Alter Ego #50 Preview

Roy Thomas’ Merry Marvel Comics Fanzine

No.50 July 2005

$

5.95

In the USA

Sub-Mariner, Thing, Thor, & Vision TM & ©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.; Conan TM & ©2005 Conan Properties, Inc.; Red Sonja TM & ©2005 Red Sonja Properties, Inc.; Caricature ©2005 Estate of Alfredo Alcala

Vol. 3, No. 50 / July 2005 Editor

™

Roy Thomas Shamelessly Celebrates 50 Issues of A/E, Vol. 3— & 40 Years Since Modeling With Millie #44!

Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout Christopher Day

Consulting Editor John Morrow

FCA Editor P.C. Hamerlinck

Comic Crypt Editor Michael T. Gilbert

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

Production Assistant Eric Nolen-Weathington

Cover Artists Alfredo Alcala, John Buscema, & Jack Kirby Jerry Ordway

Cover Colorist Alfredo Alcala (portrait), Tom Ziuko

And Special Thanks to: Alfredo Alcala, Jr. Christian Voltan Alcala Estelita Alcala Heidi Amash Heather Antonelli Bob Bailey Jeff Bailey Mark Beazley John Benson Dominic Bongo Bob Brodsky Rich Buckler Mike Burkey William Cain R. Dewey Cassell Ernie Chan Lynda Fox Cohen Teresa R. Davidson Michael Dewally Shel Dorf Michael Dunne Jennie-Lynn Falk Shane Foley Jeff Fox Carl Gafford Janet Gilbert Dick Giordano Glen David Gold Stan Goldberg Bob Greenberger Curt Griff Ian Hamerlinck Jennifer Hamerlinck David G. Hamilton Daniel Herman Richard Howell Karen Hughes Stan Lee Larry Lieber Alan Light

Allen Logan Linda Long Don Mangus Sam Maronie Mike Mikulovsky Al Milgrom Fred Mommsen Brian K. Morris Frank Motler Owen O’Leary Denny O’Neil Dave Newton Jerry Ordway Tom Palmer George Pérez Don Perlin Mike Phoenix John G. Pierce Nick Pope Greg Preston Richard Pryor Ethan Roberts Peter Sanderson Eric Schumacher Carole Seuling Gwen Seuling Marie Severin Rick Shurgin David Siegel Keif Simon Joe & Betty Sinnott Paul Smith Zack Smith Britt Stanton Flo Steinberg Marc Swayze Dann Thomas Maggie Thompson Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Tom Wimbish Michele Wolfman

This issue is dedicated by Roy to his mother–––MRS. LEONA THOMAS

Contents Writer/Editorial: Make Mine Marvel!. . . . . . . . . . . 2 “Roy The Boy” In The Marvel Age Of Comics . . . . 4 Jim Amash interviews Roy Thomas about being Stan Lee’s “left-hand man” in the 1960s & early ’70s.

DC Comics 1965––And The Rest Of Roy’s Color-Splashed Career . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About Our Cover: A kaleidoscopically collaborative combination of three great comic artists Roy worked with and admired in the 1960s and ’70s: Alfredo Alcala, John Buscema, and Jack Kirby. The painted caricature by Alfredo was given to him as a birthday gift in 1981 and showed Rascally Roy as Conan, the Marvel-licensed hero on which the two had labored together until 1980, when R.T. ankled Marvel for DC for what turned out to be a six-year semi-exclusive stay. The three Marvel super-heroes drawn by Big John are from 1990s re-creations of his 1960s art—while the Conan/Red Sonja illo was a commission drawing. Jack penciled the Thing figure, complete with A/E-boosting sign, back in 1962, especially for A/E—and it was inked for V1#4 by A/E’s founding editor/publisher Jerry G. Bails. Thanks to Alfredo’s widow Mrs. Estelita Alcala and to his sons Christian Voltan Alcala and Alfredo Alcala, Jr., for permission to use the caricature—to Owen O’Leary for copies of John’s re-creations (sent at the time of our tribute to John in A/E #15-16)—and to the Jack Kirby Estate (and JGB) for their blessings re bashful Ben Grimm. [Art ©2005 Estates of Alfredo Alcala, John Buscema, & Jack Kirby, respectively; Sub-Mariner, Thor, Vision, & Thing TM & ©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.; Conan TM & ©2005 Conan Properties, Inc.; Red Sonja TM & ©2005 Red Sonja Properties, Inc.] Above: The indefatigable and talented Shane Foley decided—“on a whim,” he says—to draw, “maybe for a border or something,” these horizontal and vertical groupings of a few of the many heroes Roy has handled over the past four decades… and Ye Ed liked the concept so much that it became our contents page art. Most of these guys Roy merely scripted a fair number of stories about—others he co-created, whether for Marvel, DC, or (in one case) Dennis Mallonee’s Heroic Publishing. Shane even worked in Superman fighting H.G. Wells’ Martians, as delineated on p. 19 on our flip side. Thanks, mate! You did yourself proud yet again! [Art ©2005 Shane Foley; characters TM & ©2005 their respective trademark & copyright holders.]

Alter EgoTM is published monthly by TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344.

Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: 32 Bluebird Trail, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Single issues: $8 ($10 Canada, $11.00 elsewhere). Twelve-issue subscriptions: $60 US, $120 Canada, $132 elsewhere. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © Roy Thomas. Alter Ego is a TM of Roy & Dann Thomas. FCA is a TM of P.C. Hamerlinck. Printed in Canada.

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51 LEW SAYER SCHWARTZ & THE MARK OF (BOB) KANE

COMING IN AUGUST

Plus: THE GOLDEN & SILVER AGES OF AUSTRALIA! • Full-color Batman vintage-1950s cover by LEW SAYRE SCHWARTZ! • LEW SAYRE SCHWARTZ—BOB KANE’s “ghost” from 1946-1953—interviewed by JON B. COOKE about his life and work! Plus Batman art by JERRY ROBINSON, DICK SPRANG, SHELDON MOLDOFF, WIN MORTIMER, JIM MOONEY, & others!

• “The Life and Death of the Australian Comics Industry – 1940-1962!” Dr. Mensana —Captain Atom (no lie!)—Molo the Mighty—Sir Falcon—The Panther—The Shadow (no, not that one—or that one, either!)—Air Hawk—plus the astonishing “Down Under” career of The Phantom—examined by MICHAEL BAULDERSTONE! With a giant kangaroo’s pouch full of super-hero art rarely seen in the Northern Hemisphere!

• DAVE BERG talks to JIM AMASH about Timely/Marvel, Fawcett, & Quality— with art from Uncle Sam, Combat Kelly, etc.—ALEX TOTH on comic art— MICHAEL T. GILBERT on the legacy of WILL EISNER—BILL SCHELLY interviews 1960s fan GLEN JOHNSON—FCA with MARC SWAYZE, OTTO BINDER, & C.C. BECK—& MORE!!

Edited by ROY THOMAS

[Art ©2005 DC Comics]

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Article Title Topline writer/editorial

3

Make Mine Marvel!

Roy Celebrates 40 Years Since Modeling With Mille # 44–––And 50 Issues of A/E, Vol. 3!

L

ike I was saying in my editorial on the flip side—you may find it a wee bit tricky to decide which side of this issue you read first!

That’s partly because my first staff job in New York in late June of 1965, almost exactly forty years ago, was for “Superman” line editor Mort Weisinger at National/DC, which might seem to make that point (plus my two Charlton stories written that spring) the logical place to start. But the Weisinger stint lasted only two truncated weeks—one, if you’re the type of person who counts something as a job only if you actually get paid for it—and by Friday afternoon of Week Two, I was on staff at Marvel Comics, working for Stan Lee, as detailed on the flip side.

That gig lasted just over fifteen years before I returned to DC—maybe just to prove I’m not in the habit of changing jobs every fortnight.

As per usual, I had far more ambitious aims for this 50th issue than I was fated to realize. You can blame Jim Amash for that (I certainly do): even though we’d decided he’d interview me only about my late-1960s work at Marvel, Jim had so many good questions about that period (admittedly spilling over into the early ’70s now and then) that our talk takes up this entire half of the mag, and even squeezed nearly all our ads onto the other side. Well, since this celebration of my 40th year as a comics writer is a “1965-2005” kind of thing, it seems fitting that, if

something had to get short shrift this ish, it would be the middle and later years—and even they are covered, at least in passing, in the Checklist on the other side.

