Alter Ego #76 by TwoMorrows Publishing

Roy Thomas’ SIMONized Comics Fanzine

6.95

No. 76

In the USA

March 2008

PLUS:

JOE SIMON FROM CAPTAIN AMERICA TO FIGHTING AMERICAN --AND BEYOND!

82658 27763

JOE SIMON CHANGED THE FACE OF COMIC BOOKS!

NOW HE TALKS TO JIM AMASH IN A FACETO-FACE INTERVIEW!

FACE IT! YOU DON’T DARE MISS THIS GREAT ISSUE!

Vol. 3, No. 76 / March 2008 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 Productions

Cover Artist Joe Simon

Contents

Cover Colorist Tom Ziuko

With Special Thanks to: Jack Adler Heidi Amash Ger Apeldoorn Bob Bailey Tim Barnes Allen & Roz Bellman Dominic Bongo Teresa R. Davidson Craig Delich Anthony DeMaria Martin Filchock Shane Foley Janet Gilbert Roberto Guedes Jennifer Hamerlinck Bob Hughes Gene Kehoe Jay Kinney Dan Kurdilla Dominique Léonard Bruce Mason Harry Mendryk Robert Roy Metz Scotty Moore Lou Mougin

Mike Nielsen Barry Pearl Bob Rozakis Cory Sedlmeier John Selegue Howard Siegel Jim Simon Joe Simon Ted P. Skimmer Anthony Snyder Henry Steele Marc Swayze Greg Theakston Dann Thomas George Tuska Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Alfred M. Walker Steven V. Walker Jim Walls Hames Ware John Wells Robert Wiener Marv Wolfman John Wright

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

John Ryan

Writer/Editorial: Not-So-Simple Simon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Simon Says! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Master creator Joe Simon talks to Jim Amash about the comic book biz, Jack Kirby, & a few other things.

The Secret History Of All-American Comics, Inc. – Book I, Chapter I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Veteran pro Bob Rozakis does a fantasy reconstruction of comics history.

Comic Crypt! – Alfred J. Walker, Part I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Michael T. Gilbert & Mr. Monster showcase an innovative Fiction House artist.

John Ryan – A Remembrance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Bill Schelly & Howard Siegel celebrate the life of the late Australian fan/historian.

re: comments, correspondence, & corrections. . . . . . . . . . . 75 FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] #135 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 P.C. Hamerlinck presents Marc Swayze, C. C. Beck—& Bill Cosby? On Our Cover: He may not have lasted long, or led to a revival of the super-hero the way Showcase #4 did in 1956, but one of the greatest character creations of the fabulous ’50s was very definitely Simon & Kirby’s Fighting American! This issue’s center-ring star, Joe Simon, re-created several of drawings from that too-short-lived series for this edition of A/E. And, in case anybody’s wondering about the truth-in-advertising of that middle word balloon: while Jim Amash conducted the interview by phone, he and Joe have met a number of times in person—even if Jim was sorry to realize that he hasn’t a single photo to commemorate the occasion! [Fighting American ©2008 Joe Simon & Estate of Jack Kirby.] Above: We promised you Captain America as well as Fighting American—so no time like the contents page for keeping our promise. This Joe Simon illo was drawn not long ago for Belgian collector Dominique Léonard, who echoes the words of that illustrious 1930s entrepreneur Carl Denham: “We’re millionaires, boys! I’ll share it with all of you!” [Captain America TM & ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.] Alter EgoTM is published 8 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.

THE

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Article writer/editorial

Not-So-Simple Simon

oe Simon is one of the great innovators in the history of comic books. As both an artist/writer and the first editor for Timely (future Marvel) Comics, Joe conceived one of the most iconic of super-heroes—and he and partner Jack Kirby’s Captain America Comics instantly became an artistic trend-setter, establishing a style of headlong action that soon had virtually every other company in the field struggling to catch up.

Joe has told his own story in his and son Jim’s hardcover The Comic Book Makers, reissued a few years ago, and Alter Ego spotlighted him in passing in #13 and #36. But when Joe mentioned he’d be amenable to a longer piece for A/E, we were quick to take him up on it. And we’re fortunate to have been able to line up not only vintage art unseen in those earlier efforts, but also a number of more recent Simon sketches never before seen in print.

A year or two later, the team’s Boy Commandos was one of National/DC’s top sellers, giving Superman and Fawcett’s Captain Marvel Adventures a run for their money.

Of course, even a humongous Joe Simon interview isn’t the totality of this issue. For, besides such regular features as our letters section, FCA, “Comic Crypt,” and the too-long-delayed Comic Fandom Archive on Australian comics fan/historian John Ryan, there’s Bob Rozakis’ “Secret History of All-American Comics, Inc.”—or at least its first chapter.

Not long after the war, they revolutionized the field yet again with Young Romance for the Prize Comics Group. And, beginning at the turn of the 1960s, Joe turned Sick magazine into one of the most successful parody magazines in the Mad vein. Jack Kirby, an undisputed comics genius on his own, is sometimes lionized by certain over-stimulated fans to the point of trying to diminish Joe Simon’s contribution to their pairing; but much of what emerged in the early 1940s as the Simon & Kirby style, beginning with the second issue of Novelty’s Blue Bolt, was already inherent in Joe’s story introducing that hero in #1, before Jack came on board. The fabled duo of Simon & Kirby was even more than the sum of its parts—and those parts were formidable enough to start with!

Bob, a longtime writer, editor, and production director for DC, approached both Alter Ego and our TwoMorrows sister mag Back Issue with a notion for a “what if ” series. Both BI editor Michael Eury and I found the notion intriguing… so the two “Books” of the series will be divided between our two mags, with the first part of “Book Two” appearing in Back Issue #28, just a few short weeks from now, dealing with a later period than the A/E entries. (And wait till you see the artwork adaptations Shane Foley came up with to go with this first installment!) Bestest,

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Simon Says! JOE SIMON On The Comic Book Biz, Jack Kirby, And A Few Other Things Interview Conducted by Jim Amash Transcribed by Brian K. Morris

oe Simon’s comic book résumé alone is thick enough to choke an elephant, and that doesn’t count other aspects of his career. From newspapers to comic book creations like Captain America, Boy Commandos, and “The Newsboy Legion,” the invention of romance comics, a stint as a comic book publisher, Sick magazine, illustration, advertising, and political work, Joe’s seen it all, in every facet of printing. Hey, for all I know, Joe might’ve even turned on the printing presses a time or two! It may be true that Joe is best known to fandom for his partnership with Jack Kirby, but that’s really just one phase of his career. Joe has given interviews before, and has written the autobiographical book The Comic Book Makers with his son Jim Simon. He’s also frequently discussed in TwoMorrows’ flagship publication The Jack Kirby Collector, but none of that has been enough for me. Joe was kind enough to wreck his vocal chords (and his hearing, considering how much I talk), so that Alter Ego could present an indepth interview with him, covering some familiar bases, as well as aspects of his comic book days previously unseen in print. Special thanks go to Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., for the loan of a number of comics, and for suggesting several pertinent questions. Thanks also to Hames Ware for suggesting the Worth Carnahan question… and to Joe’s son Jim Simon and to collector and Simon expert Harry Mendryck for their generous help in supplying materials and identifying Joe’s work. Most of all, I can’t thank Joe himself enough for his patience and graciousness in granting what turned out to be a longer interview than either of us expected. Good thing we both had a nice stash of cigars to smoke while we chatted! But now the smoke’s cleared away, and what’s left is Joe’s perspective on a rich and rewarding Hall of Fame career. —Jim.

Happiness Is Just A Guy Called Joe (Left:) Joe Simon with a young fan, plus a Simon rendition of The Fly, at the Big Apple Con in NYC, April 3, 2004. Thanks to Harry Mendryk. [The Fly TM & ©2008 Joe Simon.] (Above:) A few years back, beneath a late-’40s Simon & Kirby letterhead, Joe re-created one of the classic figures from the cover of his and Jack’s Captain America Comics #7 (Oct. 1941). A scan of this piece, autographed by both Simon and Kirby, was sent to us by Anthony DeMaria; it was drawn for a collector named Jerome Tepper, who passed away 15 or 20 years ago. [Captain America, Bucky, & Red Skull TM & ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.; Sandman, Guardian, Newsboy Legion, & Boy Commandos TM & ©2008 DC Comics; Fly TM & ©2008 Joe Simon; other characters TM & © the respective trademark and copyright holders.]

“I Was Hired By Martin Goodman…” JIM AMASH: I recently re-read The Comic Book Makers, and I’d like to ask you things that weren’t in the book, and amplify things that were. For instance, when you were editing comics at Timely, were you also editing their pulps? JOE SIMON: I wasn’t editing the pulps, but I was putting them together. The pulps were fading away by the time we got there. They were nothing, though Jack and I did a few art jobs for them. I was putting together the detective comics—the romance, detective “flats,” as we used to call them. You know what a flat is? It’s a glossy magazine without the gloss. So we had the detective magazine, we had love magazines, and I was involved in all those. I was the art director. The editor was a guy named Levi. He was an older guy who put together the detective magazines and the love magazines; a pretty tame business by today’s standards. JA: How many people were working at Timely when you started? SIMON: Elsie was the receptionist and part-time secretary. She was a young woman from Wheeling, West Virginia, a very nice woman. We had a relationship for a while. Robbie Solomon was there, as were Martin

Joe Simon On The Comic Book Biz

a very gentle man. None of Martin’s brothers were doing much when I came in there. Later on, Abe had some of those little humor magazines, like Humorama. He was the one that fired Jack and me, [mutual chuckling] and he was the elder brother. Abe was a bookkeeper, you know. Dave used to take photographs of these— JA: Movie starlets?

A Real Keen Cover! Joe Simon, circa 1939—and one of his earliest covers, done for Centaur’s Keen Detective Funnies, Vol. 3, #1 (Jan. 1940). Actually, this was the 17th issue of the title. Photo courtesy of Joe & Jim Simon; thanks to John Selegue & Jonathan G. Jensen for scans of the cover. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Goodman’s three younger brothers, in descending order of age: Abe, Dave, and Artie. There was another young woman, though I don’t remember her name. I didn’t have an affair with her. [mutual laughter] Artie was my buddy and was my age. We used to hang out together. We’d go horseback riding in Forest Park in Queens, and he’d suddenly turn around and yell, “Rustlers! Rustlers!” And he’d gallop off and I’d follow him. Eventually, after I was there, he did coloring. He had some people come in and color for him, and actually, Artie brought me into the office. His friend was another Artie: Arthur Weiss. We were very close, also. Artie Weiss represented Koppel Photo Engraving in Derby, Connecticut. Eventually, he switched jobs to Post Photo Engraving after a year or two. We had a lot of fun. We had parties over at Artie’s house, where they had one tea bag for about six guys. [mutual laughter] Artie’s father was a retired policeman, and his mother and my mother became very friendly. Artie Goodman was

Fire And Fury From Funnies, Inc. There aren’t many photos around of Lloyd Jacquet, founder and head of Funnies, Inc.—so you’ll have to forgive us if we lean yet again on this one from a 1942 newspaper. Jacquet is eyeing two early Joe Simon splashes: “The Fiery Mask” from Timely’s Daring Mystery Comics #1 (Jan. 1940), and “T-Men” from Novelty’s Target Comics #1 (Feb. 1940). Joe wrote and drew both stories for Jacquet’s seminal comics shop. Thanks to Robert Wiener for the former art (repro’d from photocopies of the originals) and to Michael T. Gilbert for the latter. [Fiery Mask art ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.; T-Men art ©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

SIMON: He used to claim that he’d make them movie stars. [mutual laughter] But that was his life, taking pictures that never appeared and bringing his women up there. I lent him my car once, and he parked it and left the door open, and another car came over and ripped off the door. David was not much up there. Let me put it this way: he was in the way, and Uncle Robbie was a son of a bitch. He always interfered, told us how to do comics all the time, and he was just a nothing. Timely was in the McGraw-Hill Building, a blue building at 330 West 42nd Street. I was hired by Martin Goodman, who was a very frail man with a skin condition. He always had to have pillows on his seat wherever he sat. His lawyer, Jerry Perles, was there, as was a guy who didn’t work there, but had a lot of influence. He had a circulation man: Frank Torpey. Martin had a lot of regard for him. And then a friend of mine came in there. He came to see me, and he got very friendly with Martin, and became a dear friend of mine: Michael Stern. He didn’t work for Timely. During the war, he was a war correspondent for McFadden Magazines. He bought a villa in Italy, moved his whole family, and lived there for the rest of his life.

Simon Says!

JA: What was the first thing you did for Timely? SIMON: This was before Kirby: “The Fiery Mask,” through Lloyd Jacquet’s Funnies, Incorporated. Comics was everything at Timely, because the pulps were dying and the other books were marginal, but Goodman had a nice company in there between all of them. The first story I did for Jacquet was a Western. I did a couple more stories before “The Fiery Mask.” And I did a lot of “Blue Bolt,” but not through Jacquet. I drew the first story myself, and Kirby and I teamed up from the second story on. Jacquet was a good guy, soft-spoken, with an air of authority about him. He was respectful, and he was respected. I thought of him more as a newspaperman than a military man. That’s the way he struck me. But you know, what is a military man? [mutual chuckling] Just a guy with a uniform. JA: “T-Men” was done through Novelty or Curtis Publishing. SIMON: They were in Philadelphia. It was Curtis Publishing, that did The Saturday Evening Post. They promised me money, but I never got it. I never met the guys at Curtis. That job was done through the Jacquet shop, and then Victor Fox threatened to sue Jacquet, because I had a contract with [Fox]. Then Fox backed down. He wasn’t going to take on the Curtis lawyers in court. JA: Who edited the Timely books before you did? SIMON: Nobody. Well, Funnies, Inc., did. They completely packaged their product. They were responsible for some of those great characters: “The Human Torch” and “The Sub-Mariner.” JA: What made Goodman decide he needed an in-house editor? SIMON: The state of the comic books. They were getting very popular, and they were growing. The Human Torch and Sub-Mariner characters were making very good money for them, but Goodman was bound by Funnies, Inc. They were at 45th Street, east of him. He had very little control at the beginning. JA: When Funnies sold the work to Timely, did they sell the rights, too? SIMON: I never saw their contract, but considering the state of the comics—and probably even nowadays—the publishers used to usurp all the copyrights.

“I Started The Timely Bullpen”

Red Skull, White Paper, & Blue Nazis Simon & Kirby expose The Red Skull’s true identity in Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941). The ultimate Nazi died in this issue—but he got better. Repro’d from a photocopy of the original art, courtesy of Joe Simon. [©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

SIMON: Yes. Martin used to call me in and say, “If anyone asks you how it’s selling, you cry a little bit.” JA: How did you discover it was an immediate hit? Did Martin tell you, or was it Maurice Coyne?

JA: How did copyrighting Captain America occur to you? SIMON: At 24 years old, I was just trying to make a living. I was a product of the times. The times were very bad, it was the Depression and I was just happy to make a living. We all were. All of us were like homeless people, happy for anything we got. People say, “Well, the Shusters and the Siegels, and the Simons and the Kirbys were stupid. They gave away everything.” But we never even thought about it that way. It was my idea to work out a percentage deal on Captain America. Timely’s chief accountant was Maurice Coyne, a guy who promoted that for me; he didn’t like them very much. He was there at the beginning, but he was also part owner of Archie Comics, then known as MLJ. Maurice was the “M” in “MLJ”. He was a great guy, a bachelor. It was his idea that we arrange some kind of a 25% royalty for me. I gave Kirby part of it, but it was hardly anything. Maurice took me aside one day and told me they were putting all the office expenses, all the salaries and everything, on Captain America. JA: You must have been the only one who had that deal. Were you aware that Captain America Comics was an immediate hit?

SIMON: Everybody knew it. Timely was distributed by the Kable News Company. It was no secret. It was all over the industry. All the companies checked out the newsstands, on each other’s business and everything else. JA: Describe the McGraw-Hill Timely offices to me. SIMON: They were very small. There was a waiting room with maybe two chairs, and then there was a window with a girl behind it. She was the receptionist, and if you moved around, you turned in a circle, you did a circuit of the whole waiting room; a very small area. Here’s what I remember: the waiting room—you sit there and you look in the little cubicle where two secretaries worked. The entrance was to the left of that cubicle. They had to push a button and let you in. Straight ahead was a little office where Abe Goodman did his bookkeeping. To the left of that was a bigger office which we turned into our art/editorial department, and Kirby and I worked there, right out in the open. To the right was Martin Goodman’s office, which was the biggest office, and had all the luxuries of the publisher. In between there somewhere was Maurice Coyne’s office, probably next to Martin Goodman’s.

Joe Simon On The Comic Book Biz

Like A Bolt From The Blue Joe wrote and drew the title-hero tale for Blue Bolt #1 (June 1940), whose splash page is seen above left. By #2 (July ’40, at top right), he’d joined forces, at least informally, with Jack Kirby, who contributed considerably to the art—and, within a few months, the fabled tag-team of Simon & Kirby was officially born, as per the splash from issue #5 (Oct. ’40), seen at left. Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert & Bob Bailey for the scans—and to Harry Mendryck for the photo. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Simon Says!

Simon Soars Solo Joe wrote and drew two stories for Timely’s Daring Mystery Comics #2 (Feb. 1940)—“The Phantom Bullet” and “Trojak the Tiger Man.” Harry Mendryk says that, when he told Joe the “Trojak” tale was signed with a pseudonym, Joe said it must be “Gregory Sykes.” Joe reports that he and his friends all had aliases when they were in high school—and his was Gregory G. Sykes. The “Trojak” art is sometimes attributed to Larry Antonette, but that’s apparently not correct. [©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

I started the Timely bullpen because I had to get a lot of books out. “Captain America” was in All Winners and USA, not to mention the other titles I was responsible for. I hired all the bullpenners. Goodman gave me a lot of leeway. He was very sweet, very complimentary; he was a good guy. Both Kirby and I worked in the office every day. Occasionally, we’d stay home and do some work, but it was an everyday job. I used to go away a lot to the printers, and spend several days there, putting the books together—both Levi and me. I never found out exactly how, because I wasn’t interested, but Levi was related to a woman who eventually married Leon Harvey. JA: Martin Goodman played golf with Harry Donenfeld, didn’t he? I know he played golf with John Goldwater. SIMON: Yes, and they used to play gin rummy, too. Goodman and Goldwater used to work together for Hugo Gernsback. And then somebody told me they were in business together in comics at one time. That was before my time. JA: What exactly was Robbie Solomon hired to do? SIMON: He was hired to put the pillows under Martin’s chair, [Jim laughs] under his tender ass. [mutual laughter] Quote me.

JA: He’s been described to me as a guy who just went around checking to make sure everybody worked. He didn’t have an official title at the company, did he? SIMON: [chuckles] I don’t know. I didn’t give him a title, no. He used to get in the way. He was a guy that thought he was an expert, but he was just annoying. JA: Frank Torpey was involved in Funnies, Inc., but then he went to Martin Goodman. SIMON: Frank Torpey was a circulation man, and Martin used to rely on him for setting print orders and so forth. I wasn’t involved in that. JA: Was Mel Blum there when you started? SIMON: I think he was. Mel Blum was a layout man. Later, he went to The National Enquirer. JA: I know that by the late ’40s and into the early ’50s, he was editing the non-comics magazines for Goodman, or at least he was an art director. SIMON: I don’t remember that. Mel Blum was deaf, you know. He was a good guy. I don’t think he was very well educated, but he had some layout talent. He didn’t have anything to do with the comic books.

Joe Simon On The Comic Book Biz

In Reunion There Is Strength (Left:) Marvel publisher Stan Lee at the New York Comic Art Convention in summer of 1974. (Below:) Joe accepts a plaque from convention host Phil Seuling. Joe, Stan, Phil, and Marvel editor-inchief Roy Thomas (partly seen at right) had just finished a luncheon panel, which was transcribed, with a number of photos, in Alter Ego #13, still available from TwoMorrows (see ad bloc at the end of this issue). These photos appeared in an edition of The Buyer’s Guide for Comics Fandom and are reprinted by courtesy of today’s Comics Buyers Guide. With thanks to Howard Siegel.

JA: While you’re editing the books, you’re also writing and inking. How did you divide up your workday? SIMON: Whatever had to be done had to be done. I also spent a lot of time with the writers, plotting out stuff and handing out assignments, and so forth. That was a good part of my day. I was available for anything. We had a lot of magazines besides the comics, so there was a lot of trafficking to do, even though I never had an assistant or a secretary. I made $85 a week for everything, except for writing and drawing. I got a page rate for that.

SIMON: I thought he was a pesky but nice kid. I used to take him out all over. I didn’t guess what he would become—who could? When we left there, Kirby had thought that Stan was responsible for spreading the news that we were working on other stuff, and he said, “If I ever see that guy again, I’m going to kill him.” JA: Did you believe that Stan was the one? SIMON: No. What I believe is not gospel on that score, but it had to be an open secret that we had signed a deal with DC, because the guys at DC knew all about it, and it was all around the industry at the time. I had a couple of artists whose work was similar to Jack’s: Al Avison and Al Gabrielle. I know they were both from Connecticut and were very young, like everyone else. They were a talented team. I liked their style because it had a lot of

JA: Did you have a system for keeping track when stories were due, pencils were due, inks were due? Did you keep a chart? SIMON: Yes. I still have some charts, I think, from Harvey Comics, with the side comments on them. JA: When a new title was created, like USA Comics—who created them? SIMON: Martin and I used to have conferences on that. I’d come up with some, and he would come up with some. The Captain America, All Winners, USA Comics logos... I designed all of them. Martin was afraid to use “USA.” He thought that was copyrighted by the United States of America. We had to talk him into it. JA: Is that why there are no periods in USA? SIMON: Well, we had to make the logo as big as possible. You know, the logos had to be very strong in order to stand out.

“This Is Martin’s Nephew. Can You Find Something For Him To Do?” JA: You hired Stan Lee, right? SIMON: I hired him. Uncle Robbie brought him in and said, “This is Martin’s nephew (or whatever he was). Can you find something for him to do?” [NOTE: Actually, Stan Lee’s cousin married Martin Goodman. –Jim.] Back then, comics had to have a minimum of two text pages in them for Second Class Mailing privileges. Nobody ever read that stuff, you know. So whoever came along, I’d give them a job of writing the text. Stan thought he was so special when he was writing this stuff. To his credit, I think that writing was okay. JA: In this early period, what was your opinion of Stan? I know Kirby thought that Stan was a pain in the butt.

Promoted To Captain When Simon & Kirby departed for greener (DC) pastures after the first 10 issues, the three title-hero adventures in Captain America Comics #11 (Feb. 1942) were drawn by Al Avison and Syd Shores. The Grand Comic-Book Database lists Shores as the penciler and Avison as inker, but we’ve always heard that it was the other way around. [©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Simon Says!

There was a guy there named Kugelman, who didn’t work on comics. He worked on the detective magazines, I believe, and he was a bad guy. He used to find checks of ours and forge them. After we left Timely, Martin had him imprisoned. And then he was writing true detective stories from prison, and sending them in under a different name. JA: Being an editor was a prestigious position for someone just coming out of the Depression. And I know you worked in newspapers before that. What did your parents think of what you were doing? SIMON: Oh, I was a celebrity. All of the kids used to read the comic books all over the country. All my life, since then, I’ve been like a celebrity, [chuckles] but I thought the comic books were not an important media thing. Everybody in my family was proud of me. My father-in-law used to carry the comic books around and show them to his friends. JA: When you started doing comics, you certainly had no expectation that this would become the bulk of your career, did you? SIMON: No, I didn’t. I didn’t know how long comics would last. No one did. JA: When did you realize that maybe you could make a career out of comics? SIMON: That’s hard to answer. Certainly not right away. I do remember going to my old newspaper publisher in Syracuse [NY] during the Captain America period and telling him he should get into comics publishing. I was looking to open up another avenue, possibly a more lucrative one, which is why I did this. The publisher came back to me later and said, “We looked very carefully at this, and it’s our feeling that comics won’t last more than a couple of years.” [mutual laughter] So they declined to take the chance.

Tiger Man, Tiger Man, Does Whatever A Tiger Can The “Trojak the Tiger Man” splash page from Daring Mystery Comics #3 (April 1940)—this one signed by writer/artist Joe Simon. [©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

guts to it. We’d pick up whoever would fit in. JA: Was Avison the penciler? SIMON: I think so. I think they both did everything. They were freelancers. Al Gabrielle kind-of disappeared. I think somebody told me he was working for Reader’s Digest in Connecticut at one time. I was close with Al Avison; he and I and Al Harvey were buddies. We were all in Washington together with Will Eisner, working on our work for the service. And Al Avison eventually formed a kind of an advertising business. He was a great guy. JA: By the time you left, how many people had you hired for the bullpen? SIMON: I don’t know. Howard Ferguson lettered at home. He worked freelance. He came from Detroit. He told us his brother was a right-wing nut. [mutual laughter] He was divorced at that time, and his little girl Elsie was his life. He was a very colorful guy. He drank coffee all day, smoked cigarettes, and got coffee all over the art pages. He was nice. He was with me for a long time. He must have been about 10, 15 years older than I. He was unbelievable. Sometimes he lettered without ruling guidelines. And he would dress up the stuff with great logos. I don’t know how he learned his craft or what his experience was—he didn’t draw—but his lettering was part of the Simon & Kirby look to a certain extent. Everybody liked Howard.

Back To Basics A recent (color) sketch by Simon depicting the 1940 Captain America, sporting the shield he used only in the first issue, done for Belgian collector Dominique Léonard. [Captain America TM & ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Joe Simon On The Comic Book Biz

Newspapers were the big thing then. That’s where most people got their news. Newspapers were the most prestigious part of the publishing world. Why go into comics if you’re a successful newspaper publisher? That was the thinking at the time. JA: Neither you nor Kirby would, say, ever do a Captain America cover or a page that you thought was special, and want to get the original art back? SIMON: No, I never did. I had no idea it would be of any value at all. The pages came back from the engraver, and we’d put them on the floor after the floor was washed, and walk on them. JA: That hurts! Did you ever deal with Alex Schomburg? SIMON: Yes. I gave him some Fine Was A Find—But So Was Simon cover assignments. I gave him (Left:) One of Victor Fox’s greatest assets in the early days of his comic book company was Lou Fine, who drew two covers out of the ten “The Flame” for Fox Features Syndicate. Seen here is Fine’s cover for Wonderworld Comics #6 (Oct. 1939). Captain Americas that we did. (Right:) But Joe Simon turned in a nifty cover or two himself—such as this one for Fantastic Comics #6 (May 1940). I thought his work was very Thanks to Bruce Mason for the scan. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.] stiff, but he was a good storyteller in his artwork. We had so JA: Did Fox seem to have much business sense to you? much to do there. My God, we were doing so many books, and couldn’t do everything. I liked Schomburg’s work. I didn’t think it was worthy of SIMON: I think he had a pretty good company going there. He had a lot keeping like Kirby’s was, but I would use anybody who could help us out. of lawsuits with Harry Donenfeld.

“[Victor Fox] Had A Pretty Good Company Going There” JA: You mentioned Bob Farrell in your book. He was a guy who was involved, at one time or another, in several different comic book companies, but who was this man?

JA: You, among others, have said that Fox started out being an accountant for DC Comics, and when he found out how much “Superman” was selling, he went and opened up his own company. But lately, a couple of people have cast doubt on that story. Where did you hear it? SIMON: I heard it from Will Eisner.

SIMON: Bob Farrell was a lawyer who was the right-hand man of Victor Fox, and he was like the second in command there. Bob Farrell wasn’t his real name. Somebody told me that he was a disbarred lawyer, but I have no proof of that. He was a nice guy, and later there was a newspaper called The Brooklyn Eagle that went under. It was a daily, and he bought it, but it didn’t last very long after he bought it. That was after I left Fox. I know he came over to my house when I was out on Woodbury, Long Island. He had just bought The Brooklyn Eagle and wanted me to come work for him, but I was doing just too many things.

JA: Since Eisner and Iger were supplying some work to Fox Comics, did you deal much with Eisner at that time?

JA: Whose idea was Kooba Cola?

SIMON: DC had good reasons to sue Fox. Everybody was suing one another. They were all playing gin rummy together, and during the game they’d say, “Well, I’m going to sue you for this, I’m going to sue you for that.” [mutual chuckling]

SIMON: Kooba Cola was there when I got there, so I assume it was Fox’s. JA: Did they really ever manufacture that drink? [NOTE: Kooba Cola was a soft drink advertised in Fox comics in the early 1940s. –Jim.] SIMON: I guess they did, though I never saw one bottle of it. Victor Fox was a maniac. He was a little guy who told us he was a ballroom dancer, but somebody told me that he was British, and that he worked at the New York Stock Exchange at one time.

SIMON: No, no, I was actually in competition with him, but we were good friends. We used to go out together. We were trying to get their people away from them, but it was pretty elusive. JA: Why do you think everybody was so litigious? Everybody seemed to be suing everybody at one time or another, or at least threatening to.

JA: It just seems like a strange way to run a business. They’re friends and they’re suing each other. So when did you find out that Maurice Coyne was the “M” in “MLJ”? SIMON: It was well known at the time. JA: Martin Goodman didn’t know it, did he?

Simon Says!

SIMON: Of course he did. They were all involved together like that. Very odd. I still can’t figure it out. A funny way of doing business. JA: Did you have many dealings with him [Coyne] afterwards? SIMON: When I was filing for copyrights on Captain America [1968], my lawyers got in touch with him, and he stood on my side against Marvel.

