Alter Ego #73 by TwoMorrows Publishing

Roy Thomas’ Strange Comics Fanzine

A Haunt-Happy HALLOWEEN From

BRUNNER, BIRO,

6.95

In the USA

& BUDDIES

No. 73 October 2007

PLUS:

10 1

82658 27763

Vol. 3, No. 73 / October 2007 Editor Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout Christopher Day

Consulting Editor John Morrow

FCA Editor P.C. Hamerlinck

Comic Crypt Editor Michael T. Gilbert

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

Circulation Director Bob Brodsky, Cookiesoup Periodical Distribution, LLC

Cover Artist

Writer/Editorial: Eyes On The Prize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Strange Interlude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Frank Brunner personally annotates his illustrations of Dr. Strange and others.

Blood, Bullets, And Gun Molls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Frank Brunner

With Special Thanks to: Heidi Amash Richard Arndt Bob Bailey Jean Bails Alberto Becattini Allen Bellman John Benson Christopher Bing Bonnie Biro Dominic Bongo Jerry K. Boyd Gary Brown Frank Brunner Brett Canavan R. Dewey Cassell Russ Cochran Gene Colan Mike Collins J. Randolph Cox Teresa R. Davidson D.D. Degg Wayne DeWald Michaël Dewally Tom Fagan Michael Feldman Stuart Fischer Shane Foley Robert Gerson Jennifer Hamerlinck Janet Gilbert Penny (Biro) Gold Fred Hembeck

Contents

Roger Hill Stan Lee Alan Light Joe Mannarino Bruce Mason Fred Mommsen Brian K. Morris Will Murray Eric NolenWeathington Marie O’Brien Jerry Ordway Denise (Biro) Ortell Paul Dale Roberts Steven Rowe Scott Rowland Steve Sansweet Anthony Snyder Steve Stiles Marc Swayze Ty Templeton Greg Theakston Dann Thomas Mike Tiefenbacher George Tuska Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Delmo Walters, Jr. Hames Ware Robert Weiner Jerry Weist Tom Wimbish

This issue is respectfully dedicated to the memory of

Charles Biro, George C. Shedd, William B. Ziff, Jr., & Al Grenet

A brief overview of Charles Biro & Lev Gleason Publications by Steve Stiles.

Charles Biro—“Some Kind Of Genius” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 J. Randolph Cox presents the only comic-con appearance ever (1968) by the creator of Crime Does Not Pay, et al.

“He Always Wanted Immortality For His Work” . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Charles Biro’s three daughters talk about their talented and influential father.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt: Twice-Told Marvel Heroes (Part 1) . 49 Michael T. Gilbert on two Daredevils, & Jerry K. Boyd on comics characters who read comics.

A Dose Of Reality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Richard Arndt interviews Robert Gerson, publisher of the 1970-71 black-&-white horror comic.

From Bing To Bails—And Back Again . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., and Hames Ware in search of “Great Unknown” artist L. Bing.

Comic Fandom Archive: Celebrating 40 Years of Squa Tront . 66 Bill Schelly toasts the important EC fanzine and a few of its 40ish fellows.

Tributes To William B. Ziff, Jr., George C. Shedd, & Al Grenet . . 71 re: [comments, correspondence, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . . 74 FCA (Fawcett Collectors Of America) #132 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 P.C. Hamerlinck, Jerry Ordway, Marc Swayze, & the Montclair (NJ) Art Museum.

FREE PREVIEW of Draw! #15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 On Our Cover: Doc and Clea hangin’ out at 177A Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village— courtesy of Frank Brunner, artist of the Mystic Master’s popular 1970s stint in Marvel Premiere and Dr. Strange. What more need we say—except thanks, Frank, for letting us use this beautiful painting for our cavortin’ cover! [Dr. Strange & Clea TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.] Above: This illo by Charles Biro appeared on a two-page spread in Boy Comics #9 (April 1943) that celebrated the first “birthday” of that best-selling comic book. Biro, as co-editor, chief cover artist, and major writer of the company’s comics line, almost single-handedly put Lev Gleason Publications on the map. This drawing shows Biro and co-editor Bob Wood (doing an Oscar Levant turn at the piano), as well as Boy Comics stars Crimebuster & Squeeks, Young Robin Hood, Little Dynamite, Swoop Storm, and maybe even Yankee Longago. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.] Alter EgoTM is published eight times a year by TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: 32 Bluebird Trail, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Single issues: $9 US ($11.00 Canada, $16 elsewhere). Twelve-issue subscriptions: $78 US, $132 Canada, $180 elsewhere. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © Roy Thomas. Alter Ego is a TM of Roy & Dann Thomas. FCA is a TM of P.C. Hamerlinck. Printed in Canada. ISSN: 1932-6890 FIRST PRINTING.

writer/editorial

Eyes On The Prize

kay, so maybe you already heard—Alter Ego won an Eisner. The category was “Best Comics-Related Periodical” for 2006. In 2001 I declared I’d make no further mention of award ceremonies like the Eisners, the Harveys, etc., because I didn’t feel their nominating committees and I had much in common. (The jury’s still out on that one.) Still, a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of littler minds than mine… and anyway, if you’re up for an award, it’s better to win than to lose. Thanks to all the nice folks who’ve sent their congrats—and especially to Chris, Jim, Bill, Michael, P.C., Marc, John, et. al., for making A/E deserving of the prize. By coincidence, I was there at the Eisner ceremony to pick up the trophy—partly because I’d been asked by Lynda Fox Cohen to accept the Bill Finger Award on behalf of her father, the late great writer Gardner Fox, and partly because I was a guest of the con and A/E publisher John Morrow had asked me to show up. How could I turn down the guy who rides herd over this mag every month? (Sharing a table with Ramona Fradon, Lily Renée Phillips, Victor Gorelick, George Gladir, plus Dann and others, wasn’t too painful, either.) But—did I say “every month”? Alas, not for the foreseeable future.

As some of you may have noticed, I’ve recently gotten inundated with assignments from Marvel editor Ralph Macchio, and am scripting several series in their new Marvel Illustrated line, adapting classic literary works: The Last of the Mohicans, Treasure Island, The Man in the Iron Mask, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and one or two others I can’t mention yet. In short, I’m suddenly busier scripting comics than I’ve been since the early ’90s… and loving it. A line of such adaptations was something Stan Lee and I discussed in the early 1970s… so when the call came, I was ready and eager.

Unfortunately, there are only so many hours in a day, and something had to give. So, reluctantly, with this issue, A/E reverts to the 8-a-year schedule it had in 2005… which is still some 800 pages of Golden/Silver Age material in a given annum. Our first skip month is November, so #74 will be out in early December. Not that November will be totally devoid of Thomas & TwoMorrows joint efforts, though. For, as you’ll see on the facing page, that’s when All-Star Companion, Vol. 3, goes on sale— spotlighting the Golden Age Justice Society of America, the 1963-85 JLA-JSA team-ups, the 1970s All-Star Comics revival, “my” 1980s Young All-Stars, and as many surprises as Chris Day and I can squeeze into 240 pages! (For instance, did you know the first use of the name “All Star Comics” occurred not in 1940 but in 1934? Or that Larry Ivie, Craig Delich, and I each produced an All-Star Comics #58 decades before DC did? Or that Johnny Peril appeared in nearly as many issues of the original All-Star as Black Canary?) Right now, though, it’s time to plunge into this issue, which celebrates Halloween with the help of artist extraordinaire Frank Brunner and a look at an early-’70s horror comic, and (using as an excuse the fact that Dr. Wertham and Co. used to lump “horror” and “crime” comics together) a too-long-delayed tribute to Charles Biro, the man who created Crimebuster, the first Daredevil Comics—and Crime Does Not Pay! Maybe, this Halloween, that guy at the door wearing a mask is a bank robber…! Bestest,

COMING IN DECEMBER

Special Issue Dedicated To

STAN (The Man) LEE The Man Who Made Marvel Turns 85— & A/E Celebrates His Life & Achievements • Marvelous cover by JACK “KING” KIRBY (who else?)! • Rare vintage interviews with STAN LEE—“The Mastermind Of Marvel”! • Mega-tons of scarce and unseen art by JACK KIRBY • STEVE DITKO • JOHN ROMITA JOHN & SAL BUSCEMA • GENE COLAN • MARIE & JOHN SEVERIN • DICK AYERS HERB TRIMPE • WALLY WOOD • DON HECK • BILL EVERETT • GIL KANE • JOE MANEELY ALLEN BELLMAN • DAN DeCARLO • CARL BURGOS • SYD SHORES, et al.! • JIM AMASH talks to 1950s Timely/Marvel artist PETE TUMLINSON! • MICHAEL T. GILBERT on Stan’s “Twice-Told Heroes” (Part II)—FCA with SWAYZE, BECK, et al.—BILL SCHELLY on Australia’s JOHN RYAN—& MORE!! Edited by ROY THOMAS Marvel Characters Inc.] [Heroes & Dr. Doom ©2007

SUBSCRIBE NOW! Twelve Issues in the US: $78 Standard, $108 First Class (Canada: $132, Elsewhere: $180 Surface, $216 Airmail). NOTE: IF YOU PREFER A SIX-ISSUE SUB, JUST CUT THE PRICE IN HALF!

TwoMorrows. Celebrating The Art & History Of Comics TwoMorrows • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 • E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com

THE

JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT YOU KNEW EVERYTHING ABOUT ALL-STAR COMICS AND THE JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA!

Companion VOLUM E THREE

a.k.a. ALL THIS AND EARTH-TWO! Ed ited by ROY THOMAS • STILL MORE sensational secrets behind the 1940-1951 JSA! • Fabulous new JSA-JLA cover by GEORGE PÉREZ, drawn especially for this volume! • Spotlight on the 1963-1985 JUSTICE LEAGUE/ JUSTICE SOCIETY Team-Ups! The 1970s ALL-STAR COMICS REVIVAL! The 1980s YOUNG ALL-STARS!

All characters TM & ©20

07 DC Comics.

• Rare, often unpublished art & artifacts by CARMINE INFANTINO * JOE KUBERT * ALEX TOTH * JERRY ORDWAY * GIL KANE * RICH BUCKLER * JACK KIRBY * JULIUS SCHWARTZ * MICHAEL BAIR * IRWIN HASEN * MIKE SEKOWSKY * DICK DILLIN * JOE SINNOTT * DICK GIORDANO * MIKE GRELL * MICHAEL LARK * DON NEWTON * CREIG FLESSEL * SEAN CHEN * DON HECK * HOWARD PURCELL * H.G. PETER * SHELDON MOLDOFF * ARTHUR PEDDY * MART NODELL JOE GALLAGHER * BOB LAYTON * MARTIN NAYDEL * PAUL REINMAN MIKE W. BARR * JOE STATON * JIM VALENTINO * JOE GIELLA ROY THOMAS, and many others! • PLUS—THE SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY—JOHNNY PERIL— SHELLY MAYER’S RED TORNADO—the 16th-century progenitors of the JSA—the very first All-Star Comics #58— & MORE! 224-page TRADE PAPERBACK $31 postpaid in the US ($35 Canada, $43 elsewhere) ON SALE IN NOVEMBER

Strange Interlude FRANK BRUNNER Annotates His Association With Stephen Strange And Others

A/E

EDITOR’S NOTE: Some months back, we made arrangements to use as an A/E cover a gorgeous Dr. Strange and Clea painting of which Frank Brunner had sent us a copy a year or two ago. Frank, of course, is one of the most successful delineators ever of the Sorcerer Supreme, beginning during Ye Ed’s reign as Marvel editor-in-chief in the early 1970s. However, somewhere along the way, we learned that our TwoMorrows sister mag Back Issue #24, edited by Michael Eury, planned to feature—in the very same Halloween month—a round-robin interview with Frank and two or three other artists about drawing the Mystic Master. So, to avoid duplication, and since I had already interviewed Frank briefly for A/E #29, I invited him to write his own comments about a number of his magic-, fantasy-, and horror-oriented illustrations for this issue. So, with Frank on tap, what am I continuing to yak away for? Except for the occasional necessary editorial comment and contributor IDs, the rest of the text you read in this section will be Mr. Brunner’s! —Roy.

WitchGirls Inc. #3 (April 2006), Cover, Heroic Publishing “This was the cover assignment that got me back into writing comics. Right after I sent it in to editor Dennis Mallone, he asked me if I had a story to go with it... and would I want to write and draw it? I begged off on the latter, but agreed to write it as a 5-part miniseries, as long as I had full creative control. I’ve finished the first three chapters (“Circles of Fear”), in which I explore some of the Gnostic books of the Bible (the books that were cut out of the modern Bible), and I’ve created an amusing partner for Rose (Psyche) and a certain Dr. Kent Buttterworth who works for her WitchGirls Inc. Detective Agency. He’s a big Sherlock Holmes fan and dresses accordingly; he’s also a retired proctologist, which makes him a natural probe and snoop in general. (Ouch!)” [Art ©2007 Frank Brunner; characters TM & ©2007 Heroic Publishing.]

Silver Comics #1 (Feb. 2004), Cover, Silver Comics Publications “This independent press effort is in the tradition of Big Bang Retro Comics, and reflects the styles of late-’50s/early-’60s comics. Even the coloring for the cover was done the old way, with several screens instead of a computer… to achieve that retro look. Each book features several continuing-character storylines, and there have been six issues published thus far. I contributed three covers to them... a ‘Mr. Monster’ cover (SC #4) and ‘The End’ (SC #6) which ends this little backstory….” [Art ©2007 Frank Brunner; characters TM & ©2007 Silver Comics Publications.]

Frank Brunner Annotates His Association With Stephen Strange and Others

Doc And The Caterpillar, Tight Pencil Commission, 2007 “This an expansion on the famous meeting of the two in Doctor Strange #1 (June 1974). Obviously, the caterpillar was a borrowed idea from Alice in Wonderland… which is how I thought of what it was like inside the Orb of Agamotto. Which is where Doc fled to avoid death! It’s always fun to draw everything realistically and then put a cartoon character in it… such as I did with Howard the Duck! And the advice I gave the Lucas people about Howard was just as I said: ‘It’s a cartoon in the real world, and not a guy in a duck suit!’ But my words fell on deaf ears, and the Howard movie is what it is! Later I was vindicated when Roger Rabbit appeared and was done exactly as I had wanted for Howard!” [Characters TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Strange Interlude

Flare Adventures #17 (Oct. 2006), Pencil Cover Layout, Heroic Publishing “This rough layout (Flare vs. Tigress) was inked (myself) and colored (Mike Estlick) for publication. It is one of about 5 or 6 Flare Adventures covers I’ve done, most of them having to do with her adventures on Olympus. The dramatics of this Illo were heavily dependent on the coloring of the lamppost light with a lens ‘flare’ effect, which I thought was very apropos for a Flare cover! ’Nuff said.” Thanks to Anthony Snyder. [Art ©2007 Frank Brunner; characters TM & ©2007 Heroic Publishing.]

Dejah Thoris, Pencil Study, 2005 “This was a private commission. It seems I’m quite often sketching Dejah, and have rendered her in pencil, ink, and oil painting. She is a perennial fan favorite, and I noticed while viewing the movie 300 that the King of the Persians’ costume was inspired by Dejah, too! Her popularity in fantasy is undiminished through all the decades since she was created by Edgar Rice Burroughs in the early 20th century, and I think I’ll be drawing her right up till I join Edgar in the afterlife.” Thanks to Anthony Snyder. [Art ©2007 Frank Brunner; Dejah Thoris TM & ©2007 Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.]

Frank Brunner Annotates His Association With Stephen Strange and Others

Red Sonja #1, Cover, Dynamite Comics, 2007 “I’ve had four Sonja covers published by Dynamite, and not one of them was an assignment. They all began as private commissions…that the publisher liked! Sonja was one of the few characters at Marvel I regret not having done at least one story with. She’s ‘frankly’ a lot more fun to draw than Conan… but then again, the female form was always a favorite subject of artists down through the ages! I’m reminded of what a certain comedian said on TV one night: ‘Collecting baseball cards when you’re an adolescent is hero worship. Collecting baseball cards when you are grown is just collecting pictures of men!’” With thanks to the Heritage Comics Archive, as retrieved for A/E by Dominic Bongo. [Red Sonja TM & © Red Sonja, LLD.]

Strange Interlude

Hawkman & Adam Strange, Tight Pencil Commission, 2005 “One of the few bright spots at DC during the ‘60s was the teaming of Hawkman and Adam Strange in Mystery in Space. I loved those books, and when I got a commission to do my version of a Mystery in Space cover, I came up with this idea, which I felt would have fit in nicely with the series. ‘The City Stealer of Rann’ is my concept, but sometimes I wonder if it wasn’t already done. Anyway, here are the rough and the finish.” [Hawkman & Adam Strange TM & ©2007 DC Comics.]

Frank Brunner Annotates His Association With Stephen Strange and Others

Death (Sandman’s Sister), Pencil Study, 2005 “Private commission. Death is a subject that comes up a lot...especially as we get older. This treatment emphasizes the irony of her wearing of the Egyptian Ankh, which is closely associated with life and enlarged to our left, while the Skull representing death is to the right of her....with her in the middle, perhaps in the Grim Reaper role or just as a playful juggler might arrange her props. You decide.....” Thanks to Anthony Snyder. [Death TM & ©2007 DC Comics.]

Strange Interlude

The Comic Reader #108 (July 1975), Cover “This is my one and only cover for that publication. And I have to confess it was rushed… and a pastiche of art done before. Those were the hectic days when I was in the middle of the series (Dr. Strange), and trying to have some sort of social life. Not being as fast a penciler as Kirby or being as seasoned as Colan, it was a constant struggle to meet deadlines! Quantity vs. Quality, made even more dramatic by sharing a house with a writer (Steve Englehart) who could write ten pages a day and party all night long! As I said, hectic days indeed!” Thanks to Scott Rowland & Brett Canavan. [Characters TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Frank Brunner Annotates His Association With Stephen Strange and Others

“The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” Ink Wash, Private Commission, 2006 “It’s a natural, when a client asks for a ‘Doc and Duck’ commission, that I think fondly of seeing Fantasia as a child, with Mickey in the role as the apprentice. So here’s to classic Disney and Howard fans throughout the world! (Of course, Howard thinks he’s the magician making magic!).” [Characters TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Strange Interlude

Giant-Size Man-Thing #4 (May 1975), Cover “It was the hot summer of 1975. Howard the Duck was about to explode on the scene starting with the immodestly titled comic Giant-Size Man-Thing… and up at the Marvel offices, Gil Kane was perusing the latest Marvel covers that were hung on the bulletin board. When he saw my cover for GSMT #4, I guess he liked what he saw, because he got my phone number in California and called me about becoming his inker (not sure if it was for his newspaper strip Star Hawks or his comic book inking). That was a mighty big decision for me. At once I was finally recognized by a top professional in the biz… nice feeling… but to become someone’s inker was not exactly my vision of how my career would advance. So I told him I’d need a few days to think it over. “I called my sometimes mentor Neal Adams and asked for his take on it. Neal told me two things: ‘Becoming a full-time inker is not the best way to becoming a better penciler’… and something that I had not even thought of: ‘If you do take Gil up on his offer, make sure you had paid directly from the publisher and not through Gil.’ Hmmm. That kinda settled it. I told Gil I had other plans! “Now here’s the ironic backstory to that cover: When I first sent it in to Marvel, it was rejected out of hand by then-editors Marv Wolfman and Len Wein. They told me ‘Marvel doesn’t do mood covers.’ They wanted full-figure action—and gave me another shot at it! I was not happy with their opinion… but I did another cover with Alan Weiss’ help… a full-size Man-Thing attacking students in a cafeteria (as per the Gerber story). (Gerber wrote a lot of good stories that did not make great covers.) That second cover was so hated by Wolfman and Wein that they decided to use my first cover! Hey, I finally got what I wanted! But I had to do two covers first. Obviously, it was an artist’s cover that other artists like Kane recognized as an achievement. “And the fans? They consider it one of the best Man-Thing covers ever!” [©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Mighty Marvel Bicentennial Calendar, Illo For October 1976 “The theme given to everybody that year was 1776, and Revolutionary War-related. The monsters weren’t especially patriotic, so we went with Ichabod Crane. It was a stretch, but at least it was the correct period!” [Dracula, Man-Thing, & Werewolf by Night TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Thanks, Frank! Just the right ending for “Trick or Treat” time—and readers can easily guess which of those two this copiously illustrated article was! Want to own your own piece of original Brunner art? Frank is now accepting art commissions for covers, splash panels, or pin-up re-creations. Also, your ideas for new art are welcome. Art can be pencils only, inked, or full-color (painted). Contact Frank directly for details and prices (minimum order $150). Visit his new website at: www.frankbrunner.net

Blood, Bullets, And Gun Molls A Brief Overview of Charles Biro At Lev Gleason Publications

A/E

by Steve Stiles

EDITOR’S NOTE: This short piece by a longtime comics and science-fiction fan and artist is reprinted (in slightly edited form) from his website www.stevestiles.com, and is ©2007 Steve Stiles. Steve is also well-remembered as the artist of numerous stories in Mark Schultz’ original Xenozoic Tales series.

Crime Does Too Pay The first issue of the blockbusting Crime Does Not Pay comic was apparently labeled “#23”—but was actually “#22”—and featured photos of infamous criminals as well as a Charles Birodrawn cover. At left are the creators who made CDNP happen—co-editor Bob Wood, publisher Lev Gleason, and co-editor Biro—in a 1947 photo, courtesy of Biro’s daughters, who are interviewed starting on p. 30. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

After the Axis crashed and burned and World War II came to its overdue end, so did the Golden Age of the super-hero. Captain America, Daredevil, Miss America—all had done their part in the panels to bring down the Nazis and Imperial Japanese. The payoff was a not-sograceful retirement for the men and women in tights and capes, and a long hard look at another kind of war. A significant section of the comics field turned to the mayhem of crime, with which Americans were all too familiar from reading the headlines of their daily newspapers. The era of Prohibition and the Great Depression had been fertile times for the likes of “Pretty Boy” Floyd, “Bugsy” Siegel, “Scarface” Al Capone, “Legs” Diamond, and the hundreds of other gangsters, big and small, who contributed to the bloody history of organized crime in America.

[NOTE: Jim Amash writes: “The woman whom Mickey Jelke—23year-old heir to an oleomargarine fortune—had tied up in his room was there against her will. [Veteran comic artist] Creig Flessel was with Biro when he was approached to go up to the room. Imagine what Biro must have thought when he read the papers the next day and the scandal broke! Seems like I read Flessel discussing it in one of Ron Goulart’s articles.” —Roy.]

Although profits were dropping for other comics publishers, there was one publisher who was not only hanging on but prospering. The publisher of Crime Does Not Pay and Crime and Punishment was Lev Gleason, the employer of two artists, Charles Biro and Bob Wood, who would take his circulation soaring to the one million mark and beyond. In its heyday in the late 1940s Crime Does Not Pay sold more than 4 million copies a month. Gleason, Biro, and Wood had been involved in crime comics since June 1942, when Silver Streak Comics, Gleason’s first title, changed to Crime Does Not Pay with issue #22, the first crime comic and a hot collector’s item valued from $194 to $1650—certainly contradicting its title!

Whatever the case, Crime Does Not Pay was launched. Biro had scripted and drawn crime stories for other Gleason titles like Daredevil and Boy Comics, and knew what kids wanted—lots of gore! Artist Bob Fujitani recalled that Biro said, “Forget about art. Go for the detail, the nuances. Bullets going through the head. Brains blowing out the back.” With additional scripts and art by Bob Wood, Gleason’s comics produced countless pseudo-documentaries about supposedly “true” crime exploits in anthology formats that portrayed a wide variety of violence, frequently directed at women. Disguised as morality plays and illustrated by artists like George Tuska, Dan Barry, and Bob Fujitani, Gleason’s comics began outselling Superman.

There are two stories about how Crime Does Not Pay came about. One has it that the comic was inspired by a moralizing B-movie. The other has it that one night Biro was sitting in a bar when he was approached by a pimp with a proposition. Biro turned him down and the next day was startled to see the man’s picture in the paper for kidnapping a woman! He told Wood about it, which inspired a gabfest about crime, and Silver Streak Comics was soon a thing of the past.

Other publishers quickly jumped on the industry’s latest bandwagon. By 1948, no less than 38 crime comics, representing 15% of all comics titles, were on the stands. Joe Simon and Jack Kirby produced Headline Comics, which featured stories about real criminals like Bonnie and Clyde and Ma Barker (a comic Kirby would try to reinvent in 1971 with the black-&-white DC title In the Days of the Mob). There was also EC’s Crime Patrol and War against Crime,

Blood, Bullets, And Gun Molls

Too Much Monkey Business Daredevil and Crimebuster never shared an actual adventure in all their years as Biro/Gleason heroes, but the original DD took a moment out from his busy schedule to welcome CB to the fold in Daredevil Comics #9 (April 1942), wherein readers were asked to name the monkey buddy of the star of the forthcoming Boy Comics. For Biro’s own account of the “win a monkey” contents, see p. 18. Art by Charles Biro. Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

Hillman’s Crime Detective Stories, St. John’s Authentic Police Cases, Atlas’ Crime Must Lose, Victor Fox’s Crime Incorporated, Charlton’s Crime and Justice, and on and on—a whole lot of crime for a dime! This explosion in crime comics attracted the attention of the media. Time magazine published a story about copycat crimes by kids who read comic books. The history of Dr. Frederic Wertham’s crusade against crime and horror comics is well known and started with a symposium called “The Psychopathology of Comic Books,” that concluded, among other things, that comics glorified sadism. (EC comics were a prime target.) Citizen groups organized against horror and crime comics, and newspapers and radio stations editorialized against them. Did comics actually contribute to youth crime rates in those days? If so, we in the 21st century are in for major trouble: pop culture in comics, television, and film these days is miles more violent than anything seen in previous decades. It’s a debate that will no doubt go on well into our new century. When the heat began to come down on crime comics, some publishers made attempts to dodge the bullet (so to speak). Fox slapped “For Adults Only” onto his titles, and Gleason pasted “Not Intended for Children” on his. Going further, Gleason, together with Bill Gaines (EC), Harold Moore (Famous Funnies), and Ray Herman (Orbit), and two distributors, formed the Association of Comics Magazine Publishers (AMCP) with the idea that publishers would regulate the contents of their comics, meeting some level of decency. To no avail; the big publishers refused to join, and the smaller ones were too reliant on gore and sex. The years 1954-1955 were the comic book industry’s equivalent of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. When the smoke cleared, the Comics Code Authority ruled supreme over a decimated and pallid field. Juvenile delinquency, as we all know, instantly wilted. Charles Biro left the comics field in 1956 to work as a graphics artist for NBC and died of natural causes in 1972. Bob Wood, who suffered from alcoholism, bludgeoned a woman to death in 1958. A year after serving a three-year sentence at Sing Sing, the writer/artist stepped out from behind a parked car and was killed instantly by a truck. Steve Stiles writes that his Internet piece was based on readings in The World Encyclopedia of Comics (Maurice Horn, editor, 1976), Comics between the Panels (Steve Duin & Mike Richardson, Dark Horse Comics, Inc., 1998), and other comics-historical works.

“An Adult Comic Soon”? This sketch of Daredevil and The Little Wise Guys was done by Biro for fan Wayne DeWald. Wayne says, “I talked to Biro at the ’68 [SCARP] Con and he said he’d do a sketch if I’d write him at the TV network. When I wrote him, I believe I mentioned the discussion then going on in Graphic Story Magazine about the future of comics, which netted the note at the bottom of the sketch.” The inscription indicates that Biro retained an affection for and interest in comic books, even after more than a decade away from the field. If memory serves, the reason the name “Pee Wee” is scratched out is that that character was renamed Slugger in the later years of the feature—perhaps because “Pee Wee” was considered denigrating to kids of the shorter persuasion. Under either name, he was clearly the most popular of the gang, along with the gangly, mop-topped Scarecrow. Curly is the bald one; brainy Jock wears the cap. There was a fifth Wise Guy, Meatball—but, in a startlingly realistic touch, Biro killed him off in wartime story. [Art ©2007 Estate of Charles Biro.]

Charles Biro— “Some Kind Of Genius” The Only Comics Convention Appearance Of The Creator Of Crime Does Not Pay, Et Al. - 1968

A/E

EDITOR’S NOTE: Editor/writer/artist Charles Biro was a major figure in the comic book field from virtually the day he entered it until the day he left it. Three of the comics he developed—Daredevil Comics, Crime Does Not Pay, and Boy Comics—were among the most popular and influential in the industry during World War II all the way through the pre-Comics Code years. Yet, so far as we know, he was never really interviewed about his work in comics—so we were elated when collector/researcher J. Randolph Cox informed us that he possessed an audio tape of an impromptu speech Biro made at the 1968 SCARP Con in New York City and offered it for use in Alter Ego. Brian K. Morris did journeyman service in transcribing the tape; but alas, the quality of the old tape was so poor that Brian, Randy, and I had to do considerable reconstruction and even a bit of guesswork as to the precise wording in many areas… and, in the end, we still had to jettison a portion of the speech as unintelligible. Even so, it provides a welcome hook on which to hang a big hat—and to do honor to Charles Biro. And to serve as an introduction to the interview which follows it, Jim Amash’s great conversation with Biro’s three loving daughters, who accepted their father’s Eisner Hall of Fame award in San Diego a couple of years back. But first, let’s let Randy tell (with, as he says, “lots of help from Tom Fagan,” his good friend and a major 1960s comics fan) the circumstances under which Biro attended the one and only SCARP Con. Both Randy’s anecdotal insights and the speech itself— augmented by the help of some generous contributors of art scans and photocopies—enable Alter Ego, at last, to give a bit of coverage to the man Stan Lee has called “some kind of genius.” —Roy.

Biro’s Boy Charles Biro (right) and co-host Phil Seuling at the 1968 New York comics convention hosted by the short-lived organization called SCARP (Society for Comic Art Research and Preservation)—juxtaposed with the sketch Biro drew for young J. Randolph Cox a few weeks later. (Note that it’s signed by “Daredevil” rather than by “Crmebuster”—or even Squeeks!) In the photo, sent by John Benson, the artist’s hand partly obscures his face. [Art ©2007 Estate of Charles Biro.]

The Night We Met Charles Biro

by J. Randolph Cox (with lots of help from Tom Fagan) wish I had taken notes!

There are historic occasions in our lives when memory isn’t enough to preserve the situation. July 6, 1968, was just such a time. Someone should have used a camera or a tape recorder. Of course, I had a tape recorder along, but it was in my dormitory room the night Tom Fagan and I met Charles Biro. This is a blend of the memories of the two of us, written by one of us. Let me set the stage. It was the summer of 1968. I had been working as a reference librarian at St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota, for six years and was in New York City on a program for college librarians to learn about books published in the so-called “Non-Western” countries and how to order them for our libraries. I was staying in a dormitory room at Barnard College, and for the most part our sessions were being held at Columbia University. It was also the summer of the SCARP Convention, a comic book fan convention sponsored by the

The Only Comics Convention Appearance Of The Creator Of Crime Does Not Pay

I don’t even have a distinct memory of how we encountered Charles Biro. He was not on the official program, and he may have approached us to ask directions. How did he learn about the con? As best I recall, he had seen an article about the convention in one of the papers and thought he would stop by the hotel and see what was going on. As simple as that. At first, he thought we were part of the industry and not just a couple of longtime fans. Here was one of the pioneers in comic books who was interested in talking with us! I don’t know how it came about, but we soon adjourned to the bar in the hotel, and for the better part of an evening we talked about comics, old and new. Some things I remember vividly, other things are hazier. I told him how much I had enjoyed reading Daredevil and Black Diamond and the stories of “Crimebuster” in Boy Comics. I said I had had a sense these stories were intended for older comic book readers, because they were filled with serious themes. I remember him saying how almost any theme could be successful in comics, even what he called the “sweet and light,” if it were done as true as possible. Here was someone who wrote stories for comics as diverse as Uncle Charlie’s Fables and Crime Does Not Pay.

