Alter Ego #62 Preview

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In the the USA USA In

No. 62 October 2006

HAPPY

HALLOWEEN FROM

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MIKE PLOOG, AL WILLIAMSON, DICK BRIEFER, RUDY PALAIS, & ACG HORROR!

PLUS: PLUS:

Art ©2006 Mike Ploog; Characters TM & ©2006 Marvel Characters, Inc..

Vol. 3, No. 62 / October 2006

™

Editor Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout Christopher Day

Consulting Editor John Morrow

FCA Editor P.C. Hamerlinck

Comic Crypt Editor

Contents

Michael T. Gilbert

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

Writer/Editorial: Happy Horror-Days . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 “Marvel Was Doing Practically Nothing But Super-Heroes” . . . . . . . . . 3

Production Assistant

Artist Michael Ploog on his early-1970s work on Marvel’s supernatural stalwarts.

Eric Nolen-Weathington

ACG Horror And Fantasy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Circulation Director

Barry Forshaw looks fondly back at the first publisher of ongoing horror comics.

Bob Brodsky, Seastone Marketing Group

Cover Artist

Michael Vance’s interview with artist great Al Williamson about his work for ACG.

Michael Ploog

Forbidden Adventures: The Back Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Cover Colorist

Michael Vance’s appendices re the Sangor Shop and the American Comics Group.

Tom Ziuko

And Special Thanks to: Heidi Amash Bob Bailey Dave Bennett John Benson Bill Black Dominic Bongo Robert Boucher Chris Brown Mark Cannon Mike Catron Craig Delich Al Dellinges Michael Dewally John Dixon Rex Ferrell Bill Field Shane Foley Barry Forshaw Ron Frantz Jeff Gelb Janet Gilbert Howard Hallis Jennifer Hamerlinck John Haufe, Jr. Heritage Comics Chris Irving Larry Ivie Jonathan G. Jensen R.A. Jones Larry Kashdan Jeffrey Kipper Denis Kitchen Henry Kujawa Keith Lee

“If You Can Bring Richard Hughes Back, He’d Be My Favorite Editor”. . 18

Jim Ludwig Bruce Mason Arthur Mather Raymond Miller Brian K. Morris Frank Motler Edwin Murray Will Murray Peter Normanton Owen O’Leary Kevin Patrick Michael Ploog Steven Rowe Bob Rozakis Steve Rude Al Russell Lew Sayre Schwartz Marie Severin Joe Sinnott David Studham Dr. Jon Suter Marc Swayze Greg Theakston Dann Thomas Anthony Tollin Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Michael Vance Dr. Michael J. Vassallo Mike Vosburg Delmo Walters Jr. Hames Ware Al Williamson

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

George Kashdan & Mickey Spillane

“I Was So Busy, I Never Read The Stories”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Unique artist Rudy Palais interviewed by Jim Amash about life and comics.

Frankenstein’s Final Funnies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 The (sob!) last of Dick Briefer’s comic strips about his colorful creature.

The Shadow: Masked And Unmasked . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Anthony Tollin celebrates the 75th anniversary of Street & Smith’s grim hero.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! Twice-Told Strange Tales . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Michael T. Gilbert unveils still more Ditko “covers” of non-Ditko covers.

Tributes To Mickey Spillane & George Kashdan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 re: [comments, corrections, and correspondence] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) #121 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 P.C. Hamerlinck presents Steve Rude, Marc Swayze, & Fawcett 1943.

About Our Cover: Once Michael Ploog sent us a copy of his beautiful black-&-white art for this illustration of Marvel’s Man-Thing and Werewolf by Night, it was inevitable that it wind up as the cover on an issue of Alter Ego. The story of how Ye Editor co-created those two series in the early 1970s and turned them over to Mike to draw (and to Gerry Conway to script) was told in the TwoMorrows run of Comic Book Artist, and will doubtless be related again one of these days. Meanwhile, enjoy a pocketful of Ploog! [Man-Thing & Werewolf by Night TM & ©2006 Marvel Characters, Inc.] Above: C’mon in! The horror art at ACG was as good as it got. You don’t believe us? How about this panel by Golden Age greats Al Williamson and Wally Wood from “Skull of the Sorcerer” in Forbidden Worlds #3 (Nov.-Dec. 1951), ACG’s second horror title!? Scan by Michael Vance. [©2006 the respective copyright holders.]

Alter EgoTM is published monthly, except Jan., April., Sept., and Nov. 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: $9 ($11.00 outside the US). Twelve-issue subscriptions:$72 US, $132 Canada, $144 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. ISSN: 1932-6890 FIRST PRINTING.

Title writer/editorial

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Happy Horror-Days W

ith that opening line, which has probably been lodged for years in my mental molars like some popcorn kernel of prose out of Forry Ackerman’s Famous Monsters of Filmland, I welcome you to the fourth annual Halloween issue of Alter Ego.

This time around, we’re shining the light of the Great Pumpkin on modern Marvel master Mike Ploog and gothic Golden-Ager Rudy Palais—on the inspired Frankensteinian foolishness of Dick Briefer and the Silver Age strangeness of Steve Ditko—and on the evil that lurks in the hearts of men, as observed by The Shadow for the past threequarters of a century.

and an article by Barry Forshaw on ACG horror and fantasy, as well as its “3-D effect” comics.

We’re sorry that Bill Schelly’s report on the 1966 NYC Kaler Con got crowded out—but you’ll see it next issue, promise!

Bestest,

Last issue, we presented Michael Vance’s 1996 book Forbidden Adventures: The History of the American Comics Group. It related the story of how ACG grew out of the B.W. Sangor art shop, which in the 1940s also provided art and story to other companies, especially Standard/Nedor. We didn’t have room in #62 to print the book’s appendices, so we’re doing it this time—and illustrating them just as lavishly as we did the main text.

P.S.: As I write these words in August, a horrendous 8-to-10-month workload has finally lifted as I complete the text for The All-Star Companion, Vol. 2, due out from TwoMorrows in November (delayed a couple of weeks by layout man Chris Day’s change of day jobs and locales—from Chicago to Providence, RI). In addition, two of the three hardcover books I’ve written during this period—Stan Lee’s Amazing Marvel Universe, for Sterling Publishing, and featuring audio recordings by The Man himself; and DK Publishing’s Conan: The Ultimate Guide to the World’s Most Savage Barbarian—should be on sale even as we speak. See ads on pp. 16 & 41.

We also have two other ACG-related treats: the personal interview Michael conducted with Al Williamson in the mid-1990s re that artist’s work for ACG (first in the early 1950s, then again at decade’s end)…

P.P.S.: Oh, and for those who’ve asked—Anthem #4, the latest issue of my comics series about the heroes of an alternate World War II, goes on sale at the turn of the year after an unavoidable delay. (See p. 80.)

And then, of course, there’s ACG… again.

GOING MONTHLY AGAIN IN DECEMBER!

REMEMBERING COMICS LEGEND ALEX TOTH!

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Tribute To A Titan!

• ALEX TOTH does the JSA—first time in fifty years! A fabulous full-color cover!

• Special salutes to Toth by JOE KUBERT • IRWIN HASEN • SY BARRY • TERRY AUSTIN • LEW SAYRE SCHWARTZ • MIKE ALLRED • MARK LEWIS • JOHN WORKMAN • JACK MENDEHLSON • SPARKY MOORE • JIM AMASH & others!

• Never-before-seen Toth interview by MICHAEL VANCE! • Ever wonder what artists Alex Toth admired? Read his own paeans of praise for CANIFF • SICKLES • CHRISTMAN • COLE • KELLY • BECK • ROBINSON • OKSNER • MAYER • FLESSEL • MESKIN • TUSKA • GUARDINEER • THORNE • WHITNEY • RAY • CRANE, etc.—and see the reasons why!

• Our annual Christmas/New Year’s card collection! Season’s greetings from MOLDOFF • MAROTO • BENDER • LEIALOHA • WRIGHT • RIO, et al.!

• Plus FCA with TOTH, SWAYZE, & “Freddy Freeman’s Christmas”— MICHAEL T. GILBERT—BILL SCHELLY on the 1966 Kaler Con—& MORE!!

Edited by ROY THOMAS DC Comics.]

[All characters TM & ©2006

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NOTE: IF YOU PREFER A SIX-ISSUE SUB, JUST CUT THE PRICE IN HALF!

TwoMorrows. Bringing New Life To Comics Fandom.

TwoMorrows • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 • E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com

3

“Marvel Was Doing Practically Nothing But Super-Heroes” MICHAEL PLOOG On His Work On The Marvel Supernatural Characters Interview & Transcribed by Chris Irving

M

ike Ploog was one of the emerging comic book stars of the early 1970s. His work made readers sit up and take notice the same way the art of Bernie Wrightson, Frank Brunner, Michael Kaluta, and a handful of other young artists was doing. A fuller interview with Mike about his Marvel-era monsters saw print in The Comic Book Artist (first series) Vol. 1, #3, which is unfortunately out of print.

In roughly the first half of the 1970s, he drew first for Warren Publications, then for Marvel on such titles as Werewolf by Night, Frankenstein, Man-Thing, and Ghost Rider. I have variant remembrances from Mike on a couple of points he expresses herein—but I’ll save those for the captions that accompany the interview. After all, difference of opinion is what makes horse-racing… and maybe Ghost Rider motorcycleracing, as well. —Roy.

CI: “Tin Star” was your idea?

PLOOG: I did it up as a sample of my storytelling.

I didn’t think, at any time, that they were going to publish it; it was just a sample. At that time, I was into Westerns with a twist of the occult, suspense, and horror... as opposed to cowboys out on the range.

CI: What was Roy’s involvement, or was it just you?

