I’m happy to see Hawkman revived after all these years. He should be more successful than Green Lantern, and possibly Flash.” Ron Haydock added, “This character has got to hit again!” Roy Thomas described the issue as “excellent,” and concluded, “I hope that your great new Hawkman comic runs a hundred issues or so.” In that same letter column, Kubert provided a capsule autobiography, which included the fact that he had drawn the original Hawkman strip starting in 1945, when he was just eighteen years old. “A few

The “Save Hawkman” Campaign

II. HAWKMAN FAILS TO SOAR Then came a startling announcement in On the Drawing Board #4, 10/7/61, Jerry’s A-E spin-off featuring pro comics news. “The latest word is: Hawkman will have to have another three-issue try-out. No schedule date yet….” Suddenly the future of Hawkman was in question. Sales, according to Schwartz, had fallen short of expectations. Partly to please the vociferous older fans, partly because of his own belief in the character, Schwartz committed to a second try-out series beginning in B&B #42 by the same creative team, starting over with an expanded telling of their origin. By the time the second series began appearing on spinner-racks, from April to August 1962, comics fandom had experienced a dramatic influx of members. Jerry Bails’ mailing list had swelled to over five hundred names by the end of ’61, and the growth accelerated in the following year. Some fans specialized in researching data from old comics books; others preferred to buy and sell those rare earlier editions; another group, those with a creative bent, contributed to the burgeoning number of amateur magazines devoted to the medium.

III. ENTER: “VOZ” One of the most active of this new wave of enthusiasts was a 15-year-old comics fan living in Pontiac, Michigan. His name was Mike Vosburg, or simply “Voz.” He, more than any other fan, would become the driving force behind the “Save Hawkman” campaign. Voz was an aspiring comics creator who produced his own hand-drawn comic books. He called them his “two-minute comics” because they featured figures who were little more than stick-men, drawn in a blinding rush. In later years, Mike became a successful comics artist on features as disparate as John Carter of Mars, Master of Kung Fu, American Flagg, She-Hulk, and Cloak and Dagger. He later gained eminence as an animation storyboard artist for G.I. Joe, Gem, and The Bionic Six, and won an Emmy Award for directing an episode of the animated Spawn series. But in the summer of 1962 Mike was (by his own description, in a recent interview) “a nerdy kid, terrified of girls, very quiet, not an athlete,” who took to fandom like a fish to water. Upon laying eyes upon the early ditto issues of Alter-Ego, Voz instantly began planning to publish his own fanzine devoted to the resurgence of costumed heroes. Mike recalls, “Once I saw the stuff that Jerry put out, I thought, “Great! I can do one of those!” He called his publication Masquerader (or Mask, for short). While there’s no doubt that Vosburg responded strongly to the characters of Hawkman and Hawkgirl (she wasn’t Hawkwoman then), he was first and foremost a Kubert fan. Mike remembers, “The first

The late Mark Hanerfeld has written: “This shot of Hawkman by Joe Kubert was done to be auctioned in support of the Metrocon (Washington, DC) in 1971. It is reproduced using the photocopy machine’s capability set at a darker setting to allow the (supposedly unprintable) blue pencil shading and lightning behind the figure to show… I brought the piece down to Washington to be auctioned off.” Mark wound up buying the treasured artwork himself! Except for the comic art fanzine CFA-APA, to the best of our knowledge it has never been printed before, and we wanted it to head this article on fans of comics, Joe Kubert, and Hawkman—because Mark, bless ’im, was all three. [Art ©2000 Joe Kubert; Hawkman ©2000 DC Comics Inc.]

The “Save Hawkman” Campaign magazine all his own.” Eventually Hawkman graced the cover of all six issues of Masquerader! Vosburg’s most high-profile ally in the campaign was already on board, having come along while Mask was just a gleam in Mike’s eye. “I asked Fred Jackson [co-editor of Mask #1], ‘Who’s the best artist in fandom who would do stuff for our mag?’ He told me, ‘There’s a guy named Ronn Foss you should contact.’ I still have a whole pile of letters from Ronn. They began in June 1962.” “Ronn gave us a critique of my dummy issue of Masquerader #1, which I sent him at his request,” Voz explains. “He wanted to know that I was serious before he would contribute. Eventually we collaborated on a strip for that issue called ‘The Cowl,’ and in the course of that, we became great friends. He was about eight years older than me, so I looked at him almost as a mentor.” Ronn Foss was one of the most celebrated artists in fandom. After his discharge from the U.S. Air Force in the late 1950s, he had spent a lot of time listening to jazz and beat poetry in the coffee houses and clubs in San Francisco’s avant garde North Beach area. Ronn was as much a Kubert enthusiast as Voz. Of his three major artistic influences—Simon and Kirby, Al Williamson, and Joe Kubert—Kubert was the most noticeable. Foss contributed a Hawkman illustration to the masthead of Vosburg’s editorial page in Mask #1, and eventually drew him on the covers of #5 and #6, as well as numerous other fanzine covers and illustrations for amateur publications like The Cartoonist and ComicRama. All this was to show support for the policeman from outer space, and to stir up interest among fans far and wide.

Despite the fabulous cover and story featuring The Shadow Thief in Brave and Bold #36, DC’s first “Hawkman” try-out series sold less well than hoped. [Art by Joe Kubert, repro’d from photostats of original art; ©2000 DC Comics Inc.]

comic book that I saw that made me start to look at what I was doing, and to put some effort into my artwork, was the Kubert ‘Hawkman.’ It touched something in me that made me want to take my artwork a step further.”

Voz was also joined by long-time fan and researcher Howard Keltner, who wrote a study of the Winged Wonder for Mask #2 titled “The High-Flying Hawkman,” accompanied by superb illos by Ronn Foss. (Keltner would soon become best known as one of the three editors of Star-Studded Comics, one of the most popular fanzines of fandom’s first decade.)

What was that fascination? “More than anything, Kubert wasn’t drawing in lines. All of the books that came out at the time were basically line drawings, with not a lot of heavy blacks. Kubert uses a lot of blacks, and a lot of rendering, to create a very dark and mysterious look to the work. Those ‘Hawkman’ issues are very, very moody. They really show the influence of film noir. What I liked at the time was the supernatural and the occult, so Kubert’s darker universe really pulled me in. You could look at Joe’s work and know that you were seeing something special.”

IV. A CAUSE IS BORN So moved was the young Voz that he made the goal of saving the Kubert Hawkman his personal cause. His pulpit would be the pages of Masquerader. Articles, letters, illos, and especially covers would prominently feature the Winged Wonders. The cover to Mask #1 was drawn by Paul Seydor, another young fan-publisher who teamed with Steve Gerber to edit Headline, another fanzine of the early 1960s. (Today Paul is a successful film editor, on Tin Cup and other major Hollywood movies.) Inside that premier edition, editor Vosburg wrote of “the fabulous Hawkman”: “Come on, fans—cheer him on to a

V. REJECTED? On the cover of Mask The Vosburg cover for Masquerader #4 #3 (2/63), Vosburg’s illo of (April ‘63). [©2000 Mike Vosburg.] Hawkman carried the byline “The All-Time Favorite—Rejected?” In the editorial inside, he sounded the charge: “Hawkman, that immortal hero from the team of Fox and Kubert, has been dropped from DC. Believe me, I don’t intend to let this go by with just a shrug of my shoulders—no sir! Hawkman is my favorite, and I’ll fight to the end for his survival! Come on, fellas, let’s get behind the Hawk… and keep him flying!” The “Save Hawkman” campaign had been launched in earnest. Perhaps this really was the end. Would the Winged Wonders fade once again into obscurity? Foss ruminated on the question, imagining the Thanagarian entering a version of comic book heaven—or perhaps purgatory. The two-page melancholy-tinged strip called “Limbo” appeared in Don Dohlet’s legendary humor-zine Wild! #10 (also February 1963). In “Limbo,” Hawkman receives consolation from

The “Save Hawkman” Campaign

29 Why did Kubert leave? He explained, in a subsequent interview with Ronn Foss. “My commitments on other work made it impossible for me to do Hawkman, as much as I felt I wanted to do it. Fact is, the last issues I did were getting close to what I felt I wanted in the character—when it became apparent I’d not be able to do it.” Kubert returned to the highly popular “Sgt. Rock” strip.

Captain Marvel, Plastic Man, and others who were likewise drifting in a netherworld populated by discontinued comic book characters. It seemed a sad fate for Katar Hol, when a triumphant return had been within his grasp. [See p. 32.] In Mask #4 (4/63), reader Terry Peters tried to keep hope alive. “We’ve got to get behind Hawkman and perhaps if enough readers send in letters, the publishers will reconsider. I’ve suggested to Jerry, Ronn, G.B. Love, and Mike Touhey that they publish requests in their various zines for reaction to the decision to axe the Hawks.” So did Richard Fleming, who wrote, “The news about Hawkman shocked me greatly. I just want to let you know I’m right behind you in your ‘Save Hawkman Drive.’”

Vosburg was bitterly disappointed. “This is a true shame,” he wrote in Masquerader #5 (spring 1963). “Without Kubert, Hawkman is just another DC hero. [He] loses his uniqueness, and the thrill is no longer in the stories. I’ve always been taught that a compromise is a good solution, but a compromise here is ridiculous. Have we won a true victory with the Hawk shoved as a co-feature with another hero that did not quite make it, in Mystery in Space, with a second-rate artist? Within five years, he’ll be dropped because of circulation.”

Editor Schwartz did, indeed, receive a sizable number of letters exhorting him to give Hawkman his own book. He was also sent numerous fanzines (Ymir, Spotlite, Comicollector) avowing support for the feature. And so… the decision Joe Kubert drew this beautiful 9”x 12” was made. Julie had heard “Hawkman” for a fanzine retrospective the voice of fandom (so of the career of Kubert aficionado perhaps sales of the three Ronn Foss; it became the color cover of Brave and Bold try-out Alter Ego, Vol. 2, #1 (Spring 1988), which issues had been marginally piggybacked with Comic Book Artist #1, good, at least). Hawkman now out of print. [Art ©2000 Joe Kubert; and Hawkgirl would Hawkman ©2000 DC Comics Inc.; from the return, he announced. The collection of Bill Schelly.] Winged Wonders would be granted an unprecedented third try-out series by popular demand—this time in Mystery in Space, alongside Adam Strange (no great seller himself). But the artist would not be the great Joe Kubert. Instead, another fan favorite, Murphy Anderson, would be doing the honors.

VI. THE HOLLOW VICTORY Schwartz’ announcement was greeted with applause in some fan circles, but garnered a negative response from the Kubert fanatics, when it became clear that their artist-of-choice had left the feature.

While Murphy Anderson had many champions, the Kubert fanatics were an angry, vocal lot. However, there wasn’t much they could do, once the decision had been made. Few would consider Murphy Anderson “a second-rate artist,” but the fact remains that Voz demonstrated a certain prescience with his prediction: Five years after the art change, after finally gaining his own comic book in April 1964, with Anderson as artist, the Hawkman comic was discontinued. As it turned out, the Feathered Fury’s initial revival was shorter-lived than any of his resuscitated predecessors, lasting just twenty-seven issues in his own title—though he continued for another seven as a co-feature in The Atom (which became The Atom and Hawkman for #3945).

Ronn was still carrying the winged torch artwise in this fanzine cover (left) reproduced in The Cartoonist #1 (1966), and in a cartoon (right) for The Comic Artist #2 (Sept. 1969). [Art ©2000 Ronn Foss; Hawkman ©2000 DC Comics Inc.]

The “Save Hawkman” Campaign

VII. VOZ GOES PRO Kubert continued to inspire Vosburg in his quest to become a professional comics artist, along with later favorites like Frank Frazetta and Alex Toth. “I thought the Williamson Flash Gordon comic book from King was easily the most beautiful comic that came out in the 1960s,” he says.

During his college years (where he earned a teaching degree), Voz met numerous other local talents, nearly all probound: Rich Buckler, Al Milgrom, Jim Starlin, Terry Austin, Mike Nasser, Arvell Jones, Keith Pollard, Greg Theakston, and Steve Fritz. “The fact that there were people [in the Detroit area] doing this stuff

attracted other people, and everyone fed on all this energy. Later, when I was beginning a career as a teacher, it started to sink in that I really wanted to be drawing comics.” Over the next couple of years, Vosburg made trips to New York City, gradually make in-roads into Gold Key, DC Comics, and then Marvel. Foss, too, flirted with working for Marvel with a “Valentines” feature that he drew for the 13th issue of its parody comic, Not Brand Echh. Ronn and Voz considered themselves “brothers of the brush,” and have continued their long-time friendship to the present day. Looking back on the “Save Hawkman” campaign, Voz has lost his youthful anger. “I didn’t begin to understand the politics that were involved in the success or failure of a character, and having Joe do the strip. Even if the ‘Hawkman’ feature had been popular and Joe had wanted to do it, ‘Sgt. Rock’ was so much more Ronn Foss stuck this ominous “editorial cartoon” into popular that he his Alter Ego (Vol. 1) #5 (Winter 1962-63). [Art ©2000 Ronn Foss; Hawkman and Captain Marvel ©2000 DC couldn’t afford Comics Inc.] to leave that to

The “Save Hawkman” Campaign

take on a fun project like the Hawks. Plus, I think Kubert’s approach was not readily understood or appreciated by the editors or even by the fans.” Perhaps. But one wonders: was the problem simply inherent in the hero himself? Was a winged lawman sufficiently interesting for the more sophisticated 1960s, or had he flown as high as he ever would during the Golden Age? No one, in all the various revivals and retread attempts in the ensuing years, has ever been able to make “Hawkman” into a hot property. Why didn’t Mike Vosburg, who broke into the pro ranks at DC in the early 1970s, ever have a crack at illustrating the Winged Wonders? It was the Kubert “Hawkman” that had inspired him to become a comics artist, after all; surely there could have been a way for him to work on one of the revivals? Could be that’s just one of those unanswerable questions: “Could Mike Vosburg have been the one to finally SAVE HAWKMAN?”

Mike Vosburg at the 1977 Chicago Comicon. [Photo courtesy of Mike Vosburg.]

[NOTE: Check out Mike Vosburg’s cool new website at www.vozart.com. Find out about his latest freelance work, how to obtain original art, and the availability of back issues of his excellent Lori Lovecraft comic book. The site is given an enthusiastic thumbs up by our very own associate editor Bill Schelly, whose various Hamster Press publications are highly visible in a full-page ad elsewhere in this issue.]

Bill Schelly asked Voz for his current interpretation of Hawkman. He preferred to submit this stunning drawing of his heroine Lori Lovecraft, with an oblique response in her dialogue balloons. [©2000 Mike Vosburg]

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Remembering Gil Kane

Remembering Gil A Very Personal Reminiscence of Gil Kane by Roy Thomas [NOTE: Two issues ago, I transcribed some personal thoughts about Sub-Mariner creator Bill Everett. He and Gil Kane were far and away the two Golden Age comics talents with whom I’ve had the closest relationships over the years, partly because I’m a decade or so younger than most of them. The following piece was much harder to write than the one on Bill Everett… for Bill has been gone from us for more than a quarter of a century, while, as I type these words, Gil’s passing is less than two weeks past. Perhaps a bit of time, a bit more perspective, would benefit this memoir. [However, after being deluged with requests to say something about him for widely disparate publications, I decided to delay a couple of items originally scheduled for this issue and to write about Gil, instead. I apologize for the fact that, with the deadline looming, I was unable to polish this piece as much as I might have liked, or to put everything in strict chronological order, or to provide precise times and dates for everything. [As in the case of the Everett piece, this article is in no way an attempt at a biography, even a brief one, of Gil Kane. His more than half-century career has been covered in many articles and interviews over recent years, with doubtless more to come. I myself was probably one of the last to interview him, in an hour-plus phone conversation in mid-1999 which was intended by mutual consent to discuss not Gil’s career per se, but the Golden Age of Comics as it manifested itself at various companies. The part of that talk dealing with Timely Comics in the ’40s and ’50s appeared last issue; the remainder, covering Gil’s memories of DC and other places he worked in his youth, will appear next issue. —R.T.]

I. PREFACE For some reason Gil Kane and Bill Everett are linked together in my mind, at least in certain ways. In point of fact, although both were friends and collaborators of mine whose careers at Marvel overlapped during the late 1960s and early 1970s, they barely knew each other. The closest they came to “working together,” I believe, was on a cover or three—as when Bill inked a last-minute cover Gil had penciled for Avengers #97, the final chapter of the KreeSkrull War. For that illustration, which featured several Timely Golden Age

heroes including Sub-Mariner, inker Bill impulsively designed a joint signature in which their elongated initials (“GK” and “BE”) overlapped. And yet, when I sat down to write a reminiscence of Gil Kane, whom I knew for more than thirty years, one of the first things I thought of was an incident which occurred shortly after Bill’s death at age 56 in February 1973. Gil told me, with some incredulity, that someone in the comics field had suggested that he write an article about Bill’s life and career, with the hope that a major newspaper or magazine might print it. Gil scoffed at the very idea. “What could I say that they’d possibly want to print?” he asked me rhetorically (I’m paraphrasing his words here, but fairly closely). “That he was a comic book artist and created The Sub-Mariner? That’d mean nothing to anybody outside the comics field.” He never wrote the piece. It was not that Gil didn’t respect Bill Everett’s talent. He merely felt that even The Sub-Mariner, one of the first great comic book super-heroes, was not well enough known by the general public for a newspaper like the New York Times to be interested in printing more than a short obituary. And he was probably right, given the times. What might Gil have said had he known that, 27 years later, the Gil Kane thumbnail for a Green Lantern cover. Times would print [©2000 DC Comics, Inc.; Courtesy of David Hamilton.] a several-hundredword article headlined “Gil Kane, Comic-Book Artist, Is Dead at 73”—or that I, and others, would be fielding phone calls from U.S. News &World Report, among other publications, for information and quotations about Gil’s career and even about his and my work together. I know he would have been surprised. I suspect he might have been secretly pleased, even though he might not have admitted it. Gil Kane (1926-2000). Now he belongs to the ages: Golden, Silver, Bronze, Modern, and Beyond. Photo of the master holding court at the 1997 San Diego Comic Con. [Courtesy of Tom Stewart.]

Remembering Gil Kane Somehow, the mere thought of Gil, up on some heavenly cloud, looking down on coverage of his passing in the national media, reminds me of a remark he made when, a decade ago, he was asked to pencil the final issue of the Green Lantern series he had begun in 1959-1960. Oh, he was going to do it, all right—because it was paying work—but he disparaged the very notion that he should feel honored about being asked to illustrate this bookend to his Silver Age work.

After a brief Kirbyesque stint on “Hulk” and “Captain America,” Gil returned to Green Lantern with renewed vigor—and more dynamic anatomy. Splashes from Green Lantern #52 (Apr. ’67) and Tales to Astonish #88 (Feb. ‘67). [Hulk ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.; Green Lanterns ©2000 DC Comics Inc. GL repro’d from original art, courtesy of Jerry G. Bails.]

I insisted that it was “fitting” that he draw this last issue of the GL series. “I must tell you, my boy,” he said in that patrician tone he affected, “that I think of it more as ironic.” For, though this may surprise some who didn’t know him, Gil never really liked having it thought or said or written that the apex of his career was Green Lantern.

He never cared much for that work, or for any of the DC comics of the early 1960s which brought him to the attention of early fandom and which originally made his reputation. After all, beginning in the latter half of the ’60s with his “return” to Marvel on such strips as “The Incredible Hulk,” “Captain America,” and then Captain Marvel, et al., all his early Jack Kirby influences and his meticulous striving after dynamic yet accurate anatomy had suddenly found a chance to emerge—and he was far happier with that work, and with the art he did afterward for Marvel, DC, and others, than he could ever be in looking at his earlier product. All the same, the cold hard fact remains: Gil Kane will forever be more identified with the second Green Lantern than with anything else he ever drew.

II. THE LIFE AND TIMES The New York Times article by Douglas Martin gives a fairly accurate rundown of his life, and by the time this issue of A/E comes out, most comics fans will have read it or some related account. A few salient facts, if only in order to add Gil’s and/or my own take on them: Born Eli Katz in Latvia on April 6, 1926, he came to New York with his family at the age of three. Early on, he became not only a fan of swashbuckling movies and of pulp magazines, but also of comic strips and comic books. In A/E V3#3, when I asked if he recalled the debut of Timely’s flagship title in 1939, he answered without hesitation: “My bedroom was being painted a light color of blue when I got the first issue of Marvel Comics. I remember reading it on the bed….” At that time he would have been 13… well above the age of the typical comics reader. At 15 he dropped out of vocational high school to become a comic book artist. His first job Right: Storytellers in the story. Roy Thomas and Gil Kane, as depicted by the artist in the back-up “Tales of the Hyborian Age” strip featured in Conan the Barbarian #12. [©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Remembering Gil Kane training or formal pressure that could have generated much better work and accelerated all of us in our situations.” Yeah, Gil talked like that all the time. Eventually, after brief spells with various companies (he said he was on staff at Timely “for a week” around ’43-44), he gravitated to National/DC, the Tiffany’s of the early comics business. In 1944 he worked briefly on the “Sandman” strip in Adventure Comics—as an assistant to Simon & Kirby, he said—but added that, as soon as those two artists left for the armed services, he and the team’s other assistants/ghosts were quickly fired by DC as inadequate. After his own stint in the service, he penciled a few “Wildcat” stories for DC editor Shelly Mayer in ’47-48. In fact, in the last phone conversation he and I ever had, only weeks before he died, he said he still had a “Wildcat” page that had been rejected by Mayer, and would send me a copy if he could figure out how to make the very light penciling show up well on a photocopier. During these days Eli Katz coined the name “Gil Kane,” but also used “Gil Stack” and one or two others. Beginning about 1950-51, things were looking up a bit. All-Star Comics had just been transmogrified into All-Star Western with #58, and Gil got a job penciling a regular feature in it called “Don Caballero,” a sort of mask-less Zorro in the days when Spain ruled California. Gil rose to the occasion, turning this minor hero into a Douglas Fairbanks/Errol Flynn clone, though “Don Caballero” didn’t last too long.

was for MLJ, which soon would become the Archie group but which then was headlining heroes like Shield, Hangman, and Steel Sterling. He labored on distinctly minor features such as “Bentley of Scotland Yard” and “The Scarlet Arrow.” He started out mostly not as a full artist, nor as an inker (a usual journeyman’s position), but as a penciler… coming in, as he said, “at the end of the first generation” of comic book people. Often in later days he would say that, because nearly from the outset he became and remained a penciler, he never developed certain inking skills, among which was what is called “spotting blacks”—i.e., adding black areas to the art to indicate shadows and to give weight. Gil tended either to leave his work fairly “open,” without many dark areas, or else to throw in large blocks of solid black which had relatively little to do with shadows or sources of light, but which were more of a design element. This became a part of his style, and there are a goodly number of Kane devotees who feel Gil was the only inker for his own work, with editors like Julius Schwartz, Stan Lee, and others (myself included) criticized for “burying” his pencils under heavyhanded inkers. For my part, I had an affection for his inking, but often preferred to see others ink his pencils. It was a quandary which was never fully resolved in Gil’s lifetime. Gil always disparaged his early work, as most artists tend to do… often rightly. As he told me last year: “I wasn’t all that good…. It didn’t strike me then, but I look back now and I realize I wasn’t serious about what I wanted to be. I mean serious serious!…. Most of the guys I knew were… evolving and developing, but without any kind of formal

Westerns became a specialty of Gil’s for the period when they were the coming thing. He succeeded Alex Toth on the cowboy “Johnny Thunder” who had begun in All-American Comics/All-American Western, and then (when that title became All-American Men of War) changed horses in midstream to wind up in All-Star Western—more or less as a replacement for “Don Caballero,” if my memory serves me right. “Don Caballero” from All-Star Western #59 (June-July 1951). [©2000 DC Comics Inc.; courtesy of Ethan Roberts.]

Remembering Gil Kane Gil, an ardent admirer of Toth, threw himself into the feature, and some of his “Johnny Thunder” work bears favorable comparison with Toth’s own pace-setting art. When, in 1970, he drew me a huge montage of various heroes he had drawn, Johnny Thunder was the western character he chose to depict… though he also did fine work on “Matt Savage,” “Nighthawk,” “The Trigger Twins”—and particularly on Hopalong Cassidy, when DC inherited the title from Fawcett. Indeed, he hung onto a couple of pages of original art of Hoppy for some years; I printed them in Alter Ego (Vol. 1) #10 in 1969-70.

areas were left white. Still, it’s a shame that, as the artist, Gil’s wishes weren’t taken more seriously. But that’s the way the comics biz was at the time.) Green Lantern was only a bimonthly at first, though, so in order to get himself more work when Hopalong Cassidy, All-Star Western, and Rex the Wonder Dog all began to fall by the wayside, in late 1960 he came up with The Atom. The Silver Age Green Lantern. To the artist’s chagrin, Hal Jordan will assuredly always be considered Gil’s trademark character. Detail of GL #123 cover. [©2000 DC Comics, Inc.]

He also worked on later tales of “Captain Comet,” a sciencefiction super-hero originated in 1951 by artist Murphy Anderson (with writer John Broome and editor Julius Schwartz)—on Big Town, a franchised comic based on a radio drama—on Rex the Wonder Dog, which was pretty much what it sounds like—and on numerous s-f series for Julie in Mystery in Space and Strange Adventures. One of his hallmarks in the latter genre was bird-faced aliens.

