Alter Ego #79 by TwoMorrows Publishing

Roy Thomas’Superior Comics Fanzine $

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No.79

In the USA

July 2008

82658 27763

NOT BAD FOR A 70-YEAR-OLD MAN, HUH?

PLUS:

Vol. 3, No. 79 / July 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

Contents

Cover Artist/Colorist

.. ................2 writer/editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Superman’s 70th! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Michael Golden

With Special Thanks to: Heidi Amash Bob Bailey Mrs. Jill Baily Mrs. Regina Baily Mike W. Barr Tim Barnes Alberto Becattini Jack & Carole Bender Dominic Bongo Jerry K. Boyd Mark Staff Brandl Glenn Bray Chris Brown Thorstein Bruemmel Lou Cameron Bob Cherry Sean Conlon Teresa R. Davidson Dwight R. Decker Michaël Dewally Harlan Ellison Mark Evanier Thomas Eyssell Ron Fernandez Shane Foley Danny Fuchs Janet Gilbert Michael Golden George Hagenauer Jim Hambrick Jennifer Hamerlinck Harold Havas Tom Hegeman Anton Hermus Roger Hill Glen Johnson Chris Knowles Peter Koch Richard Kyle Arthur Lortie

James Ludwig Leonard Maltin Jay Mampel Jody McGhee Sean Menard Marc Miyake Linda Monaco Brian K. Morris Gabriel Morrissett Noel Neill Marc Tyler Nobleman Ken Quattro Barry Pearl Jean Shuster Peavy Al Plastino Paul Power Richard Pryor Brad Ricca Trina Robbins Charlie Roberts Bob Rozakis Eric Schumacher David Siegel Howard Siegel Robin Snyder Andy Stout Marc Swayze Ty Templeton Dann Thomas Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Dr. Michael J. Vassallo Hames Ware Lawrence Watt-Evans Brett Weiss Renée Witterstaetter Monte Wolverton Alex Wright John Wright Raul Wrona Eddy Zeno

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Steve Gerber, Joe Shuster, & Jerry Siegel

Eddy Zeno salutes seven of the iconic hero’s most important artists since 1938’s Action Comics #1.

“I Was Just The Kid Sister Peeking Around The Corner” . . . 11 Jean Shuster Peavy talks about her big brother Joe—co-creator of Superman.

“K” Is For “Krypton”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Jack Bender reveals unseen art from a 1940 Superman story that could’ve changed comics history!

The Reich Strikes Back . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 A close look at Superman vs. the Nazis in the real world, by Dwight R. Decker.

A Box of Markers And Tummy Tattoos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 A brief interview with this issue’s cover artist Michael Golden, by Renée Witterstaetter.

“Maybe I’m In The Wrong End Of This Business!”. . . . . . . . 35 1950s artist Lou Cameron tells Jim Amash about drawing for Story, Ace, and Dell.

Secret History of All-American Comics, Inc.: ”1940s-50s Media Blitz” . 55 Bob Rozakis shows us a world in which things happened—a wee bit differently.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! Twice-Told Spirit! . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Michael T. Gilbert showcases the Spirit stories that did double duty for Will Eisner.

Comic Fandom Archive: Our Digger Mate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 At last! John Wright has his say about 1960s-70s Australian fan & historian John Ryan.

A Tribute to Steve Gerber (1947-2008) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 re: [comments, correspondence, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . 74 FCA (Fawcett Collectors Of America) #136 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 P.C. Hamerlinck ushers in Marc Swayze and more awesome art by Basil Wolverton. On Our Cover: The meteoric career of Michael Golden may lie a bit outside the ordinary scope of Alter Ego’s chronological franchise, but the subject matter of this gorgeous recent illustration—the world’s flagship super-hero battling tanks, in the spirit of the WWII-era cover depicted on p. 27— made it the perfect cover for this issue spotlighting Superman. Our thanks to Michael and to Renée Witterstaetter. [Superman TM & ©2008 DC Comics; other art ©2008 Michael Golden.] Above: In last month’s ad for this edition of A/E, we promised you Jerry Ordway art—and what better way to keep our word than with the cover of DC Challenge #12 (Oct. 1986), the final issue of that roisterous “round robin” series. It depicts Siegel & Shuster’s creation leading the super-hero pack— a fitting launch to this issue. Thanks to Jerry for the photocopy of the original art. [©2008 DC Comics.] 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

A Superman For All Seasons

very so often, I feel the need to devote most of an issue of Alter Ego to Superman. Oddly, I never feel that same urge with regard to Batman—or Spider-Man—or even Conan the Barbarian (not that I don’t think each of those heroes also deserves being spotlighted in an issue now and then, mind!). Although not a rabid Superman fan since I left childhood, I feel this urge because the Man of Steel was the first, and to me remains the ultimate, comic book super-hero. The one who, whatever his literary or artistic forebears, launched a genre—and, in an equally true sense, an entire industry. (And besides, this time, it’s been exactly 70 years ago that Supes flung his first flivver, on the cover of Action Comics #1! Happy birthday, Kal!)

Chris Knowles couldn’t be squeezed in at the last moment, and must appear in some future issue—hopefully not having to wait for the next Superman showcase in A/E. My abject apologies to all three. One personal indulgence: because of both the Superman focus, and the parallel-world pyrotechnics of Bob Rozakis’ fantasy chapter that begins on p. 55, here’s a photo of Yers Truly with the ever-lovely, ever-gracious Noel Neill, the movies’ first and foremost Lois Lane… taken by Jody McGhee at a 2005 mini-convention (in Rock Hill, South Carolina, if memory serves). There’ve gotta be some perks to spending all this time every few weeks putting together a magazine about comic books!

So, naturally, once again, as we used to say back in Missouri, my eyes were bigger than my stomach—with the unfortunate end result that articles prepared by my honored colleagues Mike W. Barr, Alberto Becattini, and

Bestest,

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Superman’s 70th! Celebrating The Talent Of Seven Of The Man Of Steel’s Top Early Illustrators

A/E

by Eddy Zeno

EDITOR’S NOTE: Eddy Zeno, a longtime contributor to this magazine, is also the author of Curt Swan: A Life in Comics, published by Vanguard Press (2002). He prepared this salute to a septet of major “Superman” illustrators in honor of the super-hero’s 70th year in print. Regrettably, we didn’t have room to run all the art Eddy supplied, but we’ve done our best in the space available. (One Joe Shuster sketch he sent appears on p. 12, accompanying Brad Ricca’s interview with Joe’s sister Jean.) Now, onward… after we pass on Eddy grateful thanks to all those who’re acknowledged below. Most art images in this article are first- or second-generation copies of the original art. The photos of the creators have been added by Ye Editor.

Joe Shuster (July 10, 1914-July 30, 1992) In 1935, with partner Jerry Siegel, Joe first began working for the company that would eventually become DC Comics, back when it was still owned by Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson. He is seen above at a 1980s San Diego Comic-Con. [Photo ©2008 Charlie Roberts.] (Left:) When he was a young artist assisting Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson on “Batman” stories in the early 1940s, the late George Roussos talked various already-veteran pros into drawing sketches for him. This one by Joe Shuster is truly amazing, since it depicts not only Superman—but Batman, whom Joe virtually never drew! And Jerry Siegel signed it, as well. George's sketchbook of such drawings was recently auctioned off by Heritage Comics, but the sharp-eyed Dominic Bongo and Jerry K. Boyd each sent us a photocopy of this one for our special Superman & Shuster issue! [Superman & Batman TM & ©2008 DC Comics.]

Seven Of The Man Of Steel’s Top Early Illustrators

Wayne Boring (June 5, 1905 – Feb. 20, 1987) Answering an ad Jerry Siegel put in Writer’s Digest, Boring began working for the Shuster studio in 1938. When Siegel and Shuster sued the parent company to regain ownership of the Superman character around 1947, he was fired by them and immediately hired by DC. He became the hero's most important penciler for the next decade and more. The photo shows Wayne Boring and his wife Lois (center), their daughter on the left, and collector Charlie Roberts on the right. [Photo ©2008 Charlie Roberts.] (Above:) The right half of a Wayne Boring panel from a 1947 Superman daily was rescued from the waste bin many years ago. The strip was cut in two before being tossed out! Inker may be Stan Kaye. Thanks to Ron Fernandez. [©2008 DC Comics.] (Below:) This can be contrasted with this Boring original (no pun intended!) from 1965. [©2008 DC Comics.]

Superman’s 70th!

Jack Burnley (Jan. 11, 1911 – Dec. 19, 2006) Jack worked for DC directly from 1940-47. Unlike Boring and most other early “Superman” artists, he never worked for Siegel and Shuster. There’s a nice irony to the self-portrait of Burnley above, in which he drew a sketch to point out the fact that he no longer did sketches. From the collection of Thorstein Bruemmel. For photos of Burnley, see The Alter Ego Collection, Vol. 1, available from TwoMorrows. [©2008 Estate of Jack Burnley.] The 1990 Burnley Superman reproduction at top right stems from the cover of Action Comics #107 (April 1947), which is seen above left. [©2008 DC Comics.] Burnley left DC (and comics) to return to what he had done before— sports cartooning, this time for the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph newspaper. The drawing at right is circa 1950 and was long the property of its subject, Baseball Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner. Thanks to Sean Conlon. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Seven Of The Man Of Steel’s Top Early Illustrators

Fred Ray (Feb. 4, 1920 [?] – Jan. 23, 2001) First hired to work in DC’s bullpen in 1940, his varied assignments included drawing early “Superman” product art licensed by the company, as well as comic book covers, many of which became classics. The photo of a young Fred Ray appeared with articles on the artist in Alter Ego #19, courtesy of Roger Hill. Shown at right is Superman greeting-card art attributed to Ray from the Quality Art Novelty Company of New York City and dated “Nov. 11, 1940” on the back. With thanks to Linda Monaco. [©2008 DC Comics.] (Below left:) One of the most famous Superman covers ever is that of issue #14 (Jan.-Feb. 1942); the original art is in the collection of Ray’s fellow bullpenner and friend, Jerry Robinson. The image is taken from the catalog of the 2004 comic art exhibition at the William Bremen Jewish Heritage Museum in Atlanta, Georgia. (Robinson was guest curator.) [©2008 DC Comics.] (Below right:) In the early 1980s, Joe Shuster himself drew his take on that cover at the behest of two fans and friends, Jim Hambrick and the late Gary Coddington. Thanks to Jim Hambrick and the Supermuseum in Metropolis, Illinois. [Superman TM & ©2008 DC Comics.]

Superman’s 70th!

Winslow Mortimer (May 1, 1919 – Jan. 11, 1998) This photo of the artist originally appeared in the 1975 Mighty Marvel Comic Convention program book. After being discharged from the Canadian Army in 1943, Win continued to work for the war effort through the Ministry of Information. The poster shown at right is likely from that period. Thanks to Sean Menard.

Hired by DC in 1945, Mortimer soon became chief cover artist for the “Superman” and “Batman” books. In 1949 he also assumed the job of illustrating the Man of Steel’s newspaper dailies from his friend Wayne Boring, continuing until 1956, when he left the company for twelve years. The daily pictured above is from March 28, 1952. Thanks to Ron Fernandez. [©2008 DC Comics.]

Seven Of The Man Of Steel’s Top Early Illustrators

Al Plastino (Dec. 15, 1921 - ) When he was interviewed in A/E #69, Al sent a 1957 photo of himself with fellow golfers Jackie Gleason and Fred Waring; to see the whole pic, you’ll have to order a copy of the issue (see ad bloc at end of issue). Al went to work for DC circa early 1948, illustrating the adventures of the Man of Steel. First trying to mimic Wayne Boring, it wasn’t long before the artist made the character his own. At present, though he’s taken on no major projects in several months, Al says he can’t quit drawing. Shown at right are two recent sketch pages—and (below) a Dec. 2006 self-portrait in which he finally meets his most famous assignment. Courtesy of the artist. [Superman TM & ©2008 DC Comics; other art ©2008 Al Plastino.]

Superman’s 70th!

Curt Swan (Feb. 17, 1920 – circa June 12, 1996) This photo of the artist was taken in 1969, for Cartoonist PROfiles magazine, and appeared in Eddy Zeno’s book on Curt Swan. [©2008 Cartoonist PROfiles.] Starting at DC in the fall of 1945, he drew such features at “Tommy Tomorrow.” The page at far right from Action Comics #159 (Aug. 1951) was penciled by Swan and inked by John Fischetti. Thanks to Raul Wrona. [©2008 DC Comics.]

(Left:) By the mid-1950s Swan would be firmly established as a “Superman” artist and would continue a run with the character that remains the longest to date. This Superman drawing is one of two that he donated as prizes for a 1990s contest in the Kryptonian’s real-life birthplace: Cleveland, Ohio. Thanks to Jay Mampel. [Superman TM & ©2008 DC Comics.]

Happy 70th Birthday, Superman! These guys helped you make it this far!

A Swan-drawn daily from an unsold mid-1950s newspaper comic strip. Called Yellow Hair, it was written by comics veteran France (Ed) Herron. Thanks to Peter Koch. [©2008 Estates of Curt Swan & France Herron]

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“I Was Just The Kid Sister Peeking Around The Corner” JEAN SHUSTER PEAVY Talks About Her Big Brother JOE— Co-creator Of Superman

Interview by Brad Ricca

hen we think of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, we think of them, irrevocably, as a duo. But for many of their adventures in Cleveland, Ohio, they had another accomplice: Joe’s little sister Jean. Now 85 and living in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Jean Shuster Peavy is our last, best link to her brother Joe. When I first wrote Jean last spring, I wasn’t sure if I was even writing to the right person. When she did respond, in a chunky blue cursive on flowered stationery, I was very excited. Because, like any little sister, she has lots to say. In this partial transcript of our talk, Jean dispels some of the standard, seldom-questioned myths about her brother as a geeky teen afraid of girls and gives us a fuller picture of the artist who, before (and better than) anyone else, visually defined the super-hero with that jaw, that hair, and that squint. Like a few other people closely tied to the Superman mythos, Jean was taken aback by some of the material in

Gerard Jones’ Eisner Award-winning book Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book (2004). Much of this is due to the unfortunate lack—and imbalance—of factual material we have on “The Boys.” For, while Siegel and Shuster are still thought of (rightly, wonderfully so) as true collaborators, we have always known more about Jerry than we do about Joe. Is it because of their differing personalities? Or because (as Jones also states) myth has become so entwined with fact when it comes to Superman? Either way, there is more we can learn, especially from Jean in this interview, conducted on June 24, 2005, over a very long phone call stretched from New Mexico to Cleveland. Plus, she sings. —Brad Ricca. BRAD RICCA: Let’s start with Gerard Jones’ book Men of Tomorrow. What did you think of it? JEAN SHUSTER PEAVY: He [Gerard Jones] never interviewed me, so he can’t get into Joe’s personal life like he did. As I read it, it sounds to me like—well, I know Joe and Jerry were nerds in high school, but they got out of that. [laughs] I mean, Jerry got married, but my brother Joe didn’t remain a nerd. As a matter of fact, when he first got out of high school, he met a girl. They were going together and were pretty serious. BR: So he wasn’t a nerd? PEAVY: No. He always drew pictures of Superman for anybody, you know, if they met him and he was asked. He was always willing to do that. Gerard Jones was only guessing. There might have been some girl… maybe he took her out for a soda. If you

Superman, Joe, And The Ladies (Above:) Jean Shuster Peavy in the 1980s, flanked by Christopher (Superman) Reeve and her brother Joe, co-creator of the Man of Steel. Thanks to Jean & Brad Ricca. (Left:) A 1980s rendering by Joe Shuster (in color, yet!) of Superman and cousin Supergirl—the latter a character he may never have drawn on any other occasion! A real collector’s item— and David Siegel (no relation to Jerry!), who for years has specialized in locating Golden Age artists on behalf of comics conventions, is the collector for whom Joe did it! Thanks for sharing it, Dave. [Superman & Superman TM & ©2008 DC Comics.]

Jean Shuster Peavy Talks About Her Big Brother Joe

Win, Place, And Show A vintage Shuster sketch (drawn circa 1960) of the type of showgirl Joe liked to date in the early years of “Superman” success. The inscription reads: “Just like Mae West.” Thanks to Eddy Zeno—and to Charlie Roberts, from whose personal collection it comes. [©2008 Estate of Joe Shuster.]

really want to know, ask me! The way [the book] made it sound, Joe couldn’t get a girl! Actually, Joe loved tall, beautiful showgirls and models and [laughter] he dated a lot of them! He was what you call a “Stagedoor Johnny.” I don’t know if you ever heard of that expression, but if he would see a girl in a show... for instance, one was in The Red Mill, a beautiful opera, and boy, he thought that girl, one of the leading ladies, was beautiful and talented! He went backstage and brought her flowers and asked her out to supper, and they began dating. He’d meet her every night and take her out, he’d bring her radios, flowers, little gifts. I went out with them on a double date… they really liked each other…but this was more of a fantasy for him; it wasn’t anything serious. He dated a lot of girls—beautiful ones—he’d just pick the most beautiful models and girls! He met a lot of them. He got around a lot in New York [laughs] when he was there… dealing with a lot of famous people, a lot of showpeople—one person knows another, etc. BR: So Superman gave him some confidence? PEAVY: Yes. He was a nerd in high school, no question about that. You know he and Jerry were just skinny kids at the drawing board all the time. Joe tried to build himself up... this was back in the ’30s. Joe tried weightlifting, and he ran in track in high school. Jesse Owens had been an Olympic champion several years before—but Joe ran track besides going to the gym a couple times a week and, you know, lifting weights. He would try to eat steak and drink a couple quarts of milk to build himself up, to gain the weight. Unfortunately, he eventually he gained too much, [laughs] but really he didn’t gain too All’s Fair… much weight until Joe in the 1940s, with an unidentified neighbor—and a after he lost DC house ad for the 1939 New York World’s Fair Comics, Superman and with an inset Superman drawing by Shuster. Most likely went into poverty. it was Photostatted from a story panel and finished off But up until 1947, when they lost the lawsuit, he was just… strong and built

by a staff artist—who, in his haste, forgot to add the trademark “S” on his chest! And of course it’s widely known nowadays that Supes’ hair was colored yellow on that actual comic book cover! Nobody would make a mistake like that just a year or two later. Thanks to Richard Pryor for the ad—and to Jean Shuster Peavy & Brad Ricca for the photo. [Art ©2008 DC Comics.]

well and looked well and aggressive enough to date these gorgeous girls! It was after they lost the lawsuit that they went into depression, both Joe and Jerry. That was a very sad story in the history of the comic book field. And I think Gerard Jones pretty well presented the comic book industry side of it, talking about Donenfeld and Leibowitz and who they were. I think he did a pretty good job. BR: So what was it like growing up in Glenville [Ohio]? PEAVY: When we lived there, everybody was poor, but I don’t think it was run down. But it was still one of the poorer neighborhoods. I remember going out and shopping with my parents every Saturday night. And Joe was always with Jerry, you know; they would just stay at home. They didn’t chase girls in those days, not at all, because they were just too busy getting ideas. It depends on what period of time we’re talking about. They had a little bit of money when they began selling their first early comics. I remember we did not have a radio until I was 12 years old, so actually we didn’t even have a radio in the house until Joe was 18 and began earning money from the comics. All we had was what you’d call a Victrola. And I remember we had records, and that was about it. I remember we had some Dinah Shore and Ella Fitzgerald; that was before Frank Sinatra came along. They had some good old music, but that’s all we ever had. Can you imagine growing up in a home: no television, no video games, not even a radio? BR: So you hung out with both of them? PEAVY: I’m six years younger than Joe. And so I’d tag along with [both of] them, they’d be my babysitter. I remember Jerry would say “Hey, look

“I Was Just The Kid Sister Peeking Around The Corner”

It’s Super, Boy! (Left:) Another real collector’s item—seen in Les Daniels’ Superman: The Complete History a few years back. It’s a 1945 birthday card drawn by Joe Shuster for artist Steve Brody (who in the 1940s inked “Green Arrow,” et al.) and signed by numerous artists, writers, and editors, including Whit Ellsworth, Bill Finger, Jack Liebowitz, Win Mortimer, Jack Schiff, Mort Weisinger, Bernie Breslauer, Ira Schnapp (who probably lettered the original version of the famous “Superman” logo), Emil Gershwin, Raymond Perry, Bob McCay, and others. It’s ironic, of course, that when Joe drew this card he clearly had no beef with DC over its introducing the Superboy character in 1945—but a year or so later he would join Jerry in the lawsuit against DC caused by its debuting the character while Siegel was in the armed services during World War II. [Superboy TM & ©2008 DC Comics.] (Below:) A DC full-page house ad for Superboy #1 (March-April 1949). Cover art penciled by Wayne Boring. [©2008 DC Comics.]

how we can get people’s attention!” He said “Look, up in the sky! Look! What is it? Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No? What’s up there?” and all the kids would hang around and everybody would look at the sky. He was a prankster, you know, but there was nothing up there, so he would make it sound like there was. That was before the days of flying saucers, before 1947. They were always so enthusiastic and full of ideas and so full of enthusiasm. I was just the kid sister peeking around the corner, you know. [laughter] I do remember they were trying to learn how to dance—this is something no one would know—because they were going to go to some kind of a dance at Euclid Beach or somewhere. And I remember the boys wanted to practice. I was about 13 years old, maybe, by then, and they would take turns dancing with me, you know, practicing dancing me with me. [laughs] BR: That’s a great story. PEAVY: I know. And who would know it but me? BR: That’s true. Going back a bit, you seem to be saying that things changed for the good— and for the bad—once they sold “Superman.” What is your perspective on what happened with the infamous contract? PEAVY: At that time it was routine for a writer/artist to be paid by the page, and so they got paid $10 a page. Now when Joe and Jerry were going to sign the first Superman [contract] and they wanted to have a lawyer with them, Donenfeld said, “No no no, I don’t want to [have] anything legal involved.” He had no idea what he had. But nevertheless, Joe and Jerry were trying from ’33 to ’38 to get Superman published and kept being turned down by every syndicate and by everybody, and here this new company said that they’d take it. So Donenfeld says “Alright, you don’t want to sign it, go somewhere else, you know I don’t need it.” So Joe and Jerry—they had no idea that it was going to become such a big hit,

because they already had been selling many of their comic characters like “Slam Bradley.” Do you know him? BR: “Slam” is great. PEAVY: That was very good. That was the one that was closest to “Superman.” They stated out with “Interplanetary Police”—that was for Fun Comics or one of those. They did “Dr. Occult,” they did “Spy,” they did “Radio Squad,” they did a lot of them. But they were saving “Superman” because they knew [he] was their best character. They figured, well, a new magazine—well, let’s go ahead and do it, particularly since they’re putting Superman on the cover. So they went ahead, having no idea—you know, when you’re young, you have no ideas of the ways of

Jean Shuster Peavy Talks About Her Big Brother Joe

Two Creators—Three Magazines! (Left:) Joe (seated) and Jerry in a photo that appeared in the Nov. 1941 issue of Coronet magazine. (Our thanks to a regretfully forgotten benefactor.) (Bottom left:) The magazine The Saturday Evening Post for June 21, 1941, featured an article titled “Up, Up, and Awa-a-y! The Rise of Superman, Inc.” by one John Kobler which showcased Jerry and Joe—and publisher Harry Donenfeld. This photo appeared with this text: “‘None of the Shusters can quite grasp what has happened to them.’ Joe (center left) is a bountiful provider for Brother [sic] Frank, Mamma, Papa, Sister Jeanetta.” (Bottom right:) Next to the previous photo was this one of Jerry, with the accompanying text: “Siegel invented Superman in a less luxurious bed, likes to read biographies of factual supermen.” [©2008 the respective copyright holders.] It’s not known for certain whether Joe (let alone Jerry) had anything to do with the never-used frontispiece pictured at the center of this page. It may have been someone’s try-out sample, or a page prepared by an artist in the Shuster art shop and left over when Superman dropped the use of a frontispiece after issue #11 (July-Aug. 1941). But it’s still a well-rendered representation of their archetypal hero. With thanks to George Hagenauer—we think! [Superman TM & ©2008 DC Comics.]

“I Was Just The Kid Sister Peeking Around The Corner”

the world. Donenfeld and Leibowitz say, “Oh, you have our word for it, you’ll do well with this, just go ahead and take your $10 a page.” Well, then, as time went on and they saw that “Superman” was doing better, Joe and Jerry asked for $15 a page and eventually went up to $20 and $25. So they did get more money as they went along. They had submitted “Superboy” to Donenfeld and he refused it. He didn’t want to take “Superboy,” but then Jerry went into the Army and he didn’t get back until 1946, and by then they had taken “Superboy.” By then Joe was just working for them—they had taken “Superboy” and made a whole comic out of [it]. But then they didn’t give Joe and Jerry any compensation for having submitted the idea to them in the first place, so because of that, when Jerry got back from the Army, he was furious. You can’t blame him for that. So he demanded [things], and they weren’t given any bylines on “Superboy.” So they finally did get a byline. DC had said that they were going to give Joe and Jerry [money from] merchandising, [but] they never did get any. They never did give any royalties. In fact, when the first radio show came out, Joe and Jerry got nothing for it. They kept saying “Well, the radio show isn’t making enough money.” [laughs] BR: What happened next? PEAVY: So what happened was that Jerry got really incensed and he decided that he was going to sue for the rights to get back the copyright on “Superboy” and also to try to get back “Superman.” Jerry was going to go to a big lawyer: Ernst and Ernst, [who] at that time was Jackie Kennedy’s attorney—a pretty big lawyer. On his way to going to Ernst and Ernst, Jerry ran into an old lawyer friend from the Army whom he had become very close with. You know, you become buddies when you’re with somebody in the Army. And his buddy said “Hey, I’m outta the Army and I need a case, let me handle your case.” Well, it was [his] first case, so it ended up where Siegel and Shuster did not get back the copyright to “Superman,” and for “Superboy” were given [some money]. By the time they got through paying the lawyers [and] their income taxes, they each ended up with about $12,000, which left them, after 1949, in pretty much poverty. And it almost seemed like they were blackballed, because none of the other syndicates wanted to hire them for to do anything. They came up with another character named “Funnyman,” based on Danny Kaye. I don’t know, it just didn’t seem to make a big hit, which was It’s Funny, Man! too bad. So that After the end of their lawsuit with DC, Siegel & Shuster launched Funnyman at Magazine left them pretty Enterprises, a company owned by Vin Sullivan, who (as a DC editor) had bought that much in poverty. very first “Superman” story back in 1938. But lightning didn’t strike twice, and the Jerry went to series ended after six poorly selling issues; shown here is the cover of #4 (May 1948). work; he did a Joe probably had little to do with any of the actual art, but he and Jerry created and little ghost owned the character. [©2008 Estates of Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster.] writing for some magazine. He got those published, but for the most part he didn’t make of the magazines. very much money. I think some of the stories do say that he had to give However, my brother up his apartment in New York, and he came back and lived in the Joe—his eyes became apartment that he had gotten for my mother and father. That was in worse and worse, and I Queens. think a lot of that has to do with the fact that he There he tried to take small jobs, and actually, my brother Frank went into depression. supported him. Frank was working for Nielsen; he did the TV ratings He did some little onecharts. He was a little bit of—not really an artist, but he was good at doing panel cartoons, and he the charts, and he had done all the lettering in the later years for Joe on would occasionally “Superman.” So that all of the lettering that you see in the early years was send them to some my brother Frank’s lettering. When Frank and I visited Paul Levitz, the president of DC comics, up in the office, on a wall all enlarged is one of Joe’s brother, Frank the panels of “Superman” with the balloons and the lettering. Paul Levitz Shuster. With thanks to took Frank and said, “You see? That’s your lettering! Everybody that walks Jean Shuster Peavy & in sees it!” and Frank was very pleased about that. Brad Ricca.

Jean Shuster Peavy Talks About Her Big Brother Joe

she’s married to a producer in Hollywood—and she still does a lot of writing and stuff, including Medium with Patricia Arquette. She’s still very creative. And [laughs] she’s very good friends with Margot Kidder. I have a son [Warren Peavy] who’s written a screenplay called The Superman Chronicles, but he needs somebody to produce it. [laughs] You can write a good screenplay, but finding somebody to produce it is hard. So, as a mother, I’m putting that out there in case anyone knows anybody. [laughs] BR: What was it like when Joe was famous?

“My Whole Family Was Very Creative”

BR: I didn’t know that about Frank doing some of the lettering.

(Left:) Another Frank Shuster—Joe’s uncle, who was part of a famous Canadian comedy team, Wayne and Shuster, that had their own show for decades on CBC, and gained popularity in the US by appearing regularly on The Ed Sullivan Show. Shuster is the guy on the bottom; behind him in Johnny Wayne.

(Right:) Rosie Shuster, that Frank PEAVY: My whole family was very Shuster’s daughter, was a major creative. I was an actress. I started writer on the original Saturday out in radio when I was in Cleveland; Night Live. I started out right as young as I could start. While I was still going to high school in the summer, I did summer stock, at little theatres out in Alliance, Ohio, and Akron, Ohio. Joe would come out in the summertime and see me. I would do one show and the next week I would be studying for another play. I remember that the first play I was ever in was Uncle Tom’s Cabin: I was the [voice rises] little girl that never grew up [laughs]. When we moved into New York, my brother Joe sent me to a drama school, and so I got some professional drama training. Then I did quite a lot of off-Broadway. I didn’t quite make it on to Broadway. [laughs] You’d have a call of 200 people for, you know, one role, but I did a lot of shows.

