Alter Ego #81 by TwoMorrows Publishing

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No.81 October 2008

CAUGHT IN A

WEB OF HORROR

WITH BRUNNER, JONES, KALUTA, WRIGHTSON, et al.!

82658 27763

EXTRA!

EVERETT RAYMOND KINSTLER

PLUS:

Vol. 3, No. 81 / October 2008 Editor Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout Christopher Day

Consulting Editor John Morrow

FCA Editor P.C. Hamerlinck

Comic Crypt Editor Michael T. Gilbert

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

Circulation Director Bob Brodsky, Cookiesoup Productions

Cover Artist & Colorist Frank Brunner

With Special Thanks to: Jay Kinney Heidi Amash Everett Raymond Michael Ambrose Kinstler Richard J. Arndt Bob Latona Bob Bailey Zorikh Lequidre Jack D. Bails Paul Levitz Jean Bails George Wilson Beahm James Ludwig Jack & Carole Bender Michel Maillot Rob Maisch Terry Bisson Glenn McKay Dominic Bongo Matt Moring Jerry K. Boyd Christopher B. Boyko Frank Motler Mark Muller Frank Brunner Will Murray Bob Cherry Barry Pearl Gerry Conway Trina Robbins Teresa R. Davidson Herb Rogoff Al Dellinges Alex Ross Scott Derrick Bob Rozakis Michaël Dewally Steve Sansweet Betty Dobson Ramon Schenk Rich Donnelly Howard Siegel Peter Duxbury Ted Skimmer Mark Evanier Ray Snodgrass Tom Field Bill Spicer Shane Foley Bhob Stewart Carl Gafford Marc Swayze James Galton Joel Thingvall Janet Gilbert Andreas Gottschlich Dann Thomas Steven Tice Ron Goulart Anthony Tollin Lawrence P. Guidry Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Martin Greim Joe Vucenic George Hagenauer Jennifer Hamerlinck Murray Ward Hames Ware Mike Howell Gregg Whitmore Chris Irving Tom Wimbish Eric Jansen Lynn Woolley Bruce Jones Alex Wright Michael J. Kaluta Dennis Yee George Khoury

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Elmer Wexler, Wayne Howard, & Larry Woromay

Contents Writer/Editorial: It’s That Time Of Year Again! . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Caught In A Web Of Horror . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Richard Arndt looks at “America’s Nightmare Magazine” of 1969-70—and the careers it launched!

The Thing About “Man-Thing” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Roy Thomas tells George Khoury all about Marvel’s marsh monster and its icky antecedents.

“I Never Looked Down On Comics” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Everett Raymond Kinstler talks to Jim Amash about his career as a comic book illustrator.

Oop, Oop, And Away! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Alley Oop artist Jack Bender celebrates 75 years of the world’s favorite caveman.

The Secret History Of All-American Comics, Inc.: “MORT-ification” 59 Bob Rozakis & Ted Skimmer on Mort Weisinger and a history that might have been, maybe.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! Bob Powell’s Shadow! . . . . . . 65 Michael T. Gilbert discovers that the weed of crime bears better fruit!

Tributes to Elmer Wexler, Wayne Howard, & Larry Woromay 72 re: correspondence, comments, & corrections. . . . . . . . . . . 76 FCA (Fawcett Collectors Of America) #140 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 P.C. Hamelinck presents Marc Swayze, Captain Marvel—& Captain Mar-Vell. On Our Cover: In its early days, Marvel’s Man-Thing was drawn by some of the finest artists in the business, from Gray Morrow through Neal Adams, Mike Ploog, and others. But nobody did it better than Frank Brunner, who kindly provided this issue’s swamp-curdling image. And all just to protect a couple of baby birds! [Man-Thing TM & ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.] Above: One of the most famous artists ever to come out of the comics, Everett Raymond Kinstler says he enjoyed drawing a pair of “Hawkman” sagas back in the Golden Age—including this cover for Flash Comics #87 (Sept. 1947). But he’s also drawn heroes from Wild Bill Hickok to Black Hood to Zorro, and lots more besides—as you’ll see on pp. 29-50. Thanks to Jim Ludwig. [©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

It’s That Time Of Year Again! A

lter Ego’s halcyon Halloween issues are always a blast to put together—and this time we cover the two extremes of so-called “horror comics” over the field’s first few dozen years: stand-alone short stories with twist endings in the glorious EC tradition (this year, the short-lived but fabled black-&-white magazine Web of Horror, which featured the work of several future stars of the medium), and continuing creature-characters (in this case, Marvel’s Man-Thing, which Ye Editor was privileged to help launch in 1971). And WoH artist Frank Brunner’s agreeing to let us use as our cover a recent commission painting of Manny was just the marshy icing on the cake.

was important to the early days of comics fandom, since its first decade of fan awards was christened after him: the Alleys. As usual, it was tough squeezing everything into 96 pages—especially when Michael T. Gilbert, P.C. Hamerlinck, Bill Schelly, and Bob Rozakis all came through (as they always do) with their ongoing features which we (like you) look forward to each issue. But you’ll certainly hear no complaint about that from these quarters—even though Bill’s photo essay on the 1965 New York Comicon had to be delayed till next issue for reasons of space. And thanks, also as per usual, to all the generous fans and collectors out there who helped supply us with art to delight (and occasionally terrify) the eye. We couldn’t do it without them—and we want everybody to know that!

It’s also rewarding to be able to present two pieces we’ve had sitting on the shelf for way too long: Jim Amash’s interview with illustrator Everett Raymond Kinstler (delayed primarily because of Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr.’s, excellent book on the illustrator)… and artist Jack Bender’s brief retrospective of Alley Oop, the comic strip caveman who turned 75 this year. V.T. Hamlin’s creation Panel from E.R. Kinstler’s “Hawkman” story in Flash Comics

Bestest,

COMING IN DECEMBER

ALL THE WAY WITH MLJ! At Last! The Shield–Hangman–The Web– Black Hood–& The Other Golden Age Super-Heroes Who Flew As Point Men For Archie Andrews! • Fabulous new cover of MLJ’s greatest stars by BOB McLEOD! • MLJ Index by MIKE NOLAN, listing every super-hero saga from 1939 through the ’40s—a lively look at MLJ by sf/mystery/comics history author RON GOULART —& a never-before-published interview with Shield artist IRV NOVICK! • Lavish vintage MLJ art by NOVICK * COLE * FUJITANI * BIRO * REINMAN * HASEN * MESKIN * KANE * SHORTEN * BINDER * LUCEY * MONTANA, et al.! • Archie artist JOE EDWARDS, interviewed by JIM AMASH! • Plus: FCA featuring MARC SWAYZE & the legacy of comics historian JERRY DeFUCCIO—BILL SCHELLY’s Comic Fandom Archive—BOB ROZAKIS on the hidden story of All-American Comics, Inc.—MICHAEL T. GILBERT’s Comic Crypt looks at “twisted comics”—& MORE!! ie Comics Publications, Inc.] [Heroes TM & ©2008 Arch

Edited by ROY THOMAS

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

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Caught In A Web Of Horror A Look At “America’s Nightmare Magazine” Of 1969-70 by Richard J. Arndt

ow much influence or importance to the history of comics can be given to a black-&white comic magazine that contained no classic stories—although a number of good ones appeared there—and lasted a mere three issues before being dumped by an indifferent publisher?

