Alter Ego #77 by TwoMorrows Publishing

Roy Thomas’ Volcanic Comics Fanzine

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6.95

In the USA

No. 77

May 2008

JOE KUBERT & THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ARCHER ST. JOHN

Vol. 3, No. 77 / May 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 Kubert

Cover Colorist Tom Ziuko (after Joe Kubert)

With Special Thanks to: Heidi Amash Ger Apeldoorn Matt D. Baker Michael Barnes Jerry Beck Rod Beck John Benson Nick Caputo Pete Carlsson Roger Carp Bob Cherry Gene Colan Michaël Dewally Shel Dorf Ric Estrada Lance Falk Michael Feldman Edward Gazda Janet Gilbert George Hagenauer Jennifer Hamerlinck Al Jaffee Roger Jeffries Jay Kinney David Anthony Kraft Joe Kubert Eric Larsen

Karl R. Larsen Jim Ludwig Joan Howard Maurer Leon Maurer Brian K. Morris Frank Motler Albert Moy Stephen O’Day Ken Quattro Joe Petrilak Lily Renée Phillips Jay Piscopo Trina Robbins Fred Robinson Jerome Lafayette St. John Tom Sawyer J.P. Selegue R. Daniel Stevenson Marc Swayze Dann Thomas Alfred M. Walker Stephen V. Walker Hames Ware Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Dr. Michael J. Vassallo Ray Zone

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

David Gantz & Archer St. John

Contents Writer/Editorial: One Million Words Ago! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 The Gospel According To Archer St. John . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Ken Quattro’s history of St. John Publishing—from terror to 3-D to the Stooges!

“My God, Why Am I Messing Around With This Stuff?”. . . . 59 1950s artist Tom Scheuer/Sawyer talks with Jim Amash about drawing comics & writing TV.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! Alfred J. Walker, Part 2. . . . . . . 73 More from Michael T. Gilbert (& Steven Walker) on a most inventive Fiction House artist.

A Tribute To David Gantz – by Al Jaffee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 FCA (Fawcett Collectors Of America) #136 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 P.C. Hamerlinck presents facts by Marc Swayze & fiction by C.C. Beck. On Our Cover: The cover of Tor, Vol. 1, #3 (May 1954) is one of editor Roy Thomas’ favorite comic book covers of all time. As drawn and even colored by Joe Kubert, it was used by St. John Publications to reintroduce the primordial hero to a color-comics audience after two 3-D issues. We had to take a few liberties with the smoke at the top, where the huge, stone-carved word “Tor” had been; but we hope Joe, who gave us his blessing to use the illustration, won’t mind. Actually, the central portion of this selfsame illo was utilized by then-publisher Ronn Foss on the cover of A/E (Vol. 1) #6—in black-&-white, framed in-green—as per the newly reprinted trade paperback Alter Ego: The Best of the Legendary Comics Fanzine, as seen on p. 82. Special thanks to art dealer Albert Moy; visit his website at www.AlbertMoy.com. [©2008 Joe Kubert.] Above: In 1996, Joe drew this sketch of Tor the Hunter for collector Lance Falk, who (along with Joe) graciously shared it with us. To the best of our knowledge, it has never been printed before. [©2008 Joe Kubert.] 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.

writer/editorial

One Million Words Ago! T

hat’s how many words—by a very conservative guesstimate—I’ve written since I first encountered Joe Kubert’s “caveman hero” Tor in the pages of One Million Years Ago! #1 (September 1953). And if I’m off by a few thousand—or even by a factor of ten—well, I still think it makes kind-of a nice title for this mini-editorial.

that was unleashed upon the newsstands by St. John Publications in its decade of existence. Rather, they were the apex, the epitome of the comics presided over by Archer St. John, a mystery man whose professional career— as author Ken Quattro so eloquently reveals—began and ended in a type of violence as sudden and inexplicable as the raging volcano on our cover.

The handful of titles produced by the team of Joe Kubert and Norman Maurer between 1953 and 1955—Tor, The Three Stooges, Whack, Meet Miss Pepper, and a number of 3-D issues starring Mighty Mouse and others—were by no means the first, the last, or even typical of the material

To give adequate scope to Ken’s vision, and to St. John’s quality company—as well as to our regular features FCA and “Comic Crypt” and our interview with 1950s comic artist Tom Sawyer—we reluctantly had to delay till next month several items scheduled for this issue: the final half of our coverage of 1960s Australian comics fan John Ryan… our toooften-AWOL letters section… and the second chapter of Bob Rozakis’ imaginative fantasy series “The Secret History of All-American Comics, Inc. – Book I.” But they’ll all be on hand in thirty days, I promise. See if they aren’t!

Monthly! The Original First-Person History!

Bestest,

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

P.S.: Looking forward to seeing my old pals Dick Giordano, Herb Trimpe, Joe Staton, EC's Al Feldstein, et al., at the Heroes Con in Charlotte, NC, on Saturday, June 21—not to mention A/E associate editor Jim Amash, Back Issue’s Michael Eury, and TwoMorrows’ John Morrow! Maybe you, too? Check out www.heroesonline.com.

COMING IN JUNE

DAVE COCKRUM Celebrated! He Raised THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES To New Heights—And Started THE X-MEN On Their Trajectory To Glory!

• Great DAVE COCKRUM cover featuring a whole mess of X-Men! • DAVE COCKRUM interviews, tributes, & toasts—with scarce DC, Marvel, and other art by the co-creator of Nightcrawler, Colossus, & Storm! Extra—artistic salutes to Dave by NEAL ADAMS, TERRY AUSTIN, BOB McLEOD, et al! • Golden Age Timely/Marvel artist MARION SITTON interviewed by DR. MICHAEL J. VASSALLO—and Famous Funnies/Judge Parker artist HAROLD LeDOUX talks to JIM AMASH! • MICHAEL T. GILBERT on ALBERT J. WALKER, part 3—FCA starring MARC SWAYZE & the one and only BASIL WOLVERTON! • And, delayed from this issue: JOHN WRIGHT on JOHN RYAN—and “The Secret History Of All-American Comics, Inc. – Book I, Part 2 – The Bill Gaines Years!” by BOB ROZAKIS! Edited by ROY THOMAS

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

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The Gospel According To Archer St. John A History Of St. John Publishing (1947-1958)— The Little Comic Book Company That Could by Ken Quattro

Foreword

t was Mark Hanerfeld’s tribute to Kubert’s Tor in Alter Ego #10 way back in 1969 that first tipped me to St. John comics. Kubert I knew, of course… but who was this caveman Hanerfeld raved about? I eventually acquired 1,000,000 Years Ago! #1 (the unwieldy real title of that first issue of Tor) and came to know that Mark spoke the truth. Over time, various St. John Publishing books drifted in and out of my collection. While they never attained the consistent quality across the board that EC had, there was a determined streak of originality running through the line. I began seeking out information about the company and was surprised by much of what I learned—particularly regarding Archer St. John himself. The man and the company are

The Last Shall Be First Archer St. John (kneeling; see closeup in insert) clowns around amongst the famous footprints immortalized at Grauman’s—now Mann’s—Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California, in the early 1950s, accompanied by his star artist Matt Baker. This photo was provided by the latter’s half-brother Fred Robinson and nephew Matt D. Baker for our coverage of the elder Matt’s career in Alter Ego #47—which is still available from TwoMorrows (see pp. 90-96). Lined up below are the first and last comic books issued by St. John Publishing. (Left:) Comics Revue #1 (June 1947) featured reprints of Charlie Plumb’s 1925-1961 newspaper comic strip Ella Cinders—whose name was basically Cinderella spelled sideways. It’s not certain whether he drew this cover, however. (Center & right:) Atom-Age Combat, Vol 2, #1 (cover artist uncertain) and Secrets of True Love #1 (cover by Matt Baker) were both dated Feb. 1958. Latter scan courtesy of Frank Motler; unless otherwise stated, all photos and art accompanying this article were supplied by author Ken Quattro. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

A History Of St. John Publishing

virtually inseparable, and I found I couldn’t tell the story of one without also telling about the other. My research led me down paths, and a few cul de sacs, I had never expected.

The dominant force in her children’s lives, Canadian-born Amy had strict Episcopalian roots that dictated not only their upbringing, but also Archer’s education.

Certain aspects of the St. John story may be familiar and have been told in detail elsewhere. Those facts I give only cursory attention. Whenever feasible, I tried to direct the reader to the other sources. This article isn’t intended to be the last word on the St. John story, but hopefully it is a starting point. I can be connected with further information at kquattro@comcast.net. —Ken Q.

Robert left school to get a job and eventually joined the Navy to fight in World War I. Meanwhile, his mother remarried (circa 1920-21), had another son, and Archer was sent off to boarding school at St. Albans Episcopal Academy in Sycamore, Illinois. This marriage didn’t last, though, and she returned to using the last name of St. John.

Acknowledgements

Robert St. John. With special

Robert’s narrative doesn’t give any further details of Archer’s schooling. The next time he is mentioned is in the account of the two brothers’ coinciding encounters with the Capone mob.

thanks to John Benson. In addition to the specific sources cited within this article, I’d like to give special thanks to: Matt D. Baker, Bullets And Ballots Michael Barnes, the late Jerry Bails, Jerry Beck, Roger Carp, Gene Colan, Arnold Drake, Ric Estrada, Michael Feldman, George By the early 1920s, both St. Johns had become journalists. Robert was Hagenauer, Joe Kubert, Eric Larsen, Joan Howard Maurer, Leon employed as editor and writer with the Cicero Tribune, while Archer had Maurer, Frank Motler, Stephen O’Day, Lily Renée Phillips, Trina started his own newspaper in a neighboring town, the Berwyn Tribune. Robbins, Fred Robinson, R. Daniel Stevenson, Jerome Lafayette St.John, The older brother had continually angered the infamous gangster Al Dr. Michael Vassallo, Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., and Ray Zone. Extra Capone with a series of revealing articles about his nefarious activities. special thanks to Roger Jeffries for his uncommon generosity. For his part, Archer incurred Scarface’s wrath when he announced a special edition of his paper would expose Capone’s planned infiltration Cited sources (other than the individual comic books) are noted by into Berwyn’s government by the manipulation of the upcoming mayoral the digits linking to the Endnotes page following this article. Additional election. sources are located on that page, as well.

The Brothers St. John He shouldn’t have become a comic book publisher. If his mother had had her way, Archer Anthony St. John would have been a military man, an officer in the Army or Navy. That was expected of the second son. That was the tradition in her family. “…Archer, which had been my mother’s maiden name.”1 The fact was that, although Archer would found the publishing company that bore the family name, he lived in the shadow of a more famous sibling. His older brother Robert, who would have become a clergyman if he had obeyed his mother’s wishes, instead became a worldfamous war correspondent and author. Despite his peripheral role in Robert’s 1953 autobiography This Was My World, it is through the words of his brother that we can glean most of the known details of Archer’s early life. The St. John family was solidly middle class when they moved to suburban Oak Park, Illinois, from Chicago in 1910. Archer, born Oct. 15, 1904, was two years younger than Robert. The father, Joseph (strangely, Robert never named his parents in his memoir; their names and other genealogical information come from other sources), was a chemist, a pharmacist in today’s parlance, who moved his family to the upscale suburb to escape the encroaching squalor of the big city and to open a second drugstore. The children, however, quickly learned that they fell into the lower caste within the privileged community. They lived “south of the trolley tracks” and a world apart from those on the north side, like their family physician, Dr. Hemingway (who had a son named Ernest). The St. Johns’ financial situation worsened when young Archer was in an automobile accident. He was thrown from the vehicle and his skull was crushed on a manhole cover. His mother, Amy, who had been a nurse prior to marriage, insisted that the surgeon allow her to assist in the operation that saved Archer’s life. Out of necessity, she returned to nursing when Joseph died from cancer in 1917. In the aftermath of his death, the family lost both drugstores.

On the same day, April 6, 1925, Capone and several of his thugs beat Robert severely in broad daylight, while Archer was kidnapped off a public street and “taken for a ride.” Later that day, he was released, too late to publish his exposé, too late to influence the voters. Robert wrote: He had been handcuffed, blindfolded, and kept in a shack somewhere, then taken to a woods and set free. When he finally found his way home, his wrists were cut and he talked incoherently.2 With Robert’s book as a guide, I asked George Hagenauer, comic historian, crime expert, and good friend, to conduct searches of contemporary Chicago newspapers for me. Surprisingly, the Chicago Daily Tribune for April 7, 1925, told a somewhat different story than Robert had. Although the two versions agreed on Robert’s assault, when it came to Archer’s attack they diverge. Noting that the incidents were “said to be co-related,” the Tribune reporter wrote: [Robert] St. John’s brother Arthur [sic] and an advertising man on his paper, the Berwyn Tribune, were fired upon by a carload of men. Witnesses said that one of the bullets pierced St. John’s right arm.3 Confused eyewitness accounts are quite common, and nothing in Robert’s book supports this story. If Archer was shot, it seems logical that Robert would have mentioned it. The Tribune article further states: St. John staggered and several men dashed out and pulled him into the car. Hiding behind the closed curtains, they dashed away and St. John hasn’t been seen since.4 The most sensational coverage of the incident occurs in the April 7th edition of the Chicago Herald and Examiner. Spread over seven columns, “EDITOR VANISHES IN SHOOTING MYSTERY” screamed across the top of the front page. Robert had remembered a similar headline in his book, but he attributed it to the Chicago Tribune. As often happens, his memories of over a quarter century earlier were faulty. The accompanying story,

The Gospel According To Archer St. John

however, made the same error as the Tribune in naming the Berwyn editor as “Arthur.” One detail reported here that is missing from the Tribune account was that Archer had been assaulted on Ogden Avenue just outside of Berwyn. The supposed shooting “was believed to be a sequel to an attack in Cicero earlier in the day.”5 An intriguing aspect of the story is that it appears that Archer “had incurred the enmity of the mayor of Berwyn, Fred H. Rudderham, by editorial attacks on the mayor’s management and handling of public funds.” This “enmity” apparently extended to the police department. The closing lines of the article matter-of-factly state that “Berwyn police said they were not handling the investigation.” And, not to be outdone, “Cicero police said the same.”6

Ripped From Screaming Headlines Newspaper accounts of the kidnapping and shooting involving the St. John brothers. The headline and (partial) column of the front page of the Chicago Herald and Examiner for April 7, 1925, are juxtaposed here with two paragraphs from later in the article. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Soon after these incidents, Capone purchased the Cicero Tribune in order to silence Robert. Faced with an obviously impossible situation, Robert quit and went into partnership with Archer on the Berwyn paper: “Archer was a good businessman, but it was a shoestring operation.”7 That required them to perform every aspect of publishing from the writing and editing to setting type: “But we had no capital and had to go to extreme measures to keep our creditors from closing us out.”

Still, the brothers found time for things besides work: “Archer and I would go off for an evening to Chicago’s Near North Side and forget payroll and publication problems by taking part in semi-professional plays. Archer played some major roles in the Little Theater productions.”8 Eventually, he says, “Archer and I won our Berwyn campaign, for

Capone finally gave up his ideas of a westward expansion and even stopped his sniping of us.” That battle won and with the brothers now apparently bored, “[t]here were also financial reasons for moving on,” Robert wrote. “As long as Archer and I had been content to live on black coffee and cigarettes, we had been able to get along….”9 In 1927, Robert leaves the Berwyn Tribune for a job as managing editor of a paper in Rutland, Vermont. At this point, except for a passing mention, Archer departs from Robert’s memoir.

Model Railroading For Fathers And Sons

Air’s Looking At You, Kid Cover of St. John’s Air News, Vol. 1, #1 (May 1941).

Sometime in the early 1930s, Archer resurfaces. Now married, he, his wife Gertrude (nee Adams), and young son Michael lived in the affluent bedroom community of Darien, Connecticut. Obviously, unlike most Americans suffering hardships due to the Great Depression, St. John was doing quite well in New York, as advertising manager of Lionel Trains Corporation. Seeking details, I contacted Roger Carp, senior editor of Classic Toy Trains Magazine. Carp replied: His was an executive position, editing its magazine for hobbyists, placing ads in national publications, and overseeing production of the annual consumer and dealer catalogs. St. John’s editorial hand can best be seen in the Model Builder magazine Lionel began publishing in January 1937. The magazine was a mix of toy train layouts, true railroad stories, and ads for Lionel products. The beautifully colorful covers were illustrated by top-notch artists such as Gordon Ross and John Rogers and were obviously influenced by concurrently published comic books. While the content was comprised mainly of photographs, over time St. John apparently realized the potential of the comic book form. Indeed, he often employed future comic book artists. Years before he would draw “The Pie-Faced Prince of Pretzelburg” in Jingle Jangle Tales, veteran illustrator George Carlson was doing spot drawings for Model Builder. A page entitled “Toots ’n Whistles” in the October 1942 issue, featured artwork by August M. Froehlich. Froehlich was a frequent Classics

A History Of St. John Publishing

Models Of Decorum Though not a comic book, Archer St. John’s The Model Builder utilized the talents of several artists who would later work in that field. (Above left:) The cover of Vol. 1, #1 (Jan-Feb. 1937)—though painter Gordon C. Ross didn’t move on to the comics. (Top right:) Illustration by future Jingle Jangle Comics artist George Carlson from that issue. (Right:) The “W. Kremer” who did this page from V6#31 (Feb. 1942) is almost certainly the same Warren Kremer who later drew classic humor comics for Harvey and St. John. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Illustrated artist, of such issues as Black Beauty, and for Fiction House’s “Auro, Lord of Jupiter” that ran in Planet Comics. In the February issue of Model Builder the same year, a “W. Kremer” illustrated the true story of a young heroine named Kate Shelly. This has been identified as very early work by longtime Harvey artist Warren Kremer. It should be noted that Kremer eventually worked for the St. John comics line later in the decade. Carp’s email to me concluded: Lionel and other toy firms were prohibited by the federal government from using “strategic materials” (metal and rubber) to make trains and other boys after mid-1942. So Lionel had little to sell except items to the military. It cut back on its sales staff and advertising, so perhaps St. John was already gone—or was looking for another source of income…. Archer may have left Lionel (for the time being, at least), but a clue to his immediate career course may be found near the beginning of the 1942 edition of the Air News Yearbook.10 This book, a compilation of airplane photos and facts culled from Air News magazine, contains a simple cryptic line on its dedication page: “To Archer St. John.”

St. John Takes Flight From all indications, Air News was Archer’s first publishing venture since the Berwyn Tribune. From its inception in May 1941, “The Picture Magazine of Aviation” geared its straightforward articles to both the

civilian aviator and the military enthusiast alike. Its real selling point, however, was its ample assortment of aircraft photographs and illustrations. As a testament to the quality of this publication, many covers and virtually all interior illustrations were supplied by the Hungarian artist Alexander Leydenfrost, who would gain his greatest notoriety for his historical artwork for Life magazine. Air News’ editorial offices were maintained at St. John’s soon-to-befamiliar address of 545 Fifth Avenue in New York, and the editor’s position was filled by a man named Phillip Andrews. How and why Archer decided to publish such a niche magazine is open to speculation. It soon became apparent, though, that it wasn’t very profitable. Surprisingly, it was in testimony before a 1943 Senate subcommittee investigating

The Gospel According To Archer St. John

Keep ’Em Flying! Flying Cadet was originally part magazine, part comic book. L. Meinrad Mayer’s cover for issue #1 (Jan. 1943) can be contrasted with that of #17 (Oct. 1944), with the series’ last issue having a very comic-booky look. Maurice Whitman, noted for his illustrative work for Fiction House’s comics, drew “Buzz Benson” in the latter. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

improprieties in the national defense program that Edward Lefler, general manager of Phillip Andrews Publishing Company, provided the background to this part of Archer’s career: Mr. Andrews was editor of the magazine Air News. It was owned by Archer St. John and it was not making any money. Mr. St. John decided to discontinue it, and gave it to Mr. Andrews as a property.11 Archer’s “generosity” appears to have been ill-timed. After St. John had “given” Andrews Air News sometime in late 1941, events would soon impact the magazine’s value: On December 8, war was declared, and there was a natural boom in aviation… [and] the extra demand for aviation magazines.12 However, Archer may not have been left out of this windfall, as there are indications that St. John hadn’t entirely divested himself of all interest in Air News. The magazine continued to carry the 545 Fifth Avenue address in its indicia, and a single line in a 1945 newspaper article named him as its owner and publisher. In any case, by 1942, Archer had already moved on to a new, entirely different sort of publication.

The Flying Cadet Mystery The first verifiable connection of Archer St. John to comic books appears on the contents page of Flying Cadet #1 (Jan. 1943). St. John is listed as editor, and eventually, in the final issue, #17 (Oct. 1944), he is named as the owner, as well. Flying Cadet was a unique book, part comic, part magazine, and aimed at “young men, between the ages of 15 and 19, [giving them] accurate and clarified information that will be helpful to them in preparing themselves for aviation careers,” its stated purpose printed in issue #1. In many ways, it was quite similar to Model Builder under St. John.

A History Of St. John Publishing

The magazine portion was chock full of black-&-white photos and illustrations of airplanes and young pilots. The comic book section, which fell midway through the book, was basically instructional material. In its premier issue, the one identifiable artist of the comic book section is L. Meinrad Mayer, who also provided the cover painting. Mayer was an illustrator with a list of credits such as The Saturday Evening Post, but undoubtedly the fact that he was the primary cover artist for the Lionel Trains catalogs starting in 1936 made him a known quantity to St. John. (And, despite rumors, Mayer was not a pseudonym for Creig Flessel.) Soon after its debut, Flying Cadet began looking more and more like a magazine. It increased slightly in size, and virtually all of the covers were photos. Gone was any attempt at fiction, with all of the features now informational. L. Meinrad Mayer became the art editor, in addition to his duties as the primary artist. The only other readily identifiable artist was Eric Sloane, a noted illustrator who handled the remaining art chores. With its final issue, #17 (Oct. 1944), Flying Cadet underwent a dramatic change and was now more comic than magazine. Once again at standard comic book size, the change is obvious from the cover: a pure line-drawn depiction of an airplane gunner. The majority of the book is filled with straight-up comic book features, like “Buzz Benson” (by Maurice Whitman), “Grease Pan Gus,” a humor strip, and “Lt. Lela Lang,” a female bomber pilot story written (and drawn?) by George Kapitan. Kapitan seems to have had a hand in most, if not all, of the stories in this issue. Meinrad Mayer and Eric Sloane were still around, but now with a greatly reduced workload. Flying Cadet was also the publisher of record for several other comic ventures. American Air Forces #1 (Sept.-Oct. 1944) was published by Flying Cadet before William H. Wise took over with issue #2. This followed the same comic/magazine format as Flying Cadet. Most intriguing of all are the several issues of Harry “A” Chesler’s Dynamic Comics that were published by Flying Cadet. At least, issues #8, 9, and 15 have Flying Cadet in their indicia, as does Punch Comics #12. What does this all mean? Most likely, Flying Cadet was a surrogate publisher, established for its allotment of paper. During World War II, as comic historian Michael Feldman explained to me, “It was something like 75% of your consumption by weight the previous year. There was a maximum per publishing entity, so the more companies you had, the more paper you could apply for.” This was a tactic employed most famously by Martin Goodman at Timely. [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: It may also be the reason that M.C. Gaines’ All-American Comics, Inc., became officially a separate company from DC Comics at the end of 1944/beginning of 1945.] Chesler’s desperate need of paper was also addressed in the 1943 Senate investigation: “Mr. Chesler appealed [to the War Production Board] for extra paper to reenter the magazine-publishing business on a scale larger than that which he enjoyed in the days when he was unable to compete successfully in the market.”13 Chesler was subsequently denied his request and had to get paper elsewhere. This is likely where St. John and Flying Cadet came in. Chesler apparently used the Flying Cadet name for the express purpose of obtaining additional paper, even after the Flying Cadet comic had ceased publication. It’s a bit of a guess, but since Chesler and his editor Phil Sturm were in the military sometime in 1942-43, and Archer was already editing Flying Cadet, St. John may have served as managing editor or overseer of Chesler’s publications in his absence. Furthermore, there are other clues that suggest a link between Harry Chesler and Archer St. John. Several Chesler shop alums became prominent at St. John. The owner’s statement that appears in Dynamic Comics #15 (July 1945) names Dana

Is This A Dynamic Cover, Or What? The cover of Dynamic Comics #12 (Nov. 1944), published by Harry “A” Chesler’s Dynamic Publications. Is its central figure a stand-in for Chesler himself, as Ken Q. believes? Art by Gustavo “Gus” Ricca, who signed it “Ric”; thanks to Jim Amash, Hames Ware, and Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., for the ID. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Dutch as the editor of this issue. Dutch, who was also a writer for Chesler from approximately 1944 to ’46, later went on to be the main writer of St. John’s romance comics line. Worth mentioning also is Joe Kubert’s apprenticeship at Chesler and subsequent time in that shop as an artist, circa 1945. The covers of Chesler’s comics routinely pushed the limits of taste with their gory and risqué subject matter. St. John’s Flying Cadet #17 takes a step in that direction with a cover portraying a topless woman on the side of a machine gun, foreshadowing by several years Chesler’s Dynamic #20 and Punch #20 with similar semi-nudity. At this time, few if any other comic book publishers took such daring chances. While such boldness could be coincidence, it seems unlikely. As St. John was starting his own imprint, he filled his comics with reprints from Chesler books, notably in Authentic Police Stories and Crime Reporter. In 1953 St. John again dipped into the Chesler well with his one foray into a super-hero comic, Zip-Jet, which featured “Rocketman” reprints from Chesler’s Punch Comics. According to comic historian Jerry G. Bails, Chesler also packaged comics for St. John. At first glance, Archer St. John and Harry “A” Chesler would seem to be a very odd couple. Chesler was a Runyonesque character. “He’d come in wearing a hat on

The Gospel According To Archer St. John

the back of his head with a watch chain in his vest,” Gill Fox recalled to Jim Amash in Alter Ego #12. “He reminded me of a fight promoter, and he smoked a cigar.”14 Gus Ricca’s cover to Dynamic Comics #12 is most likely a nod and a wink to that description of his boss. A demanding employer, many of his former artists referred to his studio as a humorless “sweat shop.” Chesler’s infamous “frugality” led to his being derisively nicknamed “Harry Chiseler” behind his back. Conversely, few comic book publishers, if any, enjoyed as much respect and admiration from their employees as did St. John. Intelligent, gentlemanly, and generous, Archer was unique among his peers. Joe Kubert describes him physically as being a “tall, gray-haired, distinguishedlooking guy. Well-built Wall Street type.” John Benson in his wonderful exploration of St. John’s love comics, Romance without Tears, quotes Archer’s son Michael: “My father bent over backwards trying to be kind and good to people, and I think a lot of people appreciated his largess and benefited in many ways from him.”15 It’s always risky to assume too much about the murky, early years of comic book publishing. Comic packagers, of whom Chesler was one of the most prominent, left their fingerprints everywhere, and St. John’s connection to Chesler may be more incidental than it appears. All of this taken into consideration, the Chesler-St. John link is deserving of further inquiry.