PLOOG: I’d never met Roy until I showed up at Marvel, and that’s when I met him.

It’s a Man Thing– And Mike’s The Man! Mike Ploog at the 2005 Heroes Con in Charlotte, NC—juxtaposed with his re-creation of the cover of Man-Thing #5 (May 1974).

Thanks to Bob Bailey for the scan. Photographer uncertain, alas.

[Man-Thing TM & ©2006 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

CHRIS IRVING: What was your comics experience, prior to going over to Marvel?

MIKE PLOOG: It wasn’t much, because I had done work for Jim Warren on Creepy and Eerie. Before that, I was working with Will Eisner.

CI: How would you describe working with Will as opposed to working with Jim Warren?

PLOOG: [laughs] Jim Warren was and is one of—I don’t think there’s anybody quite like Jim. He’s a regular hustler and knew how to run a business, and could be successful on bare bones. He attracted an enormous amount of talent, mostly because of the publications he had, which was interesting work and unlike anything else on the market.

CI: Why did you leave Warren to go to Marvel?

PLOOG: Jim was the cheapest man in the business. [laughter] I think starvation drove me to it. Jim didn’t pay great page rates; the stories he gave you to work on were interesting, but a person had to make more money. I took a chance and just went over to Marvel. I took over a story I’d worked up, a Western, oddly enough, and I don’t know why I chose to do that. I knew at the time Marvel was doing practically nothing but super-heroes. I took them over a Western called “Tin Star.”

Roy keeps reminding me of it, because he remembers it and would love to do that story. Westerns have made their way back into popularity.

CI: So it was a matter of you bringing it in and Roy’s wanting to do something with it.

PLOOG: Roy didn’t want to do anything with it for years. It wasn’t until twenty years later that he even mentioned it to me. [laughs] As if I remember it. A lot of comics and artwork has gone across the drawing board since then. I don’t remember the story well.

I was more or less turned down because my work was very Eisner-ish and on the cartoon side. They didn’t feel like I was getting into their “look.” Marvel and DC both had a look and I just didn’t quite fit into it.

CI: What do you remember about the twist for “Tin Star”?

PLOOG: Not a lot, to be absolutely honest with you. I know I was getting into Native American Indian superstitions and stuff like that.

That’s all I ever really remember about it; I don’t even know where the artwork is, I think it’s long gone. I had done it for an 8- to 10-page sample.

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Michael Ploog On The Marvel Supernatural Characters

CI: Roy remembers a cowboy who has a tin star with a bullethole in it, and he can’t remember...

movies. The flaming skull was the most obvious part of the design.

There’s only so much you can do with a flaming skull. [laughs]

PLOOG: Yeah, and it had a revenge twist.

The bike was the most difficult part, since I’d wanted it to be a chopper, but I wanted it to look a little special. I tried several of them and ended up keeping it as simple as possible. I had a helluva time drawing motorcycles, and hated drawing them. I had to come up with a bike that I could reproduce easily, but still keep it looking like a chopper, but not have it be more of a character than Ghost Rider himself. I did one design and showed it to the boys at Marvel, and they said, “‘Great, roll with it.” I didn’t spend months figuring out what he would look like.

CI: What was your first work at Marvel, after you’d brought “Tin Star” in and it was rejected?

PLOOG: My first work was “Werewolf by Night.” About a week after I brought those pages in, and was more or less turned down and scouting for work, they gave me a call and asked if I was interested in doing a werewolf book, which was the kind of stuff I’d been doing for Warren. I said yes, that I’d love to. That’s when I hooked up with “Werewolf by Night.”

CI: You sat down and pretty much cranked it out.

CI: Then “Ghost Rider” came along, in 1972? This was before your seven-issue run on Man-Thing with Steve Gerber, or your runs on Frankenstein and Werewolf by Night?

PLOOG: “Ghost Rider” was further down the line. I did Werewolf, and then Frankenstein. With Frankenstein, they decided to do crossovers and bring Frankenstein to modern times [laughter], into New York City, and have him battling people like Spider-Man. I couldn’t handle that. I thought, “‘No, that isn’t down my line and my kind of material.” I left Frankenstein, and “Ghost Rider” just came up. It was more or less something to do. When I first heard of “Ghost Rider,” I thought it was a Western, going back to the Frazetta-drawn Ghost Rider riding around on the white horse. I hadn’t seen it in years, just once fleetingly, and thought it was pretty cool.

PLOOG: It was more in an afternoon than anything else.

One Kind Of Outlaw Or Another Conan the Barbarian #57 (Dec. 1975) was outside the scope of this interview, but since it was illustrated by Mike Ploog and written & edited by Roy Thomas, this might be the place for A/E’s editor to horn in with his own amiable amendment to Mike’s recollection re the “Tin Star” pages he brought in to the Marvel offices the day he met first associate editor Roy, then Stan Lee himself, then employment by Marvel. Roy says: “I vividly recall Mike showing me his ‘Tin Star’ samples, and my being intrigued with the concept. When Mike says I had no interest in it ‘for years’—well, perhaps he’s forgotten (or never knew) that I tried to talk Stan Lee into doing it as a feature. That’s the main reason I remember it, even today. Well, actually, all I strictly recall is the image and idea that the amnesiac hero has a sheriff’s or marshal’s star in his pocket—with a bullethole in it—and he doesn’t know how it got there, or who he is. Is he the lawman who was shot—the outlaw who pulled the trigger—or someone else entirely? If I didn’t mention it again to Mike for years—well, the subject just never came up!”

Conan art repro’d from the 1990s black-&-white mag Conan Saga #50. [©2006 Paradox Entertainment/Conan Properties, Inc.]

CI: Why do you think Marvel decided to do a new version of Ghost Rider?

PLOOG: That is a great name, but I’m really not quite sure why. Who did the [original] Ghost Rider series?

CI: That was by Magazine Enterprises in the 1950s, with publisher Vin Sullivan. A lot of the stories were drawn by Dick Ayers, [written] by Gardner Fox. I have a theory Marvel just wanted the trademark on the name. What do you remember about designing the Johnny Blaze Ghost Rider?

PLOOG: After the shock that it wasn’t a Western [laughs] and that he was riding around on a motorcycle, I think my first reference point was Evel Knievel, who was popular at that time. I went through some magazines and did a little bit of research, but not a whole lot. What I saw about Knievel wouldn’t work for someone who just sold part of his soul to the devil. I more or less went back to a Western look. The costume I put on him was that panel-type shirt from the ’50s Western

CI: Was Roy around, or did you consult anyone on it?

PLOOG: No, once I got a brief on it, I went home and sat at the drawing board. I went through a few biker magazines and sat down and drew it.

CI: What do you think about the movie coming out?

PLOOG: It’s going to be interesting, because it’s not an easy story to make a film out of. It’ll be interesting to see how they treat it. There was a period of time when Ghost Rider was one of those characters who was almost as bad as the villains he was fighting. It was like going back to a World War II mentality: in order to defeat this horrible enemy, you have to be more horrible than he is. It was a neat twist on the idea of becoming a hero, a real anti-hero. I thought it was interesting and something I could live with working on.

CI: I think that’s one of the reasons why he did really well when they brought him back in the early ’90s, the era of the anti-hero. Do you know if you’ll get any creator credit on the movie?

PLOOG: I wouldn’t get any credit on that, I don’t think.

CI: Doesn’t seem to be an issue for you.

PLOOG: Not really. I see it as a job. That’s really the way I look at the comics I did at that time. It was a job I enjoyed. In many ways, I was grateful to have it. I’m not someone who is credit-crazy. It’s fun to see your name up on the silver screen, but I have worked on over fifty movies, so the thrill of seeing my name is pretty gone.

CI: You’ve worked on some pretty pivotal genre pieces, like Labyrinth.

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ACG Horror And Fantasy A Fond Look Back At The First Horror Comic Book Publisher— The American Comics Group

by Barry Forshaw

B

arry Forshaw is the editor of the British magazine Crime Time; this piece appeared in the excellent British horror comics magazine, From the Tomb. It has been edited only slightly for its printing in Alter Ego, including substituting a few American spellings and combining its three parts into one. Our thanks to Peter Normanton, editor/publisher of From the Tomb, as well as to Barry F., for their blessing to print it here. —Roy.

Remembering ACG Do you need to be able to talk knowledgeably about ACG? Are you embarrassed at parties when the conversation turns to the very first continuous horror comic, Adventures into the Unknown? Or to Ogden Whitney’s covers featuring his trademark contrasts of scale— say, a tiny mermaid being shaken by a large hand out of a shell?

If so, then this section of Alter Ego’s Halloween issue is for you!

You’ll be gently guided to the arcane secrets that will distinguish you from those who remember ACG for two things only: the rather slight Herbie series, and some of the very worst super-hero characters ever created (as ACG slid reluctantly into oblivion in the Marvel Age). And the analysis of those secrets will not be limited to praise only; like editor/writer emeritus Richard Hughes in his famously self-lacerating letter columns, no punches will be pulled about ACG disasters (e.g., “Magicman” and “Nemesis”).

But before I talk about what makes this “minnow” among comics publishers a whale in terms of achievement, I should sound a personal note. As a schoolboy in Northern England, I saw my first ACG in the form of a British bumper-sized reprint, as I looked through the window of a closed Liverpool newsagent late on a Sunday night in the early ’60s.

It was Adventures into the Unknown #5—actually a 68-page British reprint. The cover sent chills through my adolescent soul.

Although the kind of horror the comic had once traded in had (unbeknownst to me) already passed into history, it was creepily promising enough: a massive close-up of a sinister hypnotist with a bright scarlet visage, gesturing at a young man sitting slack-jawed— while a ghostly, bewhiskered face seemed to issue from his head. I had to wait impatiently for Monday morning, when I could shell out my shilling for this “unmissable” item.

