Alter Ego #6 by TwoMorrows Publishing

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No. 6 AUTUMN 2000

It’s Name-Dropping TIme!

STAN LEE--ROBERT KANIGHER DICK AYERS--JOHN SEVERIN GARY FRIEDRICH--MIKE W. BARR MICHAEL GILBERT--JOE KUBERT AND MORE!

Gene Colan in THE GOLDEN & SILVER AGES!

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

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

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

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THE BEST IN COMICS AND LEGO MAGAZINES!

ALTER EGO #105

ALTER EGO #106

ALTER EGO #107

ALTER EGO #108

DRAW! #22

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

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

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

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

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

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

Special double-size book examines the first decade of the FANTASTIC FOUR, and the events that put into motion the Marvel Age of Comics! New interviews with STAN LEE, FLO STEINBERG, MARK EVANIER, JOE SINNOTT, and others, with a wealth of historical information and Kirby artwork!

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KIRBY COLLECTOR #59

BRICKJOURNAL #17

BRICKJOURNAL #18

BRICKJOURNAL #19

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

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

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

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

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Gene Colan

Volume 3, No. 6 Autumn 2000

Stan Lee Section

™

Editor Roy Thomas

Associate Editor Bill Schelly

Design & Layout Jon B. Cooke GREAT SWAMP GRAPHICS

Production Janet Riley Sanderson

Consulting Editors John Morrow Jon B. Cooke

Contents

FCA Editor P.C. Hamerlinck

Writer/Editorial: Marvels upon Marvels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 The Marvel Family at Fawcett & Gene Colan at Marvel.

Contributing Editor Michael T. Gilbert

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

“So You Want a Job, Eh?”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Gene Colan talks about working with Stan Lee and others.

Cover Artists

When Those Who Can, Teach. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Mike Barr on 1940s books by Stan Lee and Robert Kanigher.

Gene Colan & Tom Palmer Mac Raboy

“Play It Again, Stan!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Sgt. Fury in Casablanca with Friedrich, Ayers, & Severin.

Cover Color Tom Ziuko Mac Raboy

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

And Special Thanks to: Dick & Lindy Ayers Dave Berg Al Bigley Bill Black Jerry K. Boyd Rich Buckler Gene & Adrienne Colan Jerry de Fuccio Joe Desris Keif Fromm Gary Friedrich Jennifer T. Go David Hamilton Mark & Steph Heike Roger Hill Robert Kanigher David Anthony Kraft Mort Leav

Stan & Joan Lee Dan Makara Gene McDonald Eric NolenWeathington Jerry Ordway David Raboy Ethan Roberts Bob Rogers Arlen Schumer John Severin Joe Simon Robin Snyder Glenn Southwick Kevin Stawieray Marc Swayze Joel Thingvall Dann Thomas Bob Thoms Hank Weisinger Mark Wheatley

More (All-) Stars Than There Are in Heaven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Roy Thomas on All-Star Squadron and its Golden Age roots. Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Michael T. Gilbert on the Man of Steel in 1940s New Yorker and Coronet articles. So—You Want to Collect Fanzines? (Part Two) . . . . . . . . . 47 Bill Schelly says don’t pay an arm and a leg (or a claw). Special Mac Raboy/FCA Section. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About Our Cover: This stunning Colan/Palmer illo, supplied by David Hamilton, was intended for Dr. Strange #180 (May 1969), but a composite of previously-published Colan/Palmer and Ditko figures (plus a photo of the NYC skyline) was used instead. Mark Wheatley says he heard the cover got temporarily lost in the mails. And that’s the only excuse we can think of for its not being printed more than three decades ago! [Dr. Strange, Eternity, & Nightmare ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.] Above: The dreams of babes: This recent sketch by Gene Colan appears in his new book, The Gene Colan Annual: Painting with Pencil, edited by Tina & Matt Poslusny (the Comic Book Profiles folk), and is available at <www.GeneColan.com> or for $23.15 ppd. from As You Like It Publications, 5413 Virginia Ave., Charleston, WV 25304. [Characters ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc. Art ©2000 Gene Colan.] Alter EgoTM is published quarterly by TwoMorrows, 1812 Park Drive, Raleigh, NC 27605, USA. Phone: (919) 833-8092. Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: Rt. 3, Box 468, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@oburg.net. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Single issues: $5.95 ($7.00 Canada, $9.00 elsewhere). Four-issue subscriptions: $20 US, $27 Canada, $37 elsewhere. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © Roy Thomas. Alter Ego is a TM of Roy & Dann Thomas. FCA is a TM of P.C. Hamerlinck. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING.

Writer/Editorial

Marvel Upon Marvels H And that’s only the Fawcett side of things.

ey, guess what!

For the sixth issue in a row (collect ’em all!), we wound up with more material than we could comfortably fit—or even reasonably shoehorn—into a 100-page issue. You can blame it mostly on Roger Hill and me.

For the past year Roger and I have been talking about his “Mac Raboy Project.” Raboy, of course, is generally considered one of the best draftsmen and just all-around best artists in the history of the comic book field, primarily for his work on “Captain Marvel Jr.” for Fawcett Publications in the early-to-mid-1940s, but also for his “Bulletman” there and for his Green Lama for Spark. All he did after that was succeed the immortal Alex Raymond on Flash Gordon, one of the foremost adventure comic strips ever. Roger’s project started out to be a massive article on Raboy’s life and career, accompanied by a lot of gorgeous art. But along the way he managed to track down Raboy’s son David, whom he finally induced to talk for the record— and he stumbled across Bob Rogers (nee Rubin Zubofsky), Raboy’s backWhen Marvels Clash! [Captain Marvel (l.) by C.C. ground man, who Beck, ©2000 DC Comics; Captain Marvel (r.) by Gene Colan and Vince Colletta, ©2000 Marvel Characters, had stories and Inc. Figure on left courtesy of P.C. Hamerlinck; figure artwork of his on right courtesy of Bob Thoms.] own to add to the mix. Roger also found Gene McDonald, another artist associated with Raboy. The original plan was to run Roger’s Raboy-related material in a flip half of A/E, in one of the issues in which P.C. Hamerlinck’s excellent FCA magazine section is given double-shrift, meaning about twenty pages for Paul to do his thing aided by the likes of Marc Swayze, C.C. Beck, et al.— in this case, Joe Simon and none other than Bill Woolfolk, one of the most respected scripters of the Golden Age. However, it quickly became clear that, even with copious editing, Roger Hill’s Raboy Project was not going to be confined to 20-30 pages in one issue of Alter Ego. And so, “for the first time ever in the world” (as Stan Lee is fond of saying in another piece this issue), I’m announcing in advance that two issues in a row of A/E will give 50% of their space to a combination of FCA and other Fawcett-related features. We’ve had to save the David Raboy and Gene McDonald interviews (along with more of Roger’s talk with Bob Rogers) for next time— and don’t worry, we haven’t even begun to run out of beautiful art to print!

Right up front, in this half, we’ve got a multi-illustrated interview with Gene “The Dean” Colan, as Stan Lee christened him in the 1960s. Gene is a true “artist’s artist,” and, despite eye problems in recent years, is still doing beautiful work. If you don’t believe me, sneak a peek at all the stunning artwork that accompanies my conversation with him— some of it never before printed. You’ll see why, in spite of the fine inking done over Gene by Tom Palmer and others over the years, those of us who were privileged to see his penciled art when it came into the Marvel offices always wished it could be reproduced from his pencils! (A few of the things Gene has to say may interest you, as well; comics aren’t only a visual medium, you know.) Also for the Marvelmaniacs among us (myself included), there’s a study of Sgt. Fury #72 back in 1969—and what it could have been, as originally scripted by Gary Friedrich and exquisitely drawn by Dick Ayers and John Severin—not to mention Mike Barr’s study of Stan Lee’s 1947 tome Secrets behind the Comics (in tandem with a look at Robert Kanigher’s book on comics-writing from a couple of years earlier). Not that we’ve neglected DC, though. Michael T. Gilbert and Mr. Monster present a look at some early “Superman” material outside the comics—and, ready or not, here comes the start (finally) of my own insiders’ history of All-Star Squadron, with awesome art by Rich Buckler and Jerry Ordway—and a look back at the Squadron’s 1940s roots. (You didn’t think we were going to get through a whole issue without presenting some great Golden Age art, did you? No way—and not just from Fawcett Comics, either!) Top all the above off with the second part of Bill Schelly’s how-to lesson on collecting 1960s-’70s comics fanzines, and you’ll see why Roy is always walking around in a daze, saying: “100 pages isn’t as long as it used to be!” Our “re:” section, which leads off the flip half of this issue, contains the usual number of corrections to last issue. Like everybody else, we just can’t seem to get through an entire edition without a goof or three. For a change, though, I feel compelled to offer a correction to someone else’s work—which is a nice switch. First off, I want to say that I highly recommend my old colleague and inspiration Julius Schwartz’ new memoir Man of Two Worlds (available from Harper Entertainment for $14—cheap). It’s not nearly long or complete enough, but, as Spencer Tracy once said of Katherine Hepburn, “what’s there is cherce!” Still, as a point of personal privilege, I must take issue with Julie’s anecdote therein about my yakking blissfully away on the phone to him one day and not even noticing while he went to the bathroom and

Writer/Editorial returned. Talkative I may be, but unless that was a really fast trip, ’twould seem highly unlikely. And if it was a really fast trip— well, hell, I’ve pulled stunts like that once or twice myself (though I won’t say on whom).

www.kubertsworld.com

More tellingly: The first two times I heard Julie tell that story (in my presence), the guy I was supposedly talking to was not Julie but DC editor Andy Helfer. Make up your mind, Mr. S.! (Hey, it just occurred to me—if it was Andy— and I’m not saying it was, mind you—maybe that bathroom break is the reason he didn’t make an important correction I phoned in for Ring of the Nibelung back in the ’80s, with the result that two word balloons came from the wrong Gil Kane-drawn characters.) Also, as I’ve said elsewhere, the “Marvel writing test” I took in July 1965 was not one where, as stated in Julie’s book, “you had to fill in the balloons right there on the spot.” Rather, I picked it up one day at noon, and brought it back the next. But Man of Two Worlds is still a good book. Too short, but good! Buy it already! In closing: I was honored to be asked to accept a plaque in memory of Bill Everett at this year’s San Diego comics convention, when he and Shelly Mayer were posthumously inducted into the Eisner Awards’ Hall of Fame. Other honorees were Carmine Infantino, Basil Wolverton, and George Herriman. It was great to see Carmine there to accept his award in person. He’s been away far too long. Welcome back, Carmine! Bestest,

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“So You Want A Job, Eh?”

“So You Want A Job, Eh?” The Gene Colan Interview A rambling conversation about Timely (and others), mostly from the 1940s to the early-’70s, with “The Dean” Interview conducted & edited by Roy Thomas • Transcribed by Jon B. Knutson [EDITOR’S NOTE: Gene Colan, as artist of “Sub-Mariner,” “Iron Man,” Daredevil, and other major features beginning in the mid-1960s, is one of the most-loved and best-remembered artists of Marvel’s Silver Age. Earlier this year saw the publication of The Gene Colan Annual: Painting with Pencil, a trade paperback of more than 100 pages of text and art by Gene. Having admired Gene’s work on “Sub-Mariner” in the months before I came to work for Marvel in mid-’65, I wanted to talk with him about this period—and of course about his even earlier work— and Gene was most obliging.—R.T.] ROY THOMAS: Gene, I wanted to start off by mentioning the subtitle of your annual: “Painting With Pencil.” Because that’s the way I and some other people always thought of your work. How did that title occur to you?

COLAN: No, I didn’t. RT: And yet, back in the ’40s and ’50s, you inked a lot of your stories. COLAN: I inked some of them. I inked a lot of westerns, a lot of war stories. I inked the ones that have my name on them. RT: There was a lot of black in those stories. COLAN: Oh, yeah. RT: I noticed in your annual you do a lot of writing, and you have a nice turn of phrase. Why didn’t you ever talk to Stan about doing any writing years ago? COLAN: It never occurred to me. It really never did. I was so steeped in the art of it, I never thought about writing. But I enjoy writing. As you get older, you begin to review things in your mind, and think you might give this a shot, and so I’ve enjoyed writing some of these articles in the book. They’re things that pop up in my mind, and I have no answers for them—[laughs]—except that I know certain things. Like when someone says, “Maybe,” that means “No.” “Maybe” is just another way of putting you off.

GENE COLAN: It was my wife Adrienne’s idea. Years ago they didn’t have a good method of reproducing for pencil. Today, of course, with the technology they have, it can be done. RT: I’ve tried to explain to people sometimes about the difficulty of even a very good inker catching everything about your work on paper, because you would pencil so many different shades of black and gray on the page… COLAN: Yeah, I did that, really, just to get into it and feel what I needed to feel to put it across. I figured if the inker could capture it, fine, and if he couldn’t, well, that will have to be fine, too.

Very recent photo of Gene and a couple of pals. [Courtesy of Gene & Adrienne Colan.]

RT: One of the things I most remember about working on your pages—since I worked with the original art in those days— is that I always ended up having to wash my hands several times an hour to get the graphite off! [laughs] I’m sure you did, too, and I’m sure Tom Palmer and others did.

RT: Quite often! [laughs] Now, to finally go back to the beginning—you were born in New York in the Bronx, right? How did you get interested in drawing? Was it at an early stage?

COLAN: Oh, I started at three. The first thing I ever drew was a lion. I must’ve absolutely copied it or something. But that’s what my folks tell me. And from then on, I just drew everything in sight. My grandfather was my favorite subject. He was very easy to do, and I loved him very much, so that helped a lot. But I tried my grandmother, it was too difficult. My mother, who looked so much like her, was also difficult… and my dad, I did my father once or twice, and he came across fairly well.

COLAN: [laughs] Oh, yeah. I think all artists should have their work reproduced from pencils, really I do, because once the inker gets in, you’ve got two styles. It’s never interpreted the same way the artist had meant. But I’m slow… and so, because of that, I get a little too nervous inking it. I’m more at home with pencils.

RT: So, at a very early stage, you were drawing from life. A lot of comic book artists nowadays never get to that stage.

RT: You did do some inking in the early days. But during the heyday of Marvel, when you were doing “Sub-Mariner,” “Iron Man,” etc., kind of thing, I don’t recall you often telling Stan, “Gee, I’d really like to ink my own work.”

COLAN: Oh, they’ve got to get around to it. Speed is important when you’re drawing from life—because whoever you’re drawing, often they don’t know you’re drawing them. If it’s somebody, say, in the park, you never know how long they’re going to sit there, so the idea is to get it in

Gene and Adrienne personally handed this brand new, never-published drawing to Roy T. at this year’s San Diego Comicon. All he had to do was stand in line at a photocopy stall in the convention center for half an hour to get a copy made! Some guy in line kept trying to buy it from him, even though Roy explained he only had it on loan! Daredevil versus The Jester. [Art ©2000 Gene Colan; Daredevil, The Jester ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

as quickly as you can. And then rely on your memory. RT: Did you go to the park and try to draw people without their knowing it? COLAN: Oh, yes. [laughs] Even on the commuter train, from when I lived in New Rochelle, I would come in with a pad and start to draw some of the people on the train. RT: When you were young, I take it you liked newspaper comic strips? COLAN: Yes, I would copy them, too. I was highly influenced by Milton Caniff, including Dickie Dare, that came before Terry and the Pirates. Coulton Waugh continued it. He loved ships. Many, many years later, when I became an adult, I saw some of Waugh’s pictures in a gallery. There were paintings of ships, and he signed his name exactly like he did on the comic strip. RT: I understand that you went to the Art Students’ League. Could you tell us a little about what that is? COLAN: It’s a school in which those who are into serious art can get good, solid background training. Usually famous people run it, or had run it in the past. I know Norman Rockwell had a finger in it, and

Hobie Whitmore. It’s in Manhattan on 57th Street. It’s one of the oldest schools around. There’s a modeling class, with live models, and then they have a sculpture class. They would start out at different levels. It was a great experience for me, and I got in on it through the G.I. Bill. Actually, I even went to the League a little bit before I entered the service. Of course, I tried to get work at DC Comics. When I was much younger, I thought if I worked for DC, it was like working for MGM Studios. RT: I think that was the feeling that a lot of people had—including DC! [laughs] COLAN: Well, it was “Batman,” and “Superman.” So I figured, “Gee, what better could I do?” They were very nice to me. I must’ve been about 13 or 14 when I first went up there. I met Bob Kane; he was in the bullpen, and he was drawing. I remember what he was drawing. He was drawing a hand. One of his characters was holding a .45, and I remember the beautiful way he drew it. For some reason, that stuck in my head, because all the anatomy was there, and I didn’t know it. RT: So you’re living proof that Bob Kane did draw, occasionally! COLAN: Oh, yeah! I got to know him better on a personal level many years later, but that was the first time. I was just a kid, and I was told I’d

“So You Want A Job, Eh?” ly were an artist back in ’46, right? When you went to the Art Students’ League on the G.I. Bill after the war, the government sort of paid the way, right?

better go to art school. I had some ability but I needed training. So, I didn’t want to do it, but I figured I had to bite the bullet and go ahead and do it, and I did.

COLAN: Yeah, they did. I don’t know for how long I went. A couple of years.

RT: Rather than being drafted, I guess you volunteered, because you went into the Air Force.

RT: That was probably one of the best things that the country ever did, giving young people a chance to go to college. They deserved something for serving.

COLAN: I enlisted. I tried to get into the Marine Corps, but my father came down and pulled me out because I was underage. [laughs] Shortly after that, I enlisted in the Air Force. By that time I was 18 or 19.

COLAN: Well, the country was a different place then, where they pulled together. That’s why we won the war, and that’s why we lost the war in Vietnam, because we weren’t pulling together. Anyway, it was a very romantic time, in the ’40s, during the War. I remember going back to the base and sleeping in the men’s room, because there was no room on the train anywhere else. Maybe you’ve seen pictures of people in wartime, sleeping in Grand Central Station… just lying on their duffel bags. It was a great time, a great time, so many marriages, it was a romantic time. Not that they all clicked!

RT: What did you do in the Air Force? COLAN: Everything but fly. [laughs] I was going to go to gunnery school, but they dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, and then everything was over. The War was over, the Boulder [Colorado] school shut down, and I was in the occupation forces that went over to the Philippines. RT: When General MacArthur was the king over there. COLAN: Yeah. We were stationed right outside Manila. I did some training in Kesel Field, Mississippi—which is right near Biloxi—and boy, what a hellhole that was! [laughs] Then, let’s see… I caught pneumonia in basic training, real bad. RT: Did you do any drawing while you were in there, for post papers and such?

A mid-’50s Colan page from War Comics #28— a Korean War tale. Note that half of Panel 4 is black, as if to emphasize what lies below as well as what floats on the surface. Panel 8’s “silhouette shot” is drawn from such an angle as to show, even in stark black-&-white, everything the reader needs to know. (We wish whoever faxed us this page would’ve scribbled his name on it somewhere— but thanks, anyway!) [©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

COLAN: Oh, yeah. I did drawing when we started to go overseas, on the troop ship. That’s when I really started. I kept a diary of drawings. There was an art contest at one station in the Philippines, and I won it. I think it was rigged, because I became so friendly with the Filipinos over there, that they wanted to see me win real bad, and they told me not to worry about it! [laughs]

RT: Hey, that may even have been Alfredo Alcala, and Tony DeZuniga, and all those guys, running around underfoot. They were all young guys back then. [laughs] Fans don’t usually think of you as a Golden Age artist. But, though you really came into full flower later, you actualAn early Colan attempt at Batman a la Bob Kane— well, actually, more à là Jerry Robinson. Not bad for a beginner, huh? [Art ©2000 Gene Colan, for The Gene Colan Annual; Batman ©2000 DC Comics.]

RT: [laughs] Well, they don’t now, either. You sound like an ad for Tom Brokaw’s book, The Greatest Generation. Trying to impose a bit of chronological order on this conversation—I was looking at some of the things in your annual. You had this teenage strip called “Bill and Bud.” When did you do that? Because it’s very polished.

COLAN: I was trying to get my samples up, and trying to make a breakthrough somewhere. I didn’t know exactly how. I was 15, 16… RT: That’s the time of that “Daredevil” page in there, too—the Charlie Biro “Daredevil,” the guy with the split red-and-blue costume.

COLAN: It might’ve been. Just before going into the service, I worked for Fiction House. A very small outfit. The office was no bigger than a closet. I worked there just for the summer, and right after that I went into the service. RT: And when you came out, you went to Timely. Obviously, you’d been hanging around DC, you’d been to Fiction House…. Why did you try Timely first? COLAN: I might’ve tried the other places first. I can’t remember exactly, but I was determined to get a job. I was living with my parents. I worked very hard on a war story, about seven or eight pages long, and I did all the lettering myself, I inked it myself, I even had a wash effect over it. I did everything I could do, and I brought it over to Timely. What you had to do in those days was go to the candy store, pick up a comic book, and look in the back to see where it was published. Most of them were published in Manhattan, they would tell you the address, and you’d simply go down and make an appointment to go down and see the art director. I got a job right away… Al Sulman, I don’t know if the name rings a bell…. RT: It sure does! He was part of the poker crowd [Marvel production manager] Sol Brodsky belonged to—and so did I, by the late ’60s. It was Sol, and Al, and John Romita and Mike Esposito and Stan Gold-

Gene Colan Interview

berg, playing poker once a month. Al Sulman used to just sit there; he’d never talk about comics, he just laid out newspaper ads and so forth, and later on I discovered he had done this, he’d done that, he’d written a lot of stuff for Timely… But at the time, he never talked about it. So I never knew. He passed away some years ago. COLAN: He was a really sweet guy. He was the one who gave me my break. I went up there, and he came out and met me in the waiting room, looked at my work, and said, “Sit here for a minute.” And he brought the work in, and disappeared for about ten minutes or so… then came back out and said, “Come with me.” [laughs] That’s how I met Stan! Just like that, and I had a job. I have lots of files here on countries, and westerns and planes and stuff—and I was going through my files several weeks ago, and I came upon a scene in Paris, and it was a postcard, and I turned it over to see who had written it… it was Al Sulman! He sent me a postcard from there, ’way back in the early ’50s… ’50 or ’51. RT: What was your impression of Stan on that day in ’46 when Al took you in to see him? COLAN: Oh, he was very young. Stan always looked like a kid. He was always a good-looking guy. He was sitting there playing cards with someone—Gary something. He was sitting there wearing one of those beanie caps with the propeller spinning… [laughs] Oh, it was the most ridiculous thing I ever saw! [laughs] This is the editor of Timely Comics? RT: And had been, already, for six or seven, eight years by then! Except that he’d also served in the military for a year or two during the War.

Gene’s first stab at a Daredevil page. No, not that Daredevil! The 1940s one by Charlie Biro! Done as a sample— but Gene isn’t sure when. [Art ©2000 Gene Colan for The Gene Colan Annual; Daredevil and Little Wise Guys ©2000 Lev Gleason Publications.]

COLAN: You know Martin Goodman was his uncle, so Stan was pretty well-set. He told me to sit down, and he said, “So you want a job, eh?” [laughs] That’s the way he spoke back then. I said, “Yep,” and he said, “Well, you’ve got one. You can start Monday.” I was on staff.

COLAN: I would say it could’ve been ’49 or ’50. They put me on the Hopalong Cassidy series, for Julie Schwartz. Later I worked for Bob Kanigher up there for a long time on war stories.

RT: That’s great. Did they buy that war story you’d written and drawn?

RT: Did they like you on Hopalong Cassidy because you felt you could make the character look like William Boyd?

COLAN: No, but it was my ticket in. I worked for Timely for a couple of years. Then, in about ’47, I heard scuttlebutt that there was freelance work available elsewhere, so I decided to not come in one day and see what I could do on my own. I went out looking for freelance work, and I came home with an armload of it, from different companies. There was a woman editor at St. John’s publications. I remember at one point I also did some stuff for Fawcett publications, based on a TV show. Do you remember the title, about this guy who was a very wealthy man, who owned a Rolls-Royce, and he was sort of a private eye. It was a television series, and they gave me that—it might have been in ’48 or ’49. And then I got some work from DC, at long last. RT: How did you get in there, finally?

COLAN: Yeah, I tried to. I found it difficult. I had a lot of reference material. But I found him hard to do. I couldn’t single out any one thing that would define him, so I just tried to do it line for line. He had a special necktie on—[laughs]—and that helped define who he was. RT: He had a soft kind of face, and he was older than most western stars. You probably liked him, too, because he had all of that black in his outfit. COLAN: Yeah! It made him really stand out. Anyway, I worked with Julie for a good number of years. I was lucky. Timely had folded their doors on the staff, and I’d lost that job. But—just a few days before that all happened—I managed to get some outside freelance work. This was

“So You Want A Job, Eh?” RT: You did a lot of kinds of stories over the years… even romance comics, and horror comics, a little bit of everything. The original spate of super-heroes lasted at Timely through 1949, but you really didn’t do many of them, did you? COLAN: No. But I did a lot of gangster stories. RT: In about 1957 Timely had that debacle in which Goodman gave up his distributor, and then the whole company collapsed when American News gave way. Were you working for Timely then? COLAN: Yeah. Before Martin Goodman gave it up, I was working for him. He was a neat guy, he really was. He shared the wealth with the people up there at the time, and he gave credit to a lot of people for making the books sell, helping the books sell. After the crash, they were working out of a closet up there at Timely, and I couldn’t get a lick of work out of Stan. There was nothing around outside of Charlton Press. RT: Which of course paid very low rates. COLAN: Very! [laughs] It wasn’t even worth doing. I did one story for them, and I inked it, too. I said, “The hell with this.” Oh, I just hated it, I hated it, so I just did that one. RT: So what did you do in those several years? COLAN: Well, I freelanced! I freelanced for DC… I did a lot of war stuff for them. RT: You’ve said that, after Timely virtually folded, you didn’t do any comics for about four years, from 1958-62. What did you do? COLAN: Well, I couldn’t get work in comics, so I figured maybe I could pick up some illustration work. I did whatever I could do! I went to some of the magazine publishers and they were really out of my league. They had big-time illustrators that did full-blown oil paintings, you know? RT: And the DC stuff, with “Hoppy” and that, it all dried up, too?

in the late ’40s. That’s the first time I know of that Timely went through that. But, even then, I freelanced for them! I freelanced for anybody, anyone that was on a street corner on Fifth Avenue [laughs] who would take me. There was Quality Comics; they were right there. RT: Right, they lasted through the middle ”50s. COLAN: I did some Blackhawk for them. I never met Reed Crandall, but I loved his work. I’ve seen some of his originals… RT: I’ve noticed that in the late ’40s, early ’50s, you signed a lot of stories either as “G. Colan” or “Gene Colan.” So, you weren’t one of these guys who were looking to have a pseudonym, to not let anybody know you were doing comics. I loved those splashes and various pages you reproduced in your annual, like the one about “Ploesti,” the air raids on the Nazi oil fields in Romania, with all that black. It looks like you just spilled it out on the page. COLAN: I was always very influenced by film. Also, of course, by Milton Caniff, if you remember his work on Terry and the Pirates— RT: Of course! That’s my favorite action strip of all time. COLAN: Sure. He always had a lot of blacks on his stuff, but it was very carefully put in there, in just the right places.

COLAN: Yeah. I had a falling out up there with an editor, a real tough, rough guy. I never could get along with him, and he just made my life miserable. So one word led to another, and I told him off, and that was the end of that. I lost all my accounts. RT: But around ’62 or ’63, you got back in, via the romance department? How did that happen? COLAN: I was working for an advertising agency that did film clips. They were not movies, but they were educational films, they were photographed on 35MM film, and they were used as a teaching aid. Film strips. I worked for them for a couple of years or so, and I was just dying on the vine there. I met my wife, and she says, “You’re out of here!” I said, “Where am I going to go?” [laughs] She says, “Never mind, you’re going to get work. With your ability, this is a ridiculous way to work.” So, I believed it, and so… RT: She was right! COLAN: We got married, and I actually started to get work. Very slowly, Stan came back, and he gave me westerns to do, stuff like that. They weren’t all that great, but I felt more comfortable working with Stan than with anybody else. Very gradually, things came together again. I was out of work from comics for several years, I couldn’t get a damn thing. RT: But there was a period there, during the early ’60s, where you were working for DC again. COLAN: That’s right. I did a lot of romance stuff for DC, and a lot of war things. I remember Ross Andru up there… Carmine Infantino…

Gene Colan Interview

RT: But the DC editors didn’t think to give you super-hero work? COLAN: No, no. RT: They had a very departmentalized company. When I think of guys like you and Romita being there in the romance department—Stan and I used to just laugh about that, the fact that they wasted so many artists at that time. COLAN: By the time I got through inking the work, everything looked the same. They had a style up there, in the house. It was important—no matter who the artist was—everyone’s work had to look the same. RT: Gil Kane used to call it the “Dan Barry look.” I guess it eventually kind of took over. Everything had to follow his lead. At the same time, you did a little work at Warren with Archie Goodwin, didn’t you? On war and horror stuff? COLAN: Yeah, thanks for reminding me. Archie was the editor there. I did a lot of wash drawings. RT: So here you are, working mostly in the DC romance department, doing a little war stuff or whatever. How did it happen that you wound up suddenly going over to Marvel and becoming “Adam Austin” doing “Sub-Mariner”? COLAN: Stan asked me to come over and work with him. I don’t remember how, but I do know that we made a connection, and he asked me, “How about coming over?” And so, my answer was—I think this was at his house. I had some work to deliver late one night—it was in the winter time, and I went over and delivered it—and he asked me to come over to Marvel, and I said, “Well, what’s the inducement? Why should I leave DC and come over to work with you, unless there’s a little something in it for me to do that? I’m not just going to leave them [DC].” He said, “Well, if you’re looking for more money, there’s no point to it.” I said, “What do you mean?” [laughs] He said, “Simply because, sooner or later, they’re going Here’s the other, even more humongous spankin’-new drawing Gene and Adrienne brought to Roy in San Diego! to have to fire you, and you’ll have to Enjoy! [Art ©2000 Gene Colan; Captain America ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.] come over here.” [laughs] I smiled, and I said, “Stan, I think I have to go.” And COLAN: I don’t know. Stan might’ve helped me with that. That’s how I shook his hand, and I said, “That’s okay, I’ll just stay where I am.” it all began. Actually, the fun of working on comics with Stan was that, The next day, I got a phone call from Stan, because I had asked for more although he put in all the dialogue, he allowed the artists to take a very money, and he gave it to me. He tried to bluff me, and… then I came small plot he’d give them and build it into a 20-page story. There was over. nothing to the plot—it was maybe just a few sentences—but the beginning was there, and you could do anything you wanted. RT: And you used the name “Adam Austin” to protect the DC account. Where did that name come from? RT: When you started on “Sub-Mariner,” that was 12 pages, but it was

“So You Want A Job, Eh?” COLAN: That’s right. A style began to emerge somewhere along the line. RT: What did you think of Vince Colletta’s inking? COLAN: I never liked it. He was too fast, and he didn’t put any time into it. He was simply out for the buck, and as much money as he could make, and he whipped out that stuff. I liked Vince Alascia, do you remember him? RT: He was a Captain America inker back in the ’40s. COLAN: He worked a lot with me. In fact, he inked everything Syd Shores did. Wonderful inker. I wished I would’ve teamed up with him. I was looking to team up with someone, but I didn’t. Once it left my hands, I never could get a good inker. I can’t remember his name, the fellow who inked for DC that eventually worked with Stan. He passed away… Italian guy. RT: Frank Giacoia? COLAN: Yeah, I loved him. He always made me look good. RT: Jack Abel inked you on “Iron Man,” and Bill Everett inked a couple of your “Sub-Mariners”; that was an interesting combination. Syd Shores inked you for quite a while on Daredevil. COLAN: Oh, yes, yes. Syd was an excellent artist. RT: By the ’60s he hadn’t metamorphosed into the kind of action artist Stan really wanted, but he could certainly draw. In fact, he’d been the main Captain America artist for years in the ’40s. But in the ’60s he still kept busy as an inker, and he did some penciling on some horror stories. Gene, you obviously made an impression on Stan, because I could tell, when I started reading your “Sub-Mariner,” that immediately, because of the way you were drawing it, Stan’s speeches for the Sub-Mariner got more and more Shakespearean and noble. I think you were pressing him; you were drawing all these noble-looking, realistic pictures…

COLAN: It worked only because that’s what Stan wanted me to do. He would act out everything. If he had to stand on top of his desk, he’d do it, and said, “This is the pose I’m looking for.” He would act out everything.

like an ongoing serial every month. So if you didn’t get to a certain point, well, you just broke the story somewhere else! [laughs] COLAN: Yeah, well, you know, sometimes I got jammed up in the end, because there was still more to do. RT: Did Stan write out plots then, or was it mostly just over the phone? COLAN: I recorded our phone conversations, and then I would go by the recording. Other times, he’d send me a letter of a few paragraphs. RT: You’ve said you weren’t as wild about “Sub-Mariner” as some other characters you did…. COLAN: I didn’t like “Sub-Mariner.” It was a boring, tiring thing. It was Atlantis, the underwater city, and it meant an awful lot of work. I just didn’t like it. I couldn’t make him look good, not by my standards. He had a square-looking head. RT: I was a high school teacher when you started doing that, and I remember really being knocked out by opening the page of an issue of Tales to Astonish [#70, cover date Aug. 1965] and seeing your first splash, which had the Sub-Mariner swimming very dramatically toward the reader, and it had this nice, realistic—realistic for comics—and kind of illustrative look to it. It was a step in a slightly different direction. Stan obviously felt it was time to branch out and not just have everything look like Jack and Steve.

We didn’t run across any original art from Gene’s “Sub-Mariner” in Tales to Astonish while preparing this interview, so here’s a page of Namor vs. Mar-Vell, from Captain Marvel #4 (Aug. 1968), repro’d from photocopies courtesy of Kevin Stawieray. Inks by Vince Colletta, story by Roy Thomas. Kevin’s comic art collection focuses on ’60s and ’70s DC and Marvel artists. [©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Gene Colan Interview

RT: You were one of the first people up there who started doing a lot of full-page drawings. COLAN: Yeah, I did that. I’d get tired of these small panels all the time, and I would try to do something that was action-oriented, sometimes not. In fact, it was a standing joke with Stan, that I did a whole page of a guy’s hand on a doorknob, opening a door, and whenever he could at conventions, he’d tell that story. RT: Did he like that page? COLAN: At the time, he didn’t. He said, “What did you do, waste a whole page on this guy? It’s the most realistic hand and doorknob I ever saw, but by gosh, why do you waste so much space on something as unimportant as that!” And he had a point. He was right! RT: But then, later on, of course, he’d talk about, “Yeah, but what a great dramatic shot of a hand on a doorknob!” [laughs] COLAN: I was just trying different things. Remember the film Bullitt? RT: Sure. I remember you were a big fan of it. I think you came into the office with tape recordings of it. COLAN: Well, I think it was in a Captain America story—where a guy from a criminal collection agency has to make a getaway in a car—and actually, the whole thing was really on one page, so I made about six or seven pages out of it. [laughs] Those were the days when I could take Stan’s plots, and extend them, or increase them or decrease them, or whatever I wanted to do with them. Boy, he got me on the carpet for that! He said, “What do you mean, taking a whole eight pages out of the book and just showing a car chase scene?” I was very influenced by Bullitt. RT: He thought car chases didn’t work as well in the comics as in movies, I guess. COLAN: No, but I got a lot of fan mail. RT: It was different, and it looks real—and yeah, you have to try these things. Stan knows that, too. I remember there was one “Sub-Mariner” story in Tales to Astonish right after I got there—and near the end of the story, Stan had told you to draw this clawed hand of a gigantic monster called The Behemoth, tearing up through the bottom of the ocean. And then you drew the whole next month’s story, 12 pages, and sent it in. And I went in to Stan—after he’d scripted it, because I usually didn’t see the art before that—and I said, “Stan, this is very nice, but what happened to The Behemoth, the creature who was tearing up through the bottom of the ocean?” He said, “Oh, my God, I forgot to tell Gene to put him in!” So he had to write at the end of the story, “Next month, we’re finally going to tell you about The Behemoth!” And the next month, you did. It was sort of the kind of casual way things were done up there. COLAN: Well, Stan had so many titles to do that he allowed the artists to do most of the work as far as spacing it out, and sketching it in, so that when he’d see the artwork, all he had to do was write the balloons. RT: You did a long, unbroken run of “Sub-Mariner,” except where Jack Kirby filled in for two issues for some reason. In the meantime, you started on “Iron Man” with Tales of Suspense #73—and, by a weird coincidence, I dialogued your very first Iron Man story. COLAN: You did? RT: Although Stan re-dialogued it, and it ended up being about 50/50. It was the one with The Black Knight and his winged horse, and you did a beautiful cover for it. COLAN: Yes, I remember the horse. I don’t remember anything else about it. I did that, and Daredevil. I think John Romita did several issues before me.

A Syd Shores-inked page from—believe it or don’t— Daredevil #62 (March 1970), with some reminiscing by Nighthawk—the villainous one, designed by Roy Thomas as Marvel’s answer to Batman in the Squadrons Sinister and Supreme. With art like this to script, is it any wonder Rascally Roy loved writing for Marvel in the ’60s and ’70s? Repro’d from photocopies of the original art, courtesy of Kevin Stawieray. [©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

RT: Yeah, but he was soon put on Spidey, and you inherited Daredevil. COLAN: For years. RT: I remember once, when you were doing an “Iron Man” 12-pager, you called Stan and said, “I’ve only got a page or two left, and I can’t get everything in.” And he said, “What about the plot we gave you?” And you said, “Well, I haven’t read it all yet!” [laughs] COLAN: I never read the plots all the way through first! [laughs] I would simply go ahead and do it. I would take the script, and read each page at a time. RT: I remember, in that instance, what he said to do was, “Instead of breaking it at this point, break it earlier,” and then you’d continue the next issue. It all worked out, because they were all continued stories anyway. “Iron Man” and Daredevil were the two strips I guess you were most associated with for several years. COLAN: Until Tomb of Dracula came along. I enjoyed Daredevil. RT: I could tell you really put yourself into it, because it was more of a human, Batman-like character.

“So You Want A Job, Eh?”