St. John At War A pesky interval of several “mystery years” passes between the time of Flying Cadet #17 in October ’44 and the first comics published under Archer St. John’s own name. It is likely that St. John wasn’t involved in the comic book industry during this period. A document dated December 14, 1944, written and signed by Archer on Lionel Trains letterhead, exists, wherein he indicates that he is working in that company’s advertising department. Apparently, Archer was now the company’s business manager. He left Lionel soon after, in early 1945. Until recently, it wasn’t clear what role, if any, Archer served during World War II. The discovery of an Associated Press wire story with a dateline of July 10, 1945, that appeared in several New England-based newspapers (The Hartford Courant and Christian Science Monitor among them) gives a tantalizing clue. The article says in its entirety: The Overseas Branch of the OWI announced today that Archer St. John of Gaylordsville, Conn., will leave soon for its outpost in Chungking, China, where he will be chief of that office. St. John is owner and publisher of the Air News Publishing Company and the St. John Publications of New York City.16 The revelations of this short article have answered some questions and prompted a few more. The Office of War Information (OWI) was established by the Roosevelt administration essentially as the official propaganda department of the war effort. Along with its domestic duty to “sell” the war, the OWI was also the source of propaganda abroad. It oversaw everything from the production of Hollywood motion pictures to the production of posters. Overseas its goals were achieved through the newly developed campaign of psychological operations (“psyops”). This included broadcasts beamed into Axis territories by the Voice of America and the dropping of leaflets onto enemy combatants and populations. The Chungking office, which Archer was now to head, was particularly well situated for these purposes and possibly for even more covert operations. It is not clear if Archer was actually ever deployed to Chungking, given how close this was to the end of the war; but if he was, it is intriguing to speculate about his role overseeing this office. In any case, as becomes clear later, he apparently made some friendships in the OWI that would manifest in his later publishing endeavors. More directly related to his publishing ventures, this article confirms his status as publisher of both Air News magazine and St. John Publications.

A Flying Mouse, A Friendly Ghost, and Funny Human Beings Vince Fago, who eventually worked on Little Audrey comics for St. John, once told interviewer Jim Amash of a lunch conversation he had with Archer in which “[h]e told me he had $400,000 and didn’t know much about [comic book] publishing, but he had the money.”17 Presumably, this conversation occurred as St. John was getting into the business, sometime after the end of World War II. Archer’s mother Amy passed away in October of 1945, and perhaps an inheritance provided some of his available investment money.

Fago And Furry Friend The late artist/editor Vince Fago, as photographed by Edward Gazda for David Anthony Kraft’s Comics Interview #119 (1993). Vince was the wartime editor of Timely Comics from 1942-45, and with his brother Al would later pick up the rights to briefly continue St. John’s Atom-Age Combat under their Fago imprint. Issue #1 (of two) was dated Jan. 1959. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

In terms of comic book history, this was just after the so-called Golden Age (at least by some folks’ definition) and at the beginning of what easily can be called the Genre Age. The super-hero-dominated comic books were waning in popularity and giving way to a variety of different genres: humor, Western, and especially crime. Archer St. John was well aware (or well advised) of this, as he never

met a genre he didn’t like. Or publish. Humor was first. The earliest comics of his eponymous company (indeed, the indicia credits Archer St. John solely and not yet St. John Publishing) were composed of reprints of comic strips from the United Features Syndicate (UFS) stable.

A History Of St. John Publishing

Treasury Department The first St. John comic, so far as Ken Q. can determine, is either Comics Revue #1 (see p. 3) or A Treasury of Comics #1, both of which are simply dated “1947.” In 1948, St. John published a second A Treasury of Comics #1 (see right)— a giant-size anthology, spine and all, which Ye Editor remembers owning and, yes, treasuring for a number of years. It was made up of 16 remaindered comics such as Abbott and Costello, Ella Cinders, Mopsy, Little Audrey, Little Annie Rooney (a more realistically written and drawn answer to Little Orphan Annie, complete with canine companion), et al. Hey, anybody got a copy for sale? [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Probably the first book published under his imprint, Comics Revue #1, premiered sometime in 1947. (A Treasury of Comics, with no number, may also have been published at the same time, but it, too, has no certifiable date.) Although the Overstreet Price Guide lists a publication date of June, no date can be found in the comic itself.18 The entire issue is devoted to reprints of Charlie Plumb’s Ella Cinders. Some, if not all, of the strips reprinted are from 1942-43 continuities, which leaves opens the possibility that the comic book was printed even earlier than the June ’47 guess in Overstreet. Succeeding issues reprinted UFS stalwarts Hap Hopper, Iron Vic, Gordo, and Jane Arden. A notable exception to the UFS stable of strips was Associated Newspapers’ Mopsy, which first appeared in Pageant of Comics #1 (Sept. ’47). Gladys Parker’s stylish gal Mopsy was also the most successful of the reprinted strip features for St. John. She not only appeared in 19 issues of her own title, a long run by St. John standards, but also as a back-up page in some of their romance comics. Spunky and sexy, Mopsy was an independent single girl far ahead of her time. Parker’s unique drawing style, owed in part to her other career as a clothing designer, set Mopsy apart from the predominately maledrawn cheesecake in other comics. Parker apparently began producing original stories for the comic books early in the title’s run, with longer 3- and 4-page stories filling out the issues’ daily panel, Sunday strip, and paper doll reprints. (As an aside, Mopsy #12, cover-date Sept. 1950, contained the first comic art of future Atlas/Marvel artist Joe Sinnott on “Trudi,” a 5page back-up story.)

Mopsy Just Growed Writer/artist Gladys Parker’s cover for St. John’s Mopsy #1 (Feb. 1948). As per the photo at right, the long-lived (1937-1965) heroine of the humorous newspaper comic strip was clearly based on Parker’s own likeness. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

The Gospel According To Archer St. John

Just A Guy Called Joe (Left:) This “Trudi” one-pager in Mopsy #12 (Sept. 1950) is reportedly the first professionally published work by Joltin’ Joe Sinnott, who went on to become a longtime Timely/Marvel artist and the most celebrated embellisher of Fantastic Four. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

The fortuitous (for St. John) strike by the Terrytoons animators in 1947 seems to have been key in the production of his first comics titles containing new artwork. The New Rochelle (NY)- based animation studio was notoriously cheap by industry standards, and in 1947 its animators went on an eightmonth-long strike. During that time, the licensing agreement with Timely comics ran out or else was somehow voided by the strike. In any case, the last Terrytoons properties produced by Timely were dated Summer 1947, while the first St. John Mighty Mouse (#5) appeared with an Aug. ’47 cover date. Whereas the Timely Terrytoons books were produced in-house under the editorship of Vince Fago, the St. John comics had art by Terrytoons animators such as the legendary Jim Tyer, J. Conrad (“Connie”) Rasinski, and Art Bartsch. Bartsch in particular drew many of the covers for the Terrytoons books, as well as the “Mighty Mouse” stories. He is even slyly

Match Point Above, animation studio head Paul Terry (standing) and artist Jim Tyer—at right, artist Conrad (“Connie”) Rasinski—followed by a matchbook cover advertising Terrytoons Comics. Clearly, Terry and/or St. John believed in promotion. Guess it never occurred to them what might’ve happened if some kid had used those matches to set a house on fire—and the telltale matchbook had been found at the scene. Ol’ Doc Wertham would’ve been off on a whole nother crusade! [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

A History Of St. John Publishing

“Here I Come To Save The Day!” (Above:) Terrytoons artist Art Bartsch’s cover for Terrytoons #74 (June 1949), repro’d from a scan of the original art, showcasing Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle the Talking Magpies. (Top left:) Bartsch hard at work “being” Paul Terry! [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

inserted in Mighty Mouse #12 (Aug. 1949) a character called the “Great God Bartsch.” The Terrytoons license proved to be fairly profitable for St. John, and various Terrytoons characters appeared under their imprint over nearly the entire lifespan of the publisher. The success of the Terrytoons comics evidently led St. John to expand his licensed product base. The characters of another New York-based second-tier animation studio, Paramount Pictures/Famous Studios, made their comic book debut in April 1948 with Little Audrey #1. However, the more significant date is Sept. 1949, when Casper the Friendly Ghost #1 premiered.

This comic book carries the somewhat historic distinction of not only being the first venue to name Casper (his film appearances hadn’t yet gotten around to that!), but it was the first time the gargantuan infantile duck Baby Huey appeared in any medium. Drawn by animator Marty Taras, later a Harvey mainstay, this comic appearance hit the newsstands months before Huey’s screen debut on March 3, 1950. St. John gave up the Ghost (sorry…) with issue #5 (Aug. 1951). Interestingly, Little Audrey not only saw her first comic life at St. John, but also lingered there a bit longer than the other Paramount characters—until issue #24 in May of ’52. A testimonial to the impact of the loss of her title is the fact that St. John replaced it in the same month with the similarly titled and themed Little Eva.

The Gospel According To Archer St. John

“Hey, Abbotttttt….” A montage of the movie comedy team’s greatest moments at St. John. (Above:) Cover of Abbott and Costello Comics #1 (Feb. 1948); art by Charles “Pop” Payne. (Top right:) Cover of #7 (May 1949); art by Lily Renée & Eric Peters. (Right:) Splash page from #7, by the same team. Lily says that future hubbie Eric penciled Bud and Lou, and she penciled everything else and inked the whole magilla. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

The licensed characterizations of notable comedians were also part of the St John line. It should be noted that the humorous depiction of real-life comedians was unique at the time. National didn’t take the plunge with The Adventures of Bob Hope until February 1950. Judy Canova and Milton Berle were similarly immortalized in that year. St. John led the (admittedly small) pack with the publication of Abbott and Costello #1, dated February 1948. This title was not only the first of their three comedy team books; it was also the longest-running, ending with issue #40 (Sept. 1956). A probable reason for the success of this book—besides the continuing popularity of the comedy team itself—was that much of the art in the early issues was by the talented team of Eric Peters and Lily Renée Wilhelms. Renée (who eventually married Peters and only used her first and middle names professionally) was the star of the team and best known for her work at Fiction House on such features as “Señorita Rio.” When Fiction House left New York, Renée turned to freelancing and landed in the offices of Archer St. John. “Archer John was a very nice man,” she recently wrote me. “I liked him, but he liked me a little too much.” While Renée also illustrated the St. John one-shot teen comic Kitty, paper doll cutout pages, and a few stories for its romance titles, it was Abbott and Costello that provided the main showcase for her artwork. A common practice at Fiction House that Renée knew well was the use of so-called “Good Girl” covers. Not surpris-

A History Of St. John Publishing

What’s Up, Tiger Lily? Lily Renée & Eric Peters’ cover for Abbott and Costello Comics #2 (March 1948), which featured one of editor Roy Thomas’ favorite stories starring the comedians— titled, if memory serves a-right, “So Near and Yet Safari.” (Hey, anybody got a copy of that for sale?) The lass at right echoes Tiger Girl and other such furclad lovelies that the lady drew for Fiction House’s jungle comics. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.] The vintage photo of Lily above left was provided by Trina Robbins, and appeared with a short article on the Golden Age artist in A/E #70.

ingly, her Abbott and Costello covers often featured an attractive young woman along with the comic’s stars. This obviously eye-catching device became the standard for the genre and was followed by Owen Fitzgerald on the Bob Hope comic and perfected by Bob Oksner on the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis book. “Eric drew Abbott and Costello,” wrote Renée in describing their various roles. “I drew the girls and everything else and did all the inking.”

Eventually, a young Mort Drucker took over the majority of the art chores on Abbott and Costello. In an odd bit of placement, there was even a “Son of Sinbad” back-up story by Joe Kubert in issue #10 (Aug. 1950), which appeared six months after the one and only issue of that comic had been published. Already a veteran comic book artist at a very young age, Kubert saw the new company as an opportunity. “I came to him [St. John]. He was a publisher and I was an aspiring packager.”

The Gospel According To Archer St. John

Another Genre Heard From! Bob Lubbers’ cover for The Texan #1 (Aug. 1948) —which among other features spotlighted “Buckskin Belle.” Artist of the latter is uncertain. Thanks to Rod Beck for the scan of the splash page. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

A History Of St. John Publishing

The Maurer The Merrier (Left:) Norman Maurer at work on a Three Stooges during his late-1940s Navy days, in a photo courtesy of Joan Maurer. He’s flanked by sterling samples of his work for two companies: “Crimebuster” from Lev Gleason’s Boy Illustories #47 (Aug. 1949), from that period when the company was trying to avoid putting the word “Comics” on its comic books and abbreviated the hero’s name as “C.B.”—and his cover for The Three Stooges #1 (Feb. 1949), first of the original run that co-starred Moe, Larry, and Curly. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Part of Kubert’s “package” was lifelong friend Norman Maurer. Maurer had been working as an artist for Lev Gleason on such series as “The Little Wise Guys” in Daredevil Comics and “Crimebuster” in Boy Comics. With him on board, Kubert suggested a potential comic for which Maurer was uniquely qualified. In 1945, Maurer had met Joan Howard, daughter of Moe, the mophaired leader of The Three Stooges of theatrical-short fame. Joan and Norman married in 1947. That same year, Maurer negotiated an agreement with Moe, his brother Jerome (Curly), and Larry Fine. The contract, dated May 28th, entitled Maurer and the Stooges to 5% of the net profits from any comic book sales based on their movies.19 The Three Stooges #1 (Feb. 1949) contained stories adapted from their Columbia films Uncivil Warriors and Hoi Polloi, written and drawn by Maurer. Kubert chipped in with a “Mark Montage” detective story. The second issue (for May of ’49) continued with the same format. Despite the talent involved, the comic was canceled with this issue, and the Stooges comic book franchise would languish for some time. October of ’49 saw the premiere of Kubert’s brief venture into romance comics, Hollywood Confessions #1. A virtual one-man effort (Kubert had a hand in every story, although Hy Rosen penciled at least one), this comic tried a unique approach to involve the readers. A house ad invited the readers to submit true stories that would be illustrated in future

The Gospel According To Archer St. John

Three To Get Ready… The transmutation of a title. (Far left:) Joe Kubert’s cover for Hollywood Confessions #1 (Oct. 1949), in which he contributed to the art of every story. For photos of Joe, see pp. 31 & 32. (Left center:) By #3 it had become Hollywood Pictorial Romances, with a photo cover. (Below:) By its fourth issue, it had morphed again— into the all-photo Hollywood Western. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

issues. There was even a cash award of $10 offered. This title had a curious evolution. It lasted one more issue under Kubert’s aegis, then became Hollywood Pictorial Romances with issue #3 in January 1950 (with Matt Baker art). This change was short-lived, as it morphed into Western Hollywood Pictorial, a Western movie magazine containing all photos and no artwork, with issue #4 in March. This was St. John’s first tentative movement into magazine publication, foreshadowing the direction of the company several years hence. It should be noted that the house ad in Hollywood Confessions had a return address for Jubilee Publications, although the indicia names St. John as publisher. Jubilee was also the publisher named in the Stooges comics. The reasons why St. John used this surrogate company name are unknown. The prior motive, a dodge around war-mandated paper shortages, no longer applied. Comics historian Michael Feldman explained a likely scenario:

Or Else Our Nose Would Grow Longer… We cannot tell a lie! World’s Greatest Stories #2 retold the story of Carlo Colodi’s novel for children, Pinocchio, behind this cover probably drawn by Ellis Chambers. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

A History Of St. John Publishing

The Four-Color Voyage Of Sinbad (Clockwise from above left:) Kubert’s cover for Son of Sinbad #1 (Feb. 1950)—his splash for one of the stories therein—and a Carmine Infantino splash for a second. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

“Shifting titles from one publishing name to another was a strategy to keep each company below a tax level plateau. A company earning $100,000 might have to pay a 30% rate, but two earning $50,000 [each] only paid 20%, and so on.” More puzzling is St. John’s one-title publishing imprint, Blue Ribbon, which fronted the like-named comic of rotating humor and romance genres. Other Jubilee titles also appeared in 1949. Among them were Northwest Mounties, Western Bandit Trails, and World’s Greatest Stories, a Classics Illustrated-type comics series aimed at a younger audience. As with many St. John comics of the period, this title lasted only two issues. The first issue adapted Alice in Wonderland, and the second, Pinocchio. Both were nicely drawn in an animated cartoon-like style by an artist who simply initialed all his work “EC.” Comic art sleuth Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., has offered the opinion that it was the work of Ellis Chambers. To add to the confusion, Jubilee’s name appears sporadically in indicia at least until 1953 (i.e., Whack #2, Dec. 1953). Late in 1949, a new Kubert creation was published with the cover date of Feb. 1950. The aforementioned Son of Sinbad was Kubert’s take on the swashbuckling offspring (and namesake) of the legendary sailor. Kubert’s Sinbad looked very much like Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., who, not so incidentally, had starred in the 1947 film Sinbad the Sailor.

The Gospel According To Archer St. John

creator’s work would appear again in a St. John comic. A third comedy team, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, made their comic book premiere in Laurel and Hardy #1, cover-dated March 1949. This series was drawn by Reuben Timmons (nee Timinsky), who was yet another St. John artist best known for his animation work, with a career extending from Betty Boop to A Charlie Brown Christmas. This shortlived title ran only three issues in this incarnation.

Then There Were Giants It didn’t take St. John long to realize a cruel fact of comic book publishing: unsold books were returned, and the publisher had to find a way to recoup at least some of his losses. As others had before him, Archer St. John decided to repackage these remaindered comics by removing their covers and binding several of them together between new covers. He certainly wasn’t the first publisher to do this, but, as was his style, he put a new spin on it. The common practice of the time was to bind two or three comics into one package. St. John’s 1948 volume A Treasury of Comics [see p. 10] consisted of no fewer than sixteen remaindered comics! The entire 500page package was contained within bookboard covers, and contents apparently varied from copy to copy. Curiously, not all of the comics were St. John products. Several issues of Juke Box and Sugar Bowl comics

Two of the title character’s run-of-the-mill stories are elevated by Kubert’s dynamic and rapidly maturing artwork, while the third story looks to be a Carmine Infantino effort with a Kubert assist. A Matt Bakeresque, but probably not actually Baker, back-up tale, “Omar of the Magic Robes,” which wouldn’t have been out of place in one of St. John’s romance titles, fills out the issue. Fine artwork notwithstanding, this comic never made it past the first issue. However, the lone Kubert “Son of Sinbad” story in Abbott and Costello #10 suggests that at least one more issue of that title had been in the offing. Also dated Feb. 1950 was Secret Missions, the one-shot comic book version of Admiral Ellis Zacharias’ book and radio show of the same name, which dealt with his real-life career as a military intelligence officer. It is worth noting that Zacharias had been a very highly placed member of the Office of War Information during World War II, and, likely, one of Archer’s superiors. In any case, this comic had a cover drawn by Kubert, in his only 1950 St. John work done for a title not containing interior work by his shop. It is likely that poor sales weren’t the sole reason for the demise of these comics. The Kubert/Maurer partnership had run into an insurmountable obstacle: the Selective Service Administration intervened when it drafted Kubert in 1950. This event effectively curtailed not only his contributions to the fledgling publisher, but apparently also those of his partner Maurer. More than two years would elapse before either

A History Of St. John Publishing

company. It’s doubtful many of his contemporaries would have as eloquently described their offerings as a “new technique of story-telling, the continuity of dialogued illustrations, called comics.” Fewer still would have dared to compare them to literary masterpieces. This prodigious Treasury was produced for two more years; and, in the meantime, St. John began to package smaller remaindered books. Notable among these was 1950’s Little Audrey Yearbook, that contained eight comics, and the aptly-named Giant Comics Edition, which varied content and size from issue to issue. Eventually, remaindered copies of Authentic Police Cases, Mighty Mouse, and the various genre comics were repackaged into giant 100-page issues, as well. Beginning the same month as Abbott and Costello, Authentic Police Cases was St. John’s first venture outside strip reprints or the humor genre. Apparently trying to cash in on the then-popular crime comics, St. John’s entry in the market was, at first, nothing more than a vehicle for reprinted Chesler comics. The first issue (Feb. 1948) featured a cover by Paul Parker; subsequent covers spotlighted Bob Lubbers, the second Fiction House mainstay to work for St. John. It was the third Fiction House regular who would have the greatest impact on the fledgling publisher. Beginning with Authentic Police Cases #6 (Nov. 1948), the covers and much of the interior art would be drawn by Matt Baker. Archer St. John had apparently decided to build his company upon the skills of just a few creators. Likely this decision was financially driven. A small publisher like St. John wouldn’t have the resources to put together an in-house “bullpen.” Still, he proved to be an uncanny judge of talent. Building upon his inventory of licensed material and reprinted Chesler shop artwork, St. John’s selection of Kubert, Maurer, and Baker gave him a potent artistic triumvirate. It was indicative of Archer’s personal commitment to quality that he generally hired the “best and the brightest” in all levels of his organization.

Little Audrey Says… Here’s the cover of the Little Audrey Yearbook from 1950—with 260 big pages! (Well, the pages were normal-size, but there sure were a lot of ’em!) [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

published by Eastern Color made their way into some versions. Eastern Color was St. John’s printer, and likely their comics were used to fill out the book when copies of St. John comics were unavailable. Archer even wrote a preface to this book, which not only describes its purpose, but also gives some insight into the man himself: “This volume has been compiled for the laughter and enjoyment of boys and girls, and is dedicated to those artists and writers who, with skill, imagination, and good taste, are producing wholesome entertainment and amusement for millions of readers, adding dignity, scope, and influence to this new technique of story-telling, the continuity of dialogued illustrations, called comics. In this book are sixteen comics magazines which, in the opinion of the editors of this publication, are representative of the best stories of the year, worthy of preservation and of a place alongside Moby Dick, Tom Sawyer, and Treasure Island on library shelves. —Archer St. John. This statement could stand as St. John’s vision for his new publishing

By the time Baker’s art began appearing in Authentic Police Cases (in actuality, his first St. John comic work was in Northwest Mounties #1 and the cover of Crime Reporter #2, both Oct. ’48), he had already established a reputation for depicting beautiful women while working for various publishers. However, the venerated status that Baker has attained today obscures the realities of the time period. As legendary comics scripter Arnold Drake wrote: He was the first black artist to work in mainstream comics. Which convinces me that St. John got him at a bargain rate… but any publisher in the industry could have gotten Baker for that same bargain price based on race. Since they didn’t do it and St. John did do it, that marks Archer as a liberal. St. John, or one of his editors, went even further to find other artists to help Baker on Authentic Police Cases. Starting with issue #15, Enrico (“Martin”) Bagnoli’s art began gracing the interiors. In a style heavily influenced by Alex Raymond, Bagnoli worked long distance—very long distance. Based in Italy, the artist would receive and send his assignments via registered mail. Jim Vadeboncoeuer, Jr., in Alter Ego # 32, tells the complete fascinating story of Bagnoli and the other Italian artists assisting him, such as Antonio Toldo and Antonio Canale.20 Baker’s importance to St. John would only increase over time. With Kubert and Maurer gone, he became the major artistic force at the company. Whether the subject was Westerns, crime, or war, Baker was dependably solid. His most lasting impact, though, would come in a genre for which he was perfectly suited.

The Gospel According To Archer St. John

Count The Coppers (Above:) Matt Baker’s cover for Authentic Police Cases #18 (1948), and his splash for one of that issue’s stories. But if there are any actual policemen on the cover, they’re definitely out of uniform! As for Baker, he can be seen on p. 3—and in numerous photos in Alter Ego #47. Thanks to Michaël Dewally. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

A Baker’s Romance St. John early on realized the potential of the romance comic boom and began publishing its first comics of that genre in 1949. Teen-Age Romances #1, dated January of that year, established Baker immediately as the source of the de facto “look” of their line. Baker not only drew all of the line-drawn covers for the romance titles; he also penciled most of the interior stories. It is noteworthy that several of the early issues of Teen-Age Romances were of a slightly larger size, had photo covers, and were partially filled with articles, ads, and columns befitting a magazine. It seems that once again St. John employed the tried and true format that he had used on Flying Cadet and that Timely was currently using on Miss America Magazine. Apparently the experiment didn’t work, as the St. John title soon went back to being a pure comic book.

The Fugitive Kind (Left:) One of the artists hired to spell Matt Baker was a young Gene Colan, who drew this splash for an issue of the St. John crime comic Fugitives from Justice. Thanks to Ger Apeldoorn. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

“…A Teen-Ager’s Romance That Goes On And On!” Baker was one busy lad in the lovecomics department! Above, his covers for Teen-Age Romances #1 (Jan. 1949) and #43 (May 1955) flank a page of original art from issue #21 (April 1952). Note that, in between the two covers, the St. John eagle symbol had come into being. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Get Those Glass Slippers Ready! The cover of Cinderella Love #25 (Dec. 1954) was another Baker triumph—as was that of Wartime Romances #5 (Jan. 1952). Thanks to Michaël Dewally for the latter scan. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

The Gospel According To Archer St. John

Report To St. John Publications! Archer St. John also liked crime reporters, apparently—since he had been one. One of his earliest comics was the “Jane Arden, Crime Reporter” issue (#2) of Pageant of Comics, dated Oct. 1947, with cover by Russell E. Ross, featuring reprints of a newspaper comic strip. And in Oct. 1948 came Crime Reporter #2, with its Matt Baker cover. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Of all the comics published by St. John, the romance comics were routinely its most successful. There were as many as 20 different romance titles published over the life of the company. The distinctive storylines of the romance comics led John Benson to state in Romance without Tears that the strong-willed heroines and the guilt-free tone of the stories were a conscious theme suggested by Archer St. John himself and manifested by the ubiquitous writing of Dana Dutch. It should be noted, though, that Baker, as well as the other romance artists and writers, worked under the editorship of Marion McDermott, who was also editor of Authentic Police Cases and Fightin’ Marines. In a publisher sorely lacking an identity, she maintained consistent quality in each of her comics, in all genres. Starting with Baker as her primary artist, McDermott’s books featured work by a small, but talented, group of freelancers. Apparently, she brought out the best in each. As artist Ric Estrada wrote me: “I walked into St. John’s Publications [sic] and was lucky enough to meet romance editor Marion McDermott, who loved the way I drew pretty girls and gave me an assignment on the spot.” He fondly recalled the “lovely Marion McDermott,” who assigned him “scads of stories for Teen-Age Temptations, Teen-Age Romances, and others. She praised the fashionable dresses I drew on my girls as opposed to the humdrum styles by other artists.” Gene Colan, who was hired by McDermott to work on Fightin’ Marines, described her as being “very very nice,” and remembered “trying different techniques while working for her.” Joe Kubert recalls “only a nodding acquaintance. Very business-like.” When asked, Lily Renée offered the intriguing evaluation: “Marion was an efficient editor [who] later became Archer’s girlfriend.”