And then I went on and created my own nightclub act, in which I did singing and comedy. We were always into the comedy. I traveled all over New England and traveled up to Canada and to Bermuda and the Bahamas Islands. I worked a lot in Miami Beach, but that was back in the ’40s and ’50s. I did the nightclubs back in the ’50s. So while my brother was struggling and I was working, doing my singing and comedy act, I didn’t want Joe to be going out and doing these little errand jobs, delivering and ridiculous things, because he couldn’t see anymore very well, so I sent him a weekly check so he could work on ideas. He never was out of ideas. Joe never failed to come up ideas even when he couldn’t actually sit down and do the comic book work himself. We really supported him. He was very good to me, he sent me to drama school, he paid for that. In the beginning, when he first got “Superman,” he bought us a 14-room home in Cleveland, Ohio. Frank [Joe’s uncle] had a variety show on CBC [the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation] for fifty years [as half of the famous team of “Wayne and Shuster”]. Frank had a daughter called Rosie Shuster, and when she grew up a little bit she met a boy in the neighborhood by the name of Lorne Michaels. They went to New York to start their own show, and you know what that is [Saturday Night Live]. They divorced; now

A Really Super Sketch An April 1977 illustration drawn (and colored) by Joe Shuster for comics fan Gary Coddington, and inscribed: “With best personal wishes to a super-guy from the artist-creator of Superman—Joe Shuster.” The original art was 27" x 19"; it’s repro’d here from a 1990s art catalog. [Superman TM & ©2008 DC Comics.]

PEAVY: I went with him to night clubs. And I remember we would go to the Latin Quarter, and I remember Milton Berle—they knew him—I remember Joe was already famous and they recognized him, and Milton Berle said “I want the creator of Superman!” and they had him stand up and take a bow. I remember we went to The Riviera, and Desi Arnez was playing, and he had his orchestra. We sat next to the table of Lucille Ball, and that was before they had done their [TV] show. So when Lucy and her friends got up to go to the ladies’ room, I had a good excuse to go [follow them]—it was a nice big beautiful dressing room with mirrors and chairs. I remember listening to them talk, you know, kind of eavesdropping. [laughs] I had my fun doing that. We went out with very famous people: Danny Rose, Milton Berle, Joe Howard—he’s the one that wrote a lot of the musicals for Betty Grable. He wrote [singing—in a very good voice]: “Hello my honey, hello my baby, hello my ragtime doll…” [laughter] You thought I would just stumble through some answers. I am a Shuster! We’re very creative. [laughs]

“I Was Just The Kid Sister Peeking Around The Corner”

Siegel & Shusters! (Left:) Joe with the aforementioned fan/collector David Siegel, in a photo taken Feb. 21, 1982, by Gary Coddington (for whom, by an amazing coincidence, the drawing on the preceding page was done!). If the gods of repro are kind, you may be able to make out Joe’s color sketch of Superman at the top left of the photo. (Right:) Jean Shuster Peavy—as Brad Ricca says, “a pretty good sister”! Thanks to Jean & Brad for the photo.

tailor shop. Now, my father was a very good tailor, but he was a very poor businessman. He didn’t charge enough for his work, and he didn’t know how to keep the books. So he heard that there was in Cleveland a big manufacturing company that had just opened up making men’s suits. So my father applied for that, and he packed up the family (Joe had just turned 10 at the time), and we moved to Cleveland, and we moved into the neighborhood where Jerry Siegel lived. Joe and Jerry had science-fiction in common with each other, and then they put out a fanzine and started working on their comic strip on our dining room table. And you know the rest.”

BR: Wow, I didn’t know I’d get serenaded. Thank you. So what did you do after show business? PEAVY: I got married, and moved to New Mexico. I taught nutrition and exercise at El Paso Community College [and other places] for 20 years. I also still do nutrition counseling. I haven’t eaten red meat in fifty years— and I’m 85!

So [the host] at the Awards said that “Superman is here on the Earth not because some doomed planet Krypton exploded out in the galaxy, but because of a failed small tailor shop?” [laughs] And everybody laughed. It’s a pretty funny story, isn’t it? BR: [laughs] It is. What would you want people to know most about your brother? PEAVY: He was a great guy. He was just [pause] great, just bubbling, hopeful, enthusiastic, and creative, always popping with ideas. I think the two of them [Joe and Jerry] were just unusual human beings.

BR: There is absolutely no way I can argue with that! [laughs]

BR: And he had a pretty good sister, too!

PEAVY: My son Warren and my husband [Dr. William S. Peavy] also wrote Super Nutrition Gardening (1992), a book on organic gardening. Warren also wrote a book called The Ten Biggest Diet Myths and Greatest Health Secrets Revealed using many years of Medical Department research from New Mexico. I’m very proud of them, and my beautiful daughter, Dawn.

PEAVY: Well, I suppose. [laughs]

BR: Speaking of being proud, this year [2005] you traveled to Toronto for the Shuster Awards, right? PEAVY: The Shusters were very proud of that. Just as the movies have the Oscars, TV has the Emmys, and Broadway has the Tonys, Canadian comic books have the Shusters. If you don’t mind, I want to end with my acceptance speech for Joe being elected to the Hall of Fame for the Shuster Award: [clears throat] “Superman is considered an icon, a legend. But if it hadn’t been for the fact that my father was a poor businessman, Superman would never have existed. We were living in Toronto, Canada, when my grandfather in Holland died and sent all of his children some money. Frank Shuster’s father opened up a movie theatre. Well, my father opened up a small

In following up with Jean since on some other matters (which will be seen in my upcoming project on Superman, Last Son), I learned that Jean is doing great, living (healthily) with her son, daughter, and two grandchildren in New Mexico. She was heartbroken to learn about Dana Reeve’s passing, but was very pleased that Paul Levitz had sent her a personal invitation to the premiere of Superman Returns in Los Angeles. She told me that she had gone with Joe, back in 1978, to the original Superman movie premiere. I asked her if Joe enjoyed the movie, and she replied: “He loved it.” This time, she would be taking her family with her on the red carpet. She wrote Paul Levitz back and thanked him for the tickets, adding, “I hope it’s a blockbuster!” Brad Ricca received his Ph.D. in English at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, where he now teaches. His documentary on Siegel and Shuster, entitled Last Son, premieres later this year. E-mail him at brad.ricca@case.edu

“K” Is For “Krypton” Continuing The Saga Of The Fabled Lost “K-Metal” Story—One Of Superman’s Greatest Adventures! by Roy Thomas ecognize the splash page below, from an early “Superman” story? No, I didn’t think so. Because, to the best of our knowledge, it has never been printed anywhere before this issue of Alter Ego.

Neither have the three pages from the same “Superman” adventure which appear on pp. 22-24. Yet they are from a story which, had it been published soon after it was written and drawn—in 1940—would have changed the way that you, and I, and everyone remember the Man of Steel over all the years since.

“K” Is For “Krypton”

Every comic book aficionado has his or her own “Holy Grail”—that elusive item he/she would most like to find and make the crowning jewel of his/her collection. For some, it’s a particular issue of a comic—for others it’s a page of original artwork from a favorite story, or even just a tantalizing tidbit of knowledge. For me, the Grail has always been to learn something new about the 1940-1951 All-Star Comics. (You didn’t know that? You’re new around here, aren’t you?) And, as a corollary to the above, I’ve kept an eye open for years for any additional art from or information concerning that mostly-lost mid-1940s “Justice Society of America” tale “The Will of William Wilson!”

Clearly, these pages were part of a ground-breaking epic… even though Steranko’s book contains no other mention of it, or anything whatever about its plotline or potential importance to “Superman” continuity, in its tabloid-sized pages. We won’t be printing any of that foursome in this issue of A/E, because Jim hasn’t given us permission to do so, and we intend to respect his wishes, even though any copyright on them clearly belongs to DC Comics. If you want to see those pages, seek out a copy of the landmark Steranko History of Comics, Vol. 1. Bring your magnifying glass. (Incidentally, the four pages reproduced in that tome are pp. 8, 15, 21, and 23 of the story.)

But there’s another comic book story— one that, I freely admit, is far more important historically than that “Will”-o-the-wisp “JSA” exploit—which is and deserves to be the Grail of a number of serious fans, collectors, and comics historians. It’s an early “Superman” adventure— starring the first and greatest comic book super-hero. Nowadays, it’s usually referred to as “The K-Metal Story.” The first thing most of us knew about that epoch-making tale didn’t involve its subject matter at all, but was simply the fact that the first volume of Jim Steranko’s The Steranko History of Comics (Supergraphics, 1970) printed four pages from it, terming it “an unpublished Superman story, circa 1939.” They were all reproduced rather small (3¼” by a little over 5½”), and unfortunately quite a few lines of both text and art either reproduced poorly or dropped out entirely. Still, the pages were intriguing for their very existence—and, even more so, for what they contained! The first depicts the Man of Tomorrow flying down to a landing—only to find that his legs buckle under him at the impact. At the bottom of the page, he’s struck by a car— and, to his great surprise, he’s bowled over! The second illustrates Clark Kent’s first exposure to what is obviously kryptonite, which causes him to collapse. The scientist who shows it to him experiences, at the same time, “a sensation of amazing well being” [sic]. The third has Clark changing to Superman in full view of Lois Lane and other “prisoners of a sealed mine,” sacrificing his secret identity in order to save their lives. (Oddly, too, given the 13-page length of the standard “Superman” outing up through the early 1940s, this page seemed to be numbered “21”!) The fourth is a more standard page than the other three. Still, as Superman flies with Lois in his arms, she says, “This is the first time I’ve seen you doubt your own ability!”

This Page Took A Slow Boat To China—60 Years And Counting! Here’s the final page by the Joe Shuster art shop from the “Superman” story “The Secret of the Chinese Dragon,” from Action Comics #54 (Sept.-Oct. 1954). With thanks to the Heritage Comics Archives, as retrieved by Dominic Bongo. [©2008 DC Comics.]

The Saga of the Fabled Lost “K-Metal” Story

Faster Than A Speeding Radio Wave Comics writer Mark Waid (photo seen in A/E #26) saw both original art and script for the “K-Metal” story in 1988—the year Superman turned the big 5-O. England’s Radio Times magazine saluted him with this cover on its June 4-10, 1988, issue. Artist uncertain. Thanks to Tim Barnes. [©2008 DC Comics.]

Not long afterward, in a 1993 Sotheby’s comic art catalog, I stumbled across an eighth page of the tale, which I had somehow previously overlooked. It was p. 9, and it followed immediately after the one (seen in the Steranko History) in which Supes is knocked for a loop by a speeding auto. On p. 9, he has to strain with all his might to stop the car—and when the angry driver strikes him with a wrench, Superman feels pain for the first time in his life. I reprinted that page in A/E #37 (June 2004), in conjunction with an article by Will Murray, which had been commissioned so he could speculate on “The Secret Origins of the 1940 ‘K-Metal’ Story.” In the piece, Will postulated, with careful reasoning, that the adventure must have been shelved in 1940, even though fully scripted and drawn (by the Shuster art studio). Why wasn’t it published? Most likely: by giving the then all-powerful hero a weakness (“K-Metal,” which was not yet called “kryptonite”), and then by having Superman reveal his secret identity to Lois and other witnesses and even accept Lois as his partner in future endeavors—Siegel had drastically altered the dynamics of the series. And altered them in a direction which DC’s editorial powers-that-be apparently decided they didn’t wish to go. The company swallowed the mild financial loss, rather than simply have a page or two rewritten and redrawn to undo the identity revelation. This would seem to indicate that someone felt strongly that Superman-weakening Krypton fragments should not be introduced into the series. For the K-Metal angle would’ve been a lot harder than the “unmasking” to extricate from the story and still have anything left!

It was a third of a century later—circa 2003—that I first learned that comics writer Mark Waid had seen “far more” than four pages from that unpublished saga at the 1988 Superman Expo held in Cleveland, Ohio. That event celebrated the hero’s 50th anniversary, in the city which had been home to his two creators, writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, when they had conceived and developed him. According to Mark, the pages had been “borrowed and assembled from several sources… with the beginning and ending notably missing.” In November of ’88, Mark, then a staffer at DC, came across what he later described as “a dusty, forgotten ream box filled with faded, blurred carbon copies of typewritten manuscripts” written by Siegel—including one dated “August 7, 1940.” It “weighed in,” he wrote, “at a conspicuously hefty 26 pages,” precisely twice the usual story length! Mark quickly realized that he held in his hands the full manuscript of that long-lost “Superman” tale! He soon both photocopied and even retyped it. And, 15 years later, he mentioned it to me. I quickly prevailed upon him to write an account of his discovery, and an examination of the plot, for A/E #26 (July 2003). It was augmented there by the reproduction of a handful of script pages, and of three pages of the illustrated story (p. 5, p. 13, and an unnumbered p. 11) which had not seen print in the Steranko History. Each of these had been reproduced in some comic art catalog or other, from which I’d culled them. We now had the entire script for the untitled story—and art for a total of 7 of its 26 pages, overall.

Because the story was shelved, it was left to the popular Superman radio program, in 1943, to introduce “kryptonite” (so named) in a story which, as Will writes, has “many and compelling” parallels to the “K-Metal” script—leading one to suspect that someone at the radio show had indeed seen the comics version. Until the long-missing Siegel manuscript turned up, it was generally assumed that it had been the brilliant minds behind the radio show that had come up with kryptonite, when in point of fact it had been Jerry Siegel, all along. (Kryptonite didn’t begin appearing in “Superman” comic book stories, incidentally, until late 1949—but was used in the first Superman movie serial in 1948.) In the four years since Alter Ego #37 was published, two more pages of the story have surfaced. First, Charlie Roberts, a longtime active fan, sent a photo of what we learned was page 7, by comparing it to the script Mark Waid had found. The photo was not particularly sharp, and much of the text on the comics page was virtually impossible to read—but it was all that Charlie had at this late date, and I was overjoyed to print it in the “re:” section of A/E #45. A bit later, reader Peter Jones sent us a nice clean scan of page 20, which immediately precedes the hero's revelation of his secret to Lois, et al. It was duly run in the letters section of issue #51. That brought to ten (out of 26) the number of pages of the “K-Metal” episode that had been reproduced, between The Steranko History of Comics and Alter Ego. Like many other people, naturally, I suspected that other pages almost certainly existed, unless young Mark Waid had seen precisely those ten pages and no others at that 1988 Cleveland exhibit. Where were the first and last pages, for instance?

“K” Is For “Krypton”

Enter Jack Bender. Jack has been a comic book fan and collector for decades, though he is best known as the artist of today’s Alley Oop comic strip—in fact, he’s only the third person, after V.T. Hamlin and David Graue, ever to have a byline on the feature, which has been running for 75 years this annum! (His wife Carole is the fourth person credited; she started out a few years ago as his co-writer on the strip and is now its writer, period.) It seems that, some years back, Jack came into possession of good copies of no less than seven pages from the “K-Metal” story. When he offered to send photocopies of them, I eagerly took him up on it. When they arrived in my mailbox a short time afterward, three of those pages turned out to be ones previously printed in A/E—pp. 5, 9, & 13. But—the other four, to the best of our knowledge, had never been printed anywhere! And, what’s more—they included the story’s splash page! (The one you saw back on p. 18 of this issue, of course.) I asked Jack about possible art accreditation, since by 1940 Joe Shuster (with Jerry Siegel) was running a fair-sized comics shop just to produce “Superman” material, and Jack replied:

“I actually saved something of use! On Dec. 19, 1981, I sent Wayne Boring [one of Joe’s earliest assistants, who originally handled the Superman newspaper strip] a Xerox of the Superman page I own (page 24), asking him to answer the questions you are now asking me. He responded on Dec. 22… that it was likely that Shuster penciled the page (‘could be’ was his actual response) and [it] was ‘drawn’ (I presume he meant ‘inked’) by Leo Nowak, ‘with heads by John Sikela.’ That was a time when all faces of Superman, Clark Kent, Lois, and perhaps others were still inked as well as penciled by Shuster. Boring also said that ‘at the time of which you speak,’ he (Boring) ‘was doing the Sundays and dailies complete,’ adding, ‘Joe’s brother Frank did most of the balloons.’ Glad I could be of some help.” Some help, Jack? You’ve merely added to the public record an additional 40% to the previously published pages of a potentially blockbuster story that never quite got printed! As those who read the first page of Jerry Siegel’s script (printed in A/E #26) are well aware, the adventure was untitled. But that’s par for the course, since it was written and drawn in 1940. After all, it was only in Superman #16 (May-June 1942) that tales in that magazine began having individual titles. Although the caption on the splash hints at the startling nature of what the reader was about to see unfold, the art does not give away any of its secrets—neither Superman’s weakness, nor the K-Metal

A Box Of Serial Alex Wright put together this assemblage of lobby cards from the 1948 movie serial Superman, starring Kirk Alyn and Noel Neill, showing a number of scenes from the first chapter. Kryptonite was utilized in this serial years after its official debut on radio in 1943, but some months before it first appeared in any comic books. [Superman TM & ©2008 DC Comics.]

The Saga of the Fabled Lost “K-Metal” Story

itself, nor the abrupt about-face his relationship to Lois was about to take. The second page sent by Jack (seen below) is a fairly standard one, in which Clark performs a pair of Superman stunts without anyone realizing it—least of all Lois, who’s getting virtually her last opportunity to deride her fellow reporter as a wimp. First his X-ray vision (a relatively new power in those days) allows him to see right through a criminal’s mask

and recognize him… then he knocks down a door, while pretending to be weak and clumsy. This page wouldn’t be out of place in any standard “Superman” epic of the day… but, in a way, that’s the point. Siegel wished to put the two main characters through their usual paces—then alter their relationship for good.

Alley Oop artist Jack Bender. Photo courtesy of The Oklahoma Cartoonists Collection – November [2007] Newsletter. Thanks to Brett Weiss.

“K” Is For “Krypton”

On page 12 Superman protects his Clark Kent identity—by preventing a tramp who’s found and donned his abandoned civvies from rifling through his wallet. Siegel is still using the Man of Tomorrow in standard fashion here—but that secret identity would definitely be endangered species by the time the story ends. (After all, once those several other unnamed people in that “unsealed mine,” as well as Lois, learned that

Kent was Superman, his Clark persona would no longer have any reason for existence. It was one thing to expect Lois to keep his secret; it was highly unlikely that no one among several other witnesses, most of whom are not even named, would tell the world about what they had seen. Still, we can't be sure what, if anything, Siegel intended to do about those additional witnesses—or about Superman's alter ego.)

The Saga of the Fabled Lost “K-Metal” Story

Below is another important page, only two away from story’s end. Superman and Lois have their first (and, as it would turn, out, their last for some years) truly honest conversation, as he admits to having feelings for her, something he’d never done before. And when she suggests that she become not just a “confederate,” but a “partner,” he’s game.

Of course, a secret-identity hero with a female confidant goes back at least as far as another lass named Lane—Margo, by name—in Street &

Smith’s The Shadow pulp magazine. Even at DC Comics, by 1940 writer Gardner Fox had introduced Dian Belmont in “The Sandman” and Shiera Sanders in “Hawkman,” a pair of capable women who’d been let in on their menfolk’s greatest secret. What Jerry was proposing to do—indeed, had done, by writing the episode—was less than radical in terms of superhero-and-girlfriend relationships. But it would have been a monumental change in the saga of Superman!

Would Lois have perhaps soon gained super-powers herself? Will Murray pointed out in his 2004 article that in a published 1940 story, in Superman #6, Lois’ life is saved by a transfusion of Clark’s blood—but that fact would never again be mentioned in a printed comic. Will wondered whether there was perhaps some potential connection between that transfusion and the trademark-establishing ashcan edition of a comic called Superwoman, the cover of which we depicted in A/E #37. Whether or not Lois was to have become Kal-L’s super-partner or not, certainly publication of the “K-Metal” story in 1940, or in fact at any time over the next few decades, would’ve stood the Superman mythos on its head. Whether the end result would’ve been good or ill, it’s impossible to say. Roads not taken must ever remain as unknown as they are untraveled.

But our heartfelt thanks to all those who have contributed to the partial reconstruction of this tale of tales over the years—including Jack Bender. Fourteen of that adventure’s 26 pages have now been accounted for—and if there are more rattling around out there (and there probably are), we won’t rest until we’ve seen them! For this is the story that nearly changed “Superman” forever! NOTE: Jack Bender will return before this year is out with a short history of Alley Oop, the classic comic strip which in 2008 is celebrating its 75th anniversary. Oh, and to pick up a copy of any of the earlier editions of A/E mentioned in this article, please see TwoMorrows’ ad bloc on pp. 87 ff. of this issue.

The Reich Strikes Back A Close LOOK At The Nazis Vs. Superman in 1940 by Dwight R. Decker

The Persistence Of A Legend

t’s no secret that Superman fought against the Nazis in World War II. But—did the Nazis fight against him?

A persistent rumor about Superman is that the character was denounced during the Second World War by no less a personage than Dr. Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, during a fiery speech to the Reichstag, the German parliament. The reason for the tirade, the story goes, was a comic book sequence or cover in which Superman was shown demolishing a line of German forts on the Atlantic coast. One version of

the story, as given in Time magazine (April 9, 1965) quoting an Italian Communist newspaper, even has Dr. Goebbels exclaiming that “This ‘Superman’ is a Jew!”—presumably in reference to the ethnic origin of Superman’s creators. However, the actual story isn’t quite so neatly packaged. Anton Hermus, a Dutch comics expert, was sufficiently intrigued by the rumor of Goebbels’ denunciation of Superman that in 1987 he decided to research it further, hoping to find out exactly what Goebbels said, in what context, and when. But, after reading through collections of Reichstag speeches and corresponding with various historical associations, Hermus

Superman Vs. The Master Race Over-eager writers have occasionally made much of the fact that, on the cover of the Nov.-Dec. 1941 issue of Superman, the Man of Steel is shown attacking a warboat bearing insignia that resembles a German cross—or that the Dec. 1941 issue of Action Comics featured a paratrooper emblazoned with an actual swastika. In truth, of course, these covers—repro’d here from editions of the Superman Archives and Superman: Action Comics Archives—were prepared at least in the middle of the year, and would’ve been on sale at least two or three months before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, with Nazi Germany declaring war on the United States a few days later. Nor did any stories inside these issues have any relation whatever to the Second World War. But, oddly, there actually was a Superman/Nazi skirmish in print as early as 1940! [©2008 DC Comics.]

The Reich Strikes Back

came to the conclusion that the story, at least in its traditional form, is a myth. One appearance of this story in print, pointed out to me recently by comics fan and translator Marc Miyake, is the introductory essay “The Man of Tomorrow and the Boys of Yesterday,” by Dennis Dooley, for his and Gary Engle’s 1987 Octavia Press book Superman at Fifty: The Persistence of a Legend: “Indeed, the Nazis took such a whale of a beating at the hands of Siegel and Shuster’s hero, both on land and in the air, that Nazi Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels himself is said to have bounded to his feet in the middle of a Reichstag meeting waving an American comic book and furiously denouncing Superman as a Jew.” “Persistence of a Legend” is an unusually apt subtitle here. No documented source for the Goebbels story is given. It’s “said” that it happened—but who says it? The story has been picked up and passed on, some variations even replacing Goebbels with Hitler, as in Gerard Jones’ book Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters and the Birth of the Comic Book (Basic Books, 2004, page 162): “Hitler had already denounced Superman as a Jew and banned him...” So far as can be determined, Superman was never denounced by Dr. Goebbels or anyone else in any Reichstag speech. This makes sense, when you think about it. With a war on in Europe by late 1939, top-ranking Nazi officials had more on their minds than some relatively minor manifestation of American popular culture. Further, if a high-placed Nazi official had made such a spectacle of himself in a public place like the Reichstag to denounce a fictional American character, it should have made international news. But no mention of such an incident has as yet been found either in contemporary press accounts or in histories of the war published since.

over the “i” in “Siegel”), which can be translated as “Jerry Siegel Steps In!,” reproduces a visual sequence in which Superman destroys a line of German forts, thus matching the legend to a considerable degree. This being 1940, however, the fortifications are the German “West Wall” that faced the infamous Maginot Line on the border with France, not the French Atlantic coast. The strip simply shows Superman demolishing the bunkers, then polishing off an attacking airplane. At the end, he delivers Hitler and Stalin to a meeting of the League of Nations, announcing: “Gentlemen, I’ve brought before you the two power-mad scoundrels responsible for Europe’s present ills. What is your judgment?” This story was clearly written and drawn during the 1939-1941 period when Hitler and Stalin had a Non-aggression Pact (signed in late August 1939) and had divided Poland between them under a secret clause in that agreement. In American popular literature of the time, Stalin was frequently lumped in with Hitler and Mussolini as one of Europe’s villainous dictators. And, in fact, the USSR was virtually an ally of Nazi Germany. Later, when Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in June of 1941, that perception did a sudden about-face, and Stalin found himself on the unlikely side of the angels.

“LOOK! Up In The Sky!” Hermus then wondered where the reproduced “Superman” sequence originated, as it begins almost too abruptly for a typical comic book story. Could it even be a German forgery? Since I was writing a column for the comics fan-magazine Amazing Heroes at the time and had mentioned in print that I could read both Dutch and German, Hermus got in touch with me and asked me to see what I could find out.

Das Schwarze Korps The next question Anton Hermus addressed was whether the myth had any connection at all with reality. Surely the legend had started somewhere. After further research, Hermus finally came up with the probable source of the story: an article in the April 25, 1940, issue of Das Schwarze Korps (The Black Corps), the newspaper of Hitler’s SS. (From my own reading, I’ve gathered that Das Schwarze Korps was more than just a house organ for the Schutzstaffel: it had a more freewheeling editorial policy than most of the Nazi press, covered a broad range of topics, and was widely read outside the SS.) According to Hermus, this particular article appeared on a page that the newspaper customarily reserved for amusing or lightweight pieces.

It’s the Feb. 27, 1940, issue of Look magazine, one of the popular picture magazines of the day (in the style of the even more popular Life), which sports a cover of Rita Hayworth billed as the “Best-Dressed Girl in Hollywood.” Up towards the top of the cover, beneath the logo and a blurb for an article in which bandleader Tommy Dorsey answers Artie Shaw on the subject of jitterbugs, is this caption: “‘SUPERMAN’ Captures Hitler and Stalin.” (Bear in mind the world situation in early 1940: World War II has broken out in Europe but France hasn’t fallen yet, Hitler and Stalin are still allies, and the uneasily neutral United States won’t enter the war for another year and a half.)

Reflections The article, entitled “Jerry Siegel Greift ein!“ (with a little Star of David

I knew the Superman strip wasn’t a forgery because I had seen it before, but couldn’t remember where. I recalled seeing ads in the Comics Buyer’s Guide from Danny Fuchs of Brooklyn, who bills himself “America’s Foremost Superman Collector.” I’m ready to go along with him there, because in response to my query he sent me something that turned out to be an important piece of the puzzle.

Nazi Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, seated beneath a portrait of his Führer, Adolf Hitler, his own image reflected in a shiny tabletop.

Inside, we find a 3-page feature, two pages of it given over to a Superman comic strip written and drawn

A Close LOOK At The Nazis Vs. Superman In 1940

especially for Look. The scant text accompanying the article bears reprinting because it captures the flavor of that bygone era when Superman was new and different. At this stage of his career, Superman appeared not only in comic books but in a syndicated newspaper comic strip where he probably saw his greatest exposure. “SUPERMAN: New Comic Strip Hero Proves There’s Big Money in Fantasy. “An imaginary man popped out of an imaginary planet less than two years ago. Today he is one of the most popular of all comic strip characters. He is Superman, a character who combines the best talents of a Robin Hood and a god, and every day his feats of strength, speed and benevolence bring thrills to millions of newspaper and comic magazine readers. “Co-fathers of this amazing character are Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, both under 30. As boyhood friends in Cleveland, Siegel and Shuster dreamed of what they would do if they were the world’s strongest men. Superman is the extension of their dream, and proof that Americans still like their fantasy raw.”

The following two pages are dedicated to the strip itself, which is introduced this way: “Siegel and Shuster gave Superman a big job in this episode, when they assigned him to solve the international situation just for Look, but such tasks are nothing new for him. He once stopped a war ‘somewhere in South America’ by dumping a munitions profiteer into the trenches for a dose of his own medicine. On another occasion he plucked two opposing generals from their tents and told them to settle their differences with bare fists. They knew no ‘differences,’ shook hands and made peace.” And the strip itself? There’s no doubt about it. This is what annoyed the Germans and inspired the subsequent article in Das Schwarze Korps roughly two months later. [NOTE: See art on next two pages.] A copy of that issue of Look had evidently found its way to Europe and had bothered somebody enough to elicit a sarcastic response.

“Jerry Siegel Steps In!”

The reply appeared in Das Schwarze Korps in April, in the “He Can Bend Steel With His Bare Hands!” form of an unsigned article. The Jan. 1941 issue of Action Comics was the second in the row that sported Illustrating it were the same photo a swastika, yet with no war or other propaganda content in the stories of Jerry Siegel at the typewriter that inside. Superman’s actions, though, are similar to what he had done to the had appeared in Look and a portion Germans’ Westwall in the 1940 issue of Look. [©2008 DC Comics.] of the strip (significantly omitting the panels where Hitler is shown cringing or being roughed up), probably shot directly from the printed Look pages. From the way the article is written, it seems likely the unknown author had no knowledge of And We Do Mean “LOOK”! “Superman” other than what he read in the Look article. The strip was A certificate for the “Supermen of America” club is shown, featuring its printed in Look in one color, for example, and Das Schwarze Korps’s motto, “Strength, Courage, Justice,” and the caption, “Fifty thousand kids writer assumes from it that Superman has red trunks but a white cape. My own certificates like this—evidence that they belong to the Superman guess is that a low-level staffer was simply handed a copy of that issue of Club.” Look and told to make something out of it. At the bottom of the first page are three photographs. The first, which shows kids looking at comic books on a newsstand magazine rack, is captioned: “Action Comics, with regular installments of Superman, leads the field of comic magazines (latest publishing sensation) with 600,000 copies a month, and Superman Quarterly sells a million. Newspaper syndication reaches 4,500,000 readers daily.” The second photo has a jaunty young man posed at a typewriter: “Jerry Siegel writes a detailed script for Superman, with dialogue and action, after the sequences have been discussed and plotted in a six-man conference, composed of Siegel, Shuster, two editors, the publisher and the circulation manager.” The third and final photo captures another young man, this one intent on inking a Superman page on a drawing board. “Shuster follows Siegel’s script for his drawings. One of the team’s brighter ideas was to give Superman a double identity; as a timid, bespectacled reporter, Clark Kent, he scores scoops on his own amazing deeds.”

