Alter Ego #68 by TwoMorrows Publishing

Roy T Thomas homas’ Jerry-Built Jerry-Built Roy Comics F Fanzine anzine Comics

REMEMBERING COMICS FANDOM FOUNDER

JERRY BAILS 6.95 $

In the USA

No. 68 May 2007

Art & Artifacts by: PÉREZ KUBERT INFANTINO KANE GIBBONS ISABELLA CARDY LEVITZ DITKO ORDWAY BUCKLER VOSBURG SWAYZE GILBERT SCHELLY HAMERLINCK AMASH THOMAS and more! BONUS!

STAR WARS TURNS 30! The Secret Origin Behind Marvel’s 1977 Comic! PLUS:

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82658 27763

Vol. 3, No. 68 / May 2007 Editor Roy Thomas

™

This issue is respectfully dedicated to the memory of

Jerry G. Bails

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

Editorial Honor Roll Jerry G. Bails (founder) Ronn Foss, Biljo White

Editor Emeritus Mike Friedrich

Production Assistant

Contents

Chris Irving

Circulation Director Bob Brodsky, Cookiesoup Periodical Distribution, LLC

Writer/Editorial: Comics Fandom’s Johnny Appleseed . . . . . 2 “An Instigator With Vision” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Cover Artist

A celebration of Jerry G. Bails (1933-2006), by Bill Schelly.

George Pérez

Of Fans And Fandom: The Jerry Bails Interview. . . . . . . . . . . 8

Cover Colorist Tom Smith

With Special Thanks to: Jack Adams Heritage Comics Heidi Amash Rick Hoberg Michael Ambrose Tom Horvitz Bob Bailey Tony Isabella Jeff Bailey Glen Johnson Jean Bails Sean Kleefeld Michael Baulderstone Alan Kupperberg Daniel Best Steve Leialoha Murray Bishoff Paul Levitz Rich Buckler Ralph Macchio Dominic Bongo John & Gillian Ray Bottorff, Jr. Moores Lance “Doc” & Brian K. Morris Krista Boucher Owen O’Leary Jerry K. Boyd Jerry Ordway Mark Burbey Fred Patten Mike Burkey George Pérez Howard Chaykin Steven Rowe John Cochran Bob Rozakis Jen Contino Steve Sansweet Teresa R. Davidson Joan Schenkar Fred deBoom Howard Siegel Dwight Decker Joe Simon Craig Delich Gerry Sorek Al Dellinges Joe Staton Tony DeZuniga Dave Stevens “Don Markstein’s Cory Strode Toonpedia” Ed Summer Lance Falk Marc Swayze Michael Feldman Dann Thomas Shane Foley Mike Tiefenbacher Todd Franklin Dr. Michael J. Mike Friedrich Vassallo Carl Gafford Mike Vosburg Dave Gibbons Murray Ward Janet Gilbert Hames Ware Mike Gold Ted White David Hajdu Joseph Wise Jennifer Hamerlinck Bill Wray Irwin Hasen John Wright

A 2004 e-mail talk with the founder of comics fandom, by Sean Kleefeld.

The Future Of Fandom—Unlimited! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Even back in 1962, Jerry Bails pointed the way for future research.

Memoirs Of Jean Bails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Life with Jerry & comics fandom.

Tributes To Jerry G. Bails. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 A handful of homages to a man who deserves them all—and more!

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!: Alter-Ego’s Baby Brother! . . . . 47 Michael T. Gilbert tells the story of The Comicollector—Jerry Bails’ second fanzine.

“We Were A Wonderful Match!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Jim Amash interviews Hames Ware, Jerry's co-editor of the 1970s Who’s Who.

Star Wars: The Comic Book That Saved Marvel! . . . . . . . . . 63 Think we’re kidding? The secrets behind Roy Thomas & Howard Chaykin’s 1977 classic.

FCA (Fawcett Collectors Of America) #127 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 P.C. Hamerlinck presents Marc Swayze, C.C. Beck, & Captain Marvel’s 1940 American cities tour. About Our Cover: Let’s hear it for George Pérez, who gave us his blessing to use a previously unprinted Justice Society illustration of his as our cover tribute to Jerry Bails. “I’d be honored,” was his reply to our request. George, of course, drew some of the best-looking JLA-JSA teamups ever, back in the early 1980s. The photo of Jerry on the cover first appeared in Alter Ego [Vol. 1] #5 in 1962-63; it was digitally enhanced by Bill Schelly. [Justice Society of America TM & ©2007 DC Comics.] Above: Various JSAers from Earth-Two occasionally appeared, as well, in other Silver Age DC comics—as per this pair of panels from The Flash #170 (May 1967), with art by Carmine Infantino (pencils) & Sid Greene (inks); script by Gardner Fox. Repro’d from a photocopy of the original art, which was owned for some years by Jerry Bails. [©2007 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: $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.

writer/editorial

Comics Fandom’s Johnny Appleseed W

1940s, when and where they appeared, etc.—an index with a real difference, and that filled a very real need;

hat can I say about Jerry Bails that I didn’t say back in Alter Ego #25, when I managed to surprise my old friend by devoting a cover and a couple of dozen pages of coverage to him on the occasion of his 70th birthday?

(l) and, of course, what must rank as Jerry’s most important contribution to the field and history of comics: the 1970s Who’s Who of American Comic Books, at least as he later mutated it into:

I don’t want to repeat here the oft-told tales of how DC writer Gardner Fox put Jerry and me in touch with each other in November 1960 by sending me Jerry’s Detroit address, or of how Jerry put together the original fanzine version of this magazine after a New York visit with DC editor Julius Schwartz in February of 1961. If you want to read my account of those events, A/E #25 is still on sale through TwoMorrows.

(m) the massive online Who’s Who of American Comic Books (1928-1999). [See p. 4.]

Arguably, there are a couple of other “firsts” Jerry could have laid claim to, as well… but he was never one for selfJerry (left) and Roy in Chicago, 1997, for the Fandom Reunion Luncheon. Photo courtesy of Jean Bails. aggrandizement…or for hogging credit. Still, an unfamiliar reader should know Without consulting me, he officially named precisely why this publication is celebrating me “co-editor” of the first few issues of Alter-Ego, even though I did this man’s life and accomplishments. After all, his name is hardly as no editing whatsoever, but merely wrote and drew material he edited. well known as that of last issue’s interviewee Bob Oksner, or next He acknowledged his debt to Hames Ware, who was so important to month’s Paul Norris and Ramona Fradon. And so, leaning in part on the 1970s Who’s Who, by duly listing him as co-editor of that fourBill Schelly’s accounting of “Jerry Bails’ Ten Building Blocks of volume publication. Fandom” in A/E #25, I’ll briefly list his major achievements. Simply put, Jerry was either a primary or the sole creator of: (a) the first fanzine (Alter-Ego) wholly devoted to comic books, in March-April 1961; (b) the first comic book “adzine,” dedicated to advertisements for buying and selling old comics, later in 1961; (c) the first “newszine,” devoted to news of upcoming comics, likewise in 1961; (d) the first organization made up of fans of the field, the Academy of Comic-Book Fans and Collectors, also in 1961; (e) the first awards presented for excellence in comic book work (the Alleys, first given out by the Academy in 1962 for ’61);

Jerry was, to the extent any one person could be, the founder of modern comics fandom. He was also my great and good friend, even though the two of us met face to face on fewer than a dozen occasions during the almost precisely 46 years I knew him, from November of 1960 till he passed away—in his sleep, just as he said he’d like to do but didn’t feel he would—on Thanksgiving of 2006. The only time he’d become sharp with me, at least via cyberspace, was concerning my innate unwillingness to learn any more about PCs than I absolutely had to. “Oh, you are hopeless!” he chided me once… then gave me a digital lecture on how I could move one more evolutionary rung up the ladder and away from what he perceived as my luddite tendencies.

(f) the first orderly microfilming of 1940s comic books, begun in the mid-1960s;

Only a couple of weeks before he passed away, he sent to me—as he did, in various forms, to a number of people who he felt had been important in his life—a letter of farewell. I quote from it now, with his wife Jean’s permission:

(g) the first published super-hero comic book indexes, an All-Star Comics Index and a DC Index; (h) the “first sizable gathering of comics fans,” the “Alley Tally” held on March 21-22, 1964, to count the Alley Award ballots for 1963;

Dear Roy,

(i) the first “fandom directory,” the 1964 Who’s Who in Comic Fandom; (j) CAPA-alpha, the first comic book “apa”—a compendium of the minifanzines of a number of fans, distributed by a Central Mailer; (k) Collector’s Guide: The First Heroic Age, the first publication to list virtually all the super-heroes of the

Jerry at the University of Chicago, 1960, shortly before graduation… and less than a year before he launched Alter-Ego and comics fandom. Thanks to Jean Bails.

I suspect that any time now you’ll be hearing from Jean or Ray [Bottorff] that I have died. I am suffering 2 or more severe angina attacks a day now, and have a persistent sharp chest pain that even the nitro doesn’t totally eliminate. I take massive numbers of drugs at noon and midnight and find that 11 o’clock is becoming a terror to get through. I refuse to go into the hospital because I have other conditions that are more likely to cause even more prolonged pain, and I have no desire ever to be in a hospital again. I am just wishing to die peacefully in

Comics Fandom’s Johnny Appleseed

my sleep. (Ha! Ha! I don’t believe it. The pain would wake me up.).... I just want you to know that I have always valued our friendship. You have always been a loyal, thoughtful, considerate friend whose career has given me additional pleasure to follow. Had I come along a little later, I might have tried for a career in comics myself, but a letter from Al Feldstein in 1951 (my senior year in high school) persuaded me that, although I had some talent, freelancing wasn’t a lifestyle I would’ve excelled at. A Victor Wilson Scholarship and subsequent success in mathematics and science proved more attractive to me. I’m happy with the path I chose. It is strange to be better known for one of my hobbies Two of Jerry’s drawings—his than for the decades I spent in “winning cartoon” of the early other activities. For example, I 1940s (its “source,” as he hints in have always been politically his letter, being a patriotic drawing active. In the mid-1950s, my adapted from the “Minute-Man” Nigerian friend (Enoinabi Obi) comics-style pamphlet sent out to and I helped organize swimming members of the Junior Justice parties to help keep open the Society of America), and a 1960s public swimming pool in Kansas portrait of Jean. City’s famous Swope Park. Racists were threatening to see it closed. Also in the 1950s, I was active in amateur astronomy and in political movements to end atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons. This was a time when few people understood the dangers of Strontium-90 or the prospects of space science. I conducted weekly classes and star parties at the museum in K.C. On one occasion, Sputnik passed over twice. Between the two observations, I had my mouth going for the full ninety minutes, lecturing my captured audience on what the space age meant. I was 24 years old. Shortly after I moved to Detroit in 1960, I counseled young men wanting to take C.O. status during the Vietnam War. I met Jean in the antiwar movement of the mid-60s. At 20, she ran a weekend retreat and regular workshops for faculty and students opposed to wars in S.E. Asia. She impressed me immediately. We both participated in that million-person march around the Pentagon that helped Johnson decide not to re-run for President. We were part of the response to the Saturday Night Massacre that drove Nixon from office. We have both supported human rights and gay rights from Day One. I’ve been extremely lucky to be married to one of the most amazing women whom I have ever met…. I could go on and on about Jean. She was a cancer nurse, created a grassroots environmental group that cleaned up (literally) after State Fairs, and closed hundreds of school incinerators through Michigan that were exposing kids to fly ash and toxic fumes.... My own life has been full, too. I manage to write and edit a dozen educational TV programs on evolution (distributed by the Annenberg Foundation), edited a book on microphysics for lay people, wrote a dissertation in semiotics that I still feel has merit nearly a half century later, wrote scores of essays and a book on the history and impact of technology that I used for years. I led weekend conferences on China, the Middle East, South Africa, Human Sexuality, the Impact of Technology, the English Language, the Arts of Paris, Weimar, and New York, and many other themes. I had a ball teaching. It is something I always loved doing.

I never wanted to be famous, and was really uncomfortable with the inordinate attention I sometimes got at comics conventions. Comics Fandom would have happened without me, I’m sure. I just happened to be the right age to ride the crest of the first nostalgia wave. I’m glad I was there. I made great friends, and fanac [fan activity] saved my sanity during some hard times. It’s a pleasure to see so many of these friends have enjoyed careers in comics. I’ll close by sending along a few drawings. Two I did in the late 60s to early 70s. (I later did a few pastels of Kirk in his infancy, but they are of interest only to a proud papa.) Some young fans may be encouraged to pursue an art career if they see where I started at the age of 8.... Recognize the source of this one? Stay as young at heart as you have always been, and you’ll be bringing great joy to others for a long time to come. I love you, buddy. Bestest, Jerry I love you, too, Jerry. At this point, I’ll step aside and let others talk about their experiences with and knowledge of Jerry G. Bails. Even the truncated list in this issue of A/E includes some of his earliest fannish friends, and people he “met” via e-mail only during the last year or so of his life… several comic book professionals, and those to whom fandom itself was and is a way of life, needing no further fulfillment… those who spent days or weeks in his presence over the years, and those who never so much as saw him in the flesh but only corresponded with him through the ether. And his wife Jean. His partner over the last four decades of his life, and his anchor in only the best sense of that word. We have all been touched by Jerry Bails and what he did… as have been many who have never even heard of him, yet use the Grand Comic-Book Database or the online Who’s Who, both e-outgrowths of his early impulse to index, to organize… and, above all, to disseminate. For Jerry Bails was the Johnny Appleseed of comics fandom. He has moved on, and his like shall not pass this way again. But what he has sown will be with us for the rest of our lives. Bestest,

P.S.: The Motor City Comic Con, held at the Rock Financial Showplace in Novi, Michigan, on May 18-20, 2007, will include a “Celebration of Jerry's Life,” hosted by Jean Bails. Check out http://www.motorcityconventions.com/motor_city_comic_con P.P.S.: Our letters section will return next issue.

The WHO’S WHO of American Comic Books (1928-1999) FREE – online searchable database – FREE http://www.bailsprojects.com No password required

A quarter of a million records, covering the careers of people who have contributed to original comic books in the US. Created by Jerry G. Bails Panel from a neverpublished “Green Lantern” story drawn by Paul Reinman, circa 1945. Thanks to Dominic Bongo and Heritage Comics. [©2007 DC Comics.]

COMING IN JUNE

RAMONA FRADON, PAUL NORRIS, & AQUAMAN —NOT NECESSARILY IN THAT ORDER! • Fabulous full-color Aquaman cover by JOHN WATSON—from an illustration by RAMONA FRADON! • In-depth interviews with two of the Sea King’s greatest delineators—co-creator PAUL NORRIS (also artist of Sandman, Yank & Doodle, Brick Bradford, et al.) & Golden/Silver Age stalwart RAMONA FRADON (also artist of Metamorpho, Plastic Man, Fantastic Four, Brenda Starr, et al.)—plus rare art by SIMON & KIRBY, GROTHKOPF, KANE, GRAY, EVERETT, GLANZMAN, COLE, CANIFF, & others! • “Maritime Passages!” A lushly illustrated history of Aquaman by JOHN WELLS, featuring art by NORRIS, FRADON, DALY, CAZENEUVE, CARDY, APARO, etc.! • FCA with MARC SWAYZE & more of Captain Marvel’s city stopovers— MICHAEL T. GILBERT & the BOB POWELL Family Album, Part III—& MORE! Edited by ROY THOMAS Comics.] [Aquaman TM & ©2007 DC

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“An Instigator With Vision” A Celebration Of Jerry G. Bails (1933-2006) by Bill Schelly

he news of Jerry Bails’ passing spread like wildfire on the Internet on Thanksgiving Day 2006, coming as a shock in various degrees to everyone who heard it. Some were doubtless unaware of the health problems that had plagued Jerry’s latest years, perhaps assuming by the level of his activity in newsgroups that the 73-year-old was doing fine. Those who knew of the man’s heart problems and other physical ailments were also susceptible to surprise at the unhappy news on November 23rd, because they hoped Jerry’s illnesses weren’t as serious as he made them out to be.

After the shock and sadness, Jerry’s passing is an occasion that causes us to consider how different our fannish world today would be if he hadn’t had the vision and desire to instigate so many projects in the early 1960s. What, we ask ourselves, would our collective history have been like without the efforts of this brilliant Midwesterner? America’s breadbasket was the birthplace of many of the early movers and shakers in comic fandom (or comics fandom, if you prefer), including Bill Thailing, Ronn Foss, Mike Vosburg, Grass Green, Don Glut, Larry Raybourne, Don & Maggie Thompson, Roy Thomas, and Biljo White. Of all those in the Midwest, probably the most active from 1960 to 1965 was Jerry G. Bails, Ph.D., a young college professor living in Detroit, Michigan. For Indianapolis-based Ed Lahmann, getting a letter published in one of his favorite Schwartz-edited DC Comics was a thrill, but nothing compared to the excitement and exultation he felt when he received his first issue of Alter-Ego (then hyphenated), a magazine

A Trace Of The Past (Left:) In 1961’s Alter-Ego #1, Jerry Bails traced off an Irwin Hasen illo of The Wizard from All-Star Comics #34 (1947) to head his article on that malevolent mage; it was Jerry’s first art for his new fanzine, not counting his tracing/rearranging of Roy Thomas’ cover. In 1988, Al Dellinges traced Jerry’s spirit-duplicator-purple image in ink, and that’s what is reproduced here. [Wizard TM & ©2007 DC Comics.] (Above:) Bill Schelly (on left) and Jerry in 1997, at the Comic Fandom Reunion Luncheon, held at the same time as the Chicago Comics Convention. (Photographer uncertain… but we’ll send him a free copy of this issue if he gives us a holler.) At that time, Bill and Roy’s trade paperback Alter Ego: The Best of the Legendary Comics Fanzine, reprinting the best of the first (1961-78) volume of A/E, was about to be published. A 10th-anniversary reissue of that out-of-print volume is planned for autumn of this year.

devoted exclusively to the appreciation of comic books… and mostly to super-hero ones, at that. The “fanzine” came unsolicited, because Jerry sent out “sample issues” of A-E to dozens of addressees that he found in DC letter columns in 1961. His mission was to round up as many comic book fans as possible. In its earliest stages, Jerry Bails’ “outreach” was partly a way for him to canvas for people with old comic books for sale or trade. His early letters were sent in pursuit of data about those Golden Age classics: the publishers, the writers, the artists, the editors, and the comic book production shops. Thus, from its inception in March 1961, Alter-Ego (a title that reflected Jerry’s interest in psychology, besides echoing a common aspect of the comic book super-hero) carried articles about comics of the past, alongside requests for more data, as well as want lists of the fanzine’s editor(s).

Nobody’d Dare Rain On This Parade! It’s well known that Alter-Ego—and thus Jerry’s involvement with other comics fans—grew out of his enthusiasm for the Justice League of America as a quasi-revival of the 1940s Justice Society of America. So it was a real turning point when Jerry received from DC, in the summer of 1960, a postcard sporting the above Mike Sekowsky/Bernard Sachs art…no doubt sent because of his letters to editor Julius Schwartz. From the Jerry Bails Archives, courtesy of Jean Bails. [©2007 DC Comics.]

A Celebration Of Jerry G. Bails (1933-2006)

Oops! Enthusiastically accepting Roy T.’s 1961 suggestion of “the Alleys” as the name for the fandom awards, because what hero could have historically pre-dated the comic strip caveman Alley Oop, Jerry later transferred fellow fan Biljo White’s drawing of Oop onto the ditto’d cover of 1964’s CAPAalpha #3. [Alley Oop TM & ©2007 NEA Syndicate.]

the Alley Awards, publish The Comic Reader, endorse a code of fair practice in the selling and trading of comic books, publish a directory of comics fans, assist in the effort to establish an annual comicon, and more. The Alley Awards for 1961 were announced in the pages of Alter-Ego #4, in 1962.

As evidence of the outreach Jerry conducted, we have the Who’s Who in Comic Fandom (1964), a publication prepared at Bails’ behest (with a lot of assistance by Larry Lattanzi) which listed the address of the approximately 1,600 fans in Jerry’s massive card file. By the following year, with the publication of the Guidebook to Comic Fandom (1965)—which offered a textual introduction to the hobby written by the ubiquitous Bails—it was clear that comic book fandom had become an ongoing, self-sustaining movement.

One good idea led to another. The format of Alter-Ego was great for articles and other features, but fandom needed a more frequentlypublished vehicle for sale, trade, and want ads, and it also needed a newssheet of some kind, to inform comic book readers of the latest industry news. Thus, The Comicollector and On the Drawing Board (later called The Comic Reader) were founded by Bails, breaking out of the pages of A-E. [NOTE: See the Comic Crypt section, beginning on p. 47, for a full reprinting of Comicollector #1!]

The next step was the drive for a national or regional comicon. Jerry Bails hosted one of the earliest gatherings of a substantial number of comics fans—nineteen—at his home in Detroit in the spring of 1964, ostensibly to tally and compile the results of the 1963 Alley Awards. Other sizable gatherings took place in the basement of Don Glut’s house in Chicago. Then, in mid-1964, both Detroit and New York sponsored regional gatherings, with the one in New York generally regarded as the first “real” comicon. In truth, the first real comic book convention took place the following year in New York City, and Jerry was there to lead the first panel (featuring Gardner Fox, Otto Binder, Bill Finger, and Mort Weisinger), lead auctions, and meet many of his

Quite a few of the fans who came out of the woodwork wanted to publish their own amateur journals, and new fanzines popped up like mushrooms in late 1961 and especially 1962. Bails himself found himself more interested in collecting data on “who’s who in comic books,” so after about a year, he handed off the editorial reins of both Alter-Ego (which would henceforth be unhyphenated) and The Comicollector to amateur artist par excellence Ronald E. “Ronn” Foss. But Jerry continued churning out issues of The Comic Reader for another year or so, before turning it over to Glen Johnson. Of course, fanzines weren’t a new idea when Jerry Bails set out to publish one. He was in contact with elements of science-fiction fandom, and it was there that he saw sf fanzines and yet another form of fan publication that he adapted to comic fandom: the amateur press alliance. CAPA-alpha, the first comics “apa,” debuted in October 1964. Members sent in 50 copies of their individual “zines,” and Jerry as Central Mailer collated them and mailed a set out to each member. The idea caught on immediately, giving a forum to many fans who otherwise didn’t contribute to the other fanzines—and many who did. CAPA-alpha (abbreviated “k-a” because “Kappa” is a letter of the Greek alphabet) has proved so durable that it continues to the present day—despite the Internet—having passed 500 mailings not long ago. One way of promoting comic books was to give recognition for excellence in the medium. Roy Thomas’ suggestion of an “Alter-Ego Award” in a letter to Jerry in October 1961 was enthusiastically received by Jerry, who was also intrigued by Roy’s idea that the nominating committee for the award might be call “the Academy.” Jerry drafted a proposed Academy charter, which was subsequently endorsed by fandom at large in 1963. The Academy of Comic-Book Fans and Collectors was an umbrella organization that would conduct

Maybe This Bunch Held A “Non-Costume Party”? When the first true “full-service” comics convention was held in New York City in 1965, Jerry Bails—who’d been pushing for such an event for several years—was there. Artist Ronn Foss wasn’t, but he drew this fantasy back cover for CAPA-alpha #7. [Art ©2007 estate of Ronn Foss; characters TM & ©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

“An Instigator With Vision”

Two Of Jerry’s Favorite Groups (Above:) Jerry was happy that he and wife Jean could attend the 1997 Fandom Reunion Luncheon at the Pine Grove Restaurant in Chicago, which Bill Schelly and others had arranged. (At the table, l. to r., all but one seated:) Jerry (seen from back), Grass Green, Bob Butts (leaning over), Howard Keltner. (L. to r. standing:) Roy Thomas, Ron Massengill, Jerry Ordway, Mark Heike, Bob Ingersoll, Jon Park, Jeff E. Smith. Others, including Jean, Dann Thomas, Maggie Thompson, Tony Isabella, Bob Beerbohm, and Mike Touhey, were also present—Bill himself took this photo. (Right:) Howard Keltner’s rendering of the Justice Society on the cover of CAPA-alpha #2, 1964. [©2007 DC Comics.]

correspondents in person. This 1965 New York Comicon drew fans from across the US. By 1966, the projects launched by Jerry were all being helmed by others. The Comicollector merged with The Rocket’s Blast to become G.B. Love’s advertising juggernaut known as RB-CC. Dave Kaler was elected Executive Secretary of the Academy of Comic Book Fans and Collectors, and Don and Maggie Thompson served as Central Mailers of CAPA-alpha. The Comic Reader had gone from ditto to photooffset printing, and saw Robert Schoenfeld of St. Louis take over publication from Derrill Rothermich and Jim King, changing the

name back to On the Drawing Board. (Alter Ego went on hiatus while editor and publisher Roy Thomas devoted all his energies to his new career as a writer and editor for Marvel Comics.) For his part, Jerry kept a lower profile from 1966 onward. He began The Panelologist that year, though that data-oriented publication wouldn’t really get going until 1968. Some, like perennial Bails critic Phil Seuling, ridiculed Bails’ self-coined name—“panelology”—for the study of comic art. This was one case where something Jerry invented didn’t catch on. Sometimes the term “panel art” is used, but generally more common are the terms “graphic art” or “sequential art.” But it’s interesting that no other single word to replace Jerry’s “panelology” has found acceptance. Bails did supply his data files to Bob Overstreet, which made the Comic Book Price Guide (1970) possible, as well as most of the text material in the front part of that book, but he ended up having mixed feelings about the Guide. Bails was against anything that injected a heavily commercial element into the comic book collecting hobby. Jerry would want to be remembered most for his work identifying and indexing comic book writers and artists, which became his massive life’s work, The Who’s Who of American Comic Books. While the Who’s Who is unquestionably the centerpiece of his legacy, Jerry Bails will be remembered as far more than an inexhaustible indexer. He’ll be remembered as an instigator with vision, whose energies and ideas on behalf of comic books and comic book fans in the early 1960s justify giving him the sobriquet “the father of comic fandom.” Bill Schelly’s personal remembrances of Jerry Bails can be found on p. 34-35.

A Hymn To Him The first page of Jerry’s The Panelologist, Vol. I, #1. Note the heartfelt letter from “Robert Lindsay”—one of Jerry’s pseudonyms in writing letters to comics editors. By then this pen name was an open secret among many in comics fandom. [©2007 estate of Jerry Bails.]

OF FANS & FANDOM The JERRY BAILS Interview by Sean Kleefeld

OTE: The following is a relatively rare thing—an actual interview with Jerry G. Bails conducted in the past few years. It appeared on the website The Pulse (www.comicon.com/pulse) and was conducted by Sean Kleefeld, at the suggestion of Jen Contino, via several e-mail sessions in late July and early August 2004. The text is ©2007 Sean Kleefeld. His introduction to the piece has been omitted here, as it consists mostly of a brief overview of early fandom such as is covered elsewhere in this issue. We’re profoundly appreciative of Sean for giving us his blessing to reprint the piece, as it represents one of the last interviews Jerry gave. Sean also remarked on the enthusiasm with which Jerry spoke, despite his ill health at the time. —Roy. KLEEFELD: Between Roy [Thomas] and Bill [Schelly], I think they have indeed covered much of what you did and how you fit in the history of fandom, but I’d like to take a look at why you fit in the history of fandom. When you first discovered the Justice Society, what was your reaction? Most of the characters hadn’t been around very long prior to All-Star #3; were you already familiar with the Flash, Green Lantern, et al.?

JERRY BAILS: Yes, I was familiar with all the cover features of DC’s monthlies. I was wearing a Superman sweatshirt in 1940 in a family photo. At that time, I was hooked on afternoon radio series. The first ones that I recall were Jimmie Allen (a young aviator) and Little Orphan Annie. As the war progressed, I could instantly identify just about every airplane widely used by Allied and Axis forces. Despite living in the city called the Heart of America (Kansas City, Missouri), I was keenly aware of every plane that flew overhead, and took pride in identifying them. During a practice blackout in 1943, I was quarantined for three weeks with polio, and my two brothers and older sister were staying with relatives. My mom and I took the blackout very seriously, and I covered even the small light coming from our old Admiral radio, which served as my entertainment center throughout my entire childhood. (Well, at least until I put together my own crystal set to receive radio programs in my bedroom.) Annie offered the first radio premium I recall

What’s Past Is Prologue (Top left:) Jerry Bails was always intrigued by technology and the future— and used a bit of digital magic to enhance one of his own photos, a couple of years back. He titled the one at top left “Gramps.” He was equally interested in the past, of course, and reveled in the completion of the hardcover color reprinting of all 12 volumes of the All Star Comics Archives by DC. Above is the great retro illo by Peter Poplaski used as the cover of Vol. 5, repro’d from a scan of the original art, retrieved from the Heritage Comics Archives by the ever-watchful Dominic Bongo. [Art ©2007 DC Comics.]

ordering. It was a big map-like fold-out with magic tricks and cryptograms. This began my fascination with cyphers. My mother taught me how to break simple substitution codes, and I corresponded during the war with my older sister’s boyfriend, who was in the Signal Crop, asking him all sorts of questions. I came up with a scheme to destroy letter frequency in English messages (similar to that which I offered in Alter-Ego #1), only to discover that it had been invented before. But that only encouraged me. Radio adventures and the adventurous Sunday funnies set me up for enjoying comic books. I own the entire year 1940-41 of Jack

You Don’t Know Jack! Photos of the cast of the radio adventure series Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy are hard to come by… but at least the unidentified artist who drew the cover of issue #1 of his Parents’ Institute-published comic book (dated Nov. 1947) knew what he should look like! [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

Of Fans And Fandom

Armstrong, still my all-time favorite adventure show. It highlighted photoluminescence (green ring that glowed in the dark), a pedometer, an autogyro, walkie-talkies, and lots of good stuff about sailing vessels, the Philippines, and the South China Sea. It is unsurpassed: a brilliant show for kids, and I love it as an adult. I also loved the technological innovations in the Dick Tracy syndicated strip. The first such innovation that I recall was a submarine-tank. I wish I knew how early that strip appeared. I devoured every word. All-Star Comics [soon became] as a bimonthly, and despite the intention that it remain on the stands for two months, it seldom lasted that long. The glut of monthlies coming in each week prompted many retailers to drop unsold copies after a week or so into a box for return credit. They just didn’t have enough room for all the titles coming out. Because of the short shelf time, I missed the “Justice Society” until I spied All-Star #6, with Johnny Thunder’s initiation. All those heroes together in one story was really a new wonder to me. I held on to that issue for years, re-reading it (along with my brother) until the cover and the outer fold was gone, alone with the centerfold. I finally passed that particular All-Star along to Roy Thomas in 1960, since by then I had acquired the two bound volumes from author Gardner Fox. These contained issues #1-24. These volumes cost me the princely sum in 1959 of $75. I felt a little guilty spending that much, but I had been looking for those issues since 1945. Until I was 12, it never dawned on me to buy two copies of anything. The Depression and World War II had taught thrift. Kids wore hand-me-down clothes, and the

Crime On His Hands It was August of 1945 when Jerry’s mother (shown above in this 1930s photo) brought him home a copy of the Lev Gleason comic Crime Does Not Pay while he was bedridden; so it might have been the Nov. 1945 issue (#42) with cover art probably by coeditor Charles Biro. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

Jerry Gets—Well, Not Quite A Hotfoot Jerry (seen with his father in 1942) always said that the first issue of AllStar Comics he ever saw was #6 (1941). So, for the heading of this month’s “re:” section, Australian artist Shane Foley drew a pic with JGB replacing Johnny Thunder in that issue’s cover situation, being watched over by our “maskots” Alter Ego (left) and Captain Ego. Only thing is—there’s no LP this ish, so we figured we’d print Shane’s clever illo here! [All-Star art ©2007 DC Comics; “re:” art ©2007 Shane Foley; Alter Ego TM & ©2007 Roy & Dann Thomas; Captain Ego TM & ©2007 Roy Thomas & Bill Schelly.]

knees in our corduroys were frequently patched. It was no shame. Everyone in working-class America did it. As I have related elsewhere, my initial effort to preserve my favorite adventures was to cut and paste them into scrapbooks. I still have a couple of my favorite shots enlarged as color photostats adorning my office wall. Only about 1945 did I realize the desire to preserve the issues intact, and I began a hunt for back issues. There were no backissues comics stores, to my knowledge. In those days, the regular paper drives had pretty well sucked up all the scrap paper. Schoolyards were piled high with newspapers and magazines for the war drive. By 1945, a lot depended upon finding people who hoarded old magazines and comics, or saved them to trade. Comics were traded freely all during the 1940s. In that way, I got to read just about all the comics that interested me and then some. SK: One of the classic fan stories I’ve heard repeatedly was that a child, bed-ridden with some ailment, found much of their solace in comic books. You mention radio as a significant pastime, but I’m curious if you became more engrossed in your comics during that period, as well. BAILS: I was already hooked on comics, but I took every advantage of the attention my mother gave me to get two of my favorite things: chocolate revel ice cream every afternoon when the ice cream truck came by (it was late August), and comics in the evening when my Mom would go to the drug store. Of course, I asked her to get any AllStar she could find. No issue came out during that interminable 3-week

The Jerry Bails Interview

quarantine, but here’s the kicker. My Mom picked out a copy of Crime Does Not Pay for me. She enjoyed crime pulps herself and saw no danger in letting me read what was to become the comic that was to spark the first wave of heavy protest against comics by pseudo-social scientists. I don’t want to give the impression that I was bedridden that whole time. Except for the high fever and headache of the first days, and one day of extreme weakness, I was never paralyzed. I had the weakest of the three forms of the disease. In fact, most of the time, I felt pretty good. A spinal tap required to confirm the diagnosis did require that I lie flat on my back for eight hours, but my Dad kept me company, to insure that I wouldn’t turn over, and the time passed quickly. For the third week of the quarantine, I sat out on the porch and cut out balsa model airplanes—the ones that appeared in Kellogg’s Pep (Superman’s sponsor). The kids had just started back to school, and I talked with them from the porch, which was a good 25 feet from the sidewalk and elevated by about eight feet.

Quick as a fox, I offered that I could locate just such a kid. I rushed home to find my younger brother. I dressed him in the worst clothes we could find, and pulled our little red wagon back to the store. We got a good wagonload of comics, and I couldn’t wait to go through them. To my delight, I uncovered a coverless issue of All-Star #19, which was the earliest consecutive issue that I had managed to secure. In all the searching, I found only issues #19-24 and #4, 5, and my battered copy of #6. The rest I had either cut up or traded then off. That was never allowed to happen again, as my All-Star collection was off-limits to everyone. The most they could see of them was when I laid them out on my bed to admire them and to execute a bit of superstitious ritual, touching each book to every book as a way of promising myself that I would complete the collection. It took 14 more years, but I finally succeeded. No one else I knew was that fanatic about comics. The girl on the next block had a large Batman collection, but she really wasn’t keeping it intact. Batman and All-Star started at the same time as bimonthlies, and the numbers were in sync until the wartime paper shortage prompted making All-Star a quarterly. Three months is a long wait in any kid’s life. It drove me nuts.

Our front and back yard were terraced, and I suffered no crippling effects from polio. I climbed and jumped over fences, off roofs, and probably did my back more damage jumping from high places. I never climbed down after cleaning the leaves from the gutters, and I have the flat feet to prove it. SK: You began trying to track down every issue of All-Star in 1945, many years before comic books really became an item to be collected. As a teenager at the time, what sort of resources were you able to employ to start hunting those issues down? Was it mostly a matter of biking to area barber shops and drug stores? Or were you looking up individuals’ address through the modest science-fiction fan loops that were beginning to crop up? What types of interactions did you have in obtaining the whole series?

Doesn’t “Ultra” Mean The Same As “Super”? Based on seeing the cover of All-Star Comics #1 in a house ad in Batman, Jerry thought for some time that “Gary Concord, Ultra-Man” from All-American Comics had been a charter member of the JSA. Actually, Gary Concord was a 23rd-century hero—the son of a timetraveler of the same name from the early 20th—who became 2nd-in-command (“High Moderator”) in the United States of 2239, but still had a secret identity of sorts! This partial-panel by creator Jon L. Blummer appears on the “Don Markstein’s Toonpedia” website. Check it out! [©2007 DC Comics.]

BAILS: I began asking my friends who they knew that had the largest cache of comics, and began a treasure hunt wherever anyone even suspected he or she had see an old issue of All-Star. One time, I set out to find one issue, going from one person to another to another, and then another, following the trail of trades. I wound up in a janitor’s basement apartment and discovered a complete issue of All-Star #5, the oldest complete issue I had managed to retrieve for ages. It wasn’t the one that started the hunt, but it was a terrific payoff. [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: That must be one of the three All-Star issues Jerry surprised me by giving me when we first established contact in 1960: a coverless and semi-complete #4, a complete #5, and a #6 missing the cover and the first and last pages. —Roy.] One day while bicycling all over Kansas City, I stumbled across a used magazine store that traded comics two-for-one or sold them for a nickel apiece. I was in Seventh Heaven, but the poor lady who ran the shop was perplexed that I would pass over so many piles of comics just to find what I was looking for. I was a frequent visitor, and was worried about overstaying my welcome when one day she surprised with an offer. She asked, “Do you know any poor kids who would enjoy some of these old comics? I’ve got to make some room around here.”’

At least the early Batman issues I found revealed cover shots of the early All-Stars, including the first issue. It wasn’t until later [that I learned] that the JSA started only in issue #3. I tried to figure how Ultra-Man managed to show up at the JSA meetings. I had remembered him as a man of the future. I was never into science-fiction. Real science was more fascinating to me. So I never made any contacts with science-fiction fans until after the first issue of Alter-Ego. Barbershops had but few copies of comics on hand, and I’d seen them all before.

Drug stores, dime stores, and drygood stores were thick as flees on a hound dog in the ’40s. At one intersection, where my dad would later buy his pool hall that I ran at 15, there were three stores selling current comics. The drug stores were not much on displaying their comics. A kid had to ask to see them, and he was given deadly looks when he could not find what he wanted quickly enough.

My favorite shop was a drygoods store run by two little old ladies who used bulldog clips to hang the new comics in the window. They had two full spinner racks where I found most of my All-Stars and other favorites. That didn’t keep me from bicycling a mile in all directions to over a dozen shops carrying comics. There seemed to be few retailers terribly eager to unbundle and check their comics, so I had to do lots of waiting until they felt like it. SK: You mentioned your “superstitious ritual, touching each book to every book” as a means of ensuring that you would eventually get the entire series. Did you have any other “rituals” with your comics? You would only read them in a certain place, or they had to be paid for with a nickel and five pennies, or whatever...? BAILS: I suppose my fascination with office supplies and printing is connected to my love for All-Stars. I was fascinated with bulldog clips

Of Fans And Fandom

What’s In A Name? Readers of Roy Thomas & Bill Schelly’s 1997 “Best of Alter Ego” trade paperback may recall the handwritten Feb. 12, 1961, note from Jerry Bails to DC editor Julius Schwartz featuring presumably the first-ever mention of his projected fanzine, as “Alter-ego.” Oddly, Jerry’s copy of a short typed letter above bears exactly the same date! (Maybe he sent the handwritten version to Gardner, the typed one to Julie—or could one be a rough draft of the other?) Only eight days later, he wrote the missive at right to Batman/Green Lantern/Wildcat writer and co-creator Bill Finger, whom he’d met at DC. Therein, he once writes his zine’s name as “Alterego.” By the time it hit the mails in March, it had metamorphosed into Alter-Ego. (It was second editor/publisher Ronn Foss, in 1963, who made the title two words, eliminating the hyphen.) Letters courtesy of Jean Bails, from the JGB Archives.