Web of Horror, which billed itself as “America’s Nightmare Magazine,” was started in 1969 by editor Terry Bisson and publisher Robert C. Sproul. Bisson today is a highly respected, award-winning author of science-fiction, but in 1969 he worked on a number of magazines for Sproul’s publishing company, which produced a wide variety of such, including the Mad knockoff Cracked. Bisson’s credentials in comics at the time consisted of a mere handful of stories co-written with friend Clark Dimond for Jim Warren’s magazines Creepy and Eerie, during and just after the Archie Goodwin-edited glory days of those publications. To backtrack a bit: between 1964 and 1967, publisher Jim Warren created a market for black-&-white, nonComics-Code-approved comic books, backed up mightily by the work of editor and chief writer Goodwin, some strikingly powerful covers by the likes of Frank Frazetta and Gray Morrow, and an array of talented artists on the interior art, including Alex Toth, Al Williamson, Angelo Torres, Steve Ditko, Reed Crandall, Wally Wood, Joe Orlando, Jerry Grandenetti, and many more. However, a money crunch suffered by Warren in 1967 led Goodwin and most of the artists to leave Warren’s employ. By 1969, half of each issue of Creepy and Eerie featured reprinted material from their 1964-67 heyday, while the new material was often second-rate at best, despite the efforts of such fine artists as Tom Sutton and Ernie Colón. Sproul—or, more likely, Bisson—saw an opportunity. With Warren’s product weakened and most of his direct competitors, such as the unrelated Eerie Publications, merely putting out bottom of the barrel pre-Code reprints or providing old stories with new, uncredited (and deservedly so) art, the market for an all-new horror anthology was pretty much wide open.

Sort Of Sorcery The sword-and-sorcery cover for Web of Horror #1 (Dec. 1969), by Jeff (a.k.a. Jeffrey) Jones. The art for each of the three published covers was reprinted as the back cover, minus any text—in effect, a color pin-up. Each of the three published issues had a different title logo on the cover— not exactly the best idea in the world, when a publisher is hoping for repeat readers! All art and photos accompanying this article, unless otherwise noted, were supplied by Richard Arndt. In all probability, the copyrights for all material published in the three issues of Web of Horror have reverted to the original creators. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Whoever first recognized that main chance, it was clearly Bisson who had the most to do with pursuing it. With what must have been a low budget, he clearly couldn’t afford the rates of any of the artists who had worked with Warren, or who had drawn Bisson’s co-authored work for Warren’s magazines previously. But he had an insight that many other editors or publishers of the times might have missed.

Between 1966-1967, Archie Goodwin had published a fan page in the pages of Warren’s Creepy magazine to which budding artists and writers could send their fan-produced art and stories. Among those who appeared on those pages were aspiring illustrators such as Bernie (then Berni) Wrightson, Frank Brunner, and Bruce Jones. All these artists knew other struggling artists, as well. In fact, Wrightson lived in the same

A Look At “America’s Nightmare Magazine” of 1967-80

Something Old, Something New Web of Horror #1 featured art by both talented newcomers and longtime pros. (Counterclockwise on this page and the next, from top left, are the splashes for:) (a) “Blood Thirst!”—drawn by Syd Shores, a Timely/Marvel mainstay during the 1940s and’50s, who would become a Marvel inker for much of the 1970s. Script by Terry Bisson. For a photo of Syd Shores, see A/E #78. (b) “The Game That Plays You!”—illustrated by Bernie Wrightson, who in a year or so would make his mark as the original artist and co-creator of DC’s Swamp Thing. Script by Dick Kenson. Note the store name (“S. Strange Books”) and a copy of EC’s Haunt of Fear in the window. The photo of Bernie at age 20 is from the Joe Vucenic collection, taken by George Wilson Beahm, and was sent to us by Christopher B. Boyko. (c) “Dead Letter,” by “David Norman”—which Richard Arndt suspects (and Jerry Bails’ Who’s Who verifies) is a pseudonym for veteran artist Norman Nodel, some of whose work for Classics Illustrated was seen last issue. Script probably by Terry Bisson. (d) “Island of the Walking Dead,” also by Norman/Nodel. Arndt says this tale, which is he feels is the best-written in the issue, “reads as though it were intended as a series, although this was the main character’s only appearance.” Writer: Clark Dimond. [Art & script on spread ©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

building with Michael J. Kaluta and Jeff Jones. Bruce Jones was friends with all three. All these young men were highly talented and strongly influenced by the artwork of Frank Frazetta, Roy Krenkel, Al Williamson, and Angelo Torres. Kaluta had even worked uncredited on backgrounds for a DC House of Mystery story by Williamson. Best of all, for Bisson and Sproul’s purposes anyway, was that they were eager to prove themselves and would work hard for the opportunity to do so. These five artists—Wrightson, Brunner, Kaluta, and the two (unrelated) Joneses—formed the core of what became the “Young Turks’” breakthrough into comics. (Other artists who could be considered part of the “Young Turks” movement of 1969-1973 would be Barry Smith [later Windsor-Smith], Rich Buckler, Jim Starlin, Alan Weiss, Steve Hickman, and Steve Harper.) Perhaps even more importantly, this quintet came directly from the fanzines of the day, such as Spa Fon, Squa Tront, Graphic Showcase, and others. They provided what was probably the first strong evidence that the next major wave of comic artists and writers would come from the fan community. The fans who read comics. Such a thing is commonplace today, but in 1969 the roll call of both writers and artists in the comic book field had changed very little in the previous 15 years, with a few notable exceptions

Caught In A Web Of Horror

(examples of which are artist Neal Adams, who came from the world of comic strips, and the editor of this magazine, Roy Thomas, who also came from the fan community). Bisson didn’t stop with the Young Turks, however. He also checked out other fanzine artists such as underground artist Roger Brand (whose work had appeared in witzend, the “prozine” launched by major artist Wally Wood); such Wood-assistant alumni as Ralph Reese and Wayne Howard; and comic veterans such as Syd Shores and Norman Nodel (as “Donald Norman”). The first issue of Web of Horror debuted with a cover date of December 1969, which meant it was probably on the newsstands in September or October of that year. The cover was by Jeff Jones, who had done several stories for Archie Goodwin during the latter’s time at Warren and had broken into the book market with a number of memorable covers for both paperbacks and Donald M. Grant’s limited edition line of Robert E. Howard books. In a nice touch, the front cover of WoH #1 was repeated on the back cover without cover copy. In essence, making an art print of it. Inside art for that first issue was provided by Wayne Howard, Syd Shores, Bernie Wrightston, Ralph Reese, and “Donald Norman.” Reese also supplied the first of three “Comic Art Contest” pages, which were two-page spreads of artwork with a blank section that provided comic fan-artists the opportunity to fill in the empty area and to create dialogue for the page. Bernie Wrightson and Mike Kaluta provided the artwork for the contest pages in issues #2 and 3.