Fan-Friends Forever! Randy Cox (right) and his pal Tom Fagan, in a photo taken in summer of 1971 near Tom’s home in Rutland, Vermont—the small New England city that in the early 1970s became the setting for a number of Halloween stories at both Marvel and DC. With them are Tom’s daughter Deana (pronounced “Deen-a” because she was named after James Dean) and their dogs Lobo and Diablo.

It was obvious he’d been keeping up with comics even in his present position as an art director for NBC. That’s why he had an opinion about the new Marvel Daredevil as contrasted with the hero

Society for Comic Art Research and Preservation. The dates of that convention were July 4-7, a convenient holiday for those of us at the Non-Western Studies Seminar. Every day I got on the subway and went to the convention hotel, the Statler-Hilton. It was like having a secret identity. By day a mild-mannered librarian; by night, a comic fan. I hung out with Tom Fagan for most of the convention. I had met Tom two years earlier when he was representing the Charles Tuttle Publishing Company at an education convention in Minneapolis. Whenever Tom went to a new city for Tuttle’s, he always tried to find someone in the area who was into comics, and I had been recommended by none other than Biljo White. I was heavily influenced by the TV series The Avengers that year and showed up at his hotel room wearing a bowler hat and carrying an umbrella. Ever since, Tom has called me “Steed” after the character Patrick MacNee played in the series. If anyone were to call me “Randy,” Tom would profess not to know whom they meant. I have no memory of just when things happened that weekend and whom we met (although I do remember having Will Eisner sign a collection of Spirit dailies), and a look at the program book only reinforces the fact that memory is often unreliable. I remember buying things in the dealers’ room for prices that seem ridiculously low today, but didn’t at the time.

Biro Was A Star From The Start Biro’s first cover was that of Chesler’s Star Comics #6 (Sept. 1937), seen at left—his second, perhaps Star #9 (Dec. ’37), above. Nice scans of the latter were sent to us by Bruce Mason and Michaël Dewally. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

Charles Biro—”Some Kind Of Genius”

he had written for Lev Gleason. He didn’t think Marvel should have made the character blind, but he didn’t elaborate and we didn’t ask him to. In recent conversation, Tom says he doesn’t remember this at all. That may be so, because it’s the sort of thing Tom would have asked about. I really don’t remember how it came about (this is nearly 40 years later and I suppose it doesn’t really matter), but Tom and I convinced him that what he’d been talking about with us that night would be equally interesting to the other people at the con. And so we invited him to come back the next day—Sunday. Before we parted that night, I asked for a drawing of Crimebuster and received one in which his monkey, Squeeks, was perched on CB’s shoulder. Biro, having just drawn and signed a picture of Daredevil for Tom, carelessly ID’s CD as Daredevil on mine, as well. When Biro arrived the next day, he recognized us and we introduced him to convention co-host Phil Seuling and asked if there was room for

an extra pro on the program. Phil, of course, was delighted and invited Biro to speak to the convention. Biro was accompanied this time by his daughter, and Tom spoke with her at some length. Tom told me later that he didn’t think she actually approved of her father getting this close to the comics industry again after all these years. But Charles Biro took the microphone and began to address the audience. I had brought my reel-to-reel tape recorder from my dorm room this time and set it on the edge of the stage, with its microphone as close to the action as possible. I plugged it in and pressed the “record” button. The rest was history, as they say, and at least some of what he had to say that day was captured on tape and is transcribed here. However, I still wish I had taken notes on that first meeting...! CHARLES BIRO: [tape begins in mid-sentence]—something that’s hot and can sell as well, and be as exciting as “Superman,” and I have to admit that. And as I recall, I was asked to come up with one as good or better. Since then, there have been hundreds of characters that were as good or better…. So Steel Sterling was born at that time. [I’ll take] just a second to tell you that I was working [at the Fleischer animation studios] at one time as a storyboard man and story man in the early days of animated cartoons, so I learned a little bit about some semblance of order and logic and plausibility about a story, the continuity. Even [in] animated cartoons, you couldn’t sell anything that just couldn’t tax the imagination of the audience…. You know, once you go beyond the realm of even the most extended plausibility, you’re dead. I mean, nobody believes in junk. That’s got some hook, it retains some relationship to, let’s say some plausibility, some fundamental logic. Another thing that offended me was such a brazen and outward effort at proving that might is right. And this bothered the hell out of me, too. And so I grabbed an opportunity because of a six-page vacancy in Pep Comics—or was it Zip Comics, with “Steel Sterling,” one of those books? INTERVIEWER: Zip Comics. CHARLES BIRO: Zip Comics. And they were going to farm the strip [i.e., let someone besides me do it]. I said, “No, let me try something.” There was no war at the time. Things were getting a little hot in Europe, and a war strip seemed entirely—at that time, I knew it was the first comic book war strip. And I did this character called “Sgt. Boyle,” and it ran for a couple of issues, maybe four or five issues, and

To Beat The (Dare)devil (Above:) For the cover of the late lamented comics-history magazine Comic Book Marketplace #102 (May 2003), editor/publisher Russ Cochran combined images from Daredevil and Boy Comics, then added clever dialogue about Charlie Biro, Bob Wood, and Stan Lee—obliquely referring to the fact that in 1964 Marvel Comics launched a Daredevil comic of its own, of which Biro may (or may not) have taken a somewhat dim view in 1968. [Art ©2007 the respective copyright holders; composite ©2007 Gemstone Publishing, Inc.] (Right:) By ’68, Gene Colan was the artist par excellence of Marvel’s Daredevil, a blind hero who had nothing but his name in common with the earlier Cole/Biro hero. This exquisite Daredevil montage appeared in The Gene Colan Annual: Painting with Pencil from As You Like It Publications in 2000. [Daredevil TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

The Only Comics Convention Appearance Of The Creator Of Crime Does Not Pay Topline

Steel This Book A triptych of “Steel Sterling” images. (Far left:) The splash panel of Zip Comics #5 (June 1940) was signed both by artist Biro and writer Abner Sundell. (Left:) The splash of the lead story from Zip Comics #7 (Aug. ’40) recaps the origin of that particular “Man of Steel.” (Below:) On the cover of Zip #10 (Dec. ’40), the hero battles a villain named Inferno who’s suspiciously reminiscent of Timely’s Human Torch. Thanks to Bruce Mason for the art scans. For more about Abner Sundell, see Michael T. Gilbert’s “Comic Crypt” section in Alter Ego Vol. 3, #4. [Art ©2007 Archie Comic Publications.]

I liked it. I thought it was just great. I enjoyed doing it, while with “Steel Sterling” I always struggled. It was a real sweat… but “Sgt. Boyle” was pleasant. And everyone at the studio seemed to like it, and they said, “Charlie, gee, pull another one for the other book, if you want to, for Pep,” or one of those. I forget which, Corporal— INTERVIEWER: Collins. [NOTE: Actually, it was “Sgt. Boyle” who was in Pep Comics. “Corporal Collins” was in Blue Ribbon Comics. —JRC.] BIRO: “Corporal Collins,” right. Gee, I’m glad you remember back. [chuckles] And it was just as successful; it was just for the guys in the studio. I mean, I always used the guys as my measuring rod, the fellas I worked with, because, to me, these fellas were in it. They had a little contact with our readers, and if I had a consensus of opinion from these fellas, I knew I was on the right track. So I had a pretty good past record. So this one hit it with the guys, and I said to [publisher Louis] Silberkleit, “Lou, I was running for about four or five months with issues with these books you’re talking about. I like them, and I think you ought to give me more pages.” “Oh, come on, Charlie, you’re crazy.” So I couldn’t get him to move. Another time, I conned him. I told him, “You know, what you ought to have in your books is a contest. How about giving away a bicycle, or something?” “No, we’ll give $50.” “No, listen, you give a thousand. A bike means more to a kid…. Give a bike. He’d like that much more. My kids understand.” In those days, I only had imaginary children, good ones that read comics that were written for them. And later, I aimed for a larger market, if you’re familiar with my comics. So, you know, [Lev Gleason] went along finally and agreed to give away a monkey. So anyway, those fellas were probably right; they were publishers. If, brother, you worked with the fellas, you know you can press your point to a reasonable degree. And then you’d quit, because one of you is going to lose and it’s going to bother you. So he went along with the contest. Now, here we have “The Shield,” who is now how much, $100, $150 for a copy—a powerful guy with a great character, terrific. And “Steel

Sterling,” the best ever that I created in those days. And gee, what the heck chance for our crummy little old 6-page story? It [a comic book] was 64 pages then, and an 8page story was a very unimportant strip. But this sold books, the 6-pager— “Corporal Collins” in one, and “Sgt. Boyle” in the other—[they] won in about 5-to-1 over all the others…. So this told me something, very definitely, that the kids wanted life and love, possibly. Love, you imposed on them. What had the largest percent of sale didn’t necessarily mean anything to me, ever. I always felt that the people were reading dreck; it’s almost impossible to digest. So the fact that they had promotions, publicity, and all this never, ever affected me and didn’t influence me one little bit, because, up to this point, I [had my own] theories on what I thought was a good story. So besides “Corporal Collins,” at that time at MLJ—the company name began with the initials of [the publishers’] first names—the other character, “Steel Sterling,” was doing very well, in fact. And I found out—I had some business sense—that I could count on a million tencents [dimes]. I knew that was a hundred thousand bucks. I heard what a comic book cost to produce, and I knew that a certain number of a thousand dollars were coming into this publishing company every single issue. And how come I only get 7½ bucks a page, you know? [laughs] And at 60,000 bucks, or $50,000, or whatever, coming in every issue, you assume that you’d certainly deserve a better portion of it

Charles Biro—”Some Kind Of Genius”

than decimal zero zero zero zero seven five. I never got the money. I had to quit…. Here’s how short-sighted a lot of publishers were—and this is not a reflection on them personally, because this was the attitude of the whole field at the time. There was a very strong defense in the publishing field against “spoiling” the guys [the artists and writers]. “Don’t spoil the guys”— don’t ever let them know how much you make. But the dough is tremendous once you’re moving a successful book in comics.

When Things Came To A Boyle

Anyway, fortunately, Bob [Wood] and I heard that there was a possibility of connecting with a fellow named [Lev] Gleason. And Gleason said, “Here’s my problem—I have a book that isn’t doing well, and it’s going to go [i.e., be canceled]. And if you fellas can show me a way to bring this to life, I’ll buy you.” And so Bob and I, for about a week, prepared a dummy—a large board—and on this board we had detailed sketches of every character, and a little synopsis, a short outline of their personalities and their types of antics that would be fun for our stars. Gleason, like a lot of publishers—and like ourselves in the early days—had very little to latch on to, you know. And the only thing to go by is that this guy had a costume. “Superman” was selling, and that was a costumed character. [NOTE: The Gleason title Biro was probably referring to was Daredevil Comics #1, a.k.a. Daredevil Battles Hitler. See this cover on p. 51. —Roy.]

(Top left:) Biro’s “Sgt. Boyle” made his debut in MLJ’s very first title, Pep Comics #1 (Jan. 1940)—and had fullpage splashes by the above from Jackpot Comics #1 (Spring 1941), where he shared the cover with Steel Sterling, Mr. Justice, and The Black Hood. In his “Corporal Collins” tales in Blue Ribbon Comics #9 (Feb. 1941), Boyle made a guest appearance, seen at left—and the two of them squabbled like Captain Flagg and Sgt. Quirt in the famous 1924 Maxwell Anderson World War I play What Price Glory?, which had been filmed in ’26. Note how the redheaded Collins tells Boyle, “You’re even in the wrong comic strip!” Thanks for the scans go, respectively, to Michael T. Gilbert, Michaël Dewally, & Bruce Mason. [©2007 Archie Comic Publications.]

So [when we brought in our work], he said it was great, “But I thought you were going to come in with something a little different than what you had before. I mean, this guy has yellow on him and you changed the coloring, but there’s a little bit about his eyes, and you get a different belt. I don’t think it’s too different.” I said, “Did you read the story?” He says, “Oh, story-schmory.” [laughs] I said, “Read the story.”

The Only Comics Convention Appearance Of The Creator Of Crime Does Not Pay

Give ’Im The Air, Boy! Charles Biro also worked briefly for Hillman Periodicals. Bob Bailey sent these scans of the cover and a fine “Airboy” page from Air Fighters #4 (Nov. 1943); the latter includes a schematic of his wonderful plane Birdie. Bob believes Biro penciled and inked the cover, and at least penciled the “Airboy” adventure (and perhaps even “‘wrote’ most of the stories [in that issue] on the boards that others finished (à la Eisner),” and “at least did the layouts for most of the other stories.” Biro just couldn’t seem to keep away from drawing kids! [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

Two Comic Book Guys And A Monkey (Above left:) Publisher Lev Gleason was depicted in uniform and written about in Boy Comics #9 (April 1943). Artist’s signature unclear. Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert. (Above right:) This photo of Biro (on the left, with a monkey on his shoulder) and publisher Gleason poring over the company’s comics was sent by both Biro’s daughters and Michaël Dewally. It apparently appeared in an early issue of Comic Book Marketplace. (Right:) Biro’s cover for Boy Comics #3 (April 1942)—actually the first issue, since the previous two were titled (and starred a lackluster super-hero named) Captain Battle. The debut edition introduced both Crimebuster and his pet monkey and a contest to name the latter. The winning entry? Squeeks! Incidentally, this is probably the only time CB ever wore a mask. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

Charles Biro—”Some Kind Of Genius”

So he read the story, and he thought it was pretty good. He liked it. So he ran it, and the first issue—if you recall the first issue, it had some spectacular fight in color—not too exciting, but it did a lot of fun runaround. But it was animated enough to get a rise, so he had a small percent jump in sales, and that excited him. He lost less on the first issue than he did on the last issue of Silver Streak Comics, I think it was called. So he said, “Go ahead, boys. Anything you want, let’s go. I’m going to give you $700-800 for that, an extra hundred dollars. We’re now in agreement, right?.” And then I said, “Boy, this guy is great! [laughs] This is the kind of fellow I’ve been looking for. This guy is a hawk.” And he was losing dough. He was very generous to me, and a nice guy. I thought he had a backer that had about $60 million. So we had cart blanche to produce comics for his publishing company.

He said, “Oh, my, of course.” And, by golly, we got it. We got a good one, see? In fact, he went along a lot better than we expected. And from then on, we had a real stake in it, and we had a real incentive….. The success of those books—and they were very successful, because if you’ll check back to your circulation ratings in those days—this is the early ’40s or the late ’30s—you know, with some 400 titles on the newsstands, to have one of those comics be #1 on the ABC—that’s the highest percentage of sales—is quite an achievement. But we had three: one, two, three. And then came Superman and Batman, on the percentage of sales on the ABC of ratings; that’s the Bible of the advertising agencies…. That opened a door… later on. This percentage of sale [impressed] all the agencies. It gave us a prestige in the field, a real strong one. And also, it gave us an opportunity to influence Gleason to new additional ideas. On another occasion, I don’t know where I got this inspiration, but it seemed so logical that kids, up to this point, had no comics with children heroes. I pictured that a kid could relate to other children much easier, and he could bury himself in the stories, or the realities of the fantasy. And I was so sure about this. I discussed this with several from the art world, and they all

So later, I got a little wise. I found out a few more things. As you get older, you learn a little more. With each issue, the sales rose, until finally, I got carte blanche from Gleason: “Go ahead with anything “You Have Draw Up A Lot Of Covers To Keep you want….” And then it developed Your Name Alive!” that I was going to get a large So said Charles Biro in 1968—and he sure kept his monicker hopping percentage of the work, and I rolled from cover to cover in the 1940s and ’50s, as per Daredevil Comics #11 off stories for the books and rewrote (June 1942). This one must’ve been pure, er, torture! Thanks to Michael a lot of things that fit my stories to T. Gilbert. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.] the art concepts there and [I’d] just agreed that it’s true. rewrite, edit stuff. And I found myself pulling, maybe, $78 a week, and the books evolved. So I somehow developed “Crimebuster,” and then I threw the whole picture at Gleason, of the boy hero, and he bought that, too, on Wood’s physical output was about five or six pages for the first few the same type of arrangement. So now I knew I’d have it. And this is issues. And then, after that, he didn’t draw at all, because someone else when the three ratings came on ABC. So it was no coincidence that we was hired to do it. And I was always writing, always drawing, and all hung on to the 1-2-3 there. Had we gotten 1 there, it would have been the covers, and the new issues would come out—you could see new great, you know. But 2 would have been a fluke, and 3 sort-of told me ideas. We changed things. We made it Biro-Wood from Woodro, as that we were on the right track. You know, it just had to be. So that’s [we’d signed the cover of Daredevil Battles Hitler]. I was at the front what happened to Gleason—like a Rube Goldberg [machine], inadverend, but our split, our financial arrangement, remained the same. tently transferred itself back to me and to the whole industry. And this And then, one night, on a sweaty, I suppose, hangover, I got a great was the most wonderful, marvelous thing that ever happened to the idea, I thought, for a book. And I phoned Bob: “Gee, Bob, I got a real industry, and also the most tragic. Fine, I’ll sit down. You want to go hot one. I think I’ve got the greatest thing. Look, comics have never rest? You want to take a smoke, or anything? had a real documentary type of comic. What do you think of a book AUDIENCE: No, no, no. that would dramatize true crime stories, so that the emphasis is on the terrors of a [unintelligible]? The guy can’t get out of being a criminal.” BIRO: This was very major. The Crime Does Not Pay book that we So he says, “Gee, sounds great, Charlie. Let’s try to sell Gleason.” sold Gleason had such a phenomenal sale. No, a really marvelous, So I called up Gleason the next day. He was very enthusiastic about it. marvelous sale. I think the first issue made money, which was fantastic And he called up the distributor on the phone. I was there, and he did a in those days—to make a buck on the first book, you know. The better selling job to the distributor than I did on Gleason, I remember. second book zoomed up more than 23%, which was unheard-of. And But when they finished, I said, “Boy, this is a good time, I thought, in two or three issues, this book was just right up at the top. And the having a couple of witnesses knowing this was ours.” sales were so phenomenal consistently, and they almost made the other books shamed by comparison, that every publisher in town, without “Well, look,” I said. “From now on, we’re going to have to work exception, had an [imitation of Crime Does Not Pay]…. some kind of a percentage thing. We want a piece of the action. How about some royalties?” But they misunderstood and mis-analyzed the contents of the book.

The Only Comics Convention Appearance Of The Creator Of Crime Does Not Pay

You’re The Tops The covers of the two published issues of Tops, the slightly more adult comics magazine Biro persuaded Gleason to publish with a 25¢ tariff when most comics were a dime. Alas, it was not a hit. Thanks to the three Biro sisters for the scans; hear their take on the magazine in the interview that follows this transcript. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

adults were criticizing their kids. The mail I used to get—and it was phenomenal, 6000 letters a week was average—a fantastic amount of mail…. Fellas that found the book available, would buy it, responded, reacted to it. And, [we could tell from] the mail, a greater percentage of adults [were] reading [comic] books, and growing all the time.

They saw the elephant’s tail, they saw his trunk, they saw his tusks. But they never, never once looked at the inside personality, the repartee, the little subtleties, which I liked to fool around with…. I’d draw the life out of the character; I tried to. And these fellows, they’re reading: “Hey, look! A guy got shot here. On another page, he got stabbed here. Look at all the shooting and look at that car turning over. Look at the guys flying out. One guy fell and got electrocuted on the wires.” He [the rival publisher] jumped up and said, “He’s got a crime on almost every page!” So they had six crimes on every page, and they weren’t essential to the story—it was just crime for crime’s sake. What do you get? You’re bound to get that kind of a result. So what you had was a book of what I would say was, in substance, a “Crimeography.” You know, a play on the word “pornography.” You couldn’t have anything else. I mean, if you recall some of those early [crime] books, there was only a kind of a pretense of a plot or story. So what happened was that they also enjoyed a lot of success because kids are not that discriminating…. But that still didn’t prevent a lot of parents from picking up the wrong comic—not one of mine—and being offended by it, and then eventually grouping mine with theirs in one whole mess. It did a lot of harm in terms of public reaction…. However, Crime Does Not Pay aroused America. It did. It shook America into recognizing that comic books were a factor. They at least heard it now. You fellas wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for, in a sense, Crime Does Not Pay comics. I mean, that stirring, and that excitement, and those Werthams and those— I hated all that, but some good came out of it [the comic book censorship movement]. I hate to admit it, but it did. I don’t know if it’s going to be worth all the blood that’s been shed, but some good’s come out of it. More than anything else, it aroused America and they recognized it, saw us for the first time, because it’s an analogy: America’s seen the Negro in a new light for the first time out. And in a sense, there is a vague comparison. So they [the censors] saw comic magazine people and recognized them as an enemy…. But, more than that, this whole experience told me that a lot of

And that inspired an idea. If you recall—I don’t know if you will—Tops magazine. It sold for 25¢ and lasted about three issues, stop! Cut! It was a real hard effort at breaking through, and what I was mainly after—everyone connected with our outfit was excited about the whole idea of busting out into the adult market, getting out and into possible competition with, let’s say, Life or Look, or any one of these picture magazines. We didn’t tempt any people [not to buy the] Saturday Evening Post. But we had a chance. We saw a lot of comics being sold in the Latin American countries. Little booklets that were illegal for many years down there. You know, they read dramatic stories in comic form and they loved them. Yeah, they could understand the pictures better, but that served one purpose. But my pride and self esteem lay in the fact that I made the bridge between the very top magazines and movies and comic magazines very narrow, where other guys saw a possible [yawning] gap there. I didn’t feel, still don’t feel, like the comics field is less, or any different. We’re dealing in a picture, a visual composition with the young and the old in sound and voice…. Objectively, you can see a close resemblance between the two types. What the hell, I’d go to a Broadway show and see the most daring and boldest comments discussed on stage, and the most honest situations freely expressed. And I had to go back to my drawing board and say to myself, “Gee, I can’t do that. I mean, I just saw it in a play, but they mostly tell you ‘Charlie, you can’t do this’.” And this had really moved me. I had to go back to my drawing board, and I was totally frustrated. I was sick with the frustration. I felt that we were so discriminated against, and I wondered why. I looked around—but nobody was discriminating against us. We were discriminating against ourselves. And who was discriminating against us? Our timidity. I finally got enough guts to go do something, let’s say, like a book or novel, or even a documentary— Ah, lawsuits! You have people who don’t like the way you represent them. They don’t like the nose you gave them or the chin you gave them… they don’t like that silly expression. You made them crosseyed, and they’re going to sue you. I waited all these days and they say, “We can’t do a documentary.” I said, “Why can’t we do a novel like

Charles Biro—”Some Kind Of Genius”

Crime On Their Hands Violent covers were common on Crime Does Not Pay, but not as ubiquitous as the 1950s witch-hunters made believe. Above is the cover of issue #54 (Aug. 1947), which manages to squeeze in two word balloons before one of the hoodlums is shot through the head by the police—while, on #70, above right, the selling point is the tension of a scene in which both a criminal and a cop are pretending to be something they’re not, while the handcuffed pair hurl recriminations at each other. Art by Charles Biro. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

Maybe Those Guys Getting Beat Up Are The Brothers Karamazov With imitations of Crime Does Not Pay breeding like masked rabbits in the postwar years, Biro, Wood, and Gleason launched one of their own—Crime and Punishment. To go with its Dostoyevskian title, according to Mike Benton in his 1993 study Crime Comics: The Illustrated History, Biro tried to make the new title “stand out from the competition as a more literate and mature publication.” Where many yarns in CDNP were narrated by the grotesque Mr. Crime (see p. 27), C&P’s tales were narrated by “Officer Common Sense, a disembodied police officer (killed in the line of duty) who moralized over the cartoon lives of murderers and criminals.” Art by Charles Biro. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

this?” “Oh, it’s obvious. Too many parents would criticize you. You can’t.” “But why, why, why?” I kept asking. Now mind you, please separate horror and blood and all that stuff. These things are so pointless and incidental. Yet you can have the most horrible scene in the world and never show anything, but by implying it, you can, you know…. How much freedom have we got to imply, and with what impact, and how free

The Only Comics Convention Appearance Of The Creator Of Crime Does Not Pay

He Said, She chance to ask certain people, old-timers, what they think of the Said newer types of comics. The newer type of people always say, “Oh, One of Crimebuster’s most bizarre foes was the (hermaphroditi c?) villain HeShe, from Boy Comics #9 (April 1943). Art by Charles Biro. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

this stuff is great. It looks great.” But very few people have gotten a chance to really ask the old-timers what they think of the modern developments. And I was wondering what your opinions would be. BIRO: Yeah, that’s a good question. I can’t honestly answer that, because there are too many fellows in the field I know and like, and I’d be offending them really, to be truthful, about the comics. I don’t want to frustrate them more than they probably are, you know. But it’s a rough racket, in the sense that you can’t do what you want to do. You got the [Comics] Code, you’ve got sales pressures constantly. You know: what sold last month?… And you can say, “Gee, this ugly thing sold so well last week. Let’s make something more ugly, more unpleasant.” And you can go on to a point, a degree, where it becomes almost a mutation of both story and art. So it is difficult to restrain yourself and stay within your conviction of what will convince a reader that you’re a sincere writer or artist. It’s not easy. And, many times, you do [something] really worthwhile, and you give it to a publisher—and some of them are insensitive to a lot of good stuff. Look at “Superman.” The first; great story, terrific story. They [creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster] went from publisher to publisher. Nobody was interested. So I can’t blame the artists and writers for what’s being done in a lot of instances. I’m sure you’ll all agree that they sure could stand improvement. It isn’t that the talent isn’t there. There’s some terrific artists and some terrific writers, terrific publishers, but I haven’t seen a real combination get together yet on anything. Recently, I mean. Maybe there is, but I haven’t been aware of it.

can we be? And you what I found out? We couldn’t, because we had crippled ourselves! We had atrophied our courage and we couldn’t move. And if we had just thought carefully then, like I would think now—I’m a lot older and I see now that we can get through, or bust through, and you know how? I think if we ever, somehow, were able to take our fame, our luck, to the same liberties and the same freedom that an author has, or a playwright has, or a screen scenarist has, or a TV programmer/producer has, which is not asking much—we just want equality. We’ll fight for it—take it to the Supreme Court. I think we could win it. I think we could if we could invest about $40,000 someday, and drag a case like that right through the courts, like they did with Edmund Wilson’s Memoires of Hecate Country…. And then if we drew someone with crossed eyes, we’d be right, because that’s our interpretation…. [applause] And I don’t think there’s an honest Supreme Court judge that could deny us that right. And I think we have a great edge, too. We’re artists and we’re creators, and we have a really good chance to win their sympathy, in addition to their sense of morals and judgment. So, okay, fellas, if you want more, ask me some questions because I could go on endlessly and forever. AUDIENCE MEMBER: We don’t mind. BIRO: [laughs] Oh, okay. [to young man in audience] Hi. YOUNG MAN: You started to make a couple of drawings? BIRO: Ohh, sure…. You can learn so much more from a cartoon book like [unintelligible]. Of course, I’ll draw something for you, if you’d like me to. Sure, I’d be glad to. I couldn’t possibly teach you anything here, drawing. [Biro begins sketching—a drawing of the original Daredevil, according to Randy Cox.] You might not see this from back there. Go ahead and move up so you can see a little better. [Biro tears the sheet of paper off the pad; audience applauds.] Thank you for that. [He apparently gave the drawing to someone in the audience.] AUDIENCE MEMBER: Very few people here have gotten the

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Why did you eventually eliminate Daredevil from Daredevil in the last few years? And could you use this microphone? BIRO: Yeah, sure. [microphone is set up] Daredevil—his demise was written as a result of the constant battering of criticism against the action, violence, so-called costumed characters in general. Any costumed characters became offensive to every PTA in the country after each Wertham attack during that period. So the publishers clamped down on the action, played down the costumed characters, and emphasized sweet, innocent children—which, done well, told well, and without deception, can lead to some fantastic, wonderful stories with young characters who have yet to taste so-called violence and evil. I mean, there are great stories to be told there…. I’m sure you probably all suspect or wonder, but you don’t embarrass me by asking why I so-called “got out of comics.” What had happened was that I found so much happiness in the field, and I was so thrilled with the great successes and the number of books, about four or five really great books that we had, all selling very well. And I was making a lot of money, and enjoying it and, oh, it was just the greatest. But then Gleason thought, “Well, we have five books, each making X-dollars. But what if we have ten books each making X-dollars? You know, we’d have ten times as much. So Charlie, we need a new title today.” Well, okay. Desperado and Black Diamond, and “Charlie we need [another] new title!”—along came another, and a couple animation books…. Finally, there were so many titles, I didn’t even know them. If you asked me what books, I couldn’t even tell you the books I was working on, produced, created, and wrote the stories for…. [Life] became a 60-, 70-hour week, it became a hundred hours a week. You might say I had nightmares, dreams about the damned things, which I’m so in conflict on. And then I reached a point where I finally said, “Holy cow, this has got to stop!” And little by little, I told the guys to do the book any way they wanted—”Draw anything you want, write any way, fine, fine, fine”…. Things got thinned out to a point where so much was watered down as

Charles Biro—”Some Kind Of Genius”

Jawbone Connected To The… During the World War II years, Crimebuster’s nemesis Iron Jaw was a Nazi ultra-villain right up there with The Red Skull, as per these covers for Boy Comics #10 (June 1943) and #11 (Aug. 1943). On the latter, Iron Jaw seems to have temporarily abandoned his trademark metallic molars for bare-bones-and-teeth around the mouth area, for if anything an even more sinister look! Thanks to Greg Theakston for the scan of the cover of #11. After that war, Iron Jaw became a freelance criminal, but still a murderous one, as on the above right cover of the Canadian edition of Boy Illustories #73 (Jan. 1952). (Biro coined the word “Illustories” to try to get away from the juvenile stigma that was attached to the term “comics.”) By now, too, Crimebuster had abandoned his cape and hockey shorts to give him less of a super-hero look—and he would soon be known only as “C.B.,” with the name “Crimebuster” vanishing even from story logos. Art by Charles Biro. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

to be totally innocuous. It was so thin you couldn’t even see me [in it]; you couldn’t recognize any Biro, anything like that. Then, actually, sales fell off, and our publisher was a little disgusted, because all we got was criticism from distributors that comics didn’t sell. And at best, we only had about 60, 70% national coverage with our distributor at the time, so far as I was told by Gleason. But we did not enjoy the kind of distribution that we might have. And I was always hopeful that someday I might get a little better distribution setup. We never got it. AUDIENCE MEMBER: Why do you think that comics… became so tame? BIRO: The Code came on. You know the history of the Code. AUDIENCE MEMBER: No, this was before the Code. BIRO: Oh, not before the Code, no. Before the Code, they were getting not tame, so much as they were getting more documentary. And I thought the sales warranted that kind of treatment. I don’t want to review what I told you previously, but that was after the breakthrough I mentioned. And I think that’s still forthcoming. I think we’re going to do it one day. I don’t know who’s going to bust us through; some young fellow’ll have the guts, and the brawn, and the money, and the backing, or finance, somehow, to see us through and give us that—I wouldn’t call it dignity of prestige, I don’t think it is that at all—no, I think it’s just a right to achieve it…. Now we work, but our hands are tied, our feet are tied. And boy, you guys are really going to be important people some day if you ever get that ball rolling. Yes, in back. AUDIENCE MEMBER: You see any tie-in between violence and mass media such as comics and television, and current civil disorders? BIRO: I’ll tell you what I find—a very strong one. I got a hunch

about… the responsibility of many people who communicate to both readers and audiences. I think they overlook a lot of the possible effect, the possible influence that some [of their work] releases…. If you’ve been through the files of dusty books in the library, you’ll find some great news items that were never, never told or retold. They’re just secrets that are held very close…. [next part unintelligible] TOM FAGAN: You’ve indicated that, if handled right, violence can have a part in a story. BIRO: Oh, sure. It’s essential, yes…. The key to the story is the very compulsive, violent nature of a personality. There is a story of a guy who just couldn’t hold his temper. And his parents were told, his teacher were told, not to antagonize him… because he was trouble. And they put him in a hospital with a doctor’s care…. Now, this may be a good crime story, and you need to illustrate what this guy had done…. So here, violence is essential to the plot, essential to the story. I think that kind of violence, you’re entitled to…. AUDIENCE MEMBER: In the early ’50s, there was a huge fight about comics—that they were bad, indecent…. And now, you have something similar with gun control. You see a parallel with this? BIRO: No, none at all, none at all. You’d have to really stretch things. [after audience member elaborates slightly] Oh, the elimination of comics was your main comment. All these panaceas and these catch-all cures for anything…. Some guys got a solution [they think is] going to eliminate anything…. More responsible publishing will lessen the evil influences, possibly. You can brainwash a kid and give him a criminal in a comic book. It can be done. If you’re just a cruel publisher and a lousy, mean, rotten, sadistic writer, and boy, if you just want to get kids in trouble, oh, you can do it. I mean, you can do it with a movie. You can do it with pornographic films; you can excite people to a point— unintelligent people. It’s not a dangerous weapon at all, because we have all kinds of wonderful laws that control these things. Post Office

The Only Comics Convention Appearance Of The Creator Of Crime Does Not Pay

laws, the Justice Department, and everybody…. AUDIENCE MEMBER: About how you dropped the ball—the comic books they put out today—the hero is getting a beating throughout the whole book, and the bad guy gets away. Now, what bothers me is… the good guys should win out. BIRO: Yeah. You grew up with that format, and it’s a good one. It was good. It made you honest, and it made me honest. And [some people] were offended by anything that disagrees with that type of plotting. But, for instance, in [the film] Bonnie and Clyde, he’s such a goodlooking guy and everything’s so beautiful, it’s awful. And she’s wearing a lovely dress, and she dies like a heroine, and look what happened. It’s all clean and everything is just so pretty. [laughs] To me, this is irresponsibility of the worst sort. Everyone wants to express his aesthetic sensibilities…. I think we’ve got a great Diamond In The Rough potential, and [comics] is one of the greatest places for telling stories, better Centerspread from Black Diamond Western #16 (Nov. 1949). The artist is William Overgard, who later would draw the offbeat comic strip Rudy. Biro considered that, by adding this Western and other titles, Lev Gleason than pure text. I think, if the old masters was spreading things too thin. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.] were alive today, they’d probably use this medium, because we’ve got both AUDIENCE MEMBER: What have you been doing since you dialogue and art…. If there were no comics, I think most of the artists stopped doing Boy and Daredevil? among you would be fine artists.