(still am) because those nice little old ladies who owned the dry goods store used them to hang comics in their window. I loved all sorts of office supplies and drawing materials. To this day, Santa (my wife) will provide me with stocking gifts from Staples. I think I have a lifetime supply of just about any office supply you can name. During WWII, my dad had an accounting job at North American Aviation, which made the Waco gliders used in the Normandy Invasion. When the war ended, so did his job. He was allowed to bring home the office supplies he had at his desk. I got them all and probably still have some of the more durable items. I used his date stamp to register the date on the back cover of the comics I purchased. I was beginning to be interested in sale dates and publication frequency, and began writing to the editors to get All-Star published more frequently. That reminds me: I sent DC a money order for some minuscule amount offering to buy back issues of All-Star. I told them to put my request with their file copies in the event they were ever made available. After a month or so with no response, my Mom told me to ask for my m.o. back. DC promptly returned my m.o. with regrets, but confirmed that file copies did exist. At that point (maybe 1948), I wasn’t sure that other copies existed anywhere, so I was relieved at least to know that file copies existed. SK: It wouldn’t have been too much longer before Dr. Wertham began his anti-comics crusade, followed by the Kefauver Commission. At the time, how aware were you of this ersatz witch hunt? As you were exiting your teens, did you start to put aside comics for a while as they were increasingly portrayed as a significant cause of juvenile delinquency? How many of your friends and fellow hobbyists gave up during that period? BAILS: The comics scare never noticeably hit my sources of comics until the JSA was defunct. At that point, I was going off to college and was only interested in watching to see if the trends would move back to

costumed heroes. I prefer ongoing characters. SK: I’ve read that you had been working on trying to bring back the JSA for years before the debut of “Justice League.” Since there were no real congregation spots for comic fans in those days (conventions and specialty shops were still some time off, and comic apas and the Internet were further off still), how did you try drumming up support for bringing back the JSA? BAILS: I just bombarded Julie [Schwartz] and Gardner [Fox] with letters. I knew nothing else to do. I didn’t know any other comics fans existed until Roy [Thomas] and I met via Gardner Fox. SK: The 1960s were a heady time for comic book fans. You personally launched (or helped launch) Alter-Ego, Comicollector, The Comic Reader, the Academy of Comic-Book Fans and Collectors, the Alley Awards, Who’s Who in Comic Fandom, The Guidebook to Comics Fandom, CAPA-alpha, Who’s Who of American Comic Books…. Now certainly, your love of the medium inspired much of this, but I’m curious about what might have prompted the relative onslaught of activism? Was this due to meeting Julie Schwartz in 1961, or were there more practical matters involved—landing some job stability, or perhaps just gaining access to a mimeograph? You had a tendency to help get the ball rolling on a project and then move on to the next big thing. Were you more interested in just trying to grow fandom by getting people involved? BAILS: Yes to the latter option. SK: Was there some level of dissatisfaction on your part in the results, somehow not getting out of them what you hoped you would...? BAILS: Quite honestly, I became more active as a fan to save my sanity. My first wife was deeply depressed after our son was born. She [Continued on p. 14]

The Jerry Bails Interview

Interlude:

“Strange” But True For decades, people have asked Stan Lee the precise method by which he worked with Steve Ditko, especially after the artist took over most of the plotting of The Amazing Spider-Man and “Dr. Strange” in the mid-1960s—and Stan (surprise, surprise) didn’t remember. The Man assumed Steve’s notes to him were written in the margins on the original art, as was done by Jack Kirby, et al.

Recently, however, when Jean Bails loaned me a bunch of Jerry’s papers, he was startled to discover among them something I had long forgotten. On Oct. 28, 1965, accompanied by a note on Marvel stationery, I had sent Jerry “Ditko’s plot for first Dr. Strange tale I did,” which would soon appear in Strange Tales #143 (dated April 1966). It’s now certain that, unlike other Marvel artists at that time, Ditko often turned in sheets of typing paper which were divided into panels to match the penciled original art. On the former, he had handwritten the pacing of the story, panel by panel. Since Steve (who was then inking everything he drew for Marvel) delivered very rough pencils, such notes were necessary to make certain Stan could follow the story. Steve had intended this set of notes for Stan, who gave the art to me as a recent recruit to dialogue only in the eleventh hour (and they were indeed “written and rewritten” by me, just as the Stan-scripted credits proclaim). We’ve printed pages 1, 2, & 10 of Steve Ditko’s ten sheets below, with the finished pages printed to the right of them, from Essential Dr. Strange, Vol. 1.

The Comic Collector Roy, who by Oct. ’65 had written a few issues of Modeling with Millie and Millie the Model and a first draft of the “Iron Man” story in Tales of Suspense #73 and was currently scripting what would turn out to be the last issue of the long-running Patsy and Hedy, was given the handwritten Ditko sheets by Stan Lee and production manager Sol Brodsky so he could script a “Dr. Strange” story—and nobody seemed to want them back afterward. So Roy mailed them to Jerry Bails as “a souvenir,” but cautioned him not to “mention specifically having it [the plot],” just in case. Two or three years earlier, Stan had sent Jerry a copy of at least half of his plot for Fantastic Four #8 (see the out-of-print Alter Ego: The Comic Book Artist Collection)… so Roy figured Jerry’d enjoy having this alternate version of a synopsis. [All art in this sidebar ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Ditko notes, page 1. The note at top right was written by Roy, doubtless in 1965.

(Right:) Page 1, as published.

Of Fans And Fandom

Ditko notes, page 2.

Page 2, as published.

Ditko notes, page 10.

Page 10, as published.

Note that, in the story’s final panel, Ditko indicates that Dr. Strange is going “into the dimensions to find the girl DD banished.” “DD” is an abbreviation for Doc’s nemesis, the dread Dormammu; the “girl” is the long-unnamed other-dimensional woman whom Denny O’Neil, a few issues later, would christen Clea, after one of the characters and novels in Lawrence Durrell’s literary Alexandria Quartet. The originals of all ten of these sheets were on temporary display, from Feb.-April 2007, at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art in New York City, courtesy of Jean Bails.

The Jerry Bails Interview

[Continued from p. 11] attempted suicide three times and was hospitalized for many months. I might have done more (or less) had my personal life have been different. I was never interested in taking any of my projects to a professional level. I had a full-blown profession that was exciting. I was active in the anti-war movement, had two kids to raise, and used fandom as a break from the heavy stuff. SK: I very much appreciate your candor. I know it is many years too late, but I am sorry to hear that things were able to get that stressful. BAILS: Actually, it got much worse for me and especially our kids. The details are of no interest to most of your readers, but emotional illness rips apart the lives of kids. I wouldn’t wish any of it on my worst enemy. I taught health classes for many years, and the one most important lesson I learned is the beneficial effects of sharing one’s health problems so others understand and can learn how better to cope. The person doing the sharing also greatly benefits. I know this runs counter to conventional wisdom, but 75% of recovery for a family to any kind of illness in the family is achieved by sharing with people who can empathize.

Full Speed Ahead! Rich Buckler (left) and Dennis O’Neil at a 1970 comic-con; photo courtesy of Jean Bails. Artist Rich was being encouraged by his fellow Detroiter Jerry Bails in his ambition to become a pro artist (while in 1965 Roy’d given a hand to fellow Missourian Denny, who went on to be a major writer and editor for both DC and Marvel). At right, a 2004 Robotman sketch by Rich, done for Todd Franklin. [Robotman TM & ©2007 DC Comics.]

My youngest son has OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder), an affliction that, despite his intellect and extraordinary knowledge of history, [means] he can only manage a part-time job of the most menial kind. I have suffered a debilitating heart attack and a stroke that left me with double vision. Far from unusual, these are just parts of the bumps everyone suffers on the road of life. We are all better off trying to understand what life is all about, so we can make the most of it. People should use the Internet to find support groups or lists discussing health problems. Never hide them. That causes even greater health problems. SK: You were clearly the comic book fan of the 1960s, and you inspired a number of others to begin their own fanzines and clubs. How much direct correspondence did you have with other fans at that time? BAILS: I got scores of letters almost daily, which is why I began fanzines to respond to their interest. When comics fandom became selfgenerating, I felt I could cut back and devote myself to my original hobby—identifying unsigned comic art. I’m still working on that, and will soon release an updated database at a bargain price. Stay tuned. SK: The 1970s and 1980s saw an “officialization” of comic book fandom. A number of fans started becoming pros, individually produced fanzines gave way to professional publications, price guides were being published, conventions became profit-seeking enterprises.… At what point did you start noticing—for better or worse— comics were “growing up” as an industry?

Cardy in CAPA-alpha CAPA-alpha (i.e., the first Comics “apa”), launched by Jerry in 1964, is still going strong, and often showcases original artwork owned by k-a’s three dozen-plus members. This 1996 Nick Cardy Superman sketch, sent to us by former DC editor/writer Bob Rozakis, appeared in a 2007 issue. [Superman TM & ©2007 DC Comics.]

BAILS: By 1970. Conventions and the first edition Overstreet [Comics Price Guide] made it clear (after all the mass media hoopla) that fandom was self-sustaining. SK: You’ve spent most of your life reading and studying comic books. But you’ve also spent a great deal of time learning other disciplines as well: physics, mathematics, biology, sociology, anthro-

Of Fans And Fandom

can’t tackle a heavy subject. In fact, my favorite stories are morality plays. A culture passes on its values through stories, and I credit comics with shaping many of my values. I noticed that, when I wrote a book on the impact of technology on the environment, I made lots of references to the morals in famous children’s stories, and classical stories. My view of the moral world was shaped by comics, radio drama, movies, storybook time at the library, as well as the traditional Sunday school. All these sources conveyed values by telling stories. It’s part of humanity’s oldest tradition. Comics were just the best visual method for the mid-20th century. The lighter moments when we are reading for fun are not trivial. They are part and parcel of the mortar that strengthens our character by providing both stress relief and reaffirmation of cultural values. I don’t personally get into the study of this function of pastime reading, but I’m aware of it. Frankly, I think readers tend to be more empathetic and less aggressive than people who prefer aggressive sports for the cathartic effect. Unfortunately, the mass media today sell more advertising and admissions by playing up caustic, vituperative, and downright antisocial values. I can’t believe that’s good for any of us, but especially kids. Stories, even crime stories, can and should have a redeeming value. I guess that’s why horror for its own sake never interested me. I prefer heroic behavior in my stories, even if the hero is a slow learner.

Avast, Ye Schwabs!

As for my hobby of tracking down artists, that’s another thing. It started because a few artists signed their work, making me realize that there was a real person behind the writing and drawing. It seemed unconscionable that they should remain anonymous, so I started trying to identify them. That became a detective game as interesting as code-breaking.

While working on his later revision of the 1970s Who’s Who of American Comic Books, Jerry was often in receipt of letters and even occasional drawings from pros. This illustrated 1981 missive is from the fine cartoonist Fred Schwab, who among other things had drawn the cover of the fabled Motion Pictures Funnies Weekly #1, which featured the first “Sub-Mariner” story, pre-Marvel Comics #1! Jerry scribbled a note on Schwab’s letter to remind himself that he had sent the artist copies of two of his publications. [Art ©2007 estate of Fred Schwab.]

In the 1980s, after publishing the first edition of the Who’s Who, I wanted an excuse to own and master personal computers. I had seen computers work back in the mid-1950s. They blew my mind. After spending 8 hours at a desk calculator computing the numerical solution to an equation, I saw a mainframe take the same problem and in 15 seconds take my answer (good to six significant digits) and increase the precision to 12 significant digits.

pology.… How much of your formal education do you apply back to comics? Do you, for example, read comics and apply sociological theory to determine why the book is selling as well (or as poorly) as it is? Do you find some stories less enjoyable because of poor science? Or do you compartmentalize your formal education apart from your enjoyment of comics?

When personal computers came along, I could hardly hold back from buying one. I have always jumped into new technology—silk screen multicolored mimeograph machines, super-8mm movie cameras, wire recorders, the first Sony B&W video recorders (in 1962). In fact, I ran through three generations of Sony video recorders before VHS caught on. This prompted me to hold off a bit in buying the first personal computers on the market. I went for the state-of-the-art when I did buy (early 1980s), but even so, it was out of date in six months. It did permit me to learn to program my computer, which is the real fun for me.

BAILS: I try to separate my intellectual pursuits from my hobby. I have a tendency to make things into work. I have refused offers and opportunities to make a living off comics and/or fandom. I prefer not to. That way, I can enjoy it more. SK: Would you mind elaborating on this a bit? The presumption is that most people read comic books (at least initially) for the escapist qualities, and it seems that you still very much appreciate that aspect of them. But isn’t most of your fanac work more quantitative in nature? Your various Who’s Who books, the GCD [Grand ComicBook Database], etc. Where do you personally distinguish between your enjoyment of a comic book, and the more academic approach of tracking down artists and writers, for example? BAILS: Yes, I still read comics for fun, including the daily funnies. A cognitive psychologist might say it is my ritual, a technique for managing stress. Everybody needs something. I don’t care for spectator sports, so I read something light. That’s not to say that a comics story

No database manager existed in the early 1980s that served my needs, so I wrote my own. It is really my fascination with computers (the latest in office equipment?) that led to the revised edition of the Who’s Who. Without a computer, the whole idea of keeping a halfmillion records would fry my nervous system. Now, I can write a formula and edit 10,000 records while eating chocolate revel ice cream. I’m still a big kid who enjoys his hobbies—a smart thing for someone whose activity is severely restricted. I love computers and they keep me going. SK: One thing that, to me, sets you apart from many fans is that you’ve long showed an interest in something beyond just the characters and the stories. “Who were the creators?” “What

The Jerry Bails Interview

additional information can I get from what is superficially a 30-page slugfest?” How often do you see that type of behavior among comic fans today? Have you seen a change towards or away from that among comic book fandom collectively? BAILS: I’m not familiar with the “30-page slugfest.” I presume there are website and zines devoted to arguing about who is the best. I’ve tried not to be too critical of those whose work I haven’t thought much of, especially while they are still alive. I have just wanted artists and writers to discover they had fans who care about them and what they created. I think anonymity is really unfair to creative people. Everybody who creates is entitled to feedback and credit.

Heroes All! Jerry in 1964 (at the Alley Tally, tabulating votes for fandom’s Academy of Comic-Book Arts and Sciences)—juxtaposed with the back cover he put together for his 1960s DC Index. For its front cover, see Michael Eury’s Justice League Companion, Vol. 1, available from TwoMorrows. Thanks to Bill Schelly for both scans. [Characters TM & ©2007 DC Comics.]

SK: In general, do you see a difference in today’s comic book fan from those of the 1960s or 1940s? It seems to me that there must certainly be a different mindset, but verbalizing those differences— for me, at least—comes across as overly simplistic. As someone who was actively a comic book fan in those periods, can you speak to changes you may have noticed in yourself or your collecting habits over the years? BAILS: Maybe later. Right now, my eyes are giving out. SK: So Wertham was right when he said comics would ruin your eyes?!? BAILS: My eyes have been damaged by: (1) a stroke affecting the nerve that controls the muscle in one eye, giving me double vision (corrected by prism lenses); (2) by staring at computer screens and newsprint all day every day of my life; and (3) just old age. I’m developing a cataract. Comics neither damaged my eyes nor my mind. I read because I learned to love to read. Comics helped, not hindered, my education. I read 20 magazines and papers and a book a week, and that’s with diminished eyesight. I read maybe a half dozen comics a month. I spend fewer hours reading comics than the average person spends watching sports on one weekend. It is because of the many friends I developed in fandom that I keep up and enjoy sharing my data. I’ve seen all the comics’ covers (having personally microfilmed one-half million comic books), so I don’t rush to see all the new cover scans posted on the GCD site. That thrill has diminished, but I’m glad others can still get the buzz. SK: The advent of the Internet and the realization of McLuhan’s Global Village have made it infinitely easier for comic book fans from across the planet to correspond with one another. Do you see the fan communities of today as significantly different from those of previous generations? Or is there simply an easier means to segment JSA fans from JLA fans? BAILS: Unfortunately, in all areas, the Internet seems to be fostering fragmentation. People cluster with those who see the world as they themselves see it. That makes for less opportunity for growth than I had hoped for. Still, the Internet may yet broaden all our worlds.

The ‘’Global Village’’ is the name of a list I coordinate that includes several dozen mostly progressive people who discuss geopolitics, science, biographies, and the arts. A lot of these are comics fans like those who were part of my apa-zine (The Global Villager) back in 1988, when a number of pros were also members (Jack Schiff, for one). That list interests me more than most comics discussions these days. SK: Sliding off topic just a bit, would you blame the Internet for that fragmentation necessarily, or do you see it as simply intrinsic to a world of increasing specialization? BAILS: You’re right, of course. Human culture was already headed toward specialization since the first cities appeared. The power of developing expertise in narrow areas of human activity was an obsession long before personal computers came along. However, personal computers were, according to the earliest prestidigitators, supposed to reverse that trend. They didn’t. They have merely exacerbated it. My whole life in academia was spent attempting to counter the trend toward specialization. The text I wrote and used for years— Coming Clean: The Impact on the Biosphere of Technologies of Domination—is built on the premise that overspecialization leads to conditions in the living world that lead to extinction. Humans are biological generalists, but seem mesmerized by specialization in nature. Any nature show reveals the bias. The generalists are almost never highlighted except as pests competing with mankind. Now, you’ve really hit a major area of my interest. Unfortunately, I’m more notorious for what I have to say about my hobby. Ah, well, I have had a good life, and comics were part of it. SK: Your comic book work today focuses on the most concrete aspects of comic books: who did which books when, that sort of thing. I know you’ve also done some idle speculation on psychology of comic book fans, but I’m curious why—especially in light of that speculation—you haven’t studied that aspect of fandom more?

Of Fans And Fandom

The Way We Were In A/E #25’s surprise salute to Jerry’s 70th birthday, we showed a 1971 photo of him with editor Julius Schwartz—but no pics seem to exist of Jerry with his favorite comics writer, Gardner Fox, whom he met in 1961 in Julie’s office. So here are vintage photos of Jerry, from left to right, with fellow fans Biljo White (1963) and Ronn Foss (1964), both of whom had key involvement with Alter Ego—plus circa-1970 snapshots below of Don & Maggie Thompson, whose fanzine Comic Art was likewise a high point of the era. Jerry/Biljo photo courtesy of John Wright; other pics courtesy of Jean Bails.

BAILS: Some of these speculations will show up in Alter Ego now that so many of the principals have passed on. SK: For clarification, you mean folks like Don Thompson, Ronn Foss, Grass Green, Biljo White...? BAILS: No, I mean people like Gardner Fox, Julie Schwartz, and Bob Kanigher. SK: One last thing I’m curious about: other than a few mentions of adolescent dreams, I’ve never heard of any interest on your part in becoming a comic book professional yourself. It seems almost mandatory that comic fans dream of creating their own comics at one time or another. Why and when did you stop pursuing a career in comic books? BAILS: To keep from being bored in grade school, I spent a lot of time at my desk drawing the old Sandman’s gas mask. I was intrigued by such masks. Hawkman got a similar treatment. I can

draw these helmets blindfolded to this day. While the addition of a streamlined costume for Sandman was okay by me, I always thought he should’ve retained the gas mask. He would have looked something like Hillman’s Microface, another character I liked for his unusual headgear. I sent some drawings to Al Feldstein in my last year in high school asking his opinion. He very politely answered my inquiry. The upshot was I would need to move to New York City. At that point I had a scholarship to the University of Kansas City, and a sweetheart I hoped to (and did) marry two years later. It was more important to me to keep my job working for the Starlight Theatre, an outdoor theatre in Kansas City, Missouri. Consequently, my drawing and art practice went in a drawer. I had been art editor of my high school

An All-Star Request One of Jerry’s earliest letters to a comics editor (when he was 13!) was sent to Sheldon Mayer re All-Star Comics in February of 1947—but he was already keeping carbon copies! Intriguingly, Jerry suggests “a story on Juvenile Delinquency”—and, whether by cause or coincidence, he got his wish in All-Star #40 (April-May 1948), an issue almost certainly prepared in the last half of ’47. Script by John Broome; pencils by Carmine Infantino (pencils), with inks attributed (in the same volume of the All Star Archives) to Frank Giacoia and/or Bernard Sachs. The art is repro’d here from the actual comic, not from the Archives. [JSA splash ©2007 DC Comics.]

The Jerry Bails Interview

…When Good Friends Get Together Maybe this page of original art from Jerry’s longtime collection is the reason he’s sporting what wife Jean describes as a “nice smile” in this 2003 photo she sent. The page—script by Gardner Fox, art by Dick Dillin & Sid Greene—is from Justice League of America #64 (Aug. 1968), but spotlights heroes of the Justice Society. It seemed a fitting cap to this interview with Jerry, to whom both groups were of supreme importance. [JLA page ©2007 DC Comics.]

newspaper and layout editor of the yearbook, but I was not putting as much time in drawing as I know was needed by someone wanting an art career. Besides, I loved science and university life and spent the next 45 years totally nestled in academia. Comics became one of three legs on which my life was built. My profession, my family, and my hobby. Comics remained a good supporting hobby, saving my sanity when other areas of my life weren’t doing so well, but I have never regretted not pursuing a career as a freelancer. I wasn’t cut out for it. I still dig out my old drawings from time to time, and occasionally did pastels of my youngest son the first several years of his life. I think all fans have some streak in them to write or draw. Comics are a very involving medium. SEAN KLEEFELD’s lifelong interest in comics broadened to include an active interest in comics fandom several years ago. He keeps threatening to write a book on the subject, but until then, he can be found writing “Incidental Iconography” for The Jack Kirby Collector and updating his daily blog at http://kleefeldoncomics.blogspot.com

The Future of Fandom — UNLIMITED! by Dr. Jerry G. Bails, Ph.D. Originator of the comic hero fanzine, former editor of Alter Ego, Publishing Editor of The Comic Reader… [NOTE: The following piece, including subtitle, appeared in A/E [“Vol. 1”] #5, cover-dated “Winter 1962-63,” the first of the two issues edited and published by Ronn Foss, after inheriting the fanzine from Jerry. The article amply demonstrates Jerry’s prescience in pointing out directions comics fandom might take, only two years after it had been launched with the appearance of Alter-Ego, Comic Art, and a burgeoning number of zines. By the way, it was probably Ronn’s idea, not Jerry’s, to add that “Ph.D.” after his byline. —Roy.]

hen Alter Ego first appeared, a skeptical reviewer in one of those “established” science-fiction fanzines offered his opinion that a fanzine devoted to costumed heroes would soon run out of material, fans would lose interest, and the zine would die an early death. Well, that was two years ago. Today, Alter Ego is probably the most widely circulated fanzine on six continents, and its distribution is still growing. And as for material, we have only just scratched the surface of the great wealth of material on costumed heroes. Just let me suggest to you some of the many possible topics for articles. Hopefully, maybe I can persuade you to research one of these topics and come up with an article. In this matter, I would be more than happy to help in any way I can to locate material or assist in preparing an article for publication. Of course, there is the article dealing with the history of a strip, comic magazine, publishing group, or an individual pro. However, there are many unique ways to approach these subjects. For example, an article could compare similar strips. Roy Thomas once suggested “The Cult of Mercury” as the title for a study of The Flash and all his imitators. Then, an article could easily be written which focuses on a villain or villains of a popular strip. (I’ve promised myself that one day soon I’ll write the second part of my Green Lantern article, which would tell the story of the original GL’s greatest enemies as seen through the eyes of his sidekick, Doiby Dickles—and by golly I will.)

A third theme for an article might be a study of the problems of identifying and distinguishing pencil artists and inkers. I intend to use these pages myself to comment on my 18-year study of art styles, and I’d enjoy hearing from other fen on the subject. [CURRENT A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: “Fen” was a word used in comics fandom at that time as the plural of “fan.” Comics fandom had appropriated it from the older science-fiction fandom.] But let’s not forget that the comic book is not the only medium in which the costumed hero has appeared. Remember the great radio serials of the ’40s? There were Superman, Captain Midnight, The Shadow, Green Hornet, The Lone Ranger, and a variety of noncostumed adventure heroes deserving of attention. I remember in particular exciting adventures of Jack Armstrong, Hop Harrigan (from the pages of All-American Comics), Terry and the Pirates, Tom Mix, and Buck Rogers. Surely, somewhere the original scripts for these famous radio shows exist.

The Way Of All-Flash (Top left:) Dr. Jerry G. Bails circa 1961—perhaps an official photo taken at Wayne State University, where he then taught—and the only image that accompanied his article when it appeared in Ronn Foss’ premier issue of Alter Ego. Fortunately, we can do a bit better this time around. Thanks to Bill Schelly for the touch-up. (Above:) Jerry speaks, at left, of Roy Thomas’ idea for a fanzine article on “The Flash and all his imitators.” Boy, they’d both have been happy to have this copy of the original art for a splash page from the climactic chapter of the full-length story in All-Flash Quarterly #4 (Spring 1942)—but it was probably sent by artist E.E. Hibbard during an exchange of letters Jerry had with Hibbard in the mid-1970s. From the Jerry Bails Archives, courtesy of Jean Bails. [©2007 DC Comics.]

Perhaps someone even has access to transcriptions or tape recordings of the more exciting episodes. I’m sure many older fans remember when Batman and Robin guest-starred on the Superman radio show. They may even recall the famous mystery thriller, “The [Continued on p. 22]

By Dr. Jerry G. Bails, Ph.D.

See You In The Funny (Trade) Papers!

April 1944

March 1944

Not long after Jerry’s article appeared, Woody Gelman’s Nostalgia Press, then other publishers, began a spate of reprinting newspaper comic strips… and today, even the early years of Superman and Batman have been collected. But here are a few strips they missed—all but the one with Wonder Woman appeared only in March-through-June 1944 issues of Independent News, the trade paper of the National/DC-owned distributor. In them, DC’s top two heroes solved publishing- and distribution-related problems… and welcomed Wonder Woman (briefly) to the fold. (Note that Jerry Siegel’s last name got misspelled—and the reference to “Donny,” probably DC co-publisher Harry Donenfeld.) Artists uncertain. Thanks to retired Independent News exec Jack Adams and Michael Feldman. [©2007 DC Comics.]

June 1944

May 1944

April 1944

The Future Of Fandom—Unlimited!

21 The puffpiece mini-article accompanying the drawing at left stated that “William Moulton (D0c) Marston, a Ph.D. from Harvard and a distinguished scholar, but a swell fellow nevertheless... and publisher Charley Gaines collaborated on the development of the feature and therefor [sic] Wonder Woman is signed ‘Charles Moulton.’”

By Dr. Jerry G. Bails, Ph.D.

Perhaps the radio chapter-plays were written on the wind and survive only in our memories, but this is not so with the great adventure strips of the newspapers. Maybe you are one of those many dozens of fans who have a collection of the famous strips: Tarzan, The Phantom, Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, Prince Valiant, Mandrake the Magician, Superman, Batman, or The Lone Ranger. If so, then why not share your enjoyment of these renowned strips with the many hundreds of fans, new and old, who read Alter Ego? Just a few of the things I’d like to know are: (1) What great artists and writers handled these strips over the years? (2) What newspapers carried them? (3) When and how were interesting supporting characters introduced into the strips? Can you answer these questions? If so, how about preparing an article?

Super-Heroes Should Be Heard And Not Seen (Left:) Bud Collyer (on right) starred on radio’s The Adventures of Superman in the 1940s and also hosted several quiz shows; he’s seen here with fellow quizmaster Bill Slater. Maybe that lifted leg indicates that Bud’s saying, “Up, up, and awaaaay”? (Right:) Unlike Collyer, the lead actors on The Shadow occasionally posed in full costume for publicity photos. Old-time radio historian Jim Harmon, who featured these pics in his 2001 book The Great Radio Heroes, calls Bret Morrison, above, “the best-remembered radio actor in the role.” Orson Welles also played The Shadow, of course, but not for nearly as long a time.

[Continued from p. 19] Snow Man of Lake Placid,” on the Jack Armstrong program; but how many remember the story revealing that Britt Reid (alias The Green Hornet) was the son of Dan Reid, the nephew and frequent companion of The Lone Ranger? I for one would love to relive the exciting moments of these “breakfast-food operas” in the pages of Alter Ego. So, if you are one of those lucky people that have access to records of these great adventures of the airwaves, take pen in hand and give us a feature article.

Of course, comic books, radio, and newspapers were only a few of the many media in which the costumed hero appeared. Fortunately, Ron Haydock has recalled for us many of the exciting moments of the movie serials, and Ed Lahmann has already led the way (in A/E #4) by recalling for us the dangerpacked adventures of Maximo, a Big Little Books hero; but there are other heroes of the movies and the BLBs that have not been covered. If you collect movie press books or BLBs, why don’t you try your hand at a feature article? Believe me, it is one of the best ways to gain even more enjoyment from your collection.

Well, by now you’ve got the idea, and are probably way ahead of me. You may be thinking of the great heroes of the pulp magazines like Doc Savage and The Shadow, or perhaps you’re remembering the novels which featured Superman, Captain Marvel, or some other hero. All of these would be fine subjects for an article, but there are many other ideas I haven’t even touched upon. Right now, I’m recalling with pleasure the visit of Ronnie Graham to my humble abode. He brought along his fabulous collection of original art. I encouraged him then and I encourage him now to tell us all how he acquired these precious drawings by such famous artists as Lee

All For A Dime—But Not In Color (Above:) Ron Haydock had written about the Batman movie serial in Alter-Ego #4, Jerry’s last issue; but there were still plenty of comic book heroes transferred to celluloid to be covered—not to mention The Black Commando, the pseudo-comic hero played by Paul Kelly in Columbia’s The Secret Code (1942). There was even a bookshop in that serial called—The Green Lantern! [©2007 the respective copyright holders.] (Right:) Maximo, the Amazing Superman was a Big Little Book original, covered in detail by fan Ed Lahmann in A/E #4—with story by R.R. Winterbotham and art by Henry E. Vallely (here copied by Lahmann). [Art ©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

What’s Up? Doc! Jerry was doubtless glad to see, last year, that Anthony Tollin had begun a regular series of reprints of Doc Savage and The Shadow pulp magazines, two stories to an issue, and utilizing the art of the original covers. Art by Walter Baumhofer. See ad on p. 46. [©2007 Advance Magazine Publishers, Inc./The Condé Nast Publications.]

The Future Of Fandom—Unlimited!

Art For Art’s (& Collectors’) Sake Nowadays, far more than in the early 1960s, there are two kinds of comic book art that are collected: the original art from the comics themselves, and special drawings (both new images and re-creations of published art) done by the artists. In fact, there’s even an additional category: art done for comics but never published. Here’s one primo example of each, clockwise from above left: (1) Jerry Bails himself owned, at one time, the art to the cover of The Flash #235 (Aug. 1975), by Dick Giordano. Repro’d from a photocopy of the original art. [©2007 DC Comics.] (2) Some years back, Gil Kane drew this sketch of the Silver Age GL for collector Lance Falk. [Green Lantern TM & ©2007 DC Comics.] (3) A John Buscema re-creation of his cover for 1968’s Sub-Mariner #1; the original version had been inked by Sol Brodsky. With thanks to Owen O’Leary. [Sub-Mariner TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.] (4) A pair of stray panels from a “Dr. Mid-Nite” story left unpublished when All-American Comics became All-American Western with #103 in 1948. This tier was once tentatively slated for a story in AAC #110. Artist(s) uncertain—but Craig Delich, who IDs art for many DC Archives editions, doesn’t feel it looks like either the usual team of Arthur Peddy & Bernard Sachs… or Rudy Palais, who drew a handful of very late “Doc” stories. Any “IDeas” out there? Thanks to Heritage Comics Archives and Dominic Bongo. [©2007 DC Comics.]

Harris, Bob Kane, Alfred Andriola, George Papp, Fred Ray, Paul Reinman, William Overgard, John Cullen Murphy, Al Borth, Henry Boltinoff, Basil Wolverton, Carl Hubbel, Fred Guardineer, Doc Winner, Sam Leff, and Wally McGinnis. I’ll bet Ronnie could write a whole series of interesting articles relating episodes in his career as a collector. Maybe you could, too. In fact, I’d like very much to hear from those fans who have collected movie stills, press books, decals, giveaways, beanie buttons, figurines, coloring books, membership outfits, foreign comics, etc. that relate to costumed heroes. I myself have a few items of this type, such as the miniature edition of Flash Comics that was given away with packages of Wheaties back in 1946; the original membership kits for the Junior Justice Society and Supermen of America; foreign editions of American comics, and a few comics featuring original foreign costumed heroes; articles and books on how to write for the comics by Stan Lee, Robert Kanigher, and other famous editors and writers; and other interesting items such as my bound volumes of All-Star Comics from the personal library of the

author, Gardner Fox. What do you have in your collection, and what interesting stories can you relate? Give it some thought... I know I will. And finally, I’d like to suggest one other type of article that I’d like to see. Smudge and other fanzines devoted to the humor mags have made excellent use of this type of article—the interview with a professional editor, artist, or writer. In this connection the best articles are produced from tape-recorded interviews based on a list of questions supplied in advance to the person being interviewed. The next best thing to such a well-planned and recorded interview is a personal letter from the pro in which he answers well-formulated questions about his experiences in the comic field. In order to protect the pros from a heavy barrage of prying questions, the editor of Alter Ego will not in general give out the home addresses of pros, but if you would seriously like to do an article on your favorite artist, writer, or editor, contact yours truly and I will be glad to give you all the help I can. This last remark applies in general to any article you would like to write. However, I must warn you: every article should be thoroughly researched, carefully written, and rewritten, if necessary, and the final decision regarding publication is in the hands of the publishing editor; but with that little warning out of the way, let me urge you all, and especially you fans with extensive collections, to research a topic and write an article. I’ll bet you can think of subjects and angles I have never even dreamed of!

By Dr. Jerry G. Bails, Ph.D.

The More The Miscellania! Jerry also felt Alter Ego and other fanzines should welcome articles on premiums and foreign heroes. We aim to please clockwise, Jerry: (1) The final page of a Kubert-drawn “Hawkman” story for the “miniature edition” of Flash Comics given away with boxes of Wheaties cereal in 1946 featured an ad for the full-size edition. [©2007 DC Comics.] (2) Cover of a 1965 Mexican edition of Fantastic Four #27. It’s numbered “#39” because alternate issues contained the “Human Torch” feature from Strange Tales. Mexican hero comics of the 1960s were covered by Fred Patten in A/E #43. [©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.] (3) The Adventures of Catman was an Australian super-hero comic of the 1960s. He and his Ozzy buddies were featured in A/E #51, courtesy of Michael Baulderstone. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.] As for those books on writing comics by Stan Lee and Robert Kanigher that Jerry mentions—all you have to do is turn to TwoMorrows’ back-issue section and order a copy of A/E, Vol. 3, #6! And as for his suggestion concerning interviews—well, nobody does ’em better, we feel, than Jim Amash and the rest of the A/E gang. See? We took Jerry’s advice to heart!

Memoirs Of Jean Bails Life With Jerry Bails And Comics Fandom

ean Bails, who for four decades was Jerry’s wife and best friend, graciously agreed to write a few memories of her years with Jerry for Alter Ego, as well as for one or two JGB-related websites. The following is the portion of those episodic memoirs that were completed by A/E’s presstime. We feel they provide an invaluable insight into the private life of this most amazing man—and his spouse is pretty remarkable, too. —Roy.

How I Met Jerry And Learned That He Was “Into Comics” It must have been early in 1966, soon after his mother’s death in February. Jerry and a few other faculty members finally accepted the persistent invitations of the minister of the First Unitarian Church to come to luncheons with the students. It was near campus, and I was president of the Student Religious Liberals at the time. Though I was unaware of it and to this day cannot understand why, Jerry was quite “smitten with me” (in his words). Soon after, he began to come to some of the evening programs, sometimes with his wife Sondra. After that we went to Hell. I had planned a retreat with Unitarian college groups from several other states in Hell, Michigan, that was both recreational and educational. Jerry was one of the faculty volunteers doing a workshop there. When not doing the workshop, he was following me around, and I was quite busy as organizer of this production. He found a moment to talk to me alone and said his marriage had been over for quite some time and that he and Sondra had been separated for more than a year. He said that, with the death of his mother, he was finally released from all pretense of the marriage and a divorce would begin. There were two young children involved whom he would allow to go with Sondra, with provision of visiting rights. I said, “That’s nice—I guess,” but still had no idea what he was up to or why he was telling me this. He was at the time either an assistant or an associate professor at Monteith College, Wayne State University, in Detroit. I was a student at Monteith but had not yet taken any of the Natural Science series and so I was unfamiliar with him there. Later, I had him for occasional lectures, but not for classes associated with the lectures. So he was not giving me grades. Jerry was 12 years older than I and in personality quite different. He was very focused generally. whereas I was and still am a postmodern gal—the unusual being usual to me, and highly adaptable to any changes, no matter how bizarre. If I had not been like that, I doubt our relationship would have worked. Fandom was always there in our lives in its many aspects, and at times it was joyous, occasionally frustrating, but mostly interesting for me. I was not nearly as involved in it as Jerry, and I think that was probably also a good thing in making our relationship work. Monetarily, fandom and collecting comics were pretty much self-sustaining so not a problem in that way.

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas Jerry enjoyed comic book Christmas covers, such as this one by E.E. Hibbard, as adapted later from Comic Cavalcade #19 (Feb.-March 1947)—but there’s nothing like the real thing, as per this photo of Jerry and Jean, Christmas of 1967. All photos accompanying this memoir are courtesy of Jean Bails. [Art ©2007 DC Comics.]

Early Memories Of The Mail-Order Business A few months before we were married, Jerry already had a mail-order comics business and had moved it to an apartment near the university. He had rented another apartment in the same building to live in. The apartment building was in what you would call the slums today and has long since been torn down for an athletic field complex. But in the ’60s slum was sheik, and I think each furnished apartment was something like $35/mo. I don’t know why two apartments were needed since there were only several shelves full of comics for sale—plus mailing supplies. Perhaps he wanted to keep it all separate from other parts of his life? So anyway, about 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. most days, I would help with packaging up the orders to be sent out and updating the current catalog with items sold. Probably most of the Golden Age comics had been sold off by then, because it seemed like many of the orders were for less than $10. Back then, so I heard, it was still possible to get comic “collections” at a fairly good price—but probably 90% was in such bad condition that it had to be thrown out. I thought doing the orders was fun, and often Jerry told interesting stories about a comics title and the artists and production people who worked on it. I was getting a little free pop culture education in exchange for free labor with a benefit package. Grin. Anyone remember getting comics sent from Brooklyn Street in Detroit, pre-Zip Code 02? I usually included a personal note of thanks for the order.