The stories themselves, if not noteworthy, were competent and were provided by editor Bisson, the newly professional writer Nicola Cuti, Dick Kenson, and Bisson’s friend Clark Dimond. The magazine sported a horror host who was both funnier and less ugly than EC’s witches and ghouls or Warren’s Uncle Creepy or Cousin Eerie—a spidery entity known as “the Webster.” It also did something that infuriated Jim Warren. No only did it have all-new stories—but it had no ads! The Warren magazines had leaned heavily on reprints for two years, and all issues during that period had a large number of ad pages featuring horror-related products you could order though Warren’s own Captain Company. Compared to the Warren magazine of 1969, Web of Horror looked like a pretty good deal for the kid who was eager to drop 35¢ on it. Warren promptly issued an edict that stated that you could work for Jim Warren or you could work for his competition, but you couldn’t work for both. This prompted a number of Warren artists who were doing stories for Web’s upcoming issues to adopt pseudonyms therein. The art team of Bill Fraccio & Tony Tallarico (who already used the pseudonym [Continued on p. 8]

A Look At “America’s Nightmare Magazine” of 1967-80

INTERLUDE #1: An 2005 Interview With Web Of Horror’s Terry Bisson! Conducted by Richard J. Arndt RICHARD ARNDT: Can you give us a little of your background and how you first encountered comics? TERRY BISSON: I was born during World War II and grew up in postwar Kentucky. The suburbs, not the hills. I first encountered comics through Captain Marvel. I mourned when the Shazam went away, and never had the same affection for Superman. I remember the old ECs and their demise. I never cared for Marvel or DC super-hero comics. RA: How did you come to write stories for Warren? BISSON: I wanted to be a famous writer, à la Jack Kerouac. Didn’t work out, but I got a job in the pulps, and worked for True Experience and other romance mags. My friend Clark Dimond was more into the comics world and turned me on to the Warren line. He was writing for them, and

we collaborated on a few stories which we sold to Creepy and Eerie. These were in fact my first professional sales. I think we split ten bucks a page. Our plot conferences were along the lines of, “Does he turn out to be a vampire or a werewolf?” I never met any of the staff, although Clark was friends with Archie Goodwin. I met Goodwin years later, briefly.

Terry And The Pirates Terry Bisson, science-fiction and fantasy writer—and, in 1969-70, the editor as well as featured writer of Web of Horror. Among his best-known literary works are the story “They’re Made Out of Meat” and the novels Fire on the Mountain, Voyage to the Red Planet, and Pirates of the Universe.

RA: How did you become the editor of Web of Horror? BISSON: Web of Horror was put out by the same company, Candar, that published the humor mag Cracked, although I never worked on Cracked. They had an office on Long Island. Cracked was the flagship. The whole company was about lowball imitations. The publisher, Robert Sproul, wanted to put out some imitations of Western, romance, and astrology mags, and I was hired (at about age 27) to put them together because of my romance-mag experience. Nothing to do with comics! The pseudo-mags did pretty well (this was a very low-end market) and Bob wanted to expand. I suggested we do a Warren-style comic magazine. RA: Many of your artists and writers either already were or would become the “Young Turks” that set the comic world on its ear in the early 1970s. How did you find those contributors? BISSON: Clark Dimond helped me figure out who to contact. I’m embarrassed to say that I don’t remember how I got in touch with Mike Kaluta, Bernie Wrightson, Ralph Reese, and the others. I do remember being aware that they were, or soon would be, stars. We also tapped a few old hacks. The great thing about being an editor, of even a small commercial mag, is that you have money. You can pay! RA: What can you tell us about your publisher, Robert Sproul? BISSON: I loved Bob Sproul! He was a very easy-going guy who gave his staff their head. A shirtsleeve publisher. The production and art people really ran the place (about six in all). Come to think of it, I may have been listed as editor of Cracked at one point, but the mag really put itself together. A solid stable of hacks. I knew or cared nothing about it. I felt bad about leaving

The Devil And Berni’s Webster Bernie Wrightson (who then spelled his first name “Berni”) drew the mag’s mascot, the Webster, on the inside front cover of Web of Horror #1. Script by Terry Bisson. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Caught In A Web Of Horror

We’re Looking For People Who Like To Draw (Monsters)! The Ralph Reese-drawn “art contest” double-page spread in WoH #3, with space for the avid reader (and aspiring artist) to draw his own monster in the blank space. Bisson says the contest “was never a real thing.” Still, who knows? Had #4 actually been published, he or his successor as editor might’ve discovered yet another future Reese, Brunner, Wrightson, or Jones. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Sproul in the lurch, but he contacted me a few years ago. He’s living on a sailboat in the Caribbean, and he thanked me for inspiring him to get out of the rat race. So go figure. RA: Who created your horror host, Webster the spider? BISSON: I thought of the Webster, and I think Bernie drew it. RA: Do you remember who (if anyone) actually would have won the artist tryout contest from issues #1-3? BISSON: The contest was never a real thing. RA: Why did you leave Web? BISSON: Honey, do you have to ask? It was ’69 and the world was cracking open like an egg. Clark and I both ran off to join the Southwestern communes. I gave my notice and walked away. I left a lot of artists and writers high and dry, and I regret that sincerely. RA: What can you tell us about the magazine’s end? BISSON: Nothing at all. RA: In the comics field, who did you follow? Do you keep up with the field?

BISSON: Like I said, I never liked the super-hero stuff, and I was equally uninterested in the later classier Sandman type stuff. Wonder Warthhog and the [Fabulous] Furry Freak Brothers, yes. I was a hippie through and through (still am). I still loved writing for comics, but nobody wanted short one-shots. I took what work I could get. I adapted Neuromancer for Byron Priess, but it never came out. I also did the first two Zelazny Amber novels for DC (there were six volumes in all). That, too, was a disappointment, as it never got much distribution. I adapted a Joel Rosenberg novel for a HarperCollins “illustrated novel” line that was stillborn. Did Henry V and Pride and Prejudice for a reanimation of Classics Illustrated, but it never got off the table. I love adapting for the comics, but I may be the kiss of death. RA: I know you’ve won plenty of awards for writing, particularly in the science-fiction field. Can you tell us about your post-comics career? BISSON: After the standard hippie adventures, I came back to New York in ’78 or so. I did a Moorcock-imitation fantasy for Pocket Books, and then started writing my own. I won most of my awards for short stories, all sf. I do okay, but I’m not a major player. RA: Who are your favorite writers? BISSON: Charles Portis, Marie Sandoz, and Cecelia Holland. My major influence in the science-fiction field is R.A. Lafferty, America’s still-undiscovered marquez.