“Make A Copy Of Superman, Make A Copy Of Batman…” JA: I guess that was the first of your potential lawsuits, wasn’t it? SIMON: The only time I was really in court was on the Captain Marvel/Superman suit. I went through a lot of preparation. We all went through a lot of preparation with [DC’s lawyer] Louis Nizer. Actually, I didn’t even get cross-examined. The Fawcett lawyer asked for my story, I told it, and that was it. I said I was told to copy Superman. Everybody knew that. Everybody was saying, “Make a copy of Superman, make a copy of Batman, make a copy of Captain America.” That’s the way we did business.

promoter—I don’t remember his name—but there were more promoters than writers or editors. I don’t remember if it was Al or everybody up there who said to copy Superman. I’m not going to lay the blame on Al. He was like a Hollywood guy with a Hollywood haircut: long in back and not a ponytail, but a beautiful haircut; and he wore hundred-dollar suits. A hundred-dollar suit in those days was one big suit, man. [NOTE: See photo on p. 81.] JA: Did you and Kirby get the “Captain Marvel” job through Ed Herron? SIMON: Ed was the editor at the time, and he called us over. There was another guy editing there named John Beardsley. He and Herron were close. John, Eddie, and I used to hang out a lot. John was really a politician. John and I were going to buy a boat and join the Coast Guard together. [mutual laughter] They were taking on guys who had boats. You’d dedicate your boat to the service, and you’d get a commission or a Petty Officer ranking. JA: So why didn’t you go through with the boat? SIMON: I got a better deal with the horses. [more laughter] I didn’t have to buy a horse, but we’d have to buy a boat.

JA: Was Al Allard at Fawcett the one who told you to copy Superman?

JA: I’ve heard that Beardsley had a drinking problem.

SIMON: There was Al, editor Ed Herron, and another guy there from Connecticut that I used to hang out with. He was either an editor or

SIMON: I think, [laughs] as we Jews used to say, all the Goyim have a

Simon Soars Solo—Part 2 Joe drew plenty of covers on his own in the early days for various companies. Two primo examples: Fox’s Science Comics #4 (May 1940)… and Harvey’s Champion Comics #9 (July 1940). This pair of covers are repro’d from Pure Imagination’s The Complete Jack Kirby, Vol. One 1917-1940, with the blessing of publisher/editor Greg Theakston. [Retouched art ©2008 Pure Imagination Publishing.]

Joe Simon On The Comic Book Biz

drinking problem… Goyim being Gentiles. But I never noticed it, and I wasn’t much of a drinker anyway. But when these guys started working for DC, they became drinkers. I don’t know what happened there, [mutual laughter] but it started a process. All the editors there were very, very competitive. I can understand taking a drink if you had to deal with them. Luckily, I didn’t have to deal with them. I was never a drinker. I’d go to a party and drink with the rest of the guys, but I don’t think I ever went to a bar to drink. Kirby wasn’t a drinker, either. He was a dessert man. Well, Kirby didn’t spend a lot of time in restaurants. He came from the Lower East Side, and the restaurants were for “swells.” [chuckles] You know, when he saw me, he couldn’t believe it: a comic book artist wearing a suit. [mutual chuckling]

“Jack [Kirby] Was Definitely Influenced By Lou Fine” JA: Jack told me that, when he worked for Eisner and Iger, Lou Fine’s figure work influenced him. I think, particularly in Jack’s early work, and in Captain America—the way Jack stretched the figures—you can see quite a bit of that. SIMON: Jack was definitely influenced by Lou Fine; he thought Lou Fine was a marvelous artist. Why did he leave Eisner & Iger? Do you know? JA: No, I don’t. I suppose he saw a better opportunity. SIMON: I think he wanted more salary. He worked for the Lincoln Syndicate. He did little spots there, and then he worked for one of the guys that did comic strips for a short while. JA: Jack did comic strips for the Lincoln Syndicate: Socko the Sea Dog and Abdul the Arab, among others.

I’d never let Jack do a romance story. JA: I always thought that he liked Claudette Colbert, because a lot of his women had her kind of high cheekbones. SIMON: Oh, I don’t know... I think a lot of them looked like his wife Roz. That used to drive me nuts. JA: A lot of them did look like Roz. I also saw Jane Wyman in some of Kirby’s drawings. And he must have loved Jane Russell! SIMON: Oh, yeah. A lot of Jane Russell. JA: There’s a scene in the movie The Best Years of Our Lives, where Dana Andrews comes to the rescue of Andy Russell. Andrews punches out a guy and knocks him into a counter. There’s a shot of Dana Andrews holding back Andy Russell, and I’ve seen that exact pose in a Simon/Kirby Young Romance or Young Love comic book. SIMON: I don’t know about that, but we were all very highly influenced by Citizen Kane. That was a movie that actually was shot almost like a comic book, and then the comic books were highly influenced by the movie. JA: I have occasionally seen scenes in movies that I’d seen in Jack Kirby stories. When he went to movies, certain scenes must have stuck in his mind. SIMON: I always maintain that everybody steals from something. We used to call it “lifting,” and Jack had a lot of clippings at his desk when he drew. Jack was always influenced by something, but he’d get it in his head, then he’d put it on paper like nobody else. He didn’t sketch out figures, he just drew them. There was something very mysterious about the way he drew. JA: When you drew, didn’t you sketch things out first?

SIMON: I remember when he brought those things over. We used some of them for filler once. You know, Jack didn’t give a damn for copyrights. Or maybe they were out of business? But somebody still owned those copyrights.

SIMON: I was like a normal guy, yes. I had to sketch it out, and in my later years my work has gotten cockeyed. Frankly, I’ve been noticing that I get one side of the head bigger than the other. I have an eye condition now.

JA: You got to watch Jack develop over the years, because the Jack Kirby of 1939, 1940, certainly wasn’t the Jack Kirby of 1956 or 1966.

Jack had a lot of patience that I didn’t have. He’d draw a whole battle scene, and I just didn’t have the patience to do that. I had to take the eraser away from him a lot of times. Mort Meskin used to take too much time working on those things, and I’d complain to him that he was taking too much time. He’d say, “Well, wait a minute. I’ve got six figures here.” And I’d say, “Go ahead with it. Give him the six figures, just finish it up.” [Jim laughs] So I did that with Kirby. I used to take his eraser away from him. But listen, it was business.

SIMON: No, he came from that original kind of a student comic strip guy, to a comic book guy. And then the comic books became Jack Kirby. I’m totally against picking the best artist, second-best artist, best inker, etc. I think each artist had some quality that couldn’t be matched by other artists. Lou Fine, Mort Meskin... there were so many of them. Like I thought Jack Kirby’s women were unattractive. If I had to do it over again,

What’s One More Captain Between Friends? Simon & Kirby took a moonlighting leave from Captain America to produce the entire interior art and story for Captain Marvel Adventures #1 (1941), as seen at left—which led to their later involvement in the legendary Superman/Captain Marvel lawsuit. That issue is currently on view in DC’s Shazam! Archives, Vol. 2. [©2008 DC Comics.]

Simon Says!

Shielding The Captain his own work. Did you know that, when Ed Herron went into the service, he was the editor of Stars and Stripes? He had some very big people working for him.

He was a good guy, a drinker, and he and the Wood brothers [Dick, Bob, and Dave] were very close. We had this friend of mine, Martin Burstein, who became pretty big with the Nelson Rockefeller team in politics. And Marty was a worker with the other newspapers—that’s how far back we go. I had two guys working for me from the newspapers, Al Liederman and Marty Burstein.

JA: Jack told me you said, “Every time you erase, you lose money.” SIMON: [chuckles] Yeah, that’s right. JA: In a way, you might have done him a favor. By taking his eraser away, you forced Jack to think more about the images before he drew them.

JA: Did you or Kirby do any writing on Captain America?

SIMON: I’ve never thought about it, but it’s a good theory. Jack had a lot of confidence in his work. He didn’t have the confidence in his life.

SIMON: Oh, yes. There was a hell of a lot of production going on there. We needed a lot of people, and we did a lot of work ourselves. Sometimes we both wrote the stories as we drew them. Sometimes I laid out stories for other artists to finish, writing it as I broke the art down, putting little notes on the sides of the art boards. They were roughed out, they were not detailed. It was just a matter of production. We had so much to do, but I expected those I hired to be capable of doing their job. I knew we weren’t going to get too many top people, though.

JA: How much confidence did you have in your work? SIMON: My problem was, I did very nice work when I was working on my own. When Jack and I were working together, I leaned to draw more like him because the stuff had to gel. I had to mix in; we couldn’t have two different styles in one story. That was a problem I had: trying to bend my style to match Jack’s. JA: What do you think that Jack admired most in you, and vice versa? SIMON: Jack always said I was the best layout man in the business. That came from when I was doing the layouts and the roughs for our big production effort before the war, while we were at DC. But I looked at my work when I was at the Coast Guard, when I was on the newspapers, and it wasn’t like the work I did when I was with Jack, so that was my problem. But we worked it out beautifully. I admired just about everything Jack did. I don’t know what you mean when you ask what did I admire most about him. He was professional, I was professional. Wherever we went, wherever we worked, everybody said, “Well, it’s good to work with pros.”

“[Adolf Hitler] Was All Over The Papers” JA: You hired Ed Herron. How did you meet him? SIMON: I hired him at Fox. He was one of the guys that answered the ad for “Mister Roberts.” “How’s Mr. Roberts?” [mutual laughter] JA: Funny, you don’t look like Henry Fonda. [more mutual laughter] Jack said that Ed Herron created The Red Skull. Is that true? SIMON: I created The Red Skull because he was a colorful character, and we needed such a villain. No, Ed Herron did not create The Red Skull. I brought Ed in to write Captain America, of course. Kirby didn’t know too much about what was going on, outside of

When we had story conferences, most of the time, we’d go in the little waiting room that didn’t have a lot of traffic. Jack and I sat with the writer, working out stories and giving assignments. Jack and I always considered story first. Either of us would go out there and talk story; sometimes we had discussion between ourselves, and then one of us would go out and talk to the writer. And when the script came back, we’d tear it apart, change the dialogue and everything else. So we were very, very concerned with story. When things got really hectic, we’d write the story right on the drawing board. JA: Jack told me that one day you guys got a call from somebody from the American German Bund, who said he was going to get you guys. Jack claimed he went downstairs to meet him, but nobody there. SIMON: No way would I have gone downstairs! I don’t

Right In The Feuhrer’s Face Okay, for the one person reading this issue who hasn’t seen it before—here’s Simon & Kirby’s cover for Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941), on which the hero is slugging Adolf Hitler. This illustration was apparently drawn more than a year before Pearl Harbor and the German Führer’s declaration of war on the USA, which promptly returned the favor. [©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Joe Simon On The Comic Book Biz

Joe Drew Like A Champ Joe reports that these are two covers from the Simon & Kirby era that he penciled and inked himself for Family Comics/Harvey: Champ Comics #19 (June 1941) and Speed Comics #21 (Aug. 1942). He says he didn’t necessarily do all the heads running along the sides, though. With thanks to Harry Mendryk. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

know, maybe he did. We used to get a lot of phone calls, though. I remember I was driving around once, and this Nazi-looking guy drove up next to me. He looked at me and then he spit. The problem was, his window was closed. [mutual laughter] I just drove away while he was wiping himself up. JA: Did you plan for Steve Rogers to be a blue-eyed, blond-haired man? SIMON: I never gave a thought as to the color of his eyes. It just worked out that way. The blond hair was intentional. But you know, we didn’t actually color these things. The women in the engraving shop colored them. I don’t remember if we gave them a color swatch or what for the hair. But hey, Superman was dark-haired, Batman was dark-haired. So maybe that had something to do with the light hair of Captain America. JA: Was the idea of having what Hitler claimed the ultimate Aryan was, be an American Nazi-fighter, punching Hitler in the jaw, intentional? SIMON: That’s good. Actually, we didn’t consider all those areas, to tell you the truth. JA: Where did you get the idea to give Captain America a shield? SIMON: When we were kids, fighting in the city, we’d use trashcan lids as shields. That’s where the idea came from. JA: Did Martin Goodman get any feedback, positive or negative, about using Hitler on the cover of Captain America #1?

SIMON: Yes. We were all under siege. They were all around us. They’re lining up at the building, raging and maybe waving some signs, too. I couldn’t see them well enough to be sure of what they were waving. Anyway, they must have gotten our address out of the comic books. They were outside, and the police were there, and I did get a call from Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. He was a big comics fan, you know. This sort of thing happened more than once. JA: The cover of Captain America #1 was created probably at the end of 1940. How much did you know about Hitler at the time? SIMON: A lot. He was all over the papers, and they were having all these Bund meetings right here in Madison Square Garden, and all over the country. When I was working in Rochester, my boss, who looked just like Hitler—same mustache, same forelock—his name was Adolf Edler. He was very German, and the funny part was that all the guys he hired to assist him were young Jewish guys. But was he an anti-Semite? I don’t know, but he used to go to nudist camps with his family every weekend. He told us they were nudist camps, but we found out they had Bund meetings in the mountains there. JA: Hitler invaded Poland on September 1st of ’39 and that, essentially, was the start of World War II. Were you aware that Hitler was trying to eliminate the Jews when you started Captain America? SIMON: Oh, sure! Hey, listen. I worked on a newspaper. We had what we called a “wire scope,” and the news used to come in over the wire from all over the world. It was like the first computer, sending pictures from all

Simon Says!

over the place. JA: But America didn’t know about what they were doing in the concentration camps in 1939. SIMON: Oh, sure. We knew all about it. It was published all over. JA: Did your being Jewish have anything to do with why you went after Hitler? SIMON: Never. Never. It was just natural for a new type of super-hero to go after Hitler. JA: I just wondered whether you used Hitler because he was a good villain, or because of what he was doing to the Jews. SIMON: It was both. It’s like I would do if I did Bin Laden today. I would do the same thing. JA: How did Martin Goodman feel about that? SIMON: He loved it! He didn’t think Hitler would sue us. [mutual hysterical laughter] I’m serious! He didn’t want to do USA Comics. He was afraid it was copyrighted. The “USA.”

“There Were A Lot Of Guys Working On Captain America” JA: Every once in a while, artists would sneak things in backgrounds or in newspapers, and I noticed in one “Captain America” story, one newspaper headline says, “Hank Weiss Drafted.” Was that an in-gag? Who was this guy? SIMON: I didn’t know anyone named Hank Weiss. There was an Arthur Weiss who used to hang out with Arthur Goodman and me. [NOTE: See p. 6.] Arthur Weiss had a brother named Murray, who was a used car salesman. He sold Kirby an old Lincoln once. It wouldn’t drive a block before it broke down, and Kirby hated him for years.

Big Mike Marches On! JA: In Captain America #10, on the splash of the story called “Hotel of Horror,” I see a few familiar names on the hotel register, like “Mike Sekows,” “S. Lieman,” “S. Shires,” “B. Kingo,” which obviously were Timely people. I figured “B. Kingo” might have been Bill King, who was a production man. SIMON: We put fictional names there, and then just threw in Mike Sekowsky and a couple other guys when we ran out of names. JA: Jack once told me that he was the one that hired Syd Shores. SIMON: [sighs] Jack didn’t hire anybody. I hired Syd Shores. Well, maybe Jack figures Simon & Kirby hired him, which would be okay. That would make sense. JA: What do you remember about Syd Shores, and what did he do for you when you were at Timely? Was he just inking? SIMON: He penciled and inked. We had a lot of stuff going besides the “Captain America” stories. Syd was a nice guy who minded his own business and did a good job. When we left Timely, we didn’t take anyone from there with us. People like Mike Sekowsky, whom I believe I hired, stayed there. You know, Mike Sekowsky’s [first] wife worked for us. Her name was Joanne.

hire an in-staff editor. He would have, maybe, been pleased with what you did, even though Red Raven was only one issue. SIMON: Yeah, it didn’t sell well. [chuckles] You can’t win them all. Jerry DeFuccio had a letter in Robin Snyder’s Comics newsletter saying, “Joe Simon stole the castle [on the Red Raven cover] from Hal Foster.” So I wrote back to him, “Now it’s Joe Simon that did it, right? Before, it was Jack Kirby that did the cover.” [mutual laughter] I said, “Yeah, I stole it. I stole from everybody.” JA: If you’re going to steal, you might as well steal from the best. [mutual chuckling] Anything about Mike Sekowsky that you remember? SIMON: Mike Sekowsky was a big blond guy, and he was pretty quiet. His was the closest to Jack’s work since Al Avison. He was very talented. His wife hated him. I remember some incidents there that—nothing against her, but it doesn’t pay to talk about it. It has nothing to do with comic books. JA: Bernie Klein assisted on Captain America.

JA: By the way, the cover date on Red Raven is August 1940. Would you have done that on freelance?

SIMON: He was killed in the war. I remember that he freelanced for us. He was very nice. I don’t think he worked on Captain America. There were not a lot of guys working on Captain America.

SIMON: Probably. According to that data, it would seem we did it from our own studio. Not on staff, no. I’m surprised at that date.

JA: Jack seems to have penciled all of it.

JA: Maybe that’s what might have given Martin Goodman the idea to

SIMON: We had Avison and Gabrielle and, now that you mention it,

Joe Simon On The Comic Book Biz

possibly Mike Sekowsky, do some of it. I could see his style work in there. And that’s about all on the actual Captain Americas. Of course we had other stuff there, too. We used a lot of guys on a lot of different stuff. JA: It’s been suggested that you had scripts written for Captain America #11 that were used by Timely after you left. SIMON: No, we used them on our other stuff! We didn’t leave anything behind. We had a lot of inventory in our old studio. Whatever we had, we used ourselves. It was always easy enough to put the names of other characters in there. We had a double strip of Gulliver’s Travels. Did you ever see that one? I have it here, hanging on my wall. It’s beautiful. It had a double-spread for the next issue. But we took the Captain America figure out and used it. It had 35 figures in it in the whole army. We used it in Win a Prize Comics, as something to write about, and win a prize for the best writing. JA: What did Alfred Bester write for you?

SIMON: We were in Tudor City when Al Bester came over, but I didn’t realize who he was. He wrote a couple of things before the war, but I don’t recall precisely what they were. We were stocking up on “Boy Commandos” and stuff like that, trying to get ahead. Bester did some work for us; nothing unusual, and I didn’t realize what a star he was until many, many years later. JA: Fran Matera was working for Quality Comics, and one day Jay Chesler told him that you guys were looking for some inking help, so he sent Matera over to you. Fran inked nine “Boy Commandos” pages. SIMON: Harry Chesler’s son? I didn’t know him or know Harry had a son. I met him once. Kirby was always telling me how he kept getting rejected at Chesler Studios. Did you hear that story? The first time he came there, Chesler said his work was too loose. Jack went home and made more samples. He came back and Chesler said, “Your work is too tight.” [mutual laughter] That’s Kirby’s story. JA: The story in your book about Jerry Siegel threatening to jump off the building—how did you hear about that? SIMON: He sent us a letter. He sent selected people a letter demeaning Jack Liebowitz and Harry Donenfeld. It was a nasty, nasty letter written on both sides of the paper.

“DC Didn’t Know What To Do With Us” JA: When you left Timely to go to DC, how did you feel about leaving Captain America behind, since you created him and he was such a big hit? SIMON: You know, it wasn’t about the character. Making a living was the main thing then. As far as leaving Captain America behind, it was just one of those things. We were proud of it, sure. We were proud of any hit. Did it have any emotional effect on us? No, not at all. No, we felt that we had done a very good deed, that’s all. And we were trying to top it. DC didn’t know what to do with us. “Super Sherlock” didn’t work out, so they just gave us some of their characters to do. It was a common thing to fix up other people’s characters. JA: When you created “The Newsboy Legion,” and “Boy Commandos,” did you have a percentage deal with Liebowitz? SIMON: Yes. We were well paid by Liebowitz—better than we were by Martin Goodman. That was the difference. And when we went into the service, he sent us royalty checks all the time. We loved Liebowitz. We felt very guilty about leaving him. I had great respect for Liebowitz. I used to call him “Mr. Liebowitz.” Everybody else in the company called him “Jack,” but I never did that. At this time, we set up a studio in a Tudor City apartment on 42nd Street. We didn’t know it at the time, but Will Eisner had his office next to ours in the same complex. JA: When World War II started, you knew you and Jack were going to be drafted, so you hired people to help get ahead on the features you were doing.

Sand And Deliver In 1942 Simon & Kirby revamped the fading Sandman character for DC’s Adventure Comics. Here’s a (color) drawing of Sandman and Sandy the Golden Boy that Joe drew recently for Dominique Léonard. [Sandman & Sandy TM & ©2008 DC Comics.]

SIMON: Liebowitz wanted us to get a couple years in advance if we could. Harry Donenfeld we didn’t deal with; he was totally out of it. He was a hard drinker and didn’t even know us. We had to be reintroduced to him every time we saw him.

Simon Says!

Boy Oh Boy Commandos! When “The Boy Commandos” became a smash back-up to “Batman” in 1942 Detective Comics, the series was swiftly given its own mag. In Boy Commandos #1 (Winter 1942), Kirby penciled DC editor Whit Ellsworth and co-publisher Jack Liebowitz (with mustache) into the introductory story, whose villain was the mysterious Agent Axis. The guy with his hand over his face at the bottom of page 2 is Jack Schiff, then a new editor at DC. With thanks to Harry Mendryk and Michael T. Gilbert. [©2008 DC Comics.]

Joe Simon On The Comic Book Biz

SIMON: Probably. I think the main influence was from a book I read when I was a kid called The Boy Allies. That had inspired Young Allies at Timely. JA: The Guardian’s shield was different from Captain America’s. Was The Guardian a stateside version of Captain America? SIMON: We were doing so many characters that we put a shield here, a shield back there... it was just a prop. [chuckles] I don’t think it had any meaning at all. We didn’t sit down and talk about doing something that looked like Captain America, or anything like that. The kid gangs, we used them over and over again; they were all the same. JA: Since you and Kirby were producing so much work for DC, can you recall how much writing you were doing? SIMON: No, I really can’t. JA: How did you find the people you hired? Did they come to you? Did you put the word out? SIMON: We had a lot of people with us all these years, like Charles Nicholas, but we’d put the word out and get other people. There was one guy who came over, an immigrant from Germany, and he had a style like Milton Caniff ’s. One time, he came in to me, saying, “My inking very important, is it?” I said, “Yeah, very important.” He replied, “I think I should be a partner.” And I said, “I think you should go home.” [mutual laughter]

All The News That’s Fit To Translate In the 1970s many of Simon & Kirby’s early-’40s features were reprinted by DC as backups in Jack’s “Fourth World” comics. Here’s a “Newsboy Legion” splash—as then re-reprinted in Latin America… in Brazil, to be exact. “Barrio do Suicídio” is Portuguese for the kids’ stomping-ground, “Suicide Slum.” With thanks to Roberto Guedes. [©2008 DC Comics.]

The men who worked for us were hired and paid by us, not DC. We had no editorial interference or guidance, and packaged the complete product. We were at odds with Mort Weisinger and Jack Schiff at the time. They wanted everything done their way, with very fine inking. Jack and I were doing a lot of crosshatching. They were trying to get us to stop, but we wouldn’t do it. We had a contract. Mostly they left us alone because our work was selling very well. JA: There’s a “Newsboy Legion” story where they hear that The Boy Commandos were killed in action. Kirby drew Whit Ellsworth and Jack Liebowitz in the story. Did they care to be in the story? SIMON: They were flattered. It was kind-of a funny story. We were fixated on kid gangs at the time for some reason. We were the kid gang kings. JA: Did the Dead End Kids movies influence you on that?

Adventure Was His Avocation, Too Joe Simon cover and splash for the 1944 Adventure Is My Business, done to promote the US Coast Guard. Joe and fellow cartoonist Milt Gross spent time with that branch of the service researching the stories for a comic strip; the later comic book publisher was Street & Smith. Thanks to John Selegue and Ger Apeldoorn. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Simon Says!

JA: At this time, were you and Kirby 50-50 partners? SIMON: Always, except at Timely, where I gave Jack 10% of my percentage. JA: When did you guys become a legal partnership? SIMON: When we went to DC, we had a contract that made us legal partners, so we signed a contract with DC, specifying that we were a legal partnership producing work for them. I don’t remember the length of that first contract, but... maybe a year, come to think of it. JA: Were you or Kirby drafted first? SIMON: Kirby was drafted first. I wasn’t drafted. I joined the Coast Guard because I had a chance to be with the horses in the Mounted Patrol. I got a Petty Officer rating for being such a great horseman.

You Say “Tokio,” I Say “Tokyo” – Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off Joe drew this cover for Boy Commandos #12 (Fall 1945)—and got in yet another plug for the Coast Guard! Most of the work inside, though, was done by one or another of the Cazaneuve brothers, probably Louis, directly under DC’s editors. [©2008 DC Comics.]

At first I was just doing beach patrol, and I was pretty famous among the farm boys there in my beach patrol. Then I volunteered to go to the Combat Art Corps in Washington, DC, and they put me to work doing At right, a sketch Joe comic book work for True drew of Rip Carter Comics. I had a deal with the and the lads. syndicate that we would have a [Boy Commandos TM & Coast Guard piece every third ©2008 DC Comics.] feature. So they hired me out; I didn’t get paid for it. It was fun to do comics. “Hey, come on, take me! I’m still here.” [mutual laughter] I went into the service at the end of 1942 and returned home around the end of ’45. JA: I want to get back to DC for a moment. On the cover of Boy Commandos #10, the lead figure looks a little like Joe Simon to me. SIMON: That’s the one where The Boy Commandos are in the water. I might have done that one. I did some Boy Commando covers when I was in the service, to make a buck or two. One of them was the cover of issue 12, where someone wrote, “Tokio, 5 miles,” and Tokyo is misspelled. I described that as my weirdest cover, because the dog has the camouflage colors on, and nobody else is camouflaged. I think one of the Cazeneuve brothers inked it. Horrible inking. You see how crazy that is? It’s my weirdest cover. There was a big shortage of artists. A good share of them were drafted, so anything I sent to DC was used. They were very happy to get them. They should have used

Joe Simon On The Comic Book Biz

Kane & Kubert Do Simon & Kirby A number of up-and-coming young artists drew in the S&K manner while Joe and Jack were in the service. The cover at left of Star Spangled Comics #46 (July 1945) was penciled by Gil Kane, who’d one day be better-remembered as co-creator of the Silver Age Green Lantern and Atom—while the story in #51 (Dec. 1945), whose splash is seen at right, was the artistic handiwork of Joe Kubert, now legendary as the artist of Hawkman, Tor, and especially Sgt. Rock. Thanks to Harry Mendryk. [©2008 DC Comics.]

a proofreader, though. JA: Did the Cazeneuve brothers, Arturo and Louis, start working for you at DC? What do you remember about them? SIMON: They were working for us at Timely. I don’t think they had a complete mastery of the language. They were from Bolivia or Argentina. They came here when there was a shortage of artists, and made money. They were nice guys. They both penciled and inked. They couldn’t cut it all the way as far as I was concerned. We had “A,” “B,” and “C” artists, and they were not in the top group. They did a lot of work. They were productive, they were hard workers, and they were professional. I still remember Louie coming over to me and said, “You know, I like those young teenage girls. They don’t know what they’re doing.” [mutual chuckling] It’s funny what you remember, isn’t it? JA: When you had artists whom you did not consider to be your top-tier guys, would you try to match them with somebody who was better? SIMON: It was impossible to do that. You had to take what you could get. JA: Joe Kubert said he inked a story or two. Do you remember that? SIMON: Yes, I think so. I’m sure he’s right. Gil Kane worked for me, though he used to steal from Kirby too much, even more than I did.

JA: It seems amazing to me that you could get two years ahead on all those features. SIMON: I find that the quality of our work was what was amazing about it. The work held up. All of it. JA: It did. By the way, Jack was discharged before you were. I understand that he worked in the DC bullpen when he came back. SIMON: Yes, he did. I remember he was working with Arturo Cazeneuve. I saw the work. I didn’t like it. JA: Kirby didn’t seem very concerned about who inked his work. SIMON: I don’t think so. I don’t think that’s right. Maybe he sometimes had to accept—no, I never heard him complain about any of the inking. JA: By the way, did you have a favorite baseball team? SIMON: No. Where I grew up, we had the Rochester Red Wings. That was a minor league team. Basketball was my sport, really. I was six-three and I was the manager, naturally. [mutual chuckling] JA: One of the reasons I asked if you had a favorite baseball team was because you guys had a lot of references to the Brooklyn Dodgers in your books.

Simon Says!

SIMON: That came from Jack. Jack was from Brooklyn; my wife was from Brooklyn. JA: Jack never struck me as a guy who was really into baseball or any sports, for that matter. SIMON: No, no. He wasn’t into sports at all.

“After The War…” JA: Let’s get your Jack Dempsey story on tape. SIMON: Jack Dempsey was stationed in our department, in Public Relations in Washington, DC. He wasn’t in the artists’ room, but he used to come and go. He had to give up smoking, but he used to take two puffs out of a cigar and throw it away. All the guys would fight for the butts. [mutual laughter] He was the nicest guy… soft-spoken, a beautiful man. Sometimes he brought celebrities with him. Sid Caesar was there, too. They had several celebrities that used to go around to the troops, and talk to them and travel aboard ship. They were all as nice as could be. He used to walk around with an entourage behind him all the time. They weren’t from the service, [chuckles] but they were always with him. But Dempsey would travel alone, and was involved in several businesses in New York. This was past his prime. He wasn’t boxing any more. He had Jack Dempsey’s Restaurant on Broadway, Times Square. He owned the Great Northern Hotel on Broadway, just west of Fifth Avenue; a very nice hotel.

the country. [mutual chuckling] They were paying me back for the tab they ran up. I never kept track of it, and my wife didn’t understand what the hell we were doing. [Jim laughs] Here’d be a check in the mail. These guys—all of them—they loved working for us. They really appreciated that we let them do this on the tab and everything. By 1957, Harvey was out on 68th Street and Broadway. It was like three or four blocks away from me. I didn’t like going into the office every day, so I’d work from home and from the hotel. Some guys can’t work at home. They loved to go into the office. Kirby was one of those guys; Meskin, too. A lot of them just wanted to come into an office and work, but I was one of the guys who didn’t.