A History Of St. John Publishing

Getting Graphic (As In “Novel”) The late great comics writer Arnold Drake and his beloved wife Lillian are both gone now… but several years ago Arnold sent us this photo of portraits of the two of them, hoping we’d print it—and we said we would. Both Arnold’s mock-up sketch for the proposed One Man Too Many and Matt Baker’s cover for It Rhymes with Lust were printed in A/E #19, in conjunction with an interview with Arnold—and the latter proto-graphic novel has recently been reprinted by Dark Horse Books (and everyone interested in comics history should pick it up!). On the top of this page, however, we’ve printed, for the first time ever, some of Arnold’s own individualistic page layouts for One Man which he used to sell Archer St. John on the “Picture Novel” concept—and at right, a single black-&-white page of Lust, with script by Drake and Waller, art by Baker and Ray Osrin. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

The Gospel According To Archer St. John

Baker himself blossomed under McDermott. As art director of her books, his artwork became noticeably more mature, more illustrative, particularly on his exquisite romance covers. Surely this was the pinnacle of his career. Incidentally, it was mentioned above that some of Matt Baker’s earliest work was for a St. John comic called Crime Reporters. Was it a secret wish by a publisher who had once been a crime reporter to be the star of his own comic book? I can’t say for sure, but the title did keep popping up on some early St. John publications….

Romance And Lust In 1950, St. John published a digest-sized comic with a single booklength story and called it a Picture Novel. Illustrated by Matt Baker and inker Ray Osrin, in many ways It Rhymes with Lust was the prototype of the modern graphic novel. A detailed synopsis of the book’s plot can be find in Alberto Becattini’s terrific article “Baker of Cheesecake” in Alter Ego #47.21 The credited pseudonymous author, “Drake Waller,” was in fact the writing team of Arnold Drake and Leslie Waller. I contacted Mr. Drake for details about the creation of this historic book and, although he has told this story before, I was taken with the vividness of his words and the detail of his recollections: In 1949 (published in 1950), Leslie Waller and I created “Picture Novels.” We were both at school (he at Columbia and I at NYU) on the GI Bill of Rights. To augment the $20 the government paid us weekly, he collaborated on some comic book stories. Pulps were being driven off the market by a combination of paperback books and comics. Lee and I sold a couple of Western tales to Ziff-Davis. As we worked with the comics form, we reasoned that for the ex-GIs who read comics while in service and liked the graphic style of story-telling, there was room for a more developed comic book—a deliberate bridge between comic books and book-books. That was the idea we took to St. John. We were prepared to make an oral pitch. But about 3 A.M. (I did my best work in those early hours) the morning of D-Day, I set out to demonstrate the idea physically. I took a comic book and folded it in half. Then I drew a twopage layout of a faked story, “One Man Too Many,” and pasted it into that folded comic. After which I drew a cover: a nasty guy with gun in hand who’s just discovered his woman in another man’s arms. The fact that it was mounted on that folded comic proved how easy the transition would be for a printer already set up to produce comics.

Wink, Wink… Nudge, Nudge Art by Charles Raab for the cover and an interior page of a second candidate for an early graphic novel: The Case of the Winking Buddha. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

My drawings have always been crude but clear. They demonstrated the idea more than adequately. (I have the yellowed remains of those layouts.) I also came up with the logo that would adorn the cover: a paintbrush and a pencil crossed over a book cover and the letters PN, for Picture Novels.) What we planned was a series of Picture Novels that were, essentially, action, mystery, Western, and romance novels ON PAPER. Lust would have made a good Joan Crawford or Barbara Stanwyck film (both often played beautiful-but-treacherous women—and Lust was about one such). This new-sized product needed special placement on the newsstands and in the shops. You had to convince the public— and more than that, the distributors and retailers—that this was a new idea that would soon sweep the market. There would be no space on the stands for this one odd-ball product. (Actually, St. John released two. The second one, a mystery yarn, was a disaster, both story and art. Les and I had nothing to do with it.) Most likely, Drake is referring to The Case of the Winking Buddha. Printed in black-&-white, the artwork of former Caniff assistant Charles Raab illustrated a story by pulp writer Manning Lee Stokes. Despite Drake’s critique, Raab’s art was solid and very reminiscent of his work on the Kerry Drake and Charlie Chan strips.

A History Of St. John Publishing

When Comics Came In Small Packages The covers of Midget Comics #1 and Slash-D DoubleCross, the latter unofficially listed as a genre called “Pocket Comics.” Both were dated 1950. Artists unknown. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

And So Did Magazines! Covers of Magazine Digest for Dec. 1950 and Trouble Shootin’ Man (also 1950), a.k.a. Readers’ Choice Library #14. Artist of latter unknown. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

The Gospel According To Archer St. John

Also in 1950, St. John tried out the digest size on two issues of Midget Comics (subtitled Fighting Indian Stories), a one-shot Western entitled Slash-D Doublecross, and issues #7 and #9 of Teen-Age Diary Secrets. The last three books all bore a secondary title of “Pocket Comics” on their covers, but had nothing else in common. Unlike Lust and Winking Buddha, none of these books was conceived as a full-length novel; rather, they were traditional comics stories reformatted to digest size. Drake continued: “I don’t think there is much question that It Rhymes with Lust was the first graphic novel. It wasn’t a stumbling accidental creation. Les and I did exactly what we set out to create. The fact that it was essentially a ‘B film’ on paper, rather than one of the more sophisticated products that came out 25 years later and called themselves ‘graphic’ speaks to the change in the readership over those years. The sons and daughters of the veterans who went to school on the GI Bill were a very different market than the one that Les and I dealt with back then. I had no idea what the first Picture Novels would have been had we had that broader, deeper audience.”

Meanwhile… At the same time St. John was experimenting with various comics formats, he was also branching out into other publishing ventures. In January of 1950, St. John purchased a venerable Canadian magazine entitled Magazine Digest. Similar in size and concept to the far more successful American Readers’ Digest, this became St. John’s entry into “legitimate” publishing. Magazine Digest had little in common with the comic book side of Archer’s company, except for a shared address and the presence of Marion McDermott as art director. St. John also brought out Book Digest, “dedicated to the busy reader,” in April 1950. This first issue alone featured the work of Nelson Algren, Erskine Caldwell, and Margaret Mead. An intriguing aspect of Book Digest’s otherwise unmemorable short life was its stellar editorial staff of Fletcher Pratt, Manuel Komroff, and Malcolm Cowley. Archer’s pursuit of

Hard To Digest (Left:) The cover of Vol. 1, #1, of St. John’s Book Digest (1950). All four of the authors listed were virtual household names (at least in literate households) in the ’50s. (Above:) A page from the magazine depicted the magazine’s editorial staff. Fletcher Pratt also wrote some well-remembered science-fiction during that era. Despite authors and editors, though, the title didn’t sell. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

noted editor and literary critic Cowley was revealed in a letter dated December 8, 1949. “I have decided to accept your proposal, at least on a trial basis,” Cowley wrote to St. John. “Let’s try it for six months, at a fee of $500 for that period, as you suggested, and then hold another discussion to see whether our relations have been satisfactory.” In addition to his lofty literary credentials, Cowley, who had once been a high-ranking government official in the Office of Facts and Figures (predecessor of the Office of War Information), was by 1949 suffering under the black cloud of suspicion due to his alleged past Communist connections and his June appearance in court as a defense witness in the famous Alger Hiss trial. Despite the adverse pressures he was experiencing in his personal life, Cowley ended his missive to St. John on an optimistic note: “Let’s quaff a toast in water or something to the success of Book Digest.” Hoping also to cash in on the burgeoning paperback market, Archer

A History Of St. John Publishing

established the Readers’ Choice Library in the same year. This line specialized in three genres: mysteries, Westerns, and sexy potboilers. Apparently, the line lasted until sometime in 1951, when it too met the fate of most of St. John’s ventures and faded away. Archer, however, never gave up on either the digest size or the magazine market.

cent. The eagle on it, in turn, was a derivation on the bird found on the reverse of the “Gobrecht” silver dollars of 1836 to 1839. While not an exact duplicate, the St. John eagle is a close kin.

The Eagle And The Banner

Given Matt Baker’s identification with drawing beautiful women, it is somewhat ironic that his most enduring St. John character didn’t find “life” in a romance comic, but in a war book.

A quick digression here, to consider the origin of the familiar St. John bald-eagle-with-banner logo. Until 1951, the only corporate designation on the covers of St. John’s publications were the letters “ANC,” which noted the distributor, American News Corporation. Late in that year, a diamond containing both the “ANC” and “StJ” monograms appeared briefly. (An even lessused symbol of a swollen “St. John” appeared on a few comics, as well.) Finally, in the Feb. 1952-dated comics, the eagle and banner flew for the first time. Over time, the logo became simpler, more stylized. The choice of the eagle is symbolically understandable. Not only did it represent strength and American patriotism in a very patriotic era, but it also recalls that Archer St. John’s first venture in comic book publishing was an aviation book. And, considering Archer’s deeply Episcopalian upbringing, it is very likely he was aware of the ancient religious tradition of the eagle as the symbol of St. John the Evangelist. I can’t say for certain that Archer was a coin collector, but if so, it would confirm what was most likely the visual inspiration for St. John’s emblem. From 1856-58, the United States mint issued the classic “Flying Eagle”

Kate And Matt

The US engagement in the newly declared Korean War police action spawned St. John’s anthology war comic Fightin’ Marines #15 (#1) (Aug. 1951). That first issue had a Baker cover and artwork on the “Leatherneck Jack” feature, and Ralph Mayo illustrating a story of a heroic pilot. Over time, the comic would host artwork by Carmine Infantino, Mort Drucker—and Gene Colan, who would take over the art chores on “Jack.” Interestingly, while St. John Publishing was going to war with the Red Chinese in the pages of Fightin’ Marines, Archer’s brother Robert was being accused of being a Communist sympathizer. Robert was a high-profile author and broadcaster by this time and had been named in the controversial and very influential 1950 publication Red Channels, along with 150 other entertainers and writers.22 Many of those named in this pamphlet had become blacklisted, and Robert himself moved to Switzerland as a consequence. Fightin’ Marines #2 (Oct. 1951) featured the first story of a comely waitress/cook at a military base canteen, the aptly named “Canteen Kate.” Kate was the epitome of a “Baker girl”—sassy, perky, and wholesomely sexy. This well-meaning “Bombshell from Brooklyn” invariably became involved in situations that were rife for disaster. Frequently it involved her boyfriend, the hapless Private Al Brown. Case in point was a story in Fightin’ Marines #4, “Tailor Maid,” in which Al complains to Kate that his issued uniform is too small. Kate resolves to fix that problem, and after several attempts to get a new uniform legitimately, she “borrows” some material from a chemical research laboratory and makes uniforms for both herself and Al. Their attempts to hide from pursuing military police are foiled, though, when it turns out that Kate had used an experimental fluorescent material. Al ends up in the brig with Kate bringing him a sandwich and coffee. How Kate always managed to stay out of the brig herself was never entirely clear, and in truth, it didn’t really matter.

Fly Like An Eagle (Above:) Between Fightin’ Marines #3 (Dec. 1951) and #4 (Feb. 1952), St. John changed logos, exchanging the nondescript “StJ” for a symbol based on the eagle shown on US coins of the 19th century. (Right:) On the left is an 1839 “Gobrecht” silver dollar; on the far right, the 1856 “Flying Eagle” one-cent piece. We’ll take Ken Q.’s word for it! [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Baker must have enjoyed drawing these madcap stories, as they resulted in some of his best artwork. Unlike his earlier art at Fiction House and Fox, which frequently found Baker using awkward posturing in order to prominently display women’s “attributes,” his St. John work was far more subtle and naturalistic. Sure, Kate wore an improbable uniform made up of an apparent man’s khaki shirt cinched tightly at the waist with a web-belt and rolled up khaki shorts, but the cheesecake was lightly done and rarely

The Gospel According To Archer St. John

Hit The Road, Jack “Leatherneck Jack” began life drawn by Matt Baker, as per page at far left from Fightin’ Marines #15 (real #1) (Aug. 1951)—but by #7 (Aug. 1952—they’d apparently straightened out the numbering), it was drawn by Gene Colan, as per page at near right. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

A History Of St. John Publishing

Left-Overs inappropriate. Inexplicably, the other Marines were, for the most part, oblivious to the sexy bombshell in their midst. This underplayed hand was refreshing and added to the comedic aspect of the comic.

Nightmare continued to feature good artists after it switched from Ziff-Davis to St. John in 1953. (Clockwise from above left:) Alex Toth, then Murphy Anderson in Nightmare #10 (Dec. 1953), and Bernard Krigstein in #11 (Feb. 1954). With thanks to Jay Kinney. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

“Canteen Kate” had a brief, but busy, tour of duty. She appeared in Fightin’ Marines #2-9, Canteen Kate #1-3, and a final appearance in Anchors Andrews #1 (Feb. 1953). Additionally, versions of All-Picture Adventure #1 and All-Picture Comedy #1 contained remaindered issues of Fightin’ Marines with “Canteen Kate” appearances. When Charlton took over the Fightin’ Marines title in 1955, it reprinted the first couple of “Canteen Kate” stories. Kate herself has become somewhat iconic, to the point that the cover of Canteen Kate #2 was appropriated, à la Lichtenstein, by pop artist John Sheridan for a 1994 painting.

Left-Over Nightmares Whether it was by plan or just a happy confluence of events, starting in 1952 St. John became one of the most innovative comic book publishers of its day. This burst of originality and creativity lasted less than two years, but resulted in a memorable legacy. The comics industry was in a constant state of flux, and fortunately for St. John, they were the beneficiaries of the Ziff-Davis company’s withdrawal (for the most part) from comic book publishing. In what was apparently an effort to increase their newsstand presence, St. John purchased the majority of the Ziff-Davis inventory for the

The Gospel According To Archer St. John

bargain price of $50,000. Late in 1952, former Ziff-Davis titles such as Kid Cowboy, The Hawk, and Nightmare began appearing under the St. John imprint. Indeed, the only way a reader could tell that it was a St. John and not a Ziff-Davis comic is by the appearance of the eagle and banner emblem on the cover. To add to the confusion, St. John also published a (basically) reprint line under the blanket title of Approved Comics. ZiffDavis had also used this name in 1951-52 as a surrogate company name on some of their own comics. While this acquisition boosted the size of St. John’s comic line, the company (other than the Baker-drawn/McDermott-edited comics) lacked an identity. Most comics of the major publishers had a similar look. St. John’s comics were a potpourri of styles and inconsistency. It is only speculation, but perhaps St. John had been watching the success of EC with its commitment to quality and the featured status it granted its artists. EC’s treating the artists as individuals had allowed the readers to identify their favorites, resulting in a fanatical following and increased sales.

Joe Kubert In The World Of 50-Plus Years Ago Archer St. John surely realized this and welcomed with open arms the return of Joe Kubert from military service in 1952. Kubert was to provide the creative spark that the company lacked; and, most importantly, he left the Army with two concepts that would have a dramatic effect upon the direction and fortunes of St. John. Moreover, the company was doubly blessed: returning with Kubert was his talented partner, Norman Maurer. The Sept.-1953 dated comics were to be the watershed moment when St. John comics began to develop a personality: A Letter from the Publisher I’d like you, our readers, to meet Joe Kubert and Norman Maurer. Joe and Norm have been friends since childhood. They first met in New York, where they attended the High School of Music and Art together, in 1940. It was here, at the age of thirteen, that they became interested in cartooning. They got their first jobs working for comic books less than a year later. Yes, Norm and Joe have been drawing for comic books for more than thirteen years! When Joe was sixteen, his parents moved to New Jersey...and he along with them. But both boys remained in close contact with one another... both dreaming of the time when they could write, draw, and produce comic books themselves. They had a single goal: To create the kind of books that you, the reader, wants! [sic]

“Almost Thirty Years Of Experience In This Business!” Joe Kubert (seated) and Norman Maurer in the photo that was featured on the inside front covers in the first 1953 issues of both One Million Years Ago! (as the indicia spelled it out) and The Three Stooges showed the longtime friends working on covers for each others’ features—just spotting blacks, surely. More than half that page was taken up by the letter from Archer St. John which appears below. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

that you, the reader, will like as much as I do. This magazine is the product of the combination of almost thirty years of experience in this business! But... it’s still up to you! The only way they can produce the kind of magazines you want, is through your letters of constructive criticisms to them. Every letter will be screened and evaluated by both Norm and Joe. Consideration as to content in future issues will be based entirely on letters received from you. (Some of your letters will appear in these books, answered personally by Norm and/or Joe.) Any and all questions concerning comic books, artists, or writers will be answered. Their product is in your hands. Norm and Joe have done their work... now... it’s up to you! Archer St. John Publisher With this introduction, which appeared in both 1,000,000 Years Ago! #1 and the new Three Stooges #1, St. John welcomed Kubert and Maurer back into the fold. Despite his enthusiasm, it’s interesting that he chose to overlook the previous brief tour of duty the duo had spent at his company. No matter. He apparently was giving them the freedom to spread their wings. Kubert’s first big idea was a character he had created while sailing to Germany on a troop ship in 1951. As he told interviewer Bill Baker:

It took World War II to separate them. Norm enlisted in the U.S. Navy. While stationed in Los Angeles, California, he was able to continue his work. Norm now makes his home in Hollywood, California.

“Tor, as I’ve said before several times, was my incarnation of Tarzan in a cave. When I was a kid, when I started having an interest in cartooning, the Tarzan strip by Hal Foster was one that really gave me the impetus to be a cartoonist.” 23

Joe, on the other hand, made his “new home” in the U. S. Army. After spending some time in Germany, he came back to take up permanent residence in New Jersey.

Another indirect, but undeniably important, influence was the artwork of Charles R. Knight. Knight was the premier illustrator of prehistoric life in the early part of the 20th century, and many of Kubert’s depictions recall Knight’s concepts.

The 3,200 mile distance between them did not discourage their lifelong ambition. The years of experience... the hundreds of successful comic strips both had done... are paying off! Now, thirteen years after their first meeting, their aspirations have become reality. I think that Joe and Norm have created the kind of magazine

Knight passed away on April 15, 1953, just months before 1,000,000 Years Ago! #1 hit the newsstands. Whatever the influences, Tor (as the comic book would soon be retitled) was a brilliant conception. The promise of Kubert’s earlier work was fully realized in this comic. Tor wasn’t merely a grunting caveman; his thoughts and actions were those of a modern man and put him at odds [ Continued on p. 34]

A History Of St. John Publishing

Sidebar:

JOE KUBERT At St. John A Brief Phone Interview Conducted by Roy Thomas

Transcribed by Brian K. Morris

ROY THOMAS: You went to work for Archer St. John when he was starting in comics. Do remember how that happened? Joe Kubert, 2000. Photo courtesy of Joe Petrilak.

JOE KUBERT: During those days, I’d be working for maybe two or three different publishers at the same time, as every freelance person did. And one that I went up to was St. John Publishing [around 1947], and they immediately started giving me work. Archer St. John was a really nice man. I was in my early 20s at the time; he was, I guess, in his fifties. I always addressed him as “Mr. St. John,” never “Archer.” The first jobs I did for him—I think he was putting out some pulps, as well as comics, and I illustrated some of Mickey Spillane’s stuff. Soon I was also doing comic book work. I immediately came up with the thought of packaging an entire book for him, rather than just doing a strip, and he seemed amenable to that. This was in the heyday of the romance books. I think we put out some romance titles and anything else we could think of. I got a bunch of guys. We had a small studio on Park Avenue—33rd and Park Avenue—which is a wonderful address, but if you had seen this building—[chuckles] it was like something that was drug up from the East Side. Nevertheless, at one time or another, Carmine [Infantino] was working up there, Alex Toth… I was able to give a hell of a lot of work to other guys, and that’s the way it kicked off. But it was only after I came back from the Army that I called up my buddy Norm [Maurer] and we became a team. RT: When you went back to St. John after your time in uniform, how did you pick up that relationship with the company?

Apartment 3-D (Above:) This splash panel from the “3-D T’s” story in Whack #1 (Oct. 1953 —an actual 3-D comic) apparently gives a mild hint of the pandemonium that took place while producing the first 3-D comic books. Joe (standing, center) and Norman (at right, saying “Quiet!”) drew themselves in this story, though the art looks more like Maurer than Kubert. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Tor De Force Since all six Tor/1,000,000, Years Ago! issues are available (though with no 3-D) in the first two volumes of the hardcover Tor by Joe Kubert series from DC Comics, we won’t print a lot of that landmark title in this A/E. But we just had to showcase the cover of the first issue and of “Vol. 1, #3” for May 1954. Ye Editor has already waxed rhapsodic about the latter on the contents page. [©2008 Joe Kubert.]

The Gospel According To Archer St. John

KUBERT: He was very amenable. And, having come out of the Army and not been doing comics for some time, I was really raring to go. I came back with some things I wanted to do, Tor and other stuff, and then this idea of the 3-D came along—we were pushing like crazy. We were going like 160 miles an hour. RT: [chuckles] Is there anything else you can say about St. John? KUBERT: He was a terrific guy… very, very pleasant. Physically, he was a tall man, as I recall, gray-haired, slim, almost athletic-looking, a healthylooking guy, a good-looking man like one of the Boston patriarchs, so to speak, but much younger. I have very little knowledge, if any, about his private life or what went on in the office. I always made it my business, no matter where I worked—when I was up at DC, working with St. John, or whatever—to avoid any sort of a post office relationship with anybody. I liked to do my work and get out of there. Whatever the hell goes on, goes on without my presence. I was always a good audience, but I had enough stuff on my hands, without bothering myself with extracurricular activities. RT: What do you remember about St. John’s office personnel or set-up? KUBERT: I remember really very little. The only time we got involved in the office was when the 3-D stuff really kicked in, because that necessitated setting up a whole new arm. We had to have opaquers, we had to take in work that, in many cases, was already done. St. John had purchased a lot of art, and what he did was give us the books to turn into 3-D. That necessitated a hell of a lot of dogwork, hiring a bunch of people; and at that point, Norm and I had to be present when that was going on. But even then, we had very little direct contact with St. John, maybe seeing him once a week or once every two weeks. He let us do our thing and that was it. I’ll tell you something really interesting, Roy…. RT: That’s what we’re here for. [mutual laughter] KUBERT: I never got a negative word from this guy [St. John], even when the sales plummeted after the 3-D. What had happened was—and this has happened time and time again in our business—somebody smells the possibility of a successful thing, and immediately you have about a thousand emulators figuring, “Well, if one can do it, a thousand guys can capitalize from the same thing,” which, of course, is pure fiscal suicide. St. John did the same thing, and so did other publishers. I believe the fiasco of the 3-D stuff drove him out of business. RT: Not because of 3-D itself, but the over-expansion and over-reliance on it. KUBERT: Exactly. RT: I knew the 3-D craze was over when I went into a Woolworth’s store in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, one day around 1954 and there was this whole table laden with 3-D comics from every company… all on sale for a dime, or maybe a nickel, when their cover price was 25¢ and most comics were a dime. The quarter had already been an inhibiting factor—that plus the lack of interior color, and the necessity of wearing the glasses. [chuckles] KUBERT: It was really a bad time. RT: It was a shame, because you and Maurer and St. John had led the 3-D field. I think the St. John 3-D comics were some of the best in terms of the effects. Harvey’s 3-D was really good… but so many companies just put in a couple of layers and that was it. Some of the worst were DC’s Superman and Batman books.

The Spirit Of Tor Joe has continued to draw Tor over the years. Here’s a humorous drawing of Will Eisner’s Spirit as the Thinking Man’s Caveman, done for the 1990 San Diego Comic-Con program book. With thanks to Shel Dorf. [©2008 Joe Kubert.]

KUBERT: Well, all of this happened, and St. John really drove himself out of business by oversaturating the market. But, as I said, I never heard a bad word from St. John, no recriminations, no “Look what you did!” or— RT: Yeah, he could have blamed you, even though it was his fault for overspending, or the field’s fault for over-expanding. KUBERT: Well, you know, Roy, there are guys that aren’t that gentlemanly. As far as I’m concerned, he was really a gentleman. He was a good guy. RT: Was it your idea, or whose, for you to turn the son of Sinbad into a comic book hero? KUBERT: That was my idea. As a matter of fact, that may have been something that was stimulated by Sol Harrison. Sol always loved the Sinbad character, and he may have suggested that idea to me, even though I might have not been working with DC just then. I was lucky enough in my life, at various times, to hook up with guys like Shelly Mayer and Sol Harrison and Jack Adler. These guys were like post-fathers to me. They were really good friends—not that I socialized a hell of a lot with them, but they were really good friends. And Sol may have suggested Sinbad, you know, just in general: “It’s something you might want to do, Joe.” RT: It’s a shame there wasn’t more of it. One last thing, since Alter Ego deals so much with super-heroes: I suppose, because St. John started up in the late ’40s, it never really did any real straight super-heroes, except those “Rocketman” reprints as Zip-Jet. He never suggested you and/or Norm do a super-hero, even though you’d done “Hawkman,” “Crimebuster,” and all that? KUBERT: No, it never came up. A lot of the stuff he was doing was licensed material. The reason we did Mighty Mouse in 3-D was that he had the whole issue already drawn. We just rendered it in 3-D. As for super-heroes, I guess maybe he felt the genre just wasn’t right at that time for those types.