In the shop, I was momentarily detained by the airbrushed pubic regions of the nudist magazine Health and Efficiency, but I made the right choice—a future-defining moment every bit as powerful as reading a black-&-white reprint of “Superman’s New Face” from Action Comics. Like all post-Comics Code ACGs, this was gentle, poetic fantasy—with intelligently handled supernatural elements. The illustration on the cover, for the series “Annals of the Occult” (a generic series title for the company), was less eerie in the Kurt Schaffenberger tale it illustrated, but the plotting was highly involving.

Really Big Adventures Into The Unknown Although the 68-page British edition of Adventures into the Unknown had begun four issues earlier, the first issue Barry Forshaw stumbled across was #5. Both covers by Ogden Whitney. Thanks to Frank Motler for the scans. [©2006 the respective copyright holders.]

ACG Horror And Fantasy

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Unknown Hughes Of Black-&-White Richard Hughes, editor and chief writer for the American Comics Group—juxtaposed with a 1948 house ad for the very first issue of the very first ongoing horror comic: Adventures into the Unknown #1. Thanks to John Haufe, Jr. We ran the photo of Hughes sent by Michael Vance last issue, of course—but since only two pics of him are known to exist, we thought we'd best run it again! [©2006 the respective copyright holders.]

However, the real find was a tale called “Pie in the Sky,” in which I noticed the signature of the artist who had so memorably drawn the cover: Ogden Whitney.

The science-fiction revolved around an investigator uncovering the strange secret behind a job agency that appears to be abducting lonely, alienated people. I was as much struck by the care in the characterization as by the beautifully rendered art. The hero actually underwent a personality change, from cynicism, to bitter disillusion, to a qualified hopefulness: this was a novel concept for comics in the late ’50s/early ’60s, where clever plotting was far more valued than characterization.

Even the great DC sf titles (Mystery in Space and Strange Adventures) opted for plots of great ingenuity enacted by largely undifferentiated scientists and astronauts. Because the British edition of Adventures into the Unknown eliminated both the ACG logo and all publishing information, I (along with every other British reader) had no way of knowing that Richard Hughes was the editor (and often writer) of this superior fare. There was a chatty letter column—a rarity in those days—but the unidentified editor was railing against the cliché excesses of horror comics. When readers pleaded for zombies, werewolves, and vampires of the kind ACG had once apparently produced (a familiar leitmotiv of ACG letter columns, as I was to learn), Hughes would assume a “school marm” tone and say, “Such themes have been done to death, not least by this company—we’ll be giving our readers the very best in imaginative illustrated fiction.”

This was undoubtedly true. ACG’s gentle, eerie tales often seemed infinitely better than the sometimes shop-worn horror tales of Stan Lee’s Atlas line (simultaneously being reprinted in the UK in 68-page editions such as Spellbound). But his tongue-clucking ignored three singular facts: (1) Readers were capable of enjoying EC’s first-rate gruesome tales

alongside ACG’s more restrained stories (some horror comics still sporadically surfaced in the UK, as mentioned in the last paragraph, even though EC was dead)—one could enjoy both horror and fantasy.

(2) The real reason Hughes was not publishing horror tales was because of something called the Comics Code... a thing we were dimly aware of in Britain. We’d experienced our own hysterical mini-witchhunt against horror titles which cited another bumper-sized black-&-while reprint, Tales from the Crypt.

(3) Most ironically of all, the English reader (who’d come to Adventures into the Unknown via these post-Code British reprints) had no idea he was reading the very first regularly published horror comic, albeit in a “de-fanged” version. Still, a lifetime of love for these exquisite supernatural fantasies beckoned from beautifully crafted pages.

Forbidden Worlds would soon follow in a black-&-white Brit edition—and adult enthusiasms for such writers as H.G. Wells would never dim the frisson of opening a well-drawn and -written comic for this reader. And I hadn’t even seen the US color originals that lucky Americans took for granted.

Many US collectors are now interested in the curious byways of British reprints, so for those fact-oriented types, I should say that the first British ACG reprint was published by Thorpe & Porter as Adventures into the Unknown #1, and reprinted as AITU #88.

The cover featured a menacing, Neanderthal brute in a tale called “The Booster Shots.”

Twenty issues were published; the last reprinting being AITU #107, featuring a battle between a witch and a spaceman, one of Hughes’ beloved bizarre sciencefiction/supernatural juxtapositions, in a tale called “A Bridegroom for Jenny.” The British edition of Forbidden Worlds ran a mere eight issues.

The statement “BIG 68 PAGES—DON’T TAKE LESS” added to UK editions meant that the “cover issues” were supplemented by other random ACG reprints, and, surprisingly, even DC sf fare. Subsequently, the Alan Class company reprinted much inferior editions of later ACG material on paper of an appallingly low quality (I pity later generations whose introduction to this great material was via this toilet-paper era).

Hughes Of A Brighter Color But what had happened to the man behind these remarkable titles, Richard Hughes? The sad and tragic final years of many of the great comic book creators is a subject mused over by many a fan. The sorry fate of “Superman” creators Siegel and Shuster has been often re-told, although Neal Adams and Jerry Robinson managed to claw something back for them after the rough treatment they’d had from the heartless DC upper echelons in the 1940s. And the great Wallace Wood, taking his own life after his own uncompromising personality and total abuse of his body (cancer via his non-stop chain smoking, alcoholism, etc.) evaporated his talent. Harry Harrison, a Wood collaborator in his EC days (before Harrison’s success as an sf novelist), once told me that

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The First Horror Comic Book Publisher

“And For This We Passed Up A Room At The Bates Motel?”

Wood always had this deathwatch beetle in his soul).

We’ve reproduced p. 1, part of p. 2, and the final page of “Lair of the Vampire” from the US edition of Forbidden Worlds #3 (Nov.-Dec. 1951) so you can compare it with Barry Forshaw’s analysis. The art has been credited by ACG mainstay Emil Gershwin; scripter unknown, though of course Richard Hughes was the editor. Thanks to Bill Field for the scans. [©2006 the respective copyright holders.]

But it’s less well known that one of the Siegel and Shuster protégés, Wayne Boring, also enjoyed little respect in his twilight years. The definitive “Superman” artist of the Silver Age ended his days as a night watchman, after his summary dismissal by the talented but appalling editor Mort Weisinger.

And then there was ACG’s Richard Hughes. It’s sobering to think that one of the finest writing and editing talents the industry ever produced finished his life replying to letters of complaint for the New York department store, Gimbels. A career that had embraced humor, horror, adventure, romance, science-fiction, fantasy, and super-heroes (the latter, however, hardly his finest hour) ended up in a job of drudgery. Right from the start, Hughes’ exceptional writing skills were flourishing, even if they were only burnished to their brightest hue in the Silver Age.

whose inn they unwisely stay), the ridiculous elements of the piece start to stack up pretty quickly. The first panel is both striking and inaccurate. It depicts the hero about to impale the “undead” predator swooping down on his wife with the speared top of an axe! Then, examining panel four, it’s hard to suppress the chuckles. The couple blithely rent a room from an innkeeper whose pointed ears and deathwhite skin seem to give them no pause for concern at all. And when the vampiric innkeeper delivers the nudging line about a nearby castle (“I flit back and forth quite frequently!”), the reader suspects that this isn’t in a class with Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, wherein Anthony Perkins hints that “Mother isn’t quite herself tonight.”

And, of course, he edited and partly wrote the first continuing horror comics of the pre-Code era. In that regard, consider the third issue of Forbidden Worlds (Nov.-Dec. 1951). This is a highly interesting and very collectable issue for many reasons, but to the real ACG cognoscenti, it’s most intriguing for Hughes’ contribution. Ironically so, for the man behind the first regularly published horror comic, Hughes was never really at home with the genre. Feldstein and Gaines’ contemporaneous efforts at EC were similarly rough-edged and overwritten—the latter a fault Hughes eradicated only when the introduction of the Comics Code forced an inauguration of his finest period.

But, however little the rather dim couple deserve to survive their ordeal, Hughes (or another writer under him) manages to build up quite a head of steam in the ensuing battle, with the development of genuine suspense. The climax may be ridiculous (the hero offering himself as bait by climbing up a flagpole, and dispatching the monster by the unlikely expedient of simply ducking out of the way and letting “flagpole impalement” ensue), the concept is still fun. And Hughes even plays fair with his readers by showing a then-unexplained glittering object on the castle in an early panel. The object ultimately turns out to be the silver lightning-conductor tip of the flagpole on which the vampire dies. There’s also the nice concept of the castle, tottering on a spindly crag from which all roads have fallen away, and the pillow the hero secretes about himself before his climb to the monster’s lair—and then uses ingeniously. Forgetting the sillier elements, it’s a lively and crisp early-’50s horror tale that has a real page-tuning quality.

But Hughes, more quickly than his competitors at EC, began to find the quirkiness and invention that became his hallmark. While his two horror titles were rapidly outshone by the team at Entertaining Comics, his early efforts amply demonstrate this teeming imagination.

The first story from FW #3, “Lair of the Vampire,” is actually pretty ludicrous when examined closely; it works primarily because its writer, subtly out of tune with the horror genre, tries to fashion several new “wrinkles” to liven up his narrative. A conventional tale of a young couple marooned in central Europe (and menaced by a vampire at

Things take a definite turn for the better, however, in the second story, drawn by ACG’s greatest artist, the much-underrated Ogden Whitney. It’s hard to think of another illustrator so closely associated with a particular company; even Curt Swan in his glory days at DC wasn’t as definitive a cover artist for that company as Whitney became for ACG. And although this Forbidden Worlds tale doesn’t quite show the final refinement of his clean, ordered style (the antithesis of Graham Ingels and Jack Davis at EC), there’s a real pleasure to be had from these measured panels.