Pause For Historical Note Even before the second apartment on Brooklyn was rented for the comics, on my 21st birthday Jerry gave me a necklace of a chain with a little heart (it is a wonder it did not have an All-Star character instead)

Life With Jerry Bails And Comics Fandom

Marveling At Marvel

back to Detroit, the riot was winding down, but we wanted a closer look and stayed the night with friends near the Wayne “campus.” What we saw before the curfew—lock-in time—was not so much the rioting and burning but the tanks in the street and military-outfitted men with big guns. That site, much more than the riot, struck a kind of terror in us that gave a small appreciation of the horror people must face during a foreign occupation of their home/community/country. It is a feeling of fear and outrage that cannot be forgotten. Back again on Morang Rd., Jerry’s children Brenda and Steve had come for an end of summer visit—one that would last for about 7 years, actually. We had to start legal custody proceedings, find a school and an affordable house near the school pronto. The kids were in grade school, and children were not allowed at the apartment building. Ugh!

Jerry doing research, 1969—and maybe enjoying himself just a little bit, too! Notice that he’s looking at a vintage copy of Marvel Mystery Comics. Who says Jerry only liked DC?

and asked me to marry him. I said, “Sure.” He was appalled that, given the engagement, I would continue with my plans to do humanitarian volunteering in Mexico (Patzquaro, Michocan). Mostly I was teaching adult literacy in Spanish there; and at the end of the service, I joined Jerry in Mexico City, where we did a little touring by train and then flew home. During the summer while I was away, Jerry had moved his meager possessions and what was left of the comics and fan projects to the outlying area of Detroit on Morang Road. I don’t remember the address, which may have been Morang or may have been Lakeview (it was on the corner of both), but I do remember the letter/number code for the phone number: JBSOB11. Grin. This was a year before the ’67 Detroit Riot, but things were heating up already in Detroit from a variety of factors. We thought it would be safer in the new apartment, but on the very first night there, the battery was stolen out of Jerry’s Corvair. Sigh. When the riot did hit, we were in Columbia, Missouri, for a two-month workshop on the tab of the University. And of course we visited Billy Jo White nearby and hit a convention in either Kansas City or St. Louis (or both). When we got

Jerry Reveals His Involvement In Comics Fandom—Well, Sort-Of… Soon after Jerry asked me to marry him—maybe later that day or the next—he was driving the car on a busy street. He suddenly became silent and then pulled over to the side of the road. He looked very nervous and his face had gone pale. He said, “There is something you should know about me before you make a final decision to marry me.” I waited to hear what this horrible thing must be, but he wasn’t saying anything. The suspense was killing me and I began to imagine a host of horrible things, like the possibility he was a serial chain-saw murderer wanted in 50 states. Finally I asked or more like demanded of him, “OK, what?” He said that he was involved in and was a fan of comics. I laughed in relief and said, “Is that it? So you read comics and collect them? That sounds delightful!” He said, “Well, actually, I don’t collect a lot of comics, and I only read certain ones, but it is deeper than just that.” I asked him, “How deep?” He said, “Very deep—really very deep.” I had no idea at all what he was talking about or why he was so serious about this. There was not any more explanation coming, either. So I just said that it did not bother me or change my opinion of him that he was “deeply involved in comics” and he smiled and drove on.

Zing Went The Strings In 1969 Jean and Jerry tried their hands at archery, and Jean in particular looks like she’s taking it seriously—but probably neither of them would’ve given Green Arrow, Speedy, or Miss Arrowette cause for concern in World’s Finest Comics #113 (Nov. 1960), as reprinted in Showcase Presents The Green Arrow. Script by Dave Wood; art by Lee Elias, who’d been a favorite “Flash” artist of Jerry’s in All-Star Comics. [G.A. page ©2007 DC Comics.]

Memoirs Of Jean Bails

The Sneaky Way Jerry Planned To Get Me To Like Comics Jerry was the most honest, straightforward and personally moral person I have ever met. He actually lived according to the teachings of All-Star Comics, and much of the Bible, as well. He just did not have the talent, experience, or maybe the genetics for telling lies or being devious. But there was one time when he was perhaps a little sneaky, and that was with his plan to get me hooked on comics. In the ’60s and part of the ’70s, we got the comics on the day they were distributed, and yet in mint Christmas With The Bailses—And Friends condition, at a place that had a lunch counter. He would get at Jerry and Jean share a Christmas in 1969 with Steve and Brenda, Jerry’s children by his first marriage. The art (probably by José Garcia-Lopez) is from the 1976 tabloid-size Christmas with the Super-Heroes. [Art ©2007 DC Comics.] least two copies of the titles he liked, and more if it were a first Jerry, magnanimous at times, offered our room to anyone there who issue or a special crossover issue. The large pile of comics would come did not have a place to sleep for the night. Someone tried to break into to the whopping cost of $23 or so. They were still between 15 and 35 the room a couple of times at night, but they picked the wrong place: cents then, I think. even if they had succeeded in unlocking or kicking down the door, that would have been the end of it, because there were bodies stretched out We’d have lunch there, which was quite pleasant for me. Then we in every available space of the floor, bed, chairs, and probably the would also get a bag full of 20 or so candy bars before we left. (More bathtub, also. Happily, we were not dealers there and had not brought on lunch counter comic places in yet another story.) Back at the any comics so we were free to move about. I remember seeing and even apartment we would get all nice and cozy and take turns reading the partying with Neal Adams, Mike Friedrich, Wally Wood, and Roy comics together out loud, with Jerry doing most of the reading. He Thomas. Challenge me if my memory is wrong, because there was read theatrically and made the comics quite a drama. I was following more than one convention we went to in New York City. Down at the the pictures and dipping into the candy bag. When his voice got tired, I dealers’ tables, just before closing, someone created an uproar by would read, but not nearly as well or dramatically, and he would eat pulling a knife on one of the well-known dealers. I bet everyone who some candy and often also massage my neck or back. If we got tired was there remembers that event. from all the sensory overload, we’d take a nap. We read most of the Marvel and DC super-hero titles and two Westerns: Jonah Hex and At some point, probably just after arriving in NYC, we went up to Bat Lash. It was pretty obvious to me that the lunch, the candy bars, the DC office. I told Jerry, “What, are you crazy? They will never let neck massage, and dramatic readings of the comics were all designed to you in.” Not only did they let him us in, but we got to talk with Julie get comics associated with my pleasure centers in the brain and Schwartz, the production staff, and Mort Weisinger himself—who elsewhere. Oh, yeah, it worked—but even without all the other actually invited us to his home in Yonkers for dinner! Everyone greeted goodies, I was enjoying the comics anyway, and looking forward to the Jerry quite warmly, and I was totally blown away by it all, because next issues. But because the comics enjoyment plan was kind-of sneaky Jerry had never let on to me that he had that measure of notoriety. No, and I was enjoying all the perks, I was not about to admit that to Jerry we did not go to Yonkers for dinner; we went to the convention. I just yet. Those were good times. think my head was still spinning all the way back to Detroit. Later, when we got custody of the kids, when I was working fulltime and involved in community activities, there was neither the time The Fans nor the privacy for the joint comics reading activity like there had been. Our house was always open to visits from fans—with a few excepWe read them to ourselves, and even that subsided after some years. tions.

Early Vacations—With A Side-Trip To New York In 1968, the second year we were married, the summer-long workshop on the tab of some grant to the University continued. This time it was in Kennybunkport, Maine. We stayed at a dorm again, and someone had taken the kids—either Sondra, or perhaps it was then we hired a live-in kid down the street as a babysitter. Also, I don’t quite remember if we went AWOL from the workshop or if it had ended already when we went to New York City. I soon learned we were there for the convention, which was a real wild time. We actually got a room in the convention hotel, and it must have cost us a billion dollars or so.

Many fans came to visit us at home during their travels or planned visits. They were always welcomed and usually they did not stay very long. There were a number of fans who were aspiring pros, and they brought their portfolios for Jerry to see. They were highly encouraged and sometimes gently coached on some areas that would improve their work for the comics medium. In some cases Jerry even loaned them seed money (interest free) for making the trip to New York City, wrote letters of recommendation, and gave advice on whom to approach there, and how. Others were people who just loved comics and wanted to talk about them, and they usually got encouragement about starting their own fanzines or conventions or data research projects. Often he

Life With Jerry Bails And Comics Fandom

Scenes From A 1969 (?) Comics Convention Jean writes about a trip to a New York Con in 1968—but these photos she and Jerry held onto are dated “1969.” Are they from Phil Seuling’s first solo New York con? Or a Detroit bash? Someplace else? Clockwise from above left, we see: the convention floor, abuzz with late-1960s activity—writers Steve Skeates, Denny O’Neil, and Mike Friedrich—Brenda helping daddy Jerry out at his booth— Steve and Brenda shmoozing with Marvin Giles, a co-founder of the Detroit Triple Fan Fair—and Jean still finding time to get “dolled up” for an evening out after the con closed.

turned over his own publications to fans who wrote or who showed up at the house. This was all fun, but when the discussion got too esoteric and involved in detail, my eyes would glaze over and I would leave them to chat while I went off to do other things. I may have seemed a pretty poor hostess at times, because I learned from trial and error never to offer any beverage or food while comics, fanzines, or art was being handled. Jerry did not want spills or smudges that would result, and so usually I left it up to him to offer refreshment when he was ready—either before or often after materials were being handled. I can’t list all the people who visited because, even if I remembered the names; I would likely slaughter the spelling of their names (unintentionally).

and he felt they were an obnoxious intrusion into his home and privacy. When he did get calls, he often told people to send him a letter and then hung up. In the final decades of his life, the phone was usually unplugged. The other exception—people who confused our home for a comics store—were handed a catalog (if there was one) and told to order by mail only. I was glad, but I really did not know if this had to do with zoning/legality worries or previous bad experiences or the idea that a home is like a sacred temple: free of monetary transactions and a sanctuary of privacy. Probably the latter.

The only time I was really irritated with a fan visit was when I was 8 months pregnant in a very hot summer and Jerry had brought the guy to work on a project. He stayed for 2-3 weeks, until I said “Enough!” I got tired of being ignored all day long and having to wait upon them when it seemed like someone should be waiting upon me in the final month of misery. Otherwise I would not have minded as much. Ray Bottoroff, Jr., now of the Grand Comic-Book Database, a good friend of the family, has said that it has been noted in fandom that many of the piloting/pioneering fans and a good number of pros have come from the Detroit area and were directly influenced in their path by contacts with Jerry. There were two exceptions to the home being open to fans. One was telephone calls, and the other was people who came to buy comics. Jerry hated the phone and often unplugged it. I guess he had had some bad experiences with phone calls,

The Family Guy 1971 photos of Jerry and Jean with their new arrival, Kirk—and with Steve and Brenda, as well.

Memoirs Of Jean Bails

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Jerry, Jean, And Justice Jerry and Jean in Chicago for the Fandom Reunion Luncheon—in a photo Jerry (or Jean?) filed as “1997chicagobadphoto.” Maybe the lighting’s less than perfect, but this pic—and the one printed in A/E V3#1, now on display in The Alter Ego Collection, Vol. 1—are the only two we have of them together from that fan-epochal event.

NOTE: We’ll happily print more of Jean’s memories in future issues, if and when. Thanks, Jean. You’ve helped make Jerry come alive to those folks—even to those like Ye Editor, who knew him for over four deacdes—that were acquainted with him mostly via mail and e-mail, or only by reputation and legend. There’s always a man or woman behind every myth… and you’ve put flesh on that legend.

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Tributes To JERRY G. BAILS B

A Handful Of Homages To A Man Who Deserves Them All—And More

ecause of limited space, Alter Ego did not widely solicit tributes to Jerry for this issue. Crom knows, we could certainly have filled an entire issue with instances of fans and pros who were influenced by and/or benefited from his many comics-related projects over the years… to say nothing of his more academic or personal accomplishments. But we did want to present this less-than-random sampling of comments by his friends, admirers, and adherents… some of whom responded to our request for photographs of themselves. We begin with that of one who represents the twin worlds of fandom and pro-dom….

Tony Isabella Writer and editor for Marvel in the 1970s, creator of Black Lightning, and contributing editor of Comics Buyer’s Guide. He can be found online at www.worldfamouscomics.com/tony. The following is reprinted with permission, with slight editing, from Tony’s Online Tips for Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2006. Jerry Bails. June 26, 1933 – November 23, 2006. I was writing yesterday’s column when I received the sad news that Jerry Bails had suffered a heart attack in his sleep and died. That was last Thursday, Thanksgiving, and it was probably good that all I was doing was editing alreadywritten reviews for the column.

postal mail, or online, if it weren’t for Jerry. He was at the forefront of just about every important event in the early days of comics fandom. It’s not an exaggeration to call him the father of comics fandom and, by extension, to proclaim that he also had a profound effect on the comics industry. I consider all the activities, magazines, and ventures Jerry started or of which he was a participant. Was not Alter-Ego something of a stepping-stone for the long career of editor and writer Roy Thomas, who, in turn, brought so many others into the field? Didn’t Jerry’s On the Drawing Board beget The Comic Reader, which was something of a stepping-stone for a young Paul Levitz, also a fine editor and writer, and currently President and Publisher of DC Comics? How about CAPA-alpha, the first comics apa, which has been running for four decades and which currently reached its 500th issue? The ever-changing roster of that organization includes most of our finest comics historians and literally dozens of comics pros, myself included. He was involved in the earliest comics adzines [founding The Comicollector in 1961], leading to Alan Light’s The Buyer’s Guide to Comics Fandom, a publication now better known as Comics Buyer’s Guide… and who do we know who writes for that? There’s the Alley Awards, the first recognition of excellence in the American comic book field. There’s The Who’s Who of American Comic Books, the first of Jerry’s unending efforts to identify the men and women who made the comics, to give credit in an industry where credit was so often denied and so greatly due. I bought the first (of four) volumes in 1973, and ever since, it has been within close range of, originally, my typewriter, and, today, my keyboard. Few weeks go by without my using it, even though Jerry eventually put

I don’t think I could have finished an all-new column. Later that evening and into the wee small hours of the morning, I was getting ready for Mid-Ohio-Con, and it suddenly hit me that I wouldn’t be going there if it weren’t for Jerry Bails. I wouldn’t be communicating with fans in person, or via

Fate Is The Hunter Jerry Bails (left) and Tony Isabella (right) were both at the 1997 Fandom Reunion Luncheon held in Chicago—just not in the same photo, that’s all! They’re looking admiringly at a Dr. Fate commission drawing by Jerry Ordway, who was likewise present (and provided this art). [Dr. Fate TM & ©2007 DC Comics.]

Tributes To Jerry G. Bails

the data—updated, of course—online. Jerry was changing my life even before I met him in person. I don’t think I would ever have considered a career in comics without having been part of comics fandom as a teenager. When I did meet him, he was every bit as generous, kind, and just plain smart as I could have hoped. The first time I met Jerry was at a Detroit Triple Fan Fair. He had a dealer’s table. I bought an issue of Fantastic, a weekly comic from England, and also an issue of Gift Comics. Fantastic was a forerunner of The Mighty World of Marvel, a reprint done for a British audience, while Gift Comics was a giant comic from Fawcett in the 1940s. Jerry and I chatted about these alternate formats for a spell. He encouraged my fascination with and interest in them. I thought the weekly had possibilities for American publishers and was even more ebullient about that big fat issue of Gift Comics. Ironically, I would end up working on Marvel’s weeklies less than a year later, and, in recent years, would see a great many of my 1970s Marvel stories reprinted in Marvel Essentials volumes even thicker than that issue of Gift Comics. My correspondence with Jerry was always sporadic, but he was always ready to answer my questions and share his vast knowledge of comics and comics creators. In the past year or so, it has been my great joy to be a member of some of the same online groups as Jerry and to exchange e-mails. In those groups, I learned he was as brilliant and generous and progressive and thoughtful about the issues of the world outside comics as he was about the issues of comic books he loved. I was learning from him right to the end of his life, and I suspect I’ll continue to learn from him to the end of mine. Jerry Bails. The father of comics fandom. June 26, 1933 – November 23, 2006. God bless you, Jerry… and thank you.

Dave Gibbons Artist of The Watchmen, et al.—and “supporting member” of 1960s comics fandom. Can it really be so long ago? But here I am, in Jerry Bails’ Who’s Who in Comics Fandom for 1963, listed at my parents’ house, a supporting member, no less. On the same page, I recognize Don Glut, Steve Gerber and Paul Gambaccini, whom I was to meet in England and befriend some 25 years later, and several others whose names hover still on the borders of recognition. And behind it all, Doctor Jerry G. Bails, a name almost as potent to me in those days as that of Doctor Fate or Hawkman, the custodian of the memories of an earlier age of wonder and promoter of the next era of comic books. Amazingly, he was not a kid or some kind of backward adult—he was a Professor, a man of undoubted learning and presumed sophistication, who loved comics as another might fine wines or the paintings of the Great Masters. I pictured him in an Ivy League library, puffing on a fragrant pipe and nodding sagely, a cultured eyebrow arched in appreciation, as he leafed through a yellowing leatherbound volume of All-Star Comics. His mere presence in the hobby helped me believe that comics were an art form the equal of any other. Just as importantly, in a time when we comics fans were thinly and distantly spread across the globe, he made me feel part of an invisible nation, a hidden society of fellow souls. There was a generosity of spirit in early comics fandom that he

took a leading part in establishing and that he exemplified, a selfless sharing of information, images, and even comic books themselves. Jerry published, at cost, sets of photographs of Golden Age comics covers, tantalizing glimpses of past glories, even more exciting than the comics then being published by DC or Marvel. It was through them that I first encountered Simon and Kirby’s DC work, for example. It hit me on such a primal level that I find it almost impossible to describe the effect that, say, the cover of Adventure Comics #73 has on me. It’s an icon of almost spiritual significance, an inspiration beyond value. And Jerry let me have it at cost price, at the age where such things lodge in the psyche for life. To stand in the heaving belly of the comics industry today, the huge Leviathan that the San Diego Comic-Con has become, is to witness the nation that Jerry played such a pivotal role in creating. To see the excited lines waiting to see Superman or Batman or The X-Men at the local multiplex is to know that the country he helped to found is recognized and befriended by the world. An academic to the last, Jerry took a leading part in establishing and maintaining the natural successor to his Who’s Who in Comics Fandom, in the form of a grand database of comics writers and artists. The cultural historians of future ages, the Professors of Comicology in some far-flung cyberuniversity, will, in turn, owe him their own debt of gratitude. And the writers and artists, many uncredited and forgotten, that he took such great trouble to track down and give due mention will live on through it. As will he. Back on a personal level, I feel that in no small part I owe my career to his efforts, and many of my longest friendships to the networks he fostered. I couldn’t be more grateful or more blessed. Thank you, Jerry.

Homages To A Man Who Deserves Them All—And More

Jim Amash Inker/finisher, currently primarily for Archie Comics—also a writer and associate editor for Alter Ego. I owe Jerry Bails much more than I could have ever repaid him. The Who’s Who (originally done with Hames Ware, before Jerry flew solo) is a monument to the many people who toiled in the comic book fields, and is an inexhaustible fountain of information for comics researchers. Without it, my work would be less informed and less comprehensive, resulting in the type of inadequate interviews that partially inspired my historical investigations. Jerry was an incredibly supportive man, patiently eager to answer the hundreds of questions I routinely e-mailed his way. Jerry gave me the help I needed, and in return, I gave him new information and corrections for the Who’s Who. Though Jerry and I always thanked each other for the help, we never acted like we were doing favors for each other. The cause was bigger than that. However, I must admit that Jerry’s offer to list me as the online “assistant editor” of Who’s Who was very special to me. And I will never forget the Christmas gift of an All-Star Squadron Special page with the origin of Wildcat, or his gifting me with the letters sent to him by Elizabeth Marston (Dr. William Moulton Marston’s widow). Our friendship went beyond comics. We often discussed politics, religion, and society, particularly the plight of those less fortunate in life. Jerry had very definite opinions on those subjects, endlessly sharing and debating them with whoever was interested. I found Jerry’s beliefs extremely well considered, even when I didn’t agree with him. He was an astute judge of character who surprised me more than once by observing things about me that I didn’t think anyone could figure out. And all by e-mail, because regretfully, we never met in person or spoke by telephone. But still, we knew and understood each other. Jerry was very concerned about his work being carried on. He was the one who suggested to DC Comics that they should ask me, not him, to write introductions for their hardcover Archive Editions. Jerry’s e-mail said that it was time to let a younger generation take over. I was grateful for what he did, though sad that he was scaling back (due mostly to health problems). Despite what he may have thought, we still needed him. At this point, I’d like to share a few things Jerry said to me, in illustration of earlier points. He wrote of Will Eisner, “His great works will always be with us to inspire another generation of creators. His was a full life, with not a moment wasted, a lesson for us all.”

Wonder Of Wonders A/E associate editor Jim Amash and a page from one of the letters written to Jerry Bails by Elizabeth Marston, widow of the original writer/co-creator of Wonder Woman. On this page she lists a number of her husband's scripts (for Wonder Woman #12 & 17, among others) that she had come across as she went through Dr. Marston's effects. Jerry made a gift to Jim of those letters some time ago. Such documents are the stuff of history, whether of comic books or anything else. [Letter ©2007 estate of Elizabeth Marston.]

When I informed him of my sadness over the death of my good friend Ernie Schroeder, Jerry replied, “Boy, you are putting yourself through a lot of grief interviewing old men, but you’re the best man for the job.” He knew I had gotten close to many of my interview subjects, and how emotional their passings were for me. Even still, he managed to pat me on the back, and inspire me to continue onward. Regarding my interview with the late Chuck Cuidera, and Chuck’s stated ambivalence toward many of the people he had worked with in comics—not to mention his overstatement of several career achievements—Jerry wrote: “Re the Cuidera interview: I guess I’ve led a sheltered life. At 15, I did run my Dad’s pool hall, but I never heard anyone offer such gratuitous slams against other people, except in a fit of anger, and never for public consumption. How can someone be that angry for so long, or am I missing something? If a situation or relationship with someone goes sour, why not move on, rather than let it eat at you? You and Roy exhibit an exceptional quality of fairness in letting Chuck have his say. That’s the way to go. I admire you both for this capacity.”

Everybody Into The Pool Jerry’s father’s pool emporium, which JGB says he “ran” at age 15. Thanks to Jean Bails.

Reflecting back on his youthful love for DC’s characters, Jerry wrote, “The most fascinating aspect of characters for me as a beginning reader was the masks. I can still draw Sandman’s and Hawkman’s masks blindfolded. You can imagine my disappointment when both characters were given simple hoods. I wondered who made these awful decisions? Not any readers I knew.”

Tributes To Jerry G. Bails

Jerry was a great cheerleader. “Thanks for more great interviews in A/E. You have clearly set a high mark.” In February 2005, when I began a six-month stint filling in for Joe Sinnott on the Sunday SpiderMan newspaper strip (due to injuries Joe sustained from a fall at Mickey Spillane’s house), Jerry wrote, “Hope Joe’s arm heals completely. Glad you can sub. ‘Go get ‘em, Tiger.’ “ Jerry was sincerely compassionate of his fellow man; a true humanist. At the end of a January 2005 e-mail, he wrote, “Stay warm, but those awful heating bills. Whew! I pity the poor. How can they afford the bare minimum?” In October of 2005, he stated, “I gave away my old car to a family that fled New Orleans for Michigan. I wasn’t using it. I’m just a homebody now.” His body may have been bowed by ill health, but his spirit never broke or caved in to the selfcenteredness that seems to pervade society more and more. If more people were as concerned about solving society ills as Jerry was, we’d be much better off. He looked for inner truth as well as societal truth, seldom judgmental in what he discovered, which I found refreshing and inspirational. I learned so much more than comics history from him. Jerry was my friend and advocate. He was comics history’s mentor and advocate. Most importantly, he was humanity’s advocate. His passing is not only our loss; it is society’s loss.

Michael Ambrose Editor/publisher of Argos Press/Charlton Spotlight magazine. See www.charltonspotlight.com It’s not possible to pay Jerry Bails back for all he did for comics history. But as someone once said, it is possible to pay forward. Isn’t that what Jerry always did through his tireless dedication to ferreting out and preserving the story of the creators of our favorite medium—for all comics fans now and for uncountable numbers to come?

I can’t say how much I owe Jerry. Without his pioneering work in nailing down the knotty facts of who wrote/drew/inked/lettered/edited what, when, and where, my job of chronicling the history of Charlton Comics in my magazine Charlton Spotlight would be incalculably harder. Perhaps even impossible. Of course, Jerry didn’t do it all by himself. But he got it started. What he set it in motion provided the job description for all future comics historians. “This is what we need to know,” Jerry said. “Now get busy.” And we did. We still are. I didn’t know Jerry personally. Like so many others, I only “knew” him through his frequent and exactingly rational postings to the GCDchat list and through the Who’s Who (earlier printed, later online) files. Whenever a new issue of Spotlight appeared, I sent him a copy, and his e-mailed reply was invariably cordial and congratulatory. He knew that what we fan publishers are doing is important, and he warmly welcomed it. Paying forward is the best, maybe the only way to truly honor Jerry’s memory. Thanks, Jerry, for what you paid forward to all of us.

Paul Levitz Eventual successor to Jerry Bails as editor of The Comic Reader, and since then a comics writer and editor, now President and Publisher of DC Comics. Jerry had profound effects on the American comics he loved: his scholarship and respect for the talented people who produced comics helped restore their pride coming out of a dark time, and his desire to share his passion for them united a generation of comic fans who picked up the torch from the first generation of American comics creators and carried it on. It’s important to remember that when Jerry began his fan activities, most comic creators’ view of their work was shaped by the decade they’d just lived through: Wertham’s crusade, collapses in the distribution system, fewer and less experimental publishers, and an industry that was paying its most talented people more poorly, treating them as more interchangeable than before, and cloaking them in anonymity. Jerry responded to the first bright flickers of the Silver Age, and by encouraging them, helped them to grow. In particular, by his emphasis on scholarship of creators’ contributions, he encouraged editors to properly identify and even publicize the people behind the pages. He reminded a battle-weary generation of writers and artists that credit was their due, and that their best work could be remembered long past their time. The early fans who ingathered around Jerry’s fanzine work (along with that of his collaborator, Roy Thomas, and of the other pioneering zines around the country) touched and shaped each others’ lives with their shared friendship in comics. Conventions, awards, and professional aspirations followed in a natural cascade… and when those fans joined the professional community, they had powerful effects. First and foremost, comic books were not a career compromise for them, as it had been for many of their predecessors who had aspired to the then-more-successful newspaper comic strips or fields like illustration. They were where they wanted to be, and promptly proved it by doing the best work

Charlton In The Spotlight In this age of specialization, Michael Ambrose (photo) ably chronicles the colorful Charlton legacy in his magazine Charlton Spotlight (check it out at www.charltonspotight.com). This vintage image of Steve Ditko’s Blue Beetle and The Question was preserved in issue #5 (Fall 2006), courtesy of Mark Burbey, from the pages of the 1968 fanzine Gosh Wow #2. [Characters TM & ©2007 DC Comics.]

Homages To A Man Who Deserves Them All—And More

A JSA Team On The Thames Writer Paul Levitz (on left) and artist Joe Staton in London in the late 1970s, soon after they collaborated on All-Star Comics #69 (Nov.-Dec. 1977). Repro’d from the original art, courtesy of Jeff Bailey. Inks by Bob Layton. [JSA art ©2007 DC Comics.]

they were capable of, and claiming credit for it, loudly. Then, they took for granted that the past of comics mattered, and told stories that connected to that past… a fundamental first step towards a philosophy of continuity more communicable than the instinctual way Stan Lee was linking the stories he wrote or edited for Marvel). There’s no simple cause and effect here, much less a master plan to reshape comics… just a man working for simple justice for a creative community whose work he enjoyed, and a scholar unsatisfied by incomplete and inaccurate information… but the results were transformative. It’s very hard to look at the shape of American comics today, and not see Jerry Bails’ fingerprints on the pages.

Bill Schelly Comic book and fandom historian, and associate editor and writer for Alter Ego. In September 1964, when I first heard Jerry Bails’ name, I was a twelve-year-old boy beginning 8th grade, living with my family in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Jerry was a 31-year-old man with a wife and two kids, living in Detroit, Michigan. Yet somehow, despite the age and geographic distance between us, his actions touched me in a way that profoundly changed my life. Thirty-three years later I finally met him in person at a reunion of old-time comics fans in Chicago, Illinois, on the occasion of the city’s 1997 comicon. Given the degree of the effect of Bails’ early fanac on me, I guess you could call me one of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of “Jerry’s kids.” At the reunion, he and I instantly felt a rapport, and from that point onward, we stayed in touch. Given that Jerry’s vocation was a professorship of Science and Technology at Wayne State University, it came as no surprise that he took to the Internet like a fish to water, and probably understood its social and cultural ramifications better and earlier than most of us. Jerry became a generator of e-mail like few others, and I will always be glad the cyber-revolution empowered him to extend his benevolent, thoughtful, encouraging influence to even more corners of the globe. Back in the early days of fandom, some grumbled that Jerry had a big ego, or that he was condescending. Like any trendsetter or leader, he always had a good sense of personal self-confidence, but by the time I met him, I detected no big ego or condescension in the man. I found him refreshingly down-to-earth, warm, and friendly. He seemed to be genuinely gregarious. If his favorite thing was burying himself in a world of indexes and databases, it must also be said that he loved being

with other comics fans. The meals that I shared with Jerry and Jean were convivial and upbeat. Roy and Dann Thomas (and perhaps one or two others) were also at those meals. It was interesting to watch Alter Ego’s founder and his partner in the endeavor together again, trading comments and opinions, and talking about the current state of the comics industry. Later, Jerry and I began a voluminous e-mail correspondence that ended on November 15th, just eight days before his passing. It ebbed and flowed over time, and sometimes weeks would go by without contact. Then something would arise—usually I’d have a question for him, or maybe he was acknowledging that he got the copy of my latest book—and we’d start a whole new skein of commentary, opinions, ideas, and dreams. Jerry’s support became very personal, during the discovery and conquest of cancer in the body of Jaimeson, my 15-year-son, in 2005. He later wrote, “I wish for the good health of you and your loved ones. I know the road has been rough but you’re good people and understand the role of love and mutual support, so you’ll get the most out of this short life.” During a discussion about the influence that fandom had on so many people, I ventured that in some ways I felt he’d had as much effect on me as my own father. I called him “Dad” for a long time after that, and he playfully called me “Son.” Ah, what a metaphorical father Jerry was to me, and to many others. Sometimes he frustrated the hell out of me. When I suggested he write an autobiography, even going so far as to volunteer to put it together for him from information and interviews provided by him, he

Tributes To Jerry G. Bails

The Fandom Phantom Bill Schelly (who can be seen with Jerry on p. 5) provided this image from the newszine Voice of Comicdom #4 (April 1965), enlarged from postage-stamp size, which shows Jerry as The Phantom—perhaps the only time he was photographed in a costume. “Unfortunately,” says Bill, “I don’t know who took the photo, or where it was taken. It looks as if it might have been posed for and photographed before an event, like in a hotel room. I did hear an account from someone, maybe at the 1997 Fandom Reunion, who said something like, ‘When Jerry appeared in the costume, he looked great; there were lots of photo flashes going off. But the minute he took a step, the holster—which had been poorly attached—fell off.’ If I had to guess, I’d say it was at a fan gathering in Detroit, Chicago, or Cleveland in 1963 or 1964.”

would hear none of it. His response, paraphrased: “I have no interest in spending time documenting past events in my life. I’m living for today. Not only that, but there’s no way I could possibly approach such a task. I can’t remember the specifics, like when and where a certain conversation occurred, or what was said. And I don’t want to. I’m against today’s media obsession with the cult of personality. I’m happy with what you wrote about me, but really have nothing more I want to add to the story of early fandom. Before I shed this mortal coil, I have lots I want to do and writing my life story isn’t one of them.” Okay, I admit that’s a long paraphrase, but my memory of that email is burned into my brain, and I’ll bet Jerry’s friends will recognize his voice in it. He didn’t like giving interviews. Over the years, at various times, he would sometimes talk about the past, but almost always with reluctance. Perhaps part of it was that the early-to-mid1960s were a difficult time for him personally, as he went through a divorce and other crises of a personal nature. He was very fortunate to come out of those tough years with Jean, his second wife, and finally found his quantum of solace. It must be said unequivocally, Jerry Bails was an exceptional human being. Though we largely laud him in this special issue of Alter Ego for his contributions to comic art scholarship, his interests encompassed many fields, and in the last decades of his life became global in scope. He thought about the Big Issues: religion, politics, the earth’s ecosystem, philosophy, and science, and understood them with what I can only call “the wisdom of Solomon.” He once exhorted me to “fight to keep Internet neutrality, extend human rights everywhere, and hold government officials responsible.” Despite occasionally despairing for the fate of mankind and our planet, Jerry was at heart hopeful. He could never be a full-blown cynic, because he knew that we as people are capable of doing good. We just need to have the knowledge and the perspective to move in a positive direction. Let those who are tempted to completely succumb to cynicism remember: there was once Jerry Bails. Now, at the end of 2006 as I write this, the distance between Jerry and me—once the 1,600 miles from Seattle to Detroit—could be said to be farther than ever. But in another sense, in a way that finds those we love in our minds, our memories, and our hearts…he’s closer than ever. He’ll always be just that close. On November 12th, 2006, I sent Jerry Bails the completed manuscript to a book which I had just completed, in the form of an email attachment. Three days later, Jerry replied (in part):

Dear Bill, Congratulations. This should become a classic and a model for others to follow. I’m happy to have an advance copy. Thanks. While I’ve been pain-free for four hours, I’m hit now with multiple severe angina attacks every day. I swear by nitroglycerine. It puts me through fifteen minutes of additional pain—mostly migraine—but it finally eases all the chest and back pain—or at least, it did up until a few days ago. I have some residual pain all the time now, but low-grade pain one can live with. No more hospitals for me. I have other health problems that I really don’t want to live long enough to suffer through. I wish for a nice easy passage (ha! Ha!) in my sleep. What a fantasy! I wish you well in all your endeavors. Thank you for being so kind and generous to me, and to all the great Golden Agers that meant so much to me. See you in the comics! Bestest, Jerry

I can’t help but see this e-mail as Jerry Bails’ farewell message to me. However, I feel it was really sent to all of fandom. That’s why I share it here in Alter Ego, where Jerry’s last words can reach others Jerry touched, including everyone reading this magazine, based as it is on the fanzine he founded in 1961.

Cory Strode Comics collector and researcher, graphic novel reviewer for BartcopEntertainment. Dr. Bails was someone I had heard of but knew little about, other than his contributions to maintaining comic book history. I was too young for the early days of fandom, but was always interested in the history of comic books, and have been a member of discussions lists since I first found out about them. This summer, due to the list server getting confused about the Timely-Atlas list, a new one was started and I signed up immediately so I could sit at the electronic feet of people who knew more than me and learn about comics I had little to no knowledge of. One of the new members to the Timely-Atlas list was Dr. Bails. He wrote with a very conversational style. Each of his e-mails read as if he was sitting at a dinner table with the people on the list. I read his emails with great interest, as I knew very little about him other than what I had read in the recently printed “Best of Alter Ego” book. A political discussion erupted on the mailing list (which always seems to happen anymore) and I tried to diffuse the discussion with a lame joke. I was rewarded for my silly joke by a personal e-mail from Dr. Bails, and we exchanged a few e-mails about our views on violence in the media, our jobs, and flame wars on e-mail lists. I ended one of my e-mails to him saying that I was a bit starstruck that someone who was so well known in the field of comics history was e-mailing me. I got the news that he had passed away at the same time I got a long e-mail from him in which he wrote about the things that he was proud of in his life, and that comics were just a hobby. In that e-mail, he wrote glowingly about his work in the civil rights movement, his time showing young men how to apply for conscientious objector status during the Vietnam War, his other anti-war activities, his work in spreading knowledge about science in a country that

Homages To A Man Who Deserves Them All—And More

increasingly looked at science with hostility. He loved teaching, and wrote about how much it meant to him, references my own work with teenagers. He also wrote glowingly about his wife, Jean, and it was clear that he was still madly in love with her. The part of the e-mail I would like to share was: “I’ll go to my grave shaking my head that, in 50 years of teaching, the society has become so self-absorbed and alienated that it doesn’t even know what community once meant. So many people hate their jobs, hate politics, don’t follow world affairs, and bury their heads in the sand every spare second for fear they might confront some unpleasant reality and feel obligated to do something to make the world a better place.” I’m sure that most people will know him for his work in comics. But when I think of Dr. Bails, I’ll remember that he challenged me, and all of us, to keep working to make the world a better place.

Mike Vosburg Veteran comic book artist; currently draws storyboards in live action and animation, with a second compilation of his comics series Lori Lovecraft due in July 2007. On Jerry: The first Alley Tally Party was hosted by Jerry in l964 and I remember going there (after I’d been sick all week with the flu) with my friend Fred Jackson. It was amazing to meet a lot of the folks I had been corresponding with in fandom, and it was also the first time that I

Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been…? Jerry K. Boyd, a collector who has often contributed to A/E, drew this pic of Jerry getting inducted into the JLA by a mix of Golden and Silver Age heroes especially for this tribute issue. [Heroes TM & ©2007 DC Comics.]

actually got to see original artwork. I was in heaven. There were pre-arranged set-ups for sleeping. Being a teenager and filled with youthful exuberance, I passed on the opportunity, simply planning on staying up all night. That lasted until probably one or two a.m., when I just passed out in someone else’s space. That’s what I remember about Jerry. He never roused me or even alluded to my transgression the next day—which would have horribly embarrassed me. He made all of us feel at home. He was a grown-up to me then... and a professor! He brought a sense of respectability to fandom with his background.

The Maid And the Monster Mike Vosburg and his wife Annie in New Zealand—and a recent drawing of his to commemorate the passing of two towering comics figures: Jerry Bails and Alex Toth. Note the Wayne State U. sweatshirt on the Marshland Monster. [Solomon Grundy & Black Canary TM & ©2007 DC Comics.]

When I was older and married, I socialized with Jerry and Jean a few times before I moved out of Detroit. He still managed to zap me at dinner one night, when he announced in his most serious professorial tone that because of inflation the penny was being fazed out. Why would I doubt such a man of letters... I bought it hook line and sinker, much to the delight of both himself and Jean.

Tributes To Jerry G. Bails

In The Mary Month Of May P.C. Hamerlinck (seated) and Marc Swayze are two fearless Fawcetteers who pay homage to Jerry Bails in this feature. While perhaps a DC fan first and foremost, Jerry Bails was interested in the entire comics field—most definitely including Golden Age Fawcett. While Marc drew this image of Mary Marvel especially for Roy Thomas, we know he wouldn’t mind its appearing in this tribute to Jerry. Photo courtesy of PCH. [Mary Marvel TM & ©2007 DC Comics.]

hour or so later our office messenger put the package on my desk. But it would be another two days before it was opened. Within minutes of its delivery my phone rang and I was talking to Head Office in Johannesburg. One of the company’s directors was already flying to Port Elizabeth, accompanied by a visitor from the States... would I meet them and line up appointments with certain divisional heads at Ford and GM?