III. GREEN LANTERN AND THE ATOM And then, in 1959-60, on the heels of the slow but sure success of DC’s revamping of “The Flash” from the 1940s, Gil was tapped to pencil the second revival hero, “Green Lantern,” in three issues of Showcase (#22-24). They were a big hit, and there was a lapse of only a few months between the Showcase debut and the Green Lantern #1. Under Julie, Gil scrapped the look of Martin Nodell’s 1940s version of the hero, opting for what he meant to be a capeless green-and-blue outfit whose mid-section was intended to represent a “diamond shape.” He felt that early inkers never understood what he was trying to do, and in 1998 he told The Asbury Park Press: “They always made it look like a sleeveless sweater, which bothered me no end.” He was also bugged by the fact that either editor Julie or DC production manager Sol Harrison rejected the notion of a green and blue costume, opting instead for green and black. (I personally liked the costume green and black, and thought it looked best when the highlights in the black

As detailed in A/E V3#2, the idea of a six-inch superhero utilizing the 1940s name “The Atom” but really a revival of Quality’s “Doll Man” was probably suggested first to Julie (via writer Gardner Fox) by comics fan Jerry Bails, founder of Alter Ego. However, Gil seems to have come up with the very same concept on his own, or (at most) unconsciously reacting to some vague mention by Julie of Bails’ August 1960 letter. It matters not. The Atom, after a triumphal three-issue run in Showcase, graduated at once to his own magazine. Although it never attained the popularity of Green Lantern, The Atom is still around today in a version very close to Gil’s; and, while Green Lantern has been severely altered, he still owes a lot to the Schwartz/Broome/Kane vision of forty years ago. Despite a bit more success and job security at this juncture, however, Gil became restive at DC. For one thing, he often complained off the record about the fact that his friend and editor Julie Schwartz (“a good man in a hard time,” Gil once called him) would almost never let him draw Green Lantern simply throwing a punch, as the original GL had often done in the ’40s. “Everything had to be done by that damn ring,” he once groused to me. I believe Gil enjoyed aspects of The Atom rather more, since the Mighty Mite had no weaponry other than his fists. In addition, Gil was excited by what his old boss and inspiration Jack Kirby was doing with Stan Lee, and knew that by the mid-’60s Marvel’s sales were threatening the eventual supremacy of DC, which ironically distributed Martin Goodman’s far smaller line at the time.

A dynamic page from Showcase #35, the second issue starring The Atom, by Gil and Murphy Anderson. [©2000 DC Comics Inc.; repro’d from photocopies of original art, courtesy of Mike W. Barr and Tom Horvitz. For more info on art sales, contact Tom at (818) 757-0859.]

Remembering Gil Kane

IV. CONVENTIONS, COVERS —AND CAPTAIN MARVEL

Soon afterward came the circumstances which began our longtime collaboration—and friendship.

It’s around the time that I was privileged to meet Gil.

Marvel’s alien super-hero named Captain Marvel was going nowhere, and I—as his second but not current writer— came up one Saturday morning with the notion of turning the Kree warrior named Mar-Vell into an echo of the original (Fawcett) Captain Marvel, only with science-fiction trappings this time instead of magical ones, and with young Rick Jones as his “Billy Batson.”

We were probably introduced, in passing, at Dave Kaler’s New York Comic Book Convention in the summer of 1965. In fact, on the last day of the con, after Gil made several pithy comments from the audience, he was asked to join publisher Jim Warren and several other guests (including myself, as a fan-turned-pro) on a panel about the future of comics. I wound up sitting between Jim and Gil, pretty heady company for a guy just in the business about a month.

My several-page plot synopsis for CM #17 and a costume redesign (about which more sometime when I write about Mar-Vell per se) were already in the hands of penciler Don Heck when Gil walked into Marvel’s offices for the first time, I believe, in some months.

Not long afterward, Gil made the first of his Silver Age forays into Marvel. He began with “The Incredible Hulk,” which he drew in a Kirbyesque manner. Stan respected Gil’s talent, but wasn’t totally wild about his rendering of the character… or with his “Captain America” work that followed. Gil, aware that he was under-appreciated at Marvel at that time, kept one foot in the DC camp, and indeed did little work for Marvel for a time. Nor was he pursued to do so.

By sheer coincidence, he told Stan he’d really like to take over the Captain Marvel book, an obvious loser, and see what he could do with it. Since the mag was Above: The oft-reproduced cover of Alter Ego (Vol. 1) #10,| now basically in my charge, Stan brought 1969-70, with framing art by Gil and caricature by the Gil out into the bullpen to talk with me. I incomparable Marie Severin. [©2000 Roy Thomas.] sparked at once to the notion of his doing the book, and either Stan or I decided to For my own part, I’m sure we ran into each other at parties now retrieve my plot (which Don had not yet begun) and give Heck a and then, but we had nothing special to say to each other. He drew a replacement feature so he wouldn’t lose any income. cover or two for The Avengers when I was first writing it, but they weren’t among his best, and anyway I had relatively little to do with the covers in those days. The closest contact we had—and that was quite indirect—was circa 1969, when I decided to revive the original volume of Alter Ego, which had lain dormant since I’d entered the comic book industry in 1965. Science-fiction and EC fan John Benson had likewise met Gil at that ’65 convention, and approached me with the idea of his doing an interview with Gil that would be published in A/E. I readily concurred, despite knowing that Gil, who was edging out of DC so he could put his energies into his own publication, His Name Is… Savage, would have less to say about the super-heroes who were A/E’s usual fare than about the broader aspects of the field. In fact, I was partly interested because of this aspect, which I hoped would add a new dimension to the magazine (as indeed it did). I myself had little to do with the interview, except to aid John in preparing it for A/E after the fact, along lines determined by John. I was proud to publish it, and I reveled in the cover art by Gil (and even more so Marie Severin, who did the best portrait/caricature ever done of Gil, anytime, anyplace); but Gil and I had virtually no personal contact about the piece.

Gil and I conferred, and I let Gil fine-tune my costume re-design slightly before he started drawing the story. I doubt if he was particularly thrilled to be working with me, whom he The first fruits of Gil Kane and Roy Thomas’ collaboration: hardly knew, but we got along from the the dramatic splash page of Captain Marvel #17 start. (Later, underground cartoonist Roger (Oct. 1969), as inked by Dapper Dan Adkins. Brand, who had then worked briefly as [©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.] Gil’s assistant, told me he’d done story breakdowns of CM #17, but I’ve never been certain how much, if any, of his work Gil used.) And what pencils they were! I was thrilled when I saw the splash page, which Gil later gave me and which I still own: Captain Marvel floating in hyperspace, to which he’d been exiled at the end of #16 (in an ending I’d shoehorned into writer Archie Goodwin’s tale to segue into my “new direction,” including putting Mar-Vell in our new costume in its last few pages). I exulted as I pored over the sequence wherein Rick Jones pursued a phantom “Captain America” into a subterranean cavern (shades of Whiz Comics #2!) and there found a Kree secret lab. “Negabands” which Rick put on his wrists were substituted somewhat lamely for that wonderful word “Shazam!”—but still, the science-fictionalization of Captain Mar-Vell seemed to work. Gil’s pencils, as per usual, did lack blacks and were rather open; but what

Remembering Gil Kane they had was structure. Structure and movement and dynamism: Rocks jutted up from beneath the earth as if thrust there by some volcanic upheaval. “Captain America” ran so flat-out that his head seemed nearly to touch the ground in front of him. And when Rick slammed those Nega-bands together and exchanged places with Mar-Vell, Gil Kane became—even more than before—one of my favorite artists. And I’ll admit that, when he pronounced my plot synopsis one of the best he’d been given in years, it did a lot to cement our comradeship. Pin-up of Captain Mar-Vell by Gil Kane. Inks by Dan Adkins. Courtesy of David Hamilton. [©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

We also found the perfect inker for Captain Marvel in Dan Adkins, who instantly became and remained one of Gil’s favorite embellishers, ever. Dan skillfully added the needed blacks, and otherwise followed Gil’s line. The issue looked exactly like what it was supposed to look like: Gil Kane art, with inking by someone who knew how to throw in blacks and shadows. (Stan often felt that, because of the lack of blacks, Gil should be paid a “layout” rate, but he never pushed too hard on it, as long as inkers didn’t complain about having to “add blacks”—which some of them occasionally did.) Gil and I worked together on Captain Marvel for the next five bimonthly issues, but those issues were spread out over more than a year, because the title was briefly cancelled on the basis of recent, pre-revamping sales figures… only to be brought back a second time, and then die again. Eventually sales proved strong enough to revive the book a third time, but by then Gil and I were busy with other projects, so Marv Wolfman and Wayne (“Superman”) Boring inherited Captain Marvel. Gil’s favorite of our five CM issues was #19, which unlike the others was entirely his idea—the “rat’s-maze” issue, in which one of the key characters was revealed to be a survivor of Nazi death camps, complete to a number tattooed on his wrist. This was fairly heady stuff for 1970, and had personal resonance for Gil, who was born a Jewish European.

V. SPIDEY, WARLOCK, AND KUNG FU After Captain Marvel, Gil and I found every opportunity to work together that we could. One of the first was when the Comics Code was altered in 1970 and comics were allowed to use vampires, werewolves, and the like for the first time since the mid-1950s. This coincided with Gil’s stint as the third regular penciler of Amazing Spider-Man—and with Stan taking a four-issue writing hiatus so he could collaborate on a screenplay with French New Wave director Alain Resnais.

Although Spidey was not a character I was eager to script, Stan wanted me to write it rather than Fantastic Four if I had time to take do only one of the strips he was relinquishing, so I did. Stan also wanted me to create a vampire as a foe for Spider-Man. Gil and I talked it over and were going to bring Dracula into the Marvel Universe via the Spider-Man book (this is prior to Tomb of Dracula #1), but Stan said no; he wanted a new, more super-villainous creation for Spidey to fight. So Gil and I came up with Morbius, the Living Vampire, a science-fictional vampire. Gil designed a great costume, and the only fly in the ointment was that we had inherited a situation in which Spidey temporarily had six arms. After those two oft-reprinted issues were finished, Gil suggested a King Kong-inspired storyline. I eagerly concurred, and we cast J. Jonah Jameson in the role of Carl Denham, with Gwen Stacy as Fay Wray, and an alien “Kong.” Part of the reason Gil and I liked doing these two relatively offbeat stories was, I suspect, that neither of us liked doing Spider-Man all that much, and would have preferred to be working on other features. All four issues sold quite well, however—better, in fact, than the issues with a Spider-Slayer robot, The Gibbon, and a Vietnamese death cult which Stan did with Gil on his return. In 1970, Jack Kirby had left Marvel and launched his “Fourth World” projects at DC. Though not a huge fan of Jack’s execution of them (although I loved the concepts, especially The New Gods), I felt this gave me an opportunity to do what I’d long been chafing to do— develop a sort of alternative to the current Marvel Universe. Stan never liked the idea of parallel worlds, although he hadn’t stopped me from using one in the 1968 Avengers Annual), but this time I wanted to go further. And thus was born Warlock. Gil’s 1970 design for Morbius, the Living Vampire. Lord, how many times is Marvel gonna reprint Amazing Spider-Man #101-102, bless ’em! [©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.; courtesy of David Hamilton.]

Remembering Gil Kane Another inspiration, besides the Fourth World, was Jesus Christ Superstar, which I loved as a record album, though I would later be less wild about the Broadway play and the eventual, inevitable movie. I believe I came up with the name “Warlock” (though I wouldn’t stake my life on it), the idea of having the Christinspired hero be the gold-skinned “Him” from Fantastic Four, the use of Counter-Earth (a once-voguish theory that Earth had a “twin” which we never saw because it stayed on the far side of the Sun), the Man-Beast (from Thor) as Warlock’s Satan standin, and the concept of a young group of acolytes to approximate Christ’s Apostles. At a very early stage, however, I went to Gil, and we developed the New Testamentinspired storyline together. Gil basically designed the costume, and suggested giving him something akin to the original Captain Marvel’s lightning bolt as a chest sigil. (Remember, the Big Red Cheese at this time was still in what seemed a permanent state of limbo.) He also came up with the idea of giving him a first name: Adam, after the first Before Gil or Roy ever heard man. The panel showing a long of Bruce Lee (except in TV’s shot of Christ on Calvary was his Green Hornet), they’d come up concept, as well.

“Warlock,” in Marvel Premiere, was a fair-tomiddling hit in its first few issues, and quickly earned its own title. Unfortunately, at the time, some health problems in Gil’s family forced him to miss an issue or so, and part of another (which was completed by John Buscema), and soon afterward first I, then Gil, drifted to other projects. It was left to Jim Starlin, a bit later, to take Warlock off in weird new directions with my editorial blessings (just as he had previously done Captain Marvel), but I regret that Gil’s and my Marvel Premiere/Warlock and Captain Marvel issues have never been reprinted. When I saw my first Hong Kong kung fu movie in the early ’70s (Five Fingers of Death) and it contained a ritual called “The Iron Fist,” I decided that would make a good name for a Marvel hero to take advantage of this coming trend, and asked Gil to work with me on it. Except for the name, I had not fleshed out the idea. Gil, a lifelong admirer of Bill Everett’s (there’s that name again!) pre-Sub-Mariner hero Amazing-Man

from the Centaur Comics Group, reeled off for me the origin of “A-Man,” which contained a Shangri-La clone and a group of enigmatic figures headed by the hooded Great Question. All these elements were incorporated into our joint plot, though we stuck around only for Iron Fist’s origin (in Marvel Premiere #17) then turned the feature and a few basic concepts over to Len Wein, who worked with artist Larry Hama on the second story. When I became editor-in-chief, one of my main duties suddenly was to oversee all the covers, on which I’d had increasing input (at least on comics Stan didn’t write) for the past couple of years. With Jack Kirby gone, and art director John Romita busy as a general trouble-shooter, I turned increasingly to Gil during 197274 for cover roughs, often for finished covers. As I look back on them, they could perhaps have been a bit more varied. Gil and I, who often had to come up with a half dozen or more covers during one afternoon’s conference when he came into the city from Connecticut, sometimes settled a bit too readily on concepts which were interchangeable from title to title. The fact that Gil tended to draw all heroes a bit more lithe than they were depicted in the comics’ interiors was a further drawback.

All the same, I sincerely believe there is a substantial body of good work amid all those covers—which Gil would continue under other editors after I stepped down in late ‘74—as a cursory paging through the Gerbers’ Photo-Journal Guide to Comic Books will show. Gil was always proud of those covers, and understandably resented their often being ignored in histories of Marvel. Along with John Romita, he set much of the tone artwise for the company during the 1970s.

VI. CONNECTICUT AND CIMMERIANS During this period, Gil rented (with an option to buy) a beautiful home in the woodsy suburbs of Connecticut, to which I was a frequent visitor, often accompanied by my first wife Jean. Among the people I first met at Gil’s place, generally around his spacious swimming pool, were Harvey Kurtzman, Al Jaffee, and Dik Browne. Gray Morrow was another guest during one of my visits. I believe I also met author (and neighbor) Ron Goulart there, as well; Ron would later write a few Marvel comics, including Warlock and an adaptation of Robert Bloch’s “Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper” with Gil, and became Gil’s scripter for his inventive Star Hawks newspaper comic strip. I have nothing but pleasant memories of gatherings at that

Remembering Gil Kane

by his good friend Gary Groth. Our hours-long sessions designing covers ended when I stepped down as editor-in-chief in late 1974, but there were still a few more collaborations in our future. We did a “Ka-Zar” origin issue of Astonishing Tales which had some remarkable Hogarth-like touches (even if Gil ran out of steam near the end and had Kaz throw some punches at his Neanderthalish foe which there was simply no time to redo), and I got us started on an adaptation of some Mowgli stories from Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Books which wound up uncredited to me in Marvel Fanfare during a period when my very name was anathema at the House of Ideas. Gil also drew several key “Conan” stories during my tenure as Robert E. Howard guru at Marvel. Among these were two Turlogh O’Brien tales, “The Gods of Bal-Sagoth” and “The Dark Man,” and the first four installments of our adaptation of Conan the Conqueror, Howard’s only novel about his Cimmerian hero, whom I’d brought to Marvel.

Connecticut retreat, so amiably hosted by Gil and his gracious wife Elaine (of whom an entire separate article could be written). Among them are: Looking up, and up, and up, from my poolside chair to be introduced to the towering, bearded Dik Browne, who resembled his newspaper strip creation Hagar the Horrible far more than I did Conan the Barbarian; Being so awestruck in the presence of Mad creator Harvey Kurtzman that I kept calling him “Mr. Kurtzman” until he broke the ice by haughtily announcing, “You may call me ‘Mr. Kurtzman Sir’!”; Gil and Gray discussing the power of human memory to infuse past events with almost supernatural energy, when Gray was describing, Proust-like, the way breakfast had smelled on a certain morning in Paris some years earlier; The two of us sitting by his roaring fireplace when I was staying overnight, with me becoming so enervated by the heat that, when it came time to go to bed, it took me several minutes to find the energy to move from my chair. And along with this, of course, were the discussions about comics—rarely about characters or stories, but nearly always about either general theory and/or the influence of particular creators such as Jack Kirby, Lou Fine, Will Eisner, Jack Kirby, Harvey Kurtzman, Charlie Biro, Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Shelly Mayer, Joe Simon—and, oh yes, Jack Kirby. Hard as it may be for some who know me to believe this, it was usually Gil who did most of the talking in our conversations, with myself as rapt listener though making a few points, even occasionally playing devil’s advocate for opposing viewpoints. Many of his everevolving views, fortunately, have been preserved in A/E and in later interviews, such as the two-parter with The Comics Journal, conducted

As has often been remarked, Gil’s REH connection goes back much further than my own. I forget whether Gil ever told me if he had read any of the original printings of the Kull and Conan tales in Weird Tales magazine in the 1930s, but he did own a collection of the complete Gnome Press hardcover books published in the 1950s and early ’60s. In fact, his original plan for his publishing venture which would get him out of comic books in the late 1960s was to do Conan; however, his distributor wouldn’t go for the idea of a sword-&-sorcery quasi-comics magazine, so Gil came up with His Name Is… Savage instead, and the bronzed barbarian was left for Marvel and me to introduce to American comic books. It was letters from the readers which first convinced Stan and me that we should add a sword-&-sorcery hero, and most especially Conan, to the Marvel line—but Gil was informal advisor and enthusiastic cheerleader to the idea from the beginning, and eventually even sold me his entire Gnome collection, which I still own. We even worked together on a number of post-’74 covers for Marvel, not just on Conan the Barbarian but also on The Invaders and other titles of which I had become contractual writer-editor. R.E. Howard’s Conan wasn’t the only pulp fiction Gil had an interest in: Gil’s lifelong interest in the pulps extended to the mid1950s, when he drew this cover for a first printing of two of Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs’ tales, Beyond Thirty and The Man-Eater. [©2000 Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.]

Remembering Gil Kane

VII. REMEMBRANCES OF THE RING After I left Marvel for DC at the end of 1980, Gil and I didn’t collaborate again for a while, but we always kept an eye out for an opportunity to work together. This came in one Shazam! Annual we co-plotted, although I had to have someone else do the actual scripting at the last minute. After 1984-85 we also worked on three issues of Secret Origins— “Midnight” (the “Spirit” clone created by Jack Cole), plus neverpublished tales of two Lou Fine Quality heroes, “Firebrand” and “The Ray.” I still have a full set of his layouts for those two, plus some character designs for another series or two we hoped to sell DC but never got around to finalizing. And, eventually, there was The Ring of the Nibelung. Although Wagner’s Ring Cycle of operas had long been a favorite musical experience of Gil’s, I came to them relatively late… actually via librettos in book form. However, in the mid-’70s the Metropolitan Opera mounted a lavish production of all four, and Gil even accompanied me to one of them—though he had to leave before the end in order to catch the last train back to Connecticut.

prior to each issue and talk things over, and then I would write up notes for the adaptation. Gil went me one better in a couple of areas. The first opera, The Rhinegold, begins with a long musical note, with other notes slowly beginning to swirl around it, which represents the creation of the world—before the Rhinemaidens lose the Rhinegold to Auberich, the evil Nibelung. I had in mind to take up eight or so pages with creationrelated events taken from the Eddas, as a prelude to those events. When I sent the plot to Gil, he turned all those myriad panels into a handful of full-page panels, to which I would add merely a few quasi-quotes from the Icelandic epics. It worked like a charm, much better than what I had originally envisioned. (A few pages later, two balloons come from the wrong characters because editor Andy Helfer ignored a phone message I left, but at least the DC crew put the pages together in the right order.)

The second volume, The Valkyrie, begins with an exciting overture which represents a chase through the forest and ends up with the hero Siegmund staggering into the hut where he will meet his longlost twin sister Sieglinda. Over lunch, Gil and I came up with the notion—and it was probably he who suggested it—to take a And when DC editor Mike portion of the story otherwise merely Gold suggested I do a four-issue Ring referred to later (the pursuit of adaptation as prestige-format books in Siegmund by revenge-seekers) and the late 1980s, Gil was the first artist illustrate it over those introductory I thought of as a possible collaborapages. This Gil did skillfully, and I felt tor. Actually, I needn’t have no words were needed on those pages. Let bothered—because, while I was the first words in the book be the ones still mulling over things, Mike Wagner wrote, after Siegmund stumbled into brought Gil onto the project on his the hut. (Editor Andy later tried to get me to add own. Which was fine by me. captions to those pages, but I told him—through an assistant, since we were no longer talking directly to each other—that these wordThe Ring was a labor of love for less pages were the equivalent of the both of us, for in addition to the opera’s overture, and that not only Wagner operas we were both familiar would I not add a single word to with their mythological sources: the them, but that if he did, I would Elder and Younger Eddas, The Volunga denounce him and the bastardization Saga, The Nibelungenlied. Indeed, Gil of the Ring project to anyone who wanted to combine the Wagnerian elements would listen, both in and out of DC. with others from the actual Teutonic sagas. Reason prevailed, and The Valkyrie This idea I steadfastly resisted. I felt Splash page layout for a never-published Ray origin by Gil; plot by R.T. went out without captions.) strongly that it would be a mistake to [©2000 DC Comics Inc.] bring in divergent elements which DC never quite knew what to could only hurt the unity of the do with The Ring, despite doing a very good job with the packaging, project as a whole. The Nibelungenlied, for instance, eschewed all especially of the combined graphic-novel version. It sold well enough, in supernatural elements and was primarily a tale of grim revenge, while versions published both by DC and by Warner Books, but was soon some of the events in the Eddas and The Volsunga Saga, although they allowed to go out of print with little fanfare, even though part of the were the original inspirations for Richard Wagner himself, were at justification for doing the adaptation had been to get it into opera book variance with plot elements in the operas as realized. stores and to keep it in print forever. Why should P. Craig Russell have all the fun?

Because the Ring was considered basically my project, and because nobody in the DC offices was familiar enough with the material to even begin to impose his will on either of us, I prevailed in this matter… and happily so, even by Gil’s lights. In later years he cheerfully admitted that we would never have gotten the fulsome reviews we received in The New York Times, Opera News, and elsewhere if we had diluted Wagner with infusions of the original sagas.

VIII. TWILIGHT

For my part, I was thrilled to be working with Gil again, and on a project so dear to our hearts. We would get together at a restaurant

He had developed lymphoma, one of the most virulent forms of cancer.

Unbeknownst to me, however, there was a tragedy going on behind the scenes while Gil was working on The Ring, as well as in the pages themselves.

Remembering Gil Kane This terrible disease slowed production of the last volume, The Twilight of the Gods, in particular. For my part, I was confused for some time about the slowdown—because Gil didn’t tell me he had cancer. He was so fearful that DC would learn he was ill and would cancel not just Ring but another upcoming project he had with them that he told an absolute minimum of people about the cancer. Knowing that I had almost daily contact with DC as both writer and editor of my own material, he kept me in the dark for months. Alfredo Alcala anonymously inked a number of Gil’s pages in Twilight.

almost skeletal appearance. Yet the talent never wavered. Gil continued to turn out good work, whenever the opportunity presented itself—and by the mid-tolate 1990s, he was one of the very few artists of his generation still actively working in comics. He did a good job on Edge for Malibu, even if he felt the series had gotten seriously derailed at an early stage. Among his DC projects at this time was a well-received Superman prestigeformat book called Distant Fire… and indeed he was working on another longdelayed Superman book up till virtually the end of his life. He did several “re-creations” of Green Lantern and Atom covers for sale by Sotheby’s, taking the opportunity not simply to trace his early-’60s work, but to render the heroes in the far more dynamic style he had developed after the mid-’60s.

I’ll confess I was deeply hurt to think that Gil didn’t trust me not to let slip the fact that he was seriously, perhaps terminally ill. Well, I like to talk, I’ll grant you that… but wild horses could never have pried from me that type of secret. Still, I understood Gil’s position. I realized that, when one lives in fear not Gil and I even came close to working only of loss of income, but even of together again. imminent death, he is likely to make Knowing by this time that I could decisions which are overly cautious. He was interest him only in projects he generated The Ring—Gil and Roy’s magnum opus. more likely to share it with someone like himself, I discussed with him the possibili[©2000 DC Comics Inc.] Archie Goodwin, who was not only a friend ties of a prestige-format book we might do and ofttimes collaborator, but one who had for DC. He had an idea for one called Krypton, which would deal with himself contracted cancer… and who eventually would pass away two the history of Superman’s home planet and end with the destruction of years before Gil himself. that world; the hero of the latter part of the book would be Jor-El. In The important thing was that Gil survived the lymphoma, which eventually seemed completely cured. It left him weakened and overly thin, however. People who saw him for the first time in several years often came away shaken at his

many ways the story we worked out had the ring of—The Ring—about it. DC head honcho Mike Carlin gave a tentative okay to the book, but because Gil had another, not totally dissimilar project already in the works, Krypton got derailed, even after I did many days’ worth of

Re-creations of Showcase, Green Lantern and Atom covers done by Gil for auction by Sotheby’s in the mid-1990s. Note the altered, more dynamic figures. Gil just couldn’t help himself! [Art ©2000 Estate of Gil Kane; Green Lantern and Atom ©2000 DC Comics Inc.; courtesy of Sotheby’s, with thanks to Jerry Weist.]