A History Of St. John Publishing

The Fourth Stooge—And A Second “#1” Norman Maurer’s cover and a splash for The Three Stooges #1 (Sept. 1953)— flanked by a photo of Norm taken in 1983 by Shel Dorf. The mag, of course, was the second “Three Stooges #1” in four years, this time co-starring Shemp (Moe’s other brother, who’d been a member of the team in its earliest days) replacing the sadly departed Curly. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

[Continued from p. 31] with the less “sophisticated” of his tribe. He was a Cro-Magnon among Neanderthals. His first tale not only found him a lemur-like companion he named Chee-Chee, but also defined him as an outsider. A villainous rival named Klar plots to kill Tor, but in their ultimate battle, it is Tor who triumphs by killing Klar. Tor is banished from his tribe, and the rest of the series follows him on his adventures. (Either it was an in-joke or maybe total coincidence, but Mickey Klar was a writer for St. John.) The back-up features in the rest of the comic were the humorous “The Wizard of Ugghh” by Maurer and Kubert’s Little Nemo homage, “Danny Dreams.” The protagonist Danny Wakely, named for Kubert’s newborn son, would “dream” he was a young caveman and awaken in a dangerfraught, primordial world. Of course, at story’s end he would always find himself back in the modern world—until the final story, in which he didn’t awaken and seemed trapped in the dim and distant past. The feature would enjoy the distinction not only of hosting Kubert’s art, but also that of his old studio-mate, the great Alex Toth, in his only St. John work, in issue #3 (May 1954). In keeping with St. John’s promise that the editors would listen to their readers, an interesting page in Tor #3 finds Kubert and Maurer addressing the reader and the concern that there was “some consternation” that they “had totally ignored the belief that an almighty being actually created all past, present, and future.” It’s fascinating to see a subject as controversial as evolution vs. creationism dealt with directly in the pages of a Golden Age comic book. The two assure the reader that they “are neither trying to prove or disprove” any scientific theories about evolution, and that “your Bible, standard of present-day civilization, is not contested or refuted in any way.”

Making allowances for the typical incongruities such as placing cavemen and dinosaurs in the same era, Kubert’s Tor is a singular tour de force that stands with the greatest in comic book history. “This was a rich, yeasty time,” Kubert told Will Eisner in one of the latter’s “Shop Talks,” “when comic books really instilled the kind of love that I have for this cartoon business.”24

The Gospel According To Archer St. John

While Kubert was creating his primordial world, Maurer returned to familiar territory. The Three Stooges, in their latest incarnation, were Curly-less. Shemp Howard, Moe’s other brother, replaced the deceased (Jan. 18, 1952) Curly not only in the theatrical shorts (as he had done beginning in 1947), but also in the comic book. Maurer went with a new format for this series, eschewing film adaptations as the basis for the comic’s stories. His drawing style had matured, as well, looking more confident and polished. “I think that Norm was probably one of the few certifiable geniuses in our business,” Kubert told Bill Baker in Comic Book Marketplace #92. “But I think one of the reasons we were able to work well together was because we helped each other—like I say, like a marriage—we helped each other with suggestions, advice, directions, rather than tear each other down, or to try to alter or change the things that we were doing. We kind of propped each other up, which I always appreciated. I miss him. I really miss him.”25

The World Through Red-And-Green Glasses While stationed in Germany, Kubert had seen magazines that reproduced photographs in simulated three dimensions.

This spark of an idea was rekindled to full flame when he, Norman Maurer, and Norman’s brother Leon happened to be driving past the Paramount Theatre in New York City while it was showing the new film Bwana Devil. Written and directed by Arch Oboler, the cheaply made 3-D exploitation film, which promised, “A lion in your lap! A lover in your arms!,” was an immediate success at its November 1952 release and sparked a flood of imitators. According to Leon Maurer, Kubert’s remark upon seeing the movie marquee, “Gee, wouldn’t it be great if we could make a 3-D comic book?,” inspired Norman to return home and virtually overnight create the printing process that would result in 3-D comic books. In one long night, Norman Maurer drew the first 3-D comic page, entitled, “The Three Dimensional Stooges in the Third Dimension,” to Leon’s specifications. Early the next day, the Maurers waited for the midtown Manhattan Woolworth’s to open in order to purchase lollipops. “We figured we could get red and green cellophane from lollipop wrappers,” Norman was quoted in The Three Stooges Scrapbook. “We bought two packages and made a funny pair of glasses which, believe it or not, worked perfectly.”26 Leon completed the technical aspects of the job, and they took it to Kubert. Kubert in turn produced a panel featuring his caveman, Tor, using the new process. The three then took the pages and the concept to Archer

Advertising That Grabs You By The Eyeballs (Left:) St. John’s full-page house ad for the first 3-D comic ever, noting that it was “Licensed under Illustereo Process,” which was marked with both “TM” and a “Pat[ent] Pending” notations. (Right:) A later ad showcasing several of St. John’s 3-D titles—in 3-D! No, your eyes aren’t going bad! [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

A History Of St. John Publishing

3-D Or Not 3-D Ken Q. writes: “This is a 1953 Mighty Mouse 3-D page with the acetate overlay. The nice thing about this page is that it shows the 3-D artwork, which doesn’t reproduce well when a printed page is scanned. The artwork was a product of the Kubert/Maurer shop.” [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

St. John. Initially skeptical, St. John was shocked when he put on the makeshift glasses and viewed the artwork. He bought the concept on the spot, and received a 25% stake in a partnership with the Maurers and Kubert in the American Sterographic Corporation, the company formed to license the new 3-D Illustereo process. For his financial input, St. John also received a six-month head start before the process would be offered to other comic book publishers. It was decided that Mighty Mouse provided the best opportunity to promote the 3-D process, and production of the book began in secret. July 3, 1953, was not only the Friday before a holiday weekend; it was also the day the world’s first three-dimensional comic book went on sale. Officially entitled Three Dimension Comics #1, the Mighty Mouse 3-D comic was a financial bonanza. Selling over 1,200,000 copies at 25¢ each, the comic was credited by the 1953 Encyclopedia Britannica Yearbook with being “the World’s highest circulation periodical to date of issue,”27 (although this is a dubious statistic, since Dell alone had several titles selling over one million copies per month.)

You Need Glasses! (Right:) This page was printed on the inside front cover of several early St. John 3-D comics. Notice that you could get a replacement copy of “3-D space goggles” by sending the publisher a dime—the cost of a normal comic book! [©2008 the respective copyright holders.] (Left:) This vintage photo of the end result was printed in the US servicemen’s newspaper Stars and Stripes.

The Gospel According To Archer St. John

Seeing Double? That’s The Idea! Here are a pair of pages from the second of the two “Tor” 3-D issues—both of which were officially labeled 3-D Comics, Vol. 1, #2, in their indicia! We’ve retained the original lines from both the red and green images to give some of the feel (even in black-&-white) of what it was like to look as such a page without the “glasses.” The darker of the two lines was the green. In DC’s Tor by Joe Kubert, Vol. 1, the red and green lines have been retained only in the Tor and Chee-Chee figures on the cover of the first (Nov. 1953) of the two 3-D comics; the rest of those mags has been rendered in the usual 2-D style and colored. [Art on this page ©2008 Joe Kubert.] (Left:) The lead-off splash from the Dec. 1953 issue, introduced by Joe himself. Roy T. recalls showing a copy of this page to a young Barry Smith circa 1971 to show the look he wanted for the splash page of Conan the Barbarian #8. (Below:) Russ Heath says this Triceratops fact page is the first thing he ever drew for Joe—though later he illustrated many “Sgt. Rock” stories for editor Kubert.

Flushed with success, Archer St. John ordered that his entire comic book line be converted to 3-D. Sensing that the new process was merely a fad, Kubert and the Maurers saw the looming disaster such a step could incur and begged St. John to back off his sweeping decision. St. John refused and the production of a full schedule of 3-D comics commenced. “We took a whole floor of a building and set up an assembly line,” Kubert stated in a 1989 interview. “I began work on a 3-D Tor and Norman on a 3-D Three Stooges.”28 The process involved was timeconsuming, taking as long as one month per book. Acetate cel overlays were opaqued on the back and then placed on top of the line art drawn on Craft-Tint board. Working out of the same building as St. John’s editorial offices, a horde of artists were hired to pencil, ink, and paint, including Russ Heath, who traces his first work with Kubert to a Triceratops page in the Tor 3-D. Production commenced on comics as diverse as the humorous Little Eva, The Hawk (a Western), and House of Terror. Each underwent the 3-D conversion; each rewarded with steadily diminishing sales. “Suffice it to say, by the tenth or eleventh 3-D book,” said Kubert, “sales were down to about 19%, so we had to stop publication of 3-D.”29 The public’s attention span was limited, and as Kubert and the Maurers had predicted, the fad was waning. Complicating the situation, and surely guaranteeing its failure, was the flood of 3-D product coming from other comic publishers. The six-month head start that St. John thought he had secured by his contract with American Stereographic was an illusion. One month after the September cover date of the first Mighty Mouse 3-D, Dell put out a 3-D version of Rootie Kazootie (a TV marionette), and by the end

A History Of St. John Publishing

Each story was framed with a pseudo-St. John cover and lampooned virtually every genre then popular. Joe Kubert, who edited the comic along with Maurer, led off with his take on the hardboiled private eye, “Ghastly Dee-Fective Comics,” featuring a hero who looked suspiciously like Dick Tracy. In turn, there were the obligatory Western and romance parodies (by Bob Bean?), and a twisted Dave Berg story, “Animated Horror Comics,” that married the unlikely genres of funny animal and horror. Most fascinating was a tongue-in-cheek look at the Kubert and Maurer shop itself, satirizing the frenzied state that accompanied the production of the 3-D comics. (See art on p. 32.) The second issue, though, took on the more sordid aspects of the lawsuit in the second installment of “The 3-D T’s.” It told the story Ken Quattro writes: “These are of a comics publisher who is enraged by St. Peter the last two pages of Freeman (read that as “St. John”) Publications’ success with Owens’ patent detailing his their 3-D comics. Mr. Acme (the evil publisher) hires ‘Method of Drawing and Photographing Stereoscopic a spy to steal the 3-D process. Meanwhile, another Pictures in Relief.’” He used publisher (Gaines?) hires an inventor (Freeman a Tarzan(ic) drawing as his Owens?) to use one of his old inventions to produce of the year, more than a dozen others had joined the fray. example. [©2008 the 3-D comics, albeit years after the fact. The story ends respective copyright holders.] with a caricatured Archer St. John (in his first and There was also the further problem of a copyright perhaps only appearance within the pages of a comic) infringement suit instigated by William Gaines. beset by an army of lawyers serving him with lawsuits, and resulting in his According to Leon Maurer, Gaines had conducted a patent search acquiring a malady diagnosed as “the 3-DT’s.” which found a 1936 application (patent #2,057,051) by Freeman H. Owens titled Method of Drawing and Photographing Stereoscopic Pictures in Relief, which detailed the preparation of a newspaper cartoon for reproduction as a stereographic relief picture. Unknowingly, Maurer had virtually duplicated the Owens process.

How To Draw Your Own 3-D Comics At Home

Gaines purchased the Owens process from the inventor and proceeded to file infringement suits against all other publishers of 3-D comics, including St. John. The lawsuit (“Owens v. American Stereographic Corp., 116 F. Suppl 406”) was apparently dismissed, but the damage had been done and Maurer lost any chance of patenting and licensing the process to other publishers. Finding humor in a maddening situation, Kubert and Maurer lampooned the entire imbroglio in the first two issues of their parody comic, Whack. St. John debuted its knockoff of the original four-color Mad comic book in October 1953, as part of the first wave of 3-D comics. Whack’s premise in its first issue was to satirize the comic book industry, and St. John in particular.

Nobody “Gaines” But The Lawyers This panel from the second “3-D T’s” story, in Whack #2 (Dec. 1953), is officially by Kubert and Maurer but looks more like Norm’s work. Amazingly, it’s part of a takeoff on their own legal woes caused by the Bill Gaines lawsuit! Apparently the entire issue was prepared in 3-D, but, as John Benson notes, “was published in 2-D in full color, with a larger-than-usual ‘10¢’ price on the cover.” The caricature figures are (left to right) Kubert, Archer St. John (!), and Maurer. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

The Gospel According To Archer St. John

Let’s Give It A Whack St. John’s version of a color Mad-style comic—everyone was doing one in 1953-54— was Whack, which featured some formidable talent. (Clockwise from top left:) The cover of Whack #1 (Oct. ’53), a 3-D issue, was probably drawn by Norman Maurer himself. Dave Berg, future writer/artist for Mad magazine, drew the odd “Mouse of Evil” story in Whack #1. Carl Hubbell, a Lev Gleason regular, was the artist of a general spoof of horror comics in Whack #2 (Dec. ’53). In that same issue, William Overgard, another Gleason/Biro alumnus, drew a parody of Milt Caniff’s comic strip Steve Canyon. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

A History Of St. John Publishing

(Incidentally, I contacted Leon Maurer, and he was unable to remember whether anyone involved with American Stereographic had ever applied for a patent on his process. Despite the “Patent Pending” notation on the cover of all St. John 3-D comics, I was unable to locate a patent application in my own limited patent search.) St. John, who had gambled all on the 3-D fad, was overstocked with unusable acetate and unsold comics. The ensuing financial losses nearly bankrupted him.

Noteworthy Efforts Comics history has, to this point, fixated on the 3-D debacle and ignored what was going on in the periphery of St. John Publications. In June of ’52, St. John made its run at the horror and science-fiction genres. That month, Atom-Age Combat, Strange Terrors, and Weird Horrors all debuted.

“It’s Just The Age!” “The Atomic Age!” The cover of Atom-Age Combat #1 (June 1952); artist uncertain. One entire “Buck Vinson” story from this issue was reprinted in William W. Savage, Jr.’s, 1990 book Comic Books and America 1945-1954, which has since been reissued. The pair of quotations in the heading above, by the way, are dialogue between frustrated parent and toy-ray-gunwielding youngster in the 1955 Nicholas Ray/James Dean film Rebel without a Cause. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Atom-Age Combat was a truly strange comic. It was an anthology title that attempted to tap into the twin 1950s fears of atomic war and alien (as in outer space) invasion. The “War of Wars” series took place in the faroff time of 1987 and starred Captain Don “Buck” Vinson as a commando leader in an atomic war between a NATO-like alliance and the Reds. The other continuing feature was traditional science-fiction fare about Earth’s ongoing struggle against an intergalactic enemy. The third tale was reserved for a standard war story set in the contemporaneous Korean conflict. Even the subtitle, “Stranger Than Fiction,” that ran on every cover never really made sense. The unremarkable, but serviceable, artwork was rendered by the likes of Bob Bean, Ralph Mayo, and Bob Brown. More interesting as an historical artifact of its time than as a comic, this mish-mashed title never took hold and drifted along for five issues in its original run. Inexplicably, Atom-Age Combat was revived late in the ’50s under the Fago imprint, by the brothers Al and Vince Fago. Relatively tame in comparison to many of their more horrific contemporaries, both Strange Terrors and Weird Horrors frequently featured covers by illustrator George Meyerriecks and interior art by the likes of Lou Cameron, John Belfi, Bob Brown, Gus Ricca, and an occasional Kubert appearance. The comics are best remembered, though, for the three covers (Strange Terrors #4 and Weird Horrors #6 & #7) by the enigmatic William Ekgren. These covers were unlike anything before and most things since. In later times, the word “psychedelic” was frequently used to describe them.

Powell To The People The ubiquitous Bob Powell drew the story “All the King’s Men” for Amazing Ghost Stories #15 (Dec. 1954). Thanks to Jay Kinney for the scan, and to Jim Ludwig for providing the story title. For in-depth coverage of Powell, see A/E #66. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Additionally, Ekgren himself remained a mystery. This was his only comic book work; and despite the efforts of comic book historians, nothing was known about him. It became something of a small obsession for me to find out what I could about Ekgren, and the story of that search

The Gospel According To Archer St. John

“The Horror! The Horror!” A Kubert cover and splash page from Weird Horrors #8 (June 1953)—and a splash from the same issue by the team of Ben Brown & David Gantz. See fellow Mad-man Al Jaffee’s tribute to Dave Gantz on p. 79; for Jim Amash’s interview with the late artist, see A/E #13. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

was first told in my article that appeared in Craig Yoe’s 2007 Arf Forum book. In brief, William Ekgren was a Norwegian-born abstract expression artist who painted just these few bizarre covers to supplement his income, and there exists at least one unpublished comic cover in a private collection. [NOTE: See sidebar on pp. 42-45.]

Although they contained the Comic Codeforbidden words “Horror” and “Terror,” Strange Terrors and Weird Horrors died long before the Code came into being on October 26, 1954. In time, Weird Horrors was replaced by Nightmare, a vehicle for Ziff-Davis reprints, which in turn evolved into the even more innocuously-titled Amazing Ghost Stories. St. John even made a half-hearted venture into the fading super-hero genre with its two-issue Zip-Jet. The comic was a reprinting of the Chesler (that connection again!) characters Rocketman and Rocket Girl. To be accurate, the stories were re-worked, the characters re-named (now collectively called the Zip-Jets) and even re-colored. The cover to the first issue, in fact, was actually the splash page of the “Rocketman” story in Scoop Comics #2 (Jan. 1942). Originally published in Punch Comics as well as in Scoop in the 1940s, and featuring Ruben Moreira artwork, the duo came and went in the early months of 1953. Humor comics were a mainstay of St. John’s repertoire from its beginning and continued throughout its existence. Although there was a long and apparently profitable relationship with Terrytoons, many of the humor titles were short-lived. Titles such as Lucy the Real Gone Gal, Basil, Little Ike, and Eric Peter’s Bingo all lasted a handful of issues. [Continued on p. 45]

A History Of St. John Publishing

The Strange And Weird World of William Ekgren The three published St. John horror covers by the mystery-man whose particulars were tracked down by Ken Q: Strange Terrors #4 and Weird Horrors #6 & #7. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Sidebar by Ken Quattro:

Who Is WILLIAM EKGREN?

here are mysteries, big and small, haunting comic book history.

Who inked Jack Kirby’s pencils on Fantastic Four #1? That qualifies as a big one.

Somewhat smaller: Who is William Ekgren? William Ekgren? His career, if it can even be called a career, in comic books was apparently comprised of only three covers rendered for St. John Publishing in a span of several months in 1952-53. The content, the media, and the thought process involved in these covers defy easy explanation. Strange Terrors #4 (Nov. 1952) is a fever dream of disparate images. A headless, limbless torso, several candles, and an abstract Mona Lisa head atop a suggestively phallic neck. All are delineated by swirling, obsessively drawn, maze-like lines. The effect is dizzying. The color scheme is unlike any other contemporary comic book cover, with varying hues of red and pale yellow. As a comic book cover its value is questionable. As a work of art it is unforgettable. Weird Horrors #6 & 7 (Feb. & April 1953, respectively) made up the last two parts of the Ekgren trinity. Thematically, the cover for issue #6 seems to relate somewhat remotely to the blurb, “Monsters from Outer Space,” since the creature pictured definitely looks alien. An Aztec sacrifice of a chicken appears to be the subject of #7, but only in the most abstract way. Each cover looking as if drawn with multicolored spaghetti. Each similarly, well, weird. Who was this guy? Finding the answer to that question became something of an obsession for me. There is no revealing interview with the rediscovered artist; no fan who had made his acquaintance at some longago convention; no website featuring his biography.

One comics historian I contacted called Ekgren “the most obscure of obscure artists,” and could offer nothing more. Joe Kubert was both an editor at St. John and a frequent artist on Strange Terrors and Weird Horrors—surely he would know something about Ekgren, so I sent him an inquisitive letter. “Sorry, Ken,” his written reply began, “but I never met Mr. Ekgren, nor do I know anything about his work or methods. I remember the covers, of course, but that’s about it.” And that was about it, until I discovered the archives of the New York Times. My searches led to a solitary result in a dusty corner of the September 16, 1947, edition. Deep within resided Edward Alden Jewell’s short review of an inconsequential art exhibition opening “to the public today at the Riverside Museum,” which featured work “by members of the Norwegian Art and Craft Club [and] brings into prominence… canvases, largely expressionistic in handling, by… William Ekgren (who has evolved a plangently dizzy technique)….” He existed, this phantom, this cipher, this man nobody knew! (I looked up “plangently” so you don’t have to: it usually refers to a sound, and it either means loud and reverberating, or plaintive and sad. Take your pick; I guess either applies to Ekgren’s work.) Reassembling comic book history is very much like archeology. Digging through dirt and finding shards that you hope fit together to form something. Then the tiniest shard can be the key to everything. This barest mention of the elusive Mr. Ekgren, a crumb of information, became my Rosetta Stone.

The Gospel According To Archer St. John

Logic dictated that if he was exhibiting at the Norwegian Art and Craft Club, he was most likely… Norwegian. For the next year and a half, I checked with any art source I thought might have a lead on this (apparently) Norwegian abstract artist. One dead end after another, as too many of my Googled searches led to indecipherable Scandinavian sites with nary a William Ekgren.

They Had Faces Then Photo of William Ekgren—and the drawing he apparently did in 1953 for a comic book cover, which was never published. With thanks to Eric and Karl R. Larsen. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Eventually, however, perseverance paid off. On July 6, 1918, William Ekgren was born in Oslo, Norway. Although his mother was Norwegian, his father was Swedish, and they moved to Sweden when William was two years old. He attended school there until he was 15, at which time he became an itinerant artist, studying and exhibiting in South America as well as Europe. Eventually, Ekgren made his way to the US, where he became an art instructor. Two sources provided the majority of the biographical details. First, the Vesterheim Norwegian American Museum in Decorah, Iowa, which not only supplied much of the background information, but also houses 11 pieces of Ekgren artwork in its collection. The head archivist was kind enough to provide me with copies of the 11 works from their catalog. Even though the small size of the photographs makes it difficult to see details within the artwork, the frenzied style of his work comes through. (See next page.) A painting thought to be a depiction of the Titanic sinking (1949) is described in the catalog’s notes as: “reds, oranges and yellows, descending into blue and grey water… [the] entire piece is of deep watercolor patches delineated by black painted outlines.” This description could be applied almost verbatim to the cover of Strange Terrors #4. Of another oil titled The Grotto at Rainbow’s End (1958), it’s noted that the “entire canvas is overlaid with close, black concentric circles,” yet another form of patterning that recalls his comic covers. Ekgren’s work has a somber quality, with isolated figures and dreamlike landscapes. It’s not a huge stretch to assume that Ekgren was influenced by the work of his legendary countryman Edvard Munch, painter of the iconic The Scream. Munch passed away in 1944 and was a pioneer in the Expressionistic style that Ekgren obviously embraced. My second source was the Norwegian American Historical Association (NAHA), which provided even more detail about Ekgren’s career. Within their archives were Art Journal entries for the years 1950-52, which revealed that Ekgren worked at the Norheim Studio at 6007 18th Avenue in Brooklyn, New York. A brief summary of his career notes the various galleries at which he had presented work, and that he was “a constant exhibitor at the Greenwich Village Outdoor Art Exhibition.” Nestled next to his write-up was a photograph of the artist, with a jaunty bowtie and pencil-thin mustache, looking vaguely like Vincent Price. Included in the NAHA archives were several postcards in Ekgren’s handwriting to friends in the United States. In one, dated Dec. 6, 1983, he thanks a friend for forwarding him a copy of the Vesterheim catalog containing his paintings. An intriguing postscript informs his friend that a book of his poetry was being published by Vantage Press “around New Year.” Indeed, it was. In 1984, Vantage Press released a book of Ekgren’s “whirling, almost psychedelic poetry.” No surprise, I suppose, given his

artwork. The press release for the book Out of Six Attitudes goes on to breathlessly credit him with “virtually reinventing language.” Without comment, here is an excerpt from one of his poems: As long as a clear ex-gladness of precise anti-self-madness derived from the lineage twin-string, is powerfully directing our course with obstructing sadness, and subsight range, with worse badness, moral-viewed, nothing seems worth issuing.

Esoteric poetry aside, one interesting piece of information also appearing in this press release is that Ekgren returned to Sweden in 1959, where he married and fathered two boys. Nothing, though, about his comic book work. How did this Scandinavian Expressionist painter come to draw comic books covers? Serendipity is finding something unexpected. Sometimes, though, something unexpected finds you. Over the years, I’ve littered several online discussion groups with e-mail posts casting about for any William Ekgren information. One day an e-mail appeared in my In Box with the promising subject line, “Ekgren original.” It came from an Eric Larsen, and his words floored me: “I have an original William Ekgren color drawing that he did in 1953 as a design for a comic book cover. I also know some biographical infor-

A History Of St. John Publishing

mation about him. He was a friend of the family’s.” I quickly e-mailed him back, and Eric informed me that Ekgren had been a close friend of his late grandfather. He personally had little information about the artist, but his father, who also had known Ekgren, would be able to provide more. Elated, I e-mailed Eric’s father, Karl R. Larsen, and his response was a gold mine: I knew Bill through my parents when we lived in Brooklyn, NY, in the 1950s. He met my parents through an art club called the Norwegian Art & Craft Club that my father [Karl L. Larsen] started in Brooklyn in the 1940s. My dad was an artist who attended art school in Oslo, Norway. Ekgren was an active member of the club and was considered a very good artist. He also had a difficult time holding jobs and got into comic book covers to earn money.

That made sense; being an art instructor at a small studio couldn’t have been very profitable employment. Karl also noted, however: He did not like this type of work, considered it beneath him, and only did it to put food on the table. Ekgren did not have a positive outlook on the institution [of marriage] and I believe was divorced and had a son in Sweden. He did not like the company of women and I remember pictures of him with some very good-looking ladies…. He also gave art lessons (to which I was sent) to earn money. Ekgren was (is) a vegetarian, an intellectual, preferred a “bohemian lifestyle” (smoked pot before it was fashionable), and lived in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan. I also remember a Sunday morning finding him asleep in our bathtub. There had been a costume party at the “club” with an after party in our apartment for some close friends of my parents. He was dressed as a pirate or Sinbad the Sailor (I think) and scared the hell out of me when I saw him there.

The image of Ekgren as a prototypical avant-garde artist fixed in my mind, I wasn’t surprised to find out he was apparently an stubborn iconoclast. My remembrance of him (I was 10 when I took the art lessons) is that he was somewhat strange, very liberal in his thinking… and very headstrong. I heard a story from my parents and others that he took a strong dislike to an elderly man who commissioned him to do a portrait. He delivered the finished work of the gentleman lying in his coffin. Ekgren, of course, did not receive payment and did not care.

There was a greater depth to Ekgren’s ideals, which Karl revealed in a

follow-up e-mail: I remembered a conversation with Bill about his participation on the side of Finland in the “Winter War” (1939-1940) against Russia. I don’t remember much else except that he said he fought on skis and it was very cold. He was a volunteer and that [sic] in his opinion, Finland won.”