The infamous “opening a door” panel from one of Colan’s earliest Daredevil issues (#20, Sept. 1966). As you can see, it’s actually a two-panel page, with the doorknob a bit less prominent than Gene and Stan seem to recall. Later in that issue there’s a fullpage shot of ol’ Hornhead himself flinging open a thick wooden portal. Gene must’ve had this thing about doors! From Roy’s bound volume. [©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

COLAN: Yeah, that’s right. I remember I wanted to change his costume to make it black, just with little spots of red showing through it, but Stan wanted me to leave it open for color, which I thought lost the dynamics of the character. RT: He thought the black wouldn’t show up as well on the page. It depends on how you use it, I guess. COLAN: Right, and he wanted it open for just red. But to me, leaving his costume open for color, made him look almost weightless. RT: You worked with Stan for a couple of years on that, and then he kind of lateraled you over to me, or me over to you, or whatever, and then Gary Friedrich wrote Daredevil for a while. I guess you worked on it for several years with various of us. COLAN: Different people at different times… an awful lot of stuff through the years. RT: Except for an issue or three in the middle that Barry Smith drew,

you did a solid run of Daredevil for several years, mostly with Syd inking, but a few other people here and there. COLAN: Yep. The only strip I really begged for was Dracula. He promised it to me, but then he changed his mind, he was going to give it to Bill Everett. RT: It’s funny, I don’t remember Bill being the designated artist, but I’m sure you’re right. COLAN: Oh, I said to him, “Stan, you gave me your word I could have it!” He said, “No, I’m afraid not, Gene. I actually promised it to Bill before you!” But I didn’t take that for a answer. I worked up a page of Dracula, long before Bill did anything. I just sat there, and I inked it, a whole page of the character, just sample drawings of him. I fashioned him after Jack Palance, years before Palance played Dracula on TV, and I sent it in. I got an immediate call back. Stan said, “The strip is yours.” RT: It probably worked out for the best. Bill was certainly a good artist, but I don’t think he’d have gotten what Stan was really looking for in Tomb of Dracula. COLAN: I didn’t think so. I thought I was the only one for it. RT: I remember that he changed his mind about having you ink that first issue, too. But you had a long phone conversation with him, and changed his mind. It’s hard to imagine anybody else doing Tomb of Dracula with the power, the intensity, and everything else that you did, especially once you got teamed up with Marv Wolfman. But you started even a few issues before he did. Gil Kane did some covers, but when anyone thinks of Dracula at Marvel, no matter who else drew him, you always end up with a picture in your mind of Gene Colan’s Dracula! COLAN: I can’t get rid of him. I’m still doing that character for a number of years after that, long after I started to get rid of it. RT: I know you’re going to do an interview later with Jon Cooke for Comic Book Artist about your Dracula and later work, so I’ll just segue back now to Daredevil. I remember you and I did some nice moody things. I recall there was a scene on a covered bridge once with Karen Page’s girlfriend and this sort of half-mummy/half-skeleton guy on a horse called Death’s-Head that we made up. And I remember thinking, “This would be perfect for Gene, because it has a feeling like a horror movie.” I made up this sound effect for the horse that was “KUDDALIK-KUDDA-LIK-KUDDA-LIK” [laughs]—and I just remember I had such a great time! That’s when I just saw a picture in my mind of Karen reaching out and taking off DD’s mask at his invitation, so we did that, too. Those were such vivid scenes. COLAN: Actually, I think what started it all was my interest in doing heavy blacks and shadows in scary stories. When I was five years old, I

The “Bullitt” sequence— actually a mere five pages— from Captain America #116 (Aug. 1969), Gene’s very first issue. That’s The Red Skull behind the wheel, not a racketeer. Maybe Gene drew all those cars to make up for having to draw The Avengers elsewhere in the issue! [©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Gene Colan Interview saw Frankenstein… the original movie… and it traumatized me. My father took me, in the Bronx, on a hilly street, a little theater there, and I couldn’t get it out of my mind! I couldn’t sleep, I was a wreck! From then on, I became rather fascinated with that kind of thing, and it’s kind of spilled over in my ability to draw. RT: I notice you’ve said that, when you saw it later, you didn’t care much for Bela Lugosi’s Dracula, because it was a little clunky. COLAN: Yeah, I didn’t think it was all that good. But maybe if I had seen it first… I know I wanted to see it, but my father wouldn’t allow me to see it. RT: I did want to ask you a couple of things about Dr. Strange, which you started doing in ’68. Dan Adkins started on it when Doc got his own book, and then one issue was penciled by Tom Palmer, who was lined up by Adkins. And then, somehow, you were put on the book, and we sort of got stuck with this guy Tom Palmer as inker, and I told Stan, “Gee, we don’t even know if this guy can ink!” [laughs] COLAN: Well, he did a great job.

13 or his girlfriend Clea from another dimension. All of a sudden, the book could suddenly have these elements of a soap opera that some of the other comics at Marvel had, which somehow “Dr. Strange” had never had before—because it became more human because of the way you drew it. COLAN: I wanted to bring realism into it, and I think that the character of Dr. Strange was situated in Greenwich Village… so I’d go down with a Polaroid camera… and I would use it in the plot to make it even more real. RT: Did you go down to Times Square to take photos for that story I plotted that had a pterodactyl crashing into the Times Square Allied Chemical Tower on New Year’s Eve? COLAN: I always went down anywhere in New York—the Empire State Building, any landmarks, Radio City, places that people would recognize— and I’d try to put the characters in there, even if the strip never mentioned it, or called for it. I figured if he was flying around the city, it’d be good to put him in familiar places, and I enjoyed the authenticity of it. It became fun. I think artists have to be inventive.

RT: It turned out, of course, that he was just wonderful, but at the time, when he started inking Dr. Strange, I hadn’t seen—and I A 1999 Colan “Iron Man” commission drawing, painted in pencil, courtesy don’t think Stan had, either—one once again of Kevin Stawieray. It’s also printed in The Gene Colan Annual. single line of his inking. I believe [Art ©2000 Gene Colan; Iron Man ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.] we were just taking Dan Adkins’ word for it that the guy could ink, and it turned out to be just wonderful, and a great combination, the two RT: You also experimented a lot with panel breakdowns, doing all sorts of you. of weird panel breakdowns. COLAN: Oh, yeah, we were very lucky in that way. RT: I noticed you never made any real attempt to follow what Ditko had done on “Dr. Strange,” with the kinds of worlds and things. You had your own view of other dimensions. COLAN: Yep, I did. RT: With a lot of smoke. COLAN: Highly influenced by films I’d seen. Whatever scary movie was out, I’d see it, and a combination of things, but I always had an affinity for that stuff. RT: I’d written a little “Dr. Strange” previously—I even dialogued a couple with Ditko, and several with Marie, and I may have even written one with Bill Everett—but the interesting thing about when you started doing it is, suddenly you started making not just Dr. Strange, but the other people of the strip really into real people, like his servant Wong,

COLAN: Right. When the excitement became tremendous in the story, I’d slant the panels. When there was really nothing going on but conversation, I kept it straight. I figured I’d keep the panels straight, but make the composition interesting if there wasn’t much going on. But boy, if there was hell-raising going on, I’d twist the panels and do everything I could! RT: I got very possessive about Dr. Strange. I eloped in July 1968 with my first wife, Jeanie, and came back one day late from what was supposed to be just a weekend at a comics convention in St. Louis—and when I walk in, I run into Archie Goodwin waiting at the elevator— with pages you’d sent in of a Dr. Strange issue I’d plotted—because Sol Brodsky couldn’t wait for one extra day for me to get back! And I marched Archie right back upstairs, and I said, “That’s my book!” [laughs] Archie didn’t care; he was just doing it because Sol asked him to. I said, “I’m not letting go of that book just because I got married and am one day late!” It wasn’t a huge seller, but Dr. Strange was finally

“So You Want A Job, Eh?”

canceled in 1970 when we were selling in the low 40% range of more than a 400,000 print run, so it was actually selling a couple hundred thousand copies!

trate on, and it seemed to me to be an awful lot of work. It was hard enough just to get one character to sing out, let alone four or five, so I never appreciated those things.

COLAN: That wasn’t bad.

RT: Do you have an opinion of the Captain Marvel Stan and you started, and then you and I continued? You did seven or eight issues.

RT: But at that time you needed to sell even more. Do you have any idea why you had so much trouble with those Dr. Strange covers? Goodman kept not using covers you had drawn. COLAN: For some reason, my cover work never worked out too well. Once in a while, yes, but very often it didn’t, and I don’t know why. RT: I remember there was one Dr. Strange cover you did with a face of Nightmare that was made out of electricity or something, and Martin Goodman said, “I don’t know what the hell’s going on here!” I have to ask you one other thing. I want to hear about you and your motorcycle! You had a motorcycle for about a week or two in the late ’60s, didn’t you?

COLAN: That’s all, and then it died. I don’t know why, it just did. RT: Well, actually, it lasted a good while longer, off and on, but I think Stan felt you were more valuable on other books, so… COLAN: It just didn’t hold up, and that was the end of that. Who knows why these things happen—why some books make it and others don’t? RT: Sometime I’ll have to talk with you about some other things. For instance, you and I did a Batman together when we first went to DC… and we did a few well-remembered issues of Wonder Woman.

COLAN: Oh, I’ve always wanted a bike, even when I was a youngster.

COLAN: Yes, yes. I didn’t enjoy that, either.

RT: But you got rid of it real quickly, I remember.

RT: I had a feeling! You did a great Wonder Woman, though. Why didn’t you enjoy doing that book?

COLAN: Well, I had an accident! [laughs] When I moved to New Jersey, and raised my children there, I bought my first bike, and it wasn’t long after I had it I got into a very minor accident, but I tore my clothes and everything. Stan got nervous about it, he didn’t like the idea… and my wife took a hairy fit, so I… [laughs] It didn’t stop me, I got another one after that, and then another one after that, even where I’m living now. I’ve had about three. Finally, I gave it up, even up here where I am now. RT: There were two other books I wanted to ask you about that you did, just briefly. You did three issues with me on The Avengers, the group book, but I guess that wasn’t really the kind of thing you enjoy. COLAN: Not really, no. There were too many characters to concen-

COLAN: Because she was a woman, and I related more to the heroic type of guys. RT: I guess Batman’s more your type of character, like Daredevil was. COLAN: Oh, yeah, I enjoyed doing both those. RT: Thanks, Gene. I know that you and Jon Cooke plan to do an interview about your work later in the ’70s and beyond, on Tomb of Dracula and the like, so perhaps the best ending of this interview is…. [TO BE CONTINUED—by Gene Colan and Jon B. Cooke—in the pages of Comic Book Artist!]

www.GeneColan.com The place to go to keep in touch with what Gene’s up to, what his fans are saying, and all sorts of other good stuff! • New original comic strips • Gene Colan bibliography • Correspondence courses • Original columns on life, the universe, and comics • Art galleries • E-mail Gene or leave a note in his guest book • Original pages for sale • Converse with other comics afficionados Howard the Duck ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc. Art ©2000 Gene Colan

Here’s a lovely drawing Gene graciously did for Roy Thomas to give his wife Dann as an anniversary present, depicting Dann and a certain romantic talking fowl. Gene is her favorite comic book artist.

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When Those Who Can, Teach

When Those Who Can Teach

Robert

While the world may beat a path to the door of the builder of a better mousetrap, history confirms that at least some of those beating feet—accompanied by cash-holding hands—will be diverted to the door of the man who figures out how to mass-produce said mousetrap. er.

Kanigh

The field of comic books is, of course, no different. When it was proven that people (mostly kids) would pay good American money for the four-color adventures of their favorite (or soon-to-be favorite) characters, it wasn’t long before the number of comic book publishers multiplied geometrically—or so it must have seemed to a kid with a lone dime, facing a newsstand in the 1940s. And since comic book publishers need comics to publish, they hire writers and artists. But where do the writers and artists come from?

Secrets behind the Comics begins with this typical example of that Stan Lee understatement we would come to known and love in the ’60s. [Georgie, Blonde Phantom, Powerhouse Pepper, Captain America & Bucky, and Millie the Model ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

In most fields, newcomers are young people who have grown up perusing the product of the field they wish to contribute to. The field of comics, however, was still fairly new in the early-to-middle 1940s, when the comics boom really took off. Most young writers and artists had read comic strips most of their lives; and while comic strips and comic books

Stan Le

Whoever said “Nothing succeeds like excess” was right—though not as right as the guy who said it fifteen or sixteen times in a row.

share certain similarities, in many ways they’re more different than they are alike. Today, comic book writers are overwhelmingly former fans who had the “language” of comics imprinted on their cerebral cortexes in their formative years. But in the early days of comic books, talent had to be instructed in the new technique, the format of comic books.

Interviews Transcribed by Jon B. Knutson

by Mike W. Barr

Capitalism abhors a vacuum even more than nature does, so it wasn’t long before there were at least a handful of “how to” guides surfacing on the subjects of writing and drawing comics. Fortunately, at least some of them were by experienced hands, who could be trusted to share what worked for them. And two of them were by two of the best writers the medium of comic books has ever known: in democratic alphabetical order, Robert Kanigher and Stan Lee. (And if you need to have it explained to you who either of these guys are, back to the Beginners Slope for you!) In 1943 Robert Kanigher wrote the booklet How to Make Money Writing for Comics Magazines, published by Cambridge House of N.Y. Four years later, Stan Lee contributed Secrets behind the Comics, published by Famous Enterprises, Inc., Publishers of New York City. While many other comic book writers of the period wrote articles about the subject (and we’ve seen some of them here in Alter Ego), How to Make Money WritCan you find the Renaissance man in this picture? ing for Comics That’s a paint-splattered RK on the right, among Magazines and various of his abstract paintings and a whole Secrets behind the autumn’s worth of fallen leaves. [Photo courtesy of Comics are two of & ©2000 RK.] the only book-

Stan Lee & Robert Kanigher’s ’40s How-To Books

length contributions to the field. That alone would make a survey of their contents worthwhile, and the pedigrees of their authors in Stan and Joan Lee on a fact-finding trip in Norway a their chosen couple of years back. [Photo courtesy of & ©2000 field defiStan & Joan Lee.] nitely single them out for further analysis. The best place to begin is in the realm of the physical: How to Make Money Writing for Comics Magazines (hereafter referred to as HTMM) is a booklet measuring 8 inches by 51/2 inches. Its 96 interior pages are stapled together, with a textured tan cardboard cover glued around it, its interior text typeset, with no price marked on the cover. Secrets behind the Comics (hereafter referred to as Secrets) measures 59/16 inches by 85/8 inches, also with 96 interior pages, printed in two colors (black and red), its cover and interiors saddle-stitched (that is, sheets folded in half and stapled in the center, like a comic book); its text, save for a single typeset introductory page, is hand-lettered by M. (Mario) Acquaviva, a prolific comics letterer of that era. Secrets has a cover price of $1.00. Stylistically, the books also differ greatly, each reflecting the personality of its author. Kanigher comes across as sly and somewhat acerbic, as if testing the reader to see if he’s got what it takes, the twinkle in his eye just visible through a cloud of pipe smoke. Similarly, his book has a more serious approach, its chapters called “Lessons,” such as “Lesson 5—Important Tools of the Trade.” Each of these “Lessons” is further divided into subtopics: “How to Work with the Artist,” “Action Props,” “How to Use Props,” “Using Ingenuity,” “How to Use Scenes,” “Employing the Close-shot,” “The Medium-shot,” “The Longshot,” “The Montage-shot,” and “The Symbolic Shot.” Lee, in contrast, seems to be who he’s always been in print—ebullient, avuncular, face perpetually agrin with the fun we’re having, and are about to have. His book, written in a style that gives the reader the impression Lee is speaking to him and him alone, is divided into “Secrets,” such as “Secret #9—What Happens to a Script after It Is Written?” These differences will become even more apparent as we progress.

Who Were These Guys, Anyway? In an introductory column opposite the title page of HTMM, Kanigher is described as: “Radio Writer and Director; Winner of National Radio Contest; Playwright, Author of FAUSTUS, THY BROTHER, OUTBREAK, BLIND DATE, BORROWED LIGHTNING, Series of Books on WRITING FOR NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES, RADIO, MOVIES, STAGE, COMIC MAGAZINES, POPULAR BOOKS; Scripts and Stories in Anthology [sic], National Magazines.” Secrets begins with “Secret No. 1”—and, to let Stan Lee tell it himself, we’ve printed the top half of page 6 of his book above:

(Like, we’d doubt the word of the editor of All-True Crime!)

The Fundamental Things Apply… HTMM begins with a Preface which addresses the audience, whom Kanigher assumes would be either professional writers or aspiring professional writers, with a discussion of the medium: “The easiest way for a new writer to get his start is in the field of the comics… The experience gained by the writer in comics can be applied very well to the movies, since the comics script resembles the movie scenario in many ways. Working in the comics medium has proven an open door into the general writing field for many writers. “This does not mean that the comics are merely a stepping stone to other fields. Independent of the many writing opportunities it opens, the comics is a complete profession worthy of the best efforts of any writer.” The Preface is followed by a one-page analysis of “THE COMICS FORMULA,” which, in those days, referred almost exclusively to super-hero stories:

When Those Who Can, Teach Secrets also begins by addressing its audience, but Lee assumes his audience is composed of comics readers rather than aspiring professionals. It wastes no time on any kind of lofty analysis of possible income or the limitations of the medium, but dives right into its subject matter. To answer “Secret No. 1: Who Is Stan Lee and Why Did He Write This Book?” the author replies, in part: “In the many years that Stan Lee has been an Editor he has received thousands of letters from eager fans asking him to tell them the TRUE FACTS behind the comics… . It is for the purpose of answering all these letters at one time that this book has been written.” From here on, we’ll let the authors of the volumes in question do most of the talking. Robert Kanigher and Stan Lee were gracious enough to allow themselves to be interviewed about these books they wrote so long ago. Kanigher was interviewed on December 6, 1999, by phone from his home in upstate New York, while Lee was interviewed in person on December 8, 1999, in the bustling offices of his new enterprise, Stan Lee Media. First of all, and still adhering to alphabetical order, where did the idea of writing these books come from? ROBERT KANIGHER MIKE W. BARR: Who did you think your audience was when you wrote this book?

This page and the next: One of RK’s best super-hero tales was never published en toto by DC—namely, a third “Flash” encounter with Rose and The Thorn, drawn by Joe Kubert. Pp. 6-7 tell the full origin of Rose’s multiple personality. These late-’40s pages, of course, weren’t printed in Kanigher’s 1943 book. [Jay Garrick, Rose & Thorn ©2000 DC Comics; with special thanks to Robin Snyder and The Comics.]

Kanigher’s cogent reduction of the “formula” used in 1940’s superhero comics is significant. You have to know the rules before you can break them, and Kanigher’s work, with its greater exploration of character motivation and theme, would be one of the reasons that the parameters of comics writing were expanded in the 1960s. The subject of types of stories discussed is the one area in which Secrets is more encompassing than HTMM. Secrets discusses many types of stories, not only super-hero but also teen humor and funny animal. This is due at least partly to the fact that Secrets was written in 1947, at which time the super-hero comic was on the way down, while in 1943, when HTMM was written, super-heroes ruled the comics roost. In “Lesson 1—How to Start a Comics Story,” Kanigher continues: “The comics are as American as apple pie; but their tales of sound and fury are international. Winston Churchill, among other notables, reads them whenever he has the opportunity. No one can take the comics seriously, or ignore their potency… The comics are escapist literature, pure and simple.”

ROBERT KANIGHER: Me. I had to please myself. I would say… my audience certainly wasn’t [readers of] comics; my audience was based upon my background. Don’t forget my background… is literature, music, plays, poetry, painting oils and watercolors, all the arts which I’ve been a part of… No one told me anything about it; I just did it by myself, I was attracted to it! I didn’t write [solely about] comics; I wrote a book on writing, and comics was a part of it. I had no idea that the publisher would divide it into sections, into paperbacks, and sell them [separately]. And when they were so successful, he bound them all together into a hardcover! It’s like binding six paperbacks into a hardcover, and that was sold out! But I did not write [solely] about comics.

MWB: You said that your editor at Cambridge House was a guy named Ben Raeburn. KANIGHER: My friend! [In A/E V3#2 Kanigher described Raeburn as “the general manager for Cambridge House.” Raeburn seems to have asked Kanigher to write the book.] My title was Breakthrough. The publisher changed it to How to Make Money Writing for Newspapers and Magazines, Radio, Movies, Stage, Comics Magazines, Popular Novels. I could regurgitate when I think of the sheer nerve of it. And yet, each paperback sold out at one dollar each. And so did the following hardcover at three dollars for all of them. Robin [Snyder, Kanigher’s longtime amanuensis] told me some time back that it cost him $30 for a single tattered paperback. STAN LEE MWB: Who do you think your audience was, first of all?

Stan Lee & Robert Kanigher’s ’40s How-To Books

STAN LEE: The kids that read comic books, I guess. The funny thing about this book, if I remember rightly… I published it myself. It wasn’t done by Marvel Comics, or Timely Comics, as it was called in those days. Famous Enterprises—that was me! And that address, 15 East 95th, was where I lived! [Laughter] I was a very stupid person, because I think it cost me $10,000 to print whatever number of those… maybe I printed 10,000, I don’t know. Whatever it cost, we only did about 10,000. [NOTE FROM MWB: Stan is a better writer than he is a mathematician. If it cost him $10,000 to print 10,000 copies of a booklet that was sold for $1 apiece, he would have made no money at all; besides, back in 1947, a printing cost of $1 a copy would have been enormous.] I thought I’d advertise them by the mail. We didn’t have the Internet then; we didn’t even have television… so I put a mail-order ad in whatever our comics were called, and I sold them out. Had I any sort of a brain at all, I would’ve thought, “Oh, print some more.” But I said, “Gee, I printed 10,000, and I sold 10,000. I’m a success!” That was it. I stopped; I never did any more. Oh, am I a great businessman! I sold out 100%, I never did it again, and that was it. [NOTE FROM MWB: I have heard rumors in recent years of a bootleg reprinting of Secrets, but have never seen a copy.] Also, I thought I was very clever: I said if anybody sends in $1, I’d give them a critique of their work. I didn’t realize how much work that would be! I figured a few hundred, or maybe a thousand over the few months coming in… but I honored every one. MWB: Your article “There’s Money in Comics!” which was printed in the November 1947 Writer’s Digest [reprinted in A/E V3 #1] utilizes much of the same material, but the style is much different. LEE: Well, the thing with Secrets behind the Comics was, it was done almost like a gag… you had more cartooning. I felt that a lot of the people who read comics… even then, I thought people were interested in the behind-thescenes. Like when you go to a movie, you want to know who directed, or who did the music, who produced it, who is the craftsman. Especially who the director or the stars are! In those days, nobody was giving credit to the guys in the comic book This Secrets ad appeared in some of Timely’s Fall and Winter 1947 issues. Evidently there was also a full-page ad in some June 1948 titles— and if anybody can send us a copy of that one, we’d be ephemerally grateful! [©2000 S. Lee.]

business, and I thought it would be nice to give each of the guys who worked for us a little publicity. If you noticed, in that book I mentioned virtually every person who ever worked at Marvel… I keep saying Marvel, but you know what I mean… whoever worked with Timely. We [meaning mostly future Mad writer/artist Dave Berg] did a little caricature of them, and wrote little descriptions of them… just a fun, personal thing I wanted to do. I tried to show how comics were done, but I tried to do it in the most simplistic, easy, and, really, lazy way. I didn’t want to make it a big deal. When I was in the Army, I used to watch training films, and I wrote instructional manuals for the troops. I would take very difficult subjects, like how to operate a 16MM rifle camera under combat conditions, for combat photographers. I took that extensive manual and I did it in cartoon form… I wrote it very simplistically. I got another assignment for the payroll officers—how to teach them to do payroll forms— and, believe it or not, I did it in comic book form. I turned the payroll forms into big mazes; they had to go from the top to the bottom without failing to answer each question, and I created a character called Fiscal Freddy who went along the form. I always believed you could teach better by using cartoons, by keeping it light and easy to read, and that’s what Secrets behind the Comics was. Actually, I’m sure one day it’ll be

In 1947 one “secret behind the comics” was this “official” version of the creation of Captain America. Of course, since Stan wasn’t working for Timely in 1940 when Cap was developed, he makes no latter-day claims for either its accuracy or lack of same. [Text, etc. ©2000 Stan Lee; Captain America and Bucky, Human Torch and Toro ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

When Those Who Can, Teach

Stan Lee & Robert Kanigher’s ’40s How-To Books

Writer’s Guide to Professional Script Format”: “The comics page is divided into panels or boxes. As a writer you must know how to use these boxes. “Think of the comics script page as divided into three equal parts, both horizontally and vertically. This gives you nine boxes. Of course, you’re not going to ask for nine pictures for a page, as that would overcrowd it. But you can combine any amount of boxes for a more effective picture. The more furious the action the more boxes you use. Where there is less action use less boxes. Use boxes horizontally. That is from left to right, as you would read printed matter; number each box consecutively, starting with Box 1, etc. “As was indicated in Lesson 5, you can use two boxes vertically for a shot that requires length. For this effect, you would indicate Box 1 and 4.” HTMM contains, as an example of executed script format, a Kanigher “Captain Marvel” script from Captain Marvel Adventures (in which the above description of a comic page as containing “nine boxes” seems to have been reduced to six). An added lesson for the novice scripter is supplied by an entire “Steel Sterling” story for MLJ (later Archie Comics), whose script, in Alter Ego, Vol. 3, #2, is described by Kanigher as having been dictated over the phone to artist Irv Novick when another script hadn’t arrived in the mail. One could infer, from the A/E account, that Kanigher simply dictated an existing script to Novick: “[Irv Novick] hadn’t received his ‘Steel Sterling’ script. [The editor] asked me whether I could dictate a finished script over the phone to Irv.” But, in a Sgt. Rock letters column earlier, Kanigher writes: “I had to make up a ‘Steel Sterling’ on the spot and phone it to the unflappable Irv Novick.” The “Steel Sterling” script is accompanied in HTMM by an excellent analysis by Kanigher, describing the types of shots and angles used by the artist, and the reason for their use in telling the story: KANIGHER: I had [no collaborators], I always worked alone. [By this, Kanigher means he wrote full scripts, not Marvel-style plots which left some plot elements and pacing up to the penciler.] MWB: You did, but you realized, of course, that comics were a visual medium, and wrote to the artist? considered an immortal concept. MWB: To get back to your Writer’s Digest article for a moment: When you were compiling the information for that article, did you get the idea that you could maybe spin this off into another venue? LEE: Not at all. Writer’s Digest just called me one day, and they asked me to write an article. I never would’ve thought of it. I couldn’t believe it… I was so proud… the Writer’s Digest! MWB: They even put you on the cover. LEE: Wait—I was on the cover of Writer’s Digest?!? MWB: Yeah, you made the cover… right there. [MWB shows Stan a copy of the cover as reprinted in A/E V3#1.] LEE: Well, I’ll be damned. I never got a copy!

Script Format ROBERT KANIGHER Of course, books dealing with the concept of comic book writing must discuss the issue of script format. Kanigher deals with this in “Lesson 7—

Here are two pages of RK’s 12-page “The Beautiful Baby Contest,” whose script was printed in his 1942 book (but without art—because the tale hadn’t yet seen print!). The story appeared in Captain Marvel Adventures #29 (Nov. 1943), pages reproduced on the next page. [©2000 Robert Kanigher]

When Those Who Can, Teach

KANIGHER: That’s true, but I’ve always written visually. MWB: Your book also deals very heavily in the fundamentals of comics writing… how to write for the artist, and how to break the story down, page by page and panel by panel. In the early pages of HTMM it does list the comics formula, so you realized… even back then, you understood there was a certain formula that had to be met in those days. KANIGHER: Formulas are really just a state of mind. It’s really what I think of the subject matter, so I don’t know if you’d call it a formula or not. All I know is that I learned a long time ago that characterization is plot. It’s character that tells you what to do. STAN LEE While Lee also describes a full-script format, his is somewhat different from Kanigher’s. MWB: On pages 22 through 24 in here, and again in your article, you review the script form that was used in those days. LEE: I don’t even remember it, probably.

Despite stylistic differences, the formats described by Kanigher and Lee serve the same purpose: conveying visual information in tandem with dialogue to be used in the placement of balloons for the letterer, requiring the artist to draw a certain number of panels per page. Lee’s format seems a little more flexible than Kanigher’s—and Kanigher himself no longer used this format, at least by the 1970s—but I can personally attest that the six-boxes-per-page version of Kanigher’s format was being used as recently as the late 1980s by Michael Fleischer, writer of Jonah Hex and Ghost Rider.

Taboos and Don’ts “Lesson 3” of HTMM, subtitled “The Important ‘Don’ts’ in Comics Writing,” begins by explaining why such taboos exist: “Comics cater in large part to the younger population… . These standards are as concrete as a bride’s first home-cooked meal.” Such taboos are five number: 1. Cussing. 2. Religion.

MWB: It had the panel descriptions on one side of the page, and the dialogue on the other side.

3. Dialects. (“Don’t use them to poke fun at any race. When you do use dialect, be sure you know its basic elements.”)

LEE: Yes, that’s the way we were doing it.

4. Sex. (“S-E-X is non-existent. The relationship between hero and heroine is always purely platonic, comradely. The boiling point is never reached.”) And, finally:

MWB: Did you do any work in those days in what’s [now] called the Marvel style? LEE: No. I didn’t do that until probably the very late ’50s or early ’60s.

5. Parents. (“They can commit no evil! Villains and their female counterparts are not entitled to parenthood, even of little villains.”) But time changes everything, and the ground-breaking exploration

Stan Lee & Robert Kanigher’s ’40s How-To Books

of more mature themes by Kanigher and Lee—as well as changing societal norms—would enable them and future writers to explore Taboos #2, 3, and 5, while the advent of the direct market would enable writers to explore Taboos #1 and 4… over and over and over and over and over… .

The Readers Always Write ROBERT KANIGHER MWB: Did you ever get any response from readers of the book? KANIGHER: The only response I got was that they couldn’t get hold of it, it just disappeared, it was just sold out. I had a friend at NBC, and he said it was in the library… that was a long time ago, shortly after it came out. As I said, Robin was looking for a copy for years until he found this paperback. It just seemed to disappear! It completely sold out, and I don’t know anything about the publisher, if he wanted to republish it or something. I don’t see what he could have done with it but publish more, but I really don’t know anything about it, once I did the book, for which he gave me $500 in advance, which, for ’43, was not really a bad sum!

Doubtless Kanigher’s actual script had long since been tossed by the time HTMM reprinted an entire Irv Novick-drawn “Steel Sterling” story, but his scene-by-scene analysis is excellent. If this is the script RK ad-libbed to the artist via phone one day circa 1942, ’twas quite a feat! [Steel Sterling and comic art ©2000 Archie Publications, Inc.; text ©2000 Robert Kanigher.]

Looking Backward ROBERT KANIGHER MWB: In the preface to your book, you wrote: “The comics is a complete profession, worthy of the best efforts of any writer.” Do you still feel the same, 56 years later?

STAN LEE MWB: [You said] you did get a number of responses, that it took you quite a while to go through them, kids wanting to get Stan Lee’s opinion on their creations.

STAN LEE MWB: In the Writer’s Digest article, you said: “One point which I can’t stress too strongly is don’t write down to your readers. It is common knowledge that a lot of comic book readers are adults, and the rest of the readers are generally pretty sharp characters.” Do you still agree with that today?

LEE: I got quite a few hundred dollars. MWB: Do you recall any of them ever actually becoming comic book professionals? LEE: They never contacted me! [Laughter] They were just young kids. Very nice. I answered every one of them. MWB: Did the mail seem to be from kids, primarily? LEE: Oh, yes. In those days, very few grown-ups wanted to do comics.

KANIGHER: I feel that, at one time, comics could have been an authentic medium, taken seriously by critics and by an audience. But there have been so many distortions, so much blood, so much gore, so many grisly characters… no relationship to reality. Someone wrote that “The closer you come to reality, the closer you come to art.” I believe that comics could have been an art form.

LEE: I’ve never intentionally written down to anybody. People used to ask me, when you write stories, what audience do you have in mind? And I always gave the same answer, which is, I don’t think of the readers… I write stories that would please me. If they don’t interest me, I don’t want to write them. I try to write them clearly and understandably enough that a young person could enjoy them, and I try to write them,

As Mike Barr states, Stan’s book is an invaluable mother lode of the likenesses of many of Timely’s 1947 staff, some drawn by Dave Berg, the more realistic ones possibly done by Ken Bald, future artist of the comic strips Dr. Kildare and Dark Shadows; a few may be self-portraits. How many of the names in this Secrets montage do you recognize? [text and caricatures ©2000 Stan Lee; Hedy Devine ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

as much as I can, intelligently enough that an older person could enjoy them. That’s the only formula I have. I never write for any particular age group.

The Final Analysis Certainly the field of comic books has changed greatly in the last decade, let alone the last five. Is there anything to be learned from these books, over half a century after their initial dates of publication? Yes, but the lessons to be learned from the two books differ virtually as greatly as do the books themselves. HTMM is by far the better book in terms of knowledge of professional technique. Though many of its concepts of allowable content are dated, this would be the same with any book written on any subject published 57 years ago. A would-be writer could read HTMM and come away with virtually all he needed to know about a professional comic script format. As an example of the timeless nature of HTMM’s fundamentals, page 30, “A Synopsis That Sold,” describes a story in synopsis form to hook an editor’s interest: “The following is a comics synopsis that has a novel opening hook: Our hero and heroine are riding atop a 5th Avenue bus—when it is halted by a crowd blocking the avenue. The crowd is excitedly pointing to a man walking on thin air, high above their heads!” The synopsis goes on to include plot complications and an eventual resolution and explanation of the hook. Detective Comics #449 (July 1975) contains a six-page “Elongated Man” story, “The Mystery Man Who Walked on Air!,” written by Mary Skrenes with art by Dick Giordano. The story opens with E.M. surprised by a man having a morning stroll outside his own hotel window—which happens to be on the ninth floor!

It’s likely that these similarities are entirely coincidental, that scripter Skrenes came up with the hook to her story on her own, or that it was supplied to her by editor Julius Schwartz, who liked to keep his hand in such matters. (Leading one to wonder if he ever read Kanigher’s book.) Skrenes’ story is also resolved entirely differently from Kanigher’s. Still, these two disparate examples, published nearly a third of a century apart, show that a good story hook is a good story hook, no matter what the decade. By contrast, Secrets comes up second as a “how-to” book on comics, its information less precise, and its style more juvenile. (“Are you beginning to realize now why ‘The Secrets behind the Comics’ has been called the most complete book about comic magazines ever published… as well as the most exciting?”) When Lee was shown my copy of HTMM, he nodded and said, “Oh, this is for adults.” But Secrets fills a purpose that no one could have foreseen at the time… a purpose even its author didn’t intend. STAN LEE MWB: What’s interesting about the book—and I’m not sure this has ever occurred to you—is that this is years before the company that was officially called Marvel Comics, in ’61, when you came up with The Fantastic Four and Spider-Man, the entire retinue. Secrets is a kind of benign Mein Kampf of the Marvel style, and of what became the Marvel Universe—a statement of future intent. On page 31 you referred to one of the inkers, Violet Barclay, as “glamorous girl inker”… that’s very close to a Marvel nickname, like “Smilin’ Stan Lee” or “Jolly Jack Kirby.” It struck me that the very chatty, personal nature of the book, and the fact that it was hand-lettered, which is warmer than cold type, is very much in the Marvel style before there was a Marvel style. LEE: I always tried to do this. I think I’m a very informal guy. I like that kind of writing. I think I laid out the book myself with Sol Brod-

Stan Lee & Robert Kanigher’s ’40s How-To Books

Stan even showed the rhapsodized reader how the Timely offices were laid out in ’47. (And he must’ve really liked that phrase “Now for the first time ever in the world”—because he used it at least a half dozen times in Secrets! [©2000 Stan Lee.]

sky. I think… was he working there? He must’ve been. Maybe… was Sol Brodsky mentioned in there, do you know? [NOTE FROM MIKE: He wasn’t.] If he wasn’t, I did the layouts myself. Most of the layouts really were mine, see, because that was the way I did the book. I took a lot of sheets of typewriter paper, folded them in half, and that made a book. Then I just sketched out what I wanted on each page, very roughly. Then I gave it to one of our letterers, Sol and them. MWB: The whole sort of philosophy behind the book, the very informal style, was very much like that which you would inaugurate as an editorial style later with Marvel. Did you ever think about doing it back then, in ’47 or so? LEE: I couldn’t. My publisher, Martin Goodman, would’ve probably objected to it. It was only years later than I was able to do it. What happened was, I was going to quit, and I was writing the stories, and my wife said, ‘Before you quit, why don’t you do the books the way you’d like to do it; the worst that will happen is they’ll fire you, and you want to quit anyway.’ So that’s when I started the informal stuff. I did The Fantastic Four without secret identities, I did “Spider-Man”… [Goodman] hated the idea, of course. It was only because I was ready to quit. I wouldn’t have dared to do those things earlier, because Martin wouldn’t have okayed it. MWB: As you said, this was pretty much written for your readers, the kids who read the comics at the time. LEE: I just hoped they’d get a kick out of it. MWB: I think they did. What’s interesting about the book is, nowadays, a lot of the caricatures are the only visuals available of a lot of these people. If you wanted a picture of [writer] Ed Jurist nowadays, where would you get one? Did the various artists in your book do their own caricatures?

LEE: I think almost all of them did. [NOTE FROM MWB: Though the illustrations in Secrets are credited to Ken Bald, many of the caricatures are in other styles; and some, such as the drawing of Alan Sulman, are signed by Dave Berg, nowadays best known for his work in Mad.] MWB: They probably thought it was a lot of fun in those days. Just a little publicity, get their names out there. LEE: Nobody even remembers a lot of these guys. I haven’t seen them in forty years. Thanks to Secrets, we have a working snapshot of the “Timely Bullpen” of its day, and many caricatures of its members, nearly all of whom long forgotten by all but the most thorough of comics historians. In a business noted for figuratively shoving its old and middle-aged out to sea on ice floes in favor of its young—who will wind up on those same floes someday themselves (unless they’re smart enough to have secured staff jobs)—keeping the memories of these unsung, underpaid creators alive is no small accomplishment. And How to Make Money Writing for Comics Magazines and Secrets behind the Comics are likewise no small accomplishments, either. MIKE W. BARR’s first professional sale was to Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine—a story about a murder at a comic book convention. He wrote the first Batman graphic novel, Batman: Son of the Demon, and created and wrote such series as Camelot 3000, Batman and the Outsiders, The Outsiders, Mantra, and the creator-owned Maze Agency, which was nominated for Eisner and Harvey awards. He has recently made the transition back to prose, writing a Star Trek novel which is tentatively scheduled for publication in Sept. 2003. Get in line now.

Right: Wah-hooo! A recent commission drawing of Nick Fury, penciled and inked by Darlin’ Dick Ayers. [Art ©2000 Dick Ayers; Sgt. Fury ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.] Far right: Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine, looking a bit less heroic, in Casablanca.

PLAY IT AGAIN STAN! When Nick Fury’s Howling Commandos Went To Casablanca--And Got Detoured To Marrakesh!

A Long, Leisurely Article about a Very Singular Almost-Issue of Sgt. Fury by Roy Thomas (with the input of Gary Friedrich, Dick Ayers, & John Severin)

I. “Everybody Comes To Rick’s” At least, almost everybody. Sooner rather than later, nearly everyone in America sees the classic 1942 motion picture Casablanca, with its stellar cast headed by Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. Ever since its first release only weeks after the Allied invasion of North Africa (coincidentally near that Moroccan city), this black-&-

white Warner Bros. movie has captivated audiences. Despite stiff competition from The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep and The African Queen and maybe one or two others, Casablanca is considered by many to be the quintessential Bogart film. In spite of its flag-waving Wartime ending—in which the hero gives up the girl out of patriotism and marches off to the tune of the (French!) national anthem—it’s generally considered one of the great romance flicks.

Play It Again, Stan! bugging me, telling me I had to see it. He damn near had it memorized! He used to play [audio] tapes of it and listen to it while he was inking pages at his apartment.” John considered it a sin that the three of us had never seen the movie. (This was before video tape, DVD, cable television, etc., etc., made so much vintage cinema easily accessible.)