“Boy Commandos Was Still Running In 1949?” JA: You took a hell of a chance on these guys ever paying you back. SIMON: You know, I was making a lot of money in those days. I was getting royalties from DC, and Boy Commandos was the #1 seller during the whole war. JA: I didn’t know that. It outsold Superman? SIMON: It outsold Superman during the war. Oh, yes.

After the war, men were released from the service, and a lot of them came to New York. They’d go to all the big cities, but New York was the main point. The hotels had to restrict any new tenants to a day or two days or, at the most, a week, because of so much turnover. I didn’t have any place to stay. Think about it—these guys coming back from a war, and they have given up their apartments. They had sold their houses to go into the service. And then they’re released one day and they go out on the street... there’s no place for them to go, no place to live. They don’t have a house, you know. Most of them, of course, had families and jobs they could go back to, but a lot of them didn’t. I was pretty well fixed in those days because we got royalties from DC. But I didn’t have a house to go to, so I sent my crew up to Harvey’s, and I went looking for a hotel room. I’d stay overnight in one hotel, then stay a couple days in another hotel. That would be their limit on the time I could stay. I walked into the Great Northern. I didn’t know Jack Dempsey owned it, you know, and he was standing there. He knew me and was very friendly. We got to talking, and so I went up to the desk clerk and said, “How long could I live here?” The desk clerk said, “Two days.” And Jack Dempsey said, “This man can live here as long as he wants.” He was such a nice person. So that’s the story of the hotel situation in New York. JA: How long did you live there? SIMON: I lived there a couple years, I think. At least a year. And I set up shop there. I had a drawing table and everything set up there. The guys from Harvey used to come up and see me all the time, and you know, I was not a drinker, but I had an open tab there at the hotel. They saw the bar and they saw that I’d take them to dinner or something, and just write my room number on the bill. These guys were going crazy. [mutual chuckling] So they used to go over to the bar and drink themselves crazy. [Jim chuckles] And they’d ask me, “Could I come back here again?” I said, “Yeah, but don’t bother me. I’m working.”

Reg’lar Fellers So they used to come and drink on my tab, and they were as happy as chickens. Anyway, I didn’t think much about it, and later, when Harriet and I got married, we moved to Long Island, and every couple of days we’d get a check from somebody. From New York or somewhere else in

Joe may not recall working on this cover generally reputed to Jack Kirby for Boy Commandos #30 (Nov.-Dec. 1948), which depicted future Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller—but somebody clearly felt it was worth the trademark Simon & Kirby byline! Thanks to Harry Mendryk. [©2008 DC Comics.]

Joe Simon On The Comic Book Biz

A Very Important Date In the heyday of the romance comics they pioneered, Simon & Kirby created My Date Comics (its official name) for Hillman Periodicals. At left is Jack’s cover for issue #2 (Sept. 1947). Thanks to Harry Mendryk. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

JA: Do you remember how high the sales got? SIMON: I didn’t get a royalty statement. I think the sales were like a million copies a month, around that area. All the guys were reading it. JA: Before Harvey started publishing, they took over Champ Comics from Worth Carnahan. Does that name mean anything to you? SIMON: No. The publisher of the thing was Leo Greenwald. I don’t remember Carnahan. Leo was a middle-aged, portly, kind-of heavy guy. We did covers for him in exchange for rent, while working at Timely. That’s why I changed my name to Jon Henri on those covers. We had our offices in his office, and this guy had like one comic book that I can remember. His wife bought him the business in an office because she wanted him to get out of the house. That’s the story, according to what they told us. Al Harvey used to come over there at night. We were there at night, too. Al Harvey, before he started his business, used to go through Leo’s drawers and read all his mail and everything else. And then he decided he was going to go into the comic book business. And he did! JA: He also ended up taking over that comic book. How did he manage that? SIMON: I think Leo was going out of business. He’d copyright a title, and it just changed hands. JA: Before Goodman discovered you were going to DC Comics, was he aware that you did occasional work for other companies? SIMON: When I was being interrogated in the lawsuit, the lawyer said,

They Try To Tell Us We’re Too Young Simon & Kirby produced some of the earliest love comics. Kirby drew the cover of their first effort, Young Romance #1 (Sept.-Oct. 1947), not shown here—but they utilized other talented artists, as well. Mort Meskin drew the cover of 1949’s Young Love #68 (above), and John Prentice that of Young Brides #14 (April ’54). The 1991 book The Jack Kirby Treasury, Vol. 2 ran the art seen above left with the caption “Joe Simon’s previously unpublished concept for the first love comic cover. Circa 1945.” With thanks to Greg Theakston & Pure Imagination Publishing. Thanks to Harry Mendryk for the second two illos; the latter is repro’d from a scan of the original art. [Young Romance art ©2008 Joe Simon.; other covers ©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Simon Says!

“Why didn’t you tell Martin that you were doing these things?” And you know what my answer was? “It was none of his business.” JA: So when you came back from the service, you and Jack went to Harvey Comics. SIMON: Well, Harvey was in Washington with me. Al Harvey, Will Eisner—who was “Bill” at the time—Al Avison, and me. We were a team there. We used to go out and hang out together in Washington. Alfred was an officer. Will Eisner was a Warrant Officer, and I was a Petty Officer. I think Avison was some kind of sergeant, too. JA: When you started working for Harvey, you still did some work on Boy Commandos, which ran until 1949.

JA: That’s right. It ended in December of ’49. But here’s Jack in ’49, doing several Boy Commandos covers, and the cover to issue 30 with Bob Feller is signed “Simon & Kirby.” Did you help Jack on those? [NOTE: The Grand Comic-Book Database lists Steve Brodie as the inker on the cover of BC #30. –Jim.] SIMON: Jack wouldn’t do that without my consent or participation. I must have been involved in it, or else they were old covers that hadn’t been used. Maybe it was work Jack did at DC while he was waiting for me to get out of the service? That’s possible, too. And sometimes DC put our names on stories that we didn’t do. Don’t forget that Independent News was a part of DC, and was our distributor at Crestwood.

SIMON: Yeah. JA: Doesn’t that seem odd that DC would give an ad for another company in their comics? SIMON: They were distributing us, and making a lot of money, so it was to their advantage to publicize us. When Independent News started distributing for Crestwood and Prize, we were like a flea on an elephant. Crestwood became one of the major players in the business when Simon & Kirby came there with Young Romance and all our other books.

“There’s Really Nothing For The Girls In These Comic Books” JA: You started with Harvey after the war, and have said that you felt bad that you didn’t give Liebowitz a chance to bid for your services. Why didn’t you give him that chance? SIMON: I didn’t think they would be interested. I think I underestimated them, or overestimated them, whatever the case. What I underestimated was Simon & Kirby’s reputation. Liebowitz once complained to me that we hadn’t given him a chance to bid for Simon & Kirby’s services. That was a mistake on our part, because we should have, and I always felt guilty about not doing that. I explained to Liebowitz that Harvey had given us a very good deal, and Liebowitz replied, “Well, business is business.” He never held a grudge against us. JA: You created My Date for Hillman. Did you get a percentage on that? SIMON: No. We were out of work at the time, to be frank

with you. JA: So you didn’t feel like you were in a strong position to negotiate. When you came up with these, with My Date, you also did “Pipsi” and “The Flying Fool.” Ed Cronin was the editor. SIMON: Cronin was a very nervous man, one of those nickel cafeteria guys. He took us out to lunch to an automat. Ed Cronin was my boy. He knew his job. I would classify him as one of the more capable editors I’ve worked with. Hillman was a big name in publishing at that time. But we were just killing time until we got something better going. My Date book was just another Archie-type book. It was not the first romance comic, though I know some people think so. JA: What gave you the idea for the romance comics?

SIMON: After the war? I don’t remember. Boy Commandos was still running in 1949?

JA: I’ve seen, in a late 1940s DC comic book, a half-page ad for Prize Comics. Did you know about that?

SIMON: It was an obvious idea. I was in the service, and they were selling a lot of Boy Commandos, Donald Duck, you know, stuff like that. And I’m looking around, I see the girls are reading that stuff and I’m thinking, “There’s really nothing for the girls in these comic books.” I thought, “Let’s get something different that sells to the girls.” I remembered my dad and brother used to read these true romance books, and at one time they had a contest to send in a story. [chuckles] My parents, who had no writing skills whatsoever—they were sitting down, writing their story of their romance. I thought, “Gee, this would be a good comic book.” We’d make it sound pornographic in those days, or what passed for pornography, and it would be very innocent for the teenage girls. So that’s where the idea came from. JA: In your book, you said you had originally thought about publishing

Two Rode Together Jack Kirby (pencils) and Mort Meskin (inks) teamed up for this memorable cover of Harvey’s Western Tales #32 in 1955. Repro’d from a scan of the original art, with thanks to Harry Mendryk. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Joe Simon On The Comic Book Biz

SIMON: Right, we were co-owners of all of them: Black Magic, Headline, etc. JA: You weren’t prepared for the enormous success that the romance books generated, were you? SIMON: I’m surprised every time something succeeds. There’s so many flops for every success in comic books. But I remember the night Young Romance came out. Jack and I were on the way to visit my new son in the hospital—he was just born. We stopped at one of these mom-and-pop stores without knowing that the book was going to be released that day. There were 10 or 12 girls looking over the magazine there, and they were giggling, they were so happy. They said, “Oh, we’re going to buy this all the time.” This store sold out their copies the first night they got them. Jack and I were there to watch it, so we were very happy. JA: Girls used to buy comic books. Why do you think they stopped buying not just romance comics, but comics in general?

Putting The “Bull” In “Bullpen”

SIMON: I never thought about it. In fact, I wasn’t aware of it. But now that you mention it, there are no girl comics any more, are there? We tried other things that girls might be interested in, and of course these true confession comics were a step above the others. They were in their own category, so there was no way to compare them to anything. At one time, we were selling a million apiece from Young Romance and Young Love. That’s a monthly. They were both monthlies at the time. They were the biggest sellers.

An early-1950s photo of the Simon & Kirby shop. (L. to r.:) Joe Genola, Joe, Jack, Mort Meskin, Jim Infantino, and Marvin Stein. Courtesy of Jim Simon.

it yourself, and Kirby said, “Let’s get someone to finance it.” SIMON: Yes. First, we called [Maurice] “Reece” Rosenthal, who was the manager at Prize Comics. This was another one of those periods where there was no work. We had the whole book done, we had some inventory in there that we had from other books that would kind-of fit in. We had a story, “To Your Eyes,” in there about a girl who tells the story through the slits in her eyes. It was in the inventory we had, but it kind-of fit in. I think it was drawn by Bill Draut. So we put all this together, and made a comp cover. We figured we show it to these people, so if they tried to steal it, we’d beat them to it. We showed it to him and he was very, very impressed. He said, “Look, let’s not give this to Prize. I want to get my brother-in-law to look at it and come up with the money.” His brother-in-law was a guy named Brill. Brill said, “You know, I don’t know anything about comics, but what do you want for it?” And I said, “50%.” He said, “The guy putting up the money should get more than 50%.” I picked up the package and said, “Well, you think about it. This is our offer to you,” and we walked out. He never came back to us, and Reece put it out through Prize. And Reece, from that day on, never forgave his brother-in-law. He said, “You screwed me out of Young Romance. I brought you a million-dollar idea, and I got screwed out of it.” [laughs] But you never know. It could have been a disaster, or it could have been a big hit. You never know in comic books. I thought it was a great idea.

JA: I’ve heard that Captain America sold around 900,000 copies an issue while you did it. SIMON: Captain America, as far as I know, was a sellout. I don’t know how many we printed. The million mark stands in my head, but I wasn’t getting true figures on those things. JA: Why did you think super-heroes declined in popularity after World War II? SIMON: The stands were overloaded with all kinds of titles. That was very simple. During the war, they had paper rationing. They cut that out, and all these crawlers went into the comic book business. The publishers

JA: You also took a chance, producing the whole first issue, investing your time and everything. But if you believe in something— SIMON: Well, I thought I was smart, though my idea was stupid, because if the thing was a failure, we would have been out the cost of the artwork and script because that came first. But God was with me and it was a total sellout. It’s one of the great moments in life when you find out the sales on something like Captain America or Young Romance first issues. At the stores and newsstands, we saw people buying it. The girls were all around the newspapers, chattering around the book. We felt so good. JA: You were co-owners of all your Crestwood books, right?

(Left to right:) Jack Kirby, Al Harvey, & Joe Simon—1945 or early 1946. With thanks to Greg Theakson.

Simon Says!

The Years Of Draut Bill Draut’s last name, as you might guess from this caption’s too-cleverby-half heading, is pronounced the same as the word “drought.” Seen in the photo at the top of the page are the members of the Simon & Kirby studio, circa 1949. (L. to r., standing:) Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Bill Draut, Marvin Stein. Seated: letterer Ben Oda. This photo appeared in The Jack Kirby Collector #25; with thanks to John Morrow. (Top right:) Draut’s splash page for the “Red Demon” backup in Black Cat Comics #6 (July 1947). Thanks to Harry Mendryk. [©2008 Lorne-Harvey Publications, Inc.] (Above:) An unsigned Draut splash from Prize’s Black Magic, Vol. 2, #6 (May 1952). Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert. (Right:) A never-printed Draut cover for a never-published comic that was to have been called Artists and Models. With thanks to Harry Mendryk. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Joe Simon On The Comic Book Biz

cut down on their pulps and went into the comic books. There was just too much competition. JA: But the romance comics came out, and Westerns and war comics became popular. I was just wondering if you think there was a reason why the super-hero comics in particular didn’t sell as well as the Westerns and the romance were selling, in the late ‘40s, early to mid-’50s. SIMON: This is the first time that I ever heard that Westerns sold. As far as I know, they never sold. The Westerns didn’t sell in big numbers like the others. And sciencefiction didn’t, either.

Fighting Words JA: It never has. Why do you think superheroes suffered a decline at that period in sales?

(Left:) As Jim Amash says, Fighting American #1 (April-May 1954) has a serious super-hero feel, much like the revived Captain America then being published by Timely/Atlas. Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert for the scan. (Right:) Over the next few issues, however, Simon & Kirby’s Prize comic got increasingly tongue-in-cheek, as per the cover of #4 (Oct.-Nov. ’54). Ye Editor recalls mentioning his love of Fighting American to Jack at the Marvel offices in the late 1960s, and Jack’s expressing a particular fondness for the story starring the odoriferous Commie called Super-Khakalovitch—except Roy’s pretty sure that Jack pronounced it “Khakalokovich.” But what’s an extra syllable between friends? [©2008 Joe Simon and Estate of Jack Kirby.]

SIMON: Maybe they weren’t doing good comic books? I’m talking about physically, the 25 or 20 pages of story and art, and lousy printing, and they all had their 7 or 8 pages of ads. It was a lousy package they were putting out.

JA: I’m not going to press you, then. What was your arrangement with the Harveys when you created Stuntman and Boy Explorers?

“We Were Like The Biggest People In The Whole Business At That Time”

JA: Did you give them the copyrights, or keep them? Or did you share them? Was this the first time you had some ownership in your characters?

JA: For Harvey, you did Boy Explorers and Stuntman, which didn’t last very long, although I thought they were great comic books.

SIMON: We had that covered contractually with the Harveys. Of course, we thought we had ownership in Captain America, too, but we were little boys being pulled apart by these businessmen. We were skinned alive.

SIMON: I agree! JA: Who wrote those books? SIMON: Jack and I did. When we didn’t have anything to do, we’d write our own stuff. Oh, God, we came into Harvey with a staff of writers and artists whom I’d picked out of the Coast Guard and the Marines. Let’s see, I had Ken Riley of the Coast Guard, who was a fabulous painter, and a guy named Spencer who was a Coast Guard officer. He was a lousy writer. And another writer named John Henry, whose name was similar to my “Jon Henri” pen name. And Bill Draut. Jack was very important in the success of the features. He was in on the creation of most everything we did. Every feature we did was a joint effort, with a lot of back-and-forth discussion. We were equal partners. If it wasn’t for Jack, they might not have been very successful, I’ll say that. And sometimes they weren’t successful anyway. I have some very good stories about that that are ready for publication elsewhere, so I can’t tell you too much about that.

SIMON: It was a 50-50 partnership with the Harveys.

JA: You and Jack had houses across the street from each other when you returned from the service. Jack sometimes worked in both your house and his, but you also had an office at Crestwood at 1790 Broadway. How much work did you do there, as opposed to working at home? SIMON: I’ll have to put these time frames in proportion. In 1945 we had just gotten out of the service, or at least I did. Jack was already here, and that’s when we bought the houses. We took part of the Crestwood offices, and put in an art department. We also worked at home. We loved our work. I remember when we’re sitting there, working, Kirby would say, “I wonder what the working people are doing today.” [mutual laughter] JA: You were not only packaging the books, you were editing, too. I assume anybody who worked for you had to come to the Crestwood office to pick up scripts or deliver art. I’m trying pinpoint where you did most of your business during those years. SIMON: Probably at Crestwood. That was the time where Young

Simon Says!

Romance was a big thing. Young Love, Western Romance, Western Love, Black Magic, Headline—we had the best lineup in the whole business. We were Crestwood. We were the whole thing. We were like the biggest people in the whole business at that time.

JA: Carmine Infantino told me that he worked there sometimes.

JA: Were you the editor of these books, or was it you and Jack together?

JA: Did you have a production staff doing paste-ups or coloring?

SIMON: I don’t remember. Editor is just a title. We were packaging the books. Jack and I shared the work. I never counted who did this and who did that. We were very close partners. We discussed everything, down to the very last plot and dialogue. We worked on a partnership basis with Crestwood/Prize. These companies had a lot of different names. I don’t know if it was for tax purposes or what. To this day, I don’t know. Liability, tax purposes... I don’t know. Nobody told me.

SIMON: We didn’t do any coloring. Once in a while we’d make a color guide for cover art, but the women at the engraving plants did all the coloring. As far as paste-ups were concerned, I think I did most of it, to tell you the truth.

Only a few people worked in the office: Ben Oda, Mort Drucker, Joe Genola, Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Jim Infantino (my assistant). Mort Meskin, definitely. He was there every day. He couldn’t work at home, you know. John Henry wrote for us, too, though mostly at home, for about three years.

Joe Genola was part of the Prize staff. He shared some space with us at Crestwood because we had the art department. He didn’t work for us. He was a great bowler, though. [chuckles] He was a production man.

SIMON: I’ll bow to that if he remembers it. All the guys would come and do little patch-ups, and make corrections.

Carmine’s younger brother Jimmy helped me with whatever I had to do, like paste-ups, erasing and cleaning up, and picking up lunch... stuff like that. He was around 16 years old at the time.

JA: Was there some sharing of the staff between you and Crestwood? SIMON: No, that’s the only staff they had, really. We had the staff. They didn’t have anybody working there except Reece. He was their general manager… a nice, affable, very smart guy from Texas. JA: Did you have a secretary? SIMON: I never had a secretary in my life. Never. Mike Blier and Teddy Epstein were the Crestwood presidents, and we never realized how important we were to that company, but everybody in the whole industry knew about it… except us. [mutual chuckling] But we had a nice time. We were happy.

“I Didn’t Think There Were Any Good Writers In The Business” JA: I’d like you to talk about some of the people who worked for you. SIMON: Kenneth Riley was a great oil painter. He was a star up in Washington, DC, painting murals. What we had there was the combat art group. The guys would go out on trips and make sketches, and they’d cut to headquarters in Washington, DC, and paint them. It was like a friendly war between the artists of the Coast Guard, the Army, the Navy, and the Marines. Bill Draut was in the Marines, and Ken was the best of all of them. They had some very famous painters in the Army and the Navy. So I brought those two guys in to Harvey, and I brought some writers in. Bill was a very private guy, wonderful to work with. We were very close. We never had a bad word between us, and we were very happy with his work. He came over to my house with his wife and a baby, John, who must have been like six months old. The next thing I knew, she skipped and left him with the baby. Maybe she didn’t like his associates, I don’t know. [mutual laughter] But she was a very ordinary woman, and Bill just raised and doted on that boy. I heard he later remarried, and had a daughter.

Mamas, Why Not Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys? The cover of Simon & Kirby’s Boys’ Ranch #1, repro’d from a photocopy of the original art, as autographed by both gents. With thanks to an unknown benefactor. In 1991 Marvel reprinted the entire run in hardcover. [© Joe Simon & Estate of Jack Kirby.]

I had a lot of favorite artists, but they were all different. I would say that next to Kirby, Mort Meskin’s art was the most interesting. Bill Draut was the most dependable guy; he had a style like Caniff. He was a thorough professional and told a good story. That was very important to me. I had artists who I thought were great, but I didn’t like the way they told a story.

Joe Simon On The Comic Book Biz

I really admired the artists a lot more than I admired the writers. I didn’t think that most of the writers did a very good job. By the time Jack and I got through with their scripts, the writing was good. I didn’t think there were any good writers in the business, to tell you the truth, but I thought the art was superb. JA: Why did you think there were a lot of good artists, but not many good writers? SIMON: I don’t know... maybe I was a snob. I don’t know. We gave them the plots, rewrote the dialogue, and made the stories “our” stories. I don’t know what the hell we needed them for. [laughs] You know who was good? My brother-in-law Jack Oleck. He was a pro. JA: You didn’t rewrite him very much, did you? SIMON: Oh, I was afraid of him. [mutual laughter as Jim asks “Why?”] Because he was my brother-in-law. Bill Draut and Jack Oleck had the same sullen personality, and kept to themselves. [chuckles] You wouldn’t want to insult either one of them. Jack Oleck’s brother was publishing these telephone books like The Yellow Pages. They were partly illegal operations, but it was a big operation. For Jack, it was a very boring job, so when he had the chance, Jack wanted to try comics. He was strictly professional; he treated his plots like a business, beautifully typed pages, well-constructed stories. He was not averse to using plots over and over again, or stealing them—which is good. I admire him for that. I admire all the thieves in this business. And you want a story about him? Jack came in, he loved the business. From then on, he worked in it until the end. And we were going out of business. I don’t know what the hell we were doing, but when the business was dying—as it often does—Jack went to Stan Lee. He got work there, so he asked if he could use a couple of the old plots. I lent him my bound books of comics. He wrote down notes of this plot used for Marvel or Timely, and this one used by Simon & Kirby, and he had the dates

Charlie Chan’s #1 Artist A late-1950s photo of artist Carmine Infantino, as printed in the 2001 Vanguard volume The Amazing World of Carmine Infantino— juxtaposed with two very definitely Simon-&-Kirby-style splashes of his from the team-produced Charlie Chan #1 (June-July 1948) for the Prize Comics Group. Note that both pages are signed! Thanks to Harry Mendryk. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

written down. He reused these plots, and the twist is that all these plots that he did for Marvel came out with other writers’ bylines. Isn’t that a cute story? I still have the volumes that he marked up. JA: Jack Oleck wrote the first issue of Fighting American, according to something you once said. You’re real serious with that character in that issue. SIMON: I know he wrote the first Bulls-Eye. Did I say he wrote Fighting American? I don’t think so. I don’t think he had that kind of humor in him. JA: Maybe not, but the first issue is very serious. There’s not much humor in it. SIMON: All right, I’ll take your word for that. JA: With the second issue, you started being humorous with the character. Since Oleck wasn’t a humor writer, who wrote the humorous “Fighting American” stories? SIMON: I think Jack and I changed the scripts we had into humorous ones. We thought it was all politics with those Communists, and that crazy Senator McCarthy. That’s what changed our minds. Oleck wrote two successful novels after that. And he worked with Bill Gaines, and Bill’s friend Lyle Stuart published the novels. I thought the books were great. You should read those books. You know, Jack’s daughter is my broker at Merrill Lynch. After his comic book days, he started a magazine called Interior Decorations, and it sold very, very well. I did illustrations for it. It was like a slick—when I say “slick,” I mean a glossy-paper type thing—tabloid size, black-&-white. And then he got in trouble with the IRS, and finally sold the magazine. I think it’s still in business. They call it Designer now. JA: Did he not pay his taxes?

Simon Says!

SIMON: They put all their money into it, and were living on spaghetti. Jack had an employee who was in love with him. He brought the guy home, and the guy was fighting with Jack’s wife. [mutual laughter] I’m still very friendly with the family. JA: I interviewed two guys who wrote for you in the 1950s: Kim Aamodt and Walter Geier. Do you remember them? SIMON: They sound familiar, but neither of them was a major writer for us. I don’t remember either of them. It’s possible, you know. A lot of guys wrote for us. JA: Geier said he remembered writing some Boys’ Ranch. SIMON: It’s possible. I’m sure we had writers on that stuff. We were turning out work like a factory. JA: Both said that they would come in, and you and Jack would give them a plot, and they went home and separately wrote stories. You and Jack made up the plots while they were standing there, waiting for a story. SIMON: That’s the way we always worked. JA: Did you ever type out a script? SIMON: Yes, many of them. Most of the romance stories were typed out. JA: Timely revived Captain America, along with The Human Torch and Sub-Mariner in Young Men #24, cover-dated December 1953. Fighting American #1 was cover-dated April-May 1954. Was that character a reaction to the Captain America revival? SIMON: I can’t say for sure after all this time, but we must have been aware of Captain America’s return. We might have done it to show Timely we could do it better. How much of that we might have been thinking is something I can’t tell you today. JA: Who created the Fighting American costume? SIMON: I don’t remember. It might have been Jack and I together. That costume looks great in close-up, but when the figure is small, it becomes a complicated costume. We should have made the design simpler and easier to read.

“They Were Just Kids” JA: Do you remember Bob McCarty? He was with you for quite a while? SIMON: He was a nice, good-looking guy. I don’t remember anything else

Another “Foul Rag And Bone Shop Of The Heart” (Left:) Jack Kirby's cover (which may or may not have been inked by Joe Simon) for Black Magic #13 (June 1952). (Right:) The climactic page of the Mort Meskin-drawn story “A Rag, a Bone and a Hank o’ Hair,” at a time when Simon & Kirby produced the relatively mild horror comic for the Prize group. The tale’s scripter is uncertain, but may well have been Joe Simon— and it apparently became the springboard for the series Brother Power, The Geek which Joe Simon created for DC in 1968; see p. 48. The lifesize rag doll was brought to life in the same fashion in both stories. With thanks to Gene Kehoe & John Wells. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

about him. He was around Carmine’s age, maybe, but I couldn’t place him if I saw him right now. JA: Carmine Infantino told me that he and Frank Giacoia asked you for work when they were in high school and you were editing at Timely. The first time they saw you, you turned them down. The second time, you gave them a “Jack Frost” story to draw, which appeared in USA Comics. That was their first published work, so you gave them their start. SIMON: Oh, so I get the blame for that, huh? [laughter] I know that happened, but I don’t remember doing that. I did see a copy of that story when Marvel reprinted it this past year. I needed a story drawn and they came in at the right time. Who knew how they were going to develop later on? They were just kids. JA: What was the young Carmine like? SIMON: Carmine was very dedicated to his work. He did Charlie Chan for us; he did a lovely job. Teddy Epstein loved his work. Epstein was one of the publishers, but if you saw him on the street a second time, you wouldn’t know him. But Carmine was very dedicated, very dependable.

Joe Simon On The Comic Book Biz

artists, and I brought up Jack. He said, “Well, Jack is exceptional.” I never got the impression that he was intimidated. JA: Had he already started having emotional problems when he started working for you? SIMON: Yes, that’s why we got him. Otherwise, we couldn’t have afforded him. At DC, he was getting on top of tables with a t-square and challenging people to duels; stuff like that. That’s why they got rid of him, and that‘s how I got him. JA: Did you ever have a sense as to why he had emotional problems? SIMON: No, he was always teasing about it and making fun of himself. But then you’d give him a script and wait for him. He wouldn’t show up, and he wouldn’t remember getting the script, but he wanted to get paid for the jobs. I liked him better on Black Magic than on romance stories, but he was good at drawing pretty girls, though his stuff was a little heavy-handed. I remember we’d stand around and talk, and Mort would say, “You know what? I like you because you use a heavy brush, loaded with ink, and I do it, too.” That was the extent of those conversations. He’d talk about his days in the lockup there, and he had everybody laughing. He was a very, very fun guy to be with.

Apartment 3-D Mort Meskin and Steve Ditko contributed to the one published issue of Captain 3-D (cover-dated Sept. 1953), which Simon & Kirby produced for Harvey Comics—and to a second one that was never printed. Which of that fabled foursome did what on this second splash in #1? You tell us! [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

He wasn’t as feisty then as he is now. [affectionate laughter] I was very friendly with his family. They lived in Long Island, and I think later, in Queens. His father—I remember he used to pick up a shovel here and there, and do some gardening. I just found a picture of him and the shovel. His name was Patrick, and he was in the plumbing supply business. We used to go and steal architects’ plans and build houses from them. JA: Carmine drew Charlie Chan in the Simon & Kirby style. I find that interesting because that’s not how he drew before or since. Would you have ever told Carmine or anyone else to draw in that style? SIMON: Never, never. JA: I know you wrote about Mort Meskin in your book, but he’s a particular favorite of mine, so I would like to hear what you have to say about him. I’ve heard he was a bit intimidated by Jack Kirby, because Jack could draw so many pages so fast, even though Meskin was a speed demon too. Did you notice anything like that at all? SIMON: Meskin was great. I didn’t think he was intimidated by Jack. I still remember a conversation we had when we were talking about the

“We Shall Return!” By the late 1940s Simon and Kirby were back with a vengeance. They drew both joint and separate pages for a J.C. Penney giveaway comic, 48 Famous Americans (one for each state—or just one for each page of a 48-page package?). Joe reportedly did this one about World War II hero Gen. Douglas MacArthur. Thanks to Ger Apeldoorn for the scan. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Simon Says!