Karl was referring to the invasion of Finland soon after the outbreak of World War II. The vastly outnumbered Finns fought the Soviets, then allied with the Axis powers, to a standstill over the course of a brutal winter. The resulting armistice gave the Stalinist empire a portion of Finland, but it was a Pyrrhic victory. The Finns had exacted a terrible toll, killing five Soviets for every man they lost. While acknowledging Ekgren’s obvious bravery, it’s also a reasonable assumption that he was the only combatant on either side of this terrible conflict to end up working in American comic books. The Larsens have several Ekgren originals scattered among various family members. Most intriguing from my point of view was the one Eric mentioned when he first contacted me: the unpublished comic book cover. Eric wrote: It’s quite creepy, and done in Ekgren’s trippy, swirlly style. It used to hang in my Grandfather’s basement, where, for some strange reason, his only bathroom was located. I remember being freaked out by it [the painting] whenever I had to descend the stairs late at night to use the john. After seeing Ekgren’s published covers, I am surprised that this drawing was never used, since it is quite a bit darker and more sinister than the ones that actually appeared in public.

Eric’s evaluation of the painting is dead on. The unrelated images of a candle, bloody knife, and a monstrous face are disturbingly creepy. Why

The Gospel According To Archer St. John

this never became a comic cover is unknown and unfortunate. Dated 1953 and very Munch-like in execution, this watercolor painting, without the obsessive linework of his previous covers, suggests that this may be a preliminary cover proposal. Did Ekgren submit this to an editor only to have it rejected? Or had he had enough of the comic book industry and never submitted it at all? The reasons, I suppose, are lost to posterity. The only persons who might know were Karl L. Larsen and Ekgren himself. The elder Larsen, sadly, passed away in November 2004, just short of his 97th birthday. Meanwhile, I could find no mention of William Ekgren since 1985, soon after the release of his book. If he is alive, he

would be in his late eighties now. That’s the way this should end. I like to think that William Ekgren is still alive, still feisty, still painting, and still writing incomprehensible poetry. His life intersected with comic books long ago and his flirtation was brief. If only he had drawn more covers, maybe a few interiors, he might have inspired some disciples and taken comics in a different direction… hen again, maybe not. I am satisfied, though. My curiosity is finally sated. William Ekgren is still mysterious, but he is no longer a mystery.

[Continued from p. 41] One worthwhile one-shot was Kid Carrots (Sept. 1953). The creation of Gene Hazelton, it was an oasis of wonderfully frenetic artwork in a desert of look-alike efforts. Hazelton, making his one and only foray into comic books, was yet another veteran animator, having worked for Disney, Warner Bros., and later Hanna-Barbera, where he helped create The Flintstones. In the wake of the 3-D bust, a weakened but persevering company struggled on into 1954. The Kubert magnum opus, Tor, continued for three more issues, Maurer’s Three Stooges lived on for four more. Often overlooked is the fourth comic produced by the Kubert-Maurer shop (outside the 3-D books), Meet Miss Pepper. The April 1954 humor book was a collaboration of Kubert, Maurer, and Bob Bean, and portrayed the comedic adventures of a pretty young schoolteacher. This was an

“Zip! I Was Reading Schopenhauer Last Night…” Ruben Moreira’s cover for St. John’s Zip-Jet #1 (Feb. 1953)— the company’s lone entry into the super-hero arena, and it was a reprint of Chesler material! The heading is a lyric line from the Rodgers & Hart song “Zip” from their musical play Pal Joey. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Any Relation To Lucy Ricardo, Perchance? A page from Lucy, the Real Gone Gal #4 (Feb. 1954). It's often reported that “Aquaman”/“Metamorpho” artist Ramona Fradon drew this feature, but she informed Ken Q. that she never drew anything for St. John. So both the scripter and the artist are unknown. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

A History Of St. John Publishing

obvious attempt at cashing in on the popularity of the contemporaneous radio and television series Our Miss Brooks. As with many St. John comics, the artwork is outstanding. Unfortunately, this rare display of Kubert’s talent for humor only lasts one more issue. (Bob Bean eventually became a movie director, and in time reunited with Kubert as an instructor at his art school.) An anomaly in the Approved Comics title provides one of the true unrecognized gems of St. John’s comics. Daring Adventures (Approved Comics) #6 (May 1954) is the rare exception in that line of reprints, in that it is made up of all-new material (despite the assertion in Overstreet). The Robin Hood cover is by Baker and predates by some time his rendition of that character at Quality Comics. Inside, Enrico Bagnoli beautifully illustrated “The Son of Robin Hood,” Edd Ashe handled the art chores on “Devil’s Arena,” and the masterful Bernie Krigstein drew both “Frog Men against Belzar” and “The Terrorist.” A quick sidestep here to mention that even some of the ads that appeared in many of the St. John’s comics of this period are worth noting. Perhaps partially created to find recruits for the army of artists needed to produce the 3-D comics was the ad by Kubert and Maurer offering comic art correspondence lessons at a charge of $1 per lesson. It would be fascinating to know if any professional comic artists began their careers by subscribing to these lessons. In any case, it is hard not to notice that this foreshadows Kubert’s art school two decades later. Then there were the ubiquitous full-page ads for Lionel Trains, including a classic one that ran in the 3-D books. It’s not clear if there was

She’s In The Classroom Right Next Door To Our Miss Brooks One overlooked gem in the St. John treasure chest, Ken Q. feels, is Meet Miss Pepper. Here are the Bob Bean/Joe Kubert cover and first page from issue #5 (April 1954). [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

The Gospel According To Archer St. John

Baker, Bagnoli, And Bernie—Together Again For The First Time Another “overlooked gem” at St. John is Daring Adventures. The cover of issue #5 (May 1954) was drawn by Matt Baker. The “Son of Robin Hood” page at left is by Italian artist Enrico Bagnoli, whose work was covered (along with Baker’s) in A/E #47—while Bernard Krigstein drew “The Terrorist.” Thanks to Jim Vadeboncoeuer, Jr., for help with the IDs. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

some sort of special arrangement between St. John and Lionel, but given Archer’s previous ties to the toy train company, he may have called in a few favors to get them to purchase so much advertising in his comics.

The Red-Hot Poker It had the long and somewhat vague title of “Special Senate Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce,” but its chairman, Estes Kefauver, had a very specific interest at this time. Reply of St. John Publishing Co., New York, N.Y. August 23, 1950 We have had the value of an eminent educator’s experience in formulating our own comic code. This authority influenced our thinking a great deal and was responsible for our adapting the policy I have already outlined. The preferred comics group [sic] published by the St. John Publishing Co. are the only comics published by this company. We publish comics through no other company or corporation or under any other name.

A History Of St. John Publishing

“Children Told Me What The Man Was Going To Do With The Red-Hot Poker” Panels from St. John’s Authentic Police Cases #3 & #6 and Crime Reporter #2 (all 1948). The one directly below was actually reprinted and referred to by Dr. Frederic Wertham in his 1954 book Seduction of the Innocent, as per the quote used as the heading for this paragraph. By the time of Wertham’s book and Kefauver’s committee, of course, St. John had long since abandoned such arguably salacious material. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Enclosed you will find issues of the comic books published by our company during 1949 and 1950. If we can be of any further service, please call on us. Very truly yours, Richard E. Decker General Manager30 Kefauver was seeking an issue upon which to build his Presidential aspirations and seized upon the public furor over juvenile delinquency. The claims by New York psychiatrist Dr. Fredric Wertham linking comic books to this problem both fed the public’s outrage and provided Kefauver with a convenient target. Comics publishers determined that some sort of action had to be taken to stave off restrictive legislation and quiet the public hue and cry. Despite their earlier assurance of a self-regulating code, when the industry’s preemptive Comic Code was enacted in October 1954, St. John signed on. Based upon its relatively tame output, St. John Publishing would seem to be an unlikely candidate for government scrutiny. However, in his scathing indictment of comic books, Seduction of the Innocent (1954), Dr. Wertham had used several St. John comics as the sources of some of his most inflammatory imagery. In a company that had built its reputation on Mighty Mouse and romance, how was that possible? Early on, when Archer St. John was concerned mostly with finding material to fill his books, he filled them with Chesler shop reprints. In particular, crime comic reprints. It was this incidental re-publication that Wertham saw and then used to single out a few damning panels. The US Senate released its Comics Book and Juvenile Delinquency Interim Report with an appendix listing of comic book publishers and titles as of spring 1954. At that time, St. John (officially named Preferred Comics Group, which encompassed the Approved Comics line, as well) was credited with publishing 55 comic titles.31 Although the number was a bit inflated by redundant titles (i.e.: Tor and 1,000,000 Years Ago! are listed separately), it was the high water mark for the publisher. The boom of the 3-D experiment puffed up the numbers, and by the time this report was actually published, the bust had begun.

The prevailing belief throughout comic book fandom is that Wertham, Kefauver, and the subsequent Comic Code mortally wounded a thriving industry. The truth is that, while Wertham, et al, did indeed affect editorial policies, most comic book publishers left the field for a variety of reasons, generally financial. Then, too, there was also the presence of a formidable new medium. As Wertham noted: Television is on the way to become the greatest medium of our time…. Television has a spotty past, a dubious present, and glorious future. That alone distinguishes it from crime comic books, which have a shameful past, a shameful present, and no future at all.32 A far more direct factor dictating St. John’s withdrawal from the comic book market was the collapse of its long time distributor, American News Company. Long involved with the comic book industry, the giant distributor’s ANC monogram had appeared on St. John’s comics since their inception. At one time American News had had a virtual monopoly on distribution of periodicals in North America, but because of “troubled economic times including investigations of mob involvement and tactics,” writes Michael Feldman, “they closed down their distribution division in early 1957.”

A New Direction Foreseeing the fragility of the comic book industry, late in 1952 Archer St. John had taken his publishing company in a lucrative new direction. Under the alternate Eagle (which became, eventually, Flying Eagle) Publications imprint, the inaugural issue of a digest-sized crime pulp Manhunt (Jan. 1953) was released and made an immediate impact. It featured an incredible lineup of authors and was illustrated throughout by the ubiquitous Matt Baker, in some of his earliest attempts at magazine illustration. The first issue alone contained short stories by Ed McBain, Mickey Spillane, Cornell Woolrich, and Ross MacDonald, and the first installment of a new Mickey Spillane novel. A critical as well as a financial

The Gospel According To Archer St. John

We’re Looking For People Who Want To Draw—Comic Books While Kefauver and company were investigating comics, Kubert and Maurer were offering the first (and, as it sadly happened, only) installment of their comic book artist correspondence course for sale via mail. Editor Roy Thomas bought one—and his buddy (and top Kubert fan) Al Dellinges still owns a copy. Anybody else out there? Art probably by Maurer. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

success, Manhunt quickly became the leading outlet for crime writers. St. John had finally found success as a magazine publisher. Feeling the effects of his heavy investment in 3-D comic books and the ensuing collapse of that market, Archer shifted his focus to the far more profitable magazine line. The success of Manhunt quickly spawned companion crime titles: Mantrap, Menace, Murder, and Verdict, as well as a Western digest, Gunsmoke. Meanwhile, the comic book titles began fading away, with only the hardiest, Authentic Police Cases, the various romance books, and a few humor comics making it into 1955. Even the showcase comics of Kubert and Maurer, Tor and The Three Stooges, died before the end of ’54. Not that he had given up on comic books totally. A January 6, 1955, contract exists showing that St. John and the comedy duo Laurel and Hardy had agreed to a revived comic book series. Although the document gives the impression that a new series was planned, all that came of this was a reprint of the original 3-issue run. That year, Archer also purchased United Features’ top three titles, long-running Tip Top, Fritzi Ritz, and her niece Nancy, as that publisher withdrew from the comic book business. The timing of the St. John publication of these three titles coincidentally allowed them to be the host to some of the earliest comic book appearances of Charles Schulz’s Peanuts. (When St. John left the field, Tip Top and Nancy and Sluggo were picked up by Dell/Western.) Apparently, St. John still had faith in the comedian-based comic, as the company’s Jackie Gleason series premiered with a Sept. ’55 cover date. The comic featured characters Gleason played on his hugely popular television show, such as Reginald Van Gleason, The Poor Soul, and of

A History Of St. John Publishing

dead. The police listed the cause as an apparent overdose of sleeping pills, pending an autopsy. Mr. St. John had been staying at the New York Athletic Club. He maintained an office at 545 Fifth Avenue.33 The scarcely hidden smirk of the opening sentence notes that St. John was the publisher of “Secret Life and other magazines.” Just published and with a cover date of October, Secret Life was St. John’s entry into the scandal magazine market dominated by titles such as Confidential and Hush Hush. As in virtually every other publishing venture of his, Archer tried to put a twist onto an established genre. “Secret Life combines the elements of Romance and Revelation into a single, exciting package,” promised the house ad in the second issue. Almost defensively, the ad continues: Secret Life is not a magazine of castigation. Each of the stories has a reason for being printed—an intimate, newsworthy reason. Though Secret Life will open doors that previously have never been opened, shake skeletons never before shaken in numerous Big Name closets, the stories and presentation often will be sympathetic. It all depends on the facts.” Obviously, the irony of this statement wasn’t lost on the uncredited scribe who wrote the Times piece. “The friend, Mrs. Frances Stratford” (a former model, as one obituary notes) drips with Eisenhower-era disapproval… a raised eyebrow and a knowing look. Indeed, the apparently sordid circumstances of St. John’s death were fodder for rampant speculation, just as his life had been. It would be remiss not to mention the rumors of his drinking, his marital infidelity,

course Ralph Kramden. Short-lived like so many other St. John series, this comic lasted only four issues.

Denouement As New Yorkers sat down to read their Sunday New York Times on August 14, 1955, it’s likely they were more interested in the headline story about the city’s near miss by Hurricane Connie than the short article buried on page 71 that read like the opening lines of a James M. Cain novel: PUBLISHER FOUND DEAD Archer St. John Succumbs in Friend’s Penthouse Archer St. John, 54 years old [sic], publisher of Secret Life and other magazines, was found dead yesterday afternoon in the penthouse apartment of a friend, the police reported. The friend, Mrs. Frances Stratford of 170 East Seventh-Ninth Street, told the police he visited her Friday night in her six-room duplex penthouse and complained about 10:30 o’clock that he felt ill. “He lay down on the couch,” she said. At 11:30 A.M. yesterday she found him still there and was unable to rouse him. Mrs. Stratford called a physician, who pronounced Mr. St. John

The Gospel According To Archer St. John

and even his sexual orientation. As John Benson diplomatically notes in his book, “St. John was a complicated man.”34 A subsequent autopsy listed his cause of death as “congestion of the viscera [internal organs] pending chemical analysis.”35 Police suspected that Archer died as a result of an overdose of sleeping pills. Seemingly, Archer had much to live for. In addition to Secret Life and the ongoing success of Manhunt, St. John had taken the leap into the realm of slick men’s magazines with the upcoming publication of Nugget. Cast in the ’50s Playboy mold, Nugget was a magazine for the sophisticated male reader. As he frequently did with his new publications, Archer, in his role as editor, provided the raison d’être for the magazine in its first issue (Nov. 1955): Nugget is a young man’s magazine; a man with taste, a good sense of humor, a keen eye for feminine beautify; a man with vitality who is interested in life and has a zest for living. These would hardly seem to be the words of a man contemplating suicide. By its second issue (Feb. 1956), Nugget had new names at the top of the masthead. With the death of Archer, his son Michael replaced him as publisher. The death of the comic line, for all intents and purposes, came soon afterward. Well into its death throes, the struggling comic book line apparently purchased the majority of its new comics material from Al Fago. Fago had

broken his ties to Charlton, where he had been managing editor, and was now a comics packager. The most notable Fago connection to St. John is Do You Believe in Nightmares, a short-lived title from late 1957. The first issue is basically a one-man show for Steve Ditko, who drew the cover and all but one of the interior stories. The second issue, as well as the last story in #1, featured Dick Ayers artwork. These comics were originally produced for Charlton, but ended up at St. John when Fago left abruptly. Atom-Age Combat also came into the Fago fold, and in its one-issue St. John reincarnation in February 1958 looked just like a Charlton product. In an ironic twist, Charlton’s acquisition of certain titles like Fightin’ Marines and Fago’s purchase of Atom-Age Combat for his own imprint were reminiscent of St. John’s own raid of the Ziff-Davis inventory just a few years before. St. John’s longest-running publishing relationship ended as the Terrytoons license went to Ned Pines and continued under his self-named imprint.

“I Only Buy It For The Articles” Nugget was St. John’s entry in the newly launched Playboy sweepstakes. This first issue was cover-dated Nov. 1955. Matt Baker did an illo for an article inside—but we can’t show it to you in a family magazine! [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

One uniquely progressive move Michael made (perhaps in respect to his late father’s wishes?) was to relinquish all rights to the caveman Tor to his creator, Joe Kubert. This rare bit of generosity, in a time long before creators’ rights were generally acknowledged, allowed Kubert to walk away from the company with his signature character, one that he has revived several times, including as an unsold 1959 comic strip collaboration with Carmine Infantino. Kubert, as everyone knows, became firmly entrenched at DC as both artist and editor and eventually founded his namesake comic art school.

A History Of St. John Publishing

It’s Hard To Change A Tire When Somebody Keeps Poking You In The Eye! A panel from the proposed Hup Capps Sunday strip (circa 1959) drawn by Norman Maurer, using the Stooge-inspired pseudonym of “Jay Howard.” [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Both Kubert and Maurer made a brief stopover at Lev Gleason Publications—Kubert on Boy Comics and Crime Does Not Pay (the postCode version) and Maurer back on “The Little Wise Guys” in Daredevil. In the short term, Norman Maurer found work with Timely /Atlas, primarily on the Wyatt Earp title. He even briefly entered the newspaper realm with two Sunday-style strips, Hub Capps and Happy Days 1969, which appeared in the tabloid-sized Family Comics magazine in 1959. His primary responsibilities, though, were as the manager and caretaker of the Three Stooges franchise. This meant everything from the production of their movies to the licensing of their name and their subsequent cartoon and comic book incarnations. Maurer also became the producer of such films as the semi-classic The Angry Red Planet, a 1960 science-fiction flick. This film employed Maurer’s innovative CineMagic technique, which was a variation on his patented Artiscope method of using filmed actors to produce “realistic” animation (patent #2,998,313). Back in comics, Maurer had a short reunion with Kubert as the artist on the “Medal of Honor” back-up series that ran in several Kubert-edited DC war titles from 1971-76. Sadly, Maurer passed away in 1986. Matt Baker was still doing freelance work for St. John (and Flying Eagle) well into 1955. Indeed, the premiere issue of Nugget contains what are probably the first published Baker illustrations of female nudes. Nevertheless, by ’54, for all intentions, he had already moved on to other publishers. Quality Comics was one of his clients, as was Dell, where he and his longtime inker Osrin drew three issues of Lassie. The last few years of his life, Baker worked on various Timely/Atlas comics with Vince Colletta, whose inks often rendered Baker’s pencils unrecognizable. As detailed in Alter Ego #47, Baker tragically died far too young from heart disease in 1959. In the spring of 1957, Michael St. John became embroiled in a messy lawsuit (certainly not his last) with, of all people, Bud Abbott. It seems that in January of 1956 Abbott and Costello had entered into a contract with St. John to republish their comic books, similar to the agreement his father had with Laurel and Hardy. The contact had called for a series of not less than six issues of the comic, with a payment of $3,000 to be paid upon publication of the first three and again upon the second three. Poor sales of the first three issues led to St. John canceling the series. He also

From Casper To Copy Li’l Ghost #1 (Feb. 1958), with its cover by the Fago shop, was one of the last of St. John’s comics, consisting mostly of reprints. Jim Amash feels the art may well be entirely by Vince Fago. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

The Gospel According To Archer St. John

asserted that it negated his having to pay the second installment of $3,000. Bud Abbott disagreed, of course, and they went to court. They ended up on New York Municipal court on May 6, 1957 and the judgment went against St. John for the $3,000, plus interest accrued from July 1, 1956. This result certainly didn’t endear the already money-losing comics line to its publisher. The final St. John comics appeared in 1958, a bedraggled lot of reprints and uninspired offerings. L’il Ghost (“He’s so cute!” read the cover blurb), the Fago shop’s ironic imitation of Casper the Friendly Ghost, was one result. Meanwhile, Michael St. John devoted his attention to his far more successful magazine publications. One little-known effort was Photographer’s Showplace, which debuted in July 1956 and is notable not for its limited success, but for the impressive array of talent involved in its creation. Publishing under the imprint of Fine Art Publications (still out of the 545 Fifth Avenue address), Michael St. John topped the masthead as publisher. But directly below, bearing the dual titles of associate publisher and editorial director, was Roy Ald. Ald had had a solid career in comics as an editor at Fawcett on titles such as Captain Midnight and Wow Comics. The art director of Photographer’s Showplace was Bernard Baily, longtime comic artist, owner of his own storied comic shop, and perhaps best remembered as co-creator of “The Spectre.” The magazine’s photo

editor was Weegee (nickname for Arthur Fellig), the legendary news photographer who came to fame with his candid street photography and the publication of his 1945 book, Naked City. The magazine itself was a fascinating potpourri of glamour (read that as cheesecake) shots, fine art photography, and quirky features by “guest” photographers such as Sammy Davis Jr. and Christine Jorgensen. At least three issues of Photographer’s Showplace were published. Despite the pedigree of the people involved, it apparently never found its niche before it faded into obscurity. Its greatest effect was probably on Michael St. John himself, as he became a freelance photographer later in life. Also a key part of the magazine’s staff was general manager Richard E. Decker. He had been with St. John since his days as business manager of Book Digest after having served in a similar capacity at the venerated literary magazine The American Mercury. Decker’s presence would be felt on virtually every magazine issued by St. John. But none more so than Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Encouraged by the success of Manhunt, Decker had negotiated a contract with the legendary film director that would pay him a lucrative sum for the use of his name and famous image on a new publishing venture. “I simply sold him the rights to use my name,” Hitchcock is quoted by biographer Donald Spoto. “It was like the Fred Astaire dance studios—I

The Man Who Drew Too Much (Just Kiddin’, Ric!) Ric Estrada, later noted for his work on DC’s war comics, drew this illustration for the July 1958 issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

A History Of St. John Publishing

The issue in question is remarkably tame seen through today’s eyes. The Al James short story “Body on a White Carpet,” the cover (see left), and one interior illustration were the offending pieces cited by the court. The James story is barely risqué, while the story drawing would have required a Wertham-like eye to discern its offense. Prevailing contemporary mores and the court saw it differently. St. John was eventually found guilty (Decker and Adams were acquitted), which prompted an appeal on his part. The appeal process dragged into 1961, when, in the First Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Woodbury ruled against them. In “Flying Eagle Publications, Inc. v. United States 273 F.2d 799, 803,” he dismissed Flying Eagle’s contention that they were publishing primarily legitimate material with the observation that an “obscene picture of a Roman orgy would be no less so because accompanied by an account of a Sunday school picnic,” and that the publication “portrays sex with a loose lipped, sensuous leer,” setting a standard that is frequently cited in obscenity cases even today. Ironically, at the time of its conviction, Flying Eagle was also publishing the far sexier Nugget. Michael also engaged in a two-year legal battle with Screen Gems, the producers of the Manhunt television show, over copyright infringement. As Dorothy Kilgallen wrote in her syndicated column “The Voice of

had nothing to do with the operation of it at all.”36 Indeed, the closest a Hitchcock got to the actual production of the magazine was his daughter Patricia Hitchcock O’Connell, who was given the title of associate editor and a salary. How much work she did to go with the title is open to debate. Even in the Hitchcock magazine, there were still ties to be found to the comic line. Ric Estrada provided occasional interior story drawings, and the stalwart L. Meinrad Mayer frequently contributed cover photographs and illustrations. Within a year of the magazine’s Dec. 1956 debut, Decker bought out St. John’s portion and moved himself and its editorial offices to Florida, where he continued to publish it until the early 1980s. In the meantime, Manhunt was now boasting on its covers that it was the “World’s Best Selling Crime-Fiction Magazine.” In an effort to boost circulation even more, in March 1957 the digest-sized magazine went to a larger format, in keeping with the other men’s magazines of the day. The new format almost immediately drew unwanted attention. The April 1957 issue of Manhunt, only its second in the larger format, was withdrawn by authorities from newsstands in New Hampshire. On March 14, 1957, a Federal grand jury in Concord indicted Michael St. John, art director (and Archer’s brother-in-law) Charles W. Adams, and general manager Decker for depositing for mailing a publication “containing obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, and indecent matter.”

Terror Firma The 3-D comic The House of Terror, with this Kubert cover, came out at the height of the 3-D comics craze—which, come to think of it, wasn’t too far removed in time from the depth of the 3-D comics craze. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

The Gospel According To Archer St. John

Broadway” on May 8, 1961: “Publisher Mike St. John says he’s determined to fight to the bitter end.” But it’s unclear if anything ever came of the suit. A shadow of its former self, Manhunt lingered on until 1967, while the last remaining bit of the St. John lineage lived on ignobly in an increasingly raunchier version of Nugget.

Requiem For A Publisher St. John Publishing has lingered in the shadows of comic book history for far too long. Certainly its legacy suffers because much of its output was padding: inventory bought from other publishers, reprinted material, and inconsistent shop work. That was more a result of financial necessity, though, than of editorial vision. The best the company had to offer was innovative and frequently brilliant. Consequently, rarely has there been a company more reflective of its publisher than St. John. Although he failed frequently as a businessman, Archer St. John should be remembered as the inveterate risk-taker who took a chance on the graphic novel concept, who recognized and nurtured the talent of two

dynamic young creators, who rolled the dice on a revolutionary threedimensional printing process, who bucked prevailing societal attitudes with his hiring of a great African-American artist. The same Archer St. John who years before had gone toe-to-toe with Al Capone himself. Virtually ignored by history and forgotten upon his death, Archer St. John deserves better. Rumors of his private life and the sensationalistic aspects surrounding his death have overshadowed his contributions to comic book publishing. But the people who actually knew him have kinder memories of the man. “He was one of a kind,” as Arnold Drake told me. “He earned a happy ending.” Appropriately and even more succinctly, it is Joe Kubert who provides the perfect epitaph: “He was a helluva nice guy.”