We all loved the movie, of course. What’s not to love? And somehow, over the next few months, an idea was born—a beautiful, wonderful idea that was destined to be transmuted into misery for almost everybody associated with it: Gary decided to turn Casablanca into a Marvel comic.

II. “Round Up the Usual Suspects” You don’t hear a lot of nostalgia nowadays about Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos.

And, though its melodrama and sentiment betray its origins in an unproduced stage play called Everybody Comes to Rick’s, Hollywood pros and popcorn-munchers alike have consistently voted it one of the best films of all time, right up there with Citizen Kane. So what’s Casablanca got to do with the price of comic books in Chinatown? So glad you asked.

The series came about because, by late 1962, despite the impending demise of The Incredible Hulk (whose place Fury would take on Marvel’s schedule), editor/writer Stan Lee was feeling his oats with the success of Fantastic Four and other titles. He boasted to publisher Martin Goodman that he could use his new approach to make other genres sell, not just super-heroes. Because the war comic seemed an endangered species, it was decided to launch a new title set in World War II. Thus was born Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos (May 1963)—a comic with such an embarrassing name that not even covers spotlighting Captain America and “The Death Ray of Dr. Zemo!” could keep an early Marvel maven like me from passing by an issue or two on the newsstands. Even “Commandos” was strictly a British military term; the mag should really have been called Sgt. Fury and His Howling Rangers—which doesn’t quite have the same ring, does it? Stan hailed Fury as “The War Comic for People Who Hate War Comics”—and he had a point. As such, it was a howling success for several years.

John Verpoorten was a mountain of a man, closer to seven feet tall than six and well over 300 pounds. Stan Lee liked to refer to Marvel’s production manager as “Jumbo John,” but most of us preferred “Big Bad John,” from the Jimmy Dean song.

For my part, despite all the comics I’ve written set during the WWII years (The Invaders, All-Star Squadron, Secret Origins, et al.), I almost never bought actual war comics—not even those drawn by Jack Kirby or Joe Kubert or Harvey Kurtzman and the EC gang.

Either way, when John V. said something in that quiet yet deeply rumbling voice—you listened.

So, naturally, the first full-book action series that Stan assigned me to write, on the morning after the Great New York City Blackout of November 1965, was—Oh, you guessed, huh?

So when in late 1968 he announced to Marvel writer/assistant editor Gary Friedrich, my new wife Jeanie, and me that we were all going to see Casablanca at the Bleecker Street Theatre in Greenwich Village, it never even crossed our minds to say no. Gary recalls: “I’d never seen it before, but John loved it and kept

I scripted Sgt. Fury for a year (#29-41 plus an annual), working with Dick Ayers, who had inked most issues from the start and who had penciled all but one since #8. Dick, like Kirby a WWII veteran, did a lot of the hard work, like getting uniform and weapon details basically right. I’d been a Dick Ayers fan ever since Magazine Enterprises’ Ghost

Our round-up of the usual suspects: (in no particular order, from left) Smilin’ Stan Lee, Rascally Roy Thomas, Jumbo John Verpoorten, Darling Dick Ayers [all taken from the 1975 Mighty Marvel Comic Convention souvenir book], Joltin’ John Severin (recent self-portrait), and Groovy Gary Friedrich [in a fuzzy pic from the 1969 Fantastic Four King-Size Special, #7]. [Photos ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc. Art courtesy of & ©2000 John Severin.]

Sgt. Fury’s Lost Casablanca Story

Rider and The Avenger and his 1954 Human Torch. Still am. Enter Gary Friedrich. Gary I’ve known ever since high school back in Jackson, Missouri. In Fall of ’65, firmly entrenched at Marvel, I invited him to join me in New York, where he wrote for Dick Giordano at Charlton until a staff vacancy arose at Marvel. Around the beginning of 1967, just as Stan had earlier handed Sgt. Fury over to me, I passed the three-striped baton to Gary. And boy, did he run with it! By late ’68 he had scripted such acclaimed Sgt. Fury tales as “The War-Lover!” and “They Also Serve!” (about medics). Both these issues were penciled and inked by John Severin, noted for his work on Kurtzman’s EC war comics; Dick had moved on to other assignments. However, John, whose bread and butter was the better-paying Cracked magazine, soon decided he could only spare time to ink for Marvel. Dick returned to penciling Sgt. Fury, and so was born the team of Ayers and Severin, which with Gary produced some of the best-looking war comics of the ’60s. Then came issue #72, Nov. 1969.

Nor do I recall precisely when I became aware of what Gary and the artists were up to. As associate editor, my vague duties included overseeing other scripters; but Marvel ran a pretty loose ship in those days, and once a writer had proven himself on a title, Stan (and thus I) tended to leave him alone, as almost a de facto editor, unless storm clouds developed. They were gathering in mid-’69. We just didn’t see them yet. Gary’s concept, I believe, was inspired, as comic books go: This Sgt. Fury story would take place in between the scenes of Casablanca. It would be a separate, parallel tale which, in effect, took place off-screen, using the stars of the Warner film as supporting characters in the comic. Dick Ayers would pencil likenesses of the principal actors, and John Severin—who drew movie parodies for Cracked—would be there at the finish to give them a near-photographic look. The reader need not be familiar with the motion picture in order to enjoy the comic. (Though if he/she was, so much the better!) For the benefit of the three people in the world who don’t know the story of Casablanca, here’s the gist of it, with the most famous quotes plus a bit of WWII history tossed in—since 1942-43 audiences would’ve known what “Vichy France” was, while surveys show that today most Americans couldn’t locate France on a world globe:

III. “You Must Remember This” At this late date Gary doesn’t remember quite why or when he decided to write an issue of Sgt. Fury which intersected with Casablanca. Woody Allen’s stage version of Play It Again, Sam, which utilized both a Bogart ghost and dialogue from the 1942 film’s final scene, opened in February 1969. Like me, Gary was already a fan of the comedian, so that may have been a partial catalyst. As for Casablanca itself, Gary opines: “It was on TV all the time in New York, so after I first saw it, I probably watched it again on TV before I wrote the story.”

In late 1941, following its 1940 conquest by Nazi Germany, the unoccupied portion of France (known as Vichy France for its capital) and its overseas possessions remain nominally independent, but in actuality must cowtow to Hitler. Casablanca, in French Morocco, has become a way-station on “a tortuous, roundabout refugee trail” of desperate Europeans trying to reach safety in the Americas. While some manage to obtain exit visas and escape by way of Lisbon (in neutral

Play It Again, Stan! Portugal), “the others wait in Casablanca, and wait, and wait, and wait.”

clear that, while she admires Laszlo, she loves Rick—even though she confesses that she and the Czech are secretly married. Still, after a couple of rendezvous, Rick and Ilsa bow to the inevitable and make plans to use the letters of transit to get to Lisbon—or is it only that Rick will let Laszlo use one of them? The terms keep shifting.

A new arrival is Victor Laszlo [Paul Henreid], an important Czech anti-Nazi leader— accompanied by the beautiful Ilsa Lund [Ingrid Bergman]. Major Strasser [Conrad Veidt], a German sent by Berlin, vows to Rick (Bogart) and Ilsa (Bergman) face the make certain Laszlo cameras—and most likely director Michael doesn’t leave Curtiz—for the movie’s climactic scene. Casablanca alive to [©2000 Time Warner.] inspire underground rebellion. Since he can’t arrest Laszlo in unoccupied territory, the Nazi officer works through Captain Renault [Claude Rains], the corrupt head of the local French police, to keep him where he is.

Then, in one of the movie’s corniest yet most memorable moments, Laszlo impulsively leads the locals at the Cafe Americain in singing “La Marseillaise” to drown out the caterwauling of the Germans. In retaliation, Major Strasser pressures Capt. Renault to close Rick’s place. Renault professes to be “shocked—shocked to find that gambling is going on in here,” even as he collects his winnings. Rick sells his cafe to Signor Ferrari [Sidney Greenstreet], the corpulent owner of the rival Blue Parrot.

Two German couriers have been murdered on the train from Oran (Algeria) to Casablanca, and the “letters of transit” they carried have been stolen. These two documents, signed by General de Gaulle (leader of the Free French, who oppose the Nazis), will be irrevocable exit visas for anyone holding them. Just before he’s arrested by the police, a shifty little thief named Ugarte [Peter Lorre] secretly entrusts the purloined letters to Rick Blaine [Humphrey Bogart], the expatriate Yank who runs Rick’s Cafe Americain. Ugarte thrusts them upon Rick because the “saloon-keeper” is unapologetically neutral in the current War. But Rick and Ilsa turn out to have a history. They had a brief love affair in Paris the previous year (“Here’s looking at you, kid!”), just before the Germans marched in—and Rick, who had earlier smuggled guns to the losing side in the Spanish Civil War, had to flee for his life. Back to 1941: Laszlo and Ilsa walk into Rick’s. (“Everybody comes to Rick’s,” as the saying goes.) She asks Sam [Dooley Wilson], the cafe’s African-American piano-player, who knew both Ilsa and Rick in Paris, to render their special song, “As Time Goes By.” “Play it, Sam,” she purrs. (There is, as everyone knows, no exact line of dialogue “Play it again, Sam” in the film.) Rick arrives and plays the gracious host to Ilsa and Laszlo, but inside he’s in turmoil. After hours, Rick orders Sam to play “As Time Goes By,” while he wallows in self-pity, drink in hand and cigarette between his lips. (“Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine!”) Ilsa shows up and convinces Rick she had thought Laszlo dead in a concentration camp at the time she met him. But it’s Sgt. Fury #72 splash as originally done—compare with the splash as printed, next page. No, we don’t know who drew thumbtacks on Captain Sam’s piano bench; Ayers and Severin both profess innocence. Note Stan Lee’s re-titling of “As Time Goes By” in the margin, his crossing-out of part of the story title, and his notation at top re “Marrakesh.” (Read on for the story behind the deCasablancking of this could-have-been-landmark issue.) [©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Rick, Ilsa, and Laszlo head for the airfield. There, however, things go awry. Turning noble at the last moment, Rick shoots Major Strasser and persuades Ilsa to board the plane with Laszlo. “We’ll always have Paris,” he tells her. She must go with Laszlo for the sake of his antiNazi work: “It doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.” Tearfully, she allows herself to be persuaded and leaves with Laszlo. After the plane departs for Lisbon, Rick surrenders to Renault for shooting the Nazi—but the Frenchman surprises him by sending his men off to “round up the usual suspects.” Renault decides he and Rick will flee Casablanca together and join a Free French garrison. “Louis,”

Sgt. Fury’s Lost Casablanca Story says Bogart, “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” And the two ex-neutrals walk off together into night and fog, to the martial strains of “La Marseillaise.”

IV. “It’s Still the Same Old Story...” Once Gary decided to do his Sgt. Fury/ Casablanca “crossover,” things just sort of fell into place. He titled it “Play It Again, Sam!” No reason for Woody Allen to have all the fun. And, in fact, it was that title which then gave the tale its star!

31 As Dick Ayers remembers it today, although the names Casablanca, Rick, Ilsa, Laszlo, et al., appeared in Gary’s synopsis, he never received a written note or phone call to inform him precisely what was afoot. Still, he recalls the synopsis as being subtitled “Play It Again, Sam!” and says he “caught on” at once what was going on. So he dug out reference on the various actors and rummaged through his memories of the film. Remember, in 1969 he couldn’t just go out and rent it—and the odds of its playing on TV at precisely the time he was drawing this story were pretty slim. The story as originally written by Gary, penciled by Dick, then inked by John Severin, begins with Sawyer standing at a piano in a bar, playing “As Time Goes By,” while the Howlers watch (and comment). And, by the way, he could have “picked up [that song] a few years back,” as he says; the song had been around, largely forgotten, since 1931!

The unsmiling, pipe-smoking Captain “Happy Sam” Sawyer had previously appeared in Sgt. Fury mostly as the superior who berated the Howlers mercilessly, yet secretly admired them. Because of his first 31 years after penciling Sgt. Fury name, Gary decided to make him, not Nick Fury, the (For that pose of the captain, Dick utilized a #72, Dick Ayers still has the photo issue’s focus. Besides, it had been established in earlier clipping of Nat “King” Cole which photo of Nat “King” Cole, who was a jazz pianist issues that Fury was at Pearl Harbor when the Japanhe used in part for the splash before he became a popular singer. Dick had that photo ese attacked—and a line in the movie makes it clear it page. [Courtesy of Dick Ayers.] because, in 1947, he had worked up a comics-style featakes place only days, at most, before that infamous ture called “Chic n’ Chu” for a Dell magazine which assault. (“Sam,” Rick asks his piano-playing friend, “if never quite materialized. Chic was a teenage trumpet-player who it’s December 1941 in Casablanca, what time is it in New York?”) “wanted to start a band like Stan Kenton’s”; his girlfriend Chu fed the soda-shop jukebox with nickels so he could play along with the hot music of the day, while the kids jitterbugged away.) Over the course of Page 2, Sam works his way up to telling Fury and the boys about events that occurred “in 1940.” (Of course, he should really say “in 1941.”)

V. “I Stick My Neck Out for Nobody” By the start of the flashback on Page 3 we find Happy Sam in civvies, already in Casablanca on a secret mission to find and “help an important refugee from Germany escape to America.” (Almost sounds like he could be looking for Laszlo, doesn’t it?) He wanders into Rick’s Cafe Americain, and by the fourth panel he’s face to face with Rick Blaine—a dead-ringer for Bogart, who gives him the brush-off when he asks about “letters of transit.” (As per the accompanying art. We’re sorry a few art and dialogue lines have dropped out on the 1969 photostats—but hey, we’re lucky to have anything, as you’ll see!) About the “letters of transit” first mentioned on this same page: This is hardly the time (nor have we the space) to go into detail about how this type of exit visa was basically invented for the original Right: The Ayers/Severin cover. Actually, the reader didn’t see much of either the Howlers or the Sahara in Sgt. Fury #72. [©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Play It Again, Stan! men were behind the information curve on that one. (Since, in the film, Ugarte killed the couriers—aboard a train coming to Casablanca—the comic book Ugarte must have been swift of foot, indeed!)

Sam Sawyer’s flashback begins. Pay no attention to the moustache on Bogart’s Rick; it was scribbled in by Stan later (see below), and didn’t make the final cut any more than Bogey’s face did! [©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

stage play. Besides, the last thing on Earth any Vichy French official would have honored in ’40-41 would’ve been a document signed by Charles de Gaulle, who as leader of the so-called Free French was a traitor in the eyes of the Vichy government! Trust me on this. The letters of transit are, of course, merely what Alfred Hitchcock called “the MacGuffin”—an object very important to the characters in a film, but not of much concern to those watching it. Gary freely admits, “I never did understand the ‘letters of transit’ thing. It never made any sense to me, so after a while I just wrote it and figured the hell with it.” Not an unreasonable response, actually. Onward: In his hotel room, Sawyer’s thoughts reveal he’s come to find not Laszlo but a “Professor Steuben” and “get him out of Casablanca and on his way to Lisbon.” Sam knows nothing about Victor Laszlo, and could care less. That night, the Peter Lorre-faced thief Ugarte assaults Sam in his room, believing he has some letters of transit. Sawyer overpowers him and sends him on his way. (We never learn Ugarte’s name in this sequence, however.)

Come the dawn, police try to arrest Sam for the murder of two German couriers “this morning” (= “last night,” as per the film). He’s barely fought them off when Capt. Louis (pronounced “Louie”) Renault, prefect of police, tells him they have already caught the murderer. ’Twould seem his

Soon, the politically ambivalent Renault— cooperating of necessity with Major Strasser— shows Sawyer photos of Victor Laszlo and a beautiful woman, and says he is “looking for” the resistance leader. Sam scorns a deal in which he would “help the Nazis knock off Laszlo in return for free passage to Lisbon for Dr. Steuben and myself!” (In the film, Laszlo never hides from Louis Renault (Claude Rains) gets the drop on Renault, who is content Happy Sam. Stan scribbled a goatee on the simply to force Laszlo to Frenchman’s face, and wanted his hat removed cool his heels in “thruout”! [©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.] Casablanca. Gary made Renault a bit more overtly villainous than in the movie—but not that much.) Rick joins Sawyer and Renault at a table at the cafe, but won’t take sides. Just then, the other Sam in this story starts playing and singing “As Time Goes By.” This upsets Rick. (In the film, the African-American plays the song only at Ilsa’s insistence.)

VI. The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship Outside the cafe, Sawyer is accosted by two burnoosed types who drag him before Signor Ferrari (spelled “Farrari” in the comic), owner of the Blue Parrot cafe. As an in-joke, because the great character actor Sidney Greenstreet had also portrayed the evil Casper Gutman in Bogart’s 1941 breakthrough film The Maltese Falcon, Gary gives Farrari a line or two reminiscent of the earlier movie’s “Fat Man.” Farrari had Sawyer kidnaped to bring him to Dr. Steuben—who paid him to do so. (Steuben is the only character named in the comic who isn’t from the movie.) Sawyer overpowers Farrari, calling him a “tub of guts,” a reference to the Falcon villain. To interweave his story with Casablanca, Gary has Steuben refuse to leave Morocco unless Sawyer also helps Victor Laszlo escape. Sam is forced to agree, telling Steuben: “Your brain means a lot to our side.” Next we see Sawyer going to the Cafe Americain as per Farrari’s instructions. Clearly time has passed, because he learns that “Captain

Sgt. Fury’s Lost Casablanca Story

per this immortal movie exchange between Rick and Renault: (RENAULT: What in heaven’s name brought you to Casablanca? (RICK: I came to Casablanca for the waters. (RENAULT: Waters? What waters? We’re in the desert. (RICK: I was misinformed.) Sawyer leaves Morocco with a lot of unanswered questions— because he doesn’t know what happens the next night (i.e., in the film’s final reel). The flashback over, Sawyer spends the last page telling the Howlers what he learned later about the airport confrontation that caps the movie. Then he informs the boys that, because they’ve been “such good listeners,” he’s going to treat them all to the movie playing next door.

The 1969 photostats are flawed in places in these final panels showing Rick/Bogart. Presumably the misspelling of “Laszlo” would have been corrected. John Severin’s note (“This Rick is downright immoral”) was partly cut off. [©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Renault had shut Rick down at the request of the Nazi Strasser,” as per the film. Still, Sam bangs on the cafe door. When Rick opens it, Laszlo’s “girl” is there with him. (Oddly, Ilsa is never named in the comic, nor does she look much like Ingrid Bergman. Gary confesses, “I’ve got no idea why I never used the name of Ingrid Bergman’s character in the story. I guess I just forgot.” Artist Dick Ayers, for his part, says that he didn’t strive for a likeness of Bergman because “the way I draw girls is the way I draw girls.” Nor did John Severin bother with a Bergman likeness. Too bad, but neither omission hurts the comic much.) By the time Sawyer confronts the pair, Rick and Ilsa have agreed to meet at the plane for Lisbon the next night. The other Sam plays and sings a bit of “As Time Goes By,” and the two lovers embrace, as Sawyer stands around puffing on his pipe. After Ilsa leaves, Rick refuses to help Sam help Laszlo and/or Steuben escape; what he himself intends to do is as mysterious in the comic as in the movie. (The exchange between Sawyer and Rick, utilizing Bogart’s repeated movie line “I stick my neck out for nobody,” led John Severin to write at the bottom of Page 16: “This Rick is downright immoral.” And, indeed, Rick Blaine plays no part in helping Sawyer and Steuben escape from Casablanca. He’s saving his heroics for the movie!) Sawyer no sooner arrives to pick up Dr. Steuben at an “underground rally” than Captain Renault’s gendarmes rush in to arrest the lot of them. A melee breaks out, and the resistance fighters scatter. Renault grabs Sawyer, who throws him to the ground. Steuben finally agrees to flee minus Laszlo; the next panel shows a sub taking Sam and Steuben to Lisbon. Sgt. Fury #72’s credits—as nobody outside the Marvel offices ever saw them. (See why, below.) [©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

(Of course, they’d have had to travel a considerable distance to reach an Allied sub, as

In the final panel of the story as originally written and drawn, we see a grinning Sam Sawyer about to purchase tickets at a theatre, while Fury gapes at the marquee, which reads: “BOGART and BERGM[AN] in ‘CASABLANCA.’” The comic’s ending is ambiguous, perhaps purposely so. At this point the logical-minded reader might well assume that the real reason Sawyer was playing “As Time Goes By” on Page 1 was because he’d seen the spanking new movie Casablanca—and that he’d made up the yarn he spun for the Howlers on the spur of the moment. (Oddly, precisely that type of storyline would be used in a 1995 film which took its name from Casablanca’s most-quoted line: The Usual Suspects.) Gary proudly placed the issue’s credits on this final page, dedicating the issue “with great affection to the man called Bogey and all those connected with one of his finest films!”

And that was that—or so he thought. When John Severin received the pages to ink and embellish, he too recognized the source of the subplot. So, he says, he “went out and got a few reference books” so he could do justice to the cast of Casablanca. Since the penciled art on Ilsa didn’t especially resemble Ingrid Bergman, he says, he didn’t worry about achieving a photographic likeness in that case. John inked the book with his usual dispatch and skill, and mailed it back to the Marvel offices on Madison Avenue. And that’s when the trouble started.

VII. “I’m Shocked—Shocked!” Nobody seems to recall precisely when or how the tale in Sgt. Fury #72 came to Stan’s attention. But in those days all stories and art still passed through the editor-in-chief’s hands at some near-final point, on the two or three days a week he was in the Marvel offices. As a general rule, Stan flipped through the issue, reading mostly the first and last pages, to make sure the story began and ended well. Not this time. Even though production manager John Verpoorten had been

Play It Again, Stan! before we were faced with an entire issue ready to be sent to the Comics Code and thence to the printers—and which now, in his eyes, needed to be drastically, almost totally revised! (I don’t think the possibility of “throwing in a reprint” was ever seriously considered.) I recall that someone (perhaps myself?) made a halfhearted attempt to persuade Stan that maybe, if we contacted Warner, we could arrange for the payment of a smallish fee to publish the story as it was. Stan dismissed that possibility out of hand. For one thing, the issue had to leave the office in a few days, at the latest. Nor would publisher Martin Goodman have been willing to pay good money to Warner just to salvage one issue of Sgt. Fury. In the economics of the time, it wouldn’t have been worth it—even if we’d had weeks instead of days to play with. Worse still—to paraphrase Stan—who the hell did we think owned DC Comics, but Warner! Was Warner liable to make a fast, cheap deal with DC’s chief rival? More likely, Warner would have put the screws to us. Stan was horrified that even some of the lyrics to “As Time Goes By” had made it into the story; ASCAP was very prone to sue for such things (as DC discovered on an occasion or two itself). Time out: Before I write one more paragraph, one more word, I feel compelled to make it perfectly clear that, much as I liked that Sgt. Fury tale, and as unhappy as I was (and am) to see it changed, I quickly came to realize that, under the circumstances, Stan was 100% right about every one of his basic judgments and analyses stated above. We—Gary and John and I, and anybody else who cheered on “Play It Again, Sam!” while it was in preparation except the two artists—had goofed, and goofed horribly. We had placed Marvel in a potentially untenable situation. If the issue had somehow slipped through and been printed and the company had been sued, the whole lot of us might well have been fired. And perhaps even deserved it. Page 3 as printed. Compare with the original version on our pg. 32. [©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

instrumental in the genesis of the story, and Gary may even have listened to Verpoorten’s audio tapes while writing the dialogue, and while I may have been vaguely aware of the storyline, no one seems to have bothered to consider the possible ramifications of publishing a Marvel comic in which a famous Warner Bros. movie was a virtual subplot. But, from the instant he saw the twenty pages of the issue, that’s all Stan could think about! When he saw the issue and quickly scanned through it, Smilin’ Stan Lee stopped smiling. And went right through the roof. Gary says, “I don’t think I was there when it all hit the fan—when Stan saw the story.” Maybe not, but John V. and I were—and while I’m a bit fuzzy on details, I remember more than I’d like to. Stan was livid that this story had been written and drawn not only using likenesses of actors he recognized, but—far worse!—incorporating Casablanca into a Marvel comic. Stan probably wasn’t familiar with all the twists and turns of the story, but he quickly saw and read enough to know what had been done. And he was understandably furious. At Gary for writing it (though not at the artists, who had merely done what they’d been told to do), and at John V. and me for not bringing the thing to his attention sooner,

VIII. “You’ll Have to Think for Both of Us— for All of Us” As it was: Well, by good luck, this all seems to have happened on a Friday. So Stan decided that, over the coming weekend, someone had to rewrite much of #72’s dialogue and captions… and that every likeness in the issue had to be changed. Bogart, Henreid, Rains, Lorre, and Greenstreet all had to go. (The one silver lining turned out to be the fact that no one had drawn the heroine looking like Ingrid Bergman!) I’m not sure why I didn’t draw the short straw as the one to have to do the rewrite. But the task fell to a relatively new editorial assistant, Allyn Brodsky (no relation to former production manager Sol Brodsky). Maybe Allyn, whom I had gotten hired after he’d impressed me with his knowledge of fantasy literature (he’s the guy who first introduced me to H.P. Lovecraft, for one thing), expressed a familiarity with Casablanca. Anyway, the rush job was his—and welcome to it! Not that Stan had any intention, at this stage, of leaving more than a few story details to Allyn’s discretion. Editorial pencil in hand, he began to write, on the original pages, what he wanted done. The first thing that had to be changed was the title—despite our assurances that “Play it again, Sam!” wasn’t even said in the movie! To Stan, keeping it would be waving a red flag in front of a Warner bull, so it had to go. The new title, so far as we can still see what he wrote at the bottom of the page, was to be either “Play It Once More, Sam!” or simply “Play It Once More!” Either one was leaden, but serviceable. At the top Stan wrote a note to “change Casablanca to Marrakesh

Sgt. Fury’s Lost Casablanca Story

Upper left: Peter Lorre/Ugarte out, Charly Ming in. Left: But, with or without glasses, Josef de Groot doesn’t look much like Paul Henreid/ Laszlo—or his lady like Ingrid Bergman. Above: Stan indicated Farrari (Sidney Greenstreet) should grow a handlebar moustache—but he got chin spinach, instead, and kept his lines paraphrased from The Maltese Falcon. But his fez became a turban. Below: Claude Rains/Renault out, Eric Leroux in. [©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

thruout.” Whether Stan knew it or Allyn suggested it or whatever, Marrakesh is also in Morocco. Its name (usually spelled “Marrakech,” but both are correct) has an exotic feel to it. Even in anger and adversity, Stan’s editorial instincts were sound. He wanted the story altered, yes— that was the main thing—but he also wanted it to be good. Also on the hit list, of course, was the song title, “As Time Goes By.” It was crossed out, and in the margin Stan wrote “Though We Must Part,” a made-up title. (Oddly, in the printed book it became “No Matter If We Part.” Maybe somebody discovered that the other title had actually been used?) There aren’t many visible notes on the existing photostats of the story—but, on Page 3 (where the flashback begins), Stan wrote: “See other side.” He evidently scribbled some more instructions on the back of the page, which are lost to us. For most of the rest of this uncomfortable session in his office, Stan concentrated on the visual aspects of the comic. His first art change was to scribble a moustache on the face of “Bogart/Rick,” and to indicate a widow’s peak hairline. Stan also wanted that character made blond. Oh yes, and no cigarettes! The replacement, “Mike,” was definitely not going to Bogart any joints!

IX. “Some of the Old Songs” As can be seen by perusing the issue as printed, the widow’s peak was drawn, but the moustache was not… nor was Rick/Mike made blond, despite Stan’s note. Still, all likeness to Bogart vanished in the lantern-jawed hero who replaced him.

seen him since two decades ago, at the L.A. home of writer/artist Christy Marx.) On Page 5 Ugarte was altered into a character who only vaguely resembled Peter Lorre, named “Charly Ming.”

Although the words “letter of transit” aren’t crossed out on Page 3, Allyn, doubtless as per general instructions, completely rewrote that balloon, to omit all mention of things so intimately connected to Casablanca. He used the new dialogue to introduce the “Dr. Steuben” subplot.

Come Page 8, Capt. Louis Renault entered—and Stan was quite familiar with the face of Claude Rains, who had starred in The Invisible Man and other major movies. In the margins he indicated the moustache had to go (adding or subtracting facial hair is always an easy way to change a character’s look); he wanted him given a goatee—which, for some reason, didn’t happen.

I’m not sure why Rick/Mike’s dialogue is changed in that same panel; it has no particular connection with Casablanca. Maybe Allyn just got carried away. (But if Allyn sees this issue of Alter Ego, I hope he’ll contact us and add his own input to this weird little saga! I haven’t

Oddly, Stan also wrote re this character: “NO HAT THRUOUT.” This wasn’t done, either; perhaps it later occurred to Stan, or to someone else, that a hat was hardly liable to get us in trouble with Warner. Indeed, a prefect of police needed that hat. So it stayed.

Play It Again, Stan! And who physically changed the art and story, besides Allyn Brodsky acting on Stan’s orders?

In the comic it’s Charly Ming’s murder rather than that of German couriers carrying letters of transit that is being investigated, but if I try at this point to actually understand (let alone describe) every twist and turn of the rewritten story, I shall go stark staring mad.

Gary recalls: “I remember coming in and seeing Morrie [Kuramoto, staff letterer] whiting out some things on the art. He enjoyed torturing me about it. He just smiled and called me a ‘honky kraut.’” In point of fact, the late Morrie and Gary were friends, even though their banter sometimes took the form of epithets that might have looked to the uninitiated like, well, race-baiting.

At any rate, Sawyer and “Capt. Eric Leroux” (the replacement for Renault) head for “Mike’s Chicago Bar.” Not a bad name, there, Allyn—or did Stan scribble that name on the back of Page 3, perhaps?

Morrie may have been whiting out either lettering or art when Gary saw him, but apparently it was Dick Ayers himself who did most of the art corrections.

The Czech Victor Laszlo became “Josef de Groot… a leader of the Danish Resistance”—though Ilsa didn’t get a name in the rewrite, either. The Nazi Major Strasser became “Major Schmidt.” Much of the rest of the backstory was altered, as well. Even the piano-playing Sam (now unnamed) switched his tie for a turtleneck, though he remained AfricanAmerican. Sidney Greenstreet’s Ferrari/Farrari became Pasha Omar Bey. Stan penciled a handlebar moustache on him. Luckily for us all (and perhaps for Allyn’s sanity), the Dr. Steuben subplot took up enough room to keep every page from being rewritten.

Dick recalls being called to come into the office that Monday morning to do the re-drawing (he says he was paid for it, and it took “most of a day”), and being very unhappy about having to do so. He had been proud of that story, having worked hard on the actors’ likenesses and knowing that John Severin would finish them off expertly. Now, to have to change it all—well, he didn’t get angry, but he was definitely not a happy camper.

Sam (Dooley Wilson) performs while Bogart and Bergman snog— On Page 16 occurred one of but was it really necessary to change songsheet titles as well as song lyrics? those humorous bits of overkill that Already long since completed [©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.] make even the most unpleasant situwas Ayers’ and Severin’s lovely if ation bearable, at least in retrospect. somewhat misleading cover for #72—an action shot of the Howlers In Gary’s script, the movie Sam sings “As Time Goes By.” Not only was rushing toward the reader, this changed, but even the titles on three music sheets atop the piano a boldly-lettered “WAHwere altered! What harm was it going to do to see songsheets for “I’ll HOOO” wafting overNever Smile Again,” “You’ll Never Know,” and “The White Cliffs of head. But glance at the Dover”? Instead, they became “Eastern Beat,” “I’m Always Yours,” bottom of the page, and and—a bit of wry humor, there—“The Sound of Your Smile.” you’ll see the profile of a

Interestingly, even the words of the new tune Sam sings were penciled in the margins by Stan, who was leaving nothing to chance!

X. “Here’s Looking at You, Kid” From here on, the story goes very much as Gary wrote it, because the climactic events of the Steuben/Sawyer story aren’t closely related to anything in the movie. The pair take off by sub for Lisbon, then London (not the U.S.), and the flashback ends. Allyn Brodsky did a creditable job under adverse circumstances, rewriting Sawyer’s mopping-up dialogue on the story’s final page; but of course no way was Stan going to let Happy Sam treat the Howling Commandos to a showing of Casablanca! Thus, the story’s last panel became the only one to be totally redrawn so that Sam merely sends the Howlers off to their barracks to get some rest. The final blurb had to be rewritten, too, to eliminate all mention of “Bogey” and the like. As printed, there is no writing credit; I don’t know whether Allyn wanted one or not, but Gary definitely had his name taken off. He may not have been in the office the day “it all hit the fan,” but, he says, “I was mad at the time that it all had to be changed.”

pipe-smoking Sam Sawyer, with Casablanca/Marrakesh in the background. In truth, the image of the Howlers is contained in a thought balloon emanating from their commanding officer. In the issue, of course, the Howlers see no physical action at all. With all the possibilities for things to slip through in this troubled issue, no matter how finetoothed a comb Stan and the rest of us used when going over it later, I suppose it’s amazing that only one unaltered Casablanca reference

The final panel and credits, as printed. Compare with the totally different panel seen and credits as originally drawn, on our pg. 33. Only the next-ish blurb was left unchanged. [©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Sgt. Fury’s Lost Casablanca Story

made it into the printed comic. On Page 19, when Renault grabs Sawyer, Gary has him say: “As much as I would like to see you escape—Major Stasser [sic] would never tolerate it.” Though the Nazi officer’s name was supposed to be changed throughout to “Schmidt,” this typo—“Stasser” for “Strasser”—slipped through.

XI. “Letters [In] Transit” Fan letters printed in subsequent issues show that it would take more than art and copy changes to disguise the genesis of “Play It Alone, Sam!” to at least some aficionados. In Sgt. Fury #75 reader Dion Berlowitz wrote that “Never has the Ayers-Severin artistic team coordinated so beautifully,” and asked, “Who in the Bullpen thought up the brilliant ‘Bogart’ theme? Whoever it was, give him a raise! And as for the absent Gary Friedrich, tell him to think up some kind of sequel.” (Yeah, that was gonna happen. For sure.)

XII. “We’ll Always Have Paris” At this late date, none of us (Dick, John Severin, Gary, or I—John Verpoorten passed away in 1977) has any idea how “Play It Again, Sam!” came to be photostatted before most of changes were made. But apparently someone(s) didn’t want to see the Casablanca connection forever lost. As a final mystery, Stan’s suggested new title, written in the splash page margin—“Play It Once More!”—became, when printed, the much more euphonious “Play It Alone, Sam!” The latter reads more like a title Stan might have made up on a good day—though whether it’s his, or Allyn’s, or whoever’s, no one seems to remember. “Play It Alone, Sam!” is a good title. But a more appropriate one might have been: “Play It Again, Stan!” Except that each of us involved hoped and prayed that never, never again would we go through anything like that! In the highly unlikely event that Stan remembers the incident at all, I’m sure he’d echo those sentiments.

Reader Alan Brennert—who would later write both TV and comics himself—hazarded a guess that Dick Ayers was the plotter, perhaps even the scripter. He thought the last few pages of the story “were indicative of Arnold Drake,” while “The introduction had the Master’s touch. Did you do any of it, Stan? I thought I detected a bit of Roy Thomas in there, too.” The editorial response revealed little, except to say that Stan and Roy had done a bit of rewriting—so I probably did, at some point, and have simply forgotten. In #75 Alert Reader Blake Gunderson spotted the “Schmidt/Stasser” goof, while Paul Medley said he “noticed how you portrayed the owner (Mike) of the Chicago Bar much like the owner (Humphrey Bogart) of Casablanca Casino.” So much for our clever makeover! On the other hand, one Tim Head disliked Sgt. Fury #72 so intently that he felt “the whole issue was an insult to the fine masterpieces of the months before.”

Time goes by….

Dick Ayers is still going strong, appearing with his charming wife Lindy at comics conventions across the country and drawing art on commission. This 1995 piece shows a few of the heroes he’s illustrated over the years: The Hulk, Jonah Hex, Human Torch, Ghost Rider, Kamandi, Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos, Two-Gun Kid, Wyatt Earp, Rawhide Kid, and Jimmy (Schnozzola) Durante! (And that’s just scratching the surface.) [Hulk, Human Torch, Fury & Commandos, Two-Gun Kid, Rawhide Kid, Ghost Rider ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.; Jonah Hex, Kamandi ©2000 DC Comics.] Incidentally, you can contact Dick at 64 Beech St. W., White Plains, NY 10604-2230. He’ll autograph up to two comics sent to him free of charge, provided there’s an SASE (self-addressed stamped envelope). For $5 he’ll send a signed print of one of his characters. He also has original artwork available, and does commission work at very reasonable rates. Write for details.

[ROY THOMAS, a writer and editor from 1965-80 for Marvel, from 1981-86 for DC, and since 1986 for a little bit of everybody, firmly believes that in a world he calls “Earth-Two” the comicsshop back-issue bins are filled with moldering copies of a Sgt. Fury #72 in which Happy Sam Sawyer rescues Dr. Steuben from the clutches of Captain Renault and Major Strasser in Casablanca. You’ll find them amid all the worn, well-read copies of Invaders #42-100, All-Star Squadron #68-200, and the Neal Adams-drawn Avengers #97. “If you ever get there,” Roy says, “buy me a spare copy of each and charge it to my MasterCard!”]

The All-Star Chronicles

The

More AllStars Than There Are In Heaven

Chronicles

by Roy Thomas [NOTE: All-Star Squadron, the comic book series I created and developed in 1981 for DC, ran for 67 issues, an insert in Justice League of America #193, plus three annuals, from 1981-87; it was followed by 31 issues and one annual of its post-Crisis on Infinite Earths sequel series, The Young All-Stars, from 1987-89. And that’s not counting some three dozen related stories in Justice League and in the Secret Origins series I originated in 1985. [In answer to numerous requests over the past couple of years—not that I needed much prodding—this and future issues of A/E will feature an ongoing behind-the-scenes history of Squadron and its antecedents and tie-ins, from the late 1930s on up. I’ll be dealing with events mostly in chronological order—despite last issue’s leap-frog to the “Nuclear” connection between Squadron #16 and a 1950 Wonder Woman.

After all, I had first moved to New York in 1965 to become editorial assistant on National/DC’s seven Superman titles. There had been no thought in my mind before July 1965 about ever working for Marvel; I figured Stan Lee wanted to write the entire line forever—and besides, my main correspondents while I lived in Missouri had been with DC’s Julie Schwartz, Gardner Fox, and (now-Superman-scripter) Otto Binder. It had only been my lack of rapport—to put it politely—with Superman editor Mort Weisinger which had led me open to Stan’s timely offer of employment, two weeks after I arrived in the Big Apple. Still, I look on my exclusive “Marvel period” as a fortuitous circumstance. I was probably able to advance further and faster at Marvel, a company on the rise, than I might have at the older company. All the same, Steve Skeates and Denny O’Neil, two writers who’d worked first for Marvel, had done very well at DC, and I like to think I would have, too.

[Matter of fact, as you’ll see below, it’ll take an issue or two just to get to All-Star Squadron #1! But then, even thirty years ago it took some months to bring the concept to fruition. Hope you’ll stick around for the ride. But hey, even Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield spent several chapters getting himself born!

Matter of fact, even while a writer and associate editor for Marvel, from time to time I had let the “fan” side of me take the upper hand over the “pro.” I’d managed to have some slight back-door influence on DC, unknown to most folks there (and, thankfully, to my respected mentor Stan).