A Look At “America’s Nightmare Magazine” of 1967-80

cover and with both Frank Brunner and Bruce Jones making their professional debuts with self-penned tales. Jones, nowadays known primarily as a writer, is a quite accomplished artist in the Roy Krenkel vein, and his art pages are wonderful to look at in black-&-white. Brunner not only did what may be the first Christmas-themed horror story since the EC days; he also provided an interesting Webster page for the inside frontispiece. Mike Friedrich wrote the best story that appeared in Web—namely the grisly little tale “Feed It!,” which featured strong Bernie Wrightson art. Both Reese and Kaluta provided beautiful artwork, again on stories by Binder, while Syd Shores (in the late 1940s the major artist of Timely’s Captain America Comics) wrote and illustrated a tasty little vampire tale. However, that was it. Bisson, the guiding light of Web of Horror, decided abruptly to quit Sproul’s employ and, with his friend Clark Dimond, took off to explore the alternate cultures of communes. Sproul had no real interest in Web, so when Bernie Wrightson and Bruce Jones offered to take over the editorship to keep the magazine alive, he agreed only reluctantly. Wrightson and Jones, however, were thrilled. They promptly began work on #4, while using a one-page ad in Rocket’s Blast-Comicollector #72, featuring artwork by Wrightson, Jones, Brunner, Kaluta, Reese, Al Williamson, & Steve Hickman, to urge fans to write to Sproul and urge him to keep publishing Web. They attempted to get Roy Krenkel, who’d done some vivid layouts for Frank Frazetta’s Warren covers, to contribute a cover for Web… and, in time, might have succeeded. They discovered

[Continued from p. 5] “Tony Williamsune” for the Warren books) became “Alfred Payan,” while Tom Sutton used the first names of his sons, Sean and Todd, to become “Sean Todd” (or “Seane Todd,” as it appeared on his sole Web story). In the long run, this edict backfired on Warren, causing both established and new artists and writers to rethink the advantages of working for Warren and prompting a number of others, such as writer and future Skywald editor/writer Al Hewetson, to quit writing stories for Warren altogether. It simply wasn’t possible to make a living working for one specialty comic publisher in 1969. Web of Horror #2 featured a new title logo (in fact, each of the three published issues of WoH featured a different logo). Comic vet Otto Binder, who had written “Captain Marvel,” “Superman,” et al., contributed a couple of good stories; these were illustrated by Reese and newcomer Kaluta, who’d made his professional comic debut only a few weeks earlier in the pages of a Charlton romance comic. Scripting newcomer Marv Wolfman delivered a science-fiction story, ably drawn by Wrightson, while Brand teamed up with EC fan Ron Barlow for a torrid terror tale. Roger Brand, who had done a number of stories for Warren’s magazines, was evidently unworried by Warren’s edict, but it should be noted that he didn’t appear in a Warren magazine following his entry in WoH #2. Issue #3 was the best of the bunch, with a striking Bernie Wrightson

Personal “Growth” This story, with art by Wayne Howard, who till recently had been an assistant to Wally Wood, led off the first issue of Web of Horror. Story by Nick Cuti. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Caught In A Web Of Horror

The Second Time Around (Above:) Jeff Jones’ cover for Web of Horror #2 (Feb. 1970). Once again, the art was featured on the back cover as a pinup, unobscured by any text. The photo at right shows Jeff at age nineteen, we’re told, already doing fine work. (Top right:) Ralph Reese was back in the second issue with the frontispiece (a.k.a. the inside front cover), which again featured the mag’s arachnid mascot. Scripter uncertain. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

that Frank Frazetta, who was angry with Jim Warren at the time, was willing to pull a cover he was doing for Warren and send it to Web if they could pay him $500 for it. That was twice the going rate for a Web cover, however, and Sproul refused to pay it. The cover eventually appeared on a John Jakes paperback, Witch of the Dark Gate, in the mid-1970s.

Not Yeti (Right:) The best-remembered cover of Web of Horror is this one for #3, executed by Bernie Wrightson, which heralded a tale drawn inside by Ralph Reese. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

A Look At “America’s Nightmare Magazine” of 1967-80

Say It With Splashes The six splash pages of Web of Horror #2 on this page and the next display a wide variety of talent. Except for the veteran art team of Bill Fraccio (penciler) & Tony Tallarico (inker), and Golden Age scripter Otto Binder, the creators came from a young talent pool. (Counterclockwise from top left:) (a) “Mother Toad,” drawn by Bernie Wrightson. Writer: Terry Bisson. (b) “Ashes to Ashes,” with art by witzend and underground cartoonist Roger Brand, who in 1969 also worked for a time as Gil Kane’s assistant. Brand’s work had been appearing in Creepy and Eerie, but following this story in WoH, no more of his work was ever seen in a Warren mag, so it’s possible that publisher Warren meant what he said about not working for his competition. Script by Ron Barlow. (c) “Sea of Graves,” with art by Michael Kaluta and story by Otto Binder. This appeared within a few weeks of Kaluta’s debut in a Charlton romance comic; he also did a war story that popped up in a Flash Gordon comic, probably within days of this story’s appearance. (d) “Breathless,” with art again by Wrightson; script by Marv (then Marvin) Wolfman. A rare (at the time) excursion by Bernie into science-fiction. (e) “Unmasking,” with art by Fraccio & Tallarico under a different pseudonym (“Alfred Payan”) from the “Tony Williamsune” they used in the Warren comics… probably to placate Jim Warren. Written by Wilson Shard, which Arndt feels is probably also a pen name. (f) “Man-Plant from the Tomb,” art by Ralph Reese; script by Otto Binder. [All art & script on this spread ©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Although the Wrightson/Jones team pulled together a strong #4, Sproul appeared to be completely uninterested in working with them or in publishing any more issues of Web of Horror. He would routinely dodge editorial meetings with the two. Feeling that the magazine was dead in the water and that the completed stories would vanish into a warehouse or furnace, Frank Brunner pretended to be the new editor and, using a cover story of needing to look at the completed pages and make proofs, got into the files for Web. What he actually did was grab as many of the completed pages and stories he could find, including two of his own tales, and cart them out of Sproul’s offices in his art portfolio bag. The next time Wrightson and Jones came to the company’s offices, the rooms were abandoned. Sproul had moved, either to Florida or simply across town, leaving no forwarding address. The stories that Brunner had “liberated” were returned to the original artists, including Wrightson, Bruce Jones, Hickman, Kaluta, and Tom Sutton, and appeared in a number of fanzines, including Robert Gerson’s Reality (see Alter Ego #72, Oct. 2007) and Mark Feldman’s I’ll Be Damned and Scream Door. Brunner’s two stories appeared in the fanzine Phase #1 and in Jim Warren’s Vampirella #10, both in 1971. Sadly, a number of stories were lost, apparently forever, including two more Brunner stories, a Wrightson effort entitled “The Monster Jar,” and an sf tale written by Clark Dimond and drawn by Ralph Reese, as well as the original painting by Wrightson for #4. The mockup of that cover that appears in this issue is all that remains. So that was it: a three-issue run of a magazine that featured no major artists of the time, no truly memorable stories, and which was seen by [Continued on p. 18]

Caught In A Web Of Horror

A Look At “America’s Nightmare Magazine” of 1967-80

INTERLUDE #2: A 2007 Interview With Frank Brunner! Conducted by Richard J. Arndt RICHARD ARNDT: Artist Frank Brunner has worked with Warren, Marvel, First, and Star*Reach and still does the occasional comic work. Mr. Brunner, your professional debut appears to have been in Web of Horror, but before then you did appear in a number of fanzines and in the movie mag Castle of Frankenstein with comic stories and pin-ups. How did you manage to break into that market?