A History Of St. John Publishing

Endangered Species? While Archer St. John’s big little company operated in many genres, it’s perhaps ironic that two of its most notable moments came in the field of animationrelated comics: Top Flight Comics #1 (July 1949) and the million-plus-selling, immediately-reprinted Three Dimension Comics #1 from 1953! The 3-D Mighty Mouse mag’s prominence is obvious—but why the comic at left? Ken Q. writes: “This continues characters (Hector the Inspector and Korky Kangaroo) that originally appeared in EC’s Animal Fables several years before… [and] is also one of the, if not the, scarcest St. John comic.” Who’da thunk it? [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

ENDNOTES 1 Robert St. John, This Was My World (Garden City, New York, Doubleday & Co, 1953) 79 2 St. John, This Was My World 190. 3 “Kidnap Editor Assailing Vice,” Chicago Daily Tribune 7 April 1925, final ed. 4 ibid. 5 “Guns Blaze But Cicero Police Find No Victim,” Chicago Herald and Examiner 7 April 1925, mail ed. 6 ibid. 7 St. John, This Was My World 199-200. 8 ibid., 202 .

11 United States, et al., Investigation of the National Defense Program. Washington: US Govt. print. off, 1943., Page 10423. 12 ibid. 13 ibid. 14 Amash, Jim. “Gill Fox: Quality Control,” Alter Ego, Jan. 2002. www.twomorrows.com/alterego/articles/12fox.html 15 John Benson, Romance without Tears (Seattle, Washington, Fantagraphics Books, 2003) 6-7. 16 “Connecticut Man Gets OWI Post in Chungking,” Hartford Courant 11 July 1945. 17 Amash, Jim. “I Let People Do Their Jobs!,” Alter Ego, Nov. 2001. www.twomorrows.com/alterego/articles/11fago.html

9 ibid., 204.

18 The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide (New York, House of Collectibles, 35th ed., May 2005) 506.

10 Phillip Andrews, Air News Yearbook (New York, Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1942) dedication page.

19 Jeff Lenburg, Joan Maurer, Greg Lenburg, The Three Stooges Scrapbook (New York, Citadel Press, 1995) 115.

The Gospel According To Archer St. John

20 Becattini, Alberto, and Vadeboncoeur, Jr., Jim. “The Italian Connection.” Alter Ego 11, January 2004, 17-21.

33 “Publisher Found Dead,” New York Times 14 August 1955.

21 Becattini, Alberto. “Baker of Cheesecake,” Alter Ego 47, January 2005, 18.

35 “Publisher’s Death Being Investigated” Associated Press 16 August 1955.

22 Counterattack, Red Channels (New York, Counterattack, 1950) 128129.

36 Spoto, Donald. The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock. (Boston: Little, Brown, 1983) 360.

34 Benson, Romance 7.

23 Baker, Bill, “Joe Kubert Interview,” Comic Book Marketplace 92, July 2002. www.hypethis.com/interviews/interview_joekubert.html 24 Eisner, Will, “Shop Talk: Joe Kubert,” Spirit Magazine 40, April 1983, 22. 25 ibid.

ADDITIONAL SOURCES Ancestry.com website at www.ancestry.com

26 Lenburg, et. al., Stooges Scrapbook 119.

Jon Berk, “Harry ‘A’ Chesler, Jr., Comic Book Entrepreneur.” Comic Book Marketplace 91, May 2002: 40-54.

27 www.tellworld.com/Astro.Biological.Coenergetics/

Chicago Daily Tribune obituary page of October 16, 1945.

28 Zone, Ray, “Joe Kubert Reminisces,” Amazing Heroes 158, Feb. 1, 1989. www.ray3dzone.com/joe.html

Coinfacts.com website at www.coinfacts.com

29 ibid.

Comics Code Authority (1954) at www.comicartville.com/comicscode.htm

30 United States. Cong. Senate. Juvenile Delinquency: A Compilation of Information and Suggestions Submitted to the Special Senate Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce. 1950. 81st Congress, 2nd Session. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1950. 31 United States. Cong. Senate. Comic Books and Juvenile Delinquency: Interim Report of the Committee on the Judiciary. 14 March 1955. 84th Congress, 1st Session. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1955. 32 Dr. Fredric Wertham, Seduction of the Innocent (New York, Rinehart, 1954) Chapter 13, “Homicide at Home”. www.pennydreadfull.net/soti.html

Mark Hanerfeld, “The Tor Gambit,” Alter Ego [Vol. 1] #10, 1969: 26-35. JuriSearch.com website at www.jurisearch.com Letter from Malcolm Cowley to Archer St. John, December 8, 1949. Oak Park & River Forest High School, Oak Park, IL. Silver Bullet Comics: Memorial Day Personal Experiences, “A Conversation with Joe Kubert.” memorial.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/interviews/kubert/ The 3-D Zone website at www.ray3dzone.com Universo HQ website at www.universohq.com/quadrinhos/interview_kubert01.cfm United States Patent and Trademark Office website at www.uspto.gov/main/patents.htm VersusLaw at www.versuslaw.com and of course... Google at www.google.com Ken Quattro is a long-time comic collector and the author of several published articles on comic book history and a book on the early career of Will Eisner entitled Will Eisner: The Edge of Genius. Ken also maintains a comics history website at www.Comicartville.com

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“My God, Why Am I Messing Around With This Stuff?” TOM SAWYER On Drawing Comics—And Writing Television Interview Conducted by Jim Amash

om Sawyer’s time in comics was relatively brief, spent working for Timely, Hillman, Famous Funnies, Ziff-Davis, Crestwood, Mainline, and Standard Publications, as well as ghosting on newspaper strips such as On Stage, Li’l Abner, Rip Kirby, Flash Gordon, and The Heart of Juliet Jones. His real claim to fame is his television work on the popular Murder, She Wrote series, serving as head writer and showrunner (day-to-day producer). Tom may not remember much about the comic books he did, but he gives us a real look behind the scenes into some of the characters who crafted the comics. A bawdy, irreverent, and fascinating storyteller, Tom really puts a human face on those times. Special thanks to former comic book artist Martin Thall [who was interviewed in AE #52] for putting me in touch with Tom. For more on Tom Sawyer, check out his website: www.ThomasBSawyer.com. —Jim.

“I Got All The Tom Sawyer Jokes” JIM AMASH: Tell me when and where you were born. TOM SAWYER: I was born in Chicago, Illinois. And September 17th is as specific as I can get. [mutual laughter] JA: Do you think your parents refused to tell you the year? [laughs] SAWYER: No, but I’ve been lying about my age ever since I got to Hollywood, where I was already too old to get into the business. I didn’t write my first television script until I was in my 40s, but nobody in the biz knows that. [mutual laughter] JA: Well, they will now.

Transcribed by Brian K. Morris A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody Tom Sawyer, in a recent photo he sent us—above two of his covers done for Timely/Marvel. (Below left:) That of Love Romances #55 (circa 1955—exact date uncertain) is sometimes attributed to Vince Colletta, but Tom not only drew it—but signed his real name, “Tom Scheuer,” to the “photo” thereon—which may well be a self-portrait! Thanks to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo & Ger Apeldoorn, both of whom sent this one. (Below right:) Tom also drew one of the handful of “Leopard Girl” tales, which starred a secret-identity answer to Sheena in Jungle Action #6 (Aug. 1955). He told Stan Lee he wanted to get some practice so he’d improve at drawing beautiful women. Looks like he was making progress. Thanks to Doc V. [©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Tom Sawyer On Drawing Comics—And Writing Television

SAWYER: They better not. [more mutual laughter]

“Perhaps It Was Famous Funnies”

JA: Your original name—I’m not sure how to pronounce it.

JA: How did you get into comic books?

SAWYER: My original name was Scheuer, pronounced “S-h-o-y-e-r.” I was named “Tom” because it sounded like “Tom Sawyer,” so I got all the Tom Sawyer jokes. But no one could ever pronounce my last name, and I figured by the time I was about 35 or 40, I had probably spent a year of my life explaining my name to people. So just out of waggishness, on my very first television script, I signed it “Tom Sawyer,” and it made my life so much easier that I changed it legally. JA: What got you interested in art? SAWYER: I was an only child. I was precocious; I drew from the time I could first hold a pencil. I spent a lot of time by myself as a kid, and by the time I was seven, my parents, bless their hearts, didn’t know what to make of me. Nobody in the family had ever shown any creativity whatsoever—I had 26 first cousins—they sent me to the Art Institute when I was seven, and really indulged my gifts. So I was always drawing and always telling a story. I guess I was a writer at the same time without realizing it in that, in my early drawings, the figures always had dialogue balloons over their heads. I was always putting words in their mouths. Nothing’s changed, except I don’t have to sit there and draw them. I started going to the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts on Saturday mornings when I was about twelve. From that time on, I had one goal in life and that was to be Milton Caniff. I guess one of the reasons it took me a long time to realize I was a writer was that the challenge of learning how to draw well was so formidable, that I figured the writing was easy. Who knew? [mutual laughter] By the way, I started getting paid for drawing pictures when I was eleven, drawing gag cartoons for a bakers’ trade journal in Chicago at $5 a pop. And while I was in high school, I had a comic strip that ran in the weekly newspaper, The Hyde Park High School Weekly. It was sort-of a Tom Sawyer-ish type thing, and I forget the name of the character, but I remember he was running around in overalls. It was a period piece. JA: You also went to Northwestern University and Purdue University. SAWYER: I went to Purdue for a year because my father wanted me to have “something to fall back on,” i.e., be an engineer like he was. I lasted about a year and a half there. I quit about four minutes before they were going to throw me out anyway. I was a terrible student, but I studied while I was going to the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts full time. After Purdue, I was going to Northwestern Night School of Journalism. That was the extent of it.

SAWYER: Well, I went to New York when I was twenty and started freelancing. I worked for Timely Comics, and I also worked for ZiffDavis. Ziff-Davis was a pulp publisher. In 1950, they decided to publish comic books, so they hired Jerry Siegel of “Superman” fame. I brought my samples up there one day and they took them inside. I’m sitting in the waiting room and pretty soon this little guy comes out and says, “Are y-yyou T-t-tom S-s-sawyer?” I said, “Yeah.” He said, “Hi, I’m J-j-jerry Siegel and I l-l-love your work.” They had signed him for, I think it was a hundred grand a year, and he wasn’t really a natural as a comic book editor. For instance, they’d do an issue of a romance book which had four stories in there, and three of them were the same story, but with different settings, and Jerry didn’t get it. They couldn’t fire him because he was locked into this contract. What they did was... his desk was out in the middle of this big editorial floor, so they built a partition around it, and nobody paid any attention to him. I came in one day and he was gone. JA: [pained] I also interviewed someone who worked at Ziff-Davis named Herb Rogoff. He essentially replaced Siegel, and told me they squeezed Jerry out. SAWYER: Oh, I knew Herb. And Herb was how they squeezed him out. The squeeze was justified, because he didn’t know what the hell he was doing. But anyway, I started freelancing and probably the most significant thing that happened to me was, one day I was in the waiting room at some place—perhaps it was Famous Funnies—sitting next to a tall, lanky guy about six and a half feet tall with huge ears and we struck up a conversation. His name was Tex Blaisdell. There was one editor—I’ve forgotten his name—who took a cigar out of his mouth and said, “Jesus, kid, your stuff isn’t very good. You really ought to go back to Chicago.” Now you have to understand there’s a point to this story. Probably the greatest gift my parents gave me was a bulletproof ego. My assumption, upon being rejected all my life was that anybody who rejected me was out of his mind, and I never had to do any gymnastics to get there, you know? I mean, I just looked at him and knew he was crazy. [mutual laughter] So I took it for granted. I figured everybody’s like this. I didn’t realize a lot of people are really vulnerable to rejection. Anyway, Tex Blaisdell strikes up a conversation with me: “You’re looking for work? I’m doing some backgrounds for a guy who’s really

Getting A Little Rusty When he sent us this comic strip daily, Tom wrote: “Rusty Robbins, my first in print, appeared in the Hyde Park H.S. [High School] weekly in Chicago. I was 15 years old.” [©2008 Tom Sawyer.]

“My God, Why Am I Messing Around With This Stuff?”

Hitching Your Wagon To A Starr Leonard Starr drew for comics (including DC) in the 1950s, and in the early ’60s created the popular newspaper strip On Stage. (Left:) A vintage photo of Leonard Starr (and some other people—Lord knows who!—the woman at bottom left may be Nadine King), courtesy of John Benson— (Right:) A pic of Leonard (on our left) and Tom Sawyer, taken in 1992 and sent by TS— (Below:) A sample daily of what Tom says was “my final pass at creating a syndicated strip: Wylie Harper, 1966-67. It was to be drawn in pencil only. About that time, I realized it was no longer what I wanted to do with my life. I became a filmmaker. By the way, Leonard Starr posed for the guy in the last panel.” [©2008 Tom Sawyer.]

busy.” And I said, “What do you mean ‘backgrounds’?” He said, “Well, you know, he does the figures and I do everything else. I can’t handle it all and we’re looking for help. You want to come over and meet him?” I said, “Sure.” The artist was Leonard Starr, and I started working for Leonard with Tex. Leonard had his studio over on 57th Street, a few doors down from Carnegie Hall. The letterer, Ben Oda, was there, and a writer named John Augustin. Leonard was prolific, and his drawing ability was awesome. Tex had nicknamed him “glamorous and unpredictable.” [mutual laughter] Leonard lived out on Long Island and drove a big Oldsmobile convertible, had girls up the yazoo, and he was only five years older than me. But he’d been a professional since he was fifteen. To this day, Leonard is the best friend I’ve ever had. We’re like brothers. He was my mentor and I adore the guy. We still talk once a week, at least. So anyway, I was doing that and doing my own stuff. And of course, Leonard was the busiest guy in the business. I don’t think I started working for Stan Lee until 1954. But I was in the business—meeting the likes of Art Peddy, Gene Colan, Mort Meskin. I remember Meskin especially, because of our first meeting. Leonard and I were walking across Columbus Circle, and we ran into Mort, who’d famously spent some time in mental hospitals. Leonard introduced me as being new in town, and Mort’s response is one I’ve never forgotten. He said “Take my advice, kid. Save your money so you can afford a sunny room.” [mutual laughter] Another high-point of that period—one of Starr’s closest friends was a wonderful, witty painter-cartoonist, Warren King, who later became chief editorial cartoonist for The New York Daily News. But at that time he was assistant to Rube Goldberg, then Hearst’s main editorial cartoonist. So, through Warren, I got to know Rube, who by the way became a sculptor at age 80. He sculpted the National Cartoonist Society’s Reuben Award,

which is named after him. JA: You started at Famous Funnies. Your first work was in Heroic Comics, in 1951. SAWYER: That’s right. By the way, I had an odd or potentially fortuitous connection. My mother had a first cousin named Mary King, who was married to Capt. Joe Patterson, who owned The New York Daily News. And so I had access to the New York Daily News Syndicate. Molly Slott was running it in those days, and when I was 14 my mom took me to New York for a spring weekend. I have a photo of myself with braces on my teeth, shaking hands with my then-hero, Milton Caniff. I was invited up to the News Syndicate, and Molly would let me go through these flat file drawers and pick out originals of all the strips. I’ve got some Terry and the Pirates, Dick Tracy, Moon Mullins, Gasoline Alley and the rest. I had entree there, and I kept trying to sell them a comic strip of my own right from the get-go. JA: I have you down as just doing little fillers in Heroic Comics. SAWYER: That sounds right. It was straight stuff, just one- or two-page fillers. I started out doing that same thing for Ziff-Davis. “Little Al of the F.B.I.” I can’t believe I remember that. JA: Did you go from Famous Funnies to Ziff-Davis? SAWYER: Probably. I got to New York in 1950 and in ’51, I got drafted. So now we’re talking maybe eight months, if that. I didn’t get to know Jerry Siegel. I rarely had to make changes. I wasn’t very good, but I thought I was better than I was. I even wrote one or two things, but I can’t remember who I wrote them for. Mostly, they were just giving me scripts. JA: Do you know if Siegel wrote anything that you drew? SAWYER: No, I don’t. I wouldn’t be surprised, though, because the stories

Tom Sawyer On Drawing Comics—And Writing Television

Sidebar by HERB ROGOFF [Hillman Associate Editor, 1949-50]

hen Jim Amash was interviewing me in 2004 (for a total of nine hours!) for Alter Ego #42, I mentioned an incident with Tom Sawyer, a comic book artist of old. Jim didn’t use that story back then. For this issue, Jim called and requested me to relate this story myself. This challenged me to dig up the details of this incident I thought I’d put to bed four years ago.

weren’t very good. Ziff-Davis was on Madison Avenue, in the heart of midtown, around 48th Street. 292 Madison. They’d taken an extra floor for the comic book operation; their other magazines were done on other floors. They invested a lot of money in comics. This was the time when that crackpot doctor, Wertham, had written that book The Seduction of the Innocent, and he’d sold the country on the idea that comic books were this major cause of juvenile delinquency. It was about typical of the intellectual level of most of what goes on in America. [mutual laughter] I’ve gotten more mellow as I’ve gotten older. Of course, I’m being facetious. JA: [more mutual laughter] Do you think “Little Al” was the only feature you did before you left? SAWYER: I think it was. I did maybe three or four scripts for Ziff-Davis. And then, all of a sudden, Siegel was out of there.

Herb Rogoff.

Tom Sawyer, who back in 1950 or so was Tom Scheurer, was one of the many artists who worked for Hillman Periodicals and its officer-in-charge, Ed Cronin. I was an associate editor, the position to which I had climbed upon the resignation of Tex Blaisdell, who had left Hillman to try the comic book freelance waters. I moved up one notch from assistant editor with not the increase of even one cent over my salary of $65 each and every week. I, however, enjoyed my job thoroughly, because not only was I learning the business from an acclaimed master, but I also got to meet very interesting guys. Tom Scheurer was one of them. I remember him, somewhat hazily, as a nice-looking fellow, blond-haired, wire-rimmed eyeglasses, and a turnedup nose that stamped him as a candidate for All-American boy. Of course, I could be all wrong about this description. As an octogenarian, that’s my right.

JA: And Herb Rogoff took over. SAWYER: Did he? I don’t know if that’s where I knew Herb from, or elsewhere.

“I Want To Get Into [Advertising] As Quickly As Possible” JA: You may have known Herb from Hillman, because he was there until ’52. SAWYER: Oh, that’s probably where I know him. I don’t remember what

At the time that I was at Hillman, my bride of two years and I lived with her folks in Brooklyn’s East New York section. Housing was still at a premium four years after the end of World War II. We had a nice room in a nice two-family house out in the sticks. My wife’s grandfather built the house himself and, just his luck, after it was finished, the county decided to build a major highway—Linden Boulevard—right in front of his property, thus keeping the population of that area to the total of the occupants of the house. Being out there alone amid the weeds and wild flowers, the house fell victim to more than occasional forays of field mice. To combat this, we got a cat, who, one day, managed to find another cat and ended up pregnant. Eventually, we were stuck with a litter of kittens, cute but far too many for our needs. I made it known to all the people I knew that I had kitten—cute kittens, I stressed—to give away. Tom Scheurer was interested. He drove out to our house in Brooklyn one fine Saturday morning. We sat for a bit chatting about this and that, especially about some of Ed Cronin’s idiosyncrasies, which we talked of with great affection, and then proceeded to get the kittens for Tom. We couldn’t find a single one. We went through the entire house, including the cellar, but all we found was the mother cat; her frisky litter was hiding and doing an excellent job of it. After an hour that seemed much longer, we gave up and Tom left, kittenless. As a final thought, over the many years that had gone by even by 2004, this story had become riveted in my brain. It’s entirely possible that Tom did manage to get the kitten he came to Brooklyn to get. I honestly can’t say. A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: At the last minute, I e-mailed Tom Sawyer about this and he wrote back: “We did find the cat, and I adopted two of its kittens. It was in the early ’50s.” Another deathless mystery solved!

“My God, Why Am I Messing Around With This Stuff?”

I did for Hillman. I was so focused on selling a comic strip, and then quickly became focused also on helping Leonard draw comic books. We were cranking those pages out at $30, $35 a pop, whatever they were paying back then. I think the lowest rate I got was $25, and Leonard was getting $37 and $40. That was considered big bucks, you know. I realized in a big hurry that there had to be a better way—sometime while I was in the Army, I think. I was stationed at Aberdeen Proving Grounds for a while, where I continued to do some freelance work, including helping Leonard. Then I got sent to Tokyo, where I was a staff artist on Stars and Stripes, the GI daily newspaper, around 1952, ’53. I did that for about eight months before I got sent home. JA: As for Hillman, you don’t think you dealt too much with Ed Cronin then? SAWYER: I honestly don’t know; none of that stuck to my ribs, particularly. The brief time I had with Stan Lee sticks out partly because by that time—this was after I got out of the service—Leonard was already working for Johnstone and Cushing, and getting $300 or $400 a page instead of 35. So my focus was, “I want to get into that as quickly as possible.” So I said to Stan Lee, “I don’t want to do your underwear characters. I want to do your romance books, because I need to learn how to draw pretty girls and handsome men, because that’s where the bucks are—in advertising.” So he put me to work in his romance comics. One of the more flattering things was that he thought enough of my work to hire me to do pages of pretty girl heads and handsome men heads to give to the other artists.

At that time, Dan was working in Austria or someplace. By the way, I worked for Mort Weisinger at DC. I knew Carmine Infantino, too, once he became an editor at DC. We’d drink together and go to the Cartoonists meetings. I have to tell you a priceless anecdote. I’m delivering a job to DC, and Mort wanted a few changes. I went into the bullpen where the art supplies were. In there were five or six guys who couldn’t quite bring themselves to hack it as freelancers, so the trade-off is, for $6 an hour, they got what they think is security, right? That’s the mentality. They’re all very affable, mostly New York Jews, Italians, you know, like that. I’m sitting there and they’re schmoozing about where they’re going to go this summer. One of them is going to Grossingers, and another one’s going to the Nevele. These were all these Catskill resorts. And they’re not going—they’re sending their wives and kids. So finally, the last guy, he hasn’t said a word and then finally somebody asks him, “So, where are you going to send your wife?” And this guy says, “This summer, I think I’ll keep her at home and **** her myself.” [mutual laughter] I just about fell on the floor. Oh, and by the way, Leonard Starr still insists he was the guy that overheard this—not me.

“I Don’t Remember Doing That” JA: Back to Timely: you drew “Devil Dog Dugan” and “Leopard Girl.” SAWYER: If you say so. Actually, yes, I did.

JA: Model sheets. SAWYER: I guess we didn’t have a name for it, but that’s what they were. By that time, the Polaroid camera had come out, and Stan Drake bought the very first one that went on sale in New York. The ad appeared in the paper, and next morning he was waiting outside of Willoughby Camera on Lexington Avenue for them to open up so he could buy one. It’s a true story. JA: I believe it, [Tom laughs] especially because he relied so much on photographic reference. SAWYER: Stan was the first one to buy an Art-O-Graph. Then Leonard bought one, I had one, and I literally drew everything from photographs. We posed all our scenes. I have boxes and boxes of old Polaroid shots, because I ghosted strips for a bunch of my friends. I had a friend named Pete Friedman who would come over to my apartment in Jackson Heights and pose with my then-wife holding a cape out, draped behind him, imitating Flash Gordon. We were laughing our heads off as we were doing it. JA: So you didn’t do a whole lot of comic book work before you went into service? SAWYER: No, and I didn’t do a whole lot when I got out. I gave myself a year to go from comic books into Johnstone and Cushing. And that’s how long it took. JA: What were your impressions of Stan Lee? SAWYER: I liked him. He was a wild man. He was bigger than life, and I guess in a way I’ve been a collector of characters like that my whole life. Stan Drake also leaps to mind [mutual laughter]—and of course a lot of people I’ve met in the entertainment business. And Leonard, too, and oh, God, Dan Barry! We used to sit and talk about the guys, and Dan—unlike all the other syndicated artists who stayed as close to New York as they could—Dan traveled the world. Tex Blaisdell opined one day through his cigarette smoke, as we were sitting there working, that the one downside to this was that Dan had to take Dan Barry with him wherever he went. [mutual riotous laughter] Man, did he nail Dan!

Giving Us The “Boot” Actually, according to Timely/Atlas expert Doc V., it wasn’t “Devil-Dog Dugan” that Tom Sawyer drew, but “‘Boot-Camp’ Brady,” as per this story from Marines in Action #1 (June 1955). Scripter unknown. Thanks to Doc V. [©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Tom Sawyer On Drawing Comics—And Writing Television

[Signed] Tom, With Love

take, not mine.

JA: Did you care what genre you worked in, or were you just trying to make a buck here?

JA: I have you doing Love Romances and Love Tales stories which you signed “Sawyer.” SAWYER: I did? Huh, I didn’t remember doing that. Those books, I never paid any attention. JA: Right, they were all the same. [chuckles] You did some mystery and occult stories in 1955, and some war stories. SAWYER: Wow. Again, if you say so. I have no recollection of any of them, except that I know I was working from Polaroids by that time.

SAWYER: All I was really trying to do was hone my stuff so I would make more money in advertising, because that was what Leonard was doing, and I thought, “My God, why am I messing around with this stuff?” I didn’t have a passion for it, you know. I feel almost apologetic. I always thought that comic books were little league while I was doing them. It wasn’t regarded by many people then like it is now. Comics were just a stepping-stone to either a syndicated strip, or at least the advertising business, for many of us. JA: In 1953, I have you as doing some work for Standard Publications. SAWYER: I remember the company, but I can’t put a face to anybody there. JA: Also, in 1954, I have you working for Crestwood. And you did In Love for Mainline Comics, which was Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s company. SAWYER: I knew Jack Kirby slightly. In fact, I got to know him socially out here in California right before he passed away. Crestwood sounds vaguely familiar. JA: You worked at DC around 1954, ’55. Who was the editor that you generally dealt with there? Could it have been Robert Kanigher? SAWYER: It could have been. I knew Murray Boltinoff, but only socially. JA: Mort Weisinger is the guy you really remember.

JA: Okay, I have you working for Stan Lee from 1955 to ’57. SAWYER: That sounds about right. By that time, I was also beginning to work for Johnstone and Cushing. JA: Do you happen to remember how much Stan paid you? SAWYER: Probably $30, $40 a page, whatever the rate was then. And I’d hit him up for an occasional bump and he’d give them to me. Stan was a very decent, no-nonsense guy to work with. I liked and respected him. I remember talking to other people about him. Everybody had an opinion about him, and it wasn’t always the same as mine. But that’s their

The Wild Blue Yonder The first and last pages of an offbeat story Tom drew for Mystery Tales #29 (May 1955), in which the destiny of a boy playing with his model plane intersects with that of a real-life jet pilot. Tom also drew an entry for Mystery Tales #35. Thanks to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo for IDing which two stories of this type Tom had done. Thanks to Nick Caputo and Frank Motler for these pages. [©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

“My God, Why Am I Messing Around With This Stuff?”