Remembering Gil Kane research on the history of Superman’s homeworld. By now, I had come to accept the fact that Gil’s and my collaborative days were probably fully behind us, even if he lived (as I hoped he would, for he was only in his early 70s) for many more years. Still, we kept in touch. Although I believe the last time I saw him in person was at the 1997 San Diego Comics Convention, we talked several times a year by phone; and after Alter Ego was revived, he was generous with his time and artwork. He allowed me to use, as the “flip cover” of A/E Vol. 2, #2, the 1970 illo he’d done for me of himself surrounded by characters he’d drawn. Even though he felt neither Jerry Bails nor I had anything to do with the effective creation of the Silver Age Atom, he cooperated with my investigation of that event and never seemed to resent what I wrote, which largely vindicated his viewpoint in any event. He gave me his blessing to use a rare Atom poster he had done a few years earlier as the cover of A/E V3#2, and even succumbed to my blandishments (for the munificent sum of $50) to make a stab at redrawing one of his conceptual Atom drawings from late 1960—the one with the Atom seated on the back of a German shepherd. I remember his telling me, with some self-satisfaction, that yes, he thought that Atom drawing had come out fairly well. In retrospect, I suspect he said this because his own powers of concentration, so necessary to his artwork, were failing him, and doubtless intimations of his own mortality were more and more assailing him. In mid-’99 I interviewed him for A/E—less about his own career than about what the various comics companies were like in the 1940s. The first conversation was to be about Timely/Marvel, but the actual topics covered ranged far and wide, so I merely extrapolated the 40% or so that dealt mostly with Timely for use in Vol. 3, #3, saving the rest for later. Plenty of time, I imagined, to cover other companies in future interviews. I was, of course, tragically wrong. The last time I spoke with him—about the possible identification of some of the Timely art used in V3#3—I found him weaker, less talkative and enthusiastic than usual, so I didn’t press the matter. Rest and get well, I told him. What else do you say? I didn’t want to think about the alternative. I dared hope he’d even be well enough to attend the MegaCon in Florida in March, to which I’d been invited. Then one week I heard from Pat Bastienne, friend and assistant to Dick Giordano, that Gil had gone into the hospital, that his cancer had returned, and that the prognosis evidently wasn’t good. And, almost exactly a week later, Pat left a second, tearful message on my answering-machine: Gil had passed away the night before.

But somehow, it’ll always be the Silver Age Green Lantern—even more than Atom, SpiderMan, Savage, Blackmark, or whoever—for which Gil is most remembered—and honored. Two Green Lantern cover roughs. [©2000 DC Comics Inc.; courtesy of David Hamilton.]

Elaine Kane phoned later that day, as well. Indeed, when I arrived home, I had no less than half a dozen phone messages about Gil’s death, plus various e-mails, from people all over the country. One website particularly wanted to discuss our work together, aware that Gil had at various times called me his favorite collaborator. I returned all the calls I could, and lost myself for a time in the verbal celebration of Gil’s life and accomplishments and talent.

Originally I intended merely to write a couple of pages about Gil for this issue, which was already basically finished at the time of his death. However, I knew it would gnaw at me until I did it—this desire to write a longer memoir. There would be plenty of people to write about Gil’s career—more, as it turned out, than I could have imagined. However, I wanted to concentrate on one aspect—our body of work together, the fun we had doing it, and what it meant to me… and hopefully to Gil, as well. A week and more after his death, I punched in the Kanes’ phone number, hoping to get a chance finally to speak to Elaine personally. After a few seconds, the answering-machine came on. Although I should have been prepared for this, there was Gil’s voice, sounding haler and heartier than he perhaps felt when he recorded the message, stating that no one was home but that he’d call us back if we left a name and number. But he won’t, of course.

The writer and artist at work in this last panel (inked by Tom Palmer) from Gil & Roy’s “Tales of the Hyborian Age” story in Conan the Barbarian #12. Note the artist using his frequent salutation, “My boy.” [©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

AN A/E LAST-MINUTE EXTRA! In 1994, fan-collector Mike Burkey commissioned Golden Age Hawkman artist Sheldon Moldoff to re-draw the cover of Amazing Spider-Man #1 (March 1963), replacing the Fantastic Four with the four DC heroes with whom “Shelly” is most associated. It’s a beauty! Our only regret: that we can’t render it in color! Thanks a million, Mike! [Art ©2000 Sheldon Moldoff; Hawkman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern ©2000 DC Comics Inc.; Spider-Man ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

re:

continued from pg. 3

And P.C. Hamerlink writes re a goof in the FCA section that DC, credited with the “Isis” copyright, merely once licensed the TV heroine fora comic: “Isis was owned by Filmation… and before they folded in the ’80s they sold their Isis to Hallmark, the current copyright holder.” Be it so noted. Alas, in V.3, #2, it was Ethan Roberts, not Roger Hill, who graciously provided us with copies of original art to Showcase #34 and a page of Rex the Wonder Dog. Lastly, but not leastly, I want to thank Jon B. Cooke for a few last-minute contributions to V3#4, over and above the sterling layout work he did: It was he who recalled that Carl Burgos and Stan Lee appeared in the last panel of Burgos’ one “Human Torch” story from the ’60s, and that Howard Ferguson was the archetypical Timely letterer in the 1940s. Even more impressively, it was Jon who used his Mac to get rid of a nasty round postmark with which an unfeeling postal employee had, ’way back in 1956, stamped over the beautiful color drawing by Bill Everett of himself, his wife, their sons, and the dog feeling “Lonesome and Blue” while Wendy Everett was off at summer camp. And don’t miss Comic Book Artist, the mag Jon now edits six times a year for TwoMorrows! I wouldn’t miss an issue, and you shouldn’t, either. We’re always looking for letters of comment, and for possible contributions—of articles (especially behind-the-scenes material), artwork (both published and unpublished), and the like. Payment is mostly in terms of free issues and a well-earned sense of participation. Please contact:

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™

Volume 3, No. 4 Spring 2000 Editor

Roy Thomas

Contents

Associate Editor Bill Schelly

Design & Layout Janet Sanderson Jon B. Cooke/ GREAT SWAMP GRAPHICS

Consulting Editors

“Quick As a Flash”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 A (hopefully not too brief) history of Flash Comics by Rich Morrissey

Flash and Fantasy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 A candid conversation with Harry Lampert, original artist of “The Flash,” about his life and many, many careers.

John Morrow Jon B. Cooke

Two Roses and One Thorn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

FCA Editor P.C. Hamerlinck

Robert Kanigher talks about his two versions of “Rose and Thorn”— with Kubert art from the 1940s story DC never published.

Contributing Editor Michael T. Gilbert

Crash the Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Editors Emeritus Jerry G. Bails Ronn Foss, Biljo White Mike Friedrich

Special Kubert Consultant Al Dellinges

Cover(s) Artist

Michael T. Gilbert and Mr. Monster ask us the burning question of 1942: Who the hell is Abner Sundell, and why is he telling us how to write super-hero comics?

The Moebius Silver Surfer Sketches—Plus One. . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Jean-Marc Lofficier walks us through unseen art of Marvel’s Sentinel of the Spaceways by the fabled French cartoonist.

FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) #63 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Joe Kubert

P.C. Hamerlinck introduces another fabulous Fawcett foray.

Cover Color

“We Didn’t Know... It Was the Golden Age!” (FCA). . . . . . . . 38

Tom Ziuko

Mailing Crew Russ Garwood, D. Hambone, Glen Musial, Ed Stelli, Pat Varker

Golden Age artist Marc Swayze tells us how he left New York for Louisiana in 1944—and what he took with him!

From Soup to Nuts (FCA). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 More facts and opinions from the pen of the late C.C. Beck, original artist of the Big Red Cheese.

Fawcett Friendships (FCA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 More photos from Kurt and Dorothy Schaffenberger, recalling the days when Captain Marvel was indisputably the World’s Mightiest Mortal.

Special Hawkman Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About our cover: So The Flash isn’t running like mad in this picture. Would you, with a pair of beautiful women on both sides of you? Thanks to Robin Snyder (and to the late E. Nelson Bridwell) for preserving the third and unpublished Golden Age “Rose and the Thorn” tale drawn by Joe Kubert. This image is from the splash page. [The Flash, Rose and The Thorn, Hawkman ™&©DC Comics, Inc.] Alter EgoTM is published quarterly by TwoMorrows, 1812 Park Drive, Raleigh, NC 27605, USA. Phone: (919) 833-8092. Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: Rt. 3, Box 468, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@oburg.net. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Single issues: $5.95 ($7.00 Canada, $9.00 elsewhere). Four-issue subscriptions: $20 US, $27 Canada, $37 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. Alter and Captain Ego ©2000 Roy Thomas & Bill Schelly. The Atom, Batman, Batwoman, The Black Pirate, Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., Don Caballero, The Flash, Ghost Patrol, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Hawkwoman, Hawkgirl, Hourman, Ibis, Johnny Quick, Johnny Thunder, Kid Eternity, The King, Marvel Family, Mary Marvel, The Ray, Red, White & Blue, The Ring, Rose & The Thorn, Sargon, Sgt. Rock, Steve Malone, Superman, Viking Prince, The Whip, Wildcat ©2000 DC Comics Inc.; Moon Girl ©2000 William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc. The Golem ©2000 Protestant Digest. Tor ©2000 Joe Kubert. Lori Lovecraft ©2000 Mike Vosburg. All-Winners Squad, Angel, Blazing Skull, Bucky, Captain America, Captain Marvel, The Fin, Hulk, Human Torch, Iron Fist, Morbius, Patriot, Silver Surfer, Spider-Man, Sub-Mariner, Super Rabbit, Terry Vance, Thing, Toro, Vagabond, Venus, Vision, Warlock, Whizzer ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.; Conan ©2000 Conan Properties, Inc.; Flash Gordon ©2000 KFS. Mr. Monster ©2000 Michael T. Gilbert. Droopy ©2000 Harry Lampert. Pogo ©2000 Walt Kelly Estate. The Flame, Samson, U.S. Jones ©2000 Fox Publications. Magno & Davey, Raven, Unknown Soldier ©2000 Ace Magazines, Inc. The Wizard ©2000 Archie Comics Group. Flyin’ Jenny ©2000 Bell Syndicate. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING

Quick as a Flash

“Quick as a Flash ” A (hopefully not too brief) history of Flash Comics by Rich Morrissey I. TWO FLASHES OF LIGHTNING The year was 1939, and comic books had become, in only a short time, one of the greatest success stories of American publishing. The format had been around for years, but not until the astounding success of the Superman-starring Action Comics the previous year had publishers, both old and new, begun to jump onto the comic book bandwagon in droves. The race was on to come up with new and successful characters— and with strong and punchy titles for their new magazines. So it was hardly surprising that two different publishers came up with the same title—Flash Comics—at virtually the same time. After all, one of the most popular heroes in newspaper comics at the time was Alex Raymond’s science-fiction strip Flash Gordon!

assigned the projected magazine to one of their regular editors, Bill Parker, and to staff artist Charles Clarence Beck. They produced the ashcan edition of their Flash Comics completely by themselves, later adding another staff artist, Pete Costanza, to flesh it out into a complete 64-page comic with multiple features. The copyright office, however, decided that All-American’s ashcan edition of its Flash Comics had come in first, so Fawcett had to find a different title. It changed Flash Comics briefly to Thrill Comics, and by the time of actual publication to Whiz Comics (re-christening it after the company’s seminal publication, the post-World War One joke-book Captain Billy’s Whiz-Bang). For quite different reasons, Captain Thunder became Captain Marvel and went on to his own paramount place in comics history.

In a more surprising parallel, both comics cover-featured a hero drawn in a relatively cartoonish style—each with a bright red shirt adorned by a yellow lightning bolt! But maybe even this wasn’t so unusual a parallel, given the times. Red was a preferred color for super-heroes’ outfits; primary colors worked best with the printing processes of the day, and Superman was already garbed mainly in blue, as was Batman. The title Flash suggested lightning; and yellow, generally used for costume trim since as a main color it rendered the page too easy to see through, was the traditional color of lightning—even though real lightning is actually white or blue-white. Lightning is accompanied by thunder, so the lead feature of Fawcett Publications’ Flash Comics was named Captain Thunder; and All-American Comics’ Flash Comics featured The Flash as a lead character, backed up by a more tongue-in-cheek character named Johnny Thunder. Fawcett Publications, a Minneapolis magazine publisher inspired to expand into comic books by Superman’s success, The two top stars of Flash Comics, drawn by their principal Golden Age artists for issue #40, April 1944: The Flash by E.E. Hibbard, and Hawkman by Sheldon Moldoff. [©2000 by DC Comics Inc.]

Quick as a Flash

II. MAX AND SHELLY, THE ALL-AMERICAN BOYS By contrast, All-American Comics had older ties to the field. It |had been launched months earlier by Max C. Gaines, who is generally considered to at least have co-invented the comic book format in 1933 and who had already started up lines of comics for several different publishers. After a few years as a consultant with DC Comics, he had set up a partnership in 1938 with one of DC’s owners, Harry Donenfeld, as All-American Comics. The new line bore the DC logo, advertised and was advertised in DC comics like Action, Adventure, and Superman, and would go on to cross over its characters with those of the DC titles from time to time. All the same, AA was legally a separate entity with different editorial offices… much like Milestone Comics in more recent years, and the Wildstorm imprint of today. Gaines, who reportedly brought the Superman strip to DC’s attention, was understandably eager to make his own line a success, and to create and (co-)own other characters who might approach or even equal the success of Superman. With his experience and with access to the same talent pool that had turned Superman into comics’ greatest success story and had then come up with Batman, as well, Gaines stood a good chance of achieving his goal. Most of the earliest comic books had consisted of reprints of successful newspaper comic strips. By the late 1930s, and with the entry of major syndicates into comic Comics pioneer M.C. “Max” Gaines, circa 1942. book publishing on their own, most of the most popular strips were already taken, forcing come-lately publishers like DC to rely on new material, mostly produced by creators whose ideas had been rejected by the syndicates. Superman (whose creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, had tried to sell him as a newspaper strip for years, ironically doing so only after Action Comics had become a big hit) was the first such feature to prove more successful than any strip reprints. This indicated to publishers that they could succeed in the business even without paying hefty licensing fees to the syndicates. More established publishers like Dell, for which M.C. Gaines had launched Popular Comics in 1936, could afford established strips, but often filled out the pages with original material. Popular had featured mostly characters licensed from the Chicago Tribune Syndicate, such as Dick Tracy, Little Orphan Annie, and Terry and the Pirates, but Gaines had cut costs by purchasing, at a much lower cost, occasional unpublished strips. One such strip-turned-comic-book-feature was “Scribbly,” which starred a struggling teenage cartoonist, produced by a real-life struggling teenage cartoonist named Sheldon Mayer. Mayer proved to be knowledgeable about the comics field, and in tune with what contemporary kids liked (being, Gaines may well have figured, hardly more than a kid himself), and he became Gaines’ assistant first at Dell, then at DC. It’s been said that he was the one who first brought the Superman strip to Gaines’ attention, leading Gaines in turn to promote the idea to Harry Donenfeld at DC. So, when Gaines launched his first comic book in early 1939— All-American Comics, the namesake of his company—he chose Shelly Mayer to be its editor.

For their initial offering, Gaines and Mayer combined concepts from all the successful comic books of the day. Gaines used his syndicate contacts to purchase reprint rights to a few comic strips not yet tied up (like Skippy and Mutt and Jeff), and Mayer segued his “Scribbly” feature over into its pages. All-American #1 also contained adventure features of the kind that seemed to be catching on, including “Red, White, and Blue,” a strip about servicemen from the Army, Navy, and Marines initially written by Superman creator Jerry Siegel. Siegel, Sheldon Mayer, circa 1945. Yeah, we know we however, was being kept ran this photo in A/E V3#1, but see our Shelly very busy by the regular Moldoff interview this issue for another one. DC line (Superman was being spun off into his own title, and more characters such as The Spectre were in the works), and “Red, White, and Blue” never rose above backup status.

III. THE QUICK BROWN FOX Gaines’ and Mayer’s next AA title, Flash Comics, was conceived as a super-hero/adventure title from beginning to end. To produce an entire comic book on relatively short notice, Shelly Mayer turned to two writers, neither well-known even in the limited field of comics; both, however, had proved reliable, imaginative, and possessed of a sense of humor—an important factor to an editor whose first love was humorous comic strips. Gardner F. Fox was a young lawyer, a childhood friend of original DC editor Vincent Sullivan, who had been less than successful to date in his law career. Offered a chance to write several features for the DC line, Fox had done well with such minor features as “Steve Malone” and “Cotton Carver,” had turned “Zatara the Magician” (originally written as well as drawn by creator Fred Guardineer) into the main backup in Action Comics, and may even have co-created the moderately successful Sandman for Adventure Comics. (An Aside: Gardner told me once that he did create The Sandman, basing him on a pulp hero called The Grey Seal—of whom I would have heard by then if I had done more than skim over the chapter on pulp magazines in The Steranko History of Comics. Others are at least equally certain that artist Bert Christman wrote as well as drew the first “Sandman” stories. But Gardner F. Fox—one of comic books’ semiI’ve found that many early nal writers—though here a bit older than comics creators simply have when he co-created The Flash, Hawkman, unclear memories of events Dr. Fate, and The Justice Society. This caricature is by Dave Manak and comes from which, after all, took place (as well as all the images on this page) sixty or more years ago. At The Amazing World of DC Comics. [©2000 any rate, Fox was soon DC Comics, Inc.] writing “Sandman.”)

Quick as a Flash

Under Fox’s brief tenure, Batman had battled his first “name” villains, expanded from six pages to ten (and then to twelve). But Fox would leave “Batman” after December 1939 to devote his time to Flash Comics, leaving Bob Kane to take over “his” strip once more.

spoke a magic word to summon a lightning bolt that gave him immense power! In Johnny’s case, however, the lightning flash gradually became larger and more humanoid until it evolved into a separate character, a pink genie-like being whose constant banter with Johnny became the high point of this never-serious strip. Drawn by another cartoonish artist, Stan Aschmeier (who used the pseudonym “Stan Josephs”), Johnny went on to adopt a young daughter, Peachy Pet, and to join the Navy during World War II.

(“Batman” wouldn’t miss a beat, as it turned out. Kane hadn’t been writing his own stories, after all, but had been buying scripts from a friend, a shoe salesman named Bill Finger, who would go on to his own illustrious career in the field. At the time, nobody at DC had heard of him, but soon Finger would receive a regular assignment from Sheldon Mayer as well—on “The Green Lantern,” who would become the cover and lead feature in All-American Comics.)

In those days, it was felt that an anthology comic needed a balance of features, and not everything could be as cartoony and tongue-incheek as Johnny Thunder or, to a lesser extent, The Flash. When Mayer encouraged Fox and Wentworth to think of more features to fill out the 64 interior pages, Wentworth came up with “The Whip.”

More importantly, Fox had taken over writing Detective Comics’ new lead feature, “Batman” (originally drawn and ostensibly written by cartoonist Bob Kane), who had soared in a few short months to a level of success exceeded only by Superman’s.

For his part, Fox was assigned to create a lead feature for Flash Comics —the namesake of the title, who would be, in Mayer’s words, “The Fastest Man Alive.” Fox fleshed out the character from that short description, creating a college student named Jay Garrick, who received the power of superspeed in a lab accident. Unlike most super-heroes of the day, Jay had a very casual attitude toward his secret identity, revealing it at once to his girlfriend Joan Williams and to a number of his other friends. Fox also said he designed the costume, without a mask… a more conservative one than that of many super-heroes. Its most unique feature was its winged metal helmet, which Fox considered entirely appropriate to a hero he described as “a reincarnation of the fabled Mercury,” the fleet-footed messenger god of the Romans. Mayer followed through on the somewhat light-hearted tone of the strip by assigning the art to Harry Lampert, whose prior work had consisted mostly of gag panels.

The Whip was essentially a clone of Johnston McCulley’s famed pulp hero, Zorro (Mayer loved swashbuckling movies). His distinguishing factor was that he was actually an American playboy, Rod Gaynor, who put on a hideous pseudo-Mexican accent while fighting the oppressors of Mexican

IV. THE WENTWORTH FEATURES Sheldon Mayer had also been impressed by John B. Wentworth, “a guy who lived up in Maine,” according to Fox (a rarity in an era when writers and artists were generally expected to live within easy commuting distance of the publisher). Wentworth had previously scripted several backup features for All-American Comics. Encouraged to create his own character to fit the Flash Comics name and theme, Wentworth came up with “Johnny Thunder” (whose strip in the first Flash issue bore the even more blatant title of “Johnny Thunderbolt”). Johnny was an ordinary young man, non-costumed and not overly bright, to say the least, whose upbringing by a mystical cult gave him immense powers when he spoke the word “Cei-U”—phonetically identical to the English words “Say, you!” As with The Flash, there was a remarkable parallel to Fawcett’s Captain Thunder/Marvel, who also

Quick as a Flash peasants. Yet, amazingly, he was able to fool not only the established authorities but also his girlfriend Marissa; in that political climate, which frowned on anything that could possibly be called “intermarriage,” he understandably couldn’t be as cavalier with his secret identity as Jay Garrick was. Drawn by George Storm, who would later draw teenage humor characters like Buzzy but turned out this feature in a serious illustrative style, The Whip impressed the editor enough to receive, at first, the concluding spot in Flash Comics, traditionally second only to the lead position in importance.

Johnny Thunder (with Dr. Mid-Nite) in a drawing done in 1975 by their original artist Stan (“Josephs”) Aschmeier. It was Johnny’s living Thunderbolt who was the true hero of the former feature. [©2000 DC Comics, Inc.; courtesy of Tom Horvitz.]

recovered memory of the Nile civilization, Carter fashioned a belt of antigravity “ninth metal,” a giant pair of wings with which he could maneuver, and a feathered mask resembling a giant hawk’s head, only with small wings atop it.

V. THE FOX AND THE HAWK Gardner Fox, meanwhile, had not been idle. He came up with a daredevil pilot feature, “Cliff Cornwall” for Flash #1. In his first adventure, Cliff hooked up with a beautiful French woman, Lys Valliere, as he foiled the plans of spies. Drawn in a lush style by Sheldon Moldoff, a former assistant to Bob Kane now branching out into his first solo series, Cliff looked like a potential winner, but paled alongside Fox’s third contribution. In a text feature in The Brave and the Bold #34 (1961), Fox would later say that, while trying to think of a new hero, he had seen a bird pick up a twig, and had thought what a powerful image a winged man picking up another man might be. This may even be true, as far as it goes; but it’s at least equally true that Flash Gordon, the newspaper strip that had doubtless inspired the very title of Flash Comics, had prominently featured a race of winged men called “Hawkmen”; they had even appeared by then in Republic’s popular Flash Gordon serial starring Larry “Buster” Crabbe. Fox’s “Hawkman” was a wealthy young man named Carter Hall. (There was a brand of pipe tobacco by that name, though Fox said he came up with it independently. Both the tobacco and the hero’s name may have had a common source. Doesn’t the ballad “Tam Lin” refer to a place called Caterhaugh? We all know that Fox was very big on fantasy and folklore.)

Throughout his career, Fox enjoyed giving his heroes unusual headgear: Flash’s helmet, Hawkman’s hawk-mask, (perhaps) The Sandman’s gas mask, Dr. Fate’s full-face helmet composed of two symmetrical pieces, Adam Strange’s peaked flight helmet. Almost invariably, later writers and artists would discard these unusual coverings in favor of more conventional masks or hoods. Hawkman was more protective of his secret identity than was The Flash, even though in any given panel his “mask” was as likely to be perched atop his head as it was hiding his features; but, like most Fox heroes, he shared it with his reincarnated love, Shiera Sanders. “Hawkman” was originally drawn by former Superman art assistant Dennis Neville; but after Flash Comics #2 Sheldon Moldoff was transferred over from “Cliff Cornwall” to the Winged Wonder’s stories. Moldoff’s style, heavily influenced by Alex Raymond’s (Carter and By #2, the Winged Wonder soared in Neville’s only Flash cover. [©2000 DC Comics Inc.; special thanks to Chris Foss of Heroes & Dragons, Columbia, S.C.]

Hall discovered through his archaeological studies that he was the literal reincarnation of an Egyptian prince. He learned that his lover in olden times had also been “born again,” and he tracked her down, only to cross the path of an ancient enemy who had likewise been reincarnated—as a modern scientist. Using knowledge he’d learned through Above: After George Storm and Harry Lampert, veteran cartoonist Homer Fleming (b. 1883) drew the Wentworth creation “The Whip” in Flash Comics #40. [©2000 DC Comics Inc.]

Quick as a Flash

Shiera were virtually identical to Flash Gordon and his girlfriend Dale Arden), guaranteed that no fan of the newspaper strip was likely to be disappointed. Hawkman went on to learn the language of a flock of hawks and to enlist them as allies, with Shiera eventually donning a hawk-costume and joining her boyfriend in action as Hawkgirl.