P.C. Hamerlinck Editor of FCA and The Fawcett Companion. Years ago, as I first embarked down the bright roads and dark alleys of comic book history, my journey had suddenly brought me to an abandoned subway tunnel… and below, further, to its mysterious cavern and past towering statues of the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man. The light reflected by the fire inside a brazier near the cavern’s walls revealed an ancient wizard sitting on a throne, with a large book titled All-Star leaning against it. I was destined that day to receive wisdom from the Grandfather of Fandom! The humble, white-haired man, who seemingly had been expecting my presence, bestowed on me some simple, sound advice: “May you succeed in bringing forth the past, but do not forget those of today.” I took those words to heart as I flew back to my office with the large lightning bolt insignia on its rooftop. Thank you, Jerry Bails. We’ll keep your fire in the cavern lit forever.

Marc Swayze Golden Age comics artist and writer; current columnist for Alter Ego. I had just about talked myself out of writing to you regarding A/E #64, but every time I laid the issue aside, it fell open to one item that had stopped me in the first place: Dann’s stirring photo of Jerry Bails! It was my first knowledge of Jerry’s death… and that photo… and your words… and those of Jean Bails… have made me regret more than ever not having known the man in person.

John Wright A South African novelist who refers to himself as “just another writer to have known Jerry—to have been a small part of the beginning of fandom.” Long ago I quit believing in coincidence. It seemed too simple a manner of explaining away the inexplicable. For instance, there’s the way my path crossed with that of Jerry Bails... About midway through October 1961 Alford’s Book Store phoned to say that the copy of Writer’s Market I’d ordered had arrived. An

Two days afterwards, I finally got around to tearing away the wrapper of that package. While hastily flipping the pages of the hefty volume, my wife of just two years called to remind me that we were expecting visitors. Which was when my gaze fell upon the name “Joe Simon.” Listed as the editor of Sick. Joe Simon? Could it be the Joe Simon? The man who, without any tangible evidence, I’d always believed to be the creator of Captain America? Late that night, I hacked out a letter to Mr. Simon, with little hope of receiving any response. How wrong I was. Towards the end of November 1961 there was a letter bearing a return address for Headline Publications, Inc., in my post box. It’s a letter I have treasured. It confirmed that indeed it was the Joe Simon to whom I had written, touched on various things relative to comic books, and informed me that: “Just yesterday I received in the mail a sort of trade paper for comics artists and writers. It is an amateurish production but surprisingly well written, and that too brought back memories. It is called Alter-Ego and is published by Jerry Bails, 1710 Kenwood Drive, Inkster, Michigan. I’m sure you would be interested in it. If you do write to Jerry tell him I enjoyed reading it. Incidentally, they seem to be a source for old numbers and trades.” (Excerpt of letter dated Nov. 14, 1961) No time was wasted in getting a letter off to Jerry Bails—again, with but faint hope of a reply. And again all doubts would be scuttled. Not only did he provide what must have been an almost immediate response, but he also asked that I watch out for a copy of Alter-Ego! That letter was hand-written, as were all others that followed, but it took a while for me to wonder how he managed his time. By then I knew that Jerry was an educationalist of some standing at Wayne State University, that he was married, already working on other comic book projects, and that it was unlikely a day would pass without a goodly amount of mail arriving at his address. So how did he cope with it all? I never found out, but cope he did, and if he treated other correspondents as he did me, none were ever kept waiting long.

Homages To A Man Who Deserves Them All—And More

In an interview conducted by Bill Schelly, published in Alter Ego #35 & 36 (April & May 2004), I told of the effect those first copies of Alter-Ego had upon me, how for the first time I realized the possibilities the old Ditto duplicator in the office held, how soon I was cranking out pages of what would eventually be a fanzine of sorts. So I’ll not cover that ground again, other than to repeat Jerry’s reaction. Knowing the difficulties I faced in receiving small payments, of postal and packaging regulations and restrictions, Jerry never hesitated to volunteer his services as an agent for The Komix. Additionally, he offered to purchase comic books on my behalf and ship them out to me, for at the time comics were no longer being imported. Now, adding to his load was that of picking up comics for me, packaging and mailing them. But, thanks to such thoughtfulness and generous help, I was privileged to be there in the infant days of Fandom, to share the excitement, the discoveries... to enjoy the friendship of Howard Keltner, Biljo White, Ronn Foss, and so many others. And to secure the books in which the first Justice League of America, Fantastic Four, Hawkman, Flash, Spider-Man, and all the rest of the new and revived characters were to appear. Back then there was no way of knowing just how much this new and valued friendship would touch and change my life, nor how it would extend from there to others, and benefit all. One such person was acclaimed artist Dave Gibbons. Twenty-odd years after publishing The Komix, I would receive a surprise package containing the Watchmen book, and a multi-page typewritten letter from Dave. In it he told of the change in his life the arrival of those dittoed pages had wrought. But that tale belongs to Dave Gibbons. A lot of Jerry’s correspondence was with artists and writers, and it’s my belief that he was very influential in decisions made to resurrect many of the characters from the First Heroic Age, particularly the Justice Society of America. One instance that stands out in my memory is the manner he went about and succeeded in having the revived Hawkman get back his ears. (In the first appearances, the character’s headgear was drawn without the “ears.”)

Sick, Sick, Sick John Wright in 1964—and the Nov. 1961 letter from Sick magazine editor Joe Simon which changed his life by putting him in touch with Jerry Bails and comics fandom. With thanks to JW. [Sick is a trademark of Joe Simon.] Also shown is the envelope in which Jerry sent out photos of many rare comics covers—with two Fawcett covers sticking out. Roy T. still has his set of cover photos, too! [Art ©2007 DC Comics.]

They Wanted Wings? One comics change with which John Wright credits Jerry—but for which Jerry wouldn’t want credit—is Hawkman’s “gaining his wings” (helmet-wise) in The Brave and the Bold #42 (June-July 1962). Actually, it was Roy Thomas (no doubt not alone) who kept importuning editor Julius Schwartz to add them; Jerry, while liking the Golden Age version’s original headgear, once wrote Roy that, since real birds didn’t have wings on their heads, he saw no reason to stick them on the Silver Age Hawkman. But Julie eventually had them added. [©2007 DC Comics.]

Pretty soon Jerry was publishing the Who’s Who in Comics Fandom, The Panelologist, The Collector’s Guide to the First Heroic Age, The Who’s Who of American Comic Books… producing black-&-white “jumbo prints” of comic book covers, and complete runs of comic books from the First Heroic Age on 16mm microfilm— almost every title from All-Star to Zip. Producing those microfilms surely required a great deal of time and effort, but what a gift they were to those who would never be able to secure even just a few of the original books. In my case it afforded the

Tributes To Jerry G. Bails

If They Asked Me, I Could Write A Book… John Wright dedicated a book to Jerry Bails and used him as a character in his novel Blonde Target, under his pseudonym “Wade Wright.” Of which Jean Bails wrote to him early this year: “You have no idea how often Jerry has shown your book and mentioned same in conversation. Yes, he was bragging—not so much that his name was mentioned as a character—Jerry Bails, detective from Detroit—but that he had such a good friend who would actually do such a thing!” [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

opportunity of once again being able to “page” through well-remembered issues of More Fun, Target, Pep… to rediscover characters lost in memory. Then, too, what may have been the very first comic book convention was held at Jerry’s home. One of the guests, my friend Alex Almaraz, of Chicago, sent me photographs and wrote of the great time all had enjoyed, of the graciousness of hosts Jerry and Jean Bails. It’s a long way back to those days and passing years have thinned the ranks of those who were part of early comics fandom. In November of 2006 they were further thinned when we lost our friend, the man who, justifiably so, has been acknowledged as the Father of Comics Fandom.

Dwight Decker “A longtime fan who now translates European-produced comic book stories featuring certain well-known ducks and mice.” [NOTE: Dwight’s comments, reproduced here with permission, were written as a short piece on JGB in perspective, in the fanzine CAPA-alpha. “CAPA” stands for “Comics amateur press alliance.”] Jerry Bails was not only the founder of this very organization but the co-founder of comics fandom back in the early ’60s. (The other co-founder being everyone else involved in the early days.) Since he was a college professor at a time when comic books were considered by most people to be subliterate trash for MoronAmericans, he was an articulate and credible spokesman for the burgeoning fandom when

reporters came to call, and did us proud. I only met him once (at Bill Schelly’s breakfast get-together for oldtime comics fans at a Chicago convention in 1997), and then only had a chance to ask him who had come up with the term “Golden Age of Comics.” (He didn’t remember, but it wasn’t him, he said, having always preferred “First Heroic Age of Comics.”) However, he mostly had his effects during the first few years. By the time I got into comics fandom in 1967, it took me a while even to hear of him, and even then it was already in historical terms as one of the founders of the comics fandom but not longer conspicuously active. His major project in years to come was his Who’s Who, and even that was largely behind the scenes. If there are future historians who really dig into the story of comics fandom’s beginnings (and there are already disputes), they might ponder these points about Dr. Bails…. He was a comics fan first and foremost, not someone primarily active in the already existing science-fiction fandom indulging a side interest (like the Thompsons and Richard Lupoff). Further, Bails and his merry crew were interested mainly in super-heroes, and in particular the super-heroes of their World War II era youth. Modern comics interested them relatively little, except as their favorite Golden Age super-heroes were revived. Early comics fandom was a childhood nostalgia society collecting mainly what are now called Golden Age comics books (then around twenty years old and relatively obtainable). One interpretation of fandom’s development since then might be that it has grown up and out of Bails’ original narrow focus on ’40s superheroes. Golden Age comics became rarer and harder to find, and thus more expensive; younger fans who had cut their teeth on modern comics and didn’t remember the ’40s started coming in…. When I came along in 1967, I was mainly mystified by the emphasis in older fanzines on All-Star Comics and the Justice Society of America—that stuff may have been somebody’s nostalgia, but it certainly wasn’t mine. But fandom had to start somewhere, and Bails

Dr. Bails, Meet Dr. Wertham Al Dellinges, another longtime correspondent of Jerry’s, sent this 1985 photo of JGB and his son Kirk (then 13)—and Al’s own cartoon, which depicts Jerry getting rid of some potentially pernicious influences on his offspring. Both photo and cartoon appeared in Al’s fanzine Near Mint #39 (1987). One of the issue’s highlights was an article by Jerry entitled “Reflections of a 53-Year-Old Comics Fan in Pursuit of Joy.” Perhaps Al’s cartoon is a response to Jerry’s statement therein that: “Comics, like other mass media, have produced excesses in content that have bothered even my jaded sensibilities.” [Art ©2007 Al Dellinges.]

Homages To A Man Who Deserves Them All—And More

gave it something to build on. The fact that Bails didn’t come out of science-fiction fandom even had its effect on CAPA-alpha. The story I’ve been told is that Bails had heard of the sf-fandom apas and wanted to start one for comics, but he didn’t really know how they worked and had to improvise somewhat. That’s one reason why we have a Central Mailer when the term in sf apas is Official Editor. His original vision seems to have been more than of some kind of fanzine exchange and forum where the serious business of comics fandom could be conducted, not the chummy club it became. Other features of traditional apas like mailing comments were introduced over time by members who were sf fans and had experience with sf apas, and k-a was eventually remodeled to resemble an sf apa.

Murray Ward Writer/editor of Eclipse’s 1980s DC Comics Index series, contributor to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Master Edition, writer of the X-Men Index and Avengers Index (2nd series) from Marvel in the 1990s. Roy: I was just reading the bios in the back of the new Avengers Marvel Masterworks, Vol. 6, when I spotted a reference in yours to you and Jerry Bails as “fans and fellow teenagers.” I almost got up to e-mail Jerry about it and give him a laugh… and then I remembered for the dozenth time in the past month that I can’t do that anymore. Damn! Oh, well, maybe it’ll give you a chuckle, as well. Unless I’m remembering wrong, you and Jerry were seven years apart in age, so technically speaking you can’t ever have been teenagers at the same time. I remember our respective ages because Jerry was just barely old enough to have been my father (18 years my senior), while you were born the same year as All-Star Comics, and I was born the year the JSA gave way to All-Star Western. I first knew of Jerry Bails as the editor of Alter-Ego back in the ’60s, and started corresponding with him on and off sometime in the mid-’70s, but had never met him. I had never made it to a comics convention until the 1980 San Diego Comic-Con. I was 29, but just as excited as I would have been back when I started collecting comics as a kid. When Jerry wrote that he and his family would be attending the 1981 con and that he’d like to meet me, I was ecstatic! After just one San Diego Con, I felt like a veteran, and as Jerry said he’d never been to one, I figured I’d be one of several people showing him around. Little did I realize at the time that Jerry had worked with Shel Dorf in starting the Detroit Triple Fan Fair, which led into the San Diego Con, so he wasn’t the new kid in town so much as he was revisiting an early creation. Just before I left home, Jerry wrote to say that he’d inveigled the Con organizers into including me, along with himself, on a panel on one of our mutual passions, All-Star Comics. Having taught as a college professor for years, Jerry had no problem addressing an audience, but I hadn’t ever done anything like this and I was scared stiff. Jerry never put on airs (he insisted on being addressed as “Jerry” and never “Dr. Bails”), but at the same time he regarded everyone as a

There’s More Than Bluebirds Over The White Cliffs Of Dover! Murray Bishoff poses, some years back, with his own Inkpot Award from the San Diego Comic-Con; photo by Alan Light. Murray speaks of his and Jerry Bails’ shared love for the Justice Society—so, since all of All-Star Comics is now back in print, here’s a depiction of the JSA’s origin as retold in America vs. the Justice Society #1 (Jan. 1985) by Roy Thomas (writer), Rafael Kayanan (penciler), & Alfredo Alcala (inker). The group’s origin, of course, hadn’t been revealed until 1977. Thanks to Dominic Bongo for retrieving this scan of original art from Heritage Comics’ Archives. [©2007 DC Comics.]

potential student. I’m sure he thought he was doing me a great favor and that I’d have such a good time that I’d become a regular fixture on panels in the future. For my part, I was just glad that the panel was on a topic I knew a lot about and that Jerry would be there to back me up. Well, the time came and we met (I remember Jerry was wearing a Tshirt and suspenders on which he had fastened buttons bearing the names and likenesses of all the JSA members), and then it was time for the panel. However, somewhere along the way, the topic had been changed to something like “What It’s Like Being a Fan and Then Becoming a Pro” I recall thinking that if there had been one more member on the panel, they could have called it “The Seven Ages of Fan(dom).” Jerry took the change in stride, but I was tongue-tied at the sudden switch and couldn’t think of anything to say. On the panel were myself as a fan who had gone on to write for fanzines; Jerry as the Big Name Fan who hadn’t gone on to make comics his career, only his hobby; Don Glut as the fan who had gone on to become a comics writer; Mike Friedrich as the fan who had gone

Tributes To Jerry G. Bails

Jerry and I talked a lot about the same comics stuff we’d been discussing in letters. In retrospect, I think Jerry was talking with me to the exclusion of his family, but he never made my presence seem a bother. We eventually ended up back at his hotel room, still talking, and then I looked at the time and realized I was probably keeping Kirk, if not Jerry and Jean, up past bedtime, and I excused myself, telling Jerry I’d see him again at the Inkpot Awards ceremony. He said he wasn’t sure he was going to attend, but I said, “You have to! They’re going to give you an award for sure! Jerry pooh-poohed the whole notion, but he got talked into going anyway. Of course, I was right, and as Jerry stepped down from the dais with his award, I caught his eye and said, “See? I told you so!” Jerry had made it plain he didn’t intend to make con-going a regular thing, so it was a complete surprise when, the following year, I ran into him and Kirk in a hotel lobby at the Chicago Con. Kirk was a bug on geography and other cities at the time, so Jerry had agreed to make the trip more to show his son the city of the big shoulders than to be a part of the convention. Again we ended up talking a blue streak in his room, but this time I tried to keep from upstaging Kirk and only ran into him and Jerry a couple more times later in the conventions. Little did I know that Jerry and I would never meet again, although we continued to correspond enthusiastically for another quarter century. I was one of the early members of his Global Village apa when it was still on paper instead of on line, and he was largely instrumental in getting me into computers back when hardly anyone owned a PC. Years later, my wife Laurie would become a member of the online Global Village and would write to Jerry even more often than I did, a correspondence she now continues with Jean.

Another “Swell Bunch Of Guys” As a kid in the 1940s, Jerry—like many another comics reader before and especially since—made up his own heroes, including his own answer to the JSA: The Crimefighters. By the way, the two whose names are cut off at the bottom of the scan are The Human Fly and The Clown. Thanks to Jean Bails. [©2007 estate of Jerry G. Bails.]

on to become a comics writer, publisher, and agent; Roy Thomas as the fan who had gone on to become a comics writer and editor; and Julius Schwartz as the science-fiction fan who had gone on to become an agent and a legendary editor. Yikes! Jerry, Roy, and Julie! What was little me doing on a panel with gods? How did I let Jerry talk me into this? As a result of being almost paralyzed with fear at the time, I don’t recall much of what was said on the panel. I remember when it was my turn to speak, I tried to draw a parallel between comics fandom and science-fiction fandom, then and now. For example, when Julie was an sf fan, it was possible to follow the entire field by subscribing to the major magazines, but now there were fans attending the Worldcon who didn’t know much beyond Star Trek and Star Wars—just as, when I was a young comics fan, it was also pretty easy to follow the entire field, but today there were fans on this very conventions who only read Daredevil and Cerebus. Everyone listened politely, then it was off to the next panelist and I don’t think they ever got back to me (thank goodness). Suddenly (it seemed to me), the event was over and we were getting up to go. Carol Kalish was sitting in the front row and I tossed her my little camera and she tried to snap the historic gathering as it broke up but only got two or three of us in the frame. Too bad I hadn’t thought of having someone snap us before the panel! As I resumed breathing normally, I thanked Jerry for getting me up there, and he in turn invited me to have supper with his family. I don’t remember what we ate, but when Jerry, Jean, and Kirk (only a little guy at the time) went sightseeing in the harbor, I was invited along, and

Jerry was an amazing guy, and although we didn’t agree on everything, I’m proud and lucky to have had the opportunity to know him.

Daniel Best Australian comics fan/collector, and author of Andru and Esposito: Partners for Life. I never met Jerry Bails, but I knew him. Growing up in Elizabeth, South Australia, a large part of my life was devoted to reading, both books and comic books. I’d buy a comic book, yet have no idea where they came from, although I came to recognize some names over time. Some of my happiest memories are of wet and cold Saturday mornings when I’d cycle my push bike down to the local library and buy 20 books for a dollar, and then off to a second-hand book shop where they’d sell me comics 10 for a dollar—then I’d find a tree, sit down, and try to read the lot before I got soaked. In early 1984 my world changed when I came across a treasure trove of history in a library sale in the form of [such books as] Panel by Panel by John Ryan, All in Color for a Dime by Lupoff & Thompson, and The International Book of Comics by Denis Gifford. They also had a lovely pile of old fanzines, including Amazing Heroes, The Comic Reader, FOOM, and Alter Ego. Needless to say, I bought the lot. Once I’d digested all of this, I became aware of several names, but two stuck with me—Roy Thomas (whose name I recognized from some of my favorite Marvel comics) and Jerry Bails. Flash forward to the late 1990s. I had gotten back into reading both comic books and about comic books. Over the years I’d lost my collection, comics, magazines, and books (my ex-wife had thrown them out after she threw me out), and was slowly replacing them (I still am). One winter’s day I discovered a copy of Bill Schelly’s The Golden Age of Comic Fandom. Home it came and I cracked it open. Winter still brings me the best books.

Author Topline

What a book! Again two names screamed at me—Roy and Jerry. I’d never realized how important Jerry had been in those early days of comic book fandom. As I became more active in the field of comic book research, I found myself on a few Internet mailing lists. Then one day I happened to send a question out regarding a Who’s Who listing—and nearly fell off my chair when I got an e-mail back from Dr Jerry Bails. I replied, asking, “Is this the Jerry Bails?” and got an e-mail back saying that this was the only Jerry Bails the writer knew of. That started a correspondence between Jerry and me that I still treasure. We spoke about all things comic book-related. We chatted about John Ryan (Jerry and John had corresponded back in the day) and Panel by Panel. We spoke about the Who’s Who, Roy Thomas, and Alter Ego. We spoke about Bill Schelly’s book, and Jerry recommended other books and magazines that I sought out. We spoke about artists and writers that we both knew. I was in heaven, and each e-mail had that closing line, “Bestest!” I came to understand that Jerry liked wordplay and loved humor in general. To me, that someone of Jerry’s stature would take time out of his day to e-mail and not just with one-line answers… well, that was incredible.

“Two Cases Of Conscience” Glen Johnson (pictured below in the mid-1960s) was interviewed by Bill Schelly in A/E #51 & 52. But, though Biljo White’s lead illo for his above-named article on two “Justice Society” stories was printed in #52, this BJW drawing (approximating a scene from 1945’s All-Star #24) hasn’t been seen since Alter Ego [Vol. 1] #8 in 1965. Jerry was proud to see Roy, Glen, Biljo, and others continuing the fanzine he had begun in 1961. [Characters TM & ©2007 DC Comics.]

In September of this year [2006] I took the plunge for the second (and last) time and got married. The news leaked out onto a few mailing lists (not that it was a state secret), and the congratulations came in thick and fast. Then came an e-mail from Jerry. It read in part that he was happy I’d gotten married and wished me all good things for the future. Then came the (ahem) best

part, as Jerry closed the e-mail by saying that everyone should join him in “wishing the Bestest to the Bests!” Out of all the greetings I got, that one was above them all. I like to think that Jerry chuckled as he had a play on words that he might never have been able to do before. It made both me and my wife Lyndal giggle, as well—it was a beautiful comment and it perfectly in nature with the very informal wedding we had. I miss Jerry. That’ll never change. In a short time I made a chum for like, and in my deepest hours he was always there with a kind word, a pick-me-up, and encouragement. No matter how bad things got, Jerry was able to remind me that things can and do get better—and they have. Each day I feel a little sadder as e-mails come in, but there’ll be no more e-mails from him. Jerry touched a lot of people in the world, and that’s the best part—Jerry was global! I think he knew how appreciated and loved he was on all parts f the globe, but I doubt he’d have admitted it. I never met Jerry, but I’m proud to have known him.

Glen Johnson Fanzine writer and editor of The Comic Reader in the 1960s, as well as teacher. I really liked Jerry Bails. I always felt that he was my mentor. My first contact with him was in an early issue of Justice League of America, probably in 1960. In the letters page he mentioned having a complete run of All-Star Comics, featuring the Justice Society of America. Although I had never collected All-Star, I clearly remembered the Justice Society, which had ended only nine years earlier, so Jerry’s statement really caught my attention.

Hasen At Her Call One of the artists to whom Jerry wrote one of his earliest letters seeking information for the Who’s Who was “Erwin Hasen”—actually “Irwin,” of course. JGB was a big admirer of the zest Hasen brought to the JSA circa 1946-47. And Irwin’s still at it, both in this 2001 sketch done for Gillian, the future Mrs. John Moores, and at numerous comics conventions right up to the present. [Dr. Mid-Nite TM & ©2007 DC Comics.]

Almost immediately, I wrote him asking if I might borrow a few copies at a time to read those treasures from bygone days. A very quick response followed my inquiry. He apologized for not being willing to part with the All-Star Comics he treasured so highly, and instead sent a copy of the just-published fanzine Alter-Ego #1 and a listing of old comics for sale. On the list were a dozen issues of All-Star Comics. Two of the oldest issues were #15 and 18, which I ordered. At that time I’d been married about two years, I was still in college, we had a twomonth-old son, and money was very tight. My wife thought I was out of my mind spending $10 on two comic books!

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As time went on, Jerry introduced one new idea after another so quickly. As with Alter-Ego, he would then turn these projects over to other enthusiastic fans and go on to the next project. One of the first of these ideas was On the Drawing Board, which became The Comic Reader. Both were 4- to 6-page newsletters which contained news of upcoming comics. After a few issues, Jerry looked for someone to turn this project over to, and I volunteered. I didn’t always keep in close touch with Jerry, but when I did, he was always quick to answer my letters. I will really miss him greatly.

David Hajdu Staff critic for The New Republic, who has written about comics for The New York Times Book Review, BookForum, and The New York Review of Books; his book The Ten-Cent Plague: Comic Books, Crime, Kids, and the Birth of Postwar Popular Culture will be published this fall. Like many people involved in comics history, I knew Jerry mainly as an e-mail friend. When I decided to write a book about pre-Code comics, Jerry was one of the first people I contacted, and scarcely a week went by over the next seven years without some exchange between us. No question was too big or too small for Jerry, though his great strength was his interest in the big stuff—the issues beneath the minutiae. He knew who did what and when, but what he really cared about was why. He deepened my understanding of comics profoundly, and, as far as I can tell, he elevated much of the discourse on the subject. My favorite evidence of this was his habit of deftly changing the subject in GCD [Grand Comic-Book Database] threads. He prodded us all to do better by thinking harder. He was the guardian angel of my research, and I’ll always be in his debt.

Howard Siegel Comics collector, contributor to The Marvel Vault. He writes that “Jerry taught me that there was more to the story and art than the splash page.” (The following is from a note to Jean Bails written on Nov. 28, 2006.] Many of the tributes to Jerry that have been posted on the Internet from his legion of admirers and friends make mention of Jerry’s unique sense of humor. My last communiqué with the “Professor” (explanation below) was as follows: HOWARD: “Hey, Professor, I’ll trade you my H.G. Wells time machine for your Gardner Fox All-Star collection.” JERRY: “If your time machine was working, you wouldn’t need to trade with me!” (Many years ago, I did a profile on Jerry for my column in Rocket’s Blast-Comicollector. Jerry told me that he was an associate professor of natural sciences at Wayne State University. From then on, I called him “Professor.”)

Gerry Sorek Comics collector and member of 1960s comics fandom. I first met Jerry Bails when I discovered through a comic book letters page that he lived reasonably nearby. In subsequent visits to his unpretentious home (in actuality, the secret treasure vault of an

Secrets Behind The Secret Origins David Hajdu has also written about such pulp icons as Bob Dylan and Joan Baez—but his forthcoming book on pre-Comics Code comic books will carry him into new territory. Like, the fact that, from his very start in Adventure Comics #48 (March 1940), The Hour-Man was clearly a substance abuser! [Art ©2007 DC Comics.]

unbelievable Golden Age collection), I was: relieved, that he was always willing to answer all this young novice’s silly questions; amazed, that he would very generously allow someone he was only beginning to know to take home to read several important collector’s items that were, even in those days, relatively very valuable; surprised, that someone could identify artists’ styles (or, back then, that someone even cared to try) by something as minor as the way they drew an ear, back in those times when much creative work was still often anonymous; awestruck, that someone had the initiative and nerve to actually get in touch with, and get to know personally, talented producers like the legendary Gardner Fox and the great Julie Schwartz; bewildered, when in one of his early zine’s credits, he “promoted” me to something like editorial assistant, for nothing more than helping assemble the pages or record data; overwhelmed, that he would turn his house into a convention center filled with other comics fans (there were others!) to tally the first fan awards; appropriately impressed, when he would proudly show the storage area for his many vintage comics (imagine, someone actually had a place set aside just for his collection). Back then, I was impressed by just the fact that anyone else took this crazy hobby so seriously—and insist that it could, even should be acceptable among adults. In the many mentions he’s received in various fan forums, he’s nearly always referred to as the Father of Comics Fandom. Rightfully

Homages To A Man Who Deserves Them All—And More

From Out Of The Past… Gerry Sorek (top, in 1968 photo), Mike Gold (center) and Ray Bottorff, Jr., are three more of the multitude who were touched by Jerry’s energy and generosity. As one example of that energy—Bails sometimes drew covers for Alter-Ego and his other magazines, including this one for CAPA-alpha #6 (March 1965). Of course, he may have found a black-&-white copy of a Lone Ranger drawing somewhere for the dream image shown here. [Lone Ranger TM & ©2007 Lone Ranger Television, Inc., a subsidiary of Palladium Media Enterprises, Inc., or successors in interest.]

so, despite the credit owed to pioneers like Dick Lupoff and Don and Maggie Thompson. But to me, Jerry was more of an Apostle of Comics Fandom. Rather than just presiding at the birth of those projects and so many others, he was a mentor to the entire fan community. His mission was to get something started, get people involved, and then move on to something else that consumed his interest and his boundless enthusiasm. Jerry was sometimes faulted for abandoning a project and moving on, but he wasn’t into permanently establishing a domain over something. His task was to show people what should be done and how to do it, then let someone else capably continue it while he lent his talent to some new direction. Some sort of lasting tribute to Jerry Bails seems appropriate, in thanks for all he accomplished, and helped others accomplish. I’m proud to have been a friend of Jerry Bails.

Mike Gold

This is very difficult to write. Jerry was someone whom I didn’t always agree with. At times his letters frustrated me, but he was always such a wonderful gentleman, never letting a debate become an argument. He taught me that the hobby I love so much has a meaningful history, that he was not only proud of, but one I should be proud of, too. I was honored when he asked me to help him flesh out some of the credits in his Who’s Who. I’ll miss him. My best to his family and to all that were close to him. We’ve all lost a father and a friend.

Former editor of DC Comics and First Comics. For once in my life, I don’t know what to say. Jerry was a friend, a mentor, an educator, and a leader. He was, and will always be, the spirit of progress and sanity.

Ray Bottorff, Jr. Long-time friend of Jerry’s, and current Editor and Board member (Chairman Emeritus) of the Grand Comic-Book Database Project (GCD, at www.comics.org)… currently working on his Master’s degree at Wayne State University, where his Master’s thesis will cover comics-related paperbacks (which Ray calls “ComicBacks”). In my short life I have only had the pleasure to know a couple of people whom I could consider larger than life. Jerry was one of them. And it wasn’t because he was this large personality that you would know each time they entered a room. Instead, he was one of the most modest people I ever met. His selflessness and generosity was amazing, and even more amazing as I read these e-mails that are coming in about so many acts of kindness he did. It’s a huge loss for us—not just for comic book fans, but also for having someone in our lives whose compassion for people was real and genuine.

Lou Mazzella Secretary to the Board of Directors of the Grand Comic-Book Database Project.

Steven Rowe Mental health counselor living in Hartsville, South Carolina… and a senior editor of The Who’s Who of American Comic Books… who points out that he’s “the guy who ended up with Jerry’s copy of Alter-Ego #1… not so much to brag about, that (Jerry did remove the staples to make it less valuable),” but as a token of their friendship. I’ve known Jerry through the mails for around 35 years. He humored me at times, corrected me at times, listened (as much as one can via mail) to me at times, and then forced me to get an Internet connection. I considered him a friend and mentor. And, without question, he was a great man.

Joan Schenkar Playwright and biographer (Truly Wilde: The Unsettling Story of Dolly Wilde, Oscar Wilde’s Unusual Niece) and author of a forthcoming book about novelist/screenwriter Patricia Highsmith, who wrote comic books in the 1940s. Sent via Jim Amash. In March of 2002, during the course of researching my forthcoming biography of Patricia Highsmith, The Talented Miss Highsmith (pub. St. Martin’s Press, end of 2007), I had the good luck to be put in touch with Jerry Bails, comics scholar and gentleman. Not only did Jerry send me all the information he had on Highsmith, but he disseminated my questions to a list of serious comics collectors without being asked.

Tributes To Jerry G. Bails

Conventions And Conclaves (Above:) Comics conventions, Jerry felt even in the early 1960s, were one of the things necessary to make fandom a coherent force. He’d have enjoyed the Heroes Con held each year in Charlotte, North Carolina; here we see (l. to r.) Yance Parrish, Bob Bailey, Steven Rowe, & Bob Beerbohm at the 2006 bash. Thanks to Steven Rowe. (Right:) But of course Jerry enjoyed equally the meetings of JSA heroes and villains—as when Solomon Grundy took on Hourman, Dr. Fate, and Green Lantern in Showcase #55 (May-June 1965). Repro’d from a photocopy of the original art, courtesy of Mike W. Barr & Tom Horvitz. [©2007 DC Comics.]

I feel lucky to have met Jerry, even in cyberspace. Like all admirers of the comic book, I am greatly in his debt and was very sorry indeed to hear of his passing. Jerry Bails’ efforts to preserve the living history of the comic book cannot be overestimated: he was a real super-hero.

personally, just through letters in the ’80s and e-mails now. He was the apotheosis of what fandom is and should always be—helping one another. Jerry, you were the Bestest guy I ever “met”! You will be sorely missed, and I will miss our great e-mail conversations.

Lance “Doc” Boucher

Ted White

“Head” of Inter-Fan Productions Ink! (founded by Steve Clements) and current overseer of The Who’s Who of American Comic Books (1929-1999) website.

Science-fiction and comics fan who was one of the earliest members of comics fandom… later a professional sf writer (and author of the 1968 Captain America paperback novel The Great Gold Steal) and editor of Amazing sf pulp, et al.

Either Jerry Bails was a man who didn’t realize his impact on comics, or he was just a modest guy who only thought he was doing what someone else would have done anyway. I never met the man

I can’t claim to have known Jerry as well as many others, but I did have the distinction of knowing him early on. I was on his mailing list for Alter-Ego #1. The irony is that we reconnected this year, on an e-list, where I very much enjoyed what Jerry wrote. His was no longer a “fanboy” attitude. He had a genuine appreciation for the intellectual and for serious thought. On November 16th, Jerry wrote me, after responding to an on-list post of mine, “It is probably just as well that my death is near. I find the non-intellectual character of the post-modern world depressing. Such fear of dealing with ideas, and getting beyond ‘I like this; I don’t like that.’ Subjectivity is something I hadn’t expected to find so much of in the 21st century. I find it pretty boring, as well as depressing.

Monthly! The Original First-Person History!

Mr. Sandman, Send Me A Dream… Doc Boucher (shown on left at the beach with wife Krista) became acquainted with Jerry Bails only in the 1980s, while Ted White (above right, in 1967 with then-wife Robin) was “on his mailing list for Alter-Ego #1”—but both recognize his contribution to the preservation of the history of comic books and their creators. For example, without Jerry’s pioneering work, fandom might not today honor Creig Flessel, who was one of the pioneer pros, contributing early DC covers—including the very first ones featuring The Sandman. Creig drew the masthead illo for Robin Snyder’s magazine The Comics! [Sandman TM & ©2007 DC Comics.]

Write to: Robin Snyder, 3745 Canterbury Lane #81, Bellingham, WA 98225-1186

Homages To A Man Who Deserves Them All—And More

It’s Not Easy Being Green (Lantern) One of Jerry’s great passions was identifying those who had drawn Golden Age artwork—and here’s one case where he could’ve been of considerable help! This never-published “Green Lantern” splash, found on the web by Dominic Bongo, was apparently slated at one time for the never-published Green Lantern #39 (the 1940s mag was discontinued with #38)—and it was ID’d on the site as being by Alex Toth! Although the inker can’t be 100% identified, there’s no doubt that the actual penciler was Carmine Infantino! 1991 photo of Jerry courtesy of Jean Bails. [Green Lantern TM & ©2007 DC Comics.]

“As one of my earliest correspondents in fandom, I just wanted to say ‘so long,’ and I enjoyed your ‘right-on’ critique of Alter-Ego #1. It was the first genuinely honest reply I got, and I always remembered it.” Subsequently, in a later post to me, Jerry said, “I’ll probably drop from the Atlas-Marvel list. I was just on it at the urging of Doc V. I’m really not a collector, and the discussions are too restrictive for my taste.” He knew his death was near. That shocked me, but it shouldn’t have. I hope I can face my own end as unflinchingly and as clearheadedly. And I wish I’d had more time to reacquaint myself with Jerry. Good-bye, Jerry. You will be missed.

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Mr. Monster’s Comics Crypt!

Alter-Ego’s Baby Brother! by Michael T. Gilbert Jerry Bails’ importance as the “Father of Fandom” cannot be overstated. His accomplishments are simply too numerous to list in this brief space (and, luckily for us, have been covered earlier in this issue by others). For better or worse, Jerry sowed the seeds for much of what later grew into modern comic fandom. Take, for example, the first issue of The Comicollector, reprinted in its entirety over the course of the eight pages of this edition of Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! The Comicollector began in September 1961 as a spin-off of the original Alter-Ego magazine, which Jerry had started six months earlier. Its “baby brother,” if you will.

A Nose For News In this era of media overkill, from Wizard magazine to endless comic book websites, it’s hard to imagine how hard it was to find information about comics in fandom’s early days. Jerry helped fill that void by cultivating friendships with Gardner Fox, Julie Schwartz, and other pros, then collecting news about their comics. Though primarily conceived as an adzine, The Comicollector also ran other features, such as Jerry’s “On the Drawing Board,” which first appeared in Alter-Ego #1. This column offered a peek at upcoming comic books—something that thrilled news-starved fans of the day. On The Drawing Board went solo in October 1961, mostly in the form of single-page news bulletins. Six months later, it morphed into The Comic Reader, a full-fledged “newszine,” and under new editors became the industry’s foremost news magazine throughout the ’60s and ’70s.

Alter-Ego’s Baby Brother!

The Researcher If Jerry was interested in comics still “on the drawing board,” he was equally fascinated by comic book history. Today, researchers can flip through The Overstreet Price Guide, Ernie Gerber’s Photo-Journal books, or even do a bit of Google-ing, and discover the most arcane comic book trivia. In the early ’60s, such information was almost non-existent. Jerry began gathering data on comics and their creators in the early ’50s, and never stopped. His greatest achievement may be the Who’s Who of American Comic Books, which contained credits for virtually every major American comic book creator.

Mr. Monster’s Comics Crypt!

Jerry and Hames Ware completed this fourvolume set in 1976—with a greatly expanded version going online a little over two decades later. The Who’s Who of American Comic Books (1928-1999) remains an invaluable research resource—one Jerry continued to update as recently as a month before his death. As part of his data-gathering process, Jerry personally microfilmed over half a million comic book pages, sharing his knowledge in fanzines like Alter-Ego and The Comicollector. His efforts were instrumental in the creation of The Overstreet Price Guide, now the industry’s standard. Jerry didn’t work alone, of course. Other early “panelologists” (as he called them!) also helped to expand our knowledge of the field. Hames Ware, Roy Thomas, Dick Lupoff, Don and Maggie Thompson, Bill Spicer, Larry Ivie, John Benson, Fred Von Bernewitz, Ron Goulart, and Howard Keltner were among those early researchers. But Jerry was perhaps the most single-minded of all.