SAWYER: Yes. He was one of the most important editors there. JA: Do you remember what feature you did? SAWYER: I vaguely remember a magician who wore a tuxedo and a cape. [NOTE: This is mostly likely “Mysto, Magician Detective,” who appeared as a short-lived feature in Detective Comics. While Leonard Starr is generally accredited as the series artist, Tom believes it is possible he worked on it, too, in Starr’s style. –Jim.] I don’t remember what I did there. Believe me, it all runs together. I didn’t do a lot of work for DC, but at least I got that anecdote.

“Alex Raymond Had Been Killed Test-Driving [Stan Drake’s] New Corvette” JA: Tell me more about Leonard Starr. SAWYER: Leonard was sort-of the wunderkind. He was this phenomenal, naturally gifted draftsman. He worked briefly for Johnstone and Cushing, and then he sold Mary Perkins/On Stage, so by the time I was taking studio space up there, he was gone. But I do remember some of the younger guys who came in. JA: When you were working with Starr and Drake and Barry, were you doing their comic book work or were you helping them on syndicated stuff? SAWYER: The syndicated strips. After the Army, I’d gotten married and moved first to New Jersey, and then up to Westport, Connecticut. When that marriage busted up, I went back to Manhattan, and shared a studio with Leonard. Then he broke his leg, so I ghosted On Stage for a few weeks, around the mid-’60’s, I think. In those years, at varying times, I briefly ghosted Juliet Jones for Stan Drake, Flash Gordon for Dan Barry, Rip Kirby for John Prentice, and even helped out Al Capp [on Li’l Abner] for a few months in 1962. I’m working at home in Connecticut, and one day Al calls me. He said I’d been recommended to him—that his inker had had a stroke—a guy who’d been with him for 20 years or more—and he desperately needed help. I didn’t want to go up to Boston, but he wouldn’t let go. Finally, I said, “Al, you can’t afford me.” He said, “Look, give me a number.” So I gave him a number, about 50% more than I was making at the time, and he said, “Okay.” [laughs] So I started spending every other week in Boston at his studio, for the next three or four months, during which I met Holly, whom I married in 1965. I was penciling the realistic figures for Abner: the pretty girls and the realistic guys. Al had a guy who penciled his Bigfoot stuff and his cartoony characters; then I would ink everything but the faces. I’d ink the hair, but with Al, you didn’t go near the faces. It was a very peculiar thing, because he really was an artist, and those faces had a distinctive look to them that, had someone else inked them, they wouldn’t have worked. Bob Lubbers tried it for a while, and it didn’t look like Al’s stuff. So I did that for about four months, then I told Al, “I don’t want to do this anymore.” My marriage had broken up, I was moving back into Manhattan, so… well, it was fun. Al was bigger than life. I’ll give you an Al Capp story. He lived in Cambridge—and by the way, everybody thinks of him as this arch-conservative. In fact, he was a Jewish liberal from Bridgeport, Connecticut; lived in Cambridge, his social set were the Schlesingers and the Kennedys, the best and the brightest. But during the JFK era he discovered there was no market for being a liberal—when Kennedy was President, there were almost nothing but—so he adopted this conservative position and his speaking fees went from $3,000 right up to $10,000 a night. And it was all a put-on—he never believed a word of the crap he was spouting. JA: When did you work on Flash Gordon?

Play “Mysto” For Me During his 1954 run as a back-up feature in Detective Comics, “Mysto, Magician Detective” got into some tight spots that even Houdini would’ve been hard-pressed to get out of! Here’s the splash page from Detective #206 (April ’54); scripter unknown. The art for the “Mysto” series is generally credited to Leonard Starr, but Tom says he drew at least one episode, and those who study artists styles most closely say this one is it! Thanks to Jim Ludwig for the scan. [©2008 DC Comics.]

SAWYER: My recollection is that would have been ’54 or ’55, because I bought a house down in New Jersey in ’56, and I remember the pictures I was taking for Flash Gordon were shot in my living room in Jackson Heights. I was doing the whole thing, penciling and inking, for Dan because he needed help. We’re talking a few weeks of it. JA: Same questions for Juliet Jones. SAWYER: That would have been ’57, ’58, maybe even as late as ’60. I did it sort-of intermittently for Stan. I’d go up to Westport sometimes, and help him out. One day, Tex Blaisdell is working for me in my apartment in Jackson Heights, doing backgrounds. The phone rings, and I got the news that Alex Raymond had been killed test-driving Stan’s new Corvette. They went out for a ride together, and Raymond lost control of the vehicle. The car ran into a tree, and the engine ended up in his lap. Stan was hurt, but he survived. I remember that was when the question was raised, “Well, who’s going to take over Rip Kirby?” King Features’ first choice was Leonard Starr, and Sylvan Byck offered it to him, but Leonard had just signed up to do Mary Perkins [as Starr’s strip On Stage was often referred to]. So Sylvan offered it to John Prentice, and the rest is history. Johnny Prentice and I were friends. We shared studios and worked together offand-on for several years.

Tom Sawyer On Drawing Comics—And Writing Television

A Ghost Of A Chance Tom sent these dailies (and other examples of same which, alas, we’ve no room to print) of comic strips he ghosted over the years. (Top:) An uncharacteristically action-packed Rip Kirby done in 1958 for regular artist John Prentice—a fellow comic book veteran. The credited writer is Fred Dickensen. (Middle:) A 1958 daily ghosted for Stan Drake’s The Heart of Juliet Jones. (Bottom:) This Juliet Jones daily, also from ’58, was drawn by the strip’s creator, Stan Drake—with Tom Sawyer posing for the young man depicted. [All art ©2008 King Features Syndicate, Inc.]

JA: What was Tex doing your backgrounds on? SAWYER: It was some comic book job. Tex was a really sweet guy. He had two kids, and was married to an ex-showgirl named Lainie who was a very zaftig lady. Tex developed a drinking problem, and it got pretty severe. Leonard Starr and I had this great studio together in Greenwich Village, the top floor of a brownstone down on 9th Street just off Fifth Avenue, with fireplaces and skylights, that we also shared variously with Marty Thall, Bill Overgard, and a variety of characters who paraded through, including a very witty Hollywood actor, Rhodes Reason, who’d flop there whenever he was in town.

I was in hog heaven when I lived in up there, because along with cartoonists such as Stan and Dik Browne, Mort Walker, Frank Ridgeway, and Ralston Jones, we’d have lunch nearly every day with guys whose stuff I’d been clipping out of magazines from the time I was a kid: Harold Von Schmidt, Noel Sickles, and the like. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. We used to hang out at this joint—The Pickle Barrel. A little aside about cartoonists. They’re the only group of people I have ever met in my life, before or since, whose conversation in the morning in the studio, with the exception of Leonard—he didn’t participate in this— all of them would talk about how the sex was the previous night, with their wives or girlfriends, in great detail. I was this impressionable kid

“My God, Why Am I Messing Around With This Stuff?”

from Chicago and I thought, “Ohmygod, I’m in such a sophisticated crowd!” [mutual laughter] But it’s something I have never encountered before or since, and it was just this odd little subculture. JA: Did you get to know Ben Oda very well? SAWYER: Yes, pretty well. We used to joke about Ben. He was lettering Steve Canyon for Milton Caniff, as well as most of the other syndicated strips in town. The gag was these cartoonists would rough in the spaces for the dialogue balloons, and they’d leave the pages by the door with a plate of milk, because Ben would show up in the middle of the night and they’d come back in the morning, and the strips would be completely lettered. Ben was a gentleman. I know he’d played baseball for the military during World War II, and he was this sweet, quiet, inscrutable Oriental. And John Augustin, a writer who was in the old studio on 57th Street—I guess he was in his late 40s at that time—and he was married to a woman named Mabel who came from some money, and he would philosophize endlessly—he’d be sitting there at his old manual typewriter, tapping out these scripts with a cigarette dangling from his lips, muttering things like, “He walks with me and he talks with me—and all I get is baggy knees…” [mutual laughter] JA: What the hell...? [more mutual laughter] I’m not even sure I should ask what that meant. SAWYER: But it was deep. [still more mutual laughter] The biggest service that John ever did for me: A girl from my art school in Chicago,

whom I had dated, followed me to New York and, I don’t know, just out of default, we got married. It was almost cheaper than living separately. Besides, it was what you did back then. The Andy Hardy School of Romance. If you held a girl’s hand, you were obligated to take care of her for the rest of her life. So after about seven or eight months of marriage, we decided it wasn’t working out. But the problem was, in New York in those days, the only grounds for divorce were adultery or desertion. Or— and this was where John came in—he volunteered to testify under oath that he’d heard me promise my bride-to-be that I’d convert to Catholicism, and I had reneged on it. And that was enough to get me an annulment. New York was a very Catholic-oriented place. I owe John big-time for perjuring himself. [mutual laughter] JA: I think the statute of limitations has run out. They can’t get you. Do you happen to know what happened to John Augustin? SAWYER: As far as I know, he just sort-of disappeared and died. I think he went back to Washington. JA: Then I think I know who he was, and here’s why: I interviewed a fellow named Sam Burlockoff, who worked for OSI, which is part of Voice of America. SAWYER: [excited] Yeah, and that’s where John went! JA: John Augustin was a writer for Sam, and Sam didn’t know where he came from, but now I know. Was Augustin writing comic strips or comic books?

Tom Sawyer On Drawing Comics—And Writing Television

SAWYER: Comic books. We collaborated on one of my early attempts at a comic strip for the News Syndicate called Cass Lane in the Land Down Under. It was set in Australia, and needless to say, we didn’t sell it, but like a lot of things, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

“A Natural Transition” JA: Since Martin Thall is responsible for me talking to you, let’s get a little bit about him on tape. [See the interview with Marty in A/E #52.] SAWYER: First, I have to say that Marty Thall is one of the most courageous people I’ve ever known. For years now he’s been suffering from Parkinson’s, but his spirit and optimism are incredible. He just never gives up. Back then, he was doing sports things as I recall, but my memory’s vague on this. Our big connection was that along about 1965, which was around the time that Marty and I became acquainted, I had decided that I needed a new focus. I’d spent many years hanging around the comic strip artists and cartoonists, and realized that for me anyhow it was a terrible way to make a living. They did the same thing in the same sized boxes with the same tools every day of their lives, and they were bored out of their minds—with never a sense of closure,

Boy, What A Life! Tom says the 1966 photo of himself at top left was “taken in the Greenwich Village studio I shared at the time with Leonard Starr. (Please note the French cuffs. We didn’t **** around in those days.) The photo was taken by Leonard for a piece on me in the NCS [National Cartoonists Society] Newsletter.” (Clockwise, from beneath the photo:) (Above left:) An advertising sketch sent us by Tom. (Above:) One of the features he drew through Johnstone and Cushing art service for the Sept. 1966 issue of Boy’s Life. With thanks to Ger Apeldoorn, who says it “shows the connection between Sawyer and Neal Adams, whom he took under his wing and influenced. It is signed ‘Scheuer’ in the third panel, which is sort-of strange because he was using the name ‘Sawyer’ in his other Boys Life work.” (Left:) Storyboard for a commercial starring comedian George Burns. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

of ever being finished with anything, and starting something new. They were literally sitting there in pools of their own blood, developing drinking problems or adultery hang-ups, or whatever. Basically, they were making enough money that they couldn’t afford to walk away from it. That was my take on it. On balance, I thought, “Wait a minute, this ain’t what I thought it was when I was twelve.” So I started going to film school at night in Manhattan. I went to The New School first, then I went to NYU, and started studying directing because I discovered, once I started shooting little films, that I loved playing God, which is what directing is all about. I studied with, among others, Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio briefly, and with a man named Robert A. Brady on 14th Street. During that period, I was shooting short films and so on. That’s what Marty Thall was doing, so we had a lot in common. I’d made a couple of shorts, and won some awards with them. The second one I made was selected for the New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center, as well as the Rochester and Edinburgh Festivals. So I started shooting commercials because I had been in the advertising business. My artwork career had evolved into

“My God, Why Am I Messing Around With This Stuff?”

doing storyboards for the commercials, which were very much like comic strips, by the way, so it was a natural transition.

business. I always thought of Irv as being sort of second- or third-rate in that game.

I had started my own little production company around 1967. We shot commercials for major agencies: J. Walter Thompson, Dancer Fitzgerald & Sample, BBD&O, among others, for clients such as Life Savers, Wheaties, Lavoris, and AT&T. I did it for a few years, and discovered in the process that while I loved making films, I didn’t love commercials. A lot of my friends did, and some of them really got off on them as an art form. For me, the only resemblance it had to filmmaking was that you used the same equipment. The challenge of getting somebody to, say, raise the glass of the product from the table to his lips in 1.3 seconds was not, to me, filmmaking, so I never took it very seriously. I did okay with it, but before that, I had been the highest-priced storyboard guy in New York, partly because they always wanted the stuff overnight and partly because my highly polished boards sold the commercials to the client out in Cincinnati who’d look at them and think, “That’s what I’m going to see on film.” I used to say I would hate to be the director on one of these because you didn’t have any choices—it was so nailed down in the drawings that that’s what the client expected onscreen. Anyway, it was during that period that Marty and I spent the most time together, and we’d see each other socially with our wives. As a matter of fact, he was making a short film that starred my wife. I don’t know if that ever got completed. I think he ran out of money.

Another one-liner from that period came from Frank Ridgeway when I was working up there. He was living in Westport at the time, and knew the guys who had started the Famous Artists School, which was then very hot. You know, Albert Dorne and all those guys. I said, “So Frank, what do you think of the Famous Artists School?” He says, “It’s all right—if you want to be a famous artist.” [mutual laughter]

“[Writers] Run Televison” JA: So how did you get to Murder, She Wrote? SAWYER: I came out to California thinking of myself as a director. I’d been directing off-off Broadway, along with the shorts and TV spots, so I decided what I needed was a sample—a feature-film—as a director. I had an idea for a movie based on an old shaggy dog story about a hamburger waitress who wants to be in the movies and sleeps her way to stardom. In the story and in my film, the sex is totally non-erotic, played entirely for laughs, the gag being that with each encounter she gets a bigger part in the movie, has another, bigger, slapstick accident on the set, but if she’ll just sleep with the next guy higher up on the food-chain, she’ll get a still-

Marty was a dear guy. I remember one of my favorite gags with him. He was always hustling movies and things like that. He came into the studio one day, he said, “Any calls for me?” I said, “Just one. There was some guy named ’Dare-eye-ell Zanook’.” [mutual laughter] And one of Marty’s favorite lines was, “I can’t work this way,” [more mutual laughter] which is one I still use. JA: Let’s back up to Johnstone and Cushing. How long did you work for them? SAWYER: I was probably there on a daily basis for three or four years. When I lived in New Jersey, I commuted to their place on Lexington Avenue. After I moved to Westport in 1960, I continued to work for them, but mostly from home. Part of the reason for going in there every day at first, for having the privilege of being anointed enough to have space there—as we used to refer to it—was that by being present, jobs would come in that you’d get because you were there. There were three or four artists who showed up, like Red Wexler, Creig Flessel.… He was a dear man. They were regulars when I was the new guy. I worked for them from about ’57, until maybe ’63. Al Stenzel and Bob LeRose ran the place. And Tom Johnstone was still there, as was Jack Cushing. Jack was from Boston, old money, and he was related to Cardinal Cushing. I did a lot of major projects for them, both in the Sunday comics, and in magazines. JA: When you were working for Stenzel, was Neal Adams around? SAWYER: Neal came in while I was there, and he was about 17 and full of beans. But there were other guys there: Frank Ridgeway, Ralston Jones—otherwise known as “Bud”—who did Mr. Abernathy—and they were doing the cartoon stuff. Neal then did the Ben Casey comic strip. He was precocious and full of himself, and he still is. I had a friend named Carl Anderson who was a cartoonist. He worked at Neal’s studio for a long time. One of my clients was a guy named Harry Volk who produced clip art, and I was Harry’s star artist for years and years and years. That was a nice account to have, and Harry was a wonderful guy to work for. Carl succeeded me there for a while. He’s no longer with us. JA: Irv Novick worked for Stenzel, too. SAWYER: I knew Irv. He wasn’t very good, but he was a survivor in that

Leaving “Boot Camp” Maybe Tom left comic books behind for a new life in show biz, but he certainly needn’t be ashamed of this splash page from Marines in Action #2 (Aug. 1955). Thanks to Doc V. [©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Tom Sawyer On Drawing Comics—And Writing Television

their guilt goes away. [Jim laughs again] I thought, “They couldn’t pay me enough money to live like that.” So I switched over to the one-hour shows, which are mostly done by the Goyim [Gentiles/non-Jews], who don’t even understand the concept of “guilt,” so they have no problem leaving the studio every night in time for supper with their families. I mean, you mention guilt to a Gentile, and they don’t know what you’re talking about. My wife’s family is New England WASPs, and it’s not even in their vocabulary. [mutual laughter] Anyway, I was also writing a lot of pilots. Mostly, I was focused on selling a series of my own, and I did nine pilots. I had a knack for selling series concepts that worked, doing four-minute pitches—I thought of them as my dog-and-pony show—and often walking out of the meeting with a script assignment.

Murder, She Reigned Tom Sawyer and actress/star Angela Lansbury, during the time when he was working on her hit TV series Murder, She Wrote. Photo courtesy of TS.

bigger role. The punchline, after she becomes the star of the film-within-the-film, and the entire set falls on her, was, “Who do I have to f*** to get out of this movie?” [Jim chuckles] And I made a whole movie out of it, but there was a little bit of a preamble to that. I had a writer lined up, but instead he got a gig on Saturday Night Live, so I wrote it myself. And then my financing fell through, so I shot the thing for 105 grand of my own money, and I started screening it around town as my director’s calling card. Originally it was titled GOSH!, but that was quickly changed to Alice Goodbody. It eventually played all over the world, I got my money back, and even made a little. But first, when I began screening it around town, to my astonishment, people started saying: “Gee, you should be writing for television.” I said, “No, you don’t understand. I’m a film director.” Well, it quickly became apparent that Hollywood wasn’t clamoring for my services as a director, so I went back to these same people in television and said, “Why shouldn’t I be a director in television? I mean—playing God—that’s what I love.” And they said, “You don’t want to be a director in TV. They’ve got to shoot 7 or 8 pages a day, they’re mostly just traffic cops, they’re there to keep the actors from bumping into the set. They just need to grind out a lot of coverage. And,”—this was the clincher—they said, “All those ‘producer’ titles that you see at the top of the show? Those are all writers. They run television.” And I never looked back. [mutual laughter] So I started freelancing, initially in comedy, and fairly quickly switched over to drama, because I had two small children and wanted to be able to have “I Am A Line-Man dinner with them, and some leisure time as well. For The County…” The thing was, once I started getting hired on Advertising sketch by staff, I saw that the comedy shows were all done Tom Sawyer—the kind of by Jewish guys who were wracked with guilt that thing he was doing before they were making all this money without having he started writing and producing the stuff that become brain surgeons or lawyers like their comes in between TV mothers wanted them to… [Jim laughs] so they commercials. [©2008 the rewrite until 3:00 in the morning. The shows respective copyright don’t get any better, but by not having a life, holders.]

So Murder, She Wrote was starting up, and my agent sent a World War II pilot script I had done for CBS to Peter Fischer, who’d co-created the series. Peter invited me in, and gave me what they call a “blind assignment.” In other words, I had a script deal, I just had to come up with a story. The show wasn’t on the air yet, and I went over to Universal and watched the pilot film. It looked like gold because of Angela Lansbury, and I said, “Well, you’re going to have to hold my hand, Peter, because I haven’t done many mysteries. I’ve written one Quincy and one Mike Hammer, but I really don’t know what the secret is.” He said, “Don’t worry about that. We’ll help you.” And I said, “What kind of stories are these going to be?” He said, “Well, they’re going to be sort of Agatha Christie puzzle mysteries.” I said, “Peter, I have to tell you, when I was a kid, I read a couple of Agatha Christies, and a couple of lockedroom mysteries, and they bored the crap out of me. I’m not going to write that for you.” He said, “Well, what will you write?” I said, “I’ll write The Maltese Falcon.” And with no hesitation he said, “That’ll be fine.” And that’s a true story! [laughs] JA: When was this? SAWYER: 1984. And that’s what I wrote for 12 years. I was head writer-showrunner from ’92 through ’96. JA: There was a show before that which was very similar: Ellery Queen. SAWYER: I never watched Ellery Queen, because I couldn’t stand the lead in it [Jim Hutton]. That was Peter Fisher’s show. He had done it with William Link and Richard Levinson, as he did with Murder,

“My God, Why Am I Messing Around With This Stuff?”

She Wrote. And so it had understandable similarities, particularly if there were episodes that he wrote, because he kept pirating stuff he’d written before. [more mutual laughter]

the country, and people come up to me with these stories about how their whole family used to watch together, and the father would put a prize on the top of the TV set for the one who would solve the murder. I was just at a conference, and some lawyer from St. Louis said the usual, about how it was his mother’s favorite show. And he added that “On the day she died, after 14 years of battling ovarian cancer, she wanted, with me, to spend the last two hours of her life watching Murder, She Wrote reruns.” The first thing I did when I got home was call Angela and Bill Link to tell them. [laughs] I get choked up telling it to you!

Television was a wonderful experience for me, and I was getting paid for having fun. I would have done it for nothing. I mean, running a weekly series is the most fun you can have with your clothes on. Trust me! [mutual laughter] It’s the best electric train a kid could have. Just to give you a quick, graphic Where’s Mr. Grant? example: every ten days, I had Tom with Mary Tyler Moore in 1977. Thanks to TS. $130,000 that I could spend on sets—anything I wanted—and actors, all of them wanted to be on the show. [laughs] That’s heady stuff. It was such a hit show—it was always in the top 10. Some of the mail, I Angela Lansbury was a terrific lady and a total pro. I always felt as if I’d have drawers of it, came from irate ministers in the Bible Belt, telling me written for so many fourth- and fifth-rate actors in that business that they’re never going to watch the show again because we took the Lord’s when I got a chance to write for her, it was a privilege. It was like I had an name in vain three times in the last episode... that kind of stuff. But I obligation to give her stuff that she deserved. In fact, the single most never got quite that sense—you know, from the mail—of what it meant to frustrating thing about writing for that show was that the character of so many people, that you reached so many. It’s only now, when they talk Jessica Fletcher was so bland, and I was always trying to talk her into to me at these events. It’s a very humbling thing. Really, it’s astonishing. doing an episode where she had an emotional stake in it, where you thought she might have been responsible for the murder happening. But Oh, man! I got an e-mail the other day from some couple that she didn’t want to go near that. What I did discover early on was that, happened to watch an episode of mine, which was the last show of the okay, Jessica was bland, but Angie played irate and pissed off better than seventh season. The episode was titled “The Skinny According to Nick almost anybody in the world. So I would endeavor in every episode to Culhane,” and Jerry Orbach played Harry McGraw. The last line in it, he give her at least one moment where somebody would say, “Mrs. Fletcher, says to Jessica, “Well, I guess that’s all she wrote.” And they asked, “Was get out of my office. I don’t have time for you,” and she’d get her back up that intended to be the last episode?” And I said, “Yes, it was.” It was and the show would come to life. You know, it gave her some conflict to contract-time. It didn’t look like she was going to renew, and so just in play off of. But yeah, she was wonderful to work with. case, I wrote it that way. But here are these people even now, still watching the thing, and caring enough to ask about it. JA: She was great in The Manchurian Candidate. I love that movie. SAWYER: Yeah, that was one of the roles where she had a chance to play her amazing range. JA: I’ve always joked about this: I can’t believe the show has gone on so long. She couldn’t possibly have any friends left because everywhere she went, her friends die. [laughs] SAWYER: Around the studio, we used to refer to her as “The Angel of Death.” [mutual laughter] We always wanted to do a gag sequence where she’d arrive in a town for the first time, and everybody would run. [mutual laughter] We also used to joke at the end of the run, “Don’t you think it’s interesting that here’s this lady who just happened to have been in the vicinity of 264 murders over the last twelve years—and nobody had ever intimated that she might have had something to do with them?” [laughs] JA: I always thought the greatest final episode in the history of television would have been to discover that she really committed all those murders, and pinned them on someone else! SAWYER: Sure, yeah, she was a serial killer. [laughter] Well, the great thing about it was that I think everybody felt the same way; but the magic of that show, and the magic of her, was that we were all willing to suspend our disbelief. We were all willing to say, “Okay, [more mutual laughter] this is what it is and let’s see what happens.” She was just so fascinating to watch that it became an enduring habit. I mean, it amazes me. I speak at a lot of writers’ conferences now around

“There’s A Lot Of Ground To Cover” JA: When you were talking about before you got on the show, you were doing comedies and stuff. SAWYER: Oh, that was early on. I did Chico and the Man, All in the Family... my first television script was a comedy pilot. But then I began writing for the hour shows because I didn’t like writing one-liners. I hate joke shows, setup-joke, setup-joke... And that’s really how they would judge them, they’d count the jokes. Three per page was their standard. And I used to say to them, “Look, you want jokes, get somebody else. I’ll write funny people for you, but I won’t write one-liners.” Anyway, my cachet with the hour shows was that I was one of these guys who could write funny for the film shows. JA: What are you doing now? SAWYER: Right now, I’m finishing a screenplay adaptation of my new novel, which will be in bookstores in September 2008, titled No Place to Run. It’s a more-than-somewhat-subversive thriller, published by Sterling & Ross. I finished it over two years ago, and it’s taken until now to find a publisher with enough guts to handle it. In it, I posit that the 9/11 hijackers had serious help from high up within the US—and I don’t mean this idiot-fringe paranoia stuff that’s all over the web. What I suggest in the book was not refuted by the 9/11 Commission. I’m also writing a memoir. There’s a lot of ground to cover, and I’m having fun doing it. You’ll like it.

Tom Sawyer On Drawing Comics—And Writing Television

JA: Will I get a copy?

JA: Then I know I’ll like it!

SAWYER: You sure will! Of both the novel and the memoir. Its title, by the way, very much informs its tone—and the incredible good luck I’ve had. I call it Who Knew…?

SAWYER: [laughs] You’re a cartoonist, all right! Just as bent as the rest of us!