Don’t Be A Wise Guy! In the postwar years, as the stories co-starring The Little Wise Guys got ever more popular, Daredevil seemed to be increasingly just an inconvenient costumed trespasser in his own mag, as per the cover for Daredevil #48 (May 1948). Finally, he was dropped totally, as shown on that of #105 (Dec. 1953). Art by Charles Biro. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

BIRO: Let’s see, 1936, or was it ’37, through the 1940s, 1950s. What’s that? Yeah, that’s a lot of years. That’s nearly twenty years. I was tired. Boy, let me tell you. I mean, if you were trying to knock out a living in the days of early comics, you had to produce. And I was just exhausted, handling about thirty artists, and maybe as many, sometimes, people in the art position, along with the engravers, and all sorts of people, when you’re an editor and half a publisher to boot. So it was very exhausting after all those years— boy, I was glad. I took a 9-to-5 job with TV. I thought it was going to be great, without getting any fuss. I got lazy… and I became a design artist at the studio at NBC. And I’ve been drawing and painting for the good shows ever since. Every once in a while, you might catch my name on a show. The [David] Susskind Show they did on Channel 7, a while back. Well, they did the story of Anne Frank, and you might have seen it… The Mary Martin Show, a spectacular musical. That was the Easter show. I did that.

Charles Biro—”Some Kind Of Genius”

Let George Do It! As seen in various issues of Alter Ego, a number of fine artists drew stories for Biro over the years in Crime Does Not Pay and other mags, including William Overgard, Norman Maurer, Hi Mankin, Tony DiPreta, Fred Guardineer, Dan Barry, Rudy Palais, Mike Roy, Carl Hubbell, Fred Kida, Joe Kubert, et al. By almost unanimous consent, one of the most important of them all was George Tuska, a decade and a half before his memorable “Iron Man” stint at Marvel. Here’s a triple dose of Genial George’s work. (Left:) a splash page from Crime Does Not Pay #67 (Sept.1948) in which some poor sap is being buried alive (the story’s final page features the image of a clutching dead hand protruding out of the ground). (Right:) a more recent penciled commission of a pseudo-CDNP cover. (Bottom left:) and a commission sketch of a gunman and CDNP’s nefarious narrator, Mr. Crime. The first of these images is repro’d from a photocopy of the original art; the latter two are previously unpublished. With thanks to Dewey Cassell, author of the excellent TwoMorrows volume The Art of George Tuska, which everybody should order fast before it goes out of print! (And no, I wasn’t paid to say that!) [CDNP page ©2007 the respective copyright holders; commission pieces ©2007 George Tuska.]

So it’s fun, and I figure, in comics, I didn’t really have that many people watching. You have to draw up a lot of covers to keep your name alive. [laughs] Man, it’s about fifty issues. So anyway, I got a fishing boat. And in a monetary sense, the dole is lousy compared to what I used to make. But I have a wonderful family, and they are very successful. I have this daughter that’s making more money than I am. And I’m very fulfilled, really. Yes?

AUDIENCE MEMBER: What character that you came up with did you like the best? BIRO: Well, I’ll tell you what one I liked to do least: one of the characters that required my forgiveness and my looking the other way. It was some costumed thing. I was very fortunate. I don’t make what you guys make, but I think I did better than Batman, gave comics a big boost-up. But I think someday we’ll laugh at all this, and we’re going to be looking back to some things that we’ll be a little more proud of, from a literary point of view, and accomplished for culture…. AUDIENCE MEMBER: Is there any chance you’ll come back as a writer or an artist?

The Only Comics Convention Appearance Of The Creator Of Crime Does Not Pay

BIRO: Well, if the right offer comes along, I’d be glad to, sure. I was really disgusted with a couple of things and people a few years ago that were offered to me. They were great on the money, but they were unknown. Besides, I want a piece of the action now…. I insist on having all rights, so I think the publishers know that. And until they’re ready to do that, I don’t want to do it. AUDIENCE MEMBER: Well, they miss your work, that’s for sure. BIRO: Well, thank you. [applause]

J. Randolph Cox, a.k.a. Randy or “Steed” (after John Steed in TV’s The Avengers), was a reference librarian at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, when he met Charles Biro at the SCARP Con in 1968. Among his publications are books on Walter B. Gibson (creator of The Shadow) and George Harmon Coxe’s pulp magazine and radio photographer Flashgun Casey. Also the leading authority on dime novel, pulp, radio, and comic book detective Nick Carter, Cox is currently editor of Dime Novel Round-Up. He can be reached at cox@rconnect.com.

MODERATOR: Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Let me say thank you. Mr. Biro, thank you…. [applause]

CHARLES BIRO Checklist The following Checklist is adapted from information that appears in the online Who’s Who of American Comic Books (1928-1999), established by Jerry G. Bails. See next page to learn how to access this invaluable website. Names of features which appeared in both books with that title and in other magazines, as well, are generally not italicized below. Michael T. Feldman is the source for some additional data; last updated Oct. 18, 2006. Key: (a) = full art; (p) = pencils only; (i) = inks only; (w) = writer; (ed) = editor; (pub) = publisher; (d) = daily newspaper comic strip; (S) = Sunday newspaper comic strip; (rep)= reprint. Name: Charles Biro (1911-1972) (artist, writer, editor, publisher) Pen Name: Chuck Woodro (with Bob Wood) Education: Brooklyn Museum School of Art; Grand Central School of Art Family in Arts: wife: Frances Biro Animation: Fleischer Studios – assistant, director & animator: 1930-1936?

It’s A Crime! (Above:) Biro draws Crimebuster for a group of children at the art museum in Houston, Texas, in 1949. But dig that caption from the newspaper from which it was clipped by Biro and preserved by his daughters! The clueless “journalist” not only identified the sketched hero as Captain Marvel—but gave Biro credit for creating the Big Red Cheese! No, Biro created the comic book Crime Does Not Pay—which at various times even outsold the World’s Mightiest Mortal! This newspaper clipping came to us courtesy of Biro’s daughters. (Left:) This Biro art from the cover of Boy Comics #3 also became the lead illo for a text story in Daredevil Comics #9 (April 1942). Dick Wood was the brother of Bob Wood. Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

Performing Arts: Graphic artist – NBC-TV 1962-72 Fine Arts: Painter Syndication: Foxy Grandpa (collaborator) 1937; Goodbyland (S) (w)(a) 1938

Charles Biro—”Some Kind Of Genius”

(imprints: Chesler & Ultem); Block and Fall (w)(a) 1938; Cocomalt Big Book of Comics (w)(a) 1938; covers (a) 1938; Foxy Grandpa (w)(a) 1937 (imprints: Chesler & Ultem); Rough House Annie (w)(a) 1938; Smart Alec (w)(a) 1937 (imprints: Chesler & Ultem); Star Comics (w)(a) 1937-38; Star Ranger Funnies (w)a) 1939; Toots (w)(a) 1937 (imprints: Chesler & Ultem); What a Man (w)(a) 1937 (imprints: Chesler & Ultem); Wild West Junior (w)(a) 1937 (imprints: Chesler & Ultem) Dandy Magazine: Jim Dandy (pub)(ed) 1956; Shorty Shiner (pub)(ed) 1956 DC Comics: filler (w)(a) 1940 Eclipse Enterprises: Airboy (w) 1987 in Air Fighters Classic graphic album rep Fiction House Comics: various features (w)(a) 1938 Henle Publications: various features (w)(a) 1936 in Wow, What a Magazine! Hillman Periodicals: Airboy (w)(layouts) 1942; possible other features [see p. 20] Lev Gleason: Adventures in Wonderland (w) 1955; Boy Comics (co-ed) 1942-56 (known as Boy Illustories 1948-55); covers (a) 1941-56 all titles; Crime and Punishment (w)(a) 1951; Crime Does Not Pay (co-ed)(w)(a) 1942-55; Crimebuster (w)(a) 1942-56; Daredevil Comics (co-ed)(w)(some p)(some i) 1942-56; Dilly (ed)(w)(a) 1953; Little Wise Guys (w) 1950-56; Pat Patriot (w) 1941-42; Peter Pester (w) 1955; public service page (w)(a) 1951; Support (ed director) 1951-56; Uncle Charlie’s Fables (ed)(w)(a) 1952—also co-ed of other Gleason titles

Horsing Around With The Credits

Street & Smith Comics: Carrie Cashin (w) 1940

The credits read “Story by Charles Biro”—and he surely did write many of them, though it’s now known that quite a few of the Boy/Daredevil/CDNP tales were scripted by others, particularly Robert Bernstein. Biro may well often have given Bernstein the springboard of an idea, hence the credit — and RB could probably have cared less, as long as his paycheck didn’t bounce! Art by Norman Maurer, from Daredevil #67 (Oct. 1950). [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

The WHO’S WHO of American Comic Books (1928-1999)

Creator (or Co-Creator): Steel Sterling; Crimebuster; Airboy; Zippo; Crime Does Not Pay

FREE – online searchable database – FREE http://www.bailsprojects.com No password required

Promotional Comics: Foxholes on Your Front Lawn (w)(a) for United States Treasury Books on Comics: Bonanza Books – Comix: A History of Comic Books in America (ed) 1971 Comics Studio (Shop): Biro-Wood Studio (co-owner)(w)(a) c. 1942-c. 1955 – packaged comics for Lev Gleason; Harry “A” Chesler Studio (ed)(w)(a) c. 1936-39 Comics in Other Media: Juan Sterling (w)(a) 1946 Spanish reprint of Steel Sterling; reprints by AC Comics, 1995+

A quarter of a million records, covering the careers of people who have contributed to original comic books in the US.

COMIC BOOK CREDITS (Mainstream US Publishers): Archie Comic Publications/MLJ: Black Hood (w)(a) 1941; Blue Ribbon Comics (ed) 1939-41; Corporal Collins (w)(a) 1940-41; covers (a) 1940-41; Mr. Justice (a) 1941; Sergeant Boyle (w)(a) 1940-41; ShieldWizard Comics (ed) 1940-41; Steel Sterling (w)(a) 1940-42; Top-Notch Comics (ed) 1939-41; Zip Comics (ed) 1939-41 Centaur Comics (& related imprints): Adventures in Goodbyland (filler) (a) 1938 (imprint: Chesler); Behind This Scene (w)(a) 1937

Created by Jerry G. Bails Daredevil, probably drawn by Charles Biro—from an ad for a “folding boomerang” in a 1940s issue of Daredevil Comics. Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert. [Art ©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

“He Always Wanted Immortality For His Work” The Three Daughters Of Comics Wizard CHARLES BIRO Talk About Their Famous Father Interview Conducted by Jim Amash Transcribed by Tom Wimbish

harles Biro, the celebrated writer/ artist/editor of the Lev Gleason line of comic books (among others), was more than a major influence on the comic book field. He was multi-talented man whose abilities led him into other venues, such as television, advertising, illustration, and invention. He was, by all accounts, a fascinating larger-than-life character, devoted to doing the best work possible. Thanks to his daughters, Denise Ortell, Penny Gold, and Bonnie Biro, we find, upon closer inspection, that Charles Biro was much more than the sum of my previous descriptions. An amazing man in amazing times, Biro will always remain one of the top editorial influences in comics history, as well as one of the most intriguing men who helped build the comics industry. This interview, incidentally, was conducted via a joint phone call to Denise’s and Bonnie’s homes, with Penny on an extension at the former. —Jim.

Charlie’s Kids (Top left:) Charles Biro’s cover for Uncle Charlie’s Fables #2 (March 1952), from Lev Gleason Publications—and (at right) the issue’s inside front cover, in which “Unc” talks to a group of children. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.] His own daughters—(l. to r.) Denise Ortell, Penny Gold, and Bonnie Biro, in photos sent from Denise’s design firm, DFO Creative Consultants. If you mentally transpose the three sisters into the photo from UCF #2, you wind up with a reasonable facsimile of a grouping of the Biro household—minus Mrs. Frances Biro. In fact, Denise writes: "The group of kids on the inside of every cover of Uncle Charlie's Fables was me and my friends from our summer home in Wilton, Connecticut." UCF seems to have been designed, at least in part, to show that the folks who produced Crime Does Not Pay could also do “clean and wholesome.” Except where otherwise noted, all art and photos accompanying this article were sent by the Biro sisters, via Jim Amash and Teresa R. Davidson. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

“He Always Wanted Immortality For His Work”

blueberries, and they literally came nose to nose. Grandfather fainted, and that’s the only way he survived. PENNY: They say that’s the best way to escape from bears; they won’t eat dead meat. DENISE: Some time after that, he came back to New York, and we don’t know how he made his money, but he was able to buy a quite a bit of land in Jamaica, Queens. It’s now very valuable property, but unfortunately, we don’t own it. He built a working farm there, and then he became an engineer. I don’t know when he studied for his engineering degree, but he was the chief engineer when they built the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on Park Avenue in Manhattan. There’s a plaque in the Waldorf with his name on it. PENNY: I used to work there in the summer, and the plaque used to be right in front where the doorman was. They moved it recently, though. DENISE: Our grandparents were lovely people. From an eight-yearold’s point of view, he seemed sort-of stern, while she was very loving and warm. JA: Did your grandparents speak Hungarian around the house? PENNY: Our dad remembered the curse words, and some food words, but I don’t think he was fluent in Hungarian once he left home. JA: How many children did your grandparents have? DENISE: They had three sons: Mitchell, Louie, and Charlie. Charlie was the youngest by ten years or more. I guess he was a surprise. Mitchie and Louie were very interesting: they went down to Argentina and introduced boxing there, and set up a boxing federation. PENNY: I was told that later on, Louie invented the electronic tickertape display with the moving letters that they have in Times Square. It was called the Flash-O-Graph in those days.

Back From The Future A character blows up his own “crystal ball” in Boy Illustories #67 (July 1951) to see his future—while Charles Biro’s daughters tell us of their family’s past. Art by William Overgard. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

“Biro Is A Hungarian Name That Means ‘Judge’” JIM AMASH: When and where was your father born? DENISE ORTELL: He was born in Jamaica, Queens, New York, on May 12, 1911. Biro is a Hungarian name that means “judge.” Our grandfather was a judge in Hungary, and when they came over to the United States, he took the name “Biro.” We don’t know the name that they went by in Hungary. Our grandmother was a homemaker. JA: What were your grandparent’s names? PENNY GOLD: Anton and Josephine Biro. I was told that when our grandfather came through Ellis Island and they asked his title and name, the immigration officials were having such trouble with the language that they just took the first part of it. He said, “Judge Anton,” and whatever the last name was, and they just took the first two words. DENISE: Our grandfather was an interesting character. He had to leave his wife in Hungary when he came over here to make his fortune. He mined for gold in Alaska during the Gold Rush. He had an encounter with a bear. He and the bear were both gathering

DENISE: That was Louie and Dad, Penny. Both of their names were on the patent. Louie was also a sculptor; he had large shows in Manhattan, and influential people like the mayor attended. I haven’t been able to find any references to his work on the Internet, though. I think time sort-of washed over it. PENNY: Mitchie and Louie had traveled around the world while our father was still going to school in New York, so they didn’t really have a close relationship with him. BONNIE BIRO: They were relatives, not buddies. They were an extremely creative group. PENNY: They were very rough with Dad. They taught him to swim by throwing him off a bridge. Which is also how he taught me to swim. [laughs] DENISE: Our father went to Jamaica High, and he was what they called in those days a “five-letter man.” He was extremely athletic: he did track, tennis, football, boxing, hockey, golf.

“[Our Dad] Was Driven” PENNY: He was a natural athlete, and he would play almost any sport you could name until he mastered it. DENISE: He was driven. He had to win at whatever he did, and he would take each sport up to the point where he could win at the highest level. If it was ping-pong, he would keep going until he could beat the world champion. In tennis, he played the semi-professional circuit. When we were growing up, we had trophies everywhere you

The Three Daughters Of Comics Wizard Charles Biro

could imagine. He was fabulous at golf. He was fabulous at football. He played semi-pro hockey, and his team used to play at Madison Square Garden. This would have been in the late 1920s and early ’30s. JA: I’ve seen pictures of him; he was a tall, very nice-looking man. Did he have a lot of girlfriends? DENISE: I’m sure he did, but when he met my mother, he was obviously very smitten; he just latched on to her, and that was it. Her name was Frances, and she was six years younger than he. JA: Outside of his sports activities, what else do you know about his childhood? DENISE: Once, his dog disappeared. He spent days going from house to house in Queens, calling for his dog. He finally found the right house, and his dog answered him when he called; it was locked up in somebody’s basement. He got the dog out and brought him back home. Another time, he was laid up because he had broken his leg playing football, and he had nothing to do except read the papers and listen to the radio. A crime had been committed in Jamaica, and while he was stuck at home, he solved the crime. He called the police because he had this great idea of how it was done or who did it, and they came to the house to arrest him because he came up with some ideas that were

In The Wink Of An Eye Frances Biro gets playful at the famous Stork Club.

correct. It’s a good thing he was able to prove that he’d had a broken leg when the crime was committed! PENNY: He had that kind of a brain. He was a member of Mensa. JA: I was about to ask if he was a good student, but I guess that answers the question. ALL THREE: No no no! [laughter] BONNIE: I doubt he was a good student because he was into so many things, but he was extremely bright. JA: What got him interested in being a writer and artist? BONNIE: He had a natural ability, a talent from birth. DENISE: Our great grandfather was the court painter in Hungary. Our grandparents weren’t artistic, though, so maybe it skips a generation. PENNY: It could be that they just never had the opportunity. He was too busy gold-mining to draw. Y’know, when you’re fleeing your country, art takes a back seat. [laughter] JA: Was your father musically inclined?

“When He Met My Mother, He Was Obviously Very Smitten” So says Denise. While they weren’t a specialty, Biro drew a romance cover or two during his career—such as this one for Lovers’ Lane #1 (Oct. 1949), also published by Lev Gleason. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

PENNY: Yes, he was. My mom used to tell stories about him composing music in his sleep; he would wake up in the middle of the night to write down the notes. They were complex musical arrangements, but he never had any formal training. He also had perfect pitch. I do, too. DENISE: On the other hand, Bonnie and I don’t have any. [laughter] When my mother was pregnant with me, my father would play

“He Always Wanted Immortality For His Work”

classical music in front of her belly, in hopes that I would come out with some sort of musical ability. In fact, it had the opposite affect. When I sing, people clear the room. PENNY: Well, none of us can sing. I’m not sure Dad could sing, either. I think that’s one talent he did not get. I’ve thought about this, though, and I think he would have qualified as a “Renaissance man.” He was a jack of all trades, and was interested in everything. JA: You mentioned that he liked classical music. Did he like other kinds of music? DENISE: He liked all music. We frequently had music blasting away in the house, and it was mostly classical. Also show tunes, but that was me. PENNY: [laughs] Denise played show tunes morning, noon, and night.

“Who’s Who” JA: As far as we know, your father’s first professional job in art was working for the Fleischer studios. DENISE: That sounds familiar. The first thing he did was animation, and then he did a comic strip in the newspaper. JA: There were two of them. He did Foxy Grandpa and Goodbyland. DENISE: Goodbyland! I’ve been trying to find copies of that. I saw some of it once in a traveling art show at a college in New Jersey. My mother thought those were the most beautiful little drawings in the world. He wrote those, too. JA: Do you know which art schools your father attended? DENISE: I have some information about that in the Who’s Who book of that time. Let me read his entry for you... “Parents: Anton Charles and Josephine Margaret Student: Grand Central School of Art, 1939 Student: Art Students League, 1934 Student: New School, 1918 Student: Brooklyn Museum School of Art, 1932 Married: Frances Bishop, September 13, 1938 Children: Denise Frances, Patricia Penny” Bonnie wasn’t around yet. BONNIE: Awww! [laughter] DENISE: [continuing] “Sports cartoonist: Long Island Daily Press 1928 - Animator: Ben Bergen Productions, RKO Studios 1933-1936 - Animator, director: Fleischer Studios 1936-1937 - Hastings Studio 1937 - Art Director: Chesler Syndicate 1937-1938 - MLJ Magazines [NOTE: Dates not correct. —Jim] 1938-1939 - Editor-in-chief: Comic House, Inc. 1939-1940 - Editorial Director, Editor-in-chief: Gleason Productions Since 1945 - President, Biro-Wood Productions Since 1945 - Vice-President, Flash-O-Graph Corp. Creator and author of comics magazines: Daredevil, Boy Comics, Black Diamond, Uncle Charlie’s Fables Vice-Chairman: Child Therapy Fund, Institute of Research, Psychotherapy, Young Rehabilitation National Cartoonists Society

Gorilla My Dreams Biro’s comics were popular north of the US border, as well, as witness this cover of the Canadian edition of Boy Illustories #83, circa 1950. Wonder if gorillas on covers sold Gleason comics like they apparently sold DC comics! We also wonder if Canadian readers minded that the issue apparently dropped the splash page of the lead story, and printed several pages in the issue in black-&-white. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

Animator: USAF Combat Film USSC TMG Film Productions Lab WWII Recipient: Alexander Medal Key to City of New Orleans U.S. Treasury Award of Merit Institute of Psychotherapy Award Sister Kennedy Foundation Award USA MC Award U.S. Army Citation Member: National Cartoonists Society Vice President: Artists and Writers Association Authors’ League American Institute, Graphic Arts Society Amateur Chef, Grand Central Boys’ Association Club United Airlines Thousand Miles Club Author: Foxholes in Your Front Lawn 1951: Licensed Private Pilot”

The Three Daughters Of Comics Wizard Charles Biro

DENISE: A lot. I was supposed to be Dennis. It never even occurred to them that they’d have a girl, and then they had to scramble to find a girl’s name to use in place of Dennis. Penny was the next disappointment, and then Bonnie. [laughter] The reason he was disappointed was that he was such an athlete. We’ve all agreed—even my mother— that it’s a good thing he didn’t have a son, because he would have driven him into the ground, since he was so driven himself. Being girls, at least we had an excuse. BONNIE: I remember that, down the line, he wanted to adopt a son. JA: Were any of you tomboys? PENNY: I was. I was mostly into baseball, stickball, punchball, and track. They weren’t the kinds of sports we could play together, but he taught me how to throw and hit. DENISE: He tried to teach me, too, but I was very nearsighted, so it was a disaster. Every time he’d throw the ball, I’d duck. PENNY: Then I got into competitive gymnastics, but that wasn’t the kind of thing he could do with me, either. JA: What are your earliest memories of your father? DENISE: He was a very dynamic person. I remember him as a cartoonist, as a tremendous sportsman, and a great father. He liked the outdoors and traveling, and would take me on weekend trips to Vermont for the fun of it. He was always doing something. I can’t remember him ever sitting still. BONNIE: My memory of Dad was that he would be going 24 hours a day. You could wake up at two in the morning and he’d be at the drawing board, but at dawn, he’d be outside, fixing up an old car he’d bought. He always had multiple projects going on.

What Happened To Chuck Chandler Was A Crime In the last few years of his existence, Crimebuster—who by then had been called just “C.B.” for several years (probably to avoid having the word “crime” in the series’ title)—suddenly reverted to using his real name, from that very first story in Boy Comics #3: Chuck Chandler. He even went back to school. This tale from Boy #115 (Sept. 1955) was drawn by Joe Kubert. By 1956, Lev Gleason Publications would silently fold its tents. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

He was a busy guy. JA: It sounds like it! Do you know why your father left Fleischer Studios in 1936? DENISE: No. However, he turned down offers to move out of New York to work. Disney asked Dad to join him in California just as he was just starting his studio up. Dad told my mother about it, and she said, “Bye.” I said, “Oh please oh please oh please,” but my mother wouldn’t let us go. JA: I asked because he got into comic books after he left Fleischer. Comic books paid less, so something must have happened. BONNIE: He may have left when Fleischer Studios moved to Florida. They loved New York; they were real New Yorkers. My mother was born here, and she just wouldn’t leave.

“I Can’t Remember Him Ever Sitting Still” JA: Did the fact that he had three daughters and no sons bother him?

PENNY: I also remember him taking me on lots of trips to New England. He was a wonderful portraitist; he would do paintings and charcoal sketches. He would sometimes go to art fairs in New England and draw people’s portraits, or sell oil paintings. Those were some of my best memories, tagging along on those trips and learning how to interact with the public. DENISE: He did a portrait for Hedda Hopper, the gossip columnist. JA: You mentioned that he was into cars.… DENISE: He used to tinker with cars as a hobby. He’d fix them up and then sell them. PENNY: On the weekends, his favorite thing was to take me to the car repair shop, and make me watch while he worked on cars. It was ohso-much fun for him. I learned a lot about cars, though. It’s come in very handy through the years since I started driving. I was his tomboy, so I guess I was the closest thing to a son he had. He could take anything apart and put it back together… an engine, watches... anything that you could imagine could be broken, he knew how to fix. It was just another one of his millions of hobbies. JA: Off tape, you mentioned to me that he owned a gangster’s car... DENISE: Yes. He bought Frank Anastasia’s car, and it was riddled with bullet-holes. It was an old Packard that had been custom-made, and was quite elaborate. Dad was fixing it up, and the problem with it was that the police had taken it apart looking for drugs or money and hadn’t put it back together very carefully, so occasionally, hunks of the car would just fall off. [laughter] BONNIE: I remember that I was the most popular kid in the neigh-

“He Always Wanted Immortality For His Work”

Getting A Hedda Himself In this newspaper photo, Biro is seen between famed Hollywood gossip columnist Hedda Hopper and a portrait he’d painted of her. The occasion was a party hosted by MGM Studios for the distinguished dirt-disher in 1953, just before she left for London to attend the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The other two people are minor show-biz luminaries.

borhood because everyone wanted to come and see my car with the bullet-holes. DENISE: He had lots of hobbies. He would get into something like gold leafing, and for a while, he and my mother would be gold leafing everything in the house. JA: Was he a strict father? DENISE: Yes. PENNY: And no. DENISE: He was very protective. If we so much as sprained a toe, we’d find ourselves in the emergency ward. He was always overly protective. BONNIE: He wasn’t by the time I came along. PENNY: Usually, by the third child, most parents aren’t as overprotective. DENISE: I got a lot more X-rays than you guys, then.

“Uncle Charlie’s Fables” JA: I’m sure you three never misbehaved, [laughter] but how was he on the rare occasion when it might have happened? ALL THREE: Loud. [laughter]

Would You Buy A Used Car From This Gang? We may have printed the cover of Crime Does Not Pay #50 (March 1947) before—but it’s fascinated Ye Editor ever since Jim Amash sent it to him on extended loan. Nobody but Biro would’ve had the nerve to produce a cover whose main feature is no fewer than nine cars, all but one of them in motion. As he’d done on other covers, Biro plays games with time, having a hoodlum at lower left responding to a wounded buddy—even as the reader had probably already noticed a bullet going through the guy’s own cranium. Well, at least he got to pronounce every letter in the word “tough” except the “h”! [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

JA: Did he read stories to you? DENISE: Yes, but not nightly. PENNY: He was a good storyteller. He generally wouldn’t read them; he would make them up. He would tell us stories to find out how they would go, and then use the good ones in Uncle Charlie’s Fables. JA: How was he on your birthdays? BONNIE: He was okay on our birthdays, but he was the kind of dad who would always bring things home from work, little surprises. They weren’t expensive—he might have just gotten something out of a gum machine—but he’d always have something in his pocket for us, so we were excited to see him when he came home.

DENISE: He was a big practical joker. Bob Wood, his partner, was a bit of a womanizer, to put it mildly. He used to date a lot of models and hot chicks around town. On April Fool’s Day, my father had a model come up to the company, where he and Bob Wood had adjoining offices. She was in the reception room, carrying a doll that was wrapped up as a baby. My father went into Bob Wood’s office and said, “There’s someone waiting for you in the reception area. She’s an old friend.” Bob Wood looked out, and there was this beautiful model with a baby in her arms. He slammed the door. My father was expecting him to come bursting into his office, but instead it was very quiet. He waited and nothing happened. He went into Bob’s office, and Bob was gone. He had gone down the fire escape.

The Three Daughters Of Comics Wizard Charles Biro

PENNY: Speaking of meals, he was very big on breakfast, too. We couldn’t sleep as kids, because he was screaming from downstairs... DENISE: “RIIISE AND SHIIINE!!!” PENNY: ...and we’d have to come running down for his homemade pancakes. JA: Sounds good, though. DENISE: Not at eight o’clock every Sunday morning. [laughter] It was tough when you had been out late the night before. JA: So he liked to cook?

Tell Me A Story, Daddy Biro’s cover for Uncle Charlie’s Fables #1 (Jan. 1952)—and the Hi Mankin-drawn splash page for the pirate story in #2. His daughters say he tried out stories on them—and the best ones made the cut in his “fairytales” comic! [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

PENNY: There was always a practical joke being played on us or someone else. April Fool’s Day was a big holiday for him. I can recall my mom telling me that one of his friends had gotten drunk at a party, and my father and some buddies snuck into his hotel room while he was passed out and nailed all the furniture to the ceiling. When the drunk guy woke up, he thought he was on the ceiling, and freaked out. DENISE: Most of his jokes were very elaborate, and taken beyond extremes to which other people would go. But for the kids at home, we’d get fake dog doody on the living room floor, stuff like that. JA: I’m amazed he could do as much work as he did and still have time for all of you. DENISE: Oh yeah, he had a lot of time for us. He was a very considerate father. PENNY: We would have family dinner at six o’clock, and he was almost always home by six. DENISE: Yeah. It was sort of torturous when we were teenagers, because he would insist on the family being together, sitting down for a full dinner and playing games afterward. All of our friends were outside, and we wanted to get out, but he would make us sit there and have family time. BONNIE: Yep, we would play “Concentration,” or whatever.