[Oh, one more thing: Along the way we’ll be featuring plenty of good-looking, sometimes previously unseen art, courtesy of Rich Buckler, Jerry Ordway, and some of the most generous fans you’d find in any art form.—R.T.]

I. Backstory In 1980 I reluctantly decided the time had finally come to cut the ties that bound me to Marvel Comics, where I’d been laboring (for the most part happily) for fifteen years.

This re-creation of the “1941 JSA” splash of JLA #193’s All-Star Squadron insert is slightly different from the printed one. The 1981 version had The Shining Knight behind The Atom—though Sir Justin was never a JSAer—and forgot Starman. Roy Thomas commissioned Rich Buckler (penciler) and Jerry Ordway (inker) to do a corrected rendition, which was later printed as a pinup. Repro’d from photocopy of original art, from collection of R.T. [©2000 DC Comics.]

I quickly found that, in some ways, moving to DC was less a leavetaking than a homecoming.

My ally in most of this crosscompany subterfuge was Gerry Conway, who over the late-’60s through the mid-’70s had gone from DC to Marvel and back again a couple of times. After leaving Marvel for the second time in 1976 to become a DC writer/editor, Gerry had enthusiastically convinced DC to let him launch a couple of projects I had suggested to him (along with several which were entirely his own idea, natch).

One of the notions I initiated was the first real confrontation between Superman and Captain Marvel, which Gerry did quite well in a giant tabloid drawn by Rich Buckler and Dick Giordano.

More (All-) Stars Than There Are In Heaven The other was the second coming, in 1977, of All-Star Comics.

II. Three For The Road Sometime in 1980, my wife Dann and I were flown to New York to meet with the ruling DC triumvirate of Jenette Kahn (publisher), Joe Orlando (editorial director), and Paul Levitz (coordinating editor). By then I’d signed a three-year contract with DC, to begin the day my Marvel contract ended, and we simply had to decide what three monthly comics I would write for DC.

Although an All-Star #58plus was initially my suggestion, after I made it I had virtually nothing to do with the project; Gerry carried the ball quite capably alone. (But, when he asked me to, I did cross company lines long enough to write a letter to be printed in #58.) Naturally, Gerry didn’t handle the revived comic exactly the way I would have— nor is there any reason he should have. I swiftly came to terms with the notion of a still-young StarSpangled Kid, an adult Robin, and a newly created Kryptonian named Power Girl all running around on Earth-Two, the parallel world to which Schwartz and Fox had consigned the original Justice Society of America.

It had been agreed, since virtually the day I’d phoned Paul to tell him I wouldn’t be signing the new contract Marvel had offered me, that I would be involved in some way with The Justice Society of America. In fact, written into my DC contract was what amounted to a “right of first refusal” at scripting stories featuring all DC’s Golden Age heroes. Even though not officially an editor, I was basically placed in charge of “EarthTwo,” that charming parallel world whereon dwelt the DC stalwarts I’d grown up reading about in the last half of the 1940s.

Oh, I winced a little at the name “Super-Squad,” even in its logo form as the “All Star Super Squad”; but it was none of my business. The mag got off to a bang-up start, with Wally Wood inking Rik Estrada, and a young Keith Giffen soon taking up the slack.

This made a certain amount of sense. After all, “Earth-Two” had worked well—very well—when My main regret was that, editor Julie Schwartz had been its when Gerry later offered me a combination Prime Mover and chance to ghost an issue or two of home-plate umpire. It was only All-Star, I felt I had to decline. when other editors, less in tune Not primarily because it would Three future JSAers meet for the first time, in DC Special #29 (“The Untold Oriwith that alternate universe, began have been a violation of my Margin of the Justice Society,” Sept. 1977); story by Paul Levitz. Repro’d to poach in it that you wound up vel contract (though it would), but from photocopies of the original Joe Staton-Bob Layton art; courtesy of with weirdnesses like a teenage because I was determined that, if Jerry G. Bails. [©2000 DC Comics.] Bruce Wayne playing tennis with and when I ever wrote a JSA story, his father. Julie had moved on to it would have my name on it, not someone else’s. Gerry understood. other venues, and I seemed, both to DC’s triumvirate and to myself Those issues are probably the ones dialogued by Paul Levitz, who soon (and, I hoped, to the venerable Julie, as well), his natural successor. made the 1970s All-Star his own over its remaining life. But the time, or something, was clearly out of joint. And, after 17 bimonthly issues of All-Star, a first-ever JSA origin in a DC Special, and half a dozen stories in the oversize Adventure Comics— —the second JSA series died when Adventure was canceled, as of #466 (Nov.-Dec. 1979). With my sands running out at Marvel, in some ways the timing of this cancellation could not have been much less propitious for me. In other ways, it couldn’t have been much better.

Jenette and the boys sure knew how to make a guy (and his wife) feel welcome on our first DC-related trip east. We checked into our hotel room in Manhattan to find it festooned with multi-hewed balloons. Sometimes there’s nothing more meaningful than a meaningless gesture. When I met with them the next day, “the triple pillar of the world” quickly downsized. Jenette, whom I’d known before moving west in ’76, excused herself after a few minutes,

Besides All-Star Squadron, also on Roy’s plate were Arak, Son of Thunder (pencils by Ernie Colón) and a very brief stint as Batman writer (art by Gene Colan & Adrian Gonzales). By his third and final Batman (#340, Oct. 1981), an homage to Harvey Kurtzman and Bill Elder’s wonderful “Mole!” tale in Mad #3, Roy relinquished the dialoguing to Gerry Conway. [©2000 DC Comics.]

The All-Star Chronicles not something likely to make DC’s corporate heart beat faster. Or, at that particular time, even my heart. After all, in two or three issues each year, the JSA guest-starred in Justice League. These teamups had been going great guns ever since ’63—another reason why a new Justice Society title wouldn’t be much of a novelty. The readers already had the JSA in the present, even if not as much or as often as they had from 1977-79. I wanted to present them—and, not so incidentally, myself—with something a wee bit different. I wanted to do—the All-Star Squadron.

III. FDR and Me The name, though I didn’t think about it at the time, was surely derived (at least unconsciously) from Gerry’s “All Star Super-Squad,” unwieldy as I’d always found that longer name. On the other hand, if the Super-Squad hadn’t existed, the All-Star Squadron might still have been invented. Because “squadron” is a military (aviation) term—and I had definitely decided that, if DC would let me, I wanted to set my JSA-related comic during the heady days of the Second World War. Why? Lots of reasons. FDR meets the as-yet-unnamed All-Star Squadron on Dec. 7, 1941— the top 2/3 of issue #1, Page 24. Repro’d from the original Rich BucklerJerry Ordway art, from collection of R.T. [©2000 DC Comics.]

and (if memory serves) other duties called Paul away, as well. This left me in Joe Orlando’s capable hands. DC wanted me to write a minimum of three comics each month, in three categories: Since Conan the Barbarian had been a success for Marvel over the past decade with my humble self at the helm, I was to develop a swordand-sorcery title for DC. After flirting briefly with adaptation-related notions, I yielded to the wisdom of Dann’s suggestion to make up a new hero, since at DC I could own a 10% stake in same. Dann and I developed an idea of hers, about an American Indian “discovering” Europe during the Dark Ages. Arak, Son of Thunder would have a respectable 50-issue run. Next I was to do a solo-hero series. I hoped to write one starring a JSAer (e.g., Dr. Fate); but Jenette, Joe, and Paul wanted me to script one of their “big two”—even though they knew I had no interest in being one of several people scripting “Superman” or “Batman” stories; I preferred characters for whom I was the sole regular writer. Wonder Woman would’ve fit the bill; but Gerry was currently scribing that mag, and I wasn’t about to muscle in. I wound up being put on Batman, from which I disentangled myself at the earliest opportunity. And then there was the Justice Society. As Joe put it that day, “I understand you’d like to do something with some of our old characters.” To put it mildly. The only question was what to do with the JSA—indeed, with all the wonderful heroes that had made DC the MGM of the Golden Age of Comics—a company, to use Louis B. Mayer’s felicitous phrase, with “more stars than there are in heaven.” A few years earlier, I’d have pushed for reviving All-Star Comics, with JSA tales set in the present. But that had been done only three years earlier. The revival had eventually failed, due more to the “DC Implosion” than to flaws in the comic itself. Still, Adventure #466 was little more than a twelvemonth in the past… so a pure JSA revival was

One is inherent in what I said above: I preferred not to have my new comic entangled with the JLA-JSA teamups. Besides, though I was too young to read in the days before a mushroom cloud became the tombstone of Axis dreams of conquest, it seemed to me that in many ways the Golden Age of Comics had been at its height during World War II. Whereas at Marvel in the mid-’70s I’d had The Invaders commence some weeks after Pearl Harbor, I wanted to start All-Star Squadron on the night before the sneak attack, and provide the answer to what would have to be a real mystery to anyone who ever tried to take 1940s comic books seriously: Why the hell didn’t America’s super-heroes defend our base at Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941—or at least unleash a terrible vengeance on Japan a few hours or days later? The War years had been a time of greatness as much as of infamy— of heroism as much as horror—and I wanted to turn the JSA loose in those green/Golden pastures. No—not just the JSA. All the fine young heroes of DC Comics. By the time I arrived in New York, I had thought long and hard about what Franklin Delano Roosevelt might have done if, with his nation embroiled in its greatest crisis since its Civil War, he had found himself President of an America in which dozens of men and even a couple of women had—well, let’s just say “very special abilities.” Roosevelt was a war-

Green Arrow and the rest of the 7 Soldiers of Victory were available, as per this panel from only the second G.A. story, in More Fun Comics #74 (Dec. 1941)—repro’d from copies of the original George Papp art, courtesy of Dan Makara. [©2000 DC Comics.]

More (All-) Stars Than There Are In Heaven lord, just as Winston Churchill was in England.

pretty abysmal), simply wasn’t big enough.

And, as I’d known when I developed Invaders, if Winnie had had super-heroes to send against the Nazis in his island nation’s darkest hour, he’d damn well have done it. True, he was haunted by visions of British corpses piling up as they had in the trench warfare of World War I—but it was the thought of multitudes dying uselessly that horrified him, not death per se. If a super-strong or super-fast or flying man had been virtually certain to take hundreds, perhaps thousands of the enemy with him to the grave, Churchill would have sent him out into battle with a tear in his eye, a cigar between his lips, and two fingers raised in a “V-for-Victory” salute.

Neither was (were?) The Seven Soldiers of Victory, even though they really numbered eight, counting The Crimson Avenger’s aide Wing.

Roosevelt, too, despite having campaigned in 1936 on an “I hate war” platform, was a man who liked power. Liked it? Hell, he relished it. Relished having it, relished using it. In war as much as in peace. And one way he might well have used it would have been to bring all of America’s new breed of “mystery-men” (then rarely called “superheroes”) together in one huge umbrella organization. That’s what he did in other fields. Laborers, captains of industry, farmers, writers— he asked members of each of these grouping to all join together in all-encompassing organizations, the better to serve America in her hour of need. And who, in those stressful times, was going to refuse a request from the President of the United States? The Justice Society, with a mere thirteen members (and the attendance records of Superman, Batman, Flash, and Green Lantern were Everybody into the super-hero gene pool! At right: Hour-Man (Bernard Baily), Johnny Quick (Mort Meskin), Aquaman and TNT (both by Paul Norris), Air Wave (Lee Harris), Robotman (Joe Schuster studio?). A few of these date from later in the ’40s, but you get the idea. [©2000 DC Comics.]

But hey, what about all those other guys, going their own selfish, disorganized ways while their country needed them? What about HourMan, who’d quit the JSA months before (or maybe he was kicked out for some reason—stories varied) but was still kicking the occasional criminal butt? How about Johnny Quick? Wasn’t he potentially as valuable an asset as The Flash? Couldn’t Aquaman play a role in FDR’s virtual “undeclared naval war” with Nazi Germany in the Atlantic, in support of Great Britain? Wasn’t there a guy called TNT who caused explosions just by clapping his hands together or some such thing? Didn’t Air Wave at least run around on telephone wires and use radio to fight crime? That took some sort of talent. And this Robotman—why was he wasting his time battling gangsters when his country needed him? (Assuming there was still something human enough about that metal misfit to acknowledge allegiance to the concept of a country.) Moreover, who knew what magicians like Zatara and Sargon the Sorcerer could do in the name of freedom, if only they’d put their minds to it? There were a few other prospects around, too—men without real super-powers, but who still could do some damage to America’s enemies. Men like Mr. America, The Guardian, Manhunter, Tarantula… plus future JSAers Wildcat and Mr. Terrific. And that didn’t even count the heroes of the Quality Comics Group or of Fawcett Comics, if they existed in this Roosevelt’s cosmos. If so, they upped the number of prospective member-heroes by dozens, including the likes of Plastic Man and the entire Marvel Family! The Axis wouldn’t stand a chance! NEXT: HAIL, HAIL, THE GANG’S ALL HERE!

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt

“Why I Don’t Believe In Superman”

amusing “Why I Don’t Believe in Superman” has to be one of the earliest articles devoted to the Man of Steel. It’s so early, in fact, that Kahn refers to Superman and his Kryptonian parents as “Kal-l,” “Jor-l,” and “Lora”—not today’s vastly different “Kal-el,” “Jor-el,” and “Lara.”

Introduction by Michael T. Gilbert Superman! Faster than a delicate haiku! Superman! More powerful than a dangling participle! Superman! Able to split infinitives with a single adverb! Superman! …in the New Yorker? Hard to believe that such a rough-and-tumble character would ever be welcome in the rarified pages of the New Yorker magazine. More amazing, the article in question appeared on January 29, 1940, little more than a year after Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s wonder-child burst into immortality in June 1938. By any account, E.J. Kahn Jr.’s

Technically, the piece in question discusses the Superman newspaper strip, not the comic book—but that’s splitting hairs. Author Kahn’s observations about Superman the strip apply equally well to Superman the comic book. So why did Mr. Kahn focus on the strip? My guess is that, while the typical New Yorker reader might accidentally glance at the Sunday comics page, it would be highly unlikely that same reader would pick up a kiddie comic book. Or at least unlikely they’d admit it! But enough talk, old bean. The gauntlet is thrown. Mr. Kahn clearly doesn’t believe in Superman. And I, for one, am anxious to find out why….

Why I Don’t Believe in Superman Reprinted by permission; ©1940 E.J. Kahan, Jr. Originally published in The New Yorker. All rights reserved. When I read a while ago that a Nazi newspaper had protested against the activities of Superman, holding them to be offensively pacifistic, I decided to get acquainted with the fellow. After all, it isn’t every comic-strip character who is singled out for such personal attention. Little Orphan Annie was once attacked by the Daily Worker, but that isn’t very eventful and she had been around for years anyhow. Superman, on the other hand, is a comparative newcomer—just a year and a half old. In that short time he has been furiously active and, I found by collecting some old newspapers recently and leafing through them, undeniably pacifistic, though not in the ordinary, do-nothing sense of the word. If Superman disapproves of a war, he simply stops it. When, for example, Blitzen and Rutland went to war in his strip, he grabbed up Dictator Amork of Blitzen and General Gotha of Rutland. Tucking one under each arm, he flew to the trenches and there instructed them to fight it out on a man-to-man basis in full view of their assembled and hitherto embattled forces. You know what happened: they began to pull one another’s hair, the softies, and the soldiers threw down their arms in disgust, thus ending the war instantly for lack of participants. Superman can take wars in his stride, or flight, because he is impervious to attack. Bullets spin off his superskin like raindrops off a windshield, and once, when a rascal attempted to whack him over the head with a heavy club, the weapon bounded back so fast off Superman’s superskull that it knocked his assailant cold. At the start of Superman’s career it was hinted that he could leap an eighth of a mile, hurdle a twenty-store building, and outrun an express train. It has since developed that he can also outrun a bul-

let, swim an ocean without puffing, demolish an airliner by meeting it head on in mid-air, and change the course of a forest fire by breathing heavily on it. He can knock out burly pugilists in exactly one second, divert a flood by barehandedly digging a pit a mile long in a few minutes, and win a rather one-sided combat with a battleship by pushing it close to shore and then walking out of the water holding the ship up over his head. “Nothing less than a bursting shell could penetrate his skin,” his authors once crowed, and they have lived up to his word. Bayonets, when thrust at him, crumble into so much scrap steel, and the Princess Tania, one of several young ladies who have crossed his impressive path, ruined a perfectly good dagger by trying to drive it into his hide. Superman was momentarily dazed after a collision with a loaded torpedo, but when in form he can project himself right through the side of a ship, and destructive implements are generally his dish. Not long ago somebody fired a cannon at him from a distance of a few yards. He caught the cannon ball in one hand, remarking, “Nice curve on that ball. Wanta play catch, eh?,” and threw the ball back at the cannon, shattering it to bits.

As MTG relates, The New Yorker never mentions comic books, only the newspaper comic strip—but somehow, that guy with the big “S” on his chest in the above newspaper ad (reprinted in the 1998 hardcover book Superman: The Dailies) looks a lot like the comic book hero who was then making little kids’ hearts beat a bit faster. Oh, and incidentally—none of the following daily strips appeared with the New Yorker article, which was un-illustrated. [©2000 DC Comics.]

Superman has had three identities. Originally he was Kal-l, the infant son of Jor-l and Lora, a nice young couple living on the planet of Krypton. Kal-l arrived on earth by means of a rocket ship into which his parents had thoughtfully inserted him just before Krypton burst into fragments and disappeared. Kal-l matured into Superman and abandoned his given name forever, in one frame of a single comic strip. He decided almost immediately to become a newspaper reporter and, in his words, to dedicate himself “to helping the oppressed, and seeing that truth and right

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt

triumph.” …As a reporter, he is Clark Kent, and his disguise consists of a business suit and a pair of spectacles. Nobody has yet exposed Kent as Superman, though Princess Tania once gave him a nasty turn by remarking that he reminded her somehow of Superman, who had once rescued her and her father, King Boru of Rangoria, from the most awful predicaments. As Kent, Superman pretends to be a miserable coward, and therefore, before doing anything superhuman, he has to get rid of his reportorial garb. He does this so swiftly that Ed Wynn’s notable change of costume seems by comparison like the performances of a reluctant turtle. Superman’s basic outfit is a Buck Rogerish affair with a cape flowing behind it and a high-school football helmet on its chest. He always wears this under his Kent outfit, an arrangement which may be unsanitary but is efficient. When about to go off on a spectacular entry, he dumps his Kent clothes in any old corner, returning to them as unerringly as a homing pigeon. Sometimes he gets them back on without seeming to have returned to them at all. For instance, he swims an ocean as Superman, having left his sack suit in an alley, and comes back by transport plane, wearing the identical suit. This sartorial implausibility has taken away just about all the admiration I ever had for him.

poked into that ashcan, found Kent’s suit, and perhaps exposed Superman before he could get around to Barney’s and pick up a substitute. Superman’s best performance, to my mind, was given the night Lois broke down and asked him, as Kent, up to her apartment for a real home-cooked dinner. While she was in the kitchen stirring up something, he slipped out a window, doffed his suit, swam through a sea, destroyed a submarine that was attacking King Boru’s yacht, got slapped by Princess Tania, and returned to the apartment, fully dressed, before the dinner had cooled. Lois however had noticed his brief absence and become embittered. She dropped a few dishes and threw him out hungry. Oh, I forgot. In between he also telephoned a story to his paper. It’s barely possible, of course, that Kent’s clothes might have lain untouched where he dropped them during both these expeditions, but there are a couple of other cases, and what are you going to do about them? Superman, dressed as Kent, is tossed out of a boat by some gangsters. He swims along under water for a few miles wearing all of his Kent clothes but his suit coat, which he has clearly shed somewhere in the water. He gets to a dock and there removes the rest of his Kent disguise. Having won a brief race with a bullet, overcome the gangsters, and gone off carrying their boat with him, he turns up at the office again dressed as Kent and with even his coat on, neatly pressed and not in the least damp. And how about the time he takes off his suit in mid-air while clinging to the outside of an airplane in which, as Kent, he had been riding? His pants, you’d think, would drift off into space, but a few strips later he is back in the plane, dressed respectably as Kent, adjusting his safety belt.

Now, here is a typical Superman episode. It lasted for thirteen days (thirteen newspaper days, that is, not including Sundays, when Superman, in color, is engaged in entirely different and conflicting activities). Superman starts off by depositing his reporter’s clothes in an ashcan next to the building occupied by the Morning Star, his newspaper. Then he picks up a low charClearly, DC was happy to cooperate with having an article appear in the prestigious New Yorker— acter named the Weasel and for, though its 1/29/40 issue would have gone on sale before its cover date, the reference therein I am willing to believe flies around for a spell with to how a war between “Blitzen and Rutland” was resolved indicates that writer E.J. Kahn Jr. had that Superman can fly, that the Weasel under his arm. access to strips that wouldn’t appear in newspapers for another month! [©2000 DC Comics.] his skin is impregnable, that After five submachine guns he could beat up Paul Bunhave been emptied into his yan with both hands tied to his feet, and that he will never get to first base with Lois, chest (not even a powder burn to show for it), he wraps the machine guns around the who is a rather ill-tempered girl and probably not worthy of his super-attentions anynecks of the gunmen; stops a speeding car by grabbing its bumper; lifts up the car and how. I am not willing to believe, however, that he can handle human problems like shakes out two men and a girl; rescues the girl, who happens to be Lois Lane, a dressing with such inexplicable ease. Tying a shoelace is tying a shoelace, after all, and reporter he is unsuccessfully trying to date up as Kent (though she, the unintuitive super-strength will only break the lace. Until something is done to clear up this slight dope, loves Superman); demolishes the car and leaps into the air to catch Lois, who matter of logic, I am going agree with the Germans that he is a subversive influence. by this time has been whisked into a plane and has fallen out at an altitude of severIf he reads this and gets sore, though, I hope he takes care of Goebbels first. al thousand feet; deposits her on on the ground; flies up again and rips a wing off the plane that dropped her; and gets back to earth just in time to retrieve Lois from some quicksand into which she has clumsily stumbled. A moment later he’s back in his —E.J. Kahn Jr. office, with his tie knotted neatly, as Clark Kent. Economic conditions between what they are, I maintain that while all this was going on somebody would surely have

Here Comes Superman! Our second reprint also appeared early in Superman’s career, though it’s a post-World War Two entry. “Here Comes Superman!” is from the July 1946 issue of Coronet, which was then a popular generalinterest magazine, similar to Reader’s Digest. The author of the article was none other than Mort Weisinger, a DC editor who would eventually become the editorial mastermind behind all the Superman titles. By most accounts, Weisinger was feared and disliked by many of the Superman writers. Nonetheless, he was an unsung hero to millions of young Superman fans. Weisinger took full editorial control of the Superman: titles in the mid-1950s and instituted or refined many of the bestloved features of the strip. In 1958 I was one of many 7-year-olds who eagerly read stories about Bizarro, Red Kryptonite, Supergirl, and Krypto the Superdog. Weisinger’s strong editorial vision helped build and expand Siegel and Shuster’s original concept of Superman, and ensured that the Man of Steel remained a powerful seller throughout the ’50s. Always a hands-on editor, Weisinger helped plot each Superman tale, but wrote few comic book stories himself. However, throughout his career, his byline appeared on many noncomics articles for Esquire, Argosy, Reader’s Digest, and Coronet, as well as on popular novels such as The Contest. Weisinger retired from editing in 1970 and passed

away on May 7, 1978. “Here Comes Superman!” is notable as an accurate, general-interest article on comics by someone working in the field. Even knowledgeable fans may be surprised by Weisinger’s descriptions of rare, educational Superman comics produced by DC in the 1940s. Superman duking it out with tooth decay!? The mind boggles! Also of interest is the author’s description of Superman’s creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Weisinger states that “the 30-year-old authors—though they sold all rights with the original sale—continue to share in the profits.” Not for long! Shortly after this article appeared, Siegel and Shuster took DC to court to get those rights back—plus a fairer share of the profits. After a bitter legal battle, the court largely sided with DC; and by late 1948, Siegel and Shuster’s bylines disappeared from stories of the hero they had created. The team never worked for DC again, though Siegel did script more “Superman” stories years later. It would be another three decades before Siegel and Shuster again received creator-credit, and a long-overdue annuity, from DC. This occurred, ironically, the same year Weisinger passed away. [Thanks to Mort’s son Hank Weisinger for permission!]

this was not Superman’s first successful attempt to win friends and influence small fry. He has been doing it ever since he rocketed here from his native planet, Krypton.

Superman, that flashing figure in red and blue, has been known to smack his way barehanded through the Siegfried Line, balance the Empire State Building on one palm, girdle the globe in nothing flat. But the toughest assignment in his fabulous career occurred last year in real life, when he was given the job of persuading a million youngsters to visit the dentist.

It started when a group of dental hygienists, intent upon making America’s teenagers tooth-conscious, began hunting a modern Pied Piper for the dentist’s chair. Promptly they decided on Superman, the mighty Man of Steel. Then followed a session with Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, creators of the comicstrip hero. Within a few weeks they had plotted and illustrated a special eightpage thriller designed to make youngsters go happily to the nearest dentist. The thriller began when Superman dropped in on Tommy, a freckle-faced lad who would rather play with model planes than brush his teeth. Tucking the boy under one sinewy arm, Superman streaked off to China skies where Bill, a fighter pilot, had suddenly fallen victim to a throbbing toothache in the midst of a dog-fight. Just as Bill was about to be shot down, up hurtled Superman, to the rescue.

Superman is the by-product of the frustrated boyhoods of two undersized Cleveland youths, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. While high-school students, the duo absorbed beatings from neighborhood toughs. Both sons of poor parents, they found escape in the wish-fulfillment world of dime-novels, vicariously living the exploits of unbeatable heroes. When Jerry, who could write a little, discovered that Joe had a talent for drawing, he dreamed up a super-hero whose exploits could be depicted in comicstrips. “The idea came to me in bed one night,” recollects Jerry. “A combination Samson, Hercules, and Atlas plus the morals of Sir Galahad whose mission in life was to smack down the bullies of the world.” For six years the two youths collaborated on miles of sample Superman adventures, only to garner rejection slips. Then one day in 1938, publisher Harry Donenfeld picked up the first Superman story for $130 and tried it out in a comic-strip magazine called Action Comics. It was a hit. Since then, Superman has grossed millions. And the 30-year-old authors—though they sold all rights with the original sale— continue to share in the profits.

Mission accomplished. Superman brought Tommy home and gave this fatherly advice: “That’s all for tonight, Tommy... except for this tip. Smart fellows take good care of their teeth and visit the dentist regularly. Remember the jam Bill got into....” Not long after this episode was printed in booklet form and a million copies circulated, the youth brigade began knocking on dentists’ doors. Yet

Today, Superman is big business. Some 3,000,000 readers buy Action Comics, Superman, and World’s Finest Comics regularly. Superman appears in all three publications. He is syndicated in more than 200 newspapers, with a circulation of about 20,000,000. In South America he is known as El Hombre Supre; his trade-mark appears on scores of commercial items. Besides all this there is a Superman

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt

radio program, sponsored coast-to-coast by a breakfast cereal. Naturally, Superman’s greatest effect has been on children. Mothers, realizing the power of this third parent, have gotten into the habit of asking Superman to drop a line to Junior, urging him to eat his egg yolk and stop biting his nails. Boys themselves write in, asking how to beat bullies. Superman—through a corps of secretaries in the New York offices of his publishers—advises ten hours’ sleep, lots of vegetables, and asserts that all bullies have yellow streaks.

illiterates into useful personnel, they turned to the visual appeal of Superman’s books. A Navy representative worked out a plan whereby the captions and dialogue in each issue were rewritten into words of one or two syllables. Soon 15,000 copies a month were rolling off the presses, with sailors effortlessly expanding their vocabularies. Throughout the war, hundreds of jeeps, trucks, tanks, landing craft, and planes bore the Superman insignia. On D-Day an infantry major, worried about morale, told war correspondents, “When I saw one of the boys in our landing craft nonchalantly reading a copy of Superman, I knew everything would be all right.”

Superman wages incessant war against injustice, intolerance, bigotry, and other down-to-earth villains of modern society. A few years ago the villain happened to be bad grammar, and Superman tackled this menace with the same zeal he used in cracking down on Superbum Luthor, his perennial enemy in the comic strips.

In the years they have been writing and illustrating Superman, Siegel and Shuster have assumed an obligation to instill faith, whenever possible, in the physical reality of Superman. This they have done in the same spirit in which old-fashioned parents encouraged belief in Santa Claus. A similar sense of responsibility to parents and teachers has guided the publishers. As a result they have secured the active assistance of professional men and women in the fields of child psychology, education, and welfare.

Harold Downes, former English instructor in a Lynn, Massachusetts high school, made the not-toosurprising discovery that his pupils didn’t want to learn grammar. But Downes noticed that their pockets were stuffed with comic books, particularly Superman. So off he went to Superman, Inc. in New York. What about preparing a Superman workbook with questions about grammar, punctuation, and word-meaning to accompany the comic-strip story? Could he have a hundred copies for experimental purposes? Whitney Ellsworth, editorial director, promptly agreed and before you could yell “Up, up, and away!” Superman was a grammarian.

This special edition, distributed free to sailors, had

The editorial advisory board includes Dr. W.W. Sones, professor of education at the University of Pittsburgh; Dr. Robert Thorndyke of the Department of Educational Psychology, Columbia; and Lt. Col. C. Bowie Millican, chief reviewer of publicity for the Army. Correct English, psychologically sound action, and moral purity are watched by these experts, who check each Superman story.

the same cover, and probably the same contents, When Downes tried the workbooks on his classas Superman #34 (June 1945). [©2000 DC Comics.] es, homework became easier. Youngsters who had been Recently Dr. Thorndyke analyzed an average struggling over grammar for years found themselves issue of Superman. “The magazine contained more than 10,000 words of reading answering such questions as, “What punctuation mark ends Superman’s speech?” matter. This is an educational resource which introduces the child to a wide range and “What kind of sentence does Lois Lane use?” A sugar coating had been found of vocabulary, including many useful words which stand in need of additional for the pill. practice by children in grades four to eight.” When school publications reported this new method of instruction, some Is Superman a good influence on children? Psychologists have rushed to his 3000 teachers paged Superman. Since then, several educators have prepared adapdefense. Dr. Lauretta Bender of Bellevue’s psychiatric staff and Miss Josette Frank of tations for use in teaching civics, geography, and other subjects. the Child Study Association believe that Superman has a definitely good influence. Not all the workbook fans were teachers, however. Truant officers rejoiced “Children can enjoy the thrill of danger,” says Miss Frank, “knowing that when children stopped squandering lunch money on slot machines. Superman’s right will prevail, that good will triumph over evil.” workbook had shown that the machines were fixed by manufacturers as crafty as To prove her point, she cites the story of the small boy warning his girl playthe Prankster, another of the Man of Steel’s adversaries. mate: “Look out! I’m Superman and I’ll hurt you.” Recognizing Superman as a wartime public relations expert, the War

Department drafted him to spur drives to salvage fats, scrap iron, and wastepaper. Superman fulfilled these assignments through the “Secret Superman Code,” published in every issue of Superman and Action Comics and available to 1,300,000 youthful members of the Supermen of America Club. On one occasion Superman made an eloquent radio appeal, asking boys and girls to buy war stamps. Some 250,000 mailed in pledges. When Maj. Gen. Walter R. Weaver of the Air Forces Training Command found that thousands of enlisted men were contemptuous of grease-monkey jobs, he appealed to Superman. The next issue of Superman on the PX counters proved that the job of keeping ‘em flying was just as glamorous as the duties of the glamorous pilot with wings.

“You can’t frighten me,” said his little girl adversary. “Superman never hurts good people.” Today, with Superman appearing in three of the 175 comic magazines which reach 30,000,000 buyers, chiefly youngsters, parents should be heartened by the fact that other writers and artists, seeking to duplicate the Superman formula, have taken a tip from Siegel and Shuster, aiming their material at improving children’s minds as well as providing entertainment. Superman has proved that thrills can be combined with education—which is, in a sense, the same technique that Horatio Alger once used to instill into youngsters an appealing concept of the American way of life.

When the Navy initiated a special training program, designed to convert

Before we go, I’d like to thank comics historian Bob Beerbohm for bringing the Coronet article to my attention. I’d also like to invite you readers to send more comic-book-related articles to Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, P.O. Box 11421, Eugene, OR 97440, and the older the better! And finally, I might mention that my sudden interest in Superman

isn’t entirely coincidental. Editor Joey Cavalieri recently gave this longtime Superman fan the opportunity to write and draw his own version of the character. My first Superman story, Mann & Superman, will appear later this year as a 48-page Realworlds graphic novel. Now that’s super! —MICHAEL T. GILBERT.

Comic Fandom Archive Department

So-You Want To Collect

Comics Fanzines? by Bill Schelly [INTRODUCTION: Last issue, I began building a Want List for those who want to collect the wonderful comics fanzines published in the 1960s and early 1970s. Separating fan publications into categories for ease of discussion, Part 1 covered those dedicated mainly to general contents, advertisements, news, amateur comic strips, and special interests such as all-Marvel. Now let’s finish the menu for a complete fanzine smorgasbord….]

Part Two

Jerry Bails. For the first time, fans could look up any Golden Age hero by name and find a complete list of his appearances by issue number and date, plus extensive writer and artist credits. This was one of the key documents that made Bob Overstreet’s first Comic Book Price Guide possible, just a year later. While it would be nice to have a copy of the first two or three editions of that Guide, they sell for hundreds of dollars nowadays; and you may Rich Buckler drew this great wraparound cover for Collector’s Guide: The First Heroic Age just a feel (as I do) that you couple of years before he broke into professional comics. [Art ©2000 Jerry Bails; Spectre & Capt. would rather spread Marvel Jr. ©2000 DC Comics; Shield ©2000 Archie Publications; Destroyer ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.; Skyman ©2000 Columbia Publications.] your money around. If that’s the case, The Collector’s Guide would be a good alternative. Just look for the Rich Buckler cover printed on glossy green paper!

VI. One-Shots and Specialty Zines When pro comics like Fantastic Four and Justice League of America began occasionally plugging fanzines in their letter columns, the Academy of Comic Book Arts and Sciences (a strictly fan organization, despite its lofty title) decided to produce a “catch-all” publication to give newcomers an overview of fandom: a crash course in comic book collecting and grading, information about the history of fandom, and how to join the Academy. The first was Who’s Who in Comic Fandom (1964) produced by Larry Lattanzi from records provided by Jerry Bails. This one-shot ditto fanzine included Bails’ own mailing list of over 1500 comics fans known at the time. A year later, Bill Spicer (editor of Fantasy Illustrated) produced the photo-offset The Guidebook to Comics Fandom (1965) which laid out much of the same material in a more professional, eye-pleasing manner. Spicer’s digest-sized publication also included ads for prominent fanzines and dealers. Probably its single most important feature was the inclusion of a comics grading system. Add both the Who’s Who and the Guidebook to your want list for their historical importance. From an indexer’s point of view, there was no more important publication than The Collector’s Guide: The First Heroic Age (1969) by Underground cartoonist Vaughn Bodé drew the cover of Graphic Story Magazine #10. For full-color reproductions of the covers of GSM #12, 13, & 16, see Bill Schelly’s Eisner-nominated book The Golden Age of Comic Fandom, available from Hamster Press. [Cover ©2000 Bill Spicer.]

When Bill Spicer changed the title of Fantasy Illustrated to Graphic Story Magazine with #8 (1967), it heralded a format change, as well. No longer would it emphasize amateur comic strips. Instead, this preeminent fanzine became essentially a series of specials, usually with one or two in-depth interviews per issue. GSM #10 features the first (and perhaps the best) long interview with Alex Toth, with many visuals to com-

Comic Fandom Archive Department

plement the points under discussion; #11 is devoted entirely to Will Gould’s Red Barry comic strip; #12 and #14 are Basil Wolverton specials. The last issue, GSM #16 (1974), offers a superb Howard Nostrand interview, the only one I have ever seen. These are all highly recommended, depending on your personal interest in the main attractions. Should you encounter any of the first twenty or thirty mailings of CAPA-Alpha, you would be wise to snap them up because of their rarity. That is, if you’re interested in informal chit-chat, news and opinions by folks like Don and Maggie Thompson, Jerry Bails, Roy Thomas, John McGeehan, and many other rabid fans of the day. This venerable apa (amateur press alliance) made its debut in October of 1964. It’s the only publication begun during fandom’s Golden Age to be continuously produced right up to the present.

by Dave. Unfortunately, Odd fell by the wayside when its star artist was compelled to spend the next two years in Vietnam. I also recommend Steve Gerber’s on-target send-up called Crudzine (1965), from a term that referred to a truly awful fanzine of any stripe. High school teacher Roy Thomas conceived the parody one-shot and talked high school student Gerber into producing it, with the aid of some talented St. Louis area buddies. Roy’s departure for prodom in New York torpedoed his scheduled “Interview with Stan Lee’s Third Cousin,” but Steve’s lampoon of amateur strips, “The Green Rabbit,” is hilarious.

VIII. Pro-Zines Before 1965, few professionals deigned to contribute to fanzines, though most fan-eds regularly sent them copies. A notable exception was the support provided to the original Alter Ego by Julius Schwartz, Gardner Fox, and later Otto Binder. Another was art (often inked) by Steve Ditko, which appeared not only in A/E but in The Comic Reader, Yancy Street Journal, Komik Heroez of the Future, and Sense of Wonder (among others).

VII. Humor Zines In the early 1960s, after most of the EC fanzines had petered out, those who loved Mad magazine (and its many imitators) published a number of satire fanzines that were precursors to the underground comix that were soon to appear on the scene. If you stumble across copies of titles such as Smudge, Enclave, Jack High, Nope, or Don Dohler’s Wild!—don’t let them get away from you! They’re chock full of work by artists like Jay Lynch, Skip Williamson, Jay Kinney, art spiegelman, and other soon-to-be-luminaries. Most were produced in numbers of one hundred copies or less, and have long disappeared into personal collections. The only long-running humor zine published by and for fans of costumed heroes was Odd, produced by the Brothers Herring, Steve and Dave. All issues featured attractive ditto art by Dave and clever scripts by Steve, and some had contributions by Marv Wolfman and Jay Kinney. The best issue is #12 (1967), the only one printed photo-offset. The “Rat-Man” parody by Calvin Castine, Dave Herring, and Jim Gardner is funnier than “Bats-Man” in Mad; “How To Get Lost In Space” by Wolfman and Dave Herring is another highlight of the issue. It’s a shame there weren’t more in this format, although #8 through 11 all have excellent offset covers

I believe it was the appearance of Wally Wood’s witzend (whose title was deliberately non-capitalized) in 1966 that changed the attitude of many professionals. Wood had the connections to fill witzend with all-pro work by the likes of Frank Frazetta, Al Williamson, Archie Goodwin, and Roy Krenkel. Steve Ditko introduced his Mr. A in the pages of Wood’s magazine. There are eight issues in the original format, and all are excellent. I certainly recommend adding witzend #1 and 2 to your want list. #6 was highlighted by John Benson’s seminal interview with Will Eisner. Most, of course, featured original work by Wood himself, though after he handed the magazine over to Bill Pearson with #5, he contributed fewer pages. In the wake of witzend, more and more zines offered the artwork of pro and near-pros, always printed via photo-offset. Indeed, some were almost entirely vehicles for this sort of material. The so-called “pro-zines” are not especially rare, since they were produced in relatively large numbers. These are the magazines that commonly turn up in fanzinesfor-sale boxes, all with highfalutin titles: Anomaly, Vanguard, Phase, This is Legend, Third Rail, et al.