Even though, in the 11th hour, publisher John Morrow and I agreed to bite the bullet and add eight more pages this month (bringing the count to 108 for this doubly special issue), several things had to be jettisoned: the “re:” section (sigh)—my long-delayed final article on All-Star Squadron #1 (as a lead-in to the upcoming All-Star Companion, Vol. 2)—a piece written with Jean-Marc Lofficier on our work together in the late 1980s on several issues of The Young All-Stars—as well as coverage of my 1972-74 stint as Marvel’s editor-in-chief, and my work with Conan and other heroes created by pulp fictioneer Robert E. Howard, with which I’ve become not unhappily identified.

Oh, well—gives us something to shoot for in future issues—including A/E #100, right?

And now, with no further ado—except for the art and caption below—we’ll let Jim Amash march us through the merry mine-fields of Marvel….

ALTER EGO

CELEBRATES

50

FABULOUS ISSUES!

Since A/E has two pairs of “maskots,” who generally appear in alternate issues, our agile Australian artistic adaptoid Shane Foley volunteered to assemble this striking collage of all four guys for #50’s “re:” section—but since there isn’t one this month, we’ve printed it here! As Shane informs us, Alter & Captain Ego (at left) were derived from figures of Rick Jones and Adam Warlock drawn by Gil Kane in Captain Marvel #21 (Aug. 1970) and Marvel Premiere #2 (May ’72), respectively—while Alter Ego and Rob Lindsay come from John Buscema-penciled figures for Sub-Mariner #1 (the 1968 one!) and Avengers #97 (March ’72)—with multi-hero sidekick Rick Jones doing double duty as both teenagers. Nice work, Shane! Roy loved seeing what these creations might’ve looked like if drawn by two of his favorite artistic collaborators! [Art ©2005 Shane Foley; Alter & Capt. Ego TM & ©2005 Roy Thomas & Bill Schelly (created by Biljo White); Alter Ego & Rob Lindsay TM & ©2005 Roy & Dann Thomas.]

Bestest,

4

“Roy The Boy” In The Marvel Age Of Comics Rascally Roy Thomas Talks About Being Stan Lee’s “Left-Hand Man” In The 1960s & Early ’70s Interview Conducted by Jim Amash

I

Transcribed by Tom Wimbish

NTERVIEWER’S INTRO: Roy WHO?? —Jim.

“My First Official Job Title At Marvel Was ‘Staff Writer’” JIM AMASH: You worked at DC for a week or so before you went to Marvel. Did DC hire you as an assistant editor?

ROY THOMAS: I don’t know if that term was ever used, but that’s what it amounted to. I was the assistant to Mort Weisinger, who was the editor of the “Superman” line of comics.

JA: Was there an expectation—from you or them—that you would write as well as edit?

THOMAS: Well, I’d already written a “Jimmy Olsen” script a few months before, while still living and teaching in the St. Louis area. Mort

“They Call ’Em ‘Associate Editors’ Because They’re The Only Ones Who’ll Associate With The Editor!”

Roy Thomas (left) and A/E associate editor/ace interviewer Jim Amash, conspiring about the mag at the 2004 Heroes Con in Charlotte, NC. Seen in front of Jim is a Spider-Man Sunday newspaper strip on which he was then assisting regular inker Joe Sinnott. [Photo ©2005 Sam Maronie.]

had me advanced fifty bucks when I sent it in—which helped with my one-way plane fare to New York—and I was to rewrite the story later. I worked at DC for eight days in late June and very early July of 1965.

During that time, Mort mentioned that [DC Flash-JLA editor] Julie Schwartz had expressed an interest in me doing some writing for him.

He didn’t say if I’d be writing more “Superman,” but I was never told there was a policy against it. [NOTE: See “Two Weeks with Mort Weisinger” on our flip side.]

JA: Then you were hired by Marvel. Were you hired as editorial staff, or was there a discussion about writing?

THOMAS: I was hired after taking Stan’s “writer’s test,” and my first official job title at Marvel was “staff writer.” I wasn’t hired as an editor or assistant editor. I was supposed to come in 40 hours a week and write scripts on staff. Not exactly the easiest thing in the world. I sat at this corrugated metal desk with a typewriter in a small office with production manager Sol Brodsky and corresponding secretary Flo

The Page That Launched A Thousand Scripts The one page Roy still has of the “writer’s test” Stan gave out to would-be scripters in the mid-’60s. The test consisted of story pages 19-22 of Kirby/Stone art from Fantastic Four Annual #2, with all balloons and captions removed, which the testee was to dialogue “Marvel style.” In July 1965, Roy apparently passed the test and got the job. [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Rascally Roy Thomas Talks About The 1960s & Early ’70s

Steinberg. Everybody who came up to Marvel wound up there, and the phone was constantly ringing, with conversations going on all around me. Stan was in and out, too.

Almost at once, even though Stan proofed all the finished stories, he and Sol started having me check the corrections before they went out, and that would break up my concentration still further.

I loved the job in general, but I couldn’t get much writing done from 9 to 5, so I started staying late.

I sometimes worked alone in the office in the darkened building until 8 or 9, as well as at Dave Kaler’s Lower East Side apartment where I lived for several months. I’d put transparent tracing paper over the original artwork, lay out the balloons, then rough in the dialogue in longhand, all capital letters.

Gene Colan’s first “Iron Man” story, in Tales of Suspense #73, was my first stab at writing a Marvel super-hero, after doing one or two “Millies.” When I turned in the “Iron Man,” I was told I wouldn’t get paid extra for writing it, even though I’d done it outside office hours. It was explained that the two

5

“Millie” titles could be done freelance, but other writing was to be counted as staff. I said I couldn’t write in the office during the day. I’ve never been great at shutting out noise—and besides, they kept asking me to do this or that, or questions like in which issue something happened, or Stan would come in to check something, because I knew a lot about Marvel continuity up to that time. (Of course, there wasn’t nearly as much of it then as there is now, so it wasn’t that hard.)

Giving Credits Where Credits Are Due Roy Thomas (left) and Gene Colan (right), as seen in a photographic “rogues’ gallery” in the 1969 Fantastic Four Annual—plus R.T.’s first-ever Marvel super-hero splash, from Tales of Suspense #73 (Jan. 1966), with pencils by Gene (as “Adam Austin”) and inks by Jack Abel (as “Gary Michaels”). Stan Lee, who’d plotted the tale with Gene, rewrote so much of Roy’s script on this, Gene’s first “Iron Man” story—roughly 50%, by Roy’s estimates—that he made it one of the very rare Marvel stories with no itemized credits. FYI: Sol Brodsky was production manager, Flo Steinberg corresponding secretary, and Marie Severin colored the story. To quote Stan: “Whew!” [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Three Offices, Five Characters – July 1965 (Left to right:) Stan Lee (the beard is post-’65)—Sol Brodsky—Marie Severin—Roy Thomas & Flo Steinberg at Flo’s desk circa ’65-’66. The photos of Stan, Sol, and Marie are from the 1969 F.F. Annual, while Flo’s personal photo of her and Roy is reproduced from Les Daniels’ 1991 book Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World’s Greatest Comics. [Photos ©2005 the respective copyright holders.]

It quickly became apparent to them, too, that the staff writer thing wasn’t working, and Stan segued me over to being being an editorial assistant, which immediately worked out better for all concerned. I don’t know if I was ever given that official title; they just stopped thinking of me as a staff writer. I don’t recall if I got paid extra for the next super-hero scripting I did—two Ditko “Dr. Strange” stories I dialogued [in Strange Tales #143-144]—but I got paid as freelance for everything I wrote after that. And I never did any of it in the office, not even on my lunch hour.

6

“Roy The Boy” In The Marvel Age Of Comics

“Ditko And [Stan Lee] Were Not On The Same Wavelength” JA: When you did those “Dr. Strange” stories, were you aware Ditko was about to quit?

THOMAS: No. I’d met him, and one of the first things I learned at Marvel was that Stan and Steve weren’t speaking to each other. Steve just came in and dropped his stuff off with Sol, and then Stan dialogued it. By then, Steve was plotting both “Dr. Strange” and SpiderMan and getting credit for it. Outside the field, I doubt anybody knew there was friction between them, because neither he nor Stan would’ve leaked that to the fan press—and who else would’ve been interested? Somehow, by some sort of Daredevil radar sense, Stan never walked into Sol’s office while Ditko was there.

You’d think it might’ve happened just once by accident, but it never did

Strange But True…

Steve Ditko—and the splashes of the two Ditko-drawn “Dr. Strange” stories dialogued by Roy for Strange Tales #143-144 (April-May 1966). That “written and rewritten” credit on #143, added

by Stan, is mind-numbingly accurate: The Boy had to do a lot of rewriting before The Man put his imprimature on the story—but he learned a lot in the process! Photo of Ditko courtesy of Britt Stanton. [Art ©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Legends At Loggerheads!