ACG Horror And Fantasy The splash suggests a horror tale... an axe-wielding man staggers back from the blue spectre of a woman emerging from a wine cask… but the reason this is far more successful is the fact that it’s essentially a short story (Hughes’ forte). The violent death at the end could easily have been accommodated to the Code had the story been published six years later. Not that I’m advocating censorship; it’s just that Hughes (unlike Feldstein and Gaines) positively thrived under the restrictions of the Code. In fact, he was finally able to produce the kind of nonviolent fantasy and supernatural narratives that were clearly closer to his heart.

In “The Vengeful Spirit” we have the kind of off-the-wall premise that Hughes could so often come up with. A young couple (again) enjoy a bottle of Château Mariveaux 1941 in a Parisian restaurant, only to be confronted with the seductive apparition of a woman that emerges when the cork is pulled. After several draughts of the wine, she passionately kisses the hero. Whispering “Go… go to the Chateaux Mariveaux... there you will find me!” This theme of a beautiful ghost appearing to a living man long after her death was to become a staple Hughes theme in the post-Code era. It was always handled post-Code with a romantic (rather than erotic) freshness. Here the ghost’s appeals are frankly sexual, when it transpires that she’s been promising bliss to all who will visit the chateaux at her call. “Your... your lips... I.. I can’t resist you,’” murmurs the hero. If there’s a “hook” on which Hughes built the story, it’s clearly the idea of a spirit in the “spirit” (i.e., alcohol).

11

And it’s all the more sad that this protean talent finished his life replying to complaints about faulty toasters.

3-D Or Not 3-D—That Is The Question For many reasons, there never was another comics group quite like the American Comics Group. Those of us who worship at this particular altar can always find reasons for extolling the virtues of the company (it’s taken as read that the two basic tenets of the best work in the medium are securely in place—intelligent and inventive writing married to individual and creative art). Actually, with ACG, even some of their slightly botched concepts are a cause for nostalgic pleasure among cognoscenti; I’ve even heard defenses mounted for the appalling super-hero era the company stooped to—although you won’t hear any such special pleading for Magicman from this writer.

TrueVision, however... that’s another story.

Let’s take a broad view here. ACG’s brief flirtation with an ersatz form of 3-D comics produced some very quirky and unusual work.

Always somehow misconceived, but likeable for all that. And largely visually interesting due to the man who brought the concept to editor Richard Hughes—long-time ACG artist Harry Lazarus. Lazarus was a curious figure. Individual, and not obviously indebted to any of his peers in the comics industry, he had a curious grasp (or rather, lack of a grasp) of human anatomy, so that limbs were often elongated or

It’s novel enough, but is given extra impetus by an early example of Hughes’ marvelous character-defining flashbacks or preludes. Here, the ghost woman is revealed in a lengthy flashback to have been a fighter in the French Resistance, murdered by her ruthless brother for the Nazis.

(This “texturing” of a story made all ACG readers feel they were really getting their money’s worth.) Whitney’s depiction of her revenge killing of her brother is a reminder of the non-ACG horror work he was to do—usually in a more heavily cross-hatched style than he used for his principal employers.

After the letter column (with none of the famous lecturing of the readers that was to follow—mainly because they were actually getting the werewolves and vampires whose post-Code demise they were to lament), we find “The Domain of the Doomed,” illustrated by a mainstay of ACG’s early years, Kenneth Landau (no, not the brother of the actor Martin Landau, let alone Martin himself). Hughes was clearly a fan of science-fiction, but, like Ray Bradbury, he was more interested in its dramatic or poetic possibilities than in any hard science credibility; Larry Niven or Gregory Benford this ain’t. In fact, the premise—a hot air balloon that makes a hazardous interplanetary trip—more than strains the credulity of the reader. But it’s energetic fun, even if Landau’s art, as always, veers alarmingly between being strikingly composed and crudely drawn.

No such problems with the next tale, illustrated by two of the greatest talents in the history of the field: EC’s Al Williamson and Wally Wood. Williamson did some customarily powerful work for the company through both its horror and post-Code periods, and with Wood’s beautiful inks over Williamson’s elegant pencil work, a conventional tale called “Skull of the Sorcerer” is elevated into the realm of the memorable (a muddy, monocolor version of this tale appeared in a reprint tribute to Williamson). [NOTE: See pp. 22-23 for art from this story.]

The final story in FW #3, “The Witch’s Apprentice,” is a dud. But, with the exception of the DC sf comics, the 52-pagers of the era often carried dead weight.

Looked at from the 21st century, it’s clear that Richard Hughes and the company for which he was the prime mover had great things ahead.

The “Spirit” Of St. Ogden The first page of the Ogden Whitney-drawn “The Vengeful Spirit” from FW #3. Scripter unknown. Thanks to Bill Field. [©2006 the respective copyright holders.]

18

“If You Can Bring Richard Hughes Back, He’d Be My Favorite Editor” An Interview With Artist Great AL WILLIAMSON About His Work For ACG Interview Conducted 8-29-95 by Michael Vance

L

ast issue’s presentation of Michael’s book about the American Comics Group featured quotations from a number of interviews the author had done in preparation for writing the volume. Here is one of those interviews in something closer to its full form, though edited slighty for reasons of space—and it just happens to be with one of the great talents of EC Comics, to boot! Al Williamson is fondly remembered for his work on the comic strips Secret Agent Corrigan and Star Wars—even more so for his breathtaking illustrations in EC’s Weird Science and Weird Fantasy and other titles—but he has a soft spot in his heart for ACG and its enigmatic editor, Richard Hughes! —Roy.

Transcribed by Brian K. Morris there was something nice about the books and I thought I’d just go up there. I think they were on 43rd Street, or— MV: 45th.

WILLIAMSON: 45th Street, between 5th and 6th Avenue. I didn’t show any printed work. I think I just took originals that I’d done, and I remember waiting. The receptionist was a nice young lady, very, very, very pleasant. And I said, “I’m here to see whoever, the editor,” looking for work. She said, “Oh, just a minute,” and she let him know.

So I sat down. I waited about two minutes and she said, “Mr. Hughes will see you,” and took me in. It was a little office. It was a small outfit, a small office, and it had several little rooms.

MICHAEL VANCE: I should tell you that I am recording you. Is that all right, sir?

AL WILLIAMSON: Yeah, I guess it’s all right. I have nothing to hide.

MV: Well, they won’t be tough questions, Mr. Williamson. I wanted to start by telling you that I am an enormous fan of yours. I’m not exactly a young guy, so I’ve been around for a while and you’ve always been one of my favorites.

WILLIAMSON: How long have you been around?

MV: Forty-five years.

WILLIAMSON: Oh, that’s nothing.

[Michael laughs] I’ve been around 64.

MV: Well, just a couple of questions. First off, how did you get hooked up with Mr. Hughes and ACG? WILLIAMSON: Well, let’s see. You know, I remember buying the books and there were some nice artists that I liked very much. They never signed the work, so I didn’t know who they were, but

Taking The EC Way—From ACG (Above:) Al Williamson, as caricatured by Marie Severin in the 1950s when both were working for EC—but Al was also doing a bit of work for ACG, at least till EC asked him to cut it out. [©2006 Marie Severin.]

(Right:) A page from “Demon of Destruction,” the lead story in ACG’s Forbidden Worlds #1 (July-Aug. 1951). Frank Frazetta worked with Williamson on this memorable tale, whose splash page was seen last issue. Thanks to Bill Field for the art scan. [©2006 the respective copyright holders.]

“If You Can Bring Richard Hughes Back, He’d Be My Favorite Editor”

19

MV: Was this about1949?

MV: Oh, yeah.

WILLIAMSON: No, no, this was—let’s see, I think I started with EC in ’52, so this was ’51.

This was around the spring, because I remember the weather being nice. So I went there and he liked the stuff, and he gave me a script. I don’t know who wrote the script. He did have some guys working there. I know a couple of times I delivered work and he was not there; he was on vacation.

Somebody else picked up the job and gave me a script. And one of the guys that gave me a script said he just wrote it. I don’t remember his name, though.

WILLIAMSON: Well, the only reason I don’t think there was is because, after EC, I went back to work for Mr. Hughes back in ’56, ’57, I think. And there was no, absolutely no animosity or— MV: Oh, no, no, no, no. It actually came from Sangor, whom you never met and who owned the company [shop]. Mr. Sangor was the one that kept riding the gang at ACG all the time to live up to your standards at EC. WILLIAMSON: Oh. Well, it’s kind of a pity that—in a way, I have mixed emotions about working for EC. But of course, you’re young and 21, you’re working with all these great people, and you figure this is big and all that. And they paid better than ACG. And they were very nice people.

MV: You don’t remember seeing anybody at the offices during your trips that you remember?

WILLIAMSON: Well, there were people there, but I had no idea what they were doing. I’d do the job, bring it in. In fact, the first job I did for them, Frank Frazetta worked on it, too, and they loved it. They thought it was very nice.

They gave me another one and I think I did about four or five jobs for them.

That Mr. Hughes was exceptional. He was a very sweet man. I think he was a very honest man. I understand he wrote some of the stories himself.

MV: Yes. He was extremely prolific and he used dozens of pen names. In fact, “Richard Another page from the Williamson/Frazetta offering in Forbidden Worlds #1; Hughes” is not his name. I found thanks again to Bill Field. That’s what we call starting off with a bang!

WILLIAMSON: I don’t think I this out, too, about six months [©2006 the respective copyright holders.] did a romance, because I would ago while I was writing the book. have been scared to do anything [unintelligible] stuff like that.

His name was actually Leo Rosenbaum.

MV: That’s right. You may even have done a romance job for them.