JA: He didn’t talk about the serious stuff. He kept it humorous. SIMON: Right. He talked about the dances, and the balls, and the women there, and the food. He never spoke about anything clinical. JA: I heard a story about the time he did a pornographic story for you. SIMON: No, he didn’t do a pornographic story for me. I’ll tell you what that thing was. We had a young guy there that was working with Joe Genola, and he was doing these pornographic things on plain typing paper. [mutual laughter] I remember it to this day. I wish I’d saved it. Maybe I do have it somewhere. He did a comic strip about Ken Selig, and using his sperm as a weapon on an eight-panel page. It was hysterically funny, but it had nothing to do with Mort. Maybe Mort was in on some of that, too, but I don’t remember that. I don’t remember the guy’s name, but he wound up doing a strip for King Features. There were a couple of young guys at Harvey. Ernie Colón was one of those young guys, but I don’t think it was Ernie who did the strip. We had one very talented guy named Dom working on Richie Rich and Casper. Dominick’s wife got him a job as a bus driver for the city. She said that comics had no future, and she didn’t want him wasting his time in comics because he had a family to support. The next time we saw him, he was a bus driver. He quit the comic book business, and seemed very sad about it. That was a touching story. I don’t remember his last name. Nice kid. JA: Here’s the Mort Meskin story that I heard. One day, he came in with a “Nancy Hale” story for Young Romance. You and Kirby were looking at the pages, and the next thing you saw, Meskin had drawn the person that came in for advice getting Nancy Hale on her desk and making love to her. SIMON: You know what? It could very well have happened, but they didn’t tell me everything. [mutual laughter] This is the first I heard of it. But I could see it happening very easily. These guys were playing a lot of tricks on me. I could handle it, no problem. JA: Do you remember Charles Nicholas? SIMON: Wojtkowski was his real last name. There were two of them who had the same name “Charles Nicholas,” and one of them worked for us for years. I remember him vividly. He was like a jack-of-all-trades. He was slim, young, wide-eyed, dependable, with a good ink line. JA: There’s a debate that he was the guy who created “The Blue Beetle,” though Chuck Cuidera claimed that, too. SIMON: I’ve heard various stories about it. I know one of them was living in Florida. My lawyers went out to depose [Nicholas] for this Captain America trial, and they said it was a total waste. He was suffering from some kind of dementia. But he was very nice to them, and he spoke very well of me. But he was going to get a boat and sail away. [mutual chuckling] His wife was still with him.

The (Superior) Male Must Go Through Joe, who reports having a minor altercation with Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel in the 1950s, wrote and drew a quasi-parody of the Man of Steel in Green Hornet Comics #38 (March 1947), in the “Kid Adonis” story “The Affairs [sic] of the Man from Out of This World.” The supposed Saturnian called Superior Male, whose outfit was colored almost identical to Superman’s, eventually battled the feature’s prizefighter hero in the ring— and lost, after which he ’fessed up that he was actually just an ex-circus strongman: “I’m not from Saturn! I’m from Poughkeepsie!” (Judging by his dialogue in panel 4, he wasn't much of a scientist, either!) The splash page of this tale was seen in A/E #36, behind yet another Fighting American cover. It was probably this story that led Roy Thomas to suggest putting an image of a ringed Saturn-style planet on the chest of Marvel’s first Captain Marvel in 1968—since Mar-Vell actually did come from another world. Thanks to Harry Mendryk. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

created by you and Jack. Did any of the writers ever contribute to the creation of any of these characters?

Did Chuck Cuidera create The Blue Beetle? I can’t say.

“Jack And I Were Taking Home A Lot Of Money Then” JA: By the way, you had all these books to keep track of. Who was responsible for making sure the artists and writers were paid? SIMON: I was. We didn’t have any books. I had some sheets of paper. Jack and I were taking home a lot of money then. We were both taking a thousand a week home, and a thousand a week at that time was like $30,000 a week now. You know, guys were coming home with $35 a week to run the families, but taxes were almost nonexistent then. JA: Fighting American, Bulls-Eye, Boys’ Ranch... all of those were

SIMON: Now that you bring it up, not one of the writers ever created anything. Why would they bring it to us? Jerry Siegel came over once and he saw the Boys’ Ranch pages. Later, he called me up and said, “You know, I created a feature called “Boys’ Ranch” for Ziff-Davis. I want you to stop it or I’ll sue you.” I handed him over to Al Harvey, who said, “Okay, Jerry. Bring yours over and we’ll compare them.” But Siegel never did. That’s the only claim I ever had like that. I don’t know if he had thought of it before or what, but he didn’t have anything. I’m not going to accuse him of anything. Why should I steal something from Jerry Siegel? You know what? I have a lot of respect for Jerry Siegel now, but at that time, I didn’t. I didn’t have any respect for him. I thought he was one of the lousy writers. [mutual laughter]

Joe Simon On The Comic Book Biz

SIMON: Yes, we did, because when we first went to Harvey, the business right after the war took a big nosedive, so we weren’t able to work on Boys’ Ranch at that time. We put out these press releases that we’re traveling all around the country to ranches. [mutual chuckling] And we had pictures with horses and crap like that. That didn’t really happen. JA: There’s a picture of you and Jack on the inside front cover of the first issue. That was unusual because the readers seldom saw photos of the creators. SIMON: Well, I had a newspaper background, and thought it was a good idea. Don’t forget, we had the first cover byline in comics, also. JA: Why did Boys’ Ranch fail after a few issues? SIMON: Why didn’t it work? Because we were wise-guys. Westerns never worked in comics, but we thought that with “Simon & Kirby” on the cover, and being known for doing kid gangs, we could get it to work. It just didn’t. When we had this big hit, Young Romance, we also put out Western Love, and that didn’t work as well as the normal little stories, either. But you know, you’ve got to put your foot in the water. You’ve got to test it, and you’ve got to give Simon & Kirby credit for that. We tried a lot of stuff that was very interesting, like Win a Prize. JA: When you’re creating features, would you get to a stage in a creation and say, “Hey, this isn’t going to be any good,” and dump it? SIMON: Did we say that to ourselves? No, not until we got figures. There wasn’t one thing that we put out that we didn’t like. We were enthusiastic about everything. JA: That’s not quite what I’m asking you. What I’m asking you is, would you come up with a series before publication, and then decide not to use it because you didn’t think it would sell? SIMON: No, that never happened to us, I can tell you that right out. We liked everything we did.

I Love Lucy—S&K Style (Above:) A Kirby-and-Meskin page from the Simon & Kirby-produced Boys’ Ranch #3 (Feb. 1950). With thanks to Harry Mendryk. [©2008 Joe Simon & Estate of Jack Kirby.] (Right:) In 1967 Jack Kirby drew this sketch of the Boys’ Ranch-hand called Angel for a teenage fan named Marv Wolfman, who would soon become a professional comics writer and editor. Marv still has it to this day! [Angel TM & ©2008 Joe Simon & Estate of Jack Kirby.]

JA: You’re working for Crestwood, and you’re in their offices, but yet you create Boys’ Ranch for Harvey Publications. Did the Crestwood people care that you were doing a book for a competitor? SIMON: Crestwood was scared of me. It was none of their business. This came up in my deposition, when the lawyer said, “While you’re doing Captain America, you also did Captain Marvel. What did you tell Martin Goodman about that?” I replied, “I didn’t tell him anything. It was none of his business.” It was the same thing with Crestwood. It was our office, actually. We had our own employees that we paid, not Crestwood. We had a set of books in our minds that we had started talking about or working on when we were in the service, and we were going to bring them over to Harvey. But the first batch of books didn’t go over well, so we put it off for a while, but we always wanted to do Boys’ Ranch. JA: You had the Boys’ Ranch idea for a while before you actually published it?

Simon Says!

JA: Can you put a percentage on this: how much of the business were you handling as opposed to how much artwork or writing you were doing, time wise?

SIMON: Well, that’s the way their suits came out. My accountant found out they’d been screwing us all along. JA: But then you settled it. You didn’t get all the money that you should have gotten, and yet you continued to work for them.

SIMON: I can’t answer that. I was doing all the business. Jack would be the first to admit that he wasn’t equipped to do any of the business. I was designing covers and logos. I was lettering on the covers, and doing a lot of writing—a lot of writing. It was just a living, you know; one that I enjoyed tremendously. It wasn’t like work.

SIMON: Well, we got some money, but the thing was that they were crying “poverty“ over the judge’s ruling, so we gave them a break. We continued to work with them. It’s a business, man. You don’t go out and throw punches. You make deals.

JA: You were doing so many different things that I’ve assumed that, as a creative person, this kept you fresh because you’re not doing just one thing. You’re not just inking and editing, you’re writing and drawing. Did that keep you from getting bored?

JA: How well were your Mainline books selling? SIMON: Bulls-Eye was doing very well, but the distributor [Leader News] couldn’t pay us. He went broke as a result of the Bill Gaines reputation.

SIMON: I don’t know. I look back, I say, “Who did this stuff? Who was that guy?” I can’t figure it out... just a lovely way for a tailor’s son to make a living. JA: At the end of 1953, you decided to self-publish as Mainline. I take it you felt pretty secure about your position and the state of the business to launch that. Did you guys use your own money to start Mainline?

JA: If your distributor had not gone broke, Mainline would have continued, right? SIMON: Oh, sure. It was always our dream to have our own company.

Bulls-Eye! Simon & Kirby’s Bulls-Eye may have run just seven issues for two companies (Prize, then Charlton), but they were all, as Spencer Tracy said of Kate Hepburn, “cherce”! Here’s the cover of #1, dated July-Aug. 1954. Kirby at least penciled this one. Of the later Charlton issues, which came out under the Comics Code, Ye Editor recalls Jack describing problems with the Code over BullsEye thus: “They kept taking the tomahawks out of the Indians’ hand and leaving me with a bunch of smiling Indians!” And they did—check it out! [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

SIMON: Not exactly. No publisher uses their own money. The distributors were losing business. I think we were with PDC [Publishers Distributing Corporation], who was distributing Harvey’s books. I knew the guys at PDC, and they asked me to start a line of comics because they didn’t have enough comics to distribute. They put up the money. That’s the way publishers work. You don’t put up your own money. JA: Did they ask for a certain amount of books? SIMON: No, that was a matter between us and the printer. We had to print one title a month, so our books were bimonthly. JA: Jack was spread out, so I notice he only did layouts on the early Bulls-Eyes. SIMON: Johnny Prentice drew the first Bulls-Eyes, and I had Jack do the splashes. JA: Jack was also doing some work for the In Love book, and he drew Fighting American, and was still doing some Black Magic and love stories. It seems like that’s a lot of stretching out for Kirby.

JA: I know how you felt about Dr. Wertham, and the Kefauver Committee. Did that scare you? SIMON: Did it scare me? I had my own business. I was doing other things. I worked for Nelson Rockefeller for 12 years. JA: I didn’t realize you worked for him that long. When did you start working for Rockefeller?

SIMON: I can’t remember these dates. I was working for him while my friend Marty Burstein had his little advertising agency, which was heavily politically connected. I was the art director and was constantly working for the man. Where did I get the energy to do all that? [Jim chuckles] Nelson Rockefeller was a very good man to work for. He never acted superior to us. He wanted to be treated as one of the guys, and treated everyone very well. Everybody liked him. He was actually a comic book fan, and thought that comics were good for his campaigns. He saw the communications potential of the comics medium. Rockefeller never carried money with him, either, which reminds me of a little story. When I worked for him, we had a budget. From that budget—which was always paid in advance of the work—I had to pay the men who worked for me, like George Tuska. They would wire the money to my bank account. One day, I called the bank to find out if the money had arrived. The lady at the other end of the phone asked where the money was coming from. When I told her “Nelson Rockefeller,” she got mad and hung up the phone. She thought I was being a prankster. [mutual laughter]

SIMON: Kirby loved to work. I love to work. We were both working all the time. We were also doing the Crestwood books at that time. They sued us, you know. Crestwood sued us. It’s in my book. The section is “A Fish in a Barrel.”

JA: Where did you get the idea for Win a Prize?

JA: I thought you were going to sue them because they were holding back royalties.

SIMON: [chuckles] From the back covers of the comic books. Those back covers were fascinating; a lot of bull, you know, but they were pulling in

Joe Simon On The Comic Book Biz

had this audio of Jack Kirby telling how Simon & Kirby created it, so when they put out the hardcover Challengers books, they asked Mark Evanier to write an introduction for it. Mark included this information in the introduction. Their lawyer wouldn’t let them use it, so they paid Mark, and had it rewritten so that Joe Simon wouldn’t be involved in the creation. So I called Paul and complained. I told him that when it came time to terminate the copyright, I was going to include that information and that I had a lot to back me up here. So that’s the way things stand. That’s the way Marvel and DC are. And Paul—God bless him—I love the guy, but he’s got his job to do. Please print that.

A Titanic Tag Team

some extra money. We didn’t get a lot of money for those back cover ads, but it saved us a page of art, and the kids used to like it.

JA: You and Jack dissolved your partnership around 1956, right? [Joe agrees] Were there any problems between you two when you split up?

We got very little money from advertising. Usually, the thinking of the publishers was, that’s a free page of artwork, and a couple hundred bucks. That’s all we got out of that. It was a very cheap bit of income for us.

SIMON: Jack said he always missed those days. As a matter of fact, didn’t we get together later on The Fly and The Double Life of Private Strong? Jack was always ready to work with me.

Win a Prize didn’t sell very well. That’s the only thing I can remember about it. We did it through Charlton. We never expected Charlton to sell anything. They were a little full-service industry there. They did their own engraving; they stole the engraving process from Post Engraving. They put their own shop in there, and had their own distributors. They printed and distributed their own stuff. They had these guys come out on their lunch hour and put up bricks on the printing plant. A very sweet operation. They were lucky to make a living. That’s the way we all thought about it.

JA: But even more than that, you dissolved your partnership, and then you worked on Nelson Rockefeller’s 1956 campaign.

“Jack Was Always Ready To Work With Me”

JA: But he was doing work in some of the magazines you were editing for Harvey, even though you weren’t a legal partnership any more. How did that work? Did you pay Jack, or did Harvey pay Jack?

The cover of Harvey’s Alarming Tales #3 (Jan. 1958) is by Kirby, that of #4 (March ’58) by Simon. Repro’d from scans of the original art, courtesy of Harry Mendryk. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

JA: You and Kirby split up your partnership in 1956, as best as I can determine. SIMON: By ’53, we were doing Mainline and we were also getting other books together, such as The Challengers of the Unknown. We did that in our shop while we were waiting for sales figures on our other books. After Mainline folded, we started shopping it around, along with other features. Recently, I brought it up to Paul Levitz at DC, because DC has never included me in the creation of the Challengers. When DC used to reprint that stuff, I’d tell Paul I created this thing with Jack. His answer was, “Well, I wasn’t there, I don’t know. It might be you, but I wasn’t there.” We

SIMON: I was working for Harvey, too. JA: When you and Jack split up, you still were editing at Harvey. Was Jack working for you then? Instead of being a team, was he your employee? SIMON: We just weren’t working together.

SIMON: Harvey paid Jack. I put the vouchers in and Harvey paid them, that’s what happened. JA: Another thing I’ve always been a little unclear about: you also edited the romance books for Crestwood until 1963. SIMON: I was putting those books together for Crestwood. I was still honoring our contract. We had partnership contracts with all these books, and our budget was cut to practically nothing, but it was work. JA: After you and Jack worked together at Archie, you still continued to

Simon Says!

edit romance books for Crestwood, but Jack doesn’t have work in those books any more. How come?

JA: So when they were sold, it was a clean sale to DC: lock, stock and barrel.

SIMON: We had a very low budget there. I had to come up with new talent. [chuckles] Like the New York Yankees.

SIMON: It was a clean sale. I got money for it, but I don’t remember the details.

JA: Of course, Jack got busy at Marvel.

JA: In regard to The Fly and Private Strong titles, you retained the copyright on those characters, didn’t you?

SIMON: Jack was going through this thing with Marvel where they were going out of business. We had some meetings, both with Stan Lee and with Jack, at that time. Stan Lee came to see me at Harvey, and said he was out of work. I told him to start his own company and I showed him how to do it. And I put Jack to work on the Archie stuff. JA: Was Stan afraid to start his own publishing company? SIMON: He was. He didn’t know anything about publishing. I remember it to this day. We went to lunch at the Carnegie Deli, and we sat across the way from Tony Randall. JA: You packaged The Fly and The Double Life of Private Strong for Archie. Did you shop The Fly around to anyone else? I know The Fly had its genesis in “The Silver Spider.” SIMON: I shopped that to Leon Harvey first. They lost the proposal and art in their warehouse for a few years. Yeah, you could say they turned it down. JA: Who inked the first “Challengers of the Unknown” story? [Joe doesn’t remember] When you and Jack pitched “Challengers” to DC, did you get any money for that? SIMON: No, it didn’t work that way. They gave us the work. We didn’t get any money for the title or for anything there. That’s comic books. JA: Why didn’t you continue with “Challengers of the Unknown”? SIMON: Why didn’t I? I was working at Harvey. They were happy to have me. They were always there for me and they loved me. JA: So not doing “Challengers” was an economic decision? SIMON: Well, in the first place, it was really a one-shot. I didn’t know if DC was going to continue it or not. So I got this lovely job with Harvey, who treated me like royalty. JA: And then DC decided to continue “Challengers.” Why didn’t you do it then? SIMON: I don’t know. I didn’t keep in touch with them, they didn’t keep in touch with me. We were competitors. JA: So Jack could work for them because he was not a competitor? SIMON: Jack could do whatever he wanted, yes.

“We Were In A Partnership Deal” JA: You had ownership in the Young Romance and Young Love titles, which were eventually sold to DC Comics in 1963. You got some money for that transaction, but when they were sold to DC, did you forfeit your ownership to the titles? SIMON: We had a contract on the title, giving each other certain rights. I’ll put it this way: when DC republished the first issue of Young Romance a few years ago, Paul Levitz called me and said, “I don’t know who owns this, but we want to publish it. Do you have any objections?” I said, “No.” And he said, “Okay, I’ll give you and Jack the copyright.” So he did that, and in the book they printed Jack’s description of how I had created the romance books.

SIMON: I renewed the copyright. I own the copyright renewals, and entered into a deal with Archie where they turned over all the copyrights to me on the Simon Fly books, and on The Double Life of Private Strong. I also got the original copyrights. No, Archie didn’t pay me for the characters in the original deal. JA: I’m curious about the Harveys. What were they like? I know, later, there was a lot of animosity between the brothers. SIMON: It was Al Harvey’s business, totally. He started it; I helped him. I did free work for him. When he went into the service, he took his brothers in. His brother Robert was a CPA, and Al brought him in as a partner. The first thing Robert did was hire a CPA to be his accountant, and then he brought his brother Leon in. Leon and Alfred were twins, but they were nothing alike; they looked nothing alike. When the brothers got married later, the wives were actually enemies of one another, sided with one side or the other, causing a lot of friction. JA: How hands-on with the company was Alfred?

The Fly On The Wall George Tuska drew a story or two for Joe in the early issues of The Adventures of The Fly—and recently he drew this commission sketch for Dominique Léonard. [The Fly TM & © Joe Simon.]

Joe Simon On The Comic Book Biz

The Triple Life Of Ex-Seaman Simon (Writer, Artist, & Editor) The Simon & Kirby team may have officially been dissolved well before the two issues of Archie’s The Double Life of Private Strong were published in 1959, under editor Joe Simon… but somebody who’d been taking lessons from the lads penciled the lead story in issue #2 (June ’59), “The Strange Case of Lovable Lou, the Toy Master”… Joe is credited with scripting that tale, as well as all others. George Tuska illustrated “Upsy Daisy” and another story… Joe apparently also drew the “Boy Sentinels” two-pager that served as a teaser for The Adventures of The Fly #1… and we kinda suspect he may have drawn the above illo accompanying the text page “The General’s Favorite Private,” as well. But there’s definitely a lot of Kirby in the issue’s final offering, “The Ultra-Sonic Spies.” Archie reprinted the first four issues of The Fly in a trade paperback in 2004. [©2008 Joe Simon.]

Simon Says!

You don’t have to think too hard. Just go out, smoking your cigar. [mutual laughter] JA: You did a good job matching the styles of the other artists. [Joe agrees] That fascinates me because, normally, you’re doing the manly, macho type of Simon & Kirby stuff that we all know. But then you do a total switch like this. SIMON: We were pros, I tell you. Jack and I were pros. [chuckles] JA: Stunt Man and Boy Explorers didn’t last very long. I’m assuming that was because of the newsstand glut. [Joe agrees] Did you feel like Harvey gave up on them too early, or was there just nothing they could do? SIMON: Harvey didn’t give up on them, because they later appeared in several other productions of comics that he had. JA: But was that just using up inventory that he paid for? SIMON: Yes. JA: Did Harvey own those characters, or did you and Kirby? SIMON: We were in a partnership deal, so we felt that we owned them. And Harvey didn’t take a very strong stand on it. As a matter of fact, they signed some papers, giving the copyrights to us.

A Ghost Of A Chance As Joe points out, he was able to ghost syndicated comic strip characters with the best of them for Harvey Comics, as per the image at right, which appears in his and son Jim’s book The Comic Book Makers. Ham Fisher’s Joe Palooka hams it up with radio’s Green Hornet and Harvey’s Black Cat in a 1940s pinup. [Art ©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

SIMON: Totally 100%. All the titles were brought in by Alfred, but some of them were given to him by the distributor, like The Green Hornet. Alfred would make deals with the artists from the syndicates. He’d give them... if they had a deal before Alfred, it was like 10% of the profits. Alfred would give them a much more lucrative deal. He’d give them 50% of the net profits. And who’re we talking about? We’re talking about Rip Kirby... Alex Raymond’s feature. And Dick Tracy, meaning Chester Gould, of course. They were all Al’s friends. Do you know what was his biggest and longestlasting comic book from the syndicates? Joe Palooka. Then he put out Little Joe, and he put out Humphrey, and they had the biggest sales around the war time. Harvey made all his money out of that. JA: He sounds like he was very generous. SIMON: Generous? I think he was very smart. He was the kind of guy who, if you came over to him and said, “I want 30%,” he’d say, “No, I’ll give you 35%.” And then he was your friend for life. JA: You drew some of the Joe Palooka and Dick Tracy covers. How hard was it for you to imitate the styles of these other artists? SIMON: Well, I’m a thief at heart. It was very simple. [chuckles] I enjoyed it. You know, you take an idea out of the book, and make a cover out of it.

A Slight Splash This Simon & Kirby “Boy Explorers” splash page appeared as a backup feature in Harvey’s Terry and the Pirates #4 (June 1947)—except, as you can probably tell, the splash panel is an entire page, reduced in size, to reintroduce a story that had been cut in two and was continued from the preceding issue. [©2008 Joe Simon & Estate of Jack Kirby.]

JA: Arnold Drake told me that he heard Jack was pitching a play to someone around the early 1950s, a play that either he wrote or that you and Jack wrote together. Did you guys write plays together?

Joe Simon On The Comic Book Biz

SIMON: Yes, two of them. The guy at the TV show that we submitted it to asked us to write a play, but we didn’t sell either of them. I still have the script to one. It was a story about my mother-in-law titled The Halo or something like that. It was about hat-makers who came up with this “halo hat.” It didn’t have a top on it, just a halo, and they did very, very well on it. There were a lot of strange and interesting things going on, and we put a love story around it. It was a good play. JA: Who did the bulk of the writing? How did you work that play out between the two of you? SIMON: Things were pretty bad at that time. We just sat down in my living room, or maybe Jack’s living room, and we wrote the way we did a comic book story. We both wrote it. JA: You also tried a number of newspaper strip ideas, and didn’t sell any of them. Why do you think you had a hard time selling a syndicate on a newspaper strip? SIMON: We tried only one, as far as I remember: Inky. That was a great one. We did sell it, but I think the syndicate went out of business.

“Jack Made A Mistake Taking On That [Sky Masters] Strip” JA: You ended up cutting up the strips and printing it in In Love. Of course, after you and Kirby split, he did the Sky Masters strip. SIMON: Jack made a mistake taking on that strip. He didn’t get a good deal, and then he was sued by Jack Schiff because Kirby didn’t want to pay him the percentage they had agreed upon. JA: Why was it such a bad deal for Kirby? SIMON: Well, his percentage of the strip was 24%, and out of that, he had to pay an inker and a letterer, and Jack Schiff. I don’t know why he took that deal. JA: He probably did because Jack, like most everyone else, wanted to be a syndicated newspaper strip artist, and this was his chance. SIMON: You know, the strip never was going to go very far. It was distributed by a small syndicate [George Matthew Adams Syndicate], so it was never going to be a a lot of papers. It didn’t last too long. JA: Do you think Schiff had a good reason to sue Kirby? SIMON: I have the court testimony from the trial, and Kirby lost the suit. He was supposed to give Jack Schiff 4% of the money and didn’t. Jack [Kirby] just had his percentage split up too much for him to make much money. And the Wood brothers [Dick and Dave] had their own percentage [for writing the feature]. JA: Jack said he had trouble getting scripts from the Wood brothers and would have to write the strip at times. SIMON: You know, they were pretty good writers. They drank too much, though. Are they still alive? JA: No, both Dick and Dave Wood are gone now. And of course, Bob Wood died in 1962. SIMON: I knew about that. One of the Wood brothers told me that some friends of Bob’s took him out riding, and threw him out of the car. That’s how he died. JA: I’ve always heard that Bob Wood was drunk and stepped out in front of a car and was killed. I’ve also heard he owed money to people, didn’t pay up, and they got even. SIMON: My information came from one of the brothers. That’s what they told me.

“Beautiful People, Beautiful Work” JA: Okay. Now I want to ask you about some other people who worked with you. I want to start with Al Bare, because he worked with you on Brother Power, the Geek, but he also worked with you in the 1940s, didn’t he?

Stunted Growth Though the stories have been reprinted before, we couldn’t do an entire Joe Simon interview without at least one glimpse of one of Simon & Kirby’s greatest super-hero concoctions, Stuntman. Here’s a page from issue #2, repro’d from a full-size photocopy of the original (Simon-autographed) art, courtesy of an unknown donor. The mag may not have lasted long—but it was a real doozy! [©2008 Joe Simon & Estate of Jack Kirby.]

SIMON: No. You know where he was working? He was working for Lev Gleason. Around the time of The Geek, he was doing work for me on Sick magazine, also. I lived in Woodbury, Long Island, and he lived one town away. He used to come over to my studio and work. Actually, he was an oil painter. He lived in a compound that his parents had left him. There were maybe about four or five houses on the place. I almost bought it, but the real estate people talked me out of it. Otherwise, I would have bought the whole compound, and probably be a billionaire by now. [Jim chuckles] So he sold it. Al was a big man, very soft-spoken, very easy to work with, and very talented. After things got bad in comics, he went to work in the

Simon Says!

malls, doing pastel portraits. He was working with a Frenchman who was doing the same. He did that stuff all his life. He was terrific. He did a John Lennon cover for me; Al Bare did one, too. Both of them did different covers concerning the Beatles for a Mad-type magazine I had called Something Else. JA: For a while, you had Leonard Starr and John Prentice working for you. SIMON: Beautiful people, beautiful work. We were very close. We used to go out together. John Prentice and I used to go out together with our dates. Lenny Starr lived near me. He used to play tricks on me. A bunch of guys did that. They were all stars, you know: Al Williamson, Lenny Starr, John Prentice, Reed Crandall. One of my favorites was Angelo Torres, who worked with these guys. Once, I gave him a story to draw. I was going to give it to Al Williamson. I told Angelo, “Al does a beautiful art job, but he tells a lousy story.” They beautifully inked some science-fiction work that Jack had penciled. They were the first guys who really tamed Kirby’s wild penciling. The results were magnificent. Anyway, just to tease me, [chuckles] or show me up, Torres gave this particular job to Al Williamson to pencil. Angelo brought it back, and I said, “This is great.

Did Somebody Mention Al Williamson? Al Williamson inked Jack Kirby’s pencils in stories for Harvey’s Race for the Moon #4 in 1958—but the series was canceled after three issues, so this tale had to wait to be printed in the same company’s Blast-Off (no number, Nov. 1965). Thanks to Harry Mendryk for the scan and info. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

This is just what I was talking about,” not knowing that Williamson penciled it. I didn’t hear about this until a few years ago. [laughter] It was spread out around our group, you know. It was one of those stories told in the dark of night: [mutual chuckling] “How Stupid Simon Was.” JA: That’s the way cartoonists are. Why did you pick Al Williamson to ink Kirby? Why didn’t you do it yourself or pick another inker? Was there a particular reason you chose Williamson? SIMON: I was packaging and editing the books. I couldn’t do everything. I didn’t pick Al Williamson. I gave it to the whole group of them. They figured out who was going to do what. JA: So those are not pure Williamson inks over Kirby then? SIMON: Right. JA: Another person who worked for you was Marvin Stein.