(Above:) Steve Ditko’s layouts for p. 7, panel 5, of “Just a Guy Named Joe!” in Amazing Spider-Man #38 (July 1966)—his final issue—as scripted and lettered before it was sent back to the artist for inking. A few lines have dropped out on our photocopy (supplied

by David G. Hamilton), but this gives you a pretty fair idea of the art Stan dialogued from when Spidey battled a super-villain in a nearly skin-tight costume. And thereby hangs a tale of two issues earlier….

(Right:) In “When Falls the Meteor!” in ASM #36 (May ’66), the silhouette (in layouts) of the villainous Looter looked virtually identical to Spidey’s, since both wore form-fitting costumes. Accordingly, when Stan scripted the final panel on p. 13, he had to decide: did Steve mean that to be Spidey on that ledge, hunting for the fled Looter—or was it The Looter himself, hiding thereon? With no clarifying note from Steve, Stan wrote the figure as Spider-Man, and Artie Simek lettered it. When the story came back, however, Steve had inked the figure as The Looter—apparently the character he’d intended it to be.

At this point, of course, either the balloons or the figure had to be totally changed. Thus, Roy recalls lingering at the Marvel offices well after 5:00 p.m. one nigh-Christmas day in 1965 and chatting about Charlie Biro with veteran artist Carl Hubbell (then inking Rawhide Kid) while the latter painstakingly transformed Looter into Wall-Crawler in that panel. It wasn’t a case of Stan being right and Steve wrong, or vice versa—but if there’s a better illustration of the fact that Stan Lee and Steve Ditko weren’t playing in the same ballpark by the mid-1960s, Roy hopes someone will point it out to him. But it was a great team while it lasted! [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Rascally Roy Thomas Talks About The 1960s & Early ’70s

7

during those several months I was around.

In November or December, Ditko brought in pencils for one of his two series, and told Sol that he’d finish the episode of each hero that he was working on, and that would be it. Sol naturally went in and told Stan first, before he told me. I was sitting nearby, but hadn’t eavesdropped on Steve’s conversation with Sol. JA: Did Stan have you and Denny O’Neil writing dialogue for “Dr. Strange” because he was trying to scale back, or because of the friction with Ditko?

THOMAS: Mostly because he wanted to scale back, because Stan never stopped loving Ditko’s work. He just had to give something up, and Strange Tales was the book that sold the least well of any of the monthlies, no matter who drew “S.H.I.E.L.D.”—Kirby or Steranko or whoever—and no matter who did “Dr. Strange.” “Dr. Strange,” beautiful as it was, was a less important feature than “Human Torch” or even “S.H.I.E.L.D.” It was the only Marvel costumed-hero strip I hadn’t always read as a fan. I’d always liked Ditko’s artwork, starting with “Captain Atom” at Charlton, but I just wasn’t into magicians. Now, of course, I realize I was nuts to read “Human Torch” and “Giant-Man,” and not “Dr. Strange.” But that’s the way I was at the time, and I don’t think I was alone in doing that.

JA: What was your understanding of the problem between Ditko and Stan?

THOMAS: Sol told me they’d argue about plotlines. I heard from either Sol or Stan, for instance, that Steve had wanted a major character to be crossing the street and get killed by a car. Stan nixed that idea because it didn’t seem like drama to him, even though it was realistic. Steve might not remember that incident, or he might remember it differently. I’ve never talked to him about it.

I know Stan felt The Green Goblin should turn out to be somebody important to Spider-Man. He didn’t want to repeat that bit with the man in the Crime Master’s mask [Amazing Spider-Man #27], who turned out to be some nobody. I don’t know if that had been Stan’s idea or Steve’s, but I know that as a reader I’d found it dramatically unfulfilling.

Still, I appreciated the realism: just because you take off a guy’s mask doesn’t mean you’re going to recognize him. This shows that Stan and Steve were thinking increasingly differently. Stan was doing quite well editing and writing a whole line of comics, and Ditko was feeling his oats, too, because he knew he was doing good work, and people were responding to it. Certainly Stan liked it; everybody liked it. Yet, Ditko felt he and Stan weren’t on the same wavelength. He was probably right.

I saw Steve only a few weeks after he quit, at a party at Dave Kaler’s new place on the Upper West Side. I said to him, “I’m not spying for Stan, and I won’t tell him what you say, but why did you quit?” All I remember from Steve’s vague response is a sentence fragment: “Well, you know, when a guy’s working against you...” I doubt if he meant Stan was consciously working against him, just that he felt Stan should leave things to him since he was plotting the book. At least that’s how I interpreted it. Steve may not remember ever saying that, but I’ll swear to my dying day that he did—those exact words. There wasn’t anything I could say, so I didn’t pursue the matter further. I had too much respect for Steve to press him.

At that stage, Stan felt he knew what was selling the Marvel comics, and I think he was right. He was willing to go along with a lot of what Steve wanted to do; otherwise, he wouldn’t have let him plot the stories.

He probably went along with a few things that were against his own instincts. But in other areas, he felt he had to dig in his heels and say no, because he was the editor. And “with great power, there must also come great responsibility.” If Martin Goodman had suddenly noticed a title wasn’t selling and asked Stan why he had done this or that, Stan couldn’t reply that it was because the artist wanted to do it that way. Let me tell

Green Grows The Goblin “Stan felt The Green Goblin should turn out to be somebody important to Spider-Man.” And, of course, he did—Norman Osborne, to be precise—but by then, Sturdy Steve Ditko had walked and Jazzy Johnny Romita was drawing The Amazing Spider-Man. This sketch of the Goblin by J.R. is courtesy of the #1 Romita collector in the universe, Mike Burkey; see his buying-and-selling ads elsewhere in this very issue. [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

you, that would not have been sufficient excuse for Martin Goodman! It was just a case where two people couldn’t compromise, and of course Stan had the authority. He used it with a light rein, but when he felt he had to use it, he did, just as anybody would. If you don’t, why be an editor at all? “With great responsibility, there should also come great power.” I made that up.

JA: In articles he wrote recently for Robin Snyder’s newsletter The Comics!, Ditko says Stan is the one who stopped speaking to him, not the reverse.

THOMAS: It probably was Stan, because Ditko didn’t have the authority to do that: he was an artist bringing work in to an editor who’s his superior in the company. If it was Stan’s decision, he probably felt that was the only way the two of them could go on working together.

Maybe it would’ve worked better if Stan had gone on trying to talk to Steve, but it’s hard to say in retrospect, because nothing had ever existed quite like the working relationships between Stan and Steve and Jack. It was a somewhat different arrangement than comics was used to. I won’t say it had never existed before, but it was relatively rare.

JA: When you dialogued those “Dr. Strange” episodes, did Ditko provide any marginal notes or writing of any kind?

THOMAS: I’m sure he did, but I believe they were sketchy. His pencils were very loose, too—not much more than stick figures—because he

8

“Roy The Boy” In The Marvel Age Of Comics The Man Without Peer

was going to finish them in the inking. I’m sure there were notes, not just the art, because Stan wanted the artists to tell what was going on, to avoid misinterpretation. Jack, of course, got in the habit of writing more and more in the margins. Stan would take what he wanted from that, and felt no obligation to take any more. I think the same was true with Steve.

When Wally Wood (left) became the artist on Daredevil with #5 (Dec. 1964), a thrilled Stan trumpeted his arrival on the splash with unabashed pride. Their short-lived collaboration produced seven issues of as breathtakingly beautiful comic art as ever blessed the Man without Fear— and, considering other early DD artists included Bill Everett, Joe Orlando, John Romita, Jack Kirby, and Gene Colan, that’s saying something!

Photo courtesy of Richard Pryor. [Art ©2005 Marvel Characters.]

JA: I had wondered about that, because I don’t recall ever seeing Ditko’s notes on the originals. I think that Ditko has at some point said that he wrote his notes on separate pieces of paper.

THOMAS: I don’t recall getting separate pieces of paper, but I only worked with him twice at that stage, so I don’t recall.

“Just Show Me The First And Last Page Of Any Story You Write” JA: What were your early impressions of Stan? How much of the personality that he put into the comics did you see when you started working for him?

THOMAS: Well, in private he didn’t talk like a “Bullpen Bulletin.” He was very aware of having a public persona, the same way a performer would. You wouldn’t expect a comedian to be cracking jokes every second in private conversation. Whatever sort of public face he put on things—about this being fun, or that being great—he also had to be taken seriously as an editor, and you can’t joke your way through that.

JA: We’ve heard stories about Stan sitting in his office in the ’40s and playing some kind of flute while he was editing the line. I’ve gotten the impression that, by the ’60s, he was more serious in the office.