Following is the text of that article, translated by yours truly. Where necessary, I have inserted clarifying notes in italics. The article is of course anti-Semitic and attacks Siegel largely because he is Jewish, but it may shed some light on a hitherto obscure corner of comic book history.

JERRY SIEGEL STEPS IN! Once upon a time there was a man who was so strong he could stop an oncoming express train with his ring finger; however, he wouldn’t do it. —Folk tale from Des Moines, Iowa, USA Sealing wax stinks! —Massachusetts proverb. [NOTE: The pun in that last item is that the German word “Siegel” means “seal,” as in sealing wax. —Dwight.]

The Reich Strikes Back

Public Enemies #1 & #2 Captured The first 3 and final 2 panels (out of a total of 15) from the “Superman” story in the Feb. 27, 1940 issue of Look. The SS magazine Das Schwarze Korps reproduced roughly this material. The entire two-page story was reprinted—though in full color, not black-white-&-red—in the 2005 trade paperback Superman in the Forties. Since Stalin was probably responsible for at least as many deaths as Hitler, they made a good pair… though after June 22, 1941, the West soft-pedaled opposition to Stalin and Soviet Communism for the duration of the war. [©2008 DC Comics.]

A Close LOOK At The Nazis Vs. Superman In 1940

Jerry Siegel, a spiritually as well as physically circumcised man whose headquarters is in New York, is the creator of an artistically conceived character graced with a healthy appearance, a powerful physique, and red swimming trunks, who flies through the air with the help of a white cape. This navigator of the skies, on whom a generous nature has bestowed an overblown musculature in place of much of an intellect, has been dubbed “Superman” by the clever Israelite, which is English for Übermensch. And in various announcements as well as advertisements concocted with an eye to promoting his little business. Mr. Siegel lauds Superman’s heroic courage and sense of justice as qualities fitting to be imitated by America’s youth. See? There’s nothing these Sadducees [i.e., Jews] can’t make money from once they get their hands on it! Jerry has been scouting the world and he sees something stirring in the distance, something that disturbs him. He has heard of Germany’s reawakening, of Italy’s renewal. In short, he has heard of the latest flowering of manly virtues that has swept Europe time and time again since the days of Rome and Greece. “That’s fine!” cries Jerry, smacking his lips, and he decides to appropriate the idea of manly virtue as an import item, to be distributed among America’s young people in his own way. Thus began the “Superman,” whose philosophy and way of life we will now demonstrate for our readers, with a few striking examples chosen for their sheer perversity. We see the Superman foregoing all strategic genius and tactical cleverness, storming the West Wall with his bare hands. In a shadowy bunker we see some German soldiers, who have dressed for the occasion of their meeting with the American daredevil by borrowing some uniforms from a military history museum. Their faces seem to show both desperation and merriment at the same time. We see the biceps boy in a new, even more spectacular pose, bending the Krupp-steel barrels of German cannon into pretzels with his massive arms. “Who cares about concrete!” he exclaims in the next picture, and with a well-placed fist he smashes the bunkers like rotten tomatoes. [NOTE: That’s wrong. What Superman actually said in that panel was “Come and get ‘em!,” inviting the French troops on the other side of the lines to do what they wanted with the now defenseless German soldiers. The writer may have been puzzled by the

American colloquialism, however, and simply substituted something else that seemed to make sense, figuring no one would notice since that particular panel wasn’t going to be reprinted. —Dwight.] The true meaning of what Superman is all about is shown once he is in flight. He hurls himself into the air to knock off the propeller of an approaching German airplane with his naked fists. To judge from the dialogue, the unfortunate acrobat has evidently had the bad luck of running across a Jewish aviator. At least that’s the impression left by the pilot’s cry, “Himmel! Voss is diss?” [NOTE: Apparently the phonetic spelling of comic-book German here has been mistaken by the native German reader for a Jewish accent. —Dwight.] The American answer, “Well, here it is!,” seems out of place to us. [NOTE: It ought to. From the word balloon’s position in the panel, “Well, here it is!” is not a response to the pilot’s exclamation but a follow-up to Superman’s remark in the previous panel, “Looking for trouble, eh?” —Dwight.] All things considered, a reply like “Oy, this you won’t believe, but I’m your cousin Izzy!” would have been more in character, and Superman and the pilot should have sworn eternal friendship on the spot. A triumphant final panel shows Superman, the Lord of Creation, marching into the clubhouse of the Geneva windbags. Although there must be a strict rule that forbids the delegates to the League of Nations from appearing at meetings in undignified swimwear, the valiant Superman is not bothered in the least. After all, other laws (like those of gravity, reason, and life) don’t stop him, so why should he worry about a dress code? But to make up for it, he brings along some fine hunting trophies: under one arm he carries the evil German archenemy, and under the other, the scoundrel from Soviet Russia. Now, normally we could overlook Jerry Israel Siegel’s degenerate liberal/democratic fantasies, but there’s a catch to it. Superman’s cunning godfather is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, working from out of the shadows. Exploiting the idealistic aspirations of America’s children, he appeals to them with cries of “Strength! Courage! Justice!” But instead of intelligently utilizing his audience’s willingness to believe and supporting truly serious virtues, he sows hatred, discord, injustice, laziness, and criminality in young hearts. Jerry Sealingwax stinks. Pity the poor unfortunate youth of America who must live in that polluted atmosphere, not even noticing the poison that they daily swallow.

The Reich Strikes Back

dictionary defines it as “a superior man that according to Nietzsche has learned to forego fleeting pleasures and attain happiness and dominance through the exercise of creative power,” and gives the date of the word’s first known appearance in English as 1903. What Nietzsche actually meant by “superman”— which can also be translated as “overman”— and whether it was a good thing or a bad, are questions that have engaged generations of scholars and philosophers, and don’t need to be addressed here. The main thing is that in, the early part of the 20th century, Nietzsche’s ideas were a part of the current intellectual scene and strongly influenced more than a few people. George Bernard Shaw, for one, wrote a play called Man and Superman, while critic and essayist H.L. Mencken, for another, wrote a book to explain and popularize Nietzsche’s thought for English speakers. And so the word “superman” entered the language and culture.

Folk Tales And Proverbs One baffling thing about the article is those strange quotations at the beginning. Fantasy novelist Lawrence Watt-Evans told me the “[f]olk tale from Des Moines, Iowa, USA” may not be a complete fabrication, for he once heard a joke along those lines: “My pa is so strong, he can stop a freight train with his pinky!” “Shoot! Let’s see him do it!” “You crazy? He don’t want no trouble with the railroad!” The attribution to Des Moines had me puzzled until I picked up Jacob Grimm’s four-volume work on German folklore and found hundreds of regional folk tales attributed to locales as specific as individual towns. In the ages before modern transportation made travel easier, people would spend their entire lives in the same place, and a story could arise in, say, Würzburg, that the people in Wiesbaden wouldn’t know anything about. Das Schwarze Korps’ writer may have blithely assumed the same situation existed in the United States.

By the 1930s, however, the specific connections with Nietzsche’s philosophy had Artist Edvard Munch painted this portrait of Friedrich been lost. The word “superman” was in Nietsche, inventor of the German word that we translate common use in popular writing and as “superman,” in 1906—half a dozen years after The “Massachusetts proverb” is even more frequently applied to people who had done the philosopher had died. [©2008 the respective mysterious. The usual reaction of something notable, like Charles Lindbergh. copyright holders.] Massachusetts natives I’ve quoted it to has In science-fiction magazines, stories often been, “Huh?” The only insight I can offer is that there is a German featured characters who through advanced technology or biological proverb that follows the same format: “Eigenlob stinkt!” Or, “Self-praise engineering were more than human, and such yarns were often labeled stinks.” It’s not much of a proverb, as we expect a good proverb to have a “superman stories.” Jerry Siegel’s pre-Superman superman in his fanzine certain rhythm or rhyme or have a play on words or do something story “Reign of the Superman” would be a good example of the type—as memorable, but it does exist. And blunt and charmless though it may be, would the reference in an oft-reprinted Street & Smith house ad for the it at least makes a definite point. Even if “Sealing wax stinks” existed as a pulp magazine Doc Savage to its hero as a “superman.” Siegel came out of proverb, I have no idea what it would mean. I think it’s safe to assume it the science-fiction fandom of the ’30s, and part of his inspiration was to was invented for the occasion to squeeze a pun out of Siegel’s name and capitalize an already common noun. the Massachusetts attribution was added for the sake of spurious Meanwhile, the author of the article in Das Schwarze Korps would verisimilitude. have been familiar with “superman” in its more original sense, though I asked one of my correspondents about this “proverb.” Harald Havas, filtered through the political ideology of the time. Seeing the American a native German-speaker who lives in Austria, replied: “I’m quite sure version of the theme clearly left him more than a little perplexed. that’s just a bad pun made up by the author. As well as the folk tale story—he might have taken it from your quoted joke, which might have From Das Schwarze Korps To been around Germany as well. I don’t think such a petty pun was below The New Yorker SS-journalism. What the Nazis took as (anti-Semitic, anti-Gypsy, antiAmerican) humor was very, very low most of the time, aimed at the Then the ball bounced back to America, where, as mentioned earlier, working masses. And German humor isn’t the most subtle to start with. somebody spotted the article in Das Schwarze Korps. When I sent an early draft of this article out to some of my correspondents for comment “Also, keep in mind that in 1940, not many people in Germany had in 1987, Thomas Eyssell, then an assistant professor at the University of any detailed knowledge about the United States. Film stars, yes, Indian Missouri, wrote me with yet another part of the story: “I have enclosed a stories, yes, but geography, history, deeper knowledge about people and piece from the June 29, 1940, issue of The New Yorker that indicates that culture, etc., no. So the author probably just took Massachusetts and Des the Nazi denunciation of Superman was probably widely reported in the Moines, Iowa, USA, as (slightly funny-looking and -sounding) places to US press. Perhaps the rumor started there. (Talk about coincidences—the back up his crude joke.” author mentions Goebbels in the last paragraph.)”

Superman’s Godfather

From Nietsche To Siegel It seems that the article in Das Schwarze Korps was noticed, but what got back to the United States was the muddled story that the Nazis had denounced Superman because he was a pacifist. This reading of the article is so oversimplified that it misses the point. What the author was complaining about, so far as I can tell, was that an American Jew was making money by merchandising a debased form of a German concept. The term “Superman” began as a translation of Übermensch, a word used by a German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). My

The article “Why I Don’t Believe in Superman” by E. J. Kahn, Jr., starts out: “When I read a while ago that a Nazi newspaper had protested against the activities of Superman, holding them to be offensively pacifistic, I decided to get acquainted with the fellow. After all, it isn’t every comic strip character who is singled out for such personal attention.” Kahn goes on to point out that Superman is “just a year and a half old”—true enough by his lights, since he clearly refers only to the Superman comic strip, and makes no mention of the slightly older comic book version. Following a few paragraphs about the character’s early

A Close LOOK At The Nazis Vs. Superman In 1940

quite to grips with what the other side was really saying. The odd exchange did leave something behind, however: the legend that none other than Dr. Goebbels himself had denounced Superman in a speech to the Reichstag. Goebbels may well have gotten into it as someone’s misremembered reading of the New Yorker article, with the Reichstag added as the story grew. Also, since the Schwarze Korps article was covered in the American press, Jerry Siegel himself had to have heard about it, and may have been understandably disturbed by being personally singled out for insults by a Nazi newspaper. While the article was trivial and the threat level probably minimal, an exaggerated perception of it would account for the odd explanation Siegel gave his family for why it was taking him so long to be drafted into World War II: “The government doesn’t want me to go to war because Hitler promised to kill me if I do!” (Men of Tomorrow, page 217.) Anything is possible, of course, and Goebbels might possibly have denounced Superman in a separate incident. But until definite proof otherwise shows up, I think the Look/Das Schwarze Korps/New Yorker scenario from 1940 I’ve outlined here accounts for the legend. [NOTE: A somewhat different version of this article originally appeared in Amazing Heroes #128 (Nov. 1, 1987). I would like to thank Anton Hermus (who originally brought the matter to my attention and did most of the research), Thomas Eyssell, Danny Fuchs, Harald Havas, Marc Miyake, Marc Tyler Nobleman, and Lawrence Watt-Evans for their comments and suggestions. —DWD.]

Superman Takes On The “Japanazis” The most famous image of Superman and Hitler, of course, is the cover of Superman #17 (July-Aug. 1942), which was probably rushed into production soon after the US entered World War II. This iconic editorial-cartoon of a cover by the great Fred Ray even became a war poster, as detailed in A/E #19. But none of the stories inside was war-related. See for yourself in Superman Archives, Vol. 5. Repro’d from a photocopy of the original art. [©2008 DC Comics.]

pacifism, and how he made the war-making dictators of the fictitious nations of Blitzen and Rutland fight it out personally, thus ending the hostilities, Kahn takes a humorously jaundiced look at the early newspaper Superman. [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: The New Yorker article was reprinted in its entirety in Alter Ego, Vol. 3, #6, as part of Michael T. Gilbert’s “Comic Crypt” section.] He concludes the article by explaining why he cannot “believe” in Superman, and the reason turns out to be the way he can change clothes at super-speed: Tying a shoelace is tying a shoelace, after all, and superstrength will only break the lace. Until something is done to clear up this slight matter of logic, I am going to agree with the Germans that he is a subversive influence. If he reads this and gets sore, though, I hope he takes care of Goebbels first.

Conclusions And Conundrums So that’s where it stands at present: The Look article with the speciallycommissioned two-page comic strip appeared in February 1940. Stung, the Reich struck back in Das Schwarze Korps in April. The fact that the Nazis had denounced Superman was apparently picked up on by the American press, probably in a light vein (“Oh, those Nazi blowhards, taking something so trivial as an American comic strip so seriously!”), culminating in the humorous article in The New Yorker in June. Through it all, the two sides seemed to be talking past each other, never coming

DWIGHT DECKER has been active in organized (hah!) comics fandom since 1967. After picking up a few languages along the way, he has translated comics for publishers in Europe and the United States, and recently finished translating a German science-fiction novel.

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A Box of Markers and Tummy Tattoos A Brief Interview With Cover Artist MICHAEL GOLDEN by Renée Witterstaetter

rtist Michael Golden is known for his hard-hitting and dynamic art style that seems to evolve with each decade. He cuts away the excess and maintains the true essentials of a piece. These techniques, coupled with his signature storytelling construction, have garnered him a legion of devotees, that number fans of the genre, and contemporaries as well. Golden’s work has appeared in The ’Nam, Micronauts, Dr. Strange, Nightwing, Detective Comics, and upcoming runs on Heroes for Hire and Iron Man, among much more. Other milestones in his career include the co-creation of “Bucky O’Hare” and The X-Men’s Rogue, and covers featuring Batman, Captain America, Vampirella, and many others. “I’m the one they come to when they want one of those covers with a thousand characters on them,” he laughs.

Man And Superman Michael Golden and friend—the latter as seen in Superman #600 (March 2002). Thanks to the artist & Renée Witterstaetter. Repro’d from a scan of the original art. [Superman art ©2008 DC Comics.]

Current and future projects include Heroes and Villains Sketchbook from Brand Studios and Eva Ink; Modern Masters in the Studio with Michael Golden from TwoMorrows; The Creator Chronicles Interview—DVD Two Disc Set from Woodcrest Productions/EvaInk, and the topselling Excess: The Art of Michael Golden from Vanguard this summer. Since Michael’s professional career to date is basically within the time-frame franchise of our sister magazine Back Issue rather than of Alter Ego, we asked his publisher and long-time editor and collaborator Renée Witterstaetter to talk with Michael about his take on Superman, since we were pleased and proud to be featuring a cover of his on this issue. Somehow, they never quite got around to actually discussing the Man of Steel—but we did want to present these few autobiographical paragraphs. And hey, Michael’s gorgeous cover speaks for itself!

RENÉE WITTERSTAETTER: Thanks for taking time to sit down with us, Michael. I know you don’t do many interviews, but we’ve worked together a long time, and I appreciate that you sat down for Alter Ego. How did you get started in the business back in the 1970s? MICHAEL GOLDEN: Hey, anything for Roy Thomas! Where I grew up, there were not a lot of comic books; they just weren’t available. The first comic I ever saw was a Tin Tin book my mother bought for me. Later in life, I was doing commercial art, and filling up a lot of my time painting vans and murals and surfboards in Florida, and that somehow led to working in comics. There was a guy who was a friend of a friend, who saw my stuff and introduced me to a friend of his who was working for DC Comics in the ’70s. He said, “Well, you know, you do some, like, really great comic book stuff.” I’m paraphrasing, of course. [laughs] I didn’t really think of my work being transferable to comics, so that gave me pause. To me, I was just telling stories. So, anyway, this person put me into contact with his friend, who turned around and lost my portfolio at Continuity, [which is] Neal Adams’ Continuity studio. Never saw it again; no fault of Neal’s, mind you. Even so, Neal was constantly bugging me to get me to come up to New York. RW: You were an immediate hit! GOLDEN: I got a lot of work really quickly, and some of it is considered

A Brief Interview With Cover Artist Michael Golden

fronts, advertising, and murals and logo designs. Just went on from there. But no, I never had any formal training RW: Were there artists that were inspiring to you? GOLDEN: No, never really had anything as an inspiration per se. However, after I started thinking of artwork in terms of what I was doing, then I became aware of other work that attracted me, but it wasn’t comic books. I found, by way of old magazines, J.C. Leyendecker’s work. A lot of the art deco work, turn-of-the-century—I was always interested in that era. Alphonse Mucha, Gibson, Montgomery Flagg. But I was always pretty hard-pressed to use the skill sets I saw in these illustrators in any kind of context of what I wanted to do, because I was over here drawing, you know, giant birds on surfboards. RW: What kind of transition did you have to go through in going from the illustrative commercial style of artwork to storytelling in comics? GOLDEN: The transition was actually very rough. When my portfolio made the rounds at DC, Marvel, etc., back in the early ’70s, one editor was very blunt in telling me that what she was seeing in my portfolio really wasn’t applicable because DC only bought Neal Adams, and Marvel only bought Jack Kirby. This is how my portfolio ended up at Continuity: I did some new samples, picked up a Neal Adams Batman or something, and sat down and basically just plagiarized it. [laughter] I have a lot of respect for his art. But if you look at my early work at DC, I lost the Neal Adams thing really fast. I didn’t like aping somebody else’s work—not because I wasn’t professional or commercial enough to put myself into that mindset, but because I wanted to just stick my style into this strange new world,

A Golden House The splashes from what were probably Michael’s first two pro assignments, done for editor Joe Orlando for House of Mystery #257 (March-April 1978) & #259 (July-Aug., 1978), respectively. The scripters’ names can be seen on the art. With thanks to Bob Bailey & Jim Ludwig for the former, and to Bob Cherry for the latter. [©2008 DC Comics.]

influential work, which I’m flattered about. One of the first people I worked with at DC was Joe Orlando on the House of Mystery books. He had an eye for talent, and was a great guy to work with. He brought many of us into the business by virtue of those 8-page stories. I moved on pretty quickly to some “Batman” projects and Mr. Miracle, etc. Much, much later on, after moving to Marvel, at one point I became tired of the politics, and for about 20 years I was outside of the industry, back to doing commercial work except for a cover or maybe the odd story or two. RW: Do you have any formal art training? GOLDEN: No. Self-taught. Except for the marginal art classes they had in the schools. I’ve been drawing since I was a kid. That’s sort-of how I ended up doing vans and surfboards. We’re talking the late ’60s/early ’70s here, so you understand what I’m about to say. I spent an entire summer traveling across the country with a box of markers drawing tattoos on girls’ tummies—flower-child sort of stuff—and they would pay my way, or somebody would buy me dinner, and I would do drawings—or we’d be sitting around at night listening to music and I’d just start drawing something to illustrate the music we were listening to, and get dinner or gas for my motorcycle in return. Spent a couple summers doing that. That turned into, “If I buy you an air compressor and an airbrush, will you do my van?” Just built it up from there, and eventually I was doing store-

A Box Of Markers And Tummy Tattoos

Icons On Parade Michael & Renée may not have discussed Superman in this necessarily truncated interview—but they did sent us a couple of additional examples of Golden’s Kryptonian art. Here’s his cover for Superman: The Man Of Steel #127 (Aug. 2002), which co-featured Wonder Woman, repro’d from a scan of the original art. Thanks, guys! [©2008 DC Comics.]

because it just made it easier to do. I don’t understand these artists who spend their whole career tying to look like Frazetta or somebody. Why bother? That’s way too hard. Find your own look. When I went over to Marvel after the DC implosion, it was on the Micronauts books. I started off with a very hardedge style of drawing, a lot of shadows. But they “impressed upon me” at Marvel, as much as they could, that they wanted to see Jack Kirby. So I learned how to draw like Kirby, and became very good at it, if I say so myself. [laughter] There are several issues of The Micronauts where people were actually insulted that I was doing Jack Kirby! It was during the course of learning what the companies expected of me that I was able to change what I was doing, either the cartoony or the fully rendered work, into what became my own definable comic book style. My original portfolio was full of a lot of [what] artists calls “contour line drawing.” That’s the way I prefer to draw, since I do my own coloring. In the meantime, I’ve also learned how to add dynamics to my art. It’s not just a flat outline. I’ll fill in a line to give it more depth, more dynamics, more drama. I’ve also learned how to render lighting effects. All this came into play after I came into the industry, so that I had to incorporate all this new knowledge into what I was already doing, then move forward in the craft. There’s a funny story about my final Marvel Fanfare story, with the Hulk and Spider-Man. I had originally laid it all out, and then for reasons myriad and profane they just stuck it in a drawer somewhere, and it sat there for 7 or 8 years. I had completely forgotten about it, and one day they told the editor they’re going to cancel Fanfare, so he went through all his inventory to see what he was going to use in his final issues, and he found my story and called me up, and said, “It’s 32 pages. Do you want to finish it? I need it in two months.” So he sent it to me and I sat down and did it. And sure enough, the story gets around that it took me seven years to do this art! [laughs] And the reality is, no, it disappeared for seven years, and that’s the story of the Marvel Fanfare gig. RW: Let’s talk a bit about new project, Tunuki. GOLDEN: The actual name is Zoë’s Diary. It’s the story of a young girl who comes into ownership of a trio of ferrets, and comes to find out that these animals are actually reincarnated beings. Now, of course, you’ve heard this kind of story a million times from different sources. This one does, in fact, have two twists to it, that I’m not going to reveal, that make it entirely unique, and I’m not blowing my own horn; these are two twists that have never appeared anywhere else. She finds out about this slowly, over a period of time, and I’m going to be doing this sort-of like a children’s book, but it’s going to be a graphic narrative, too. It’s about personal exploration and empowerment. It’s not a funny-animal story; it’s

an honest-to-gosh straightforward adventure sort of thing. That’s it, that’s all I’m gonna give about it. You’ll see it within the next few years, is the plan. I’m finishing it up, and discussing toy lines and maquettes already. RW: Are you finishing up Spartan X, as well? GOLDEN: Of course you’d ask me that, since you’re the co-creator! I know you want to see it finished. Yes, Spartan X is on the boards, getting wrapped up. As soon as possible! It started out as six issues, then we all decided we wanted to go ongoing, so there were a lot of things interjected into the story to make it ongoing. At this point in time, we’re planning to wrap it up in a 6-issue format, but it’ll be published all as one complete, compiled graphic novel. I rewrote the ending to accommodate that, so that this story will end. But it has elements already in it, in case we want to take it to the next step in another six-issue series. RW: Thanks, Michael. GOLDEN: No worries. Now back to sketching! Renée Witterstaetter is the editor and sometimes colorist behind literally hundreds of comic books, including She-Hulk, Silver Surfer, Conan, Hercules, and Xena. Her feature film work includes Crime Story, Rush Hour II, Red Dragon, and Swimming with the Virgin. She is the author of numerous books, including Dying for Action: The Life and Films of Jackie Chan, Excess: The Art of Michael Golden, and Tex: The Art of Mark Teixeira from Vanguard. Renée is currently working in artists’ management and is involved in the Creator Chronicles DVD series with interviewer Robin Dale, featuring interviews with major industry creators, while also co-curating art exhibitions in Manhattan (www.evainkpublishing.com).

“Maybe I’m In The Wrong End Of This Business!” LOU CAMERON Tells About Drawing Comics During The Fabulous ’50s Interview Conducted by Jim Amash

ou Cameron was a comic book artist during much of the 1950s, drawing for Ace, Story, St. John, DC, Timely, Classics Illustrated (a.k.a. Gilberton), et al. As “Tabor Evans,” Lou created the popular “Longarm“ Western paperbacks, having written nearly half of the 350 novels in that series. He has also written numerous other books in the Western and crime genres. His work in and outside of comics is

Transcribed by Brian K. Morris striking and unforgettable. The same can be said for Lou himself, who has given us a frank and revealing look into the places he worked for, the people he knew, and of his place in the four-color strata of his times. Blunt, candid, and brilliant, I think Lou is one of the most interesting interview subjects Alter Ego has presented. My only regret is that we don’t have room for our off-tape discussions on politics, religion, war, American history, and society, because Lou is as thought-provoking as anyone I know. An appreciative “thank you” goes to the co-editor of the original Who’s Who in American Comic Books, Hames Ware, for his suggestions and comments—and a special thanks to Arthur Lortie, who first put me in touch with Lou Cameron. This is the first part of a twopart Interview. —Jim.

“The Artwork Came First” JIM AMASH: When and where were you born? LOU CAMERON: June 20, 1924, San Francisco. JA: Since you were a writer and an artist, it’s almost like what came first, the chicken or the egg? CAMERON: The artwork came first. Well, first of all, I started writing to have stuff to illustrate. I was illustrating stuff for the men’s adventure books, and I thought, “Good God, I could write this”: “There I was, hanging by my fingernails on the side of Mount Everest while the Abominable Snowman spit on me.” I said to myself, “How did I ever get in this situation? Who is the guy who’s getting paid for this?” [mutual laughter] So I started writing them, and I found it was just as easy. After I had discovered that writers seemed to be getting their checks better and faster, the absolute decision came as I was working on a paperback book for Ace. Bernie Baily was packaging it, and I was illustrating. He handed me a short story and said, “We can get the rights from the estate of Theodore Sturgeon,” and he gave it to me to illustrate. I said, “I read this when I was in high school.” It was a classic science-fiction short story, so I asked, “He gets paid again?” I would do a cover and that was it. That was the end of the story behind the books. And when it’s

What A Tangled Web We Weave… (Above:) Lou Cameron, in a photo taken in April 2008—and at left one of his archetypal horror splash panels, from Ace Periodicals’ Web of Mystery #27 (Nov. 1954). A month or two more, and the Comics Code would’ve stepped in and plunged its own stake in the heart of that luscious vampire! Thanks to Lou for the photo, sent via Jim Amash & Teresa R. Davidson. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

gone, it’s gone. So that began to get my juices thinking: “Maybe I’m in the wrong end of this business!” I first started writing about 1958. I started drawing comics in 1950, and after six or seven years in the business, I began to write.

“Maybe I’m In The Wrong End Of This Business!”

“I Introduced You To These People, And They’re Screwing You” JA: The packager you worked for: what year are we talking about?

CAMERON: 1950. I’d just been in New York about six months. Anyhow, Marvin told me about this coloring service that he worked for on the side. They had the CAMERON: Yes. I was World War II, service where they put in the coloring. and then I stayed in the Army after The shop was run by Pat Masulli and his the war. I went in right after Pearl partner, Hubie. Marvin had me come Harbor. I left on my 18th birthday, down to see them. They wanted 1942. somebody who could do some inking. I picked up some stuff and I got paid; I JA: What branch of the service were can’t argue about that. But then, they you in? were stalling me around, and finally Billy Friedman [publisher of Story Comics] CAMERON: You name it! [chuckles] had a fight with a writer whom they That’s a long, involved story. I joined knew, but I can’t remember his name. He the Aviation Cadets. I washed out had written a script. He needed a fast and wound up at the end of the war fifty bucks, and so Pat Masulli, who was in the Second Armored Division. a schemer, said, “What we’ll do is we’ll Then I came home, bummed around send them another guy with this script, for a year, and, you know, eleven The Middle Of A Long Hitch and he’ll get the $50 for you by using his million people were all mustered out Lou in uniform, circa May 1945. He was in the armed services from name.” So they said, “Cameron, go up to at the same time. So I said to hell 1942 till not long before the Korean War started (1950). He says this Friedman’s office and deliver this script.” with it; I went back in, and I did photo was taken by someone from Yank magazine, not long after a I said, “For what?” They said, “Well, we’ll bunch of German soldiers had surrendered to his company—hence another hitch. give you a piece of the action. We’ll give the German officer's cap and P-38 pistol (so called because it was I liked the Army; I just didn’t like you five bucks, ten percent.” They originally issued in 1938). Photo courtesy of Lou. the people in it. Everything was okay, wanted me to tell Friedman that I had except for some of the officers. I got disgusted, and I got out just in time written this script. I said, “Wait a minute! You want me to go tell profesto miss Korea. At that time, I was an instructor at the Infantry School in sional Madison Avenue lawyers a big fat fraud lie? I’m supposed to go up Fort Lewis, Washington, and I was a Platoon Sergeant for the I&R— there and lie to a real honest-to-God lawyer for five bucks? I wouldn’t Intelligence and Reconnaissance Platoon, 38th Infantry. They got wiped hold up a candy store for five bucks.” I said, “No way. I’ll tell you what I’ll out to the last man in Korea. My then-wife saved me. She said she was do. If I can sell them on my artwork, I'll sell them the script.” And they going to leave me if I re-upped. So when my hitch was up, I left, and just said, “Well, if you can sell them on your artwork, go ahead.” missed the Korean War. Billy Friedman had done a lot of work for the comic book people JA: Close call there! Before you got into comic books, had you done any during the war, getting them paper and stuff, so he knew his way around, professional work? and finally decided, “Hell, I can do this myself.” [chuckles] And so he started publishing. They weren’t a big outfit, but Billy was very fair to his CAMERON: Yes. I had done some drawing as a hobby, and I decided to freelancers. They paid, and I never had any trouble with them. So he was see what I could do. I got a job painting lamps that one bought at Macy’s, publishing, he was buying manuscripts and the artwork, which was done for the Wilmar Lamp Company. I got a quarter a lamp, and they got $7 at home, freelance. And then he would put the thing together, and I think more if it was hand-decorated, signed by the artist. We’d painted these he had Koppel Engraving do it for him. He had just this little publishing lamp bases with ceramic paint, they put them in the oven and baked house, and he had a law suite. He was a big lawyer. He was on 44th and them. I was working up in the Bronx painting lamps, and one of the kids Madison. In one of his back rooms, he had set up a little publishing house. who worked there part-time was a packer. He had another part-time job in, I guess you would call it a “sweatshop.” They did lettering, color Anyway, I went uptown on the Madison Avenue bus, and knowing I separation, and agented artwork. You name it, they did it. So this kid was going to be lying to these people, and knowing they were lawyers, named Marvin where I worked introduced me to them. They gave me having never met any of them before, I read the script. I thought, “Well, some freelance work, inking over someone else’s penciling. It was a I’ve got to know what this script is about.” I still remember it: this man schlock shop. had a cruel, mean wife. Vania was her name, and she and her lover murdered the guy, but he comes back from the grave, and he takes him in There were a lot of guys like that. There were people in very, very lowthe crematorium with her—pretty bad stuff. Tales of Terror was the comic budget publishing. There was one guy who published magazines from a book. [NOTE: Actually, the comic was Dark Mysteries. See art on next corner table in Laurant’s Restaurant. [mutual laughter] You’d go in and page.] I went up there expecting to be questioned about it and no, they see him, and you’d sit down and have a drink with him. Needless to say, I didn’t question it. They said, “Okay, we’ll look it over, and we’ll send you a didn’t work with him. He was giving me the routine, “We can’t pay very check.” I said, “Now, what about the artwork?” I had taken some samples much, but we can keep you busy.” No, no, no, no! The guy lasted for just a with me. He called his law and business partner Nat Rothstein in. very short while. He was foreign, and published a book called Bounty Friedman said, “This guy’s a triple threat. What do you think?” Rothstein Magazine for about two or three issues. looked at the sample and said, “Yeah, pretty good. If you can draw on this level, sure, go ahead.” JA: That means you were about 26 years old when you started in comic books.