Left: Steve Ditko’s cover for Bill Schelly’s Sense of Wonder (1968). [Art ©2000 Steve Ditko.] Right: Wally Wood’s cover to witzend #3 (1967), the hardest issue to find, due to a limited press run. [Art ©2000 Estate of Wally Wood.]

So—You Want To Collect Comics Fanzines? Most began publication late in the ’60s or in the early ’70s. I don’t really consider them fanzines, but there’s no doubt they offer some tasty work by folks like Jeff Jones, Al Williamson, Bernie Wrightson, Neal Adams, and Richard Corben, to name but a few. They are light on text, though some did publish interviews of their featured artists. I won’t offer concrete suggestions in this category beyond witzend. None are essential to well-rounded fanzine collection, but some may carry artwork you won’t want to do without. Don’t be surprised if you find that some of the better work has been reprinted since then. I can only suggest buying those issues you’re able to examine for yourself.

X. Reprint Zines No doubt the fan-published magazines reprinting classic comic books and strips will turn up frequently in your searches. The pioneer in this field was Edwin Aprill Jr., who in 1965 began by gathering original Buck Rogers strips into thick reprint volumes published. The two volumes of Spirit Dailies are the only ones ever published, and ought to be on your want list. Later, The Menomenee Falls Gazette regularly published a selection of vintage comic strips, as did Capt. George Henderson in Capt. George’s Whizzbang (starting in 1968). Alan Light’s DynaPubs offered Flashback, a series reprinting entire Golden Age comics in black-&-white, with

IX. Comicon Program Books Let us not forget the many booklets handed out at the proliferating comic book conventions of the past. I don’t know if John and Tom McGeehan counted these when they indexed fanzines of the day, but there are a lot of them— especially from the early 1970s forward. First I must highlight one of my personal favorites: The 1964 New York Comicon Booklet. This is the 36-page zine published by Bernie Bubnis after the first New York Comicon (i.e., comics convention) in 1964, in order to commemorate the event which most consider the first “true” comicon (due to the fact that several pros and well-known dealers attended). Not only does it feature artwork by Steve Ditko, Jack Kirby, and Curt Swan, plus prominent fan artists Alan Weiss, Buddy Saunders, and Ronn Foss; it also has a candid post mortem penned by popular fan writer Rick Weingroff, and a list of the names of all fifty attendees. In a recent conversation, Bernie told me that he ran off only about 150 copies of this booklet, so it will remain elusive for most. By the end of the decade, with comicon attendance growing rapidly, such publications were printed in much larger numbers. The convention programs produced for the New York Comicon starting in 1968 were very professionally done, usually contained artwork by attending pros, and even had profiles of the various Guests of Honor. You will probably encounter these as a matter of course. Get as many of them as you can.

full-color covers. Depending on your level of interest, and whether their contents have been reprinted subsequently, you may wish to add some of these to your collection. I’m not recommending specific issues, because these are really professional publications. Their desirability will be a function of your interest in the specific items reprinted. There it is, you would-be fanzine collectors: an idea of what to put together for a well-rounded collection. Naturally, there are many not mentioned that would be worthy additions; this article is intended merely as a guide. Now that you have a want list, how do you go about finding these rarities? Let’s face it: the fun of collecting is largely involved in looking for sought-after items. There is nothing like the satisfaction of completing a run, or finding a special issue. But weren’t comics fanzines produced in such small numbers that it’s next-to-impossible to find many of them? Even though print runs of comic books have often exceeded a million copies, experienced dealers estimate that no more than a few hundred copies—or considerably less—of most issues have remained in the “collecting pool.” Fanzines had much smaller initial print runs (generally in the 100 to 1000 range, though sometimes more), but experience tells me they have a much higher (percentage-wise) survival rate than their mass-produced cousins. My theory is that they were purchased not by casual readers, but by confirmed collectors who saved them as a matter of course. They disappeared into boxes that were tucked into closets and basements, where many of them are currently at rest.

The program for the 1970 San Diego Comicon, then called the Golden State Comic-Con, boasted a gorgeous color original cover by Jack Kirby. San Diego’s con booklets were photo-offset from the start, and each was packed with drawings by professionals. So too were the programs produced for most other major cons, though generally we’re talking the 1970s rather than the 1960s. Chicago… Dallas and Houston… St. Louis… Berkeley. Collectibles were generated in all the diverse places where fans gathered, and all can add spice to the regular Okay, so Hal Foster didn’t really draw this portrait of Prince Valiant “staples” in your comprehensive zine especially for the cover of Captain George’s Whizzbang #7 in 1970. It’s still collection. gorgeous! [Art ©2000 King Features Syndicate, Inc.]

How else to explain that I have been able to re-acquire three copies of Super-Heroes Anonymous #1, the first fanzine I ever

Comic Fandom Archive Department

published (in February 1965), even though only thirty-five copies were printed? Copies of many fanzines are, if not readily available, within grasp of anyone who makes a fairly concerted effort—and has a modicum of luck and patience. Where should you begin your quest? Suggestion #1: Learn which comics dealers regularly include fanzines among their “For Sale” lists. I’ve personally purchased vintage fanzines from Terry Stroud, Joseph Koch, and David Alexander. If you don’t see them on a dealer’s list, it doesn’t necessarily mean he doesn’t have them. He might not want to bother grading them or taking up adspace to list them, but your favorite dealer just may have a few boxes of those gems gathering dust in his back room. You’ll never know unless you ask. (And keep asking, because active dealers are always acquiring merchandise. If they know you’re looking for fanzines, they’ll likely begin stocking them.) Suggestion #2: Utilize the Internet. eBay is the most popular auction site, and fanzines do turn up there. Just don’t get carried away with auction fever. The Internet has been a great boon to collectors of esoteric items. It carries with it the usual risks associated with doing business through the mails. (Known comics dealers want to protect their reputations. Individuals with an occasional item to sell may be a different story.) Suggestion #3: Place a want ad. I’m sure there are some comics fans who have a stack of fanzines they might be willing to sell or trade, but you won’t know unless you advertise. Don’t expect a huge response, but you may receive a few sale lists. You’ll be on your way! Suggestion #4: Acquire doubles whenever you can, if only for trading purposes. Some fanzine collectors won’t take cash for their own doubles—only trades. Suggestion #5: Get creative! If you attend comicons, put the word out. Canvass dealers early to find out who, if anyone, has fanzines at their table. Track down the original zine editors and publishers. Some may still have stashes of their own publications. (A few years ago, our very own Roy Thomas was startled when his mother discovered a dozen or so spare copies of Alter Ego #7, from 1964, while she was moving.) But please don’t write me for copies of my old fanzine, Sense of Wonder. I’ve got my own file copies and no more. Suggestion #7: Be patient and unrelenting. Follow every lead. Realize this hunt could take years. It’s a challenge, and who among us doesn’t relish a collecting challenge?

Let us now, as we reach our conclusion, take up the matter of prices. Alter Ego (as a matter of policy) doesn’t focus on the value of the objects of our fascination. Nevertheless, I feel a few words about prices are necessary. I contend most photo-offset fanzines are not really rare, due to higher print runs. Seasoned collectors know this to be true. No need to panic when you see one of them offered for sale at an outrageous price, fearing that you’ll never have another chance to acquire it. You should certainly be able to buy most offset fanzines in nice condition for no more than $50, and you will find many of them for considerably less. Key issues like Fantasy Illustrated #1 (1964) will command a bit more. It’s those dittoed devils that are truly scarce. Few ditto fanzines had circulations over 250; most were produced in print runs of less than 150. If you encounter a copy of one of the first three issues of Alter-Ego (then hyphenated), or Biljo White’s Komix Illustrated, or an early issue of Comic Art, you can’t assume you’ll find another any time soon, and could well expect to pay $100 and up. (Unless the seller doesn’t know what he has, in which case, let your conscience be your guide.) Aside from these “key ditto issues,” though, most ditto and mimeo fanzines can be purchased for $10 to $25 each, simply because they are not in as great demand as their professionally printed brothers. It is important to note that ditto printing fades over the years, so it’s advisable to physically inspect the interior pages before you buy. Even those with the darkest and clearest printing may have some light pages here and there. Jerry Weist tells me there will be a section in his Original Art Price Guide devoted to fanzine prices. He hopes to list at least the major comics and science fiction fanzines, though it is unclear how he will assign values. It seems a daunting task to me, given the difficulty of tracking actual sales. Another question: with the tendency of stapled fanzines to lose their back pages with wear, should listings cite the number of pages in each issue? I’m looking forward to Jerry’s book. An admonishment: Sturgeon’s Law states: “ninety percent of everything is crap,” whether it be movies, books or comics. The same holds true of fanzines. Never buy a “pig in a poke.” Always be an informed buyer, and if you encounter an unfamiliar zine, look through it page-by-page. Even a nice professional cover can disguise a poor zine; likewise, a knowledgeable collector will be able to recognize a gem-in-disguise. There’s a lot to learn about the fanzine field, especially if one looks beyond the 2200 zines published before 1971 to the like number produced up through 1980. This is a great part of the fun, and that’s the goal—right? Please send any comments or questions regarding this column either to Alter Ego or to Bill Schelly, PO Box 27471, Seattle, WA, 98125, or via e-mail to: HamstrPres@aol.com. Who knows? If enough questions are received, they may make up the basis for a future column in Alter Ego.

Suggestion #8: Consider being satisfied with photocopies. When it comes to things like the incredibly scarce Xero #1, Alter-Ego #1, Comic Art #1, and others of their ilk, you may have no alternative. Even the Comic Fandom Archive has to do without originals of those three. (Donations, A Paul Gulacy drawing of Captain America graced the Official Program Booklet of Ohio Con ’75. anyone?) [Art ©2000 Paul Gulacy; Captain America ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Plus:

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No. 6 AUTUMN 2000

Fantastic Fawcett Foray! The Incomparable artwork of

Mac Raboy EXAMINED BY ROGER HILL

PLUS:

C.C. Beck Marc Swayze William Woolfolk Joe Simon AND RABOY ASSISTANT

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Mac Raboy

Volume 3, No. 6 Autumn 2000

FCA Section

™

Editor Roy Thomas

Associate Editor Bill Schelly

Design & Layout Jon B. Cooke GREAT SWAMP GRAPHICS

Production Janet Riley Sanderson

Contents

Consulting Editors John Morrow Jon B. Cooke

re: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 No time for letters—just for acknowledging screw-ups!

FCA Editor P.C. Hamerlinck

Lightning Strikes Twice! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Contributing Editor

Roger Hill focuses on Capt. Marvel Jr. artist Mac Raboy.

Michael T. Gilbert

Editors Emeritus

Bob Rogers in the 20th Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

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

FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 P.C. Hamerlinck presents another fun-filled Fawcett lineup.

Cover Artists Mac Raboy Gene Colan & Tom Palmer

Cover Color

Fawcett-to-Go . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 An editorial potpourri assembled by Jennifer T. Go.

We Didn’t Know... It Was the Golden Age! . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Mac Raboy Tom Ziuko

Marc Swayze on Fawcett and comic strips in the 1940s.

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

R.H. never quits! Now he’s found Raboy’s background artist!

Joe Simon: The FCA Interview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Mr. Scarlet & that first issue of Capt. Marvel Adventures.

Looking Backward... from My Upside-Down Point of View . . 32 William Woolfolk writes about writing in the Golden Age.

The Seven Deadly Sins of Comics Creators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 C.C. Beck draws verbal statues of these mortal sins.

For Gene Colan, Stan Lee, and More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About our cover: In the early 1970s Lulu Raboy consigned several pieces of original artwork by her late husband Mac to a comic art dealer in New York City—one of which was a bust portrait gouche painting of Captain Marvel Jr. The purpose for which it was intended in the early ’40s (“photo” premium, perhaps?) is not known. More about this painting in our next issue! Special thanks to Keif Fromm for making this never-before-printed Raboy art available to us. [Art ©Estate of Mac Raboy; Captain Marvel Jr. ©2000 DC Comics.] Above: An unidentified, almost-completed Mac Raboy panel of our cover subject and guest of honor, found by Bob Rogers in his files. Note the missing arm bands. [©2000 DC Comics.] Alter EgoTM is published quarterly by TwoMorrows, 1812 Park Drive, Raleigh, NC 27605, USA. Phone: (919) 833-8092. Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: Rt. 3, Box 468, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@oburg.net. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Single issues: $5.95 ($7.00 Canada, $9.00 elsewhere). Four-issue subscriptions: $20 US, $27 Canada, $37 elsewhere. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © Roy Thomas. Alter Ego is a TM of Roy & Dann Thomas. FCA is a TM of P.C. Hamerlinck. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING

re:

2 [NOTE FROM R.T.: In V3#5 we managed a six-page “re:” letters section, and we hope to feature lots of letters again real soon. This time, though, everything got squeezed out except our usual, inevitable corrections—and a single missive which deals with a project dear to our hearts, the recent TwoMorrows publication Streetwise, which features autobiographical comics-format tales by some of the world’s greatest cartoonists (and one lone non-drawing writer, namely, Yours Truly). Here ’tis:] I’ve been reading and re-reading Streetwise over and over again, and it’s really holding up well. Since I raved about the Kirby piece so much in my last e-mail, I’m going to limit my discussion to the other stories this time around; all sorts of cool stuff lies therein. In my enthusiasm for the Kirby piece, I may have done injustice to the other writers and artists, and I didn’t mean to. The caliber of the other stories makes them far more than simply “filler” to supplement “Street Code.” (Even though, let’s face it—the Kirby piece is a wow). I’ll touch on just a few of them here.

re:

Several of the other stories stand out as favorites, but I don’t have any particular comments on them except to say that I enjoyed them: [Walter Simonson’s] “The Sparking Cruise” was fascinating. Roy Thomas’ African adventure was highly entertaining, and makes me want to travel there myself and dig the animals by the pool (anything to get out of the city for a few weeks). Did Roy request John Severin, or was that an editorial decision on your part? Either way, brilliant match. This whole story was so unlike anything I remember Roy writing, and it has a fresh, clean feel (as opposed to that pulp-poetic style he wrote with during his Conan period). I’d love to see a longer modern-dress story or graphic novel by Roy and Severin. It was a great idea to get ahold of the first “Maus” (I’m one of the fortunate few who bought Breakdowns in which this “Maus” was first anthologized; it deserves the wider audience). Don Simpson’s story was nice and sobering; there’s no sin in expressing the bitter side of pursuing the passion for art. Sal Amendola’s tales from the DC production department, drawn in that super-slick “Madison Avenue” style (I can’t think of what else to call it) made me nostalgic for the days of doing stat-camera (ah, those pre-digital days), and I even dug the Scott Shaw! pages.

“The Hero” by Brent Anderson really Our mascot, Alter and Capt. Ego, in a new drawing. [Art delighted me, a polished nugget from an ©2000 Biljo White; A & CE ©2000 Roy Thomas & Bill Schelly.] imperfect boyhood. The story was cynical and funny: Just an ordinary kid getting I also want to stress to you how rewarding it is to have a product screwed by life, which is most of what childhood is about. In real life, as tasteful as Streetwise on the shelves. It sounds like a back-handed family outings are not always warm and wonderful occasions for loving compliment, but it is not to be taken for granted. I still feel, even in this reminiscences; plenty of times they suck. No pathos, no bathos, no day and age, that the widespread acceptance of comics as a mainstream schmaltz. Just irony. And I really am in awe of Anderson’s draftsmanmedium is impaired by the tastelessness of some of the products people ship. This is the finest thing he’s ever done. Great story. are publishing. I’m all for the fullest and freest avenues for creative Nearly anything Sergio does is hysterical. The whole idea of a expression, but too often some comics descend into downright pornogcomedy diver is funny, the shot of him in mid-air with hands together raphy (the hideously misshapen breasts on some of the female characters and the manic grin on his face is a classic, and the panel depicting him in being drawn these days is repulsive), and some otherwise laudable a gorilla suit standing on the bottom of the pool has the same feel as comics are ruined by gratuitous profanity. Of course, we live in a socisome of the Harvey Kurtzman Jungle Book drawings. I don’t know ety in which censorship is an unacceptable alternative to such things; the whether or not Kurtzman was ever a direct influence on Sergio—probaonly way to fight them is to keep publishing and promoting the kind of bly not; Sergio came to the US and Mad in 1962, long after H.K. had excellent and intelligent work that TwoMorrows publishes. Wouldn’t it left the scene—but there’s an uncanny similarity here. be great if someday students doing comparative literature in high school could read and study illustrated stories of the character of Streetwise? The Nick Cardy piece is the closest in subject matter to Kirby’s Mark Lerer “Street Code”: same era, same neighborhood; it serves to point out how New York the same background can produce vastly different experiences (or at least, different memories). I wouldn’t know how to describe the contrast THE USUAL CORRECTIONS AND APOLOGIES RE V3#5: with Kirby—the phrase “more commercial” comes to mind, but that’s a Is my face red! (But then, as co-creator of the Silver Age Vision, troublesome word with a negative connotation to it, like the word “carmaybe that’s the color it should be.) I was reminded too late, from toony” or (wince) “folksy.” These drawings (and the lettering in penseveral sources, that the “Black Canary” story “An Orchid for the cil—very appropriate touch) make for a cheerful string of vignettes, and Deceased!” had been published in Flash Comics #95 (May 1948), a tale are highly “useful” to the aspiring cartoonist (eminently swipeable, which involved an imposter—hence the two BCs on the splash (though, they’re a lexicon of images from that historical period. I admit it. I can’t as published, only a third lone Black Canary figure was featured on that look at a damned cartoonist’s work without figuring out what I can “file first page). In addition, reader John Wells reminded us that the “Wildaway” in my head for future use, or copy to sharpen my drawing skills), cat” story “The Monkey’s Circle” ran in Sensation Comics #84 and was and, in fact, it’s the first time I remember Cardy’s pencils ever being reprinted in Justice League of America #96, while the Flash-Thinker batreproduced (unless there’s a gap in my knowledge of his work on which tle (titled “The Tale of Three Tokens”) was finally published in its you can clue me in). Really lovely. entirety in 1972’s The Flash #214, wherein, rightly or wrongly, Carmine Murphy Anderson’s piece also has something of a counterpoint to Infantino was credited with the art... probably rightly, since he was the Kirby piece: instead of the Lower East Side immigrant culture, around as publisher at the time and should have known! A couple of the though, Anderson’s world was suburban midwestern, a little more prosabove art spots arrived at the eleventh hour and were used as lastperous “middle class” life. The kids, though, showed the same passion minute replacements for other panels, so the previous printings slipped for games, for stirring up trouble, and for being kids. continued on pg. 45

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Lightning Strikes Twice!

Captain Marvel Jr., Flash Gordon, & the Incomparable Art of MAC RABOY! by Roger Hill [INTRODUCTORY NOTE: Mac Raboy’s artistic abilities and accomplishments in the four-color medium have been recognized and acknowledged in many of the books on comics history published over the past forty years. Two years ago, when I decided to write an article on Raboy for an issue of the CFA-APA (Comic and Fantasy Art Amateur Press Association), I quickly discovered that since around 1970 almost nothing new had been documented on this amazing artist. As popular as his work has always been among comic art aficionados, it stuck me as odd that no one had pursued further research on Mac Raboy. [Virtually everything written on Raboy after 1970 has relied primarily on Jim Steranko’s early-’70s The History of the Comics and the 1948 King Features Syndicate promotional booklet titled Famous Artists & Writers. Most readers of Alter Ego will be familiar with the two Steranko volumes, but the King Features Syndicate booklet is somewhat rare and not easily accessible to collectors or historians. This booklet is priceless, with its numerous biographies of writers and artists, accompanied

by photographs of each. It supplies some general information about Raboy up to 1948 and presents the first published photo of the man ever seen by the public. We will run that bio page next issue, along with an interview with Raboy’s son David. [Mac Raboy will always be most remembered for the “Captain Marvel Jr.” artwork he created for Fawcett Publications between 1941-44. While my own appreciation of Raboy’s “CMJr” art has grown steadily over the years, it was his Flash Gordon Sunday newspaper strip that initially caught my eye when I was sixteen years old. I liked Raboy’s Flash art immediately! I thought he drew beautiful “leggy” women, muscular “handsome” men, and rocketships that, while simple in design, were sleek and just “pulpish” enough to travel the galaxies with ease. The stories themselves… well, they left a lot to be desired. But Mac didn’t write the stories (well, actually, he wrote at least one of them); he just illustrated them. His tenure on the strip ran from August 1, 1948, until December 17, 1967, close to a thousand Sunday pages. That in itself is quite an accomplishment.

Lightning Strikes Twice!

[I was determined at the outset of this project not to do a rehash of what had previously been written about Mac Raboy. To add something new to comics history is now my goal on everything I write. In Raboy’s case, I knew it would be a difficult and lengthy quest for new information. I wanted to know more about him than just his involvement in the comics field. His personal feelings about art and influences, and a clearer perception of what drove him to do what he did, is the kind of knowledge I was seeking. Who was Mac Raboy and what made him tick? That was the goal. [Unfortunately, Mac Raboy died in 1967, before anyone had the chance to interview him. Not that he probably would have agreed to be interviewed since, during the course of my research, I’ve learned he was not exactly thrilled with the work he was doing on Flash Gordon, and wasn’t the most outgoing person. In fact, Raboy was an extremely quiet, sensitive artist, who kept to himself and just wanted to sit and draw for hours on end, without interruption. [Since Raboy was very meticulous about his art and one of the slowest artists to work for Fawcett, deadlines on the “Captain Marvel Jr.” work were constantly a problem for him. Therefore, a number of assistants were used during his tenure there to help out. I knew that the only hope I had of truly learning something new about Mac Raboy would have to come from talking with his co-workers and assistants who might still be around. The few of these folks who are still living are now in their late seventies or early eighties. These are the people I went searching for. I also went looking for Raboy’s family—and found them.

[Gene McDonald was the first artist and co-worker of Mac Raboy I found on my quest for information. Gene, originally a Midwestern gentleman himself, is today 82 years old and was one of the nicest fellows I ever talked with. The information he gave me was very helpful toward completion of this article. After I finished the interview with him, he asked me not to give him any credit for his work with Mac Raboy, or in the comics. He didn’t feel he contributed much. Well, my apologies to Gene, but I couldn’t leave him out of the picture even if I wanted to. The history is there, and he was a part of it. [Next I tracked down Mac Raboy’s son David, who at first was not at all anxious to talk to me. During my first phone conversation with him, David listened patiently as I explained I wanted to write an article about his father, then told me he really wasn’t interested in discussing him. After that short conversation, I wrote him a letter and prevailed upon him to help just a little bit on my research. Later, when I called him again, he agreed to answer a few questions, for which I am most grateful. [Through a chance meeting on the Internet I made contact with Bob Rogers (a.k.a. Rubin Zubofsky), an 82-year-old gentleman who was Raboy’s first assistant at Fawcett Publications, being hired there in 1942. Through Bob and his son-in-law Dan Johnson, I was able to get a better picture of those long-ago days when he and Raboy worked on “Captain Marvel Jr.” The first part of our interview with Bob on his career in the comics follows this article. —ROGER HILL.]

Previous page: Classic images from Flash Gordon and Master Comics flank a stark portrait of artist Mac Raboy. Author Roger Hill says a photo of Raboy “was put into Photoshop [a computer program] and had the ‘India ink’ filter applied. It gives one the impression of a mysterious person in the shadows, without definition, which is what Raboy was, before this article was written.” Above: Panel from Captain Marvel Jr. story in Master Comics #29. [CMJr ©2000 DC Comics; Flash Gordon ©1949, 2000 King Features Syndicate.]

I. Origins & Upbringing Manuel Raboy was born in New York City on April 9, 1914, to parents Isaac and Sarah Raboy. Isaac Raboy and two brothers had immigrated to the U.S. from Bessarabaka, Romania, in 1904, and settled temporarily in New York City. While passing through the receiving areas of Ellis Island, Isaac’s original last name—spelled “Raboi”—became “Anglofied” to “Raboy.” Isaac secured a job working in a hat factory and during his evening hours wrote poetry and political essays. He also attended the Jewish Agricultural School in Woodbine, New Jersey, and moved to North Dakota after graduation. On a horse ranch located just outside Gladstone, North Dakota, he became a horse-handler and ferrier. He eventually wrote several books. One of these, The Jewish Cowboy, detailed some of his experiences in North Dakota.

the same time he worked in New York City and continued writing books. After marrying, Issac and Sarah Raboy eventually moved into a home located at 3451 Giles Place in the Bronx section of New York. This is where young Manuel Raboy grew up and developed an intensive passion for drawing. Even as a child he would render with great detail just about anything he set his mind to.

Above and next page: Woodcut engravings done by Raboy for the WPA during the mid-to-late 1930s. This one is called “Family on a Barge.”

At his father’s request Isaac returned to the East Coast, where he took on the job of managing the family dairy farm in Connecticut. At

Manuel attended P.S. 44 in the city and De Witt Clinton High School in the Bronx. De Witt Clinton was an all-boys school at that time, and students were mixed both ethnically and racially. It was here that Manuel—or “Mac,” as his family and friends referred to him—first took an interest in making art his career. Luckily he had an art teacher at De Witt who gave him some guidance and encouragement in the arts. This teacher also conducted WPA art classes which Mac attended regularly. Through them he became familiar with the art of wood engraving and print making, a slow and painstaking form of art.

Raboy, it appears, mastered this artistic process and upon gradua-

The Incomparable Art of Mac Raboy tion went to work for President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s WPA and Federal Arts Project (FAP). At this time only people on relief could be recruited by the FAP for government-sponsored work. The project at its height employed about 5000 artists. Between December 1935 and August 1939, Raboy turned out a total of fourteen engraved prints for the FAP. He decided to make a visual interpretation and record of Americana; this fell under the heading of The Index of American Design. Raboy’s prints were quite striking, with a lush, fine-line approach to the depiction of Depression-Era America of the 1930s. Some of these show agricultural images of people at work. All were quite good.

7 More than likely, Chesler’s foreman, Jack Binder, also had a say in Raboy’s hiring. Binder had been hired by Chesler in early 1937 to take charge of a staff of artists that included Charlie Biro, Jack Cole, Lou Fine, Gill Fox, Fred Guardineer, Robert McCay, Jr., Mort Meskin, Guspano Ricca, Charlie Sultan, George Tuska, and many others who would eventually move on to greater fame in the comic book industry.

Mac Raboy was now surrounded by a team of talented artists, inkers, and writers who, under Binder’s supervision, would crank out completed comic art for some of the largest comic book publishing companies of the day. This included Centaur, National/DC, Fawcett, Quality, and Timely, all of whom were pioneers of a budding new industry. Raboy was fascinated by the storytelling aspects of comic books and was about to learn the business working from the bottom up.

“Fishing for Coins.”

Through this program, many artists were encouraged to do work at home rather than to concentrate on the art market in New York. The government also sponsored traveling exhibitions that would expose American artists’ work to culturally deprived areas of the country. Raboy’s prints were shown at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1937, then at the National Academy of Design in 1938. A few examples even found their way to exhibition at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Since the demise of the Federal Art Project in 1943, the importance of governmental funding of the arts has been continually disputed. Even though critics say the FAP produced bad work, there can be no doubt that it saved a generation of American artists from almost total extinction. In the case of Mac Raboy and many other young artists, it proved to be the encouragement they needed to further their careers. Several of Raboy’s wood engravings from this era reside today in the permanent collection of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. During the time he worked for the FAP, Raboy also studied art at the New York School of Industrial Art, the Pratt Institute, and Cooper Union. In 1935 he married a young lady named Lulu Belle Morris. The two had met while summering in upstate New York in a little town called Golden’s Bridge. Lulu Belle had at one time been an accomplished dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company. The Raboys set up housekeeping in a little apartment in the Bronx.

II. The Sidewalks—and Sweatshops—of New York After leaving the WPA, Raboy decided to try his hand working in the commercial art field. He secured a job with a small art company, where he became adept at lettering and paste-ups, among other chores. In his own words, his duties consisted of “all kinds of the usual dirty work.” In 1940, after seeing a newspaper ad, he applied for work and was hired at once as a staff artist with the Harry “A” Chesler comics shop in New York City. Chesler’s outfit, located at 23rd Street, just West of 8th Avenue, was one of the earliest “sweatshops” responsible for packaging comic books for publishers.

One of Mac’s first assignments was a back-up feature in Prize Comics called “The Green Lama.” This mysterious, green-hooded crimefighter originated deep in the wilds of Tibet. Well versed in the strange secrets of the Oriental holy men, he devoted his life to fighting criminals the law could not reach. “The Green Lama” was the brainchild of writer Ken Crossen and had originally debuted in the pulp magazine Double Detective in 1940. Within two years Crossen would go on to become an assistant editor at Fawcett Publications and would eventually start his own comic publishing company. Though Raboy couldn’t have known it at the time, he himself would be involved in Crossen’s later ventures, and once again with “The Green Lama.”

III. Early Days at Fawcett

“On Tenth Ave.”

While Mac’s early efforts on various back-up features produced in the Chesler shop were competent, his style had a way to go yet before he would become recognized as someone of special talents. The Chesler shop also provided Fawcett with a lot of their early art needs. Therefore, Raboy was kept very busy working on such notable back-ups as “Ibis the Invincible,” “Mr. Scarlet,” and “Zoro, the Mystery Man.”

Working with other Chesler shop personnel, Raboy began illustrating the adventures of “Dr. Voodoo” with Whiz Comics #9, cover-dated October 1940. This back-of-the-book adventure series, featuring a noncostumed, swashbuckling semi-super-hero, would eventually show Raboy’s transitional growth to a higher plateau of artistic excellence. Unlike most of the other Fawcett features, the “Dr. Voodoo” stories eventually came to utilize narrative captions rather than the standard word balloons, and Raboy’s style grew more mature—and more noticeable to the men in charge at Fawcett. By the end of 1940, Mac was drawing “Bulletman” covers for Master Comics; shortly after that, he became the chief artist of that hero’s

Lightning Strikes Twice! opposed to the C. C. Beck or Pete Costanza simplified approach on Captain Marvel. The new boy-hero was ably dubbed Captain Marvel Jr., and it was Mac Raboy who was given the job of visualizing him for the very first time. Jr’s basic attire was blue, with a red cape. His boots, sash, and trim, were the same as Captain Marvel’s: gold! A brilliant costume of color if ever there was one—and with Raboy’s superb draftsmanship, coupled with stories written by Otto Binder, Joe Millard, Manly Wade Wellman, and Bill Woolfolk, a sure-fire success on the newsstands was in order. With direction from Ed Herron, Raboy started working on an origin trilogy (evidently written by Bill Woolfolk, as related elsewhere in this issue of Alter Ego) that began in 1941 and ended in 1942, crossing over between two Fawcett titles in the process. The three-part tale begins in Master Comics #21 (December 1941), wherein Captain Marvel—a guest star for the issue—teams up with the comic’s regular lead hero, Bulletman, to take on a new super-villain called Captain Nazi. The second part of the story picks up in Whiz Comics #25 (December 1941), with Captain Marvel saving the life of a young teenage boy named Freddy Freeman, whom the treacherous Captain Nazi has severely injured and left to drown. With the lad near death, Captain Marvel takes him to the underground hall where the sorcerer Shazam gives him magic words (“Captain Marvel!” rather than “Shazam!”) and Marvel powers.

This odd remnant piece of a photostat, found in the files of Raboy’s early1940s assistant Rubin Zukofsky (a.k.a. Bob Rogers), shows a partial splash from one of Raboy’s first jobs after joining the Fawcett staff. He drew “Zoro, The Man of Mystery,” for only two issues of Slam Bang Comics during mid-1940. [©2000 DC Comics.]

stories inside. Bulletman, who had debuted in the pages of Fawcett’s Nickel Comics in the spring of 1940, was a crimefighter who wore a bullet-shaped “Gravity-Regulator Helmet” in order to fly. Eventually he was joined by Bulletgirl, and the pair’s adventures continued till the late ’40s. When the hero was assigned his own comic title in the summer of 1941, Raboy was assigned to do the covers. By this time Mac had left the Chesler shop and had become a permanent member of the Fawcett art staff, working on salary.

Both C. C. Beck and Mac Raboy worked on this second installment of Captain Marvel Jr.’s origin story. Beck, the artist most closely associated with “Captain Marvel” during that time, maintained a tight unofficial control over the scripts and art produced for the good Captain’s adventures. His assistance on this story was for that reason, and may have also been required in order to keep things moving for the slow, meticulous Raboy. The third and final installment of this origin takes place in the pages of Master Comics #22 (January 1942), where Bulletman and Captain Marvel Jr. join forces to defeat Captain Nazi and a deranged antiAmerican by the name of Dr. Eternity. From this point on, “Captain Marvel Jr.” appeared regularly as the lead feature in Master, as well as a permanent fixture on the covers.

No doubt Raboy, like many others before and after him, left Chesler’s employment to secure a position closer to the source of income. This move may have come about also at the urging of Fawcett’s comics editor Ed Herron, whose employment at Fawcett had begun in October of 1940. Herron had previously sold scripts to Chesler, and probably met Mac there. Fawcett Publications was one of the largest publishers of magazines and comic books. Their offices consisted of four entire floors that occupied part of the Paramount Building located at 43rd Street and Broadway in Manhattan.

IV. Little Boy Blue Ed Herron had come to Fawcett with a successful track record of writing and creating comic book characters that had gone on to greater popularity, including work on the earliest stories of Timely’s colorful Captain America—and his kid sidekick Bucky. It was during the fall of 1941 that Herron came up with the idea of a new addition to the Fawcett family. With Captain Marvel sales increasing dramatically since his debut in February 1940, Fawcett management figured a teenage version of the “Big Red Cheese” would only increase their profits. Herron liked Raboy’s art very much, and “Dr. Voodoo” splash page from Whiz Comics #13 (Feb. 1941). At this wanted a more illustrative style point Raboy’s style was still developing. [©2000 DC Comics.] for the new addition, as

The Incomparable Art of Mac Raboy

9 would never be able to keep up with the growing amount of work. The decision was made to hire someone who could give Mac some help on backgrounds. That help came almost immediately from a young man by the name of Rubin Zubofsky, who at age nineteen came knocking at Fawcett’s door in January of 1942. Zubofsky was interviewed by editor Herron and co-editor John Beardsley, who, during the course of the interview, requested him to produce a drawing in their presence. After completing it, he was hired at a salary of $35 a week as an assistant to Mac Raboy. This meant providing pencils and inks on backgrounds for Raboy’s covers or stories.

But develop it did! These random panels from unidentified “Dr. Voodoo” stories done for Whiz during 1940 are repro’d from photostats of original art. In this period Raboy made great strides in perfecting his drawing ability, leading up to being ready to take on “Bulletman” and “Captain Marvel Jr.” [©2000 DC Comics.]

Raboy’s streamlined style of drawing the human figure was quite different from the usual assortment of muscle-man super-heroes glutting the newsstands. Even when Freddy Freeman spoke the magic words “Captain Marvel” and transformed into Cap Jr., his physique remained that of a young teenage boy. Mac was capable of drawing flying sequences that were realistic and unlike anything that had been seen in comics up to that point. It was amazing! His figures, whether they were leaping, flying, swimming, fighting, or just standing around, were always drawn to perfection. Second-best wasn’t good enough for Raboy, who was known to be one of the more sensitive, self-disciplined artists working at Fawcett, and who, at the drop of a hat, would erase an entire panel of pencils he had just spent most of the day drawing, and start over. On another occasion, an editor’s critical comment sent Raboy into a frenzy that resulted in a “Captain Marvel Jr.” story being ripped to pieces. Mac was an emotional guy, as co-workers attest.

V. Helping Hands Even though he was the slowest artist working for Fawcett in those days, the company obviously thought a lot of his work. They especially loved his covers, which were always well designed and attractive. In 1941 and 1942 Mac produced some classic cover images for other Fawcett titles besides Master, including America’s Greatest Comics, Bulletman, Captain Midnight, Spy Smasher, and Xmas Comics. With the increased workload it became obvious to the Fawcett editors that Mac

Working side by side, using HB lead pencils and #3 Windsor Newton brushes, Raboy and Zubofsky became a working team dynamo for Fawcett, constantly trying to meet deadlines on “Captain Marvel Jr.” stories. Between the two artists, they barely managed to turn out one story a month for Master Comics. They sat at the front of the art department, with Raboy (a southpaw) facing the other men in the room, and Zubofsky facing the front. This allowed the pair to easily pass work back and forth between them. Zubofsky, who had previously worked with Lou Fine throughout most of 1941, had developed a “chameleon” technique of emulating or matching any artist’s style of work on backgrounds. Usually “Ruby” One of the most popular Bulletman covers of the Golden Age, with figures drawn by Raboy and backgrounds by Bob Rogers. The comic came out with a January 1942 cover date; but, as revealed in this repro of a photostat of the original art found in Bob Rogers’ files, it was first slated to carry a Winter 1941 date. Apparently it came out late. [©2000 DC Comics.]

Lightning Strikes Twice! Golden Age patriotic covers ever printed in the four-color medium.

(as his co-workers came to call him) would ink his own pencils on backgrounds. Occasionally Mac would ask him to finish off the inking of a figure, as well. He and Mac got along well together and, when required, would work late to try to meet deadlines. It was this work, over the next eleven months, that remains popular today as some of the very finest “Captain Marvel Jr.” artwork ever produced.

It was fortunate for Mac that comics editor Ed Herron and art director Al Allard recognized his need for additional time in order to render the realistic art style he had adopted. In September of 1942, when Rod Reed was hired as Fawcett’s new comics editor (replacing Herron), he continued the same consideration. It was Reed who eventually became one of Raboy’s closest friends and was instrumental in getting Mac out of a personality shell into which he had fallen.

When deadlines got too close for comfort, Raboy would oversee the use of photostats of previously-drawn panels or figures, on whatever new story they were currently producing. He would go through the backissue file copies of the comics and indicate to Ruby which figures he wanted. Ruby would then go to Fawcett’s morgue library to pull up the original art pages, size the figures through a projector to the size needed to fit the new panels, and order photostats to be made. Raboy himself usually cut the figures out and placed them exactly where he wanted them on the pages. It was also in early 1942 that Fawcett management initiated a size change in the cover art that Mac Raboy (and probably others) were producing. Up to this point all cover art and interior page art had been drawn twice-up in size. The new size allowed Raboy and Zubofsky to save time by drawing covers “one-and-one-half-up” in size. Mac took great pains to produce covers that were “posteresque” in design and patriotic in theme. From 1942 to 1943 he produced some of the finest

One of the most prolific writers at Fawcett was sciencefiction author Otto Binder. Between 1941 and 1953, when Fawcett Comics closed its doors, Binder wrote 161 “Captain Marvel Jr.” stories. He, Raboy, and Zubofsky would have occasional meetings to confer about plots and ideas on the tales. In a 1973 interview Binder recalled the experience: “Mac Raboy—there was a prima donna! Impossible to work with. He always complained that there were too many action scenes. Mac didn’t care about plot, about conflict. He wanted beautiful, fairyland scenes for Captain Marvel Jr. to float through.” When Rubin Zubofsky was drafted in November 1942, Fawcett put out the word that positions were open for new assistants to Mac Raboy. Shortly afterward, Irwin Wile, who worked for Fawcett’s magazine layout department, brought in two acquaintances he had met while attending

Top: An outstanding page from Master #22 (Jan. 1942), the third/final part of Junior’s origin, in which Bulletman and CMJr team up against the treacherous Captain Nazi and the deranged anti-American, Dr. Eternity (top left panel). This page is a good example of pure Raboy, drawn just a month or two before Rubin Zubofsky (Bob Rogers) began doing backgrounds for him. From the collection of Ethan Roberts. Left: The cover of Master #21, which introduced Captain Nazi— and led into the origin of Captain Marvel Jr.! Right: The cover of Master #22, the first to showcase Cap Jr., was repro’d from the original art in the FCA section of A/E V3#2—so here’s the cover of #23, in which Cap Sr. and Shazam personally give the lad in blue a royal sendoff. [©2000 DC Comics.]