THOMAS: I never saw him play any musical instrument, not even a kazoo. [Jim laughs] Right after I started working for him, I was walking around

Millie And Me (Above & left:) Stan Goldberg, a.k.a.

“Stan G.,” from that oh-so-handy 1969 F.F. Annual—and his splash for Modeling with Millie #44 (Dec. 1965), the first issue scripted

by Roy T. Unfortunately, neophyte Roy failed to indicate credits on the story—and Stan forgot to add any, as well, while rewriting Roy’s dialogue. They forgot the logo, too!

But hey—at least R.T. corrected the grammar of the Anthony Newley song “Who Can I Turn to?” from which he took the title! Inker uncertain. Photo courtesy of Stan G. [Art ©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Manhattan one night with my new friend Len Brown, who worked for Topps Bubble Gum. He and Wally Wood had worked together on the famous Mars Attacks! card series, and Len had just written the first couple of “Dynamo” stories for Wally at Tower. Wally had quit drawing Daredevil a few weeks before, and Len told me how horrible Wally claimed Stan was… including that old story about him standing on top of a file cabinet years ago and throwing all the staffers’ checks up in the air so they’d have to scramble for them. I said, “Y’know, I haven’t seen any of that. Maybe he and Wally just didn’t get along.”

Naturally, it’s too bad that Stan and some of the best artists in the business—Wood, Kirby, Ditko—came to eventual partings of the ways, but that doesn’t pin down whose “fault” it is. They also produced a lot of good work together before parting. Partnership is a hard thing, as I always say.

JA: Yeah, and when your partner is also your boss, I guess that can cause friction.

THOMAS: Yeah, that was part of the problem between Barry Smith and me later. I thought of us as friends, and I’d gone out of my way to get Barry work. Later on, from

Rascally Roy Thomas Talks About The 1960s & Early ’70s things he wrote and said, it appears to me that, in spite of our hanging around together, including for a week in London in 1970, he seems to have compartmentalized things so that I was just his boss. I’ve always been sad about that, because I didn’t feel that way. But it’s true that, at that time, if Barry—or some other artist—and I had a disagreement over a story, I was probably going to win it. I’ll admit I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way, and they’d have done the same thing in my situation.

JA: Did Stan give you many suggestions or ideas? Did he tell you to think or write in particular ways?

THOMAS: He was very much a teacher, at least in the early days. Later on, he’d talk to me when something I’d written came in for proofreading all lettered and inked, which was usually the first time he’d see it. On that first “Iron Man” story and those two “Dr. Stranges,” and at least one or two “Millies,” he did go over my handwritten overlays before I typed up the scripts. He’d say what amounted to: “Don’t think like this,” or, “Think about what this guy would be thinking now.” That “Iron Man” story wound up about 50-50 between his dialogue and mine. He had liked my writing enough to hire me, and he wanted to see what I would do with a real story. Then he edited the heck out of me, which was only to be expected, I guess.

This became a problem over the next few months—also with Denny O’Neil, Steve Skeates, maybe one or two other new writers—because waiting till a story was lettered and inked before changing maybe a hundred words or more drove production manager Sol Brodsky absolutely bonkers. Suddenly, even though a book needed to go out to the printers, he had to do all these corrections on pages already lettered in ink. But that’s the way Stan felt he had to work at that time, because he was so busy.

except his brother Larry Lieber, but by the time I came along, Larry was mainly doing Rawhide Kid. He didn’t really want to do super-heroes, even though he had written the early “Thors” and “Iron Mans”—apparently in full script. Larry says he never dialogued what came to be called “Marvel style”—i.e., after the art was done—on any super-hero work.

Stan would give him the general storyline, and he’d write a full script.

JA: It seems to me that you were the first guy after Larry that Stan had confidence in. Why do you think that was?

THOMAS: He was probably just getting tired. [laughter] You have to remember that all these other people, except maybe Larry, were experienced comic book artists and/or writers who’d been writing comics long before Stan started developing a relatively new approach to super-hero writing in the early 1960s. They were naturally still writing the way they’d written previously, just trying to make a few adjustments.

For my part, I was of course influenced by the comics of the ’40s and ’50s, and by the 1960s DC comics written by Gardner Fox and John Broome, and I admired Arnold Drake’s Doom Patrol, but I was more open to being powerfully influenced by Stan than older writers. Besides knowing that I was supposed to write like him, I also felt that the Marvel books should be written like that. That was what was working for Stan, and even before I came to Marvel I felt he was writing the best comics on the stands.

I saw myself as a continuer, somebody who should just keep the books going with the same feel. Since I was a relatively blank slate, I was able to do it. When Stan saw the couple of Charlton stories I’d written earlier in more of a Gardner Fox style, he wasn’t too impressed. It’s probably a good thing I already had my job at Marvel at that point! I

Sometime around the turn of 1966, when I’d been there for several months, Stan told me he’d decided that he’d been changing some dialogue because it needed changing, but he went on, “Sometimes, I think I’ve just been trying to make it read like I wrote it instead of you, which doesn’t make any sense, because I’m not writing it.” I know Sol had been pleading with him to ease up on the corrections. Stan said, “From now on, just show me the first and last page of any story you write, and if they’re okay, I’ll assume that the rest is okay, too.” [mutual laughter] After that, things went pretty smoothly. He rewrote a bit more later on my first X-Men and maybe even Avengers, both of which were also handwritten first on overlays, but he Larry Lieber & Friend stopped changing as much dialogue around the start Larry Lieber, from the 1969 of 1966.

JA: Before you came to Marvel, Stan tried out Ernie Hart, Don Rico, Jerry Siegel, Leon Lazarus, and Robert Bernstein as writers. A lot of experienced people were taking the writing test...

THOMAS: Not to mention the hundred or so who’d answered an ad for writers in The New York Times and taken the writing test before me. Steve Skeates was there a few weeks before I was, but he came to Stan’s attention through an article he wrote while in college, and I have no idea if he took the test or not.

F.F. Annual—and a page he penciled for The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #5 (1968), inked by Mike Esposito—repro’d from a photocopy sent by Glen David Gold. For the past couple of decades, Larry has penciled the daily Spider-Man newspaper strip written by brother Stan. [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

JA: Speaking as a fan, I’d have to say that those other guys didn’t really work out.

THOMAS: Well, Stan didn’t think they did, and that was what counted.

Nobody you mentioned wrote more than a handful of stories; I guess Bernstein wrote the most. Nobody had worked out to his satisfaction

9

10

“Roy The Boy” In The Marvel Age Of Comics

think I was the right person in the right place at the right time, but there are other people who, had they been there, might have been just as right.

Steve Skeates was hired a couple of weeks before me, and I helped bring Denny O’Neil to Marvel only 3-4 months later, but somehow neither of them worked out as well from Stan’s point of view. They ended up with their own destinies and their own styles, and did very well eventually at DC. Somehow, I fit more naturally into what Stan felt he needed. I’m glad I did.

JA: God knows what would have happened to you career-wise if that hadn’t worked out.

THOMAS: I’d still be working for Mort Weisinger. He’d have stuck around just to torture me! [Jim laughs]

“I Can’t Tell What The Hell’s Going On Here!”

JA: How much involvement did Martin Goodman have in the Marvel books?

Goodman felt covers needed to be.

Goodman liked covers by certain people and disliked covers by others, and that’s why Kirby and certain other guys ended up doing a lot of covers. I used the same system later with John Romita, Gil Kane, and people like that.

Before & After Two other Marvel writers who were piped aboard in 1965—a few weeks before and 3 to 4 months after Roy, respectively: Steve Skeates (left) and Dennis O’Neil. Steve’s coming to Marvel is related in the interview.

In early ’65, Denny, a St. Louis U. graduate, was a reporter for The Southeast Missourian, the daily newspaper of Cape Girardeau County, where Roy had been raised. Denny wrote a pair of articles for it about comics—Roy’s mother mailed copies to him in the St. Louis area, where he was teaching— the two 20-somethings got together—and Denny wrote a third comics article for the paper, about Roy and comics fandom.

Come fall, Roy sent Denny the same writer’s test he’d taken to get his job at Marvel—and the rest is history of a sort.

Thanks to Bob Brodsky and Steve for the Skeates photo, and to the Denster himself for his own. Bob is editor/publisher of The O’Neil Observer, a fanzine dedicated to Denny’s work and related matters (esp. re comic book writing). This summer, Bob’s Childhood Summer Publications is also launching The Yancy Street Gazette, dedicated to the Marvel Age of Comics, 1961-1975, whose first issue will feature material on Gerry Conway, Steve Gerber, Roy Thomas, and much more.

To learn more about both publications, e-mail brodskybob@comcast.net.