BRUNNER: Alex Raymond, his successor Al Williamson, and Wally Wood! Later I met Neal Adams, and my style evolved into something that Marvel Comics (namely editor Roy Thomas!) could appreciate.

FRANK BRUNNER: I knew Castle of Frankenstein publisher Calvin Beck. At that time, in the late 1960s, he wanted to do more comics in his mag. He didn’t pay much, but it was a chance to get printed! I met Calvin via our mutual interest in fantasy/sci-fi/horror movies.

RA: How did you get involved with Web of Horror?

RA: Judging from those stories, Roy Krenkel and Frank Frazetta were two of your early influences. Who else did you follow for inspiration?

BRUNNER: As soon as I saw #1, I knew that was where I wanted to be— with all the new talent! So I wrote to editor Terry Bisson and told him I was a new writer/artist. He seemed interested, and I wrote “Santa’s Claws,” and he bought it and gave me the art assignment. [NOTE: See splash of “Santa’s Claws” on p. 15.] RA: Did you actually meet Terry Bisson or Robert Sproul? BRUNNER: I think I met Terry once face to face… but I could be wrong… never met Sproul. RA: Your debut story there, “Santa Claws,” was the first Christmas-themed horror story to appear since the EC days. Were you aware of that when you were doing the story? Did the EC stories have any influence on you? BRUNNER: Well, being a big EC fan, it was probably in the back of my mind. I wrote that story while I was sitting in a Lower East Side, barely heated apartment in New York. I wrote it all in one evening, and that was on Christmas Eve! I did like the surprise twist endings EC did with almost all their stories… but I was also influenced by the work of Rod Serling and Twilight Zone! RA: Although Web of Horror only lasted three issues, you did a number of stories for it that appeared elsewhere, including at least one that appeared in Web’s magazine rival Vampirella. Which stories were originally intended for Web? BRUNNER: There were two “leftover” stories—“Eye of Newt, Toe of Frog” and “Dragonus,” which were scheduled for Web of Horror #4 & #5.

Don’t Be Dragonus Around In Dragonus, Frank Brunner (vintage photo above) sure created a well-traveled sword-and-sorcery hero! This first adventure was produced for Web of Horror #4, then turned down a chance to be in Creepy, and was first published in Phase #1 (minus Webster the spider). It was later reprinted, at Roy Thomas’ instigation, in Marvel’s own black-&-white horror mag Monsters Unleashed #2 (Sept. 1973)—and unless we’re mistaken, it’s been printed at least once more since then! Frank killed Dragonus off in a second story, seen in an issue of Mike Friedrich’s early indie comic Star*Reach. Script credited to Chuck Robertson. Photo of FB from 1975 Marvel Con program book. Thanks to Frank for the art scan. [Dragonus page ©2008 Frank Brunner.]

Caught In A Web Of Horror

RA: The story goes that you were the fellow who rescued much of the contents of Web of Horror #4 and #5 when you visited the Major Magazines offices. How did that visit come about, and what actually happened? BRUNNER: There has been some dispute over my timeline, but timelines aside, yes, I did rescue the art pages. As it became apparent Sproul had no intention of publishing Web after the departure of Terry Bisson, I went out to the offices of Cracked magazine. Told some secretary I was the “new” editor of Web and that I needed to see the art for future issues. I was led to a small storage type room with metal shelves full of Web art! I was carrying an art portfolio and proceeded to recover as much art as was possible in a few minutes! I was worried the receptionist/secretary would come in at any moment and the jig would be up! I didn’t get all the art, for it was just too much to fit into my portfolio. Naturally I wanted my own art—and any other art that was nearby, I took. All of which I gave back to the artists! They never thanked me, by the way. I guess they just wouldn’t give up hope that Web would be published somehow! And that I sorta made sure that it wouldn’t? If that was what they were indeed thinking, it was sheer nonsense or wishful thinking on their parts! This sort of warped logic and the lack of any sort of appreciation was, I suppose, my first of many realizations that most other comic artists are so unbelievably self-centered and quite eccentric in their views of reality. So much so that nowadays I hardly associate with them! RA: Why did “Dragonus” appear in the expensive Phase fanzine rather than a Warren magazine? BRUNNER: I showed that story to Warren, who immediately wanted it, but I held off. We were both thinking this story had series potential. Sword-and-sorcery stories in comics were just beginning to take off, and I didn’t want to turn over all the rights to Jim! Later Phase magazine actually offered me more money and the ownership of “Dragonus”! RA: Are there any future Dragonus plans?

BRUNNER: I wrote and drew a sequel for Star*Reach. If a publisher made the right offer, I might do another story…. RA: Any anecdotes about those days you’d care to share? BRUNNER: “Those were the best of times and the worst of times….” I was very young and gullible, full of enthusiasm and energy that made up for my lack of ability at that time. Things have turned around over the last forty years. I’ve got the ability and still have a certain enthusiasm, but the energy is fading! RA: Are there any artists or writers in the comic field (or outside the field, for that matter) that you enjoy today? BRUNNER: Oh, I don’t really keep up with what’s happening in comics

any more. I think the Image comics and Dark Horse sorta killed the concept of good solid writing and visual storytelling in comics! Though there are a few exceptions here and there! Writers that I read today are John Varley and Herman Hesse (re-reading the latter) and Kurt Vonnegut, who just passed away, God bless him! RA: Any final words? BRUNNER: I’d just like to say this—the Impressionist movement is dead, the Pre-Raphaelites likewise, Cubism and Abstract art are finished. The so-called “Fine Arts World” needs to wake up to the sobering fact that “Comic Art” is the major art form of the later 20th century! They know it in Europe, but there’s still a long way to go towards world-wide recognition of the facts!