A Starr Is Born The Leonard Starr-illustrated splash at left first appeared in Young Love, Vol. 2, #7 (1950), before the comic book artist moved over to the comic strip world of On Stage, then Annie. “Two Can Play the Game!” was reprinted in the 1988 Eclipse Books volume Real Love: The Best of the Simon and Kirby Romance Comics: 1940s1950s. Thanks to Harry Mendryk. [©2008 Joe Simon & Estate of Jack Kirby.]

SIMON: Marvin Stein worked for us longer than the others. He worked for us at Crestwood and Harvey. I thought of Marvin as a B+ or a Bartist. He worked on Boys’ Ranch, and a lot of other stuff. I saw his stuff later, after we had broken up the company. I was amazed at how he had improved. His artwork was a hundred times better than it was when he

Joe Simon On The Comic Book Biz

On The Eerie Canal When Simon edited Eerie Tales for Hastings Associates in 1959, he hired many of his longtime colleagues, great comics illustrators in their own right. On this page are a quartet of colossi (clockwise from left): George Tuska – cover of issue #1 (Nov. 1959). Bob Powell – panels from first issue. Angelo Torres – a climactic panel from a horror tale. Paul Reinman – splash of “Little Miss Gruesome.” And that’s just for openers! Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

worked for us. He really polished up his style. As far as what I know about him, I don’t know. He married his sister. Anything else?

JA: Not quite the same guy, Joe! One person you knew well was George Roussos.

JA: [incredulous] What!? He married his sister?

SIMON: George Roussos was the sweetest man. He lived in Islip, Long Island, had a family; he was like 12 years old, and he had five kids... [Jim chuckles] one of those guys. He worked with Jerry Robinson at DC. He was always available for me when I needed help. George Roussos was a great kidder, too. He was Greek, he lived in a different town, so we never socialized. But I would have liked to. I liked him.

SIMON: Yes. [teasingly laughing] You want to know anything else? [mutual laughter] Okay, this sister thing needs explaining. His father—or this may be reversed—married her mother. They were not related by blood. They grew up together as brother and sister; I don’t how old they were. And then he married her. So it’s okay. JA: Good. You worried me for a minute. What was he like personally? SIMON: Marvin? He wasn’t my type of guy. I never hung out with him or anything. After a while, we traded him to Crestwood. I traded him to Reece Rosenthal, so he was working for them, but working in our office. This transfer, it was like trading baseball players. A year afterwards, he came to me and asked, “Can I go on vacation?” I said, “What do you mean?” He said, “Can you pay me to go on vacation?” I said, “Marvin, I’m not paying you. You’re not working for me.” He says, “I know, but I thought I’d just try.” [mutual laughter] That gives you an idea of what kind of guy he was. JA: Another guy who worked for you was Bill Walton. He did a lot of stuff there in the 1950s for you. SIMON: I don’t remember him, except for very nice memories. I couldn’t, if I saw him, even be able to identify him. But [sighs] he played great basketball, didn’t he? [even more mutual laughter]

JA: Another guy was Myron Strauss. SIMON: Oh, you don’t want to know about Myron. I was at Crestwood, and he’d come in every week with someone else’s samples. I once gave him a job, and it was totally, totally unusable, terrible. I said, “What happened to these samples?” He says, [agitated] “What do you mean? What do you mean? These are my samples!” I said, “Myron, don’t come in here any more.” I saw him in the street about a week later and he says, “I’m carrying. I’m carrying.” He opened his pants and shows me a pistol. He thought I was going to be physical with him or something. I don’t know what the hell he was thinking. He was armed and dangerous. [mutual laughter] Then he got himself involved with Myron Fass, publishing girlie magazines, and was pretty successful. Fass was the partner of the son of the owner of the company. Bob Powell ended his days working for Myron Fass. Powell was doing girlie things similar to Little Annie Fanny, but a lot more obscene. Powell did a beautiful job. Right before he died, he called his best friends. He called me to tell me goodbye, and he called Myron Fass. He loved Myron Fass.

Simon Says!

JA: Speaking of Bob Powell, he worked for you a lot on Sick magazine. SIMON: He had a whole office working for me. He lived in Oyster Bay, Long Island, the next town to mine. He had a whole regimentation there. Even I couldn’t get into his offices. I’d come to pick up stuff, we’d talk on the loud speaker, and he wouldn’t let anybody there talk. Everything was business. He was very strict with his workers. He liked to drink. He was a big drinker, but I never saw him drunk. I never saw him under the influence. He was a good family man. I’m still in touch with his sons, John and Matt. Bob divorced their mother, and he remarried. He married a woman he met at a party out there, and they were very happy together. He was around 53 years old when he died from stomach cancer. When he got sick, he told me, “I can’t take it without the drinking.” He was always going out to the bars. He was great. He was probably the most versatile artist of them. When the comics went bad, he formed a design company that made prints, and designed work for various companies. He did artwork for some tire companies. He kept going. I miss him. JA: He did a lot of work in the early issues of Sick. Why did you pick him? Because he was so versatile? SIMON: It wasn’t like I could go out and get my choice of any of the great artists around. I thought I was very lucky to get Powell to do all that work. I was turning out so many things, and Bob could write and draw. He had a nice sense of humor, and if he couldn’t turn it around himself, he’d have other people do it. He was great, very dependable. Here’s something interesting: he was the head of the Sports Car Club of America during that time. He had one of those red plastic Corvettes. He lived very well. JA: Bruno Premiani also worked for you. SIMON: He was great, wasn’t he? He was from South America. He did artwork in books like Black Magic. But I had to be

careful. He didn’t have a sense of humor for American business. He was like a South American count. I was afraid he was going to suck my blood every time. [mutual laughter] He used to dress up in a suit, and usually carried an umbrella like a cane; a classy guy. His artwork was very classic. He was an illustrator, actually, so we had to weigh very carefully what scripts we gave him. JA: He’s been mentioned as possibly inking that first “Challengers of the Unknown” story. Do you know if that was him? Some people think that it was him, and others think it was Marvin Stein. SIMON: I know they both worked for us at the same time. Jack and I created “Challengers of the Unknown” from our Mainline office. That was a long time ago. I really didn’t pay too much attention to it, but it was one of the things that we did when we were out of work. I’d have to see that story again. JA: Do you remember Ann Brewster? SIMON: Sure. She was quiet and she was normal size, normal build; a nice woman. She was young. I have one of her originals here. I never knew much about her, though. She drew a lot of romance work for me, and did a couple covers. She was the only woman who ever worked for me that I can remember, even though you’ve said there were others. She did a nice job. JA: John Severin and Will Elder were doing work for Prize. Did you deal with them? SIMON: Absolutely. I brought them into the business, I think, and I was really shocked at how both of them developed, especially Will Elder. They were a team when they worked for me. I was shocked when I saw how Elder turned out in the Mad scheme of things. I knew John Severin would make it; he always had the talent. Will was not the star during the time they worked for me, but he turned out to be like a genius. They were very nice guys, both of them. Very willing, very anxious to work. JA: John Severin said in an interview that, at one point in the 1950s, he worked for a Crestwood editor by the name of Nevin Fidler. Who was he?

Eerie, Do You Remember When…? More eldritch Eerie Tales, done a few years before Warren Publications would launch its own black-&-white horror comic Eerie. Art by Al Williamson (left) and Gray Morrow (above). Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Joe Simon On The Comic Book Biz

some kind of a children’s camp out there. He wrote a few things. He thought he was better than he was. He wasn’t my favorite. Carl Wessler did a lot of work for us. We used to say he was our biggest writer—which he wasn’t, of course. The guy who wrote the most for us was Jack Oleck. JA: Some of those people—Irv Werstein, for example—would sell the same story to more than one company. Did you ever catch anyone doing that? SIMON: Jack Oleck did that with Marvel, as I told you. [At this point, I asked Joe about a few more people; some he didn’t remember and some he did, though he was unable to provide much detail, so those questions and answers were omitted for space considerations. –Jim.] I can’t believe it! I never knew we had so many employees.

“They Can’t Kill [Captain America]” JA: Think of how many pages, and how many books, you were doing. You had a lot of freelancers working for you, and I just have a few of their names. I know there were more people whose names I don’t have. Particularly, writers. SIMON: Well, Kirby was saying things at the end of his life, like saying he never worked from a script in his life. And people were printing that stuff. It wasn’t true. JA: Did Jack occasionally write his own stories? SIMON: I didn’t let him write a story when I was with him, but he worked with the scripts. He was a good editor. He’d put some nice phrases in there, but his stories were all fragmented.

Ragamuffin Royalty Before we forget them entirely, it’s high time we showcased Simon & Kirby’s thematically related “Duke of Broadway” and “Vagabond Prince” series, which S&K expert Greg Theakston informs us are “almost all Simon, with Kirby only tipping-in on a panel or two, and one splash.” The “Duke” splash page is from Black Cat Comics #5 (April-May 1947). The “Prince” tale, as seen in Greg’s (and Pure Imagination’s) 1987 black-&-white publication Simon and Kirby Classics #1 – Stuntman #1, may well be a Simon solo effort. It is labeled there as “intended for Boy Explorers #2, July 1946,” and indeed didn’t see print till four decades later. Thanks to Harry Mendryk. [“Duke” ©2008 the respective copyright holders; “Prince” ©2008 Joe Simon & Estate of Jack Kirby.]

SIMON: Nevin Fidler was one of the guys I brought in from my Coast Guard days. He was a college man and we got along fine. He did some writing for us. As for editorial work, well, he may have done some of that when Jack and I formed our own company, Mainline. If he did any editorial work, it would have been for the Crestwood books, not for Mainline. He probably edited the Prize books that we didn’t work on. In regard to Mainline, Jack and I made Nevin our business manager while he was working on other books. He worked for us in his off-hours. JA: Al Eadeh also worked for you. SIMON: I think he was Japanese or perhaps another Asian descent. I don’t think he was with us very long, was he? I think it was his choice. JA: There was a writer named Irv Werstein. Does he ring a bell? SIMON: Yes, but I don’t recall him. JA: Another writer was Bob Bernstein. SIMON: Bob Bernstein lived out on Long Island. He and his wife had

Simon Says!

A Deadly Cap Pistol Timely Golden Age bullpenner Allen Bellman apparently shares Joe Simon’s views on the recent death of the original Captain America, as per this (color) sketch. Below, in a photo taken at the opening of a major comic art exhibit assembled by Michael Uslan for the Montclair Museum of Art in Montclair, NJ, ’twould appear that Joe and Allen are attempting to enlist fantasy illustrator Greg Hildebrandt in the cause. Thanks to Allen for the art, and to his wife Roz for the photo. [Captain America TM & ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

attention I’ve ever gotten for my comics work. JA: You didn’t get much media attention for Captain America in the 1940s, did you? JA: Do you remember Howard Post? He was a very good cartoonist.

SIMON: Not much, no. Certainly nothing like what’s happened recently.

SIMON: He did a lot of stuff for Harvey. I think we almost got into a fistfight once, if that’s the right guy. [laughs] The argument was over something stupid. A lot of people used to pick on me because I was big.

JA: How does that make you feel?

JA: You were taller than just about everybody, weren’t you? SIMON: Yes. I never saw a guy in comics who was taller than me until Jim Shooter. I told him I was the tallest guy in comics until he came in. JA: He stole your thunder. [mutual chuckling] By the way, when you were doing backups in, say, Bulls-Eye or Boys’ Ranch and using other artists besides Kirby, what were your criteria on books with reoccurring characters? SIMON: The whole industry suffers from the lack of consistency that the comic strips have. I always complained about that, but there was just the matter of paying too little, and having not enough talent or time. I also complained that the consistency was not up to standard. And today, look at Captain America. One day, he looks like a girl; one day, he looks like a fat Dutch woman. One day, he’s lean and skinny and sinewy, but he’s still going strong. They can’t kill him. [mutual chuckling] There’s a piece in Time magazine this week about Marvel [Sept. 6, 2006], and it has a lovely drawing of Captain America. He’s got boobs, big thighs, and a lovely girly rear end. [Jim laughs] JA: [Later, when the media press focused on Captain America, I revisited this subject with Joe] A few months ago, Marvel got a lot of attention by killing off Captain America. And as a result, you’ve gotten a fair amount of media attention, too. SIMON: Oh, have I! You wouldn’t believe it. I was on Nightline, and CNN did a feature on me, too. I did interviews for several radio outlets, including NPR. It’s funny how things turn around. This is the most

SIMON: It’s great. I noticed the film crew got a big kick out of watching me draw Captain America. This just goes to show you that, if you live long enough, interesting things will happen to you. Of course, most comic book fans know Marvel will bring Captain America back, but in the meantime I am glad that my character’s getting publicity. Like I said before, they can’t kill Captain America no matter what they do to him. He’ll be back. JA: [Since this interview was conducted, Marvel announced that they were bringing back Captain America with an Alex Ross design, so once again, I revisited the subject with Joe] What are your feelings about the “new” Captain America? SIMON: I’m very upset that Marvel has changed the greatest costume ever devised by God or man. My main objection is that they gave him a little pop-gun and a knife that likely could inspire more Columbine and Virginia Tech copycats. This is not what we designed or what was used for over 60 years. What we designed was an iconic figure who represents the best of our country, and there was no need to degrade him like this. I was not consulted about the new costume. Killing Captain America was one thing; inviting him to be a killer is far worse. They are inviting some nut cases to be victimized by a super-hero. It’s stupid, selfish, and arrogant, and is not the character Jack and I devised. And Marvel, in defiance of contractual obligations and decency, even removed the “Created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby” byline from the property. When we did The Double Life of Private Strong, I gave the Shield character a new costume, removing that shield design that started at his shoulders and pointed to his crotch. The “new” Captain America has the same design element.

Joe Simon On The Comic Book Biz

“[Sick] Supported Me Very Nicely For 25 Years” JA: Back to the past: how well did Sick magazine sell for you? SIMON: The first issue sales were terrific. My publisher, Teddy Epstein, got the sales figures and immediately took it to another distributor where he’d get a bigger advance. So, after that, it went from like 80% sales down to something like 50%, 40%, instantly, because it takes a lot of mathematics when you change distributors. You know, you’ve got a whole list of wholesalers, and all that and so forth. He screwed himself, but it supported me very nicely for 25 years. JA: I’ve got the first issue in front of me. SIMON: You do? I did that cover. JA: I know you did. And it’s a nice Jack Paar likeness, too. The credit box lists, “Dee Caruso and Bill Levine, Feature Editors.” Who were they? SIMON: Dee Caruso was with me for a long time. He always needed a collaborator. His specialty was writing stand-up scripts for important stand-up comics. I don’t remember how I got him—somebody sent him to me. Both Dee and Bill Levine were from Syracuse. Bill had a job in an ad agency. At that time, Bill Levine was his main collaborator. The editorial credit was really an honorary title. They were working freelance for me, and they did great work. JA: Angelo Torres did most of the art in the first issue. SIMON: Angelo could do whatever he wanted. I loved his work. Angelo was a medium-sized guy, soft spoken, very American, very dependable, terrific artist. My favorite artist. JA: I’m looking at this drawing of Ed Sullivan in the second issue. You don’t give yourself much credit for being a humor cartoonist, but you were a good one. You don’t usually say much about your humor work. SIMON: Well, I wasn’t in the same class with Dee Caruso. This guy was

What? Me Sick? Joe Simon wrote and Angelo Torres drew “The New Age of Comics” for the Nov. 1966 issue of Sick magazine. “Sam Me” is an obvious takeoff on Stan Lee… and naturally Joe couldn’t resist having one of the super-hero parodied be the original Blue Bolt, whom he originated in 1939. Thanks to Ger Apeldoorn. [©2008 Joe Simon.]

Right Here On Our Stage… Joe drew some pretty fair parody material himself—as per the caricature at left of super-popular TV variety host Ed Sullivan, from Sick #2 (Oct. 1960)—and one of President Lyndon Johnson in the ad spoof at right from the May 1965 issue. Thanks to Jay Kinney and Ger Apeldoorn, respectively. [©2008 Joe Simon.]

Simon Says!

JA: The Harveys’ distribution of those books was kind of strange, because it seemed to me that they didn’t give them a real fighting chance to get an audience.

really a genius. You know what he wound up doing? The last I heard, he was a professor at UCLA, but what he wound up doing was movie-writing. He wrote several movies for Jerry Lewis. He was the editor of The Monkees TV show. He used Sick as a springboard, which was great with me, and he got himself some really fancy work in Hollywood.

SIMON: You know what happens: the distributors would come to the publishers and say, “Well, this is a big trend coming up. We don’t want to lose it. We’ll give you a 25% advance for every comic book you put out.” The publishers had nothing to lose. The printers would pitch in to give advances, and the publishers went ahead with it. You know, we were just little fish in that thing.

JA: I still wonder why you don’t seem to be as talkative, or maybe even as proud, of your humor work as opposed to your other work. SIMON: I don’t know. The stuff that people want to hear about is Captain America and the other comic book work. I make light of a lot of the Sick magazine work, you know. I’ll admit that everything was a copy of Mad there. But we did try to go off on a different direction, due to Dee Caruso’s talent.

JA: I’m looking at Warfront, for instance. Issue 36 was published in October of ’65, but the next issue didn’t come out until September of ’66. SIMON: I don’t know. I think that was a lot of reprint stuff, wasn’t it?

JA: In the 5th issue, you listed Bob Powell as the Art Director.

JA: Some of it was, and some of it was new material.

SIMON: Oh, yeah. I’d put you down as Art Director if you wanted. [Jim laughs] No, I just gave everybody credits to make it look like a big organization. JA: In your book The Comic Book Makers, you discussed your business dealings with Israel Waldman. What was he like? Did it bother him that he was infringing on other people’s copyrights, or did he even think about it?

We Double-Dare You! Joe’s cover for Harvey’s Double-Dare Adventures #1 (Dec. 1966), featuring Joe’s “Bee-Man” and the Jim Steranko-created “MagicMaster”—not to mention the ever-gleaming “Glowing Gladiator”! Repro’d from a scan of the original art, courtesy of Harry Mendryk. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

SIMON: I’m not going to explain that. I don’t remember what was going on. I was just trying to get titles out. I had some of the best men in the business working for me, and I was so lucky to get them. I understood them, and they understood me, and I’m very proud of that. JA: Do you think it was because of your reputation for putting out a good product?

SIMON: Well, he wasn’t a person I would have hung out with. It was just business between us. As for copyrights, I made sure he respected mine and put our copyright notice in his books. I don’t think he gave any thought to anyone’s copyrights.

SIMON: I think they just knew that I would let their talents go where they were supposed to go. I don’t know.

JA: Vince Fago said the same thing. He thought Waldman wasn’t malicious in using other people’s property. Waldman, in Vince’s view, was just selling paper.

SIMON: I only remember doing one. Will Eisner supplied the work, and I put the book together. I really didn’t do that much, certainly not editorially. You could have put that book together as easily as I did. [laughs]

SIMON: I agree with that. He was just selling paper.

JA: What do you remember about the young Jim Steranko?

“The Publishers Heard That Comic Books Were Coming Back” JA: Around 1965, Harvey brought you back to do some more comic books. You did Warfront and Tiger Man. SIMON: That’s when the publishers heard that comic books were coming back, and they jumped on the bandwagon. They all started doing this stuff, and didn’t know what the hell they were doing.

JA: What do you remember about the two Spirit comics you packaged for Harvey?

SIMON: He wasn’t happy that the name of his character was changed from The Magician to Magic-Master. I had to explain to him that you can’t copyright a word like “magician,” and that I had to change it. He showed me his work, but I really didn’t have a place for him. I didn’t think his work was as good as he did at that time. He was young and doing his best to get into comics, after having spent time in other careers. I remember that he had been a magician. JA: What do you remember about Wally Wood?

JA: Those Harvey books were very short-lived, even with guys like George Tuska and Jack Sparling working for you.

SIMON: Wally Wood was a very moody guy. He was very creative. He wanted to do his own stuff. But he would do your stuff, too. He was very hard to figure out.

SIMON: I just picked them out of the air. Whoever would work for me. I have no idea why they failed. They all failed at the same time, the whole market.

JA: Well, I know he had emotional problems. And he was a big drinker.

Joe Simon On The Comic Book Biz

SIMON: I never knew that. I really respected him. I know he came out to my house on Long Island a few times. And he’d say things every once in a while, like, “Why are you patronizing me?” And I don’t think I even knew what that meant. [mutual laughter]

“Nothing [At DC] Lasted Very Long” JA: Whose idea was it to bring you to DC? SIMON: Irwin Donenfeld and Liebowitz were still running the company. I don’t remember who was responsible, really. The Geek was selling very well, but Mort Weisinger was claiming it was a subtle drug publication, [Jim laughs] and Liebowitz said, “We don’t need that.” It was canceled after the second issue, but, according to Carmine, it sold very well.

do new material. It was a business decision. JA: You did two issues of “Green Team,” but only one saw print. Why did you do more than one issue if only one saw print? SIMON: Well, when you’re publishing, you don’t know what the next issue’s doing until you finish the last issue. You know how it works. JA: “The Green Team” appeared in a comic book called 1st Issue Special, and every issue featured a different character. I had wondered if maybe “Green Team” was supposed to be a regular series, and then they decided not to do that, but decided to test the concept anyway. SIMON: All those things were an experiment. Kirby was doing the same thing.

JA: Was Weisinger afraid of you? Do you think that’s why he tried to sabotage you?

JA: Right, but you did Championship Sports, which got its own series, and only lasted four issues.

SIMON: Yes. He was that way with everybody, everybody that he was afraid of. I’m not going to say many nice things about Weisinger.

SIMON: I did a sports magazine, and Julie Schwartz did a sports magazine at the same time [Strange Sports Stories], and they both suffered the same fate.

JA: The Geek only lasted two issues, and that was it for you and DC for a few years. And then Carmine brought you back to do romance comics. SIMON: There was more to it than the Young Romance. As I said, when comics were not doing well, the only thing that did sell well was that issue of Sandman that Kirby and I did. JA: You did Young Love, Young Romance, “The Green Team”... SIMON: We did Black Magic again, but that was all reprints.

JA: You also did Prez, which I liked. I thought Prez was your best book there. SIMON: I thought they all were great, but film companies have been calling about Prez. They want to do the same thing over again, and I always sent them to Paul Levitz and he’d tell them, “No, it’s not a big enough property.” You know, Time-Warner and this and that, but we’ve been getting a lot of action on Prez.

JA: Why didn’t you use your new material there?

JA: I thought that book had a lot of potential, and I hated that it only lasted four issues. I think it’s your best writing at the time.

SIMON: The comics were really in bad shape. That title hadn’t been used for many years, and it was really a classic. I guess it cost more money to

SIMON: I loved that book. You know Tony Isabella? He’s a big fan of Prez.

JA: You also did a one-shot called “The Outsiders.” Do you remember that? SIMON: My original title was “The Freaks.” And they screwed around with that thing. “Freaks” is too insulting a word or something, I don’t know. They didn’t think it was respectful. JA: When you did “The Outsiders,” “Green Team,” or Prez, did you have to show them a presentation first? SIMON: Oh, no, I never did that. JA: Did Carmine just ask you to come up with some books? SIMON: Yes. We discussed them. I’d discuss them with Carmine, and he let me do them. JA: Why do you think those books didn’t last very long? SIMON: Because nothing there lasted very long. Kirby’s books didn’t last, either. And maybe I didn’t choose the right art team. I’ve heard some people complain that Jerry Grandenetti and Creig Flessel’s work wasn’t suitable to those projects. Also, I think that the comic books were a lousy physical package then. They didn’t have enough pages in there to sustain a conversation, let alone a story. The printing was lousy, and they were overpriced.

“The Crestwood Time Was… More Successful, And Therefore The Most Fun” JA: And there weren’t as many places selling comics in the early ’70s as there had been in the 1950s. In fact, I think you’ve got the best line I’ve ever heard, when you said comic books have been dying since the 1950s.

Simon Says!

Going Green—1970s Style Joe conceived and wrote “The Green Team,” which was penciled by Jerry Grandenetti and inked by Creig Flessel in 1975’s 1st Issue Special #2. The team actually prepared at least two more stories, which saw “print” only in the verylimited-edition Cancelled Comic Cavalcade [#1], photocopied by and for DC staffers in 1978, on the heels of the infamous “DC Implosion.” The double-page spread above is taken from the second tale, the panel at right from the third. As Joe described the concept to Ye Editor in Dec. 2007: “A bunch of rich kids buy adventures from victims of crimes, then limo out to solve the problems. They advertise on billboards and all media, then pay handsomely for exclusive rights for action.” [©2008 DC Comics.]

SIMON: I keep saying the same thing, but I keep changing the date. [mutual laughter] The first time, I used to say for 30 years, then I said 40 years, then I changed to since the 1930s, [Jim laughs] then ’38, ’39... I don’t know. JA: What do you think hurt comic books more: the Senate investigations, the parental groups, or television? SIMON: When television started coming into people’s homes, we were not allowed to mention the word “television.” I think the news dealers were scared to show comics on the stands. That was the main problem, you know, like showing a woman’s breasts on TV. Putting comic books in their store at the time was not the favorite idea of the neighborhood groups. All the things you mentioned hurt us. JA: Why do you think that comics fell out of the basic public consciousness the way they have? Just because of television? There was a time when most kids were reading comics. And now you can’t get a kid to read a comic book. SIMON: You know what? I didn’t know that. I know they ask me these questions from time to time. JA: When you were producing comic books, what did you figure the average age of the comic book reader was?

SIMON: Twelve years old. JA: Now, it’s more like 25. SIMON: Yes, but it didn’t used to be. Comics became popular with the college crowd, and now it’s even older than that, right? JA: It seems that way, at least. Do you think it was a mistake that comics quit catering to the kids? SIMON: If it’s a mistake—you know, the kids are online now. They’re on the Internet, they have their music, they have their iPods, Blackberries… I can’t keep up with all of it. And they go to a lot of movies, don’t they? JA: Did you ever suffer any personal backlash from any neighbors or friends about doing comic books? SIMON: I was always very highly regarded and honored, always from my neighbors, from the kids in the neighborhood, and from servicemen. I never had any negative discussion about my being in comics. It was always a big honor. JA: When you look back upon your comic book career, what was your favorite period? SIMON: The Young Romance, Black Magic, Young Love... the Crestwood

Joe Simon On The Comic Book Biz

Wild In The Comics (Top left:) The cover of Prez #3 (Dec. 1973-Jan. 1974), drawn by Jerry Grandenetti for Joe’s concept of a teenager who gets elected President of the United States. (Above right:) Prez #5 saw print only in the aforementioned Cancelled Comic Cavalcade #2 (1978); its splash is repro’d here from mediocre photocopies— you’ll have to fill in the blacks! Note the “Written Off – 11-30-77” stamp near the bottom. [Prez #3 & #5 art ©2008 DC Comics.] (Above center:) Many readers feel the mag’s ultimate inspiration was the 1968 cult film Wild in the Streets, starring Christopher Jones as a James Dean lookalike who gets the voting age lowered to 14 and gets elected you-knowwhat. This image, probably from a videotape or CD package, was sent by Michael T. Gilbert. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

time was, you know, more successful, and therefore the most fun. JA: Would you say that was the time that you felt most creative? SIMON: Well, I think we always felt creative, very creative. But there’s a “thank you” when the stuff sells, and it’s your fault when it doesn’t. That was the difference. We were like the top pro team in the whole business at that time. And we were just a couple of guys. JA: Just a couple of guys with an enormous amount of talent. SIMON: Yeah, I think so, sure.

Here’s Sand In Your Eye! Joe's original penciled cover for The Sandman #1 (Winter 1974) was reprinted in Alter Ego #13. Earlier, Joe had arranged for his frequent collaborator Jerry Grandenetti to pencil a different version of #1’s cover. “I love his work, no matter what you all say,” wrote Joe in late 2007. A lot of us like it, too, Joe… although it doesn’t seem to have matched the tenor of the times. The text on this cover is by Simon. To the best of our knowledge, this version has not been printed before. With thanks to Anthony Snyder. [©2008 the respective copyright holders; Sandman TM DC Comics.]

JA: That’s why I’m interviewing you, and that’s why people still remember you and still remember Kirby. You know, there’s still demand for your work. SIMON: I know. People have been interested in me ever since I started in comics. I’m like the title of that movie: Semi-Famous. I’ve been semi-famous all of my life. [laughs] JA: Joe, because your career is so long and so vast, how do you view yourself?

Article Title Topline

Hail, Hail, The Gang’s All Here! Kirby penciled and Greg Theakston inked the art used as the wraparound dust jacket of the hardcover Jack Kirby Treasury, Vol. 2—but many of the heroes thereon were Simon & Kirby co-creations: Captain 3-D, Fighting American and Speedboy, Bulls-Eye, probably even the Challengers of the Unknown. Repro’d by permission of Greg’s Pure Imagination Publications. [Challengers of the Unknown, Green Arrow, & Speedy TM & ©2008 DC Comics; The Fly & Private Strong TM & ©2008 Joe Simon; Fighting American & Speedboy TM & ©2008 Joe Simon & Estate of Jack Kirby; Yellow Claw & Jimmy Woo TM & ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.; other characters TM & ©2008 the respective trademark and copyright holders.]