THOMAS: Mostly the covers, at that stage. In 1961, of course, he’d told Stan to start a super-hero group book, but once things got moving, I think he left most of it to Stan. He’d just say yes or no when Stan had a new idea. He wouldn’t have said, “Do a spider man,” because Stan says he hated the idea of a character named “Spider-Man” and thought it wouldn’t sell.

And, however Sgt. Fury evolved—whether Kirby had developed the concept earlier or whatever—Stan probably remembers correctly when he says he wanted to do a war book, just to prove he could sell one.

Maybe the precise team was already on Jack’s shelf, since John Severin has said Jack showed it to him earlier, but I doubt if Jack influenced Stan to do a war comic.

Publish Or Perish!

This is one of several caricatures of Timely/Marvel publisher Martin Goodman that appeared in Krazy Komics #12 (Nov. 1943). Art by Ed Winarski? Thanks to Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

JA: When Kirby was doing covers, did he and Stan talk about them before he drew them?

THOMAS: Probably, mostly over the phone. Still, maybe Stan would sometimes just say, “Do up a cover.” I wasn’t involved in that process, so I don’t really know. Marvel’s covers weren’t subtle, and weren’t intended to be cute and ironic like a lot of covers nowadays. The cover was usually pretty close to a scene from the book, or something that symbolized the story.

“The People In The Other Departments Looked Down On The Comics” JA: Who else was working there when you started?

THOMAS: Not many people. Stan had a nice big office in the corner, which was bigger than the other two offices put together. Next to him was a little office with room for 3-4 people, if you had a shoehorn. Sol and Flo had their own desks in there, and when I came I sat at this corrugated desk that was already there. Soon after, they brought in Morrie Kuramoto as a staff letterer, and I think he worked in there for a while, but it was crowded.

There was another, smaller office across the hall from ours—Denny

JA: Maybe Stan mentioned the possibility of a war book to Kirby, and Kirby—who already had Sgt. Fury at home—said, “Hey, I’ve got this idea!” Who knows how much of what Kirby originally had might have been tinkered with?

THOMAS: Nobody really knows. I wasn’t there when it was started. To answer your original question, Goodman had little to do with the interiors, but Stans always says Goodman had a good eye for covers, for what might or might not sell.

Once around 1968-69 a Gene Colan Dr. Strange cover drawing was submitted to Goodman, and he fired it back with a note saying, “I can’t tell what the hell’s going on here!” Beautiful as they were in their way, Gene’s covers weren’t always as clear as

“I’d Like To Propose A Roast!”

Though Rascally Roy worked with/for Smilin’ Stan from 1965-80 and since then on TV cartoons and other projects, this photo—taken at the Stan Lee Roast at the 1995 Chicago Comic-Con—is one of the relatively few showing them together, in this case with the other roasters. (Left to right:) Peter David, Chris Claremont, Jim Shooter, Roy, Stan, Sal Buscema, John Romita, Julie Schwartz. A transcription of the Roast appeared in A/E V3#1, which is currently out of print; but one of these days…! Thanks to William Cain for the photo— and Godspeed home from the Middle East, Bill!

Roy Thomas’ Dynamic DC Comics Fanzine

$

5.95

No.50

In the USA July 2005

PLUS: PLUS:

Art ©2005 Jerry Ordway; Characters TM & ©2005 DC Comics

FOUR FABULOUS, FUN-FILLED DECADES WITH: ADAMS * ALCALA * AYERS * BUCKLER * BRODSKY * THE BROS. BUSCEMA * CHAN * COLAN COLÓN * DITKO * EVERETT * FOX * GIORDANO * GOLDBERG * HECK * INFANTINO * KANE KIRBY * LARK * LEE * MACHLAN * McFARLANE * ORDWAY * PÉREZ * PUGH * ROBBINS * ROMITA ROTH * SCHWARTZ * THE SEVERIN SIBLINGS * SHAW! * SMITH * TRIMPE * TUSKA * WEISINGER —not to mention the FAVORITE COMIC BOOK WRITERS & EDITORS OF THE 20th CENTURY!

Vol. 3, No. 50 / July 2005

™

Editor Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout

Roy Thomas Shamelessly Celebrates 50 Issues of A/E, Vol. 3—& 40 Years Since “The Dragon Delinquent!”

Christopher Day

Consulting Editor John Morrow

FCA Editor P.C. Hamerlinck

Comic Crypt Editor

Contents

Michael T. Gilbert

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

Production Assistant Eric Nolen-Weathington

Michael T. Gilbert showcases Roy’s 1961 letters to veteran-pro idol Gardner Fox.

Two Weeks With Mort Weisinger. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Roy relates why those 8-9 days in 1965 were like four years with an angry mob!

Cover Artists Jerry Ordway Alfredo Alcala, John Buscema, & Jack Kirby

Cover Colorist Tom Ziuko, Alfredo Alcala (portrait)

And Special Thanks to: Alfredo Alcala, Jr. Christian Voltan Alcala Estelita Alcala Heidi Amash Heather Antonelli Bob Bailey Jeff Bailey Mark Beazley John Benson Dominic Bongo Bob Brodsky Rich Buckler Mike Burkey William Cain R. Dewey Cassell Ernie Chan Lynda Fox Cohen Teresa R. Davidson Michael Dewally Shel Dorf Michael Dunne Jennie-Lynn Falk Shane Foley Jeff Fox Carl Gafford Janet Gilbert Dick Giordano Glen David Gold Stan Goldberg Bob Greenberger Curt Griff Ian Hamerlinck Jennifer Hamerlinck David G. Hamilton Daniel Herman Richard Howell Karen Hughes Stan Lee Larry Lieber Alan Light

Writer/Editorial: Up, Up—And Away! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Comic Crypt: The Fox And The Fan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Allen Logan Linda Long Don Mangus Sam Maronie Mike Mikulovsky Al Milgrom Fred Mommsen Brian K. Morris Frank Motler Owen O’Leary Denny O’Neil Dave Newton Jerry Ordway Tom Palmer George Pérez Don Perlin Mike Phoenix John G. Pierce Nick Pope Greg Preston Richard Pryor Ethan Roberts Peter Sanderson Eric Schumacher Carole Seuling Gwen Seuling Marie Severin Rick Shurgin David Siegel Keif Simon Joe & Betty Sinnott Paul Smith Zack Smith Britt Stanton Flo Steinberg Marc Swayze Dann Thomas Maggie Thompson Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Tom Wimbish Michele Wolfman

This issue is dedicated by Roy to his mother–––MRS. LEONA THOMAS

“1965 – A Watershed Year” (For Roy Thomas, Among Others) . . . . . 13 A brief word by Bill Schelly about how and why Roy jumped ship from DC to Marvel.

Roy Thomas Checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 An illustrated and annotated guide to forty years of comic book writing and editing.

“The Company He Keeps…” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

The Comic Buyer’s Guide 2000 poll of 20th-century comics favorites, annotated by Peter Sanderson.

The Doctor Is In! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Found: more “Dr. Mid-Nite” art from that long-lost mid-1940s “Justice Society” story!

The Angels of A/E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 A Too-Brief Intro To Five Who Made Alter Ego What It Is Today—Whatever That Is!

FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) #108 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 P.C. Hamerlinck & John G. Pierce on Roy’s Fawcett Connection—plus Marc Swayze.

“Roy The Boy” In The Marvel Age Of Comics. . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! People always said you’ve gotta stand on your head to appreciate Roy Thomas.

About Our Cover: We didn’t quite have room enough there to squeeze in this entire Justice Society-plus illustration by Jerry Ordway—so you’ll see it in full on the very next page! And yes, we noticed that Hawkman and Hawkgirl/Hawkwoman are the Silver Age/Earth-One versions of that pair, while of course Johnny Quick never was a JSAer—but collector Michael Dunne, who commissioned Jerry to do this great drawing, agrees with Ralph Waldo Emerson (and Ye Editor) that “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” Thanks to both Michael and Jerry for their blessing to use the piece as the perfect cover for the more-or-less “DC side” of Roy’s 40thanniversary issue! Oh, and the cover photo of Roy was taken by a professional photographer back in the 1980s, as a gift from his and Dann’s good friend Jennie-Lynn Falk, namesake of Jade’s alter ego. [Art ©2005 Jerry Ordway; characters TM & ©2005 DC Comics.]

Above: We figured that most readers, even those halfway familiar with the work done by Roy Thomas since 1965, would be thrown for a loss by the use on our cover of the phrase “The Dragon Delinquent!”—so here it is again, on our capricious contents page! Roy’s article on pp. 9-11 will explain why it appears in both spots—and why the image atop this page is the Curt Swan/George Klein cover for Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #91 (March 1966). [©2005 DC Comics.]