Not That Anybody Ever Had To Throw Any Benefits For Halloween… Biro generously offered his services to numerous civic and charitable organizations, as per this 1953 poster. [©2007 Estate of Charles Biro.]

DENISE: He did. He was a very good cook. He liked food. My mother, being Irish, had a rather bland cooking style

“He Always Wanted Immortality For His Work”

“He Was A Big Hero Because He Had Taken On The Mob” JA: Where did you live while you were growing up? DENISE: We lived most of my childhood in an apartment on Park Avenue in Manhattan, and we also had a home up in Connecticut: we lived in Wilton, Westport, and Greenwich at different times. After the advent of the Comics Code, when the whole Dr. Wertham thing happened, we found ourselves in Queens. It was a bit of culture shock. JA: Did he have an active interest in politics? PENNY: My mother was a Republican and my father was a Democrat. He was extremely interested in what was going on in the world, but he never volunteered in political parties or rallies. DENISE: He volunteered for the government, though. He worked for the Army.

“You Will Find Me A Grave Man.” —Hamlet. Many stories in Crime Does Not Pay probably were true, up to a point, with cases researched and expanded, complete to having dates of execution often carved out on tombstones at the start of the story. Of course, sometimes the “execution” was a hail of police bullets. And didn’t anybody ever get off with a life sentence, or less? This tale from CDNP #73 (March 1949) was drawn by Fred Kida. Chances are that it wasn’t scripted by Biro, since it has no writer-byline. Thanks to Jim Amash. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

compared to my father, who had Hungarian spices in his blood. My mother didn’t understand garlic. They didn’t use garlic in Irish cooking, and she didn’t know what it was. She just knew of it as a “foreign spice” in those days. My father loved garlic, and he brought a bulb home one day and told her it was a French onion. After that, she kept sending him to the store for more French onion. JA: Did he take an active interest in your educations? DENISE: Not by today’s standards, but by the standards of the time, yes. He never stood over us while we did homework. If you came home with a bad report card, you heard from him. BONNIE: He would check once in a while to make sure you were doing what you needed to do. PENNY: That was more my mom’s department. JA: When it came to getting some extra money to buy something, was he a soft touch? DENISE: He was a soft touch. When he could afford it, he was very generous.

Yule Love This One! Whether Biro and Wood collaborated on the artwork is not known, but their joint Christmas card from 1949 spotlighted Gleason heroes Crimebuster & Squeeks, Daredevil, The Little Wise Guys, and Black Diamond—and various of their co-workers, including letterer Irving Watanabe, who was a close friend of Biro’s. This art was featured in the invaluable Joe Simon/Jim Simon volume The Comic Book Makers, re-published in 2003 by Vanguard Productions. No comics fan should be without this memoir of Golden/Silver Age great Joe Simon—who’ll be interviewed in Alter Ego #76! Thanks to Allen Bellman for correcting the date of the card. [Art ©2007 Estates of Charles Biro & Bob Wood; characters TM & ©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

PENNY: Dad was a patriot, and I think one of the things that broke his heart was that he was unable to serve during World War II. He earned several medals from different branches of the military, because he would volunteer his time to do design work on airplanes and make training films for the Army. He was in the Signal Corps, but he may have had a health problem that prevented him from entering the military. I never knew why, but my mom always said that he really wanted to go, but they wouldn’t let him.

The Three Daughters Of Comics Wizard Charles Biro

Getting Wood (Left:) On the inside front cover of Daredevil #40, Biro said he’d be using the likeness of his partner Bob Wood as next issue’s villain—and he was as good as his word. Here, courtesy of Michael T. Gilbert, is the cover of Daredevil #41 (March 1947), in which the two-toned titan goes mano-à-mano with a bad-guy called—Woody! (Right:) Wood by Wood! Bob Wood draws himself into the “Little Dynamite” story in Boy Comics #9 (April 1943). Thanks to Michael Feldman. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

JA: Was he an avid reader? DENISE: Yes, he read quite a bit. He read the newspaper, but he also read books. I know he liked the classics. He was always after me to read all the classics that he had read. BONNIE: I don’t remember that; he may have been out of that phase by the time I came along. JA: I was really struck by the psychotherapy items in his Who’s Who entry. Does anybody know about his interest in that? DENISE: Those were awards he won for work he did for various charities, that’s all. What he really got involved in—which probably wasn’t in Who’s Who because it came later—was Boys Town, which was an organization for keeping kids out of trouble. As a child, I went with him to visit a reform school for boys where he used to give talks to the kids. He would give talks and draw pamphlets to try to help them. He did a lot of public service stuff. “Uncle Sam Has a Green Thumb,” “Buy U.S. Savings Bonds”—he did tons of these pamphlets. JA: Tell me the party boat story. DENISE: Once, my father attended a party on a boat with a bunch of very wealthy society people. The boat would go about 12 miles out to sea, into international waters. Unbeknownst to the host, professional

gamblers were on board and began to set up gambling tables. They were running crooked games, and my father became infuriated and threw all of their tables overboard. It was written up in all of the society columns at the time, and he was a big hero because he had taken on the mob.

“[Dad] Was Close To Everyone” JA: Did any of you know Lev Gleason? DENISE: I met him when I was a kid, but I can’t really remember anything about him. JA: Did your father and Bob Wood own a piece of Lev Gleason’s company? DENISE: Well, they were the first ones to get profits above their salaries. They either owned pieces of the company, or Lev Gleason shared profits with them. JA: Did your parents entertain at home very often? DENISE: That depends on the era. In Manhattan, when Penny and Bonnie were young, they entertained quite a bit, and they went out a lot. Two or three times a week, they were at the Stork Club, El Morocco, 21 Club, or some other place. They were part of the

When Crime Did Not Pay Sadly, as Jim Amash and Biro’s daughters discuss, Bob Wood’s career came to an abrupt end in 1958, as documented by headlines and photos from the Sunday [Daily] News. But was the paper right in referring to the woman he killed with a blow from a flatiron as “his divorcee sweetheart”? Or was she a more casual acquaintance? The above was reprinted in Comic Book Marketplace #102. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

nightclub scene at that time. They would be on television. We would go to 21 or any of the popular restaurants, and it was perfectly natural in those days for them to bring me along. They were constantly being written up in the society columns. They had quite a life there for a while during the ’40s and early ’50s. PENNY: We lived in Connecticut and Manhattan when I was young, but we moved to Queens when I was about four. Our apartment there just wasn’t large enough for them to entertain. We settled into a more middle-class kind of life. JA: Did they socialize much with comic book people? DENISE: When they were starting out, the people who did comic books with him would come over, not to socialize, but to work. The ones that I remember later, though, were society people. JA: Do you recall whether he was close to any of the comic book people? DENISE: He was close to everyone. He was president of the National Cartoonists Society, and the Society of Illustrators, and he was very involved in everything they did. The Cartoonists Society was constantly doing skits and shows, traveling to Europe... they were

always doing stuff. During the war, they did shows to raise money for the troops. I met every one of those guys, and they were all his best friends. He was close with Al Capp [creator of Li’l Abner]. He was also very close with [letterer] Irving Watanabe. Irving worked very hard on the scripts with Dad. They would work late every night when we lived on 74th Street. Irving and his wife were Hawaiian —no Japanese blood in them at all— but they looked kind of Asian, and right after Pearl Harbor, our neighbors reported their comings and goings to the FBI. One night, Irving and my father were working late, trying to get a comic out under deadline, and all of a sudden the FBI burst in. The FBI had been told they were having “Japanese secret meetings,” but there they were working on cartoon scripts. [laughter] My parents loved Irving, and he worshiped my father. It was like a family relationship. After Pearl Harbor, Irving’s wife wasn’t comfortable living here, and Dad was very supportive when they decided to move back to Hawaii. Irving continued to letter after they moved, and would mail the pages in. They returned to New York sometime during the ’40s. JA: How close was he with Bob Wood?

The Three Daughters Of Comics Wizard Charles Biro

I’m Just Wild About Harry (Above:) Biro is handed a certificate of some kind by President Harry S Truman. (Right:) Biro’s sketch of Truman—which the man from Missouri apparently signed and gave right back to him. Naturally, it’s become a family heirloom— and, Truman to the contrary, it really is a good likeness for a five-minute sketch! Jim Amash writes: “Wonder if that’s Rube Goldberg next to Truman?.” [Art ©2007 Estate of Charles Biro.]

DENISE: I don’t think they were close socially. They had to work together, of course. I remember Bob Wood from when I was a kid, and he scared the hell out of me. I felt so uncomfortable with him. I can’t explain it, but we used to go over to his apartment, and I used to dread having to go there. He was weird. JA: Were you aware of his problems? DENISE: No, but I know what happened to him later. I had no clue at the time. I guess he didn’t know how to respond to me, and I didn’t know how to respond to him. PENNY: What were his problems? JA: He was an alcoholic. In 1958, he and his girlfriend were drinking, and he became angry and killed her. Then he went outside, walked up to a policeman, and said, “You’ll want to arrest me. I just killed a woman.” DENISE: It was right out of the headlines of one of their comics; it was horrible. He had other problems, too. He wasn’t supposed to drink. He was epileptic, and in those days, they didn’t have any medications for it. He would drink to try to offset it. It wasn’t understood, and I think that probably all contributed. If you look at the villains on a lot of the covers that my father illustrated, they’re Bob Wood. I don’t know whether it was intentional on my father’s part, but I remember looking at them when I was a kid and thinking, “Oh, that’s Bob Wood.” And if I look at them today, I clearly see Bob Wood. PENNY: You’ve said that to me before, and it probably was intentional. That would have been something my dad would do. JA: I suppose he may have done it as a personal comment, or as a joke. Something happened, because Bob Wood left the company before your father did. I don’t know why. Did your father speak about Bob Wood very often? DENISE: He did in the beginning, but in the end, I think everything just fell apart. I don’t remember what he said about Bob Wood killing

his girlfriend; I was too young. I knew about it, but I think they tried to shield me from it.

“Comics Was His Greatest Love In The World” JA: I know that your father wrote many of the stories for Crime Does Not Pay and Daredevil, but I know that he also had some writing help. One of the guys who supposedly helped your father was a writer name Bob Bernstein. Have any of you heard of him? DENISE: No. My mother helped him with a lot of the stories, though. When they used to work late at night coming up with the stories, my mother would do the typing, and she would come up with a lot of the storylines along with my father. BONNIE: He was the plotter, and he did most of the writing, but she would do some of it with him. PENNY: It was like any collaborative relationship. She would say, “What about this?” or, “I’ve got an idea for that.” JA: Do you know if she wrote for all the books? DENISE: I think she mainly wrote in the earlier years. As she got lumbered with kids, her participation naturally dwindled. In the early ’40s, before they had the office, they were doing all the writing at home. That’s when she probably did most of it. JA: Did your father ever have an art assistant that you know of? DENISE: No, he did all of his own drawing. JA: Did any of you ever go up to the Lev Gleason offices? DENISE: I did. They were very nice. They had linen wallpaper, and horse pictures all over the place. They were quite nice, and I was very impressed.

“He Always Wanted Immortality For His Work”

No More Mr. Vice Guy! Later comics Biro edited for Gleason watered down the cast considerably. (Top two images:) Instead of crime and human interest stories, later Daredevil issues featured lighter fare, symbolized by this cover on which two plainclothes cops bury a dummy as part of a “police college test.” A bit earlier, Slugger and Scarecrow would’ve been trembling because they were witnessing a real burial—and indeed, in Tony DiPreta’s splash for the matching tale inside, Slugger does mistake the dummy for the real McCorpse. Could it be that the original cover had to be changed, by “request” of the Comics Code? (Bottom two images:) In Boy Comics’ declining years, Iron Jaw metamorphosed from a vicious Nazi (and postwar murderous criminal) into a stillvillainous foil in Boy’s humorous “Sniffer” feature, as seen in a Norman Maurer splash from #89 (May 1953)—and finally into a dim-witted, non-criminal stooge in a “Sniffer and Iron Jaw” series as per #115 (Sept. 1955), even losing his metallic mouth somewhere along the way. Interior art in the latter is by Carl Hubbell. Surprisingly, even the monstrous Claw from early-’40s Silver Streak Comics reappeared in Boy #89—in the backup feature “Rocky X of the Rocketeers”! [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

The Three Daughters Of Comics Wizard Charles Biro

Plane Speaking Biro clearly loved including airplanes in his later stories—as per the illos on p. 1920 & 34, and this pair of splashes from Boy Comics #65 (May 1951). But the incident in which two boys stole a plane and piloted it to a safe landing using a Biro comic book, alas, garnered bad publicity for the field—contrary to what Biro had intended. Art by Norman Maurer and (perhaps) Hi Mankin. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

JA: Did they have much of a staff, as you remember it? DENISE: There were two offices at different times. I remember my father’s office in both situations, and I remember that one of the offices had a bullpen. JA: He received an award from President Truman, right? DENISE: Yes. He did a sketch of Truman—this may have been through the Cartoonists Society—but he sent it to Truman with a note that said, “This only took five minutes.” And Truman wrote back, “I’ll bet it did.” That note is one of our prized possessions. He also did a drawing of Eisenhower for the Cartoonists Society’s book. Alter Ego reprinted it. [NOTE: See issue #43.] JA: Did any of you read the comic books that your father did? DENISE: Of course not; we were girls. We liked Archie and… BONNIE: We read them when we were older. They were great. DENISE: “Little Wise Guys“ was my favorite. And Uncle Charlie’s Fables, of course, because I’m Princess Denise. JA: In Daredevil, he gradually eased out the Daredevil character is favor of The Little Wise Guys. Does any of you know why he did that?

DENISE: I’m sure they were desperate back then. Those days were horrible. I was a little kid, so all I knew was that bad things were happening. I was in sixth grade, so he didn’t talk to me about it. JA: How did he feel when he had to quit doing comic books? DENISE: Terrible. Comics was his greatest love in the world. He wanted to be remembered for his work in comic books. He wanted to be immortal, which fortunately he now is. He felt that the work he was doing was very important. From day one, all of his stories were created to teach lessons or help people. Even though the comics might look a little horrifying on the surface, he was always going after the bad guy and helping the good guy. PENNY: He had a very strong social conscience. When he was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame a couple of years ago, and we were out at the [San Diego] Comic-Con , a woman from Seattle came up to us and said, “I’ve got to tell you that Charles Biro was my moral compass throughout life.” She had every one of his comics except for one, I think. She said, “Every time I had a dilemma or problem, or couldn’t make a decision about something, I would turn to the Biro comics, and I’d always find my answer.“ It was really remarkable.

“He Was Ahead Of His Time”

BONNIE: I recall hearing that it was because the other characters became so popular. It was almost a natural progression.

JA: Some of the covers on those crime comics were very shocking and graphic.

JA: In Boy Comics, Crimebuster had an arch-enemy called Iron Jaw. In the last year that the feature was published, Iron Jaw became kind-of a good guy. I assumed that they were trying to make the character nicer because of all the attacks on comics in those days.

DENISE: Yes, there were usually horrible things happening to people, especially women. BONNIE: He was ahead of his time. [laughter]

“He Always Wanted Immortality For His Work”

DENISE: He would get involved in things and write about them. He’d get involved in boxing, and he’d write boxing stories. Anything he learned about, he wanted to teach. He had a whole comic where he told kids—though I don’t think he ever really wrote for kids; he wrote for adults—about learning how to fly. Since he loved it so much, he wanted everybody to know how easy it was, and that anybody could do it. He wrote about all the different things you need to know about flying: how to take off, how to land, everything. And these kids read his book, stole an airplane, and took it up for a joyride. It made the papers because they were able to land safely. They did everything that the comic told them about flying and landing, and fortunately, everything in the comic was quite accurate. I don’t know exactly when he learned to fly, but he had a seaplane. When we lived in Connecticut, he would take the seaplane, land it around the 34th Street Pier in Manhattan, walk to work, and then fly back home at the end of the day. That’s how he commuted for a long time. Eventually, they stopped it because of the dangers of landing seaplanes in the East River. JA: When he saw negative press about violence in comics—like the article that Parents Magazine ran—he didn’t really seem to tone his stories down until Dr. Wertham and the Senate got involved. DENISE: Why would he? He had a winner.

DENISE: He only took me once, too. He liked to gamble, but he wasn’t a gambler. JA: Did he have a favorite baseball or football team? DENISE: Definitely the Yankees, because my mother’s uncle was the manager of Yankee Stadium from the beginning. BONNIE: He was more of a doer than a watcher, so even though the Yankees were always playing on the radio, I think it was my mom listening more than my dad. She loved the Yankees. JA: Did your father testify in the Senate investigations into comic books? DENISE: Yes, he did, but I only know that because I read it somewhere recently. JA: When that sort of problem came up, I take it that he tended to shield you guys from it. DENISE: Yes. JA: Did he have a favorite comic book? DENISE: He loved the “Crimebuster” series in Boy Comics, with the monkey. And “The Little Wise Guys.”

DENISE: He liked to gamble, but not an obscene amount.

JA: Do any of you remember when he tried to do Tops magazine? It failed after two issues, and I heard that they all lost a lot of money on it.

PENNY: When he was working for NBC, he wouldn’t have had enough money to gamble. He only took me to the track once in all the years I remember.

DENISE: Yes. I have two copies here. It was a comic for adults. I think one of the problems was that it was too big; it was the size of Life magazine. [NOTE: See p. 24.]

JA: I heard that he liked to gamble. Was he a big gambler?

Trying To Cure The Common Code Three of Charles Biro’s post-Code offerings in the comic book field. (Clockwise from above left:) Cover of Poppo of the Popcorn Theatre, Vol. 1, #10 (probably late 1955), by Charles Biro—this title from the Fuller Publishing Co. was, according to the Overstreet Price Guide, a weekly that lasted 13 issues, from late Oct. 1955 through the turn of ’56—a giveaway at supermarkets such as IGA. Shorty Shiner was a humorous Western feature from Dandy Magazines; it ran three issues. Also from Dandy were the three issues of Jim Dandy, which showcased the escapades of a boy and his Casper-like ghost friend, called Cup. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

The Three Daughters Of Comics Wizard Charles Biro

“He Just Looked Forward” JA: Your father left comics in 1956. What did he do after that? PENNY: He wound up at NBC, but at one point before that, he did some comics on his own. He did Poppo of the Popcorn Theatre, which was a weekly comic about a clown that was given away in supermarkets, and Jim Dandy.

BONNIE: He did a lot of aerodynamic designs for the Air Force. DENISE: Right. He had a patent on the refueling-in-flight design, but by the time they got around to doing it, his patent had expired. BONNIE: He also did playground equipment, and a thermometer with a magnifying case. He invented a design for the corkscrew sliding boards you see in playgrounds now. He thought of that long before you saw them anywhere.

DENISE: He also did Shorty Shiner [“The Five-Foot Fighter in the Ten Gallon Hat”]. I have some of the original scripts for that here. He financed Shorty, Poppo, and Jim Dandy himself.

DENISE: He also designed the first suitcases with wheels. It’s incredible now, because, as his heirs, we have nothing to show for this.

PENNY: I don’t know the whole story, but I think the timing was bad. The Comics Code came out and everybody was scrambling. It was just an unfortunate time.

BONNIE: Sometimes he would take an invention to a company and they’d say, “Thank you very much,” and make it, and he’d get nothing. He had no legal or business acumen. He was missing that.

BONNIE: Also, his forté was the adult comic. This was a slide back to kids’ features, and he just wasn’t in his element.

DENISE: He was the creative side of things. That was the problem with Bob Wood; my father was the creative side of the partnership, and he wasn’t watching Bob on the business side of the partnership. Dad just never seemed to have a suspicious bone in his body. He saw the good in people.

JA: Later in his life, did he ever talk about his comics days at all? DENISE: No, I don’t think he was the kind of person that looked back; he just looked forward. My mom did, but I don’t think he did. After he stopped doing comics, he had his own advertising agency. He also did a lot of freelance illustration. He did many book covers and illustrations. JA: When he did advertising art, what sort of stuff was he doing?

JA: Did he watch much television? DENISE: No. Only with the family. He liked Archie Bunker, when All in the Family was on. He had the first TV in New York, I think. We used to sit there and watch the test pattern. [laughter] He was fascinated with the concept of it, rather than the shows. He would sit there for hours, trying to get it perfectly tuned.

“He Would Make The Most Out Of Whatever The Assignment Was”

DENISE: They did ads for various companies. It was a small agency. I remember that they did an ad for Ford. He was an extremely good fine artist. He did beautiful portraits. I have two where I wouldn’t sit for him, and I was pouting, so he painted me pouting.

JA: What did he do at NBC when he started there? DENISE: He was the creative director of a program called Concentration. BONNIE: Yeah, he did Hullabaloo, Concentration, and some other shows. He also worked with Hugh Downs on The Today Show. I think his title at NBC was art director. He worked on weekend shows like Wonderama and Just For Fun. DENISE: He also did a lot of the specials they would run on Sunday nights, like The Julie Andrews Special, and a lot of news programs.

JA: In the field of art, what do you think he felt most at home doing? BONNIE: At one stage of his life, very fine detailed paintings. At other times, he was a little more abstract.

DENISE: He had to create. Every day, he had to create something. He was also an extremely talented inventor. My basement is filled with inventions of his that have been patented. During the war, he devised a method for refueling an airplane in the air. Nobody had thought of it before.

The Game Is Afoot! The original art and printed version of a Biro cover for an edition of Freddy the Detective. This 1932 entry in Walter R. Brooks’ famous Freddy the Pig series has been a perennial favorite. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

“He Always Wanted Immortality For His Work”

“We Were Usually The Princesses” JA: Did he change as he got older? Did he settle down? Was he a little quieter? DENISE: He had some heart problems, and I think they dampened his spirits as he got older. He had his first heart attack when he was 31. He had an enlarged heart from all the physical activity when he was young... what they call an “athletic heart.” He had a second heart attack when I was in junior high school, about the time that he started at NBC, and after that, he wasn’t himself completely. It was a huge physical drain on him. If his heart problems happened today, he would be fine; they could probably fix it with a bypass. He had over-extended himself physically for too long, though.

JA: Did he like working there? DENISE: He did, but I think he would have preferred to do something a little more creative than what he was doing. BONNIE: He would make the most out of whatever the assignment was. He was also the union shop steward there for a while, which put him in an awkward position. As a director, he was in a management position, but he was trying to help the employees, too. I think he wasn’t very popular with management after a while because of the union thing. He had a strong social conscience, and it would come up no matter where he was. JA: He also sounds like the sort of person who wouldn’t hold back his feelings. It obviously got him into trouble on the job; did it get him into trouble with family or friends? DENISE: I’m sure it did at different times, but nothing major. JA: When was he happiest? DENISE: When he was creating. Telling stories, drawing stories, painting... doing things that would make him immortal. PENNY: He loved painting, and he loved showing his stuff, too. He didn’t exhibit his work in galleries, but he did a lot of art shows. He also did a lot of commissioned portraits, like the one of Hedda Hopper that we mentioned. DENISE: He didn’t do that much painting. He didn’t do it for extra cash; he’d give them away. “Where’s that fabulous painting?” “Oh, I gave it to so-and-so.” We were all upset about that all the time. BONNIE: He would trade a couple of paintings for a vacation for the family. He did these paintings of this ski resort so that we could go skiing for free for life. We used to go up there, but now we can’t. PENNY: I remember that he did paintings for Mont Tremblant in Quebec and Sterling Forest, and we stayed there for vacation. They may still have his paintings hanging in the lobby or somewhere. [NOTE: Penny leaves at this point. The interviewer kept her up late talking. —Jim.]

A Question Of Dates Circa 1970, Charles Biro filled out this questionnaire for Jerry G. Bails, for the Who’s Who of American Comic Books project. Unfortunately for Jerry, Hames Ware, et al., he was a bit vague on dates, but the details have been filled in since then. Thanks to Jean Bails. [©2007 Estate of Jerry Bails.]

JA: Yeah, I’ve heard stories about how he would come in on Monday morning wearing an eye-patch and bandages from where he had been playing hockey that weekend. DENISE: Yeah, and the hockey players knocked out a couple of his teeth, broke his nose, and parted his hair. His other athletic endeavors took a toll on him, too. JA: He died of a heart attack while he was driving, right? DENISE: Yes. He was leaving his house, and he was crossing a main street when he had the heart attack. I was there afterwards; he coasted across 188th Street and hit a parked car. He was going slowly; I think he had stopped at a stop sign, and then just rolled. JA: How did you find out that he was going to receive the Will Eisner Hall of Fame Award in San Diego?

The Three Daughters Of Comics Wizard Charles Biro

He was a great barterer; he loved to bargain for things. If he went to any kind of store, market, or flea market, he just loved to barter. That was another hobby. DENISE: He did it more for fun than anything else. JA: Denise, what do you feel like his greatest influence on you was? DENISE: Well, obviously, the creativity. Never giving up; no matter how things are, to make the best out of it and keep going. That’s how he lived his life, and I think we learned by example. BONNIE: You asked about our memories of our dad. He had the heartiest laugh. He found humor in almost everything. He had a phenomenal sense of humor. DENISE: My mother married him for his laugh. He’d go to the theatre and laugh, and the whole theatre would laugh with him. His laugh was contagious that way. We’re all the same way; we’re all easily amused. He was also a judge at a Miss America contest, though maybe not the national pageant. He also did the national Mrs. America pageant. He did a lot of that. One year, Miss New York won, and she had had braces. I had just gotten braces; I was miserable, and he was happy to show me that it wasn’t the end of my life. BONNIE: Did she win? DENISE: Yes! JA: I heard he was very charismatic. However, it seems as if he didn’t protect himself when he showed his inventions to people. DENISE: That was in the later part of his life. He was a very trusting person, and he thought that if he did the right thing, the good would prevail. That’s what his comics were all about. Unfortunately, the world doesn’t always work that way.

Crime Marches On! Biro started right off with strong covers for Crime Does Not Pay—such as this one for #24 (Nov. 1942), actually just the third issue. This is the issue that introduced the mag’s noxious narrator, Mr. Crime—while photographs of real criminals were spotlighted at left. Most fans of the Golden Age of Comics forget that CDNP was selling beaucoup copies at a time when Superman, Captain Marvel, and Captain America were first riding high. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

DENISE: I was in contact with some people over the Internet. I got a call about it, and we packed up our bags and went out there. We all went up and accepted the award, and it made us feel very proud. He always wanted immortality for his work, but more so for the message he wanted to convey, that good overcomes evil. It was an opportunity for him to be seen and heard. BONNIE: It was a big deal. JA: All of those attacks on comics must have really hurt him, then, since they were disparaging something that he really cared about. DENISE: They were attacking something for the wrong reasons. JA: When you think of your father, what do you think about? BONNIE: Gosh, I have so many memories of my dad. I would be with all of my friends, and he would be the dad who was always there, when maybe you didn’t want your parents around. When one of my friends was hurting, he was the parent who would want to have the heart-to-heart talk and make it all right for the other kid. I have a friend that I hadn’t seen in about 25 years, and when we talked recently, she remembered my dad being there when her parents divorced, and talking to her, and caring.

JA: He shouldn’t have trusted Bob Wood, should he? DENISE: Bob Wood was in charge of the business end, and he didn’t do a very good job. My father was concentrating on the creative end, and the business turned into a mess. Bob was taking out some money that he shouldn’t have, and my father didn’t know anything about it. After the Comics Code and the closure of Lev Gleason [Publications], the only one left standing was my father. After Bob Wood left the company and Lev Gleason left the country, my father was the only one remaining in New York with a family to support. It wrecked him financially. Enter Queens. [rueful laughter] JA: I assume that left a bad taste in his mouth, and he never talked much about it. DENISE: It was more than a bad taste; it was a complete downfall. He went from being very wealthy and having everything he could possibly want in life... to nothing. It happened very quickly. Because of the type of person he was, he persevered and made a life, but it was very difficult because he had so many debts hanging over him from the company. It was a partnership rather than a corporation, so he was held financially responsible. JA: If your father had lived into the present, what do you think he would be doing? DENISE: He loved antiques, and painting. He was always on the cutting edge of new things coming out, too, and he wasn’t alive to see computers and all of that technology. BONNIE: Whatever was coming up next, he would have been ahead of it. I imagine he would be involved in computer animation now, or video games. He wouldn’t have retired. He didn’t know how to retire.

“He Always Wanted Immortality For His Work”

JA: What do you do for a living? DENISE: I have a design firm called DFO Creative Consultants. We do corporate identity branding and package design. I was just personally awarded Entrepreneur of the Year by the Fashion Group, which is a large organization with 7,000 members. I also do an Internet talk radio show for entrepreneurs. We have some really good guests, like Joan Rivers. My company’s website is at dfpcreative.com. BONNIE: I’m in auto sales. And no, I don’t have a show. [laughter] [NOTE: Penny Gold, as we said earlier, had already signed off... but she is the executive director of the Kentucky Society for Certified Public Accountants. In a recent press release, she stated: "My father gave me the courage to be creative, and to set my goals high. From my mother I learned to keep things in perspective, both personally and professionally." In 2003 Penny was awarded the prestigious Woman of Achievement Award by the River City Business and Professional Woman's Association in Louisvile, KY. She now serves on the CPA/SEA National Board of State Society Executives, and is a former president of both the National Association of Trial Lawyer Executives and the Kentucky Society of Association Executives. —Jim.]

Portrait Of The Artist As A (Justly) Proud Man Charles Biro contemplates a display drawing he’s done of Crimebuster, in this photo which appeared in the Sept. 1946 issue of Boy Comics. This photo, supplied by Biro’s daughters, was also sent (via scans from the comic book) by Michael Feldman and Bruce Mason. With thanks to Jim Amash & Teresa R. Davidson.

Call us now to participate either buying, selling or for an insurance or estate appraisal!

DENISE: There are things that have always been in his comic books, or things that he picked up from our lives. Daredevil used a boomerang. Dad always had boomerangs all over the house, and was quite proficient with them. Anything that was in any of the stories, he would always learn about it first, then teach it to the readers. He was always educating. He would always use things from our house. When I go through the old comics, I see our furniture, our chandelier, our scales, all sorts of stuff. Bonnie, Penny, and I were always written into his stories, as the heroines. Hopefully we weren’t bludgeoned to death or anything; I never saw that. We were usually the princesses.

Let us help you realize the highest prices possible for all your prized possessions!

The most trusted name in comic collectibles auctions in the world! The #1 Auction Service dedicated exclusively to Comics, Original Art, Posters and more!

Office: (201) 652-1305 Fax: (501) 325-6504

The only member of the American Appraisers Association in comic art, comic books and animation art

e-mail: art@allstarauctions.net • www.allstarauctions.net

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt

Twice-Told Marvel Heroes! (Part I)

ny Merry Marvel Marcher worthy of the name holds a special place in his/her heart for Stan Lee. In the early ’60s, Stan (along with collaborators Jack Kirby, Bill Everett, and Steve Ditko) created some of Marvel’s most beloved super-heroes, including The Mighty Thor, The Black Panther, and Iron Man. Ah, but did you know that some of these heroes had debuted decades earlier, for entirely different publishers? This is not to suggest that Stan was a copycat! Most of these characters were obscure, short-lived features done for minor companies. It’s extremely unlikely that Stan had even heard of some of the heroes he would later re-invent. But at least one Marvel character was directly inspired by a very well-known Golden Age hero. His name was ...

Daredevil! Decades before 1964, the year Stan Lee and Bill Everett created “Daredevil, the Man without Fear,” cartoonist Jack Binder invented “Daredevil, Master of Courage”! Stan envisioned his character as a blind superhero. Oddly enough, Binder’s Daredevil suffered a different infirmity: he was mute––though only for that first story! Weird, huh?

Above is Jack Kirby and Bill Everett’s cover to Marvel’s Daredevil #1 (April 1964). Wally Wood later redesigned his costume, as depicted on the cover to Daredevil #9 (Aug. 1965), seen at right. [©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Other similarities included the boomerang that the Golden Age version employed against crooks. It would always return to him, much like the billy-club Stan invented decades later for Marvel’s Daredevil.