The Incomparable Art of Mac Raboy

night classes at the Grand Central School of Art. Their names were Gene McDonald and Hugh “Red” Mohler, and both were hired at salaries of $60 a week apiece to assist Raboy on “Captain Marvel Jr.” Due to the overwhelming popularity of their teenage superhero, Fawcett had decided it was time to give the boy in blue his own comic magazine.

VI. Mac Raboy Makes Three In November of 1942 Captain Marvel Jr. #1 hit the newsstands of America. Raboy’s cover showed a leaping figure of the young hero, set against a brilliant yellow moon in the background, surrounded by black. A simple design, yet most effective as an eye-catcher for kids browsing the racks. Inside the book… not one page of Raboy’s art was to be found! The work was very similar to his, but was entirely provided by assistants. This style of art, produced mostly by McDonald, Mohler, or others, would cause some confusion to comic book historians and collectors for the next fifty years. Under Mac’s personal guidance, Mohler and McDonald provided most of the art for the new title and also assisted Mac, as required, on stories he was drawing for Master. To maintain the special “Raboy mystique” in their work on the “CMJr” stories, Gene and Red were shown a new time-saving device for emulating Raboy’s style of art: a projection camera! In the past, photostats had been cut out and pasted down to make new panels. Now, a group of photostats— showing every imaginable figure drawing of Captain Marvel Jr. that Raboy had ever done— were kept nearby so all the

assistants had easy access to them. The artist could leaf through the figures, pick out the appropriate one, size it through the projector onto the new panel where it was needed, and simply trace it off. By this method Fawcett editors were able to insure that Raboy’s style of art remained visible throughout the work. Fawcett readers identified with this style and expected it to be there from month to month. In early 1943 the comic art staff at Fawcett converted mostly to a freelance status. Comics editor Rod Reed left in June and was replaced by Will Lieberson. Mac Raboy had moved into a studio space located on 42nd Street, between 5th and 6th Avenue. Occasionally Red Mohler and his wife Duffy (a letterer) would share this space, One of Raboy’s most working on the “CMJr” feature with Mac. Gene famous covers was drawn McDonald began doing work on his own, and other for Master #27 (June freelance artists started drawing “Junior” stories for 1942). Background by Bob Fawcett, as well. Dick Krause became executive editor Rogers. Patriotic covers on Master and Captain Marvel Jr., answering to were popular during Lieberson. Bernard Baily, the artist who with Jerry World War II, and Raboy Siegel in 1940 had co-created “The Spectre” for designed some of the most memorable ever put National/DC, also began producing “CMJr” stories on a comic book! From a around this time. This opportunity probably resulted photostat of the original when Raboy and Baily formed their own commercial art. [©2000 DC Comics.]

Lightning Strikes Twice!

A terrific triptych! Left: The final page of the “CMJr” story from Master #27 (June 1942) as printed. Upper left: A photostat of the original art of this page, which turned up a few years back. It reveals that nearly every panel had photostat paste-overs of figures (two of which had fallen off by the time the art was found). In fact, several figures used on this page were actually taken from ones used earlier in the same story! Even the figure of Junior with raised arm giving the “V for Victory” sign was taken from the issue’s cover art! Upper right: The final image is of the original art with all photostated figures removed. The paste-on figures are reproduced below. Only Winston Churchill and a couple of “civilians” were actual original art; all other figures were paste-overs! Below: Various photostat paste-overs. [©2000 DC Comics.]

The Incomparable Art of Mac Raboy

Lama” character he had created in 1940 as a pulp-magazine hero and had later adapted into a comic book series for Prize Publications. He convinced Raboy that he should quit Fawcett to join him at his new publishing company, to be known as Spark Publications, in lieu of receiving more than just a page rate. Crossen offered a percentage of the profits, which in 1944 was an almost unheard-of thing for any comic artist. He also offered Mac the prestigious title of art director. It was an offer Raboy could not refuse. With a half a dozen capable artists now providing the bulk of the “Captain Marvel Jr.” artwork anyway, Fawcett editors bade farewell to Mac Raboy. He left with an agreement that, if time permitted, he would still occasionally provide a cover illustration for Captain Marvel Jr., which he did until mid-1945. (Oddly enough, in May 1944 a beautiful Raboy drawing appeared on the cover of Dynamic Comics #9. This comic, originally produced by one of Raboy’s first employers, Harry “A” Chesler, had run three issues between 1941 and 1942, before having its plug pulled due to paper quota cutbacks at the outset of World War II. Most likely Raboy had drawn this cover while working in the Chesler shop in early 1941 and it sat in inventory until Chesler revived the title in May 1944 and printed it as the cover on Dynamic #9. For reasons still unknown, Dynamic Comics skipped five issues in the numbering process between 1942 and 1944.)

art studio together sometime during the early 1940s. Commercial accounts paid much better than comic work, and provided a little bit of a break in the monotony of panel illustrating. According to a listing of Fawcett freelance artist page rates discovered in the files of Will Lieberson in 1995, Baily worked on “Captain Marvel Jr.” and “Spy Smasher” stories, for which he was paid $14 a page for pencils and inks; later the rate was raised to $17 a page. Other freelance artists were assigned to the “Junior” stories, including Albert J. Carreno, who had started out at Fawcett in 1940 working on “Dan Dare” and other features. Carreno would do complete books of “CMJr” art, which at $16 a page (later raised to $20) added up to a healthy lump sum payment. Phil Bard, who had been doing the “Minute Man” and “Mr. Scarlet” features for Fawcett, also began working on “Junior” stories around this time.

At Crossen Raboy provided the covers and lead stories for each issue of the new Upper left: Another beautiful entry by Mac Raboy alone, a detail from Green Lama title. The the cover of Master #32 (Nov. 1942). A classic for sure! Above: One of the first issue debuted with a only known photographs ever taken of Mac Raboy at the Fawcett offices. cover date of Photo by Bob Rogers, circa 1942. Below left: A recent photograph of Bob December 1944, Rogers, who as Rubin Zubofsky was Mac Raboy’s first assistant, beginwith a cover ning in 1942. [Courtesy of Bob Rogers.] Right: 1980s photo of Gene design once McDonald, assistant to Mac Raboy starting in 1942. (An interview with again utilizing McDonald will be featured in a near-upcoming issue of Alter Ego.) the idea of a [Courtesy of Bob Rogers. CMJr ©2000 DC Comics.] single figure in front of a full moon, surrounded by black—in Mac Raboy, now working on a freelance basis this case, a graceful, almost floating figure of the and being paid piecemeal for his art, was one of hooded Tibetan crimefighter in green. Mac’s Fawcett’s highest paid artists. According to the work on the new version of the hero was just as Lieberson listing, Raboy was earning $30 a page impeccable as anything he had ever produced for interior art and $40 per cover. It must be for Fawcett. Working with writer Joseph assumed that, at this point, any artists who Greene (who became the editor with issue #3), directly assisted Raboy on the “CMJr” stoRaboy and company succeeded in capturing a ries would have been paid out of small but loyal audience of readers who followed Raboy’s pocket, not by Fawcett. the adventures of the Green Lama comic on the newsstands.

VII. A Spark of Green In mid-1944 assistant editor Ken Crossen left Fawcett to start his own publishing company. He decided to resurrect the “Green

Although its sales were no match for Captain Marvel Jr., by early 1945 the Green Lama series was doing well enough that Crossen decided it was time to add another title to his publishing roster. He brought in Mort Meskin, an accomplished artist and idea man who, like Raboy, had started out working in the Chesler shop and by this time had gained considerable experience in the field. Meskin and Crossen, under Raboy’s art direction, put together a new hero-

Lightning Strikes Twice! contributions to Spark Publications. But trouble was in the air, and Raboy, Meskin, and others probably saw it coming even before it arrived. By January 1946 the curtains were beginning to close on Crossen’s publishing venture. The Green Lama and Golden Lad series had failed to gain the momentum necessary to keep them financially afloat. Crossen put on a big dinner party for all the company’s employees, writers, and artists—and at the end of the evening announced that he was going out of business. He filed bankruptcy shortly thereafter and left town owing people money. It is not certain just how financially well Raboy was treated during his two-year stay with Crossen, but the published work on Green Lama remains highly collected by fans of the Golden Age.

VIII. A Flash of Gold

comic called The Golden Lad. Earlier in the year, Crossen had started another branch of publishing that he called Fact And Fiction Publications. Under that banner Crossen had issued two digest-sized paperbacks as part of a new “Banner Mysteries” series. Raboy provided cover illustrations for both issues in this series, which came out in March and April of 1945. The new Golden Lad comic made its debut in July 1945, from Fact And Fiction Publications. Raboy took extra pains to make the Green Lama one of the finest series ever. For issue #7 (Dec. 1946) he drew a nine-page Christmas story that remains one of the finest endeavors of his career. “The Turn Of The Scrooge!” was drawn on Duo-Tone art paper. This is a method that allows the artist to capture different tones of shading in his work by applying special chemicals onto a specially prepared sheet of art paper. One chemical brings out a line pattern printed into the paper, while the other chemical brings out a different line pattern going in the opposite direction, thus creating a darker shade of lines to appear. Using this process, Raboy was able to literally paint in shades of grey tones. When the final color was added, the work took on an even higher quality of richness, and became much more effective than straight pen and ink work created in black-&-white. The final results were stunning, to say the least. As if this weren’t enough, Raboy also turned in a special painted Christmas cover for the issue, a portrait of a smiling Green Lama. Without doubt, the whole issue represents one of Raboy’s most inspired This beautiful Raboy art, executed with ink and charcoal pencil on pebble board, finally appeared on the cover of Dynamic Comics #9 (May 1944). It was undoubtedly done at least 2-3 years earlier, as it's doubtful that in 1944 Raboy would have gone back to work for Harry "A" Chesler. [©2000 the respective copyright holder.]

For the next couple of years, Raboy’s work was not to be found in the comics. He Writer Otto Binder felt continued to establish and work on comRaboy wanted mercial accounts. Sometime between 1946“beautiful, fairyland 47 he landed an account providing beautiful scenes”—and indeed this full-page illustrations for The Philadelphia panel from Master #29 Inquirer newspaper. These detailed adverhas a light, fey feel. tisements usually depicted famous historical [©2000 DC Comics] sites and costuming of 18th-century Colonial Philadelphia, and were executed with pen and ink on scratchboard. Every one of these was signed “Mac Raboy.” This work reflected Mac’s personal interests in American history, especially the Civil War.

The Incomparable Art of Mac Raboy

Then, in Spring of 1948, King Features Syndicate hired Raboy to take over the Flash Gordon Sunday page from Austin Briggs. Briggs, who had been doing the strip since Alex Raymond’s departure in 1943, wanted out. Raboy, who had idolized Raymond’s style of art for many years, decided he was ready to take it on. His first Sunday page appeared on August 1, 1948, beginning a new story with Flash taking off in an atom-jet rocket, headed for adventure on Mongo’s second moon in an episode entitled “Visitor From Space.” No credits were allowed on the strip for the first two months. Finally, on September 26th, the names of Mac Raboy and Don Moore (the writer) appeared on the masthead. As an artist following in the giant footsteps of the great Alex Raymond, Raboy no doubt felt a lot of pressure from King Features Syndicate as to how he approached working on one of the greatest adventure strips of his time. From August through December of 1948 the artist’s work was absolutely stunning. Since Mac only needed to produce five to six panels a week for each strip, his attention to detail and precision inking were flawless in execution. His anatomy on Flash, Dale Arden, and other characters never looked better; and because his figure work was so well done, it seems he delighted in filling up the panels with them. During the first few months of the strip, each Sunday page contained, on an average, about twenty-four figures. Raboy was making top money now, with King Features paying him $300 a week for each Sunday page. This was a small fortune in 1948, when the average working stiff was lucky to bring home $40 a week. For a long time Mac had dreamed of getting away from New York City and the Bronx. In 1947 he had put into motion a plan to build a home of his own design in the little colony known as Golden’s Bridge, located in New York’s Westchester County. Mac and Lulu had children now. A son, David, was born in 1941, followed by a daughter, Miriam, in 1943. Mac hated the big city with its noise and growing pollution problems and wanted out as soon as the house could be built. After the War ended, the government had a surplus of prefabricated Army barracks available for $600 each. Mac had one of these installed on a concrete foundation and hired a couple of carpenters to help finish and add three wings to it. One wing served as an art studio upstairs, and had below it a pottery room for Lulu, who was a potter. From time to time Mac would sculpt things out of clay. He was very good at it. He also built a barn in back of the house, which sat very close to a heavily wooded forest area. He enjoyed walking through the woods and had a great appreciation of plants and animals.

Once Mac had moved up to Golden’s Bridge, he rarely wanted to go back to the city. He went to great lengths to avoid it and employed his kids, wife, or other friends in the Golden’s Bridge community to deliver the Flash Gordon Sunday page to King Features once a week. For this he provided the cost of a round-trip train ticket to Manhattan and paid the courier (no matter who it was) $10. He never delivered the page himself, and he never attended King Features Christmas parties or socialized in any way with people who worked there.

IX. Life in Golden’s Bridge Mac’s father Issac had contracted tuberculosis and died in 1943, leaving only Mac’s mother living in the Bronx. They would occasionally visit her, though Mac was not fond of traveling into the city. His old pal and ex-Fawcett editor Rod Reed and his wife Kentuck would visit from time to time. In 1945 the Reeds had bought a beautiful two-story country home up in the mountains of Pinebush, New York. Reed was a freelance writer now, supplying scripts for King Features’ Phantom strip. Years later he also scripted Frank Godwin’s Rusty Riley feature.

Another artist friend of whom Mac and Lulu and the kids were quite fond was Harry Anderson, who had been working as a commercial artist since the 1930s. Anderson worked in the Jack Binder shop during 1942-43 and later became a freelance artist working directly for Fawcett on various features. At some point Mac and Anderson had become very good friends, and everyone at the Raboy homestead loved

Lightning Strikes Twice!

to see Harry and his wife Peggy arrive from New York City, driving their little MG sportscar. Poker games around the large oak kitchen table (built by Mac) were a favorite pastime when Andy and Peg came to visit. In early 1949 Mac decided he needed help on Flash Gordon. He contacted Ruby Zubofsky who, after the War, had changed his name to Robert (Bob) Rogers. Upon his return from Army duty, Rogers had gone back to Fawcett for a while, assisting Bud Thomson on the Captain Marvel Jr. comic. At the time Raboy contacted him, Rogers was out of the comics business and was working at a camera shop in Manhattan. He drove up to Golden’s Bridge and met with Raboy. A deal was negotiated, with Raboy paying Rogers $100 a week. At first, Bob commuted up to Golden’s Bridge every day, but after the winter weather became a problem, he and his wife eventually decided to move to Golden’s Bridge, into an apartment located just a block away from the Raboy homestead.

In the 1950s Mac routinely worked on the strip about three hours each day. In his off-hours he would pursue other interests and hobbies, such as woodworking and sculpting with clay. Raboy was an insomniac to some degree, and usually could not fall asleep until the early morning hours. He would read anything he could find on the Civil War, and loved to watch baseball games on TV. He and Lulu enjoyed jumping into the car on a moment’s notice and taking long drives through Westchester County together. They also took vacations to historical Civil War sites, including the battlefield at Gettysburg. When Lulu got involved as a director of summer stock theatre in Golden’s Bridge, Mac designed the stage sets. He enjoyed building and painting the sets but couldn’t accept any of the applause or public praise offered by the audience. He was nowhere to be found on opening nights. He would also help out on any planning or technical designing of public buildings or other projects on which he was asked to assist. He loved solving engineering and building problems for the local community or neighbors that came to him for help, and would never charge them for his services.

From January to October of 1949 Rogers did backgrounds on the strip. He also assisted Raboy on a number of commercial accounts which required detailed Raboy’s superb cover art to The Green Lama #2 showing that the artist would have made a good poster scratchboard work. renderer for the U.S. government in wartime. [©2000 Crossen/Spark.] They worked in Mac’s studio every day from about 9:00 A.M. to around 4:00 P.M., passing the work back and forth between their two art tables. Rogers eventually quit over a dispute with In mid-1967 Mac was diagnosed with cancer. He went into SloanRaboy and moved to Brooklyn in October 1949. It is not known if Ketering, one of the finest cancer hospitals in New York City. UnfortuRaboy subsequently employed any other artists to assist him on Flash nately, the doctors concluded there was little that could be done for him, Gordon. He did eventually teach his daughter Miriam to letter the strip, and a few weeks later he was moved to the Mount Kisco Hospital. Here for which he paid her $10.00 a week. Miriam had inherited some of her he could be closer to family and home. Attendants tried to make him as father’s artistic abilities but never really pursued that interest as a career.

X. The Final Chapter

The Incomparable Art of Mac Raboy comfortable as possible during his final hours. He passed away on December 23, 1967, at the age of 53. His wife Lulu eventually sold the house and moved to Florida, where she passed away in 1975. Mac Raboy was a unique individual, who may have been the slowest artist ever to work in comics. Although speed can be beneficial for any person working in the comics field, it isn’t always the determining factor for one getting hired. Raboy was undoubtedly a true artist at heart, one who had found the kind of work he enjoyed doing in life. Basically, he was a storyteller… a man who loved the idea of being able to tell stories through a series of arranged panels on a page. There was only one way to draw pictures… his way. It may have been slow and meticulous, but he accomplished what he wanted, and made a good living doing it. And he affected the people around him in different ways. People have asked this basic question on many occasions: “Why didn’t Raboy go on to do fine arts?” Today, as we look back over his published efforts in the work he did over a 32-year period, it is easy to see that Raboy did indeed have the overwhelming talent to have made it in the fine arts world. But he lacked one very important thing. He didn’t have the personality which is required for such an endeavor. No, Mac

Raboy was the quiet one. The fellow who sat over in the corner of the room and quietly puffed away on his cigarette and drew beautiful pictures for hours on end. He was also the sensitive one. The one who ripped an entire comic story into pieces because of an editor’s comment. On the other hand, he was also the fellow who could not easily accept compliments from those around him. A strange guy, perhaps, but definitely a talent to behold. He was a person who had strong political feelings about what was happening around him in a world filled with darkness and uncertainty, and he kept those feelings repressed inside for most of his life. He was many different things to many different people who came and went in his life. To us, the collectors and aficionados who save and appreciate the old, yellowing, tattered comics of the 1940s and 1950s, Mac Raboy will always be one of our heroes. Without a doubt, he was an artist who envisioned a special way of drawing comics, quite unlike any other person has done it since. He was truly unique!

These covers for the digest-sized Banner Mysteries (March and April 1945 issues of Crossen/Fact and fiction) front the only two known entries in this series, and Raboy’s only known attempt at doing covers for digest magazines. [©2000 Crossen/Fact and Fiction Publications.]

Lightning Strikes Twice!

One of the earliest Flash Gordon Sunday pages for which original art has turned up to date. This one from Sept. 12, 1948, is done with brush and ink on heavy illustration board. From Roger Hill’s personal collection. [©2000 King Features Syndicate, Inc.]

ROGER HILL is first and foremost a collector and historian of EC Comics history and lore, who occasionally gets inspired to do in-depth research on Golden Age artists and pulp artists who worked during the 1920s through the 1960s. His articles have been published in the CFAAPA, Comic Book Marketplace, and now Alter Ego. His research on the life and career of Mac Raboy has taken nearly three years to complete. At present he is finishing up his duties as art director on a book about Wally Wood, and is still gathering information for a definitive book on the horror comics artists of the 1950s. Anyone having information on pre-Code horror artists should get in touch with Roger at: 2463 Aloma, Wichita, KS 67211. E-mail: ecfanaddicts @lycos.com. He is married, has one son, and lives in Wichita, where he works in the Internet marketing business. Roger Hill.

A MAC RABOY COMIC BOOK COVEROGRAPHY Compiled by Keif A. Fromm 1) America’s Greatest Comics #1-3 (Fawcett) 2) Bulletman #1-3, 5 (Fawcett) 3) Captain Marvel Jr. #1-22, 25-28, 31 (Fawcett) 4) Captain Midnight #9-11, 17, 18 (Fawcett) 5) Dynamic Comics #9 (Harry “A” Chesler) 6) Green Lama #1-8 (Spark Pub.; Prize, #7 on) 7) Master Comics #19-49, 51 (Fawcett) 8) Spy Smasher #2, 6 (Fawcett) 9) Xmas Comics #1-2 (Fawcett)

The Incomparable Art of Mac Raboy

Bob Rogers—

Bob Rogers In The 20th Century! An interview with the artist a.k.a. Rubin Zubofsky about Mac Raboy, Lou Fine, et al. Interview Conducted & Transcribed by Roger Hill [INTERVIEWER’S NOTE: Bob Rogers was born Rubin L. Zubofsky in Brooklyn, New York, on January 15, 1923. Raised in that borough, he attended the High School of Music and Art, graduating in 1941. His exposure to the comics field came quite by chance during the Summer of 1941, when he became the apprentice of a comic book artist who, as will be seen below, has not yet been positively identified. In 1945 Rubin changed his name to Robert (Bob) Rogers. [Bob was the first assistant to work with Mac Raboy at Fawcett. He drew backgrounds for Raboy through most of 1942; and, earlier, he had performed the same service for the great Lou Fine. This information came as a complete surprise to me. While I had known that other artists had inked Fine’s work during the early 1940s, I had never heard that a background man had been employed to help out. Oddly enough, Bob’s wages were paid by Everett M. “Busy” Arnold, publisher of Quality Comics, not by Lou Fine. [I had originally gone looking for Rubin Zubofsky two years ago, hoping to find him and include him in this issue’s article about Mac Raboy. At that time I had absolutely no luck in locating him. Little did I know, at the time, that Rubin had changed his name. As luck would have it, I ran across his son-in-law, Dan Johnson, who, as an agent for Bob, was auctioning off a few comic art originals on eBay. This included a couple of Mac Raboy & Bob Rogers “Captain Marvel Jr.” pages from the early 1940s. The Internet was buzzing with questions. [At the time I remember thinking: Who in the world is Bob Rogers?! I asked around and found that everybody else was asking the same question. No one had ever heard of him! After a few e-mails back and forth between Dan and me, and going back to re-read Jim Steranko’s History of the Comics, it became clear just who Mr. Rogers was, and how important his contribution was to the Golden Age of Comics. [Over the course of the next few months, with Dan and Bob’s help, I was able to learn much about Bob’s career working in the comics. Luckily, Dan Johnson is as inquisitive about his father-in-law’s career as I am. We have been corresponding on a regular basis, sharing information and working to develop a clearer picture of a chronology that Bob put together a few months ago on his life and work. Hopefully, by next issue, we can have all the holes filled in. [During the past seven months I’ve been able to interview Bob Rogers about many different aspects of his long career. This is the first part of my interview with him. Further segments will be presented in ensuing issues of Alter Ego. —ROGER HILL.]

Rubin Zubofsky (later Bob Rogers) working on the last page of the CMJr story “The Case of the Jolly Roger” for Master Comics #35 (cover-date Feb. 1943). The photo was taken in late 1942, just before Bob left for military service. [Photo courtesy of Bob Rogers; art ©2000 DC Comics.]

ROGER HILL: I can’t tell you just how surprised and happy I was to find out that you are, or were, the original Rubin Zubofsky. I was looking for you two years ago at the beginning of my research on this whole Raboy project, and couldn’t find any Zubofskys listed anywhere! After what I had read in Steranko’s History of the Comics about you, and from a letter from [Fawcett editor] Wendell Crowley [published in Alter Ego V1#8], I knew you were one of the key figures in the scheme of things. BOB ROGERS: Rubin Zubofsky… nicknamed Ruby! That is my real name. During the War, my parents “anglosized” it. At some point my mother wrote and told me they had changed the name to Rogers, and I thought, “Gee whiz, I’d like to go along with the family.” But I decided not to do it until after I got out of the service or I’d screw up my records. So I waited until after the War. RH: You were using the nickname “Ruby” at Fawcett, right? You know, it was originally believed that Mac Raboy had changed his name from Rabinowitz to Raboy. ROGERS: I guess a lot of erroneous data gets thrown around out there. It’s funny how little bits and pieces have come back into my recollection that I had forgotten about. I only recently remembered that I had shortened my name to “Zubof” for Fawcett! [laughs] I even went out and got myself a separate Social Security card which said “Rubin Zubof,” which was legal then. RH: We’ve been discussing by e-mail the “mystery artist” who helped you get started in the comic book business as his apprentice; but so far we haven’t been able to come up with a name, right? You seem to think it was someone called Myron. And your son-in-law Dan and I suggested to you that it might have been an artist by the name of Myron Strauss. ROGERS: I tell you, this has been the damnedest thing. My memory at this stage is not what it used to be—and unfortunately, during those years when I first started, and up until the time I came back from the ser-

—In The 20th Century!

vice, I never kept any records. That’s because I was on salary. It wasn’t until I started freelancing that I worked up a portfolio and actually started saving a bunch of this stuff which originally meant nothing to me. Matter of fact, the first thing I did after I came back from the War was, I found this huge pile of mint comic books that I had brought home in quantities when I worked at Fawcett—and I threw them the hell out! [laughter] RH: Don’t feel bad, Bob. A lot of the other guys who worked in comics back then did the same thing. ROGERS: You know, Roger, the only thing I have that this “mystery artist” and myself worked on is one comic. The comic was Stars and Stripes #5, dated December 1941. The feature inside that we did was called “Liberty Scouts.” RH: And you assisted him on this work? ROGERS: Oh yeah. I drew the backgrounds. We also did the cover. I saved a copy of it. Well, actually, I excerpted it. I destroyed it, and just saved the cover and the feature we did. I saved dozens of books—not the books, just the work that I did. I kept them in a portfolio so I could have samples of my work to show around. RH: How did you actually meet this “mystery artist”? ROGERS: Well, it’s a funny thing. I went to the High School of Music and Art, and that’s where I graduated from. I was dating a very lovely girl and she said a friend of hers was in the business of doing something called “comic books” and he was looking for an assistant. And I wanted to get into the field very, very badly, so I jumped at it. RH: You wanted to get into the comic book field? ROGERS: I wanted to get into the art field. Whatever aspect it was. So that opened the door for me. I became a combination background man, cleanup artist, and gofer. That was around 1941, so that date we’ve got for sure. RH: And how long after your graduation do you think it was before you started assisting this fellow? ROGERS: Don’t know. So now we have from January until the end of 1941, and around that time I went to Fawcett. Now, what transpired here was that this “mystery artist” got his draft notice. So he said that a friend of his also needed an assistant, and he thought I would be able to get a salary there. And that’s how I got hooked up with Lou Fine. RH: So you began working with Lou Fine on some of the Quality Comics features? ROGERS: Yes. I made the enormous salary of $20 a week. I worked on a whole series of pages and stories with Lou. This was before Pearl Harbor. RH: Was this at the time after Lou left Iger and Eisner [comics shop]?

This cover on which Bob Rogers worked is signed by “Myron Strauss,” so it seems highly likely he’s the “Myron” for whom Bob first worked in the comic book field. [©2000 the respective copyright holder.]

ROGERS: Yes. He was no longer with them. He was now set up in his own studio apartment in Tudor City, Manhattan. It’s a big complex, and there was just the two of us. That’s why I never met any of the other people. It was just a little studio room with a little kitchenette behind the door and a little sleeper couch. That was it. RH: Do you remember specific comic titles that you were working on with Lou? ROGERS: Hit Comics! RH: Right. And what about Crack Comics? ROGERS: Yes. I have lots of the “Black Condor” stories that I worked on. RH: Did you do the inking on these jobs with Lou? ROGERS: I did the drawing for all the backgrounds. In other words, that’s where the technique I developed started. The artist would draw the figures and then he would indicate to me with a few hen scratches what he wanted in the background. He might indicate something like a street scene behind this figure. Of course, the script might indicate a scene with a car coming, or Nazis coming down the road in a jeep. So he might show me where the jeep is supposed to be. I’d put in the jeep and he’d put in the Nazis. The main figure would be at the front of the panel, and I’d have to fill in the rest. RH: Now, what I’m curious about is the penciling and inking stages of

Bob Rogers— an early “Captain Marvel Jr.” page that Mac Raboy and I worked on. And for the first time, after all of these many years, I was just looking at this thing, trying to identify what I did on it, and I suddenly realized there was penciled lettering by Mac Raboy at the top of the page. And it said, “Ruby, put in capes and robes on neck. Finish old man and officer,” etc. So apparently we were behind schedule again and I needed to finish it off. Then I found another negative of a splash page which had a huge blank panel, and you can barely make out what appears to be pencil scratchings on it. Up at the top you can just barely make out some pencil notations that say, “Bob, ignore this first panel.” And right next to it is another notation that says, “I wish I could.” [laughs]

A partial remnant of the splash panel from “The Ghost Town Mystery” in Master Comics #33 (Dec. 1942). Raboy drew the vulture, while Bob Rogers provided the ghost town. If you can tell that two different artists worked on this panel, you’re a better man than we are, Gunga Din! Repro’d from photostats of original art. [©2000 DC Comics.]

this progression. Was there a set order about who did what first? ROGERS: It could go either way. Either they would just outline where they were going to put figures in—in a sense, working against my backgrounds—or they would do the figures first, which they felt were more important. And then I would put the backgrounds behind them. They would ink the figures, and I would ink the backgrounds. You see, all of my artwork, from the time I started in this business, until the time I finished, was my own work. Nobody ever inked mine; I inked theirs. Lots of times I had to do figure inking when we were trying to meet a tight deadline, but nobody ever inked my backgrounds. RH: Okay, but wouldn’t there be times when the pages would come back to you after it was completely penciled and you would wind up inking the whole page? ROGERS; No. No, I never inked entire pages, or any of the lead features I worked on. The only time I ever did was for things like love stories for Fawcett, much later on. Although, I just came across a negative photostat that I had kept of

RH: Getting back to your work with Lou Fine, do you recall just how long you worked with him at Tudor City?

ROGERS: That’s what I’ve been trying to determine. I know it can’t exceed a year. I would say something like eight months. I’ve been trying to nail it down. RH: What was it that brought an end to that working relationship? ROGERS: The time came when I felt—and Lou agreed—that I needed a raise. So I approached the publisher for a raise and he turned me down. RH: That must have been “Busy” Arnold, publisher of Quality Comics. I’ve got to tell you, Bob, that most of the older artists I’ve talked to about Arnold over the years thought he was one of the most generous publishers around in those days. He always paid bonuses to his people, and he always put on the most lavish Christmas parties every year. ROGERS: That’s amazing. He wouldn’t give me $5 for my raise. RH: So you talked to Arnold and he turned you down?

ROGERS: No, I don’t remember how it came about. Whether Lou spoke up for me, or someone approached him for me, I didn’t actually do it myself, so Lou said, “Well, I don’t blame you, you’re well worth it.” He told me that what I should do is see if I could pick up some extra work. So I got together a few examples of what I had done. I wish I still had them. You know, the books where I had done “The Ray” and “The Spirit,” and all the others. I took these samples around, and one of the places I went to was Fawcett. A fellow there by the name of Ed Herron interviewed me, and he looked at the work I showed him, and he said, “Wait here.” He went inside and another fellow came out and said, “How’d you like to work for Fawcett?” He said, “How much are you earning?” and I was real sharp and said, “$20 a week.” Then he offered what was almost double that. $35 a week! I thought I’d died and gone to heaven! I mean, I was looking for a $5 raise. Thirty-five… holy smoke, now I could get married! [laughs] So the guy says, “Would you mind coming inside and drawing something for us?” I said, “No, not at all.” And so they took me into the art department, which was quite large, with artists all lined up with their tables. They sat me down at a table and gave me something to draw, and I don’t remember what the hell it was, Bob Rogers and editor John Beardsley in the Fawcett offices, 1942. but I drew it. Then they talked a little [Photo courtesy of Bob Rogers.] bit among themselves and said,

—In The 20th Century!

“You’re hired.” So that’s how that came to pass. RH: I believe Ed Herron was Fawcett’s first comics editor. Another guy around there was Otto Binder, one of the greatest and most prolific writers who worked in comics. ROGERS: Otto was a fixture around that office. He was a hell of a nice guy. RH: And you must’ve met his brother Jack, though I know you never actually worked with Jack. At that time he would have been running his own sweatshop studio over in New Jersey, supplying Fawcett with artwork. So what happened next, after your interview and success at landing a job at Fawcett? ROGERS: I went back to Lou and told him what happened, and Lou wished me the best of luck, and off I went. I think I started the following week. RH: Tell me about your first day working at Fawcett. What do you remember about that? ROGERS: Well, I’d already met Mac, and he was very nice to me. RH: Oh, so they had called in Mac and introduced you to him after they decided to hire you? ROGERS: Oh, sure. I’m sure I was introduced to many people during that first day or week, but it was all kind of a whirl, you know? But I was only focused on this one artist I was to work with and hoping we’d get along. And Mac was as charming as can be. His art table was next to the window but… and now this is where my memory is playing tricks on me. At one time—I don’t remember how it came to be—we were working in the editorial office. Just the two of us, with our tables in there. It was just around the corner from the art department. We actually started off working in the main art department. I remember that the art department looked like a long rectangle, with everybody facing forward, and we were at the head of this room. I was facing the wall and Mac was facing the room, because he was left-handed. So the sun, the light, was always coming in over his shoulder. His back was to the wall, facing the roomful of artists. We were in rows; we were in the very front row.

RH: What kind of a working process did you have with Mac? ROGERS: We would discuss the script and then we’d go to work on it. I would lay out the pages, which is to say, I’d render the outline of the page. Then Mac would break that down into panels, working with the script. Then we’d proceed from there. Now, if there was a panel to be done that was mostly background, I’d get that done first. Then Mac would put his drawings in after that. He would do only the figures.

Then I’d tell them I needed the photostats shot to this exact size. Now we’d cut out the photostat and glue it onto the page, and then Mac would draw around it. [laughs] In other words, if it was a horse— [laughs] I remember one panel had a horse in it, and it was in about six pieces, with drawing in between, because he didn’t have time to draw the whole horse. [laughs] RH: Did the photostat department shoot these stats for you quickly, or did it take some time to have them processed?

RH: I know from talking with others who were there that Fawcett had available photostats of Captain Marvel Jr. figures for you guys to use where needed to paste in and save a lot of time. Tell me about that, if you would.

ROGERS: Well, this was an in-house set-up. As I recall, Fawcett occupied four floors there in the Paramount Building. And one of them, besides being a very large library—or morgue, as we used to call it—was the photostat department. And that was their main purpose.

ROGERS: What happened was that we would get notoriously late. I mean, notoriously. And without Mac’s figures, I was helpless. Without figures in your panel, your background can go blow a horn. So what we would do is—Mac would say, “Bring me up such-and-such pages, from such-and-such stories,” which I’d then go get from the library. The art pages. And he would select figures from these pages and I would go dashing down to the photostat department. And then, using a pantograph, I would get the figures to the size we needed for placement in the panels.

RH: Would your photostats usually come toward the tail end of the story? In other words, as you and Mac progressed through the work, and the deadline got closer and closer, did you usually wind up only using stats on the last few pages that you were trying to finish up? ROGERS: Okay, let’s say it was a ten-page story. If we were to fall behind, it could start from the first page on; it could be anywhere. Toward the end of the work, the last pages were practically 50% photostats!

Bob Rogers In The 20th Century!

RH: And was this work procedure happening quite a bit? ROGERS: Quite often. RH: It was only you and Mac, right? No other artists?

department. I just have that feeling. Beck was there every day. He was a workaholic just like the rest of us. [laughs] RH: You and Mac got along pretty well together working at Fawcett, didn’t you?

ROGERS: No, just us.

ROGERS: Right.

RH: What about a fellow by the name of Al McLean? Do you remember him working on “Junior” at all?

RH: Did you ever work on any of the “Dr. Voodoo” stories with him? ROGERS: No, never. As a matter of fact, recently, while I was digging through some of the materials I saved over the years, I came across a bunch of photostats of “Dr. Voodoo” panels. Fullsize panels with the lettering. [ED. NOTE: See preceding article.]

ROGERS: No. Doesn’t ring a bell with me. RH: So there was nobody else there who the company could turn to and say, “Go help these guys out”? ROGERS: No. The two of us quite often worked overtime to try and meet a deadline. We were on salary, and we got free dinners, too. We’d call down and ask for dinner to be sent up. We couldn’t take the time to go get it. [laughs] It was a riot. It was a panic. And they were as liberal as could be… the Fawcetts. They were one of the finest companies I ever worked for. I remember Al Allard saying to me, “Look, you don’t have to ever ask me for time off. If your work is up to date, just go.”

RH: Did Mac Raboy ever discuss influences that other artists had on him or his work over the years? ROGERS: No. Never a word. RH: Did he ever talk about the comics or newspaper strips? About someday wanting to do a syndicated strip of his own, or of wanting to take over the Flash Gordon strip some day? Another early example of pure Raboy— reproduced from photostatted random panels from “Dr. Voodoo” stories found recently by Bob Rogers. [©2000 DC Comics.]

RH: Yes, Al Allard was the art director there, so he was the man you and Mac answered to. And did he report to Will Lieberson, or…? ROGERS: Either to Will, or upstairs to the Fawcett brothers themselves. RH: Let’s go back to Otto Binder for a minute. Wasn’t he writing most of the “Captain Marvel Jr.” stories? ROGERS: He wrote quite a few of them, yes. RH: Did he used to come in and talk to you guys about the stories? ROGERS: Oh, sure. I’d hear all of the literary conversations, you know, especially for that brief period of time when Mac and I worked in the editorial office itself. RH: Did you guys have weekly meetings to discuss details of the stories or characters, or in general about the way things were going? ROGERS: On a regular basis, no. On an irregular basis, yes. Sure. RH: And would these meetings involve more than just you, Mac, and Otto? ROGERS: No. Just us. Or, Mac and I, and whoever the other writer was. There were lots of other writers. RH: Did anybody in the Fawcett management structure ever give you and Mac any feedback on how well the comics were selling? ROGERS: It would be common talk on the floor. You know, we’d constantly hear how this title or that title was doing. Shop talk. RH: Where were C.C. Beck and his immediate art staff located in relation to you and Mac in this big art room? ROGERS: I’ve often thought about that. I have an unclear memory about that. It seems to me that some of his people worked in the art department. Then I seem to feel that he had his own office, his own

ROGERS: No.