Alter EgoTM is published monthly by TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344.

Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: 32 Bluebird Trail, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Single issues: $8 ($10 Canada, $11.00 elsewhere). Twelve-issue subscriptions: $60 US, $120 Canada, $132 elsewhere. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © Roy Thomas. Alter Ego is a TM of Roy & Dann Thomas. FCA is a TM of P.C. Hamerlinck. Printed in Canada.

FIRST PRINTING.

Title writer/editorial

2

Up, Up––And Away!

L

ike I was saying in my editorial on the flip side—you may find it a wee bit tricky to decide which side of this issue you read first!

That’s partly because, although probably my major “claim to fame,” such as it is, is the fifteen years I spent with Stan Lee and Marvel from 1965-1980, I actually arrived in Manhattan in late June ’65 to accept a staff position at DC Comics (then National Periodicals) under “Superman” editor Mort Weisinger. But in very early July, after only two weeks, I was “up, up, and away” to Marvel, as detailed in the following three pieces. Still, it was my entrée into the wacky world of professional comic books—and it’s unlikely I’d ever have moved to New York City without that offer from Mort. The end result, for me, has been a rewarding 40-year career as a comics writer and ofttimes editor— including returning to DC in the 1980s to develop All-Star Squadron and other titles.

My flip-side writer/editorial lists some of the items that had to be tossed overboard to keep the good ship Alter Ego #50 afloat even at 108

pages—indeed, there’s hardly space to do more than acknowledge that said milestone has been reached. But “50” is only a number, after all— not really that much different from #49 or #51.

Even so, I wanted to call particular attention in this issue to our four regular contributing editors—Bill Schelly, Jim Amash, Michael T. Gilbert, and P.C. Hamerlinck—and to A/E’s poor overworked layout guru Christopher Day. You can meet the men behind the mag on pp.

34-36. Thanks, guys! It’s been a blast so far—and if the best isn’t yet to come, it sure won’t be for lack of our trying, right?

Onward: to keep DC-related material in roughly chronological order, we’re starting this time with Michael T. Gilbert’s “Comic Crypt” section—which actually goes back to 1960-61, but deals with the period that sowed the seeds for the DC offer in ’65...!

Bestest,

Here, as promised a whole page ago, is a full-art version of Jerry Ordway’s gorgeous JSA-and-friends illo, as sent to us by collector Michael Dunne and printed with both lads’ permission. We wanted you to see the whole drawing, in untrammeled black-&-white. Hey, maybe one of these days we can even print Jerry’s original layout for the piece, which has a couple of the heroes in different positions! [Art ©2005 Jerry Ordway; characters TM & ©2005 DC Comics.]

[The above art is a detail from Michael’s cover for the 1999 revised edition of Bill Schelly’s book The Golden Age of Comic Fandom.]

9

Two Weeks With Mort Weisinger Or, Four Years With An Angry Mob (Take Your Pick) A Reminiscence by Roy Thomas

T

his article saw print, in a slightly different form, in Comic Book Marketplace #58 (April 1998), in conjunction with other material about longtime DC editor Mort Weisinger. I was asked to write a few paragraphs for a sidebar on my brief experience with him, and got carried away, as is my wont. Article ©2005 Roy Thomas. Our thanks to Russ Cochran for his blessing to reprint it here, and to Brian K. Morris for a typing assist.

Since I was one of Mort Weisinger’s “discoveries”— though maybe “fiascos” is the word he’d have used—I felt it was high time I exorcised a few demons by writing about him.

Back in early-’60s comics fandom, Mort’s six “Superman” titles, clearly aimed at a younger audience than fellow DC editor Julius Schwartz’s mags, were pretty much taken for granted and rarely discussed in fanzines. Alter Ego, for instance, devoted a lot of space to the Justice Society and Captain Marvel, but practically none to the super-hero who’d started it all.

Because I corresponded from 1960-65 with Julie Schwartz, I knew he and Mort had been friends since even before they’d published one of the very first science-fiction fanzines back in the ’30s, but I knew little else about Mort. Still, when I wrote virtually my only fan letter to a “Superman” mag—one concerning Herko the Monster in a “Lois Lane” tale, because he reminded me of old Captain Marvel creatures (and why not? the artist was Kurt Schaffenberger!)— Weisinger responded with a courteous letter. As I did with every other pro I knew of, I sent him freebie copies of A/E [Vol. 1] #7-8 in ’64 and early ’65.

Time Travellers Two This photo of longtime friends and DC editors Mort Weisinger (seated) and Julius Schwartz—who as teenagers had launched The Time Traveller, one of the first sciencefiction fanzines, and had soon opened an sf literary agency—appeared in The Amazing Worlds of DC Comics #3 (Nov. 1974). But it had probably been taken a few years earlier, since Mort retired in 1970 and passed away in 1978.

Then, in spring of ’65, only days after accepting a graduate fellowship in foreign relations that was to be my ticket out of teaching high school, I received a second letter from Weisinger—offering me a trial position at National/DC as his assistant. My fellow teacher Albert Tindall—the guy who’d wangled the fellowship for me and who’d go on to become a prominent attorney in Missouri—was dumbfounded that, after

Superman’s Pal, Roy Thomas Roy, seen at left circa 1947-48, was clearly already a Superman fan by age 7—nearly two decades away from writing the script that would form the basis of the story “The Dragon Delinquent!” in Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #91 (March 1966). Art by Pete Costanza; script by Leo Dorfman. What? Never heard that R.T. was associated with that particular tale? Read on! The photo, by the way, was the sole visual that appeared with this article when it was originally published in Comic Book Marketplace. With thanks to Mrs. Leona Thomas. [©2005 DC Comics.]

pacing our apartment for half an hour, I accepted Mort’s offer and turned my back on an academic career. But, having sent two sample comics scripts earlier to Julie, and having just sold two scripts to Charlton, I wasn’t about to turn down a chance to work in the comics industry! (Besides, truth to tell, I had till summer’s end to formally reject the fellowship, so I could hedge my bets.)

Mort offered me a starting salary of $110 a week (about what I was then making as a teacher) and a two-month trial period. I borrowed and read a box full of “Superman” comics from my friend Biljo White, bought a new suit—and waited eagerly for summer.

During that time I spoke only once with Mort on the phone. One day he called me at school, out of the blue, for a reason I can’t recall. All I remember of the brief conversation is his speaking of “the Superman mythology.” By then I’d come to respect, at least to a certain extent, what he was doing with Bizarro, Imaginary Stories, way too many surviving Kryptonians, and all those shades of Kryptonite.

At his invitation, I also wrote a “Jimmy Olsen” script in which the young reporter went undercover to join a youthful street gang. I felt it needed more pages than the usual eight, but Mort said that was impossible, so I wrote it in eight and sent it off. Mort soon advised me that he wanted a rewrite, but said that could follow when I got to New York. I was paid a $50 advance (the rate was $10 a page), to help pay for the air flight out.

And so, on the last Monday in June, I arrived in Manhattan in the midst of a taxi strike, and carried my one suitcase and portable electric typewriter more than a dozen blocks to the DC offices at 575 Lexington Avenue. I was so excited that I accidentally passed right by the Standard Brands Building wherein DC was located, and had to backtrack a couple of blocks carrying my increasingly heavy load.

That day I met Mort Weisinger—and everything started to go wrong.

16

Roy Thomas Checklist [NOTE: The following is adapted from information supplied by Dr. Jerry G. Bails in his Who’s Who of 20th-Century Comic Books. Those interested in being informed when Jerry’s updated version of the Who’s Who will be available should e-mail him at JerryBails@aol.com. Some data added by Roy Thomas. Except where otherwise noted, all credits below are for writing or co-writing (often, esp. after 1981, with wife Dann Thomas). Roy was also officially the editor of material he wrote at Marvel from late 1972-1981, and of his DC work from 1983-89, but that status is not generally noted in this Checklist. Titles not in italics often refer to features which appeared at various times both in their own magazines and in anthologies. Key: (e) = editor; (n.c.) = no credit; G.A. = Golden Age.]

Name: Roy William Thomas, Jr. (b. 1940) (writer, editor)

Innocents Abroad?

(Above:) Dann and Roy at the Vatican, 2003—and (right) a caricature of the happy couple done by artist Paul Smith for Roy’s 1979 birthday bash, near the end of Ye Editor’s first stint as writer of Marvel’s Conan mags. [Art ©2005 Paul Smith.]