We’ve All Got Our Demons

MV: Did Frank Frazetta mention anything to you about Hughes, because he had worked for them when they were the Sangor Shop, doing some funny animal stuff that was printed by the Nedor gang—Ned Pines and his wife?

WILLIAMSON: I don’t even know who they are. No, I can’t remember Frank mentioning anything.

MV: There’s a long-standing myth that has grown up that EC created horror comics, and, of course, they didn’t. Richard Hughes did.

WILLIAMSON: Oh, yeah, that’s true. Even in the old days, when we were working for EC, we said, well, EC didn’t really start them. It was Hughes. He started the horror titles. That’s, I think, one of the reasons that EC did it. They won’t own up to it. [mutual laughter] MV: I couldn’t get William [Gaines] to own up to that, either, when I was talking to him. But [EC editor Al] Feldstein actually drew— and maybe wrote—a story in the third issue of Adventures into the Unknown, three years before the first EC horror. I found that interesting because I also know from the standpoint of ACG that after EC really caught on, there was a real jealousy.

WILLIAMSON: This I don’t know. I don’t remember. I don’t think so.

WILLIAMSON: For heaven’s sakes. Well, he was an absolute sweetheart. I think of all the people—well, they were all very nice. Steve Douglas was a real sweet guy. He was the first guy to give me work in comics. He was with Famous Funnies and he was a very nice guy to know—and Richard Hughes, you know, and Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein. But the editor that I think I liked the best, and this is not putting down the EC boys at all, but the one that I really feel I should have done more work for, and I should have been a better artist for him, is Richard Hughes.

MV: Why do you feel that way? Did you like their material or just the way—?

WILLIAMSON: No, no, I thought the material was great, but I was young and stupid.

MV: Well, why did you decide not to work for him at that time?

WILLIAMSON: Well, I wanted to work for EC, and they asked me just to work for them, not to do any work for anybody else.

MV: Did ACG try to change your mind?

WILLIAMSON: No. I remember calling Mr. Hughes or—no, I must have taken the job in, because I was working on something. I took the job in and I said, “Well, I guess this will be my last job because I’m

24

The Back Pages Appendices Re The Sangor Shop, Standard/Nedor, And The American Comics Group

by Michael Vance Text © 1996, 2006 Michael Vance

W

e devoted most of our previous issue to Michael Vance’s 1996 book Forbidden Adventures: The History of the American Comics Group—and we still had to leave the appendices for printing this time around. As Michael wrote, the Sangor Shop of the early 1940s grew into the American Comics Group in all but name by 1943, and officially by 1947-48. At the same time, the Sangor Shop supplied comics to several other companies, including especially Ned Pines’ Standard/Nedor/ Thrilling group. Richard Hughes, well-remembered as the editor and a chief writer of the ACG, had also been active at Pines, through Sangor, co-creating such heroes as The Black Terror and The Fighting Yank, that company’s two super-hero mainstays. Now, let’s plunge right into those lists—with a thank-you to Brian K. Morris for a retyping assist. —Roy.

Sangor’s Startling Stories As detailed last issue, the B.W. Sangor Shop churned out art and story throughout the 1940s for Nedor/Standard/Pines, as well as for ACG and to some extent for National/DC and others. This contents page appeared in Nedor’s Startling Comics #43 (Jan. 1947), at a time when two Richard Hughes co-creations, “The Fighting Yank” and “Pyroman,” were still riding high; the latter was cover-featured on this issue. The “Yank” drawing is my Edvard Mortiz (probably in collaboration with Ken Battefield), while the “Pyroman” is “unquestionably” the work of Battefield. Thanks to Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., and Hames Ware for the IDs on this issue. “Forbidden Adventures” logo by Al Dellinges. [©2006 the respective copyright holders.]

Appendix A: Sangor Shop and American Comics Group Personnel Compiled from The Who’s Who of American Comic Books, ©1994, Jerry G. Bails; used by permission. Corrections and additions are encouraged and should be sent to Dr. Bails c/o this magazine or at JerryBails@aol.com. JGB's new online version (see p. 33) contains information updated since the mid-'90s, and should be accessed for the most accurate information, but a handful of additions and corrections have been made herein, mostly thanks to Jim Amash. An asterisk [*] denotes continuing work for ACG.

Sangor Shop Personnel 1941-1949 Writers Andrew Albert, co-owner of Creston, c.

1943-5 Gerald Albert, co-owner of Creston, c. 194345; pen names: Greg Adams [?], Alvin Gerald, Gary Anderson, Ryan Dahl, Gerald Devers, Alvin W. Gerald, Jay Harvey [?], Randall Kern [?], Jay Randall, Uncle Jerry Robert Anto, pen name, perhaps of Tony Loeb, 1946 Leon Baron, pen name [?], 1945 Tom Baron, 1945-46 Cecil Beard*, 1944-50 Justin Blazer, pen name, 1946-47 Burl Board, pen name [?], 1945 Frank Bourgholtzer, 1942-43 - later NBC newsman

Irwin Brower, pen name [?], 1944 Victor Brown, pen name [?], 1945 Oliver Buchanan, 1944 Stephen Caroll, pen name [?], 1945 Franklin Carr, pen name [?], 1945 Georgia Cherr, 1946 Patt Cherr*, 1944-52 Frank Coleton, 1945-46 Sam Cooper, pen name [?], 1946-47 Jack Cosgriff, 1945-47 Betty Cummings*, 1948-50 Joe Cunningham, 1943 Henry Dale, pen name [?]

Barry L. Denton, pen name [?], 1946 Hobart Donavan, 1940s John Easterly, pen name, 1945 Harvey Eisenberg [?], 1942 Henry W. Ellington, pen name [?], 1944 John S. Endicott, pen name [?], 1944 Helen Ennis, pen name [?], 1946

Warren Foster*, 1945-47 Dean Garland, pen name [?], 1946 Hortense Gildersleeve, pen name, 1949 Joseph Greene*, 1940-50 Martin Grupsmith, business manager, 194546; pen names: Marcus Goldsmith, Martin W. Smith, Martin W. Grupsmith, Uncle Marcus, 1943-46 Henry Hale, 1941-44 R. W. Haring, pen name [?], 1943 Edward Hasset, pen name, 1947 Patricia Highsmith, 1942-46 Donald B. Hobart, pen name, perhaps of Lee Donovan Holliwell Hobart [?], 1945 Helen Houghton, 1940s Richard Hughes*, business manager, 1944; managing editor, 1945; editor, 1946-67; editor/writer, 1942-67 Martha Hultgren, 1944 L. Irving, pen name [?], 1943

Forbidden Adventures: The Back Pages

25

M. Moon, pen name [?], 1944 Steven Montooney, pen name [?], 1944 Jay Morton, writer and Florida agent, 1942 Homer Newmark, pen name [?], 1943 L. E. Norr (Eleanor?), pen name, 1944 Annabel Nubbe, pen name [?], 1944 Peter O'Crotty, pen name [?], 1946 Cheryl Padraic, pen name [?], 1944-46 F. O. Peters, pen name [?], 1943 William V. Pollack, pen name [?], 1944 Paul Purdy, 1943 Pamela Ravielli, 1940s

Leo Rifkin Frank Roslyn, 1948 S. E., pen name of Erich Schrenk Alexander Samalman, 1944-47 M. W. Sanders, 1944 Lilly K. Scott, 1946-48 Jerry Smythe, pen name [?], 1945 G. H. Spoon, pen name [?], 1946 Bob Stanwood, pen name, 1945 Elizabeth Starr*, 1948-49 Lewis Stetson, pen name [?]

Charles S. Strong, pen names: Uncle Stanley, Chas. Stanley, Chuck Stanley, 1943-47 Uncle Andy*, pen name, 1948-49 Charles Verral, 1940s Wally Walworth, 1943-44 Mark Wellman, 1944 Carl O. Wessler*, 1943-46; 1950-51

Postwar Pyrotechnics Nedor’s heroes fought World War II even longer than Timely’s! The (probably rewritten) caption on this splash from Startling #43 (probably taken from inventory) reveals the story is set in pre-Hiroshima 1945… but the issue would’ve gone on sale in late ’46. Art by Ken Battefield. “Pyroman” cocreator Richard Hughes may not have been scripting his adventures at this relatively late date. [©2006 the respective copyright holders.]

Leo Isaacs, 1946 Lloyd James, pen name [?], 1943 R. Jamieson, pen name [?], 1943 Johnny Jill, pen name [?], 1944-46 Bob Karp, Syndicate work (wlayouts) “Donald Duck” (1938+), “Merry Menagerie” (1946-58), “The Middles” (1946-’50s), Flintstones, movie and TV playwright; (w) Disney Big Little Books; TV producer, Anyone Can Paint, 1945-47 Hubie Karp, 1944-47 Marshall Kent [?], 1946-47 Gary Lainey, pen name [?], 1944 Roy Lawson, pen name [?], 1944 A. Leason, pen name, 1945 Ken Leeds, pen name [?], 1944 Allison Leslie, 1947 Glen Lloyd, pen name [?], 1943

Frank Belknap Long*, 1946-51 Isaac Long [?], 1946 Herbert Madenson, pen name [?], 1944 Fred Madison [?], 1943 Iago Mainwaring, pen name [?], 1944-15 Michael Maltese, 1944-48 Mickey Marks, pen name [?], 1946-50 Ronald Markham, pen name [?], 1943 Leon Mars, pen name [?], 1945 Gary Martin, pen name [?], 1944 George Martin, pen name [?], 1943-15 Lloyd Martin, 1944 Hugh McHugh, pen name [?]