A Look At “America’s Nightmare Magazine” of 1967-80

Another Six-Pack Of Splash Pages Once again, on this and the facing page, a half dozen first pages of stories—this time from WoH #3 (April 1970). (Counterclockwise, from top left:) (a) “Dead End,” with art by Michael Kaluta; written by Otto Binder. Michael is seen on the left here in a 1967 photo; the other guy is Steve Harper, a friend and occasional early collaborator. Thanks to Bob Bailey. (b) “Curse of the Yeti,” featuring Ralph Reese’s take on the Abominable Snowman, from a Binder script. (c) “Santa’s Claws,” which marks Frank Brunner’s debut as an art pro (and writer!). (d) “Point of View,” with story and art by another “newest of the new,” Bruce Jones—who’s seen in this recent photo—’cause we couldn’t come up with a vintage one in time. (e) “Strangers!”—written as well as drawn by Syd Shores. (f) “Feed It,” as illustrated by Bernie Wrightson; script by Mike Friedrich. Richard Arndt feels this is “probably the best story to actually appear in WoH.” [All art & script on this spread ©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Caught In A Web Of Horror

A Look At “America’s Nightmare Magazine” of 1967-80

Going Out On A Limb (Above:) When Bernie Wrightson and Bruce Jones got themselves promoted to editorship of the projected fourth issue of Web of Horror, the former produced the painting and cover mock-up above left—to go with a story he wrote and drew, whose splash is seen above right. “Out on a Limb” was finally published in the “prozine” I’ll Be Damned #4 a year or so later. [©2008 Bernie Wrightson.]

You’ve Got Mail! (Left:) Bernie Wrightson’s original (unpublished) letterhead logo for Web of Horror. (Right:) The letters page logo as it appeared in one of the issues. The reworking of the background, whether by Bernie or other hands (maybe that’s why the “Jones” credit?), made it possible to give the page a different title, but some of the other art was trimmed, as well. Thanks to Jerry K. Boyd. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Caught In A Web Of Horror

“To Your Scattered Publishers Go” A montage of pages originally intended for Web of Horror #4 (or maybe for #5) which wound up appearing elsewhere—while other such work was seen in last year’s Alter Ego Halloween issue, #73, because it was first published in Robert Gerson’s Reality. (Clockwise, from above left:) (a) Tom Sutton’s engaging “Rat!” first surfaced in Scream Door #1, and was reprinted (in color) in Roy Thomas’ Marvel monster-parody comic Arrgh! (in #1, Dec. 1974). Sutton produced a sequel for Arrgh! #3 (May 1975). (b) Mike Kaluta’s “Hey, Buddy, Can You Lend Me a…” also debuted in Scream Door #1; after which Roy T. snapped it up for a Marvel b&w, Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction #1 (Jan. 1975). (c) Bruce Jones’ “Specimen” was picked up from Abyss #1 to appear in Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction #2 (March 1975). Editor Roy was eager in those days to fill Marvel’s black&-whites, and immediately commissioned Bruce to write and draw several new stories for the short-lived sf title. [All art & script on this page ©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

A Look At “America’s Nightmare Magazine” of 1967-80

[Continued from p. 10] only a few, even at the time of its publication. What difference did it make? What influence could it have? Namely this—it was edited by a man (Terry Bisson) who became one of the most noted writers working in science-fiction today. It featured or launched the careers of a half dozen of the best comic book artists of the 20th Century (and counting). Jeff Jones. Bernie Wrightson. Bruce Jones. Ralph Reese. Michael Kaluta. Frank Brunner. Men whose careers and artwork have changed not only the way comics are viewed and read but how film, TV, book covers, posters, and mainstream magazine covers are seen and appreciated. It provided a direct link between comics fandom and the professional world of comics. Hundreds, if not thousands, of stories have poured from these guys’ pens and computers, changing—in ways both small and large—the lives of their readers. Not bad for a magazine edited by an unknown, illustrated by a bunch of unknowns, published by a guy who couldn’t have cared less, and read by a bunch of kids. Pretty impressive, actually. Web of Horror really was “America’s Nightmare Magazine.” Richard J. Arndt still lives in the high desert country, just like he did last year when we published his take on the related horror comic Reality. He is a librarian by day and a fan of black&-white magazines by day. Check out the website www.enjolrasworld.com and look for Richard’s pages therein.

Previously Unpublished Art by Frank Brunner

ATTENTION: FRANK BRUNNER ART FANS! Frank is now accepting art commissions for covers, splash panels, or pin-up re-creations! Also, your ideas for NEW art are welcome! Art can be pencils only, inked or full-color (painted) creation! Contact Frank directly for details and prices. (Minimum order: $150)

Visit my NEW website at: http://www.frankbrunner.net

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The Thing About “Man-Thing”… ROY THOMAS Relates The Story Behind The Origin Of Marvel’s Swamp That Walks Like A Man—And A Few Others Of That Icky Ilk Conducted by George Khoury

his interview took place in 2002 and was intended for inclusion in the book Swampmen, as edited by Jon B. Cooke. For various reasons, that volume has yet to see print, so George Khoury and I decided it was time it appeared in this Halloween issue of Alter Ego, along with my 2+-page synopsis for the very first “Man-Thing” story, which debuted in 1971’s black-&-white Marvel comic Savage Tales #1. The interview has been edited and slightly shortened for this venue; it may yet appear in its longer form in a book version of Swampmen, which JBC has recently announced his renewed determination to publish ere long. We’re looking forward to it, Jon! —Roy.

Transcribed by Steven Tice Comics Get Hairy Interviewee Roy Thomas—juxtaposed with a 2006 pencil drawing of the Man-Thing by this issue’s cover artist, Frank Brunner—and a panel of chronologically-accelerated retelling of the origin of The Heap from Hillman Periodicals’ Airboy Comics, Vol. 7, #10 (Nov. 1950), as written and drawn by Ernie Schroeder. (It’s difficult to show a splash of a “Heap” story—because the title monster was almost never featured thereon!) The pic of Roy was taken at a 1968 comicon in St. Louis, at a time when he briefly sported a scraggly goatee; photo courtesy of Michel Maillot. Frank was one of the major artists of the “Man-Thing” series, first in Fear, then in his own mag. For FB’s photo, see p. 12; for information on how to commission a work of original art by Frank, see p. 19. [Man-Thing & Human Torch TM & ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.; Heap page ©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

GEORGE KHOURY: Do you remember how “Man-Thing” was initiated? ROY THOMAS: Stan Lee called me in; it would’ve been late ’70 or early ’71. He wanted to launch this new magazine called Savage Tales, and one of its features was to be called “ManThing.” He had a couple of sentences or so for the concept—I think it was mainly the notion of a guy working on some experimental drug or something for the government, his being accosted by spies, and getting fused with the swamp so that he becomes this creature. The creature itself sounded a lot like The Heap, but neither of us mentioned that character at the time, though Stan’s said since, when people have asked him about the Hulk, that he was familiar with The Heap. I didn’t care much for the name “Man-Thing,” because we already had The Thing, and I thought it would be confusing to also have another one called Man-Thing.

The Thing About “Man-Thing”...