SIMON: I’d like to do a lot more, if that’s a way to view myself. [Jim chuckles] If I live a couple more years, I want to do a few more things, that’s all. A few years ago, Marvel asked to write an introduction to one of their trade paperbacks. I heard that Greg Theakston was doing some of the art reconstruction. He calls it “Theakstonizing,” but I showed him how to do it. It’s really “Simonizing.” [laughs] He changed it to “Theakstonizing.” Here’s how you do it: Take a baking pan and fill it with bleach—or 409 or any old bleaches. Put the comic books in it overnight, and it takes the color out. That’s the whole thing. That’s Simonizing, later changed to Theakstonizing. That’s no secret. Tell everybody to do it. Take your old comic books, bleach them overnight and then rinse them in cold water. You’ll have enough color out of it to make a nice Xerox. I have a new company now, and it’s called Unhomogenized Comics. [mutual chuckling] Seriously, we don’t do that. We just use the original proofs, which I have. I have all the original proofs, the black-&-whites of most everything kirby and I did. All the Harvey stuff, the first Captain America book, the Archie “Shield,” romance, a lot of Prize stuff. [Sandman TM & ©2008 DC Comics.]

Joe Simon On The Comic Book Biz

Joe Simon & Friends At the 2004 Big Apple Con, Joe shows his young pal the original art to a double-page spread from The Adventures of The Fly #1 (Aug. 1959), with that luscious Simon & Kirby art. The photo, sent by Harry Mendryk, is flanked by more recent drawings of two of Joe's greatest co-creations. (Left:) A Captain America sketch done for Dominique Léonard. (Right:) Joe's outlining inks done for a recreation of the most celebrated panel from S&K's Fighting American #1 (April-May 1954). [The Fly ©2008 Joe Simon; Captain America TM & ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.; Fighting American TM & ©2008 Joe Simon & Estate of Jack Kirby.]

JA: Are you going to print them? SIMON: That’s only if I live long enough. JA: You will. With all your accomplishments, you don’t feel like you’ve done enough, do you? SIMON: No, I’m still learning. JA: You sound like a guy who’s not complacent with what you’ve done. SIMON: I sound like a guy who’s smoking too many cigars. No, I’m definitely not complacent. There’s so much more I’m going to be doing. I don’t see the end in sight. [NOTE: For a Joe Simon Checklist, see Alter Ego #36.]

“A Good Cigar Is A Smoke” Interviewer (and alleged artist) Jim Amash sent the cartoon above as his own comment on his conversation with Joe Simon, which mentions their shared pleasure in cigars…which of course in terms of comics they share with Alley Oop, Albert the Alligator, and, until recently, the Thing and Nick Fury. Later, when Jim mentioned his gag on the phone to his cartoonist pal (and A/E #64 interviewee) Martin Filchock, the latter responded by sending a drawing of his own (right), based on his continuous admonishments to Jim to give up cigars. Martin added, re Joe: “When will these young whippersnappers learn not to smoke?” Joe was born in 1915… Martin in 1912. With thanks to Teresa R. Davidson. [Cartoons ©2008 Jim Amash & Martin Filchock, respectively.]

ithout Max Charles Gaines, it is unlikely that comics history would be what it is. From the earliest comic books collecting reprints of newspaper comic strips to the dawn of the Golden Age, and throughout the heyday of comic book popularity in the 1940s, Charlie Gaines (as he was generally called by those who knew him) was a driving force. At the beginning of 1945 Gaines split officially with National/DC and began issuing the adventures of Wonder Woman, The Flash, and Green Lantern, as well as Funny Stuff, Mutt & Jeff, and his favorite project, Picture Stories from the Bible, under the AllAmerican Publications banner, with an “AA” symbol replacing the previous “DC” sigil on covers. According to a notice in the Dec. 1944 issue of Independent News, the trade publiM.C. Gaines, The All-American Boy cation of Independent News, the distribution company basically owned by the Max Charles Gaines, circa 1942— same folks who owned National/DC, Jack and a 1945 ad displaying every All-American title except the Liebowitz was officially Gaines’ cotwice-a-year Picture Stories from publisher on the new AA line. [For details, the Bible. see The All-Star Companion, Vol. 3.] The AA “solo venture” was short-lived, however—lasting only about eight months—and sometime in 1945 Gaines sold his share of the company to his DC partners Liebowitz and Harry Donenfeld, and soon launched EC (Educational Comics, a.k.a. Donenfeld, in one of his typically impulsive gestures, gave his half of the Entertaining Comics) to publish Picture Stories and other, new titles. All-American group to his accountant, Jack Liebowitz. Suddenly, Max But what if things hadn’t turned out quite that way? Bob Rozakis, longtime writer and production director for DC Comics, has imagined a distinct version of what Alter Ego’s editor likes to call “Earth-22”—combining the notions of Julius Schwartz/Gardner Fox and Catch-22 author Joseph Heller—a parallel world on which events took a different, yet quite possible and not illogical turn. After all, in The Mad World of William M. Gaines (Lyle Stuart, 1972), the official biography of M.C. Gaines’ son, who became famous (and infamous) as the publisher of EC’s Tales from the Crypt, Mad, et al., author Frank Jacobs writes: “[A]ll was not roses within the new partnership, especially after

found himself partnered with Liebowitz, and they didn’t get along. Bill remembers that every afternoon his father would take a taxi to the uptown offices, where he, Liebowitz, and Donenfeld would scream at each other for two hours. Something had to give and that something was Max’s patience. In early 1945, he hurled out his ultimatum: ‘You buy me out or I’ll buy you out.’ They bought him out.” But what if he had bought Donenfeld and Liebowitz out, instead? In this opening installment (in which the art for all DC/AA characters depicted is TM & ©2008 DC Comics) of a new series which will be divided between the pages of Alter Ego and its TwoMorrows sister mag Back Issue, the author explores an alternate reality and reveals—

The Secret History of All-American Comics, Inc. The Story Of M.C. Gaines’ Publishing Empire Book One - Chapter 1 : Divide… And Conquer by Bob Rozakis

The Secret History Of All-American Comics, Inc.

first met Ted Skimmer when I started working at AA in 1973. At the time, Ted’s duties straddled the production and editorial areas… he worked in the film library and the stat room, but he also was the back-up proofreader and unofficial researcher. In the latter role, he had custody of the AA library, bound volumes of all the magazines the company had published, going all the way back to the very first DC comics in the ’30s. Ted’s tenure at AA began in 1944. Seventeen years old at the time, too young for the draft, he’d been hired as a fill-in assistant for “just a couple of weeks.” Thirty years later, he would joke, “I keep wondering when the weekend is coming.” Over the years, Ted taught himself the skills that would earn him freelance money: coloring and lettering. “The coloring came first. Some artwork got lost and they had to slot in a replacement story, but there were no color guides for it. They were going to print it in black-&white, but I grabbed a set of silver prints and some dyes and in about an hour and a half had a set of color guides. It was only a 6-page story and, frankly, looking back at it now, it was some pretty ugly coloring. But at least there was something.” After that, Ted got a story from time to time. “Mostly it was lastminute emergency jobs. They had me doing them on staff time, so they didn’t have to pay me extra.” The lettering came later. “Lettering looks a lot easier, but it’s really a pain in the ass. First you’ve got to rule in all the lines, then you letter in the words, draw the balloons, and erase all the pencil lines. There’s a more immediate turnaround needed, though, so if you can bat out a few pages overnight, it keeps an inker or two busy the next day.”

Okay, So Where’s Carol And Alice? (Left:) Author Bob Rozakis. (Above:) Theodore Paul (“Ted”) Skimmer, circa 1973. Photos courtesy of TPS & Bob Rozakis.

Ted Skimmer worked on staff at AA until 1997. He continues to do an occasional coloring job, but his hands are too unsteady to allow him to do lettering anymore. “I could never figure out that computerized stuff, anyway,” he says. To his delight, he was asked to recolor that first 6pager he’d done. “They were reprinting it in one of the Archive books and one of the kids thought it would be appropriate. I didn’t want to change it too much, since those books are supposed to be faithful reproductions of the originals, but I did tone down some of the garish solid colors.” Ted had a front-row seat to more than 50 years of the company’s history and was happy to share it with me… and you. —Bob.

It was late in ’44, maybe early ’45, when Charlie Gaines called us all together in the production room. That was the biggest space in the office back then. Nobody paid rent for conference rooms or anything like that. If you weren’t using the space all the time, you were throwing money away. Everybody was buzzing about what was going on. Gaines didn’t call us all together for anything small. Most of us figured it was bad news from the war front, that somebody we knew had been killed in action. There were plenty of guys—freelancers and staff people—who had entered the service since early in ’42. Our resident doom-and-gloom guy started saying that we were going out of business, that paper rations were being cut so that we wouldn’t be able to publish any more. As usual with this character, he professed to have read it in the paper or heard it on the radio and he was just passing along information. Some of the staff found these prognostications far more upsetting than any war news would have been. As it turned out, neither the doom-and-gloom guy nor the folks who were guessing about the most likely candidate to have been killed in action were correct. But by the time Gaines walked into the room, half the people were planning a memorial service for some fallen colleague, and the rest were planning one for us. Before Charlie could even say a word,

All-American Ad For All American Boys And Girls Paul Reinman’s cover for All-American Comics #64 (March 1945), the first issue of that title to sport an AA symbol, which went on sale no later than January of that year—juxtaposed with AA’s perhaps very first house ad, from its inside front cover. All-Star Comics #23, pictured therein, actually came out with a DC symbol; note that Starman and The Spectre are depicted in this AA mag after the split. Gaines was listed in the indicia as “General Manager,” Sheldon Mayer as “Editor”—and the name of the firm was given as J.R. Publishing Co.

The Story Of M.C. Gaines’ Publishing Empire

one of the production guys asked him what kind of severance pay we were getting. What Gaines told us was as far from bad news as we could get. He had split the company off from the DC line and we were going to be AllAmerican Comics from now on. He’d had Sol Harrison, the head production guy, whip up a company symbol that looked kind-of like the DC one, but had an “AA” in the center instead of “DC.” He retained a relationship with Harry Donenfeld and Jack Liebowitz, the DC guys, so that they would continue to distribute our books to the newsstand.

The First Sons Of Krypton Writer Jerry Siegel (standing) and artist Joe Shuster, the creators of Superman.

The split didn’t matter much for most of the books. We’d been operating as a separate company for the most part anyway. Nobody was being fired; none of the books was being cancelled. I think the only big deal was with All-Star Comics, because a few of the DC characters were part of the Justice Society. But Shelly Mayer, he was the editor-in-chief, got one of the artists, I think it was probably Marty Naydel, to draw Green Lantern in place of Starman in a story and Flash instead of the Spectre. It wasn’t until after the war that things started changing, though most of the turmoil was over at DC. We were hearing news second-hand, mostly through the freelancers who were working for both companies, and from the secretaries of the two companies, who still had lunch together once or twice a week. Jerry Siegel got out of the Army and started pushing for the ownership of “Superman.” He and Joe Shuster, who had continued to work for DC throughout the war, were convinced by a lawyer that they could get the character back from Donenfeld and Liebowitz. From what I heard, they were receiving a decent amount of money without having to actually do any of the work, but they wanted more. There are people who’ve said I have too much of a company-man mentality and don’t understand because I never created any characters. But, you know, Siegel and Shuster tried selling Superman for three or four years as a comic strip and nobody would touch it. If Gaines hadn’t pushed Donenfeld to use it in Action Comics, it might still be sitting on a shelf somewhere. And, yes, they did sell that first story for $130, so the rights were signed over with that first check, but they made a lot more money producing “Superman” comics after that. You have to wonder how things might have turned out if they hadn’t pushed the lawsuits. I think Donenfeld probably would have been happier to hand over some money to Siegel and Shuster than spend what he did on lawyers. Certainly, the way Gaines dealt with Bill and Marty on “Green Lantern,” as well as the “Flash” and “Wonder Woman” guys, turned out to be a far more practical approach. [ROZAKIS’ NOTE: Even before the decision was handed down in the Siegel and Shuster case, Gaines met with creators Bill Finger and Martin Nodell, Gardner Fox and Harry Lampert, William Moulton Marston and Harry G. Peter, and negotiated buying their rights to any future claims on Green Lantern, Flash, and Wonder Woman, respectively. Though they had all signed the same back-of-the-check sign-away-yourrights agreement that Siegel and Shuster had, Gaines gave each of them a lucrative piece of future earnings in exchange for a binding contract that they would not file a suit. Comic book industry lore has it that Harry Donenfeld, hearing of this, told Gaines he was out of his mind, that he was throwing money away, and that it would eventually put him out of business. At the time, of course, Donenfeld was convinced he could not lose the Superman lawsuit.] Anyway, the judge finally made his decision, based what had happened in a court case involving The Katzenjammer Kids, 30-some-odd years earlier. The judge ruled that Donenfeld owned “Superman” and had the right to continue to publish it. For their part, Siegel and Shuster had the right to continue writing and drawing stories starring the character but

could not call their magazine Superman. Of course, there was a major difference in the two cases. The Katzenjammer comic strip was not the cornerstone of either of the newspaper syndicates involved in the earlier suit. Neither would’ve gone out of business if the judge had ruled they couldn’t publish a particular strip. For Donenfeld, on the other hand, Superman was the lynchpin of his publishing line. [ROZAKIS’ NOTE: Created by Rudolph Dirks in 1897 for William Randolph Heart’s New York Journal, The Katzenjammer Kids was one of the most popular comic strips of its era. As the story goes, Dirks wanted a break after producing the strip for fifteen years, but Hearst said no. When Dirks left anyway, Hearst had Harold Knerr take over the strip. Dirks then went to the rival Pulitzer newspaper and produced virtually the same strip, under the name The Captain and the Kids. The ensuing lawsuit ended with both sides having some rights to the characters, and both versions of the strip continued to appear for many years thereafter.] And if that wasn’t enough, as soon as Donenfeld walked out of the court with one ruling he didn’t entirely like, Bob Kane came to him and said, “I’m going to file the same lawsuit they did.” Rather than get lawyers involved again, Donenfeld said, “Fine, go publish your own ‘Batman’ comics.” The ironic part of the deal is that both sides screwed Bill Finger, who had written the “Batman” stories from the start. Bob Kane had hired Finger on his own; the only one DC paid was Kane, so Finger never had a claim against the company. Not that it mattered that much to Bill. Gaines and Green Lantern were taking care of him nicely. It was only a matter of weeks before Siegel and Shuster, allied with Bob Kane, formed SSK Comics and began producing Man of Steel and Gotham Guardian comics to compete with Superman and Batman. There was no question that they had been squirreling away stories that should have been going to DC, anticipating that they would be publishing on their own. After that initial inventory was exhausted, it quickly became obvious

The Secret History Of All-American Comics, Inc.

Kids Will be Kids! Rudolph Dirks originated The Katzenjammer Kids in the early years of newspaper comic strips, as per panel at left. Decades later, the courts decreed that Dirks could draw what amounted to the same characters in a new strip for a rival company, as long as the feature had a different name—and The Captain and the Kids was born, as per the 1938 panel below. [Katzenjammer Kids ©2008 King Features Syndicate, Inc.; The Captain and the Kids ©2008 United Feature Syndicate, Inc.]

that Donenfeld’s versions were better. He had Jerry Robinson doing the “Batman” books and Jack Burnley on “Superman.” The art in Man of Steel did not have the same pizzazz, as Shuster and his assistants struggled to meet the deadlines. Meantime, Bob Kane was having his stuff ghosted by whoever he could get to work for the least amount of money. The SSK books looked like cheap imitations, but the mere fact that they were there on the newsstands was enough to eat into DC’s sales. Added to all of this was the fact that the end of the war had brought a drastic drop in comic book sales. Soldiers who had been reading them in foxholes were now back in the work force and starting families and did not have time or desire to read comic books any more. Suddenly, Harry Donenfeld’s publishing empire was shrinking rapidly. Charlie Gaines called everybody together in the production room again; this time it was early in ’47. Before he walked in, our perennial doom-and-gloom guy was pontificating that AA was shutting its doors and we were all about to be fired. He proclaimed that comics were dying just like the pulps had done a decade earlier, and so on. But, once again, the guy was wrong. Gaines announced that it was DC that was shutting down its operation, and that he had bought the company and all its material and characters from Donenfeld and Liebowitz! From now on, Superman and Batman and the rest of the DC line would be All-American titles.

spoke that Gaines was thrilled with this turn of events. When he had split from DC, Donenfeld had called him a fool. And when Gaines had worked the rights deals with the artists and writers, Donenfeld had pronounced AA on its way to bankruptcy. But here was Charlie, still in business, and buying out his former partners. In addition to getting DC’s titles, we would be picking up some of their staff people to handle the increased workload, most notably the editorial guys. Mort Weisinger, a boyhood pal of Julie Schwartz’s, would be coming on, along with Jack Schiff, who was their senior guy at the time, and Murray Boltinoff. That pretty much doubled the size of our editorial department. Shelly Mayer was our head honcho, with Bob Kanigher and Julie handling the day-to-day stuff on the books. I can’t say how Shelly or Kanigher felt, but the look on Julie’s face when he heard Weisinger’s name surprised me at the time. I would have expected him to be happy to be working with his old friend again, but that sure did not appear to be the case. I found out later that, even though they had worked together and created that science-fiction fanzine in the early 1930s, their friendly rivalry had grown less friendly and into much more of a rivalry over the years. Still, you would have thought that, at the time, Julie would have felt quite comfortable. He was Shelly’s fair-haired boy with an inside track, and Mort was going to have to learn to adapt and fit in. Of course, we didn’t know at the time what a chameleon Mort Weisinger would turn out to be. But maybe Julie did. [Continued on page 62; see list of AA editorial assignments on pp. 60-61]

You could tell just by the way he

How Did They Rate In ’48? (Left:) Ted Skimmer outside the apartment building he called home in the late 1940s, on Belmont Avenue in The Bronx, New York City. Photo courtesy of Ted Skimmer & Bob Rozakis. (Above:) Production man Jack Adler supplied this photo of the separations room at 487 Broadway sometime in the 1940s—perhaps after Gaines had purchased DC and merged their production departments. Adler himself can be seen sitting in the middle of the front row; production manager Sol Harrison is standing on the left. Bob Rozakis reports that Ted Skimmer believes he may be the guy in the back of the room, on the far right, but that it’s impossible to be certain. Special thanks to Jack Adler for the use of his vintage photo.

The Story Of M.C. Gaines’ Publishing Empire

Steel This Book! The era of two “Men of Steel” begins—counter-clockwise! The March-April 1947 issue of DC’s Superman (#45), seen at left, featured a cover penciled by Jack Burnley, and things seem to be proceeding along normally. But, meanwhile, Siegel & Shuster and Bob Kane had formed “SSK Publications.” These title and company logo tryouts, discovered among the artifacts of the Joe Shuster art shop, show pre-publication work that was going on during the lawsuit with DC. Thus, March-April 1947 also saw the first issue of Man of Steel from SSK, with not one but two superdoers on the John Sikela-penciled cover. If not for the split, the cover story “Lana Lang, the Iron Maiden!” might well have appeared in that month’s Superman. Lana was a spanking new creation, who took the place of the nearly-identical (except for hair color) Lois Lane; the “L.L.” initials (and the same number of letters in the name) were intended to make young readers think they were the same character. The name of the newspaper for which Lana worked was The Daily Star. However, there would appear to have been one false start, shown by these sketches (below left) discovered among the artifacts from the Joe Shuster art shop. At one time, Siegel and Shuster clearly believed they might need to alter the look of the “S” on their hero’s chest, which now stood for “Steel” rather than “Superman,” and they experimented with the designs shown below left. An error of a more serious nature was SSK’s decision to make its first Man of Steel logo a bit too reminiscent of Superman’s; apparently DC could protect its trademarked logo better than it could the hero himself. A few lawyers’ letters were exchanged… and, very soon, Man of Steel sported a new masthead, lettered at a different angle and minus the three-dimensional feel of the first. But the cover credit for Siegel & Shuster remained. All Man of Steel art courtesy of Australian collector Shane Foley.

The Secret History Of All-American Comics, Inc.

Guarding Gotham SSK’s Gotham Guardian #1 (Feb-March 1947) actually came out a few weeks before Man of Steel #1—and at the same time as DC’s Batman #39, with its cover by Jack Burnley (pencils) & Charles Paris (inks). The interior of the latter (and many future DC covers, as well) was drawn by Jerry Robinson, who had been Bob Kane’s art assistant as early as 1939. The penciler of the Gotham Guardian #1 cover at right is uncertain. It could be Kane himself, or one of his new ghosts, Lew Sayre Schwartz or Sheldon Moldoff. The 1946-47 designs below seem to indicate that Kane, too, once believed the look of his characters might need to be changed. But, even if the bat had had to go (turns out it didn’t!), he seems to have been determined to hang onto the “R” on the costume of Robin/Raven. All Gotham Guardian art courtesy of Shane Foley.

The Mark Of Kane Bob Kane, officially the sole creator of Batman. Bill Finger, however, wrote the earliest stories and apparently contributed even design elements to the costume.

The Story Of M.C. Gaines’ Publishing Empire

…And Justice For All! One of the first fruits of Gaines’ acquisition of DC was the full membership of Superman and Batman in All-American’s Justice Society of America. In All-Star Comics #36 (the final DC issue), the pair replaced Johnny Thunder and The Atom as an experiment—and things worked out so well that the former DC’s big guns stuck around till the end of All-Star’s run in 1951. It made sense. The comedy-relief humor of JT fit less well in late-1940s comics, and The Atom had never acquired any kind of atomic powers to make him a viable character. Of the JSAers, now only Dr. Mid-Nite had never been a cover feature. In All-Star #37 (the first issue back under the AA symbol), The Joker and Luthor became charter members of The Wizard’s Injustice Society of the World, as seen on Irwin Hasen’s cover. Superman’s shackles must be made of “KMetal” left over from a never-published 1941 Jerry Siegel script which introduced fragments of the Man of Tomorrow’s home planet Krypton, proximity to which robbed the hero of his powers. All-Star #38 (on facing page) saw the male JSAers slain by historical villains and brought back to life by Wonder Woman. Apparently Atilla the Hun’s flail had balls made of K-Metal, though he didn’t know it. Art by Alex Toth. In issue #41, Batman’s friendly enemy The Catwoman, invited to join the second Injustice Gang, instead betrayed The Wizard and freed the heroes. Too bad the All-Stars didn’t invite her to join! They could’ve used a second female member. Art by Alex Toth. In All-Star #43, which sported one of the last covers to depict all seven JSAers, the stalwarts battled humongous golden robots in an alternate universe. Art by Irwin Hasen. With thanks to Shane Foley for the scans of #37-43.

SIDEBAR:

All-American Comics Editorial Assignments In 1948 SHELDON MAYER: Editorial Director JULIUS SCHWARTZ All-Flash All-American Comics All-Star Comics Flash Comics Green Lantern Scribbly Comic Cavalcade (with Kanigher) [Continued on facing page]

The Secret History Of All-American Comics, Inc.

[Continued from facing page] ROBERT KANIGHER

MORT WEISINGER

Sensation Comics

Action Comics

Wonder Woman

Superman

Star Spangled Comics Adventure Comics

World’s Finest Comics (with Schiff)

Western Comics

A Date with Judy

Comic Cavalcade (with Schwartz)

Leave It to Binky

JACK SCHIFF

MURRAY BOLTINOFF

Batman

Funny Folks

Detective Comics

Funny Stuff

World’s Finest Comics (with Weisinger)

Mutt & Jeff

Real Fact Comics

Leading Comics

Real Screen Comics Boy Commandos

Gang Busters

Animal Antics

The Story Of M.C. Gaines’ Publishing Empire

[Continued from page 57] I think it was pretty obvious [from the list of AA editorial assignments on pp. 60-61] that Gaines and Shelly were playing favorites with the editorial assignments. Julie already had control of the cream of the crop— the “Flash” and “Green Lantern” titles, which were our best sellers—along with All-Star Comics. People often ask why he was also editing Scribbly; well, he didn’t really edit it, since that was Shelly’s personal book. Julie just handled the trafficking of it through the production phase as a favor to his mentor; it was not the last time he handled an assignment like this. Bob Kanigher edited our remaining super-hero books and was also given the best-selling super-hero titles—Adventure and Star Spangled—that came over in the deal with DC. Weisinger and Schiff were left with the dying “Superman” and “Batman” books and a handful of odds and ends. Schiff had been hot on Real Fact Comics, so he got to keep that. Poor Murray Boltinoff seemed to get the bottom of the barrel—the funny-animal comics which were pale imitations of the Disney and Warner Bros. characters. We figured that, if overall sales continued to fall off and titles were going to be axed, it would be the ones that the former DC editors were handling. That meant they would be the first guys out the door. It didn’t happen that way, though… the editorial staff we had in 1948 was pretty much the same one we had until Mort retired in 1970. Don’t Miss Chapter Two In The Next Issue of Alter Ego. [NOTE: Meanwhile, though, you can read Bob Rozakis’ account of post1970 AA events in our TwoMorrows fellow publication Back Issue #28, in “Book Two, Chapter 1” of “The Secret History of AllAmerican Comics, Inc.”—then double back to A/E for that wonderful year 1949!]

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Not-Yet-Canceled Comic Cavalcade Word in the AA office was that its giant-size bimonthly Comic Cavalcade was scheduled to be metamorphosed into a funny-animal mag with issue #30 (Dec. 1948-Jan. 1949). However, CC skated on for years longer with its original trio of super-heroes, as per this cover for Comic Cavalcade #30 (Dec. 1948-Jan. 1949)—and instead Gaines turned World’s Finest Comics into a humor mag, a victim of the market-flooding by Man of Steel and Gotham Guardian. Artists uncertain. Thanks to Shane Foley for the scan.

One Small Voice Stories by Clifford Meth Art by Alex Toth, Jeffrey Jones, Gene Colan, Dave Cockrum, Frank Brunner, & others; cover by Neal Adams; Introduction by Roy Thomas; Intermission by Tom Spurgeon; Afterword by Bill Messner-Loebs "'Wearing the Horns' [the novella which is the book's cornerstone] is a gem, with scene after scene unwinding, unspooling to reveal facets of lives that make you feel as if you're not reading at all, but merely eavesdropping.... The extended after-sex dialogue between Little Herb and his wife is as heartbreakingly true as any you'll ever read anywhere.... [It] made me laugh out loud.... Read these stories yourself. They don’t need me or anybody else to explain to you how good they are." —Roy Thomas.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Introduction by Michael T. Gilbert

ntil recently, the life of cartoonist Al Walker has been a huge question mark in comics history. Fans of Al’s intricate 1940s Fiction House art had to be content with the work itself, since almost nothing was known about the artist. Even the measly few facts I managed to dig up about Al turned out to be wildly off the mark. Did no one know the creator of stories featuring Greasemonkey Griffin, Wizard of the Moon, and Norge Benson? Last year I ran some of Al’s art on my website, along with his Who’s Who of American Comic Books entry, which gave only his vital stats: born in 1878, died in 1947 at age 69. Imagine my surprise when Stephen V. Walker, Al’s nephew, contacted me just a few days later! Stephen had stumbled onto my site after googling his uncle. He was delighted to see Al in the spotlight, as was Al’s son, Alfred M. Walker. But they also informed me that Al didn’t pass on in 1947. He actually died decades later, in 1972. When he retired from comic books in 1948, he was only in his late thirties. As it turns out, the Who’s Who had grafted Al’s comic book career onto another Al Walker, Alanson Burton Walker, a turn-of-the-century artist for Judge and Life. Alfred John Walker was the Fiction House man. Now we’re delighted to present Al Walker’s biography, courtesy of Stephen Walker (and edited by yours truly). Our interview will continue in the next two issues. So without further ado... Take it away, Steve!

Intrepid high school student Al Walker poses heroically. His dog is unimpressed.

Alfred J. Walker, Part 1

Alfred J. Walker Biography Part 1: The Early Years by Steven V. Walker Though little-known today, Alfred J. Walker’s wildly inventive art delighted millions of readers during comics’ Golden Age. His drawings graced Fiction House’s Wings Comics, Planet Comics, Jungle Comics, Rangers Comics, Movie Comics, and Toyland Comics. Later, this witty, gifted, and selfless artist left comics to forge a successful commercial art career. He also contributed his clever and distinctive artwork freely to the local community throughout his life. Born in Cove Neck, New York, on December 18th, 1908, Alfred grew up, along with his older brother Daniel, on “Shoredge,” the estate of Howard C. Smith, where his parents, Alfred and Mary, lived and worked as caretakers. The beauty of his father’s gardens and the lovely vistas of sea, sky, and ships from the sloping lawn of Shoredge inspired his art. Portrait of the artist as a young lad.

From kindergarten through the eighth grade he attended the Cove School, a small two-room schoolhouse in Oyster Bay Cove. When famous neighbor Theodore Roosevelt came to visit the school each year and give out presents at the annual Christmas program, his teacher assigned young Alfred to draw colorful Yuletide motifs on the chalkboard. Alfred continued his education at Oyster Bay High School, graduating in 1927. In his senior year Al’s parents moved to Huntington Station, NY, so his father could start his own horticultural business. Nonetheless, Alfred remained at his old high school, commuting daily from Huntington to Oyster Bay. While there, young Alfred honed his artistic skills on projects like his poster for the school’s play, Bird’s Christmas Carol, back in 1925. He also took leading parts in many of the plays, and was a talented sportsman besides, earning letters in soccer, basketball, and baseball. And if that weren’t enough, he was also elected class president! In October 1929, Alfred created a comic strip, Nip and Tuc…, for the Oyster Bay Guardian. That same year, he began studies at the School of Fine and Applied Arts at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY. In his spare time Al worked as caretaker at the Youngs’ Memorial Cemetery in Oyster Bay Cove to pay for his studies. He graduated with honors in 1931 with a degree in Illustration and Advertising Design, having finished the three-year coursework in two years. Al’s first full-time commercial art job was for De Bellis, Kelsey, and Buoni, a New York advertising firm. It’s unclear exactly when he started or left the company. But late one afternoon in 1937, while waiting for a Long Island Rail Road train in Penn

(Right:) Al Walker probably drew this Inkwellania sample in the late 1930s. He used the same comic-within-a filmstrip gimmick again to great effect in 1947 for his “Flicker Funnies!” series in Movie Comics. [Art ©2008 Estate of Alfred J. Walker.]