Kerry McRoberts, pen name [?], 1946-47 T. [Tarpe?] Mills, 1947

Burning Down The House The storytelling on this page from Startling #43 (Jan. 1947), which was probably drawn by Edvard Moritz (quite possibly with Ken Battefield), is a bit shaky. The top 2/3 seems vaguely connected to a hero-less title splash printed opposite it. Still, for most of the ’40s, “The Fighting Yank” was second only to “The Black Terror” as a super-hero headliner at Nedor. [©2006 the respective copyright holders.]

42

“I Was So Busy, I Never Read The Stories” Unique Artist RUDY PALAIS On Living And Drawing Comics Interview Conducted by Jim Amash

T

his interview was twelve years in the making. I first interviewed Rudy Palais in the summer of 1992 for CFA-APA, a small-circulation publication, but I quit that “apa” (amateur press alliance) before the piece saw print. When I started interviewing for Alter Ego, I decided to work on it again. Rudy approved this interview, though he had talked about adding a couple of his childhood adventures to our tale. Sadly, he never got around to doing that before his passing in 2004. In real life, Rudy was nothing like the gargoyles and sweaty criminals he was famous for depicting in his crime and horror stories (and which I teased him about). I’m sorry Rudy’s not here today to see our interview finally make it into print. He had an interesting life and art career, and I’m glad I had a chance to chronicle a bit of that. —Jim.

Palais Draws Two Guys With Magnetism

“[My Brother] Walter ... Got Me Into Comics” JIM AMASH: Where and when were you born?

RUDY PALAIS: The 21st of March, 1912, in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Just like Sinatra. My father was an artist who had studied art in Vienna.

He was a draftsman who did mechanical drawings, like blue prints for buildings. My brother Walter was also an artist and did comic books for a while. He worked for Simon and Kirby for a time.

My sister-in-law Rita also had some art talent, and she did backgrounds for me. She did that for a year or so. I needed someone to babysit my daughter, and when Rita came over, I’d show her what I needed done and she did it. She developed a technique this way. I didn’t let her work on the important stories. She wasn’t great, but her work was acceptable.

JA: Did you work with your brother Walter, too? [NOTE: Rudy’s brother Walter Palais, who is still living, was also a noted comic book artist.]

PALAIS: No. Artistically, we went our separate ways after my Iger shop days. Later, Walter went into the service. We did work together on a comic story for Classics Illustrated: Rob Roy. Things were a little difficult for him at that time, and I was over-burdened with work. I had already done half the story and I laid out the rest of the story for him, which he penciled and inked.

JA: Did you use other assistants?

PALAIS: For a while, there was a young kid named Schofield who went to Boston Art School. I was living in Deep River at the time. He

loved to do Westerns, so I let him work with me on things like Kit Carson for Classics Illustrated. This kid would draw a million and one Indians running around.

Rudy Palais illustrated costumed characters of all sorts. In the photo above, taken in his Connecticut home in 1993, Palais (pronounced “pal’-lee”) posed with an Elvis Presley painting he’d done—while the cover of Super-Mystery Comics, Vol. 5, #3 (Dec. 1945) is a moody minor masterpiece featuring Magno the Magnetic Man. No, that’s not an “I” on his chest; as other art spots in this piece will show, it started out as a sort of electro-magnetic sign of some sort, and along the way somebody lost the road map. Cover scan courtesy of Jonathan G. Jensen. [Photo ©2006 Charlie Roberts; comic art ©2006 the respective copyright holders.]

JA: What were some of your influences?

PALAIS: My father read The Katzenjammer Kids and Mutt and Jeff to me. I was also influenced by Leyendecker’s Saturday Evening Post covers... Norman Rockwell’s, too. I started drawing in kindergarten, and people helped point me towards an art career because I was talented. Everybody encouraged me, because there was no denying what I was going to do for a living.

Even now, when I come across a piece of art that I’m really impressed with, I’ll make a copy of it. That way, I’ll get a feel of what the artist felt and how he thought. I have one I did recently. It’s a copy of a J.C. Leyendecker cover for The Saturday Evening Post, originally done by him in 1930. It looks exactly like it. I also did one of Norman Rockwell’s, too. And I love to do gargoyles in clay. I have one I’m working on now.

JA: You’re ten years older than your brother Walter. Did he have the same kind of influences?

“I Was So Busy, I Never Read The Stories”

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PALAIS: He may have. We never discussed it. He started his career as a letterer at the Iger shop and was soon drawing features. Walter was the one who got me into comics. He was studying for the priesthood in Princeton, New Jersey, and used to visit me at Columbia Pictures where I was doing movie posters. He told me he wanted something to do for the summertime. I told him to take his artwork and show it around.

A week later, he came back to me and said he couldn’t find a job. I thought about it for a minute and asked, “In your rounds,were there some people who showed more interest in your work than others?” He said there were and I said, “Go back to those people and see what takes place.” The next day, he got a job at Iger’s.

Walter told them about me, and they asked him to tell me to drop in sometime. Which I did. I became so interested in the work these young men were doing that I decided to jump into the comics game. It opened up a new horizon of all kinds of things that I could be drawing.

Westerns, crime, and so forth. It was different than doing movie posters, which was something you constantly did from photographs.

That didn’t do a whole lot of for your imagination other than making new layouts.

“I Was A Young Man With Money In My Pocket” JA: Where did your art career start?

PALAIS: I started in a display shop, which was an art studio that designed both movie theatre fronts and commercial business fronts.

That required designing work and so forth. The company I worked for had Warner Bros. for a client, and we did layouts and designs for them.

That’s what I started out doing. I was about 17 or 18. I could have spent a number of years in art schools, but commercially it wouldn’t have helped me any. I was looking for a buck and I got busy making money. The Great Depression started when my career started.

The theatres had about five display changes a month, so that required working at 8 a.m. until about 11 p.m. on Friday night. That was the routine and I was a strong, young man. We also had a union, and that meant good bucks for salaries. That were the days when professors were selling apples on the street corner. And I was a young man with money in my pocket.

I remember getting my art teacher a job where I worked because he had been let go from teaching during the Depression. He started working with us and was very happy because he was making a living.

Originally, he was teaching art at Stuyvesant High School and was also freelancing, doing Bond Bread posters. If you remember those posters, they had advertised on horse-drawn wagons.

I did a lot of displays for Warner Bros., including painting posters in the old, hard style. After that, I worked for them in their advertising and poster department. Charlie Einfeld was head of publicity for Warners at the time. His office was next to the art department and the actors would visit Charlie Einfeld. If the actors were inclined to shake hands with the artist, they did so. Walter Hood, the senior artist, did a great painting of Bette Davis. Einfeld thought so much of it that he put it on an easel in his office to surprise Miss Davis. Sure enough, in came Miss Davis. She took a look at that painting, studied it for a minute, and said to Charlie, “You and I know we all have wrinkles, but do we have to show them?” Back to art department went that beautiful painting to be modified by Walter Hood.

I met a lot of the actors and actresses, like Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney, Jean Muir, Hugh Herbert, and many others. That was great. Here I was in my early twenties and I’m meeting these God-like people off the screen. One time, another artist and I did a 12-foot

Lawbreakers Always Lose—And Here’s Why Perhaps Palais’ 1930s encounters with the likes of Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney served him in good stead when he drew this story for Timely/Marvel’s Lawbreakers Always Lose circa 1949. Precise issue number and date uncertain. Thanks to Jerry G. Bails. [©2006 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

painting while working in the display business, which was separate from the art department. The painting was a 12-foot-high head of Edward G. Robinson.

When they put the head up on the theatre marquee, someone got the bright idea of having steam smoke come out of the pipe in Robinson’s mouth. But this was in the dead of winter and when the steam came out, it froze into icicles on the pipe. [laughs] Someone took this idea and started making billboards to advertise cigarettes, but they used a smoke machine so they wouldn’t have the problem that we did.

Warners had a strike, and that was the end of my time there. During that summer, I pitched semi-pro baseball. I had a try-out with the Brooklyn Dodgers when I was a kid. But it didn’t work out, and a coach said, “Why don’t you go to Newark?” I didn’t want to go to Newark. Anyway, Carl Noble introduced me to C.E. Lane, who was a sports writer. I did a cover for Baseball magazine. We only used two colors in those days: black and red. Norman Rockwell’s work was also in black and red until they got to the point where they could use more color.

I didn’t get a job for the team in Newark because it was the Depression and they were instructed not to hire any kids without professional experience behind them. I was told, if I had $200, I should go down to the ballpark at their training camp in Florida. The coach

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Unique Artist Rudy Palais

said, “I’ll farm you out to any of the clubs you want to go to.” But I didn’t have $200 and my father had passed away, so I had to support my family. I missed that opportunity. If I hadn’t stayed and helped my family, it wouldn’t have spoken well for my character, would it?

JA: You’re right. This is why I like doing interviews. It’s amazing how people’s lives change because of personal circumstances.

PALAIS: Yes. Not only in this instance, but my art teacher at public school, Mrs. Simon, thought so much of my art that she wanted to send me to Europe to study art. I had to turn that one down, even though my way would have been paid. I asked her, “If you send me to Europe, are you going to take care of my mother, sisters, and brothers?” I had to decline that offer.

Getting back to baseball, I want to tell you about a great experience I had. I was a pitcher for a ball team when I was in public school. I was about 13 or 14 years old and we were champions of the league. As a reward, our team was taken to Yankee Stadium. And who do we get introduced to but Babe Ruth himself? The Lord God of Baseball! We were quite awed at his presence as he tipped his cap to us. He was the king of New York City and all the boroughs like Queens, Brooklyn, etc.

“I Did Three Posters A Week” JA: What did you do, job-wise, after Warners?

PALAIS: After I left Warners, I did a job for Medal Gold Ice Cream Company, which was located at 777 Kent Avenue in Brooklyn. I worked in their display department, doing artwork and lettering for their signs and menu cards. This was just a fill-in job.