“Heap” splash from Airboy Comics, Vol. 6, #9 (Oct. 1949). Art credited to Paul Reinman, who’d drawn “Green Lantern” in the mid-’40s. Why The Heap? See p. 52! [©2007 the respective copyright holders.] Maybe The Atom “appeared quite irregularly from 1945 to 1948,” but when his series was canceled, several earlier stories were left on the shelf. The above panels are from a neverpublished Mighty Mite tale drawn circa 1945-46 by Joe Gallagher. Dominic Bongo retrieved it from the Heritage Comics Archives. [©2007 DC Comics.]

Alter-Ego’s Baby Brother!

Wheeling & Dealing Long before the advent of the Comics Buyer’s Guide and eBay, ads in The Comicollector helped fans buy and trade old comics. A young Roy Thomas was among those selling comics, often at prices that seem absurdly cheap today. Of course, one has to take into account that in 1961 the Golden Age was little more than a decade old. Still, seen through modern eyes, this ad for Young Men #25 and 26, offered by Roy for 50¢ each, seems almost too good to be true. I recently asked Roy about his 1961 ad, and offered to take those moldy comics off his hands for 50¢ each. His reply: “Actually, I do still have those copies of YOUNG MEN #25-26 (along with #24, 27-28), but they’re in this bound volume with MEN’S ADVENTURES #27-28 and a bit hard to pull out, so I guess I’ll have to hang onto them for a while longer.” Drat! And I guess I’ll have to settle for a newly-minted Marvel Masterwork reprint!

Mr. Monster’s Comics Crypt!

A Fantastic Article, Too! Speaking of Roy, we think you’ll enjoy this little comics review, written by Alter Ego’s editor 46 years ago, when he was a lad of twenty. Roy, intrigued by the first issue of a new comic called The Fantastic Four, wrote his review for Alter-Ego. Instead, Jerry printed it in the first issue of The Comicollector, possibly because there weren’t enough ads to fill that first issue. It was certainly a nice bonus for the readers. Roy’s comments about Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s fantastic new comic hold up today. His suggestion that The Sub-Mariner make an appearance (a mere three issues before he actually did!) seems downright prescient. Or maybe Jerry sent a copy to Stan, who liked Roy’s idea. It’s fun to speculate. Ironically, a decade after penning this piece, Roy began scripting Fantastic Four, becoming the second writer since Stan Lee to do so. (Archie Goodwin became the second, only because Stan had asked Roy to take over Amazing Spider-Man for four issues, and, though he preferred the FF to Spidey, Roy couldn’t do both.) Funny how things worked out.

In Showcase #7 (Jan.-Feb. 1957), The Challengers of the Unknown form a team in a manner not unlike what the F.F. would do, nearly half a decade later. Script by Dave Wood—pencils by Jack Kirby—inks by Roz Kirby & Marvin Stein. [©2007 DC Comics.]

Alter-Ego’s Baby Brother!

Roy Thomas, Spain, Oct. 2001. (That’s wife Dann in the background.)

Mr. Monster’s Comics Crypt!

And it’s funny to think how things worked out for The Comicollector. In the decades since Jerry mailed out that first issue of Alter-Ego’s baby brother, sales of comics have exploded. Fans today can purchase their four-color treasures at conventions, online, and through periodicals devoted to the subject. My, how the baby’s grown! And so has The Comicollector. What began humbly enough as the tiny 9-page adzine you see here changed radically over the years. By 1962, Jerry decided to work on other projects and passed the reins to others. But the groundwork had been firmly set. From there, The Comicollector was absorbed into Gordon (G.B.) Love’s fanzine, The Rocket’s Blast. The two titles merged into a single title, The Rocket’s Blast/Comicollector, beginning with issue #29 (April 1964). Under Love’s guidance the RB-CC soon became the industry’s premier adzine. James Van Hise came on board in 1970, as Love’s assistant editor. Four years later he bought the magazine, and continued publishing it until issue #151 in October 1980, when it was taken over by Hal Shuster’s New Media Publishing, who printed the final two issues. When RB-CC’s #153 came out in 1983, the magazine finally ended an impressive 21-year run. But it wasn’t over yet! James Van Hise revived the magazine in 2000, publishing an additional four issues throughout 2003. More recently, he also produced a special “best of” collection. That’s an awful lot of magazines—and all because of the tiny seed Jerry Bails planted way back in 1961! Till next issue...

Next month: Still more BOB POWELL! But while you’re anxiously waiting, check out my blog at: michaeltgilbert.com

The greatest father-and-son hero team in comics returns soon in the pages of CHAMPIONS #38! It’s an electrifying adventure you won’t want to miss!

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“We Were A Wonderful Match!” An Interview With HAMES WARE—Jerry Bails’ Co-Editor Of The 1970s Who’s Who Of American Comic Books Conducted by Jim Amash

Transcribed by Brian K. Morris

ames Ware is better known to comics historians than he realizes. Among his many other accomplishments, Hames was the co-editor (with publisher Jerry Bails, of course) of the original fourvolume Who’s Who of American Comic Books. This seminal work has provided comics historians the necessary foundation for much of the work that has followed its original publication. Hames has never been one to toot his own horn; but now, finally, he goes on record to describe Who’s Who’s On First! the origins of the Who’s Who Jerry Bails (left) and Hames Ware in the summer of project. Even though this issue ’71, hard at work on the original four-volume focuses on Jerry Bails, Hames was edition of The Who’s Who of American Comic long overdue for an interview, so Books… flanked by the cover of Airboy Comics, Vol. we decided to make him talk about 9, #10 (Nov. 1952), featuring the work of an artist himself, too, whether he wanted to they nearly missed—Ernie Schroeder, who drew both or not! It’s a revealing look into his “Airboy” and “The Heap” during those features’ working relationship with Jerry and later years, as well as many other comics stories. Hames even recalls once finding an issue of Airboy beyond, so I’ll shut up and let you lying on a hedge outside a hospital window. Now get to the good stuff. I got him that’s fate! Photo courtesy of HW, taken by Jean started by asking him about his Bails. [Art ©2007 the respective copyright holders.] early interest in comics, and how that led to his involvement with remember taking it off the hedge and looking at it. It was [Airboy Jerry on the 1970s Who’s Who. —Jim. Comics with] “The Heap,” drawn by Ernie Schroeder. Of course at the time, nobody knew who Ernie Schroeder was! HAMES WARE: When I was six years old, my uncle gave me a My granddad gave me a lot of old unused ledgers which I used to subscription to Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories. I was excited each catalogue my comics. I began to teach myself how to draw by looking month when it appeared in the mailbox, because the work inside was so at the comics, and fortunately in the 4th and 5th grades I had the good great. It made me want to read more comics. fortune to sit beside classmate Mercer Mayer, who as you know is one I got a lot of Dell Comics because they were family comics. That’s of the great modern-day children’s book illustrators. Mercer was great pretty much what my family bought when they let us have comic even then, and I learned a lot just by watching him draw. Just last year books. My granddad was a doctor. He had a farm, about 350 acres, a number of my drawings were collected together and some sold at a with a lake on it. I spent most of my summers there. At night, I sat by local gallery, and I thought that was neat. the fire and read comic books. Comics mostly came into play when it I had favorite artists. I began to learn their styles and how to was winter, and I had to stay indoors or if I was sick, so they provided associate names with the styles. I just had a knack for identifying styles an outlet. of the artists, and I’d write their names down. And if their names A lot of friends’ moms periodically threw out their kids’ comics, weren’t there, I’d look for “sneaks.” I began to hone my abilities to which was traditional for the time. Every time I heard that a friend was look for hidden signatures or initials on license plates, stuff like that. It going to have his comics thrown out, I would collect their comics became a game. I built up a number of ledgers with this information: before they were thrown away. I kind-of got the reputation that, if you publisher by publisher, what artist worked for what publisher, what had a bunch of old comics to throw away, just give Hames a call—he’ll years they worked, etc. Then I discovered girls and my interest in come and get them. So I began this collection of assorted comic books, comics waned. Incidentally, just as classmate Mercer Mayer went on to though I never did have any ECs or other horror comics. Those just fame and fortune, Rhonda, the great early love of my life, went on to weren’t allowed in my household, but I had a wealthy friend who was be a Miss Arkansas, and starred on Broadway in The Robber allowed to have everything he wanted. And part of what he had were Bridegroom. We’re still very close, and I’m proud of that and of her. EC Comics, which I read at his house. She wrote a hit song for Jimmy Buffet, and worked with most of the Saturday Night Live gang on various projects... she sang at John They were scary and I really didn’t have any desire to buy them, but Belushi’s funeral. I was fascinated by them. When my sister was born, somebody threw a comic book out the old hospital window, and it landed in a hedge. I

“We Were A Wonderful Match!”

thought that was a great idea, and he’d been thinking along the same lines, I’m sure. That’s how the Who’s Who really got started. Of course, I had a lot of comics from a lot of companies. My favorite companies were Quality, Fiction House, Dell, and the lesser companies. I liked Magazine Enterprises, and Orbit, and especially Fawcett. Sometime before I corresponded with Jerry, I wrote Wendell Crowley. Wendell Crowley had been editor for most of the Fawcett comic line. Like Rafael Astarita, he hand-wrote voluminous letters, and was very impressed with the information that I had gathered from the Fawcett comics that I had. By that time, he was in the lumber business, and periodically came through Arkansas to buy lumber or buy timberland. And so one day, the editor of my favorite company actually came to Pine Bluff, Arkansas. I thought this was wonderful. I was still a teenager, I guess, and he came over to the house and sat down at a table that spread out all my Fawcett comics on. He was a giant of a man—the nicest guy in the world—with a big booming voice. “Okay, Hames, what do you want to know?” This was a kid’s dream come true. I had the editor of Fawcett Comics sitting in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, saying, “Yeah, this is Carl Pfeufer and his inker John Jordan. This is Harry Fiske. And Bill Brady drew this funnyanimal comic book, and he only had vision in one eye, so some of the stuff you see is kind-of lopsided.” Wendell had personal memories of all these people, and he made me aware of the Binder Shop.

Holmes, Sweet Holmes It wouldn’t have taken Sherlock Holmes to figure out that, if Jerry Bails were going to index one artist’s work first, it was likely to be that of Joe Kubert. Joe himself had drawn an aged (and unnamed) Holmes in the “Hawkman” story for Flash Comics #69 (Nov. 1947). Thanks to Al Dellinges. [©2007 DC Comics.]

I didn’t go back to the comics for several years, and even then, when I went back, it wasn’t the same, but I had kept everything. That was about the time that I decided that I needed to fill in some of the gaps on some of these people I didn’t know. My grandfather—I’m named after him; his last name was Hames, Scottish for “home”—gave our family a tape recorder. So I used to do these cartoon voices, and I’d get the neighborhood kids in when I’d perform. We made our own old-time radio-type shows. We did a mock soap opera, a Western, and a super-hero series, making up our own characters. So my imagination was really, really fostered well. My granddad had practiced medicine in New York at one time, and around 1959 he got me a Manhattan telephone directory. I went through and circled any name that I thought belonged to a comic book artist. I remember circling “Rafael Astarita,” because it was such an unusual name. In the midst of this, I discovered others who also collected comics, like Michael Barrier. His interests were animated cartoons and Dell Comics. There were a number of such people out there all along, but living in Arkansas, I wasn’t aware of them. Mike was the first person I knew from Arkansas who also collected comics. Then, Jerry DeFuccio suggested, “You should write to Jerry Bails, because he’s a fellow who’s trying to collect information, and is a comics historian.” I told Jerry Bails something like, “I have all these ledgers where I put all this data. I have all these names of comic book artists, and I can recognize their styles pretty much. I can document the years that they worked in these comics.” I suggested that this information be collated in some fashion. He was very excited about that, and wrote back, “I think this is a great idea. Let’s spend our first year on Joe Kubert.” I wrote back, “I don’t think you understand what I’m saying. I’m saying every contributor, every artist who contributed to comic books: a Who’s Who of all of them. [chuckles] If we take one artist per year, we’re not going to be on Earth long enough to finish.” Jerry really

Wendell Crowley said, “Trying to identify the Binder Shop is difficult because the Binder Shop was more like an automobile assembly plant. It’d be like going back and trying to figure out who put the fender on a particular 1948 Studebaker, or who did the paint job.” Wendell told me as many people as he could remember from the shop. Later on, Jerry Bails pulled off a real coup because he knew Otto Binder, and through Otto he got in contact with Jack Binder, who supplied Jerry and the Who’s Who with an entire list of the Binder Shop employees. We could have chosen anybody to dedicate the Who’s Who to. But because Wendell Crowley had been so instrumental, I felt—and Jerry agreed—that he deserved it the most. The Who’s Who was built on several different pillars of information. There was the input from those wonderful people themselves: Astarita, Wendell Crowley, Gill Fox, Lou Cameron, etc. Each artist who responded was an immense help. I loved the cartoons and the people who voiced them. God blessed me with two abilities: not only could I identify comic book artists; I could also identify the people who did voiceovers for cartoons. I wound up later in life writing columns dealing with both subjects, as well as contributing to several books on the subjects. Being able to change my voice got me my first job, as a teenager, working for the local radio station, and when I went off to college, I continued to commute home on the weekends to work at the radio station, and to see my girlfriend, who was still in high school. The radio job, along with playing in a band, helped me pay for college; and fortunately I managed to get an assistantship at the University and obtain my Master’s degree there. Another opportunity that arose was I got to visit the West Coast offices of Dell. Del Connell was there, and I got to meet a wonderful little fellow named Nat Edson, who drew a lot of their comic books. He had a disability, though I don’t know exactly what it was. He said, “I can’t travel. I’ve never been to Arkansas, but would you send me a map of the state? I collect maps.” When I got back home, I sent him a map of Arkansas. He wrote me a really nice letter. He was a big help, filling in creator names for Dell Comics, who graciously let me go through all their comics, which was wonderful. They had copies of everything, all the way back to Crackajack Funnies, and some of their earlier titles.

“We Were A Wonderful Match!”

When Bails Raised Kane (Far left & below:) Both sides of “Robert Kane’s” questionnaire for the 1970s Who’s Who—the data sheet Jerry asked Hames to mail out, for reasons explained in the article. Note there’s no mention of the artist’s real last name, Kahan; he was apparently a real believer in secret identities. Courtesy of Hames Ware. We’re sorry a few words of Kane’s personal message to Hames, volunteering his help to the “Comic Book Academy of America” got cut off on our photocopy. Did Kane perhaps think Hames was associated with the then-fledgling pro organization the Academy of Comic Book Arts? (Left:) Whatever his quirks, Bob Kane did create (or at least co-create) one of the great comics characters of all time! This sketch was done some years ago for collector Lance Falk. [Batman TM & ©2007 DC Comics.]

like Argosy. I don’t know what the title of this one was, but I recognized immediately that same Airboy artist’s work. A lot of cartoon animators moonlighted from their animation work in comic books, like Don Christensen. I got to know a lot of animators, and did some voice work, too. These animators had wonderful collections because they studied the funny-animal comic books. So we were able to place their names with their work. In the meantime, I was haunting the stacks in every library I went to, in order to cross-reference all these artists. That’s how I found Frank Kramer’s name. Like many comic book artists, the Ziff-Davis pulp artists who did occasional comic book work seldom signed his work in the comics. Many times, by cross-referencing their signed work in the pulps, I was able to ID artists for the Who’s Who. That’s how I found Frank Kramer’s name (he only drew the “Wild Boy” feature at Ziff-Davis). Ernie Schroeder was a similar situation. When I was about 13, I’d gone into the barbershop where there were men’s adventure magazines

Paul Leiffer had a great love of comic strips. You’ll see Paul’s name as one of the co-editors of the original four volumes of Who’s Who. And Raymond Miller had done something similar to what I’d done. He had collected names of artists and credits. Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., loved and studied all the lesser companies. Jim was also in California. Bill Jones was from Arkansas, and eventually wrote a great book on the Classic Comics [Classics Illustrated]. I was able to help him with that. I did talk to people on the phone. I called Jerry Iger. I called Robert Hayward Webb. This enabled me to add information to the Who’s Who. Jerry Bails collated all of our information, and was very insistent that all of it be housed by him. It made perfect sense. With the

Voice Male Hames doing a voice-over a few years back. He also remarks about the “big booming voice” of 1944-53 Fawcett editor Wendell Crowley, who oversaw the “Captain Marvel” line of comics, including The Marvel Family #86 (Aug. 1953). Art by Kurt Schaffenberger, repro’d from a black-&-white English reprint. [Marvel Family art ©2007 DC Comics.]

“We Were A Wonderful Match!”

love for me and for Jerry. It was a lot of work. Jerry had to get the books laid out, from all of those scraps of paper—he had to put all of that together. Lee Boyett was a big help with Centaur Comics. Henry Steele owned every Quality and Fiction House comic. He went through every single issue and listed all the art credits for every story, which he provided to me. Bill Spicer and Richard Kyle also contributed. And like I said, Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., filled in so much information about the lesser companies. All these folks never gave a thought, I’m sure, to any kind of compensation for what they did.

exception of the individuals that I corresponded with—and there were a lot of them— a lot of the information came through that. Jerry was the storage facility and the facilitator who made the Who’s Who a reality. Otherwise, this information would still be sitting in my old ledgers, or in various and sundry places all over the globe. Jerry was determined to get it all under, as it turned out, four volume covers. I had very little interest in DC, so that was a big gap in my ledgers. I really didn’t have much information about DC, but Jerry had everything. He loved DC, and had been corresponding with the professionals at DC and other places. We were a wonderful match! The only thing that used to drive Jerry crazy was, he wanted everything carefully laid out on note cards. For instance, let’s say that when I stumbled upon Frank Kramer or Ernie Schroeder’s name, Jerry wanted to have, understandably, submitted data on cards, like: “Frank Kramer, ‘Wild Boy’ artist, Ziff-Davis, 1953; additional credits, pulp magazines for Popular Press,” or whatever. Well, that wasn’t the way I did it. I saw Frank Kramer’s name, grabbed a sheet of paper or Kleenex— whatever was handy—and I’d write down “Frank Kramer—exclamation mark, exclamation mark—he’s ‘Wild Boy’ artist at ZiffDavis,” and send it to Jerry.

Was Somebody’s Memory Getting A Bit Raggedy? Artist Dan Noonan may have remembered for Hames that George Kerr (among others) had drawn Dell’s Raggedy Ann and Andy comic—but Noonan himself is credited with the cover of issues #5-8 in the Gerbers’ Picto-Journal Guide to Comic Books. Above is the cover to #5 (Oct. 1946). [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

It drove Jerry crazy. He must have wound up with, God bless him, hundreds, if not thousands, of slips of paper on whatever I could grab whenever I discovered another piece of information. I got to see every questionnaire and painstakingly photocopied them. It was an arduous task, but it was important for Jerry and for me to have a set of information, and for Jerry to maintain the originals. The only friction we had was with Bob Kane, because Jerry had championed Bill Finger, wanting to give him credit for helping create “Batman,” and for his other contributions to “Batman.” Well, this upset Bob Kane, who was so upset with Jerry that he didn’t want to correspond with him. At one point, Jerry told me that Kane was even talking about suing him. Jerry asked if I would write Bob Kane directly, because the Who’s Who was still just a seed in germination in our minds. So I wrote Bob Kane, who sent his questionnaire directly to me. I sent it on to Jerry, and he sent that one back. I still have that one. I had moved from Pine Bluff to Little Rock when Volume 4 came out. Jerry did a great job. He chose the cover artists; everybody did a great job. There’s no way I could list all the names of all the people that contributed. I don’t want to leave anybody’s name out, but every single one of those people was a huge help. And that’s how those four volumes pretty much came to be.

Everybody out there had a favorite company or a favorite artist, and the Who’s Who became a magnet for all these folks. I felt very proud when those four volumes came out. They were pretty darned good in the sense that they, at last, housed under four volumes all this important information. And here is another thing Jerry did that was major. I was only interested in the artists. Jerry said, “We can’t just do the artists. We’ve got to do the writers, we’ve got to do the editors.” I said, “How in the world are we ever going to find those writers? How are we going to know who they were?” When he expanded the scope of our research, I knew that this was going to be a major, major undertaking, but he was willing to do the work.

I said, “Okay, what about the letterers? If we’re going to do the writers and editors—” I put in a plug in for the letterers, because, to me, they fit more in the artistic realm. As you know, finding information about writers is so much harder than artists. I give him high marks for wanting to include them. I was able to add a lot of animator and pulp crossover artists. Paul Leiffer helped with the comic strip crossover artists. So we were able to get information in there about what artwork they’d done in pulps, animated cartoons, magazines, hardcovers, and comic strips. There were several well-known illustrators who drew comic books. William Arthur Smith is one who comes to mind. Manning de V. Lee. There’s a name a lot of people might not have heard of. He illustrated lots of hardcovers in the ’20s and ’30s. Gus Ricca, who did so much Chesler work, was a well-known magazine illustrator. Well, if I start naming everyone, there’d be a ton of names. There were a lot of people who worked for comic books who went on to greater things, and there were a lot of people who had done great things from the artistic point of view and were in their twilight years. Lots of times, those were the artists I liked the most. I loved the artwork on Raggedy Ann at Dell.

WARE: Jerry did, but there wasn’t any money to be made, I’m sure. Money wasn’t discussed. I can remember mailing stuff off, but I think I got two copies of each volume for the work. I remember Jerry saying it was not meant to make money, and I’m sure he went in the hole over any expenses he had.

Morris Gollub’s work at Dell was just beautiful. The covers he painted, and the comics he illustrated... he did some of the Lassies, among other books. But the Raggedy Ann artist was unknown. Nobody knew who he was, and I was determined to find out. Thank God Dan Noonan was still alive, and he remembered that George Kerr, who had illustrated hardcover books like Old Mother Westwind, had drawn Raggedy Ann. But I found the initials “L.B.” carved in a desk in a story done by the same artist of Dell’s Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Jim Vadeboncoeur shared an interest in that artist, and he had a Raggedy Ann comic that had the initials “L.B.” on a woman’s purse.

I never gave expenses a thought. If I picked up the phone and called somebody, it was because I wanted to talk to them. It was a labor of

Mike Barrier found an “Andy Panda” story in New Funnies that, on the splash page, had the signature “Bing.” Through that kind of

JIM AMASH: Who handled the finances of printing and selling?

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extrapolation, we were able to give this unknown assistant, or possible ghost for George Kerr, credit. The names that got into the Who’s Who were the result of a lot of detective work. Jim Vadeboncoeur and Karen gave me a computer— what a wonderful gift—so we could send information back and forth, because Jim would periodically send me—he’s been doing this for 30 years—a box of old comic books. He makes a tape, going through every comic, saying who he thinks every artist is, if a story’s unsigned. When I get the box, I go through, without listening to Jim’s tape first, and take notes on who I think I’m seeing. Then I listen to the tape. Then we coordinate what we’re seeing. A lot of what was in Who’s Who was the result of mutual research. Speaking of computers, that’s when I lost contact with Jerry. Jerry had been a pioneer in using computers. As soon as the technology became available, Jerry was at the forefront of it. But that meant that I could no longer play in the game, because I didn’t have a computer. This was back... I guess we finished up the Who’s Who sometime in the 1970s. After that point, Jerry went on with it, and it more or less was an ongoing thing. He was able to use the computer to do all that we had done by hand. It was a godsend for the project, but it sort-of meant that my part in it was only in those original four volumes.

was one artist who never sneaked or signed his work. He was a wonderful artist at Hillman and Ziff-Davis. We sent photocopies of his work to everybody we knew, and everybody agreed his work was wonderful, but nobody knew his name. I knew that Herb Rogoff, who was an editor at Hillman and ZiffDavis, had responded to the Who’s Who. I sent a copy of this unknown artist’s work to Herb Rogoff. I’ll never forget, as long as I live, the letter that came back. Herb Rogoff wrote, “Of course I know who this is. It’s Mike Suchorsky.” The only other time I believe that was matched, along with proving that there really was a “Bing” on the Raggedy Ann art, was discovering the artist who had drawn “Airboy” and “The Heap” was Ernie Schroeder. There are many other thrills, like having Wendell Crowley sitting in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, with the Fawcett comics in front of us, and telling me who drew what. Rafael Astarita made tape recordings describing the Chesler Shop from the light bulbs to the spider webs in the corner. He physical described all the people who worked there and at Fiction House, including Lily Renée, Marcia Snyder, and H.L. Larson. I really feel like this was all meant to be, and for whatever reason, a kid in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, was able to be a part of it, and I’ve always felt grateful. I feel the same way about doing voices for a living. It comes directly

JA: You never met Jerry in person, did you? WARE: Sure I did! When he got excited about this project, he wrote or called me, and said that he and his wife Jean would drive to Arkansas and scoop me up, and take me back to Detroit. [mutual chuckling] I was flattered, and knew that it was an opportunity for us to lay some groundwork for the project. They drove to Pine Bluff, Arkansas. I got in the car, we didn’t mince words, and they drove straight back—and I mean straight back—to Detroit. I remember Jean as a gracious, supportive individual. She was perfectly happy to bring us sandwiches and soft drinks while we sat at a table. Jerry had all his comics out, and we went through them. He had a number of artists he didn’t know. He wanted help from me on them, which I was able to give him, for the most part. Then he showed me DC comics, which I’d really never gotten to see. I had a wonderful visit. Well, really, it was a business visit, I have to say, because we really didn’t do anything except work, though I enjoyed every minute of it. But I’m one of the few people who couldn’t tell you anything about Detroit, except for Jerry’s house, because I don’t think we left the house the whole time I was there. Most of our contact was through correspondence. Jerry had migraine headaches that often debilitated him, and I know Jean was a big help to him in many ways. And I’m not a phone person, either. I guess he didn’t want to spend a lot of time on the phone, and with the kind of work we were doing, it wouldn’t have made much sense. Back then, people still hand-wrote letters, and so I got letters from Jerry almost every day. We’d be telling each other our latest discoveries, and sharing information about what we learned. We talked back and forth through letters about what we’d like to try to do next, like how to break up the different volumes, alphabetically, and pick it back up in the next volume. I was happy to do the section on the various shops. And I had, and I probably still do have, probably the best, most comprehensive list of all the shops: who was there and when they worked. I know Alter Ego has reprinted some from the original Who’s Who. I’m so sorry that Jerry’s gone now, but I know that Jean will see to it that all his records go to the right places for safe preservation.

Hi, Lily—Hi Lo!

Jim Vadeboncoeur and I still have a great shared interest in detective work, and giving credit to the artists who never signed. The one that really cinched our friendship 30 years ago was when he called Bill Spicer, and asked to talk to me. We both had this particular artist in mind, and wondered if either of us knew who it was. We didn’t. This

A sterling sample of Lily Renée’s work for Fiction House, from a “Werewolf Hunter” story (yes, that was a regular series!) in a 1946 issue of Rangers Comics—as seen in Trina Robbins’ 2001 book The Great Women Cartoonists. Ms. Renée will be a guest of honor at the San Diego Comic-Con in July of this year—and will be featured in an upcoming Alter Ego interview. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

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Ware’s Hames? (Left:) Four vintage photos of Hames, from an 8"x10" glossy titled “vocal & visual characterizations.” (Right:) A cartoon by Hames—one of many drawings he’s done over the years. [©2007 Hames Ware.]

from those childhood years. It gives me great pleasure to know Mercer Mayer is out there—as successful as he is—and Rhonda has had all the success she’s had. But I feel blessed to have had opportunities to contribute to animation, animated cartoons, voice histories, and to comic book histories. I feel very, very fortunate to have friendships as a result, including, most recently, yours. The Who’s Who, I’m told, has been used in libraries. Jerry sought out libraries to begin with, because he felt they would be the most logical purchasers. It’s always meant a lot to me to know that a lot of libraries all over the world have those four volumes, and that they’re still being used by professionals like you and others who want a quick reference. I realize now they can go to the computer and get a lot of that, but there’s something to be said for those original four volumes. JA: My job sure would have been a lot poorer and incomplete without it. WARE: That’s sure heartening to know, and it makes it all worth it— that and all the wonderful memories, and all the wonderful people. You know, they didn’t have to answer our questionnaires. I can remember a lot of resistance from Astarita, from Lou Cameron, from others who said, “Why do you care about this? I mean, that’s light years ago, you know?” Lou Cameron was, and probably still is, a successful Western writer. He’s won awards for his novels. Astarita was a fine arts illustrator. But they, and a number of others, quickly overcame their resistance, because they realized that I just wasn’t going to let them not realize what wonderful artisans they were. Their contributions will live on, and if the Who’s Who helps their memories and their work, it’s served its purpose. I wish we’d had you when we were doing the original Who’s Who, because what was missing was the kind of in-depth information that Jerry’s questionnaires had to, by necessity, omit. The amount of information the creators could put in there was mostly limited to factual data. It’s only been through interviews like you’ve conducted that we’ve really gotten to know the artists and writers and editors and letterers as people. I hope that this work is carried on. Now that Jerry’s gone, I don’t know who’s going to become the repository and the updater for that

information. I hope that it will be continued some way by somebody, so that the current people who are working in comics can continue to have their work documented when new information turns up. You know, Jim and I have a couple of artists that we’ve never been able to get names for. One of these days, maybe we’ll finally get those names. I know that Alter Ego will carry the torch, and if some of these new names come to light, that you and Roy and Alter Ego will see to it that that information gets out. JA: Hopefully, there’ll be somebody reading this who will get inspired by your stories, and help do that. We certainly need more people. WARE: That’s great. If somebody out there shares the same enthusiasm and interest that we and those I named had, they could carry that tradition forward. When we finished the four volumes, I really felt like my part in it had been completed. I didn’t really see, at the time, beyond the four volumes, so I felt like the majority of the major information that I had had in my ledgers, and all input that we got from the different people, had all been captured. Of course, there was a lot we couldn’t print in them. But anyway, that really was the culmination, and I had a million other interests and involved myself in other things. I felt very good about those four volumes coming out. Jerry, of course, carried on the Who’s Who as an ongoing repository on the computer, which was great for listing later comic book creators. All these wonderful new artists and writers who came along after the Golden Age stuff that mostly had been my focus can be credited. Off and on, Jerry would send me a letter, asking for an art ID, or checking on something. I recall how elated Jerry was when he heard that I finally got a computer. He wanted to sort-of get back on track, and doublecheck some art IDs. Without Jim and Karen, I wouldn’t have a computer now, because I guess I’m just a luddite at heart. Jerry would occasionally try to prompt me to get back in the swing of things, and I’ve still not seen the Who’s Who on line. I guess, for me, the four volumes were what I put my heart and soul into, and in a way, that was another part of me. Like I said, I was doing voiceovers for a living, I was involved with living in Arkansas, and I didn’t go to any

“We Were A Wonderful Match!”

conventions. I thought I was very fortunate to talk to the different people, and liked the friendships with professionals and fans over the years, and I did contribute to the Steranko History of Comics. And Jim Vadeboncoeur has continued, over the years, to send me boxes of comic books that he would do art IDs on. Roy Thomas asked if we’d like to do a semi-regular feature, so Jim and I have happily been able to continue to focus on unknown or forgotten great comic book artists for Alter Ego. You know, that’s how we met you. There’ve been a lot of nice things still happening in the comics area, and one of the things that has kept me semiinvolved is that column. And the “Bing” story is still unfolding. I thought it was really neat that Jerry and I got to work on that before he passed away. Sometime in the near future, Jim and I will write an article for Alter Ego describing the entire process. [NOTE: It’s now finished, and will appear in a nearfuture issue. —Roy.]

The Who’s Who Was A Heap Of Work! Another of Hames’ talents, apparently, is playing the piano. Since Hames is justifiably proud of his detective work at identifying the artwork of Ernie Schroeder (who was interviewed in depth in A/E #42), we thought it fitting to close with another fine page by the late great Ernie. This “Heap” page is from Airboy Comics, Vol. 9, #10 (Nov. 1952). Thanks to Hames and his partner-in-detection Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr.,and to Golden Age Hillman Publications editor Herb Rogoff (who put Jim Amash and Roy Thomas in touch with Ernie), the artist got a kick out of being appreciated by comics aficionados during the last few years of his long and eventful life. Jerry Bails, too, relished bringing recognition to the “great unknowns” of the Golden Age. [“Heap” art ©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

Henry Steele, Jim, and I, with Lee Boyett—another Arkansan—have been updating Henry’s checklist, and we know so much more now. Henry gave his own “pseudonyms” to the artists who didn’t sign: for example, “Jewel” was a name he used for George Carl Wilhelms, whose name he’d never seen. But now, we’re able to replace those pseudonyms with real names. I’m excited that Henry’s checklist is being updated with all that new information, so there are still some things that I’m involved with. And the voice work: I do some animated regional and national spots. I did some things for PBS’s American Experience, one being The Priceless Memories. I narrated that, and it won an Emmy. JA: How many times did you do The American Experience? WARE: At least two or three. The childhood interests that I had in voices and drawing have continued to play a big part in my life.

I really believe one of the great rewards of being the founding coeditor was that I have seen the work of virtually every comic book artist who ever worked in comics. The Who’s Who work stretches back to the early ’60s. That’s been a long haul. And to think that I am now on the phone with someone who’s become my friend in just the last couple of years. Just look at the dividends. From Wendell Crowley to Jim Amash, I feel really privileged. JA: What cartoons would some of our readers most likely—

WARE: No, no, no. I didn’t mean to imply that I did any Hollywood cartoons. What I did when I was in North Hollywood was to record some voices for Mark Kausler and Mike Sanger. Mike and Mark were doing an old-style cartoon called Ding-A-Ling Dog and the Last Cartoon. They worked on it when they weren’t working for Disney. I got to do two voices for that one. It was beautifully done, old-style animation, in the early Mickey Mouse/Bosko style. And, thanks to Mike, who later became the chief animator for Bandolier Films in New Mexico, I got to do a lot of animated projects like Pinocchio’s Pizza, and a lot of audio-visual narrations for educational use. I’ve been blessed to do a whole lot of things with my voices, and to also contribute especially articles about cartoon voices to animation magazines. I would hope also, Jim, that maybe somebody out there would republish the four original volumes of Who’s Who. I don’t know why that hasn’t occurred to anybody… but maybe now, somebody would think to do that, because it would be really neat to have them all republished in one volume. That would be a handy reference. I’m really grateful to know that at least those four volumes still reside in libraries all over the world. And I hope the Who’s Who will be carried on by somebody, online. JA: I’m sure it will. Since we’re at the end now, do you want to do a “That’s all, folks”? [laughs] WARE: No, I’d rather you do that. JA: Bdee-bdee-bdee-bdee — that’s all, folks! WARE: Perfect.

Star Wars: The Comic Book That Saved Marvel! Think We're Kidding? Read On!

A/E

EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: After the cover theme of this issue—the life and achievements of Jerry G. Bails—had been chosen, I learned, as I should have expected, that the 30th anniversary of the world premiere of George Lucas’ blockbuster film Star Wars in May 1977 was going to be the occasion of a certain amount of ballyhoo, just as several previous anniversaries had. It had long been my intention, one day in Alter Ego, to try to pen a more or less definitive account of my involvement with Marvel’s Star Wars comic book, from early 1976 through late 1977. So I decided that our May 2007 issue would be the occasion for that recounting—even though the first issue of the comic was released in March 1977. Previous, shorter accounts from my hand had appeared in Starlog magazine #120 (July 1987—the tenth anniversary) and Comics Buyer’s Guide for April 16, 1993 (the 26th anniversary??). Thanks to both for their blessings to incorporate some of those pieces in what follows.

I also invited each of the artists who worked with me on the first ten issues of Star Wars to participate, and we received sidebar-style responses of various lengths and kinds from Howard Chaykin, Steve Leialoha, Rick Hoberg, Bill Wray, Dave Stevens, and Alan Kupperberg—and even colorist Carl Gafford. In addition, I e-mailed my old friend Ed Summer, who was instrumental in the Star Wars comic existing in the first place; he hoped to write something for this issue, but we hadn’t received anything by deadline; we plan to run his commentary at a future date. Perhaps we’ll have some remarks at that time, as well, by a fellow named Charlie Lippincott, whose name, if it’s unfamiliar, will become known to you in what follows.

Everybody’s A Critic! (Above:) Howard Chaykin’s right-on-the-money cover for Star Wars #1 (cover-dated July 1977, but actually on sale in March, by contractual fiat). All art in this issue of A/E from Star Wars #1-6 is repro’d from the black-&white reprint paperback The Marvel Comics Illustrated Version of Star Wars, published later that year by Ballantine Books. We didn’t include any scenes from the movie itself, suspecting you might’ve already seen it. [©2007 Lucasfilm, Ltd.] But no, Roy Thomas isn’t really giving “thumbs down” to Star Wars—either the movie or the comic—in the grainy photo. It was probably taken as a gag shot for Crazy magazine, Marvel’s Mad wannabe, in the mid-’70s. It appeared in Marvel’s own FOOM #21, in the “1978 FOOM Awards” section, wherein Roy took first place as “Favorite Marvel Writer.” His assignments were listed as “Conan, Star Wars, etc.”

There follows my own account—sidebarred by the welcome contributions of each of the seven artists, in the chronological order in which they became involved with Star Wars the Comic Book. So, first:

How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love STAR WARS—With Reservations A Personal Retrospective by Roy Thomas

Think We’re Kidding? Read On!

I. Ed Summer & George Lucas Has it really been thirty years since Star Wars erupted upon the cinematic scene like a volcano suddenly thrusting to the surface in someone’s backyard? Certainly the world has changed a lot since I used to drive by Mann’s Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles and see those lines stretching around the block. (I even stood in one of them. Once.) But for me, those unbelievably long lines were more or less the end, not the beginning, of my involvement with George Lucas’ wonderful brainchild. And let me say at the outset that, as far as I’m concerned, Star Wars was wonderful. Is wonderful.

more familiar with my work than I was with anything he had done besides American Graffiti. Of course, in George’s case, professionally, that was limited to THX 1138 (1971), which had grown out of a student film of his. The conversation was pleasant and eminently forgettable, until Ed and George began bantering back and forth about—The Star Wars. Yes, that definite article “The” was positively there that evening, amplifying that now-famous phrase. My ears perked up at hearing it for the first time. After all, there hadn’t been much space-oriented science-fiction in movies since Stanley Kubrick’s 2001, half a decade before. It was nice to know that one of Hollywood’s bright new favorites was going to use his prestige to advance the genre. I didn’t even bother to wonder why he didn’t propose doing a movie based on Superman, Batman, or Spider-Man. Let’s not get ridiculous, shall we?

Whether in 1977 or today, I’m generally more a fan of the films of Woody Allen and Martin Scorcese than I am of the latest fantasy opus… Spider-Man I & II to the contrary notwithstanding. But, even though Harlan Ellison was doubtless right in ’77 in saying that Star Wars’ success would become an excuse for bad people to make bad movies (something they tend to do anyway, merely varying the subject matter from time to time), the first Star Wars movie—the one I’m always referring to when I use the term—was itself a marvelous achievement. I saw that right from the start. Before the start, actually. Because I vas dere, Charlie—back when the rest of the world would’ve thought that a reference to Star Wars was a typo for Star Trek (if they remembered Star Trek).