VI. ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: Flash Comics, dominated though it was by young writers and artists, was rounded out, in the M.C. Gaines tradition, by a vintage feature from the newspapers—more or less. Ed Wheelan’s comic strip Minute Movies (and its predecessor Midget Movies) had initially parodied the movies of the 1910s and ’20s, but had gone on to offer longer and increasingly serious continuities with its own regular “cast” of characters. Often credited with being one of the earliest adventure strips, Minute Movies had been very influential in its day: both E.C. Segar’s Thimble Theatre (the comedy/adventure strip that had eventually introduced Popeye the Sailor) and an early Chester Gould effort, Fillum Fables, had been directly inspired by it. By the 1930s, however, Minute Movies had been defunct for several years. When Flash Comics started up, Wheelan was offered the chance to revive his concept, albeit for a more limited audience. Perhaps to avoid difficulties with the newspaper syndicate over the original name,

Wheelan initially called his comic book version “A Flash Picture Novel,” but used the same “actors” who had populated Minute Movies: leading man Dick Dare, leading lady Hazel Dearie, and a large supporting cast that included Ralph McSneer (who usually played villains) and comic-relief Fuller Phun and Archibald Club (a.k.a. Fat and Slat). Before long, Wheelan went back to the Minute Movies title with no recorded complaints. And, thanks to an editorial blurb on #6, Wheelan became the only writer or artist ever to have his name on a Flash cover, not counting artists’ signatures. Credits tended to be used sparingly in the early comic books. Gardner Fox once explained that Sheldon Mayer didn’t want him signing all his strips because he’d “have his name all over the book.” So, for that matter, would John Wentworth. Fox expanded his range even further in Flash as he launched the science-fiction series “Rod Rian of the Sky Police” (which lasted from #2-11) and the somewhat more successful “King Standish” (soon titled merely “The King”), a master of disguise who endured from #3-41. After issue #3 Harry Lampert moved off “The Flash” to draw “King Standish,” being replaced on the Fastest Man Alive by E.E. Hibbard, another artist with a broad, cartoony style, but with an excellent sense of balance. Under Fox and Hibbard, both of whom had a standard byline for several years, The Flash quickly became, as expected, Flash Comics’ biggest star.

VII. HAWKMAN TAKES OFF Interestingly enough, it took some time for the second-place star of Flash to be established. Judging from its placement at the end of the book and its being the only other strip signed by its writer, “The Whip” seems to have been editor Mayer’s initial guess as to the second most likely to be a hit. The early issues of Flash alternated the cover spot; Hawkman dominated #2, Cliff Cornwall #3, The Whip #4, and The King #5. The Flash himself was depicted on these covers merely as a small, uncolored running figure near the title logo.

By issue #6, however, it would appear that the results were in. The Flash was a top seller as a cover feature… but, surprisingly—since almost every other anthology title quickly settled on a single regular cover star—so was Hawkman! For the rest of the title’s 104-issue run, the two Gardner Fox super-hero creations usually alternated in the main

Quick as a Flash

In Flash #40 the cast of Ed Wheelan’s “Minute Movies” starred in what it called “our big sensational film in color”—“The Heart of Cha Ming”—but starring its constantly Caucasian cast of characters. [©2000 DC Comics Inc.]

cover drawing, with a small cameo of the non-featured hero at the top of the page. “Hawkman” even occasionally supplanted “The Flash” as the lead story. When The Justice Society of America was launched in All-Star Comics #3 (Winter 1940), with the announced intention of featuring two heroes from each of four different DC/All-American anthology titles, there was no question of which heroes from Flash Comics would be chosen. The JSA’s inclusion of The Flash (as the group’s first chairman) and Hawkman, together with other Fox creations (Dr. Fate if not Sandman) made him Mayer’s logical choice for writer of the new series, on which he continued through 1946.

Johnny Thunder was a surprisingly strong third entry from Flash Comics, however—evidenced by the fact that John Wentworth was soon signing that strip rather than “The Whip”—and he became a frequent guest star in the JSA. Perhaps Mayer and Fox found him useful as comic relief, but he became a regular member of the Justice Society with All-Star #6, when The Flash dropped to “honorary member” status upon being given his own magazine. (Gaines and Mayer clearly felt that a hero successful enough to have his own title no longer needed exposure in All-Star.) More than one fan hoped that the precedent set by the departure from the JSA of first The Flash, then Green Lantern, for their own titles would indicate that Hawkman, who followed them as the group’s third chairman, would be the third All-American hero to receive his own magazine. It’s been theorized that, if not for wartime paper shortages, a Left: Following William Smith and Harry Lampert on “The King” by 1943 was “Atom”/”JSA” artist Joe Gallagher. [ ©2000 DC Comics Inc.] Below: Edward Everett Hibbard was technically a good enough artist, but had scant feeling for speed, as these sample panels from All-Flash Quarterly #2 show. [©2000 DC Comics Inc.; repro’d from photostats of original art, courtesy of Joel Thingvall.]

Quick as a Flash

Hawkman title might well have materialized. As it was, AA’s “Wonder Woman” feature in Sensation Comics became an even bigger (and overnight!) success in 1941-42, and was bounced ahead of Hawkman when it came to awarding solo titles. Still, Hawkman continued to fly high in Flash Comics, as did Flash himself both there and in the new All-Flash Quarterly.

VIII. …AND MANY OTHERS! “Les Watts, Radio Amateur” (whose name was soon changed to Les Sparks, probably because of the syndicated strip Sparky Watts —not that that avoided possible confusion) enjoyed a brief run in Flash Comics starting in #11. Drawn and perhaps written by Don Cameron (not the same Don Cameron who would soon become a highly regarded writer for Superman and Batman), it was replaced after the War began with another feature:

only to be drafted a short time afterward. In later years Mayer remembered another of his editors, Dorothy Roubicek, especially fondly; she was one of an increasing number of women who entered traditionally male-dominated fields during World War Two, when many men were in the armed services. When Roubicek quit in 1944 to get married (not to her later husband William Woolfolk, but for a less successful union), “Green Lantern” writer Alfred Bester recommended as his replacement Julius Schwartz, a literary agent who specialized in science-fiction, including Bester’s own. Although admittedly knowing very little about comic books at the time, Schwartz was hired and would eventually become one of the most revered, and certainly one of the longest-lasting, editors in comic book history. Initially he made few changes in Flash Comics and All-Flash (by then a bimonthly), being reasonably satisfied with the writing as it stood. Few of the regular writers and artists had been drafted, although Sheldon Moldoff entered the service in 1944. His replacement on “Hawkman” was a teenager named Joe Kubert, who had begun his career as an errand boy in the Will Eisner shop and had gone on to ink Mort Meskin on “Vigilante” and other DC characters. Kubert’s first “Hawkman” stories appeared in the giant-sized Big All-American Comic Book and in Flash Comics #62 (Feb. 1945).

In Flash #29 three pilots from different countries— France, Spain, and the U.S.— were shot down by the Nazis but refused to let even death stop them. They X. CHANGES IN THE WINGS returned to fight for the Whether John Wentworth was drafted Allies as “The Ghost Patrol.” or not is uncertain; in any event, Julie This feature wasn’t quite as Schwartz remembers almost nothing about comical as Johnny Thunder, him. At some stage, “Johnny Thunder” was but not as serious as The being written primarily by Robert Kanigher, Whip. Jerry Bails’ Who’s a freelance writer who was beginning to Who of American Comic submit scripts to DC and AA, and who Books informs us that the would eventually join Schwartz as a DC Patrol’s creators were writers editor. (Evidently Julie himself wrote at Emanuel Demby and Ted least one of his rare comics scripts for Udall and artist Frank Harry. “Johnny Thunder.”) Whoever the original writer(s), he/they rendered When Schwartz’ longtime friend and accents of the French and former client, John Broome, also returned The Ghost Patrol give Hitler a 1943 hotfoot in the seat of his pants. Spanish pilots as badly as The home, Schwartz suggested he write for AA. [©2000 DC Comics Inc.] Whip’s—but at least the Ghost Broome had scripted for Fawcett before Patrol’s accents were ostensibly genuine, not faked. joining the service, and now took over, among other strips, “The Ghost Patrol.” In addition, both Broome and Kanigher began to contribute Other features popped up now and then in Flash, such as: stories for The Flash and Hawkman. All-American Comics’ “Hop Harrigan,” who oddly never gained his own DC comic despite starring for years on radio and even in a movie serial; “Picture Stories from the Bible” (a favorite feature of Gaines’ which he took with him when he sold AA); the ubiquitous “Mutt and Jeff”; the scatterbrained caveman inventor “Rockhead McWizzard”; “Little Boy Blue” (from Sensation); “Simp Odill”; and “Cotton-Top Katie” (by The Flash’s co-creator, Harry Lampert).

IX. THE ALL-AMERICAN EDITORS As the All-American line continued to expand, there quickly came a point where Sheldon Mayer could no longer handle all its editorial responsibilities unassisted. Additional “editors” were hired, though despite their titles they actually functioned primarily as story editors, with Mayer still overseeing the artwork closely. Ted Udall, one of Mayer’s regular writers, became such an editor,

Although he had considerable regard for Gardner Fox, with whom he would continue to work for a quarter of a century on both Hawkman and Flash in one form or another, Schwartz considered both Broome and Kanigher to be superior writers. Fox wasn’t frozen out entirely, but found himself increasingly assigned to other titles and other genres, including funny animals and especially westerns and science-fiction, in both of which fields he excelled. In later years, Fox reported the switch as relatively amiable. Among the humor strips he wrote were “J. Rufus Lion” and “The Dodo and the Frog” in Funny Stuff. Fox also began, after the War, to write for Magazine Enterprises, a new company founded by his childhood friend Vincent Sullivan; even in the early ’40s Fox had moonlighted for another Sullivan-edited comics company, Columbia, doing “Skyman,” et al. In the post-War years, Schwartz’ responsibilities were expanded to

Quick as a Flash Between Kubert’s two runs on “Hawkman,” the art chores were handled by longtime “Green Lantern” artist Paul Reinman; future fine artist Everett Raymond Kinstler; ofttimes humor cartoonist Bob Oksner; and especially Jon Chester Kozlak. See later pages for Kubert’s version. [©2000 DC Comics, Inc.]

include art as well as scripts, and his tastes in that area were quite different from those of cartoonist Sheldon Mayer. Schwartz had no problem with “Hawkman” artist Joe Kubert; indeed, under him, this talented young stylist would also draw several notable Flash stories—including a neverprinted third “Rose and Thorn” exploit. When Kubert left DC for nearly a year circa 1946, he was replaced by a combination of Paul Reinman, Everett Raymond Kinstler, Bob Oksner, and especially Jon Chester Kozlak; Kubert returned to draw “Hawkman” from 1947-49. E.E. Hibbard’s Flash stories had become increasingly infrequent as he began to get work in the advertising field, as he had long craved; he reportedly never cared for comic books. Under Mayer, his main replacement (especially on All-Flash) had been the even cartoonier Martin Naydel. Naydel excelled at funnyanimal stories, and even more at inventing puzzles; he created innumerable puzzles to fill out the DC comics of

9 the ’40s and ’50s, and would eventually sell the successful Jumble, still running today under other hands, to the Tribune Syndicate. But Schwartz felt Naydel should never have been assigned to a super-hero feature, not even one as lighthearted as “The Flash.” Naydel was far better at drawing Funny Stuff’s “McSnurtle the Turtle,” whose secret identity was The Terrific Whatzit, a turtle version of The Flash. Along with Kubert’s “Flash” tales, two newcomers to DC, first Lee Elias and then Carmine Infantino, replaced Hibbard and Naydel as the main artists of the Fastest Man Alive.

On occasion, the splash pages of Naydel-drawn stories were replaced; e.g., the lead tale in All-Flash #28 (April-May 1947) has a splash apparently redone by Kubert. By #29 Elias was doing the cover and lead story, and may have touched up the

Quick as a Flash DC, which became known formally as National Comics Publications. Ed Wheelan left DC to produce a Fat and Slat comic book for Gaines’ new line, EC (Educational Comics). Sheldon Mayer felt his titles were in good hands with Schwartz and Kanigher and retired from editing in 1948 to return to his first love, cartooning. “The Atom,” a minor hero (but JSA charter member), had been moved into Flash Comics from his former slot in All-American, as Mayer attempted to give the latter title greater variety. Among the “Atom” artists in Flash were Frank Giacoia and a pre-EC Bernard Krigstein. Even the out-and-out farce of “Johnny Thunder” faded out under its new writer. Robert Kanigher played down the all-powerful Thunderbolt and in Flash #88 introduced the glamorous Black Canary, a female thief turned crimefighter. Within a few issues she had replaced Johnny completely, not only in his own strip but in the Justice Society in All-Star. Johnny was dropped from Flash as of #92 for a (slightly) smarter love interest for Black Canary, private eye Larry Lance.

This pair of Lee Elias pages from All-Flash #30 (Aug.-Sept. ’47) reflected the new Fastest Man Alive. [©2000 DC Comics Inc.; repro’d from photostats of original art; top courtesy of Ray A. Cuthbert; at right courtesy of Jerry Ordway.]

splash of one of the Naydel entries, as well. Naydel seems to have made the attempt, but could not alter his style enough to compete with the newer artists. By #30 he was gone, replaced by a lead Elias art job and a pair of offerings by Hibbard (now reduced to back-up status). Fox’s often lighthearted stories, frequently focusing on Keystone City’s Liars’ Club, card sharp Deuces Wilde, or a trio of crackpot would-be scientists named Winky, Blinky, and Noddy (near deadringers for the Three Stooges, though their names came from Eugene Field’s poem “Wynken, Blynken, and Nod”) gave way to more serious fare written by Broome and Kanigher; under them, new and deadlier villains such as The Fiddler, The Turtle, Star Sapphire, and The Shade were introduced. None of this was enough to save All-Flash, which died with #32 at the end of 1947, but Flash lurched along for two more years, perhaps on sheer momentum—or else maybe “Hawkman” mattered even more to Flash Comics than we always thought! Along the way, several of Flash’s long-running strips, like “Cliff Cornwall,” “The King,” and “The Whip,” had succumbed to the wartime paper shortage as the standard page count for comic books had dropped from 64 to 48 interior pages. In 1945 M.C. Gaines tired of tensions with partner Harry Donenfeld and his partner-in-DC Jack Liebowitz. Gaines first went his own way for nearly a year under an “All-American” logo, then sold the entire AA line to ex-partner Donenfeld, who merged it completely into

XI. THE WAY OF ALL-FLASH But, despite all the efforts of Schwartz, Broome, Kanigher, Infantino, and Kubert, who between them now produced everything in Flash Comics except “The Atom” and the occasional return of Gardner Fox or Lee Elias to the Fastest Man Alive himself, super-heroes were very much on the decline in the comic book field as a whole. Most of the other comics in the Schwartz-Kanigher stable had little difficulty converting to other genres:

Quick as a Flash

11 So, with #104 (Feb. 1949), it was simply cancelled—and with it went four of the last survivors of the Golden Age of Comics, at least in their solo strips. Flash alumni Hawkman, Black Canary, Atom, and of course Flash himself continued on with Green Lantern, Dr. Mid-Nite, and Wonder Woman as JSA members through AllStar Comics #57 (Feb-March 1951), after which the last remnants of Flash Comics faded from view for several years.

XII. A FLASH OF SILVER Some of the best post-WWII Flash art was written-off and never published ’til now. These two tiers of panels pencilled by Carmine Infantino were rescued in the late ’60s by Marv Wolfman. [©2000 DC Comics Inc.]

Comic Cavalcade, originally a 96-page anthology featuring All-American’s three most popular heroes (Wonder Woman, Flash, and Green Lantern), became a funny-animal title with #30, starring “The Fox and the Crow.” With issue #100, All-American Comics switched its focus from Green Lantern to a new Kanigher creation, a cowboy hero named Johnny Thunder (RK had lost no time in recycling the name of John Wentworth’s screwball hero). By #104 the title had become AllAmerican Western; a few years later it would become All-American Men of War, as if to demonstrate how flexible the jingoistic “All-American” monicker can be.

It wasn’t the end for the numbering sequence of Flash Comics, though.

When the Silver Age Flash (introduced in Showcase #4 in 1956) was promoted after four scattered issues into his own title, it was decided to continue the numbering of Flash Comics for his solo comic, which debuted as The Flash #105—which was actually the first time a comic book had ever been named The Flash. That title ran from 1959 until it was finally cancelled with #350 in 1986,

All-Star Comics hung on until late 1950 with the Justice Society, then turned with #58 into All-Star Western. Sensation Comics lasted a bit longer; it finally dropped Wonder Woman and briefly became Sensation Mystery before it gave up the ghost entirely. Because of its name, however, Flash Comics would have been a bit trickier to turn into a western or mystery or war or funny-animal title.

to be revived at once with a new #1; of course, the characters, with the exception of the Earth-Two stories guest-starring Jay Garrick, were completely different from the original cast. Still, when Flash Comics died in 1949, two of the Gardner Fox-created features which had debuted in #1 (“The Flash” and “Hawkman”) had muddled through to the last, missing not a single issue. In a sense, so had John Wentworth and Stan Aschmeier’s “Johnny Thunder,” since Black Canary’s strip was a direct continuation of it. Despite the reverses of their later careers, both the main original writers of Flash Comics saw their legacies endure for over one hundred issues. Surely that must count for something….

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“Flash and Fantasy”—A Conversation with Harry Lampert

“Flash and Fantasy”

A Conversation with Harry Lampert Co-Creator of The Flash Interview Conducted by Roy Thomas Transcribed by Jon B. Knutson ROY THOMAS: If you don’t mind, I’ll start by asking about the two Comic Cavalcade covers I mailed you—#23 and #27, from 1947-48. Alex Toth drew Green Lantern, Flash, and Wonder Woman on them, but I was curious if you drew your character “Cotton-Top Katie” on them, or if the three kids are by Shelly Mayer. LAMPERT: No, I didn’t do these particular drawings. I think I remember everything I did. I would say, first of all, there’s an aspect of the drawing that’s like mine, but the way he did the hair—that’s not me. RT: Most likely Mayer, then. Anyway, reverting to something resembling chronological order: You were born in 1916? LAMPERT: November 3, 1916, in New York. I lived up in Washington Heights, and attended George Washington High School. I was going to graduate in June, and my friend Henry Spiegel says, “My brother George, who’s a graduate of Pratt Institute, went up to a place called Fleischer Studios and he couldn’t get a job there—they said they wanted cartoonists. Harry, you’re a cartoonist; why don’t you go up there?” So I stayed up all night and did two full pages of drawings, and I got a job. It was 1933. I was 16-and-one-half years old. RT: Did they know how young you were?

[EDITOR’S NOTE: I first met Harry Lampert at the 1996 San Diego Comics Convention. It was a great thrill for me, because I knew that not only had he drawn the first two adventures of the original Flash in 1939, but that in 1946 he had also illustrated an “Atom” chapter in All-Star Comics #34, as well as humorous gags and stories which appeared in various DC comics in the late ’40s. Harry was surprised to see the bound volume of All-Star #33-41 I was carrying, but graciously signed the inside front cover, as had Julius Schwartz, Robert Kanigher, Martin Nodell, Irwin Hasen, and several other JSA artists, writers, and editors before him. Thus, when I decided to do an issue of Alter Ego honoring the sixtieth birthday of Flash Comics #1, it was inevitable that Harry Lampert would be one of the people I would most want to talk to—and the experience proved even more enjoyable and rewarding than I had expected. For he has been a man of many careers and accomplishments, as the following interview reveals.—R.T.]

LAMPERT: They didn’t care. I worked there for five years. I started out as an inker, and soon became the assistant head of the inking department. What’s happened was, I’d get something from the Planning Department. They’d say, “Do this, but you have to trace this head seven times and retrace it.” I said, “No, why can’t we put this on the top cel, and make the other one the middle cel, and save all that drawing?” “That’s a good idea, Harry.” And then another one came

“Flash and Fantasy”—

THE SUPERMAN/ HARRY LAMPERT CONNECTION? Did Harry Lampert work on cutting up Superman newspaper strips for Action Comics #1 in 1938— or perhaps on Superman #1 in 1939, which contained primarily reprints of the first four Action stories—or even on Superman #2? The matter has been debated these last few years by aficionados, though none has ever impugned Harry’s motives; it’s merely an argument over memory and chronologies. Harry’s earliest story work in comics was on “Spot Savage” in All-American Comics #1 (April 1939), which would have been drawn in late 1938, while Action #1 had been prepared more than half a year earlier. In response to my query, comics historian Jerry G. Bails writes: “This matter has been discussed at some length on the GCD [Great Comics Database] Chat list. If I recall the upshot correctly, it was decided that Harry was remembering doing paste-ups on Superman #1, not Action #1. I haven’t checked, but others who have checked say there were enough differences in the sequences in Superman #1 [from the original versions in Action #1-4] to make sense of the conflicting assertions. Many people who were in contact with Shuster |continue to insist that Joe did all the rearranging for Action #1. This may reconcile the apparent conflicts.”

up, and after a while, all the stuff would come to me first, and I’m 17 years old! So in an hour, a half hour, whatever, that I spend doing this, I saved three or four days’ work for the department! There were a number of future cartoonists there. Gill Fox [later a comic book artist and editor] and I used to sit right next to each other. Hal Sherman [later the original artist of “The Star-Spangled Kid”] was with me, and Frank Engli, who became assistant to Milton Caniff on Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon. We were all so jealous of him, because many of us didn’t feel animation was our thing. I could have been whatever I had set my mind to be. But I was thinking all the time of doing cartoons outside the animation field. My first professional cartoon appeared in the New York American newspaper in October 1934. While I was working at Fleischer’s, I did a cartoon that showed the World Series going on. There’s a guy in the first seat of the bleachers fast asleep, and the guy behind him is saying, “He stayed up all night to be the first one in to see the game!”

RT: Did you continue to sell to newspapers while working for DC? LAMPERT: No. After I left Fleischer’s, I went into the comic book field. Actually, I went down there because I knew Shelly Mayer. He and I had worked together as apprentices for a fellow named Ving Fuller. He was a cartoonist who had a strip going in the New York Daily Mirror. Shelly and I were both in high school at the same time. I graduated a year earlier than he did and I got that job at Fleischer’s; and when he graduated, I recommended him for a job there. Did you know Shelly? RT: We only exchanged a letter or two, and maybe one phone call. LAMPERT: He was one of the biggest kidders in the world, you know. He really was a character. Of course, in a place like animation, where everything’s so staid and routine, factory-line—he was asked to leave. [laughs] And he was so down. But I said, “Shelly, this could be the best thing that ever happened to you in your life,” and it turned out to be, because he then got in on the ground floor of comic books. When Fleischer’s decided to move their operation from New York to Florida, they offered very good benefits—one month of free rent down there, and a guarantee that if you didn’t like it they’d pay your transportation back—but I decided I wanted to go into another area. That’s how I wound up in the comic book field, at DC’s offices on Lafayette Street. I started up a couple of strips there. I worked at assisting some of the artists. RT: You’ve said that you worked on the first issue of Action Comics. [NOTE: See the accompanying sidebar for another view of this minor but controversial point.] LAMPERT: I did the first appearance of Superman in the comics, ever. All I did was: I was given the job to take the proofs that Siegel and Shuster had sent to the syndicates and hadn’t been able to sell; I took them and put them into comic book form. I cut ‘em up, pasted them up from daily strips into full-page stuff. Where things didn’t fit, I’d make little extensions…you follow me? RT: Yes. You can tell where there’s a change of surface. There’ll be a little white space where the pen kind of skipped, going from the Shuster paste-up to what was added. LAMPERT: Blame me for that. I made a joke about it: In the first appearance of “Superman,” the only original artwork was mine. [laughter] Everything else was proofs! RT: Would Vin Sullivan, the original editor of Action Comics, have been the one to hire you to do the paste-up work on that first Superman story?

Still another possibility would be that Harry pasted up (and added art to) the lead “Superman” story in Superman #2. That adventure, which lacks even a true splash panel, is quite obviously one drawn originally for newspaper strip syndication—but, unlike those in Superman #1, had not appeared in Action.

LAMPERT: No, no, no, I was hired by Gaines. RT: Were Shuster and Siegel still back in Ohio then? LAMPERT: No, they were there in New York. And when they came in, you could feel an aura in the air. The people down there knew they had something. I did the paste-ups for a dollar a page. I was a freelancer; I was never on the payroll. When they gave me that job, I did it. Whether it was an inking job on “The Green Lantern,” or that time I did “The Atom”— whenever they had a crisis—

The matter remains unresolved. Certainly Harry Lampert doesn’t need credit on Action #1 to establish his bona fides as one of the true comics pioneers!

RT: There you were!

—RT.

RT: The earliest DC comics work you’re listed as

—A Conversation with Harry Lampert

LAMPERT: I didn’t know. He was older than I was. My memories of him were always very good. RT: I was curious about whether “The Flash” was Gardner’s idea, or Shelly Mayer’s. LAMPERT: My recollection is that it was Gardner’s idea. RT: The Flash had such a unique look, because of that Mercury helmet and the winged sandals. Was that part of the verbal description, or was that something you added? LAMPERT: I really don’t recall fully. It’s been exactly sixty years. I do know that the idea of it being Mercury, and all that stuff, was Gardner’s. RT: He loved history and mythology. Aside from the helmet—was a lot of the costume design, like the lightning bolts on the shirt, on the side of his pants, even on his belt—was a lot of this left to you? LAMPERT: Some of it was described to me. I don’t recall saying I was going to put a lightning bolt here, there, or whatever. Talking about the lightning bolt along the trousers—that was later taken out. It was very difficult to draw. It was very clumsy at the break. So I guess [second “Flash” artist E.E.] Hibbard eliminated it. It was a smart thing to do, because it was very awkward. If I had continued drawing “The Flash,” the strip would have had more of my mark on it. You didn’t know you were creating a monument. It was just a job to do. RT: A job you got because you were doing other strips for AA.