The advertising agency up the block closed down one day, and my boss came to me and said, “We need something in a hurry.” He asked me to letter the word “Popsicle” for him. I lettered it for him in upper and lower block letters and he said, “There’s a big fat $20 in it for you.”

And that letter job is still being used today. It may be used in various colors, but it’s mine. And I got a big fat 20 bucks for it, kiddo. In those days, 20 bucks for 20 minutes work was a lot of money. That was almost 70 years ago. In fact, Medal Gold Ice Cream Company invented the popsicle.

My boss said, “Don’t eat too many of those damn popsicles because you’ll lose your taste for food.” I didn’t believe him, but I had several popsicles during the week and dammit, I lost the taste for food. He said, “It serves you right. I told you. Now you’ll have to lay off, and your taste for food will come back gradually.” So you see, there may have been something in the chemistry there. Who knows? If I had knocked on their doors, looking for work, I’d have probably been refused. But I was the last guy on the totem pole before I went home on that Saturday afternoon, so I got that job. I got the 20 bucks and no royalties.

JA: Imagine how much money you’d have gotten from royalties!

PALAIS: Life’s that way, you know. You hit things that didn’t mean beans to you then. Look at the people who collect comics. When I was in the business, who’d have ever thought of holding on to an original comic page? Nobody. And now, it‘s a collector’s dream.

JA: Where did you work after Medal Gold Ice Cream Company?

PALAIS: I went to work for to Columbia Pictures and spent five years there painting full-color posters for their movies.

JA: When you did these movie posters, did you lay out a concept for approval and, after that, paint the posters?

PALAIS: That’s the way it worked. We had a huge movie still department. When I got the assignment for a particular movie, I went to the still department and got pictures of the actors who’d be in the movie. Then I’d design the poster and submit it. The art director would usually okay it with maybe a small change or two, and then I painted the poster. I did 750 posters for grade-B movies. I didn’t do the posters for the big movies because I was a junior artist. All the big movie posters were done by the senior artists or freelancers. When Columbia produced the movie Lost Horizon, they got James Montgomery Flagg to paint the poster.

JA: Was the original art for the posters the same size as the printed versions?

Original Art Blues “When I was in the [comic book] business, who’d have ever thought of holding on to an original comic page? Nobody. And now it’s a collector’s dream.” Here’s Rudy’s splash page for a story in Black Cat Mystery #37 (July 1952), repro’d from a photocopy of the original art, sent by collector Chris Brown. [©2006 the respective copyright holders.]

PALAIS: Oh, yes. These were lithographed posters. Foolishly, when I was working there, it never occurred to me to go to the print shop and get a few full-sized reproductions. My art director said, “I can’t get you any posters, but I can get you 8 by 10 black-&-white reproductions.” If I would have had a little more expertise, I’d have gone down there and got posters. But that’s hindsight now.

I had to paint three posters a week: a one-sheet, a three-sheet, and a six-sheet. That’s how they were designated. The six-sheet was square, the three-sheet was vertical, and the one-sheet was 20 by 30 inches. I

60

The Shadow: Masked And Unmasked Celebrating The 75th Anniversary Of Street & Smith’s Grim Hero The Shadow Knows!

by Anthony Tollin

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uper-heroes have a natural affinity for Halloween, since disguise is a central element of their dual identity alter egos. However, none of The Shadow’s super-heroic successors has ever outdone the Master of Darkness when it comes to his multitude of alter egos.

While other crime-busters are usually content with a single alter ego in addition to their heroic costumed identities, The Shadow employed nearly a dozen identities with some regularity.

While most of his crime-fighting descendants donned bizarre disguises to battle crime, The Shadow’s true identity was masked as both crime-fighter and when he assumed the guises of his various other selves: Lamont Cranston, Kent Allard, Henry Arnaud, Fritz (the police station’s slow-moving immigrant janitor), George Clarendon, Phineas and Isaac Twambly, Clifford Gage, the Count of Santurnia, Wade Hosth and Theo D. Shaw (both anagrams of The Shadow), and many more. And that doesn’t even take into consideration the many criminals impersonated by the Master of Darkness in the classic Shadow novels of the 1930s and 1940s.

Even The Shadow’s principal alter ego of Lamont Cranston was in reality another mask. “Greatest of The Shadow’s secrets,” Walter Gibson wrote, “was the fact that the very character that had become part of him, that of Lamont Cranston, was in itself a disguise.” The Shadow’s creator introduced the Cranston identity in 1931 in his second novel, The Eyes of The Shadow, which the author believed “provided so many details about The Shadow that readers would be apt to think that they had learned practically all there was to know about him. This misconception was corrected in an early chapter of the third novel, The Shadow Laughs. Lamont Cranston, returning from an extended trip to South America, began to have doubts about his own sanity and even his identity. He learned that, during his absence, various persons were sure that they had seen him at his home, although he knew quite well that he had not been there.

As per usual, The Shadow plays a double—no, triple—game: showing up for Halloween… announcing new publication plans for his vintage adventures… and celebrating the 75th anniversary of the first issue of The Shadow Magazine, back in 1931! Above left is Modest Stein’s cover of the first issue of The Shadow pulp magazine, for April 1931—at right is George Rozen’s cover for the pulp “novel” The Shadow Unmasks (Aug. 1937). All art and photos accompanying this article were provided by Anthony Tollin. [©2006 Advance Magazine Publishers, Inc./The Condé Nast Publications.]

Nothing was ever what it seemed in Gibson’s Shadow novels, and the master of misdirection soon revealed that Lamont Cranston was but one of many alter egos assumed by the Master of Darkness. In a chapter aptly titled “Lamont Cranston Talks to Himself,” the wealthy world traveler and big-game hunter awakens to discover a nocturnal visitor wearing a masklike visage of his own features, who demands that the real Cranston depart immediately on an ocean voyage: “Some people call me The Shadow,” explained the man in black. “That is but one identity. I have other personalities that I assume, as easily as I don my black cloak and hat. One of my personalities is that of Lamont Cranston. In the past, I have used it while you were away. At present, I choose to use it now. It would be embarrassing for both of us to be here.

So you must go.”

When the real Cranston objects, the Master of Darkness warns:

Cranston Meets Cranston Even Lamont Cranston, the Shadow’s alter ego known so well from radio and comics, was a secret identity— as per this drawing Earl Mayan from Crime over Miami, in which the two of them met. [©2006 Advance Magazine Publishers Inc./The Condé Nast Publications.]

“You have been very lax in handling the affairs of Lamont Cranston. There are many matters which you have forgotten. There are many securities, in safe-deposit vaults. You do not know the exact amounts. I do. You have some knowledge of Lamont Cranston’s family history. I doubt that you could recall the maiden names of both his grandmothers. I know them.

Stay if you wish. Try to denounce me.

But remember that I have established the personality of Lamont Cranston.

Assuming that you are Lamont Cranston, I know more about you than you know about yourself! So use your

The Shadow: Masked And Unmasked own judgment. But I warn you in advance. If you are here when I come tomorrow, there will be but one result. You will be arrested as the impersonator of Lamont Cranston. I shall be the injured party. It will mean an inconvenience for me; but it will mean real difficulties for you.”

61 think The Shadow is this guy come back....”

In The Black Master, The Shadow adopts the identity of Clifford Gage, a reputed British spy who had reportedly died five years In his 1933 novel The Red Blot, Gibson before during a Himilayan provided an explanation for the masklike snowstorm. Later in the novel, the immobileness of the Dark Avenger’s disguises, trapped Shadow is unmasked by a revealing that faces The Shadow presented to the master villain who exclaims, “The world really were masks: secret of The Shadow. At last it is understood! The man of many Now a light appeared in the corner of the faces—with no face of his own.” At room. It revealed a small table upon which the conclusions of The Shadow’s rested various articles of make-up. The Shadow Shadow and The Black Falcon, the seated himself before the table, but only his Dark Avenger reveals his unmasked white hands appeared within the sphere of light. features to his criminal foes, both of The hands appeared with what seemed to be a The Shadow’s Ultimate Alter Ego whom collapse in shock after seeing thin mask of wire gauze, no more than a The Shadow’s true face. “That was Walter Gibson, creator and longtime original writer of skeleton framework filled with a few solid The Shadow pulp magazine, in 1937. [Photo ©2006 done primarily to shake up the patches. The object disappeared as it was raised New York World Telegram.] readers,” Gibson later explained. “I into the dark. Into the range of light came a mean, to get the reader wondering. head and a strange, weird reflection from the It accomplished this very thing. I had sort of a metaphysical answer for mirror. It was the image of a man who seemed to have no face! it—which could have been that they saw something strangely Guised with the colorless surface of the thin mask, only The gruesome, or weird, that almost hypnotized them. But I didn’t go into Shadow’s eyes were visible as they glowed through a plastic mass a lot of details about it. I just let that hang a little bit.” of grayish blur!

The hands came into action. The long fingers moved here and there about the table, finding the objects that they needed. Upon the artificial base, the semblance of a human countenance was slowly forming....

In his first Shadow novel, a smalltime crook called Spotter had noticed that The Shadow’s features appeared to be obscured by gauze: “This time I looked for his face. I saw nothing but a piece of white that looked like a bandage. Maybe The Shadow ain’t got no face to speak of.