My Dinner With George And Ed (Left:) Ed Summer in a photo that appeared in A Marvel Comics Super Special #2 (1977), featuring Conan. Ed was involved in getting the first Conan movie off the ground. (Right:) Star Wars writer/director

I recall little more about the conversation than the general impression that The Star Wars was planned to be an ambitious sf-type adventure… already seen as a potential series of movies…and that the name of the hero at that stage was Luke Starkiller…although Luke Skywalker, as an alternative, might have been mentioned, as well. The plot of the movie itself was clearly still a work in progress. Still, what little I heard about the projected film intrigued me. I wished it well. I believe it was that very same evening that George impulsively came back with Ed and me to our apartment to see the Frank Frazetta oil painting Jeanie and I had bought a couple of years earlier. (It was the one called “Thor’s flight,” originally done as the cover of the Lin Carter paperback Thongor and the City of Magicians.)

Actually, I don’t recall exactly when I first met George Lucas, in a photo taken on the Over the ensuing months, I’d occasionally learn Algerian set of Star Wars, probably in George Lucas. Sometime in very late 1974 or early a confidential tidbit of information from Ed about 1976. [©2007 Lucasfilm, Ltd.] ’75. I remember my first wife Jeanie’s wide-eyed the project. (An interesting aside: George himself surprise when I told her I was going to have dinner never referred to Star Wars as “science-fiction,” but with George Lucas, so that dates it prior to summer as a “space fantasy”—and even, in one very early and very rare presskit of the latter year, when she and I went our separate ways. book I still own and treasure, as “sword-and-sorcery,” a genre with which I had some passing familiarity as the writer/editor of Marvel’s I had become friends with Ed Summer, bearded proprietor of the Conan the Barbarian and The Savage Sword of Conan.) Supersnipe Comic Art Emporium, a comic book store on Second Avenue in Manhattan, just a couple of blocks away from our apartment Then, one night—it must’ve been in the first few months of ’76, on E. 86th Street. Ed was a former film student who often discussed around the time I decided I’d move to L.A. come July—things started with me a documentary he planned to make about such comic book happening. luminaries as Jack Kirby, Carl Barks, and one or two others, and I occasionally gave him encouragement and advice over dinner or his II. Charlie Lippincott shop counter. I also learned, somewhere along the line, that George (&, Incidentally, Ralph McQuarrie) Lucas was a silent partner of Ed’s—not in his comics store, but in the comic art gallery aspect of the Emporium. This news, of course, was That evening, Ed Summer dropped by my apartment (it was now not for public consumption, and I kept it secret. I was a big admirer of “my” apartment, Jeanie having moved out the previous summer) with Lucas’ 1973 film American Graffiti (“Where were you in ’62?”), which an associate of his, a tall, genial, mustachioed gent named Charlie at that time would probably have ranked in my list of ten favorite Lippincott, who carried a sizable briefcase—and who may or may not flicks; matter of fact, it would still rank fairly high. have been at that earlier dinner I’d shared with George and Ed. Then, one day, Ed asked if I’d like to have dinner with him and Charlie, Ed informed me, was George’s right-hand man on Star George Lucas that evening. He said that George, a comics fan, admired Wars (the “The” was by now a thing of the past). He was in charge of my comics writing. Even if I hadn’t felt flattered, naturally, I would merchandising, publicity, and like that, and he and George wanted have accepted. Marvel Comics to produce a comic book adaptation of the movie, which had commenced shooting in Algeria and was scheduled to be At the dinner, it turned out that George, an amiable guy, was far released in spring of 1977. It would star Alec Guinness and would be

Star Wars: The Comic Book That Saved Marvel!

20th Century-Fox’s biggest picture for 1977, I was told, costing a thenwhopping $10 million. You could still get a lot of movie for $10 million in 1977. George and Charlie thought Star Wars might appeal to the same people who read Marvel comics, and they naturally wanted every bit of possible insurance they could get. As I shall say more than once in the course of this piece—who knew? I reminded Charlie and Ed that I had resigned as Marvel’s editor-inchief in August of ’74, and was now merely the contractual writer/editor of a handful of titles, including all the Robert E. Howard material (Conan, Kull, Red Sonja, et al.) that I had arranged for the company to license, The Invaders (Captain America and company in World War II action), and a smattering of other scripting. That was keeping me quite busy, as Conan, after a slow start, had become one of Marvel’s biggest moneymakers, especially with the success of the black&-white Savage Sword, which turned a sizable profit with its higher cover price and no need for the added expense of color. The success and quality of the Conan titles, Charlie responded, were the double reason I was being approached. Conan, too, was an adaptation property (even though many issues of Conan the Barbarian were composed of original stories), and thus evidence of my skills as an adapter. I accepted the compliment graciously, as is my wont. Flattered? Sure I was. Besides, I liked science-fiction, even if I wasn’t a hardcore devotee. And I liked George. But the proper person to contact about adapting this forthcoming film into a Marvel comic, I insisted to Charlie, was Stan Lee, who was the company’s publisher. Well, matter of fact, Charlie and Ed informed me, they had already talked to Stan about it. And Stan, primarily interested in companyowned concepts, not adaptations (Conan to the contrary), had turned them down flat. A bit ego-deflating, huh? I only got ’em on the rebound! I wasn’t a

first choice, only a last resort. More importantly, as far as I was concerned, that meant the subject was closed. What could I do if The Man himself had turned thumbs down on the project? Besides, I wasn’t exactly looking for an excuse to write and edit a comic book with a movie studio looking over my shoulder, thank you very much—one Planet of the Apes fiasco (that had also been a 20th picture) and a raucous meeting on Broadway with the producers of Blacula that I had actually walked out of in disgust had long since cured me of that! Charlie was persistent, though. From his briefcase, he brought forth full-color reproductions of a bunch of paintings (“production drawings,” they called them in Hollywood, but that was an inadequate description) by someone named Ralph McQuarrie. And that’s when Charlie went into his spiel. As he turned over painting after painting in sequence, he started telling me the plot of Star Wars. So I’m hearing for the first time about this two-mooned planet named Tatooine where this teenager named Luke Starkiller lives—or maybe he’ll be called Luke Skywalker, it isn’t decided yet—and he gets involved in this adventure with two robots named R2D2 and C3PO (names usually spelled out nowadays, but this was a verbal spiel, remember), and the next thing you know the robots and this Princess Leia are captured by the villain, Darth Vader, and then Obi-Wan Kenobi shows up, and— “What?” I asked. “Obi-Wan Kenobi? Is he Japanese?” Charlie just ploughed ahead. By this time, my head was spinning with the weirdest combination of proper names this side of a Russian novel, but I had followed the story just well enough to figure out already that the heroes were all off to see the sf equivalent of the Wizard of Oz. Sounded vaguely interesting, but if Charlie had paused for breath and asked me to repeat what he’d told me so far, I doubt I’d

“The Cantina Sequence” That’s how George’s right-hand man Charlie Lippincott referred to this “production drawing.” Sometime in 1977, all the Ralph McQuarrie paintings Charlie showed Roy that night were issued by Ballantine Books in a Star Wars Portfolio. It was this one that convinced Roy in early 1976 to try to persuade Marvel to adapt the upcoming film into a comic book—an act that may inadvertently have saved Marvel’s bacon in the process. Keep reading. [©1977 20th Century-Fox Film Corporation.]

Think We’re Kidding? Read On!

have been able to render a coherent recounting. One of the few proper nouns I’d have remembered at that point was “Stormtroopers”—for obvious reasons. I was mostly just trying to pay attention out of politeness. Then Charlie flipped over the next McQuarrie pic—we were several in by now—and there before my eyes was a dramatic image of a new character, a space smuggler named Han Solo, facing off against a bunch of aliens, about to slap leather in an other-worldly version of the saloon in a Western movie, in what Charlie referred to as “the Cantina Sequence.” “I’ll do it,” I said. Charlie reacted with surprise. I explained that, whatever the precise plot from this point on, I knew Star Wars was going to be—not a science-fiction film of the type familiar from the disparate likes of 2001, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and even The Forbidden Planet, but a modern rendition of the so-called “space operas” I used to relish in Fiction House’s Planet Comics and its pulp magazine Planet Stories. This would be an action movie, in which Luke Whatshisface and his buddies, a mix of human and non-, would find adventure and romance and eventually triumph over Darth Whoever, and that’s all I really needed to know. I said I’d try to get Stan to reverse his decision, and if he did, I’d write and edit the comic—as long, I explained, as I didn’t have a lot of interference from anybody associated with the film. Charlie seemed to accept this, but he still related the rest of the movie’s storyline to me, flipping over the rest of the McQuarrie pictures one by one. I remember that, when he mentioned Chewbacca the Wookiee, I wondered if that name was derived from “Chew-tobacco.” I paid only cursory attention. My decision had been made. He and Ed left in a hopeful mood. Oh, and Charlie also told me that George would really like the artist of the series to be Howard Chaykin, who had recently done nice work on a sciencefiction hero called Ironwolf for DC, and

was probably already at work on a Monark Starstalker one-shot for Marvel. That sounded like a perfect choice to me, both because I liked Howard (or “Howie,” as he then was) personally and because I had worked with him on a story or two. It seemed to me that Howard’s style would be a good fit with the energy implicit in the McQuarrie art—and, in fact, the figure of a weapon-wielding sf swashbuckler on the cover of Charlie’s copy of the screenplay (which may or may not have been by McQuarrie) resembled a figure by Chaykin—or maybe by Chaykin’s own mentor, Gil Kane. I could hardly promise Charlie anything on this second shot, but I’d do what I could. It’s not that I had any precognition of the phenomenon that Star Wars would become roughly a year later. I merely saw such a comic book adaptation, done in advance of the movie’s release, as an assignment which might be fun, and a way to reintroduce something a bit closer to science-fiction into the comics, which in recent years had mostly avoided it as a dependable non-seller. (Love super-heroes though I did and do, I wanted to continue my editor-in-chief policy of bringing other forms of fantasy into comic books, as I had with Conan the Barbarian and the non-smash-hit Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction.)

III. Stan Lee (& Maybe Alec Guinness) So, at the earliest opportunity, I buttonholed Stan about Star Wars. I have no specific memory whatever of that meeting, but I must have been nearly as convincing verbally as I’d been in my 1970 memo to original Marvel publisher Martin Goodman, the one that persuaded him to actually shell out money to license rights to a sword-and-sorcery hero. Conan the Barbarian’s eventual success probably helped me this time around. Maybe I made a good case for the Star Wars comic getting us into space-opera heroics as Conan had into barbarian derringdo. Or maybe Stan just wanted to humor me, since the comic rights would be basically free for those six issues.

Luke Starkiller, Watch Out! Howard Chaykin’s pre-Star Wars sf hero work included “Ironwolf” in DC’s Weird Worlds #8-10 (1974) and Marvel Premiere #32 (Oct. 1976) featuring “Monark Starstalker.” The latter, however, was at most only in the process of being written and drawn when Howard was tapped to draw the Star Wars comic. The "Ironwolf" splash is from Weird Worlds #9 (Jan-Feb. 1974). Thanks to Joseph Wise & Bob Bailey. [Ironwolf art ©2007 DC Comics; Monark Starstalker art ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Stan himself, whose memory about such matters (by his own admission) is generally just this side of amnesiac, has said since that he was sold on the idea the second time around because Alec Guinness was starring in it. And maybe Guinness hadn’t been mentioned when Stan had been approached. (I’ve no idea whether Charlie and Ed had talked to Stan a day, a week, or longer before they approached me.) Still, adapting a movie into a comic because Alec Guinness was in it would hardly have been a logical move. His name had no marquee value to Marvel’s readers. At any rate, by the end of my meeting with Stan, I’d gained myself an assignment to write (and edit, so there’d be no one at Marvel besides Stan himself who could overrule me on any creative decisions) an adaptation of the Star Wars

Star Wars: The Comic Book That Saved Marvel!

even one. (In 1974 we had done a two-issue version of the film The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, which hadn’t made much of a contribution to Marvel’s bottom line.) My response was that I felt it would take six issues to do the book “right.” However, I informed him and Stan, if Marvel wished to have someone else write the adaptation, I’d bow out and keep busy with Conan, Red Sonja, The Invaders, et al. I didn’t need the extra work. My position was basically take it or leave it… Marvel’s call. Of course, since it was my project and the movie people had specifically asked for me as writer, I had a fairly strong hand in that particular poker game. But I wasn’t bluffing. Someone else would’ve had to write an adaptation of Star Wars that ran less than six issues.

screenplay, which I had insisted must be five or six issues long. I felt it would take that space to tell the story of a 130-page screenplay with the proper pacing. I’d always felt the old Dell movie adaptations, squeezed into one issue of maybe 32 pages, were far too short to catch the feel of most movies. The artist, whoever he would be, would be able to utilize such photo stills as George’s West Coast office could make available to us. And, since I was just a few months away from moving into a Hollywood-area apartment complex that was only a five-minute drive from Lucas’ offices, which were still on the Universal Pictures lot (because of American Graffiti), everything should go like clockwork. Sure it would. It always does, doesn’t it?

IV. Howard Chaykin Howard Chaykin agreed to pencil and ink the series, and seemed enthusiastic about it. He and I soon received our own copies of the screenplay, as well as of other, earlier potential plot materials which George had written; I’m not sure why we were given the latter, but I’ve hung onto them ever since. We learned—and some of this I may have heard at that earlier dinner with George, by now a year in the past—that, in one early version, Luke Starkiller had been a 1970s-ish Flash Gordon type in a wholly different story—that Han Solo had originally been the name of a giant amphibian—that one scenario had taken place on the planet of the Wookiees. All this fascinating stuff served, in its way, as my introduction to a part of the behind-the-scenes, print-the-legend Hollywood.

After that, Ed Shukin stopped opposing me directly, but he was heard to say that he wished we weren’t doing the comic at all.

VI. Howard Chaykin (Again), Steve Leialoha, & Others

These Boots Were Made For Smilin’ Stan Lee, publisher of Marvel Comics, in a photo also from FOOM #21 (1978).

With a minimum of guidance from me (I forget precisely how much, but it wasn’t much—I had other things to keep me busy), and armed with the mere handful of stills which, it turned out, was all Charlie could actually come up with at this early stage, Howard started drawing the first issue.

V. Ed Shukin Meanwhile, up at Marvel, even before I made my actual move to L.A. (purposely scheduled to take place over the Bicentennial Weekend of July 4, 1976), Marvel’s circulation director Ed Shukin made it known that he was unhappy with the prospect of publishing a six-issue adaptation of some science-fiction movie with no stars in it that anybody had ever heard of (except for Alec Guinness, of course, but he was no Robert Redford). Ed Shukin had a formidable reputation as a circulation director, before and during his Marvel career, and I’ve no doubt that he earned it… but in this one case, he would turn out to be considerably behind the curve. Equally worrisome from Ed’s point of view was that, though Marvel got the adaptation rights for bupkis, it was with the stipulation that at least two issues of the six had to be on newsstands before the movie’s release date in May 1977. After all, from 20th’s point of view, the comic was intended to help the film, not vice versa. Ed, quite naturally, would have preferred to have had it the other way around. What if the movie was a bomb? Worse still—what if the comic book was a bomb? Stan bowed out with a characteristic smile, and left Ed Shukin and me to fight it out. Which we did, though in a civilized way. Shukin suggested that I adapt the movie in just two issues, maybe

All the while, I was quickly finding that, without adequate visuals, I was both uninterested in and confused by the screenplay. In fact, I’m not sure I ever actually read every single word of it before I scripted the final page of issue #6. Howard and I chatted occasionally about how it was going, but mostly I left the pacing to him: “Hey, just break it up at a dramatic point every time you finish roughly one-sixth of it!”

Still, the concept was a corker, and as fast as Marvel forwarded Howard’s penciled pages, I adapted the screenplay’s prose—utilizing more of its scene-and-action description in captions than I would if I had it to do over—and shipped those pages off to a letterer, who then sent them back to Howard (probably via Marvel) for inking, with Howard penciling future pages in between. Howard, I believe, made at least one trip from New York to Charlie’s office in L.A. to choose stills that would help him with the adaptation. But while there were production drawings of many of the special effects, they mostly weren’t in any of the stills, as they were only then in the process of being added. Sometime after my summer 1976 move to L.A., I spent a pleasurable afternoon at the first headquarters of what was later dubbed Industrial Light & Magic, George’s technical-effects company, temporarily located in a warehouse somewhere in the suburb of Van Nuys, in the sprawling San Fernando Valley area of the city. Mostly I recall looking at the Death Star mini-exteriors which had been built, or so it looked to me, out of a million Aurora model kits, on a table that seemed to stretch on forever. The young crew there seemed excited about what they were doing. About this time, alas, Howard Chaykin decided that, after #1, he could do only rough pencils (“layouts”) for future issues, rather than full penciling and inking. It seems to have had something to do with a deadline crunch of some kind. So artist Steve Leialoha was brought in at Howard’s suggestion to finish the job on issues #2-plus. Steve is a talented artist who has gone on to do great work, but somehow the Chaykin/Leialoha combination didn’t jell as well as we’d all hoped. Probably Steve found Howard’s sketchy layouts difficult to follow— and probably no embellisher would’ve been able to turn them into work that looked like pure Chaykin—especially in so little time. Most

Think We’re Kidding? Read On!

Sidebar 1:

Howard Chaykin [Excerpted from e-mails dated March 2 & 4, 2007, in response to Roy’s invitation to share his thoughts about working on the Star Wars comic:]

I couldn’t agree more about the fact that we ended up getting such chickensh*t dough on the project—and no reaction from Lucas. I resent my own occasional bouts of bitterness—but hey, what the hell.

Actually, I’m feeling just this side of ancient. Can’t wait to see those photos [of Chaykin, Thomas, & Lippincott at the 1976 San Diego Comic-Con]—we were both pretty sleek young men then. I’ve got nothing from that period—other than a profound regret that, if I’d had some prescience of the phenomenon it was to become, I’d have worked harder.

In regard to the poster [pictured at the 1976 con, below], Dave Mandel just paid $40,000 for the original at a Christie’s auction. Some people have too much disposable income for their own damned good.

Harbingers Of The Force

of the art looks pretty good, I think. Before long, though, it was made known to me that George, Charlie, and company were not happy that Howard wasn’t doing the full illustration. I told them there was nothing I could do about it. Howard was a freelancer, and I couldn’t chain him to a drawing board. (As it happened, for reasons I no longer remember, the sixth and final movie-adaptation issue was penciled over Howard’s layouts by by another young West Coast artist, Rick Hoberg, with inking by his friends Bill Wray and Dave Stevens.) Along the way, though, Howard and I took time to help start a comics convention tradition which I’d just as soon retroactively abort. Charlie Lippincott arranged for the three of us to do a program together at the July 1976 San Diego Comic-Con—probably the first time a movie company had gone all-out to woo hardcore comics fans with its upcoming product. The three of us, wearing prototypes of what was doubtless the earliest Star Wars t-shirt ever (this was 9 or 10 months before the film opened, remember), sat on the stage and fielded questions from an enthusiastic audience about both film and comic. I had no premonition at that time that, only a few years later, I would

Roy was amazed, a few months ago, when Steve Sansweet e-mailed him a quartet of photos from the Star Wars program which featured Charlie Lippincott, Howard Chaykin, and Roy at the San Diego Comic-Con held in the summer of 1976—three-quarters of a year before the still-unfinished film’s premiere. Charlie sits on the stage on the audience’s left, Roy and Howard on its right as seen more clearly in the second pic. The screen image is of the first-ever Star Wars poster (drawn by Chaykin), copies of which were being given away to attendees; they now fetch a pretty penny—and we won’t even talk about the value of those t-shirts the guys are wearing, emblazoned with a pre-Chaykin drawing. Roy still has his—how about you, Howard? Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Steve! In the Chaykin-drawn sequence above, from Star Wars #1, scripter Thomas took a tiny bit of liberty at the end of See Threepio’s dialogue, in order to tie the images together. [Page ©2007 Lucasfilm, Ltd.]

react with revulsion to what had quickly become a common sight at comics conventions—a bare handful of people showing up to see and hear a longtime and respected comics creator speak, while, down the hall, hundreds of fans tried to cram into a room to gawk at slides of a fantasy film that would be released (often to bad notices and worse business) some months later. Still, working on the Star Wars comic had some nice fall-out for me. I spent a bit of time on the Universal lot, where I kept hoping to get a glimpse of Alfred Hitchcock, whose office Charlie and I strode past on an occasion or two. I never did. (Charlie regaled me at some point with a story of how he’d been in a group of people a year or so before having dinner with Hitchcock—who had proceeded to order for all of

Star Wars: The Comic Book That Saved Marvel!

Sidebar 2:

Steve Leialoha [Excerpted from undated e-mail, February or March 2007.] Winter ’76, NYC. My small part in the Star Wars comics began by coincidence in an elevator at Continuity Studios [owned and operated at the time by artists Neal Adams and Dick Giordano], heading out to 48th, when Howard Chaykin mentioned that, due to a shortened deadline time, he would be inking only the first issue of Star Wars and needed an inker. So I volunteered and eventually ended up inking the middle four issues of the six-part adaptation.

Leialoha Goes Heavy Metal (Below:) Steve Leialoha’s baptism of fire, finishing and inking Howard Chaykin’s rough pencils in Star Wars #2 (Aug. 1977). In the Ballantine paperback, the credits were removed from the splash pages—unbeknownst by Roy till too late to mention Steve, Rick Hoberg, and Bill Wray in his own preface to the reprint. (Right:) Lest anyone doubt it, this undated commission drawing he did for collector Lance Falk shows that Steve Leialoha yields to no man in his ability to draw the Star Wars characters! [Both art pieces ©2007 Lucasfilm, Ltd.]

Back in San Francisco, I was invited up to the Lucasfilm production office in San Anselmo, on Valentine’s Day, to pick up reference material from Charlie Lippincott, and to see a rough cut screening, along with many of the people working on the film (like John Williams), as well as various film biz friends of George. I watched it sitting alongside Philip Kaufman, Brian DePalma, and Tom Orzechowski. Of particular interest, in terms of the comics version, were newly added scenes such as the “chess” game aboard the Millennium Falcon and the Cantina sequence that had just been reshot. The film was scheduled for release three months later, and it seemed like it was only half finished. An incredible amount of work still needed to be done. Another highlight of that afternoon was seeing the Spirit magazines around the offices and Prince Valiant originals on the walls, next to a Frazetta painting. Clearly, the man had good taste. A short time later, I visited the L.A. production offices on the Universal lot, to see if I could get a few more reference shots. It was remarkably difficult to find a clear shot of Darth Vader of one of Prince Leia actually smiling. As I got there, Harrison Ford was just on his way out, so I showed him the penciled pages I had with me. “He’s a handsome fellow,” he said, indicating the Han Solo figure on the splash of issue #5. Everyone was very helpful, and I even found a picture of the Princess smiling. them, even though he’d never met Charlie before. Apparently actors weren’t the only people who should be treated like cattle.) On one of those trips to Universal, I was introduced in passing to the thenvirtually-unknown Harrison Ford in Charlie’s office, and was told he was playing Han Solo; on another, I chatted with the secretary whom Mark Hamill would marry soon thereafter. Who knew?

VII. “That Legendary Screening” My favorite memory of those days, though, was the time—circa February of ’77 (was it the same event Steve Leialoha says he attended on Valentine’s Day? See sidebar above), three months before the film’s release—when Howard Chaykin and I (possibly with Charlie) were flown up north to George’s spread in San Anselmo, California, to see a rough cut of the film. We landed at some small airport and were transported to George’s by limousine, probably a stretch job—well, we were in the limo, anyway. It was mainly there to carry Alan Ladd, Jr., the chief of 20th at the time, and maybe another exec or two. I only learned later how supportive Ladd had been of Star Wars from the start—and that his job was basically on the line because of it. Uncertain what to say to a studio head who was also the son of the star of Shane and many other movies I’d admired, I opined that I believed Star Wars

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Sidebar 3:

Carl Gafford [Excerpted from e-mail dated March 6, 2007.] I was brought in to help Steve Leialoha by doing the coloring. The last page of the first ish I got to color was the splash page of issue 2— which picked up immediately after issue 1. “Isn’t this issue 3?” I asked. “It looks like it takes up right after issue 1.” “No, it’s issue 2,” he said, to which I sputtered, “B-but issue 1 is already on the stands!” On a monthly comic, that’s cutting it pretty tight. Some time later, I was coloring the book again, this time with Archie Goodwin as writer/editor and Carmine Infantino as penciler, which was a treat, as I’d naturally grown up admiring Carmine’s work. So many fine artists and writers passed through the Star Wars books that it was like a Who’s Who of comics!

Leialoha Does Leia—Or, Bowling For Dark Stars Steve was in a more playful mood when he drew this fanciful sketch for Lance Falk in 1978. Why the bowling theme? You’d have to ask them! [©2007 Lucasfilm, Ltd.]

would be a big hit. A long-suffering look came over Ladd’s face, and he muttered, “We sure hope so,” or a few other words to that effect, and then said virtually nothing more during the ride. Later, I would learn that he was noted for his taciturnity. “When he says hello,” someone wrote, “he thinks he’s holding up his end of the conversation.” Well, his old man had been the strong silent type, too, and it had served him well. Soon, Howard and I were deposited, along with Ladd and the others, at George’s secluded estate, which was quite a spread. The money from American Graffiti must have been very good, indeed! There was a sizable screening room attached to the main house for viewing movies; and George’s then-wife, herself a professional film editor, had her own editing studio there, as well. Howard and I were really just present as an afterthought, in case it would help the comic book (and thus the film) in some undescribed way. George was primarily concerned with showing the rough cut to several of his director friends, who had come separately. I recall meeting Phil Kaufman, who had recently directed The Outlaw Josey Wales and would later helm Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Right Stuff, et al. Maybe Steven Spielberg was there, too, for all I know. No particular attempt was made to introduce us to the film people. By some sort of silent natural selection, George and his fellow moviemakers (directors and executives) sat in a clump in one section of the screening room, while I seem to recall Howard and me winding up in the front row, and the showing of the rough cut began. A rough cut, of course, is basically a movie as a work in progress, either minus a music score or more often with a temporary one in place to set the mood. Since this one included a few, but not that many, special effects, this rough cut of Star Wars was a very odd film to watch, indeed.

Crawl Space It opened with a “crawl” of copy meant to suggest the old 1930s Flash Gordon movie serials which had so influenced George. But this was not the crawl with which much of the world would soon become familiar, with its “Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away” lead-in. Rather, the crawl consisted of totally different wording relating the film’s

The splash page of Star Wars #1—art by Howard Chaykin, script by Roy Thomas—but those four typeset captions at left are taken, word for word (except for the capitalization), from the “crawl” the lads saw at that fabled early-1977 screening at George Lucas’ San Anselmo, CA, digs. [©2007 Lucasfilm, Ltd.]

Star Wars: The Comic Book That Saved Marvel!

Star in mid-picture. Luke would be shown “firing away” from the tailgunner bubble, then the film would cut away to black-&-white inserts of—aerial dogfights from World War II! (Well, either they were dogfights between Allied and Axis planes, or maybe they were, more logically, footage shot from the tail-guns of US bombers being attacked by enemy fighters.) Then back to Han Solo, blasting away—cut to another Zero or Messerschmitt going down in flames. A surreal experience, definitely.

backstory. If you want to know what it said, you’ll have to pick up a vintage copy of Marvel’s Star Wars #1 (or look on the preceding page), since the typeset captions there were taken verbatim from that original crawl, which was in the screenplay from which Howard and I worked. (Apparently, George would have lastminute thoughts and change it just before the premiere. In fact, one ILM worker told me jokingly around that time that the rumor was that, on opening night, George would probably be up in the projection booth at Mann’s Chinese, pasting into place some last bit of film!) Then in came the spaceships. Even in that rough cut and on a relatively small screen, it was an impressive opening, and I was only moderately surprised a few months later at Mann’s Chinese when I sat in a packed, very early audience and heard the shocked gasp of the audience when first the Little Ship came in, emerging at the top of the screen—then to be followed… and followed… and followed… by the Big Ship. It was an inspired beginning, and got the audience in a receptive mood for all that followed.

Still, by the time the rough cut ended, I was convinced that, if the special effects wound up doing justice to what I’d seen, it would be a very good film. A hit? Well, that depended on the vagaries of the moviegoing audience, and was beyond any man’s power to fathom in advance, be it mine or George Lucas’ or Alan Ladd, Jr.’s.

TIE One On!

When the lights came up, everybody applauded—but that was only to be expected. If the movie had been an obvious bomb-in-the-making, the directors and execs would probably still have slammed their hands together. There followed a seeming eternity of raw footage of what looked like Aurora model kits exploding, in test shots, accompanied by a genial discussion of how there would be loud BOOMs accompanying them, even though everyone knew there was no sound in outer space.

In these six frames from the 1940 Battle of Britain, the camera guns of a Royal Air Force fighter record the end of a German JU-87 Stuka dive bomber. It was this kind of oft-grainy black-&-white footage that was inserted between shots of Luke and Han blasting away at “TIE fighters” in that wondrous rough cut of February 1977.

Next came the fight aboard the smaller ship—Stormtroopers vs. Rebels. But no deadly rays were seen zipping back and forth across the screen that day in San Anselmo. Just the brief flicker of hand-drawn arrows on the film, coming out of the barrels of weapons, to show where the special effects would be added later. A humorous effect, at this point. Still, with imagination, you could figure out what the finished sequence might look like. Soon, Darth Vader strode in and began to speak—with a thick Scottish accent, emerging from under that black full-face helmet, and mostly unintelligible for both the above reasons. This was actor David Prowse’s own muffled voice, of course, some time before the sepulchral tones of James Earl Jones were laid in. The movie went on. I noted with chagrin that one scene from the early pages of the screenplay—between Luke (whose last name was now definitely Skywalker) and some chums on Tatooine (one of them named Biggs)—had been cut, even though I was well aware that a fourcolor version of it was even then being printed in the first issue of the comic. (Naturally, a few irate fans would castigate us later for inserting things into “George’s movie.” And, while I dismissed them as knownothings, it’s true that the omission of that short scene undercut one aspect of the climax, for Biggs is one of the Rebel pilots who dies attacking the Death Star; his death would’ve meant much more if we’d seen his personal relationship with Luke earlier.) As I said before, some special effects were already present in this rough cut; more were not. When the Millennium Falcon took off from Tatooine, bystanders looked up into the sky and pointed—at nothing. That sort of thing. But the real fun occurred when Luke and Han began to take potshots at pursuing TIE fighters during their escape from the Death

After all, this was, as George had always called it, a space fantasy. It seemed to me, then and later during the inevitable buffet, that this was a group of filmmakers who really liked George, liked his movie, and wanted both to succeed. George himself was, as might be expected, affable but perhaps a tad nervous. Howard and I were soon bundled back to L.A. It was only in 2006, while being interviewed by the author of a forthcoming book on Star Wars collectibles who himself owns one of the biggest collections around, that I learned the foregoing event was referred to by cognoscenti as “that legendary screening.” I can see why. Much as I like the finished film, I’d gladly trade my copy of it for one of that rough cut, with Luke and Han shooting it out with the Axis!

VIII. Harrison Ford A few weeks later, only a very, very short time before the movie was released, I also recall a nice little afternoon party/buffet attended by a couple of dozen people associated with the movie and held at the apartment of Charlie’s then-ladyfriend (if memory serves), Carol Wikarska, who was also involved with Star Wars. In short order, she would be in charge of a Star Wars newspaper comic strip, among other things. Being at loose ends romantically at the time, I attended the party with Angie Leonard, a friend who had been in my graduating high school class of 1958. (She passed away a couple of years ago, a victim of cancer, which makes the memory all the more bittersweet.) While Ang and I sat on a sofa with pieces of cake and/or ice cream

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balanced on our knees, Harrison Ford—the only major cast member who attended the party—spotted me and doubtless remembered me from our passing meeting at Charlie’s office. He came over, squatted in front of us with his own dessert, and re-introduced himself, not that I’d forgotten him. We chatted for a few minutes, and I mentioned Han Solo was my favorite character in the film. The only other thing I remember from that conversation was a self-deprecating reference by Harrison to “my so-called career.” Who knew?

IX. Ed Shukin (Again) Only days before the movie was to open, Ed Summer was up at Marvel on comics shop business and ran into circulation director Ed Shukin in those hallowed halls. The latter was still shaking his head about the Star Wars comic, and the former later phoned me to tell me that he’d said Marvel was “going to take a bath” on it. Of course, at that time, neither Ed Summer nor I could be certain that he wasn’t right—in which case 20th Century-Fox would probably be going over a waterfall. As we’d all learn later, the two issues of Star Wars which had gone on sale before the opening—I believe #3 went on sale around the time of the premiere—had sold quite well, a better percentage sale (though probably of a low print run, since Shukin had little faith in the comic’s possibilities) than most of Marvel’s titles. I seem to recall seeing a figure of 57%, pretty good at the time. Since 20th had done relatively little advance publicity for the film, contrary to the mythology since, this healthy sale was due to a combination of advance word-of-mouth about the movie among sf and comics fans, plus the look and feel of the Thomas/Chaykin mag itself. Ed Shukin had lost his bet with himself. (Oh, but lest it be imagined that there was any lasting enmity between Ed Shukin and myself re the Star Wars affair: though we never discussed it later, since I was in L.A. and our paths had no need to cross, in the early 1990s he emerged briefly from retirement to become circulation director of the spanking-new Tekno Comics, which was publishing comics based on concepts created by Neil Gaiman, Mickey Spillane, Gene Roddenberry, and John Jakes. When the new company was looking for a replacement editor-in-chief, he had me flown down to Boca Raton, Florida, to talk to the husband-and-wife publishers, lauding me to them for my work with Conan and, of course, Star Wars. He needn’t have bothered. The couple showed little interest in me from the moment I arrived… and, truth to tell, it would’ve been hard for me to imagine a salary and perks that would have lured me from my new 40-acre spread in South Carolina to the Florida megalopolis. I’d come merely out of respect for Ed, and to position myself for possible freelance writing. Wherever Ed Shukin is today, I wish him well… and vice versa, I expect.)

X. Mark Hamill & Friends At any rate, as soon as Star Wars the movie opened, it became less a film than a bloody phenomenon. And, perhaps inevitably, that’s when things began to go sour for me personally on the Star Wars front. Presumably, beginning with issue #7, Marvel had to pay something for the ongoing licensing rights, but I never bothered to learn the details. All I knew was that I had to start a new storyline. Since no one seemed sure exactly what would happen in the alreadyprojected sequel, I was informed that I couldn’t use Darth Vader or advance the Luke-Leia “romance” (such as it was—good thing, too, huh?) or do much of anything else except run in place. This was understandable, but such a contrast to the situation I enjoyed with regard to the Conan books that I quickly began to lose interest in the post-May 1977 Star Wars.

I know for a fact that I was being told the truth when it was said that the events of the sequel were still up in the air. One day not long after the movie’s opening, I was invited to have lunch with George, Charlie, and Mark (“Luke Skywalker”) Hamill in a restaurant on the Universal lot. I hadn’t met Mark before, and found him a likable young man. At one early point during the lunch, though, as he sat across from me next to George, I noticed him staring oddly at me and asked what was the matter. “I’ve been reading comic books you wrote for so many years,” he replied, “that I thought you’d be older.” “I am older,” I responded, adding something lame like: “But there’s a portrait of me locked in a closet somewhere that looks 110.” (I was 36 at the time.) At one point, George and Charlie began to discuss the fact that the former wasn’t yet positive how big a part Han Solo would play in the sequel, and it was clear to me that there was a chance he might be left almost entirely out of it. At that point, Charlie stopped the conversation short and looked squarely across at Mark: “Now, don’t you say a word about any of this to Harrison!” Mark, clearly ill at ease with the awkward situation, promised not to. No one bothered to swear me to secrecy… but I never ran into Harrison Ford again to spill the beans, [Continued on p. 74]

Star Wars: The Comic Book That Saved Marvel!

Sidebar 4:

Rick Hoberg [Excerpted from e-mail dated March 3, 2007.] My favorite stories about my time working on the Star Wars comics years ago surround my visits to the Lucasfilm offices. Before the first film came out, and well before the public knew anything about Star Wars, I was excited about this project. I was still very much a fan, having only had a few professional comic book assignments up to that point. I had been keeping up with articles that Charles Champlin, head film critic at the time for the Los Angeles Times, had been writing about the upcoming space fantasy which George Lucas was working on. So when I was presented with the unbelievable opportunity of

contributing some of the artwork for the comic book adaptation, being written by the great Roy Thomas, I was one jazzed fanboy. This assignment allowed for visits to Lucas’ offices at Universal to acquire photo reference of the props, characters, and backgrounds of Star Wars. I only went there a couple of times, but on one memorable visit, I was left waiting for an assistant to find the reference that I needed, and I was sitting with a young actor who I knew was portraying a space pirate named Han Solo in the movie. Harrison Ford was waiting around for a photo shoot or something, so we started talking, and I remember thinking, “This guy is just a regular Joe,” a carpenter trying to establish his career as a professional actor, much like I was trying to make my way as a struggling cartoonist. He was very personable and more than willing to chat about Star Wars. I remember telling Harrison how much I was looking forward to seeing this film which he was starring in, and that I thought it might be a huge hit. He scoffed at this, and told me that he was sure it was just another B sci-fi film, with terribly corny dialogue. He went on and on about acting in front of the blue screen, not knowing what the hell they were supposed to be seeing. He continued on, relating that the only way he and the other group of novice actors portraying the heroes could keep any semblance of seriousness during the shoot was because of the presence of Alec Guinness.

Hoberg Does Han & Chewie (Above:) Splash page from Star Wars #6 (Dec. 1977). Howard Chaykin was credited (by Roy) as “artist & storyteller,” but it was Rick Hoberg and Bill Wray who did the finished penciling and inking, respectively, on that issue—with a bit of uncredited help from their buddy Dave Stevens. (Top right:) A later commission illo by Rick Hoberg of Han Solo and Chewbacca, done for Lance Falk. [Both pieces ©2007 Lucasfilm, Ltd.]

Harrison related that Guinness was a complete professional on set, and that he [Harrison] and the other young actors, Hamill and Fisher, continually worried about making fools of themselves in front of this great thespian. So they followed his lead, trying to believe everything they were doing. Learning from a great master that acting is makebelieve in which you really believe. Upon seeing the final film, one can see that having Guinness in the Kenobi role was a true stroke of genius on Lucas’ part. Sir Alec not only created Obi-Wan, he helped create Luke, Leia, Han, and all the other characters in that galaxy long, long ago and far, far away.

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After staying up for five days, we delivered it in person to Roy’s Hollywood pad, confident of the kudos to come. We knew it was a good job under the circumstances. Roy answered the door in his bathrobe, hurriedly mumbled a thank you, and closed the door in our faces. That was pretty anticlimactic, but we didn’t hold it against him. We were still happy and proud of the book.