Lou Cameron Tells About Drawing Comics In The Fabulous ’50s

somebody else.” And Masulli said, “You what?” I told him the deal I’d made with Friedman. “I lived up to my side of the thing, and he told me to do it, so I did it, and I’m letting you know ahead of time so that this thing doesn’t get any worse.” “You can’t do this!” And I said, “I did it! What do you mean I can’t do it? That’s the way it is.” Masulli said, “Well, I’m not used to being dealt with this way.” And I said, “Well, you’d better get used to it. Let me give you an old Army saying. If you’re going to stab a guy in the back, don’t hand him your balls on a silver platter.” I don’t think Masulli ever figured out how I knew, but I had my spy working there. They’d forgotten that he’d brought me in in the first place. So they were going to raise hell, and straighten this out with Billy Friedman. I went right up to Friedman’s office, and I decided the best thing to do is to tell the truth. He called Rothstein in, and I told them the whole story. “Mr. Friedman, there’s going to be a little flack here. You know that thing I delivered that you paid me for: Masulli was trying to screw me out of it, and give it to another artist. He's upset that I drew it and delivered it.” Friedman said, “I don’t understand what he’s upset about. I told you to do it, you did it, right?” They thought it was funny as hell. Billy said, “Well, you’re right. Don’t stab a guy in the back if you’re going to hand him your...” [laughs] Later, my spy told me—they went up there, yelling and screaming to Billy Friedman, who said, “We know what Cameron did. Cameron did the right thing. You tried to screw him, and he screwed you instead. So big deal.”

StorIes For Story Splash page of the first tale drawn by Cameron for Bill Friedman’s company, which (as related on the next page) at various times was called Story, Master, Premiere, and Merit. This effort appeared in Dark Mysteries #1 (June-July 1951). Thanks to Chris Brown for seeking out the scan. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

When I got back down to the studio, I told Pat and Hubie, “I got the assignment of the story. I don’t want a piece of the action. Give all the check for the writing to the writer. I’m going to do the artwork.“ “Yeah, okay.” I went home, rather pleased with myself. Masulli turns around, and he decides that he’s going to give the story to one of their regular artists. Hubie said, “Isn’t that kind-of screwing Cameron?” Pat said, “So I’m screwing Cameron. What’s he gonna do about it?” Unbeknownst to them, my friend Marvin was sitting there, coloring. The weekend was coming up, Marv calls me at home and says, “I feel terrible. I mean, I introduced you to these people, and they’re screwing you. What can we do about it?” My first reaction was to go punch somebody out, then I thought, “Well, wait a minute now. Let’s see where we are with this thing. As far as Mr. Friedman knows, I wrote that story, and he told me to illustrate it. Hmm.” So I knew the story, though I didn’t have the script. [chuckles] I went down to the art store, bought myself some Bristol board, and got to work. Monday morning, I was in there, bright-eyed and bushytailed, and I delivered the story. Done! The story I had “written,” and here it was, Vanya’s going up in smoke in the last panel. [mutual laughter] The artist didn’t know the circumstances. He was just another guy they were victimizing. I didn’t want him to work for nothing, so I went down to tell him. I said, “Guys, I delivered the story, and I got my check. I just thought I’d better tell you so that you don’t give the script that I sold to

So from that time, I was in. Then time marched on, and I was there one day delivering something. The intercom buzzed, Billy picked up, and he said, “Uh-oh, Pat and Hubie are in the outer office.” They were there on other business. So he said, “You want to go out the side?” They had side law offices, so you didn’t have to meet people in there. Pat had been telling everybody that he was going to beat me up. He was wound up. He was going to kick the crap out of me, he was going to do this, that, and the other thing. Well, the trouble was that I was bigger than him, and so I said, “I can’t think of a better way to have a fight with a guy than in a lawyer’s office. [mutual laughter] Let’s see what he does.” I walked out through the reception room, and I said, “I understand you’re looking for me, Pat.” He says, “Lou, how are you?” [mutual laughter] Billy said, “That was worth tickets.” That was the end of the thing. Later, when Masulli was the art director at Charlton... I had done some artwork, and he sabotaged it. That didn’t work the way it was supposed to work, either. I did it for Gene Tillinger, a magazine packager, and Tillinger was furious. When the magazine came out, I’d done a pinup in which the woman looked cross-eyed. Pat had played with her eyes. Fortunately, I had photocopies of my work, and I said to Gene, “You didn’t pay me for this.” He said, “Well, I must have been drunk if I did.” I said, “No, wait a minute. I’ll get it for you.” I showed him the original copy of the original art. “This is what I turned in, this is what you paid for, this is what went out to Charlton. Figure it out.” And he said, “Well, that little —!” I think Tillinger tried to get him fired. He was not happy, and it was no skin off my nose. I got paid. So anyhow, I made sure it got back to Masulli. He made sure I knew he’d done it, because he told Bob MacLeod that he was working as art director at Charlton. “Say, by the way, whatever happened to Lou Cameron? You still in touch with him?” So the penny dropped, and MacLeod knew what happened, and he told me, “I know who sabotaged your work and why.” I said, “Boy, what a favor to tell me.” And he said, “What do you mean ‘favor’ to tell?” I said, “Think of what he could have done, keeping his mouth shut. If you’re an editor or art director, and you have it in for a guy, you can make his life miserable. You can have him correcting things, you can send it back to him for corrections, you can delay his check, you can really play games before the guy realizes what's happening “ I knew that somebody had screwed me over, but I didn’t know who or why. I thought, “Well, some kid’s screwing around in the art department.” So that was my experience with Pat Masulli. Apparently, he did it with other people. He liked to feud with people.

“Maybe I’m In The Wrong End Of This Business!”

He thought he was a man of destiny. You know, everybody from time to time in a competitive business is competing with another artist. Sometimes, you have to take his job, or you have to write a book that somebody else wants. But screwing a guy for practice--that’s not being a man of destiny. That’s being a jerk. He spent his time in front of a mirror, making faces at people. [mutual laughter]

Jew lawyer.” Rothstein, of course, was sitting there, listening to this, too. [chuckles] He says, “Oh, he wants to deal with a Jew lawyer? We’re going after this son of a bitch. You know he’s an advertising agency. Who’s his biggest client?” I said, “Vanity Fair Tissue.” Nat said, “Okay, I’m going to type up the papers, so come back in an hour or so. You’re going to have to serve it. Nobody who works for me can serve this with a straight face.”

JA: Do you remember how much Friedman paid you?

I went to Vanity Fair Tissue, and served them with the papers to show cause as to why, since George owed me the money, can’t I get it from Vanity Fair Tissue? And some guy who looked like he worked for the FBI—I guess he was their lawyer—said, “What in the hell? Why are you bothering us? We don’t owe you anything. We don’t know you from Adam.” “Well, I mean Mr. So-and-so defies us. He says there’s no way we can collect.” He says, “Wait a minute. Are you saying that if you got your lousy $500, we wouldn’t have to go to court?” “Yeah, that’s what my lawyer said.” “Okay, don’t worry about it. You’ll get your lousy $500.” [mutual laughter] I had just gotten home, the phone rang, and it’s this guy who owes me. He says, “Jesus Christ, Lou! I just got a call from Vanity Fair. Would you put me out of business for a lousy $500?” I said, “I’d put you out of the business for a lousy fifty cents.”

CAMERON: I think it was something like $21 a page, pencils and inks. He paid low, but he paid on delivery. I lettered the first one by hand because it had to be lettered. Billy had his lettering done by Bob McLeod. Bob and his wife Louise did LeRoy Lettering—mechanical lettering. So I got to know them, and through them I got to know Al Sulman at Ace.

“I Dealt With Billy [Friedman]” JA: Let’s stay with Bill Friedman for a bit. There were several names for his company, and I want to see which names you remember. It was known as Story, Master, Premiere, and Merit. Do any of those names ring a bell? CAMERON: I think it might have been Master. I don’t think he was incorporated that early. He became bigger later.

So he says, “Okay, now how do I handle this thing?” I said, “Well, you show up at my lawyer’s office with a certified check, and we’ll handle it. Otherwise, we’ll attach your car.” [more mutual laughter] So he showed

JA: Bill Friedman had a partner named George Unger. CAMERON: Unger became an editor at Volitant Publications. Volitant was down on 23rd Street, right next door to Communist Party headquarters. There was a Serbian church across the street, and we were all sure that the FBI had an observation post up in the church. [mutual laughter] We all wondered what the FBI was going to make of all of us sinister guys ducking in and out next to Communist headquarters. Volitant was run by Adrian Lopez, the creator of Fawcett’s True Magazine. There was another character. He was a very tall, distinguished man who looked like General Mark Clark. He did men’s adventure magazines, and that’s where I broke in with that stuff. JA: How old do you think Bill Friedman was at that time? CAMERON: I don’t know. He had white hair, even then. He must have been in his 60s, unless he was very prematurely gray. He was also a very well-known New York trial lawyer, and his partner, Nat Rothstein, went on to become my personal lawyer. Nat Rothstein was mostly a law partner, but Nat did some comic stuff, so he was slightly involved. They were both crackerjack Madison Avenue lawyers. That was their main business. They had joint law offices. Rothstein looked like Melvin Douglas, the actor, and was very dignified. He’d been a major during the war as a trial judge advocate. You know, a lawyer for the Army Air Force. After comics started to fizzle, and I wasn’t doing any work for them for quite some time, I needed a lawyer because I got stiffed by an advertising agency, and the guy got arrogant with me. He’d been paying me off with peanuts, and paying me slow. Finally, I called him from Bob MacLeod’s office, and he yelled at me not to bother him. He said, “I have a cash flow problem. If you ******s would stop bothering me, I’d maybe have some money.” I said, “Well, if you don’t want to talk to me, then you want to talk to my lawyer?” I was bluffing, of course. He said, “I don’t give a damn about you and your lawyer,” and so forth. I hung up. I was quite irritated, and I dialed Nat Rothstein and told him my problem. He said, “Well, come over, and we’ll talk about it.” I couldn’t have afforded him. I just called him as a pal. “What can I do here?”— hoping he would advise me. He said, “Well, why don’t we try talking to him?“ So I called this guy, George Neal Associates, and I said, “Well, I’m in my lawyer’s office here. We want to do this nice. We can settle this thing.” And he said, “I don’t give a goddam about you or your goddam

Swamped With Work This Cameron splash from Story’s Mysterious Adventures #6 (Feb. 1952), though signed by Lou, was probably inked by Mario Rizzi, believes LC super-fan Chris Brown, who supplied the scan. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Lou Cameron Tells About Drawing Comics In The Fabulous ’50s

Fear Itself Cameron could do nitty-gritty horror—or subtle terror. Here are his splashes for Ace‘s The Beyond #23 (Nov. 1953) & #26 (April 1954), with thanks respectively to Michael T. Gilbert & Chris Brown. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

up, and Nat Rothstein took the check and thanked him very kindly. And then George said, “Damn, you’re good! I’ve got people that have owed me money for umpteen years, and would you like to collect the money for me?” And Nat said, “No, you don’t want to deal with me. I’m a lousy Jew lawyer.” That was his revenge.

CAMERON: I didn’t know who he was. He must have stayed in the background. They didn’t have a staff that came in and worked all day because, basically, it was a law office. One of the back rooms looked like a conference room, but they had a supply drawer you could open, and you could put artwork on the table and redraw things for Billy.

JA: How involved was Rothstein with Friedman? Did you ever deal with Rothstein when it came to handling art and getting checks, or did Friedman do all of that?

I didn't meet Saunders at that time. I met him when he was working for Lancer. I knew he was at Friedman's because my sister Iris did some writing for him. She wrote a few two-page text stories. She wanted to break in. She may have worked for Ace, too. I took her around and introduced her to a couple of people. She’d blown into town, was trying to break into writing, and I was still in the comics.

CAMERON: Friedman usually wrote the checks. They were two incorporations, two different comic houses in the same suite. Billy always made you revise something. He liked to stick his finger into it. Rothstein mostly okayed things. One of the comic lines that came out was under his corporation. The first one I ever did for them was officially his, but all he did was look at the artwork and say it was okay. I dealt with Billy. Larry Saunders was his editor for a while. In fact, I think Larry Saunders got his professional start with Friedman. Then Larry went up to Lancer Publications, and edited Electronics Illustrated. He got the idea for The Anderson Tapes when he was working on that magazine. A lot of new stuff was happening in the electronics field. He took that information and said, “I can do this. This would make a pretty good adventure story.” And he wrote The Anderson Tapes. JA: Who was Morton Myers? A silent partner?

JA: One of the companies Friedman had was called Master. One of the backers was Mike Estrow. He had a brother named Stanley. Does either name mean anything to you? CAMERON: The names are familiar, but I never did any work with them, so I can’t tell you anything about them. JA: Michael Estrow was also working for one of the comic book distributors. He would help back some small companies. CAMERON: Oh, then he had a tie-in. Well, that’s basically how Billy got into comics. He probably knew Estrow from his law business. Another one was Sol Cohen at Avon. He’d been a distributor, and he sort-of bullied

“Maybe I’m In The Wrong End Of This Business!”

his way into a job, and he was a great kickback artist. He sort-of convinced them that he could do them a lot of good, and he did very well for himself.

real story. What was the real scoop?” And I’d go home and write 12 pages: “Now it can be told! Dracula was really a little old lady from Transylvania!” I dealt with Ted more than the Morses, who wrote the checks.

“Who Do You Think Dracula Really Was?”

JA: Didn’t you find it odd that guys like Friedman and Rothstein would be doing comic books?

JA: Did you know publishers Stanley and Michael Morse? CAMERON: I knew them both. They had an accounting office downtown. They had done the same thing Billy did. They’d been doing accounting for publishers, and they were way down on Fifth Avenue. They were walking distance from Classics Illustrated. There were nice people. I started out illustrating for them, then wrote for their men’s magazines when their comics began to fail.

CAMERON: No, they fell into it. And nobody of any prestige did comic books alone. I mean, comic books were done by houses. All the houses at that time—Dell and Fawcett—they all had their own comics line down in the basement. The people who did it exclusively were pretty hungry people, and I don’t think they made a hell of a lot in the thing. It was sort-of a labor of love. There were some very strange people in the business at that time. Some of them paid you, and some of them didn’t.

Their editor on the magazines, Ted Hecht, was a very knowledgeable, amusing guy to work with. I’d come in with one story and he’d say, “Now Cameron, who do you think Dracula really was?” I said, “Hell, I don’t know. Wasn’t he Bela Lugosi?” [mutual laughter] “Well, why don’t you go home, and write me 12 pages on the

Friedman actually looked like Dashiel Hammett’s description of Sam Spade. He could have played Satan. [mutual laughter] He had a V-shaped hairline, and a V-shaped smile, and he had a rather satanic look about him,

Skullduggery The identities of the artists of these covers for the Morse brothers’ company— called Gilmore, at this time—are not known; but the Friedman skull fetish that Lou talks about on the next page is evident on the covers of Weird Mysteries #1, 4,& 7 (dated Oct. 1952, April ‘53, & Oct.Nov. ‘53, respectively). Matter of fact, there were small skulls on the covers of #8-10, as well. Friedman may not have known art, but he knew what he liked! [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Lou Cameron Tells About Drawing Comics In The Fabulous ’50s

[more mutual laughter] and some amusing ideas of horror comics. He was fascinated by skulls. He wanted you to put skulls in. He would say, “As long as you’re here, would you mind inking a skeleton in here before I pay you?” You’d say, “But there’s no skeleton in this script.” “I don’t care, put one in the closet. I want a skeleton in a closet,” or “a skull on the desk.” An artist named Bill Fraccio wanted to teach him a lesson. There was a rubber stamp place in the neighborhood, and Bill had a skull rubber stamp made up. He turned in a job in which a bookcase was completely lined with skulls. [mutually uproarious laughter] Bill said, “That’s more like it!” One of Fraccio’s pages had skeletons looking in, peeking around the corner almost comically. He thought, “I’m going to cure him of this skull fetish.” It didn’t work. Friedman liked it. I would draw them when he wanted me to. He loved it when you could possibly work in a skull. He didn’t have a great deal of respect for the reader. His idea was: the gorier it was, the crazier it was, the better it was. I made them as gory as I could. I enjoyed drawing more than I have ever liked writing, because you could doodle, and I would take my time doodling. I would wind up putting in more detail than I was being paid for. Some of the other artists would get mad at me. “What the hell are you trying to do? Win the art prize?” I’d get carried away sometimes on my splash pages. There were a lot of good radio shows. I’d be listening to Henry Morgan, or—oh, there were three or four different kinds of talk shows. And the thing I liked about doing artwork was, you didn’t have to put your whole mind into it, whereas if you’re typing up a story, you turn your back to the room. You can’t talk to anybody. You’ve got to write. You’ve got to concentrate on it. So anyhow, I enjoyed embellishing. I knew what they wanted; I put in what I thought was good detail. I could do a job in about three days; seven pages. I’d do a job over a weekend, but it depended on who the job was for. For instance, Ace always paid on Friday, regardless of when you delivered, so there is no sense in pushing yourself. If you’re halfway finished on Monday, there’s no sense killing yourself to get it out. You’ve got the whole week, because if you bring it in on Thursday, or you bring it in on Monday, they’re going to pay on Friday. JA: But if you brought it on Monday, couldn’t you pick up another script and be working during the week? CAMERON: In theory, but not always, especially towards the end. Towards the end, you could wait a week or so between times. That was the deal. JA: Did you or Bill Fraccio ever work in those offices? CAMERON: Only to retouch art. We all worked elsewhere. Friedman’s office was where I met Bill Fraccio, who lived up in Mount Vernon, and was a very nice guy. We didn’t hang around together or swap wives or anything. That was the thing that some of the people interviewing me have problems with; they thought that we were all one big clique. We lived scattered all over the place, but mostly in the suburbs. JA: But sometimes guys would get together for lunch or something. CAMERON: Yeah, we’d get together. There was a clique of guys who would meet at Ace. They did not pay the top dollar, but everybody wanted to work for them because you knew that if you got a job from Ace, you got paid. So we would all come in and all be in the same waiting room, waiting to be paid by the same cashier. We’d all get paid, and we’d all go to

As Opposed To Frantic Livers, We Presume? We aren’t sure Bill Fraccio drew any of the skull-laden covers on the preceding page, but here’s the splash of a story that artist drew for Bill Friedman and Story’s Romantic Hearts #7 (April 1952). Thanks to Chris Brown. The photo of the late Bill Fraccio was sent by the artist in conjunction with his Interview in Alter Ego #29. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Agie’s Bar on 46th Street, under Bob MacLeod’s place. We all got our stuff lettered by Bob, so we would either meet at Bob’s or we’d meet getting paid at Ace, and we’d wind up at Agie’s, and we might have a chat down there and compare notes during the happy hour, waiting for the rush hour to die down, and then we would all go our different ways, out to suburbia. JA: Would companies like Friedman’s or Ace supply your paper or did you buy your own? CAMERON: We supplied our own stuff.

“A Friendly Fellow With A Will Of Iron” JA: Tell me more about Friedman. CAMERON: He was affable; a friendly fellow with a will of iron. He would make little changes sort-of like a dog going down an alley that has to pee on a lamppost to prove that he’d been there. He would sort-of insist on a change. It didn’t really matter much. “Could you take the straps off this girl’s shoes?” or, “Put straps on her shoes.” He would pay you the day after you delivered a job. I’d deliver a story and he would say, “Come back tomorrow.” I asked him one time, “Billy, why do you want me to come back tomorrow? Why do I have to take the train back in and so forth?”

“Maybe I’m In The Wrong End Of This Business!”

He said, “It’s my policy to never pay on the same day that I receive something. One day, I paid a guy on the same day, and that night he dropped dead.” I said, “So do you expect me to die before tomorrow?” And he said, “Look, it could happen.” [mutual laughter] So years went by and the comics were not doing very well, and I had run up a bill at a local convenience store. The bill had gotten quite high, and the guy was upset about it. I said, “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to run up that big a bill,” and I wrote him a check. And that weekend, he died. [more laughter] So I saw Billy’s point. JA: Friedman obviously was the publisher. Was he the editor, too? CAMERON: Not while I worked for him. Later he hired Larry Saunders, followed by Yvonne Rae. Yvonne had worked all over as a letterer. I think Billy gave her her first shot as an editress. I never really knew her, so this is pure gossip, but Yvonne was said to have a hands-on approach to editing, and Bill Fraccio felt he would have gotten more work if he had been.... nicer to her.

Bill Fraccio put me on to a job an advertising agency where the art directress may have wanted him to be nicer to her. Bill had that effect on women. Picture a younger and better-looking Danny Aiello. This was the twilight hour in comics, and I needed the steady job until I took it and found out why Bill had walked. Her name was Alfrieda and she was in her fifties, but had never learned a thing about art direction. She never made a pass at me. I didn’t look like a young and handsome Danny Aiello. She just drove me out of my mind with meaningless changes, while they didn’t pay like Friedman. Her boss and the owner seemed like a nice sensible guy. On my way out I advised him, “Sleep with her if that’s the best you can do. But don’t let her run your agency into the ground.” He didn’t listen and she did. She was impossible for anyone else to get along with. Later, I used her as a character in one of my books. JA: For Friedman’s company, these are the titles I have you doing work on: Dark Mysteries, Fight against Crime, Mysterious Adventures, and miscellaneous romance and Western stories. CAMERON: I also did some “Pawnee Bill” for him. JA: Did you usually know who wrote the stories? CAMERON: I don’t remember. I had no contact with them. JA: When you came in with a job, would he always have another script waiting for you? CAMERON: Usually, but sometimes I had to wait on him. That’s one of the reasons I went on to Ace. Getting back to writing: I got into writing stories because some of the scripts were so terrible. JA: Did you rewrite any of your scripts that you were handed? CAMERON: No, but you had a lot of leeway with the drawing. You could more or less draw it the way you wanted to. In other words, where the writer said “Have the guy stabbing on the left side,” I could put him on the right. It didn’t matter. I signed my stuff, and this later became an asset, because when the business began, a lot of people felt they were waiting to go on to bigger things. And while they were waiting to be discovered by the art museums, they didn’t want it known that they’d lowered themselves to doing comics. So a lot of them did not sign their work, and one of them was Bill Fraccio, who was quite good, by the way. When things got tight in the late ’50s, a lot of fellows who had been in the business longer than I, and were better artists than I, found that they couldn’t go anywhere. But when things got tight at Ace, I was able to go up to DC and other places and get work because I knew they had seen my stuff. They said, “Oh, yeah, we’ve seen you,” and they knew my name. Another fellow who had signed his work, and got himself a job as an art director on that basis, was Matt Baker. The only thing significant about it is that a lot of people went through Billy’s company on the way up. It was a place to break in. It was very difficult to do that in most places. You could not break in, say, at Ace unless you had some published work. Al Sulman would not look at your stuff if you didn’t have published work. And so Billy was handy that way. He would take a chance on you. JA: How did you feel about the work that you were doing? Were you satisfied with the drawings?

Bill Of Sale Pawnee Bill was an actual frontier scout who later had his own Wild West show, in competition with that of the even more legendary Buffalo Bill. Both were characters in Irving Berlin’s late-’40s Broadway (then movie) musical Annie Get Your Gun. If there’d been a comic book crossover, it might well have been drawn by Cameron. Jim Ludwig, who made a valiant 11th-hour search for this tale from Story’s Pawnee Bill #3 (July 1951, the final issue), says he’s pretty sure this is Lou’s work, though it’s unsigned. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

CAMERON: No, no. All of us were looking for bigger money and bigger, more serious illustrations for the slick magazines and so forth. JA: But did you feel that you were using this company to get better and to improve yourself? CAMERON: I was working to learn how to draw and get more money, I figured, eventually. And I did eventually get into slick illustrations for some of the magazines, about the time that I was ready to leave comics.

Lou Cameron Tells About Drawing Comics In The Fabulous ’50s

JA: Tell me about Bob MacLeod. CAMERON: Well, everybody knew Bob at one time or another. He looked like Jack Nicholson; a sort-of a Buffalo Bill-type character who actually wore a cowboy hat from time to time. In fact, he’d been a deputy sheriff out in Kingman, Arizona, in his misspent youth. He was an expansive, friendly, affable guy; everybody liked him. His wife was very motherly, and gave very good advice. People would say things like “I can’t get paid,” and she would tell people what to do. She wasn’t that young anymore and was from Oklahoma. As “Louise Lackland,” she had been a singer in some group, like a Mormon Tabernacle Choir, but it wasn’t them. And then she and Bob started this little business together. They wound up in Arizona toward the very end. I don’t think they’re alive anymore. JA: How old do you think he was when you knew him around 1950? CAMERON: About fifty, then.

JA: After you left, Friedman expanded his output. Did they still work in the back of Friedman’s office? CAMERON: I think so. I know they stayed at the same address. They may have expanded. They had quite a large office suite, and took up one corner of a high-rise building.

“We Started Working Directly For Ace” JA: You worked there for about a year or year and a half? Then you went to Ace. How did you find out about Ace? CAMERON: Well, I went in two ways. One, through Bob MacLeod, and I was also touted for about six months by Renaldo Epworth. Epworth was a letterer who became an agent. He was a WASP, by the way, in spite of the name. He was a very good letterer who was a half-assed agent. He agented me into Ace. He shortstopped a couple of checks on me, and I talked to the editor, Al Sulman. I wasn’t the only one with this problem. I was doing the penciling, and Mario Rizzi was doing the inking. Mario could draw. He didn’t particularly need my stuff, and I could ink. We complained to Al, and Al said, “As far as I’m concerned, you guys settle it with him.” So we started working directly for Ace, and Epworth tried to sue us. The courts said, “Don’t be silly.” Nobody had a contract. JA: How did you meet Epworth? Did you meet him through MacLeod? CAMERON: Yes, he was in the same building. JA: MacLeod had his own studio where he did LeRoy Lettering, right? CAMERON: Yes, it was in the Del Ray Hotel on 46th Street, near Sixth and 46th. He had a suite in the hotel on the second floor, which he used as an office. There was him, his wife, and he had a young fellow working for him named Bobby Cohen, and two or three other letterers worked for him on and off. He didn’t just do Ace’s; he lettered for Classics Illustrated, and for Billy Friedman, and several others, so he was a valuable man. He could put you on to things. Bob never agented, by the way. He never asked for any commission. If he gave you a tip, it was just to help you out. Epworth wanted to be your agent, but the problem was that he was hungry and wanted too big a cut. He wanted a third, which was bad enough, but then he was slow in paying. Nobody stayed with him very long. At various times, he handled Wally Wood, I think Ralph Mayo at one time. They all left him for the same reason; he was a difficult person. He seemed a very pleasant, charming man who pled poverty. He lived in New Jersey, and he didn’t want to have untidy neighbors so he bought the lots on either side, made gardens out of them, and had a huge model train set in his basement. And then he had problems with his finances. My then-wife, who was very astute on personal problems except for her own, said of him, “The poor baby, I bet his yacht is leaking.” [Jim laughs] He always cried “poverty.” He couldn’t pay you, but basically, he was a good guy to get you in. He had good taste. He didn’t bother the editor’s time with lesser artists. JA: Al Sulman had been an editor at Timely Comics all through the ‘40s, but he was an editor in the ’50s at Ace.

CAMERON: He must have left Timely and gone to Ace just before I met him. Sulman looked something like Jack Lemmon. He was strictly business. Fred Gardener was the

“Maybe I’m In The Wrong End Of This Business!”

