Alter Ego #76 Preview

Roy Thomas’ SIMONized Comics Fanzine

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No. 76

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Fighting American TM & ©2008 Joe Simon and Estate of Jack Kirby.

March 2008

PLUS:

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

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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.

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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

J

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

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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!

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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.

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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!

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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.]

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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

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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.]

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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.]

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.]

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W

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.

I

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.

55

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.

56

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

“Greasemonkey Griffen” from Wings Comics #30 (Feb. 1943). [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

64

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Introduction

by Michael T. Gilbert

U

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.

(Above:) The other Al Walker. This devilish cartoon is by Alanson Burton Walker, not Alfred John Walker, the Fiction House cartoonist. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

(Left:) A beautiful “Norge Benson” splash page from Planet Comics #13 (July 1941), featuring Slug the penguin, the biggest bully you’d never want to meet! [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Comic Fandom Archive

70

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

C

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.]

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[Art Š2007 DC Comics.]

81

By

[Art & logo ©2008 Marc Swayze; Captain Marvel © & 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.

I

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.

82

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.]

85

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.]

I

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.

Separated At Earth?

(Above:) Veteran TV star Bill Cosby. (Left:) Captain Marvel

by C.C. Beck. [Shazam! character art TM & ©2008 DC Comics.]

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

87

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.

O

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.