TOM SAWYER Checklist [The following Checklist is primarily adapted from information that appears in the online Who’s Who of American Comic Books (1928-1999), established by Jerry G. Bails. See the ad below to learn how to access this invaluable website. Names of features which appeared both in magazines with that exact title and in other magazines, as well, are generally not italicized below. The source of some data below was provided by Tom Sawyer himself, via Jim Amash, and by Dr. Michael J. Vassallo. Key: (a) = full art; (d) = daily newspaper comic strip; (S) = Sunday newspaper comic strip.] Pen Name: Tom Sawyer (1930- ), artist

COMIC BOOK CREDITS (Mainstream US Publishers):

True Name: Tom Scheuer

Better/Standard/Nedor/Pines: (a) 1953

Education: Chicago Academy of Fine Arts; Northwestern University; Purdue University

Eastern Color Printing: New Heroic Comics (a) 1951

Member: National Cartoonists Society, past member

Mainline Comics: In Love (a) 1954

Print Media (Non-Comics): artist: advertising

Marvel/Timely Comics: covers (a) 1955-56 romance titles; “Boot-Camp” Brady (a) 1956; Jungle Action (a) 1955; Leopard Girl (a) 1955; Love Romances (a) 1955-57 (signed “Sawyer”); Love Tales (a) 1956-56; Lovers (a) 1955-56; Marines in Action (a) 1955; My Love Story (a) 1956-57; My Love (a) 1961 reprint in #13 & 15; My Own Romance (a) 1955, 1957; Mystery Tales (a) 1955; romance (a) 1955-57; Secret Story Romances (cover) 1955-56; Stories of Romance (a) 1957; text story illos (generally reprinted from previously published stories) 1956-61; True Secrets (a) 1955-56; True Tales of Love (a) 1956; war (a) 1955

Performing Arts: producer & writer: TV: Murder, She Wrote 1990-1992; producer & writer, various TV series; writer, Zorro TV episodes Syndication: Flash Gordon (ghost p & i) c. 1954 (a few weeks; uncertain whether d or S); On Stage (d)(S) (ghost p) c. 1970, one month for Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate (has sometimes been misidentified as Neal Adams)

Feature Comics: romance (a) 1954

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

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

(Right:) Soldier Al wearing the patch he designed for the US Fifth Army Battalion.

Alfred J. Walker, Artist—Part 2: The War Years

Introduction by Michael T. Gilbert In Part 1 of Al Walker’s biography, last issue, Stephen Walker took us back to March 1938, when his Uncle Al started working at Disney Studios in California. Homesick and concerned over his mother’s failing health, Al soon returned to the East Coast, where, in December 1940, he began drawing comics for Fiction House. Part 2 of Stephen’s tale begins shortly before that event.

Alfred J. Walker, Artist By Stephen V. Walker

Part 2: The War Years Alfred Walker’s cartoon legacy flourished not only in the pages of his employer’s comic books, but also in the hearts of the local community. He liked drawing Mickey Mouse on his pals’ yellow “slickers,” and his cartoon-covered automobile caused quite a stir in Oyster Bay. Many homes, as well as public gathering places, had original Al Walker cartoons on their walls, from the Trio Bar on South Street to the SeawanhakaCorinthian Yacht Club on Center Island. Both Oyster Bay fire companies invited Al to their yearly clambake in appreciation for the innumerable plaques and programs he drew for them. He also provided clever program covers and elaborate sets for plays and dances at St. Dominic’s Church and the Matinecock Lodge of Masons. In January 1943, Alfred Walker entered the United States Army and trained as an MP [Military Policeman] in the First Rifle Squad of the 803rd M.P. Battalion (Third Platoon) at Camp Swift, Texas. In addition to his rigorous MP training, he designed his battalion’s insignia. Shipped overseas from New York Harbor on August 21, he was denied a promised furlough at the last minute. As a result, he missed his last chance to see both of his parents before he left.

Wrapping Up The Story In this splash panel from Wings Comics #86 (Oct. 1947), Al cleverly emphasizes the story’s Egyptian theme with mummy-lettering and a flying sarcophagus! [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Al arrived at Oran, in North Africa, on September 2. Later he departed from Biserte, Tunisia, landing as part of the invasion of Naples on October 8. Two months later, his skills in art got him transferred to the Psychological Warfare Branch of the US Fifth Army, within the auspices of the 1st Mobile Radio Broadcasting Company. He immediately began working for the Allied propaganda effort, creating art for newspapers and magazines, as well as leaflets that were dropped on the enemy. His first editorial war cartoon, entitled “Incontri al Brennero,” was published in an Italian newspaper on New Year’s Day 1944.

On, Comet! A young Al Walker, most likely in the early 1930s. “Al Walker had a penchant for drawing on automobiles,” says nephew Steven. “Various old-timers have told us that Al painted comic book characters on his car when he was young.” Guess he hadn’t gotten around to painting this Comet station wagon yet, Steve!

Al also designed insignia, including the American Red Cross Clubmobile and the “Rainmakers” Propaganda Unit of the PWB. In fact, he actually drew art for the military before he even entered the Army. In the fall of 1941, US Air Corpsmen approached him while he was working at Fiction House, and asked him to draw an insignia depicting his feisty penguin Slug (from “Norge Benson” in Planet Comics) as the symbol of their 66th Pursuit Squadron. Al happily complied.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Messing Around Corporal Al chows down in the mess hall. Yum?

In May of 1944, at Santa Maria, Italy (outside Naples), Al Walker was given an assignment to design the cover and musical score for a new Irving Berlin song entitled “The Fifth Army’s Where My Heart Is,” which was included in Berlin’s This Is the Army overseas show. Al always treasured the memories of that special time, and shared some thoughts in letters sent to relatives.

(Above& below:) In 1941, pugnacious Slug the Penguin (seen in Al’s splash from Fiction House’s Planet Comics #16, Jan. 1942), become the Air Force’s 66th Pursuit Squadron’s mascot! [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Several US Army Air Corps insignia designed by Al Walker—and a photo of a 1937 Norge refrigerator. Could that popular brand have inspired Norge Benson’s name?

Alfred J. Walker, Artist—Part 2: The War Years

Taking The Fifth (Above left:) Al designed this cover with musical notes made of helmets and rifles, against a barbed wire background! (Above right:) Inside, he drew each of those notes. Sheesh! [©2008 the respective copyright holders.] (Right:) Al gets smacked by the legendary songwriter Irving Berlin in this playful self-portrait. [©2008 Estate of Alfred J. Walker.]

“I have eaten, slept, and lived for the whole four wonderful days with the swell fellows in the original cast,” he wrote. “I met Mr. Berlin again this morning, and he is so nice! He deserves all the fame his genius has brought him since he was a penniless boy on the sidewalks of New York.” Just as this exuberant mail was on its way homeward, it crossed paths with another, more somber letter. Sadly, this one was from Al’s father, informing him that his mother’s long convalescence had ended and she was now in heaven. One year later, the

Al drew this picture (right) of his mother’s gravestone during the war.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

memory of the missed furlough hit doubly hard, when Al’s brother Dan told him that their father had also passed away. July 2, 1944, was another important day, when Al enjoyed a rare audience with Pope Pius XII. Ever the artist, even amidst Armageddon, he lovingly clutched a bit of shrapnel as the Pope touched his hand. The horror of war had forged into a crucifix. Art and life were rapidly colliding. In a letter from August 10, in which he mentioned a bomb blast that had knocked him five feet, he also described his impressions of the great masters: “During a visit to Rome, I saw the original painting of ‘The Last Supper’ by Michelangelo. Tapestries and curtains are also painted on the chapel walls by Raphael that look so real that I had to touch them with my fingers to see if they were of real fabric texture. “Got quite a kick out of retouching a painting of St. Francis of Assisi— or should I say a line-cut reproduction of the famous painting done by Giotto in 1298. With gray temperas in our PWB Art Section, I had to ‘redraw’ part of old boy Giotto’s masterpiece so that our black type-proofs would reproduce on the gray, dull, time-worn tones. What a contrast!! Greasemonkey Griffin’s GI Godfather adding finishing touches to one of Giotto’s masterpieces in Italy, 646 years after GI Otto painted it!”

A Bunch Of “Milarkey” Say, doesn’t this 1940s pic of Al and future wife Katherine Moore remind you of Jeep Milarkey and his sweetie, seen in a splash from Rangers Comics #4 (April 1942)? [Art ©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Alfred J. Walker, Artist—Part 2: The War Years

Al always loved his puns. On September 21, Al Walker and the entire PWB Art Section were filmed drawing maps and designing leaflets for use in an Italian propaganda film. Stage-struck Alfred admitted, “My hand shook like a jar of Jell-O when I dipped my pen into the inkwell…. The big, round floodlight … that the cameramen set-up in front of my drawing desk almost blinded me.” Al cherished his niche in the Allied war effort, ever mindful of the men on the front lines. On October 6, he reported that he was doing artwork for a weekly magazine published by PWB for the Italian people. He described it as “similar to a miniature Life magazine and ... titled Il Monde Libero (The World Freed).” For his Christmas 1944 PWB V-mail, he created a helmeted Mickey Mouse nailing up a stocking in the shape of Italy, accompanied by the following poem: “’Twas the night before Christmas When all through the house Not a creature was stirring –– Save old Mickey Mouse… Psychological Warfare’s the Branch of the Service That thinks up the scares wot make enemies nervous.

“Molte Grazie!” A photo sent by Italian refugees who had been helped by Al and friends.

Our stockings are rationed—we don’t care a hoot: Since we’re overseas stationed, we’ll hang up this Boot!” In that same month, moved by the devastation he saw, Al wrote a letter to Leon Deming, the Superintendent of the Oyster Bay Schools, asking if his students could send clothing to a poor family of children who had just lost their parents. This relief effort soon became a reality, and the kindness of Oyster Bay’s citizens was fully chronicled in the local newspapers of 1944-45. Al continued to work for the Psychological Warfare Branch Art Section in Rome, and later in Salzburg, Austria. Then, on July 18, 1945, he received word that he was being transferred to the Stars and Stripes Mediterranean Edition in Rome. He worked there until November, alongside fellow cartoonist Bill Mauldin. Al returned home in late fall of 1945 and was mustered out on November 29. He resumed his position as a comic book artist at Fiction House, and began working anew on his beloved “Greasemonkey Griffin.” The September 1946 issue of Wings Comics (#71) heralded his return on the Air Mail letters page. “We are glad to announce that Al Walker is once again on the job drawing GG. Al spent 35 months in the Mediterranean war theater, where he participated in the invasion of Naples. Besides being a member of the art staff on STARS AND STRIPES, Al designed propaganda leaflets for the Psychological Warfare branch of the Army. WELCOME HOME, Al!” Later, he also illustrated new features for the company, including “Flicker Funnies!” for Movie Comics and “Wizard of the Moon” for Toyland Comics. He also drew the amusingly-titled “Buddy Bruin and (oh, yes) Stu Rabbit” for the latter title. It was great to be home and working again! Next: Fiction House and beyond, as we conclude our three-part Al Walker biography. Thanks to Steve Walker, Alfred M. Walker, and Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., for their invaluable help on this article. ’Til next time...

In Memoriam

David Gantz (1922-2007) “Fine Art... Was His Great Passion” A Personal Tribute by Al Jaffee

ave Gantz was the consummate artist. He worked in almost every medium and did them all at the highest level. Fine art, whatever that has come to mean, was his great passion. He did paintings, sculptures, cartoons, and drawings with passion and insight. He also loved writing and produced books, comic strips, comic books, and much more. He was just a terrific all-round talent. Dave and I first met in the High School of Music and Art in New York City, where we came to know Will Elder, Harvey Kurtzman, John Severin, and other now well-known artists. After graduation Dave and I spent time together socially and professionally. We worked on children’s books, comic features for Stan Lee, and anything else that came along. After discharge from military service Dave and I and our wives bought houses next door to each other where we resumed our friendship and occasional working relationship.

Dave was a really good guy. He loved his family and did everything he could for them. But after that came ART, which he not only loved but was in love with. It would be impossible for me to think of Dave without it. Though he knew we all need money to survive, working at his art was a primary driving force in Dave’s life. As time passed, Dave and I became geographically separated. We did not see each other as often as we used to, but we did keep in touch and our friendship endured though mostly by phone. To his wife Doris and children Elliot and Robin I extend my condolences. As for me, I shall miss my old friend and colleague a lot. Al Jaffee worked with Dave Gantz at Timely Comics in the 1940s.

Gantz Over The Decades

Dave Gantz (above) in a then-current photo which accompanied his interview in Alter Ego #13 (2002), above early and late specimens of his art. (Left:) “Sharpy Fox” from Comic Capers #1 (Fall 1944), with thanks to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo. [©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.] (Below:) Dave’s potential cover for a mini-bio of his, done in color just a few years ago. We hope to print the story itself in an early issue of A/E. [©2008 Estate of David Gantz.]

Mac Raboy, eh? … the quiet guy over next to the windows. Okay, Mac … two can play that game. So, for months our “fellowship” consisted of a courteous coolness … equally balanced on both sides … and apparently of no further concern to anyone. Except, possibly … the new executive editor of the comics department. France E. Herron had left the company earlier in the year, and in his place was a writer who had been producing impressive Captain Marvel scripts consistently since the departure of originator Bill Parker in 1940 … a matter of special interest, that being the very period in which the World’s Mightiest Mortal was reported to have become the world’s mightiest superhero … in readership … and in sales.

[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 stories 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 told of two individuals at Fawcett Publications who left a lasting impact on his career and life. In this installment he reflects on another pair of memorable Fawcett gentlemen. —P.C. Hamerlinck.]

The presence of affable, jovial Rod Reed made a difference around the place. His response, at the slightest suggestion among the employees for shuffleboard at lunchtime or bowling after work, described the very nature of the man: “Count me in!” And he made it a point to share thoughts with everyone … even the quiet guy over next to the windows. He and Mac Raboy could be seen chatting pleasantly during coffee breaks and eventually at the ball games. When I mentioned to Reed that the courteous coolness so carefully conducted between me and Mac over the months seemed to have mellowed, Rod chuckled: “He thought everyone from the South was a bigot!” And I knew Rod had settled that issue. I honestly believe that in that brief period I witnessed a turning point in the life of another human being. Mac Raboy had become a different

“W

hy don’t you just cut it out and paste it in?” Word for word I can hear it now!

It was late in the day, my first in the Fawcett offices … the year, 1941. There being nothing ahead for the evening other than the hotel room or a movie, I had offered to assist a late worker, who promptly requested that I copy a subject from a magazine he handed me. It was an airplane. I could have improved on it, but the man had said “copy.” I had no idea we were being watched from behind, until the voice came over my shoulder. Without turning I began a detailed explanation of how such a move might be considered unethical, unprofessional, unlawful … and a few other “uns” … when I realized that as I spoke, the observer had quietly donned hat and coat, and disappeared. Then it dawned on me that his remark was pure sarcasm. It really didn’t matter much … but you can understand my curiosity as to which member of that large art department it was. My fellow lateworker had the answer: “It wasn’t the kind of remark you’d expect from Mac, though!”

Yankee Doodle Came To Town Mac Raboy’s cover for Captain Marvel Jr. #9 (July 1943). Raboy took the familiar image of the marching musicians from the Revolutionary War—and turned it sideways. [©2008 DC Comics.]

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

Captain Marvel’s Whiz Gang Panels from “Captain Marvel Battles Sabotage at the Printing Plant” (Whiz Comics #43, June 1943)—featuring an appearance by Fawcett’s executive comics editor, Rod Reed. And yes, that’s Ibis the Invincible and Golden Arrow who’ve dropped by to check out their latest adventures—with a Photostatted Mac Raboy cover in the background. Art by Beck staff. [©2008 DC Comics.]

person … one more comfortable with … with life! I am thankful to remember him today high on the list of my wonderful friends of the Golden Age.

Three Golden-Agers—At Least!

Rod & Raboy

(Above:) That’s Rod Reed in the foreground, Mac Raboy on the ground, and ace writer Bill Woolfolk propped against the fence at right. Marc Swayze says he doesn’t know the lady. Not Kentuck Reed (Rod’s wife)— probably somebody else’s… nor could Marc identify “the guy beyond Rod,” behind the lady. “[He] looks familiar, but I can’t place him.” Photo taken at Reed’s home in Malverne, Long Island, NY, circa 1942-44.

(Above:) Another snapshot from Reed’s Malverne home. Rod Reed and (near window) Mac Raboy. (Left:) “The Rod Reed Grin,” 1942. All photos on this page courtesy of Marc Swayze.

You’ve known them … people like Rod Reed … people who may have been sent here as role models for those of us so quick to judge some as “loners,” then proceed on our merry way with no further thought. My thoughts often turn to that cigar-puffing mediator, moderator, peacemaker … that lifter of spirits, preserver of concord and harmony among us. May we be blessed with more like Rod Reed!

Marc Swayze will be back next issue with more memoirs of the Golden Age of Comics.

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Merciful Heavens A Short Story by C.C. Beck

“W

Illustrated by Beck self-caricatures Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck

hat’s the matter with you, Walter? I love it here. Why don’t you?” Gladys Dribble shrilled angrily. “Well … it’s dull. There’s nothing to do,” Walter Dribble

said wearily. “How can you say that? There’s bingo, dancing, hobby projects … everything a person could want. You ought to join the choir, Walter. Just think, there are a thousand voices in the choir, all singing like angels. You can hear it from here. Why don’t you get into it?” “I’m tone deaf,” Dribble said, as if hoping to put an end to the discussion. “Didn’t they fix you up when we came here? Mrs. Everard’s husband was deaf and they fixed him up,” Dribble’s wife pointed out, not giving up. “That’s different. He was just deaf. I can hear fine, always could. Just never could tell one damn note from another. Still can’t, dammit.” Dribble’s wife looked horrified. “Watch your language, Walter. You’re not supposed to swear here.”

“I wasn’t swearing. I was cursing.” “There’s a difference?” “Of course. When you swear you say ‘by God’ or ‘Holy Jesus’ and so on. When you say ‘damn’ you’re just cursing.” “Shush! They’ll throw us out if you say such things,” Gladys Dribble whispered, looking around nervously. “Good. I wish they would. I’m sick of this place.” “After all we went through to get here? And all it cost?” “That’s another thing. It’s too fancy here. I wish I had my old job back and could do an honest day’s work. I tried to get a job here, but nobody would hire me.” “But we both worked hard for fifty years, Walter. Now we’ve earned our reward. Nobody has to work here … they have attendants to take care of everything. Just think, we’ll never have to life a finger again as long as we live. It’s as if we’d died and gone to Heaven!” “Well, this may be your idea of Heaven, but it ain’t mine. I suppose you’ll have me taking harp lessons next, eh?” “Oh, don’t be silly, Walter. All I’d like is for you to relax and enjoy yourself. I’ve felt wonderful ever since we got here, haven’t you? Look at me … I don’t feel a day over sixteen!” Dribble snorted with disgust as his wife got up lightly from the bench on which they had both been sitting and went into a little dance by herself. “Stop that, Gladys! You look ridiculous … you’re over eighty! You look like you’ve gone into your second childhood.”

“Maybe I have,” his wife laughed. “Tra la la … here we go gathering nuts in May.” “Sit down and act your age, Gladys. If anybody sees you they’ll send for the nut wagon,” Dribble snarled. His wife stopped dancing and looked around at the beautiful park-like setting. “It’s always springtime here, Walter. Look at all the flowers and trees and the sunshine. This whole place is a dream come true.” “More like a nightmare, to me. Sometimes I think we’ve been here for a hundred years already, but how can you tell when there ain’t any clocks or calendars or seasons? They never even turn the lights off around this damn joint. The whole place stinks!” Dribble’s wife finally gave up her efforts to cheer her husband up. She turned away from him and drew a deep breath of the softly scented air. Then she turned to face him once more. “You’re impossible! What do you want, Walter?” she asked in desperation. “Well … a good stiff drink would help. A guy can’t even buy a drink here.” “Of course not. Everything’s free.” “They don’t even have liquor here, Gladys. No booze, no tobacco, no nothing. I think I’ll go for a walk.” “Suit yourself. I’m going to play cards,” Dribble’s wife said in a tired voice. “Okay, have a good time,” Dribble said sourly. “Bring back your winnings and I’ll help you count ’em. It’ll give me something to do.”

on, seeming to come and go eerily. “Hey, what’s that funny looking wall doing here?” Dribble asked. “It’s all around and over the place, Mr. Dribble. This portion isn’t quite finished. When it’s finished it will be as invisible as the other parts.” “What’s it for? To keep us in? Or to keep others out?” “The latter, Mr. Dribble. It’s very difficult to gain admittance here. If it hadn’t been for Mrs. Dribble’s putting in an application for the two of you you’d never have made it here.” “I knew it was her idea!” Dribble snorted angrily. “She always said she’d get me into Heaven in spite of myself. She thinks we’ve died and gone to Heaven. What a lotta bunk!” “It’s not bunk, Mr. Dribble, you both have,” the attendant said quietly. Dribble stared at him, stunned. “I … I died? I’m dead? So how come, if I’m dead, I’m walking around and talking and everything?”

“Oh, Walter, you know they don’t allow gambling here!” Gladys Dribble shrilled again as she walked away. Left to himself, Dribble got to his feet and tried to put his hands in his pockets. “Damn! I keep forgetting there ain’t any pockets in these nightshirts we wear!” he muttered. “If I could get my pants back I’d walk outta here in a minute.” “Is that a promise, Mr. Dribble?” asked a rich, melodious voice. Dribble turned to face a tall, competent looking man who was studying him with cool, steel gray eyes.

“We brought you back to life, sir. We can do that. When certain requirements are met, we bring people back to life, restore them to health, and place them in the heaven of their choice.” “You mean this place ain’t just another retirement home?” “Oh, no, Mr. Dribble. Retirement centers are ghastly places.” “You’re telling me?” “Indeed I am. Our heavens are much better, don’t you agree? The one you’re in is Merciful Heaven number eleven, the latest model. Your wife picked it out from our literature.”

“What’re you doing here?” Dribble asked. “Do you work here?”

“She did, huh? Well, I hate it. Don’t you have any better ones?”

“Yes, Mr. Dribble. I’m one of the attendants here. Can I help you?”

“That depends, sir, on the point of view one holds. We have one, for

“I doubt it. I’m going for a walk. Do you mind?” “Not at all, sir. I’ll go with you,” the man said pleasantly as he took Dribble’s arm. “I’ll be your personal attendant. Will you like that?” “Not particularly,” Dribble said, shaking off the attendant’s grasp. “I don’t need any help. Only good thing they did for me was fix my legs. Couldn’t walk at all the last few years before they brought me here.” “I’m glad we did something you appreciate. We aim to please.” “I know, I know. My wife loves it here, but I hate it.” “You’ll get use to everything in time, Mr. Dribble.” “I will? When?” “Oh, sooner or later. Some take longer to adjust than others. You’ll have all the time you could want here,” the attendant said encouragingly. “Why didn’t they adjust me when they brought me here? Tell me that!” Dribble demanded. “We thought we had. But we’re not perfect, Mr. Dribble. We only do the best we can with the material supplied.” “Don’t let my wife hear you say that,” Dribble cautioned. “She thinks everything here is perfect.” “It is, almost. We’re still working on the place, Mr. Dribble,” the attendant said as they walked around a corner and approached a sort of wall that Dribble had never noticed before. It was rather hard to focus

FCA (Fawcett Collectors Of America)

get loaded and stay drunk forever?” “No. Alcoholic beverages, smoking, and gambling are not allowed in any of our places, sir.” “The hell you say! You guys are all nuts!” Dribble rasped. The attendant’s steel gray eyes seemed to cloud over for a moment, then they became clear and cold. “You might well say nuts and bolts, Mr. Dribble, and not be far from the truth. Come with me.” “Where are you taking me?” Dribble asked in some alarm as the attendant took his arm again and led him to a small door set into the wall. Dribble stared at it suspiciously. “Where does this door go to? Another of your dumb heavens?” “No, you’ll find what’s beyond this door much more suitable for a man of your particular makeup,” the attendant said in a voice now cold and emotionless. “Your science, whether you believe it or not, has given us a way to provide for safe disposal of our occasional failures, of which you are a prime example. This door is what you humans call a garbage disposal, Mr. Dribble.” “G-g-garbage? You can’t do this to me!” Dribble squalled as the man picked him up with one powerful hand and opened the door with the other. “What’ll my wife say? Won’t she miss me?”

instance, that has been especially designed for those who die young. It’s filled with joyful games and rides, clowns … that sort of thing. I don’t suppose you’d like that one, would you?” “Hell, no. What else?” “We have a Pet Heaven, where people can send their beloved pets. That’s a lovely place. Then we have one that is like a hunting preserve, where people who enjoy hunting can shoot at lifelike animals. We’re not too proud of that one, but it does appeal to some. Another of our heavens is all a magnificent golf course. Would you prefer that one, Mr. Dribble?” “Hell, no. I hate golf!” Dribble snorted. “Do you bowl, sir? We have a marvelous Bowler’s Heaven where everyone bowls a perfect 300 every time. It has automatic pinsetters, computerized scoreboards, and even robots which can do the bowling for those who prefer to do nothing but sit and drink synthetic beer through all eternity. The robots are quite manlike … and very efficient.” “Robots? Don’t give me that guff. Sounds like something out of a science fiction story,” Dribble sneered. “You mustn’t scoff at either science or fiction, sir,” the tall man chided. “They’re both valid components of the human makeup.” “They’re both a lotta baloney to me … never had any use for either one,” Dribble spat. “Do you have one where a guy can

“I doubt it. We’re bringing her mother here next week, and I don’t believe either one will even notice that you’re no longer around. Goodbye, Mr. Dribble.” The tall man tossed Dribble through the little doorway. There was a slight puff of sound and light, then nothing. The man—if he was one— closed the little door and turned back toward the park. The music of the thousand-voice choir filled the softly scented air as he came to a small, beautifully designed building with a door labeled OPERATIONAL STAFF, NO UNAUTHORIZED VISITORS. As he entered and the door closed behind him, the choir’s voices rose in a glorious hallelujah chorus.

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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!

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NEW STUFF FROM TWOMORROWS!

ROUGH STUFF #8

BACK ISSUE #28

WRITE NOW! #18

DRAW! #15

BRICKJOURNAL #2

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

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

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

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

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SILVER AGE SCI-FI COMPANION

BEST OF WRITE NOW!

BEST OF DRAW! VOL. 3

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

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

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

MODERN MASTERS VOLUME 16: MIKE ALLRED

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

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

SUBSCRIPTIONS:

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BACK ISSUE! (6 issues)

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

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

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BRICKJOURNAL (4 issues)

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

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

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