(Left:) Steve Walker says this Nip and Tuc… panel may be Alfred Walker’s first published cartoon. It appeared on October 4th, 1929, in The Oyster Bay Guardian, Al’s hometown paper. Steve says, “The joke is a bit geographically distinct, but once you know that Long Island Sound separates Long Island from Connecticut, it’s got some punch! And in 1929, ‘sound’ pictures were a big deal!” We’ll take your word for it, Steve! [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Station, he bought a magazine called College Humor and saw an ad saying “Disney Needs Artists!” After applying, Al received a letter dated August 20, 1937, stating that he’d successfully passed a preliminary examination in the fundamentals of Animated Motion-Picture Cartooning, and was to report to the Walt Disney Sound-Cartoon Studios in California for further training. With great local fanfare, he headed out by train for the West Coast at the beginning of March 1938. As a parting gesture, the Huntington Theatre, (in conjunction with the first Long Island showing of Disney’s full-length animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) proudly exhibited a lobby display of original artwork by Al. “It took me a month to learn Mr. Disney’s technique,” he recalled. “Till that time my pictures ended up as piles of scrap paper.” One of the characters Al most enjoyed drawing was Sneezy, from Snow White. Another favorite was Thumper from Bambi, according to his son. Later, homesick and concerned about his mother’s declining health, Al returned to the East Coast. In December of 1940 he began working for Fiction House, Inc., located at 461 Eighth Avenue in New York City. Fiction House was a popular pulp magazine publisher that had recently branched out into comics. There, Al Walker found his niche, providing dazzling artwork for the “comic relief ” stories

(Left:) “Spark Plug’s Jockey” reads the caption. Al doctored his photo as a kid, adding Barney Google’s famous comic strip horse, Spark Plug! (Below:) Billy DeBeck’s famous characters, Barney Google and Spark Plug. [©2008 King Features Syndicate, Inc.]

(Above:) A rare photo of young Alfred J. Walker and family around 1912 at their home in Cove Neck, NY. The future cartoonist poses with dad (Alfred Henry Walker), mom (Mary Moloney Walker), and older brother Daniel.

Alfred J. Walker, Part 1

within the framework of war and sciencefiction. According to the Grand Comic-Book Database, Al Walker’s first comic book work for Fiction House appeared in an episode of “Simba, King of the Beasts” in the April 1941 issue of Jungle Comics. This undated cartoon features Disney characters. According to nephew Steve: “I don’t know who this cartoon was The following for specifically, but it still makes me laugh, especially ‘Your stomach stitched and relined as you wait.’” month he began [Characters TM & ©2008 Disney Productions, Inc.] putting his indelible mark on issue of Rangers. two other Fiction House classics, “Norge Benson” in Planet Comics, and “Greasemonkey Griffin” in Wings Comics. Al’s style was an energetic one, with figures and objects leaping out of In December of that year he added Rangers Comics to his canon when he began drawing “Jeep Milarkey” for that title. Then it was on to “Private Elmer Pippin and the Colonel’s Daughter,” beginning in the August 1942

Al drew this cartoon for St. Dominic’s Church Minstrel Show of 1937. “I don’t think he performed in this one, but he also loved to stand on stage and tell jokes in prior years, and even on to later years,” Stephen says. [©2008 Estate of Alfred J. Walker.]

panels at every opportunity. His bold title lettering was equally striking. In a company filled with exceptional artists, Al’s work was still outstanding. But the best was yet to come!

Al Walker’s first “Greasemonkey Griffin” story, from Wings Comics #9 (April 1941), scripted by Kip Beales. Though Al didn’t originate the series, he quickly made it his own. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Next issue: Stay tuned for Part 2 of Steve’s tribute to his uncle. In the meantime, click on the Journal section of my website michaeltgilbert.com for more rare Al Walker art and photos. Till next time,

Comic Crypt Extra! Before we go, here’s a complete listing of Al Walker’s comic book work, based on the research of Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., Hames Ware, Henry Steele, Mike Nielsen, Lou Mougin, Jim Walls, Tim Stroup, Gary L. Watson, Tony Rose, James Ludwig, and Craig Delich at the Grand Comic-Book Database. You can find the GCD at: www.comics.org/index.lasso

AL WALKER INDEX! “GREASEMONKEY GRIFFIN”: Wings Comics #9-34 (May 1941-June 1943) and #48 (Aug. 1944)… then Wings Comics #70-96 (June 1946-Aug. 1948). Also, Walker is credited with the splash page only of a 3-page non“Greasemonkey” story (“Subterranean Airdrome”) in issue #8 (April 1941). “JEEP MILARKEY”: Rangers Comics #2-4, (Dec. 1941-April 1942). “ELMER PIPPIN AND THE COLONEL’S DAUGHTER”: Rangers Comics #6-9 (Aug. 1942-Feb 1943).

(Above:) This art from Wings Comics #8, cover-dated April 1941, may be Al Walker’s earliest comic book page. He only contributed page one of the threepage “Subterranean Airdrome” story. It appeared the same month as the “Simba, King Of The Beasts” tale (at left) from Jungle Comics #16, which is believed to be Al’s first comic book story. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

“GLORY FORBES”: Rangers Comics #30, (Aug. 1946). “SIMBA, KING OF THE BEASTS”: Jungle Comics #16-35 (April 1941Nov. 1942). “NORGE BENSON”: Planet Comics #12-22, (May 1941-Jan. 1943). “FLICKER FUNNIES”: Movie Comics 1-4, (Dec. 1946-Aug. 1947). “BUDDY BRUIN AND (oh yes) STU THE RABBIT”: Toyland #1-3, (Jan. 1947-July 1947). “WIZARD OF THE MOON”: Toyland 1-3, (Jan. 1947-July 1947). Additionally, The GCD lists a couple of two-page filler stories in Fight Comics #21 and 22 (Oct-Dec 1942) as possibly being by Al Walker. It should be noted that, while the above stories were written by a number of Fiction House scripters, Al Walker contributed to the writing, adding puns and visual gags whenever possible.

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Comic Fandom Archive

Two industrious comics fans who helped the burgeoning new organized fandom go worldwide in the 1960s were a couple of Johns—J. Wright of South Africa, and J. Ryan of Australia. The former was profiled in Alter

Ego #35-36. In this issue and the next, two fans who were there— including John Wright himself—talk about their correspondence and friendships with the comics-history wizard of Oz. –Bill Schelly.

John Ryan—A Remembrance “Fountain Of Knowledge… And Friend” by Howard Siegel

ollectors considered him a fountain of knowledge. Professional artists and writers sought his advice. Publishers commissioned him to do books on comics. We called him dear friend. Righto on all counts,

mates! I first became acquainted with John in 1968 when I asked him to be the subject of a fandom profile. This segment of my “Comics Collector’s Comments” in the pages of RB-CC [Rocket’s Blast-Comicollector] highlighted some of the people who had made major contributions to the formation of organized fandom during what I considered the pioneer years. Here then, in John’s own words, is his history as a collector and authority…. “There is no disputing that my birthday allowed me to become one of that unique group . . . the first generation to be raised on comic books. Almost from their inception, US comic books were available in Australia. My Panel By Panel By Ryan research leads me to believe John Ryan and the cover of his book Panel that virtually every pre-war title, by Panel: A History of Australian Comics with the exception of the (Cassell Australia Ltd., 1979). Fawcett line, was available here. Unfortunately, John did not live long Like most kids on my street, I enough to enjoy the deserved plaudits for grabbed my copies of Amazing this invaluable reference work, as he passed away in December of that year. Mystery Funnies, Adventure, [Characters TM & ©2008 the respective More Fun Comics, trademark & copyright holders.] Wonderworld, Marvel Mystery Comics, Pep Comics, Silver Streak, etc., just as avidly as my American counterpart. Consequently it is not as strange as it may seem to find Australians of my age group with a fairly intimate knowledge of US Golden Age comics. “Up until 1941, the Australian comic book industry was very small, with almost the entire output devoted to reprints of US newspaper strips such as The Phantom, Buck Rogers, Sky Roads, Felix the Cat, Red Ryder, etc. With the curtailment of supplies from the US and reduced supplies from England, the local industry increased their output to capitalize on the market that had been virtually handed to them on a platter. Initially they increased the quantity of newspaper strips; but even these were hard to come by because of wartime restrictions. And soon these supplies were used up. This situation was responsible for the creation of the original Australian comic book, both drawn and written by local talent. “A large percentage of the material from that period was incredibly bad. It was crude in design, amateurish in execution, and totally lacking of any understanding of the field of graphic art. It might also help you understand why Aussie addicts paid up to 40 cents for an

American comic book that had, somehow, made its way into the country. [AUTHOR’S NOTE: Comic books were used as ballast in cargo ships during World War II.] And this was in the days when a comic book cost 5 cents and the average boy was lucky to get 10 cents per week pocket money. “While most of this original material plumbed the depth of mediocrity, there was a small group of artists whose work was of a high standard. Syd Miller, Syd Nicholls, and Hal English were mature men established in commercial art and the cartooning field prior to the arrival of the local comic industry. Anything they produced was worth reading. But it was the postwar years that brought into flower some of our finest comic book artists: Stanley Pitt (Silver Starr, Yarmak), John Dixon (Tim Valor, Crimson Ghost, Catman), Monty Wedd (Captain Justice, The Scorpion), and Phil Belbin (The Raven, Ace Bradley). These were some of the men who made 1946 to the mid-50s the Golden Age of Australian Comic Books. During this period, with few exceptions, I

John Ryan—A Remebrance

In The Merry Old Land Of Oz John Ryan at a 1976s gathering at his home, with several primo Australian comic book artists. (Left to right:) Phil Belbin, JR, John Dixon, Hart Amos, Keith Chatto. Photo courtesy of Howard Siegel. While all these gents became far more polished in later years, flanking the photo are images from their earlier work. (Clockwise from top left:) “The Raven” by Phil Belbin from Gem Comic #16 (1949)… “Catman and Kit” by John Dixon from Catman #12 (c. 1960)… cover of Climax Color Comic #8 by Hart Amos (1948)… and Twilight Ranger by Keith Chatto (1956). For lots more on vintage Australian comic books—and even John Ryan—pick up a copy of Alter Ego #51, still available from TwoMorrows Publishing. The “Catman” page, with gray tones added, is from the AC Comics reprint Men of Mystery Comics #26; see AC’s ad on p. 84. [Art ©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Comic Fandom Archive

More In ’64 did not appreciate the local industry’s efforts. All I could think about, once the war ended, was that American comic books would be back on sale soon. But this was not to be. The government of the day imposed import restrictions on any item that was to be paid for in US currency. These restrictions remained in force until 1958. American comic books finally reappeared in 1959, after an absence of almost 18 years.

1964 was John’s year in fandom. He was profiled in the US news fanzine Voice of Comicdom (“Comicdom’s First Newspaper”), and he published the first issue of Down Under. [Art ©2008 Estate of John Ryan.]

“The immediate postwar years brought two interesting developments, both closely related. K.G. Murray Publications decided to print their comics in color, beginning with three titles, Climax, ‘Superman’ reprints, and Captain Triumph [featuring Quality Comics reprints]. Others followed. Atlas Publications struck back with Captain Atom, a blatant combination of Fawcett’s Captain Marvel and Quality’s Captain Triumph. Twin brothers who made transformation by shouting the magic word ‘Exnor.’ Because of our small population, it was not possible to reach and sustain the type of circulation required to support the additional cost of color reproduction. And so, in just under two years, color was dropped on all adventure titles. “By the late ’50s, reprints had taken over the field, leaving only a handful of Australian craftsmen remaining in the industry. By 1963, for all intents and purposes, original Australian comics were buried. There remained just US reprints. Then another assailant appeared. The US comic book. The reprint publishers were doomed. Their thin black-&white efforts could not compete with the slick-looking, brightly colored US counterpart, which sat next to them on the newsstand at the same price, 12 cents. “When I visited England in 1958, I bought a great stack of US comics, and this was the first time I had seen them on general sales in many years. My collecting bug began. “In 1963, seeing a mention of The Comicollector in the Marvel letter pages, I wrote to Ronn Foss. His response was in the form of Alter Ego #5, which staggered me! Having had no previous contact with fans or collectors, I couldn’t believe there were many others who shared my interests, and shared them to the extent that they published magazines on the subject. That issue of Alter Ego changed my life and started me down the road of fandom and into the world of involvement and participation such as I had never envisioned. “My first real contacts in fandom were Larry Herndon and John Wright of South Africa. In those halcyon days of bachelorhood I was a prolific letter writer, averaging 10 letters per week. I established regular contact with Jerry Bails, Biljo White, Ray Miller, Jeremy Barry, Don & Maggie Thompson, Howard Keltner, Bill Spicer, Richard Kyle, Bill Dubay, Rick Durell, Bob Schoenfield, Bob Latona, Bob Schoenfield, Bob Latona, John and Tom McGeehan, Derrill Rothermich, and a host of others. [AUTHOR’S NOTE: If you’re looking for a list of early fandom luminaries, this is it.] Soon after becoming involved in fandom, I rediscovered the comics of my own country. Somehow I was able to look at them in a new light and became dedicated to the

proposition of devoting the bulk of my research and articles to the Australian scene.”

John published Australia’s first comics fanzine, Down Under, in November 1964. The lead piece in it won the 1965 Alley Award for the best article. John Wright was the only other non-American to win this award. Ryan then joined Jerry Bails’ Capa-alpha, publishing Boomerang every quarter for this group. His other writing contributions included Larry Herndon’s Hero, the Arbunich/Dubay/Franke zine Voice of Comicdom, Allen Tompkin’s E.R.B. Digest, and Star-Studded Comics. In 1967 John drifted into the professional area, taking over the promotion of Stan and Reg Pitt’s Gully Foyle, a Sunday page adaptation of Alfred Bester’s classic novel The Stars My Destination. He was also instrumental in having Stan Pitt ghost a Secret Agent Corrigan newspaper strip story for Al Williamson, thus leading to Stan becoming the first Aussie to have his work published in US comic books (The Witching Hour #14 and Boris Karloff #3). He had been the subject of three newspaper articles, was interviewed on TV four times, was guest lecturer on the history of comics at Griffith University, and achieved the pinnacle by being professionally published. More on the last credit later on. His home, which he dubbed “The old Fairfield Fanzine Factory,” was host to legions of fans and professionals who were in the vicinity. This sanctuary closed down when in August 1970 he was offered the position of Queensland Sales Manager for Firestone’s General Products Division and moved to Brisbane, Australia.

John Ryan—A Remebrance

Sail On, Silver Starr! Another photo from that 1976 get-together, courtesy of Howard Siegel. (Left to right:) John Ryan with Stanley Pitt, fan Cam Ford, and John Dixon. At right: a page from Pitt’s 1957 adaptation of Alfred Bester’s famed science-fiction novel The Stars My Destination. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

When I asked him about Australian fans and his personal collection, he told me that “there is no such thing as Australian comics fandom. Collectors and fans have shown no inclination to be organized as a group, preferring, instead, to become integrated with the science fiction genre.” As far as his collection goes, he had about 3000 select US items, the highlight of which was about 400 Sunday Spirit sections, many of which were bound. His Australian titles were monumental. In response to Golden Age vs. modern material, he had this to say: “I don’t feel that Golden Age comics are better than the current efforts. It’s just that I prefer the older material. The anatomy and perspective of the present artists may be better than that of the old-timers, but there is a tendency for their drawing to lack personality. Pretty pictures do not a comic make. It seems to me that many artists of the last decade do not know how to handle panel-to-panel continuity dramatically.” In the mid-1970s, John’s professional work peaked. In February 1975 he was commissioned to write about Australian comics for Maurice Horn’s World Encyclopedia of Comics. At my request, he curated a history of Australian comics for the Museum of Cartoon Art, the National Cartoonists Society showcase then located at historic Ward’s Castle in Rye, New York. With his usual zeal, John created an excellent presentation, lending us some prize artwork. One of the things he stressed was the unnecessary censorship laws which existed at that time in his native Queensland. Would you believe that Kerry Drake, Dragnet, and masked cowboys were labeled as unfit literature? In August of that year, the Australian Deputy Consul, Kenneth McClosky, opened the exhibit in the presence of Mort Walker, president of the museum, Jack Tippit, and many others. The exhibit became a permanent part of the international wing until the museum moved to Boca Raton, Florida. In 1978 he wrote the introduction to The Golden Years of Ginger Meggs, 1921-1952 for Souvenir Press. Created by J.C. Bancks, it was

about a scallywag youngster, not unlike Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes. Its longevity attests to its popularity as a newspaper feature. In 1979 John realized his dream: a commercially published hardcover book covering the history of Australian Comics. Commissioned by Cassell Australia Ltd., the 224 pages of Panel by Panel: An Illustrated History of Australian Comics contained over 400 illustrations, including 42 in color. It had an initial print run of 6000, large for a book on this topic in Australia. To write it, John virtually cut himself off from the outside world of fandom so he could concentrate on the task at hand. Sadly, on December 12, 1979, while on a business trip to Mt. Isa, John collapsed and never regained consciousness. He was 48 years old and left his wife of 15 years, Jan, his daughter Fiona, and his son Sean. There were several other projects John had hoped to undertake. Unfortunately, there was no one of his caliber to continue such work, a sad loss for Australian comic book aficionados, and a far sadder loss for those who were privileged to call him a good friend. “Bidgee” — The Wind That Tells — blew no more.

Comic Fandom Archive

The Eternal Fan Caricature of a bearded John Ryan (right) that appeared in Panel by Panel, flanked by the logo of one of his fanzines, Bidgee, and the 1971 cover of his Boomerang #24. Artists uncertain, but drawing at far right is probably by Stanley Pitt. [Art ©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Howard Siegel (right) & DC staffer Paul Levitz, now the company's president & publisher, at a 1974 New York comicon, from a '74 issue of the mag that later became Comics Buyer's Guide. Thanks to HS.

Next issue, South African fan John Wright will tell of his own correspondence and friendship with John Ryan over the years—with more vintage art and photos. Howard Siegel has written for numerous publications over the years, including RB-CC, Great Britain’s BEM magazine, the Australia-New Zealand magazine Strips, and editions of the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide. He is an honorary curator of comic book history for The Museum of Cartoon Art, Rye Brook, NY.

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This was the battle of Kanigher vs. France “Eddie” Herron. Among Kanigher’s many conceits (and he had a bushel of them) was the notion that he was an artist with fencing foils. He had taken some expensive lessons in the art and had bought some costly tools. On this particular day, when he was roaming the offices displaying his new foils, The late great comics writer Kanigher boastfully showed Arnold Drake. them to Eddie Herron. Nobody there liked Kanigher (though he fancied himself enough to balance that judgment). But Eddie found him particularly annoying.

ecognize the above figure? You saw Joe Simon & Jack Kirby’s original version of it on p. 8—as it appeared in 1940 in Novelty’s Blue Bolt #2. Here, Shane Foley has turned it into Captain Ego, one-half of our “maskot” team of Alter and…. Makes a perfect lead-off for this issue’s “re:” section, we think. [Art ©2008 Shane Foley; Capt. Ego TM & ©2008 Roy Thomas & Bill Schelly.]

Actually, we’re so far behind in these letters sections—even more so now with only eight issues a year instead of twelve—that I had to think twice before doing what I’ve done below. But every time I started wading through the missives for this segment of the mag, I’d run into the same epistles I hadn’t quite gotten around to printing at the proper time—or maybe they were notes that arrived long after all the other mail had come in on a particular issue—or perhaps in some other odd way they didn’t quite make it into the “proper” slot. So I decided to delay letters re A/E #63 (our Toth tribute) for one more issue—hoping, even praying, that I can double up next time—and to deal with these leftover letters. Truth is, you may find them as interesting as I did—which, after all, is why I’ve kept ’em around so long! First off, we’d long been meaning to print this March 2005 letters from our old friend Arnold Drake, cocreator of Deadman and The Doom Patrol, who sadly passed away some months ago. We had promised him we’d print it sooner or later—he really wanted it printed—and we’re keeping our word: Hi there! Just received Alter Ego #46, which I enjoyed, as usual. What particularly turned me on was Alv Schwartz’s retelling of a couple of the true “combat tales” from DC… not the ones from their war books. But Alv missed one, probably because he was no longer at DC when it happened.

Eddie had been a fine athlete. At 6 feet 1 or 2, about 220 pounds, he had earned a football scholarship (I think it was from Ohio State), only to wreck one knee in his freshman year. A major disappointment for him. So here sat this frustrated football player listening to Kanigher spouting off about physical and mental agility in sports, etc. In the middle of that lecture, Eddie grabbed one of the foils and shouted: “En garde!” Kanigher was startled at first, then amused. He slashed the air with his foil, doing his best imitation of Douglas Fairbanks in The Count of Monte Cristo, and the fight was on. But it was in no way a contest. Kanigher was trying to use classic fencing techniques. Eddie was just using his great bulk and strength. In a matter of seconds he backed Kanigher to the wall. Desperately trying to keep Eddie off of him, Kanigher slid along the

On The Fence Robert Kanigher, who was both editor and writer, may or (more likely) may not have scripted the “Black Pirate” story in All-American Comics #87 (July 1947). Either way, a panel from that swashbuckler, drawn by Paul Reinman, seems fitting art to accompany Arnold Drake’s letter about RK, Eddie Herron, and fencing. Dave Manak’s caricature of Kanigher appeared in Amazing World of DC Comics #14 (March 1977). [©2008 DC Comics.]

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wall until he reached his office door. He slipped into the office and slammed the door shut. Eddie stood there snorting for a moment and then grabbed a chair and pushed it to the door. Now he climbed onto the chair and pocked his foil through the transom window above the door. Kanigher, on the other side, was shocked to see the foil coming at him through the open window. The whole combat lasted two or three minutes. But the office was roaring about it for days after.

“Kathy” appears in Standard’s Thrilling Comics (the few issues I own have the feature drawn by, to my eyes at least, different artists). I recognized the story right away—it was drawn by Ralph Mayo and Frank Frazetta, and I first saw it way before I came across any original publication of vintage Frazetta comics— in Captain George #28/39 (a “Frazetta Special”—a mixture of funny animal and adventure comics, with a cover illo taken from one of the legendary Midwood doubles, which I have, but not to hand). I’ve since bought the published comic: Thrilling Comics #68 (Oct. 1948).

Add that one to “TALES OF DC COMBAT.”

Tim Barnes

Arnold Drake

Thanks, Tim. It’s always good to fill in a few more blanks.

We just did, Arnold. Thanks! We still miss you—and it’s been nice not to, just for the length of time it took to re-read, retype, and edit your letter.

Hames Ware is a fountain of anecdotes he’s collected during his lifetime of studying comics—their stories, their styles, their creators. A couple of years back he asked A/E associate editor Jim Amash to forward the following note to me, which I’m finally getting a chance to print, just to put a human face on one more name to be found lurking in or around comic books….

You can never have too much information about the great comics artist Matt Baker, so when Dan Kurdilla sent the following missive, too late to be included in the initial comments about A/E #47, we hung onto it until we had a chance to print it. This is it. Hello, Mr. Thomas, I know this is very belated, but I was just reading the material about Matt Baker in Alter Ego #47 from almost two years ago. I would like to offer a few pieces of additional information, just in case no one has so far….

Dropping The Bomber Matt Baker’s proposed cover for an issue of Elliot Publishing Co.’s Bomber Comics—or maybe it’s his cover for a proposed issue, for the illo seems never to have been published, at least as a cover. Bomber Comics had a four-issue run in 1944, featuring the Bakerdrawn “Wonder Boy” feature. Collector Scotty Moore, who sent us this scan of the original art, feels it may have been inked by later EC artist Al Feldstein. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

On page 28 an “Inspector Dayton” page is shown, described as not published until 1997. Actually, this story was published in Atomic Comics #3 (May 1946).

On page 45 the art for a cover is shown, with the request that anyone who can identify where it was published do so. It’s from Authentic Police Cases #35 (Sept. 1954). Offhand I know of another Baker item that isn’t mentioned in the impressive index. He has 5 illustrations (including nudes and semi-nudes) in the men’s magazine Nugget, Vol. 1, #1 (Nov. 1955), published by St. John. One is signed; all are very nice, still at the top of his form. One other thing, related not to Baker but to Kelly Freas: On page 74 you show what is described as a “black-&-white illustration” for Planet Stories. This is actually a black-&-white repro of a color cover for the September 1953 issue of that magazine. I hope this info is of some use, despite the long delay. Dan Kurdilla When we’re talking about historical information, Dan, it’s always timely. After all, they’re still digging up the tombs of the Pharaohs, aren’t they? Here’s a letter that harks back to A/E #44, but was only written this past June by Tim Barnes: I was catching up with some A/E issues last night, and can add some info, although you’ve probably got it by now. It concerns Alter Ego, Vol. 3, #44 (Jan. 2005)—page 5, the Arthur Adler list. It mentions a teen series called “Kathy,” and a story “Shutterbug.”

When I was last in L.A. (early 1970s, I think), I visited Dell’s offices and met a number of people there. They were so kind and accommodating and let me spend as much time as I wanted in their archival library there.

During one of my visits, an unusual little fellow came up and introduced himself as Nat Edson. Happily, having already gotten some info on him for our Who’s Who, I was able to tell him how much I had enjoyed his work and how I’d found it closely resembled that of Tom Massey. He chuckled and explained that he was usually asked to adapt to the style of the artists whose features he might be doing at the time. Nat Edson was an unusual fellow in many ways, stooped over, perhaps due to a physical infirmity, making him appear to be not much taller than a child, but also, like a younger person than his age and infirmity, cheerful and delighted to meet someone who’d been aware of him. He was most excited when he learned I was from Arkansas, saying that, due to his own inability to travel, he had all his life collected maps. He said he loved to pore over these maps and imagine the terrain and locales and picture himself in these places, and that he had maps from all over the world… but none from Arkansas, and he wondered if I would be so kind as to send him one. Well, of course, I was delighted to respond to his request, and one of the first things I did when I returned home was to send Nat Edson maps of my home state. He wrote me back, so enthused that I had remembered, and thanking me profusely. I have never forgotten him and can picture him now, even as I write. Hames Ware An engrossing little story, Hames! As you and Jerry Bails listed in the 1970s Who’s Who, Nat Edson drew Tim Tyler for Standard/Pines, a whole passel of Westerns (and a few Disney movie adaptations) for Western, as well as tales for Quality, Lafayette, McKay, and even DC during the 1940s. Getting closer to the present: A/E #59’s interview with Al Plastino was

[comments, correspondence, & corrections]

accompanied by three previously unpublished Peanuts strips which he had prepared years earlier at United Feature Syndicate’s request, and we printed the three examples he sent us. On May 11, 2007, on behalf of the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center in Santa Rosa, California, archivist Lisa Monhoff forwarded the following (March 16, 2007) letter from Robert Roy Metz, who from 1972-1977 had been president of Newspaper Enterprise Association, which merged with United Feature Syndicate in 1978 to form United Media, of which he was president and CEO from 1978 to 1993. Metz’ letter was written to Jean Schulz, widow of Peanuts creator Charles Schulz, but he and Lisa Monhoff felt it was worth sending to A/E, as well, for the historical record: Dear Jeannie: Thanks for sending along the Alter Ego magazine story on Al Plastino and his long career as a cartoonist, which included a lot of work for United Feature Syndicate. Most of his UFS work was “ghosting” strips created by others after they died or became disabled. Unfortunately, Al’s recollection of his involvement with Peanuts is at variance from the facts. In the summer of 1977, I took responsibility for negotiating a new contract between UFS and Sparky [Charles Schulz] to replace the original 1950 agreement. The years-long discussions were deadlocked and increasingly contentious. Bill Payette, my predecessor as UFS president, was determined to maintain the syndicate’s historic right to control the copyrights and trademarks to Peanuts, arguably the most valuable asset of the company. Sparky was equally determined to gain broad approval rights on the licensing use of his creation. As I familiarized myself with the history of the negotiations, I was amazed to find that Payette had employed Plastino to produce a considerable number of Peanuts daily strips and Sunday pages. Payette told me he was prepared to have Plastino produce the feature if Sparky did not agreed to the syndicate’s terms. My amazement was based on the conviction that Peanuts was so much the product of one man’s unique mind and skills that no other person could “copy” it. Without Sparky, Peanuts would not survive. Ultimately, I was able to reach agreement with Sparky and his legal and business representatives on a new agreement, which remained in effect throughout his life and essentially, I believe, still governs the relationship between his heirs and the syndicate today. It is true that Sparky never saw the Plastino efforts, which I had ordered destroyed. Later he learned they had once existed and we occasionally joked about them. Al’s recollection that he had drawn these strips to be used if needed at the time of Sparky’s heart bypass surgery in 1981 is incorrect. Unlike a good many cartoonists, Sparky consistently was weeks ahead on both

his daily and Sunday releases. He still had a backlog of completed releases when he returned to the drawing board after the successful surgery. If his convalescence had taken longer, the syndicate would have provided reruns of past releases. Under the new contract by then in effect, only Sparky could write and draw the feature. Six years after Sparky’s death, reruns of Peanuts still appear in hundreds of publications around the world, a tribute to his genius. He drew every one of them. Robert Roy Metz Thus, according to Monhoff, Al Plastino drew the potential replacement Peanuts strips “closer to 1975-1976 and … it had nothing to do with Schulz’ heart bypass operation.” And that, unless Al has more to say on the subject, is essentially that. A/E #60 celebrated the 50th anniversary of Showcase #4 and its origin of the Silver Age Flash—oddly, DC itself took no notice of the event—and sparked this letter from collector/researcher Bob Hughes with an intriguing suggestion as to precisely why National/DC might have chosen to revive its Fastest Man Alive franchise at that particular moment in time: Roy— In contrast to “the Shot Heard Round the World” that started the American Revolution, Showcase #4, released in September 1956 [actually on sale in early July, with a Sept. cover date], was the shot heard by absolutely nobody. Even Jerry Bails never saw it, or the following couple of appearances, either. Despite the murky mists surrounding the memories of the creation of that milestone, one thing is perfectly clear: nobody in National management had any hopes of success. One issue was begrudgingly budgeted and scheduled, and then, when sales figures started rolling in, clearly higher than any of the surrounding issues of Showcase, a second single issue was budgeted and scheduled for Showcase #8 (May 1957), eight months later! In contrast, Simon and Kirby’s “Challengers of the Unknown” got two issues (#6-7), “Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane” got two issues (#9-10, followed by her own comic six months later), then two more “Challengers” (#11-12, followed by its own comic two [!] months later), before “Flash” was allowed a two-issue stand in Showcase, followed by its own comic ten (!!) months later. Clearly, the time was not ripe in

Back In A Flash Mike Sekowsky’s cover for Sterling Comics’ Captain Flash #1 (Nov. 1954); inker unknown. Since the fourth and final issue of CF bore a June 1955 cover date, the mag was already doubtless defunct by the time National/DC decided to re-launch its own hero, The Flash—but DC might’ve wanted to make sure they couldn’t start it up again! A few years later, of course, Sekowsky would be drawing the new Flash in Justice League of America. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

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first issue hit the stands in January [1956]! So Liebowitz clearly thought in those terms. Now, Mayer didn’t actually revive the old series. He created an entirely new series with a different premise. He just used the old name. Liebowitz would probably have been happy with the old version, but Mayer wanted to create something new. Liebowitz would probably also have been happy with the old Flash, but Schwartz, Infantino, and Kanigher wanted to create something new. Which they did, to resounding (though somewhat delayed) success. This I think was the important idea, not to bring back The Flash, but to create a new one. That was the seed which, three years later, finally bloomed into a Silver Age. Bob Hughes An intriguing possibility, Bob—and frankly, Ye Editor (who did buy Showcase #4 hot of the stands, circa July 4, 1956) has long wondered if there was some connection between the short-lived Sterling Captain Flash and DC’s revival. Your scenario may very well be the right one… though we’ll probably never know for sure.