Twice-Told Marvel Heroes! (Part I)

Origins! The Golden Age Daredevil made his first appearance in Lev Gleason’s Silver Streak Comics #6 in September 1940. Plastic Man creator Jack Cole streamlined his costume the following issue, and Daredevil was on his way to stardom, earning his own title in July 1941. Daredevil’s Silver Streak origin tells how Bart Hill’s crime-fighting career was launched after his father was murdered. According to the story’s narrator, “both his parents were ruthlessly murdered by a gang of crooks out to get his father’s invention. During the attack, the thugs branded Bart’s chest with a hot iron shaped like a boomerang. The torture caused the boy to lose his voice.” Later, the boomerang-shaped brand inspired young Bart Hill to choose a boomerang as his preferred weapon. Interestingly, Marvel’s Daredevil also began his career as a result of his father’s murder. A few years later, writer-editor Charles Biro came up with a different origin. In Daredevil #18 (Aug. 1943), we learn that Bart had actually been raised in the Australian Outback, after a tribe of aborigines killed his parents. The natives raised the baby, teaching him to use a boomerang in the process.

In July 1941, Daredevil took on Hitler himself in the first issue of his own magazine. Guess who won? Art by Dick Wood and Charles Biro—under joint byline “Woodro.” [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

When Bart reached manhood, he and the chief battled to see who would rule the tribe. Bart won the savage battle, but in a strange twist, rather than killing the man who had murdered his parents, Bart forgives him! In return, the chief hands him the strange red and blue costume he wears, which can only be worn by a true chief. And in that moment, Bart Hill became Daredevil! Biro’s origin was a far cry from Stan Lee’s tale of young Matt Murdock, who developed hyper-senses after getting injured by a can of radioactive waste. Under Biro’s direction, the title lasted an impressive 134 issues, becoming one of the best-selling comics of the Golden Age. Alas, the publisher closed shop in 1956, in part because of the newly formed Comics Code.

In Lev Gleason’s Daredevil #18 (Aug. 1943), Charles Biro created a new origin for Daredevil, featuring young Bart Hill (the kid on the kangaroo!). And the chap he’s playing tug-of-war with (later in the story) isn’t Daredevil, but the tribal chief who eventually bequeathed the costume to young Bart! [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

Eight years later, Stan needed a cool name for his newest hero, and Daredevil came to the rescue. In an article written for the most recent Overstreet Price Guide, comic book historian Will Murray related the following tale:

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt Sturdy Steve Ditko was Stan’s first choice to draw Daredevil, but Steve declined. But Ditko did draw DD in The Amazing Spider-Man #16 (Sept. 1964), as well as inking some backgrounds for Daredevil #1 when deadlines loomed for Bill Everett. Steve even took a shot at the original Daredevil at left when he drew this wild Daredevil Battles Claw cover in May 1987 for Ace Comics (at left). [©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. and ACE Comics, respectively.]

And if the name was free, that was terrific. So I just tried to come up with another character.” Lee turned to the artist who had made Spider-Man into Marvel’s latest smash hit. But for reasons of his own, Steve Ditko declined the opportunity. “I was sorry,” Lee recalls. “Steve would have been great. But I was lucky to get Everett.” One of the stars of the Golden Age, SubMariner creator Bill Everett was looking to get back into the comics business after several years. “I know [Stan] had this idea for Daredevil,” Everett told Alter Ego. “He thought he had an idea. And we tried to talk it over the phone, and it just ... wouldn’t work. With a long distance phone call, it just wasn’t coming out right, so I said, ‘All right ... I’ll take a day off and come down to New York.’” “Originally, I wanted him to be a great gymnast,” Lee reveals for the first time. “So I thought maybe I’d make him a circus acrobat. But I decided that was a little unoriginal.”

On February 2, 1964, the last of Marvel’s formative super-heroes made his dramatic debut. For Daredevil, the Man without Fear, it was a long and troubled gestation. For Stan Lee, the writer who conceived him, it was a tremendous relief. That historic first issue was released a month late. For a while, Lee wondered if it would ever see print. The spark that gave birth to Marvel’s latest super-star started with publisher Martin Goodman. Seeing the rising sales of The Amazing Spider-Man, he asked his editor to give him a similar super-hero. But Goodman offered another fateful suggestion. He had learned that the trademark on the old Lev Gleason Daredevil had expired. The Golden Age DD had been a top seller in the ‘40s. Perhaps there was still magic in that name, Goodman speculated. He instructed Lee to create a new Daredevil. Perhaps the old costume could be retained, too. Stan Lee remembers that day in 1963: “So my first thought would be, well, let’s do the character again. But I didn’t want to steal somebody else’s character. So I figured I’d use the name, but I’ll dream up something different for him. I didn’t want to use the same costume. I thought it was a great name.

Lee and Everett brainstormed. Jack Kirby was brought in in an advisory capacity. “Kirby had a lot of input into all the looks of all these things,” Lee explains. “If I wasn’t satisfied with something and Kirby was around, I would have said, ‘Hey Jack, what do you think of this? How would you do it?’” [©2007 Gemstone Publishing, Inc. Used by permission.] Will’s story gives a pretty clear idea of the origins of Stan’s Daredevil, which quickly became another hit for Marvel. And, regardless of where the name came from, Stan Lee’s origin was an original and has been used ever since. Daredevil’s success also owes a huge debt to Stan’s artistic collaborators—chief among them Bill Everett, Jack Kirby, Joe Orlando, Wally Wood, John Romita, and Gene Colan. And the Comic Crypt owes a huge debt to Will Murray for allowing us to excerpt his article, as well as to Jerry Boyd, who provided the Lee-related mini-article that follows! In the late ‘80s, AC Comics revived the original Daredevil, renaming him Reddevil for legal reasons. This cover’s from Reddevil #1, 1991, by Bill Black and Mark Heike. [©2007 AC Comics.]

Twice-Told Marvel Heroes! (Part I)

Comic Crypt Extra!!

Comics Within Comics— Marvel Style! by Jerry K. Boyd House ads in comics served to entice readers to sample the company’s other titles, or simply to create a sense of family for their fans. As a form of inexpensive marketing, the tactic was a winner! Some creators even threw them in just for kicks, writing goofy plots around them. For this reader it was always a thrill to see comic characters perusing comic books, or striding past big city newsstands stocked with their favorite titles. From the beginning, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had lots of fun slipping in plugs for other Marvel comics. We’ve gathered a few early examples on this page that longtime Marvel fans will remember fondly––as well as a few

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt

you may have missed the first time ‘round! Let’s begin with some panels from the team’s sneaky Captain America tryout in Strange Tales #114 (Nov. 1963), as seen atop the facing page. In this sequence The Human Torch digs a Golden Age comic out of his collection and rhapsodizes over Cap and the good ol’ days! Next, at left center on that page, we have The Thing reading an “Ant-Man” comic story, seconds after the real AntMan left the Baxter Building! This pic appeared in Fantastic Four #17 (Aug. 1963). Johnny Storm certainly loved comics, especially those by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Fantastic Four #5 (July 1962) features the highly collectible (and highly combustible!) first issue of The Incredible Hulk, worth about $25,000 today! I’ll bet Johnny’s sorry he was such a hothead back then! And who could forget the kid holding a copy of the FF letters page in FF #11 (Feb. 1963)? It isn’t often you see a super-team picking up the latest issue of their own magazine! Finally, we have this famous scene just moments before The Human Torch rediscovers and revives the flophouse derelict that turns out to be Prince Namor himself! Johnny turned his attention to a 1940s Sub-Mariner comic that just happened to be in the room. And you thought Jolly Jack never drew a Golden Age Subby cover!

Comics Within Comics—Atlas Style!! But comics within comics showed up even before the ’60s. Here are a couple of examples that appeared in Marvel comics in the ’50s. In these panels (see at top of this page) from “The Pit of Fear” in Atlas’ Adventures into Weird Worlds #10 (Sept. 1952), cartoonist Bill Everett shows us that even demons love reading comics! And finally… At right is a neat story called “You Can’t Escape!” from Adventures into Terror #6 (Oct. 1951). Talk about overkill! Every panel from this page presents a part of the comic book the reader was reading. The plot has the vampire setting up his victims by inserting his own professionally drawn pages into the very issue of Adventures into Terror the reader just bought! Now what would Dr. Wertham have done with that, I wonder?

The End Michael here: We hope you enjoyed Jerry’s brief look at comic book characters who read comics. Naturally, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Someday we hope to showcase some of Jerry’s other discoveries. Next: “Twice-Told Marvel Heroes (Part 2),” featuring The Avengers––from 1940! Trust me, you don’t want to miss this! For more comic book oddities, make sure to check out my website at: http://mrmonster.com/ Till next time…

A Dose Of Reality A 2007 Interview with Black-&-White Horror Comics Publisher ROBERT GERSON Interview Conducted by Richard Arndt

any readers of Alter Ego will be totally unfamiliar with the two issues of the black-&-white comics magazine Reality, published in the early 1970s. May Ye Editor make a confession? I was one of that uncognizant group. But Richard Arndt sent me this interview with its publisher, Robert Gerson, and I thought that it would be a perfect fit in this Halloween issue, since several of the then-young artists who contributed to it (Bernie Wrightson, Michael W. Kaluta, Jeffrey Jones) went on to illustrious careers. So we’ll let the interview—and the accompanying pictures— tell the story. By the time you’re finished reading, you may not only wish you knew even more about Reality—but wish you had copies of both issues! —Roy.

That’s What We Call Starting Out At The Top! Robert Gerson in 2007, juxtaposed with three covers from the two issues of Reality. (Left to right:) The front cover of issue #1 (Nov. 1970) was painted by Jeffrey Jones—that of #2 (which came out sometime between Jan. and May of 1971) by Larry Todd—with a back cover by Michael W. Kaluta, which sported the issue’s logo! Unless otherwise specified, all art accompanying this interview was provided by Richard Arndt. Photo courtesy of R. Gerson. [Illos ©2007 respectively Jeffrey Jones & Michael W. Kaluta.]

A Dose Of Reality

RA: Can you tell us a little about your background?

Don Thompson, along with many others, was an amazing creative environment for a young artist to learn from. I discovered the first independent magazines that were being published around the country thanks to Phil Seuling’s New York City comic art shows and G. B. Love’s Rocket’s BlastComicollector. After a few years of reading and being inspired by Graphic Story Magazine, Alter Ego, Fantastic Fanzine, witzend, and Squa Tront, I decided to give the publishing world a try at the ripe old age of 14. For a young artist those magazines offered a glimpse of the creative potential in comics, graphic design, and sequential art illustration.

RG: Born and grew up in New York City as Robert Gerstenhaber. When I was 21 I shortened my last name to Gerson, largely because my last name was rarely spelled or pronounced correctly. I’m an artist, book cover illustrator, and graphic designer. Some of my paintings and illustrations can be found at www.robertgerson.com. Primarily self-taught with studies at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, where I studied figurative and portrait painting. Moved to Santa Barbara when I was 21, and have also lived in Colorado and the Brandywine Valley in Pennsylvania; I currently live in the Santa Ynez Valley just north of Santa Barbara with my wife Annette.

There was also a friendly “New York neighborhood” aspect of getting Reality up and running, thanks to my across-the-street rivalry with my school pal Adam Malin. We were in school together since kindergarten, read the same comics, copied and did our first drawings from the same Kirby and Steranko pages together. Adam was planning to publish Infinity magazine, and we had a fun rivalry going back then about who could get the most interesting art and interviews for their magazines.

RA: How did you get involved in publishing Reality? RG: Reality was the result of two of my passions as a teenager: becoming an artist and collecting comic book and illustration art. The comic art community of the 1960s-70s, which started with and evolved from the efforts of Jerry Bails, Roy Thomas, and Maggie &

When Knights (And Gerson) Were Bold Michael W. Kaluta (left), Bernie Wrightson (center), and Jeff Jones. Kaluta photo is from the fanzine Graphic Showcase #1 (Fall 1967), sent by Bob Bailey—the 1970 Jones photo courtesy of Robert Weiner. The Wrightson photo is from a 1973 newsletter for the professional Academy of Comic Book Arts, taken at its awards banquet held on May 29, 1973. The Wrightson-drawn story “Dark Genesis” from Swamp Thing #1 won “Best Feature Length Story” for 1972…while Kaluta had won the “Outstanding New Talent” award the previous year, for 1971. Newsletter courtesy of Flo Steinberg. (Center:) Robert Gerson feels he has fabled EC artist Graham “Ghastly” Ingels to thank for making him bold enough to get into a 1970 comicon conversation with Kaluta and Wrightson that led indirectly to their (and Jeffrey Jones) contributing to Reality. The mid-1950s Ingels page he traded to Bernie reportedly came from a Classics Illustrated special, but we couldn’t find any listing for such an Ingels story in William B. Jones, Jr.’s, 2002 volume on CI. The page was reprinted in Reality #1. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

Black-&-White Horror Comics Publisher Robert Gerson

Adam is still a very close friend today, and we have a blast going back in the time machine to the days when we published our magazines. Reality, like most creative endeavors, was the result of a specific time and place. There were several independent magazines published in the late 1960s that inspired me to create Reality. I recall studying several of the current issues of those magazines as I thought about what reality’s contents would be. I was very impressed with Alter Ego #10, where Roy Thomas had a perfect balance between informative articles and interviews, with rare behind-the-scenes art along with just the right amount of humor. Then there was Jerry Weist’s great EC-devoted magazine Squa Tront, particularly #3 and 4, where Jerry was creating probably the most exciting graphic design work of all the independent magazines published during that era. His magazines were more creatively designed than most of what was appearing on the newsstands at the time. Then there was Wally Wood’s witzend. Wood, and later Bill Pearson, really created one of the great illustrator-and-comic-artist magazines. What I really liked about witzend was the blending in each issue of works by artists who had started out in the 1940s and 1950s, such as Reed Crandall, Frank Frazetta, Wally Wood, and Harvey Kurtzman, with the next generation from the 1960s, including artists like Art Spiegelman and Vaughn Bode. witzend really did set the table for the next wave of creativity in comics and graphic stories. RA: Where did your contacts with the artists and writers come from? There were some pretty heavy hitters in the two issues of Reality that you published. RG: The first time I met some of the artists who were published in Reality was at Phil Seuling’s July comic art show. This was at the 1969 and 1970 shows at the Statler Hilton Hotel in Manhattan. Looking

back, I don’t know how at 14 years old I got the nerve to approach Jeffrey Jones, Bernie Wrightson, or Michael Kaluta. I was a rather shy, introverted teenager. On the one hand they were all just starting out in their careers and were only about ten years older then me, so it was easier to talk to them than walking up to Al Williamson or Frank Frazetta, both of whom I recall being very accessible and friendly. My initial contact was with Kaluta, who, along with Bernie Wrightson, was walking around the summer 1970 show. I had two of the very first original art purchases that I’d bought at the show: a Graham Ingels Classics Illustrated page and an Alex Raymond-drawn Rip Kirby daily. Both Kaluta and Wrightson went wild over the originals. Raymond and Ingels were some of their main artistic influences. I ended up selling (or possibly trading for one of his drawings) the Ingels original to Wrightson with the agreement that I could print it in the magazine I was planning to publish. That quickly got the conversation going about both of them contributing to the magazine, which, in turn, led to an introduction to Jeffrey Jones. So maybe I have Graham Ingels to thank for getting the whole thing going. Another artist that I admired who first published in the late 1960s is Kenneth Smith. He was creating all of those exquisitely detailed illustrations and title logos for Squa Tront, witzend, and other magazines before he moved on to do cover work for Warren’s Creepy and Eerie magazines, along with paperback covers. I don’t recall how we initially met. I think I may have asked him to design the logo for Reality through the mail or by phone. After Reality #1 was published, I would share convention tables with Kenneth, as he was beginning independent publishing with his own magazine Phantasmagoria. He also published several limited-edition print series around that time. He would display several of his oil paintings that he’d done for the Warren covers, as well

A Dose Of Reality

as his latest paperback assignments at our table. I remember Al Williamson and Roy Krenkel and other artists stopping by to chat with him. As a young, aspiring artist, I just soaked it all up. It was very inspiring meeting all of these artists whose work I’d been collecting for years. I would go back to my family’s apartment after the shows and sit at the drafting table that my Dad had built for me and create my first drawings inspired by all of those experiences. RA: Why did the story “Death Is the Sailor” (written by Len Wein & illustrated by Michael Kaluta) get split in two for publication? It clearly was not intended to be published that way. RG: Yikes! I still cringe when I open issue #1 and see that story only partially printed. What can I say except that I was 14 years old? Clearly my editorial judgment and experience were minimal. I recall having too much art for the first issue, primarily because I had promised several free ad pages to other people who were publishing their own magazines at the time. So the rather silly decision to break that story into two parts was the result. Probably it would have been better to pull some of the full-page drawings instead. RA: A number of the stories had originally been intended for the professional black-&-white magazine Web of Horror. Were any of the stories done specifically for Reality?

Kraken Up Gerson talks of his youthful error in splitting up the Len Wein/Michael Kaluta story “Death Is the Sailor” between the two issues of Reality. Here are the splash (actually page 2) and final page of the 10-page story. The spidery character who comments EC-like on the story is the mascot of the defunct horror b&w comic Web of Horror, for which it was originally intended. [©2007 Len Wein & Michael W. Kaluta.]

Black-&-White Horror Comics Publisher Robert Gerson

Wake Up To Reality The three stories whose splashes are repro’d on this page were written and drawn especially for issues of Robert Gerson’s magazine Reality:

“Renegade!” Howard Chaykin (above) at the San Diego Comic-Con in 1976, and the first page of the story he penciled specifically for Reality. Inks by Bill Stillwell; script by Chaykin. Photo courtesy of Steve Sansweet. [Art ©2007 Howard Chaykin & Bill Stillwell.]

A Dose Of Reality

RA: Was your magazine a true fanzine or was it a prozine? The difference being that a prozine paid artists and writers some amount for publication.

RG: The stories that were specifically commissioned for Reality were the Kaluta 2-page piece “As Night Falls,” the Frank Brunner story “Endless Chain,” and the Howard Chaykin/Bill Stillwell story “Renegade.” The Chaykin work was his very first published comic story. Chaykin was a Queens College classmate of my sister’s boyfriend, and one day they both appeared at our apartment while I was putting the first issue together. Howard was very persuasive in getting me to publish his work. Of course, Howard went on to create some very innovative work in comics, creating covers and pages that were more in touch with various illustration styles than most traditional comic art had been up to that point. Like acquiring so many of the Web of Horror stories, being the first to get Howard’s work into comics was another one of those odd little twists of fate that happened around the summer of 1970, when I was first putting the magazine together. As for the Web of Horror stories, I was certainly in the right place at the right time for them. Web of Horror had just folded after only three issues. Most of the artists had just received their unpublished art back, and they were looking for somewhere to get the stories published. The most logical place would have been the Warren black&-white magazines, but I could just imagine that Jim Warren probably wanted nothing to do with the art. I know Frank Brunner has some interesting stories about saving the art done for the unpublished Web of Horror #4 and on, which he rescued from the publisher’s offices before they shut down. [NOTE: See the hardcover version of The Warren Companion from TwoMorrows Publishing for Frank’s version of that story. —Richard.] All those beautifully drawn stories, orphaned from Web of Horror, launched Reality on an artistic level that was well beyond my wildest dreams when I decided to create the magazine. I felt very fortunate indeed.

RG: My idea from the beginning was to create Reality as a small, limited edition magazine. I never really felt qualified to do a fanzine, since I wasn’t part of the fan collector’s network, nor did I belong to any of the collectors’ clubs that were around back then. I did pay reproduction rights to print those stories and for some of the full-page artwork that was specifically commis-

Black-&-White Horror Comics Publisher Robert Gerson

sioned for Reality, such as Kenneth Smith’s work. In those days one was quickly labeled a prozine if they had the nerve to actually pay for contributions. I paid $25 per page for the first printing rights to all those stories. At the time that was a high rate, considering artists were getting $35-$45 per page from the mainstream publishers of that period. Honestly, I couldn’t imagine printing those stories for free. Why wouldn’t I pay an artist for his work? There was always a moral cry from the traditional fanzine publishers back then about paying for contributions. My intention was always to emulate a Warren magazine or witzend when creating Reality. Crazy ambitions for a 14-year-old, in hindsight! RA: Do you still keep involved in comics in any way? RG: Well, I read Mutts every day, probably the best and sweetest cat and dog comic strip ever created. I don’t really follow mainstream comics much except for a periodic visit to a comic store. I tend to read anthologies and collections and some of the graphic novels. As an artist and designer, I really do like the high level of artistic technique, style, and design in comics today, and I’m glad to see that the subject matter has grown beyond primarily super-hero stories. RA: Have you ever considered reprinting the two issues as a standalone trade paperback? Perhaps with #1-3 of the Web of Horror magazine included? Many of the stories have never been reprinted. RG: Every five years of so I think about doing a reprint issue with new material, but it never goes beyond the idea stage. Rounding up all the copyright holders would be quite a project, and I only have about six pages of the original art from the magazine. I didn’t hold on to the printing plates, which of course today would be useless anyway, since all print work is now based on digital pre-press files. Seeing a reprint of those first three issues of Web of Horror would be nice, but rounding up complete story art would probably be quite a challenge.

RA: What comic writers and artists inspired you in the Reality days? Do you follow any writers or artists today? RG: Back in the 1970s the artists I studied and learned from included Frank Frazetta, Jim Steranko, Reed Crandall, Roy Krenkel, Kenneth Smith, Jeffrey Jones, Michael Kaluta, Bernie Wrightson, Victor Moscoso, and Rick Griffin. Their work is woven into my paintings even today and probably always will be. A few of the comic artists and illustrators I enjoy who are working today are James Jean, Patrick McDonnell, John Paul Leon, and Phil Hale.

As for writers, I recall enjoying Archie Goodwin, Jim Steranko, Roy Thomas, Ray Bradbury, and Will Eisner. I loved Eisner’s creative innovations in graphic stories from the

A Dose Of Reality

him if the drawing of Bernie’s that he has sitting next to his drafting table can be published in Reality. Mike grabs this beautiful drawing and shows it to me. Bernie says, “Sure, go ahead and print it.” It certainly was cool to publish an early Wrightson drawing. The color covers to Reality #2 were printed as continuous tone lithography. Back then, that printing method was quite rare and mainly used for fine art prints and not for mass reproduction. There were no 4-color screen dots on those covers, and that allowed for a more accurate reproduction of each artist’s painting. Collectors have asked me over the years about the print runs for Reality. Issue #1 had a print run of 1000 copies, and issue #2 was 2000 copies. On both issues I only sold a few hundred copies directly to subscribers. The rest were sold wholesale to magazine dealers. It was a real thrill to meet all of those artists and writers at such a young age. It shaped my life in becoming an artist and still inspires me today. Thanks for asking me about Reality. It really is fun to get back to those times now and then. RA: Thanks, Robert, it’s much appreciated! RICHARD ARNDT lives in the high desert country of Nevada. He is a librarian by day and a black-&-white magazine fan by night. You can find his checklist for those magazine, along with issue-by-issue commentaries and many creator interviews at www.enjolrasworld.com (then look for Richard’s pages).

1970s and on. His commitment to the development of comics into graphic stories is very inspiring. I never did get to meet him when I studied at Visual Arts. Today anyone in comics who is doing writing about contemporary life or a creative look at social issues is one of the writers I gravitate to. Writers like Art Spiegelman, Craig Thompson, and Daniel Clowes. There is such a lot of interesting new art and stories being published now that I know I’m leaving out many exciting writers and artists. It really is a great time for graphic stories and comics. RA: Any interesting anecdotes or stories that you’d care to share? RG: The Bernie Wrightson illustration in Reality #2 is the prototype version of the Swamp Thing character and was the first illustration of the muck monster to appear before Swamp Thing’s official debut in the July 1971 House of Secrets #92. At the time I didn’t even know I was publishing a Swamp Thing illustration. I was at Michael Kaluta’s apartment to pick up some of his artwork for the 2nd issue, and I mentioned that I really was hoping to have a piece by Bernie for the new issue, particularly since he hadn’t appeared in the first issue. So I’m asking Kaluta about how to get in touch with Wrightson—and at that moment Bernie walks in the door. Kaluta asks

The Eternal Swamp (Right:) Bernie (then Berni) Wrightson’s swamp-monster drawing as it appeared in Reality #1 in late 1970. (Above right:) It was re-utilized as the cover of DC’s House of Mystery #92 (July 1971), then again (with flying saucers added!) on the reprint title House of Mystery #255. The originally stand-alone story by Bernie and writer Len Wein was, of course, spun off into its own successful series by editor Joe Orlando in 1972. [©2007 DC Comics.]

SPECIAL NOTE: Watch for Richard's coverage of Web of Horror in our 2008 Halloween issue!

Richard Arndt.

From Bing To Bails— And Back Again In Search of Artist L. BING Part IV Of Our Series “The Great Unknowns” by Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., & Hames Ware

he Raggedy Road to identifying L. Bing has taken many a fun and bumpy turn since Hames saw an “L.B.” carved on a desk in the 1942 Dell adaptation of TOM SAWYER.

Although Dell doesn’t generate much enthusiasm from current fandom (it dabbled only briefly with hero types—“The Owl,” “Phantasmo,” and strange phenomena like “Dr. Hormone”), it was the most successful publishing company throughout much of Golden Age. Dell quickly settled into a format synonymous with its credo “Dell Comics Are Good Comics!” And indeed, they were good for bringing favorite Disney and other animated characters to life in the comics... and favorite B-Western heroes, Zane Grey adaptations, Zorro, and others who might not have had the panache of a Superman, but somehow gave comfort to parents and a lifetime of enjoyment to kids who liked the wholesome format Dell chose to pursue. While it’s true Dell didn’t have Jack Kirby or C.C. Beck, they did

Der Bing-L The same artist probably drew these two Dell Comics pages— an “Andy Panda” splash and a scene from an adaptation of Mark Twain’s novel Tom Sawyer—and his name may well just have been “L. Bing.” Or not. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

have Walt Kelly, Carl Barks, Morris Gollub, and dozens of other wonderful artisans who seldom or never worked anywhere else. And, when researching the 1970s four-volume Who’s Who of American Comic Books, Jerry Bails and Hames were dedicated to documenting these artists, as well. One old-timer at Dell, Dan Noonan, recalled for them that an elderly gentleman named George F. Kerr had done the Raggedy Ann feature, and Hames remembered that the Tom Sawyer art was very similar to the style of Raggedy Ann, as well as the art on “Andy

From Bing To Bails—And Back Again

Panda” and on several strips in Fairy Tale Parade. George F. Kerr had a distinguished career prior to his anonymous work in comic books, having been an editorial cartoonist at the turn of the century, an illustrator at The American Weekly and of numerous hardcover books such as Old Mother West Wind and L. Frank Baum’s American Fairy Tales in 1906! He was born in 1869 and died in 1953, so he would have been in his seventies when he started drawing for Dell. Hames thought Kerr might not be the whole story on the Raggedys. Could it have been that this elderly gentleman had needed an assistant, perhaps even a ghost at times? Maybe “L.B.” was that assistant.

based on such fragmentary evidence, and there the matter stood as our current protagonists eventually met and set off on our other quests.

“Bing” Went The Strings? This “Bing” signature appears on the “Andy Panda” splash in Dell’s New Funnies #63 (March 1942), which was devoted to the creations of animator Walter Lantz. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

Reinforcing that suspicion was another clever, and perhaps dare we say unique, sneak that Hames had detected. In another Dell issue, there was a giant snoring away in one of the panels, yet instead of having the customary “zzz’s” in the word balloon, the giant’s snore-sounds were “Kerrr”! The art on this tale, however, was not as lively nor as ornate as the art with the L.B. sneak—again hinting at two different artists.

Then fellow Arkansan and animation and comics historian Michael Barrier graciously let Hames review his wonderful collection of Dells for information for Who’s Who. Lo and behold, there on the splash panel of “Andy Panda” in New Funnies #63 for March of 1942 was a single four-letter name signed to the familiar “Raggedy Ann” style! The name signed was “BING.” Jerry Bails immediately assumed that it must be a nickname for George F. Kerr, but Hames instantly recalled those L.B. initials carved on that desk in Tom Sawyer and proposed L. Bing as the artist’s name. Jerry was understandably reluctant to allow a listing in the Who’s Who

Jump forward twenty years. Jim and wife Karen came to visit Hames in Arkansas, and at one point Jim plopped down on the living room floor, and, like the giant plant in Little Shop of Horrors, cried out, “Bring me comics!” Looking through some Raggedy Ann comics, he spied another L.B. sneak on a handbag, and now he was likewise hooked on the Bing/L.B. mystery.

Jim, always more circumspect in his approach than Hames’ more visceral one, went home and acquired more Raggedy Anns and Fairy Tale Parades. With more to work on and a very narrow focus, we eventually learned how to distinguish George Kerr and were able to state with certainty, “There is a Bing!”

With that reassurance, we gave Bing credit for other work. We thought he’d drawn at least one feature for Timely, as Hames’ notes credited “The Falcon” in Daring Mystery Comics #6 (April, 1940), but it had been 40 years since he’d seen it. It’s also possible that Bing drew a similar-styled “Human Top” in the single issue of Tough Kid Comics (March 1942). And there the mystery paused again, frustratingly, for nearly two decades. Re-enter Jerry Bails. It was a very pleasant surprise when we received a note from him out of the blue last April. It re-opened the Bing mystery and led to a wonderful spring and summer of research and correspondence that rolled back the years on us all. Jerry’s note proposed a theory that the art we had been crediting to Bing was in fact done by another old-time artist named Munson Paddock. Of course, he was correct that some aspects of these antique styles bore major resemblances to each other. What Jerry hadn’t known is that, while Jim was recovering from one of his ankle surgeries, he had researched Munson Paddock to a fare-thee-well. He sent Jerry a copy of that illustrated essay, and the fun began.

In Search Of Artist L. Bing

We re-opened Bing’s Pandora Box and again set about trying to find an artist to go with the name. We scoured everything we could find re George Kerr and any and all references to Paddock to see if, in fact, the similar styles Jerry had eluded to might cast some light on any Bing association or assistant where Paddock was involved. We found none. No reference to any nickname or assistant named Bing for either of these old-timers. Jerry pored over the Paddock material and was tickled that we’d discovered the two “L.B.” sneaks and eventually shared in our theory that there really was an L. Bing. During our three-way discussions, this amazing mystery unexpectedly got even more eerie when Hames was perusing some books at the local library: I noticed a fairly new edition of the heretofore politically incorrect Little Black Sambo! The title alone attracted me. What in the world had happened to permit the reappearance of this story? And then I noted with a smile the artist and adapter of the tale was... Christopher Bing. Serendipity strikes again, I thought, and began to read the introductory remarks. Bing wrote of how the tale had intrigued him as a child and how he’d spent twenty years attempting to recreate the goodness of the tale as it had been read to him as a child, removing any racial crudities and restoring the setting to the original India. Then I noticed Christopher Bing signed each spread in the lower left hand corner, but in each opposite corner was a different name—actually just a first initial and a last name. As I leafed through the beautifully rendered drawings, my eyes kept going to those names on the right... And there, on one of the best of them, was the name, L. Bing! The ‘L’ was even hooked in the same style sneaked on that handbag in 1947.

Surely you can imagine the tingle that went thru me as I stared at this remarkable serendipitous event. Right in the midst of our revised interest in Bing, I had stumbled across a new piece of the puzzle. It would require Jim’s persistence to fit that piece into place.

I will have to leave it at that. because I’m on deadline at the moment and have to get back to work. Please let me know what you find out.

Jim emailed the publisher, requesting them to please forward a message to Christopher Bing asking him about the meaning of that name in his book. No response. Months later, he Googled Christopher Bing again and this time found an e-mail address for the man himself. Resending the message directly to Mr. Bing, we waited and waited. Then, in late September of last year, we received the following reply:

A follow-up e-mail gave us a first name of “Lea,” but Christopher gave some reasons why he couldn’t get whole-heartedly behind our attribution. Additional research is necessary and will begin shortly. We will find more details, but for us, on an emotional level at least, the coincidences are eerie.