Above: [Art ©2000 Harry Lampert; Flash ©2000 DC Comics Inc.] Right: One of Harry’s more ingenious re-creations of the 1990s was this composite splash page, which features scenes from various pages in the first “Flash” adventure. [Art ©2000 Harry Lampert; Flash ©2000 DC Comics Inc.]

doing were “Movietown Comedy” and “Spot Savage.” LAMPERT: “Spot Savage” was a reporter. My nephew, who’s a reporter for the Washington Post, did an article on me, and that was the first time I’d ever seen that “Spot Savage” thing reproduced. His piece had a great title: “My Own Flash and Blood.” RT: I like it. You mostly drew humorous stuff. So how did you come to be the first artist to draw “The Flash”? LAMPERT: Gardner Fox brought the thing in. He was the one who came up with the idea of what it should be. RT: Did you talk with Gardner about it, or just with Mayer? LAMPERT: No, I spoke with both of them. It wasn’t a conference, where I was sitting there while he was writing. He wrote it. I drew it, period, you know what I mean? Thank God I signed my name on it! [laughs] RT: In what state was “The Flash” when they called you? LAMPERT: There was a script, and a rough idea of what they wanted the character to be. I don’t recall everything. There was some sort of verbal rough of the thing, and I drew it. I give 100% of the credit to Gardner Fox. RT: Gardner was one of the people, along with Julius Schwartz and Mort Weisinger, who helped me get into comics. He was such a nice, gentle, friendly person. He passed away in the mid-’80s.

LAMPERT: Yeah. I was doing work with Bill Smith on “Red, White, and Blue.” I think John Wentworth was the writer. Bill Smith was in an industry he didn’t want to be in. He wanted to be an illustrator, and he wound up doing stuff for the Saturday Evening Post. When he quit drawing “Red, White, and Blue,” I

“Flash and Fantasy”— took it over. In addition, I was given “The King.” RT: That started in Flash #3—the very issue after the two in which you drew “The Flash.” It’s like you jumped from one to the other.

RT: Certainly, by co-creating “Flash” and “Hawkman,” even if he hadn’t gone on to do “Dr. Fate,” “Justice Society,” etc.—that would’ve made him one of the major early comics creators. LAMPERT: No question about it. RT: Did you have any particular feeling at the time about drawing “The Flash,” or was it just another assignment? LAMPERT: Well, I liked doing it. This was really one of my first attempts at adventure, real adventure. I was exactly 23 when I did it. The only thing I’d say about the things on “The Flash” that I did, and what other people did consequently, was that I feel I did some of them better. First of all, I knew how to tell a story. I still do. Maybe my technique was not as good as it became a year later, but I told the story very well. Also, in all cases, it looked like a very graceful figure. In some subsequent drawings of him, for some reason or another, he looks chunky, you know? RT: For this issue I’m also interviewing Shelly Moldoff, who of course drew some of the earliest Flash Comics covers, including the very first. Moldoff, like you, had a feeling for characters running, which was good for The Flash. LAMPERT: I know Shelly. I know Marty Nodell [original artist of Green Lantern]. I knew Hibbard—we had a very good relationship—it was the same with the other people. RT: After you designed The Flash, did you have more conferences with Gardner and/or Shelly, or did Gardner just write the stories and you drew them? LAMPERT: I very seldom saw the writers. You got a piece of paper, and you knew that Johnny Wentworth did it, or Bill Finger, or whoever did it. You didn’t confer with them. RT: Did you have any input on The Flash’s color scheme? LAMPERT: I would say no. RT: After drawing the first two stories, why did you leave the strip?

LAMPERT: You hit the nail on the head. It was originally called “King Standish.” I did all the lettering, including the masthead. Later we cut it down to just calling it “The King.” That was much more dramatic. I did the logo with the calling card. I did both those strips full-time until I went into the army.

LAMPERT: I didn’t just leave it… it left. Let’s put it that way. I don’t know why. I think one thing was, Hibbard was much older than I. I was scheduled to get into the army one of these days. But I can’t go into the

RT: This issue of Alter Ego celebrates the 60th anniversary of Flash Comics #1. Evidently Gardner wrote the entire issue except for “Johnny Thunder” and “The Whip,” which Wentworth wrote, and the humor feature by Ed Wheelan. Gardner wrote “Hawkman” and “The Flash” and “Cliff Cornwall.” LAMPERT: He was a very prolific writer. Anytime you got a script from him, it was very easy to follow. The descriptions were good, and you had leeway anyhow to fill in. You always had freedom. In other words, if you wanted to make this a bigger panel, or a smaller panel— whatever you wanted to do, you did. But he gave you good guidelines, and so it was easy for me to do.

—A Conversation with Harry Lampert

reasoning behind it. They gave me another assignment, which was fine.

several issues longer than you drew that character. Did you do that figure?

RT: Did you feel, having started “The Flash,” that you’d have liked to have continued? Did you care much?

LAMPERT: I don’t know. I didn’t work on covers. Of course, they could have pasted a stat onto the logo.

LAMPERT: I can’t say I was delighted. But in those days, you didn’t look at it as if you were creating the

LAMPERT: A very nice young man. Younger than me.

RT: Sol stayed at DC till he retired. Did you know Dennis Neville, the artist who drew the first two “Hawkman” stories?

RT: Next I’d like to ask you about Bill Smith, the original “Red, White, and Blue” artist.

RT: I’ve never heard much about John Wentworth. LAMPERT: I think I met him once. I remember him being a tall, lighthaired individual. I was always downtown, back and forth. There was this guy Sol Harrison, who was the production guy....

LAMPERT: I knew him, but if you asked me to describe him, I couldn’t. RT: It’s interesting that Mayer changed artists on both strips after two issues, with Moldoff moving from “Cliff Cornwall” to “Hawkman” and Hibbard taking over “Flash.” LAMPERT: I knew them all. I remember Bill Finger, too. RT: A very important writer, who’s only now finally getting more of his due. LAMPERT: In those days, comic book artists and writers were not held in high esteem. RT: While you were doing “The King” and “Red, White, and Blue,” did you do humor cartoons, too?

world’s greatest thing. You had a job to do, and I was doing a minimum of six pages, and I got paid $7-$10 a page, and I was making 60 bucks a week for working a few days, you know? RT: The artist who took over “The Flash” and drew the feature for years was E.E. Hibbard. You drew Flash really leaning forward, with his head practically touching the ground, while Hibbard had no feeling for speed. He was technically a good artist, but he had no feeling for motion.

LAMPERT: I didn’t do many cartoons until I came back from the army, around 1946. That’s when I did “Drag-along” for Parents Magazine, too. She was a little girl who had a kid brother, and everywhere she went, he wanted to go. I was great with kid stuff. I also did a whole bunch of “Winky, Blinky, and Noddy.” RT: The Three Dimwits from “The Flash.” They had their own feature for a while in All-American. They were a bit like the Three Stooges, wouldn’t you say?

LAMPERT: Also, in his early stuff, you’ll see Flash’s head is large compared to his body. The guy looked scrawny! RT: By then you were plenty busy with “Red, White, and Blue” and then “The King,” which you also signed. Oddly, you and Gardner have a credit on the first Flash story, but not on the second. Later, they added a regular byline, “by Gardner Fox and E.E. Hibbard,” which appeared even on a few stories Gardner didn’t write or Hibbard didn’t draw. But at least you two had credit on that first one!

LAMPERT: Not like the Three Stooges! [laughs] Shelly Mayer was the creator of them, and I drew them. I think we did a hell of a good job on them.

LAMPERT: I just threw it in there. I even lettered it. I just did it! Let them take it off if they didn’t like it. RT: You had a good relationship with Shelly Mayer? LAMPERT: Very good. We were, and remained to his last days, good friends. I think he was very happy when I got into the magazine field. That was big stuff, you know. When I came back from the army, I took all those ideas that didn’t sell, and put them in the strips: “Ton o’ Fun,” “Movie Magic.” They all had my signatures, because my name was important, then. RT: By Flash #2, which had a Hawkman cover, there was a small figure of The Flash racing near the logo. It was generally left white, and seemed to be in your style. Actually, it stayed on Flash Comics for

RT: Funny, Gardner always felt he created them for “The Flash.” Maybe they were Shelly’s idea, but Gardner of course wrote them. You’re also listed listed as working

“Flash and Fantasy”—

on at least one “Green Lantern.” Would that have been inking over Mart Nodell? LAMPERT: Over Nodell, and definitely before I went into the army. I was drafted right after Pearl Harbor, first week of February ’42. With my background in animation, they put me in the training film laboratory at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. While everybody was being sent out, I’m not, and I was there for two weeks, and I used to goof off. My buddy used to come with his car, and we’d go out and come back. Well, I came back one evening and found I was scheduled to go out to Neosho, Missouri... to Camp Crowder. So here I am, because I was listed on Signal Corps—and they needed, God knows, 500 or 1000 people to go there— I’m on the list, and off I go to Camp Crowder. I think Neosho had 1500 population. The big city nearby was Joplin. RT: That’s in the western part of my home state, on what became Route 66. LAMPERT: If you went into Neosho, there wasn’t much you could do. The whole town was a monument in the center, plus a square. And we were bored servicemen, 40,000 strong. But I’ll tell you, the camp was beautiful. It was brand new. I had my basic training there, and I did a couple of drawings for the camp newspaper. One guy was a wrestler and I did a cartoon about him—stuff like that. I was supposed to stay on as an instructor in supply school, but then one bright day, boom! I’m on orders, off we go, so secretively, you wouldn’t know! They put us on a train—36 hours on a train!—and if you went off to take a walk, the MPs were out there, drawing rifles so no one would escape. “My God, what is this?”

drawings for the camp newspaper, called the Drew Field Echoes. Also in that area was Dik Browne—you know Dik Browne? RT: The original artist of Hagar the Horrible? I met him years ago at the home of artist Gil Kane. He died some time back, of course. A big, giant, burly guy—he looked just like Hagar! LAMPERT: Well, he didn’t look like that when I knew him. I was in Drew Field, and he was at Benjamin Field, which was like a headquarters. Anyhow, here I am, scheduled on alert to be sent overseas, and for some reason or another, I’m not picked. This is September, and I go home on a furlough; and when I come back, someone wants me to do something on special services. They found out about the drawing I’ve been doing, and I’m going to be doing artwork for a monthly publication called The Volunteer for civilian plane spotters and plotters. I also did many other tasks which included art and cartooning—V.D. posters, instructional flying posters (like the perils of low flying), a manual on the effect of flying upon teeth for the Dental Flight Surgeon. But, while I was there, the most satisfying work of my army cartoon career was my strip, called Droopy, the Drew Field Mosquito. I was drawing all my own ideas, and I did 150 strips over a three-year period. It was on black paper that you put into albums. I kept the proofs. Everything was falling apart, so I put it together last year, all 148 strips in book form, called The Antics and Adventures of Droopy the Drew Field Mosquito. It’s about a mosquito who goes through various metamorphoses and becomes a GI. The book also contains a sampling of the editorial cartoons I did for the newspaper between August 1942 and December 1945.

I wound up in a place called Drew Field in Tampa, Florida, in the Signal Corps. Again they found out I could draw, so I was doing stuff for the radar school, technical diagrams, and I knew nothing about electronics at all. Plotting maps with people. I also started to do

A sampling of “Droopy the Drew Field Mosquito” strips drawn from 1942-45 for the Drew Field Echoes base newspaper. Note how Sgt. Harry Lampert ingeniously combined art and a photo in this one. [©2000 Harry Lampert.]

—A Conversation with Harry Lampert

At the end of the book there’s a commendation from the base commander and a fun award from Milton Caniff and Sgt. Sansone, a very good G.I. artist. The thing about Droopy is that it not only reflects the Home Front; it also reflects what was happening elsewhere. In other words, when they had the Yalta Conference, I put Droopy in with Stalin and Churchill and Roosevelt— Droopy’s right in the middle of it! Things that happened in the War, like the invasion, were reflected in the strip. I believe it’s some of my best work, because it’s me—no Sgt. Harry at the drawing board in the early 1940s. H.L. is currently preparing a book of Droopy’s adventures; vintage “Droopy” writers, no nothing. strips will also appear in future issues of Alter Ego.) [©2000 Harry Lampert.] them out. For six months I never sold a drawing. I came home on furlough, and while I was up there, my wife was helping me selling. We sold quite a few gag cartoons. I came back to Florida, and there in the mail were two okays from American Magazine. $20 apiece. RT: Good money then! The average wage a bit earlier, around the time of Pearl Harbor, was about $40 a week, I’ve read.

RT: I’m sure a lot of great cartoon work done during World War II never saw the light of day afterward because it was in some camp newspaper. LAMPERT: But this was not just some camp newspaper; this was the camp newspaper that for two years in a row won the award for the best army newspaper! And Droopy was voted the most popular feature in the newspaper. So, while I was in the army, I sent a note to my girlfriend: “Come on down, I’ll be here at least three months. So come on down and we’ll get married.” That’s what we did. What actually happened was that I spent the rest of my army career in Drew Field. While I was there, I started sending stuff to the magazines. I was living off the post, and on weekends I would draw roughs and send

LAMPERT: I’m making $110 a month! So that started me on the career of being in magazines, and I sold even from Florida. An interesting note is—all those drawings I did in the first six months that I didn’t sell? I A fun wartime commendation from Milton Caniff and Sgt. Sansone for Harry Lampert’s cartoon work on the awardwinning Army newspaper, the Drew Field Echoes. (Sgt. Sansone was the creator of the G.I. Wolf, who was featured in the military’s Stars and Stripes magazine; and if you don’t know who Milt Caniff was, or who “Miss Lace” is above, you have no business reading anything about comic art.) [courtesy of Harry Lampert]

“Flash and Fantasy”— LAMPERT: Take my word for it. [laughs] [©2000 DC Comics Inc.] This “Cottontop Katie” story appeared in All-Star Comics #34 (AprilMay 1947), right before… Harry’s single fivepage outing starring The Atom. [©2000 DC Comics Inc.]

eventually sold 80% of them. RT: About “Cotton-Top Katie,” which you did for DC under the pseudonym “Harrielle” after the War—did you write that as well as draw it? LAMPERT: Yes. But Shelly had a lot of input on it. He and I came to the same fountain, I guess. RT: I was amazed to learn that, in All-Star #34, in 1947, right after a “Cotton-Top Katie” story and a two-page text story, comes a five-page “Atom” chapter! How did you come to do this one lone “Atom” story in the middle of everything else? LAMPERT: They were most likely late or something, and they said, “Harry, will you do it?” It wasn’t a question of whether I was going to start up doing “The Atom.” I filled in. RT: They didn’t really have a regular “Atom” artist then. Chet Kozlak did the “Atom” chapter in #33, Paul Reinman would do #35, and Alex Toth #37. Those were the only times Reinman or Toth ever did “The Atom,” too. Strangely, #34 is one of the few issues of All-Star between #33-41 not reprinted to date. I consider that nine-issue run to be the acme of All-Star in terms of script and art. A villain called The Wizard was introduced in #34. Surely Irwin Hasen, who drew the JSA chapters, designed The Wizard, but I’m curious whether you worked from just a drawing, or whether the first chapter might already have been drawn by then. LAMPERT: All I know is, I drew it. RT: I wouldn’t have known the same artist drew both stories; the two styles don’t look that much alike.

RT: I will! Another guy who did a lot of humor cartoons for DC later was [editor] Murray Boltinoff’s brother Henry. LAMPERT: Actually, he and the whole bunch of cartoonists at George Washington High School preceded me, and were my inspiration for going into the field. I saw Henry just a year or so ago. Oh, I’ve got to tell you something I’ll never forget: In the late 1940s there was this newspaper called The New York Star. Walt Kelly was the editor. He had just started Pogo, and they were going to syndicate cartoons. He called me in and I did a teenage strip called Digby. I did a whole month’s worth of work, and they had one week of blurbs [teasers], that ran for one week—and [publisher Ralph] Ingersoll pulled the rug out from under it. I lasted one week, in January 1949! The strip never had a chance. I really had a very good career in the magazines. I taught gag cartoons for four years at the School of Visual Arts, from ’48 to ’51. That was the same time Jerry Robinson was there; all these other wonderful people were there at the same time, like Burne Hogarth and Tom Gill. I taught at C&I, too. Then I went into the advertising business. RT: You had your own company, right?

LAMPERT: A very successful, beautiful ad agency. I started it in 1947. After ’53 it occupied my complete attention until I retired in ’76. It won the Cannes Film Festival award for a TV ad called “Dancing in the Aisles” for Olympic Airways—Mr. Onassis’ airline. It won the Golden Lion, the big award. We won some Clio and Andy awards, too. We did stuff for wonderful, big companies like Hanes Hosiery, Bali Brassieres, Seagram, Chanel 7, ABC-TV in New York, a lot of very prestigious clients. Many of them were in Fortune’s 500. RT: You probably did a lot of sketching at that agency. LAMPERT: Well, I started in the art end of it. Then I was writing copy, and then I ran the damn thing. I was the only person who started an ad agency without stealing an account from another company! I just opened up. Adele, who’s sitting beside me right now, was my agent, and she was a hell of an agent. Earlier, when I was still freelancing, one agency had wanted me to do a series of technical stuff for automobiles for a company named Sorenson—and they asked me to do eight cartoons at $35 apiece. I laid out the whole thing, and the reason they only paid me that small sum

—A Conversation with Harry Lampert

was that it was “only going in a trade magazine.” But you know what they did? They took my drawings and, in addition to going into the trade magazine, they made gigantic posters, full-color posters—and then they took the stuff and made big visual aids, transparencies for trade shows—and all I got was $35! I said to my accountant, “How do I become an ad agency?” [laughs] That’s a true story. RT: You also co-authored a book called How to Create 1000 Gags a Year”… LAMPERT: That was done around ’51. Jack Markow, Danny Koerner, and I formed a group called “Cartoon Consultants.” Jack Markow is one hell of a good cartoonist; he was in The New Yorker a lot. We were all teachers at C&I. I was already in the ad business.

Harry’s Digby was in good company at the New York Star, with both Barnaby and Walt Kelly’s brand new Pogo strip, which hadn’t yet gone national. [Pogo ©2000 the estate of Walt Kelly; Digby ©2000 Harry Lampert.]

We also did “The Cartoonists Calendar,” to help cartoonists know how to plan. In other words, in March, sign it July 4. On July 4, think of Christmas. We had all these different calendars for what you’re supposed to be working on. I also illustrated a book called How to Gain an Extra Hour a Day, but I didn’t write that; Ray Josephs did. It was eventually printed in a number of languages, including Japanese. RT: During what period of your life were you selling cartoons to all these magazines —Collier’s, Saturday Review, Liberty, American, This Week, Parade, et al.? LAMPERT: It started in 1943, while I was in the army, and continued till about 1953. When I was in the ad business, I didn’t do it that much. I never appeared in The New Yorker [laughs] but I was in every other magazine—Esquire, Saturday Evening Post… RT: While you were chairman of the board of the Lampert Advertising

Agency? LAMPERT: Yes. It was later called Lampert Communications, and it became a public company. RT: It’s been quite a career! If somebody had asked you when you were 17 years old if you were going to do all those things in your life, you’d probably have said, “No way!” LAMPERT: And now I have a whole new career—a very successful one. I’m a bridge teacher. I’ve written and illustrated two books, called The Fun Way to Serious Bridge and The Fun Way to Advanced Bridge. Cartoons as visual aids. Adele and I published the first book ourselves in 1978 as Hardel Publishing. In 1980 we turned it over to Simon and Schuster. The second book came out in 1985, and won the award for Best Bridge Book of the Year. The first one has sold close to quarter of a million copies. The second one has sold about 40,000 so far. RT: So Simon and Schuster took it over from a smaller company, and merchandised it into a big hit? LAMPERT: They merchandised nothing! It was already a big hit. They didn’t do a damn thing. They just put it in the stores. It’s still selling 12,000 books a year. RT: “A nice little earner,” as they say on a British TV show. LAMPERT: Yeah. I was president of the American Bridge

“Flash and Fantasy”—A Conversation with Harry Lampert RT: Paul is the publisher of DC Comics. DC is very good about paying royalties and the like. LAMPERT: They sent me a $5000 check for the fact that The Flash was on television, and a $1600 check because my stuff appeared in one of the books. Since then, I’ve started doing re-creations. I’d never done that before. I’ve been to two San Diego conventions. The first year I just walked in; I didn’t do any special art for it, but Rob Hughes grabbed some drawings out of my hand and bought them. The next time I came in, I brought along a bunch of stuff. RT: Yet another career!

LAMPERT: I’ve also been in one convention in New York, and two in Orlando. I brought the Droopy book to one, and sold ten books at $25 apiece. I think I’ve done about 75 re-creations to date. I’m scheduled to go to San Diego next summer. I’m going to do a drawing to cover the sixty years of The Flash. RT: Thank you very much, Mr. Lampert. I really appreciate you giving me this time.

Teachers’ Association. I teach with cartoons as slides. It’s all funny, funny stuff all the way through. I just gave a lecture last night using cartoons.

LAMPERT: My name happens to be Harry, also.

RT: Julie Schwartz at DC is a bridge player, isn’t he?

RT: Thanks, Harry.

LAMPERT: Oh yeah, we kid each other. It was one of my hobbies as a young man. After I retired, I started teaching it, then wrote the books, and I’ve just written about bridge for a big magazine. RT: It’s only in recent years that you’ve appeared at comics conventions and done re-creations. How did comics fans get in touch with you? LAMPERT: Here’s where bridge crossed cartoons. At a bridge teachers’ convention in San Diego, my friend Jim Whiting, who did the Li’l Folks strip, with Mel Lazarus, who did Momma—well, Whiting was a student of mine at the School of Visual Arts. He moved to San Diego and I was going to come out. He said, “Harry, you must speak to my Cartoonists’ Society.” So I went to one of their dinner meetings and did a lecture. There was a fellow there by the name of David Siegel. He came up to me with a copy of a book [The Greatest Flash Stories Ever Told] with my first story in it, and I said, “Oh, my God!” He asked if I’d come to the San Diego Comics Convention—that they’d been looking for me! So I’m there on a Golden Age panel, and everybody’s coming up for my autograph, and a Mr. Levitz comes up and says, “Can I have your Social Security number?” I gave it to him, and two weeks later I get two checks in the mail.

IN 2000, HARRY LAMPERT WILL APPEAR AT: The MegaCon, Orlando Florida, March 31-April 1. (For information contact (813) 891-1702.) The All Time Classic New York Comic Book Convention, at the Westchester County Center, White Plains, New York, June 9-11. (For info contact Joe Petrilak at Diamond Collectibles, (718) 278-1292.) The International Comic Con: San Diego, in July. (See various magazines for details.)

Two Roses and One Thorn

Two Roses and One Thorn ...and Other Errata by

Robert Kanigher With a Postscript by Joe Kubert and an Index by Robin Snyder

Robert Kanigher, flanked by scenes from The Flash’s first two RK-scripted encounters with The Thorn—from Flash Comics #89 (Nov. 1947) and #96 (June 1948), as drawn by Joe Kubert. The caricature by Dave Manak of RK is from The Amazing World of DC Comics #14, 1977. [©2000 DC Comics Inc.; thanks to Al Dellinges]

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Robert Kanigher, of course, is one of the premier writers in comics history, having begun with Fox Publications circa 1940 but moving on swiftly to Fawcett, to MLJ—to DC, where from 1943 on he became first a major writer, then a writer-editor. He is most noted for his tales featuring Flash, Hawkman, Green Lantern, Justice Society, Black Canary, Wonder Woman, et al. in the latter ’40s, and since then for “Viking Prince” and such classic DC war series as “Sgt. Rock,” “Enemy Ace,” etc. [The following article has been compiled, with RK’s permission, from a letter he sent Ye Editor in late 1999 and one he wrote in 1992 for the newsletter Robin Snyder’s History of the Comics (now Robin Snyder’s The Comics). The portion dealing with RK’s twice-lived concept “Rose and the Thorn” was originally published in RSHOC, Vol. 3, No. 7, July 1992, and is ©1992, 2000 by Robert Kanigher. [At the end of the article, also concerning “Rose and the Thorn,” have been added a brief note by Joe Kubert and an index by Robin Snyder; both are from RSHOC Vol. 2, #7 (July 1991), and are ©1991, 2000 by Joe and Robin, respectively, and are used with their kind permission. [And now, RK in his own words—and if there is ever any sense of a bit of discontinuity between one thought and another, the fault is due to the editing, and not to RK himself, who fires off ideas like they were bullets:]

You surprised me with “Kanigher on Kanigher” [in A/E, Vol. 3, #2]. I didn’t expect it. Nice hemstitching. One error: You said I called National/AA “Arco.” Wrong. Arco were the publishers next door to Shelly [Mayer]’s offices. The highly qualified Ben Raeburn, whom I knew socially, became the managing editor of Arco Publishing. Ben introduced me to Shelly Mayer. [About his work:] I never kept a record of what I wrote or where it appeared. I didn’t keep a single copy. What has been recognized is that I didn’t bring comics to comics; but my own world. [About proofreading:] Although I do not consider proofreading part of an editor’s responsibility, I did proofread every book of which I was the editor, because I didn’t have an assistant to train. I wrote every feature. Designed every cover. Almost every illustrator signed his cover. If he drew the feature, his name was on the first or second page. When I made out a voucher for a

Two Roses and One Thorn The Sneezing Skyscraper. The Lonely Locomotive. The Secret of the Dolphins. Philip, the fly that saved Hollywood.