Sidebar 5:

William Wray [Excerpted from e-mails dated Feb. 26 & March 13, 2007.] That was a momentous week for Rick and me. Getting the job from Roy for Rick to pencil [over Howard Chaykin’s layouts] and myself to ink Star Wars #6 was the moment that really got us into comics. We loved the movie and were overjoyed to have a shot at the comic book. Chaykin’s pencils were not even layouts, and kudos to Rick for doing the full job. We had about five days to do the book, and I was a slow inker, trying my best to be as lovingly slick and detailed as Dave Stevens. Dave inked a few pages to help us, and those are the highlights of the book, as he re-did them his meticulous way. I was so behind on my end that even Rick inked a page or two, and my Dad did some background headlining!

[Continued from p. 72] even if I’d wanted to. Of course, when The Empire Strikes Back came out, Han Solo had become if anything more important to the sequel than he was to the original. I was also surprised, at that lunch, to learn that George had acquired the rights to Howard the Duck from Marvel, and he and Charlie discussed possible screenwriters. I dared suggest one name they hadn’t mentioned. “How about Steve Gerber?” I asked. “After all, he invented the character.” George and Charlie made the usual sounds about how movies are different from comic books and moved on to another aspect of the film—one clearly of paramount importance to them. “The one thing we have to make sure of,” George said, “is that in the movie he doesn’t look like a man in a duck suit.” Sound thinking, of course—and exactly what Howard did look like, when that ill-fated film finally hatched a few years later.

XI. George Lucas (Again) (Or I Should Say, “Still”) All the same, I found George a pleasant-enough fellow to be around, even after it was evident that Star Wars was going to shatter boxoffice records. When I had a conference with him at his office, probably the one in which I mentioned my desire to do a Magnificent Seven-type storyline as a follow-up to the six original issues, he was very complimentary, saying, “You’re the only person who spells ‘Wookiee’ correctly! Everybody else leaves off the final ‘e’!” And they mostly did, back then.

Sorry about that, Bill. I should have been more gracious, knowing as I did of your, Rick’s, and Dave’s heroic efforts. Maybe I’d just gotten up—or had company of the female persuasion? Anyway, if I neglected to tell you at the time—you, Rick, and Dave did a superb job under trying circumstances. Incidentally, Bill’s paintings can be seen at http://williamwray.com or http://williamwray.blogspot.com —Roy.

Above all, I recall his explaining his philosophy behind The Force—although, not being of a mystic inclination, I couldn’t take such things seriously. Like UFOs or the sorcery in Conan, to me it was just a useful story device. George waxed eloquent about the New Age writer Carlos Castaneda and his books such as Tales of Power and The Second Ring of Power, which were clearly a major influence on The Force. George even rolled up in a fetal ball on the floor of his office to demonstrate some point about Castanada to me. (I bought copies of the books, but was never intrigued enough to finish reading them.) I was always impressed by George—by the obvious enthusiasm and love he had for

The Magnificent Two (Left center:) Star Wars #7 (Jan. 1978, on sale in November of ’77) focused on Han Solo and Chewbacca the Wookiee, in a Western-style story. Roy chose Gil Kane to pencil the cover, because his style had somewhat influenced Chaykin’s—and besides, Gil was great! Inks by Tony DeZuniga. (Left:) Some time later, Tony DeZuniga drew his own rendition of Han and Chewie for some guy named Falk. [Both pieces ©2007 Lucasfilm, Ltd.]

Star Wars: The Comic Book That Saved Marvel!

latter instance, I had been “inspired” in part by seeing a Porky Piglooking alien in the Cantina sequence, either in the rough cut or on some production sketches at some early point. (I don’t remember if that alien appears in the finished movie, since that part of the film contained several 11th-hour inserts of other, more colorful aliens sitting in dark corners, and something may have been cut to make room for them.) I had figured my “green rabbit” Jaxxon wasn’t really much weirder than a Wookiee, but obviously George, as the creator of the Star Wars mythos, felt differently. I respected George and Charlie, but this line of conversation was beginning to annoy me. That’s not to say George was necessarily wrong, of course. And in some way, his very rightness may be the point. I had discovered by now that, love the movie though I did, I really had little interest in continuing to handle the comic book version. Star Wars was George Lucas’ We Been Talkin’ About Jaxxon—Ever Since The Fire Went Out fantasy, not mine. Nor was it one I George Lucas had issues with Roy’s notion of Jaxxon, the alien green “rabbit,” as per the Kane-DeZuniga could buy into as totally as I had cover of Star Wars #8 (April 1978)—but isn’t that Jaxxon on Walt Simonson's cover for issue #16 (Oct. 1978)? into Robert E. Howard’s sword-and[©2007 Lucasfilm, Ltd.] sorcery. (Of course, if REH had been movies in a town where, it was already apparent to me, so many film alive in 1970 and had complained about the early issues of Conan the people were interested only in deals and grosses. Barbarian, maybe I’d have “ankled” that mag, too, as they used to say in Daily Variety. I was discovering that I preferred adapting the work I had chosen the Magnificent Seven route for Star Wars #7-10 of deceased authors to that of living ones.) because it made a good starring vehicle for Han and Chewbacca, my favorite characters in the movie. If I couldn’t do anything meaningful At the same time, I’ll admit that I was feeling a bit put off, too, re with Luke and Leia, I figured I’d leave them out of the tale almost certain monetary matters. entirely and focus on those two space-opera gunslingers. In the back of It was an open secret that Alan Dean Foster had ghosted the Star my mind always were the “Northwest Smith” stories by C.L. Moore, Wars novel that came out circa spring of 1977, even though the byline rights to which I’d tried unsuccessfully to license for Marvel not long read “by George Lucas”—and that George had given Foster a sizable after Conan the Barbarian had become a hit. bonus when the movie proved a smash. And of course everyone knows how George gave Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher XII. Goodbye, Charlie—& George valuable “points” in the picture, as an after-the-fact gesture of good will. That four-parter in Star Wars, though, proved my swan song on the comics series. I didn’t begrudge any of that quartet their good fortune—they all earned it—but I, who had fought to get Star Wars published as a comic As it progressed, I came to feel that Howard Chaykin, for whose book at a time when George and Charlie really, really wanted it artwork I’ve always had the utmost respect, wasn’t giving his all on the adapted as a comic, had never received even a thank-you… or, more pencil layouts. As I learned later, he was actually being ghosted part of crucially, a single cent beyond my regular page rate from Marvel, and the time by our mutual friend Alan Kupperberg, who was doing a $2 per page each time (or at least most times) that Marvel reprinted the creditable job—but Chaykin is Chaykin. Nobody else is. Howard is first six issues. By pointedly asking Stan for a bonus at one point, I definitely one of the post-Silver Age great artists, with American Flagg finally got an extra $500 for my Star Wars labors, but I wasn’t exactly perhaps his greatest single accomplishment. feeling appreciated on any front with regard to my work on the And then one day I got this phone call from Charlie Lippincott. adaptation. (Jim Shooter, who succeeded Archie Goodwin as Marvel’s editor-in-chief some months after the Star Wars comic was launched, He informed me that George was unhappy with the way the underscored my point in a recent interview, in which he said that he storyline was going. I reminded Charlie that I’d cleared it in advance, was in a position to know that the Star Wars comic basically saved but Charlie said that George thought that it was too close to The Marvel from going under in the late 1970s. I’ll assume Jim knew Magnificent Seven (who knows, maybe it was). whereof he spoke. And hence the title of this piece.) What’s more, George particularly disliked one of the Seven being a Not that I had any true quarrel with Marvel, of course. Sure, it made six-foot alien who resembled a green Bugs Bunny in space gear. In the formidable profits on the first six issues of the comic in particular,

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Sidebar 6:

Dave Stevens My memory of that time is pretty vague, unfortunately. I can’t even remember what year it was done (1976, maybe?). I was called in by Hoberg to help ink a few unfinished pages, so that he and Bill could meet a very tight deadline. I was simply inking “for speed,” so I left the pencils as they were: no tweaking. I did, however, redraw the large closeup of Luke in the last panel on the second-from-last page. I felt it required more effort on my part to make sure that the reader would linger with Luke, before turning the page. The next page featured the end scene, which I also inked. Unfortunately, my work was pretty lackluster back then. I was still struggling to develop the necessary skills to become proficient in the language of comics. I had a long way to go. That’s it for the comic. I do have an interesting aside concerning the advertising art for the film. I actually met with Lucas at ILM (then located in a warehouse in Van Nuys) in January of 1977, while they were still shooting the dogfight sequence.

than I had been, even writing the Star Wars newspaper strip later—and I returned to Conan. (I did some work on a sequence for the Star Wars strip some months later, on a story about a “sleeping beauty” in the midst of a lake of fire, but nothing much came of it.) Artists such as Carmine Infantino and others did splendid work on the comic book.

reprinting them over and over, then combining them into a pair of tabloid-sized specials, and finally lumping both the tabloids into one volume. I just wanted a bit more of a taste of those profits. Even when I helped Marvel put together a black-&-white paperback reprint of the movie adaptation, I had to fight to get Howard Chaykin’s and my name added to the cover, which originally was laid out to sport only those of George Lucas and Stan Lee (who was credited for his “Special Introduction”). I became, shall we say, fairly vocal in my insistence that the name of the actual writer and main artist be added to that cover, as well. Stan understood my point, and the change was duly made. I had no big quarrel with George and/or Charlie, either. I liked them both, and they had generally treated me well. But, by now, the last thing on their minds was a comic book. Still, having heard of the largesse with regard to Foster, in particular, I felt I should have received some sort of bonus from the movie folks to show their appreciation for my efforts. Instead, all I was getting was grief. So, I informed Charlie at the end of the afore-recounted phone conversation that I didn’t need all this tsuris, that I would leave Star Wars after issue #10, and to please tell George that it had been great fun being a part, even an undeniably small part, of the whole thing. Charlie and I ended the talk on friendly-enough terms. Incidentally, Archie Goodwin, who replaced me as writer of the comic with issue #11, proved much more attuned to the whole milieu

I must admit that I felt somewhat vindicated years later about the specific reasons for my leaving when I heard about Jar Jar Binks in the fourth Star Wars film, The Phantom Menace. The negative reaction to that character by just about everybody in the audience over age eight dwarfed anything that George could’ve felt about Jaxxon the alien green rabbit. In fact, I’ll bet Jaxxon would’ve been received far more favorably! I’m only guessing, of

Star Wars: The Comic Book That Saved Marvel!

Sidebar 7:

A Galactic Ghost Alan Kupperberg, who apparently did a bit of ghost-penciling for Howard Chaykin on Star Wars #10, drew the above page about his experience with Chaykin and Star Wars especially for this issue of Alter Ego. We appreciate the behind-the-scenes look, Alan! [©2007 Alan Kupperberg.]

Think We’re Kidding? Read On!

course. While I rather enjoyed The Empire Strikes Back, I disliked the Ewoks part of Return of the Jedi so much that I whispered to Dann at a screening, “If I weren’t seeing this for free, I’d demand my money back!” I haven’t yet gotten around to seeing the fourth through the sixth films… and I winced when I saw the later scenes filmed to replace some in the original Star Wars, which “blanderized” the character of Han Solo.

Epilogue And Dedication All the same, I had meant what I said to Charlie that day in 1977 about it being an honor to be associated with the early days of Star Wars. In Marvel’s tabloid reprint of #1-6 of the comic, I had written what remains my sincere “Epilogue and Dedication”: “To GEORGE LUCAS, who dared to dream that movies could be fun again, this Marvel Comics adaptation has been affectionately and respectfully dedicated. Our thanks, George, for letting us be a part of it.” I signed it, “Roy & Howard.” If I had to do it all over, I would do the same things again, mostly. Well, one thing I would do differently. I would ask George for a bonus the day after the movie opened.

It Was A Darth And Stormy [Jedi] Knight Another fine Leialoha commission illo done for (you guessed it) Lance Falk. So what if Steve accidentally misspelled Darth Vader’s first name? In the illo on p. 70, he became one of the first people to spell “Wookiee” right! [©2007 Lucasfilm, Ltd.]

In a world where America stands on the verge of defeat at the hands of the Axis powers, these young heroes are our last, best hope for victory.

On Sale Soon!

time for a title character to be burdened with an entourage of six. Much is implied in a remark by the Phantom Eagle’s girlfriend Jerry in an early story: “If only the Phoenix Squadron were here!” (Wow #28, Aug. ’44, “Trouble in Tibet”). In other words, with those guys around, who needs the Phantom Eagle?!! And thus went the hero’s rights to … to being a hero!

[FCA EDITORS NOTE: From 1941-53, Marcus D. Swayze was a top artist for Fawcett Publications. The very first Mary Marvel character sketches came from Marc’s drawing table, and he illustrated her earliest adventures, including the classic origin story, “Captain Marvel Introduces Mary Marvel (Captain Marvel Adventures #18, Dec. ’42); but he was primarily hired by Fawcett Publications to illustrate Captain Marvel stories and covers for Whiz Comics and Captain Marvel Adventures. He also wrote many Captain Marvel scripts, and continued to do so while in the military. After leaving the service in 1944, he made an arrangement with Fawcett to produce art and stories for them on a freelance basis out of his Louisiana home. There he created both art and story for The Phantom Eagle in Wow Comics, in addition to drawing the Flyin’ Jenny newspaper strip for Bell Syndicate (created by his friend and mentor Russell Keaton). After the cancellation of Wow, Swayze produced artwork for Fawcett’s top-selling line of romance comics, including Sweethearts and Life Story. After the company ceased publishing comics, Marc moved over to Charlton Publications, where he ended his comics career in the mid-’50s. Marc’s ongoing professional memoirs have been FCA’s most popular feature since his first column appeared in FCA #54, 1996. Last time, Marc looked back on Christopher Chance, the scrapped syndicated strip collaboration with writer Glenn Chaffin. This issue he reveals the reasons behind the disappearance of the Phantom Eagle’s “Phoenix Squadron.” —P.C. Hamerlinck.]

emember the Phoenix Squadron? Or did you ever know them … that band of teenage aviators who flew the WWII skies with the Phantom Eagle? There was Sven, Hans, Nickolas, Pierre, Josef, and Hendrik … each from a conquered land … and, like Mickey Malone, too young to join the armed forces, and, yes, each flying a plane built from salvaged parts.

They were there, in Wow Comics, when I got back from the military in 1944. And, although it may seem odd, I saw them as a problem right away. Their regular inclusion, story after story, would require space … and space we didn’t have. Already the shortage of paper was evident. Comic book pages were crowded, panels smaller, stories shorter … often down to as few as five pages. It just didn’t seem an appropriate

Flight Of The Phoenix The Phoenix Squadron—young allies of the Phantom Eagle in Fawcett’s Wow Comics during World War II—built and flew their own planes. Maybe they were jealous because P.E. and Jerry always got the “center ring”? Marc Swayze art from “The Traitor in the Phoenix Squadron!” in Wow #38 (Sept-Oct. 1945). [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

The rescue mission likely to follow would mean an aerial dogfight … and those airplane squabbles high in the sky, no matter how diligently labored over at the drawing board, usually ended up as boresome comic book panels and pages … not, to me, the ideal of comic book pictorial subject matter. I had no objections to Mickey Malone having “guests” along on his adventures … as long as there weren’t so many people in so little space! Why not one at a time, like “Foggy Jones” in “The Runaway Rocket” (Wow #66, May ’48), who had something to contribute to the feature … in Foggy’s case, humor? And there was the matter of hero vulnerability. The Phoenix Squadron was created and existed as a wartime adjunct to the Phantom Eagle … a feature based pretty much on realism … no mysticism … no

We Didn’t Know... It Was The Golden Age!

A Foggy Day Pages from “The Runaway Rocket!” featuring the introduction of Foggy Jones, postwar comedy relief addition to the Phantom Eagle cast. Art & script by Swayze. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

super-powers. When Mickey Malone got into a scrape he had to tussle his way out of it. Yet, from your seat at the typewriter, how could your readers’ concern be roused over the welfare of your principal character when just beyond the nearest cloud lurked a half dozen ace pilots flying homemade but adequately equipped fighter planes, ready to bail him out? I had nothing against those kids. They would have been great for regular, worded fiction. But for the comic book picture story? It would take only a brief description in type to say something like: “The boys stood by, an expression of loyalty clear on each face.” But to draw it? Try it! It’s difficult to dismiss a feeling of guilt when thinking of them. In the Phantom Eagle stories that I wrote, there was never a word about the Phoenix Squadron. Yet there were aspects that might have made it an interesting endeavor. The dialects, for one. Years back I had begun a file of the various examples of “broken English” spoken throughout our land, seeing it as a means of providing color to comic strip dialogue. The language of the Squadron offered opportunities to utilize that material. The Phoenix Squadron, despite a plot that stirred occasionally in the back of my mind to write a story washing them out for good, stayed on. Even after the war’s end they are remembered reminiscently in the Phantom Eagle title legends. There is no question but that the Phoenix Squadron would have been better cast as a title feature than as assistance to an individual hero. Think of it … featured in their own stories … maybe their own book … The Phoenix Squadron!!! Imagine the success such a book might have achieved back in the war years!

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How’re You Gonna Keep Cap Down On The Farm...? Captain Marvel’s City-Visiting Adventures – Part I by John Cochran

Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck

ack in the heyday of the Golden Age of Comics, a new issue of Fawcett’s Captain Marvel Adventures appeared every few weeks, and its sales figures were rivaling and often squashing National’s Superman. Fawcett VP/circulation manager Roscoe K. Fawcett eventually ordered that CMA’s logo appearing on its covers’ upper left hand corner boast: “Largest Circulation of Any Comic Magazine.” In an effort to bolster numbers even more, Fawcett writer-editor Rod Reed suggested that Captain Marvel visit a host of cities across the country where he would fly over local landmarks and meet esteemed city luminaries such as mayors, newspaper columnists, radio personalities, and magazine distributors.

“I’m the one who thought up the city gimmick and persuaded the brass it would be a circulation-builder,” Reed revealed in an interview with John G. Pierce [reprinted in Alter Ego #18]. “I wrote the prototype story, which was about Buffalo, New York. No research was necessary, as I had been a newspaperman there. As the series developed, a distributor in each town would provide us with data as to the leading citizens, unusual sights, principal streets, main industry, and anything else that might serve as background.” Captain Marvel paid visits to 27 US cities in CMA, from 1943 to 1947. Since the earlier stories were written during the war years when there was a genuine threat of sabotage (crystallized by the attack on Pearl Harbor), the villains ran the gamut … from Nazis and Japanese determined to destroy America, to garden-variety criminals.

Beck Does Bok While Captain Marvel dropped in on many cities in many states in the 1940s—and in the 1970s, in DC’s Shazam!—he visited Florida only once: in this late-’70s specialty piece by former Lake Wales, Florida, resident C.C. Beck. Thanks to Mike Burkey; see his RomitaMan ads on pp. 46 & 55.) [©2007 DC Comics.]

Surprisingly, Captain Marvel never visited New York City or Greenwich, Connecticut, both Fawcett office locales—but he at least made treks to Hartford, Rochester … and Buffalo, thanks to Reed. Reed’s concept became a success as circulation numbers ballooned even more, and his ingenuity to include cameos of actual city magazine distributors further insured the popularity of Cap’s city adventures. (While a raft of real-life newspaper columnists and editors made cameo appearances in the city stories, researching any references to those appearances in the newspapers themselves proved problematic, since a number of the papers had folded … and those that were still in business expressed no interest in the matter. Yet it’s hard to believe that the newspapers cited in the “Captain Marvel” city stories at the time didn’t mention those appearances in any of their stories or columns.) Minneapolis (CMA #24, June 1943) – The first of Captain Marvel’s city-visiting stories occurs, somewhat fittingly, in Minneapolis (since Fawcett Publications originated in Minnesota). Cap seems to be plummeting in the splash panel of “Captain Marvel and the Minneapolis Mystery,” but he’s actually being pulled toward the

The World’s Mightiest Minnesotan Rod Reed in 1942, surveying the city-visit splash from Captain Marvel Adventures #24 (June 1943). Reed evidently wrote the first (but not necessarily all) of the series. All art in accompanying captions in this series, unless noted otherwise, is by the C.C. Beck-Pete Costanza studio. [©2007 DC Comics.]

Captain Marvel’s City-Visiting Adventures

and “which is going bankrupt.” Billy soon discovers that the reason the film company is in trouble is because the actors are all at war. All that’s left are “under-age and over-age leftovers from the manpower shortage! Their relatives are all in the war, so they’re trying to keep the studio going for the duration.” Despite a Simon Legree-type banker who’s eager to foreclose, Cap helps them make a movie that’s such a hit Cecil B. DeMille buys it. And that’s saying a lot, since Cap had to do a love scene, which he threatened to walk out on. “I-I quit! I can’t make love to anyone!” However, he agrees to suffer through an anguishing kiss on the cheek from a matronly type after which he proclaims, “Whew! I’ll never go through that again!”

Foshay Tower (which is described in a bird’s-eye view of the city as “the most unique skyscraper in the world”) by an electric force created by the sinister Rain King. Despite his vow to make Cap smash into the electrified globe at the top of the tower “so hard he’ll be nothing but a red grease spot,” the Rain King and his Nazi pal fail to stop the Big Red Cheese from “raining” on their parade. Fawcett art director Al Allard apparently saw to it that his friend, local newspaper columnist Cedric Adams, played a supporting role in the story. Detroit (CMA #25, July 1943) - Hitler’s minions struck again in “Captain Marvel Battles Doom in Detroit” when they tried to shut down Motown in what Billy Batson called “the biggest Axis plot ever to rear its ugly head in America.” In addition to cameos by a Detroit Free Press columnist, a sports announcer for WWJ, Detroit’s mayor, and one of the city’s top magazine distributors, the story highlights two city landmarks that become targets of Nazi sabotage: Briggs Stadium, “the home park of the Detroit Tigers,” and a Ford plant in Dearborn, Michigan. (While the Detroit Free Press and WWJ are still in business, Briggs Stadium closed in 1960.) The Nazi saboteurs strapped Billy to a flagpole and stuffed dynamite in his mouth. “Ha! Ha!” gloats one of the saboteurs. “Yell for help—if you dare! Der dynamite vill drop und blow up der building!” Billy sweated it out for a panel, and then decided to take his chances. Detroit still stands today.

San Francisco (CMA #28, Oct. 1943) - Admiral Tojo and Adolf Hitler himself both put in cameos in “Captain Marvel Fights the Phantom of the Frisco Fog!” Despite the fact that they were on the same side, Tojo wasn’t that enamored of Adolf. When Hitler greets Tojo over the wireless, he says, “Ach! Guten morgen, mein Nordic brother!” to which Tojo replies, “Bah! Save honorable hooey for Nazi suckers! Nipponese people very fed up with big noise from small wind-bag!” To which Hitler replies, “Vot?? Who you calling a vindbag, you monkey without a tail?” Given that the story was published in October 1943, Tojo, an architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor, wants the paperhanger to make good on his promise to “set up new capital of Japan in San Francisco.” To effect that, Nazi saboteurs enlist the sinister services of a dwarf-like evil genius who turns himself into a fog-shaped villain with the aid of a gas mask and a gas tank strapped to his back. He keeps getting away with creating chaos until Cap literally blows him away, and exclaims, “That’s why nobody could hit you! You’re so short we were hitting above you!!” After Cap spikes a vapor that makes people forget everything, a Nazi soldier points at a framed picture of Hitler and says, “Who’s dor funny-looking drip? Did you ever see such a dumb face yet? Und dot silly mustache!” Portland (CMA #29, Nov. 1943) - “Captain Marvel Visits Portland Oregon or Knighthood Flowers Again” is a classic example of the whimsy Otto Binder and C.C. Beck infused into the title. Richard Chickenhart, a wealthy collector of medieval armor and weaponry, thinks he’s a knight in armor after an art collector who lusts after his collection tosses a helmet on his head. Captain Marvel even gets crowned with a halberd while he’s conversing with the Portland Mayor

Seattle (CMA #26, Aug. 1943) - Cap was a regular one-man band in “Captain Marvel and Sabotage in Seattle,” thwarting nefarious Nazi attempts to spike a war bond rally by playing all the sabotaged acts himself, including a puppeteer with a miniature Billy as a dummy. The sights included “the great Boeing plant, birthplace of the well-known flying fortress that is making history in this war,” and “the Lake Washington Bridge, the only concrete pontoon bridge in the world!” Billy was introduced to Seattle by “Wheeler Smith, local newscaster,” and made the acquaintance of the mayor, a judge, and a prominent member of “the war savings staff.” Los Angeles/Hollywood (CMA #27, Sept. 1943) - C.C. Beck modeled Captain Marvel after ’40s movie great Fred MacMurray … and Tom Tyler played Cap in a 1941 12-chapter movie serial. Now the Big Red Cheese starred in his own flick in “Capt. Marvel Makes a Movie Hit.” Sterling Morris sends Billy “and, er, Captain Marvel” to Hollywood to help him resuscitate a movie company he has stock in

How’re You Gonna Keep Cap Down On The Farm...?

Cap Does California Back-to-back L.A./Hollywood and San Francisco stories appeared in Captain Marvel Adventures #27 (Sept. 1943) and #28 (Oct. 1943). Well, as long as he was visiting the Golden State…! [©2007 DC Comics.]

and Chickenhart’s butler. Naturally Cap goes right on talking. Denver (CMA #30, Dec. 1943) - Nazi saboteurs struck yet again in “Captain Marvel Battles the $40,000,000 Denver Plot!” but Cap makes hash out of their attempt to dig their way into the US mint. Killing two birds with one stone, he also persuades a couple of kids to quit their bullying ways. Cap is invited to Denver, “the mile-high industrial and commercial capital of the Rocky Mountain West,” by a young boy who writes and asks for help. Interestingly, the letter is depicted taking on wings (much like the comic book image of flying dollar bills). A couple of bullies razz the boy, saying Cap would never help him, but when the World’s Mightiest Mortal saves the day he wins them over. (By the way, the very first city official Billy met in Denver was “a big magazine distributor.” The mayor, managing editor of the Denver Post, and sports editor of the Rocky Mountain News follow afterwards.)

Buffalo (CMA #31, Jan. 1944) – The first city acquaintance Billy makes in “Captain Marvel in Buffalo!” was also a magazine distributor, George Richter of the Richter Periodical Company. Richter helps Cap discover a plan to sabotage the city’s war industry via the hampering of

Captain Marvel’s City-Visiting Adventures

across after paying a vain call on the then-president of The Dallas Morning News to warn him. Local sites highlighted included Love Field (where Cap was welcomed by the Southwestern Methodist University Band), Fair Park Auditorium, and the Cotton Bowl. Omaha (CMA #33, March 1944) - “Capt. Marvel and the Omaha Adventure!” is centered on Father Flanagan’s Boys Town, itself the subject of the 1938 movie Boys Town. The villain was a Fagin type who wanted to put Boys Town out of business with his own city— Slicker City—a criminal mirror image of Father Flanagan’s town. Just three panels after meeting the mayor, Billy Batson was introduced to “the Omaha distributor for Captain Marvel Adventures and other magazines.” He also met Father Flanagan, a school superintendent, and a local radio commentator for station WOW (which lost its call letters in 1999).

the city’s water supply. Given that the story served as the prototype for the city series and was written by Rod Reed (presumably before the seven city-visit stories that saw print in advance of it), it’s likely he knew Richter and decided to give him something more than a onepanel cameo. Although the saboteur was only a nasty, old miser who cooked up a potion that caused “cluck-eyedness” when mixed with water (thereby impairing the vision of war industry workers), he was mistaken for a Nazi because he wore rubbers imprinted with the Indian sign that “left an imprint in reverse that looked like the Nazi swastika.” Dallas (CMA #32, Feb. 1944) - In “Deep in the Heart of Dallas,” Cap was confronted by the mole men, who lived underground (à la the later “Fantastic Four” villain) and Dr. Foozle, an exceedingly nutty professor who kept trying to warn anybody who would listen that there were mole men below Dallas who were out “to steal the cities of the upper world.” Foozle even tried to shoot Cap to get his message

Oklahoma City (CMA #34, April 1944) - “Captain Marvel in Oklahoma City” is noteworthy for its lack of a splash panel and a villain. Instead, we just have Colossus, an escaped gorilla who spends his free time breaking into somebody’s dining room, a clothing shop and a beauty parlor. Cap catches sight of various landmarks in his search for the ape, including the Civic Auditorium, Skirvin Tower, Union Station, the Lincoln Park Amphitheater, and the state capitol grounds … and meets a few luminaries along the way but, surprisingly, no periodical distributor. And while there is a drawing of a personality at the Oklahoma City Times, the writer or editor apparently goofed because he is not identified. (The paper is long since gone.) The Big Red Cheese gets mistaken for the gorilla and is shot in the rear by bumbling cops, while Cap mistakes a window washer for the gorilla.

How’re You Gonna Keep Cap Down On The Farm...?

Quick! Which Way To The Indy 500? Oklahoma—Okay!

Indianapolis (CMA #35, May 1944) - The biggest problem the World’s Mightiest Mortal faces in “Captain Marvel Finds Action in Indianapolis” isn’t the gang of robbers out to steal charity money. It’s Sterling Morris’ precocious nephew Percy. After seeing Cap in action, Percy is won over and even joins the Captain Marvel Club. Although he is a whiz kid, he is dumbfounded by Cap’s appearance, even though Billy announces the switch right in front of him in order to keep a plane (whose controls Percy has just broken off) from crashing. Billy makes the acquaintance of a WFBM news announcer and mayor, and is introduced to a number of local landmarks: the home of poet James Whitcomb Riley, the state capitol building, and the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, and eventually Cap catches the robbers at the Indianapolis Speedway. St. Louis (CMA #36, June 1944) - Cap battles gangsters again in “Capt. Marvel and the St. Louis Cup” and has a breeze doing it. Along the way, he meets the area’s magazine distributor William Molasky, KWK news commentator Martin Bowin, St. Louis Globe-Democrat (still in business) sportswriter Robert C. Burns, and KWK (long gone) sports announcers Dizzy Dean and John O’Hara. Sites included Milles Fountain (where the gangsters hide from the cops), Union Station, the Federal Post Office, the St. Louis Zoo, the Soldier Memorial (a.k.a. Soldiers’ Memorial), and Sportman’s Park (torn down in 1966). Cincinnati (CMA #37, July 1944) - Billy finds himself trapped in what Cap calls “the craziest trap” ever in “Captain Marvel and His Battle of the Bubbles” when he ends up trapped inside a compressed air

bubble. Thankfully, a helpful rain shower dissolves the bubble and Cap shows up to save the day. (While Billy gets trapped in a bubble, the splash depicts the Big Red Cheese inside the aforesaid bubble.) A bubble theme is appropriate since Cincinnati is home to Procter &

Captain Marvel’s City-Visiting Adventures

Gamble. WLW news commentator Gregor Zemer tells Billy that Ohio’s third largest city “is noted for making the first bathtub, long ago! Also it has the largest soap industry of today!” No villain in this story, either, just an elderly man who identifies himself as “Grampa Wills” and who likes “kids to be happy.” He cooks up a compressed bubblemaker while sitting on his porch. While it’s a perfectly innocent avocation, it ends up terrorizing Cincinnati. Local sites included the Tyler Davidson Fountain (still in existence), Union Terminal, The Cincinnati Times-Star (long gone), and Crosley Field, “home of the Cincinnati Reds,” which closed in 1972. Chattanooga (CMA #38, Aug. 1944) - In “Captain Marvel and the Chattanooga Ghost,” Sterling Morris decides that he and Billy need a vacation and says Chattanooga is “the ideal spot…one of the garden spots of the US.” Despite the billing, readers get to see precious little of Chattanooga, and they’re cheated out of a splash panel, too. Almost all of the action takes place on Lookout Mountain, and involves a

character who looks like the grandfather of Marvel Comics’ Ghost Rider (without the motorcycle or the flames). Outside of a racial slang reference, the story certainly won’t “make your hair stand on end,” as Billy promised in the second panel. There are cameos by the mayor, the president of the “Knot-Hole Gang,” the owner of radio station WDEF, and “Bascom Farrier of the Chattanooga Magazine Co.” Pittsburgh (CMA #39, Sept. 1944) - “Captain Marvel and the Man Who Inherited Pittsburgh” is a riff on Cain and Abel, and features a host of walk-ons: the mayor, two magazine distributors, a KDKA radio station announcer and three newspapermen (two from newspapers that no longer exist: The Pittsburgh Press and The Sun-Telegraph). It’s unclear why Billy’s gone to Pittsburgh, since he stumbles on a Simon Legree problem between two brothers—one rich and the other poor— as soon as he arrives. Once he resolves it, he’s gone. Poor Josh Dovey lives in Slum Corners with his cat and his collection of Captain Marvel Adventures. Little does he or his Simon Legree of a brother— aptly named Flintrock Dovey—know that the comic books will be worth their weight in gold two decades hence. In fact, when Flintrock succeeds in knocking down his brother’s shack, he growls, “Nothing but comic books!” Thankfully, Cap saves the day when he discovers a deed left by William Penn willing the city of Pittsburgh to the family of Josh Dovey.

Whew! That’s quite a tour—and we’re only roughly half done! Part II of this article on Captain Marvel’s perambulations will appear next issue—with additional coverage of the 1970s Shazam! version of the city stopovers!

Look! Up In The Sky! A Rainbow! Did Old Comic Heroes Really Exist, Or Were They Illusions? by C.C. Beck

Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck

[A previously unpublished essay from 1986 by Captain Marvel’s cocreator and chief artist – from the vaults of PCH’s Beck estate files.]

When comic book creators of today look back at the great heroes of the Golden Age of Comics, they do not see what the readers saw in those days (heroes slightly larger than life and performing interesting feats of strength), but anything from poorly-drawn stick figures to horribly distorted masses of muscle running around in ridiculous costumes and tearing worlds apart, flying through the air like rockets, and creating various weird sound effects while tossing off bad jokes, puns, and assorted catchwords and identifying slogans.

he rainbow, the beautiful arc of colors seen in the sky after a rainstorm, is a purely imaginary thing. Everyone can see it, but it isn’t there in the sky at all; it’s in the eyes of the beholders. All that’s in the sky is a sheet of falling raindrops which reflects the light of the sun in a way that makes everyone looking at it see not the reflection of the sun but a magnificent display of colored light. And that display of colored light is personal and private; each individual sees his own rainbow, which he carries about with him inside his own head. In the same way, words printed on a sheet of paper, or lines printed in the form of drawings, cause different impressions on viewers. One person looking at a comic book hero gets one impression, another viewer gets another. No two impressions are alike, for each viewer has his own view of the hero, and sometimes this view is so distorted that it’s nothing like the view the writer or artist who created the hero had.

Comic book creators of today, when they resurrect old heroes, are like children opening an old trunk filled with theatrical costumes and props. They don’t realize that the actors who wore the costumes and used the props in the old days appeared in plays written by skilled playwrights; they didn’t simply prance about at random, improvising their lines and doing whatever popped into their heads. “Oh, wow! Holy Moley! What the…? Pow! Blam! I’m a comic hero, see?” they cry gleefully as they put on the old costumes, which are much too large for them. “Ka-pow! Rat-a-tat-a-tat! Ka-runchhh! Thrattch! Wok! Smaksh! Hey, this is fun!” Such childish playing around with the old costumes and props may be fun for today’s producers of comics, but it’s not very entertaining for readers. “This stuff is awful!” young readers cry. “Is this what our fathers and grandfathers read when they were young? They must have been pretty dumb! Nobody could believe this junk!” Older readers, who remember the old comic books or have studied the original publications, shake their heads sadly. “This isn’t the way things were in the old days,” they mutter. “Let me tell you what things were really like. In the first place …” But each older reader has a different impression of what happened back there a half-century ago in the Golden Age. Each one saw his own rainbow, not his neighbor’s. Like rainbows, old comic heroes existed only in the heads of viewers; they were never in the real world at all. And that’s where they should remain … inside the heads of old people, not reincarnated and presented in forms that are equally disgusting to both young and old today.

Could We See That Travel Brochure Again? Hmm… looks like another one of those “Captain Marvel Visits…” stories— only this time the place is a mirage! C.C. Beck’s cover for Whiz Comics #97 (May 1948). [©2007 DC Comics.]

TWOMORROWS BOOKS by ROY THOMAS NEW FOR 2008

ALTER EGO COLLECTION, VOL. 1 Collects ALTER EGO #1-2, plus 30 pages of new material! Behind a new JLA Jam Cover by JOE KUBERT, GEORGE PÉREZ, DICK GIORDANO, GEORGE TUSKA, NICK CARDY, RAMONA FRADON, and JOE GIELLA, there’s: GIL KANE, JULIUS SCHWARTZ, and GARDNER FOX on the creation of the Silver Age Atom! “The STAN LEE Roast” with SAL BUSCEMA, JOHN ROMITA, PETER DAVID, CHRIS CLAREMONT, JIM SHOOTER, et al.! MICHAEL T. GILBERT on WILL EISNER’s 1966 Spirit story! ROY THOMAS, JERRY ORDWAY, and MIKE MACHLAN on creating Infinity, Inc.! Interviews with LARRY LIEBER, IRWIN HASEN, & JACK BURNLEY! Wonder Woman rarities, with art by H.G. PETER! Plus FCA, new sections featuring scarce art by GIL KANE, WILL EISNER, CARMINE INFANTINO, MIKE SEKOWSKY, MURPHY ANDERSON, DICK DILLIN, plus all seven of our super-star cover artists! (192-page trade paperback) $21.95 ISBN: 9781893905597 Diamond Order Code: APR063420

ALTER EGO: THE BEST OF THE LEGENDARY COMICS FANZINE

(10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION) In 1961, JERRY BAILS and ROY THOMAS launched ALTER EGO, the first fanzine devoted to comic books and their colorful history. This volume, first published in low distribution in 1997, collects the original 11 issues (published from 1961-78) of A/E, with the creative and artistic contributions of JACK KIRBY, STEVE DITKO, WALLY WOOD, JOHN BUSCEMA, MARIE SEVERIN, BILL EVERETT, RUSS MANNING, CURT SWAN, & others—and important, illustrated interviews with GIL KANE, BILL EVERETT, & JOE KUBERT! See where a generation first learned about the Golden Age of Comics—while the Silver Age was in full flower—with major articles on the JUSTICE SOCIETY, the MARVEL FAMILY, the MLJ HEROES, and more! Edited by ROY THOMAS & BILL SCHELLY with an introduction by the late JULIUS SCHWARTZ.