Hello Dali! Lou must’ve been feeling creative at Ace in early 1954! The first two of these imaginative panel groupings—which put us in mind of the work of Salvador Dali and Steve Ditko on “Dr. Strange”—are from Baffling Mysteries #20 (Aug. 1954), while the panel with his version of a “three-legged race” is from The Hand of Fate #24, that same month. With thanks to Chris Brown. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

managing editor, and he was a character. He would have been played by the guy who played Cannon, William Conrad. He went back to the pulp days, before there were comics. He thought comics were a novelty that wouldn’t last. When I started writing, I did some packaging with him, and he knew stuff that he passed on to me, which I have tried over the years to pass on to younger editors, and they don’t listen. It’s the Cassandra Curse. You tell someone, “This was told to me by an ancient gypsy around the fire in Transylvania a hundred years ago,” and they don’t believe you. He said, “You cannot publish a book about circuses. It won’t sell. Don’t ask me why it won’t sell, it won’t sell. Maybe it’s because people who go to circuses don’t read?” He told me several other things, which over the years I, as an elder statesman, tried to tell young editors. When I was at my present publisher, they tried to launch a women’s Western, and I even wrote a couple of them. I mean, I’ll write a cookbook if you pay me. But I said, “This won’t sell, and it won’t sell because women do not buy Westerns. If they did, there would have been women’s Westerns a long time ago. But they won’t.” So to their extreme embarrassment, we did this very well-written women’s Western, and it didn’t sell. Men do not buy romances. Sorry, that’s the way it is. Anyhow, Fred was a character, very just, but very brash. I remember one time, one of the guys that had created Superman... as high school kids, [Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster] came up with Superman…they kept suing DC, they would settle, and get the money, and sue again. I never heard anything bad about Joe Shuster, but Jerry Siegel showed up at Ace one time, and demanded to speak to their comics editor. He had an idea for a comic book, and wanted to speak to Mac Phillips. I was waiting to see Mac Phillips, but somebody was in there, talking to him. The recep-

tionist said to Siegel, “Well, sit down and I’ll tell him you’re here.” He said, “I’m not accustomed to waiting. I am Jerry Siegel. I created Superman comics, and I do not wait in waiting rooms.” He was fussing at this poor little girl, and Gardener came in. He said, “What the hell is going? Who are you? What are you yelling about?” And he said, “I am Jerry Siegel, the creator of Superman, and this impertinent receptionist won’t send me in as soon as I—” Fred says, “I know who you are. Get out of my office and as I draw breath, you will never do anything for Ace Publications.” He threw him out, and he told the girl, “You don’t have to take crap off of these people. If they give you a hard time, call me. I’ll throw them out.” Fred Gardener, again, was a very nice guy, but he would not suffer fools, and if people raised hell, he threw them down the stairs. He wouldn’t put up with any nonsense. But otherwise, he was a very agreeable guy. JA: Tell me about Mario Rizzi. CAMERON: Mario and I got to be very good friends. Mario looked like George Stephanopoulos; a very good looking guy, and the girls liked him. He had a beautiful blonde wife, Ellie, and she was in television… not as an

Lou Cameron Tells About Drawing Comics In The Fabulous ’50s

actress, but she did something in television. They lived out in Queens, and he looked very young. I took him for being younger than me, and we got to know each other, hanging around Bob MacLeod’s. It turned out that he had crossed the Rhine slightly ahead of me and gotten shot, which gave me a perspective which I used later in war stories, because I said, “Oh, were you in the Eighth Infantry?” And he said, “Yeah, how’d you know?” I said, “Well, we were right behind them. [mutual chuckling] Your guys went on up through,” and I told them where they had gone. And this was all new to him because his war ended at the Rhine. He got shot coming off the bridge, and his war was over. That gave me a perspective. He was very interested in what his outfit had done, while I hadn’t even been in the outfit, and from this, I realized that the men killed at Lexington had no idea that they were taking part in the American Revolution. You see what I mean?

Armory. The armory’s been torn down since then. Everything’s been torn down. Anyhow, he was with Jim McLaughlin, who won the Silver Star on Guadalcanal, and Ken Rice, who was in that submarine that went into Tokyo Bay. You ever see that Destination Tokyo movie? Well, he was on that submarine. So these three veterans were comic book artists and well dressed, and talking about art. And The Guardsman was inhabited by National Guardsmen who were brushing their teeth with Brillo and refighting World War II, and for some reason, someone took offense to these poor guys. They told Jim McLaughlin, “You don’t belong in here, and that goes for that Dapper Dan Guinea at the end of the bar.” Mario said, “Oh, were you speaking to me?” And the guy winds up out on Park Avenue because Mario put him through the glass door. [mutual chuckling] The three of them then proceeded to demolish the place. [mutual laughter] They didn’t belong there? “Okay, we’ll wreck it.”

Mario was an interesting guy, and I can tell you one quick story about him. He was in a bar called The Guardsman, down by the 23rd Street

Jim McLaughlin was a veteran and not ashamed of it. He looked like Hugh O’Brian and wore his Silver Star in his lapel. That’s how you knew he won it. You’d have to ask him, “Isn’t that the Silver Star?” [in a deeper voice] “Yes, I won it on the Canal.” He was in the Marines. Otherwise, he was a peaceful enough fellow if you didn’t try to throw him out of a bar. [chuckles] He did a lot of art for Ace. Nobody drew a werewolf like Jim McLaughlin. And Ken Rice, who looked like a young Norman Rockwell, was one of the better artists. He was one of the first guys who went into straight stuff. He was bopping along the avenue one day, and he ran into an old friend he’d known in the Navy. His old friend said, “What are you doing, Ken?” “Well, I’m doing comic books. Don’t tell anybody.” [mutual laughter] “Well, come and see me,” and the guy was working in a big office in a big advertising office. So the next thing you know, Ken was in advertising art, and became a very big advertising guy. I don’t know what happened to Jim McLaughlin. Mario wound up down in Texas, doing what, I don’t know. I ran into him here years later in Grand Central Station, and he hailed me. He’d changed, we’d both gotten older, and I’d like to think that he’d gotten older than I had. But he still recognized me. I wouldn’t have recognized him. He told me he was down in Texas, and we were dealing with the rush hour, so we just exchanged a few things and then he went his way and I went mine; that was it. John Chilly worked in the art department. I’m trying to drop names. You know, the names don’t register any more. He did some artwork. He also worked in their art department and he went on. I’ve heard his name in connection with other publications over the years. Don‘t know what happened to him. The women’s stuff was done next to Mac Phillips’ office.

“Hell, Anyone Can Do This!” JA: What were the Ace offices like? CAMERON: They were on the 6th floor of whatever building they were in, in the middle of the block on 47th. It’s all jewelry stores today. It’s now the diamond center. The building was seven stories tall, and the publisher’s office was on the seventh floor, and this was known as the “Ivory Tower.” The publisher was A.A. Wyn. JA: Was that his real name?

Maybe I’m A-Mazed Lou didn’t have to depend upon horror to make a good impression on collector Chris Brown—as per this splash page from Ace’s Baffling Mysteries #20 (April 1954). [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

CAMERON: Yes. He started out as a distributor, and from distributing comics—again, it was “Hell, anyone can do this!”—and he began to publish them. Now Ace belongs to Putnam. They were bought out, or sold out, towards the end

“Maybe I’m In The Wrong End Of This Business!”

It’s Baffling To Us How Ace Got Them All Into One Comic! Also seen in Baffling Mysteries #20 were these three pages by artists mentioned in this interview. (Clockwise from above left:) Jim McLaughlin... Ken Rice... Louis Zansky. With thanks to Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Lou Cameron Tells About Drawing Comics In The Fabulous ’50s

We Just Hope His First Name Wasn't "Ratso"! (Left:) This Cameron-signed splash from Web of Mystery #18 (May 1953) may have been inked by Mario Rizzi, like the one depicted on p. 38. Thanks to Chris Brown. (Right:) Rizzi both penciled and inked this splash page for Romantic Hearts #6 (May 1954), officially published by Master Comics. It's from a color comic from which Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., dropped out the color. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

of his life, so it’s a discontinuation. They just bought the company and its titles. He was up on the 7th floor, and his wife was down on the 6th floor, their comics area. It ran along the front of the building, from one side of the building to the other. He had all the front windows on the 6th floor. JA: Comic books used to have Statements of Ownership in them once a year. Ace’s statement lists the owner as a man named “Warren A. Angel,” yet the Statement of Ownership is signed “A.A. Wyn.” I’m wondering, could these guys be the same? CAMERON: Yeah, it could be a mistake. A.A. Wyn is the only name I ever heard. JA: Why would a guy, sitting before a notary, like Warren A. Angel declare he’s the owner of Ace Comics but then sign “A.A. Wyn”? [laughs] And the names are so strangely similar, aren’t they? Do you think maybe “A.A. Wyn” wasn’t his real name? CAMERON: I’m pretty sure it was his name. If “Wyn“ was a stage name, he’d have told us. JA: What was Wyn’s wife’s name? CAMERON: I don’t know. We called her “Ma Wyn.” She looked like Betty Furness. She took a motherly interest in the women’s end of it. She edited

those herself. At the east end was Fred Gardener’s office. And then there was Mac Phillips’ office (who we dealt with), then there was Mrs. Wyn’s office—we’re working our way west—with a long hallway running the length of it. And then there was the elevators, and the reception room. Beyond the reception room, at one end of the reception room was, sort-of like a cashier’s place. You got paid, and the receptionist’s desk was in the middle of the room, and there were no windows in that room. You would have been facing 47th Street if you’d looked out a window, but you were sitting on a bench with your back to it. It was a fairly substantial office. Mac Phillips was the man we brought our work to. He looked like Walt Disney. He was in his forties, had been in the business for a while, very easy to get along with, and very seldom asked for any changes. In fact, I don’t think he ever asked me for any at all. JA: When you brought in your work, did you bring in the complete job, or did you have to get pencils approved first? CAMERON: No, I would pencil and take it straight to MacLeod, and MacLeod or his wife would letter it. Then I would ink it, and take it in to Phillips. He’d look it over and he’d say okay, and then I’d come in Friday and get paid. I’d go straight to the cashier’s thing in the reception room. They did have one other thing I forgot in my description of the office: back from the hall—I told you there was a long hall—there was a larger

“Maybe I’m In The Wrong End Of This Business!”

JA: Is there a title that I didn’t mention? CAMERON: We did a World War III special, and it was a one-shot. Oh, there’s another thing: when 3-D comics came out, it was Gardener who talked Wyn out of it. He said, “You’ll lose your shirt.” St. John Publications came out with them. They lost their shirt because it cost so much more to produce, and as Gardener said, “The kids ain’t gonna pay more than a dime.” JA: It looks like to me that you freelanced for St. John while you worked for Ace. You told me off-tape about Bernard Baily packaging for Ace. Why were you working through him, since you were already working for the company? CAMERON: Well, I did some illustrating for him. He was putting stuff together up on the 7th floor. I don’t know what their arrangement with him was, but he was using an extra room up on the 7th floor, and I worked with him up there. I illustrated some stories, and then while I had him on the phone, I sold him what was essentially a dirty joke. It was for a men’s magazine, and that was the beginning of my career as a writer, actually. It’s the first thing published with my byline on a story. It was in one of Bernie’s books, I can‘t remember the name of it. It was a one-shot name thing like Stuff or Stun, or something like that. JA: Bernard Baily, to me, was a fascinating individual. He was

room facing it, which was their art department. They had tables set up, and had a few staff artists who did production work. JA: When you did covers, did you have to submit a cover rough? CAMERON: I’d show it to him in pencil, and he’d say, “Go ahead and ink it.” I only did a few. Mac handled all the incoming artwork for the men’s stuff, and Mrs. Wyn handled the women’s stuff. JA: Since you were dealing mainly with Mac Phillips, what was Al Sulman doing? CAMERON: Al left. Mac Phillips replaced Sulman, who had only been there about a year when I came in in 1951. Well, first, there was a short interval. There was a very nice girl, Elaine Beerman; very pretty, and everybody liked her. She got married, and we gave her a party and sent her off, and the next thing that we knew, a guy named Latham was in charge. He only stayed a few months and left for St. John. Mac Phillips replaced him. JA: Here are the titles I have that you worked in: Baffling Mysteries, The Beyond, Crime Must Pay the Penalty, Hand of Fate, and Web of Mystery. CAMERON: Web and Hand of Fate I did more than any other.

Lou Cameron Tells About Drawing Comics In The Fabulous ’50s

Boy, Is My Face Green! When Jim Amash recently asked him about covers he’d done, Lou replied that he doesn’t remember anything about the Friedman covers. For Ace, he did several, and he gave two descriptions from memory: “(1) Girl hanging from a bell In a church tower. (2) Close-up of an old witch with a green face.” We couldn’t find the church tower scene, but we wonder if this cover—though done for Friedman/Story, not for Ace—might be by Lou. She has a green face, anyway! [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

packaging for Ace. Was he packaging for other companies, too? CAMERON: I think he was. He did a comic book that didn’t do well. It looked like a Classics Illustrated comic, but it was opera and I don’t know how well it sold. He came up with ideas, and he would tout them to somebody. He was a heavy-set guy, rather a charmer. He was usually promoting something, and was pretty businesslike. We didn’t pal around or anything, but he seemed affable, friendly. He wasn’t paying me—Ace was—so I didn’t have any problem that way. I don’t know the story between Baily and Wyn, if he worked with him personally. We only did two issues; like a tabloid. It was half-sized. I’m trying to remember the name of it. It was a noveltytype thing, and didn’t do too well. JA: Baily was an artist, and co-creator, with Jerry Siegel, of “The Spectre” for DC Comics. Also, he agented out and packaged books and stories for different comic book publishers. So he goes back. CAMERON: I think he was kind-of on the rocks when I ran into him, because he wasn’t around much longer. I only met him that one time.

Horror Is As Horror Does Two contrasting splash pages by Lou Cameron for horror stories, from Web of Mystery #19 (July 1953) & #20 (Sept. 1953), courtesy of Chris Brown and Michael T. Gilbert, respectively. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

“Maybe I’m In The Wrong End Of This Business!”

“[Valerie Barclay] Absolutely Adored The Artwork Of Alice Kirkpatrick” JA: Let me get back to that 6th floor. Who in the production room do you recall? CAMERON: John Chilly was in charge of it. I don’t know who else worked back there. Most of the guys worked at home. JA: You knew Valerie Barclay, who inked there. Tell me about her. CAMERON: She was very attractive, and she looked like Vampira. She had white, white, white makeup, and the first time I saw her, sizing her up from across the room, I said, “Gee, I’d like to take that home. But if there are no reflections in the mirrors, she gets a wooden stake between the boobs!”

a very good-looking guy. I never met him. JA: Smith was his last name. CAMERON: He was a doorman or something, and she was upset about that, and went into a true-confession thing one time. The most I ever talked to her: I was doing some rework up at Bob MacLeod’s, and artist Sy Grudko was there, and Val was up there, and she was reinking something. I think we were waiting for Bob to come

JA: Some people say that she was attractive and vain. CAMERON: She was not terribly vain, actually. She had a slight, if anything, inferiority complex. She was very shy, and reminds me of Julie Newmar with normal proportions. JA: You think that was because she felt she wasn’t a good artist? CAMERON: I don’t know. She had just turned 30, and she was married to

What’s In A Name? Inker Violet Barclay, who at some stage became Valerie Barclay—shown here at age 26, when she worked for Timely Comics. Thanks to Trina Robbins. Valerie was interviewed in A/E #11.

“Web And Hand Of Fate I Did More Than Any Other” So Lou says, and here are Exhibits A & B: splashes from Web of Mystery #24 (May 1954) and Hand of Fate #23 (June 1954). Thanks to Chris Brown & Michael T. Gilbert. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Lou Cameron Tells About Drawing Comics In The Fabulous ’50s

smock, and she got very dolled up, a hat and everything, to come into town. I must say that she didn’t do this all the time, because many times she looked rather lovely. She was a likable gal, but she couldn’t draw flies if she’d been dead for a week. She traced everything. She used swipes, but her inking was very good. They were a little upset at Ace because her heroes kept changing. In one panel, he looked like James Dean; in the next, he looked like Dean Martin, [mutual laughter] because she’d traced them too well, and she didn’t have a generic head that she could draw. Basically, everybody liked her, but she seemed kind-of lost. JA: Tell me more about Alice Kirkpatrick. CAMERON: Alice was very private. She was quite aloof, as a matter of fact. I never knew her socially. She‘d had a very tragic love affair with

Won’t You Come Home, Bernie Baily? Above is the only photo we’ve ever seen of early comics shop head Bernard Baily; it appeared in and in the first volume of The All-Star Companion, since he was the original artist/co-creator of DC’s “Spectre” and “HourMan.” For Stanley Morse’s Key Publications, he is credited with the cover for Weird Chills #1 (July 1954)—and we kinda suspect he drew that of Weird Mysteries #7 (see p. 40), as well. Thanks to Mrs. Regina Baily & Mrs. Jill Baily for the photo; thanks to Chris Brown for the cover scan. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

in so we could pick up our stuff. She was never finished with her work, she was very fastidious. She was inking away on that thing, and she was going on and on about her sex life, and how unsatisfactory it was, and that she couldn’t get pregnant. Sy looked at me and said, “One of us should leave.” [mutual laughter] But of course, nothing actually happened. I was living out in Astoria, Queens, and we took the same train. I got to talking to her on the train. I didn’t bring up her pregnancy problem. She absolutely adored the artwork of Alice Kirkpatrick. Alice was an older woman who’d been around, I guess. I didn’t know Alice that well, but Alice was an Earth person. Her attitude was, “Why is this vampirish child following me around?” [chuckles] She wanted to be friends, and Alice’s attitude was, “Why don’t you get a life?” She showed up at Alice’s studio apartment and hung around. I only heard about it because Alice was telling Louise MacLeod about it. She said she didn’t know what the hell was going on. “Was the girl a lesbian? What was her problem?” And Louise, being very motherly, said, “Well, she admires your work.” Val was very pleasant, but she had these problems. We used to think that the reason that she looked like Vampira was that, probably, she threw on her makeup at the last minute to come into town. She probably wasn’t wearing anything, and like the rest of us, you’re working in jeans or a

Maybe Its Name Is Erasmus B. Dragon? With apologies to Click and Clack, the NPR Car Talk guys. Lou mentions artist Sy Grudko, and voila!—collector Chris Brown comes up with this one-page Grudko filler from The Beyond #24 (Jan. 1954). Somehow, though, despite the “true” designation, we retain a certain skepticism as to the authentic nature of this particular tale of the supernatural. Call us cynics! [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

“Maybe I’m In The Wrong End Of This Business!”

Heroines By Kirkpatrick (Above:) Cover and splash page done for Ace’s Complete Love Magazine, Vol. 27, #2 (June 1952) by the highly regarded (and not just by Valerie Barclay!) Alice Kirkpatrick. Thanks to Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

A Cutting Edge Story Note Lou’s inventive use of scissors on the splash and especially third page of this story from The Beyond #30 (Jan. 1955). With thanks to Michael T. Gilbert, who dug this one out of the Comic Crypt for us. This tale must’ve barely made it to the printers before the Comics Code Authority set up shop. Judge Murphy, first head of the CCA, would never have allowed a scissors motif! [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Lou Cameron Tells About Drawing Comics In The Fabulous ’50s

said, “Well, this is okay, but if you want me to hire you, you’ve got to come in with something better.” So she went out and busted her gut, and came in with something better. He hired her. She was a very good artist, but she was a little bit lazy. She could draw a head half-asleep, but then she would sort-of fake the backgrounds and the figures. When she wanted to be, she was probably the best artist in the business at that level, because, let’s face it, Norman Rockwell didn’t do comic books. Matt Clarke was around at that time, but he didn’t do comic books. So that was Alice, and she was a redhead. She would have been played by Katherine Hepburn. In fact, she was the same ethnic background; she was Scotch. She was a little bit ashamed of comic books. She went on to do straight commercial art in the years that followed, and did quite well, I understand. But during her time at Ace, I think she was just as happy not to be known... she wanted us to think she was attending to her fingernails.

“Your Stuff Is Really Great… So Come Back Next Week” JA: There’s another woman around there at that time named Ann Brewster. Did you know her? CAMERON: I knew her very well. She started as a younger gal. She looked like Ann Miller, but she got a little fatter as she got older. She looked like the girls she drew; sort-of Ann Miller types. She was a good kid, but she wasn’t as good an artist as Alice. Nobody was. Ann lived at home with her mother until her mother died. I’d done my last comics work, and I heard that her mother died. I was up in that neighborhood, and I took her out for a drink, and we wound up in her apartment. Nothing happened, no romance or anything, but I spent one long afternoon with her and I got to

Annie Get Your Pen Sadly, we have no photos of artist Ann Brewster. But, thanks to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo, we have two (signed!) samples of her work for Timely/Marvel. (Left:) Girl Comics #6 (Jan. 1951). (Right:) My Own Romance #53 (Aug. 1956). [©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

some long-playing lover, and he finally got rid of his wife. They were ready to get married when he dropped dead on her, and she was a little bitter, a little sardonic. We shared one experience: we had both been steered the same way by the same art director. When I first tried to break in—I think it was Popular Publications—there was a guy named Portugal who was the art director. He was a very straight shooter. He didn’t mess around. She broke in with him; I almost did. We’re talking right after the war. I was in town, and then I went out and re-upped. Anyway, I brought in some samples, he told me what was wrong, and I went home and I fixed them up. My stuff was as good as I could get it, and it was as good as some of the people he had working for him. He said, “Yeah, that’s good. It’s meeting our standard.” So I said, “Well?” And he’d, “Well, what?” I said, “Well, when do you give me an assignment?” And he said, “Why should I?” I said, “Well, I need the work.” He said, “Everybody needs work. Your stuff is okay, but I have a stable of guys I know. They have payments to make on their car, and so forth. Every time that I give one artist work, I’m taking it away from another one. So if you want me to buy your stuff, you can’t be as good as the guys I’ve got, you’ve got to be better.” Up to that time, I’d been getting that crap, “You don’t come up to our standards,” and, “Come back later,” and so forth. So I was refreshed by his candor. I liked it. [laughs] When Alice was trying to break in, she came in with her stuff and he

“Maybe I’m In The Wrong End Of This Business!”

Black Widow—Or Black Bachelorette—Take Your Pick! The first and last pages of a truly creepy story that appropriately appeared in Ace Periodicals’ Web of Mystery #25 (July 1954). The beautiful protagonist turns into a huge man-eating spider—a situation eerily handled, except perhaps for the all-too-anthropomorphic smile. But, without a human-style mouth, maybe she couldn’t have talked to her victims just before she devoured them! Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

know her better. She would come down to Bob MacLeod’s office, and hang out and chat with us. She was an old pro, I guess she was older than I was, so if she’s still alive, she’s a very old lady. But she also knew the field very well, and I got some good advice from her because she’d kicked around a bit. Did I tell you about this guy C--- at Dell? Annie explained that to me. I couldn’t understand it. There was an art editor at Dell, and art directors would only see you on Wednesdays. You sat with your portfolio and waited with all the other peasants, and then they would go in and chat with him for half an hour or so, and then it would be your turn. And you’d go in and you‘d chat with him and he’d tell you, “Your stuff is really great, you’re almost as good at Matt Baker, so come back next week.” He wouldn’t give you an assignment. “I don’t have anything for you this week, but come back next week.” So after I had come back three or four times, I ran into Ann on the street. We ducked into a little bar for a drink. She drank daiquiris, which is one of the reasons she had a weight problem. I told her what was going on and she says, “Are you talking about C--- at Dell?” I said, “Yeah.” She said, “Don’t you know his problem?” I said, “No, [chuckles] but I know he has a problem.” She said Dell’s offices went on and on. They occupied about three floors. People in one end of Dell didn’t know what the other people were doing. It was presided over by an ogress named Mrs. [Helen] Meyer, and she was an infamous person. She practically ran Dell into the ground, and she was an arbitrary old bitch. A lot of

people just wouldn’t work for Dell after a while. Anyhow, what had happened is the line of magazines that C--- had been working on had been pulled. I think it was their comics, but they weren’t doing some of them anymore. He liked his job, he’d found a home, [laughs] and so he just came in. When they told him, “We’re not going to do the comics anymore,” nobody gave him a pink slip, so he just reported to work as per usual. He didn’t want to just be sitting there bending paper clips if somebody from the front office walked by, so he went through the routine. He was interviewing artists, and he was on the phone—I guess he was talking to his wives and girlfriends—and he was just a busy, busy, busy, guy, but he wasn’t doing, literally, a thing. I stopped going in, of course; other people stopped going in. He lasted for a full six months after what he was editing had been pulled. [mutual chuckling] Nobody knew what he was doing. JA: Do you know if Ann Brewster ever married? CAMERON: I don’t think so. The last I heard of her, it was in the ’70s, she was illustrating children’s books. One was reviewed in the Times Book Review, and I was happy for her. I said, “Oh, my God. Ann is drawing bunny rabbits!“ Jim Amash’s interview with Lou Cameron will be concluded next issue.

hat if… instead of selling his half of All-American Publications to National/DC co-publishers Harry Donenfeld and Jack Liebowitz in 1945, Max Charles Gaines had instead purchased DC from them? That’s the premise of this inventive fantasy series previously seen in Alter Ego #76 & 78, and in our TwoMorrows sister mag Back Issue #28 and future issues—and set on an “Earth-22” where events in the comics field happened a bit differently from the way they unfolded in the world we know. Author Bob Rozakis was a longtime writer, editor, and production director for DC…

and, unless noted, all comics images on the next 6 pages are copyright ©2008 DC Comics. Just imagine… a comic book industry in which, due to the domino effect of actions related earlier, Superman and Batman had been relegated to the sidelines early, and it was instead The Flash, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman who became the company’s big stars. Not a dream, not a hoax…but an imaginary story of an alternate universe and…

The Secret History of All-American Comics, Inc. Book One - Chapter 3: The 1940s-50s Media Blitz by Bob Rozakis

nthony (“Tony”) Allan is a noted author, whose books record the multi-media adventures of the AllAmerican Comics characters. He has written liner notes for collections of radio recordings, as well as DVD collections of the TV series. He is currently working on I Saw It on the Radio, a timeline history detailing which elements of the comic books actually came A recent photo of from the radio programs and other media, to pop-culture author Tony Allan. be published later this year by TwoMorrows. In this installment, Tony answers Bob Rozakis’ questions about the radio, comic strip, movie, and television adventures of Green Lantern, The Flash, and the rest of the AA Universe in the 1940s and ’50s.

BOB ROZAKIS: A lot of people think The Adventures of Green Lantern TV show in the ’50s was the first time an AA character appeared outside the comic books. I know that was my first impression. TONY ALLAN: Oh, there was a lot more, as you have since learned. BR: [laughs] Yes, much of it I now own, thanks to DVDs and audio CDs. So it was the Fleischer cartoons that came first? ALLAN: The first Green Lantern appearances, yes. What a lot of people don’t know is that Max and Dave Fleischer’s original

Holding Pattern Fleischer Studios’ proposed animated Superman series never made it past the stage of this test reel, prepared in 1940. It was first printed in Les Daniels’ 1995 coffee table book All-American Comics: Sixty Years of the World’s Favorite Comic Book Heroes.

intention was to do Superman cartoons. They had worked out the deal with Harry Donenfeld and Jack Liebowitz, and there was even some preliminary animation done. Because of potential legal issues, very little was done beyond the opening sequence. It is believed that the early scripts for these cartoons were rewritten to star Green Lantern and Wonder Woman. According to people I’ve interviewed, Jerry Siegel got wind of the cartoon deal and went to Donenfeld to ask what his and Joe Shuster’s cut was going to be. Whatever amount Donenfeld told him, Siegel decided it wasn’t enough and started talking about suing. BR: So that could have been the first time the idea of a lawsuit over who owned Superman might have come up? ALLAN: Probably. As the story was told to me, Siegel called Fleischer directly, but there is no one alive who can confirm that. In any case, Max Fleischer shows up at the offices and says he’s canceling the deal because DC couldn’t guarantee there wouldn’t be any trouble over who owned the rights.

The 1940s-50s Media Blitz

A Comic Cavalcade—At The Movies! A trio of Fleischer cartoon images from the early 1940s, starring the three cover stars of AA’s oversize title Comic Cavalcade. (Clockwise from above:) Green Lantern fights back against an early laser beam… Wonder Woman faces the robot Adam-5… and, in a cel never seen in your friendly neighborhood theatres, The Flash races through the streets carrying Joan Williams. The story is that, if not for the Fleischers’ financial problems, The Flash would’ve been the third AA hero to make it to the big screen—albeit in seven-minute segments. From the collection of Alex Wright.

Remember, M.C. Gaines was still partners with Donenfeld and Liebowitz in All-American at that point, so he’d been in on the negotiations. This was a sizable chunk of licensing money they’d be losing, along with whatever additional sales of the comics it might bring. As Fleischer is about to walk out the door, Gaines says, “We have other characters! Why not use them instead?” And he tosses some issues of Sensation and AllAmerican on the table. BR: Books containing “his” characters. ALLAN: Exactly. It’s likely that Donenfeld would have preferred to pitch Batman or Starman—characters in the DC titles—but Gaines was just faster on the uptake. Fleischer must’ve liked what he saw in Green Lantern and Wonder Woman, because they ended up doing 17 cartoons in all over the next few years. BR: Well, there was a Superman radio show, wasn’t there? ALLAN: Right. It started in 1940 and ran on the Mutual Network till the spring of 1942. They canceled it at that point, and the official story was that it was not popular. The unofficial version is that Siegel tried to get involved when the contract came up for renewal, and Mutual had the same reservations that the Fleischers had had over the cartoon deal. BR: Which better explains how The Flash went on the air instead, in August of ’42. ALLAN: Yes, with the same actors that had been on the Superman show. Bud Collyer played The Flash on radio for about eight years. Green Lantern started showing up on the radio show from time to time. Mostly, they did that to give Collyer a vacation. Lantern’s powers didn’t adapt too well to radio, though. I mean, when Flash was racing around, they could do a “whoosh” sound. But when Lantern was in action, someone would have to say, “Oh, look! Green Lantern is using his ring to melt the gun!” BR: What about comic strips?