Dear Jim, Sorry for the delay in replying to your e-mail. I will be interested to find out how all of this plays out. First, L. Bing was my grandmother, and an artist. Unfortunately she passed away a few years ago, so I have no way of confirming anything. One thing I do know is that she knew several artists who worked for Walt Disney. As an artist. I find that we tend to flock together around our specialties. That said, she never said any thing to me about doing that kind of work, though unlike most adults who told me that comics were childish, she encouraged me to read them when I was young, and imitate the drawings. I know that early on in comics there were women who did comic work but they were often relegated to the background.

Sincerely, Christopher Bing

Even if Christopher Bing’s grandmother is not our L. Bing, all the pieces fit perfectly into our puzzle picture: - a wartime artist who was a woman. - an artist who never signed her first name. - an artist who would sneak initials on a purse. - the Disney connection that many Dell artists had. - and the total withdrawal from comics as she probably moved on in her life. So even if she turns out to be Christopher’s grandmother Lea, or someone else entirely, or if we never learn the actual name, this artist will always be “L. Bing” to us—a talented, unsung genius who brought so many characters and fairy tales to life in some really “Good Comics.”

Comic Fandom Archive

Celebrating 40 Years Of SQUA TRONT! by Bill Schelly

n American pop culture, 1967 is remembered for the Summer of Love, when the “Flower Children” made their way to San Francisco.

In comic fandom circles, 1967 is remembered (among other things) as the year the moldy zombies and slithering aliens of EC comics walked back onto center stage, in the pages of a fanzine that would prove to be a classic of its form: Squa Tront! Forty years have passed since the halcyon days when Kansas comic book fanatics Jerry Weist and Roger Hill published the first issue of what would prove to be not only the greatest EC fanzine of all time (and there have been quite a few), but the longestlasting. We might have missed the opportunity to celebrate Squa Tront’s 40th birthday, if Chris Kettler—who himself worked on the

Who Says EC Fans Didn’t Like SuperHeroes? Jerry Weist (left) and Roger Hill were the original editors of the EC fanzine Squa Tront. This photo was sent by Roger, who writes: “Here’s a photo of Jerry and me, taken around 1968, in my room where I grew up (parents’ house). We’re holding the original [‘HeMan’] house ad for Mad #5 (1953) by Wally Wood.”

early issues of the mag—hadn’t introduced himself to us at this year’s ComicCon International in San Diego and promptly suggested such a piece.

A 40th anniversary is certainly remarkable in the world of fanzine publishing. So what if there was a 20-year “hiatus” between Squa Tront #9 and 10? John Benson, who took over the editorship with issue #5, assures us that he always intended to publish more issues—and continued gathering material as the years went on—but didn’t have the time until he semi-retired after the advent of the new millennium. The fanzine wasn’t dead; it was merely hibernating. And so, let’s take a look at the origin of Squa Tront, the “ultimate EC fanzine,” and how it returned in recent years, with input from Roger Hill and John Benson.

The Origin of Squa Tront The Squa Tront story began in the early days of fandom, when two buddies going to Derby High School in Derby, Kansas, discovered the wonders of EC Comics. “I first started collecting ECs back in 1964,” Roger Hill wrote in Squa Tront #4 (1970). “Jerry Weist dropped by one day with the first EC that he or I had ever seen. It was a copy of Panic #7, and my first impression was that this EC comic really wasn’t too great.” Then Roger saw his first New Trend issue. “[Jerry] had just received in the mail Haunt of Fear #15, which he had bought from a fellow in Michigan. Wham!! The outstanding artwork and excellent story content of the EC comics hit me like a ton of bricks.” From that point on, Hill and Weiss collected every EC comic book they could get their hands on.

Spa Fon, Meet Squa Tront! Roger Hill’s cover to Squa Tront #1 (Sept. 1967) was an homage to Wally Wood’s great art in the EC science-fiction comics. Covers imitating the logo-style and look of EC comics became commonplace in later years, but this was one of the first. It was also one of the first full-color fanzine covers. [Art ©2007 Roger Hill.]

In a recent telephone chat, Roger explained what happened next. “We started to get involved in fandom in the next year, and began collecting any fanzine with EC material. Rich Hauser’s Spa Fon was the first EC fanzine we’d ever seen. Then another collector in town, Bob Barrett, a long time Frazetta collector, told us about Reed Crandall. He was living in Wichita at the time and working for Warren Publications and Tower Comics. We were like ‘Oh my God, there’s an EC artist living right here in Wichita.’ We couldn’t believe it!” About the same time, the editors of Spa Fon showed up. “Rich Hauser, Helmut Mueller, and Wally Reichert came to town,”

Celebrating 40 Years Of Squa Tront!

first convention Frank had ever attended in his life. He and Ellie lived out on Long Island at that time, so the convention people put them up in a hotel suite. Everyone was so enthused with the Frazettas and Frank’s work that they actually drove back to Long Island on Sunday morning and hauled in just every major Frazetta painting he had done at that time, along with a stack of Johnny Comet and Ace McCoy Sunday and daily strips. You couldn’t buy the paintings, but you could buy those original dailies for 25 bucks a hit or the Sundays for 75—all you wanted. And there were very few people buying them, because that was a lot of money then.” Needless to say, Jerry and Roger were able to sell a lot of copies of Squa Tront #1 at the con, and before too long, Weist sent the issue back to press in an edition fully saddlestitched. (The first one was loose sheets stapled between a wraparound cover.) Soon, Weist and Hill had made solid contacts with most of the EC professionals, and issues #2 through #4 were loaded with rare artwork and personal reminiscences, interviews, and opinion pieces. It was a fanzine of the highest quality, not so much for the lay-outs and articles, but for the sheer quality of the artwork—much of it unseen before— that could be found within (and on) its covers. The material on Frank Frazetta and Harvey Kurtzman was especially outstanding. Those four issues alone were a sterling achievement. And, for a while, it looked like they would be the only issues of Squa Tront.

Enter: John Benson.

An Origin-Al Cover Al Williamson’s cover for Squa Tront #2 (Sept. 1968) gave evidence that Jerry Weist and Roger Hill had made contacts with former EC artists (and writers), which became a major draw for readers. Not many fanzines in this era had a comparable level of professional support. [Art ©2007 Al Williamson.]

John had been involved with EC fandom from the 1950s, and had been the first person to conduct in-depth interviews with Harvey Kurtzman and Bernard Krigstein. In the early 1970s, he got in touch with Jerry Weist, who had graduated from college and opened a science-fiction bookstore in Boston. As related by Roger Hill, “Benson got in touch with Jerry and asked, ‘What’s happening with Squa Tront?’ Jerry said, ‘I’m not doing it any more.’ Benson said, ‘I’ve been thinking a long time about articles I’d like to see published in an EC fanzine. Why don’t I take over the editorship?’ Jerry replied, ‘That’s fine with me.’ And John took over from then on.”

Hill remembered. “All of us went over to Reed Crandall’s place, and he showed us what he was working on. We had a great time, and after the Spa Fon boys left, we were all hyped up, and Jerry came up with this idea. He said, ‘Let’s do an EC fanzine. We’ll call it Squa Tront!’ Naturally, after Spa Fon, what else could you call it? In fact, we always kind of thought of Spa Fon as our sister publication.” Roger, an aspiring artist, drew a cover inspired by Wally Wood’s work for the EC science-fiction comics, and he drafted his mother to work on the fanzine, too. “My mother did all the typing, on an IBM typewriter. She had access to an IBM typewriter because she was a secretary at a big corporation in Wichita for years. There was a way on there that you could justify your margins, and the type looked more professional than a regular typewriter.” The first issue was completed and printed—a run of 500 copies—in time to take it to the 1967 World Science Fiction Convention in New York City. Weist and Hill stuffed a couple of suitcases full of copies and headed to the Big Apple to sell as many as they could. “What a convention!” Hill enthused. “At this time, comics fandom was really starting to get organized… with Phil Seuling and John Benson and some of those guys on the East Coast. So when we got to New York City, here was Phil Seuling set up at the World Con, selling Golden Age and Silver Age comic books, and ECs. “It just happened that the Guests of Honor at the Dum-Dum, which was the meeting of Edgar Rice Burroughs fans during the World Con, were Hal Foster and Frank Frazetta. I’m pretty sure this was the

How Much Am I Bid For…? A photo of Jerry Weist (left) and Roger Hill holding the original Batman cover of Mad, painted by Norman Mingo, at Sotheby’s Auction House (for which Roger worked). Taken in the mid-1990s.

Comic Fandom Archive

Now we pick up the Squa Tront story from John Benson, as recounted in the interview A/E did with him in 2003 (#27, 28, & 29, to be exact): “Jerry had definitely stopped publishing it for good. I just thought it would be fun to do. Maybe the fact that Bill Pearson, a close friend, was publishing witzend at the time influenced me to get back into publishing.” With a great assist from Bill Peckman, as well as Roger Hill and many others, Benson produced five issues from 1974 to 1983, each one thicker and more impressive than the one before. The amount of EC material brought to the fans in that magnificent run was staggering, and of top quality. This writer especially enjoyed the articles on the EC fanzines of the 1950s. Benson’s high editorial and lay-out standards took the fanzine to a level that very few amateur magazines have reached. But in fanzine publishing, all good things must come to an end. “I got a more demanding job in 1981, and I really didn’t have time,” Benson recalled. “I knew issue 9 would be the last for a while.” Indeed, nearly twenty years passed before the magazine returned; when it did, Squa Tront was again in top form. “Now I’m semi-retired and I have more time,” John explained. “I started it up again because I had material from ‘back when’ that I still wanted to see published, more than any other reason.” Is there a danger that the material will run out? “That’s part of the charm of it,” he answered. “Here’s this subject that is so limited, but yet it’s also inexhaustible. I’ll keep going until I’ve used up my inventory and as

Crypts And Bloods With the fifth issue, John Benson (photo) became editor of Squa Tront. This is the cover of #8, with the Crypt Keeper drawn by EC alumnus Jack Davis. Benson improved the layouts of the fanzine, even introducing a bit of interior color. This 1978 issue featured transcripts of panels at the 1972 EC Convention. Thanks to Fred Mommsen for the 1968 photo of John, taken from a con program book. [Art ©2007 Jack Davis; Crypt Keeper TM & ©2007 William M. Gaines Agent, Inc.]

long as new things come in that are interesting.” Issues #10 through 12 are currently available from the new publisher, Fantagraphics. While we at Alter Ego focus primarily on comic books featuring costumed heroes, we are also EC fans. We enthusiastically salute the tremendous efforts of Jerry Weist, Roger Hill, John Benson, and a host of contributors (not the least of whom are those who created the EC comics themselves) who made Squa Tront truly the ultimate EC fanzine. Happy 40th Birthday, Squa Tront!!

Monthly! The Original First-Person History!

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

Celebrating 40 Years Of Squa Tront!

Special Bonus Feature:

Four More Fanzine 40th Anniversaries! By 1967, the Golden Age of Comic Fandom was in full swing. G.B. Love’s Rocket’s Blast-Comicollector was chugging along like clockwork, the New York Comicons were getting better (and larger) each year, and the number of fanzines was exploding. Most of these new publications were launched by enthusiasts who discovered fandom as a result of plugs in comic book letter columns in

Sense Of Wonder (Above:) The first issue of Bill Schelly’s own fanzine, dated January 1967, sported a cover by fan-artist Ronn Foss featuring Bill’s most memorable fancharacter, The Immortal Corpse, and interior art by Doug Potter and D. Bruce Berry. “I was 15 years old when it began,” says Bill, “and twenty when it ended with its twelfth issue. It gradually changed from an imitation of Star-Studded Comics to an article-zine along the lines of Alter Ego and Gosh Wow.” [Art ©2007 Estate of Ronn Foss.] (Right:) For Sense of Wonder #6 (1968), Bill writes, “I was the lucky recipient of an original Mr. A cover by Steve Ditko. He did several of these for different fanzines at this time, to publicize his new creation in the fan community. One of the highlights of Sense of Wonder #11 (1971) was a brand new, complete ‘Mr. A’ strip by Ditko.” [Art ©2007 Steve Ditko.]

1963 and 1964. A few, however, were from the original movers and shakers who had something new to say. Here’s a cover gallery of four fanzines that made their first appearance the same year as Squa Tront, and which proved to be longrunning. (We picked covers with attractive images, rather than sticking strictly to those on their first issues.)

Comic Fandom Archive

The Collector (Left:) The Collector #18 (Feb. 1970), cover by Bill Black. Bill Wilson’s fanzine evolved from a crude pamphlet in 1967 to one of the most sophisticated, visually exciting fanzines of the early 1970s. In those pages, Bill published a great deal of the artwork of fan favorites such as John Fantucchio and Don Newton. Wilson later made his career in the field of graphic design, and currently lives in Florida. [Shazam! hero TM & ©2007 DC Comics.]

Newfangles (Above:) Don and Maggie Thompson launched Newfangles as a personal newsletter in 1967. Before long, it grew in scope to become an indispensable source of industry and fan news. Bill Schelly says, “Somehow, the Thompsons knew the secret—held only by science-fiction fans, I’m convinced—of printing artwork that looked good in the mimeograph medium.” The cover art for Newfangles #31 (Feb. 1970) is by Jefferson Hamill. [Art ©2007 Jefferson Hamill; text ©2007 Maggie Thompson.]

OAF (Left:) The Oklahoma Alliance of Fans (OAF) is set for coverage in a nearfuture issue of Alter Ego. Suffice it here to say that OAF #30 (Nov. 1969) was an issue of their official organ, which was introduced in 1967. The Oklahoma fans were (and are) an active and knowledgeable lot, contributing much to the fan activities in their vicinity, notably including the Houston and Southwestercons and Multi-Cons. The OAF newsletter was edited by Bart Bush. [©2007 Oklahoma Alliance of Fans.]

Last issue we announced Bill Schelly’s upcoming book Joe Kubert: Man of Rock. But some might be interested to know that Bill has just completed still another book, an expanded and revised version of his earlier biography of film comedian Harry Langdon. Harry Langdon: His Life and Films will be published next summer by McFarland, about the same time as Man of Rock. We’ll keep you posted.

In Memoriam

William B. Ziff, Jr. (1930-2006)

“Built A Magazine Empire” by Roy Thomas

his past autumn, Joe Mannarino, who with wife Nadia owns All Star Auctions, sent me a copy of an Associated Press obituary for William B. Ziff, Jr., a last name which, of course, I instantly recognized. He had died of cancer at age 76 on Sept. 10, 2006, and was noted in the article for having “built a magazine publishing empire with titles including Car and Drive, Popular Photography, and PC Magazine. No mention was made of the Ziff-Davis comic book line, which the company published for several years in the 1950s, which had included such titles as Bill Stern’s Sports Book, Strange Confessions, Weird Thrillers, Wild Boy [of the Congo], and Space Busters.

According to the AP article, the young Rutgers University graduate returned in 1953 from studies in Germany to assume control of half of the small Ziff-Davis Company following his father’s death. Two years later, he bought out partner Bernard Davis.

sold the company for nearly $1.5 billion, when his three sons expressed no desire to run it. Joe Mannarino added the following personal note to the obituary: “OK, now a horror story. 1978, young rep right out of school goes into Ziff-Davis (1 Park Ave), tries to secure an appointment with purchasing, and is escorted from the building by security with no explanation. Having no business sense to fall back on, he tries again and again. Finally, out of anger and desperation, he writes a letter directly to the President, Bill Ziff. While the intermediate details are interesting, let’s cut to the chase. Three weeks later, Bill Ziff asks the young rep up to his office, introduces him to the NEW purchasing agent, and instructs that new PA to give the rep free rein in regards to envelope and packaging inventory.

Ziff built the company into “a major power in the world of specialinterest magazines, with titles including Flying, Skiing, and Yachting,” and later added “a business magazine division that included publications for the travel and aviation industries.” In 1984 he sold all his titles except PC Magazine for more than $700 million. Ziff-Davis (he had kept the full name) soon “became a major player in the business of computer magazines.” A decade later, he

“They proceed down to the basement level, through various doorways into an area where all the production material (including original art and file copies) for the past 50 (?) years are stacked floor to ceiling. After a passing remark about space, the PA asks the rep to come back in a week. One week later, the space is empty and the PA proudly recounts how he had dumpster after dumpster cart it all away in such a “timely” fashion. “Want to guess who the young rep was?” We have no idea, Joe.

Ziff… As If William B. Ziff, Jr., with some of the painted comic book covers associated with most of his company’s comic book line (although before he inherited it). Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel was Ziff-Davis’ original comics editor; he was succeeded by Herb Rogoff, as related in the latter’s interview in Alter Ego #42. (Left to right:) Wild Boy #10 [actually #1] (Feb-March 1951)… Bill Stern’s Sports Book #10 [ditto] (Spring/Summer 1951)… Strange Confessions #1 (Spring 1952)… Weird Thrillers #1 (Sept. 1952)… Space Busters #2 (Fall 1952). Most Ziff-Davis series had short runs. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

In Memoriam

George C. Shedd (c.1923-2006) “Famous For His Watercolors” by Gary Brown

eorge C. Shedd, 83, cartoonist and painter, died May 30, 2006, in Hollis, New Hampshire. The artist went to the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston and studied with wellknown painter Albert Corsini. He later went on to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and studied with Tur Bentz. He began his career as an illustrator and cartoonists. He worked for Timely Comics for a short time after World War II and drew “SubMariner” and “Captain America” stories. He then became an assistant to Al Capp on the Li’l Abner syndicated comic strip from 1950 to 1952.

In 1953 he created his own daily strip, Marlin Keel, for the PostHall Syndicate. The strip featured a sea-going adventurer of that name. For an assistant, he hired Bob Bolling, who later went on to make Little Archie a winner for Archie Comics. The two moved to Atlanta, Georgia, to work under the supervision of Ed Dodd, creator of the

Mark Trail daily and Sunday comic strip. Marlin Keel ended in 1954, and Shedd became the staff illustrator at Rust Craft Publisher and later art director at Gibson Greeting Cards. Shedd turned to painting and became famous for his watercolors of sunlit porches, white picket fences strewn with flowering hydrangeas or pink roses, and sunny New England cottages. His painting of a white clapboard New England front door with columns and cornice and an American flag overhead was one of his most popular paintings. He taught for many years at Lexington Arts and Crafts society, and won many awards for his watercolors, including the Grumbacher Gold Medal. He is survived by his wife Janice, two sons, three daughters, and ten grandchildren. A funeral was held June 5 in Burlington, Vermont. A slightly different version of this tribute appeared in the apa-zine CAPA-alpha.

Run Silent, Run Deep Unfortunately, we were unable to find a photo of George Shedd by presstime. However, Gary Brown has provided these samples of his 1950-52 comic strip Marlin Keel. Interestingly, each of the four dailies Gary sent contained at least one “silent” panel, with no dialogue or caption—an unusual feature in a comic strip, then or now. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

In Memoriam

Alfred V. Grenet (1915-2006)

“If I Get Out Of This, Nothing’s Going To Bother Me Again”

by Jim Amash

l Grenet was born in Budapest, Hungary, the son of World War I refugees who came to America in 1920. After working various jobs, he got a $5-a-week apprentice job at the Eisner-Iger Studio in 1938, erasing pages, whiting out mistakes, until he became a letterer and background man. He created the logos for various titles and features such as “Blackhawk,” Smash Comics, Crack Comics, Hit Comics, “Doll Man,” “Plastic Man,” etc. When Eisner and Iger dissolved their partnership, Al went with Jerry Iger and became his shop manager, though he did moonlight lettering for Will Eisner’s feature The Spirit for a while, starting with the very first story. He also lettered for the Harry “A” Chesler shop. As the shop manager for Iger, Grenet claimed credit for dividing up the writing, penciling, and inking chores between different staffers, in order to speed up the production of features the studio did for comics companies. His stint lasted until 1943, when he was drafted into the US Army in a medical battalion. Discharged in 1945, he returned to Iger’s shop, only to find there was no room for him there, despite the fact that returning soldiers were required by law to get their jobs back. Not wanting to force the issue, Al went to Quality Comics and got a staff job in the production department, erasing pages, ruling panel borders, lettering stories, creating logos for books and features, penciling romance covers, and coloring covers. Al replaced fired editor Harry Stein in 1951, while continuing to pencil, letter, and color comic book covers, and worked on magazines like Gusto: He-man Adventures, Rage, etc., until publisher Everett “Busy” Arnold sold the company to DC in 1956. Afterward, while looking for work at various comics companies, he was surprised to find one of them had hired a man who had given his name as “Al Grenet.” Whoever the impostor was, Al did not expose him. Al’s last comic book work was for Israel Waldman, although he recalled that in 1960 “Busy” Arnold and another man wanted to restart Quality Comics, with Al as the editor. He turned the job down and became a top

A Man And His Mouse Al Grenet (standing) and an artist for Ebony magazine, in a 1955 photo—and his cover for Quality Comics’ Marmaduke Mouse #65 (1956, the final issue). Al was proud of the several covers he drew for that magazine, and sent color proofs of four different issues for printing with his extensive interview in Alter Ego #34. [Art ©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

salesman for several companies before retiring to Florida in 1978. Al was a gregarious man who delighted in talking about his past and was surprised to be remembered. He put on shows at retirement homes, at one of which he and his wife Belle were living at the time of his passing. Sadly enough, we had lost touch with each other by early 2006 for no particular reason, other than that our lives were busy with other things. I was unaware of his passing until recently, which is why Alter Ego is late in publishing this remembrance. I liked Al quite a bit. He was honest in his reminiscences, though I did find it surprising that he was the only man I’ve ever encountered who did not like “Busy” Arnold. I can understand his reasons why, though this is not the time to relate them. Al was a staunch Democrat who was quite unhappy with the 2000 Presidential Election and how Florida handled it. But he wasn’t bitter about it as some of his friends were. In fact, I found that Al’s stories about the people he knew— whether he liked them or not—were told as objectively as he could make them. Al was a man who told me his life the way he saw it—as even-handedly as he could—in order to provide me with honest snapshots of a long life. Al explained that his attitude was formed during World War II: “I said to myself, ‘If I get out of this, nothing’s going to bother me again.’ And you want to know something? Nothing bothers me. I don’t dwell on things.”

re: originally been intended. But at least no one had ever repro’d the original black-&-white artwork before! Take it away, Scott Rowland…. Roy, I may have some good news for you. The Jay Garrick “Flash” story in the “Written Off 9-30-49” section was actually printed in full by DC in the 1970s… specifically in The Flash #214, a “SuperSpectacular” issue (also known as DC-11), dated April 1972. The story is called “A Tale of Three Tokens.” The only credit on the story is an art credit for Carmine Infantino, but the Grand Comic-Book Database lists Robert Kanigher as writer and Bernard Sachs as inker. So if you never read it (I imagine at the time it came out you were pretty busy, since you were Marvel’s new editor!), there’s a whole “new” Golden Age “Flash” story to read. If you have read it but forgotten it, well, it’s still a fun story. Around this time, DC printed quite a few previously unpublished Golden Age stories: another “Flash” surfaced in Flash #205, and a “Green Lantern” showed up in Green Lantern #88, as well as a “Black Canary” tale or two that turned up. I’m guessing it was E. Nelson Bridwell’s doing, but that’s just wild speculation on my part. Scott Rowland

pecial thanks as usual (if that’s not a contradiction in terms) to Shane Foley for the above illo of Marvel’s Man-Thing, standing in for our “maskot” Alter Ego. Till the last minute, we planned to feature my (i.e., Roy’s) original 1971 “Man-Thing” synopsis written for Savage Tales #1 in this issue of A/E. But we want to print that minor artifact along with that a short interview George Khoury did with me about Marvel’s marsh-monster done for the aborted Swampmen book, and there just wasn’t room for both this month, so we’ll save them for a future issue. Still, Shane’s illo definitely fits a Halloween mag! [Man-Thing TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.; Alter Ego TM & ©2007 Roy & Dann Thomas.]

Not so wild, Scott. Nelson did select—and often locate—many of the Golden Age reprints that appeared in late-1960s/early-1970s DC mags. I myself had missed the one you mention, but we now have a piece by John Wells coming up in a near-future issue of A/E about the 1940s “Flash” stories reprinted during that era.

We’re doubling up on issues covered in this “re:” section, to deal with both A/E #60 (with its spotlight on the 50th anniversary of Showcase #4) and #61 (which reprinted Michael Vance’s book Forbidden Adventures, on the history of the American Comics Group, the Standard/Nedor/Pines company, and the Sangor art shop. So let’s start with this letter from Paul Dale Roberts of Jazma Online! (www.jazmaonline.com) about the theme of #60:

Reading Alter Ego #60 and your introduction “50 Years Have Gone By in a Flash” reminded me of Nelson, who loved comics just as you did when he was a kid. I can remember Mother saying that when Nelson was only two years old the family would stand him on my grandparents’ kitchen table on their farm in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, and Nelson would recite nursery rhymes for hours that he had memorized at two years of age! Nelson, like his father Earl Bridwell, had a truly photographic memory. My Uncle Earl was State Auditor for Oklahoma for several decades. Uncle Earl also had a true photographic memory, and that’s where Nelson probably inherited it.

Roy— Alter Ego #60 (July 2006). Enjoyed the Flash cover, which really stood out amongst the other magazines! I was completely blown away… this is something I really enjoy…art from a never-published Infantino-drawn “Flash” story from the Golden Age! What a treat! I love it when you publish “never-before-published” artwork! Your magazine always has surprises. Just can’t get any better than this! Paul Dale Roberts 5608 Moonlight Way, Elk Grove, CA 95758 Glad you feel that way, Paul—although, as we learned from the very next e-mail, turns out that particular 1940s “Flash” story had been printed in full, more than two decades after the comic for which it had

Marie O’Brien, first cousin to the late DC writer and editor E. Nelson Bridwell, wrote us a pair of e-mails to follow up the brief one of hers we printed in A/E #60 about Nelson’s being attacked by a criminal in New York City, and how he used his cane to defend himself: Dear Roy,

When Nelson arrived in New York City for the first time, he sat down at the airport, memorized the NYC subway map, and was never lost the entire time he lived there. If anyone other than Nelson and Mother had told me that, I would not have believed it, but seeing Nelson’s and Uncle Earl’s incredible memories, I know it was true. Mother also told me that, if they could not find Nelson, they would look underneath Grandma’s back wooden porch. Sure enough, Nelson was always there, covered in dirt, playing with all the dogs and as happy as he could be. Mother said Nelson loved comics, cats, and dogs all his life. In fact, Nelson told me there was a dog Nelson always

re:

petted and “visited with” when he walked home from DC Comics. Having three dogs myself, I can naturally understand Nelson’s affection for dogs. You can print any letter I write to you about Nelson in Alter Ego. Mother kept many of her family letters, so perhaps I can find some information about the robbery. I do wish I had asked Mother more about it now. Nelson and I have an Uncle Paul who is 96 years old. I will send him an email and see if he knows anything about the robbery injury. I know Nelson’s work was his entire Carmine Was No Flash In The Pan life, perhaps too much so. Even as a young A triple dose of Carmine Infantino incredibleness, 1948-style—showing how busy the future penciler of Showcase #4 was, even eight years earlier! Since we have a feature coming up on all those left-over Golden Age “Flash” stories, here’s a full-page house ad boy, when we used to for Flash Comics #95 (March ’48), taken from that month’s issue of All-American Comics (#95). Infantino penciled both the “Flash” go visit Nelson, he had and “Black Canary” art depicted—in addition to the “Green Lantern” lead tale in AA #95 (on right)! Joe Kubert did the “Hawkman” all his books, comics, splash. Hey, Carmine—how’d you miss that one? [©2007 DC Comics.] Mad magazines, etc., stacked (in order, of The last two times I saw Nelson were at my Aunt Laurine’s and course) in his room and we would look at them. Nelson had one Uncle Earl’s funerals, when he flew back from NYC, and of course particular friend in high school he used to play chess with. Nelson was funerals are not the best time to visit. He would call and write Mother an excellent chess player, with his fantastic memory and concentration. from time to time, and we always meant to go visit him (and see New I do not know if Nelson continued to play chess in New York City. York), and I do regret very much not doing that. However, we were all stunned when Nelson died so young (54) of lung cancer. My mother, Aunt Ruby, and uncle all flew back to NYC to be with Nelson when we realized the illness was terminal, so he did have his family with him at the end of his life. My Uncle Earl chain-smoked unfiltered Camels the entire time Nelson was growing up. Of course, back then none of us realized the dangers of second-hand smoke, but with Nelson’s asthma and weak lungs as a child, I have often wondered if that, combined with the pollution in NYC, triggered the lung cancer. I am so sorry to hear Nelson was not happy at the end of his life. Perhaps, in a way, he had a merciful death, since his life was his career at DC Comics. It is too bad that [as you told in me in one of your letters] they kept him dangling with offers of reviving The Secret Six and “The Global Guardians” that never materialized. I am thankful that Nelson did get to live a large portion of his life working in the field he loved, so that is something to be thankful for. And thank you for helping Nelson out with work towards the end of his life. I know that meant a lot to him. Marie O’Brien

Admirable Nelson E. Nelson Bridwell enjoying himself at a function of the professional Academy of Comic Book Arts, sometime in the early 1970s. The subject of the page he is holding is, alas, unknown. Thanks to Alan Light.