“One For All And All For Three (Or Maybe Four)!” The original DC series “The Three Mouseketeers” was featured in the first 28 issues of Funny Stuff, beginning with #1 (Summer 1944). Art by Ronald Santi; scripter unknown. Just as in Dumas’ classic novel, the main hero was originally a fourth Mouseketeer, D’artagmouse, though he was eventually dropped, perhaps to avoid confusing young readers just learning how to count; that left just Amouse, Porterhouse, and Aramouse. At right is Sheldon Mayer’s cover for The Three Mouseketeers #1 (March-April 1956), with a totally different cast and no trace of French swashbucklers. Thanks to Bob Bailey. [©2008 DC Comics.]

One final note: credits researcher Craig Delich wrote us, in answer to a query as to exactly which early “Green Lantern” story its co-creator Mart Nodell had laid out for backup artist Irwin Hasen, that it was the “GL” tale that appeared in All-American Comics #27 (June 1941), not #27, as surmised in an issue of A/E. “By the way,” Craig add, “Hasen’s first work to appear on ‘GL’ was the cover to All-American #24—two issues before the first credited story. However, Moldoff ’s layouts are easily seen in the #27 story. No doubt, Hasen had done ‘GL’ stuff for inventory before his stuff ever appeared in print.” Thanks for the info, Craig. Next time, your bouquets and brickbats on A/E #63. Got some thoughts on this issue? Send ’em to:

1956 for super-hero revivals, any more than it had been in 1952 for Captain Comet or in 1953-54 for Captain America, The Human Torch, and Sub-Mariner.

Roy Thomas 32 Bluebird Trail St. Matthews, SC 29135

So the real question isn’t why did National think it was time to bring back The Flash in 1956, but why did they bring back The Flash even when they didn’t think it was time for a super-hero revival.

By the bye—just what is a “brickbat,” anyway??

I think the answer is right there on page 7. Sterling Comics put out Captain Flash in 1954 and ran it for four issues. National was always quite protective of its trademarks and probably thought that name skated too close to something that belonged to them, even if they weren’t using it at the moment. That it took so long to get a response out probably has a lot to do with how slow and cautious [co-publisher] Jack Liebowitz was. Martin Goodman would have had an all-reprint issue out in about six weeks! I have no direct evidence to support this theory, but I do have some circumstantial evidence. In October 1955 Disney put out a new TV show called The Mickey Mouse Club, featuring a group of kids called The Mouseketeers. Liebowitz immediately went to Sheldon Mayer, editor and probable creator of a feature National had published back in the 1940s called “The Three Mouseketeers,” and asked him to revive it—and the

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

1972 Capt. Marvel special illo by C.C. Beck. A penciled note thereon reads: “Notice the sideburns—I feel CM would have 'em today!” Thanks to Dominic Bongo & Heritage Comics Archives. [Shazam! characters TM & ©2008 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 reflected on the demise of our Captain Marvel. In this installment he tells of two individuals at Fawcett Publications who left a lasting impact on his career and life. –P.C. Hamerlinck.]

First Star I See Tonight… Al Allard, Fawcett Publications art director, “looked as much like a Hollywood star as did the stars he escorted through his art department.” Photo courtesy of P.C. Hamerlinck.

have thought me insane, the impulse was to lower the cab window, lean out and shout, “Hey, Al!” The crowd, though, had already begun to move on, and the moment was gone. But I still wish I had. I never saw a smile on the face of Ralph Daigh … in photo or in life. The office scuttlebutt that reached my ears had it that he was among the original executives of the company, had been lured away briefly by a competitive publisher, and had returned when the entire outfit picked up and moved to New York and Connecticut, about 1939.

t’s something for which one can be truly thankful … the realization that everywhere you’ve ever been there were people who seem to have gone out of their way to make you feel that you were somebody special. At Fawcett Publications the first that comes to mind is Al Allard. When, after scarcely more than a week of employment with the company, I was called in for having erased the layout work of another artist; it was art director Al Allard, with the accord of editor [Ed] Herron, who insisted that I be left free to do future assignments all the way … from script through layout, penciling, and inking. Several years later, upon my return from the military, it was Allard again, I’m sure, whose influence persuaded executive editor Ralph Daigh to arrange for me to spend the rest of my career with Fawcett working from my home in Louisiana. Daigh made it clear from the beginning that it was the first instance … and I suspect the only one … that such an exception to regular company policy was made. One day, long afterwards, when I had retired from comics and gone into industry, and was in New York City on a business trip, the taxicab in which I rode stopped at a crossing of pedestrians near Grand Central Station. There, right before my eyes, pressed in against the crowd on foot, was my old friend ... long hair, dark shirt open at the collar … Al Allard. Within the taxi, squeezed between two associates who would

Daigh At Night Ralph Daigh (left, pronounced “day”), Fawcett’s executive editor, and Al Allard (right) at a Fawcett a soiree. Marc Swayze writes: “Ralph Daigh was a man who made decisions and knew how to carry them out effectively.” Photo courtesy of P.C. Hamerlinck.

FCA (Fawcett Collectors Of America)

Louisiana Pay-Ride Marc feels it was chiefly through Allard’s intervention that he was allowed to work from home—meaning Louisiana—after he returned from military service in 1944. Before his time in uniform, Marc had drawn, among other things, the two stories that had introduced Mary Marvel, including Captain Marvel Adventures #19 (Jan. 1943, above); script by Otto Binder. Afterward, he concentrated on The Phantom Eagle (as per panel at right from Wow Comics #46, Aug. 1946) and love stories (as per the splash below from Romantic Secrets #26, Jan. 1952). [Shazam! characters TM & ©2008 DC Comics; Phantom Eagle & Romantic Secrets art ©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

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

Captain Billy’s Whiz Gang P.C. Hamerlinck’s note: “Fawcett Publications executives enjoying a little R&R at Breezy Point Resort during the early 1940s. Editorial director Ralph Daigh is seated front row, center. To his left (our right) is vicepresident Roger Fawcett. Art director Al Allard is in the top row, far right. “Wilfred Hamilton Fawcett (“Captain Billy”) purchased the northern Minnesota land in 1921. The charismatic millionaire publisher built up the resort, where he played host to various stars such as Carole Lombard, Clark Gable, and Tom Mix through the ’20s and ’30s. Captain Billy’s personal mansion on the resort stills stands today.” Photo courtesy of P.C. Hamerlinck.

A likely possibility is that Daigh was expected to provide the iron hand … and the brains … essential to the success of a large organization like Fawcett in the swim of big city competition. And he could do it. One glare from those eyes was enough to melt a backbone … and probably had dissolved a few in his time. Some said it spelled trouble. But I saw in it honesty … sincerity. The meeting I had with him in 1944 is recalled as a major event in my life. When he learned that my objective was to produce a Fawcett feature from Louisiana … or from any place outside New York City … he could have simply said, “We don’t do that kind of business.” And the meeting would have been over! But that wasn’t the style of Ralph Daigh. He wanted to know the whys and wherefores for my decision … and the determination behind it. It has occurred to me since that he may have seen, as we talked, a younger Ralph Daigh, and maybe a yearning to go ... back home? We’ll never know.

Allard, I’ve always felt, was highly instrumental in my being with the company in the first place. Although I reported to editor Herron functionally, officially I was a member of the art department, reporting to Al Allard. That would have necessitated Allard’s approval. They believed in me … did Allard and Daigh, and the result was a conclusion never to let them down. And I don’t think I did. Year after year, the assigned work was mailed in as scheduled and, as editor Wendell Crowley described it, “camera ready.” But to this day one of my regrets is not having done my utmost to maintain a closer acquaintance and emphasize my appreciation to those gentlemen who played such active roles in that eventful chapter in my career … and life. In all the trips I made to the big city over the following years, I never once stopped in to say hello … or thanks again.

Al Allard was one of the original crew that came from Minnesota with Captain Billy Fawcett and the entire crew, their families, and the business.

Marc Swayze. He was ideally cast in his role as art director … wise to the Broadway demand for distinctive image, he wore neat but very casual attire, his hair slightly longer than the average, and he looked as

much like a Hollywood star himself as did the film stars he escorted through his art department.

And I’m sorry. Marc Swayze will continue his reminiscences of the Golden Age of Comics in our next issue.

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 COMMANDO YANK PYROMAN • GREEN LAMA THE EAGLE • IBIS

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Two Guys Named Bill The Cosby Show And Captain Marvel by C.C. Beck Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck [A previously unpublished “Critical Circle” essay from 1987 by Captain Marvel’s co-creator and chief artist from 1939 to 1953– from the vaults of PCH’s Beck estate files.]

consider The Cosby Show to be the top television program. It doesn’t follow the formula used by all the other shows, but is almost exactly the opposite … just as Captain Marvel back in the ’40s didn’t follow the standard super-hero formula, but was almost exactly the opposite.

Cosby is not the super-hero of his show. He is not eternally right, perfect, and noble … but human, with many failings. He is often poked fun at, laughed at, and put down, but he is never made to be a perfect fool; he always comes out ahead in the end. Captain Marvel was the same: he was billed as “The World’s Mightiest Mortal,” not as a supernatural being above all human understanding. As a very human character, Cosby gets into trouble and often seems to be completely wrong. This causes him to get into comic situations, not into serious ones as so often happens in other TV shows. But as comic as the situations become, Cosby himself never becomes a slap-happy clown or a blundering idiot. Captain Marvel didn’t, either, until new publishers took him over and turned him into one. Cosby allows others to show off their talents; he doesn’t hog the show. Although he is in most of the scenes himself, he lets other actors get the spotlight and do their stuff … just as Captain Marvel let Sivana, Mr. Tawny, Steamboat, Mr. Morris, and others get the attention of the readers now and then. This sharing of time with others has always been one of the marks of a top-notch entertainer, but the failure to do so has killed off the careers of many leading characters. Cosby himself is a fascinating character, but he doesn’t appear as himself on the show; instead, he is Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable. Although Cosby is a black American, as are most of the other characters on the show, he never makes any particular mention of it and treats everyone with dignity and respect. However, this doesn’t prevent him from allowing others to make fools or villains of themselves. Producers of bad shows unfortunately fail to realize that no single group of people are all heroes nor all villains, thus turning away large portions of their audiences. Cosby’s character is not the main character of his show at all. Other producers might have made a black American doctor who treats pregnant white women a crusading figure for equality and justice and democracy

FCA (Fawcett Collectors Of America)

Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex… But Were Afraid To Ask A Talking Tiger According to Beck, Golden Age “Captain Marvel” tales “had a lot more sex… than most people realized” and “let other actors get the spotlight”—as per these panels from Captain Marvel Adventures #48 (Aug.-Sept. 1945) and #86 (July 1948). Art for the former is by Beck and Pete Costzana; the latter exploit is by Otto Binder (script) and Beck (art). [©2008 DC Comics.]

and who knows what else, but thanks to Cosby’s control of the show, this is never allowed. In most of the episodes, his scenes as a doctor are very minor; they’re just there to show he’s an educated man, not an illiterate junk dealer or a factory worker or a cab driver or something. Captain Marvel was a similar character, at least when he started out. Billy Batson became Captain Marvel only when he had to and then became himself again … just as Cosby goes into his office or to the hospital to deliver a baby when he has to … but afterwards he goes back to his normal role of husband/father. When the writers and editors and publishers of Captain Marvel forgot to do this he lost all his popularity, just as Bill Cosby will if he ever forgets to act human. Both Cosby and his TV wife are wealthy and both work, but they have no servants, no housekeeper or maid, chauffeur, or gardener. Apparently they do everything themselves just as if they were Archie and Edith Bunker living in a broken-down old house instead of a lavish home with priceless paintings on the walls. Most of the stories on The Cosby Show take place in their home, not in exotic settings elsewhere. There are no car chases, no gunfights, no explicit sex and violence. Compared to other TV shows, The Cosby Show is everything that a TV show shouldn’t be, yet it has a larger audience than any other … just as Captain Marvel had back in the Golden Age. Captain Marvel didn’t have all the violence that some people thought he had, and he had a lot more sex in his stories than most people realized. What violence was in the “Captain Marvel” stories was thrown in because it was the style … just as hair styles, clothing, and other cultural things are included in The Cosby Show. But in neither case are or were these things the sole reason for the stories; they were merely window dressing in Captain Marvel’s case and are a bow to current tastes in The Cosby Show’s case. Above all, Bill Cosby and all others on his show are immensely talented, highly skilled individuals, not grade-C stock actors. They never appear to be acting but seem to be perfectly natural, even though the things they say and do are often unreal and impossible. This is what makes the show a big hit. It’s a fantasy, not a documentary filmed on the

streets of a ghetto. It all takes place in a never-never-land the like of which doesn’t exist in the real world but could exist, unlike the worlds shown in many science-fiction and police and detective stories. Captain Marvel went along at a great clip for ten years. Then he started to become involved in the sordid problems of the real world, such as those presented by the war in Korea. In a few more years his popularity faded and he became only a memory. Television took over at about the time that the Golden Age ended. At first it was vibrant and alive and it became immensely popular. Today it’s in almost the same shape as comic books are. In my opinion The Cosby Show is about the only feature still adhering to the principles of honesty and sincerity that made Captain Marvel the king of what was then considered the garbage heap of the publishing field. In the old days Captain Marvel was never part of the garbage heap; neither is Cosby part of the garbage heap of television shows. Let’s hope he never becomes part of it.

The Revisionists by C.C. Beck Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck EDITOR’S NOTE: As an addendum to last issue’s “Shazam Curse” theme, FCA reprints this C.C. Beck essay originally presented in FCA & ME, Too #2 (FCA #38), Winter 1987. The article was spawned after I had sent Beck a copy of DC’s thenmost recent Captain Marvel-related project, Shazam! The New Beginning. —PCH.

n January 28, 1987, I received a phone call telling me that E. Nelson Bridwell was dead at age 55. Bridwell was one of the fans of Golden Age comic characters and, as an editor at DC Comics, was in a position to do something about preserving the personalities and appeal of the Marvel Family—Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, and Captain Marvel Jr.—along with Uncle Marvel, Sivana and his offspring, Mr. Tawny, Mr. Mind, and all the other great characters in the Fawcett comics of the ’40s. Bridwell had been retired for some time; he had been replaced by editors who wanted to destroy all the original Fawcett characters and replace them with different characters of their own creation. Bridwell had labored valiantly during the ’70s to keep some semblance of authenticity in the Marvel Family characters which DC had revived—but he had been fighting a losing battle against the revisionists who believed that comics of the Golden Age were too crude, childish, and simple-minded for modern readers to accept. Artist Don Newton was one of these revisionists. He drew Captain Marvel and Billy Batson as realistic characters, complete with eyeballs, eyelashes, eyelids, teeth, and other features which realistic artists insist on putting into cartoon characters. Captain Marvel, in Newton’s hands, became an overweight, muscle-bound strongman dressed in a costume which Newton himself like to call “painted on.” Newton was a great admirer of over-developed health faddists of the sort who appear at Mr. America contests to show off their pectorals, deltoids, and other bulging attributes … so he drew his Captain Marvel to look like a male beauty contest winner instead of what he had originally been … simply an enlarged version of the boy, Billy Batson, whom he replaced now and then for story purposes. Newton is gone now, too, and Captain Marvel, Billy Batson, and all the

Shazam Scribes (Above:) Charles Clarence Beck, original artist and co-creator of Captain Marvel, at a comics convention in Miami, Florida, in April 1979—with Marvel head honcho Stan Lee, seen on our left. C.C. was not appreciative of the Marvel approach to comics, but the two great talents seem to be getting along just fine. Beck may not have been a “scribe” in the sense of formally writing stories, but his storytelling sense and cartooning talent added to each and every tale he ever drew. (Left:) E. Nelson Bridwell, as caricatured (along with all other Justice League of America scripters to that date) by Dave Manak for DC’s house fanzine Amazing World of DC Comics #14 (March 1977). C.C. Beck felt that ENB did the best Binder/Woolfolk-style “Captain Marvel”/“Shazam!” stories after the World’s Mightiest Mortal was published by DC beginning in the early 1970s. Many Fawcett fans would tend to agree. But that wasn’t really what DC was looking for in the 1980s. [©2008 DC Comics.]

great Fawcett characters have been replaced by characters who are simply drawings, not people who seemed to be alive, full of ideas and ambitions (good and bad), and in conflict with each other— instead of being merely objects in artistically composed pictures scattered over the pages like displays of paintings in an album of art. In Shazam! The New Beginning, DC’s latest version of the old Fawcett characters, everything has been changed. Uncle Marvel, in his Uncle Dudley form, is now Billy’s real uncle; Sivana is now Billy’s uncle, too. Shazam, the kindly old wizard, is now a wrinkled, frightful, hawk-nosed old monster… and Billy Batson is a blubbering, sniveling, spineless wimp who spends all his time trying to figure out what’s going on. When Captain Marvel first appears in DC’s latest version of his first story, he has no idea who he is. He stands around in various poses— straddle-legged so that his crotch is prominently displayed—pats his bulging biceps to show them off, scratches his head in bewilderment, and stares at the readers as he pops his eyes, bares his teeth, and looks more confused than Billy Batson at everything.

He does nothing important at all—he simply stands around as the backgrounds change from panel to panel, lightning flashes, and some sound effects go “KERUKKKK” and “SWOOSH” and “BLANNG” and “MMMMMMM.”

FCA (Fawcett Collectors Of America)

Captains Outrageous Three examples of the “revisionist” art style that Beck hated, as ID’d in accompanying notes. Actually, these are re-creations by CCB, done for FCA & ME, Too #2 (FCA Newsletter #38, Winter 1987). [©2008 DC Comics.]

There is no story, no plot … nothing but playing around with words and sound effects and various layouts of the pages to show off the skills of the new artist, Tom Mandrake, of the letterer Augustin Mars, and of the new colorist, Carl Gafford. The Captain Marvel revisionists have succeeded, at last, in completely divorcing themselves from Fawcett’s Golden Age comic characters. In doing so, they have made the original stories and characters look like masterpieces of literature and art, which, of course, they never were. Fawcett’s “Captain Marvel” stories were just better than any of the others which had preceded them… and were not as bad as the ones which have followed them, at least up to the present.

With One (Black) Magic Word… But Beck saved his especial wrath for Shazam! The New Beginning, a four-issue series published in 1987 on the heels of DC’s company-wide serial Legends. Script by Roy & Dann Thomas; art by Tom Mandrake. Here, Dr. Sivana and Black Adam torment the Big Red Cheese more realistically than ever happened in his Fawcett days—the first time ever that Black Adam was tied in with Cap’s origin, as has happened a couple of times since. As Roy has said truthfully on several occasions, the mini-series was a success, but DC flubbed the follow-through, so there was no successor series. [©2008 DC Comics.]

By contrast—which is the only way that artistic values can be judged—almost any comic book from the ’40s is better than the comic books which followed them. And Captain Marvel, almost universally acclaimed as the outstanding figure of the Golden Age, remains, as Roy Thomas, DC editor and chief revisionist writer calls him, “one of the great pop-culture myths of the twentieth century.” To keep Captain Marvel—the old, original Captain Marvel—secure in his position, I’d like to have all readers of FCA write to DC Comics, telling Jenette Kahn, president and publisher, that her staff of revisionist writers and artists are doing a wonderful job of showing just how great the World’s Mightiest Mortal was before her company got control of him and changed him into whatever it is that they are giving their readers today. Perhaps she’ll give her staff nice raises in pay for their work so far. Then they’ll be able to write and draw even worse copy and pictures, if that is possible, in future issues. Personally, I am of the opinion that no one could possibly do [worse] … but that’s just my opinion, to which very few people pay any attention today.

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

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

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

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

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

2007 EISNER AWARD WINNER Best Comics-Related Periodical

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

DIEGDITITIOANL ONLY!

ALTER EGO #1

ALTER EGO #2

ALTER EGO #3

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

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

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

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

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JUL991700

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: OCT991711

DIEGDITITIOANL ONLY!

ALTER EGO #4

ALTER EGO #5

ALTER EGO #6

ALTER EGO #7

ALTER EGO #8

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #9

ALTER EGO #10

ALTER EGO #11

ALTER EGO #12

ALTER EGO #13

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

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

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

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

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

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

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JUL012309

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: SEP012273

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #14

ALTER EGO #15

ALTER EGO #16

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #18

ALTER EGO #19

ALTER EGO #20

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #22

ALTER EGO #23

ALTER EGO #24

ALTER EGO #25

ALTER EGO #26

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #27

ALTER EGO #28

ALTER EGO #29

ALTER EGO #30

ALTER EGO #31

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #32

ALTER EGO #33

ALTER EGO #34

ALTER EGO #35

ALTER EGO #36

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JAN042879

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

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

ALTER EGO #37

ALTER EGO #38

ALTER EGO #39

ALTER EGO #40

ALTER EGO #41

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

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

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

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

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

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

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY043050

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JUN042972

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JUL043386

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: AUG043186

ALTER EGO #42

ALTER EGO #43

ALTER EGO #44

ALTER EGO #45

ALTER EGO #46

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

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

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

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

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

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

(108-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: OCT043189

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV043080

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: DEC042992

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JAN053133

ALTER EGO #47

ALTER EGO #48

ALTER EGO #49

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

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

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

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

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: MAR053331

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: APR053287

ALTER EGO #50 ROY THOMAS covers his 40-YEAR career in comics (AVENGERS, X-MEN, CONAN, ALL-STAR SQUADRON, INFINITY INC.), with ADAMS, BUSCEMA, COLAN, DITKO, GIL KANE, KIRBY, STAN LEE, ORDWAY, PÉREZ, ROMITA, and many others! Also FCA, & MR. MONSTER on ROY’s letters to GARDNER FOX! Flip-covers by BUSCEMA/ KIRBY/ALCALA and JERRY ORDWAY!

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY053172

ALTER EGO #54 ALTER EGO #51

ALTER EGO #52

ALTER EGO #53

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #56

ALTER EGO #57

ALTER EGO #58

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #60

ALTER EGO #61

ALTER EGO #62

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

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

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

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ALTER EGO #63

ALTER EGO #64

ALTER EGO #65

ALTER EGO #66

ALTER EGO #67

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

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

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

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

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

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ALTER EGO #68

ALTER EGO #69

ALTER EGO #70

ALTER EGO #71

ALTER EGO #72

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

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

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

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

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

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ALTER EGO #73

ALTER EGO #75

ALTER EGO #76

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #79

ALTER EGO #80

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

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

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

THE RETRO COMICS EXPERIENCE!

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

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

BACK ISSUE #1

BACK ISSUE #2

BACK ISSUE #3

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

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

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

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BACK ISSUE #4

BACK ISSUE #5

BACK ISSUE #6

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BACK ISSUE #8

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

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

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

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

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

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BACK ISSUE #9

BACK ISSUE #10

BACK ISSUE #11

BACK ISSUE #12

BACK ISSUE #13

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

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

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

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

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

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BACK ISSUE #14

BACK ISSUE #15

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BACK ISSUE #18

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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BACK ISSUE #27

BACK ISSUE #28

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

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

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

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

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

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: JUL073976

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: SEP074091

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV073948

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: JAN084020

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Ships May 2008

NEW STUFF FROM TWOMORROWS!

BACK ISSUE #26

ROUGH STUFF #7

WRITE NOW! #17

DRAW! #15

BRICKJOURNAL #1 (V2)

Features an in-depth interview and cover by TIM TOWNSEND, CRAIG HAMILTON, DAN JURGENS, and HOWARD PORTER offer preliminary art and commentaries, MARIE SEVERIN career retrospective, graphic novels feature with art and comments by DAWN BROWN, TOMER HANUKA, BEN TEMPLESMITH, and LANCE TOOKS, 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!

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

The ultimate resource for LEGO enthusiasts of all ages, showcasing events, people, and models! #1 features an interview with set designer and LEGO Certified Professional NATHAN SAWAYA, plus step-by-step building instructions and techniques for all skill levels, new set reviews, on-the-scene reports from LEGO community events, and other surprises! Edited by JOE MENO.

(100-page magazine) $9 US Now Shipping Diamond Order Code: NOV073966

(80-page magazine) $9 US Now Shipping Diamond Order Code: AUG074138

(80-page magazine with COLOR) $6.95 Now Shipping Diamond Order Code: AUG074131

(80-page FULL COLOR magazine) $11 US Now Shipping Look for it in December’s PREVIEWS

ALL- STAR COMPANION V. 3

MODERN MASTERS VOLUME 15: MARK SCHULTZ

(100-page magazine) $9 US Diamond Order Code: NOV073948

KIRBY FIVE-OH! (JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #50) The regular columnists from THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR magazine celebrate the best of everything from Jack Kirby’s 50-year career, spotlighting: The BEST KIRBY STORIES & COVERS from 19381987! Jack’s 50 BEST UNUSED PIECES OF ART! His 50 BEST CHARACTER DESIGNS! Interviews with the 50 PEOPLE MOST INFLUENCED BY KIRBY’S WORK! A 50PAGE KIRBY PENCIL ART GALLERY and DELUXE COLOR SECTION! Kirby cover inked by DARWYN COOKE, and an introduction by MARK EVANIER, making this the ultimate retrospective on the career of the “King” of comics! Edited by JOHN MORROW. (168-page tabloid-size trade paperback) $24 US ISBN: 9781893905894 Diamond Order Code: JUL078147 Ships April 2008

SILVER AGE ALTER EGO: BEST SCI-FI COMPANION OF THE LEGENDARY COMICS FANZINE In the Silver Age of Comics, space was the place, and this book summarizes, critiques and lovingly recalls the classic science-fiction series edited by JULIUS SCHWARTZ and written by GARDNER FOX and JOHN BROOME! The pages of DC’s science-fiction magazines of the 1960s, STRANGE ADVENTURES and MYSTERY IN SPACE, are opened for you, including story-bystory reviews of complete series such as ADAM STRANGE, ATOMIC KNIGHTS, SPACE MUSEUM, STAR ROVERS, STAR HAWKINS and others! Writer/editor MIKE W. BARR tells you which series crossed over with each other, behind-the-scenes secrets, and more, including writer and artist credits for every story! Features rare art by CARMINE INFANTINO, MURPHY ANDERSON, GIL KANE, SID GREENE, MIKE SEKOWSKY, and many others, plus a glorious new cover by ALAN DAVIS and PAUL NEARY! (144-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!

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

More amazing secrets behind the 194051 ALL-STAR COMICS—and illustrated speculation about how other Golden Age super-teams might have been assembled! Also, an issue-by-issue survey of the JLAJSA 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!

(192-page trade paperback) $26 US ISBN: 9781893905887 Diamond Order Code: DEC073946

(224-page trade paperback) $31 US ISBN: 9781893905801 Diamond Order Code: MAY078045

(10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION)

SUBSCRIPTIONS:

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

BRICKJOURNAL (4 issues)

$32

$42

$50

$66

$78

Features an extensive, career-spanning interview lavishly illustrated with rare art from Mark’s files, plus huge sketchbook section, including unseen and unused art! By ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON. (120-page TPB with COLOR) $19 US ISBN: 9781893905856 Diamond Order Code: OCT073846

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

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