RH: It’s amazing to me that Mac never discussed his interest in art with you, or apparently anyone else I’ve ever talked to. Maybe it was just a job with him. A way to earn money? ROGERS: I don’t know. This was a guy I became pretty friendly with, and yet he always stood away a bit. You could go just so far with him, and then he’d shut down. RH: Tell me, Bob, did you ever meet a man working at Fawcett by the name of Bernard Baily? ROGERS: Bernie Baily? I sure did. Isn’t he the guy that had the sweatshop? Jerry Iger had a shop, too. You know how they worked them, don’t you? They would hire these kids right out of high school and pay them peanuts. As soon as the kid would get to the point where he started asking for more money, they would pull out the record books and show them to him. They’d say, “We’re not making any money. We’re just barely breaking even.” They had two sets of books. Then, if the kid insisted on getting more money, they would kick him out and get another kid. RH: When you were working with Mac, did he ever discuss “Captain Marvel Jr.” with you—perhaps where he might have been getting bored with working on the same character all the time? Did he ever act like he wanted to do something different? Did he ever talk about become a “fine artist” and trying to get away from the constant deadline pressure of comics? ROGERS: No. No, he never complained about that. I think he was very content, in a way, with what he was doing. We would discuss very actively as to what the work was at the time, or what the scenario should be. Or we discussed what kind of setting we should put these characters into, and with a degree of enthusiasm. I enjoyed my stay up there and I felt he did, too. He was not unhappy at all. He was very pleased when a job was done, and he would just sit there for a moment and look at it, with that cigarette burning his fingers, you know. He’d smoke them right down to the skin. [R.H.’s interview with Bob Rogers will continue in the next issue of A/E.]

no. 65

Marc

Swayze C.C.

Beck William

Woolfolk Joe

Simon

Fawcett Collectors of America

Fawcett-To-Go Jennifer T. Go FCA is pleased to remind all and sundry that C.C. Beck’s privately circulated and previously unpublished autobiography, “Preacher’s Son,” is among the features in TwoMorrows’ STREETWISE, a deluxe trade paperback compilation of autobiographical stories by the industry’s top artists, which was published in July. Edited by FCA’s P.C. Hamerlinck, Beck’s amazing story is accompanied therein by over thirty illustrations, some of them rarely seen before. A must for Beck and Fawcett fans! If you didn’t run across Streetwise at your local shop, see the ad elsewhere in this issue! C.C. Beck—“Preacher’s Son.” Also from TwoMorrows is Jon B. Cooke’s COMIC BOOK ARTIST COLLECTION, VOLUME ONE, compiling the first three sold-out issues of Comic Book Artist plus fifty pages of new material and a special color section. Of special interest to FCA readers is P.C. Hamerlinck’s article from CBA #1, “Can Lightning Strike Twice?,” which revisits the return of Captain Marvel to comics in the 1970s and C.C. Beck’s debacle with DC that coincided with it. See ad elsewhere in this issue of Alter Ego! Fans of FCA and artist Marcus D. Swayze (our featured columnist who graces our pages each issue with his memoirs) will want to obtain a copy of MEN OF MYSTERY COMICS #21 from AC Comics. This issue, dedicated to the great work of Marc Swayze, contains excellent 1940s Fawcett comics reprints of Spy Smasher, Ibis the Invincible, Mr. Scarlet, Bulletman, and a Swayze-drawn Phantom Eagle story. Marc wrote a special preface and included a recent rendering of Mickey Malone, boy pilot. P.C. Captain Hamerlinck’s tribute portrait of Marc is reproMarvel by duced, and P.C. contributed a brief article on Alex Ross. the classic Fawcett title America’s Greatest [©2000 DC Comics. (Fawcett reprints have also appeared Comics.] in past issues of Men of Mystery and in other AC titles such as Golden Age Greats and Western Movie Hero, reviving the old Fawcett title Western Hero. AC has also published stories of Nyoka, Tom Mix, Don Winslow, Rocky Lane, Minute-Man, Bob Steele, Commando Yank, Lash LaRue, Captain Video,

Hopalong Cassidy, Gabby Hayes, and many more Fawcett stars. Send $1.50 for the current AC catalogue to: Paragon Publications, P.O. Box 521216, Longwood, FL 32752-1216 or visit AC’s website at http://members@aol.com/GAReprints/reprints.htm Television’s Captain Marvel, actor JACKSON BOSTWICK, has teamed up with FCA’s P.C. Hamerlinck on an exciting project— guaranteed to be treasured by all generations of Captain Marvel fans! Keep watching the pages of FCA for more information and updates! Comics legend WILL EISNER reports to FCA that his 1983 interview with C.C. Beck (originally published in Kitchen Sink’s Will Eisner’s Spirit Magazine #4) will be reprinted in Mr. Eisner’s upcoming book Shop Talk, to be published in 2001. BULLETMAN & BULLETGIRL, Fawcett’s classic characters from the Golden Age, are back again—on CD-ROM! Now you can read and enjoy those difficult-to-find issues of Bulletman, now available (both in PC- and Macintosh-compatible versions) on two different, reasonably-priced DC-ROM volumes. Each CD contains five complete issues of Bulletman—every page, including the covers and the ads. The high-resolution images are clear, crisp, and in their original full color. For more information write to: ComicsOnCDRom, P.O. Box 46454, Las Vegas, NV 89114, or visit http://www.comicsoncdrom.com G.B. Love, longtime comics fan and the former publisher of the well-known fanzine The Rocket’s Blast ComiCollector (RBCC) is selling several pieces of Don Newton artwork by the late DON NEWTON from the sketch of the RBCC and other publications. Newton began as good Captain. a popular fan artist who went on to illustrate The Courtesy of G.B. Marvel Family for DC Comics. Serious collectors Love. [©2000 DC Comics.] can contact Mr. Love at GBL39013@webtv.net Your number one source for the Marvel Family on the Internet is WALT GROGAN’S MARVEL FAMILY WEB (http://shazam.imgine.com/). Walt’s excellent site contains fun features, great information and artwork from the Golden Age to today, plus all the latest news—such as the new Captain Marvel/Billy Batson action-figure set, or where Captain Marvel will appear in an upcoming DC Comics title, and links to the Marvel Family Web’s sister sites: FCA (http://shazam.imgine.com/FCA) and Jerry Ordway (www.jerryordway.com). (Note: Watch for the forthcoming FCA Ordway interview.) There are also other links to various Marvel Familyrelated sites, such as Mark Luebker’s Captain Marvel Gallery (http://members.tripod.com~~~mluebker/cm gallery.html).

Fawcett-To-Go

With no current, regularly published Captain Marvel series, it is encouraging to see DC Comics keeping the “franchise” alive with several top-notch Captain Marvel items being produced this year by Big Red Cheese fan and FCA supporter ALEX ROSS (successful artist and creator of the magnificent Captain Marvel Kingdom Come statue), including a collector’s plate, a full-figure poster, and his exciting tabloid-sized project with writer Paul Dini, Shazam: Power of Hope. For all the latest Ross news, see http://www.alexrossart.com/ross.htm FCA’s P.C. Hamerlinck recently contacted DC Comics’ reprint department, citing several published errors in text pieces plus incorrect credits in their Shazam Archives, Volume Two book, as well as in their Millennium Edition - Whiz Comics #2 reprint. While P.C. is pleased to see the release of any Fawcett reprints by DC, he was disturbed to see all the errors regarding the history of Fawcett Comics. In the foreword for Volume Two, P.C. corrected several oversights by author R.C. Harvey. P.C. reported that Joe Millard, Manly Wade Wellman, and Rod Reed (also an editor) became the chief Captain Marvel writers after original writer Bill Parker left for military service. Otto Binder came on as editor at this time, before becoming one of Cap’s most prolific writers. Beck was still handling all the art duties of the Whiz Comics Captain Marvel stories that appear in Vol. Two; artist Pete Costanza was just drawing the Golden Arrow and Ibis the Invincible features during the time period of these reprints. P.C. also corrects Harvey on the fact that artist Mac Swayze, while on the Captain Marvel staff at Fawcett, was never Beck’s “assistant.” Swayze was one of the few artists who did the job from start to finish, not involving the commonly used assembly-line method of producing comics in the Golden Age. Also, Swayze had no involvement in any of the Captain Marvel/Spy Smasher crossover stories reprinted in Vol. Two. P.C. also disagrees with Harvey’s opinion that early Captain Marvel artwork by Beck did not look distinctively different from the Superman artwork of that period. P.C. feels that Beck always drew the feature in simple, pure cartoon style (as Beck notes in his autobiography, “Preacher’s Son”); and, even as Beck’s style matured over the years and got tighter, it retained its original clean, cartoon style. P.C. also found errors in the Archives Vol. Two contributors page. Beck did not draw the first Lance O’Casey tale in Whiz Comics. Also, while the last issue of Marvel Family (#89) had a January 1954 cover date, Fawcett actually discontinued its comics line in 1953. A statement that after C.C. Beck quit drawing DC’s Shazam! he “remained in touch with DC and continued to suggest plot ideas” is not entirely accurate: While C.C. occasionally wrote to DC after he left Shazam!, Hamerlinck was told by Beck that his opinions generally fell upon deaf ears; he had nothing to do with suggesting plot ideas after he left; he did send DC one script he wrote towards the end of his tenure at DC, but it was returned six months later, completely rewritten, and he refused to illustrate it (the whole affair is documented in “Preacher’s Son” as well as in the “Can Lightning Strike Twice?” article from Comic Book Artist #1). In Robert Greenberger’s foreword in DC’s Millennium Edition Whiz Comics #2, he suggests the reason Superman’s publisher sued Fawcett was because “Captain Marvel could fly, had extraordinary strength, a secret identity, and a bald arch-nemesis.” Most comics historians will agree with P.C. Hamerlinck, who feels the motive behind National’s lawsuit was that Fawcett’s hero was outselling their hero, as there were scores of other heroes at that time with extraordinary strength and a secret identity. Superman and Captain Marvel began to fly around the same time, and Sivana appeared years before Lex Luthor. There were several errors in the credits for this Millennium Edition. P.C. says DC erroneously did not credit Bill Parker, who created and wrote all of the features that appeared in the first issue of Whiz, nor

did they credit Captain Marvel artist C.C. Beck as the artist who also drew the first stories of Spy Smasher and Ibis the Invincible therein. Also, it was Pete Costanza who drew the first Golden Arrow story. During P.C.’s contact with DC, he learned they plan to reprint “Billy Batson’s Xmas” (from Captain Marvel Adventures #69, February 1947) for a future project. (DC previously reprinted the story in a Limited Collector’s Edition from the 1970s called Christmas with the Super-heroes.) FCA’s ongoing mission is devoted to presenting and preserving a thorough history of Fawcett comics—Captain Marvel and his family of characters—and to the talented artists, writers, and editors from the Golden Age who created them (with occasional coverage of later versions of Captain Marvel). We’d like to hear from you. If you have any comments or have something that you wish to contribute, contact P.C. Hamerlinck c/o TwoMorrows—also, Roy Thomas will forward letters of comment on FCA. Thank you for making FCA a successful part of Alter Ego. —Jennifer Go Contributing Editor

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Fawcett Collectors of America were quick to let the local editor know how they felt… and the paper was just as hasty in passing the word on to the syndicate, and thus to the creator… especially if it was something somebody didn’t like. But comic books? There may have been some publishers who encouraged reader comments, but I don’t remember anything like that in the Fawcett works. I guess the policy was: “So you bought it, you must like it!” No… that shouldn’t be said. Surely the paper squeeze had something to do with it. In trying to prepare this material as accurately as possible, I have turned to the records and comic books I kept of the period.

[FCA EDITOR’S NOTE: From 1941-53 Marcus D. Swayze was an artist for Fawcett Publications, first drawing Captain Marvel and later designing Mary Marvel. Marc’s ongoing professional memoirs have been a feature of FCA since #54. Last issue he related how, with standing assignments to draw Phantom Eagle for Fawcett and the Flyin’ Jenny newspaper strip for the Bell Syndicate in his pocket, he returned home in the South. Immediately he began to think of ways to revise the comic book aviator, a regular feature in the monthly Wow Comics.—PCH.]

I wasn’t a stranger to Wow Comics, nor it to me. I had done a Mary Marvel story and cover or two back in ’42, and a one-pager featuring Mary in Wow #28. Wow #29 I don’t have, but am reasonably certain I did the art on a Mr. Scarlet story in that issue. I can’t find Wow #30, but a scribbled note here says I drew the “Black Mace” for that issue. I am not certain of that.

nly after I had come to terms with illustrious plans for The Phantom Eagle did work on the script at hand begin. It was pretty much like when I first stepped inside the Fawcett offices some years earlier… bursting with the “I’m gonna show ’em” attitude. I was bound and determined to have it known what a “real” artist could do for their number one comic book character, that big guy in the red suit… that… that Captain Marvel feller. I had gone so far as to sketch “improvements”… new angles, dramatic lighting, fancy shading… before good old country common sense came to the rescue. And a good thing! I might have “improved” my way back into the milk business. [ED. NOTE: Swayze was driving a milk wagon when he got his first job in comics.] You see, I hadn’t been employed to make improvements, but to keep things going exactly as they had been. Now, here with The Phantom Eagle in 1944, once again straight thinking was struggling to overcome the tendency to overdo. I was having second thoughts about The Phoenix Squadron, the gang of young flying pals who supported The Phantom Eagle. The idea that they be phased out of the picture, or wiped out in a single stroke, like in a dogfight or enemy bombing, was only my personal opinion. What about the Wow Comics readers who might be fond of the Squadron? That was just it with those comic books! You never knew what the readers thought… or even if there were any readers! With a newspaper feature, people

Marc says the lettering on this Phantom Eagle story he drew for Wow Comics #32 (Jan. 1945) is his, indicating that the art was done before he left New York for the South. It was recently reprinted in AC Comics’ Men of Mystery #21. [Phantom Eagle ©2000 DC Comics.]

Wow Comics #31 contains “Hills of Araby,” the lettering, with the exception of the title panel, unquestionably that of my sister. The lettering of the Vikings story in Wow #32 is my own, indicating that the art was done before I left the city. Really no big deal, is it? Apparently the editors were maintaining a backlog of production-ready art so as to shuffle the stories to maintain variety within the books. I can see where that might have been of concern to a serious collector-historian, especially when the titles were occasionally changed after the art was completed and prior to publication. To get the show on the road I decided to shelve all thoughts of immediate changes to The Phantom Eagle and get some pictures on the paper. Consequently, it was at least a year before the Cometplane was fully redesigned… before the Squadron began to disappear. Not so with Jerry Sloan. I thought Mickey Malone’s little planedesigner friend, who spent most of her appearances waving “goodbye” in the early panels and “welcome back” in the last, was an important plus for the strip, and I could feature her more without upsetting any applecarts—or editors. So away we flew with The Phantom Eagle… for the time being! Toward the end of the year I received a call from Russell Keaton [creator of the Flyin’ Jenny newspaper comic strip]. He first expressed pleasure at the way I had been handling the Flyin’ Jenny Sunday page;

We Didn’t Know… It Was the Golden Age!

then he explained that a physical condition that had been troubling him was not responding to treatment, and his doctor had advised that he enter a hospital in Memphis for further tests. He asked if I would take over the daily strip art “for a couple of weeks.” Russell had received his discharge from the Army Air Corps several months earlier, and had resumed drawing the daily. I was surprised to learn of his medical problem and assured him that I would take care of his request on the condition that no money be involved. His was not an unwelcome request. The turn of events, unfortunate though they were, afforded me an opportunity to return a favor to this friend whose guidance and encouragement had meant so much to me. In a week or two I was advised by Russell’s wife that his illness was more serious than had been thought, and more tests would be necessary. After a month in the hospital he was removed to his home in Corinth. A week later my friend was dead. It takes things like that to remind us that the Golden Age was not so Golden for some… and I suppose we should be reminded… all Americans should. This was wartime. The cancer that took the life of Russell Keaton was said to have been caused by a parachute belt worn when he was an Air Corps flight instructor. I assured Mrs. Keaton that I would continue doing both the daily and Sunday of Flyin’ Jenny as long as it was necessary. But as the days went by I had to recommend that someone else be obtained to do both. I suggested the help of writer Glenn Chaffin and the Bell Syndicate. She and her attorney requested that I meet them in Memphis regarding the future of the feature. I didn’t want Flyin’ Jenny. I viewed it as an absolute future… a lifetime… of drawing another’s brainchild. That wasn’t the life I wanted before me. My goal was a syndicate feature, yes… but one of my own concept, my writing, my characters, my art. And somehow I was confident that it was in the cards for me. Nevertheless, I went to Memphis. And nevertheless, I ended up accepting a Bell Syndicate contract to draw Flyin’ Jenny… both the daily and Sunday. There is something that needs to be clarified right here regarding that agreement. Somewhere, I believe I have read that I never accepted payment for drawing Flyin’ Jenny. That was the case during the illness of Russell Keaton, but the contract with Bell was a different matter… strictly business. I accepted the contract because I thought it was the right thing to do. But the right thing is not always the best thing… or the most profitable. The additional workload, more than I had ever wanted or anticipated, had effects beyond the drawing board. The “good life” to me was one of a reasonable balance between work and pleasurable activities. I was seeing the latter shrink. Marc Swayze on guitar and Rod Reed on the harmonica, in the 1940s. (Originally published in FCA #57.)

It was disturbing that there would be less time for the “syndicate tries,” those

answers to my insistence that there was a syndicate out there somewhere, just waiting for me. I felt a certain indebtedness toward those efforts. Through them, and my determination to strike the right chord with a syndicate, I had developed a variety of art styles, from raw cartoony to rather intricate illustrative. The alternative would have been to work in the same style throughout a career… or life! Sound funny? Many artists have done just that! And it wasn’t exactly “all for naught.” Marty Guy, detective, The Great Guy, had been accepted by the New York Star newspaper. The outcome of that venture was, as Walt Kelly put it, the inability to come to agreement on terms and direction of the strip. The inability was mine, and I don’t think there was any problem as far as the terms were concerned. It was the “direction” clause that broke down the wagon. Or my stupidity. You see, the Star had a reputation of being a liberal publication. I say “reputation” because I didn’t read the Star. When there was evidence that the Star expected what I considered excessive editorial control over my story material, I objected. I can see where enough of this could lead to someone saying something like, “Oh, well… to hell with it”… at about the same time I was saying it. Stupid? Sounds like I was, doesn’t it? But when I think on it I remind myself of a favorite remark my Uncle Bright used to make: “Things generally turn out all right.” And they do—they did in the case of The Great Guy. Marc felt Jerry was “an important plus” That tight art style and strict for The Phantom Eagle strip. Here’s a demand for story rewrites… 1999 drawing of the two of them. maybe I was better off just [New art ©2000 Marc Swayze; being stupid! Phantom Eagle ©2000 DC Comics.] Meanwhile, things were happening up the road… around New York City, that is. Wendell Crowley had joined the Fawcett Comics editorial staff. Wendell, as mastermind of the Binder Shop, was credited with having arranged the most effective assembly line system in the business. It was fitting, I thought, that he be on the Fawcett payroll. About that time Rod Reed left the Fawcett corral. Rod, executive editor of the comics department, had reported for military service, was rejected and, instead of returning to his old chair, turned up as editor of the musicians’ publication, Downbeat. I pay special mention to these two because they were my friends the rest of their lives. In the Golden Age we shared a sincere interest in what we were doing… comics… but I think a secondary bond may have been a common competitive nature. Someone was heard to exclaim one day in a bowling alley: “Those guys over in the next lane are out for blood!” It didn’t mean we were all that good. We just talked louder. [MARC SWAYZE’s memories of the Golden Age of Comics will continue in the next edition of FCA.]

Joe Simon—The FCA Interview

Joe Simon The FCA INTERVIEW

by John R. Cochran [ED. NOTE: Joe Simon, comic book creator, artist, businessman— and one half of the legendary comic book art team of the ’40s and ’50s, Simon & Kirby—was interviewed in early 1998 in New York City. The interview was conducted by New York-based writer John R. Cochran, with questions supplied by FCA editor P.C. Hamerlinck.] JOHN R. COCHRAN: The Fawcett Simon & Kirby work consisted of the interior of Captain Marvel Adventures #1, 1941, and the first Mr. Scarlet story from Wow Comics #1, 1940. Did you do any other work for Fawcett? JOE SIMON: No. JC: How did your work for Fawcett come about? Did Fawcett approach you and Kirby, or did you go to them looking for freelance work? Do you remember to whom you talked at the Fawcett offices? SIMON: I knew John Beardsley before he became an editor at Fawcett. He was from Connecticut. We used to hang out together, and he had done some work for me. One day he called me up at Timely Comics (I was doing Captain America at the time), and told me he was now an editor at Fawcett Publications. He asked me to come down to his office and talk to him and Al Allard about doing a book for them. Their offices were in the Paramount Building on Broadway near 42nd Street—Timely was on 42nd Street between 8th and 9th Avenues—so I just walked over there and had a meeting with them. I met with art director Al Allard and editor Ed Herron. Allard reminded me of Beardsley, except Allard was more well-off and he had a Hollywood haircut and Hollywood personality. Herron had just been assigned as editor of a new book, Captain Marvel Adventures, featuring their successful character from Whiz Comics. Their problem was they had one week to get the first issue of Captain Marvel Adventures to the printers. Jack Kirby lived in Brooklyn and I lived in Elmhurst, Queens. Jack and I got a hotel room around the corner from where we were doing Captain America. We just stayed in that room and worked until we finished the book—which we finished within the week.

entirely different direction. So we just referred to copies of Whiz when drawing Captain Marvel. I never worked with a model sheet—they just weren’t available. JC: Did you ever meet or run into any of the Fawcett artists: C.C. Beck, Marc Swayze, Mac Raboy, Pete Costanza? SIMON: I didn’t know Beck during his Fawcett days. I knew him later on in the ’50s when he was out of comics after Fawcett Comics folded. I gave Beck the first “Silver Spider” story (which was originally called “Spiderman”) to pencil. It was those pages that Jack Kirby took to Stan Lee that became the seed for Lee’s Spider-Man. We used to call Beck “Charlie,” since that was how he introduced himself to us. Jack and I were doing Young Romance and Black Magic when he came over to do some work for us. Mac Raboy did a couple of things for me—I wanted to get him to do more. Otto Binder, brother of Jack Binder, wrote some stories for me—a very prolific writer. I don’t remember Swayze or Costanza. JC: Who were your artistic influences?

JC: Did you know Ed Herron prior to your meeting him at the Fawcett offices?

SIMON: I’d name Hal Foster, Alex Raymond, and Milton Caniff as artistic influences, as well as sports cartoonists Willard Mullins and Burris Kenkins, Jr.

SIMON: Yes. I started Herron in the comic business by hiring him at Fox. It was later alleged that he had not paid his taxes and he had to flee the country.

JC: What comic book accomplishments are you most proud of?

JC: Were you and Kirby already familiar with Captain Marvel and his C.C. Beck-drawn stories from Whiz Comics before you took the job with Fawcett? When drawing Captain Marvel #1, what was your reference material? Character model sheets, or just copies of Whiz Comics? SIMON: Kirby and I were aware of Captain Marvel, but we weren’t that familiar with his stories and artwork. It was different from our work—more of a cartoon—simplified drawing—very, very well done. It went off on a different track—the style was much more whimsical than what Jack and I were doing. We tried to make our villains very horrific, while Beck’s style was just more whimsical. Jack and I were going in an

SIMON: I’m probably most proud of Captain America. I’m also proud that Kirby and I were the only entity in comics who had created more than one financial hit. We had Captain America, Boy Commandos, Sandman, Manhunter, Black Magic, and, the biggest of all, the romance books. JC: Any final comments, looking back at the brief Simon & Kirby Fawcett output? SIMON: When I look at it now, the work we did on Captain Marvel seems to be very powerful but very unpolished. It looks like something people our age would be proud of. On the other hand, I think the stuff they put out today is nowhere near as exciting.

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William Woolfolk

Looking Backward... From My Upside-Down Point of View

by William Woolfolk Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck write for the leading popular publications that then ruled the newsstands. However, The Saturday Evening Post, Colliers, Redbook, et al., didn’t understand the sacrifice of artistic integrity I was making for them. They rejected my manuscripts with such dazzling consistency that I began to suspect a giant anti-intellectual wrecking crew was at work to defraud the reading public of me. (Paranoia is, after all, the handmaiden of rejected writers.)

[William Woolfolk, a multitalented comic book writer and successful novelist, reflects upon his career in comics—with particular emphasis on his writing for Captain Marvel and other characters at Fawcett Comics. This special essay, the behind-the-scenes saga of a major writer during the Golden Age of Comic Books, was written exclusively for FCA in early 2000. Special thanks to Shaun Clancy for assisting me in contacting Mr. Woolfolk. —P.C. Hamerlinck.]

Chapter One Here I am, setting off on a memory voyage in a leaky boat with no paddle, no map and no foreseeable destination. I always promised myself not to revisit the past, knowing how little future there is in it, but P.C. Hamerlinck insisted.

Bill Woolfolk and his daughter Donna Woolfolk Cross, circa mid-1980s. Both have been on the bestseller lists—but in the 1940s Woolfolk also penned scripts for Captain Marvel Adventures, sharing writing duties with Otto Binder. [Photo courtesy of Wm. Woolfolk—with special thanks to David Anthony Kraft for giving us his blessing to reproduce it from Comic Book Interview #28 (1985); Below is C.C. Beck’s CMA #81 (Feb. 1948) cover ©2000 DC Comics.]

Along the way I did manage to sell a few stories and articles to what were known as “secondary slicks” such as Liberty, Toronto Star Weekly, True Confessions, and the like. These paid about ten times the onecent-a-word most pulp magazines paid, but still I didn’t sell enough to earn a living as a writer and felt that I was in imminent danger of having to get a job and earn an honest day’s wages. The horror of that prospect turned me toward comics.

At my age I no longer disclose my age, which is 82. I was born in Center Moriches, Long Island, New York, and left at the age of three months. I had to take my family with me since they didn’t trust me to travel alone. My family were all involved in show business and we often traveled around the country.

I was living in Brooklyn at the time with my father, who managed the Loew’s Coney Island Theater. We qualified as upper middle class in income because my father earned a magnificent $100 a week. But I wasn’t pulling my weight and the shame of that haunted my waking hours.

I never wanted to be anything but a writer… not an ordinary scribbler, mind you, but someone dwelling on the heights of Parnassus in the company of other writing immortals. I sustained this delusion through my high school and college years by excelling in English, journalism, and creative writing classes and through the esteem of various teachers who seemed to share in my delirium. In my dream world, fame and fortune awaited only the touch of my magic pen.

Seymour Reit (later the creator of Casper the Friendly Ghost) went to New York University and we shared a few classes together. His future seemed even more problematic than my own, for he majored in philosophy and I majored in English (although my real majors were horse racing, gambling, and dissolute behavior). Out there in the world beyond college there was scant demand for philosophers or for people who could understand English. Seymour and I made a solemn pact that if we didn’t start to make a living within six months of graduation we would both retreat to our respective beds, pull the sheets up over our heads, and never emerge again until the world ended.

Soon I met the harsh reality of the real world, where my incomparable gifts were not fully appreciated. In order to make a living, I condescended to

Looking Backward… From My Upside-Down Point of View

Woolfolk writes: “This is a recent photo of the senescent Four Musketeers. The combined years of our friendship total over 200 years. Reading from left to right: Reginald Ross, screenwriter of Twelve Angry Men and many others, also the producer and creator of the once-famous Defenders TV show on which I served as story editor and chief writer; myself; Miles Cahn, owner of Coach Leather, which he sold for 20 million dollars; and Seymour Reit, who created Casper the Friendly Ghost and wrote two bestselling novels. [Photo courtesy of Wm. Woolfolk.]

Graduation day came, and Seymour went to work for Fleischer Studios in Florida and became a real person with a real income. When he returned to New York he began to work for the Eisner and Iger studio. (Yes, that Will Eisner!) One day I saw Seymour’s work in a comic book and instantly called him up to denounce him for having sold out his talent. I then inquired how I could do the same. Seymour suggested I send some ideas to a comic book publisher named MLJ. I did, there was no reply, so I went down to their offices. MLJ publications were operating out of an unimpressive and nearly unfurnished loft space in lower Manhattan. They published pulp magazines and also several comic books about heroes called The Shield and Steel Sterling. Harry Shorten was the editor at MLJ. He was another NYU graduate. I found him to be a rather gruff, balding Neanderthal, and after I’d introduced myself he dug out my ideas from his forgetfile which he’d obviously never intended to look at again. Then he explained that my ideas were not what they were looking for. They wanted colorful new villains to confront their super-heroes. He suggested I go home and think of some. Having a real live editor in my clutches, I was in no mood to loosen my grasp. So I immediately improvised an idea about a villain called The Jingler, who left mocking notes behind at the scene of his crimes. A graybeard of an idea today, but comparatively fresh at the time. Shorten okayed it, I wrote it, they liked what I wrote, and a new career suddenly opened up for me. I came out from under my bed sheets.

Chapter Two Three weeks after I sold my first comic book story, an equally stupendous event occurred: Pearl Harbor was bombed, the United

States declared war on Japan, and World War II began. I assumed a new super-hero would be created: “Lieutenant Woolfolk in Tokyo!” I spent the majority of 1943 in the military before I was discharged because of an old injury. Meanwhile, I was writing about 40 pages a week of The Shield, The Wizard, The Hangman, and Steel Sterling adventures, plus a few short features, such as the Three Monkeyteers. I had become the leading writer at MLJ and got the choicest assignments. (Of course, their best comic book by far was Archie, written and drawn entirely by Bob Montana.) The name of the firm MLJ was an acronym for the three owners: Morris Coyne, the quiet treasurer; the ever-hyper Louis Silberkleit; and John Goldwater, who had the most contact with the editorial department. I liked John, partly because he was likable and mainly because he was a fan of my writing. Another in the editorial department I fondly remember was Scott Feldman, a quiet editorial assistant who admired my work. He later became a famous literary agent and novelist as Scott Meredith. Then there was Warren King, an artist who occasionally drew some of MLJ’s main features. He illustrated a story of mine that had to do with a phantom violinist or something of the sort; for the splash page I called for a symbolic battle between the hero and villain on a huge violin. One afternoon in MLJ’s office Warren King took me aside to tell me he had gone to Fawcett Publications looking for work and brought along my story as a sample. He said the editor unfortunately didn’t like his artwork but did like my story idea, so the editor asked Warren to inform me that Fawcett would be interested in having me as a writer. Thanks to Warren King (who went on to become the editorial cartoonist for the New York Daily News), I found my way to Captain Marvel. According to his 1985 interview in Dave Kraft’s Comic Book Interview, Woolfolk originated “The Black Hood”—who outlasted most other MLJ/Archie super-heroes, and even had his own radio show briefly. [©2000 Archie Publications; thanks to Michael T. Gilbert.]

William Woolfolk were such things), dined at Rosoff’s, a famous Times Square restaurant that served a lavish seven-course dinner, then went to see a current Broadway play before returning home by subway to Brooklyn. (No wonder girls were willing to spend a little time with me.) How much did this cost? Just under five dollars total. That should put 1940s finances in proper perspective. Of course, during wartime, we were all too keenly aware that millions were putting their lives in harm’s way for a mere thirty dollars a month.

Chapter Four MLJ’s comics editor Harry Shorten was one of those graceless men for whom I have a particular antipathy. He was not a bad editor, just an illiterate one. He once asked me to do a short prose biography of Beethoven (the kind of text fillers in comic books that were chiefly used to satisfy the postal requirement that a publication had to have some educational content to qualify for second class entry). Shorten told me to be sure to mention how Beethoven was blind. I reminded him that Beethoven was deaf. He replied in all seriousness: “Don’t tell me the son of a bitch was deaf, too!” At this time I had also begun writing for Fawcett Publications, which had several advantages over writing for MLJ. They paid more… $2.50 a page… and didn’t have the irritating two-installment pay schedule in which a writer had to return to add dialogue to the page drawn by the artist. That involved squeezing dialogue into whatever skimpy space the artist had left for it. I told John Goldwater at MLJ that if I were free to write stories without the two-installment system I could write on a higher level. Goldwater agreed to let me try. Shorten, however, acted like a dragon at the gate, guarding the old way and refusing to change. He insisted on having me return to add dialogue after the artwork was completed. I would have been willing to compromise on being paid a page rate equal to what Fawcett and the other publishers were paying. Shorten didn’t like that idea, either. No one, to my knowledge ever accused him of being a generous man. “Capt. Marvel and Bulbo the Whale”— splash of a story written by Woolfolk for Captain Marvel Adventures #15 (Sept. 1942). [©2000 DC Comics.]

Chapter Three Comic book writers at the time did pretty well. The going rate at MLJ was $2 a page and fifty cents for the story background describing the actions occurring on the 5 or 6 panels on each page. The writer filled in the dialogue after the artist finished the page. The writer was paid another fifty cents a page for doing that. Still sounds shockingly low? Perhaps you recall my saying that my father’s salary of $100 a week qualified us as upper middle class. No one today realizes what things cost in those pre-World War II times. One example: I was considered a big spender when I took a young lady out on a date. We traveled to Manhattan on a clean safe subway (there really Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tiger Girl may be billed above the pulp magazine’s title, but it was Eando Binder’s seminal robot hero Adam Link who got the cover illo on the April 1942 issue of Amazing Stories. Most of the time, “Eando Binder” was Otto Binder, pure and simple. [Cover ©2000 Ziff-Davis; 1942 photo of Otto Binder from Alter Ego (Vol. 1) #7, 1964, is ©2000 Roy Thomas.]

That left me with no choice except to leave MLJ, especially since I had already met and spoken with John Beardsley, the Fawcett editor who had originally informed Warren King that he’d like to employ me. Relying on that, in the same way a parachutist about to take a deathdefying leap into empty space relies on his parachute, I left MLJ for good. I should have done so earlier, but in financial matters I try not to act on my convictions until I have enough money in the bank. I made a soft landing at Fawcett.

Chapter Five Rod Reed was the chief editor when I arrived at Fawcett. He was a very good editor and a nonpareil diplomat. One time Rod came up to me at a Fawcett office party and carefully shielded me from everyone’s view while he remarked that “one of us has his fly open.” I can cite, and will, more salient examples of his tact and diplomacy… but that will do for the moment. Editing various Fawcett comic books under Rod’s general supervision were Otto Binder, John Beardsley, and Ken Crossen. The chief writers at the time were Manly Wade Wellman and Joseph Millard, both competent and prolific craftsmen who had written successfully for other media. Clearly, I had just moved into an area of more intense professional competition.

Looking Backward… From My Upside-Down Point of View

35 free copies and subscriptions and were hosts to youthful great writers who scorned to write anything but immortal masterpieces.

I had been a science-fiction fanatic almost from the beginning, starting with Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. Moving on to Hugo Gernsback and his Amazing Stories magazine was a natural segue. One of my favorite characters in Amazing Stories was the robot Adam Link, whose adventures I followed with breathless fascination. At one point I mentioned to Otto that I admired the Adam Link stories by Eando Binder, who I thought had a great name for a sci-fi writer, and wondered if Otto was any relation. It was then I learned that Otto was Eando Binder, and that the futuristic first name was a composite of his brother Earl’s and his: E and O Binder. Otto and I had hit it off from the beginning; learning he was Adam Link’s author furnished an even firmer ground of our friendship.

Otto, however, wangled a $5.00 payment for me, on which his commission was 50 cents. The short story “Reward for Valor” was the downbeat story of a soldier returned from the war who had to sell his Medal of Honor for food. It was a powerful indictment of I-know-not-what, but Otto’s notice of sale said he had found it very moving. As for the $5.00 payment, let me refer you back to how five dollars in those days was enough to escort a young lady to dinner and a Broadway play. I continued writing occasionally for the “literary” magazines, even while I was earning quantifiable money writing comics at Fawcett and Quality. Eventually I piled up enough free subscriptions to last my lifetime, although unfortunately the lifetime of the magazines I worked for was much less.

As a final parting script for MLJ, I wrote a short feature for The Monkeyteers. I spent more time on this than usual, because I wanted Fawcett’s Joseph J. Millard and Goldwater and company to realize Otto Binder, on the other hand, had what a prize they were losing. The transformed themselves into human scheme worked. Goldwater at MLJ writing machines. called me to say how much he enjoyed the script and urged me to Joe kept a list of story assign“I continued the tradition [of Captain Marvel giving Dr. Sivana] return. That massaged my ego and I ments beside his typewriter, and as what was coming to him.” C.C. Beck cover of Captain Marvel hope bruised Harry Shorten’s. But by soon as he finished one he would Adventures #58 (April 12, 1946). [©2000 DC Comics.] then I was past the point of no move on to the next without rest or return. My future in comics was with Fawcett. reflection. His output must have been prodigious. One day the inevitable happened. He had almost finished writing a 14-page story Very soon thereafter, Otto Binder resigned as an editor at Fawcett when it began to seem familiar to him. Sure enough, it was the same and returned to the much more lucrative task of comic book writing, story he had just finished writing the day before! which was now paying double the page rate I had started with a few months before. Then John Beardsley also departed to become the chief editor at Quality Comics. In effect, I lost my only editorial contacts at Fawcett.

Chapter Six Happily, my fears over losing those particular editors proved to be unfounded. Rod Reed informed me that John Beardsley was laying claim to me as his discovery, promising to give me all the work I could handle at Quality Comics. Rod inquired if I’d be willing to divide my output between Fawcett and Quality. Of course I would. I had no intention of leaving Fawcett. Additional proof of Rod Reed’s talent for diplomacy came when I asked him for an estimate of how I ranked in the writer’s hierarchy at Fawcett. He told me that I was considered the very best of the junior writers, full of latent promise. I went away satisfied, not at the time realizing that writers were disappearing with each new round of military draft and to be the “best” of the junior crew was close kin to being the lone survivor of Custer’s Last Stand. Rod somehow made me feel that I had earned the distinction of “best” by my writing talent, and not merely my talent for survival. In one of those remarkable coincidences in which real life abounds, I discovered that, while working for the well-known agent Otis Adelbert Kline, Otto Binder had sold my very first published story to a small literary magazine. These were magazines that usually paid only in

Otto had his own shortcuts to mass production. He kept a list of phrases he could turn to without having to ransack his memory. The list included derogatory remarks about Captain Marvel by such master villains as Dr. Sivana and Mr. Mind. The list began with “Big Red Cheese” and went through a whole vocabulary of villainous insults. I felt that the villains were entitled to their verbal revenge because of the totally ridiculous mismatch between their physical abilities and those of Captain Marvel. Sivana was a stooped, scrawny old man, weighing in at about 95 pounds—and Mr. Mind was a worm. Every time Woolfolk wrote many of the early “Captain Marvel Jr.” stories— including, presumably, the one in Master Comics #25 (April 1942). Cover by Mac Raboy. [©2000 DC Comics]

William Woolfolk

Chapter Seven My career thus far seems to have been composed on a clear and cloudless day with endless future horizons. But the weather was steadily changing. The ground was shifting beneath my feet and clouds of worry were closing in. The first cloud was the shrinking size of the average comic book. When I began writing them they were 64 pages in length. But the needs of the war taking place in Europe and the Far East reduced paper allotments for newspapers and magazines, and comic books were soon reduced to 48 pages. This was not a concern to publishers, because comic books were selling beyond the spoilage rate of 3%. What was happening was that dealers were refusing to return even tattered and coverless comics because they knew they could sell them. Naturally, publishers were happy to sell 48-page magazines for the same 10 cents they’d been getting for the 64 page magazines. For writers and artists, however, this represented a narrowing market for their output. Fortunately I was writing for Quality as well as Fawcett at the time, so I didn’t feel my belt drawing any tighter. But the omens of change were in the air.