Looked like the bandage hid somethin’ in back. There was a young guy once who the crooks was afraid of—he was a famous spy in the War, and they say he was wounded over in France—wounded in the face. I

Walter Gibson’s early “horror face” concept for The Shadow is remarkably similar to the later character of Maximus in Leonard Starr’s On Stage comic strip (which debuted in 1956 and ran for a number of years), and also to DC Comics’ “Unknown Soldier.” Like Gibson’s early conception of The Shadow, both of those characters’ faces had been destroyed during wartime, forcing them to become masters of makeup and disguise. “The ‘horror face’ was a planted device that could have been picked up for later reference,” Gibson explained to pulp historian Will Murray. “Allard’s own face could have been battlescarred and undergoing plastic surgery; or he could have been testing out a special mask to study the effect. Like the girasol and the fingersnap explosion, these were tests of reader’s interest. If the reader’s attention were nipped, he’d write in, intense for information.” Through the planting of such clues, the writer and editor could keep in touch with their public and gauge its reactions to possible story elements like The Shadow’s “horror face.” Gibson recalled: “That was more or less hinted at … that he had plastic surgery, and if he just took the thing away, it would look very weird, almost skeletonish. But I never went into it because I didn’t like to get too much on the gruesome side. But you remember in many of the things that would tell me how he would mold his face? Well, I frequently figured he was using a plastic type of thing with which he would mold it and he had a base that he worked on there.”

The real Lamont Cranston eventually became a willing ally of The Shadow, playing major roles in a number of novels including Atoms of Death and The Hydra. Throughout the 1930s, The Shadow’s Cranston facade is often described as “masklike” and “immobile,” but by the 1940s the visage has become more naturalistic. In Crime over Miami, Gibson explains why The Shadow’s makeup now suggests Cranston’s hawklike features rather than duplicates them:

The Shadow Hails A Truck A Shadow drawing by well-known magazine and comics illustrator Everett Raymond Kinstler. The white gutter down the middle is because the two pieces of this illo appeared on facing pages in the pulp; they called this a “double truck.” [©2006 Advance Magazine Publishers Inc./The Condé Nast Publications.]

If The Shadow’s make-up had been a mirrored reflection of Cranston’s features, the thing would have been remarkable enough.

As it happened, his face was not identical with Cranston’s, a fact which made the deception even better. By choosing to resemble Cranston, rather than to duplicate him, The Shadow avoided any stiffness that could have excited suspicion.

[All art in this 6-page edition of “Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt” ©2006 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Art by Steve Rude. [Mary Marvel TM & Š2006 DC Comics.]

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Fawcett: 1943

by Raymond Miller Edited (& With A Sidebar) By P.C. Hamerlinck A thriving comic book publisher … a top-selling character … court battles … a world at war. 1943 was another busy year of constant change for Fawcett Publications. Long-time comic book aficionado Raymond Miller theorizes why certain Fawcett titles were delayed—or never published—that year, and why certain 1943 stories turned up in places where they weren’t necessarily first intended to appear. —PCH.

M

id-1941: the comic book industry was reaching an unprecedented all-time high. It didn’t matter if you were a big publisher or a small publisher, or if you had a dozen titles or if you had 3 or 4 titles. Many comic books during this period had good stories and good art with good costumed heroes backed by good minor heroes … all packed within 64 pages. But when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, it made for big changes in the comic book industry throughout 1942. Many of the smaller publishers found that they were either being forced out of the business or had to cut back on the number of titles due to paper rationing and the loss of artists and writers to the war. Some, like Fox, completely ceased publishing. Others like Ace Periodicals were forced to cut back on their titles. For the most part, larger publishers like DC, Timely, Quality, and Fiction House were not affected until the end of ’42, at which time even they themselves had to cut back.

But one publisher, Fawcett Publications, had big plans to expand their line of comics with many new titles. By late 1942 Fawcett was publishing Whiz Comics, Master Comics, Wow Comics, Captain Marvel Adventures, Bulletman, Spy Smasher, Captain Marvel Jr., Captain Midnight, Gene Autry, and America’s Greatest Comics, and had also just released first issues of Ibis The Invincible, Golden Arrow, and Jungle Girl (starring Nyoka). By Dec. ’42-Mar. ’43, various Fawcett titles started carrying ads for new upcoming books: Don Winslow of the Navy, Funny Animals, Hopalong Cassidy, All Hero Comics, Mary Marvel, and Commando Yank.

Both Don Winslow and Funny Animals were published throughout the war years and beyond. Hopalong Cassidy #1 was published in 1943, but #2 didn’t appear until 1946. (Ironically, both Winslow and Funny Animals would actually outlast Fawcett’s comics line, as did Hopalong Cassidy.) All Hero was canceled after just one issue. Mary Marvel and Commando Yank—as well as Lance O’Casey (which was never advertised)—didn’t come out in Feb. ’43 as scheduled. In addition, Fawcett ended up canceling a number of comics in 1943. The ongoing titles Bulletman, Spy Smasher, and America’s Greatest Comics were all dropped. Both Golden Arrow and Ibis the Invincible had second issues released in ’43, but neither book returned until 1946.

Gene Autry lasted until #10, Sept. ’43, then moved over to Dell with #11 (judging by Till Goodan’s cover art on Dell’s #11, the entire issue’s material was obviously intended for a Fawcett issue). If we go by cover dates, Fawcett first cancelled Bulletman with #12, dated Feb. 12, ’43 … then canceled Spy Smasher with #11, cover dated Feb. 26, ’43. But,

A Real Bell-Ringer As suggested by the enthusiasm and energy displayed in this 1942 ad for its flagship title Whiz Comics, Fawcett Publications had big plans for 1943—but they got slightly derailed by a little sideshow called the Second World War. Artist(s) unknown. [Captain Marvel TM & ©2006 DC Comics.]

unlike Spy Smasher, the Flying Detective’s book would eventually appear again.

BULLETMAN As most Fawcett/Golden Age comic collectors know, the last Bulletman issue published in ’43 was #12 (Feb. 12th). The title resumed publishing in 1946 with #14, completely skipping #13. So what ever happened to Bulletman #13? The same thing that happens to the 13th floor most high-rise buildings!

Most of Fawcett’s single-character titles in 1942-43 generally featured 4 stories per issue: 16, 13, 13, and 10 pages, or 16, 13, 14, and 10 pages in length. Bulletman #14 (Spring ’46) had a 13- and a 10-page story, while #15 (Summer ’46) had a 16- and a 13-page story.

Bulletman #14 also had a 6-page “Richard Richard—Private Dick”; “Richard” also had 6-page stories in #10-12. Seemingly, the cover used for Bulletman #14 was originally intended for #13, as it still had the familiar black triangle containing the phrase “A Fawcett Publication” and the 10¢ price tag inside it. (Fawcett quit using the triangle insignia on its covers in 1943; #12 had 68 pages, while #14 and 15 had only 36 pages, and the artwork in both issues is obviously from the ’43 era.)

Fawcett: 1943

85

AGC #1-7 had “Captain Marvel” in 20-page stories (21 pages in #3); “Bulletman” ranged from 13-18 pages; “Spy Smasher” 12-18 pages; “Minute-Man” 16-20 pages (only 12 in #5); and “Mr. Scarlet” 11-15 pages. “Commando Yank” was added to the line-up with issue #5, with 12- to 15-page stories. “Spy Smasher” did not appear in #7, as he was moved over to All Hero Comics and was replaced by “Balbo, the Boy Magician,” a regular feature at the time in Master Comics.

ALL HERO COMICS There was only one issue of All Hero Comics, #1, dated May 17, 1943. Like America’s Greatest Comics, this was a 96-page comic book that sold for 15¢, and was apparently Fawcett’s answer to DC’s 15¢ Comic Cavalcade. It has been generally assumed over the years that All Hero #1 was a “one-shot”; however, that probably wasn’t what Fawcett intended it to be.

Similar to America’s Greatest, All Hero also featured extra-long stories with another stellar line-up: “Spy Smasher” (“Battles Hitler’s Headsman”), “Golden Arrow,” “Ibis the Invincible” (introducing “Banshee O’Brien—Boy Enchanter”), and “Lance O’Casey”; all had 16-page stories, while “Captain Midnight” and “Captain Marvel Jr.” came in at 13 pages each.

[Continued on page 88]

IF YOU ENJOYED THIS PREVIEW, CLICK THE LINK TO ORDER THIS ISSUE IN PRINT OR DIGITAL FORMAT! Taking A Bullet “Bulletman” art for Fawcett from America’s Greatest Comics #7, as reprinted in AC Comics’ Men of Mystery #21. [Bulletman TM & ©2006 DC Comics.]

SPY SMASHER Like Bulletman, Spy Smasher also had the 16-13-13-10 story page format in SS #8-11. SS #11 was the final issue, cover-dated Feb. 26th, ’43, but—unlike Bulletman—the Spy Smasher comic never resumed publication after the war. However, it’s believed Fawcett not only had one but two issues already completed and ready for publication prior to the book’s cancellation. Where are those stories? Most eventually appeared in Whiz Comics during ’43. Both Whiz #42 (May) and #43 (June ’43) had a 16-page story; prior to #42 the “Spy Smasher” stories in Whiz were only 9 pages in length. Both of those issues had “Spy Smasher” double-splash pages with art by Alex Blum, who utilized the same format in the final SS issues (#8-11). The 10-page story in Whiz #48 was drawn by Al “Camy” Cammarata, who also drew stories in SS #8-11, including a double-splash page in SS #11. Both Whiz #44 and 45 had 13-page “Spy Smasher” stories. After further investigating, I’d go out on a limb and say the “SS” stories in Whiz #42-45, 47-48 were meant for SS #12 and 13.

AMERICA’S GREATEST COMICS Fawcett’s 96-page, 15¢ anthology comic in answer to DC’s 96-page, 15¢ World’s Finest Comics was, in many ways, a better comic book.

While Superman and Batman dominated WFC, the five heroes of America’s Greatest Comics all shared equal spotlight, each with their own extra-long stories.

ALTER EGO #62 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!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95 http://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=394