I didn’t mean to imply that editors at DC consciously dangled before Nelson the prospect of series they knew they’d never let him write, Marie—only that one or two may have been cruel while somehow managing to convince themselves that they were being kind. It was clear to people like Jean-Marc Lofficier and me that “The Global

[comments, correspondence, & corrections]

Guardians” was never going to be allowed to surface, and that Nelson was spinning his wheels. The two of us shoehorned the GG into Secret Origins #27 (June 1988), which we scripted about Zatara and Zatanna—only to have the section about the Guardians butchered in the editorial offices to the extent that Jean-Marc asked to have his name removed from the story, and I was tempted to do the same. I recall that, at the time, the manhandling of our script brought back to me feelings concerning how I felt Nelson had been maltreated professionally in the last few years of his life. He was a good man, who deserved better after giving so much of himself to the comics field. On a lighter note, cartoonist Fred Hembeck tosses in the following bit of perspective on the importance of Showcase #4: Roy— I began buying DC comics on my own in the late spring of 1961, initially spurred on by the adventures of Superman and Batman. It didn’t take long, though, for my curiosity to compel me to seek out books featuring the World’s Finest team’s less celebrated costumed associates. With absolutely serendipitous timing, along came the perfect primer for this then-novice comics reader, DC’s first giant-sized Secret Origins Annual! Yeah, I realize the topic here is Showcase #4, but please understand, that book came out over a half decade before I ever picked up a comic off a newsstand. But consider this—without Showcase #4, there is no Secret Origins collection! Because, for one thing, more than half the book was made up of stories drawn directly from DC’s tryout title (“Green Lantern,” “Challengers of the Unknown,” “Adam Strange,” and of course “The Flash” himself), none of which would’ve ever come about without the success of the initial gamble the company took on the Scarlet Speedster! And of all the stories in that Secret Origins issue, the one that made the biggest impression on me, the one that still resonates with me most to this day, was the “Flash” debut yarn. Okay, sure, The Turtle was hardly a foe worthy of The Flash’s latter-day Rogue’s Gallery—he was actually plain out-and-out silly—but there are so many other iconic images in that first story that, well, who really cares if the bad guy was so badly contrived? Was there ever to be found, for instance, such a memorable depiction of franks and beans nestled between the glossy cover of a comic book as there was in this, with Barry Allen’s stunned eyes popping unforgettably as the dislodged food seemed to hang eerily in mid-air? Brother, that was all it took! Carmine Infantino immediately became my favorite Silver Age DC artist, The Flash my favorite DC character (at least, amongst those who weren’t from Krypton and wore horn-rimmed glasses in an attempt to fool his closest friends), and Barry Allen far and away my favorite busboy of all time! So, yeah, I missed all the fun when Showcase #4 came out, but when I finally did get around to reading the origin of The Flash, there’s no denying it— there would’ve been no such thing as a Secret Origins compilation to rope in an eight-year-old Fred Hembeck and pretty much tie him up for life, if it hadn’t been for that earlier landmark comic providing a foundation for all that followed! Fred Hembeck Right you are, Fred—which is why I was so astounded that DC Comics let the 50th anniversary of Showcase #4, which was so important in the careers of virtually everyone working for the company today (directly or in-), pass without so much as a tip of the hat in print. I’d prefer to believe it was just an oversight. Now, on to a few reactions, corrections, and additions to A/E #61’s reprinting (with zillions more illos) of Michael Vance’s 1996 book Forbidden Adventures: The History of the American Comics Group. From Italy come several tidbits of information from Alberto Becattini:

Uncanny Tales—But Canny Business! We touched, in re-presenting Michael Vance’s book Forbidden Adventures in A/E #61 (and in a follow-up piece in #62), on the fact that many ACG issues were reprinted abroad. Here, from the English publisher Alan Class, is the cover of Uncanny Tales #108 (no date), which featured Ogden Whitney art. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

Dear Roy: A/E #61 is great! ACG is one of my favorite publishers— especially as regards their funny-animal production. Let me offer a few additions and corrections to Michael Vance’s wonderful essay: P. 14, line 2: Melvin (Tubby) Miller is in fact Melvin (Tubby) Millar. Prior to doing most of the lettering for the Davis/Sangor outfit, he was a story man at Schlesinger/Warner Bros. from about 1936-44 (he got screen credits in 1937-45). Millar also lettered quite a few of the stories that Jack Bradbury and Al Hubbard drew for Dell/Western Publishing in the early 1960s (Disney strips, Beany and Cecil, et al.). P. 19: The Kilroys ad looks to me to be by Bob Wickersham. P. 21: The Hi-Jinx cover is by Dan Gordon. P. 22: The Funny Films cover looks like Dan Gordon to me. The Dizzy Dames cover is by Dan Gordon (farmer and hens) and Ken Bald (?) (girl). P. 30: Sorry, but the “Insurance Runs” pages were not drawn by Edd Ashe. This is Bob Jenny, without any doubt. Alberto Becattini Fellow comics researcher Hames Ware agrees with you on that last ID, Alberto—at least up to a point: Dear Roy, I can’t begin to tell you how grateful I am that you took the time to run the art IDs past Jim [Vadeboncoeur] and me and others. It’s so

re:

ACG reprint issues, is by today’s super-star artist Art Adams… he learned that by perusing an Adams checklist in Comic Book Artist #17 (2002). Why didn’t we think of that? Delmo Walters, Jr., on the other hand, says that, though that cover was penciled by Art Adams, it was inked by Terry Austin. Delmo also wishes there’d been even more coverage of The Black Terror, et al., from the Pines/Nedor line. We’ll print it if someone will research it, friend! D.D. Degg tells us that, though he’s happy we corrected in our reprint of Forbidden Adventures the mistake (so common in comics histories not so very long ago) that confused actor Martin Landau with the “Kenneth Landau” who drew such comics as ACG’s Commander Battle and His Atomic Sub, we should have also pared our corrected paragraph of its final sentence. D.D. says it was Martin, not Kenneth, who attended the Pratt Institute, was a member of the Art Students League, and was a staff artist for The New York Daily News. Sorry about that! Thanks both to D.D. and to Steven Rowe, who forwarded the former’s info to us. The aforementioned Steven Rowe also informed Jim Amash, in answer to a query, that Ben Sangor, head of the Sangor Art Shop that produced so many comics for Pines/Nedor/Standard and ACG, died in 1953 in Dade County, Florida. He also says that the Sangor-Iger TNT magazine “ran at least five issues, not just one.” Got additions or corrections to this issue of Alter Ego? If so, please send ’em on to: Roy Thomas e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com 32 Bluebird Trail Fax: (803) 826-6501 St. Matthews, SC 29135 Collector Mike Collins sent us a drawing of what he calls “the plump lump [Herbie], as so kindly sketched from memory for me [in 2006] by [current artist] Ty Templeton, one of the last practitioners of great Silver Age-style work!” Thanks to both Mike and Ty. [Art ©2007 Ty Templeton; Herbie TM & ©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

great to see Blummer, Sultan, George Carl Wilhelms, Max Elkan, et al., identified, when we know the alternative might’ve so easily been an “artist unknown,” time after time after time. Thank you. One tiny addendum, and I’m almost reluctant to mention it because it made such a nice sidebar story… but that Custom Comics piece [on p. 30] isn’t by Edd Ashe… unless he’s buried under Bob Jenney, who I believe is the main artist on the piece. But ya know what? It isn’t pure Jenney, so let’s just go with the other artist being Edd Ashe… ’cause somebody obviously believed it was. Hames Ware Well, we’d have to put a question mark after Ashe’s name, Hames— but perhaps that’s the reason the name of the insurance agent in the story was “Ed Ashley.” But, of course, other artists—or the writer, or even editor—could have tossed in that name as a joke, or even without consciously thinking of the similarly named Edd Ashe. Maybe we’ll never know. As for thanking us—hey, it’s you two who helped us, by taking the time to look at numerous pieces of art and make IDs where possible! To wind up this LP, here are a few short-and-sweet corrections: Michaël Dewally writes that all three Operation Peril splash pages shown on p. 42 are not, as we speculated they might be, from OP #8 (whose cover is repro’d on that same page), but rather from OP #9 (Feb-March 1952). Readers, mark your copies accordingly! Mike Collins e-mails us from Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, Canada, that the cover of Fat Fury Special #1, one of the Roger Broughton

Come to think of it, though, we don’t get many faxes any more—it’s mostly e-mails or regular letters. But, as someone once said in a quite different connection, we like to give you a choice, not an echo! SPECIAL NOTE: Mea culpa, as per usual. I forgot, in last issue’s “re:” section, to print this correction with regards to the transcript of the 1950s panel from John Benson’s 1966 New York comics convention, which formed Bill Schelly’s “Comic Fandom Archive” for A/E #58-59. The following lines were accidentally deleted from the conclusion of that panel: TED WHITE: Any other questions? I guess that brings the panel to a close. I’m sorry we couldn’t get to all the questions. I guess I’ll turn the mike back over to John Benson. JOHN BENSON: It’s now the supper hour. The dealers will remain open, and the films of the evening will start at 7:30 sharp. BHOB STEWART: No, wait! I want to say that, just as mainstream movies prompted underground films, I think the same thing is going to happen with comics. You will have underground comics just as you have had underground films. TW: Bhob, do you mean fanzines? BS: No, not fanzines. This would be more like James Joyce in comic book form. Well, okay, you can see the beginning of this in some of the cartoon panels that have been appearing in the East Village Other. [End of Panel] Looks like Bhob not only got in the last word on that particular panel, but was dead right about the coming advent of “underground” comics—or comix—which soon went into high gear and are still with us.

ROMITAMAN ORIGINAL COMIC ART IF YOU LOVE COMICBOOKS, THEN YOU “MUST” CHECK OUT ONE OF THE LARGEST INTERNET WEBSITES FOR COMIC BOOK ART AND COMIC STRIP ART EVER PRODUCED! THIS MAY BE YOUR BEST ARTWORK INTERNET SOURCE! CHECK OUT OVER 1000+ “PICTURED” PIECES OF COMICBOOK AND COMIC STRIP ART FOR SALE OR TRADE. ALSO CHECK OUT THE WORLD’S “LARGEST” SPIDER-MAN ORIGINAL ART GALLERY! I BUY/SELL/AND TRADE “ALL” COMICBOOK/ STRIP ARTWORK FROM THE 1930S TO PRESENT. SO LET ME KNOW YOUR WANTS, OR WHAT YOU HAVE FOR SALE OR TRADE!

www.romitaman.com

NOW ON SALE!

$200,000 PAID FOR ORIGINAL COMIC ART! COLLECTOR PAYING TOP DOLLAR FOR “ANY AND ALL” ORIGINAL COMIC BOOK AND COMIC STRIP ARTWORK FROM THE 1930S TO PRESENT! COVERS, PINUPS, PAGES, IT DOESN’T MATTER! 1 PAGE OR ENTIRE COLLECTIONS SOUGHT! CALL OR EMAIL ME ANYTIME!

330-296-2415 mikeburkey@aol.com OR SEND YOUR LIST TO:

MIKE BURKEY

P.O. BOX 455 • RAVENNA, OH 44266 CASH IS WAITING, SO HURRY!!!!!

If it came to that. But I was being offered a shot at the romances … and the idea of drawing them was already becoming of interest. An early ambition had been illustration … as seen in popular magazines of the period … much of it about romance … current environments, costumes, and so on … and gals. I loved to draw gals. Sissy stuff? I guess. But outselling the rough-andtumble boys … so let’s be real. I turned back to Lieberson: “Try the romances? You bet!” [Art & logo ©2007 Marc Swayze; Captain Marvel © & TM 2007 DC Comics]

[FCA EDITORS NOTE: From 1941-53, Marcus D. Swayze was a top artist for Fawcett Publications. The very first Mary Marvel character sketches came from Marc’s drawing table, and he illustrated her earliest adventures, including the classic origin story, “Captain Marvel Introduces Mary Marvel (Captain Marvel Adventures #18, Dec. ’42); but he was primarily hired by Fawcett Publications to illustrate Captain Marvel stories and covers for Whiz Comics and Captain Marvel Adventures. He also wrote many Captain Marvel scripts, and continued to do so while in the military. After leaving the service in 1944, he made an arrangement with Fawcett to produce art and stories for them on a freelance basis out of his Louisiana home. There he created both art and story for The Phantom Eagle in Wow Comics, in addition to drawing the Flyin’ Jenny newspaper strip for Bell Syndicate (created by his friend and mentor Russell Keaton). After the cancellation of Wow, Swayze produced artwork for Fawcett’s top-selling line of romance comics, including Sweethearts and Life Story. After the company ceased publishing comics, Marc moved over to Charlton Publications, where he ended his comics career in the mid-’50s. Marc’s ongoing professional memoirs have been a vital part of FCA since his first column appeared in FCA #54, 1996. Last issue Marc discussed writing scripts for Captain Marvel during the ’40s. In this installment he takes another look back at when he first began to work on Fawcett’s romance comics. —P.C. Hamerlinck.]

“W

Once the commitment was made, hurdles began to appear. Where, in drawing romances, would be the action? After Captain Marvel, Mary, Phantom Eagle and Flyin’ Jenny … I was accustomed to drawing action. My impression of the romances, gleaned from casual glances at those in the newspapers, was of panel after panel of vertical figures … talking. No action. They were there in the paper, however, every day, evidently growing in popularity all the time. I was certain they’d be no fun to write. The stories, I assumed, were all confessions of heartbreak told in the first person by females. The very thought would discourage any urge I might have to spin an occasional yarn at the typewriter.

ould you like to try the romances?”

The question had come from William H. Lieberson, executive editor of the comics department at Fawcett Publications. The occasion was one of my rare visits to what I considered the “new” location on 44th Street, not the offices I had known so well in the early ’40s at Times Square. Now it was 1948 … peacetime was at hand. Willie was referring to a special variety of comic books that were clamoring for prominence at the newsstands. But try them? To be perfectly frank, I hardly knew the romantic comics existed. The company had just announced the demise of Wow Comics, laying to rest such characters as The Phantom Eagle, but things were bright in other corners. I was dickering with The New York Star over a contract they had prepared for my private detective, Marty Guy. And there were other possibilities at Fawcett. One was Real Western Hero, featuring names like Tom Mix, Hopalong Cassidy, et al, and, heck … I could do a Western. Brought up on horseback, thoroughly familiar with the gear … and the animal … and after all those cowboy movies, the lore. The folks at the office didn’t know it, but I could do a Western.

Good Night, Sweethearts Photo cover of Fawcett’s Sweethearts #70 (Dec. 1948), which featured Marc Swayze’s romance-comics debut. Executive editor: Will Lieberson. Editor: Roy Ald. [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

FCA (Fawcett Collectors Of America)

The first script was handed to me there in the New York offices … 10 pages titled “Fortune Hunter” (Sweethearts #70, Dec. 1948). By the time I’d finished reading it on the way back South, some of my unfounded negative opinions had mellowed. Of course, there’d be none of the furious action of former years, but in its place there’s be another field of activity … just as interesting … and possibly more so. I’m talking about human emotions … feelings of the heart, in romance tales … and the various ways they may be indicated … facial expressions … gestures … body language! I saw it as a new, exciting ballgame at the drawing board. With very little editorial comment, several more romance scripts were received and processed. When I finally got a first glimpse of “Fortune Hunter” in print, I was not pleased at what I saw. It was the faces … of the girls. The technique I had deemed appropriate for the detective strip I’d been busy with … was not the same for the romances, particularly the faces of the ladies. There was more to this romance game than I had figured. We were dealing not only with a different field of emotions, but a different audience. The imagined comic book reader was no longer a boy Billy Batson’s age … or an American enlisted man … but a member of the fairer sex … of any age! That opened up a whole new can of worms … oops, excuse me … a whole new array of issues. It meant we’d be faced with such intricate matters as hairstyles, temperamental upheavals, women’s wear, even … sometimes, their undies. There could be hell ahead!

“Look This Way, Sue!” A page from “Fortune Hunter” in Sweethearts #70 (Dec. 1948). Swayze’s self-directed criticisms of the art tell of “too many faces turned away from the reader” and “unnecessary dramatic shadows on the art.” [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

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

Kidding aside, another criticism I had of my work on “Fortune Hunter” was a tendency to show characters with their backs to the reader. No question, the beauty of two people conversing eye to eye … but for the romances … we needed those faces … those expressions … those emotions … out front! This love business! You couldn’t just grab it up like a fumbled football and run with it! There was more to it than that.

My conclusions are found among the stern, self-directed orders in the sketchbook: “Forget the dramatic facial shadows!” “Avoid so many shots from the rear!” “Look to the balloons for the action! Relate the emotion to the spoken word!”

COMICS’ GOLDEN AGE LIVES AGAIN! SPY SMASHER BLACK TERROR • AVENGER PHANTOM LADY • CAT-MAN DAREDEVIL • CRIMEBUSTER CAPTAIN FLASH MR. SCARLET • MINUTE MAN SKYMAN • STUNTMAN THE OWL • BULLETMAN FIGHTING YANK PYROMAN • GREEN LAMA THE EAGLE • IBIS

The above is just a partial list of characters that have appeared in AC Comics’ reprint titles such as MEN OF MYSTERY, GOLDEN AGE GREATS, and AMERICA’S GREATEST COMICS. Virtually all issues published to date are available at $6.95 each. To find over 100 quality Golden Age reprints, go to the AC Comics website at <accomics.com>. AC COMICS Box 521216 Longwood FL 32752 Please add $1.50 postage & handling per order.

Reflecting Culture: The Evolution of American Comic Book Superheroes T

by P.C. Hamerlinck

he Montclair Art Museum in New Jersey opened on July 14th, a first-of-its-kind exhibition, Reflecting Culture: The Evolution of American Comic Book Superheroes, on view until January 13, 2008. The exhibition traces how comic books have throughout its history reflected our culture, national events, and even our emotions and hopes … represented by more than 150 works of original art and rare comics from the Golden Age to the present.

Assembled by the museum’s chief curator Gail Stavitsky, with assistance from Twig Johnson and award-winning film producer Michael Uslan, Reflecting Culture: The Evolution of American Comic Book Superheroes is divided into five sections: •Superheroes Go to War: The Depression and New Deal 1938-1945 •Cold War, Conformity, and Censorship: Comic Book Superheroes in the Postwar Era and 1950s •Questioning Authority: Comic Book Heroes and Sociopolitical Change in the 1960s and 1970s •Diversity and Moral Complexity: Comic Book Superheroes of the 1980s and 1990s •Spider-Man at Ground Zero: The New Century and a 9-11 Postscript A second exhibition, Comic Book Legends: Joe, Adam, and Andy Kubert, will feature a separate gallery of original artwork by “New Jersey’s First Family of Comic Art.” Programming includes various lectures and outdoor movie nights (starting with the 1941 Adventures of Captain Marvel serial and ending with Batman Begins). A movie theatre constructed in the gallery offers regular screenings of Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked (2003), a film addressing both the history of comics and

their mass-media entertainment counterparts. Gail Stavitsky believes comic book super-heroes will continue to embody escapism, fantasy, and social relevance: “Still functioning for many readers as metaphors of our dreams and transformative aspirations,” she said, “they are needed, perhaps now more than ever before.” Michael Uslan, executive producer of Batman Begins (and of the forthcoming film adaptations of Shazam! and Will Eisner’s The Spirit), served as principal consultant for the exhibit, providing key loans and guidance every step of the way. (The idea for the exhibit originated from his wife Nancy.) Uslan previously donated over 40,000 comics to his home college of Indiana University, and later saw an opportunity to give back on the local level where he was born and raised … and where many of the founding fathers of the comic book industry had also resided. “If you know nothing about comic books, you’ll find this exhibit very educational and informative, but fun and entertaining at the same time. If you’re a comic book fan and collector, you will salivate!” The exhibit is unique in that it’s exclusively about comic books and super-heroes. The first two art pieces you’ll encounter walking into the exhibit will be an original Eisner Spirit page and a color cover recreation of Action Comics #1 that Joe Shuster drew for Uslan in 1979. The first part of the exhibit, “Superheroes Go To War,” is decorously marked with prime examples from that seminal era: an early original “Captain Marvel” page, splash pages by H.G. Peter (“Wonder Woman”), Lee Elias (“The Flash”), and Paul Reinman (“Green Lantern”). There are also pages by Irwin Hasen (“Wonder Woman”), Shelly Moldoff (“Batman”), and many others … and, of course, an eye-opening display of historical comic books.

Reflecting Culture

Uslan proudly declares that there’s been a complete change towards society’s attitude about comic books: “When I first started out, it felt like only a few isolated nuts like me and Roy Thomas were banging the drum for comics to be recognized as a legitimate American art form and modern mythology. And now, as more generations have grown up reading them, there’s a respect for the material and for the creators behind the material. As a result, the world is much more open and receptive to understanding the impact comics have had, not just in American culture but around the world. The fact that in the last year I spoke twice at the Smithsonian on comic books is amazing – and this recognition of the people who founded the comic book industry and to those who have flourished in the comic book industry is such a wonderful tip off the hat to them, and assures them that whether they were working in 1939, 1959, or today, their work is important … their work is significant … their work is appreciated by society. When I bought the rights to ‘Batman’ to make it into a movie, I kept thinking, if we could make films that parents could take their kids to see and grandparents could take their grandchildren to see and share the experience, we would hit a home run—and I think we’ve managed to do that with this exhibit. Personally for me, it validates everything I’ve been working towards since the 7th grade when I joined early comic book fandom and attended the first comic book convention … and everything I’ve been vocalizing to anyone who would possibly listen to me about comics. It is vindication for all of the generations of creators, and validation of everything we’ve been fighting for.” Information and directions are available from the museum’s website, www.montclairartmuseum.org, or by calling (973) 746-5555.

Advertise In Alter Ego! FULL-PAGE: 7.5" Wide x 10" Tall • $300 HALF-PAGE: 7.5" Wide x 4.875" Tall • $175 QUARTER-PAGE: 3.75" Wide x 4.875" Tall • $100

The TwoMorrows Two-Fer! Prepay for two ads in Alter Ego, DRAW!, Write Now!, Back Issue, Rough Stuff or any combo and these discounts apply: TWO FULL-PAGE ADS: $500 ($100 savings) TWO HALF-PAGE ADS: $300 ($50 savings) TWO QUARTER-PAGE ADS: $175 ($25 savings) The above rates are for black-&-white ads, supplied on-disk (TIF, EPS, or Quark Xpress files acceptable) or as cameraready art. Typesetting service available at 20% mark-up. Due to our already low ad rates, no agency discounts apply. Sorry, display ads are not available for the Jack Kirby Collector. Send ad copy and check/money order (US funds) payable to: TwoMorrows 10407 Bedfordtown Drive Raleigh, NC 27614 Phone: (919)449-0344 Fax: (919)449-0327 E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com

We also accept VISA and MASTERCARD! Include card number and expiration date.

Jerry Ordway: A Modern Master Interview by Eric Nolen-Weathington

elebrating the release of Eric Nolen-Weathington’s Volume 13 of his Modern Masters series, spotlighting artist Jerry Ordway, FCA presents the following excerpt (including unpublished outtakes) from the book, focusing on Ordway’s Power of Shazam! comic series from the 1990s—and how he incorporated former Fawcett characters into the stories. Check out the TwoMorrows ad this issue and order Modern Masters Vol.13: Jerry Ordway today. —PCH ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON: With The Power of Shazam! you brought in a wide range of Fawcett heroes. Minute-Man, Bulletman, and Spy Smasher appeared early on in the series, as part of a flashback. You didn’t bring in Mr. Scarlet until the very end. JERRY ORDWAY: Well, you know, one of the big problems was that I was searching for comics. I wasn’t able to buy the really expensive back issues. Because DC didn’t own the character until more recently, they didn’t have an archive. DC’s got this great library of bound volumes of all the DC books and whatever companies became DC books. And you can go in there, into their hallowed halls, and sit down with a notebook and read. One of my trips into DC was to go through their Fawcett collection, but they didn’t have very much. They really were very spotty. They had a handful of Captain Marveltype things, but they didn’t really have any of the other characters. So I was always on the search for those, and I would find them in some reprint form here and there. But then I started having a little more luck finding them on microfiche. So, some of those characters could have been in there if I had more information on them at that point. I don’t know why, but

Excerpt edited by P.C. Hamerlinck I think I referenced Mr. Scarlet in the first year, though, somehow... EN: Yeah, I think his name was mentioned, but you didn’t... ORDWAY: We didn’t have a good visual for him. You know, it’s funny because now, with the Internet, you can find all this stuff. At the time, when I was doing the book, all you had were expensive back issues, because there really wasn’t anything reprinted. To this day, the only guy who has really reprinted much of that stuff has been Bill Black, through his AC titles. So it was kind-of an adventure for me to read about it. I never really had that much of an idea of the impact of all the Fawcett stuff. The only one we weren’t allowed to use was Captain Midnight … but we used what we could, and we even did a Captain Midnight-esque thing, we just had to change him a little bit. But I was totally fascinated. We used all the stupid names, the obscure ones, that we could find. I went back to the reprint of Whiz #1, and there’s Lance O’Casey … I went through all the guys in there, because I just thought if anybody knew it, it was fun, and if you didn’t know it, it didn’t detract anything. EN: Exactly. ORDWAY: That’s adding a little extra layer, and it was all there for the reader’s fun. And the people who knew the stuff enjoyed it, and the people who didn’t know, it was just another name.

EN: The villains you brought in more slowly. Early on you had a plotline with Blaze, bringing her in

Jerry Ordway: A Modern Master

from “Superman.” ORDWAY: When I did the regular series, they didn’t say, “Do whatever you want.” When I did the regular series, the main goal was, this has to be integrated in the DC Universe, because that’s never successfully been done. “Shazam!” has always been a thing on its own, and every one of those big DC crossovers that happened when we were doing The Power of Shazam!, “Shazam!” is part of every one of those. And sometimes that meant you had to set your own story aside, or rethink something. Like, with Underworld Unleashed, we had to change our ending. I mean, we did as much as we could, but basically [Mark] Waid’s spin kind of trumped us, not in timeliness, but because it was a bigger crossover. So originally the way that Power of Shazam! #12 was going to pan out was … and he and I both read the same Marvel comics when we were kids, obviously, and we were both riffing on a thing that Neal Adams drew in his one or two issues of Thor he did when Kirby left Marvel. With Stan Lee he did this thing where Thor just projected this goodness that sickened Loki. And that was what I wanted to do, because I thought that was kind of like a cute little thing, plus it had a little tie to my fanhood instincts. And then I found out, lo and behold, that’s what Waid’s planning for Captain Marvel and Neron. EN: And it even sounds like something that Captain Marvel would do back in the ’40s or something. ORDWAY: Yeah. I mean, again, it was a cute idea, and when you’re working for DC Comics, you’re working for the better good of the DC Universe, and that’s part of … I’ve always been a team player. Some people quit over stuff like that. I just forge ahead. And we had the same—I shouldn’t say exactly the same—but we had another issue with Kingdom Come and Mr. Mind. And, again, Alex Ross and I saw the same stupid Star Trek movie, and we saw the same Diamond Is A Super-Hero’s Best Friend bad TV shows and movies when we were kids, too. Ordway art from a Diamond Previews catalog. [©2007 DC Comics.] He had this idea about using Mr. Mind secretly controlling Captain Marvel, and it was like, “Well, case it was like, well, let’s use Mr. Atom and have the ulterior motive of gee.” Y’know? And I had a conversation with Dan Raspler, and I said, doing something really drastic to bring Mary’s adoptive parents into “Look, this is part of our plan.” Again, it was the year-long plan, and it Billy’s life. And Mr. Atom fit into that. Not at that point, I guess we seemed like it was a good idea and I felt like maybe I got there first, or introduced him. I don’t remember when we blew up Fairfield … maybe we both got there at the same time and just neither of us knew it. But what do you do? I don’t know if any of that ever contributed to EN: That was eight, ten issues later. … I love Alex’s work, but he said some nasty things in the fan press about Power of Shazam!, and that always made me wonder if it was ORDWAY: Well, we set him in place. over any of that stuff, or just the fact that he thought he knew how to EN: You used pretty much everyone from the Captain Marvel do it better or something. But he seemed kind of resentful, and I always mythology, but you didn’t use King Kull. thought that was weird, because, y’know, I was doing my best. EN: You updated Mr. Atom and made him look like a Transformer, almost. Was that what you had in mind? ORDWAY: I think Pete [Krause] wanted to do him more like what Alex Ross had done with him on Kingdom Come. We talked a lot during the run, and while I don’t think he necessarily suggested too many story ideas, he did have ideas here and there about stuff — “Oh, it would be fun to draw this, or fun to draw that.” So I think in that

ORDWAY: No. I had an idea for him, though. I was planning on using him. I was gearing him up towards the issue #50. I was going to do something with him taking over the Rock of Eternity. I think he did that once in the past. [Editors Note: Not quite, Jerry, but Kull once crept into the abandoned subway’s secret underground hall and brought to life the statues of the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man in Captain Marvel Adventures #137, Oct. 1952. —PCH] He was one of those characters I think, it could have been kind of fun to do in a semi-

FCA (Fawcett Collectors Of America)

You know, I guess the fact that I used Tawky Tawny and the Marvel Bunny indicates that I would go pretty far, but I had a line that I drew. And, again, any idea, if you can find some kind of weird hook for it, it’ll work. It has to find a reasonable context, and they’ll buy it. I think the funny animal stuff has its place, and when you see a movie like Roger Rabbit, you can certainly see a mix of live action with Warner Bros. cartoon style. Why can’t you do that in comics? You can, but I guess the audience is so divided as to who likes realistic work vs. cartoony stuff. EN: And never the twain shall meet. ORDWAY: Yup. It’s like the blood enemies or something … personally, I like all art. I think some of the DC all-ages books, “The Batman”.... EN: Yeah, for years Batman Adventures was the best “Batman” book out there. ORDWAY: Right. Well, it was also unencumbered by some of the heavy-duty chronology. Sometimes that’s good, sometimes it’s bad. But those books were a little easier to read than the “Batman” book. And they made a good attempt at the Superman Adventures one, too, I think. EN: So how did you manage to sneak Hoppy the Marvel Bunny in? Obviously it’s kind-of: Is it a dream sequence, or is it not a dream sequence? But still, half the book is.... ORDWAY: Well, I think we teased it in the multiple versions of Captain Marvel, we just teased it there. And there were people who wanted to see Hoppy. I mean, again, how big is that audience? EN: Well, he’s getting an action figure now.

intelligent, Conan the Barbarian sort of way. I mean, I was thinking of the way they did the bad guy in The Shadow movie. You know, he was... EN: A descendant of Genghis Khan. ORDWAY: ...a warlord, but he was able to kind of fit with the times. That type of thing could have been fun with Kull. It would still show his brutality and ruthlessness, but he wouldn’t be a dope. EN: And you never used Georgia Sivana. ORDWAY: Um … yeah. [laughter] EN: Was that just too goofy a look to try to incorporate? ORDWAY: Well, we did use the [other] kids. EN: Beautia and Magnificus. ORDWAY: Yeah. And, again, it was like, how far do you go with it?

ORDWAY: Really, I didn’t feel like I had a lot to lose. It wasn’t like a desperation thing, but at that point, we were selling pretty good. It wasn’t like the book was ever a big success, but it never really lost money, and the book was always solid. At the time when DC was publishing probably 60 titles, we were in the middle, maybe, or just below the middle. So it wasn’t anything like anybody saying, “Oh, we can’t do that because it’ll hurt sales.” So I was throwing all that stuff in. And I said to Mike [Carlin], “The idea of ‘watch me pull a rabbit out of the hat’...” You know, that was kind-of the genesis of even doing it. I said, “A magician can reach into that hat, and there’s Hoppy the Marvel Bunny Universe.” EN: That was a very clever idea to work around it. ORDWAY: Well, it was funny. And I think, again, Pete did a great job with both styles. And the other funny thing is, really, is that Alan Moore was working on the same ground, there. He was able to introduce a Tom Strong Bunny in Tom Strong. You know, that stuff is fun. And it wasn’t like … it’s just funny, because after that happened, I did get comments from people that, “Man, I can’t believe you did that!”

We hope you enjoy this FREE

DRAW! #15 PREVIEW! Edited by top DC and Marvel Comics artist MIKE MANLEY, the Eisner Award-nominated DRAW! magazine is the professional “How-To” magazine on comics, cartooning, and animation. Each issue features in-depth interviews and step-by-step demos from top comics pros on all aspects of graphic storytelling, as each artist invites you into their studio to reveal their working methods and tricks of the trade! #15 is our BACK TO SCHOOL issue, covering the major schools that offer comic art in their curriculum, through interviews with faculty, students, and grads, to give prospective students the best overview to date of collegate-level comic art classes. Plus, there’s an interview with B.P.R.D.’s GUY DAVIS, discussing (and showing) how he produces the fan-favorite series; MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ Comic Art Bootcamp series, chock full of drawing tips; product reviews, a color section, and more! Includes a FREE Preview of WRITE NOW #17! (88-page magazine) SINGLE ISSUES: $9 US SUBSCRIPTIONS: Four issues in the US: $26 Standard, $36 First Class (Canada: $44, Elsewhere: $60 Surface, $72 Airmail). NOTE: Most issues contain nudity for purposes of figure drawing. Intended for Mature Readers.

DRAW! #8

DRAW! #10

DRAW! #11

DRAW! #13

MATT HALEY, TOM BANCROFT & ROB CORLEY, ALBERTO RUIZ

RON GARNEY, GRAHAM NOLAN, TODD KLEIN, MARK MCKENNA

STEVE RUDE, JIM BORGMAN, ROQUE BALLESTEROS

ALEX HORLEY, KYLE BAKER, COLLEEN COOVER, BRET BLEVINS

TwoMorrows. Celebrating The Art & History Of Comics. TwoMorrows • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 • E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com

Drawing Your Best Foot Forward By Bret Blevins and Mike Manley

hey say a person should always start out on any journey putting their best foot forward, and this is just as true for an artist as it is for anyone embarking on a sequence of grand actions or events. This being so, it is of course vitally important that we visual artists have a solid grasp on the anatomy of the human body as a whole, with extra attention given to the head, hands and feet, which offer every artist a great challenge. One of the main judgments of an artist’s ability is their skill in drawing people, and especially the face, hands and feet. Where would the portrait artist be—or the fashion artist or comic artist—without these skills? Probably mostly underemployed. Drawing the figure well clearly separates the A-level artists from the C-level artists. And it seems artists who don’t draw the figure well, and are weak on their drawing of hands and feet, will go out of their way, try anything to avoid drawing them.