[On the circumstances of his writing and editing Wonder Woman beginning in the mid- to late-1940s. After recounting how he was lured into an office job by Shelly Mayer and Jack Liebowitz, as per A/E V3#2, he goes on:] I relieved Shelly of the Amazon he hated, and the manner in which he chose me confirmed my belief that he was more performer than creator, despite the adulation of every illustrator from Hasen to Toth, deserved though he was according to their yardstick. Not mine. Whether [Wonder Woman co-creator William Moulton] Marston was alive or dead when I took over, I do not know. I did my best to create real human beings of Diana and Steve. A maelstrom arose. Everyone from the Bronx to Bombay had his/her idea of how WW should be handled. It wasn’t mine. A woman spent a fortune calling me for an hour from somewhere in California, every Friday, telling me how the Amazon should be produced. The great mystery is why didn’t Liebowitz fire me or at least take me off the book, during all the years I handled her? Only once Jack handed a complaint from Mrs. Marson to Whit, who told me to “Take the old lady out to lunch and smooth her feathers.” I went to Mrs. Marston’s office in a huge company’s huge building on Lexington Avenue and 23rd Street. She was very gracious to me. She took me to lunch in her company’s restaurant. She never uttered a word of complaint and even invited me to spend a weekend in her Westchester home.

Page 2 of Kanigher and Kubert’s third “Rose and Thorn” story, complete with lettering marked for rewriting. Of this tale, mostly unpublished by DC, Robin Snyder writes: “The photostats I used [in my publication] came from Nelson Bridwell [longtime DC editor]. In one of our moves he was about to throw a package of stats in the wastebasket; can’t recall why. Anyway, I asked for them, and he obliged.” See the ad elsewhere this issue for how to receive Robin’s excellent newsletter, Robin Snyder’s The Comics. [Flash ©2000 DC Comics Inc.; special thanks to Robin Snyder.]

check for every script, cover, artwork, etc.—the freelancer’s name was on it. Thus, he automatically received credit for his or her work. I chose the backups. And the “funny” one-pagers from [Harvey] Kurtzman to [Irwin] Hasen. Whit [Ellsworth] told me he hated Kurtzman’s and Krigstein’s work, but I kept them on until Harvey drifted away of his own accord. I always thought the letters pages should be an extension of the book they were in, as interesting as a story—when they were boring, statistical, not personal, I took over “Take Ten!” [About fairy tales:] I believe in fairy tales. I’ve even written them. Not for comics, although to be illustrated:

I discovered later that the complaint arose because I wrote a real romantic story coupling Diana and Steve. I made them human instead of the mishmash of mythology that Marston had concocted. Nothing came of it and Marston’s name continued to be on every WW story.

This reminds me of the “Sam Goldwyn Presents” signature on every movie coming out of his studio, and “Stan Lee Presents” on every story coming out of Marvel even if he was at the North Pole. Did they take the bricks with the applause? I met Stan once at Marvel. He was very amiable and complimentary at my attitude to, and performance in, comics. But I found his monolithic presence had reduced everyone to worker bees in their individual cubbyholes. Stifling. Who towered over DC? Nobody. When Shelly took early retirement, what happened? Nothing! Editors Nadle, Schwartz, and Kanigher took over National. When Whit finally vanished, what happened? Nothing! Editors Weisinger, Schiff, and Boltinoff continued producing

Two Roses and One Thorn

DC. The combined companies were like two snowballs running downhill on the momentum generated by the editors and their staff of freelancers. [And, finally, on the two incarnations of “Rose and the Thorn”:] A flower was a rarity in cement city where I grew up. In Crotona Park, the Royal Gardens of the Sun in the Bronx, it seemed as if the sun in the skies had directed all of its rays into one red, red flower. I tenderly plucked my first rose, and in reward for my tenderness was stabbed by its thorn. Nothing is ever lost in one’s memory banks, and this incident surfaced many years later when I created Rose and The Thorn while I was tapping my way through DC. Rose, as a little girl, created her sister Thorn. Blaming her for the things she smashed whenever she didn’t get her own way, an imaginary scapegoat who one day became so real she actually saw her in the mirror. Years later, Rose discovered a unique jungle element which had a remarkable effect: it allowed a person to spin like a top. The Thorn part of her soon came into existence against Rose’s will, using this bizarre power to lead the life of a criminal. Comics’ first schizoid. Joe Kubert illustrated. And even though, as I’ve said so many times since then, he draws hookers like princesses and princesses like hookers—both are the stuff that fairy tale dreams are made of—the women became mythic. You can look at them but you can’t go to bed with them. Still, it was a novel conception, with Joe’s illustrations possibly fueled by his awakened gonads. Imagine my surprise when “Uncle” Jack Liebowitz cancelled it. Too sexy! Sexy! Alka Seltzer was sexier. But all the books were selling high. What did one feature more or less matter during those roseate times?

Many years and many characters later, E. Nelson Bridwell called me. He was to be the editor of a revival of “Rose and the Thorn.” It was Nelson who corrected me when I said “Rose and Thorn.” He reminded me it was “Rose and The Thorn.” Anyway, I had completely forgotten my original origin. And invented a more realistic one. This time, Rose Forrest’s father was a detective. I invented a criminal organization called The 100. “100” because I wanted to give myself 100 stories in which to finish them off. 100 months if it was a monthly feature. 200 if it was a bimonthly. Rose had some kind of secretarial position, I think. But she was called to the scene when her murdered father, still in his car, was lifted

by crane out of the East River. This gruesome scene split her personality. She was her natural grieving self by day... but during the night she sleepwalked as The Thorn. Drawn, I believe, by my “Men of Easy”: Ross Andru and Mike Esposito. Years and characters later, [Dick] Giordano wanted me to do a Batman/Rose and The Thorn two-part story. Drawn by Jim Aparo, who captured the personalities of the two women brilliantly. Giordano insisted that I soft-pedal her female powers, her strengths, her threat. I acquiesced reluctantly. Of course, this was years before Thelma and Louise became a cinematic smash. [NEXT PAGE: A brief postscript by JOE KUBERT, which he titled “The Rose and the Thorn by RK and JK”:]

Two Roses and One Thorn

The story and storyline were absolutely 100% Bob Kanigher. It’s one of the few stories [of the early ones] that stand out in my memory. It had exciting and emotional/psychological overtones—and despite the fact that Bob and I always felt I drew the hardest looking females (“They look like hookers,” he’d say)—I enjoyed the character very much. I was told that the quick demise of “The Rose and the Thorn” (although, in terms of sales, the numbers were very healthy) was because the V.P. felt that the female characters was too “racy”/sexy.—J.K.

An Index to THE ROSE AND THE THORN by Robin Snyder (with thanks to Bill Wormstedt) APPEARANCE DATE STORY TITLE ARTIST(S) Flash Comics #89 Nov. ’47 “The Thorn” Joe Kubert Flash Comics #96 June ’48 “Flash and the Thorn Stalk” Joe Kubert NOTE: The final two pages (pp. 11-12) of the third, otherwise never-published 1947-48 “Rose and the Thorn” story were printed in Lois Lane #113 (Sept.1971), with art of course by Joe Kubert. Lois Lane #105 Oct. ’70 “Night of the Thorn—Day of the Rose” Ross Andru/Mike Esposito Lois Lane #106 Nov. ’70 “Where Do You Plant a Rose?” Ross Andru/Mike Esposito Lois Lane #107 Jan. ’71 “My Executioner Loves Me” Ross Andru/Mike Esposito Lois Lane #108 Feb. ’71 “Mourn for the Thorn” Ross Andru/Mike Esposito Lois Lane #109 April ’71 “The Mask of Death” Ross Andru/Mike Esposito Lois Lane #110 May ’71 “The Face of Fate” Ross Andru/Mike Esposito Lois Lane #111 June ’71 “Law of the 100” Gray Morrow Lois Lane #112 Aug. ’71 “Rock and Rose” Dick Giordano Lois Lane #113 Sept. ’71 Pp. 11-12 of “Strange Confessions” Joe Kubert Lois Lane #114 Sept. ’71 “The Foe of 100 Faces” Werner Roth/Vince Colletta Lois Lane #115 Oct. ’71 “The Computer Crooks” Dick Giordano Lois Lane #116 Nov. ’71 “Computed to Kill” Dick Giordano Lois Lane #117 Dec. ’71 “The Ghost with Two Faces” Rich Buckler/Dick Giordano Lois Lane #118 Jan.’72 “Hand of Death” Rich Buckler/Dick Giordano Lois Lane #119 Feb. ’72 “The Silent Sniper” Rich Buckler/Dick Giordano Lois Lane #120 March ’72 “Not All Roses Have Thorns” Rich Buckler/Mike Esposito Lois Lane #121 Apr. ’72 “Everything You Wanted to Know about Werner Roth/Vince Colletta Lois Lane but Were Afraid to Ask” “Master Plan” Rich Buckler/Vince Colletta Lois Lane #122 May ’72 “77 Coffins” John Rosenberger Lois Lane #123 June ’72 “The Richest Girl in the World” Don Heck Lois Lane #124 July ’72 “Murder by Motor” Don Heck/Henry Scarpelli Lois Lane #125 Aug. ’72 “The Nightmare Mask” Don Heck Lois Lane #126 Sept. ’72 “Bullets and Ballots” Don Heck Lois Lane #127 Oct. ’72 “The Sea Devil” Don Heck Lois Lane #128 Dec. ’72 “The Edge of Madness” Don Heck Lois Lane #129 Feb. ’73 “The Million Dollar Light” Don Heck Lois Lane #130 Apr. ’73 “Nightmare Alley” Don Heck The Brave and The Bold #188 July ’82 “A Grave as Wide as the World” Jim Aparo The Brave and The Bold #189 Aug. ’82 “Dead Men Tell No Tales” Jim Aparo (RK wrote all stories in 1947, 1948, 1970, 1971, & 1982; he and Cary Bates split them in 1972-73.)

Monthly! Edited and published by Robin Snyder

www.comicsfun.com/thecomics

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt presents—

Crash the Comics!

nly the professional writer knows what the other half reads. There are several million who don’t read at all; they only laugh at the pictures. Every large newsstand is a cross section of America, and there, for anyone who is interested, is the effect of all our repressions, our hopes, and fears. We read not only to learn but to gratify our cravings. As the son is father to the man, so the literature of our childhood is the father of our future. Several million people, most of them children, buy a comic magazine every month. Over 100 comic magazines represent, in paper, printing, engravings, salaries to writers, editors, and artists, and income to news dealers, a huge multimillion dollar business. The comics today are influencing the reading tastes of tomorrow, just as surely as Horatio Alger influenced the thinking of every adult today. Any intelligent writer who tries can make a living writing for the comics. Let’s examine their stories, beginning with the hero.

THE HERO Comic heroes are the apex of heroism, with all the prerequisites of strength, brains, handsomeness, and appeal to women, that are incumbent upon juvenile heroes. All comic characters live in their own world to the complete

exclusion of all other comic characters. Consequently, Batman, in his strips, is the total of heroic qualities; however, if Batman were to be compared with Superman, in the same story, Batman would immediately become a subservient character. Therefore the writer must create his own world for his heroes, a world in which his hero is the only hero. Comic heroes must be treated by their writers with respect. Too often a writer thinks, “Well, he’s just another comic-mag hero, the kids have seen a hundred of them.” This type of mental reaction results in the breakdown of character and was responsible for the failure of Samson, one of the early comic magazine successes. Samson and David, clad in lion skins, would stroll the streets, casually, looking for trouble, waiting for things to happen. This casual attitude was reflected by response of people in the streets to Samson and David and was carried to the readers. The reaction was, “Well, if the people in The red-black-&-white cover of the 110-page The Writer’s 1942 Yearbook. [©1942 Writer’s Digest]

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt presents— protect it from the Cobra, and while they are there standing around being useless, the villain strikes and kills sympathetic characters. Magno and Davey failed, not because they were captured or rendered helpless, or even because they were sidetracked by the villain, but through sheer inability. HOW TO INVOLVE THE HERO IN THE PLOT Too often the hero walks down the street and something happens, whereupon the hero jumps in and is involved with the plot. Cut this down to essentials and the hero is just minding someone else’s business. For a few stories this may be acceptable, but after a while the reaction sets in that the hero has no real motivations for his entry into the plot. The reader vicariously pictures himself as the hero. Consequently, if the hero has a strong personal reason for entering the plot, then the motivation becomes so much stronger. Even in the instance where the hero is a detective assigned to the case, the plot should develop so that the hero has more than just a duty motivation. For example, The Flag, who is a symbolic character, becomes deeply involved in a story because anyone whistling “The Star-Spangled Banner” immediately sets up a call within The Flag himself. A blow at the flag or the things it represents becomes a blow at the character The Flag. Or the Lone Warrior must fight not only to stop the Nazis, but to clear his own name as well, thus giving increased motivation to his actions. It also adds suspense. The thought arises—will he be able to clear himself? We know he’s not going to be killed or badly hurt, but will his good name be injured?

By 1942 Abner Sundell had already worked on such comics as Wonderworld, featuring The Flame. [©2000 Fox Publications; unless otherwise noted, all art accompanying this article courtesy of Michael T. Gilbert, who found them among dog-eared old comics in his personal collection.]

the story aren’t impressed by Samson and David, why should I be?” For contrast note the treatment of Captain America or Batman. Whenever these characters appear, panels are spent with crowds drawing back in amazement, with people cheering. The reader feels the importance of these heroes and his reaction becomes the same. Since the hero is the smartest, the strongest, the most excellent of all beings, his appearance upon the scene of the story should mark the end of the villain’s worst crimes. From this point forward the villain feels the pinch of opposition, and he changes his actions to remove the hero. Therefore all violent killings, all crimes in which the villain runs rampant, should occur before the hero becomes involved with the plot. Consequently we allow the villain to run wild in the opening of the story. From the time that the hero takes over, however, all crimes are the responsibility of the hero. The villain can plot actions that allow him to accomplish a murder or two with the hero on the scene, but these must be clever enough so that the reader feels there are extenuating circumstances, and the crimes were not the fault of the hero. Careless writing results in situations, as in “Magno and Davey,” where these two heroes go to a masked ball to

The elementary method of tying the hero’s role in the story is one that depends wholly on the strength of the villain. The Joker plans a whiz-dizzer crime; a honey. But he has been around before and he knows that Batman and Robin are always gumming up his parade. So he makes his plans. When this story starts he plots a fiendish method of getting our heroes out of his path. He takes the first swing at them. From there on it’s their fight. This method is very simple and easily overdone; and if your villain is not the strongest possible, his actions consequently are not the strongest possible, either. So handle this type gently. Another method is to utilize the powers of the hero in a manner that brings him inadvertently into the case. The Clown has just murdered a man in public view without anyone realizing what has happened. He can’t get away, but he can get rid of the swag which would be evidence against him. He places the money in a toy dirigible with a magnetic motor and sends it directly (at least he thinks so) to his hideout. But Magno and Davey, who know nothing about this crime, are in another part of the city amusing themselves by playing magnetic tug of war. They set up a wall of magnetism that crosses the path of the toy dirigible and bring The Clown’s swag directly to them. They’re in the story now and due to their own efforts.

Crash the Comics! THE HERO MUST BE HUMAN A hero must represent to the reader an image with which he can associate himself. Therefore he should be constructed as to be recognizable as a human being. He should have a home, or at least a setting. He should have characters to which to tie himself, friends, a father influence that makes him more understandable and sympathetic to readers.

cunning. As in all good writing, action stems from response of character to situation—so it must in comics. Conceive a good villain and drop him into a mediocre situation, and if the writer is sincere, this well-conceived villain will develop a well-rounded story from his reactions to the mediocre situation. A comic lead story which depends on melodrama can be no stronger than its most melodramatic figure—therefore the importance of strong supervillains. Avoid deductive mysteries in which the villain does not appear. Deduction can be used to find out who the villain is or what he is attempting to accomplish. Best villains are super-villains—Clown, Skull, Penguin, Red Skull, Camera Fiend, Vulture, etc.—men who can repeat from story to story, and who may adopt ordinary costume as a disguise, but who are essentially super. A super-villain must never be subservient to any other character as in the Mastermind, who receives orders from a German spy who in turn receives his orders from Hitler. This results in weakening the character of the villain, in making him secondary in importance to the one from whom he gets his orders.

This explains the double identity formula adopted by most superheroes. Because once in uniform the hero becomes too perfect to have any human frailties, he adopts another character, much more human and understandable, so that the readers can know him better. In uniform Superman is far too perfect for one to associate himself directly with him. But as Clark Kent, a nearsighted guy who can’t get to first base with Lois Lane, the readers can see themselves, and gloat in the secret that they, too, are really Superman.

Just a tough-looking character is not sufficient. The villain must represent all the vices, all that is evil, at a glance. Artistically he is a caricature of “bad.” The juvenile mind will thus identify at an immediate glance the battle between good and evil.

Captain America is a potato-peeling buck private who gets constantly bawled out by a top-sergeant. Capt. Marvel is a newsboy. The Shield surrounds himself with odd characters, since out of costume he is a G-Man and must still be a pretty austere person. Therefore the odd, or “comic,” characters are his friends, which makes him a pretty good sort of egg. A successful comic character needs more than just good action plotting. He needs constant character development that will keep him as interesting to the readers two years hence as he was in his first issue. A good method of obtaining constant characterization is through the Dick Tracy, Terry and the Pirates formula of creation of sympathetic characters, from story to story, dropping these characters for three or four months, and then at a later date involving them in another story. In this way the constant reader feels that he has been rewarded for his faith in the magazine, and the transient reader feels that he has missed something, and perhaps this would be a good magazine to read steadily. BRRR-R THE VILLAIN Super-villains are a breed of their own. On the strength of good super-villains, comics have changed from mediocre sellers to smash hits. With the introduction, or even the re-introduction of a villain into a story, from 2 to 5 pages should be devoted to characterization. Most stories should stem from this characterization of the villain. He should create the situation into which the hero is embroiled. Villains should be fearsome individuals, visually. Gangster types should be avoided, since for the most part they do not represent sufficient opposition to a hero. As much thought should go into the creation of a villain as goes into that of a hero. Villains must think and act in a spectacular manner, since if they are ordinary, all actions stemming from them are ordinary, and consequently the more cunning and clever they are, so the action of the story becomes more clever and

According to Jerry G. Bails’ Collector’s Guide: The First Heroic Age, the Nazi-busting Unknown Soldier was drawn at various times by Dave Berg, B. Curries, Rudy Palais, and even a pre-Mad Harvey Kurtzman. Something must’ve helped; he lasted from 1941 through 1947, though not originally in costume. [©2000 Ace Magazines, Inc.]

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt presents—

GERMANIC VILLAINS Too many stories are written with the motivation for action stemming out of Germany. When stories stem from Germany, the villain should be an operative entirely on his own, making his own decisions and own judgments, independent of orders from superiors. To defeat this primary supervillain, his personal death is not necessary—defeat and frustration of his immediate plan is sufficient. Death, or at least capture, should come to the secondary villain. The stronger the character of the villain, the greater is the obstacle he presents to the hero. There are some stories in which neither the super-villain nor the Germanic villain can be used. In all such cases, where the villain is bound to be an inferior person to the hero, no attempt should be made to match them physically. The villain in this instance should do his evil work through systematic characters, so that the hero cannot strike directly at him. For instance, in The Flag, the gangster villain strikes by taking advantage of the boys’ gang. The story might have been better if the gangster were not the supreme evil, but was merely a tool in the hands of one, and was accepted by the writer as such. In this story, a moral lesson is painted by The Flag, proving that the gangster is a coward. Such lessons should be proved not by the hero himself, since the villain stands no chance of offering real opposition, but by a second sympathetic character whom the boys previously despised—such as the honest kid who wouldn’t join the gang, or the cop on the beat who always broke up their crap games. SUB-CHARACTERS Comic sub-characters should always be simple enough for the juvenile mind to grasp their basic qualities at one glance. They must be either weak or strong, good or bad. There must be no in-between characters unless these middle characters are the subject of the story and the plot depends on the change from good to evil or vice versa.

These are the characters who are vulnerable. These are the friends, and consequently the weak points, of the hero. While a hero himself cannot be hurt by bullets, these same bullets can kill his sweetheart. Thus suspense grows from danger in which important sub-characters are placed, not upon the dangers which threaten the hero himself— except how these dangers threaten him in relation to the accomplishment of his task, which very often is the rescuing of the sub-character. Boy and Girl Assistants, and generally uniformed super-assistants to lead characters, should be treated in the same manner as heroes. These characters must be written into the plot. It is insufficient to have Davey tail along with Magno and merely swing in on the action as just another fist. The story must be written that Davey serves a definite purpose. Each character must serve in some way to further the story. A character who is merely an appendage is useless, and while they may not be detrimental to the story, they certainly do not help it. Very often, while the hero is invulnerable, the boy or girl assistant is otherwise. Consequently, if properly used, the assistant can serve as an Achilles heel. Too much stress on this point only succeeds in making the boy assistant a millstone around the neck of the hero, and instead of being an heroic figure in the eyes of the reader, he becomes a bothersome one. (Example, Samson and David.) WASTED CHARACTERS Too often characters are introduced into a story by an incident and then allowed to drop out entirely. This is wasteful writing. In the April issue of Lightning Comics, the Eel destroys a ferryboat. For a panel or two we see a mother who has lost three sons in the action. She speaks a piece and a character is born with a strong motivation for killing the villain, in fact a far stronger motivation than the hero has. But she is not utilized from that point on. This is a perfect example of bad writing.

Crash the Comics!

A good comic story is a simple and tight story in which there is no wasted character. Any person, action, or statement that appears in any comic story should be vital to the furtherance of the plot or the characterization of the main characters.

ACTION Pictorially, action is the highest point of interest in a comic magazine. Very often, well-written action is spoiled by poor artwork. A writer should take into consideration who the artist is, and how well he can conceive action, before writing it into a script. The artist who draws Captain America can be given five panels of action, one following the other, and all will be interesting. However, give the same script to the artist who draws The Raven, and three of these panels may be repetitious and consequently unnecessary.

PLOTTING—THREAD OF THE STORY The simplest form of plotting must be followed in the writing of comic scripts. The villain should attempt one major offensive, run across some obstacles to this major offensive, and finally be frustrated by the hero. All happenings, all actions, all characterization that arise in a story should be related to plot. Too often, the writer starts the story on one theme, runs out of ideas halfway through, and, with no real relationship, launches a brand new idea.

A writer of action should also consider that good writing style can often make a chase and a fight interesting in the written story. However, when translated to pictures, the same chase and fight becomes unimportant when buried in a magazine full of chase and fight. In writing comic action, the writer makes his setting of primary importance. All action taking place within this setting will be indigenous to it and consequently different pictorially from action that takes place elsewhere. In a steel mill, action will be conveyed through molten metal, swinging cranes,

Due to this characterization of the woman, we create human interest. The reader waits expectantly through the entire story for the woman to reappear, and when she does not, he is disappointed. Also, this scene having no direct bearing on the plot becomes unfunctional and wasted.

For example, Magno and Davey run across a plot of the Cobra’s to barricade all the schoolhouses in the country and hold for ransom all the children. The idea is good. But watch the development. Magno and Davey enter into the plot, and the story shifts to a brass city off the coast somewhere. This in itself is theme enough for another story. Magno and Davey are captured, the villain forgets completely about his conquered schoolhouses, and launches an all-out army of conquest on the United States, which is still a third story. Use any one of these three themes, develop the possibilities in any of them, and you have a good story— but run the three together into one story and the result is a story that fails to hold interest. U.S. Jones was so patriotic that he sported two different red-white-and-blue costumes in the same issue of Wonderworld! The writer should take one [©2000 Fox Publications.] theme, develop it along the oldest of short story formugiant machines, etc. Aboard ship, action will take place in staterooms, las—characterization, suspense, action, climax, denouement. engine rooms, around the rigging of the ship. Too much action loses its SUSPENSE importance. In a room full of shouting men, no one is heard; in a room Suspense in comics is not attained by placing the hero in mortal full of whispering men, the shouter immediately gets attention. Action danger. The reader realizes that the hero will not be injured. Suspense is therefore should be played against a background of other elements, attained by creating a situation in which the problem is, not whether the humor, mood, suspense—so that when the action occurs, it is important. hero will be killed, but how he will escape in jeopardy. Or how he can CLIMAX escape in sufficient time, to save those vulnerable beings who are also The best climax in comics, as in any action writing, is the “impossible placed in jeopardy. Or how he can escape in sufficient time to frustrate situation.” This is the spot in which the hero is faced with a predicament the villain’s plan, which is drawing to its culmination. which seems impossible to untangle. This is usually the point where the False suspense is attempted very often by the capture of the hero, human interest character introduced earlier makes his or her reappearand then the weak excuse—“We’ll kill you three hours from now, after ance. An example best illustrates the “impossible situation.” we go out and rob the bank.” Allowing the hero or his aide the time, for The Wizard is in one part of the city, Jane, the girl he loves, is in the no logical reason, in which he succeeds in making his escape, is foolishhand of the villain at Potters Field at the other end of the city. She is ness. A foolish villain is a weak one. This procedure, and it happens being buried alive. The Wizard, through his super-brain, sees the girl’s very often, is often called “suspense.” In reality it is nothing more than predicament and starts to her rescue. At this moment Roy, the Wizard’s lazy plotting. boy companion, at the other end of the city, leaps from the top of a

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt presents Crash the Comics!

bridge onto an automobile carrying another group of villains in order to capture them. The car swerves and goes off the bridge and Roy’s foot gets tangled in the spokes of the automobile wheel so that it is impossible for him to extricate himself. The car goes over the bridge into the river and Roy is doomed. The Wizard, through his super-brain, sees this situation. Here we have le situation impossible, which must be overcome by the hero. If the hero saves the girl, Roy dies. If he saves Roy, Jane dies. He saves them both, through perfectly logical action, which is allowable within the powers given to him in his particular characterization. Thus we see a high point of suspense created without the cheap subterfuge of tying the hero’s hands and waiting for him to break through his bonds, or throwing The Flame into a furnace, or levelling a machine gun at The Unknown Soldier. The solving of this high point of action is the climax of the story. There should be one and only one major climax to a story. All suspense, all action, should lead directly to this climax. A series of minor climaxes all running into thin air results only in exhaustion for the reader, rather than excitement. Again the principle is basic. Unity in all actions must center in one climax. DENOUEMENT This is the most neglected principle of story in the comic magazine business. Too often a story ends “smack” with the climax action. The reader turns the page, anxious to taper off his story, and discovers himself on page one of the next story. The denouement is the breathing spell, the return to normalcy, the tying up of loose ends, explanations, coming together of the characters at the end of the story. It should not be neglected. It does not need to be more than three or four panels, a page at most. In the denouement the opening suggestions of the next story can be planted, so that the reader is instilled with a desire to purchase that next issue. This means more than just a final caption, it means that somewhere in the story we have allowed one thread to run loose. In tracing down this thread we find that it is the forerunner of an entirely new story. Thus we have created a reason for sales of the next issue.