Pen Name: Justin Arthur (Conan the Barbarian #240 only) Education: B.S. in Education, Southeast Missouri State University, 1961; Master’s degree in Humanities from California State University, 2005 Non-Comics Influences: Joseph Heller, Homer, Robert E. Howard, William Shakespeare Comics Writing/Editing Influences: Stan Lee, Joe Simon & Jack Kirby, Walt Kelly, Harvey Kurtzman, Otto Binder, Gardner Fox, Julius Schwartz

Will The Non-Pérez F.F. Art Please Sit Down?

(Right center:) For a Marvel-UK reprinting of the Impossible Man-starring F.F. #178 (Nov. 1976), whose tale had to be broken into two weekly parts, this new panel (prepared by the New York staff—artists and writer uncertain) depicts a conference between George Pérez, Stan Lee, Roy, and Jack Kirby. It replaces a Pérez/Sinnott panel which had been printed at the end of the first part, and led directly into the following four-panel sequence in the second: (Bottom center:) Pérez/Sinnott panels from F.F. #176 of that selfsame story conference. Script by R.T. (Far right:) For sitting through all that, we figure you deserve to see this actual sketch of the F.F., courtesy of artist George Pérez and collector Curt Griff.

[Panel art ©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.; sketch ©2005 George Pérez; Fantastic Four TM & ©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Member: CAPA-Alpha, 1965-66

Contributing Writer: All in Color for a Dime (1970 book, reprinted from Xero #9, 1962); introductions to various Chronicles of Conan [Dark Horse], DC Archives, Marvel Masterworks, and other books related to comic books Comics Based on Atari Video Games: Atari Force (1982, mostly written by Gerry Conway); Swordquest (limited distribution; some cowritten with Gerry Conway)—both done through DC Writer (Special Material): Marvel’s Carnegie Hall Concert, Jan. 1972 Writer: Topps Batman cards 1966 (some with Gary Friedrich?) & superhero parodies c. 1967

26

“The Company He Keeps…”

The Comic Buyer’s Guide’s 1999-2000 Poll Of Comic Book “Favorites”

R

by Peter Sanderson, with Roy Thomas

oy here, relating all art captions and italicized paragraphs that follow—with Peter’s analysis in non-italicized text below: In issues dated January 2000, the popular tabloidformat Comic Buyer’s Guide, under editor Maggie Thompson, conducted a wide-ranging poll of comic book fans and professionals alike concerning their “Favorite” writers, editors, artists, stories, companies, etc., of the 20th century—while emphasizing that “Favorite” is not necessarily the same thing as “Best.”

While naturally no poll of this sort can ever be anything like definitive, the project was intriguing as the major experiment of its kind— and I’d be a liar if I said I wasn’t both surprised and gratified, when the results were announced, to find myself ranked #5 among “Favorite Writers” and #4 among “Favorite Editors.” If, as they say, a man is known by the company he keeps, I was pleased to find myself in some very formidable company—and while I wouldn’t argue overmuch with those who’d place me somewhat (or even considerably) lower on those particular totem poles, I decided to use the occasion of this 50th issue of Alter Ego to recapitulate and comment upon the selection, half a decade later. All specific art and photos, incidentally, have been added for this A/E presentation.

The CBG poll was conducted and its results announced on three levels, as explained and defined in the magazine itself: the voting of “General Fandom,” of “Comics Professionals,” and “CBG Readers.” The results in the three areas were listed separately, with the top 13 to

15 choices listed in the first two divisions, and The cover of Comic Buyer’s Guide #1365 (Jan. 14, the top 26 to 30 2000), which spotlighted the poll of pros and fans in the “CBG” examined in this article. Art by John Drury. division. The [©2005 Krause Publications, Inc.] results are roughly summarized below after each division. The Comic Buyer’s Guide gave special prominence to the five “Favorite” creators in each category as averaged from the above three divisions; so it’s those choices that are analyzed below, in brief professional biographies written by comics historian and longtime Marvel staffer Peter Sanderson.

While this issue covers only the “Writer” and “Editor” choices, it is planned that in a near-future issue Peter will discuss the results of the poll in artistic and other categories. And a special thanks to Maggie Thompson, senior editor of Comic Buyer’s Guide, and to Krause Publications, for permission to utilize this one-of-a-kind poll.

And now, with no further ado, I turn you over to the blandishments of Peter Sanderson….

The Favorite Editors of the Century (1) STAN LEE. Starting out as a teenage “go-fer” at Timely Comics in the early 1940s, Stan Lee quickly

The Not-So-Secret Origins Of Marvel Comics Stan Lee in the mid-1970s—plus the splash pages of the two most important stories he ever edited (as well as wrote). Fantastic Four #1 (Oct. 1961) inaugurated a new approach to super-heroes with dynamic penciler/coplotter Jack Kirby and an unidentified inker—while in Amazing Fantasy #15 (Aug. 1962) Stan as editor replaced the redoubtable Kirby with Steve Ditko as artist of the very first “Spider-Man” tale, thereby mutating that “new approach” yet further, since Ditko would prove to be unsurpassed in his ability to convey everyday emotion and events in a super-hero feature. The instincts shown in both these choices are what make for a great editor, though of course he had the ideal writer working for him, as well—namely, himself. [©2005 Marvel Characters.]

34

The Angels of Alter Ego A Too-Brief Intro To Five Who Made A/E What It Is Today—Whatever That Is!

by Roy Thomas

Y

ou don’t get to 50 issues of a magazine like Alter Ego—or at least I didn’t—without the enthusiastic help of people who are just as nutty about the subject matter as the editor is.

Actually, in A/E’s case, there are seven people in particular I ought to thank—eight, if I count my old friend Jerry G. Bails, who founded the fanzine in 1961 and has given inestimable help to this volume, as well— because I should definitely include John Morrow, the lesser half of TwoMorrows Publishing, and TwoMorrows staffer Eric NolenWeathington, who’s been aboard for several years himself. But, alas, we’ll have to cover John and Eric another time. (Oh, and thanks to Jon B. Cooke for convincing me to revive A/E in 1998!)

But I did whatever squeezing had to be done in order to introduce the four guys who basically edit their own segments of each issue before I get a chance at them, plus one who then assembles the magazine from the marked-up text files and art copies I ship him each month. Bill Schelly has been listed as associate editor since V3#1, and also handles

Bill Schelly

the vital “Comic Fandom Archive” section—Jim Amash came aboard with #11, at the time of his first A/E interview (with Vince Fago), and even helps with the proofreading of each issue—Michael T. Gilbert has been on hand every single time with his always-intriguing “Comic Crypt”—P.C. Hamerlinck segued his ambitious incarnation of FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) over into A/E with V3#1, and, just the like other three, has never missed a deadline! Neither has Christopher Day, who assumed layout responsibilities on the mag with #8, and over the past few years has bailed me out of innumerable tough spots— including this issue.

At the last minute, I asked each of this fabulous fivesome to rush me brief auto-bios. So let’s hear a hearty hand for these tireless “Angels of Alter Ego”! Thanks, guys. I couldn’t do it without you.

Fact is, as you well know—I can barely do it with you!

But now, I’ll let you speak for yourselves…!

Jim Amash

I was born in 1951 in Walla Walla, Washington. For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be a writer. When I was a kid of 9 or 10, I wrote short stories and even tried to write a novel. With my discovery of comics fandom in 1964, I found my métier: fanzine publishing. I think I’ve had printer’s ink in my blood ever since.

I was always interested in art. I was fascinated by George “Superman” Reeves on television and started drawing him. But being a fickle sort at 5 years old, I diverted my attention to Batman when Adam West turned up in the cape and cowl in January of 1966. So I drew super-heroes and villains fighting on brown paper bags, in textbooks, on the living room walls (behind the couch, of course), on sidewalks, and in tunnels. I thought I had my future well in hand, because I was going to be a comic book artist.

I stayed active in fandom, publishing a slew of marginal-quality zines like Super-Heroes Anonymous, Fantasy Forum, Incognito, and my best-known, Sense of Wonder. But when I was rejected by DC’s “new talent” program in 1973, I drifted away from comics until I got my feet on the ground. My first book was Harry Langdon, a hardcover from Scarecrow Press, which came out in 1982.

I quickly learned there was more to being an artist than drawing heroes and villains knocking each other’s teeth out. My first grade history book was full of exciting stories about the founding of this country. The pages were full of detailed drawings, engravings, and painted scenes of Daniel Boone taming the wilderness, George Washington liberating the American Colonies from British rule, and Abraham Lincoln freeing the slaves and saving the Union. On television, I saw Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy, and Roberto Clemente fighting a very different kind of battle. All these influences taught me that heroes come in all shapes, colors, uniforms, eras, and

In 1985, when I took a job in a building that also housed a comics specialty store, my interest in comic books was re-kindled, and it was just a year later than I opened Super Comics and Collectibles, the first comics store in Seattle’s University District. But it wasn’t until I linked up with some old fandom cronies in the pages of CAPA-Alpha that I began researching what became the first book-length history of fandom, The Golden Age of Comic Fandom (1995). In the course of writing and designing that book, I asked Roy Thomas if he would write its introduction. Thus began a sort of fandom partnership with the Rascally One that led to my role as associate editor of the new Alter Ego. In fact, I was the one who introduced John Morrow to Roy (at the 1997 Chicago comicon), which got the ball rolling.