GK: You didn’t find the term suggestive? THOMAS: No. Giant-Size Man-Thing later had a decidedly funny ring to it, but not “Man-Thing” by itself. I don’t believe that ever crossed my mind, nor did anybody mention it at the time. Stan wanted “Man-Thing,” so he got one. With that couple of sentences to go on, I went off and plotted the story. I don’t remember if I wrote it down or just told the general idea of the story to Gerry Conway, who then wrote a script from it. It was then given to Gray Morrow to draw. I think Gerry had seen a few of the old “Heap” stories, too, by then. But of course I’d already done another swampish character before “Man-Thing.” [EDITOR’S NOTE: This interview was conducted before Roy T. received via e-mail a copy of his 1970 synopsis.] GK: Who designed Man-Thing? Was it John Romita? THOMAS: Far as I know, Gray Morrow just drew it. He was surely familiar with The Heap, too, though I suspect either Gerry or I mentioned The Heap specifically to him as the look that was wanted. He drew ManThing about as close to The Heap as anything could be, which is exactly what I in particular wanted. Stan certainly had no objection. Gray drew in a couple of friends of his as enemy agents, including a friend of ours named Chester Grabowski, with whom I used to play poker at [comics dealer and later comicon host] Phil Seuling’s Coney Island apartment. GK: Was “Man-Thing” supposed to be an ongoing strip in Savage Tales?

Behind Every Man-Thing, There Are Men—Doing Their Thing The artist and scripter of that first “Man-Thing” story. Gray Morrow, in a self-portrait that appeared in Sorcery #7 (1974) and Gerry Conway in a photo from 1973’s F.O.O.M. (Friends Of Ol’ Marvel) #1. Thanks to Rich Donnelly for the Morrow art. (A photo of Gray appeared last issue.) [Art ©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

THOMAS: Yeah. As you know, the second story was drawn, though by Neal Adams, but took a year or two to see print, because—well, I never got all the inside story, but there were several things that led to Savage Tales being cancelled after that first issue. [Marvel publisher] Martin Goodman had never really wanted to do a non-Code comic, probably because he didn’t want any trouble with the CMAA [Comics Magazine Association of America, the organization that administered the Comics Code Authority] over it. Nor did he really want to get into magazineformat comics; and Stan really did. So Goodman looked for an excuse to cancel it. I also heard we weren’t able to sell the mag in Canada, which ordinarily would probably have taken maybe 10% of the print run—that somebody at the competition, DC or Warren or wherever, told the Canadians it was salacious material. But I never got any confirmation of that, and it may be an urban legend. At any rate, we had lots of returns of unsold copies, due to poor distribution as much as anything. For several years, there were copies in a warehouse—and also, for a time, sitting in the hallway at Marvel between Stan’s office and the bullpen were hundreds of copies of #1 in little bales of fifty or whatever. We were told to take home as many as we wanted, just to clear them out. I eventually took some, as did others. In 1976 they helped finance my move to Los Angeles. By then, Savage Tales #1 had become a collector’s item, primarily because of the “Conan” story therein by Barry [Smith] and me, but also because of the other features. GK: What kind of response did “Man-Thing” get? Was he an instant hit? Did you guys get a lot of mail? THOMAS: We probably got some, but I don’t remember much about it. [Continued on p. 24]

Call Roy Anxious (Left:) Roy wrote this text page for Savage Tales #1, an assignment that made him a bit uneasy at the time, since he knew Stan would be going over it carefully. As it turned out, Stan made only one or two minor tweaks, such as adding re Gerry Conway the sentence “Call him a beginner.” As for what those “five different [potential] origins” for Man-Thing Stan and Roy discussed, were, neither of them today has any idea—they were probably just variations on Stan’s general concept outlined in the interview. [©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.; Conan art ©2008 Conan Properties International, LLC.; Femizon art ©2008 Stan Lee & John Romita.] Incidentally, while this issue was in the final stages of preparation, Roy e-mailed Gerry, asking him if he recalled whether he wrote a full script for Gray Morrow on the “Man-Thing” origin, or whether Gray first broke the story down from Roy’s synopsis. Gerry was on the road when he received the e-mail, but took the time to respond: “As I recall, we did it Marvel style. I seem to remember having the art on my desk. But it was a lonnnng time ago and memory is unreliable. Best guess, though, is that I scripted from the art.” Thanks, Gerry.

A Savage Tale

Roy T. was astonished when, in 2003, collector Tom Field mailed him a photocopy of his November 1970 synopsis for the very first “Man-Thing” story, whose two-plus pages are repro’d on this page and the next, for the first time ever. Till he saw it, A/E’s editor had no recollection whether he’d ever actually written any of that storyline down (as opposed to simply telling scripter Gerry Conway or artist Gray Morrow the story orally)—let alone that it was so detailed, broken down page by page and virtually panel by panel! He feels he may have done this because, by the time he typed it, he knew Gray was to be the artist, and Gray was not used to working in the then-“Marvel style,” with the plot done first, then the pencils (or occasionally full art), with dialogue and captions being added later. Tom Field wrote recently that he found it “interesting” that the vicious, scarred Ellen was clearly meant to return in later stories. Did she ever actually reappear in the series? Note also that the plot specifically refers to Theodore Sturgeon's “It”... making it likely that Roy had already mentioned that short story to the prospective artist. On the left, for comparison purposes only, is the first, pre-splash page of the “Man-Thing” origin as it appeared in Savage Tales #1 (May 1971), scripted by Gerry and drawn by Gray. Roy lifted the visual of a marsh bird being grabbed from below the water by a predator from a scene in the 1955 Universal film Revenge of the Creature (sequel to The Creature from the Black Lagoon); he adapted the concept to have an alligator (rather than a clawed hand) grab the bird, with the Man-Thing then grabbing the gator. Thanks to Peter Duxbury & Barry Pearl for the scans on this two-page spread. On the facing page is a lineup of art spots, taken from the stories, which appeared on the contents page of Savage Tales #1: Conan by Barry [Windsor-]Smith; a Femizon by John Romita; Man-Thing by Gray Morrow; Black Brother by Gene Colan; Ka-Zar by John Buscema. A truly stellar lineup for that rare black-&-white comic, which originally sold for a whole 50¢! Thanks to Matt Moring for the scan. [Conan art ©2008 Conan Properties International, LLC; Femizon art ©2008 Stan Lee & John Romita; other art & text ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

The Thing About “Man-Thing”...

The Story Behind Marvel’s Swamp That Walks Like A Man

[Continued from p. 21] Nor do I recall why Neal, instead of Gray, did the second story—or why Len Wein, rather than Gerry, wrote that one. GK: When you were developing the character, what kind of qualities did you want him to have? Like, why didn’t he speak? Why doesn’t he remember stuff? THOMAS: I wanted him to be quite different from The Thing and the Hulk. The Hulk had had about twelve different speech patterns by then, The Thing maybe two. Besides this, in my mind, at least—and I was overseeing this more closely than Stan was—he was basically The Heap, and The Heap had been mute. Man-Thing had perhaps a bit more humanity about him than The Heap had had. But I never really thought that through. That was for the writers to do. GK: Did you generally work with Gerry like this? THOMAS: Sometimes. I didn’t really like writing what I thought of as horror material, even though this was super-hero horror. Starting as early as the first issue of Tomb of Dracula, I would sometimes plot a story, occasionally from a sentence or so by Stan, sometimes on my own, like the first issue of “Werewolf by Night.” I’d plot the first tale, in greater or

lesser detail, then give it to somebody else, usually Gerry at that stage, to script, while I went back to my other books. I had no desire to write the first story of “Man-Thing” or “Werewolf by Night” or Tomb of Dracula or whatever—but I plotted all three. “Werewolf ” I plotted with my first wife Jeanie, who was duly credited. GK: This was one of Gerry’s first big stories, right? THOMAS: I suppose it was. I remember writing the text page that appears in Savage Tales #1 with my initials. I played up Gerry in it, because he was only nineteen or so, and had already had a couple of science-fiction novels published. GK: How did the regular “Man-Thing” series come about? THOMAS: Well, when you start looking around for various kinds of “horror” or “mystery” titles to do, you can have one or two werewolves, as we ended up doing, one or two vampires (ditto), a mummy, and this or that. “Man-Thing” was an obvious additional possibility, since he existed after Savage Tales #1; so why not use him? At that stage we were tossing out an awful lot of monster books, and it made sense for “Man-Thing” to be one of them. GK: Did you find it weird that Len Wein, who was Gerry’s roommate,