The Comic Markets Dell Publishing Co. 149 Madison Ave. Publishes the following comics in conjunction with Whitman Publishing Co. Whitman Publishing Co. 200 Fifth Ave., N.Y.C. Editor: Oscar Lebeck Popular Comics The Funnies Super Comics Parents Magazine Press, Inc. 52 Vanderbilt Ave., N.Y.C. Editor: G. Teber True Comics Real Heroes Comics Street and Smith 79 Seventh Ave. Editor: William DeGrouchy Bill Barnes Comics Doc Savage Comics Army and Navy Comics The Shadow Comics Sport Comics Super Magician Comics

Feature Publications, Inc. 1790 Broadway, N.Y.C. Editor: M.R. Reese Prize Comics Detective Comics, Inc. 480 Lexington Ave., N.Y.C. Editor: Whitney Ellsworth Action Comics Adventure Comics Detective Comics More Fun Comics World’s Finest Comics Star-Spangled Comics Superman Batman (Belonging to same group but under different editorship and with editorial offices at 225 Lafayette St., N.Y.C.) Editor: M.C. Gaines All-American Comics Flash Comics All-Flash Bi-Monthly Sensation Comics All-Star Comics Green Lantern Quarterly Timely Publications, Inc. 330 West 42nd St. Editor: Stan Lee Captain America Comics

PATRIOTIC STORIES Patriotic stories make up at least 50% of all comic stories. One bromide haunts the patriotic story, and that is the mass attack by the enemy upon the cities or armies of the heroes. This might therefore be avoided. The vaster the project does not necessarily mean the more intense the suspense. An event is only as strong as it comes close to home, as it is related to things we know and people we like. The murder of a city of people is not as strong as the killing of one person whom we have grown to know and with whom we sympathize. Comics will always be in there pitching. In January 1942 there were 180 titles, and that is too much for the market to absorb. Titles are going to drop, probably down to 100. The field will always be big enough and profitable enough to justify the time a writer will spend to learn it. There is an appalling scarcity of good producers. HOW TO SUBMIT MATERIAL The freelance writer makes his entree to the comic magazine publisher by submitting a synopsis of his strip. This synopsis runs from 500 to 1500 words, with a minimum of fancy writing. Just give the skeleton of your story, its outline. For this you will receive from $5 to $25. If it is bought, you may then get the next job of writing the dialogue (the balloons) and the additional captions that fill in the story to the reader when the drawing cannot tell the whole story. For this, the payment is $2 a page and up. Be sure that you sell only “first North American serial rights” when you submit your synopsis. Reserve all other rights for yourself. (Remember the near tragedy of the authors of Superman, who thoughtlessly sold “all rights.”) Your synopsis should let the editor visualize (1) your lead character, (2) the reasons why he will come into frequent conflict with the Forces of Evil, (3) your sub-characters, (4) your villain, and then give an outline of your story that will carry the strip through six to sixteen pages. [This article is part of a confidential report made by Abner Sundell for the publisher of a string of comics that needed an editorial pick-up. It represents the sort of inside authentic information usually available only to individuals working directly with the editor.]

Marvel Comics Mystic Comics Usa Comics [sic] Comedy Comics Joker Comics Young Allies Comics All Winners’ Comics [sic] Human Torch Comics Sub-Mariner Comics Tough Kid Squad Comics M.L.J. Magazines, Inc. 60 Hudston St., N.Y.C. Editor: Harry Shorten Pep Comics Zip Comics Topnotch Comics Shield-Wizard Quarterly Hangman Comics Jackpot Comics Family Comics, Inc. 67 West 44th St., N.Y.C. Speed Comics Champ Comics Green Hornet Comics Quality Comics Group 322 Main St., Stamford, Conn. Editor: Gilbert Fox Police Comics Military Comics Smash Comics Feature Comics

Hit Comics National Comics Crack Comics Doll Man Quarterly Uncle Sam Quarterly Standard Magazines, Inc. 10 East 40 St., N.Y.C. Exciting Comics Thrilling Comics Startling Comics Fawcett Publishing Co. 1501 Broadway, N.Y.C. Editor: Rod Reed Captain Marvel Adventures Comics Whiz Comics Master Comics Spy-Smasher Comics Bulletman Comics Wow Comics America’s Greatest Comics Comic Corporation of America 215 Fourth Ave., N.Y.C. Editor: Harold Hersey Stars and Stripes Comics Amazing Man Comics Man of War Comics World Famous Heroes Magazine

Comic House, Inc. 114 East 32nd St., N.Y.C. Editors: C| harles Biro & Bob Woods Silver Streak Comics Daredevil Comics Boy Comics Eastern Color Printing Co. 500 Fifth Ave., N.Y.C. Famous Funnies Heroic Comics Ace Magazines, Inc. 67 West 44th St., N.Y.C. Editor: Frederick Gardener Our Flag Comics Captain Courageous Comics Lightning Comics Super-Mystery Comics Four Favorites Comics Novelty Press, Inc. 292 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. Blue Bolt Comics Target Comics

M.T.G’s NOTE: This listing appeared with the above article and is not valid.

The Moebius Silver Surfer Sketches

The Moebius Silver Surfer Sketches ...Plus One! by Jean-Marc Lofficier [NOTE: Over the past decade-plus since The Silver Surfer: Parable, by Stan Lee and Moebius was first published by Marvel Comics, the French artist has drawn numerous sketches, at comics conventions and elsewhere, of the “sentinel of the spaceways.” Here for the first time, accompanying a short piece on that epic collaboration, is a collection of some of these sketches, courtesy of Moebius and of Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, his partners in Starwatcher Graphics. One or two of the sketches, it will be noted, are in an even more purely “Moebius” style (if that’s possible) than his illustrations in the work done with Stan Lee. —R.T.]

Eventually, I met Moebius in 1985, when he was living in Los Angeles. He and his thenwife Claudine had just created a corporation called Starwatcher Graphics to handle his business affairs; and, a few months later, they both asked my wife Randy and me to come aboard.

I first discovered Moebius in the early 1960s. At that time his western series, Lieutenant Blueberry, done under his real name of Jean Giraud (or, more accurately, signed “Gir”), was as much a staple in French comics as, say, Batman was in the United States. At the same time, being an avid sciencefiction fan, I also admired the work of an artist who was doing a wonderful job illustrating s-f short stories in the French edition of Galaxy magazine. That artist signed his work “Moebius,” and I didn’t realize he and “Gir” were one and the same until writer Jacques Lob spelled it out in his Anthology of Comics. Like many fans, I then often wondered why “Moebius,” rather than “Gir,” didn’t do actual science-fiction or fantasy comic book stories. I didn’t have to wonder for long. In 1973, with the publication of “The Detour” (a rather appropriate title) in the weekly magazine Pilote, Moebius finally arrived on the comics scene. (This story was reprinted in Dark Horse’s Arzach collection.) A year later—in 1974—Moebius and Philippe Druillet and a couple of other artists went the self-publishing route, and created the magazine Metal Hurlant. It’s hard to explain, to anyone who wasn’t there, the impact that Metal Hurlant had on the French comics scene. Up to that point, the entire French-language comics industry (with a few exceptions, such as Barbarella) was totally dominated by juvenile adventure series. In the space of a year or two, not only had that domination ceased, but mighty publishing empires were forced to adapt—or disappear.

One of the very first actions we took was to set up a complete reprinting of all the Moebius stories at Epic, Marvel’s division of creator-owned projects, in versions newly translated and (sometimes) recolored. Soon afterward, we met Stan Lee, who, upon discovering that The Silver Surfer was one of the few characters Moebius had read avidly (when it was published in France in Fantask by Editions Lug in the late ’60s-early ’70s), convinced Moebius that the two of them should do a Silver Surfer story together. “Stan is so full of creative energies that it was hard to say no to him,” commented Moebius in an interview we did at the time. “But it sounded like a lot of fun. We all got very excited. I had no idea at the time how difficult it would prove to be. I was in a state of total panic for months. Even up to the last page before I had to draw the Surfer himself, I didn’t know what I was going to do. It’s very hard to inherit a character which already has a given look that you must respect, and yet you want to, no, you must draw him the way you feel him. I had never done that before. That was very hard.” Silver Surfer ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.

36 Unlike American artists, who are used to drawing characters they have not created, this was the first time in Moebius’ long career that he had to draw two characters that he had not personally designed: the Surfer and Galactus. These, at first, felt like “alien objects at the end of my pen,” as he explained. But he also had to do work in a way that “remained faithful to myself.... If I had done a quick hack job, you wouldn’t be able to tell that it had been drawn by Moebius. As it is, there is no doubt that this is a product of my personality. So that’s why it was difficult to do.” One of his dreams was to, once in his life, draw an actual American comic book, to be part of a system that he had admired from afar. The first super-hero he had read when he was a child was C.C. Beck’s Captain Marvel, of which he says: “I loved it. I took it very seriously. I was really impressed, because there was a whole vision, a coherence to it. You could tell that it was done by someone who knew what he was doing.”

Thus, Moebius decided that his book with Stan should first be published as a regular newsprint comic book. Moebius’ Surfer is probably the only Surfer in Marvel’s history that owes nothing to either Kirby or Buscema except the basic design of the character. Moebius admired both artists greatly. “Kirby’s stuff is incredibly powerful,” he said. “Stan gave me a copy of the Surfer trade paperback which he did with Kirby, and it’s magnificent. There is a vision and an energy contained in it that is just incredible. My Surfer, too, is a reflection of what I am inside. Kirby’s Surfer is very powerful, massive, made of metal. Buscema’s is very athletic. Mine is imbued with grace. I see the Surfer as so powerful that everything he does, he does effortlessly. He does Tai-Chi, like me.”

Huh? What’s the Golden Age Flash doing bringing up the rear to all these cosmic surfboards? Well, JeanMarc tells us that, at a U.S. comics convention a few years ago, Jean Gireau, a.k.a. Moebius, was drawing fan sketches, when one customer requested a sketch of the “Earth-2 Flash,” even though the French cartoonist said he didn’t draw such characters. The fan persisted, and finally Moebius gave in and drew this tongue-in-cheek sketch. Presumably, the customer went away happy! [Art ©2000 Moebius; Silver Surfer ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.; The Flash ©2000 DC Comics, Inc.]

P.C. Hamerlinck's

no. 63

THE

PHANTOM HANTOM EAGLE Rendered circa 1948-50 by Marcus D. Swayze from his personal sketchbook.

Fawcett Collectors of America

FCA EDITOR’S NOTE: From 1941 through 1953, Marcus D. Swayze was a major artist for Fawcett Publications, being the first illustrator to visualize Mary Marvel, but primarily working on Captain Marvel and, later, The Phantom Eagle in Wow Comics, as well as Fawcett romance comics. His ongoing professional memoirs have been an important part of FCA since #54 in 1996. This chapter chronicles events that took place in 1944, after Marc was discharged from the army because of a knee injury. In it, Marc remembers Captain Marvel, Jr. artist Mac Raboy, and the deals Marc himself set up with Fawcett (and with the Bell Syndicate) before leaving New York City to freelance from his home in the South.—Paul C. Hamerlinck.

was a top-drawer distribution system, intact and in place, ready and waiting to add comic books to their fifty or so established publications. From the start, Captain Marvel was assured a respectable place on the newsstands, where rivals might have been struggling to get on the racks. During dinner with the Raboys, Mac described his “in town” studio and suggested that I use it. He was doing his work at home, he said, and insisted that my presence at the location would be an aid to him. Sorting his mail, he said… calling him if any of it struck me as important. He didn’t need me there. It was just Mac’s awkward, modest way of being what he was… a generous, modest, kind, considerate soul. I am truly thankful for having known Mac Raboy. I worked at his 42nd Street place until I left New York later in the year. It was a comfortable layout with three, I believe, drawing tables. One was Mac’s, sectioned off to provide a degree of privacy, at which I worked. Another was occupied by amicable Red Moeller, assistant to Mac. Occasionally an attractive young lady with Oriental features came in and did lettering… excellent work, by the way. I had thought Gene McDonald also was in that office but have been told recently he was not with Raboy at the time. It must have been on a later visit to the City that I knew Gene. “Just exactly what is it you want?”

was working on the Prince Ibis art for Whiz Comics #59 in my hotel room when I received a phone call from Mac Raboy.

“Let’s have lunch,” was all he said. During the noon hour we discussed everything under the sun except what was on our minds: The split that had occurred between C.C. Beck and me at the Copacabana. Mac mentioned it only to the extent of letting me know that he had heard about it. The lunch ended with Mac insisting that I have dinner that evening with him and his wife. I had never before been to the Raboy home and I doubt if many people in the business had. That assumption is based on Mac’s retiring spirit, not on any lack of courtesy or hospitality. Mac’s wife Lulu was, as I already knew her to be, charming. As the three of us talked in their living room a young son of school age appeared, was introduced, and quietly withdrew. Mac proudly showed me a handsomely bound, heavy volume that his father had authored… printed in a language other than ours. I think there is much about Mac Raboy that we don’t know… and, admiring him as so many of us do, we ought to know. He was not a comic strip artist… not at heart. He was an illustrator and a craftsman. He treated each comic book panel as a challenging work of art, not as a step in moving his characters on toward their fictional destinations. Once again my hat is off to Al Allard, Eddie Herron, and Ralph Daigh, who recognized this genius and who, instead of attempting to blend him in with, say, an assembly-line arrangement, assigned to him only the quantity of work that allowed time for his meticulous style. From the art standpoint, Fawcett Publications in the Golden Age had the mostest of the most in comics. In C.C. Beck they had the foremost in cartoon-style storytelling featuring a super-hero. In Mac Raboy they had the supreme in beautiful comic book illustration. Another element they had, that has received little or no attention, “I was working on the Prince Ibis art for Whiz Comics #59…” Here’s the entire splash page of that story; only the splash panel itself was shown last time. [©2000 DC Comics Inc.]

When Ralph Daigh spoke, he looked you dead in the eye. Some may have assumed the purpose was to intimidate, but I don’t think so. To me it meant, “I’m laying it on the line and I expect you to do the same.” I could deal with that. Daigh had been with the Fawcett organization before the move from Minnesota. As editorial director of all the Fawcett magazines, he

“We Didn’t Know… It Was the Golden Age” generally remained aloof from those of us in the ranks. I was surprised when told he wanted to see me. On the way to his office I went over a subject that had occupied my mind in the army hospital… my future. “What I want,” I said, seated across from him, “is a regular assignment that I can prepare and mail in from my home in the South… an assignment that will assure an adequate, dependable income that will enable me to marry, have a home, raise a family.”

was at the south end of the 22nd floor, Lieberson’s at the northeast corner. It was close to noon and if I got all the way down the hall, I’d end up having lunch… and enjoying it… with some of the editors or the old bunch from Allard’s art department. At the reception room I turned toward the elevators. There was an Automat near 5th Avenue that had fabulous peach pie. I needed time to think. The same question asked by Ralph Daigh came to mind: “What exactly was it that I wanted?” Not Captain Marvel, not Mary. In earlier talks with Al Allard, that issue had been made clear. Either would have demanded constant attention to whatever was going on “at headquarters.” And it would have been senseless to discount the possibility of such a selection resulting in a repercussion that might have been heard around the world… the Fawcett world. Could have resulted in the scuttling of the nice arrangement I had with Daigh.

“Don’t like the City, eh?” “I love New York City, and think highly of all the friends I have here,” I said, “but it’s time to go home.” “We have no arrangements like what you’re asking,” said Daigh. “Our policy is that our freelance people be right at hand where they can work closely with the editors.” I was aware of that.

I didn’t want a masked hero. Masks hid facial features, and I liked to draw “Look at it this way,” I said. “I’m facial expression and felt it was one of my pretty well educated, with professional strong cards. experience… I can write as well as draw… and I’m associated with one of the world’s I didn’t want a super-hero. A recently Mac Raboy’s classic cover for Master Comics #27 foremost publishers. Now, with that completed Mr. Scarlet story was enjoyable, (July 1942). [©2000 DC Comics Inc.] combination, if comics won’t provide the but the thought of doing any knit-suited, reasonable lifestyle I expect of myself, then caped, booted, often masked, invulnerable star… month after month… it’s time to find that out… and, if necessary, time to move on to was not a pleasant one. something else.” I recall distinctly those final moments with Ralph Daigh, probably because I look back upon them as a turning point in my life. As he stared at me, I realized he had already spoken with art director Al Allard about the matter. “I like the way you talk,” he said. “Go in and tell Willie [Lieberson, executive editor of Fawcett Comics] to give you whatever it takes to make you happy!” I have regretted never revisiting with Ralph Daigh… or Al Allard… since those days. It might have meant some satisfaction to them to be reminded of the years of good, solid working relationship that followed. Not only had my own intentions been fulfilled, but, to borrow the later words of editor Wendell Crowley: “When those pages came in from Louisiana they were always on time, and absolutely camera-ready… never a need for corrections or touch-ups of any kind!” Daigh’s office “What exactly was it that I wanted? Not Captain Marvel….” [1999 art ©2000 Marc Swayze; Captain Marvel ©2000 DC Comics Inc.]

When Superman first came out, a certain party—me—predicted the feature would never last. The old short story pattern where you got your main character in a jam, then extracted him/her by means of his/her own abilities, just wouldn’t work. Nope, the feature would never last. Of course, it did last… and how! Shows that no matter how brilliant one may look, sound, or act, one can be wrong. What my little country mind had not opened up to was that you could get the good guy’s friends, or any nice people, in a jam, and your boy could use his talents to get them out. Regardless… the idea of writing for a super-hero blew me cold! I suppose it was clearer, the things I didn’t want, than what I wanted. It was gradually coming around, though. By the time a second go at the peach pie was finished, I was convinced I would be most comfortable with a feature that allowed creative impact… adventure and action, to be sure, but, more so, characterization, emotion, expression, human interest. I still maintained aspirations toward a syndicated feature of my own, but I must have realized the choices to be made on this particular day involved a potential lifetime career. On the long-term basis I wanted to draw and write about people… not super-people but real people, in contemporary surroundings. There was no question but that the most likely features to meet such standards would not be the front-of-the-book stars or the highly promoted heroes on the covers. What about Prince Ibis the Invincible? I had just finished the art on an Ibis story, and he was an interesting character… easily drawn and in a today setting. He pulled off some super-power stunts with that Ibistick of his, but he wore a suit that might have come from the men’s store

Fawcett Collectors of America the selection of a less prominent feature. Doubtless due to the fierce paper shortage in 1944, the secondary characters had been jammed to the back sections of the books, pages containing as many as eight or nine panels, stories that were meant to be told in ten or twelve pages reduced to five or six. And, hey… we were paid by the page! I would need more than one feature. Back in the editorial offices I gathered up several current issues of Fawcett comics. The first I opened was a copy of Wow. I skipped past Mary Marvel, past Mr. Scarlet, past… hold it… there was an airplane! In it was a young kid called The Phantom Eagle! I had never paid much attention to that feature, but I was familiar with airplanes. Drawing them, that is. I read the title panel legend and was into about three pages of the story. This kid was vulnerable! He could get tied up, beat up, knocked… in the head. He didn’t have a magic word, or even a magic wand. All he could do was fly… and he had to be in a plane to do that! The feature was put there for me. “How’s it going?” Executive editor Will Lieberson had come over from the more spacious section of the comics department and was looking over my shoulder. “What if I wanted to make some changes to this?” I tapped my knuckles against the title panel of the Phantom Eagle story. “Like redesign his plane or something?” “Do whatever you think will help it,” he answered. “Ralph said make you happy!” That did it. I took Prince Ibis and Phantom Eagle scripts with me when I left the Fawcett offices.

across 7th Avenue. Ibis was one of the early settlers of the Fawcett comic book frontier, very likely a creation of Bill Parker. The magician flattened his foes thoroughly, but with dignity… charm… and almost apologetically. That was it… he was a gentleman. I liked the Prince. And there was Taia. I intended to learn more about her… her connection with Ibis and so on. I was fond of drawing women and I thought I could so something with Taia… on paper, that is… drawing paper. In an old issue of Whiz I saw that Taia had once been quite a spicy babe… in a long skirt so sheer you could see her legs up to the waist. And what legs! Whoever the artist was at the time, he could sure turn a nice female leg. It’s just as well things changed, however… a few seasons more of that and Judge Murphy’s Code Office would have had Taia deported and the artist burned at the stake! Here’s another thing… Ibis was appearing in Whiz Comics. The editor of Whiz was Mercedes Shull. Good-looking, unflappable Mercy had been in the editorial offices when I joined Fawcett. She was not a nitpicker. We’d get along. There was one drawback to

The Bell Syndicate was located within those buildings at Times Square which were knitted together so weirdly that on a rainy day you could visit the offices of Bell, Fawcett, the Times, and other businesses without getting wet. You could also get lost and never found again. I had been thinking that, before I left the city… and it looked as though it would be pretty soon… I would drop in at Bell to say hello… and goodbye… to people I had known there since my days with Flyin’ Jenny and Russell Keaton… particularly Kathleen Caesar, feature editor. In the outer corridor of the syndicate someone greeted me, and while we were talking I spied Miss Caesar coming up the hall toward us. Funny thing… once you’re known as an assistant, chances are you’ll never be acknowledged as anything else. I expected that at Bell. But here was this lady hurrying toward us, calling me by name. I was Taia & Ibis as Swayze surprised. Miss Kathleen drew them in 1944. Caesar, veteran feature editor Unpublished 1999 at the Bell Syndicate, actually drawing. [Art ©2000 sounded glad to see me. Marc Swayze; Ibis & Taia ©2000 DC Comics Inc.]

“We heard you were in town and have been trying to

“We Didn’t Know… It Was the Golden Age”

get in touch with you! Come on, Mr. Agnelli wants to see you!” She had me by the arm. I had met Joseph B. Agnelli before, probably when I was peddling Judi the Jungle Girl among the syndicates. He was in a more sophisticated office now, however, and obviously several rungs higher on the executive ladder. “We want to talk with you about drawing Flyin’ Jenny,” he said.

page, Russ will do the daily strip.” My explanation of the arrangement with Fawcett, being on my way back South, taking on as much as I cared to handle… all seemed to have fallen on deaf ears. He began to talk money and I was trying to listen to him and think at the same time. If I accepted any offer he made, I’d have to give up one of the Fawcett book features… and though it might mean less work… about four Jenny pages per month as opposed to six or eight comic book pages… the talk was unimpressive. But he kept going: “…and of course you’ll get a byline, you know.” “What?” I exclaimed. “A byline on a Sunday page could mean a lot to a young comic strip artist,” he said. It would mean a lot! My chief goal was a syndicated newspaper feature of my own creation. A Sunday page byline would ring a bell with most syndicate executives. And although the money Agnelli mentioned was not… exactly… as… “I’ll take it!” I said.

Flyin’ Jenny, newspaper daily strip and Sunday page, was the brainchild of Russell Keaton. It had debuted in 1939, distributed by the Bell Syndicate and written and drawn by the creator. I had been employed as Keaton’s assistant in 1940, my first full-time professional art job. Col. Frank Wead had taken on the writing of both strip and Sunday page about the time I had joined Fawcett Publications. “In 1941 Wead wanted out and we were able to replace him with Glenn Chaffin, co-creator of Tailspin Tommy,” Joe Agnelli said, and continued to bring me up to date on Flyin’ Jenny. Keaton had enlisted in the Army Air Corps Reserve in 1943 and had signed up as flight instructor at the Army Contract School. Gladys Parker, creator of Mopsy, a popular one-panel daily feature, was engaged by Bell to draw both the daily and Sunday page of Flyin’ Jenny. After about six months she asked out, but agreed to continue drawing the daily strip. When I realized Agnelli was under the impression I had been in contact with Russell Keaton all along, and thought I was in the Bell offices in quest of work, I hastened to explain. Russell and I had not corresponded in over a year, and I was there to say goodbye! Agnelli was talking. He may have begun to suspect I wasn’t interested.

“It’s just the Sunday page,” he said. “Right now the daily is being drawn by Gladys Parker and the Sunday by Russell. If you’ll take the

After I left the Bell Syndicate I stopped at a stand-up counter on Broadway and ordered a coffee. Something had to give. Two comic book features and a syndicated Sunday page? No way. Prince Ibis or The Phantom Eagle had to go. Back in the Fawcett offices I learned Will Lieberson was out but would be back. I took a chair at an idle table and picked up a comic book. Opening it at random I looked into the face of one Mickey Malone, boy airplane mechanic. An omen? I never believed in such things. I took it as just an incident that helped me make up my mind. Goodbye, Prince Ibis… I was taking The Phantom Eagle to Louisiana! Also Flyin’ Jenny! [Marc Swayze’s column will continue in the next issue of FCA.]