JOHN ROMITA... AND ALL THAT JAZZ! “Jazzy” JOHN ROMITA talks about his life, his art, and his contemporaries! Authored by former Marvel Comics editor in chief and top writer ROY THOMAS, and noted historian JIM AMASH, it features the most definitive interview Romita’s ever given, about working with such comics legends as STAN LEE and JACK KIRBY, following Spider-Man co-creator STEVE DITKO as artist on the strip, and more! Plus, Roy Thomas shares memories of working with Romita in the 1960s-70s, and Jim Amash examines the awesome artistry of Ring-a-Ding Romita! Lavishly illustrated with Romita art—original classic art, and unseen masterpieces—as well as illos by some of Marvel’s and DC’s finest, this is at once a career overview of a comics master, and a firsthand history of the industry by one of its leading artists! Available in Softcover and Deluxe Hardcover (with 16 extra color pages, dust jacket, and custom endleaves). (192-page softcover) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905757 • Diamond Order Code: APR074018 (208-page hardcover with COLOR) $44.95 ISBN: 9781893905764 • Diamond Order Code: APR074019

(192-page trade paperback) $21.95 ISBN: 9781893905887 Diamond Order Code: DEC073946

ALL- STAR COMPANION VOL. 2 ROY THOMAS presents still more secrets of the Justice Society of America and ALL-STAR COMICS, from 1940 through the 1980s, featuring: A fabulous wraparound cover by CARLOS PACHECO! More amazing information and speculation on the classic ALL-STAR COMICS of 1940-1951! Never-before-seen Golden Age art by IRWIN HASEN, CARMINE INFANTINO, ALEX TOTH, MART NODELL, JOE KUBERT, H.G. PETER, and others! Art from an unpublished 1940s JSA story not seen in Volume 1! Rare art from the original JLA-JSA team-ups and the 1970s ALL-STAR COMICS REVIVAL by MIKE SEKOWSKY, DICK DILLIN, JOE STATON, WALLY WOOD, KEITH GIFFEN, and RIC ESTRADA! Full coverage of the 1980s ALL-STAR SQUADRON, and a bio of every single All-Star, plus never-seen art by JERRY ORDWAY, RICH BUCKLER, ARVELL JONES, RAFAEL KAYANAN, and special JSArelated art and features by FRANK BRUNNER, ALEX ROSS, NEAL ADAMS, GIL KANE, MIKE MIGNOLA, and RAMONA FRADON—and more!

NEW FOR 2008

(240-page trade paperback) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905375 Diamond Order Code: AUG063622

ALL- STAR COMPANION VOL. 3

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In this third volume, comics legend Roy Thomas presents still more amazing secrets behind the 1940-51 ALL-STAR COMICS and the JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA! Also, there’s an issue-by-issue survey of the JLA/JSA TEAM-UPS of 1963-85, the 1970s JSA REVIVAL, and the 1980s series THE YOUNG ALL-STARS with commentary by the artists and writers! Plus rare, often unseen art by NEAL ADAMS, DICK AYERS, MICHAEL BAIR, JOHN BUSCEMA, SEAN CHEN, DICK DILLIN, RIC ESTRADA, CREIG FLESSEL, KEITH GIFFEN, DICK GIORDANO, MIKE GRELL, TOM GRINDBERG, TOM GRUMMETT, RON HARRIS, IRWIN HASEN, DON HECK, CARMINE INFANTINO, GIL KANE, JACK KIRBY, JOE KUBERT, BOB LAYTON, SHELDON MAYER, BOB McLEOD, SHELDON MOLDOFF, BRIAN MURRAY, JERRY ORDWAY, ARTHUR PEDDY, GEORGE PÉREZ, H.G. PETER, HOWARD PURCELL, PAUL REINMAN, MIKE SEKOWSKY, HOWARD SIMPSON, JOE SINNOTT, JIM STARLIN, JOE STATON, RONN SUTTON, ALEX TOTH, JIM VALENTINO and many others! Featuring a new JLA/JSA cover by GEORGE PÉREZ! (240-page trade paperback) $26.95 ISBN: 9781893905801 • Diamond Order Code: SEP074020

Edited by ROY THOMAS The greatest ‘zine of the 1960s is back, ALL-NEW, and focusing on GOLDEN AND SILVER AGE comics and creators with ARTICLES, INTERVIEWS, UNSEEN ART, P.C. Hamerlinck’s FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America, featuring the archives of C.C. BECK and recollections by Fawcett artist MARCUS SWAYZE), Michael T. Gilbert’s MR. MONSTER, and more!

2007 EISNER AWARD WINNER Best Comics-Related Periodical

Go online for an ULTIMATE BUNDLE, with all the issues at HALF-PRICE!

DIEGDITITIOANL ONLY!

ALTER EGO #1

ALTER EGO #2

ALTER EGO #3

STAN LEE gets roasted by SCHWARTZ, CLAREMONT, DAVID, ROMITA, BUSCEMA, and SHOOTER, ORDWAY and THOMAS on INFINITY, INC., IRWIN HASEN interview, unseen H.G. PETER Wonder Woman pages, the original Captain Marvel and Human Torch teamup, FCA with MARC SWAYZE, “Mr. Monster”, plus plenty of rare and unpublished art!

Featuring a never-reprinted SPIRIT story by WILL EISNER, the genesis of the SILVER AGE ATOM (with GARDNER FOX, GIL KANE, and JULIE SCHWARTZ), interviews with LARRY LIEBER and Golden Age great JACK BURNLEY, BOB KANIGHER, a new Fawcett Collectors of America section with MARC SWAYZE, C.C. BECK, and more! GIL KANE and JACK BURNLEY flip-covers!

Unseen ALEX ROSS and JERRY ORDWAY Shazam! art, 1953 interview with OTTO BINDER, the SUPERMAN/CAPTAIN MARVEL LAWSUIT, GIL KANE on The Golden Age of TIMELY COMICS, FCA with SWAYZE, BECK, and SCHAFFENBERGER, rare art by AYERS, BERG, BURNLEY, DITKO, RICO, SCHOMBURG, MARIE SEVERIN and more! ALEX ROSS & BILL EVERETT covers!

(80-page magazine) SOLD OUT (80-page Digital Edition) $2.95

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DIEGDITITIOANL ONLY!

ALTER EGO #4

ALTER EGO #5

ALTER EGO #6

ALTER EGO #7

ALTER EGO #8

Interviews with KUBERT, SHELLY MOLDOFF, and HARRY LAMPERT, BOB KANIGHER, life and times of GARDNER FOX, ROY THOMAS remembers GIL KANE, a history of Flash Comics, MOEBIUS Silver Surfer sketches, MR. MONSTER, FCA section with SWAYZE, BECK, and SCHAFFENBERGER, and lots more! Dual color covers by JOE KUBERT!

Celebrating the JSA, with interviews with MART NODELL, SHELLY MAYER, GEORGE ROUSSOS, BILL BLACK, and GIL KANE, unpublished H.G. PETER Wonder Woman art, GARDNER FOX, an FCA section with MARC SWAYZE, C.C. BECK, WENDELL CROWLEY, and more! Wraparound cover by CARMINE INFANTINO and JERRY ORDWAY!

GENE COLAN interview, 1940s books on comics by STAN LEE and ROBERT KANIGHER, AYERS, SEVERIN, and ROY THOMAS on Sgt. Fury, ROY on All-Star Squadron’s Golden Age roots, FCA section with SWAYZE, BECK, and WILLIAM WOOLFOLK, JOE SIMON interview, a definitive look at MAC RABOY’S work, and more! Covers by COLAN and RABOY!

Companion to ALL-STAR COMPANION book, with a JULIE SCHWARTZ interview, guide to JLA-JSA TEAMUPS, origins of the ALL-STAR SQUADRON, FCA section with MARC SWAYZE, C.C. BECK (on his 1970s DC conflicts), DAVE BERG, BOB ROGERS, more on MAC RABOY from his son, MR. MONSTER, and more! RICH BUCKLER and C.C. BECK covers!

WALLY WOOD biography, DAN ADKINS & BILL PEARSON on Wood, TOR section with 1963 JOE KUBERT interview, ROY THOMAS on creating the ALL-STAR SQUADRON and its 1940s forebears, FCA section with SWAYZE & BECK, MR. MONSTER, JERRY ORDWAY on Shazam!, JERRY DeFUCCIO on the Golden Age, CHIC STONE remembered! ADKINS and KUBERT covers!

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JAN001713

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

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JUL002003

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV002267

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: FEB012215

ALTER EGO #9

ALTER EGO #10

ALTER EGO #11

ALTER EGO #12

ALTER EGO #13

JOHN ROMITA interview by ROY THOMAS (with unseen art), Roy’s PROPOSED DREAM PROJECTS that never got published (with a host of great artists), MR. MONSTER on WAYNE BORING’S life after Superman, The Golden Age of Comic Fandom Panel, FCA section with GEORGE TUSKA, C.C. BECK, MARC SWAYZE, BILL MORRISON, & more! ROMITA and GIORDANO covers!

Who Created the Silver Age Flash? (with KANIGHER, INFANTINO, KUBERT, and SCHWARTZ), DICK AYERS interview (with unseen art), JOHN BROOME remembered, never-seen Golden Age Flash pages, VIN SULLIVAN Magazine Enterprises interview, FCA, interview with FRED GUARDINEER, and MR. MONSTER on WAYNE BORING! INFANTINO and AYERS covers!

Focuses on TIMELY/MARVEL (interviews and features on SYD SHORES, MICKEY SPILLANE, and VINCE FAGO), and MAGAZINE ENTERPRISES (including JOE CERTA, JOHN BELFI, FRANK BOLLE, BOB POWELL, and FRED MEAGHER), MR. MONSTER on JERRY SIEGEL, DON and MAGGIE THOMPSON interview, FCA with SWAYZE, BECK, and DON NEWTON!

DC and QUALITY COMICS focus! Quality’s GILL FOX interview, never-seen ’40s PAUL REINMAN Green Lantern story, ROY THOMAS talks to LEN WEIN and RICH BUCKLER about ALL-STAR SQUADRON, MR. MONSTER shows what made WALLY WOOD leave MAD, FCA section with BECK & SWAYZE, & ’65 NEWSWEEK ARTICLE on comics! REINMAN and BILL WARD covers!

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

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY012450

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(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV012568

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JAN022737

ALTER EGO #17 Spotlighting LOU FINE (with an overview of his career, and interviews with family members), interview with MURPHY ANDERSON about Fine, ALEX TOTH on Fine, ARNOLD DRAKE interviewed about DEADMAN and DOOM PATROL, MR. MONSTER on the non-EC work of JACK DAVIS and GEORGE EVANS, FINE and LUIS DOMINGUEZ COVERS, FCA and more!

ALTER EGO #14

ALTER EGO #15

ALTER EGO #16

A look at the 1970s JSA revival with CONWAY, LEVITZ, ESTRADA, GIFFEN, MILGROM, and STATON, JERRY ORDWAY on All-Star Squadron, tributes to CRAIG CHASE and DAN DeCARLO, “lost” 1945 issue of All-Star, 1970 interview with LEE ELIAS, MR. MONSTER on GARDNER FOX, FCA with SWAYZE, BECK, & JAY DISBROW! MIKE NASSER & MICHAEL GILBERT covers!

JOHN BUSCEMA ISSUE! BUSCEMA interview (with UNSEEN ART), reminiscences by SAL BUSCEMA, STAN LEE, INFANTINO, KUBERT, ORDWAY, FLO STEINBERG, and HERB TRIMPE, ROY THOMAS on 35 years with BIG JOHN, FCA tribute to KURT SCHAFFENBERGER, plus C.C. BECK and MARC SWAYZE, and MR. MONSTER revisits WALLY WOOD! Two BUSCEMA covers!

MARVEL BULLPEN REUNION (BUSCEMA, COLAN, ROMITA, and SEVERIN), memories of the JOHN BUSCEMA SCHOOL, FCA with ALEX ROSS, C.C. BECK, and MARC SWAYZE, tribute to CHAD GROTHKOPF, MR. MONSTER on EC COMICS with art by KURTZMAN, DAVIS, and WOOD, and more! Covers by ALEX ROSS and MARIE SEVERIN & RAMONA FRADON!

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: FEB022730

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: APR022615

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY022386

ALTER EGO #18

ALTER EGO #19

ALTER EGO #20

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

Spotlight on DICK SPRANG (profile and interview) with unseen art, rare Batman art by BOB KANE, CHARLES PARIS, SHELLY MOLDOFF, MAX ALLAN COLLINS, JIM MOONEY, CARMINE INFANTINO, and ALEX TOTH, JERRY ROBINSON interviewed about Tomahawk and 1940s cover artist FRED RAY, FCA, and MR. MONSTER on WALLY WOOD’s Flash Gordon, Part 2!

Timely/Marvel art by SEKOWSKY, SHORES, EVERETT, and BURGOS, secrets behind THE INVADERS with ROY THOMAS, KIRBY, GIL KANE, & ROBBINS, BOB DESCHAMPS interviewed, 1965 NY Comics Con review, panel with FINGER, BINDER, FOX and WEISINGER, MR. MONSTER, FCA with SWAYZE, BECK, RABOY, SCHAFFENBERGER, and more! MILGROM and SCHELLY covers!

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: AUG022420

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: OCT022884

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV022845

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JUL022370

ALTER EGO #21 The IGER “SHOP” examined, with art by EISNER, FINE, ANDERSON, CRANDALL, BAKER, MESKIN, CARDY, EVANS, BOB KANE, and TUSKA, “SHEENA” section with art by DAVE STEVENS & FRANK BRUNNER, ROY THOMAS on the JSA and All-Star Squadron, more UNSEEN 1946 ALL-STAR ART, MR. MONSTER on GARDNER FOX, FCA, and more! DAVE STEVENS and IRWIN HASEN covers! (108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: DEC023029

ALTER EGO #22

ALTER EGO #23

ALTER EGO #24

ALTER EGO #25

ALTER EGO #26

BILL EVERETT and JOE KUBERT interviewed by NEAL ADAMS and GIL KANE in 1970, Timely art by BURGOS, SHORES, NODELL, and SEKOWSKY, RUDY LAPICK, ROY THOMAS on Sub-Mariner, with art by EVERETT, COLAN, ANDRU, BUSCEMAs, SEVERINs, and more, FCA, MR. MONSTER on WALLY WOOD at EC, ALEX TOTH, and CAPT. MIDNIGHT! EVERETT & BECK covers!

Unseen art from TWO “LOST” 1940s H.G. PETER WONDER WOMAN STORIES (and analysis of “CHARLES MOULTON” scripts), BOB FUJITANI and JOHN ROSENBERGER, VICTOR GORELICK discusses Archie and The Mighty Crusaders, with art by MORROW, BUCKLER, and REINMAN, FCA, and MR. MONSTER on WALLY WOOD! H.G. PETER and BOB FUJITANI covers!

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

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

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

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JAN032492

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: FEB032260

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: MAR032534

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: APR032553

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY032543

ALTER EGO #27

ALTER EGO #28

ALTER EGO #29

ALTER EGO #30

ALTER EGO #31

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

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

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

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

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

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JUN032614

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JUL032570

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: AUG032604

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: SEP032620

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: OCT032843

ALTER EGO #32

ALTER EGO #33

ALTER EGO #34

ALTER EGO #35

ALTER EGO #36

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

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

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

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

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

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV032695

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: DEC032833

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(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: FEB042796

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: MAR042972

ALTER EGO #37

ALTER EGO #38

ALTER EGO #39

ALTER EGO #40

ALTER EGO #41

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

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

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

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

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

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: APR043055

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ALTER EGO #42

ALTER EGO #43

ALTER EGO #44

ALTER EGO #45

ALTER EGO #46

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

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

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

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

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

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: SEP043043

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ALTER EGO #47

ALTER EGO #48

ALTER EGO #49

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

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

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

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: FEB053220

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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 Diamond Order Code: MAY053172

ALTER EGO #54 ALTER EGO #51

ALTER EGO #52

ALTER EGO #53

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

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

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

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JUN053345

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

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: SEP053301

ALTER EGO #56

ALTER EGO #57

ALTER EGO #58

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

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

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

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: DEC053401

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ALTER EGO #55 JACK and OTTO BINDER, KEN BALD, VIC DOWD, and BOB BOYAJIAN interviewed, FCA with SWAYZE and EMILIO SQUEGLIO, rare art by BECK, WARD, & SCHAFFENBERGER, Christmas Card Art from CRANDALL, SINNOTT, HEATH, MOONEY, and CARDY, 1943 Pin-Up Calendar (with ’40s movie stars as superheroines), ALEX TOTH, and more! ALEX ROSS and ALEX WRIGHT covers!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: OCT053396

ALTER EGO #59 Special issue on Batman and Superman in the Golden and Silver Ages, ARTHUR SUYDAM interview, NEAL ADAMS on 1960s/70s DC, SHELLY MOLDOFF, AL PLASTINO, Golden Age artist FRAN (Doll Man) MATERA and VIC CARRABOTTA interviewed, SIEGEL & SHUSTER, RUSS MANNING, FCA, MR. MONSTER, SUYDAM cover, and more!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: APR063474

ALTER EGO #60

ALTER EGO #61

ALTER EGO #62

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

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

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

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY063496

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ALTER EGO #63

ALTER EGO #64

ALTER EGO #65

ALTER EGO #66

ALTER EGO #67

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

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

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

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

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

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ALTER EGO #68

ALTER EGO #69

ALTER EGO #70

ALTER EGO #71

ALTER EGO #72

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

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

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

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

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

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ALTER EGO #73

ALTER EGO #75

ALTER EGO #76

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

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

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

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ALTER EGO #74 STAN LEE SPECIAL in honor of his 85th birthday, with a cover by JACK KIRBY, classic (and virtually unseen) interviews with Stan, tributes, and tons of rare and unseen art by KIRBY, ROMITA, the brothers BUSCEMA, DITKO, COLAN, HECK, AYERS, MANEELY, SHORES, EVERETT, BURGOS, KANE, the SEVERIN siblings—plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

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ALTER EGO #78 ALTER EGO #77 ST. JOHN ISSUE! Golden Age Tor cover by JOE KUBERT, KEN QUATTRO relates the full legend of St. John Publishing, art by KUBERT, NORMAN MAURER, MATT BAKER, LILY RENEE, BOB LUBBERS, RUBEN MOREIRA, RALPH MAYO, AL FAGO, special reminiscences of ARNOLD DRAKE, Golden Age artist TOM SAWYER interviewed, and more! (100-page magazine) $6.95 Ships May 2008

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DAVE COCKRUM TRIBUTE! Great rare XMen cover, Cockrum tributes from contemporaries and colleagues, and an interview with PATY COCKRUM on Dave’s life and legacy on The Legion of Super-Heroes, The X-Men, Star-Jammers, & more! Plus an interview with 1950s Timely/Marvel artist MARION SITTON on his own incredible career and his Golden Age contemporaries! (100-page magazine) $6.95 Ships June 2008

ALTER EGO #79

ALTER EGO #80

SUPERMAN & HIS CREATORS! New cover by MICHAEL GOLDEN, exclusive and revealing interview with JOE SHUSTER’s sister, JEAN SHUSTER PEAVEY—MIKE W. BARR on Superman the detective— DWIGHT DECKER on the Man of Steel & Hitler’s Third Reich—plus the NEMBO KID (Italian for “Superman”), art by BORING, SWAN, ADAMS, KANE, and others!

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

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Ships July 2008

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Ships August 2008

12-ISSUE SUBSCRIPTIONS: $78 US Postpaid by Media Mail ($108 First Class, $132 Canada, $180 Surface, $216 Airmail). For a 6-issue sub, cut the price in half!

THE RETRO COMICS EXPERIENCE!

Edited by MICHAEL EURY, BACK ISSUE magazine celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through recurring (and rotating) departments such as “Pro2Pro” (a dialogue between two professionals), “Rough Stuff” (pencil art showcases of top artists), “Greatest Stories Never Told” (spotlighting unrealized comics series or stories), and more!

Go online for an ULTIMATE BUNDLE, with all the issues at HALF-PRICE! 6-ISSUE SUBS: $40 US Postpaid by Media Mail ($54 First Class, $66 Canada, $90 Surface, $108 Airmail).

BACK ISSUE #1

BACK ISSUE #2

BACK ISSUE #3

“PRO2PRO” interview between GEORGE PÉREZ & MARV WOLFMAN (with UNSEEN PÉREZ ART), “ROUGH STUFF” featuring JACK KIRBY’s PENCIL ART, “GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD” on the first JLA/AVENGERS, “BEYOND CAPES” on DC and Marvel’s TARZAN (with KUBERT and BUSCEMA ART), “OFF MY CHEST” editorial by INFANTINO, and more! PÉREZ cover!

“PRO2PRO” between ADAM HUGHES and MIKE W. BARR (with UNSEEN HUGHES ART) and MATT WAGNER and DIANA SCHUTZ, “ROUGH STUFF” HUGHES PENCIL ART, STEVE RUDE’s unseen SPACE GHOST/HERCULOIDS team-up, Bruce Jones’ ALIEN WORLDS and TWISTED TALES, “OFF MY CHEST” by MIKE W. BARR on the DC IMPLOSION, and more! HUGHES cover!

“PRO2PRO” between KEITH GIFFEN, J.M. DeMATTEIS and KEVIN MAGUIRE on their JLA WORK, “ROUGH STUFF” PENCIL ART by ARAGONÉS, HERNANDEZ BROS., MIGNOLA, BYRNE, KIRBY, HUGHES, details on two unknown PLASTIC MAN movies, Joker’s history with O’NEIL, ADAMS, ENGLEHART, ROGERS and BOLLAND, editorial by MARK EVANIER, and more! BOLLAND cover!

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BACK ISSUE #4

BACK ISSUE #5

BACK ISSUE #6

BACK ISSUE #7

BACK ISSUE #8

“PRO2PRO” between JOHN BYRNE and CHRIS CLAREMONT on their X-MEN WORK and WALT SIMONSON and JOE CASEY on Walter’s THOR, WOLVERINE PENCIL ART by BUSCEMA, LEE, COCKRUM, BYRNE, and GIL KANE, LEN WEIN’S TEEN WOLVERINE, PUNISHER’S 30TH and SECRET WARS’ 20TH ANNIVERSARIES (with UNSEEN ZECK ART), and more! BYRNE cover!

Wonder Woman TV series in-depth, LYNDA CARTER INTERVIEW, WONDER WOMAN TV ART GALLERY, Marvel’s TV Hulk, SpiderMan, Captain America, and Dr. Strange, LOU FERRIGNO INTERVIEW, super-hero cartoons you didn’t see, pencil gallery by JERRY ORDWAY, STAR TREK in comics, and ROMITA SR. editorial on Marvel’s movies! Covers by ALEX ROSS and ADAM HUGHES!

TOMB OF DRACULA revealed with GENE COLAN and MARV WOLFMAN, LEN WEIN & BERNIE WRIGHTSON on Swamp Thing’s roots, STEVE BISSETTE & RICK VEITCH on their Swamp work, pencil art by BRUNNER, PLOOG, BISSETTE, COLAN, WRIGHTSON, and SMITH, editorial by ROY THOMAS, PREZ, GODZILLA comics (with TRIMPE art), CHARLTON horror, & more! COLAN cover!

History of BRAVE AND BOLD, JIM APARO interview, tribute to BOB HANEY, FANTASTIC FOUR ROUNDTABLE with STAN LEE, MARK WAID, and others, EVANIER and MEUGNIOT on DNAgents, pencil art by ROSS, TOTH, COCKRUM, HECK, ROBBINS, NEWTON, and BYRNE, DENNY O’NEIL editorial, a tour of METROPOLIS, IL, and more! SWAN/ANDERSON cover!

DENNY O’NEIL and Justice League Unlimited voice actor PHIL LaMARR discuss GL JOHN STEWART, NEW X-MEN pencil art by NEAL ADAMS, ARTHUR ADAMS, DAVID MAZZUCCHELLI, ALAN DAVIS, JIM LEE, ADAM HUGHES, STORM’s 30-year history, animated TV’s black heroes (with TOTH art), ISABELLA and TREVOR VON EEDEN on BLACK LIGHTNING, and more! KYLE BAKER cover!

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BACK ISSUE #9

BACK ISSUE #10

BACK ISSUE #11

BACK ISSUE #12

BACK ISSUE #13

MIKE BARON and STEVE RUDE on NEXUS past and present, a colossal GIL KANE pencil art gallery, a look at Marvel’s STAR WARS comics, secrets of DC’s unseen CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS SEQUEL, TIM TRUMAN on his GRIMJACK SERIES, MIKE GOLD editorial, THANOS history, TIME WARP revisited, and more! All-new STEVE RUDE COVER!

NEAL ADAMS and DENNY O’NEIL on RA’S AL GHUL’s history (with Adams art), O’Neil and MICHAEL KALUTA on THE SHADOW, MIKE GRELL on JON SABLE FREELANCE, HOWIE CHAYKIN interview, DOC SAVAGE in comics, BATMAN ART GALLERY by PAUL SMITH, SIENKIEWICZ, SIMONSON, BOLLAND, HANNIGAN, MAZZUCCHELLI, and others! New cover by ADAMS!

ROY THOMAS, KURT BUSIEK, and JOE JUSKO on CONAN (with art by JOHN BUSCEMA, BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH, NEAL ADAMS, JUSKO, and others), SERGIO ARAGONÉS and MARK EVANIER on GROO, DC’s never-published KING ARTHUR, pencil art gallery by KIRBY, PÉREZ, MOEBIUS, GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, BOLLAND, and others, and a new BUSCEMA/JUSKO Conan cover!

‘70s and ‘80s character revamps with DAVE GIBBONS, ROY THOMAS and KURT BUSIEK, TOM DeFALCO and RON FRENZ on Spider-Man’s 1980s “black” costume change, DENNY O’NEIL on Superman’s 1970 revamp, JOHN BYRNE’s aborted SHAZAM! series detailed, pencil art gallery with FRANK MILLER, LEE WEEKS, DAVID MAZZUCCHELLI, CHARLES VESS, and more!

CARDY interview, ENGLEHART and MOENCH on kung-fu comics, “Pro2Pro” with STATON and CUTI on Charlton’s E-Man, pencil art gallery featuring MILLER, KUBERT, GIORDANO, SWAN, GIL KANE, COLAN, COCKRUM, and others, EISNER’s A Contract with God; “The Death of Romance (Comics)” (with art by ROMITA, SR. and TOTH), and more!

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BACK ISSUE #14

BACK ISSUE #15

BACK ISSUE #16

BACK ISSUE #17

BACK ISSUE #18

DAVE COCKRUM and MIKE GRELL go “Pro2Pro” on the Legion, pencil art gallery by BUSCEMA, BYRNE, MILLER, STARLIN, McFARLANE, ROMITA JR., SIENKIEWICZ, looks at Hercules Unbound, Hex, Killraven, Kamandi, MARS, Planet of the Apes, art and interviews with GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, KIRBY, WILLIAMSON, and more! New MIKE GRELL/BOB McLEOD cover!

“Weird Heroes” of the 1970s and ‘80s! MIKE PLOOG discusses Ghost Rider, MATT WAGNER revisits The Demon, JOE KUBERT dusts off Ragman, GENE COLAN “Rough Stuff” pencil gallery, GARCÍALÓPEZ recalls Deadman, DC’s unpublished Gorilla Grodd series, PERLIN, CONWAY, and MOENCH on Werewolf by Night, and more! New ARTHUR ADAMS cover!

“Toy Stories!” Behind the Scenes of Marvel’s G.I. JOE™ and TRANSFORMERS with PAUL LEVITZ and GEORGE TUSKA, “Rough Stuff” MIKE ZECK pencil gallery, ARTHUR ADAMS on Gumby, HE-MAN, ROM, MICRONAUTS, SUPER POWERS, SUPER-HERO CARS, art by HAMA, SAL BUSCEMA, GUICE, GOLDEN, KIRBY, TRIMPE, and new ZECK sketch cover!

“Super Girls!” Supergirl retrospective with art by STELFREEZE, HAMNER, SpiderWoman, Flare, Tigra, DC’s unused Double Comics with unseen BARRETTO and INFANTINO art, WOLFMAN and JIMENEZ on Donna Troy, female comics pros, art by SEKOWSKY, OKSNER, PÉREZ, HUGHES, GIORDANO, plus a COLOR GALLERY and COVER by BRUCE TIMM!

“Big, Green Issue!” Tour of NEAL ADAMS’ studio (with interview and art gallery), DAVE GIBBONS “Rough Stuff” pencil art spotlight, interviews with MIKE GRELL (on Green Arrow), PETER DAVID (on Incredible Hulk), a “Pro2Pro” chat between GERRY CONWAY and JOHN ROMITA, SR. (on the Green Goblin), and more. New cover by NEAL ADAMS!

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“Unsung Heroes!” DON NEWTON spotlight, STEVE GERBER and GENE COLAN on Howard the Duck, MIKE CARLIN and DANNY FINGEROTH on Marvel’s Assistant Editors’ Month, the unrealized Unlimited Powers TV show, TONY ISABELLA’s aborted plans for The Champions, MARK GRUENWALD tribute, art by SAL BUSCEMA, JOHN BYRNE, and more! NEWTON/ RUBINSTEIN cover!

“Secret Identities!” Histories of characters with unusual alter egos: Firestorm, Moon Knight, the Question, and the “real-life” Human Fly! STEVE ENGLEHART and SAL BUSCEMA on Captain America, JERRY ORDWAY interview and cover, Superman roundtable with SIENKIEWICZ, NOWLAN, MOENCH, COWAN, MAGGIN, O’NEIL, MILGROM, CONWAY, ROBBINS, SWAN, plus FREE ALTER EGO #64 PREVIEW!

“The Devil You Say!” issue! A look at Daredevil in the 1980s and 1990s with interviews and art by KLAUS JANSON, JOHN ROMITA JR., and FRANK MILLER, MIKE MIGNOLA Hellboy interview, DAN MISHKIN and GARY COHN on Blue Devil, COLLEEN DORAN’s unpublished X-Men spin-off “Fallen Angels”, Son of Satan, Stig’s Inferno, DC’s Plop!, JACK KIRBY’s Devil Dinosaur, and cover by MIKE ZECK!

“Dynamic Duos!’ “Pro2Pro” interviews with Batman’s ALAN GRANT and NORM BREYFOGLE and the Legion’s PAUL LEVITZ and KEITH GIFFEN, a “Backstage Pass” to Dark Horse Comics, Robin’s history, EASTMAN and LAIRD’s Ninja Turtles, histories of duos Robin and Batgirl, Captain America and the Falcon, and Blue Beetle and Booster Gold, “Zot!” interview with SCOTT McCLOUD, and a new BREYFOGLE cover!

“Comics Go Hollywood!” Spider-Man roundtable with STAN LEE, JOHN ROMITA, SR., JIM SHOOTER, ERIK LARSEN, and others, STAR TREK comics writers’ roundtable Part 1, Gladstone’s Disney comics line, behindthe-scenes at TV’s ISIS and THE FLASH (plus an interview with Flash’s JOHN WESLEY SHIPP), TV tie-in comics, bonus 8-page color ADAM HUGHES ART GALLERY and cover, plus a FREE WRITE NOW #16 PREVIEW!

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“Magic” issue! MICHAEL GOLDEN interview, GENE COLAN, PAUL SMITH, and FRANK BRUNNER on drawing Dr. Strange, Mystic Art Gallery with CARL POTTS & KEVIN NOWLAN, BILL WILLINGHAM’s Elementals, Zatanna history, Dr. Fate’s revival, a “Greatest Stories Never Told” look at Peter Pan, tribute to the late MARSHALL ROGERS, a new GOLDEN cover, plus a FREE ROUGH STUFF #6 PREVIEW!

“Men of Steel!’ BOB LAYTON and DAVID MICHELINIE on Iron Man, RICH BUCKLER on Deathlok, MIKE GRELL on Warlord, JOHN BYRNE on ROG 2000, Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman, Machine Man, the World’s Greatest Super-Heroes comic strip, DC’s Steel, art by KIRBY, HECK, WINDSOR-SMITH, TUSKA, LAYTON cover, and bonus “Men of Steel” art gallery! Includes a FREE DRAW! #15 PREVIEW!

“Spies and Tough Guys!’ PAUL GULACY and DOUG MOENCH in an art-packed “Pro2Pro” on Master of Kung Fu and their unrealized Shang-Chi/Nick Fury crossover, Suicide Squad spotlight, Ms. Tree, CHUCK DIXON and TIM TRUMAN’s Airboy, James Bond and Mr. T in comic books, Sgt. Rock’s oddball super-hero team-ups, Nathaniel Dusk, JOE KUBERT’s unpublished The Redeemer, and a new GULACY cover!

“Comic Book Royalty!” The ’70s/’80s careers of Aquaman and the Sub-Mariner explored, BARR and BOLLAND discuss CAMELOT 3000, comics pros tell “Why JACK KIRBY Was King,” “Dr. Doom: Monarch or Menace?” DON McGREGOR’s Black Panther; an exclusive ALAN WEISS art gallery; spotlights on ARION, LORD OF ATLANTIS; NIGHT FORCE; and more! New cover by NICK CARDY!

“Heroes Behaving Badly!” Hulk vs. Thing tirades with RON WILSON, HERB TRIMPE, and JIM SHOOTER; CARY BATES and CARMINE INFANTINO on “Trial of the Flash”; JOHN BYRNE’s heroes who cross the line; Teen Titan Terra, Kid Miracleman, Mark Shaw Manhunter, and others who went bad, featuring LAYTON, MICHELINIE, WOLFMAN, and PÉREZ, and more! New cover by DARWYN COOKE!

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NEW STUFF FROM TWOMORROWS!

ROUGH STUFF #8

BACK ISSUE #28

WRITE NOW! #18

DRAW! #15

BRICKJOURNAL #2

Features an in-depth interview and cover painting by the extraordinary MIKE MAYHEW, preliminary and unpublished art by ALEX HORLEY, TONY DeZUNIGA, NICK CARDY, and RAFAEL KAYANAN (including commentary by each artist), a look at the great Belgian comic book artists, a “Rough Critique” of MIKE MURDOCK’s work, and more!

Celebration of STAN LEE’s 85th birthday, including rare examples of comics, TV, and movie scripts from the Stan Lee Archives, tributes by JOHN ROMITA, SR., JOE QUESADA, ROY THOMAS, DENNIS O’NEIL, JIMMY PALMIOTTI, JIM SALICRUP, TODD McFARLANE, LOUISE SIMONSON, MARK EVANIER, and others, plus art by KIRBY, DITKO, ROMITA, and more!

BACK TO SCHOOL ISSUE, covering major schools offering comic art as part of their curriculum, featuring faculty, student, and graduate interviews in an ultimate overview of collegiate-level comic art classes! Plus, a “how-to” demo/ interview with artist BILL REINHOLD, MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ COMIC ART BOOTCAMP series, a FREE WRITE NOW #17 PREVIEW, and more!

The ultimate resource for LEGO enthusiasts of all ages spotlights blockbuster summer movies, LEGO style! Go behind the scenes for new sets for BATMAN and INDIANA JONES, and see new models, including an SR-71 SPYPLANE and a LEGO CITY, plus MINIFIGURE CUSTOMIZATIONS, BUILDING INSTRUCTIONS, tour the ONLINE LEGO FACTORY, and more! Edited by JOE MENO.

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SILVER AGE SCI-FI COMPANION

BEST OF WRITE NOW!

BEST OF DRAW! VOL. 3

In the Silver Age of Comics, space was the place, and this book summarizes, critiques and lovingly recalls the classic science-fiction series edited by JULIUS SCHWARTZ and written by GARDNER FOX and JOHN BROOME! The pages of DC’s science-fiction magazines of the 1960s, STRANGE ADVENTURES and MYSTERY IN SPACE, are opened for you, including story-bystory reviews of complete series such as ADAM STRANGE, ATOMIC KNIGHTS, SPACE MUSEUM, STAR ROVERS, STAR HAWKINS and others! Writer/editor MIKE W. BARR tells you which series crossed over with each other, behind-the-scenes secrets, and more, including writer and artist credits for every story! Features rare art by CARMINE INFANTINO, MURPHY ANDERSON, GIL KANE, SID GREENE, MIKE SEKOWSKY, and many others, plus a glorious new cover by ALAN DAVIS and PAUL NEARY!

Features highlights from the acclaimed magazine about writing for comics, including interviews from top talents, like: BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS, WILL EISNER, JEPH LOEB, STAN LEE, J. M. STRACZYNSKI, MARK WAID, GEOFF JOHNS, TODD McFARLANE, PAUL LEVITZ, AXEL ALONSO, and others! Plus “NUTS & BOLTS” tutorials feature scripts from landmark comics and the pencil art that was drawn from them, including: CIVIL WAR #1 (MILLAR & McNIVEN), BATMAN: HUSH #1 (LOEB & LEE), ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #47 (BENDIS & BAGLEY), AMAZING SPIDERMAN #539 (STRACZYNSKI & GARNEY), SPAWN #52 (McFARLANE & CAPULO), GREEN LANTERN: REBIRTH #1 (JOHNS & VAN SCRIVER), and more! Also: How-to articles by the best comics writers and editors around, professional secrets of top comics pros, and an introduction by STAN LEE! Edited by DANNY FINGEROTH.

Compiles more of the best tutorials and interviews from DRAW! #5-7, including: Penciling by MIKE WIERINGO! Illustration by DAN BRERETON! Design by PAUL RIVOCHE! Drawing Hands, Lighting the Figure, and Sketching by BRET BLEVINS! Cartooning by BILL WRAY! Inking by MIKE MANLEY! Comics & Animation by STEPHEN DeSTEFANO! Digital Illustration by CELIA CALLE and ALBERTO RUIZ! Caricature by ZACH TRENHOLM, and much more! Cover by DAN BRERETON!

MODERN MASTERS VOLUME 16: MIKE ALLRED

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KIRBY FIVE-OH! (JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #50) The regular columnists from THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR magazine celebrate the best of everything from Jack Kirby’s 50-year career, spotlighting: The BEST KIRBY STORIES & COVERS from 19381987! Jack’s 50 BEST UNUSED PIECES OF ART! His 50 BEST CHARACTER DESIGNS! Interviews with the 50 PEOPLE MOST INFLUENCED BY KIRBY’S WORK! A 50PAGE KIRBY PENCIL ART GALLERY and DELUXE COLOR SECTION! Kirby cover inked by DARWYN COOKE, and an introduction by MARK EVANIER, making this the ultimate retrospective on the career of the “King” of comics! Edited by JOHN MORROW. (168-page tabloid-size trade paperback) $19.95 ISBN: 9781893905894 Diamond Order Code: JUL078147 Now Shipping

Go to www.twomorrows.com for FULL-COLOR downloadable PDF versions of our magazines for only $2.95! Subscribers to the print edition get the digital edition FREE, weeks before it hits stores!

SUBSCRIPTIONS:

(256-page trade paperback) $29.95 ISBN: 9781893905917 Diamond Order Code: JAN083936

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DRAW!, WRITE NOW!, ROUGH STUFF (4 issues)

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Features an extensive, career-spanning interview lavishly illustrated with rare art from Mike’s files, plus huge sketchbook section, including unseen and unused art! By ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON. (120-page TPB with COLOR) $14.95 ISBN: 9781893905863 Diamond Order Code: JAN083937

COMICS GO HOLLYWOOD Unveils secrets behind your FAVORITE ONSCREEN HEROES, and how a character goes from the comics page to the big screen! It includes: Storyboards from DC’s animated hit “THE NEW FRONTIER”, JEPH LOEB on writing for Marvel Comics and the Heroes TV show, details on the UNSEEN X-MEN MOVIE, a history of the JOKER from the 1940s to the upcoming Dark Knight film, and a look at Marvel Universe co-creator JACK KIRBY’s Hollywood career, with extensive Kirby art! (32-page comic) FREE! at your local comics retailer on FREE COMIC BOOK DAY, May 3, 2008!