ALLAN: Lots of them. It’s funny, Siegel and Shuster tried selling “Superman” as a comic strip for years and nobody wanted it. Then, two years after Action Comics #1, he was in the newspapers. The strip lasted until early ’43, about the time Siegel got drafted. He’d been writing it up to that point. Again, the unofficial story revolves around money. Even though he was no longer going to be writing the strip, Siegel expected to get paid for it. Donenfeld was going to have someone else write it, someone he’d have to pay, and balked at the additional expense. Green Lantern had grown in popularity thanks to the cartoons by this point, so he made a “guest appearance” and then took over the strip. Lantern ran in the papers till about 1960. BR: What other characters had strips? ALLAN: They started running a Batman strip in 1943 and it ran for three years. It ended when Bob Kane split from DC. Rather than decide who they were supposed to pay, the syndicate dropped the strip. I’ve found samples done for a Wonder Woman strip from the mid-’40s, but it never got off the ground. There was a Flash strip while the radio show was on, but it was not widely syndicated. When it was canceled, Flash started making guest appearances in the Lantern strip. You know, it’s funny. Comic book fans look at Comic Cavalcade #64 in 1954 as the first team-up of Flash and Green Lantern—outside the Justice Society, of course—when, in fact, they were palling around on radio and in the comic strip for years before that! BR: Is that your subtle way of sneaking in a plug for your next book?

The Secret History of All-American Comics, Inc.—Book One - Chapter 3

ALLAN: [chuckles] Um, I guess it is. BR: So what can you tell us about the movie serials? ALLAN: The first one was in 1948. It was just called Green Lantern and starred Kirk Alyn as Lantern. A character actor named Edward Brophy played Doiby Dickles, which was fitting since Doiby was supposedly based on Brophy! And Noel Neill played Irene Miller, who was Alan Scott’s girlfriend in the early days. As you probably know, Noel Neill came in to play Cathy Crain in the second season of the TV show, after Phyllis Coates left. There’s a cute in-joke that the writers planted in her first episode. Lantern gets whacked in the head with a bat and is unconscious. When he comes to, Cathy is there and he says, “I know you from somewhere.” She says, “I’m Cathy.” And he says, “Why did I think you had another name?” BR: [laughs] Because the last time he saw her, she was Irene Miller! I remember watching that episode and thinking at the time that it was just their way of showing GL was still confused after being knocked out.

Three To Get Ready…

ALLAN: That was the serial where Green Lantern fought the Spider Lady. There were a lot of fist fights and not too much use of the ring. Any time he used it—as well as any time he flew—they did it with animation. The second serial, Atom Man vs. Green Lantern, came out in 1950. That was the one where they actually used Vandal Savage from the comic books. It was Kirk Alyn and Noel Neill in that one too, with Lyle Talbot playing Vandal Savage.

A studio shot done for the Adventures of Green Lantern movie serial, with Noel Neill as Irene Miller, Kirk Alyn (in blond wig) as Green Lantern, and Edward Brophy as Doiby Dickles—juxtaposed with another photo of Brophy. Irwin Hasen, the second artist to regularly draw “Green Lantern” stories, visually designed Doiby and based him on that character actor, who had appeared in such films as The Champ (1931), Freaks (1932), and The Thin Man (1934)—and was the voice of Timothy Q. Mouse in Walt Disney’s 1941 animated feature Dumbo. Movie still from the collection of Alex Wright.

The Daily Show Two-thirds of a mid-1940s Green Lantern daily, drawn by the hero’s co-creator, Martin Nodell, and repro'd from a photocopy of the original art. The strip was later ghosted by Irwin Hasen, before he moved on to his 30+-year stint as the artist/co-creator of Dondi.

The 1940s-50s Media Blitz

“Let’s All Go To The Lobby…” Lobby cards for the theatrical serials The Adventures of Green Lantern and (below) what was officially titled The Fantastic Adventures of The Flash and Kid Flash. (We kid you not! Though Kid Flash didn’t appear in Flash Comics till some years later, the serial’s producers clearly decided The Flash needed a sidekick—and they apparently couldn’t find a second winged helmet in the prop room—so they dressed him as a more generic boy hero.) From the collection of Alex Wright.

The Secret History of All-American Comics, Inc.—Book One - Chapter 3

“Let Those Who Worship Evil’s Might Beware My Power—The TV Screen’s Light!” A montage of images from The Adventures of Green Lantern TV series, starring a blond George Reeves as the Emerald Gladiator and Noel Neill as Cathy Crain. Everybody remember the later episodes where producer Whitney Ellsworth found a way to get a variant Kid Lantern into the act? From the collection of Alex Wright. [The TV Guide logo is a trademark of News America Publications, Inc.]

BR: When did the Flash serial come out? ALLAN: In 1949, between the two Lantern ones. Lyle Talbot was in that one, too, but he was playing Mayor Kelley of Keystone City, so he was a good guy. Robert Lowery was Flash, and Jane Adams played Joan Williams. The villain was The Wizard, but he wasn’t the one from the comic books. Not the only time Hollywood took a name and nothing else. BR: Were those the only serials? ALLAN: Kirk Alyn starred in a Blackhawk one, but that was when Quality still published the comic, before Gaines bought out Busy Arnold. There was some work done on a Batman serial in 1943, but it got changed to The Night Owl after Donenfeld and the studio couldn’t come to terms on the deal. Anyway, in 1951, they did Green Lantern vs. the Mole Men as a feature film. George Reeves was cast as GL, with Phyllis Coates as Irene Miller. BR: So she was Irene in the film? ALLAN: When it appeared in the movie theatres, yes. When they turned it into the two-part TV episode, they changed it to Cathy Crain and used a voiceover to cover it. BR: Why did they change the character’s name?

ALLAN: When they were putting together the cast for the Adventures of Green Lantern TV program, the producers decided to introduce a new romantic interest into the series. They wanted someone who would be in love with the super-hero but not realize that she dealt with his alter-ego every day. During a brainstorming session, someone suggested adding a young secretary to Alan Scott’s staff at the TV station—it was, of course, changed from being a radio station for obvious reasons! The girl would be totally infatuated with the glamorous Green Lantern and never realize that her boss was the man behind the mask. When it came time to name the character, they first looked at some of the women who had appeared in the comic book. Someone suggested sticking with Irene Miller, who was his girlfriend in the comics and the movie serial. The producers decided her name was too drab. Another writer brought up Rose Canton, a female character who had actually donned a costume and become The Thorn in a few “Flash” stories. While the group was intrigued by the long-range possibilities of their new secretary doing the same, they balked at her name, as well. After playing with alternates like Rose Forrest, Rose Gardner, and Rose Busch, they instead moved on to alliterative ones. As one writer who was there told me, “There were a lot of Betty names first. Betty Burke, Betty Blaine, Betty Brant. When someone said ‘Betty Boop,’ that’s when we started with other first names. They were pretty much set on Kathy Kane until someone pointed out that he thought that was the name of the

The 1940s-50s Media Blitz

‘Batman’ artist’s wife. But they liked the first name, so they changed the spelling to Cathy, and that was how Cathy Crain got her name.” BR: Well, that explains why “Cathy” doesn’t act much like a secretary in the “Mole Man” episodes. ALLAN: Yes, they wanted to keep Phyllis Coates, but not “Irene Miller.” BR: But she was replaced by Noel Neill in the second season. ALLAN: The studio suspended production after the first season when they were trying to find a national sponsor. By the time they had gotten Kellogg’s on board and wanted to reassemble the cast, Phyllis was committed to a pilot for a program called Here Comes Calvin. The show

was never picked up, but when she was finally free of the deal it was too late. It’s likely that she would have been replaced anyway. The Kellogg’s people thought the first season was a bit too noir and they wanted it to be more kid-friendly. BR: I didn’t realize until I watched the shows recently how sexy Phyllis Coates was. ALLAN: That’s part of why they brought back Noel Neill. She was much more wholesome-looking. And she ended up becoming the recognized version of Cathy, because she had the part for the rest of the series. BR: Let’s talk a little about the first episode. ALLAN: “The Light of The Green Lantern”—same title as the first chapter of the serial! They went back to the first comic book appearance for that, ignoring all the Kid Lantern mythology that Mort Weisinger had introduced into the comic books. Alan Scott is an engineer in charge of a bridge-building project who is the only one to survive an explosion, because he is holding onto the mystical green lantern. The lantern gives him the power to track down the man behind the explosion and bring him to justice. Then he begins his costumed career. BR: And somehow goes from being an engineer to owning a television station. ALLAN: [laughs] He apparently decided that running a TV station was safer than building bridges. In addition to Phyllis Coates as Cathy, the show had Joe E. Ross as Doiby Dickles. Doiby started out as a cab driver but became more of a personal assistant to Alan when he proved to be very popular with the audience. They also had Robert Shayne as Detective Henderson and John Hamilton as Mayor Kelley in regular roles. Kelley was also the name of the mayor of Keystone City in the Flash serial, so obviously somebody liked the name! BR: So the only characters that actually came from the comics were GL and Doiby. ALLAN: Yes. They even had plans to introduce a young sidekick for Alan. An actor named Jack Larson played Jimmy the Shoeshine Boy in the second episode, and they were going to have him reappear from time to time. But the audience liked Doiby so much the producers ultimately decided that he filled the bill. BR: Which is also why Doiby got his own comic book in 1952. ALLAN: Exactly. Other than Lantern himself, Doiby had the biggest role in the show. At least until ’56, when they started playing up Cathy more, and she got her own comic, as well. In all, the series ran for six seasons and then went into syndication. That lasted well into the 1960s, and it was just as popular in reruns as it had been when it first aired. If not for the fact that the early seasons were shot in black-&-white, it probably would have continued airing for many more years. In any case, I doubt that there is a member of our generation who can’t recite Lantern’s oath…

Spinoffs, Anyone? As the run of the Green Lantern TV series was nearing its end, the studio and M.C. Gaines were looking at ways to continue the franchise. One was a pilot for Kid Lantern, starring Johnny Rockwell as a teenaged Alan Scott (and Kid Lantern). Far more bizarre, as seen above, was the pilot for The Adventures of Pup Lantern, in which the entire cast was played by midgets in dog costumes. If nothing else, it was a festival of bad puns. Pup Lantern’s alter ego was Alan Scottie, his secretary was Collie Crain, and his assistant was Doberman Dickles. (Kid Lantern finally got his own TV series in 1988. Despite being considered a cult classic among fans at comic book conventions, Pup Lantern was never again heard of.)

BOTH: [in unison] “In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil’s might beware my power— Green Lantern’s light!” Bob Rozakis’ “Secret History of All-American Comics, Inc. – Book One” will be continued in Alter Ego, while the chapters of “Book Two,” dealing with the 1970s and later periods, can be seen in Back Issue magazine.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Twice-Told Spirit! by Michael T. Gilbert

Enter… The Marksman! When deadlines grew tight, Will Eisner used any trick in the book to keep The Spirit on schedule, including recycling old scripts. And when deadlines got really tight, Will occasionally cannibalized old stories from his other comics. He even re-worked art from Baseball Comics and the unpublished John Law to keep up with the punishing weekly deadline of his Spirit newspaper insert. On at least one occasion, his cannibalization actually worked in reverse. Strange, but true! A couple of years ago, I had déjà vu all over again while reading a “Marksman” tale in an old issue of Quality’s Smash Comics. I’d never read this story before, but it seemed oddly familiar! Then it hit me. Wasn’t this story in Jules Feiffer’s The Great Comic Book Heroes? And didn’t it star The Spirit, instead of this Marksman fellow? A quick check revealed that both stories had the same basic plot, and that some captions contained almost identical text. I wasn’t the only reader who’d noticed the similarity. Michaël Dewally recently contacted me to say: “I was going through some Smash Comics and came upon issue #41 from March 1943. Fred Guardineer does the honors on The Marksman. As soon as I actually read the story (versus just looking at the art), it struck me that I’d already read that script. Immediately I pulled my Spirit Archives #3 (Above:) Page 2 of Fred Guardineer’s “Marksman story. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Do You Believe In Magic? (Left:) Guardineer, who began his comic career in the 1930s, may be best known for drawing the adventures of “Zatara the Master Magician” for DC. He illustrated this page from Action Comics #2 (July 1938). [©2008 DC Comics.]

Twice-Told Spirit!

While we don’t have space (or permission) to print both stories in their entirety, we are reproducing the first two and last pages of each story for comparison’s sake, for historical purposes. As you’ll see, a number of changes were made when the “The Jewel of Death” was converted by Guardineer (or some other writer) into a “Marksman” adventure. Though the text in many of the captions is repeated almost verbatim, staging and plot points have been altered to fit this new hero. The Eisner version also has a framing device featuring The Spirit’s face drawn in sand, which was omitted in the later story. This may explain why the “Marksman” story is a page shorter than Eisner’s original tale. Interestingly, Eisner himself reworked the same story years later. “Blood of the Earth,” for the Spirit Section from February 26, 1950, features many elements from Eisner’s earlier “The Jewel of Death” story, including an image of The Spirit drawn in the sand on the splash page.

and sure enough, there it was: ‘The Jewel of Death’ from July 20, 1941. It’s the exact same story recycled about two years later as a ‘Marksman’ script. So here’s a page-by-page (well, almost, as ‘The Spirit’ is eight pages long to ‘The Marksman’‘s seven) comparison of Eisner and Guardineer’s approach to the story. Note that Guardineer stayed close to Eisner’s interpretation throughout. I grew up loving the “clear line,” so my heart favors Guardineer. What do you think?” I think both look great, Mike! And I know our readers will enjoy comparing the two tales. Guardineer’s art seems surprisingly fluid here, making me wonder if another Quality artist laid out the story, perhaps Jack Cole or someone similar. On the other hand, it’s entirely possible that this was a solo effort by Guardineer.

Third Time’s The Charm! Eisner reworked “The Jewel of Death” yet again nine years later as “Blood of the Earth!” It appeared in The Spirit Section for February 26, 1950, making this a Thrice-Told Tale! [©2008 Will Eisner Studios, Inc.]

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Photo Finish Page 8 of The Spirit—and page 7 of “The Marksman”—the final pages of both stories. Surprisingly, Guardineer’s take on the earthquake scene was, if anything, even more effective than Eisner’s! [©2008 Will Eisner Studios, Inc., & the respective copyright holders, respectively.]

So Why? I have no idea why this single Spirit story was reused by a different character, but it’s not entirely surprising. Eisner had a long business association with Quality Comics and its owner, “Busy” Arnold. Will had even helped to create many of the company’s most famous characters, notably the Blackhawks and Doll Man. Though Eisner stopped working directly for Quality in 1939 to concentrate on The Spirit, he still did business with them. Quality reprinted Spirit stories in Police Comics and even put out a solo Spirit title. “Lady Luck,” a back-up feature in the Spirit Section, also appeared regularly in Quality’s Smash Comics. It’s surprising that more Spirit scripts weren’t recycled for other Quality titles, considering the close association between Eisner and Arnold. But why was this particular story retooled for a different hero? By the time the “Marksman” story appeared, Eisner was in the Army. Maybe Eisner agreed to let “Busy” Arnold reuse one of his stories. Or, since Will was gone, maybe Arnold just “borrowed” one of his old scripts. Whatever the reason, this recycling experiment was shortlived. I Get “Mystic” The Moment

You’re Near Ironically, Guardineer wound up in Eisner’s Spirit Section a few months later

Twice-Told Spirit!

Secret Origins—Times Three! Eisner’s Thrice-Told Spirit Origin! Eisner frequently retold The Spirit’s origin, but always managed to find a new twist. (Top left:) Eisner’s origin from June 2, 1940, the very first Spirit story. (Top right:) This update is from January 13, 1946, shortly after Eisner’s return from the Army. (Bottom left:) Yet another origin, from Harvey Comics’ The Spirit #1 comic book (Oct. 1966). [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

when he took over “Mr. Mystic,” the backup strip previously drawn by Bob Powell. Powell’s final story appeared on Oct 3, 1943, and Guardineer debuted the following week, mere months after drawing his Twice-Told “Marksman” tale. Did one job lead to the other? Or was it just a coincidence? Regardless, Guardineer’s reworking of “The Jewel of Death” provides a fascinating look at two very different artists telling essentially the same story—twice! And double-thanks to Michaël Dewally, Ken Quattro, and Janet Gilbert for their help this issue. Stop by next issue as we unearth more unexpected goodies from the Crypt! Till next time…

Comic Fandom Archive Bill Schelly here. John Ryan was an Australian fan who, along with his South African correspondent John Wright, helped to make the new comics fandom truly “international” during the early 1960s. Unfortunately, he passed away suddenly in 1979, just after the publication in his native country of his hardcover book Panel by Panel: An Illustrated History of Australian Comics, which was a valuable source of information and art

for Michael Baulderstone’s coverage of Oz’s colorful comic book heroes in Alter Ego #51. Three issues ago, his fan-friend Howard Siegel wrote about Ryan’s life and career, which included fanzines and the 1979 book, as well as articles written in other fields. This time, John Wright, who published fanzines in the 1960s and went on to become a successful novelist, celebrates his comrade, nearly three decades after his death….

Our Digger Mate “I

by John Wright

’ve always thought I was some sort of nut,” was the way John introduced himself in his aerogramme of August 18, 1963. “To be perfectly honest,” he went on, “I was always a little ashamed that I collected comics... for I had no idea that comics had so many devotees.” His words echoed those of so many others, including my own. At that time John had managed to get through 32 summers without losing his bachelorhood— a status that would soon change. When we ‘met,’ John was employed as a Production Planner for the Hardie Rubber Company, a position he described as: “Pretty good—although I must admit I seem to have a built-in aversion to work. In fact, it’s only a mad desire I have to keep from starving, that I work at all.” Right then I knew we were destined to become good mates. Just as I knew that that offering was but a mix of one part truth and a heap of buffalo chips. An aversion to having to work for a salary does not necessarily imply laziness. Some 13 years later, when I’d chosen to quit the business world and risk the life of a freelance writer and consultant, he confessed: “I used to quite enjoy being unemployed—and only found myself another job because the money was running out. I used to read, write, and go to the daytime movies two or three times a week... stay up late and sleep late. I didn’t mind it one little bit. I’ve always said that I missed my vocation in life. I should have been born the lazy, shiftless son of an indulgent millionaire.” Again, this was but more of the above-mentioned mix, for by then John Ryan had proved he was never lacking in drive and enthusiasm. He was, I believe, something of a fireball. In retrospect, I often wonder if he perhaps heard the clock ticking and set himself a pace in order to achieve just a few of the things he wanted to get done.

The Walls Have—Logos! John Ryan (twice!) juxtaposed with the cover of his fanzine Boomerang #29, which shows him before a virtual wall of comic book covers, both American and (mostly) Australian, which were important to him. Courtesy of John Wright. [Art ©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

He’d been a keen sportsman, trying most sports that were available to him. By the age of 32, however, he’d wisely elected to leave participation in some of the contact games to the “younger” generation, confining himself to social tennis, ten-pin bowling, and the occasional trip to the Snowy Mountains for brief skiing holidays. He was an avid reader and already a published writer, with articles relating to boxing, football, and cricket appearing in the likes of The Australian Ring and Sports Novels. Amateur dramatics was another involvement, and there he enjoyed featured roles in such productions as Noel Coward’s Hay Fever. It was, if I correctly remember, in amateur theatre where he met his lovely Jan—a meeting which resulted in a union that would continue for 15 happy years, blessing the couple with two children, Sean and Fiona, of whom they were immensely proud. Not only was he already a serious comic book collector, but he’d actively pursued his interest, not merely to add to what was already a substantial collection, but to gain further knowledge of artists and writers.

Comic Fandom Archive

Titans Two Two group photos of 1970s gatherings at John Ryan’s home were printed in A/E #76. The pair of gents in the pic above are Australian artist Stanley Pitt (on left) and US artist Alex Toth, who must’ve made a trip “down under.” These photos were taken, we've learned recently, by Paul Power, though they were sent to us by Howard Siegel. On the right is a rejected Pitt cover for the first issue of Yarmak - Jungle King Comic, which was launched in 1949; this art appeared in Ryan’s 1979 comics history Panel by Panel. Pitt was later noted for his Alex Raymond-influenced style on such science-fiction comics projects as Gully Foyle and Silver Starr—and even briefly ghosted Secret Agent Corrigan for Al Williamson. [Yarmak TM & ©2008 the respective trademark and copyright holders.]

“Us Colonials” was one of the ways John often referred to him and me. And at that time indeed we were. Another of a number of things we quickly found out about each other was that we enjoyed the same type of music, that we spoke the same language and would never have any need to pussyfoot around each other. A spade was a spade, never a garden implement. On occasion we may unintentionally have ruffled the feathers of a few overly sensitive parties. In this regard he once wrote: “When you say that I’m ’ornery enough’ to sound off if something rubs me the wrong way, it just goes to show how well you’ve come to know me... over the years.”

Back in 1948, for instance, with the hope of filling gaps in his collection, he’d been in contact with Bob Powell in a quest to secure certain back issues of Speed Comics—particularly those in which Mr. Powell had worked on the “Shock Gibson” feature.

Uh-huh. Just as I knew the essential John Ryan to be a gentle, caring soul, possessed of a wonderful sense of humor—someone who would bend backward to help others, whose hand of friendship was ever outstretched.

This was another area in which we found ourselves on common ground. Though we liked all American comic books, even the pretty bad ones, we had a rather special fondness for the Fox and Harvey titles and a number of the second banana heroes.

When it came to expressing opinions about Golden and Silver Age comics, we were again in accord—particularly insofar as feeling the current artwork on certain well-established characters seemed a bit too effeminate for our tastes.

As for adding to his collection... During the 1958 visit to Britain, to which Howard has already referred, included in that “great stack of comics” John took home with him was a copy of Marvel Comics #1—an item he’d found in a pokey little book shop in Soho. Indeed that was a find, but back in those good old times, even after the first appearance of Alter-Ego and the birth of fandom, few of us thought too deeply about “valuable collectibles.” The Overstreet Price Guide had yet to become a reality, and eBay was not so much as a twinkle in the eye of a mother-to-be. We pursued those things in which we had genuine interest, the things—so often indefinable—that warmed the heart and brightened a day. We shared and helped. I gave John my duplicate copies of Fantastic Four #1, Amazing Fantasy #15… the books in which Iron Man, Thor, Ant-Man, etc., first appeared. John sent me Aussie comics I’d never before seen, Golden Age titles—and never ever was there any mention of “trade.” (It has never been clear to me why so many of my closest and most valued friends should be people I have yet to meet. So, long ago, I quit questioning it and simply continue to remain grateful.)

Soon after we became acquainted, John decided to launch his own fanzine, which he’d title Down Under. As with everything he undertook, he devoted himself fully to it, and the result was a whole lot more than just a very fine zine. But, though I have no recall of us ever discussing this, I got the feeling that Down Under had not been sufficient to satisfy his needs of expression. He had a great deal to tell and to share, and he found outlets for this in excellent articles for other fanzines, in columns and newsletters such as Bidgee, Bonzer, Boomerang, and others. Along the way he was not only making contact with many Aussie artists, often having them as guests in his home, as frequently providing both help and advice—sometimes dipping deep into his private coffer in order to finance projects in which he truly believed. It was starting to become difficult to keep up with him! By then John was a family man with increasing responsibilities. He was also in a new job, working as Sales Manager for Firestone, and had moved to Mount Gravatt, Queensland. All these changes were cutting deeply into his time, demanding necessary adjustments to his lifestyle. Eventually they would force him to withdraw from certain activities, but instead of slowing down he simply shifted his focus to other comic book-related interests.

Our Digger Mate

Okaie Doakey! A John Ryan bio and photo from Bill Schelly’s own 1970s fanzine Sense of Wonder #12—juxtaposed with the kind of comic art John made Australian audiences aware of in 1979—just before his own untimely passing. The comic book feature “Okaie” had been drawn by Geoff Litchfield, circa 1941. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Other hindering factors were postage tariffs that were galloping skyward, along with somewhat peculiar censorship laws. In South Africa, in those times, censorship was certainly tight enough, what with such as organized sport or advertising on radio being prohibited on a Sunday. Yet when I sent John a package of photo-story magazines, published over here, and the Australian Customs confiscated them... that indeed was a puzzlement. During 1977, Souvenir Press asked the Digger to write an introduction to the Ginger Meggs book. John agreed, and because a contents list or photocopies of the pages that were to be reproduced were not available to him, and because he always strived for the utmost accuracy, the job resulted in a substantial amount of research. But, typical of his style, he said: “Still it does represent another credit I can use to impress people at parties, etc.—if they’re drunk enough.” At another time, when referring to a request to write an item on Australian comic books for a professional publication, he claimed: “But I’d do it for bugger all, just to make sure it was done correctly.”

Comic Fandom Archive

What is perhaps not very widely known is that the cover design for the Meggs book was also provided by John Ryan. When asked about this, he brushed it off as no more than something done to save time—avoid a delay—to help out:

Still, we always promised that at some stage we’d find an opportunity to “just sit down and shoot the breeze over a few beers. Maybe even more than just a few.” Unfortunately, it was never to be.

“I might know a bit about the field of comics, but artistically I am not creative. If I was, I’d be pursuing a career in art in some form... rather than pretending to be a salesman.”

It was a Saturday morning, and for some reason I had this nagging feeling that I should drive down to the post office and check for mail. At around midday I relented and drove to Linton Grange. There was but one letter in my box. The return address was that of the Ryans... in Jan’s handwriting.

In the same year, John was contacted by Collier Macmillan Australia, indicating their interest in possibly publishing a history of Australian comics sometime in 1979. They were approaching him in the belief that he was “the acknowledged expert on Australian written and drawn comics.” This was a project John had often talked about, and though he’d been performing casual research over the years, it had remained but a rather hazy dream. Now he was being invited to do something concrete about it, and to be paid in the process. Whether along the line there was a change, a take-over, or a merging of publishers, I cannot say, for when Panel by Panel finally rolled off the presses it would be under the Cassell Australia Limited imprint.

15-12-79 “My Dear John, How do I write and say to you John Ryan is dead, except by writing exactly that.”

Novelist John Wright, in a studio shot some years ago.

In gathering necessary material, John would need to travel all over Australia. He would also, judging by a special form he’d designed, be drawing on his experience as a Production Planner, to both simplify research while ensuring that essential data was recorded the first time around. While all this was going on, there were still other Ryan irons in the fire, although to a very large extent, as Howard mentioned, John had been obliged to cut himself off from most of the fan activities. Over the years South African publishers had reprinted a number of US comic books in a small variety of formats, including editions in the Afrikaans language. Most had been from the DC lists, and none of the ventures had been very successful. It seemed that, as appeared to be the case with American movies, nothing but the real McCoy would be acceptable. On the other hand, newspaper strips continued to be popular. Most all were American, though in some papers one might see a couple of British daily strips. Farmer’s Weekly, one of the least likely of magazines in which to expect comic pages, ran a full page of John Dixon’s Air Hawk. It was the only Australian strip I’d ever known to be published in South Africa. At some stage I offered the thought that greater success might have been achieved by reprinting Aussie comics—titles and characters with whom South Africans were not familiar. John agreed, thinking it was something we might look into in an attempt to help both sides—the South African publishers, and the Australian copyright owners. Regrettably, it got nowhere, for we were both then hosts to mounting responsibilities, both private and business, and time seemed always at a premium. But even during those periods we stayed in touch, albeit not as frequently as I might have wished. It was also during that part of our lives that John began encouraging me to consider emigrating to Australia. For a while I seriously did, and he offered to assist in any way he could. But, as it had been with similar invitations from the States, a sense of moral obligation to family kept me here.

John had been riding the crest of a gigantic wave: his family was in good health; his personal finances had never been better; the Ryans were looking forward to their best Christmas, ever... they’d even put down a deposit for the construction of a swimming pool at their home.

His publisher had phoned to say they’d already placed 3½ thousand copies of Panel by Panel in stores. The Australian edition of Penthouse had very favorably reviewed the book, as had other publications, and it had made the “Books in Demand” list. Add to that the fact that The Black & White Artists’ Club, in Sydney, had honored him with membership. Life seemed never to have been better. On Tuesday, December 11, 1979, he was obliged to travel to Mt. Isa—a business trip he did not feel the least bit like making. The temperature there, that day, was 42° C. He’d had dinner with a business associate, and a short while later was talking in the doorway of the motel when he collapsed. My letter, in response to the copy of Panel by Panel John had sent to me, arrived that same Tuesday. He was never to read it. He achieved many things for which he will be remembered, among them most certainly Panel by Panel, an essential reference work for other writers and students of Australian comic book history—a monument to one hell of a guy, whose friendship we were so fortunate to have shared. On second thought... I believe it will be the many warm memories we cherish that will be the real monument to our Digger mate, Ol’ JTR. NOTE: John Ryan’s collection of Australian comic books was donated to the National Library of Australia: Manuscript Collection MS 6514. It consists of 66 boxes containing over 500 different comic titles, over 600 titles of comic fanzines published between 1960 and 1979, along with John’s own research files. The donation was made by John’s widow, Jan Ryan, and was received by the library on September 9, 1980. —John Wright. NOTE FROM BILL SCHELLY: A third article about John Ryan and Australian comics will appear some months from now.

In Memoriam

Steve Gerber (1947-2008) “In Every Sense Of The Word, A Friend”

A Tribute by Mark Evanier

teve Gerber died in Las Vegas on Monday night, February 11, after a long, painful illness.