Feet of Clay? Nay, Feet of Smoke! It is sometimes surprising to see how poorly so many artists (pro as well as amateur) draw the foot, as well as shoes. Often they will employ an amateurish bag of visual tricks to avoid drawing the feet altogether. In the ’90s, during the boom and rise of the Image Comics look, it became the rage for artists to

DRAW! #15 Preview

avoid drawing the feet by “fading them away,” hidden in some ever present mist or low lying ground fog that perpetually surrounded and obscured the characters’ feet in any drawing. It could be outer space, it could be the bottom of the ocean; it mattered not what time of day it was... nope, those pesky feet were a problem to draw, and so they were eliminated in puff of smoke or series of “fade-away lines.” I can’t tell you how many portfolios from prospective artists I saw doing the “fade-away feet” back then, and still do now. It’s one of the biggest deficiencies I see in the work of artists I meet at conventions who are looking to break into the business. They draw the foot like they’ve never seen one, don’t have two themselves dangling at the end of their own legs. As a result, the shoes are poorly drawn to boot, their figures often awkward, clumsy looking and off balance. Nothing can ruin an otherwise good drawing of a sexy girl or super-heroine faster than big, ugly or clumsy feet. Since this is such a big hurdle for so many artists, Bret and I decided right away one of the earliest “Comic Art Bootcamp” articles should be devoted to drawing the foot. To get started on

COMIC ART BOOTCAMP

the right foot, let’s begin with some basic anatomy to give you some solid knowledge of how the foot is constructed and how it fits or is attached to the tibia—one of the shin bones of the leg. Fear not loyal DRAW! reader, Professors Bret and Mike won’t leave you with feet of clay, after the mini-lessons in the next few pages you will be able to blow away the fog of ignorance and draw feet that not only stand on solid ground, but are dynamic, powerful, sexy and fashionable. To start off let’s cover some basic construction fundamentals about the foot. It doesn’t matter if you are drawing realistic feet or

BLEVINS & MANLEY

a more stylized foot, say for an animated character where you must eliminate detail and rendering, the basic construction is still the same. The foot breaks down into these basic parts: • The Heel (The Oscalcis) • The Ankle • The Arch • The Toes (Phalanges)

DRAW! #15 Preview 91

BLEVINS & MANLEY

COMIC ART BOOTCAMP

INNER VIEW

D B

2 E

Both pairs of my daughter’s feet were drawn from observation, and while they are very animated, their basic form breaks down to the rough, simple forms in Examples 1 and 3. It’s always best to sketch in the gesture of the feet first, then locate the ankles to observe how far the foot is flexed (the arch and instep). The arch of the foot acts like a spring, pushing the foot upwards. The flexing of the toes in Pose B forces the instep upwards.

BREAK DOWN THE FOOT INTO THE SIMPLEST SHAPES

C) The instep D) The Arch E) The Tibula or ankle bone F) The Oscalcis 92

DRAW! #15 Preview

COMIC ART BOOTCAMP

BLEVINS & MANLEY

FRONT

LEFT TOP: When the foot pushes against something convex it bends, forcing the instep upwards. RIGHT: A) The ankle of the foot is basically a hinge which fits in between the notch of the Tibula and Fibula— the bones of the lower leg. The inner ankle bone is higher than the outer ankle bone. There is a nice line of energy or arch that runs from the inside of the knee down along the shin, terminating at the inside high point of the ankle. Accentuating this natural shape is really good when doing superheroes or a more animated, shape oriented drawing as it gives your figures a lot of power and spring even in a static pose.

BACK

MOVES JUST LIKE A HINGE

DRAW! #15 Preview 93

BLEVINS & MANLEY

COMIC ART BOOTCAMP

FEMUR PATELLA (KNEE CAP)

THE CURVE OF THE ARCH

TIBULA FIBULA

FAY PAD

TIBIAL PROTUBERANCE

THE HIGH POINT OF THE SHIN

1 2 3

For the rest of this Bootcamp and more, don’t miss DRAW! #15, on sale now! 94

DRAW! #15 Preview

These two stylized drawings illustrate the position in the frontal view of the leg where the Astragalus rests between the Tibula and the Fibula. You can think of the foot in this view as a triangle dividing the foot into three sections: 1) the Tarsal 2) the Metatarsal 3) the Phalanges The outside of the foot turns in at the little toe.

Prices include US Postage. Outside the US, ADD PER ITEM: Magazines & DVDs, $2 ($7 Airmail)

Edited by ROY THOMAS

The greatest ’zine of the ’60s is back, all-new, and focused on Golden & Silver Age comics and creators with articles, interviews, unseen art, plus FCA, Mr. Monster, and more!

AE #3: (100 pgs.) ALEX ROSS cover & interview, JERRY ORDWAY, BILL EVERETT, CARL BURGOS, Giant FAWCETT (FCA) section with C.C. BECK, MARC SWAYZE, & more! $9 US

AE #4: (100 pgs.) 60 years of HAWKMAN & FLASH! ROY THOMAS remembers GIL KANE, intvs. with KUBERT, MOLDOFF, LAMPERT, FOX, FCA with BECK & SWAYZE, KUBERT covers, more! $9 US

AE #5: (100 pgs.) JSA issue! Intvs. with SHELLY MAYER, GIL KANE, MART NODELL, GEORGE ROUSSOS, FCA with BECK & SWAYZE, NEW INFANTINO / ORDWAY wraparound cover, more! $9 US

AE #6: (100 pgs.) GENE COLAN intv., how-to books by STAN LEE & KANIGHER, ALLSTAR SQUADRON, MAC RABOY section, FCA with BECK & SWAYZE, COLAN & RABOY covers, more! $9 US

AE #7: (100 pgs.) Companion issue to the ALL-STAR COMPANION! J. SCHWARTZ intv., JLA-JSA teamups, MAC RABOY, FCA with BECK & SWAYZE, BUCKLER & BECK covers, more! $9 US

AE #8: (100 pgs.) Bio of WALLY WOOD, ADKINS & PEARSON intvs., KUBERT intv., FCA w/ BECK, SWAYZE, & ORDWAY, MR. MONSTER, WOOD & KUBERT covers, more! $9 US

AE #9: (100 pgs.) JOHN ROMITA intv. & gallery, plus ROY THOMAS’ dream projects! FCA with BECK, SWAYZE, & TUSKA, MR. MONSTER, ROMITA & DICK GIORDANO covers! $9 US

AE #10: (100 pgs) CARMINE INFANTINO intv. & art, neverseen FLASH story, VIN SULLIVAN & MAGAZINE ENTERPRISES, FRED GUARDINEER, AYERS, FCA, MR. MONSTER, more! $9 US

AE #11: (100 pgs) Interviews with SYD SHORES, MICKEY SPILLANE, VINCE FAGO, MAGAZINE ENTERPRISES Part Two, FCA with BECK, SWAYZE, DON NEWTON, MR. MONSTER, more! $9 US

AE #12: (100 pgs) GILL FOX on QUALITY COMICS, neverseen PAUL REINMAN Green Lantern art, origins of ALLSTAR SQUADRON, FCA, MR. MONSTER on WALLY WOOD, more! $9 US

AE #13 (100 pgs.) TITANS OF TIMELY/MARVEL Part Two! JOE SIMON & MURPHY ANDERSON covers, Silver Age AVENGERS section (with BUSCEMA, HECK, TUSKA, & THOMAS) & more! $9 US

AE #14 (100 pgs.) JSA FROM THE ’40s TO THE ’80s! MIKE NASSER & MICHAEL T. GILBERT covers, intvs. with ORDWAY & LEE ELIAS, neverseen 1940s JSA pgs., ’70s JSA, & more! $9 US

AE #15 (108 pgs.) JOHN BUSCEMA TRIBUTE ISSUE! BUSCEMA covers & interview, unseen art, ROY THOMAS on their collaborations, plus salute to KURT SCHAFFENBERGER, & more! $9 US

AE #16: (108 pgs.) COLAN, BUSCEMA, ROMITA, SEVERIN interviews, ALEX ROSS on Shazam!, OTTO & JACK BINDER, KURTZMAN, new ROSS & FRADON/SEVERIN covers, more! $9 US

AE #17: (108 pgs.) LOU FINE overview & art, ARNOLD DRAKE & MURPHY ANDERSON interviews, plus EISNER, CRANDALL, DAVIS & EVANS’ non-EC action comics, FCA, LOU FINE cover, more! $9 US

AE #18: (108 pgs.) STAN GOLDBERG interview & art, plus KIRBY, DITKO, HECK, ROMITA, BUSCEMA, EVERETT, WALLY WOOD’S Flash Gordon, FCA, KIRBY & SWAYZE covers, more! $9 US

AE #19: (108 pgs.) DICK SPRANG interview & art, JERRY ROBINSON on FRED RAY, BOB KANE, CARMINE INFANTINO, ALEX TOTH, WALLY WOOD, FCA, SPRANG & RAY covers, more! $9 US

AE #20: (108 pgs.) TIMELY/ MARVEL focus, INVADERS overview with KIRBY, KANE, ROBBINS, BOB DESCHAMPS intv., panel with FINGER, BINDER, FOX, & WEISINGER, FCA, rare art, more! $9 US

AE #21: (108 pgs.) IGER STUDIO with art by EISNER, FINE, MESKIN, ANDERSON, CRANDALL, CARDY, EVANS, “SHEENA” section, THOMAS on the JSA, FCA, DAVE STEVENS cover, more! $9 US

AE #22: (108 pgs.) EVERETT & KUBERT interviewed by GIL KANE & NEAL ADAMS, ROY THOMAS on Sub-Mariner, COLAN, BUSCEMA, SEVERIN, WOOD, FCA, BECK & EVERETT covers, more! $9 US

AE #23: (108 pgs.) Two unseen Golden Age WONDER WOMAN stories examined, BOB FUJITANI intv. Archie/ MLJ’s JOHN ROSENBERGER & VICTOR GORELICK intv., FCA, rare art, more! $9 US

AE #24: (108 pgs.) NEW X-MEN intvs. with STAN LEE, COCKRUM, CLAREMONT, WEIN, DRAKE, SHOOTER, THOMAS, MORT MESKIN profiled, FCA, covers by COCKRUM & MESKIN! $9 US

AE #25: (108 pgs.) JACK COLE & PLASTIC MAN! Brother DICK COLE interviewed, Cole celebrated by ALEX TOTH, THOMAS on All-Star Squadron #1, JERRY BAILS tribute, FCA, cover by TOTH! $9 US

AE #26: (108 pgs.) JOE SINNOTT interview, KIRBY and BUSCEMA art, IRWIN DONENFELD, Superman art by SHUSTER, BORING, SWAN, FCA, Mr. MONSTER, covers by SINNOTT & BORING! $9 US

AE #20: TIMELY/ #27:(108 (108pgs.) pgs.) VIN MARVEL focus, INVADERS SULLIVAN intv., “Lost” KIRBY overview with KIRBY, KANE, HULK covers, the 1948 NY ROBBINS, DESCHAMPS CON, “GreatBOB Unknown” artists, intv., panel FCA, withALEX FINGER, KURTZMAN, TOTH, BINDER, FOX, & WEISINGER, MR. MONSTER, covers by FCA, rare art, more! $9 $9 US US BURNLEY & KIRBY!

AE #28: (108 pgs.) JOE MANEELY spotlight, scarce Marvel art by EVERETT, SEVERIN, DITKO, ROMITA, extra-size FCA, LEE AMES intv., covers by MANEELY & DON NEWTON! $9 US

AE #29: (108 pgs.) FRANK BRUNNER intv., EVERETT’s Venus, Classics Illustrated adapting Lovecraft, LEE/KIRBY/ DITKO prototypes, ALEX TOTH, FCA with GENE COLAN, BRUNNER cover! $9 US

AE #30: (108 pgs.) SILVER AGE JLA special, ALEX ROSS on the JLA, MIKE SEKOWSKY, DICK DILLIN, GOLDEN AGE SIMON & KIRBY scripters speak, FRENCH HEROES, ROSS & RUDE covers! $9 US

AE #31: (108 pgs.) DICK AYERS intv., HARLAN ELLISON’S Marvel work (with Bullpen artists), LEE/KIRBY/ DITKO prototypes, Christmas cards from cartoonists, AYERS & RAY covers! $9 US

AE #32: (108 pgs.) Golden Age TIMELY ARTISTS intv., MART NODELL, MIKE GOLD on the Silver Age, art by SIMON & KIRBY, SWAN, INFANTINO, KANE, GIORDANO & GIL KANE covers! $9 US

AE #33: (108 pgs.) MIKE SEKOWSKY tribute, intvs. with wife PAT SEKOWSKY and Golden Age inker VALERIE BARCLAY, art by ANDERSON, ANDRU & ESPOSITO, INFANTINO, FRENZ covers! $9 US

AE #34: (108 pgs.) QUALITY COMICS, intvs. with ALEX KOTZKY, CHUCK CUIDERA, DICK ARNOLD, TOTH, KURTZMAN, art by FINE, EISNER, COLE, CRANDALL and NICHOLAS covers! $9 US

AE #35: #20: (108 (108pgs.) pgs.)STAN TIMELY/ LEE, MARVEL focus,DICK INVADERS JOHN ROMITA, AYERS, overview with KIRBY, KANE, ROY THOMAS, & AL JAFFEE ROBBINS, BOB DESCHAMPS on the 1940s & 1950s Golden intv., FINGER, Age at panel Timely/with Marvel, FCA, BINDER, FOX, & ROMITA WEISINGER, MR. MONSTER, and $9 US FCA, rarecovers! art, more! $9 US JAFFEE

AE #36: (108 pgs.) JOE SIMON intv. & cover, GOLDEN AGE HEROES of Canada, ELMER WEXLER, MICHAEL T. GILBERT on MR. MONSTER’S ORIGINS, FCA, ALEX TOTH, and more! $9 US

AE #37: (108 pgs.) BECK & BORING covers, SY BARRY intv., Superman “K-Metal” story, FCA with C.C. BECK, MARC SWAYZE, DON NEWTON, and Shazam!/Isis!, MR. MONSTER, and more! $9 US

AE #38: (108 pgs.) JULIUS SCHWARTZ tribute & interviews, art by INFANTINO, ANDERSON, KUBERT, KANE, TOTH, SWAN, SEKOWSKY, FCA section, INFANTINO and HASEN covers, more!! $9 US

AE #39: (108 pgs.) Full issue JERRY ROBINSON spotlight, with comprehensive interview and unseen Batman art, AL FELDSTEIN on EC, GIL FOX, MESKIN, ROUSSOS, & ROBINSON covers! $9 US

AE #40: (108 pgs.) JULIUS SCHWARTZ memorial issue with tributes by pros, GIL KANE interview, comprehensive interview and unseen art by RUSS HEATH, GIL KANE and HEATH covers! $9 US

AE #41: (108 pgs.) BERNIE WRIGHTSON on FRANKENSTEIN, art by KALUTA, BAILY, MANEELY, PLOOG, KUBERT, BRUNNER, CRANDALL, FCA #100, & more! WRIGHTSON, SWAYZE covers! $9 US

ALTER EGO #42 Covers by FASTNER & LARSON and ERNIE SCHROEDER, a celebration of DON HECK, WERNER ROTH, and PAUL REINMAN, rare art by KIRBY, DITKO, AYERS, Hillman & Ziff-Davis remembered by SCHROEDER, HERB ROGOFF, and WALTER LITTMAN, FCA, ALEX TOTH, & more!

ALTER EGO #43

ALTER EGO #44

ALTER EGO #45

ALTER EGO #46

Flip covers by TUSKA and JSA/All-Star Squadron/Infinity Inc. Interviews with Golden Age The VERY BEST of the 1960s-70s STEVENS, yuletide art by SINNOTT, special! Interviews with JOE Sandman artist CREIG FLESSEL and ALTER EGO! EVERETT/SEVERIN BRUNNER, CARDY, TOTH, KUBERT, IRWIN HASEN, MURPHY 1940s creator BERT CHRISTMAN, cover, classic 1969 BILL EVERETT NODELL, and others, interviews ANDERSON, JERRY ORDWAY, MICHAEL CHABON on researching interview, art by BURGOS, with Golden Age artists TOM GILL 1940s Atom writer ARTHUR his Pulitzer-winning novel Kavalier GUSTAVSON, SIMON & KIRBY, (Lone Ranger) and MORRIS WEISS, ADLER, art by TOTH, SEKOWSKY, & Clay, art by EISNER, KANE, KIRBY, and others, 1960s gems by DITKO exploring 1960s Mexican comics, HASEN, MACHLAN, OKSNER, & AYERS, FCA, MR. MONSTER, & E. NELSON BRIDWELL, FCA, FCA, MR. MONSTER, ALEX TOTH, INFANTINO, FCA, MR. MONSTER, ALEX TOTH, & more! TOTH, & more! & more! ORDWAY cover, more! (100-page magazine) $9 US (100-page magazine) $9 US (108-page magazine) $9 US (100-page magazine) $9 US

ALTER EGO #47 MATT BAKER, Golden Age cheesecake artist of PHANTOM LADY, plus art from AL FELDSTEIN, VINCE COLLETTA, ARTHUR PEDDY, JACK KAMEN & others, FCA, BILL SCHELLY talks to BUD PLANT, MR. MONSTER, ALEX TOTH, and more! (100-page magazine) $9 US

(108-page magazine) $9 US

ALTER EGO #48

ALTER EGO #49

The late WILL EISNER discusses ’40s Quality Comics with art by FINE, CRANDALL, COLE, & CARDY! EISNER tributes by STAN LEE, GENE COLAN, & others! ’40s Quality artist VERN HENKEL interviewed, FCA, MR. MONSTER, TOTH, & more!

Interview with CARL BURGOS’ daughter! Unused 1941 cover layouts by BURGOS and other Timely titans! The 1957 Atlas Implosion, MANNY STALLMAN, and the BLUE FLAME! Also, FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT and MR. MONSTER and more!

(100-page magazine) $9 US

ALTER EGO #54

ALTER EGO #55

MIKE ESPOSITO on DC and Marvel, ROBERT KANIGHER on the creation of Metal Men & Sgt. Rock (with comments by JOE KUBERT & BOB HANEY), art by ANDRU, INFANTINO, KIRBY, SEVERIN, ROMITA, BUSCEMA, GIL KANE, plus FCA with SWAYZE, ALEX TOTH, & more!

ALEX ROSS cover, JACK & OTTO BINDER, KEN BALD, VIC DOWD, and BOB BOYAJIAN interviewed, FCA with MARC SWAYZE & EMILIO SQUEGLIO, Christmas Card Art from CRANDALL, SINNOTT, HEATH, MOONEY, and CARDY, 1943 superheroine Pin-Up Calendar, and more!

(100-page magazine) $9 US

ALTER EGO #50

ALTER EGO #51

ALTER EGO #52

ALTER EGO #53

Golden Age Batman artist/Bob JOE GIELLA on the Silver Age at ROY THOMAS covers his 40-YEAR career in comics, with ADAMS, Kane ghost LEW SAYRE DC, the Golden Age at Marvel, and BUSCEMA, COLAN, DITKO, GIL SCHWARTZ interviewed, the JULIE SCHWARTZ, with rare art by KANE, KIRBY, STAN LEE, ORDWAY, Golden & Silver Ages of INFANTINO, GIL KANE, PÉREZ, ROMITA, and many others! AUSTRALIAN SUPER-HEROES, SEKOWSKY, SWAN, DILLIN, Also, FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT Mad artist DAVE BERG interviewed, MOLDOFF, GIACOIA, SCHAFFENand MR. MONSTER and more! FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT on BERGER, and others, JAY SCOTT WILL EISNER, ALEX TOTH and PIKE on STAN LEE, MARTIN (100-page magazine) $9 US more! THALL, and more!

Halloween issue! GIORDANO & 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, and others!

(100-page magazine) $9 US

ALTER EGO #57

ALTER EGO #58

ALTER EGO #59

ALTER EGO #56

Issue-by-issue index of Timely/Atlas GERRY CONWAY & ROY THOMAS Batman & Superman in the Golden NEAL ADAMS cover, interviews & Silver Ages, ARTHUR SUYDAM super-hero stories by MICHELLE on their ’80s “X-Men Movie That with Superman creators SIEGEL & interview, NEAL ADAMS on NOLAN, art by SIMON & KIRBY, Never Was!” with art by ADAMS, SHUSTER, Golden/Silver Age DC 1960s/70s DC, SHELLY MOLDOFF, EVERETT, BURGOS, ROMITA, COCKRUM, BUSCEMA, BYRNE, production guru JACK ADLER, AL PLASTINO, Golden Age artist AYERS, HEATH, SEKOWSKY, KANE, KIRBY, HECK, & LIEBER, NEAL ADAMS & TV iconoclast (& FRAN (Doll Man) MATERA Atlas artist VIC CARRABOTTA comics fan) HOWARD STERN on SHORES, SCHOMBURG, MANEELY, interviewed, SIEGEL & SHUSTER, Adler, art by CURT SWAN, WAYNE & SEVERIN, GENE COLAN & ALLEN interview, ALLEN BELLMAN on ’40s FCA, MR. MONSTER, SUYDAM Timely, FCA, 1966 panel on EC BORING, AL PLASTINO, plus FCA, BELLMAN on 1940s Timely heroes, cover, & more! Edited by ROY FCA, MR. MONSTER, & BILL Comics, & MR. MONSTER! Edited MR. MONSTER, & more! Edited by THOMAS ! SCHELLY! KIRBY & VON SHOLLY by ROY THOMAS. ROY THOMAS. cover! Edited by ROY THOMAS. (100-page magazine) $9 US (100-page magazine) $9 US (100-page magazine) $9 US (100-page magazine) $9 US

SUBSCRIBE! Twelve issues in the US: $78 Standard, $108 First Class (Canada: $132, Elsewhere: $180 Surface, $216 Airmail). NOTE: IF YOU PREFER A SIX-ISSUE SUB, JUST CUT THE PRICE IN HALF!

ALTER EGO #60

ALTER EGO #61

ALTER EGO #62

ALTER EGO #63

ALTER EGO #64

Celebrates 50 years since SHOWCASE #4! FLASH interviews with SCHWARTZ, KANIGHER, INFANTINO, KUBERT, & BROOME, Golden Age artist TONY DiPRETA, 1966 panel with NORDLING, BINDER, & 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, & more! GIORDANO cover!

HAPPY HAUNTED HALLOWEEN ISSUE, featuring: MIKE PLOOG & 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—& 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!

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, & others! Interview with MARTIN FILCHOCK, Golden Age artist for Centaur Comics! Plus MR. MONSTER, DON NEWTON cover, plus a FREE 1943 MARVEL CALENDAR!

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: MAY063496

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: JUN063522

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: AUG063690

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: OCT063800

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: NOV063991

ALTER EGO #65

ALTER EGO #66

ALTER EGO #67

ALTER EGO #68

ALTER EGO #69

NICK CARDY interviewed on his work in the Golden & Silver Ages, with CARDY artwork, plus art by WILL EISNER, NEAL ADAMS, CARMINE INFANTINO, JIM APARO, RAMONA FRADON, CURT SWAN, MIKE SEKOWSKY, and others, ERNIE SCHROEDER & DAVE COCKRUM tributes, FCA with MARC SWAYZE, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, 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 & artifacts by SHELLY MAYER, IRWIN HASEN, LEE ELIAS, C.C. BECK, GIL KANE, CARMINE INFANTINO, and JULIE SCHWARTZ, FCA with MARC SWAYZE and C.C. BECK, MICHAEL T. GILBERT on BOB POWELL Part II, and more!

Tribute to JERRY BAILS—Father of Comics Fandom! Features a cover by GEORGE PÉREZ, plus art by JOE KUBERT, CARMINE INFANTINO, GIL KANE, IRWIN HASEN, DICK DILLIN, MIKE SEKOWSKY, JERRY ORDWAY, JOE STATON, MIKE VOSBURG, RICH BUCKLER, JACK KIRBY, and others! Plus, the story behind Marvel’s 1977 STAR WARS comic by THOMAS, CHAYKIN, et al.

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!

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: DEC064009

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: JAN073982

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: FEB073887

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: MAR073852

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: APR074098

ALTER EGO: BEST OF THE LEGENDARY COMICS FANZINE

ALTER EGO COLLECTION, VOL. ONE

Collects the original 11 issues (from 196178) of A/E, with contributions from KIRBY, DITKO, WOOD, BUSCEMA, SEVERIN, EVERETT, MANNING, SWAN, & interviews with GIL KANE, BILL EVERETT, & JOE KUBERT! Edited by ROY THOMAS & BILL SCHELLY, intro by JULIE SCHWARTZ.

Collects ALTER EGO #1-2, plus 30 pages of NEW MATERIAL! New JLA Jam Cover by KUBERT, PÉREZ, GIORDANO, TUSKA, CARDY, FRADON, & GIELLA, new sections with art by GIL KANE, WILL EISNER, DICK DILLIN, MIKE SEKOWSKY, CARMINE INFANTINO, MURPHY ANDERSON, & more!

(192-page trade paperback) $26 US ISBN: 9781893905887 Ships February 2008

(192-page trade paperback) $26 US ISBN: 9781893905597 Diamond Order Code: APR063420

ALTER EGO #70

ALTER EGO #71

ALTER EGO #72

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, The Penguin, Thunderfist, The Dreamer, Johnny Canuck, et al.! Plus new Invaders art by BYRNE, LIM, GRELL, CHAN, and 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!

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: MAY073879

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: JUN074006

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: JUL073975

NOW SHIPPING FROM TWOMORROWS!

BACK ISSUE #24

DRAW! #15

WRITE NOW! #17

ROUGH STUFF #6

KIRBY COLLECTOR #49

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

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

HEROES ISSUE featuring series creator/ writer TIM KRING, writer JEPH LOEB, and others, interviews with DC Comics’ DAN DiDIO and Marvel’s DAN BUCKLEY, PETER DAVID on writing STEPHEN KING’S DARK TOWER COMIC, MICHAEL TEITELBAUM, C.B. CEBULSKI, DOUGLAS RUSHKOFF, Nuts & Bolts script and art examples, a FREE BACK ISSUE #24 PREVIEW, and more!

Features a new interview and cover by BRIAN STELFREEZE, interview with BUTCH GUICE, extensive art galleries/commentary by IAN CHURCHILL, DAVE COCKRUM, and COLLEEN DORAN, MIKE GAGNON looks at independent comics, with art and comments by ANDREW BARR, BRANDON GRAHAM, and ASAF HANUKA! Includes a FREE ALTER EGO #73 PREVIEW!

(80-page magazine with COLOR) $9 US Ships October 2007 Diamond Order Code: AUG074131

(80-page magazine) $9 US Ships October 2007 Diamond Order Code: AUG074138

(100-page magazine) $9 US NOW SHIPPING! Diamond Order Code: AUG074137

WARRIORS, spotlighting Thor (with a look at hidden messages in BILL EVERETT’s Thor inks), Sgt. Fury, Challengers of the Unknown, Losers, and others! Includes a rare KIRBY interview, new interviews with JERRY ORDWAY and GRANT MORRISON, MARK EVANIER’s column, a pencil art gallery, a complete 1950s story, a wraparound Kirby Thor cover inked by JERRY ORDWAY, and more! NOW SHIPPING!!

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: JUL073976

JOHN ROMITA... & ALL THAT JAZZ! The artist who made AMAZING SPIDERMAN Marvel’s #1-selling comic book in the 1960s talks about his life, his art, and his contemporaries! Authored by former Marvel Comics editor in chief and top writer ROY THOMAS, and noted historian JIM AMASH, it features the most definitive interview Romita’s ever given, about working with STAN LEE and JACK KIRBY, following Spider-Man co-creator STEVE DITKO as artist on the strip, and more! Lavishly illustrated with Romita art, it’s a career overview of a comics master, and a firsthand history of the industry by one of its leading artists! Available in Softcover and Hardcover (with 16 extra color pages, dust jacket, and custom endleaves). (192-page softcover) $29 US ISBN: 9781893905757 Diamond Order Code: APR074018 (208-page hardcover w/ COLOR) $49 US ISBN: 9781893905764 Diamond Order Code: APR074019

SILVER AGE MEGO 8" SUPERSCI-FI COMPANION HEROES: WORLD’S In the Silver Age of Comics, space was GREATEST TOYS!TM the place, and this book summarizes, critiques and lovingly recalls the classic science-fiction series edited by JULIUS SCHWARTZ and written by GARDNER FOX and JOHN BROOME! The pages of DC’s science-fiction magazines of the 1960s, STRANGE ADVENTURES and MYSTERY IN SPACE, are opened for you, including story-by-story reviews of complete series such as ADAM STRANGE, ATOMIC KNIGHTS, SPACE MUSEUM, STAR ROVERS, STAR HAWKINS and others! Writer/editor MIKE W. BARR tells you which series crossed over with each other, behind-the-scenes secrets, and more, including writer and artist credits for every story! Features rare art by CARMINE INFANTINO, MURPHY ANDERSON, GIL KANE, SID GREENE, MIKE SEKOWSKY, and many others, plus a glorious new cover by ALAN DAVIS and PAUL NEARY! (160-page trade paperback) $24 US ISBN: 9781893905818 Diamond Order Code: JUL073885

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

Lavishly illustrated with thousands of CHARTS, CHECKLISTS and COLOR PHOTOGRAPHS, it’s an obsessive examination of legendary toy company MEGO (pronounced “ME-go”), and the extraordinary line of super-hero action figures that dominated the toy industry throughout the 1970s. Featuring a chronological history of Mego, interviews with former employees and Mego vendors, fascinating discoveries never revealed elsewhere, and thorough coverage of each figure and packaging variant, this FULL-COLOR hardcover is the definitive guide to Mego. BRAD MELTZER raves, “I’ve waited thirty years for this magical, beautiful book.” And CHIP KIDD, internationally-recognized graphic designer and author of BATMAN COLLECTED, deemed it “a stunning visual experience.” Written by BENJAMIN HOLCOMB. (256-page COLOR hardcover) $54 US ISBN: 9781893905825 Diamond Order Code: JUL073884

SUBSCRIPTIONS:

ALL- STAR COMPANION V. 3 More amazing secrets behind the 194051 ALL-STAR COMICS and the 1941-44 SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY—and illustrated speculation about how other Golden Age super-teams might have been assembled! Also, an issue-by-issue survey of the JLA-JSA TEAM-UPS of 1963-85, the 1970s JSA REVIVAL, and the 1980s series THE YOUNG ALL-STARS and SECRET ORIGINS, with commentary by the artists and writers! Plus rare, often unseen art by KUBERT, INFANTINO, ADAMS, ORDWAY, ANDERSON, TOTH, CARDY, GIL KANE, COLAN, SEKOWSKY, DILLIN, STATON, REINMAN, McLEOD, GRINDBERG, PAUL SMITH, RON HARRIS, MARSHALL ROGERS, WAYNE BORING, GEORGE FREEMAN, DON HECK, GEORGE TUSKA, TONY DeZUNIGA, H.G. PETER, DON SIMPSON, and many others! Compiled and edited by ROY THOMAS, with a new cover by GEORGE PÉREZ! (224-page trade paperback) $31 US ISBN: 9781893905801 Diamond Order Code: MAY078045 Surface

Airmail

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR (4 issues)

$44

1st Class Canada $56

$64

$76

$120

BACK ISSUE! (6 issues)

$40

$54

$66

$90

$108

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

$26

$36

$44

$60

$72

ALTER EGO (12 issues) Six-issue subs are half-price!

$78

$108

$132

$180

$216

(84-page tabloid) $13 US Diamond Order Code: JUN074028

MODERN MASTERS VOLUME 13: JERRY ORDWAY Features an extensive, career-spanning interview lavishly illustrated with rare art from Jerry’s files, plus huge sketchbook section, including unseen and unused art! By ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON. (120-page TPB with COLOR) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905795 Diamond Order Code: NOV068372

MODERN MASTERS: MICHAEL GOLDEN DVD Shows the artist at work, discussing his art and career! (120-minute Std. Format DVD) $35 US ISBN: 9781893905771 Diamond Order Code: MAY073780

For the latest news from TwoMorrows Publishing, log on to www.twomorrows.com/tnt