The past dozen years since my re-entry into the wonderful and wacky world of Comicdom have been the most creative and prolific times of my life. I love being a small part of the new Alter Ego story, and only wish there were more hours in the day so that I could contribute more. Oh, and one other thing: I haven’t lost my sense of wonder!

[Captain Marvel TM & Š2005 DC Comics.]

41

Touting Thomas Roy Thomas Spotlighted By John G. Pierce, P.C. Hamerlinck—And, Er, Roy Thomas

A

look at R.T.’s own special “Fawcett connection” over the years, as both fan and pro, as examined by regular contributor John G. Pierce and by FCA’s editor—and then, from an earlier issue of FCA, in RT’s own words….

I. A Tribute To A Fannish Influence

by John G. Pierce Edited By P.C. Hamerlinck It was not long after I discovered Julius Schwartz’s early Silver Age comics, in the late 1950s, that I also discovered Roy Thomas. He was there, in those entertaining letter columns, and it was he who first referenced an earlier age of comicdom that I’d missed out on. It was Roy who first alluded to the original versions of The Flash, Green Lantern, and other characters. In fact, my own very first published letter, in The Flash, picked up on a point made by Roy in an earlier letter of his own.

Not long after all that, in early 1961, Alter-Ego #1 turned up my mailbox. It was the first fanzine I’d ever seen or even heard of. And was I surprised that there his name was as co-editor of this marvelous publication? I no longer recall, but if so, I probably shouldn’t have been. Roy’s articles, not only in A/E but in other fanzines, as well, informed me about the Golden Age. He covered Timely’s All Winners Squad in A/E #2, for example.

Countdown to Xero FCA and Alter Ego have both printed the 1946-47 photo of Roy at age 6, sporting his Captain Marvel sweater—so we’ll lead off with this mid-1940s Fawcett house ad. The cover art from an oversize issue of Gift Comics, spotlighting Captain Marvel, Spy Smasher, Bulletman, Mr. Scarlet, Golden Arrow, and Ibis the Invincible, was adapted by R.T. as the title art for his article “Captain Billy’s Whiz Gang” in the 9th issue of the Lupoffs’ legendary sf/comics fanzine Xero in 1962.

[Heroes TM & ©2005 DC Comics.]

In another fanzine named Spotlite, he wrote about Plastic Man. And then there was his entertaining “Captain Billy’s Whiz Gang” in the 9th issue of the Lupoffs’ Xero, which treated the other Fawcett stars such as Bulletman, Spy Smasher, et al. It was this piece, incidentally, which provided the first mention of Fawcett’s one-and-only attempt at a JSA-type group, the Crime Crusaders Club from Master Comics #41.

But it wasn’t just articles. For Alter Ego, Roy also

Cap’n Biljo & Corporal Roy In 1964, fan-artist Biljo White let his fellow Missourian Roy research his virtually complete collection of comics featuring Captain Marvel and his offshoots for Roy’s Alley-winning article “One Man’s Family” in Alter Ego [Vol. 1] #7.

For the illo at right, which accompanied the piece, Biljo adapted C.C. Beck’s classic cover for Marvel Family #10 (April 1947), on which Cap and kin are beating up Dr. Sivana’s.

Wonder how they’d all have fared on Family Feud!?

[Characters TM & ©2005 DC Comics.]

42

Roy Thomas Spotlighted By John G. Pierce, P.C. Hamerlinck—And, Er, Roy Thomas

wrote a prose story, with spot illustrations, of his own proposed revival of The Spectre. And, of course, who can forget his delightfully funny parody of the JLA, “The Bestest League of America”?

of All-Star Squadron. It was almost too much excitement for me to bear—the JSA (and hangers-on from the early ’40s) having their own feature again, and Captain Marvel being handled by Roy?

Roy and I appeared together in a fanzine called Headline, published

by Roy’s fellow Missourian, and future Marvel co-worker, Steve Gerber.

Roy wrote about some of his childhood creations, while I contributed original prose fiction in the form of stories about a creation of mine called The Black Hand—a Spectre imitation! So Roy was partly responsible for my own contributions to that fanzine, as well as his own!

Oh, admittedly, I wasn’t too crazy about his idea of a totally new, Earth-1 Captain Marvel, drawn in a more realistic style. “I’m sorry if this isn’t your idea of a ‘Captain Marvel fan,’ I really am,” Roy wrote.

“I simply feel that, much as I often dislike the idea, ‘that was then, this is now.’”

But perhaps my favorite piece of his came in A/E #7 (1964), with his “One Man’s Family,” an article about Fawcett’s Marvel Family. Oddly enough, though Captain Marvel was mentioned from time to time in early fanzines, there weren’t really all that many articles about him. (The earlier articles which had appeared in Xero aren’t counted here, because that was a science-fiction fanzine, and besides, I never saw those pieces!)

So Roy’s loving treatise on not just Cap, but the rest of the clan as well, was most welcomed. I’d have to say that this one piece went a long way toward fueling my growing interest in Captain Marvel, foreshadowing the day when I would become a full-blown Fawcett fan, collector, the publisher of my own Marvel Family fanzine (The Whiz Kids), and a writer of articles about the Big Red Cheese and his companions.

But then Roy broke into the comics industry. Should this have been a surprise, either? Anyone with his love of and devotion to the four-color world was bound to end up in the field. In fact, it would be hard to imagine such a person as thriving anywhere else. He started at DC, and almost before anyone was the wiser, he was over at Marvel. (I have to be honest and say that, while I read some of Roy’s stuff from Marvel, there’s quite a lot I didn’t read, as well. I know it is practically a first-order heresy in fandom to admit this, but I’ve never been a great Marvel enthusiast.)

However, I was there when Roy took over a character named Captain Mar-Vell (for the second time), and turned that name-stealer into an updated, Marvelized version of the original, as he linked the Hulk’s former ally, Rick Jones, with Cap via Nega-Bands. The slamming together of the wrist-bands brought Cap from his imprisonment in the Negative Zone, while sending Rick there, and vice versa— his own version of yelling “Shazam!”

With outstanding Gil Kane art, Marvel’s Captain Marvel became a feature worth following for a while. As Rick Jones was fond of saying at the time, it was “faaantastic.”

And then came 1981, with Roy’s return to DC. And what should he write, upon his return, but one of his Golden Age favorites, the DC version of the original Captain Marvel! A letter from him to me, dated Oct. 10, 1980, informed me of this, as well as some of his plans for another old favorite, the JSA, in the form

However, I was quite enthusiastic about what Roy had told me about his story for DC Comics Presents #33-34, as his letter continued: “Still, just to be inconsistent, I took the opportunity in DC Presents #34 to toss Superman and Captain Marvel (whom I’m trying to forge into fast friends, since they have far more in common than Superman and Batman, say) into a funny-animal dimension, while using Hoppy the Marvel Bunny for the first time in 30 years.” Although I had heard about Hoppy back in the early ’60s, it was that aforementioned “One Man’s Family” article in A/E #7 which had provided me with my first look at the character (in the form of a Biljo White re-creation illustration) and more information about him. And ever since, I had loved the idea of a rabbit version of the Big Red Cheese. So to contemplate his return, even if only for one story, generated more fannish excitement than I’d had in years!

And that story (co-plotted by Gerry Conway) turned out to be good fun, too,

IF YOU ENJOYED THIS PREVIEW, CLICK THE LINK TO ORDER THIS ISSUE IN PRINT OR DIGITAL FORMAT!

The Magic Went Away In a slightly grittier vein than the 193940 original by writer/editor Bill Parker and artist C.C. Beck, scripters Roy & Dann Thomas and artist Tom Mandrake portray the first time Billy Batson changes into the World’s Mightiest Mortal, in Shazam! The New Beginning #1 (April 1986). (The fact that this page is repro’d from a Spanish-language edition shouldn’t confuse anybody all that much.) Roy appreciates hearing that then-DC editorial head honcho Dick Giordano confirmed to John Pierce what Roy’s always maintained: that sales on that 4-issue series should’ve led to a full-scale monthly Shazam!

ALTER EGO #50 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!

(100-page magazine) $5.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95 http://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_55&products_id=317