For the past year or so, he was in and out of hospitals there and had just become a “candidate” for a lung transplant. He had pulmonary fibrosis, a condition that literally turns the lungs to scar tissue and steadily reduces their ability to function. Steve insisted that his affliction had nothing to do with his lifelong, incessant consumption of tobacco, an addiction he only recently quit for reasons of medical necessity. None of his friends believed that, but Steve did. I mention that because, in the thirty or so years I knew him, that was the only time I ever saw Steve perhaps divorced from reality. He was a sharp, brilliant human being with a keen understanding of people. In much that he wrote, he chose to depart from reality or (more often) to warp it in those extreme ways that make us understand it even better. But he always did so from his underlying premise as a smart, decent guy. I like almost everyone I’ve ever met in the comic book industry, but I really liked Steve. Stephen Ross Gerber was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on September

20, 1947. A longtime fan of comic books, he was involved in the ditto/mimeo days of fanzine publishing in the 1960s, issuing one called Headline at age 14. He had a by-mail friendship with Roy Thomas, who was partly responsible for the most noteworthy fanzine of that era, Alter Ego. Years later, when Roy was the editor at Marvel Comics, he rescued Steve from a crippling career writing advertising copy, bringing him East as a writer and assistant editor. Steve soon distinguished himself as one of the firm’s best scripters, handling many of their major titles at one time or another but especially shining on The Defenders, Man-Thing, Omega the Unknown, “Morbius the Living Vampire,” a special publication about the rock group Kiss… and, of course, Howard the Duck. Howard, born in Steve’s amazing mind and obviously autobiographical to a large degree, took the industry by storm. The creation was in many ways a mixed blessing to his creator. It led to an ugly and costly legal battle over ownership, which Steve settled out of court. It led to the occasional pains when he returned from time to time to the character and, due to reasons external and internal, found that he could not go home again. It also led to the sheer annoyance of watching the 1986 motion picture Howard the Duck (produced with minimal involvement on Steve’s part) open to withering reviews and dreadful business. Still, the comics issues he did are widely regarded as classics… and Howard is often cited as a character whom only Steve could make work. After he left Marvel under unpleasant circumstances in the mid-1970s, Steve worked for me for a time at Hanna-Barbera, writing comic books, many of which were published by Marvel. An editor at the company had loudly vowed that the work of Steve Gerber would never again appear in anything published by Marvel. Just to be ornery, we immediately had Steve write a story for one of the H-B comics I was editing, and it was

A Boy And His Duck Steve Gerber at Phil Seuling’s 1974 New York Comics Convention, as printed in FOOM #7 (Fall ’74)—and the Howard the Duck daily comic strip for Jan. 28, 1978. Artist Val Mayerik was the visual co-creator of Howard, having drawn him in his first appearance, in Fear #19 (Dec. 1973). [Art & script ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

In Memoriam—Steve Gerber

would do anything to help. He was, in every sense of the word, a friend. He was one of my best friends, and even though I knew this was coming, and even though part of me thinks it may be for the better, given what he stood to go through just to keep on breathing a few more years, it’s a real blow. If you knew Steve Gerber, no further explanation is necessary. If you didn’t, no further explanation can ever quite explain why. The above has been very slighted edited from its original appearance on Mark Evanier’s website www.newsfromme.com. Shortly before Steve Gerber’s untimely passing, Alter Ego scheduled a three-part look at his fannish creations of the 1960s in Bill Schelly’s Comic Fandom Archive section, written by John G. Pierce. That series will begin appearing a couple of issues from now. A/E editor Roy Thomas will have a few words to say at that time, as well, about his fellow Missourian and friend.

Pair O’ Ducks Paradox (Above:) The Destroyer Duck piece penciled by Jack Kirby and inked by Alfredo Alcala for the F.O.O.G. (Friends Of Old Gerber) Portfolio put together by Steve’s fellow professionals in the late 1970s to help him pay his legal bills during his lawsuit with Marvel over Howard the Duck. Thanks to Tom Hegeman. [Destroyer Duck TM & ©2008 Estate of Steve Gerber.] (Right:) A visual eulogy to Steve by artists Gabriel Morrissett & Ty Templeton. [Howard the Duck TM & ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

published by Marvel with a writer credit for “Reg Everbest,” which was Steve’s name spelled inside-out. About this time, Steve began to get work in the animation field, starting with a script for the Plastic Man cartoon series produced by Ruby-Spears. This led to a brief but mutually beneficial association with that studio, especially when Steve launched and story-edited one of the best adventure cartoons ever done for Saturday morning TV, Thundarr the Barbarian. Later, he worked for other houses on other shows, including G.I. Joe and Dungeons & Dragons. Then there were other comic books, including occasional returns to Marvel and even to Howard. For DC, he did The Phantom Zone and, later, A. Bizarro, Nevada, and Hard Time. In the hospital in early February of this year, he was working on a new Doctor Fate series for them. His other many credits in comics (which include Foolkiller for Marvel and books for Malibu and Image) are well known to readers of the last few decades. What I feel the need to tell you is just what a great guy he was. In the ’70s, when New York comic professionals were banding together to elevate the stature of the field and the living standards of its practitioners, Steve was at the nexus of so many of those efforts. When he was involved in his lawsuit with Marvel, many fellow professionals rallied around him with loans and gifts of cash, and some of us put together a benefit comic book, Destroyer Duck, to raise money. People did that because they knew, first of all, that Steve was fighting not just for his own financial reasons but for matters of principle relating to how the comic book industry treated its creators. That some of the more pernicious practices soon went away had a lot to do with Steve’s taking the stand he did. Also, those who knew Steve knew that, when you were in need, he

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re:

credits as I know them: Fred Dickenson – 1 Aug. 1948 – 19 Sept. 1948 Don Moore – 26 Sept. 1948 – 31 May 1953 (Moore was given a co-credit as of 7 Nov. 1948) Harvey Kurtzman – 7 June 1953 – 13 Sept. 1953 Dan Barry – 20 Sept. 1953 – 12 Jan. 1958 Harry Harrison – 19 Jan. 1958 – 17 Dec. 1967

(2) The caption for the illustration on top of 77 reads “the last Flash Gordon page by Alex Raymond.” Sorry, but that is wrong. This page was drawn by Austin Briggs (pencils) and John Mayo (inks). Raymond’s last page (with inking assists by Mayo) appeared on April 30, 1944. Alberto Beccatini Corrections duly noted, Alberto. Thanks! Don’t know how these things happen! Andy Stout writes: Hey Roy— Great article on “The Monster Society of Evil”! But in your summary for Chapter 19, you wonder if Jorrk got blown up back on Punkus. I have the hardbound collection [of the entire serial] by American Nostalgia… and I can confirm it. Back in Chapter 11, when Cap blows up the ammo plant, Herr Phoul and Jorrk are both in there. After the explosion, we see Phoul’s swastika and Jorrk’s head falling into the debris. One other thing about the “Monster Society” story: When Mr. Mind goes through his list of foiled plans, one is to burn down Washington. He is also accused of this during the trial at the very end. But he never did this during the story that we see, and there doesn’t seem to be time for him to attempt it off-panel. Any thoughts?

n honor of this issue’s (mostly) Superman theme, A/E reader Mark Staff Brandl has rendered an image of our ever-eponymous maskot Alter Ego, in the style of the sketches in the 1942 novel The Adventures of Superman, written by George Lowther. The title page of the book said all illustrations therein were by Joe Shuster—and by our lights, those black-&-white inked sketches would’ve done Joe proud, though Joe himself apparently said he didn’t do them. But at least we know who did our version, and we appreciate it! [Alter Ego TM & © Roy & Dann Thomas.] We’re (meaning me, Roy Thomas—don’t blame Bill, Jim, or Chris!) really pressed for space this issue—even more than usual—so let’s plunge right into some abbreviated comments re A/E #64—which came out a whole year and a half ago! That was an issue centered around Fawcett’s Golden Age, plus an interview with 1930s-40s comics artist Martin Filchock, a look at “evil twin” stories of Superman and Wonder Woman, a remembrance of Dave Kaler’s 1966 New York Comic Convention, and a “1943 calendar” featuring Timely/Marvel lovelies portrayed by Hollywood stars.

Alberto Becattini, whose coverage of Nembo Kid, the official Italian version of Superman some years back, was sadly crowded out of this issue despite being heralded last month, said he’d like to point out: Dear Roy: A couple of things about the Disbrow/Hamerlinck article on Mac Raboy—which I liked very much, by the way: (1) Contrary to what is said… Raboy—who was a great artist—never wrote any Flash Gordon Sunday page during his 19-year tenure on the strip. The page was officially co-credited to a writer (Don Moore) only from 1948-53; otherwise, all writers ghosted on it. Here are the writing

Andy Stout My guess, Andy, would be that it was an idea that editor Wendell Crowley, writer Otto Binder, and maybe artist C.C. Beck tossed around that didn’t quite get used—but later they thought it had been. By the way, I’m sure we were all overjoyed recently to learn that DC is going to reprint the entire original “Monster Society” story in the hardcover Archive format! I’ve been suggesting that to the Archives editors for quite a few years now, and I appreciate all the notes from A/E readers congratulating me on spurring DC on—but somehow I suspect it was Jeff Smith’s recent Monster Society of Evil series that’s responsible for our lucky break. Surprisingly, several things in that same issue of A/E inspired FCA’s regular columnist Marc Swayze to send a rare letter: Dear Roy, I had just about talked myself out of writing to you regarding A/E #64, but every time I laid the issue aside, it fell open to the one item that had stopped me in the first place: [your wife] Dann’s stirring photo portrait of Jerry Bails! It was my first knowledge of Jerry’s death… and that photo… and your words… and those of Jean Bails… have made me regret more than ever not having known the man in person. And those pics of Otto, Wendell, and Beck… and, on a later page, Mac Raboy… all looking as they did when I knew them! There, page 20… the World’s Mightiest, himself! You can tell your friend Roger Dicken that from here his observations regarding the [similarity in the] likeness of [Max] Schmeling and Captain Marvel are not all that quirky. The nose in the photo looks as

re:

along with John Buscema’s last comic book work, the first issue he and I did together of a projected Kal-El the Barbarian “Elseworlds” series. Someday, hopefully, these items and others will see the light of day. Kal-El, of course, could be finished by other artists as a tribute to Big John—I’m sure there’d be no shortage of volunteers!

though it may have been mistreated a bit by people like Joe Louis, but the other features… the eyebrows, the squint, the slant of the forehead…seem to match up pretty good. The piece about Martin Filchock was inspiring. What a career! And he’s still at it… at age 94! (Speaking of ages, I have more incorrect birthdates afloat than anyone I know. I was born only once, on July 17, 1913, not far from where I sit, here in Monroe, Louisiana.

Incidentally, Jack Bender, artist of the Alley Oop newspaper strip (and author of an upcoming piece on the ol’ cavemeister’s 75th birthday, which will be published before 2008 is up), insists that the actress depicted in our “1943 Calendar” who is identified as movie star Ann Sheridan is actually Virginia Mayo; he says he once saw Ms. Sheridan up close in person at the Schubert Theatre in Chicago, where she was “slightly crosseyed, but lovely”! Science-fiction author Harlan Ellison left a long and forceful message on my answering-machine re the same case of mistaken identity; he even got film critic Leonard Maltin to drop me a note backing him up! Calendarcompositor Alex Wright and I confess that they’re probably right—but Alex swears that he picked up that photo on the Internet, where it was labeled as “Ann Sheridan”!

Marc Swayze Roger will be on Cloud Nine to learn that you agree with him about the resemblance of the German heavyweight Max Schmeling and the Big Red Cheese, Marc. And, while I only had time and space in #64 to mention the passing of Jerry Bails and to reproduce part of a photo Dann had taken in Detroit a year or two earlier, I was setting the stage for A/E #68’s full-sale tribute to the founder of Alter Ego and, in a sense, of comics fandom itself. His spirit still pervades A/E, and I know he was proud and happy about the direction in its first 60+ new issues. As for the age thing: guys like you, Martin Filchock, and Joe Simon never cease to amaze (and inspire) me— proving that 90+ is the new 20something—or something!

The Brobdingnagian Bumpkin Martin Filchock’s “Mighty Man” splash page from Amazing-Man #15 (Aug. 1940) shows the “country-cousin-comes-to-the-city” approach that Richard Kyle talks about in his letter on this page. Thanks to Eric Schumacher. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Mike W. Barr, veteran comic book writer and editor and the co-creator of the Batman and The Outsiders title years ago—and yet another generous contributor whose article got edged out of this issue—e-mailed us concerning “The Comic Crypt”: Dear Roy— Art isn’t my area of expertise, but the cover to Wonder Woman #175, on page 42, looks like the work of Irv Novick, rather than that of Andru & Esposito, to whom Michael T. Gilbert tentatively attributed it. Mike W. Barr

You’re right on target, old friend—only it was an editing “typo” (or maybe a senior moment) by A/E’s editor, not MTG, that mis-identified the artist. Jack Oster even spotted Novick’s initials on the cover of WW #84 in that same “Crypt”! Pro artist Alan Kupperberg picked up on the #84 artist ID, as well. Glen Johnson, who wrote articles for the original incarnation of Alter Ego back in the mid-1960s, pointed out what he called “a very small mistake”: Hi Roy, Ownership for “Peter Cannon… Thunderbolt” is not DC; it is the Morisi estate. Pete got back ownership after the title failed in the early ’90s. Glen Johnson Good for him, Glen! Just a shame DC never printed that Secret Origins story they had him do of the hero. Guess it’s in a locked room somewhere,

Richard Kyle, another of comic fandom’s founding fathers in the 1960s, had this to say about the longest feature in A/E #64: Dear Roy,

Jim Amash’s interview with Martin Filchock was immensely enjoyable. For years I’ve wondered about the ins and outs of Centaur and its predecessors. Jim covers a lot of ground, including great stuff I’ve never known. Filchock’s art, which I hadn’t seen for 60-odd years—except the briefest glimpse—turns out to be much better than I remembered. Now I see that the simplicity was natural, not the artistic illiteracy that a 12-yearold had suspected. Not that it ever stopped me from enjoying “Mighty Man” and Filchock’s other characters, even though they often seemed like hicks visiting the big city. In fact, I remember that I liked that about them. Reminded me of my relatives. This is the first I’ve heard that A.A. Wyn had anything to do with Centaur. I suspect I’d never have connected him with Warren A. Angel if Jim hadn’t. Sounds much as if Wyn was loaning a desperate Centaur money, doesn’t it? (But if so, why didn’t Wyn pick up some of the characters for Ace later on, considering how much he needed good strips?) Richard Kyle Some mysteries are probably destined to remain unsolved, Richard. But a writer is working on a history of Centaur and related companies for A/E even as we speak, and we’ll shoehorn the result into an early issue! I’ve been wanting to see a study of Centaur ever since, back in ’61, fellow English teacher Bob Hopkins told me about that odd little early company, whose wares I’d never seen or heard of, and its oddball characters such as The Fantom of the Fair, Detective Eye, and Speed Centaur. I could hardly believe my ears! (And last issue we had Ken Quattro’s fine history of St. John

[comments, correspondence, & corrections]

Publications—while a year or so ago there was Michael’s Vance’s study of American Comic Group. Now if only someone would pen histories of Fiction House… and Quality… and Ace… and a dozen or so others!) On a more general note, Barry Pearl, who did yeoman duty on our Stan Lee 85th birthday issue five issues back, sent a note to “Comic Crypt” editor Michael T. Gilbert which Mr. Monster’s biographer passed on to us: Mike, Your features are one of the reasons I love Alter Ego. There have been so many that I liked that I would not know where to begin (maybe with Little Iodine and Little Aspirin). I have learned so much—and laugh out loud at times! Keep up the great work. Barry Pearl, F.F.F. He will, Fearless Front-Facer. Michael’s been with us each and every one of these 79 issues, and he shows no sign of running out of either material or energy. I know I look forward every few weeks to getting some new exploration of comics that is sure both to entertain and to inform—Alter Ego’s main two reasons for existence! A delayed note on A/E #63 (the Alex Toth issue): Robin Snyder, editor/publisher of the excellent monthly historical newsletter The Comics! (see ad at right), wrote to point out that the “Tallender” who is cited therein as an editor at Dell/Western was actually “Bob Callender.” Thanks, Robin.

even has a head shot with dripping sweat on page 2! Jerry, where did the ID come from? Doc V. Jerry’s response: “The credits got confused somewhere along the line. It is clearly not Rudy Palais. This is Walter Palais, Rudy’s brother. Roy will probably hear from Rudy fans. His art is very distinctive and hard to miss.” But I don’t recall hearing from anyone… until I ran across this missive out-of-order in my files. Still, why should I be surprised that Alter Ego’s founder is still helping the magazine he originally launched in 1961? Send those e-mails and epistles to: Roy Thomas 32 Bluebird Trail St. Matthews, SC 29135

e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com Fax: (803) 826-6501

Looking forward to next month’s sword-and-sorcery special in Alter Ego #80? I know I sure am!

Monthly! The Original First-Person History!

And, re A/E #62, we belatedly ran across a note from our late great friend Jerry Bails, who forwarded this note sent to him and to Jim Amash by Dr. Michael J. Vassallo concerning our Rudy Palais interview: Nice job, Jim! On page 43 I’ve identified the issue number and story of the page Jerry sent. It’s “Came the Dawn…and Sudden Death!” from Lawbreakers Always Lose #4 (Oct. 1948). The question I have for Jerry is whether he is 100% certain this is Palais? This almost looks like a Timely bullpen house artist. The previous story in the issue, a 13-pager called “The Lair of the Bat!,” actually looks more like Palais than the former. It

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

[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 looked back at two of his old Fawcett comic book stories. In this installment he tells about first “getting to know” Captain Marvel. —P.C. Hamerlinck.]

hen, during my very first day at Fawcett, in 1941, editor Ed Herron presented me with several comic books, his remark went something like: “Here … these’ll help you get to know the character.” Getting to know the character had special significances to Herron. He was referring to that phase of an acquaintance that often follows the formal introduction … where the objective becomes to learn more of the nature of the individual … qualities that distinguish him from others … his temperament … his abilities and, if any, his inabilities. The subject was Captain Marvel. In getting to know him, I found that he was not the grand, magnificent, faultless gladiator I was about to imagine him to be. But there was a definite special distinction about him. What was it?

I couldn’t resist, later that day, pausing at a Broadway newsstand to see this Captain Marvel fellow out in the real world. There he stood, high on the racks, calmly smiling down at me from a Whiz Comics cover, while all about him competitive super-heroes, on competitive magazine covers, seemed to be scurrying back and forth desperately striving for greatest attention.

time certain Captain Marvel stories prepared long ago and, as I’ve always understood it, rejected for the intended publication.

There comes to mind a gift of more recent years … a beautiful hardback book, DC’s Shazam! Archives, Vol. 2. In it I saw for the first

That was it … the action! Those red-clad figures dashing madly across panel after panel … page after page! Captain Marvel didn’t dash madly!

It took a while of study to identify specific grounds for that disapproval. Little was seen that couldn’t have been altered reasonably. The faces, figures, and backgrounds … professionally drawn. The action …

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

Tanks For The Memory!

Over The Top

He performed his feats promptly and effectively, but with little stress, strain, hustle or bustle. Captain Marvel did things easily! It was a revelation. I felt as though I might be standing right next to Herron and Al Allard and Ralph Daigh … the remarkable trio that launched the super-hero on his path to fame. And C.C. Beck and Bill Parker, the pair who created Captain Marvel in the beginning. Getting to know a character is likely to arouse the urge to write about him. It did me. It’s doubtful that I’d ever have turned to the typewriter with my little Captain Marvel yarns had I not first sought to learn more about him. The topic may be better understood with a peek at the covers of some of the early issues, like Whiz Comics #17, May 1941, where the super-hero tosses aside an enemy armored tank as though it might be a toy. Or the battlefield cover on Captain Marvel Adventures #12 (June 1942), the salient expression of patient determination on the face of the World’s Mightiest Mortal as he advances into enemy fire at the head of a contingent of American infantrymen.

Captains Outrageous The Captain Marvel tales which Marc had understood were “rejected for publication” actually did appear—in Captain Marvel Adventures #1 (1941), with art and story by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby—but clearly were more in the vein of their Captain America Comics done for Timely/Marvel than in the Fawcett style that proved most successful for the Big Red Cheese. Repro’d from The Shazam! Archives, Vol. 2. [©2008 DC Comics.]

It all goes back to Ed Herron’s “getting to know the character” business, as I see it. The excessive action in the rejected Captain Marvel stories might have been avoided had those involved been allowed ample time for study of the principal character … to fully understand the easy confidence of Captain Marvel as he experienced his adventures. Marc Swayze’s memoirs will continue next issue.

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How To Crack Open A Soft-Boiled Egg – Part 2 Basil Wolverton’s Son Monte Talks About His Father’s Fawcett Work

Interview Conducted by P.C. Hamerlinck

artoonist Basil Wolverton (1909-78) was one of the most unique artists in the history of comics. While best known for such features as “Spacehawk” and “Powerhouse Pepper” at other companies, his half-page humor filler strip “The Culture Corner,” produced for Fawcett Publications from 1945-52 and innocently sandwiched in between Captain Marvel and the other stalwart heroes of Whiz Comics, was, as I said last month, groundbreaking, laugh-inducing, and highly idiosyncratic, as was his other Fawcett filler feature, “Mystic Moot and his Magic Snoot.” Here, continued from last issue, is my e-mail conversation with Basil’s son Monte. Thanks to Monte for the photos and other rare art accompanying this interview. —P.C. Hamerlinck.

“How To Eat Spaghetti Without Getting Wetty” Basil Wolverton (at left, seen in the late 1940s) and his son Monte (seen in the selfcaricature at right) contemplate Basil’s “Culture Corner” at bottom left from Whiz Comics #85 (May 1947). Described by someone as having a “spaghetti and meatball” graphic style, BW took the label literally in this classic installment! [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

P.C. HAMERLINCK: In his later years, did your father ever express what he felt was his finest artistic achievement of his career?

“Mutants” illustration, originally done for The Plain Truth, but unpublished until appearing on the cover of Graphic Story Magazine #14. His favorite single comic book illustration was the cover of Weird Tales of the Future #3 (1952), with the corpse rising from the grave.

MONTE WOLVERTON: No doubt about it, he felt that The Bible Story—text and art—was his best work. His single favorite work was the

PCH: Did he have any particular preference as to which comic book company he did work for? WOLVERTON: I never heard him express any favorite publishers. He liked Timely; they gave him a lot of work. But he also said that he never understood their policies (if any) about how they chose what feature they would place in what magazine. At the time, it seemed to him that they put all their art in a barrel, and then reached in and grabbed something when they needed it. In his correspondence with Stan Lee (his editor for years at Timely), it sometimes seemed like they were changing their policies week by week, although Stan was just following orders from above. Why, for example, would they place “Powerhouse Pepper” (obviously more of a guy feature) in girl comics such as Tessie the Typist, Gay, and Millie the Model—and then say that their surveys indicated my dad’s work was getting low readership? Another example: Stan tells my dad to hold off on the funny little signs and goofy rhymes; a few weeks later they want his work saturated with the same. One week

Basil Wolverton’s Son Monte Talks About His Father’s Fawcett Work

they tell him they won’t need any more of his work; the next week they want a new feature with new characters overnight. I think they were just trying to keep up with the changing preferences of their readers—but no wonder my dad developed high blood pressure in the 1940s! PCH: Plop! was the only occasion your father had work published by DC Comics. Was he happy to still find a home in comic books in the 1970s? Were his Plop! covers existing portfolio pieces or specifically drawn for DC? WOLVERTON: They were drawn specifically for Plop!, and he enjoyed that immensely. That was at a time when he really wanted to do more of that kind of work, and he looked at it as a welcome alternative after working on Biblical stuff all day. He could do pretty much anything he wanted for DC and go completely crazy. He was also doing similar commissioned work for collector Glenn Bray during that time, as well as Topps’ various novelty items. PCH: Are you pleased with the treatment given to your father’s work in The Original Art of Basil Wolverton book? WOLVERTON: [Wolverton collector] Glenn Bray invited me to see the book and give input at every stage of production. I think it’s the best Wolverton book so far. Glenn put a huge amount of work into it, as well as designer Brigitte McDonald, who did an outstanding job, and Andrea Harris-McGee. who consulted on the design and curated the accompanying exhibit at the Grand Central Art Gallery in Santa Ana, CA. L.A. Weekly art critic Doug Harvey’s introduction was also superb and insightful. PCH: Did your mother also have a sense of humor similar to your father’s—and what did she think of his comic book creations? WOLVERTON: My mom appreciated my dad’s humor, but her sense of humor was not at all similar to his. She had a more homespun, countrystyle humor. Nor was she a fan of horror or science-fiction, but she was always amused by what my dad came up with. They kind-of complemented each other. PCH: I assume your father was much more mild-mannered than the disturbing, distorted reality of his artwork. WOLVERTON: In some ways, his personality wasn’t anything like his art—or the extreme aspect of his art. Judging from his Plop! covers, for example, one might conclude that here is a guy who should be institutionalized, lobotomized, or at least given some strong medication. But as a human being I would describe him as level-headed, socially conservative, and affable. He was a good judge of character—was a popular guy with lots of friends and acquaintances in his home town, and in his church community. He would give people the benefit of the doubt, but he would let his family know in no uncertain terms if he thought someone was arrogant or untrustworthy. PCH: The cutting edginess of “The Culture Corner” certainly put it at odds amongst more sanitized strips, including its companion Whiz Comics features. Do you feel your father’s work was somewhat of a precursor to Mad and other satirical-based humor? WOLVERTON: “Culture Corner” had a strong component of goofiness, whereas Mad was (and is) satire. My dad appreciated satire, but excelled more at outrageous goofiness—which is why Mad used his work occasionally, but not a lot. They wanted satire to predominate. I think you need to be somewhat cynical to produce good satire (including political cartoons), and my father was not a cynic. PCH: You’ve mentioned that your father felt that his Biblical illustrations were his best work. How did he first come about producing this artwork? Given his original cartooning art style, was it difficult for him to shift gears when creating his Biblical interpretations? Did he receive

All Booked Up Monte Wolverton is pardonably proud of the tome The Original Art of Basil Wolverton (from the Collection of Glenn Bray), which was released in 2007 by Last Gasp/Grand Central press. It contains an impressive array of Wolverton artifacts—from early works, to the iconic years, to later commissioned work. [Art ©2008 Estate of Basil Wolverton.]

feedback on his Bible art from people familiar with his comic book material? Will this important work be reprinted again? WOLVERTON: For the last year and a half, I’ve been working on a volume that will include all the work my dad did for Worldwide Church of God—over 300 pages and about 600 illustrations. The working title is The Wolverton Bible. The church commissioned and licensed this project, which is slated to be published by Fantagraphics Books late this year. This will include the Bible Story art, the Apocalyptic work, as well as a lot of humorous material that he did for the WCG. Some of this has never seen print, and some of the humorous material was not widely circulated. Of course, in the book I’ll provide commentary with in-depth answers to your questions (and much more!). But to tell the story here in abbreviated form: my dad (at the time an agnostic) began listening to radio evangelist Herbert Armstrong around 1939. He joined Armstrong’s church in 1941 and was ordained in 1943. Over the next decade they discussed the possibility of different projects. In the early ’50s my dad did the Apocalyptic drawings for The Plain Truth magazine. These were also used in other church publications. About that time he also started working on a series of illustrations of the book of Genesis, including Noah’s Flood. This finally evolved into a complete story of the Old Testament, which was serialized in The Plain Truth beginning in 1958. It was later published as a series of books—and revised and republished in the 1980s in six volumes. There was not a lot

Basil Wolverton’s Son Monte Talks About His Father’s Fawcett Work

The Many Moods Of Basil Wolverton (Left:) The Wolvertons’ Christmas card, 1947. (Below:) Basil in Pasadena, California, 1970… displaying a perhaps morbid sense of humor. Photo taken by BW fan Glenn Bray, and repro’d from the book The Original Art of Basil Wolverton. [Art ©2008 Estate of Basil Wolverton.]

“Take Your Pick” (Left:) After appearing in late issues of Ibis the Invincible, “Mystic Moot” moved over to Fawcett’s Comic Comics. Splash from CC #8 (Nov. ’46). [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Basil Wolverton’s Son Monte Talks About His Father’s Fawcett Work

People Of The Book (Left:) The closing of the Red Sea behind Moses and the Israelites (Exodus 14), from Basil Wolverton’s The Bible Story. The Pharaoh and his Egyptian army, of course, are decidedly underwater at this point in the tale. (Right:) An unpublished Bible drawing from 1958. The onslaught of the Flood, perhaps? [©2008 Estate of Basil Wolverton.]

of crossover between his comic readers and his Bible Story readers, so he didn’t get much feedback from his comic fans. But he did get comments from the religious market—many people thought his Bible images were horrifying. They certainly didn’t look like your standard Sunday school fare. But my dad felt that the Bible shouldn’t be sanitized—it contains a lot of violence and that’s exactly what would attract young readers (his pacifism notwithstanding). Later comic book versions of Bible stories would do this, capitalizing on the adventure and battles in the Bible. If you watch for it, you can see more than a few cartoony things going on in his Bible art, especially in later years. The serious illustration style he generally employed for the project, however, was no different than the hundreds of pages of science-fiction comic work he had done, such as “Spacehawk” and his horror/science-fiction work of the early ’50s for Marvel. PCH: What has been your father’s influence on your own life, faith and artwork? WOLVERTON: Maybe I’m one of the increasingly rare people who are really happy with their parents and their childhood. Of course they weren’t perfect by any means, but they were decent people. I could be upset because they raised me in the “Armstrong cult”—which was a pretty authoritarian group. (By the standards of conventional Christian theology, Herbert Armstrong indeed had some really odd, “crackpot” ideas, and my dad bought into them. But if he hadn’t done that, he never would have done the Biblical drawings.) But my dad, in spite of holding official positions in that group, was quite easygoing and gave me a lot of freedom.

So I think I had a good childhood, and fun (relatively normal) teen years. My college years and early career as a graphic designer were with the WCG in the Los Angeles area, after which I moved my family back to the Pacific Northwest to freelance. About that time, while I was still in L.A., I started emulating my dad’s drawing style—doing cartoons for Peterson Publishing’s CARtoons and a couple of other magazines. It seemed to come naturally—and I felt like I was carrying on the family legacy (my father felt the same way, as he could no longer draw because of a stroke). My style has developed over the decades so that it’s a little different—not nearly as refined as my dad at his peak. I’ve had the honor of contributing to Mad actually a few more times than my father did. Mostly, nowadays, I’m a political cartoonist, and within that genre, I’m told my style looks “alternative,” and I’m cool with that. Yet, every caricature I do, I’m shooting for the way my dad would have done it. My main career for the last 20+ years has been with Plain Truth magazine— now a radically different magazine than the one to which my dad contributed his Apocalyptic art over 50 years ago. I have been art director, was manager of the design, art, and photography group, and am currently CFO and managing editor at Plain Truth Ministries, the nonprofit that has published Plain Truth magazine since 1996; prior to that it was published by the Worldwide Church of God, earlier called the Radio Church of God, back to 1934. I’m also, like my dad, an ordained minister. The point of all this is that, while my career (as well as my faith) has certainly not been the same as my father’s, it clearly seems to be the continuing of a trajectory that he launched. And I feel really good about that. Also, he taught me the proper way to peel a boiled egg.