Fawcett Collectors of America

From Soup to Nuts An Essay by C.C. Beck Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck EDITOR’S NOTE: FCA is proud to present another previously unpublished essay by Charles Clarence Beck, the original chief artist of “Captain Marvel.” During the 1980s I was a member of The Critical Circle, a mailing group Beck formed for roundtable debates on essays he would send to each member (others members being cartoonist Trina Robbins and former Mad magazine associate editor Jerry DeFuccio). More of these essays will appear in future issues of FCA.—PCH.

I. PRELUDE AND OVERTURE

or comic strips if the copy is not handled properly. Cartoon copy comes first; if there is any space left, the artist fills it. Many comic book artists and editors go at things the wrong way around, with disastrous results. My second job was in a lampshade studio, where I learned how to draw in cartoon style from established comic strips. We had permission to reproduce the leading comic strip characters of the day on our handmade shades, and I made tracings of Smitty, Barney Google and his horse Sparkplug, Harold Teen, Tillie the Toiler, and Little Orphan Annie and her dog Sandy, which I punctured with little holes and transferred to the lampshades with charcoal pounce. Then I finished the drawings with Indian

One of the clearest pictures in my memory of my childhood is of myself and my younger brother Willis riding our tricycles (our folks were too poor to buy us bicycles) across our hometown of Zumbrota, Minnesota, to visit a kindly old couple who saved their Sunday comics for us (our folks were too poor to buy the Sunday papers, too). Newspaper comics were in their heyday when I was young. Each one filled a whole page in those days—they weren’t the cramped little things they are today. Happy Hooligan, The Katzenjammer Kids, Little Jimmie, Bringing Up Father, Polly and Her Pals, Mutt and Jeff, many more fascinating, funny characters cavorted through the panels doing all sorts of improbable, impossible things. The best comics of today are drawn by cartoonists who follow the style set back in the days when comic strips were big, bold, and drawn by masters of the medium. Although my folks were poor, we had some fine illustrated books on our bookshelves. Milton’s Paradise Lost, Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, and the Lambs’ Tales from Shakespeare were profusely illustrated with woodcuts and engravings. I still have some of these books. A copy of the complete works of Shakespeare printed in 1839 has some fascinating woodcuts in it. I pored over these books—and still do today—wondering how in the world anyone could know so much about things and be able to make pictures of them as these marvelous artists did. In school I breezed through my lessons with no trouble at all because they all seemed like child’s play to me. I never had to do any homework (even in college in later years) and thus had plenty of time to devote to trying to become an artist. There was very little art instruction in the small-town school I attended, and no artists except a sign painter to teach me anything lived in our town. I had to teach myself from books on art, and when I was 16 or 17 I took a correspondence course in commercial art from a Chicago firm. Later I attended art schools in Chicago and Minneapolis and got a good, basic training in the history and principles of art. I never studied cartooning, though. Cartooning is only one form of art, not a separate discipline. Without a knowledge of all forms of art, no one can make cartoons of any value. My first job was as a letterer for a syndicated cartoonist in Chicago. I have always liked to do my own lettering whenever possible, as I maintain that good lettering is far more important than the drawings which accompany it. The copy is what tells the story; the pictures are just there to make it clearer. The most beautiful pictures are wasted in books

Combining humor and adventure in one outstanding tale which many consider one of the Big Red Cheese’s best, Billy Batson and Captain Marvel are easily outsmarted by Sivana, in “The Plot against the Universe” from Captain Marvel Adventures #100 (Sept. 1949) by Otto Binder, C.C. Beck, and Pete Costanza. [©2000 DC Comics Inc.]

ink and water colors. Some people say that it is wrong to copy or trace other artists’ work, but that’s the way to learn. All the old masters, and the best of today’s artists, learned from established artists. Those who start from scratch end up merely re-inventing the wheel—and usually their wheels are so poorly put together that they won’t work. In 1933 I got a job with Fawcett Publications, where I continued to work as a copyist and tracer of old comic pictures. Fawcett had a habit of losing artwork after it had been reproduced and printed, and whenever they wanted to re-run an old cartoon it was easier (and cheaper) to have me redraw it than to call in the original artist or to look for the original art. Although line drawings can be picked up and made into printing plates, tones or colored pictures can’t with any clarity. The dots in them form interference patterns which are very annoying to the eye. Today there are ways to get around this problem, but back in the ’30s there weren’t. The pictures had to be redrawn.

I didn’t create any of Fawcett’s characters; I was just the first person to put them into visual form. They were conceived in Parker’s mind; I was just the doctor who held them up and slapped them on their bottom to make them draw their first breaths. Parker created all the characters in Fawcett’s Whiz Comics, which first appeared in May 1940 [with a cover date of January 1940]. I drew “Captain Marvel,” “Ibis the Invincible,” and “Spy Smasher” in that issue and in several of the following issues. In just a few months, “Captain Marvel” was far ahead of all the other comic book characters in sales (even “Superman,” much to DC’s alarm), and other artists took over “Ibis” and “Spy Smasher” while I devoted all my time to drawing “The World’s Mightiest Mortal.”

II. TO BE OR NOT TO BE

Cartoon magazines like Fawcett’s Hooey, Smokehouse Monthly, and Whiz Bang were on their last legs in the late ’30s, and comic books were beginning to take their place. They didn’t really take over the market until those two unknown fellows Jerome Siegel and Joe Shuster set the publishing world on fire with their Superman comic character—which DC ran as a filler in their Action Comics. Fawcett decided to get into the comic book field in late 1939.

I have never had, like Hamlet, to dither around trying to make up my mind about things... at least not about things connected with art. It was always perfectly clear to me that a character who appeared in a comic book should be a comic character. Fine art and realistic drawing don’t belong in comic books. They are as out of place there as stuffed animals in living rooms instead of where they belong, in museums, or plaster statues on front lawns instead of in churches (and maybe not there).

I was 29 years old at the time, and Bill Parker, a Fawcett editor who was given the job of creating Fawcett’s comic characters on his typewriter, was about the same age. It is not generally known that comic characters, like characters of any kind, are created by writers, not by artists or actors or inexperienced amateurs. Parker was an experienced writer and I had ten years of experience at the drawing board myself. But

There is some confusion about the meaning of the terms “comic” and “cartoon.” Many people think that “comic” means “funny” and that “cartoon” means “a drawing made by a rotten artist who never learned to draw any better.” Nothing could be farther from the truth than these two common misconceptions.

Fawcett Collectors of America

The word “comic” is a variation of the word “comedy,” which means “an entertaining story with a happy ending.” The word “cartoon” means “a simplified drawing made on cardboard by an artist to express or make clear an idea.” There is no mention, in these definitions, of humor or lovely painting techniques or lessons in anatomy, you will notice. I have never been able to understand why some people think that “humor” is a dirty word and that comic book characters should all be grim-faced, muscle-bound zombies drawn in a style that makes them look as if they had lost their way in some art gallery and were embarrassed at being found in a comic book instead. Humor is not essential to cartooning; some political cartoons are serious, sad, and even horrifying. But it is essential to comedy and comic strips. There is no better way to entertain an audience than by making it laugh. To make people laugh, it’s not enough to wear a funny costume and do silly, meaningless things. Actors (and comic strip characters are actors) must have good material—good lines to speak and good “pieces of business” to act out. An actor’s success or failure is dependent on his material, not on his acting ability (or lack of it). The word “character” means “a person, real or fictional, with peculiar qualities which make him unique and distinguishable from others.” All the great characters in history and literature have been identifiable by their peculiarities, not by their normal, average, everyday, run-of-the-mill characteristics. Comic strip characters must have their peculiarities brought out by the writers and artists who bring them to life, or they will not last long.

Captain Marvel’s costume was that of a musical-comedy military officer, as befitted his title of “Captain.” He did not wear a circus strongman’s outfit, nor did he have a mask or spiked talons or a radioactive aura around him or set himself on fire. In fact, he had no special powers at all until a story called for one. Then, as he was a creation of magic, he had whatever power was needed. Captain Marvel was not a being from another planet disguised as a human. He was not a rich, idle playboy who liked to slip into a costume at night and run around playing cops and robbers. He had no boy sidekick to tag along and get in the way. He had not been created by a mad scientist or by a laboratory accident or by having his mind warped by his father’s death or by a committee of super-patriots who sent him forth to battle for democracy. His distinguishing feature, his “peculiar” quality, was that he was just a big, good-natured fellow like the young football player next door or the big brother that all boys would like to be able to call on when the going gets rough. I have always maintained, and will to my dying day, that Captain Marvel’s great success was due not to the way he was drawn but to the stories he appeared in. Fawcett employed professional writers who had to submit plots and outlines for editorial approval before the shooting scripts were written. I never knew much about what went on in Fawcett’s editorial offices, as my job with in the art department, where my assistants and I illustrated the stories we were given.

Captain Marvel’s outstanding peculiarity was Captain Marvel by C.C. Beck, drawn in 1972 that he was not a full-grown man who had to put We artists wrote a few stories now and then, but for The Collector fanzine publisher Bill on an outlandish costume before he could go they had to be submitted to the editors for approval Wilson. [Art ©2000 the estate of C.C. Beck; into action. He was actually the 14-year-old boy, and put into typed form before they were illustratCaptain Marvel ©2000 DC Comics Inc.] Billy Batson, who said the magic word “Shazam” ed. There was no “making things up as you go” at and turned into The World’s Mightiest Mortal. While the use of a magic Fawcett. Comics just can’t be made that way, although many would-be word was not new in storytelling, it was unique in comic books and cartoonists and young writers keep trying to show that they can. Their made Fawcett’s hero distinguishable from the others then appearing in storyless cartoons show all too clearly that without a lot of thinking and comic books. planning, and hard work and skill, the result is always worthless. The unique qualities possessed by Captain Marvel (and his lack of run-of-the-mill qualities possessed by other comic heroes) made him an outstanding figure during the Golden Age of Comic Books. His name and his magic word “Shazam” and his exclamation “Holy Moley!” have become parts of the language. People who never heard of Fawcett—or of C.C. Beck—still use these terms and react to them with a chuckle or a nostalgic sigh today... almost half a century after they first appeared in print in a comic book.

III. LOST IN TRANSLATION

When a word, a phrase, or a book is translated from one language to another, it is sometimes hard to keep the original meaning intact. The Latin phrase “ab ovo usque ad mala” (pronounced “awb ovo ooskway odd mawla”), if translated word-for-word, comes out “from egg to apples,” which doesn’t mean much unless you know something about Roman customs. Roman meals began with eggs and ended with apples, so to make the phrase mean something in today’s words you could translate it as “from soup to nuts” or “from start to finish” or “from beginning to end.” These translations would keep the original meaning intact.

C,C. Beck

If you don’t know anything about Roman customs you might translate the phrase literally and make it about as meaningless as if you had left it in Latin, or you might throw it out and replace it with a different phrase such as “from here to eternity” or even “please pass the salt.” Such mistranslations would destroy the original meaning. When written material is translated into pictures, more often than not the original meaning is lost in translation. When a story is first put into written form by a good author, he chooses words which will stimulate the reader’s imagination. A well-written story will make the reader imagine that he is seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and feeling things which don’t exist except in his imagination. (A poorly-written story will not. Poor writers do no more than string together a lot of dull, meaningless words which put the reader to sleep.) When pictures are added to a written story, some of the imaginative quality of the original story may be destroyed. Pictures are hard, cold, real objects. Things are either there or not there in pictures; sometimes the things which are there are not what the reader imagined at all, and the things left out should have been included to give the illustrations some meaning. Although humans are primarily eye-minded as compared to other animals which depend on their ears, noses, tongues, and tactile organs for information, pictures alone cannot tell a story. Words must be added to make them complete. In the days of silent movies, subtitles were added; in comic strips, captions and speech balloons are included as part of the pictures. Movie travelogs have voice-over narration and even pantomime acts have musical accompaniment to stimulate the audience’s imagination through its ears. When books are turned into stage plays or movies, very extensive changes must be made to adapt them to the new medium. In translating written words to actions and lines which a living actor can handle, many adapters completely lose the original meaning of a story. They not only drop sequences and characters which can’t be made into pictures successfully, but they insert actions and characters which weren’t in the original story at all. When they do this, they are doing the equivalent of translating “ab ovo usque ad mala” as “meanwhile, back at the ranch” or “it was a dark and stormy night” or some such catchy but entirely different phrase. I am firmly convinced that movie producers not only don’t read the books or comic strips which they adapt for their films but refuse to listen to anyone who has. When “Captain Marvel” was made into a movie serial and into a TV show, he was turned into a character who repelled comic book fans. Republic Pictures’ serial The Adventures of Captain

Marvel was a silly, unbelievable thing; the story was the worst sort of trash. Made in the 1940s, it is still around today, I’m sorry to hear. The first change Republic’s adapters made was to turn Billy Batson into a naive 30-year-old man. The second change was to have Captain Marvel, who was about 20 years old in his comic book form, played by a 40-year-old ex-cowboy actor and stuntman who ran around throwing heavy objects and shooting people with machine guns. Everything in the original “Captain Marvel” comic book stories was lost in this translation. When “Captain Marvel” was translated to the TV screen in 1974 by Filmation Studios, the part of Billy Batson was again played by a grown man instead of by a boy. I’m not sure what happened to the old wizard Shazam who gave Billy his magic powers in the first place; he seemed to have been replaced by poorly-drawn animated figures of Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury who were patched into the film at odd moments. A new character was introduced, a wise old sort called Mentor, and his job was to drive Billy Batson around in a recreational vehicle looking for adventures. Captain Marvel himself was played by actor Jackson Bostwick, who looked the part of Marvel, certainly much more than had the actor Tom Tyler in the old Republic serial. When I met Bostwick later, he told me that the TV script writers once asked him what would be a good catchword phrase for Captain Marvel to use, as Popeye had said, “Blow me down!” and Little Orphan Annie had said, “Leapin’ lizards!” “How about ‘Holy Moley’?” suggested Bostwick, who had grown up reading the original Captain Marvel comic books.

“Marvelous! Perfect! How did you ever think of that?” the writers asked. “It’s just what we need. You’re a genius!”

Bostwick, whom I got to know quite well, told me that the scripts for the TV show were awful. When he made suggestions of changes to make them not only more like the original stories but more believable and entertaining, he was told to mind his own business and to do what he was told. The TV Captain Marvel looked good, but was a silly, childish affair. Again, too much had been lost in translation. Filmation also made an animated cartoon of Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family in 1981. It must not have been much of a success, as it lasted only a dozen or so episodes. I didn’t see the show myself, but did see some of the storyboards prepared for its production. What the artists who worked on this version of “Captain Marvel” were doing, I could tell from the storyboards, was caricaturing characters who were caricatures to begin with. In doing this they were distorting them so much that they were hardly recognizable. I don’t know what Filmation’s stories were like, but if they were anything like one of their ads that I did see, they couldn’t have been very imaginative. In this ad Captain Marvel was shown breaking through a paper-covered hoop! How much imagination it took to think up that bit of action I won’t try to estimate. “Why didn’t all these ‘translators’ stick to the original stories and art?” many comic fans have asked. “Why did they have to change everything? Couldn’t they have done a lot better if they had just reproduced what was in the original comic books?”

As much as the “Captain Marvel” stories lost in their translation to movie pictures, things could have been worse. What might Captain Marvel have looked like if he had been put on the stage in a musical production? We would then have had him singing and dancing with a chorus line, no doubt. Or they might have put him into a ballet or into an opera (with Luciano Pavarotti playing his part in a pair of red tights). I’m glad they never went that far. What they did to the World’s Mightiest Mortal in the movie serial and on television was bad enough.

IV. THE CONTAINER AND ITS CONTENTS “It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it,” sang popular vocalists in the Big Band era. To many listeners these words meant that they could get away with anything if they did it neatly. To some artists the words meant that the way you do things is all-important and what you do is so insignificant that you might as well be doing nothing at all. There have always been people who regard the physical objects they produce—the paintings, the manuscripts, the furniture and buildings—as worthy of praise only if they just exist without doing anything at all. Paintings, say these people, are not supposed to tell stories; they are just supposed to be paintings. “Admire the way the artist swung his brush around and combined his colors and textures... didn’t he do a wonderful job?” ask those who like this sort of art. It anyone asks, “But what does it mean?” the fine art lovers look down their noses at him and mutter something about insensitive clods and ignorant peasants and walk away from him as if he smelled bad or had lice. A book filled with letters and numbers, no matter how beautifully designed and printed, will not have much appeal unless the letters and numbers are combined into words and columns which mean something. A printed series of pictures, even if the individual pictures have some meaning, is merely an album or a picture book if there is no connection between the pictures and no explanation of why they have been assembled.

The answer is that, if they had Nobody buys a comic book to done that—if they had made a admire the pictures as art. They are word-for-word translation—they art, but the art is concealed; like a would have come up with somegood magician, a good comic book thing like the “from egg to apples” artist doesn’t draw your attention translation of the Latin phrase. to himself but directs it to what The “Captain Marvel” stories he’s doing—creating an illusion. were written for comic book “Captain Marvel put some meaning into life with his stories.” Whiz Comics He doesn’t want you to stop to presentation, not for moving #93, Jan. 1948—cover by C.C. Beck. [Cover ©2000 DC Comics Inc.] examine his individual pictures picture production. In comic book but to read the story they’re telling. work, nothing moves; each panel is This is the exact opposite of what people who want you to admire the frozen in time. The readers of comic books imagine the action; they way they do things desire. The comic book artist’s song is, “It ain’t the don’t actually see it. Anything seen, heard, felt, smelled, or tasted in the way I do it, it’s what I’m doing that’s important.” If he is doing nothing, imagination is much more vivid than reality. This is why dreams are so no matter how dazzling his act may be, he’s wasting both his time much more exciting than reality. There are thousands of things in dream and yours. that form “pictures no artist can paint,” as the old saying puts it.

C,C. Beck

I have always believed that comic book readers should be treated with the greatest respect. They are not illiterate morons with low IQs, to be looked down the nose at and walked away from. They are the ones who ask, “What does it mean?” Captain Marvel put some meaning into life with his stories. Whatever success I have had I attribute to being able to illustrate, that is, to enlighten and illuminate rather than darken and confuse. I have no respect at all for publishers who put out trash and garbage dressed up to look wonderful on the outside but with nothing of value inside. Comic book publishers with this lack of respect for their readers began to flood the market soon after the Golden Age had started. They did what the makers of perfume bottles and the packagers of breakfast cereals do: they fancied up their containers and forgot about the contents. In very short order, the contents of comic books were completely without meaning; the stories were terrible and the art was worse. Good writers are hard to find—and expensive—so the new comic book producers simply eliminated all the story content from their books and hired artists who could dazzle readers with displays of “artwork” that was eye-catching but had no meaning. One of the laws of finance is that bad money drives out good money. Bad art also drives out good art. Both Fawcett and DC went with the tide and started to ape the actions of the other publishers whose magazines were driving the established comic books off the stands. DC got rid of Siegel and Shuster and turned their Superman into a bloated mass of muscle who got into eye-catching poses to disguise the fact that he no longer had a story to tell. Fawcett created a whole family of Captain Marvel clones who looked nice but never did much of anything. By 1953 comic book sales were falling. Printing paper and engraving prices had tripled “Fawcett created a whole family of Captain Marvel clones who looked nice but never did much of and quadrupled and nobody was making any anything.” 1979 Beck preliminary sketch for cover painting re-creation of Whiz Comics #29, plus an inset money in the comic book publishing field. Fawof the actual cover. [Art ©2000 C.C. Beck Estate; Characters, cover ©2000 DC Comics Inc.] cett discontinued all their comics and turned their The Golden Age had gone from soup to nuts—the party was over. attention to other kinds of publications. DC stayed with their comic It had gone, as the Romans said, “from eggs to apples.” The books and is still publishing them today, but Fawcett has long since been apples were pretty sour apples, and Captain Marvel just quietly known for its other ventures, and few people except collectors of Golden left. There was no point in hanging around any longer. Age comics are aware that they were once in the comic book field.

George Roussos R.I.P. Even as this issue was being completed, we received a phone call from Bill Cain telling us that his friend and ours, George Roussos, had passed away unexpectedly, after being admitted a short time before to a hospital. Long before he became noted as a Marvel cover colorist, George was an artist (“Air Wave,” Green Hornet, et al. in the 1940s) and inker (“Batman” in the ’40s, Jack Kirby’s Fantastic Four in

the early 1960s). Bill had just completed a lengthy and informative interview with George on his long and lively career, and George had sent him a huge packet of art and photos to go with it. Next issue we will have the words, and we will have the pictures… but the man is gone. We wish it were the other way around.—R.T.

Fawcett Collectors of America

Fawcett Friendships A Page from the Schaffenberger Photo Album Throughout my involvement with writing articles and conducting interviews with members of the Fawcett Comics alumni, I have learned that, for the most part, there are three things that are very clear and are vivid memories for this group of talented writers, artists, and editors: They loved where they worked. They enjoyed the work they produced. And they all developed wonderful friend-

ships with their co-workers. Further evidence of the latter is provided by this rare glimpse from a page of Fawcett artist Kurt Schaffenberger’s photo album. Special thanks to Kurt’s wife Dorothy for sharing these memories from the Golden Age with us. —P.C. Hamerlinck. Late ’70s rendering of the Marvel Family by Kurt Schaffenberger— from the third issue of John Pierce’s fanzine The Whiz Kids! in the early 1980s. [Marvel Family ©2000 DC Comics Inc.]

Basement party, late ’40s (possibly ’48), at the Schaffenbergers’ home in New Jersey. Otto Binder (l) playing accordion; C.C. Beck (r) playing guitar.

Center: Pete Riss (in bow tie; “Bulletman” artist); left, rear: Agnes Riss, Pete’s wife; center, rear: C.C. Beck.

2nd left: Beck’s wife Hilda; next, Ione (Mrs. Otto) Binder; next, Otto Binder; front, Pete Riss; w/guitar, C.C. Beck.

A different get-together at the Schaffenberger home, a year or two earlier: (l. to r.) Kurt Schaffenberger, Jack Binder (Mary Marvel artist), Pete Riss, C.C. Beck, other two unknown.

Edited by ROY THOMAS

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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!

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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!

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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!

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

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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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #29

ALTER EGO #30

ALTER EGO #31

ALTER EGO #32

ALTER EGO #33

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #34

ALTER EGO #35

ALTER EGO #36

ALTER EGO #37

ALTER EGO #38

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #39

ALTER EGO #40

ALTER EGO #41

ALTER EGO #42

ALTER EGO #43

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #44

ALTER EGO #45

ALTER EGO #46

ALTER EGO #47

ALTER EGO #48

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #49

ALTER EGO #50

ALTER EGO #51

ALTER EGO #52

ALTER EGO #53

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #54

ALTER EGO #55

ALTER EGO #56

ALTER EGO #57

ALTER EGO #58

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #59

ALTER EGO #60

ALTER EGO #61

ALTER EGO #62

ALTER EGO #63

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #64

ALTER EGO #65

ALTER EGO #66

ALTER EGO #67

ALTER EGO #68

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #69

ALTER EGO #70

ALTER EGO #71

ALTER EGO #72

ALTER EGO #73

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #74

ALTER EGO #75

ALTER EGO #76

ALTER EGO #77

ALTER EGO #78

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #79

ALTER EGO #80

ALTER EGO #81

ALTER EGO #82

ALTER EGO #83

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #84

ALTER EGO #85

ALTER EGO #86

ALTER EGO #87

ALTER EGO #88

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #89

ALTER EGO #90

ALTER EGO #91

ALTER EGO #92

ALTER EGO #93

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #94

ALTER EGO #95

ALTER EGO #96

ALTER EGO #97

ALTER EGO #98

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO: CENTENNIAL (AE #100)

ALTER EGO #99

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

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

ALTER EGO #101

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

NEW!

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

ALTER EGO #102

ALTER EGO #103

ALTER EGO #104

ALTER EGO: THE CBA COLLECTION

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

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

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

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

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

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

HUMOR MAGAZINES (BUNDLE ALL THREE FOR JUST $14.95)

ALTER EGO:

BEST OF THE LEGENDARY COMICS FANZINE

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

COMIC BOOK NERD

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

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

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

DIEDGITIIOTANSL E

BL AVAILA

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

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

NEW!

MR. MONSTER, VOL. 0

TRUE BRIT

DICK GIORDANO: CHANGING COMICS, ONE DAY AT A TIME

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

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

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

(136-page Digital Edition with COLOR) $4.95

(204-page Digital Edition with COLOR) $6.95

(176-page Digital Edition with COLOR) $5.95

SECRETS IN THE SHADOWS: GENE COLAN

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

ART OF GEORGE TUSKA

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

OTHER BOOKS FROM TWOMORROWS PUBLISHING

PENCILER, PUBLISHER, PROVOCATEUR

COMICS’ FAST & FURIOUS ARTIST

THE ART OF GLAMOUR

MATT BAKER

EXTRAORDINARY WORKS OF ALAN MOORE

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

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

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

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

(224-page trade paperback) $26.95

(176-page trade paperback with COLOR) $26.95

(192-page hardcover with COLOR) $39.95

(240-page trade paperback) $29.95

QUALITY COMPANION

BATCAVE COMPANION

ALL- STAR COMPANION

AGE OF TV HEROES

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

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

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

(256-page trade paperback with COLOR) $31.95

(240-page trade paperback) $26.95

(224-page trade paperbacks) $24.95

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

CARMINE INFANTINO

SAL BUSCEMA

(192-page full-color hardcover) $39.95

MARVEL COMICS

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

IN THE 1960s

(224-page trade paperback) $27.95

MODERN MASTERS

HOW TO CREATE COMICS

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

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

(224-page trade paperback) $27.95

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

(128-page trade paperbacks) $14.95 each

(108-page trade paperback) $15.95

IN THE 1970s

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

FROM SCRIPT TO PRINT

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

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