Chapter Eight At Fawcett, I had arrived after the first wave of comics creators such as Captain Bill Parker, Ed Herron, and Manly Wade Wellman had moved on. Bill Parker, the first writer/editor of Fawcett comics, created the Captain Marvel persona. He left to go into the Army, where one can only hope to be promoted to a higher rank; but at least in comic book legend Bill Parker rose far above his Army rank of Captain. When he returned from the War, he signed on as editor of Fawcett’s Mechanix Illustrated magazine, and thereby missed out on the kind of retroactive fame that comic book historians have conferred on the early pioneers of this medium. Had he stayed with comics he would have become a Five Star General. I’m sorry I never met him.

Woolfolk in a 1948 photo taken at the home of Fawcett executive editor Will Lieberson—who unfortunately is not in the picture. [Photo courtesy of Wm. Woolfolk, with thanks to Dave Kraft for loaning us a copy of Comics Interview #29 (1985) so we could get the best repro possible.]

Captain Marvel, the World’s Mightiest Mortal, caught up with Sivana, he knocked the fragile old man into the middle of next week. When I began writing the Captain Marvel stories I continued the tradition, and Sivana got what was coming to him just as he had in the past. Meanwhile, I plodded along on a four-or-five-pages-a-day comics schedule for many of Fawcett’s top sellers, including Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr. (for which I created his evil nemesis Captain Nazi), Bulletman, Ibis the Invincible, and several others. My schedule now also included writing for such Quality Comics heroes as The Blackhawks, Plastic Man, Doll Man, and Kid Eternity, and for such artists as Reed Crandall, Jack Cole, and Rudy Palais. My schedule also included some non-comics writing for True Confessions magazine (stories that were neither true nor confessional), a rare article for a secondary “slick” magazine, a book-length detective mystery for Blue Book magazine, and even an Unsolved Mystery series for a radio syndicate.

Ed Herron was the next editor-in-chief and by all accounts a good one. He was also a good writer who sold stories to other media. He was fired when the maharajas at Fawcett discovered he was writing stories under different names and paying himself. He was undone by a typewriter tic that identified the stories as having been written on his typewriter. Personally, I think if the stories were good the maharajas should have had nothing to complain about. I didn’t meet Ed until years afterward when I had left comics and become a chief writer for The Defenders television drama series. By that time Ed was down at his heels and he was hanging around the fringes of comics. He died not long afterward.

By then I considered myself to be a professional writer, but this did not satisfy my yearning to become a serious mainstream author of the kind I’d been taught to revere in college. My ultimate ambition was to be a poet but I knew quite well that in the land of literary giants I was still a creative midget.

His successor was Rod Reed, whom I mentioned earlier. I’ll add one more anecdote to help you measure the man. The Fawcett Comics people would get together and play baseball games. They were played in Englewood, New Jersey, where a cadre of Fawcetteers resided: Otto Binder, artist Kurt Schaffenberger, and Jack Binder (Otto’s brother),

Looking Backward… From My Upside-Down Point of View who had his shop in the area which produced work for Fawcett and others. Wendell Crowley also worked at the Jack Binder shop at the time before joining the Fawcett comic department in New York. We could never get together 18 male players, so the wives occasionally filled in. We tried to hide them in the outfield where they were out of danger, but they were also adept at getting out of the way of any ground or fly balls headed in their direction. This served to magnify any ball hit through the infield into a home run. In the first inning I was stationed in the outfield and managed to catch a fly ball hit by Rod. Did he protest? No. Several days later I got a sketch showing me making an incredible leap into space to snare his fly ball. The caption: How Bill Woolfolk saved a no-hit game for his side. Rod neglected to add that the other teamed scored 18 runs before the game was over. The next thing I knew Rod Reed was gone. He’d been notified that the Army wanted him, so he resigned as editor-inchief and Will Lieberson, then editing the Don Winslow of the Navy comic, was appointed to succeed him. However, Rod failed his physical for the Army and was not inducted. Anyone else would have reclaimed his old job, but Rod wouldn’t do that to Will. Instead he opted to be a freelance writer. That was a bad decision, because I felt his editorial skills were greater than his writing skills. He eventually went back as an editor for a musician magazine called Downbeat; however, his fortunes entered a long period of decline. He and his wife Tucky lived in near poverty at the end of their lives. When Otto Binder left to become a writer, Wendell Crowley came in as editor of such Fawcett comics classics as Captain Marvel Adventures, The Marvel Family, Captain Marvel Jr., etc. Wendell was a fine editor, all six-foot eight-and-a-half inches of him. Also leaving was Ken Crossen, a good editor and political activist, who did not endear himself to the Fawcett brass by trying to organize a union. When Ken left he intended to publish his own comic magazines. But he soon discovered how difficult and unrewarding a publisher’s life can be. He had lured the very talented artist Mac Raboy to join him. At Fawcett Mac drew the loveliest pictures of Captain Marvel Jr., but they were like still portraits, frozen and motionless in a medium that demands movement. In Raboy’s pages Captain Marvel Jr. in action seemed to waft down from gorgeous sunsets to deal almost caressing blows to villains. That was not what the Top: Mad Hatter #2, 1945, cover art by John Giunta, shot from an actual 1945 color proof. Below, showing the hero perhaps a few seconds earlier, is a 1996 drawing—both done by artist Mort Leav, and both courtesy of Jerry De Fuccio. [Cover ©2000 Crossen; art at right ©2000 Mort Leav.]

readers were looking for. He produced the same kind of lovely artwork for Ken when he drew The Green Lama. When Ken’s publishing enterprise foundered he was understandably depressed. When he confided his problems to his wife, the only comfort she offered was to assure him that as long as she was around she would never let him be sent to an institution. That was not the kind of comfort Ken was looking for so he left the state with a very young and pretty blonde. Roy Ald also appeared around this time as an editor at Fawcett. All I remember about Roy was that he was a competent editor and that he wore only short-sleeved shirts to show off his muscles. I never challenged any editor who wore short-sleeved shirts to show off his muscles. That would be against my religion (I am a devout coward).

Chapter Nine I want to tell you more about Manly Wade Wellman, who was the top writer for Captain Marvel in the early days before Otto Binder and myself. He was a big, self-confident man who cowed most people he met. I believe Manly has not gotten his proper due because he thought that comic books were a level or two beneath contempt and that anyone who wrote for them was just brimming a slop bucket. Understandably, this did not put him in favor with comic book historians. I liked Manly because he exempted me from what he considered to be the impoverished talents who wrote for comics. In later years he expressed that my subsequent career as a novelist, TV story editor, and writer proved what a good writer I was. How can anyone dislike a man like that? I only met Manly at Quality Comics, where he wrote a number of stories for The Spirit, Will Eisner’s syndicated weekly strip featuring a discreetly masked detective assisted by a young boy named Ebony. In those days Ebony was referred to as a Negro. That was before we all had our consciousness raised and he became Black. Ebony disappeared from the comic feature before he became an Afro-American. When Will Eisner went into the Army, he left the writing of The Spirit in the hands of lesser spirits such as Manly, Joe Millard, and me. Fortunately, he left the artwork in the hands of Lou Fine, who was an even better artist that Will but lacked Will’s dramatic intensity and imagination. I

William Woolfolk oddly touching figure from an earlier era in which honor and patriotism were unquestionable virtues.

Chapter Ten A few other names of writers I remember who had writing credits other than in Fawcett comics would include: Patricia Highsmith, an excellent writer of suspense novels; Stanley Kauffman, who became a novelist and respected critic after leaving comics; Mickey Spillane, who gained a kind of sleazy fame for trash-suspense novels; and Tennessee Williams, whose reputation as a leading American playwright is now imperishable. Jumping back to Fawcett editors, Henry Perkins was another one from the Rod Reed era. As a person he set my teeth on edge. He was tallish, blondish, slenderish, and snobbish. Everyone made secret fun of him. I remember him saying about Otto Binder and others that “the world is getting much too full of small, dark round people.” He was all pose and attitude. Eventually, I heard that he later found his niche as a salesman for Rolls Royce automobiles, which suited him much better than being an editor of comic books. The departure of so many of Fawcett’s male editors due to the war ushered in the era of the women editors. Woolfolk penned many a “Bulletman” and “Ibis” story. The “Bulletman” splash, drawn by Bill Ward, is from Master Comics #92 (June 1948); the “Ibis” panel below is from Whiz Comics #13 (Feb. 1941), with art by Pete Costanza. [©2000 DC Comics.]

Chapter Eleven The first woman editor at Fawcett was Jane Magill, stepping into the opening made by Otto Binder after he resigned as editor to devote all of his time to writing. She was a rather cute blonde who had been a book editor at Dodd Mead and was totally at sea in the world of comics. She relied on writers to bail her out. She ordered a Bulletman story from me. Unfortunately the story was not very good and thereafter Jane avoided me as though I were a minefield. She bought stories almost exclusively from Otto Binder and acted toward him as someone on a sinking ship would act toward a life preserver. Her editorial ingenuity was spent finding excuses not to accept ideas from any other writers and most of her working hours were spent surreptitiously sipping from a bottle she kept in her desk drawer. I sympathized with her because she was aware she couldn’t cope with her job and needed some kind of liquid reinforcement. The next lady editor at Fawcett was recruited from within the comics department. Mercedes Shull was an attractive, dark-haired secretary to Rod Reed and the entire comics department. She was promoted to an editor with several comic books under her control. No one complained about her, so I assume she was efficient. I most likely wrote some stories for her, but after more than half a century later, I can’t remember what they were. I can only testify to the fact that she was there and decorative.

wrote a rather funny Spirit story in which Ebony related his version of what was happening in captions while Lou’s artwork showed what was really happening in the story. The syndicate loved it, Lou praised it highly, and we became friends. Meanwhile, Manly Wellman left comics writing and volunteered for the Coast Guard, the only branch of the service willing to take on an overaged, potbellied, but courageous warrior. I recall him on the day before he left, attired in his too tight, too small uniform saying goodbye to the slackers at Quality Comics willing to await a summons from the draft board rather than volunteer for sudden death. He gave us a fair version of “my only regret is that I have but one life to give for my country.” There was no mistaking that Manly thought he was going to the ramparts to save western civilization. I found him a quaint and

Ginny Provisero was the last of the female invaders into the editorial department that I recall—though there may have been a few more after her. Ginny was efficient and the prettiest of the lot. She edited Whiz Comics, Master Comics, Hopalong Cassidy, and several others, and stayed on longer than any Fawcett female editor—right up to the very end in 1953.

Chapter Twelve During the time that comics were in their full bloom of prosperity in the ’40s, the government decided to begin sharing in some of the profits by passing what they called an excess profits tax. This tax ran as high as 94%, which had two major results. No one was interested in maximizing profits for the government to take in arming the endless war still raging in Europe and Asia. Instead, some comic book people devoted some of their profits to their own pleasures, carefully disguised as business expenses.

Looking Backward… From My Upside-Down Point of View Quality Comics’ Everett M. Arnold, known to all as “Busy,” used his 94% to stage huge, lush parties. This qualified as a business expense because he invited not only his friends and employees but also artists and writers from Fawcett and other publishers whom he might be interested in recruiting. An intoxicated Charley Biro (creator of Daredevil and the influential Crime Does Not Pay comic book) harassed my wife at one of these functions. “What the hell business is it of yours?” Charley demanded when I objected. “She happens to be my wife!” I replied. Biro, whose dimensions were approximately those of the Empire State Building, dropped to his knees a couple of times that evening and sobbed, begging for my forgiveness. The episode gave me certain standing with all who were present or heard about it later. If Charley Biro didn’t dare tangle with me, who else would?

Chapter Thirteen

I was glad to have another market, because Fawcett comics were now down to 32 pages and writers and artists were feeling the pinch. Again, I was not overly affected because I continued writing for Quality Comics, particularly Blackhawk and The Spirit, and Wild Bill Pecos, a western comic for Orbit Publications, and writing two other suspense novels for Popular Library. As paper allotments eased somewhat with the end of the War, I was seduced by the idea of publishing my own comics, having learned nothing from the experience of Ken Crossen. As the saying goes, those who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it. I had partnered with a good friend of mine at the time to form OW Comics, “O” for his name Jack Oxton (a former executive at Paramount Newsreel who had no business or comics experience), and “W” for my own. I should have known that anything that spelled Ow! Would be a painful experience. We launched two magazines, Mad Hatter Comics, drawn by John Giunta, and Animal Fables, leaving the artwork in the hands of Woody Gelbert, who hired other cartoonists. I wrote all the stories for both, relying heavily on Wendell Crowley’s and Jack Cole’s judgment that I was the Shakespeare of comics. I chose to ignore the fact that Shakespeare also wrote some turkeys of his own.

After the tidal wave of women editors at Fawcett, two male editors were left standing: Will Lieberson and Wendell Crowley.

The two men were a study in contrasts. Will was short, dark, quick-witted, Jewish, a New Yorker to the bone. Wendell was a physical giant, old-fashioned and slow spoken. Anyone would have said that According to the caption in Comics Interview #29 (1985), this is “a long-lost Lieberson and I had much more title page from a Superman script Bill wrote under his own name for Mort in common. I liked Will, but I Weisinger, discovered by Jim Steranko.” Bill says of it: “The crossouts are mine, loved Wendell, who became practhe added words are Weisinger’s.” [Thanks to Dave Kraft—and to Jim Steranko tically a member of our family. After being stalled for for finding the page in the first place.] He called me every morning just months by the printer with to chat and accepted every invitawhom my partner had signed tion to our home. He was a great fan of my Captain Marvel stories, up, Jack Oxton finally discovered that the printer didn’t have a press which at the time I had begun sharing with Otto Binder. Wendell always capable of printing more than a 32-page comic and ours were designed referred to me as “the Shakespeare of comics,” a comparison I found to be 48 pages. A Comedy of Errors, as Shakespeare would surely have flattering but ludicrous. described it. There was nothing for me to do but some savage editing in By coincidence this Shakespeare of comics appellation was also conferred on me by Jack Cole, the legendary artist and creator of the wonderfully inventive Plastic Man, for whom I wrote several stories while at Quality Comics. Jack and I were friends and his superlative talent later made him a leading cartoonist for Playboy magazine. His subsequent suicide both shocked and saddened me. In the meantime Fawcett had begun a series of original paperbacks called Gold Medal books. I’d been writing exclusively for comics and the $2,000 advance against royalties Gold Medal paid was tempting enough for me to try writing prose again. I devised a suspense plot, which I called The Naked Hunter, and gave the completed book to my agent Scott Meredith. Scott liked it and sent it over to Gold Medal, where they turned it down. The editor at Gold Medal only knew me as a comic book writer and said he could tell it was by a comic book writer just by reading the manuscript. What he meant by that I’m not sure, but he seemed to imply he had a low regard for any comic book writers. In any event his judgment proved wrong, because Popular Library snatched up The Naked Hunter and it went on to sell over 200,000 copies and established me as a successful suspense writer in a new field of endeavor.

order to get Mad Hatter published in 32 pages. Despite its many limitations the magazine fared well enough to justify a second issue, this time with improved artwork by Mort Leav, whom I originally met at Orbit Publications. Animal Fables met with a similar sad fate. Rather than publish it myself I sold the magazine to Max C. Gaines. Unexpectedly, Animal Fables sold quite well. But Gaines couldn’t continue it. I had now completely lost interest in comic book publishing, as I foresaw the onslaught of magazines that publishers had on the horizon. Captain Marvel’s brief flirtation with the horror genre, as per CMA #140 (Jan. 1953), cover by C.C. Beck, of which Woolfolk says: “That was a grotesque and futile joining.” [©2000 DC Comics.]

William Woolfolk

Chapter Fourteen Shortly after my unfortunate excursion into publishing, other writers were still on short rations because of the 32-page size of what had been 64-page comic books. Simple arithmetic made it clear there was not enough work to support everyone. Fawcett’s editor-in-chief Will Lieberson asked me if I could give temporary relief to other writers by surrendering some of my production for Fawcett. Will knew, of course, that I was also writing for other publishing houses, including Captain America, Human Torch, Sub-Mariner, and The Young Allies for Timely’s Martin Goodman and Superman for DC—where I met and married Dorothy Roubicek, a former DC and Timely editor, who was writing “Lois Lane” stories.

many new magazines. The return rate on even the most popular comics was terrifying. There were grim tales of coverless copies being shoveled by the hundreds into furnaces. The comics were coverless because the covers were used instead of returning whole copies to be calculated and credited by the distributors. It was time for Captain Marvel or Superman to come racing to the rescue, but alas they were proving also vulnerable to the same market forces that seemed to be destroying the industry. One group of comic books that seemed to be fairing better than others was Bill Gaines’ EC line of horror comics. As things turned out, all comics, especially the ECs, were under a growing rank of opposition led by Frederic Wertham. News dealers refused to carry them and their outlets dried up.

I volunteered to step back from Fawcett altogether until the crisis eased, provided I would not be forgotten during my absence. Will assured me that I would always rank with the very best in his estimation, and on that assurance I did step out of the Fawcett writing rotation.

Bill had also begun publishing a comic book called Mad, Harvey Kurtzman’s invention of clever social satire. Mad took a while to find its audience; and just as it began to make its way it suffered from the general boycott of all EC comics.

One night Bill came to our Wendell Crowley was shocked at house for dinner and told me of his this, but that was at least partly due to dilemma. Mad was selling well when A mid-1980s photo of Bill Woolfolk, reprinted from the fact that we had become such close it could be displayed, but faced such Comics Interview #29. [Thanks again to Dave Kraft.] friends. He called every morning from formidable distribution problems he work to discuss the state of the comics wasn’t sure if it could survive. I may and the world, in that order of importance. He even persuaded me to have suggested to him that Mad could find an audience as a full-size write a special feature on heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis, but magazine selling for 25 cents rather than the usual 10-cent price for a Wendell’s integrity forced him to send it back for a rewrite; in fact he comic book. The natural market for Mad was not children but adolescent brought it with him when he came to dinner at our house and inquired adults—therefore, go for where the market was and in the process if he was still welcome. He was always more than welcome. remove Mad from the stifling aura of his horror comics. Wendell married Dagny West, who worked as a secretary in the I can’t honestly claim that I was responsible for the born-again verFawcett comics department. They had two children. Wendell asked me sion of Mad. Bill Gaines undoubtedly consulted many others before to be the godfather. I’m sure I was a disappointment in that regard making the move to his big success. But he did send a note thanking me because I knew nothing about the responsibilities of godfathering, and profusely, and included a huge bouquet of flowers for my wife. so did not assume any. Wendell, gracious as ever, never referred to that. An unfortunate legacy of Bill’s horror comics was the influence Wendell was a notably silent man, but hardly anyone noticed, they had on such comic stalwarts as Captain Marvel, which had a brief because he enjoyed the company of friends so much and was a ready flirtation with some horror themes before Fawcett ceased publication. laugher with a rich baritone voice. One evening we had Wendell and That was a grotesque and futile joining, somewhat like grafting a gorilla’s Irwin Hasen over to our house to go out to dinner. Irwin, who had a leg onto a normal human being. great sense of humor, had Wendell in stitches all evening. Unfortunately, Captain Marvel’s demise was, however, directly caused by the end when we all got up to go to dinner I saw more clearly the terrible disof the decade-long lawsuits with Superman’s publisher. This, in turn, was parity in height between them. Wendell was slightly over 6'8" tall and the result of declining comic book sales, which made it unprofitable for Irwin was slightly under five feet tall. Together they looked almost as if Fawcett to continue the battle. Indeed, for a time, it seemed as though they belonged to different species. comic books were destined to vanish from the newsstands altogether. We would have to walk along Broadway for seven or eight blocks Ironically, 20years later, Superman’s publisher made an attempt to to get to the Chinese restaurant we were going to, and I foresaw the bring back Captain Marvel. Their Captain Marvel was a sleek, lithe curious stares and snickers that would surely follow us along the way super-hero, humorless, charmless, and indistinguishable from any of the and the embarrassment that would follow. On the spur of the moment I other super-heroes. “Shazam,” the magic word, no longer worked and decided to order in Chinese food on the excuse that we were all having the real Captain Marvel remained in his prison from the past. such a great time, “Why spoil it by going out?” The next day both Wendell and Irwin called to say how much they enjoyed the evening and how much they liked each other. Each remarked how sorry he was for the other because of his terrible height problem. As the poet Robert Burns said, he wished there were some gift the gods could give us that would enable us to see each other as others see us.

Chapter Fifteen The comic book boom was now going bust with the influx of so

Chapter Sixteen Writing is such a perilous trade that most writers are like survivors of a shipwreck looking desperately for any flotsam or jetsam we can cling to. Comic book writing was a great financial refuge for me and many other writers in the Golden Age—and comic books have been a source of entertainment for many millions of readers. We should celebrate their presence in our society.

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The Seven Deadly Sins—

The Seven Deadly Sins of Comics Creators by C.C. Beck • Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck [EDITOR’S NOTE: FCA is proud to present another previously unpublished essay by C.C. Beck, the original chief artist of Captain Marvel. In the late 1980s, after Beck’s stint as editor of FCA (called during Beck’s tenure FCA/SOB—Some Opinionated Bastards) and prior to beginning his column “Crusty Curmudgeon” for The Comics Journal, Beck formed a roundtable discussion mailing group which included several friends, fans, and pros. The group was called The Critical Circle, and I was a regular member. Beck would frequently send out essays to us on various subjects (usually related to comic art) and we would reply with our comments. (This was years before Internet “chat rooms.”) More of these essays will appear in future issues of FCA.—P.C. Hamerlinck.] Theologians of the Middle Ages set up a list of seven deadly sins… the commitment of which, they said, would condemn their victims to eternal punishment in the hereafter. These sins were based on the discoveries of ancient pagan philosophers who had worked everything out hundreds or thousands of years before. In the world of literature and art, certain rules and principles have also been worked out over the past hundreds and thousands of years. While it is no sin to break one of these rules (they are not “laws”), those who disregard them or deliberately break them will suffer for their acts later—if not during their lifetimes, then in future ages when people will look back at their work and shudder as they condemn its perpetrators to oblivion. The seven deadly sins of writers and artists, especially those involved in the creation of comic books, are as follows.

Sin Number One: Not Staying within the Limits of the Medium Comic pictures are basically line art with color added. They are small, framed with panel outlines, and are presented in sequence. Each picture should not be complete in itself but should be only a part of the whole presentation. Comic drawings are printed; they are more like woodcuts and etchings than like paintings and murals. The artists who prepare the drawings should be aware of the limitations of printing. Art prepared with too much fine detail, too many gradations of tone

Left: C.C. Beck—a 1980 self-caricature—juxtaposed with a different seven deadly sins, above, from Captain Marvel Adventures #100, 1949, with artwork by Beck and Pete Costanza. [Caricature ©2000 Estate of C.C. Beck; CMA panel ©2000 DC Comics.]

and color, and with too much shading and technique will not reproduce properly. Comic pictures are small, only a few inches wide and high. They are viewed at a distance of a foot or so; readers will not back off to look at them as they might have to when viewing a large painting or a mural, and they will not examine them with a magnifying glass as they might when looking at a bit of jewelry or a miniature painting on a snuff box. The drawings should be simplified and easily understandable, as the reader will only glance at them out of the corner of his eye while reading the story they illustrate. As comic pictures are each only a part of a sequence of pictures, they should be separated from each other by being enclosed in panel outlines. Artists who use too many vignettes, too many montages, or who make their pictures of different sizes and shapes, are straying outside the limits of the medium and will lose their audiences (comic readers) without gaining other audiences (gallery goers, fine art collectors, readers of other kinds of printed material).

Sin Number Two: Revealing Presence of the Creators Comic stories are like plays. The actors in the panels should face each other, fight each other, and at all times stay within their panel outlines. Artists who show people bursting out of their

Beck’s “Billy Batson and Captain Marvel were drawn in cartoon-comic style because they appeared in comic books. They were never intended to be taken seriously, and for that reason were not drawn realistically (by me).” [Art ©2000 C.C. Beck Estate; Billy Batson and Captain Marvel ©2000 DC Comics.]

—of Comics Creators

Beck: “In these illustrations from the Golden Age (lettered in Portuguese for Brazilian readers), the center of interest in the first panel is the villain King Kull’s face; in the third panel it’s Captain Marvel’s face. All the other elements are deliberately simplified so that they will not draw too much attention to themselves.” Artwork by C.C. Beck. [©2000 DC Comics.]

people enjoy seeing things get out of control and degenerate into mindlessness. But a writer or an artist who loses control of his creation is not long for this world. He will either go crazy and be put away, or will commit suicide, or his audience will desert him and go running after some even more demented writer or artists, of which there are always some around. panels and leaping off the pages are destroying the illusion that the reader is seeing an exciting story unfolding itself on the printed page. Actors in a play should be concerned with what’s going on in the play. They must act as if they don’t even know that anyone is watching them. They should not turn to the audience and wink, grimace, posture, and ham things up with needless asides and pointless remarks. Sometimes an actor will deliberately turn his face to the audience so that they can see his expression and so that the others in the play will not. Sometimes he will express thoughts which others in the play can’t hear. In comic art this is indicated by putting his lines in a “thought balloon.” Sometimes the attention of the reader will be directed to a prop or a bit of action essential to the plot, but of which the actors are unaware. These tricks must not be used too often, however. Comics with too many trick shots in them call the reader’s attention to the presence of the writer and the artist in the action, and when overdone or badly handled can make the reader feel that somebody is making a fool of him. Of course he is being fooled, but he should not be reminded of it.

Sin Number Three: Overdoing the Job Many artists and writers are like orators who go on and on long after they have lost the attention of their audiences. They overload their panels by including all sorts of things that don’t belong in them. Artists become intrigued with tricks of perspective, odd ways of viewing figures and scenes, lighting effects, extreme closeups or panoramic long shots, and other eye-catching devices. Such “tricks of the trade” are useful now and then, but must not be used to the point where the reader becomes bored with them. The worst examples of overdone comic art are those seen in books in which human anatomy and costuming are overdone to a point where they become silly. Comic writers often overdo their captions and dialogue copy, forgetting that the pictures show what is going on without further explanation in words. They sometimes ask the artists to draw things which are better imagined than seen, and many writers fall into the habit of writing “purple prose” and throwing in slang and bad grammar and other forms of mutilated expression which mean little or nothing to most readers.

Sin Number Four: Losing Control Some very funny acts are those in which an actor seems to be drunk, exceedingly stupid, or unable to keep his act under control. A magician whose tricks all go wrong, or an animal trainer who can’t control his charges, can be very, very funny. But such performers must not really be drunk or unable to control their acts, or the performance will be a fiasco. Comic art (or any kind of art) can very easily get out of control. The characters in a story can begin to take on a life of their own and start to do all kinds of strange things. The backgrounds, props, and special effects can run away with things and overpower the whole production. Too much detail and too many things going on at the same time are indications that the writer or artist has lost control. Oddly enough, some

Artists and writers who are asked by publishers to go “hog wild” should refuse to bow to such commands. Letting a comic book go all to pieces because some inept publisher wants it to is the quickest way to destroy it.

Sin Number Five: Tastlessness The general public has very little knowledge of what is right and what is wrong. It has practically no taste; it will accept almost anything that is presented to it, no matter how bad it is or how poorly it is made. Nobody can change the public, which has always been this way. The best thing that can be done is not to offer the public things which are in bad taste and which degrade both the public and the producers of products. Writers and artists should be able to tell bad writing and art from good, even though their public (and sometimes their publishers) can’t. There are no subjects which ought to be barred from books by edict, in spite of some people’s opinions. Sex, rape, murder, incest, crime, perversion, drunken behavior, insanity, and disease or malformation are all legitimate subjects for books and pictures. But not everything is suitable for presentation in comic books. Comic books are read mostly by children for entertainment. Comic strips, a different sort of art, are read mostly by adults and can present many things which should not be shown in comic books. But even then they should be presented with taste and restraint, not thrown at readers like fistfuls of mud or garbage.

Sin Number Six: Pandering Some comic book publishers believe in giving readers anything they think they want. Such publishers underestimate their readers, who are not all stupid and with the mentalities of idiots. Children are not stupid, although when they grow up they may act stupid—perhaps to fit better into their social environments. Catering to the tastes of the lowest members of sociBeck: “Realistically-drawn heroes in comic strips are not believable because they appear to be ordinary humans wearing costumes and trying to look like heroes—and not succeeding. This cover looks like five chorus boys doing a tap dance on a stage—with two of them out of step.” Cover of Fawcett’s America’s Greatest Comics #1, 1941, art by Mac Raboy. [©2000 DC Comics.]

The Seven Deadly Sins of Comics Creators ety—the people who want sex, violence, razzle-dazzle, and constant titillation of their senses—is what makes civilizations go down the drain. History proves this; when literature and art start to degenerate, it’s a sign that the public is not getting what it needs but what it needs least: pandering to the wants of the lowest, most mindless of its members. Beck: “This drawing is typical of the cartoon work done by artists who know nothing about cartooning. The copy is overpowered by the artwork and seems to have been jammed into the picture by someone else instead of being part of the original composition as cartoon copy should be. While the drawing is in line and reproduces well, there is too much shading and fiddling around with unimportant textures and eye-catching techniques to hold a viewer’s attention. The action and costuming are forced and melodramatic, about like the action and costuming seen in high school amateur productions (or bad TV shows). Artwork like this is produced by bad artists and printed by publishers who know less about art than the artists whose work they present to the public.” [Hawkman ©2000 DC Comics.]

Sin Number Seven: Breaking the Rules Many of the rules governing the production of literature and art are broken because of ignorance. Without any knowledge of what produces good results and what produces bad results, a writer or an artist is likely to do everything wrong rather than right. If he does get something right now and

then, it will be by accident, and he won’t be able to do it again when he wants to. There are exceptions to all rules, of course. You can bend or break a rule once in a while if you have good reason for doing so and if you get better results than you would by following it. But those who break all the rules all the time, deliberately and gleefully, are merely making asses of themselves. There is little or no excuse for such people; they are the ones who give comics (and other forms of art) a bad name. Comic books have never been placed very high on the list of worthwhile reading material. The art in them is not regarded as of much value by most art experts; and, as a matter of fact, it is not highly regarded even by some of the people who produce it. Why make things worse than they already are?

Beck: “Overdone action is more offensive when drawn by skilled artists than when it is produced by clumsy amateurs. These characters look hammy and ridiculous because they look like real people who are overacting their parts as if they were in a low-budget movie or a cheap dramatic production put on by a troupe of untrained performers.” (The cover of Shazam! #35, 1978.) [©2000 DC Comics.]

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Contact Frank directly for details and prices. (Minimum order: $150) Write now (be sure to include a self-addressed stamped envelope!) and receive FREE with my reply an autographed Brunner “Star Wars Galaxy” trading card! Contact the artist at his NEW address:

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Recent commissioned piece featuring the Master of the Mystic Arts and his apprentice.

re:

continued from pg. 2

by us. All the same, we think it was worthwhile to reproduce from photocopies of the original line art. We also misidentified the Murphy Anderson pencils for a Showcase “Spectre” cover as being from an issue of The Brave and the Bold, but at least this time we came about it honestly: We picked up the information from a Sotheby’s catalog that had it wrong, even though the penciled word “Showcase” was clearly visible on the artwork! And I’d like to profusely apologize to Marc Swayze for accidentally typing “calvary” instead of “cavalry” while putting his FCA column onto disk. (My old parochial-school upbringing sneaking up on me?) Robin Snyder feels Shelly Mayer’s 13-page rough pencil “Jesus the Boy” presentation “just doesn’t fit” as the new project Mayer had before DC’s editors at the time of his 1975 interview—that it’s “too big, too late.” Someone e-mailed that The Red Tornado’s secret ID was usually, though not always, spelled “Hunkel.” True enough, but she was “Ma Hunkle” in All-Star #3, and that’s good enough for me. I regret that my early letters to Gardner Fox got printed a bit small in “Mr. Monster’s Comic Vault.” But there’s absolutely no truth to the rumor that I was trying to make them too tiny for anyone to read—tempting as the prospect was! (By the way, did anyone notice that my 1955 “Liberty Legion” utilized the heroes of five companies, not four as I stated? I forgot about Blue Beetle’s publisher, Charlton. Easy thing to do.) FCA editor P.C. Hamerlinck informs me the “Master Man” panel from an early Master Comics was by Harry Fisk, not Pete Costanza. I credited Costanza because, on a page of original “Master Man” art I own, his name is handwritten in the bottom margin—not that that proves anything. Going back to V3#3: Therein, the “Win” who drew a “Vagabond” splash from USA Comics #4 was wrongly identified as Winslow Mortimer. Jerry de Fuccio informs us that “Win” was actually artist Ed Winarski, who “put in a lot of time on his ‘Captain Desmo’ feature in Adventure Comics. Strange that ‘Win’ went over to Comedy Comics (a Timely mag) to do ‘funny stuff.’ Creig Flessel says ‘Win’ was the type who rode his motorcycle to the West Coast.” Jerry, former associate editor of Mad, adds a tidbit for Captain Marvel fans: “‘Cannonball Brown,’ in Comedy Comics #10, appears to be a one-shot [drawn] by C.C. Beck. The worm crossing the baseball field [therein] is surely a ‘preview’ of Mr. Mind!” (Incidentally, Jerry is trying to track down artist Art Saaf—and a copy of Victory Comics, with Bill Everett’s “The Conqueror.” Can anybody out there help him with either?) Jerry de

MOnThLy! Edited and published by Robin Snyder

45 Fuccio knows more anecdotes about the Golden Age of Comics than most of us could amass in a lifetime. We’ve invited him to write a regular (or irregular) feature for Alter Ego, and we hope that one of these days he finds the time to do so. We also beg forgiveness of Carmine Infantino and publisher J. David Spurlock (and the designer, Comic Book Artist’s own Jon B. Cooke) for accidentally leaving out a mention last issue of The Amazing World of Carmine Infantino, the absolutely stunning new book that features artwork by and autobiographical information on one of the most influential artists and art directors of the 1950s through the 1970s. Amid various snafus, we just plain neglected to plug it. Don’t miss this beautiful volume, or you’ll be kicking yourself around the block when it’s all sold out—which may be by the time you’re reading this! (The volume is available in signed limited edition hardback ($37.95), gold-foiled stamped hardback ($29.95), or trade paperback ($19.95) from Vanguard Productions, 59-A Philhower Road, Lebanon, NJ 08833. Please add $3.50 postage & handling for each volume ordered.) The preceding praise might also be applied to another exquisite recent tome, The Art of Nick Cardy, spotlighting the long and colorful career of the artist of Bat Lash, Aquaman, Teen Titans, and many other DC favorites. Unfortunately. John D. Coates, publisher and writer, tells me the book is O.P. The last word: Alter Ego is always looking for letters of comment (occasionally we even have room to print a few of them), for good copies of original comic art and scripts (the older the better, generally), and for other possible contributions (especially of behind-the-scenes material, but also convention sketches, whatever). See our house ad elsewhere in this issue. Please contact: Roy Thomas Rt. 3, Box 468 St. Matthews, SC 29135 Fax (803) 826-6501; e-mail roydann@oburg.net

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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!

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

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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!

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

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

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

The IGER “SHOP” examined, with art by EISNER, FINE, ANDERSON, CRANDALL, BAKER, MESKIN, CARDY, EVANS, BOB KANE, and TUSKA, “SHEENA” section with art by DAVE STEVENS & FRANK BRUNNER, ROY THOMAS on JSA & All-Star Squadron, MR. MONSTER on GARDNER FOX, UNSEEN 1946 ALL-STAR ART, FCA, and more! DAVE STEVENS and IRWIN HASEN covers!

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

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ALTER EGO #28

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #29

ALTER EGO #30

ALTER EGO #31

ALTER EGO #32

ALTER EGO #33

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #34

ALTER EGO #35

ALTER EGO #36

ALTER EGO #37

ALTER EGO #38

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #39

ALTER EGO #40

ALTER EGO #41

ALTER EGO #42

ALTER EGO #43

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #44

ALTER EGO #45

ALTER EGO #46

ALTER EGO #47

ALTER EGO #48

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #49

ALTER EGO #50

ALTER EGO #51

ALTER EGO #52

ALTER EGO #53

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #54

ALTER EGO #55

ALTER EGO #56

ALTER EGO #57

ALTER EGO #58

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #59

ALTER EGO #60

ALTER EGO #61

ALTER EGO #62

ALTER EGO #63

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #64

ALTER EGO #65

ALTER EGO #66

ALTER EGO #67

ALTER EGO #68

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #69

ALTER EGO #70

ALTER EGO #71

ALTER EGO #72

ALTER EGO #73

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #74

ALTER EGO #75

ALTER EGO #76

ALTER EGO #77

ALTER EGO #78

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #79

ALTER EGO #80

ALTER EGO #81

ALTER EGO #82

ALTER EGO #83

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #84

ALTER EGO #85

ALTER EGO #86

ALTER EGO #87

ALTER EGO #88

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #89

ALTER EGO #90

ALTER EGO #91

ALTER EGO #92

ALTER EGO #93

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #94

ALTER EGO #95

ALTER EGO #96

ALTER EGO #97

ALTER EGO #98

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO: CENTENNIAL (AE #100)

ALTER EGO #99

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

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

ALTER EGO #101

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

NEW!

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

ALTER EGO #102

ALTER EGO #103

ALTER EGO #104

ALTER EGO: THE CBA COLLECTION

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

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

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

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

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

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

HUMOR MAGAZINES (BUNDLE ALL THREE FOR JUST $14.95)

ALTER EGO:

BEST OF THE LEGENDARY COMICS FANZINE

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

COMIC BOOK NERD

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

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

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

DIEDGITIIOTANSL E

BL AVAILA

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

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

NEW!

MR. MONSTER, VOL. 0

TRUE BRIT

DICK GIORDANO: CHANGING COMICS, ONE DAY AT A TIME

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

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

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

(136-page Digital Edition with COLOR) $4.95

(204-page Digital Edition with COLOR) $6.95

(176-page Digital Edition with COLOR) $5.95

SECRETS IN THE SHADOWS: GENE COLAN

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

ART OF GEORGE TUSKA

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

OTHER BOOKS FROM TWOMORROWS PUBLISHING

PENCILER, PUBLISHER, PROVOCATEUR

COMICS’ FAST & FURIOUS ARTIST

THE ART OF GLAMOUR

MATT BAKER

EXTRAORDINARY WORKS OF ALAN MOORE

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

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

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

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

(224-page trade paperback) $26.95

(176-page trade paperback with COLOR) $26.95

(192-page hardcover with COLOR) $39.95

(240-page trade paperback) $29.95

QUALITY COMPANION

BATCAVE COMPANION

ALL- STAR COMPANION

AGE OF TV HEROES

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

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

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

(256-page trade paperback with COLOR) $31.95

(240-page trade paperback) $26.95

(224-page trade paperbacks) $24.95

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

CARMINE INFANTINO

SAL BUSCEMA

(192-page full-color hardcover) $39.95

MARVEL COMICS

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

IN THE 1960s

(224-page trade paperback) $27.95

MODERN MASTERS

HOW TO CREATE COMICS

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

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

(224-page trade paperback) $27.95

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

(128-page trade paperbacks) $14.95 each

(108-page trade paperback) $15.95

IN THE 1970s

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

FROM SCRIPT TO PRINT

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

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