Fawcett Collectors Of America

Never Throw Anything Away! (Right:) Wolverton’s rough for a “Culture Corner” from 1948. As noted last issue, this is one of the ones rejected by Fawcett. (Below:) So he reused it in a “Culture Quickie” filler as a possible feature for another company. It was printed in the book The Original Art of Basil Wolverton. [©2008 Estate of Basil Wolverton.]

Index to Basil Wolverton’s “The Culture Corner” Fawcett Publications Filler from 1945-1953—Total of 64 Installments “Conducted by Croucher K. Conk, Q.O.C. (Queer Old Coot)” Index compiled by P.C. Hamerlinck WHIZ COMICS #65 - 5/45 “How to Cut Your Own Hair” #66 - 7/45 “How to Improve Your Posture” #67 - 9-10/45 “How to Stop Brooding If Your Ears Are Protruding” #68 - 11-12/45 “How to Kick a Person in the Teeth” & “How to Get out of Bed Gracefully” (2 strips in #68) #70 - 1/46 “How to Sit on a Tack” #71 - 2/46 “How to Cure Flat Feet” #72 - 3/46 “How to Eat Soup without Slurping” #73 - 4/46 “How to Tweak a Beak”

Basil Wolverton’s Son Monte Talks About His Father’s Fawcett Work

He’s One Guy Who Seems Never To Have Worked At A Drawing Bored! Basil Wolverton drawing away, sometime in the mid-1940s. Courtesy of Monte Wolverton.

#74 - 5/46 “How to Boot a Fly off Your Snoot” #75 - 6/46 “How to Sharpen a Pencil” #76 - 7/46 “How to Contemplate the Back of Your Pate” #77 - 8/46 “How to Fall on Your Face”

Maybe He Wants To Pick His Nose?

#78 - 9/46 “How to Eat Beans without Soiling Your Jeans”

#79 - 10/46 “How to Laugh at a Bum Joke” #80 - 11/46 “How to Go Soak Your Head” #81 - 12/46 “How to Mat Your Hair Down Flat”

#104 - 12/48 “How to Sharpen Your Wits”

#128 - 12/50 “How to Bite a Hot Dog Right”

#82 - 2/47 “How to Scratch Your Back”

#105 - 1/49 “How to Cool Your Gruel”

#129 - 1/51 “How to Clap without Mishap”

#83 - 3/47 “How to Eat Crackers in Bed”

#106 - 2/49 “How to Belay Your Neck Array”

#130 - 2/51 “How to See TV”

#84 - 4/47 “How to Put a Wave in Your Hair”

#107 - 3/49 “How to Cross a Busy Street”

#85 - 5/47 “How to Eat Spaghetti without Getting Wetty”

#108 - 4/49 “How to Keep a Cool Konk”

#131 - 3/51 “How to Be Particular and Sit Perpendicular” #133 - 5/51 “How to Care for Your Hair”

#87 - 7/47 “How to Keep Your Sox Up”

#109 - 5/49 “How to Keep a Chill from Your Bill”

#88 - 8/47 “How to Snore without Being a Bore”

#112 - 8/49 “How to Elevate Your Pate”

#89 - 9/47 “How to Wear a Tight Collar”

#113 - 9/49 “How Youse Should Break In Shoes”

#135 - 8/51 “How to Shine Your Shoes”

#114 - 10/49 “How to Look Happy without Looking Sappy”

#143 - 3/52 “How to Unfetter a Sealed Letter”

#90 - 10/47 “How to Save Your Sox” #91 - 11/47 “How to Get Your Beard Sheared” #93 - 1/48 “How (Not) to Reel on a Banana Peel” #94 - 2/48 “How to Peer at a Parade” #95 - 3/48 “How to Extricate Your Upper Plate” #96 - 4/48 “How to Double Your Bubble Gum Bubble” #98 - 6/48 “How to Bedeck a Barren Bean” #99 - 7/48 “How to Chomp Food without Being Rude”

#115 - 11/49 “How to Open a Sticky Window” #116 - 12/49 “How to Keep Your Knees from Knocking” #117 - 1/50 “How to Bow” #118 - 2/50 “How to Lift Your Lid” #119 - 3/50 “How to Block a Back Slapper’s Sock #120 - 4/50 “How to Hold Up Your Trousers”

#100 - 8/48 “How to Get Clean behind Your Bean”

#121 - 5/50 “How to Eat in a Theater Seat”

#102 - 10/48 “How to Sneeze without a Breeze”

#125 - 9/50 “How to Butter Your Bread”

#103 - 11/48 “How to Hold Your Hat on Your Head”

#126 - 10/50 “How to Count to a Large Amount”

#123 - 7/50 “How to Raise Your Eyebrows”

#134 - 6/51 “How to Make Your Head Comfortable in Bed” #142 - 2/52 “How to Press Your Pants” #146 - 6/52 “How to Grope for Bathtub Soap”

MARVEL FAMILY #39 - 9/49 “How to Crack Open a Soft-Boiled Egg” “The Culture Corner” was also reprinted in The Daisy Handbook #2 (1948) and by Charlton Comics during 1955.

MYSTIC MOOT AND HIS MAGIC SNOOT Ibis the Invincible #3 (Winter 1945) thru #6 (Spring 1948) Comic Comics #2 (May 1946) thru #10 (Feb 1947)

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

ALTER EGO: THE BEST OF THE LEGENDARY COMICS FANZINE

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

JOHN ROMITA... AND ALL THAT JAZZ! “Jazzy” JOHN ROMITA talks about his life, his art, and his contemporaries! Authored by former Marvel Comics editor in chief and top writer ROY THOMAS, and noted historian JIM AMASH, it features the most definitive interview Romita’s ever given, about working with such comics legends as STAN LEE and JACK KIRBY, following Spider-Man co-creator STEVE DITKO as artist on the strip, and more! Plus, Roy Thomas shares memories of working with Romita in the 1960s-70s, and Jim Amash examines the awesome artistry of Ring-a-Ding Romita! Lavishly illustrated with Romita art—original classic art, and unseen masterpieces—as well as illos by some of Marvel’s and DC’s finest, this is at once a career overview of a comics master, and a firsthand history of the industry by one of its leading artists! Available in Softcover and Deluxe Hardcover (with 16 extra color pages, dust jacket, and custom endleaves). (192-page softcover) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905757 • Diamond Order Code: APR074018 (208-page hardcover with COLOR) $44.95 ISBN: 9781893905764 • Diamond Order Code: APR074019

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

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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!

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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!

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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!

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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!

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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!

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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!

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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!

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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

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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!

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(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

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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

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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!

(100-page magazine) $5.95 Diamond Order Code: JUN053345

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: JUL053293

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: AUG053328

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!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: DEC053401

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: JAN063429

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: MAR063545

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!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY063496

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: JUN063522

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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!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: OCT063800

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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!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: MAR073852

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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!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: NOV073947

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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! (100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: OCT073927

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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!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Ships July 2008

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Ships August 2008

12-ISSUE SUBSCRIPTIONS: $78 US Postpaid by Media Mail ($108 First Class, $123 Canada, $180 1st Class Intl., $222 Priority Intl.). For a 6-issue sub, cut the price in half!

THE ULTIMATE MAGAZINE FOR LEGOTM ENTHUSIASTS OF ALL AGES!

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BRICKJOURNAL COMPENDIUM 1

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BRICKJOURNAL #2 (VOL. 2) Our second FULL-COLOR print issue celebrates the summer by spotlighting blockbuster summer movies, LEGO style! The LEGO Group will be releasing new sets for BATMAN and INDIANA JONES, and BrickJournal looks behind the scenes at their creation! There’s also articles on events in the US and Europe, and spotlights on new models, including an SR-71 SPYPLANE and a LEGO CONSTRUCTED CITY. For builders, there are INSTRUCTIONS & MINIFIGURE CUSTOMIZATIONS. Plus, there’s a feature on the ONLINE LEGO FACTORY, showing how an online model becomes a custom set, and a look at how the LEGO Group monitors its quality! (80-page magazine) $11 US POSTPAID ($14 Canada, $20 Elsewhere) (80-page Digital Edition) $3.95 (or FREE to print subscribers) • Ships June 2008

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PRINT SUBSCRIBERS GET THE DIGITAL EDITION FREE, BEFORE THE PRINT ISSUE HITS STORES!

VOLUME 1 features interviews with LEGO car builder ZACHARY SWEIGART (showing his version of the timetraveling Delorean from the movie Back to the Future), JØRGEN VIG KNUDSTORP (CEO of LEGO Systems, Inc.), Mecha builders BRYCE McLONE and JEFF RANJO, paraplegic LEGO builder SCOTT WARFIELD, BOB CARNEY (LEGO castle builder extraordinaire) and RALPH SAVELSBURG (LEGO plane builder), REVEREND BRENDAN POWELL SMITH (author of the LEGO version of the Bible), NASA Astronaut Trainer KIETH JOHNSON, JAKE McKEE (Global Community Director for The LEGO Group), builder JASON ALLEMANN on recreating the spacecraft from 2001: A Space Odyssey and 2010: The Year We Make Contact, features on the BIONICLE universe, how to make your own custom bricks, plus instructions and techniques, and more! Reprints Digital Editions #1-3 (below). (256-page FULL-COLOR trade paperback) $44 US POSTPAID ($51 Canada, $61 Elsewhere) ISBN: 978-1-893905-97-9 • Ships May 2008

GET DIGITAL EDITIONS OF VOLUME 1, #1-9: The first nine issues shown below comprise Volume One, and were released from 2005-2007 as Digital Editions only, averaging more than 100,000 downloads each. They’re available for downloading now for $3.95 EACH, and issue #9 is FREE!

DOWNLOAD A FREE DIGITAL EDITION OF VOL. 1, #9 NOW AT www.twomorrows.com

TwoMorrows Publishing 2008 Catalog Update JUNE-DECEMBER 2008 • ORDER AT: www.twomorrows.com TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 • e-mail: twomorrow@aol.com

From KIMOTA: THE MIRACLEMAN COMPANION to G-FORCE: ANIMATED and TRUE BRIT, readers know GEORGE KHOURY is the author that delivers the most in-depth books on the comics and TV shows they love. Look what he’s up to now!

AGE OF TV HEROES

THE EXTRAORDINARY WORKS OF ALAN MOORE: Indispensable Edition

Examines the history of the live-action television adventures of everyone’s favorite comic book heroes! This handsome FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER features the in-depth stories of the actors and behind-the-scene players that made the classic super-hero television programs we all grew up with. From legendary shows like THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN and BATMAN, to the modern era of THE TICK and SMALLVILLE, it’s colorfully presented in vivid detail, lavishly designed with a bevy of color photographs. Included are new and exclusive interviews and commentary from ADAM WEST (Batman), LYNDA CARTER (Wonder Woman), PATRICK WARBURTON (The Tick), NICHOLAS HAMMOND (Spider-Man), WILLIAM KATT (The Greatest American Hero), JACK LARSON (The Adventures of Superman), JOHN WESLEY SHIPP (The Flash), JACKSON BOSTWICK (Shazam!), and many more, including comments from REB BROWN, STEPHEN J. CANNELL, CHIP KIDD, STAN LEE, NOEL NEILL, JOHN ROMITA, ALEX ROSS, ILYA SALKIND, LOU SCHEIMER, LORENZO SEMPLE, LYLE WAGGONER, and other actors, producers, and crew. Re-experience the pop culture birth of the super-hero phenomenon, and relive the first time that these heroes came to life on TV! Written by G-FORCE: ANIMATED collaborators JASON HOFIUS and GEORGE KHOURY, with a new cover by superstar painter ALEX ROSS!

The definitive autobiographical book on ALAN MOORE finally returns to print in a NEW EXPANDED AND UPDATED VERSION! In it, Moore reflects on his life and work in an insightful and candid fashion through an extensive series of interviews about his entire legendary career, including new interviews covering his work since the original edition of this book was published in 2003. From SWAMP THING, V FOR VENDETTA, and WATCHMEN to the future of THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN and beyond – all of his most important works and major themes are discussed. Within this tome, readers will find RARE STRIPS, SCRIPTS, ARTWORK, and PHOTOGRAPHS of the author, most never published elsewhere. Also, best-selling author NEIL GAIMAN headlines a series of tribute comic strips featuring many of Moore’s closest collaborators elaborating on their relationship with the great writer! Included as well is a COLOR SECTION, featuring the RARE MOORE STORY “The Riddle of the Recalcitrant Refuse” (newly remastered, and starring MR. MONSTER), plus his unseen work on JUDGE DREDD, and other tales by the creator of WATCHMEN (soon to be a blockbuster 2009 film). Edited by GEORGE KHOURY, with a cover by DAVE McKEAN!

(192-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490106 Diamond Order Code: JAN088703 • Ships November 2008

(240-page trade paperback) $29.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490090 Diamond Order Code: JAN088702 • Ships December 2008

NEW ITEMS: Vol. 19: MIKE PLOOG

MODERN MASTERS SERIES

(120-page trade paperback with COLOR) $14.95 US ISBN: 9781605490076 • Ships October 2008

Edited by ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON, these trade paperbacks are devoted to the BEST OF TODAY’S COMICS ARTISTS! Each book contains RARE AND UNSEEN ARTWORK direct from the artist’s files, plus a COMPREHENSIVE INTERVIEW (including influences and their views on graphic storytelling), DELUXE SKETCHBOOK SECTIONS, and more!

Vol. 20: KYLE BAKER (120-page trade paperback with COLOR) $14.95 US ISBN: 9781605490083 • Ships December 2008

MORE MODERN MASTERS ARE COMING IN 2009, INCLUDING CHRIS SPROUSE!

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KIRBY FIVE-OH! LIMITED HARDCOVER EDITION! Limited to 500 copies, KIRBY FIVE-OH! LIMITED HARDCOVER EDITION covers the best of everything from Jack Kirby’s 50-year career in comics! The regular columnists from THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR magazine have formed a distinguished panel of experts to choose and examine: The BEST KIRBY STORY published each year from 19381987! The BEST COVERS from each decade! The 50 BEST EXAMPLES OF UNUSED KIRBY ART! His 50 BEST CHARACTER DESIGNS! And profiles of, and commentary by, 50 PEOPLE INFLUENCED BY KIRBY’S WORK! Plus there’s a 50-PAGE GALLERY of Kirby’s powerful RAW PENCIL ART, and a DELUXE COLOR SECTION of photos and finished art from throughout his entire half-century oeuvre, a previously unseen Kirby Superman cover inked by “DC: The New Frontier” artist DARWYN COOKE, and an introduction by MARK EVANIER! This LIMITED HARDCOVER EDITION includes a full-color wrapped hardcover, and an individually-numbered extra Kirby art plate not included in the softcover edition! It’s ONLY AVAILABLE FROM TWOMORROWS, and is not sold in stores! Edited by JOHN MORROW. (168-page Limited Edition Hardcover) $34.95 US • Now shipping! Only available from TwoMorrows!

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JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #52

COLLECTED JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR VOLUME 7

Spotlights KIRBY OBSCURA, uncovering some of Jack’s most obscure work! Learn about such littleknown projects as an UNUSED THOR STORY, his BRUCE LEE comic, animation work, stage play, and see original unaltered versions of pages from KAMANDI, DEMON, DESTROYER DUCK, and more, including a feature examining the last page of his final issue of various series BEFORE EDITORIAL TAMPERING (with lots of surprises)! Color Kirby front cover inked by DON HECK, and back cover inked by PAUL SMITH!

Reprints JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #27-30, with looks at Jack’s 1970s and ‘80s work, plus a two-part focus on how widespread Kirby’s influence is! Features rare interviews with KIRBY himself, plus Watchmen’s ALAN MOORE and DAVE GIBBONS, NEIL GAIMAN, Bone’s JEFF SMITH, MARK HAMILL, and others! See page after page of rare Kirby art, including a NEW SPECIAL SECTION with over 30 PIECES OF KIRBY ART NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED, and more! (288-page trade paperback) $29.95 US ISBN: 9781605490120 Ships January 2009

(84-page tabloid magazine) $9.95 US Ships January 2009 BRICKJOURNAL magazine is the ultimate resource for LEGO enthusiasts of all ages. It spotlights all aspects of the LEGO Community, showcasing events, people, and models in every issue, with contributions and how-to articles by top builders worldwide, new product intros, and more. Edited by JOE MENO.

BRICKJOURNAL COMPENDIUM 3 VOLUME 3 compiles the digital-only issues #6-7 of the acclaimed online magazine for LEGO enthusiasts of all ages — for the first time in printed form! This FULLCOLOR book spotlights all aspects of the LEGO COMMUNITY through interviews with builders KNUD THOMSEN (builder of a LEGO city), ANTHONY SAVA (castle and dragon builder), JØRGEN VIG KNUDSTORP (CEO to the LEGO Group) and the duo ARVO (builders of many incredible models), plus features on LEGO FAN CONVENTIONS, such as BRICKFEST, LEGO WORLD (the Netherlands), and 1000STEINE-LAND (Germany), reviews and behind the scenes reports on two LEGO sets (the CAFE CORNER and HOBBY TRAIN), how to create custom minifigures, instructions and techniques, and more! Edited by JOE MENO. (224-page trade paperback) $34.95 US ISBN: 9781605490069 Ships January 2009

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BRICKJOURNAL #4

FULL-COLOR issue #3 has LEGO Event Reports from BRICKWORLD (Chicago), FIRST LEGO LEAGUE WORLD FESTIVAL (Atlanta) and PIECE OF PEACE (Japan), a spotlight on the creation of our amazing cover model built by BRYCE McGLONE, plus interviews with ARTHUR GUGICK and STEVEN CANVIN of LEGO MINDSTORMS, to see where LEGO ROBOTICS is going! There’s also STEP-BY-STEP BUILDING INSTRUCTIONS, TECHNIQUES, & more!

FULL-COLOR issue #4 features interviews with top LEGO BUILDERS including BREANN SLEDGE (BIONICLE BUILDER), Event Reports from LEGO gatherings such as BRICKFAIR (Washington, DC) and BRICKCON (Seattle, Washington), plus reports on new MINDSTORMS PROJECTS, STEP-BY-STEP BUILDING INSTRUCTIONS and TECHNIQUES for all skill levels, NEW SET REVIEWS, and editor JOE MENO shows how to build a robotic LEGO Wall-E!TM

(80-page magazine) $8.95 US (Digital Edition) $3.95 (or FREE to subscribers) Diamond Order Code: JUN084415

(80-page magazine) $8.95 US (Digital Edition) $3.95 (or FREE to subscribers)

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ALTER EGO focuses on Golden and Silver Age comics and creators with articles, interviews and unseen art, plus FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), Mr. Monster & more. Edited by ROY THOMAS.

DRAW! is the professional “How-To” magazine on cartooning and animation, featuring in-depth interviews and step-by-step demonstrations from top comics professionals. Edited by MIKE MANLEY.

ALTER EGO #81

ALTER EGO #82

ALTER EGO #83

ALTER EGO #84

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

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

SWORD & SORCERY PART 2! Cover by ARTHUR SUYDAM, in-depth art-filled look at Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian, DC’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Dagar the Invincible, Ironjaw & Wulf, and Arak, Son of Thunder, plus the never-seen Valda the Iron Maiden by TODD McFARLANE! Plus JOE EDWARDS (Part 2), FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

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

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships October 2008

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships December 2008

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships January 2009

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships March 2009

ROUGH STUFF features never-seen pencil pages, sketches, layouts, roughs, and unused inked pages from throughout comics history, plus columns, critiques, and more! Edited by BOB MCLEOD.

WRITE NOW! features writing tips from pros on both sides of the desk, interviews, sample scripts, reviews, exclusive Nuts & Bolts tutorials, and more! Edited by DANNY FINGEROTH. THE RETRO COMICS EXPERIENCE!

BACK ISSUE celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through a variety of recurring (and rotating) departments, plus rare and unpublished art. Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

DRAW! #17

ROUGH STUFF #10

ROUGH STUFF #11

WRITE NOW! #20

Go behind the pages of the hit series of graphic novels starring Scott Pilgrim with his creator and artist, BRYAN LEE O’MALLEY, to see how he creates the acclaimed series! Then, learn how B.P.R.D.’s GUY DAVIS works on the series, plus more Comic Art Bootcamp: Learning from The Great Cartoonists by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY, reviews, and more!

Interview with RON GARNEY, with copious examples of sketchwork and comments. Also features on ANDY SMITH, MICHAEL JASON PAZ, and MATT HALEY, showing how their work evolves, excerpts from a new book on ALEX RAYMOND, secrets of teaching comic art by pro inker BOB McLEOD, new cover by GARNEY and McLEOD, newcomer critique, and more!

New cover by GREG HORN, plus interviews with HORN and TOM YEATES on how they produce their stellar work. Also features on GENE HA, JIMMY CHEUNG, and MIKE PERKINS, showing their sketchwork, and commentary, tips on collecting sketches and commissions from artists, a “Rough Critique” of a newcomer’s work, and more!

Focus on THE SPIRIT movie, showing how FRANK MILLER transformed WILL EISNER’s comics into the smash-hit film, with interviews with key players behind the making of the movie, a look at what made Eisner’s comics so special, and more. Plus: an interview with COLLEEN DORAN, writer ALEX GRECIAN on how to get a pitch green lighted, script and art examples, and more!

(80-page magazine with COLOR) $6.95 US • Ships Fall 2008

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships October 2008

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships January 2009

(80-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships Winter 2009

BACK ISSUE #29

BACK ISSUE #30

BACK ISSUE #31

BACK ISSUE #32

BACK ISSUE #33

“Mutants” issue! CLAREMONT, BYRNE, SMITH, and ROMITA, JR.’s X-Men work, NOCENTI and ARTHUR ADAMS’ Longshot, McLEOD and SIENKIEWICZ’s New Mutants, the UK’s CAPTAIN BRITAIN series, lost Angel stories, Beast’s tenure with the Avengers, the return of the original X-Men in X-Factor, the revelation of Nightcrawler’s “original” father, a history of DC’s mutant, Captain Comet, and more! Cover by DAVE COCKRUM!

“Saturday Morning Heroes!” Interviews with TV Captain Marvels JACKSON BOSTWICK and JOHN DAVEY, MAGGIN and SAVIUK’s lost Superman/”Captain Thunder” sequel, Space Ghost interviews with GARY OWENS and STEVE RUDE, MARV WOLFMAN guest editorial, Super Friends, unproduced fourth wave Super Powers action figures, Astro Boy, ADAM HUGHES tribute to DAVE STEVENS, and a new cover by ALEX ROSS!

“STEVE GERBER Salute!” In-depth look at his Howard the Duck, Man-Thing, Omega the Unknown, Defenders, Metal Men, Mister Miracle, Thundarr the Barbarian, and more! Plus: Creators pay tribute to Steve Gerber, featuring art by and commentary from BRUNNER, BUCKLER, COLAN, GOLDEN, STAN LEE, LEVITZ, MAYERIK, MOONEY, PLOOG, SIMONSON, and others. Cover painting by FRANK BRUNNER!

“Tech, Data, and Hardware!” The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, WEIN, WOLFMAN, and GREENBERGER on DC’s Who’s Who, SAVIUK, STATON, and VAN SCIVER on Drawing Green Lantern, ED HANNIGAN Art Gallery, history of Rom: Spaceknight, story of BILL MANTLO, Dial H for Hero, Richie Rich’s Inventions, and a Spider-Mobile schematic cover by ELIOT BROWN and DUSTY ABELL!

“Teen Heroes!” Teen Titans in the 1970s & 1980s, with CARDY, GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, PÉREZ, TUSKA, and WOLFMAN, BARON and GUICE on the Flash, interviews with TV Billy Batson MICHAEL GRAY and writer STEVE SKEATES, NICIEZA and BAGLEY’s New Warriors; Legion of Super-Heroes 1970s art gallery; James Bond, Jr.; and… the Archies! New Teen Titans cover by GEORGE PÉREZ and colored by GENE HA!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships July 2008

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships September 2008

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships November 2008

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships January 2009

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Ships March 2009

NEW STUFF FROM TWOMORROWS!

BACK ISSUE #29

ROUGH STUFF #9

WRITE NOW! #18

DRAW! #16

BRICKJOURNAL #2

“Mutants” issue! CLAREMONT, BYRNE, SMITH, and ROMITA, JR.’s X-Men work; NOCENTI and ARTHUR ADAMS’ Longshot; McLEOD and SIENKIEWICZ’s New Mutants; the UK’s CAPTAIN BRITAIN series; lost Angel stories; Beast’s tenure with the Avengers; the return of the original X-Men in X-Factor; the revelation of Nightcrawler’s “original” father; a history of DC’s mutant, Captain Comet, and more! Cover by DAVE COCKRUM!

Editor and pro inker BOB McLEOD features four interviews this issue: ROB HAYNES (interviewed by fellow professional TIM TOWNSEND), JOE JUSKO, MEL RUBI, and SCOTT WILLIAMS, with a new painted cover by JUSKO, and an article by McLEOD examining "Inkers: Who needs ’em?" along with other features, including a Rough Critique of RUDY VASQUEZ!

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!

Features an in-depth interview and coverage of the creative process of HOWARD CHAYKIN, plus behind the drawing board and animation desk with JAY STEPHENS, more COMIC ART BOOTCAMP, this time focusing on HOW TO USE REFERENCE, and WORKING FROM PHOTOS by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY, plus reviews, resources 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.

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY084246

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Now Shipping Diamond Order Code: MAY084263

(80-page magazine) $6.95 Now Shipping Diamond Order Code: FEB084191

(80-page magazine with COLOR) $6.95 Ships July 2008 Diamond Order Code: MAY084262

(80-page FULL COLOR magazine) $8.95 Now Shipping Diamond Order Code: MAR084135

KIRBY FIVE-OH! LIMITED HARDCOVER

TITANS COMPANION VOLUME 2

FLASH COMPANION

NICK CARDY: BEHIND THE ART

LIMITED TO 500 COPIES! Hardcover version of the book that covers the best of everything from Jack Kirby’s 50-year career! Includes a wrapped hardcover, and Kirby art plate not in the softcover edition. Edited by JOHN MORROW.

This new volume picks up where Volume 1 left off, covering the return of the Teen Titans to the top of the sales charts! Featuring interviews with GEOFF JOHNS, MIKE McKONE, PETER DAVID, PHIL JIMENEZ, and others, plus an in-depth section on the top-rated Cartoon Network series! Also CHUCK DIXON, MARK WAID, KARL KESEL, and JOHN BYRNE on writing the current generation of Titans! More on the New Teen Titans with MARV WOLFMAN and GEORGE PÉREZ! NEAL ADAMS on redesigning Robin! Amazing and unpublished artwork by ADAMS, BYRNE, JIMENEZ, McKONE, PÉREZ and more, with an all-new cover by MIKE McKONE! Written by GLEN CADIGAN.

Details the histories of the four heroes who have been declared DC Comics' "Fastest Man Alive". With articles about SHELLY MAYER, GARDNER FOX, E.E. HIBBARD, JULIUS SCHWARTZ, ROBERT KANIGHER, JOHN BROOME, ROSS ANDRU, IRV NOVICK and all-new interviews with HARRY LAMPERT, CARMINE INFANTINO, CARY BATES, ALEX SAVIUK, MIKE W. BARR, MARV WOLFMAN, MIKE BARON, JACKSON GUICE, MARK WAID, and SCOTT KOLINS, it recounts the scarlet speedster's evolution from the Golden Age to the 21st century. Also featured are "lost covers," a ROGUES GALLERY detailing The Flash's most famous foes, a tribute to late artist MIKE WIERINGO by MARK WAID, a look at the speedster’s 1990s TV show, and "Flash facts" detailing pivotal moments in Flash history. Written by KEITH DALLAS, with a a cover by DON KRAMER.

NICK CARDY has been doing fantastic artwork for more than sixty years, from comics, to newspaper strips, to illustration. His work on DC Comics’ TEEN TITANS, and his amazing comics covers, are universally hailed as some of the best in the medium’s history, but his COMMERCIAL ILLUSTRATION work is just as highly regarded by those in the know. Now, this lavish FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER lets you see what goes on behind his amazing art! Nick has selected dozens of his favorite pieces from throughout his career and shows how they came to be in this remarkable art book. From the reams of preliminary work as well as Nick's detailed commentary, you will gain fascinating insight into how this great artist works, watching each step of the way as some of his most memorable images come to life! By ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON and NICK CARDY.

(224-page trade paperback) $26.95 ISBN: 9781893905986 Now Shipping

(128-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $34.95 • Ships August 2008 ISBN: 9781893905993

(168-page tabloid-size hardcover) $34.95 • Now Shipping ONLY AVAILABLE FROM TWOMORROWS; NOT IN STORES!

KIRBY CHECKLIST: GOLD UPDATED EDITION of the most thorough listing of JACK KIRBY’s work ever published! (128-page trade paperback) $14.95 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!

(224-page trade paperback) $26.95 ISBN: 97801893905870 Diamond Order Code: JAN083938 Now Shipping

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MODERN MASTERS VOLUME 17: LEE WEEKS by Tom Field & Eric Nolen-Weathington (128-page trade paperback) $14.95 ISBN: 9781893905948

VOLUME 18: JOHN ROMITA JR. by George Khoury & Eric Nolen-Weathington (128-page trade paperback) $14.95 ISBN: 9781893905955 Each features an extensive, career-spanning interview lavishly illustrated with rare art from the artist’s files, plus huge sketchbook section, including unseen and unused art!

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JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR (4 issues)

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BACK ISSUE! (6 issues)

$40

$55

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

$26

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$60

$74

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

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BRICKJOURNAL (4 issues)

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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