Man-Thing Gets Swamped (Left:) Writer Len Wein must’ve scripted the second “Man-Thing” story by at least early 1971; but, due to the cancellation of Savage Tales after its first issue, that one didn’t appear till it was shoehorned as a flashback into the “Ka-Zar” feature in Astonishing Tales #12 (June 1972). There, it was reproduced—though not as well as desired—from Neal Adams’ breathtaking pencils, as always intended. [©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.] (Right:) In Swamp Thing #1 (Oct.-Nov. 1972), Len and artist Berni(e) Wrightson co-created a monstrous hero whose look and (especially) origin Marvel felt overly similar to that of Man-Thing. The DC series grew out of a stand-alone story Wein and Wrightson had done for House of Secrets #92 (July 1971), which was later incorporated retroactively into the continuity of the series character. [©2008 DC Comics.]

The Thing About “Man-Thing”...

probably never felt a really strong attachment to “Man-Thing.” As for Gray, remember—this was long after Savage Tales #1, and Gray wasn’t a regular Marvel artist. . GK: But at this point horror comics were pretty big in the ’70s at Marvel. THOMAS: Back in the 1950s, horror comics had mostly been non-series affairs. In a sense, Marvel pioneered the revival of that genre, developing titles that in the old days would’ve been called horror books, only with recurring characters like Man-Thing, Dracula, Werewolf, things like that. Marvel excelled at getting people to come back and read about the same character month after month, as opposed to having to get readers excited about a whole new batch of stand-alone stories every issue. That just wasn’t our forte. DC did fine with a modification of the 1950s approach with [editor] Joe Orlando and others in their mystery books, but by that stage that just wasn’t our kind of thing. We thought, “Eh, that’s been done.” We were more interested in characters. Even when we were trying to do some mystery books without regular characters, I think some of the writers and artists at Marvel weren’t enthusiastic about it. And when that [anthology] approach didn’t take off right away, we abandoned it and stuck to books with characters, which I thought we did better. GK: What was your reasoning in giving [Steve] Gerber the “Man-Thing” assignment? THOMAS: He was fairly new with Marvel, and we needed something for him to write, so “Man-Thing” seemed to fit. Steve developed his own style with it, and in many ways he did it very much like the old “Heap” series, since in some stories the Man-Thing would only come in at the end to kind-of wrap things up. He wasn’t as involved in some of the tales as he could have been. From a commercial viewpoint, I don’t think that worked out too well for us. But overall, Steve did some very interesting things

They’ve Got “It” The cover and first page of the Marvel adaptation of Theodore Sturgeon’s classic horror story “It,” as it appeared in Supernatural Thrillers #1 (Nov. 1972). The interior story (right) was produced first by scripter Roy Thomas and penciler Marie Severin, with inking by Frank Giacoia; the cover was done a bit later by Jim Steranko, who gave the creature more of a face. Note that the word “Thing”—harking back to both Ben Grimm and the Man-Thing—is emphasized in the cover blurb. Thanks to Bob Bailey & Peter Duxbury for the respective scans. [Art ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.; the original short story “It” ©2008 Estate of Theodore Sturgeon.]

wrote the original “Swamp Thing” story [for DC Comics]? Do you remember what your reaction was? THOMAS: Gerry and I thought that, unconsciously, the origin in Swamp Thing #1 it was a bit too similar to the origin of “Man-Thing” a year and a half earlier. There was vague talk at the time around Marvel of legal action, but it was never really pursued. I don’t know if any letters even changed hands between Marvel and DC. Even the [earlier stand-alone] “Swamp Thing” story in House of Secrets, which was originally a different character from the series one, came after “Man-Thing.” Not to mention after The Glob, which I’d done earlier in The Incredible Hulk. We weren’t happy with the situation over the Swamp Thing #1 origin, but we figured it was an accident. Gerry was rooming with Len at the time and tried to talk him into changing the Swamp Thing’s origin. Len didn’t see the similarities, so he went ahead with what he was going to do. The two characters verged off after that origin, so it didn’t make much difference, anyway. GK: Gerry and Gray did the first issue of Fear [with “Man-Thing”], then Steve Gerber came in. Why did they just do one issue? THOMAS: Again, I don’t know. Gerry was busy with other things and

The Story Behind Marvel’s Swamp That Walks Like A Man

with the book, though it was never a huge seller. GK: Can you tell me how you did the first issue of Supernatural Thrillers? That’s also got some type of swamp creature. By that point you’d already done “Man-Thing.” THOMAS: Well, in some ways it’s because of “Man-Thing”—and, as I said, before “Man-Thing,” before “Swamp Thing,” there was The Glob in The Incredible Hulk, who to me is the first real successor to The Heap in modern comics. The story “It” in Supernatural Thrillers was an adaptation of Theodore Sturgeon’s fantasy short story of that title, written around 1940, not long before The Heap debuted in the “Sky Wolf ” feature in Hillman’s Air Fighters Comics, and I phoned up Sturgeon to get permission to adapt “It.” I remember that Gerry Conway, as a young member of SFWA, the Science Fiction Writers of America—he was only 19 at the time—got Sturgeon’s L.A. phone number for me, after I got Stan’s permission to go after the rights of prose stories for those comics. I took the number and went into the bedroom in our apartment on East 86th Street in Manhattan while Gerry and my wife Jeanie waited in the living room. Ten minutes later I walked out, and they asked me how it had gone. I said I hadn’t called him yet. I was still working up the nerve to phone a real writer like Ted Sturgeon and offer him this relative pittance of $150, I think it was, to adapt his story. So, after a pep talk, I finally called Sturgeon. I introduced myself and told him what I was after. It was a friendly conversation—he was a guy who made people feel at ease—and by the time ten minutes or so had passed, we had not only made a deal but he had asked me if I could have the money mailed to him right away, because he said he needed it for an alimony payment. [laughs] We’d laugh about that afterward when I’d occasionally run into him at the San Diego Comic-Con. And that’s how Marvel and I and Marie Severin wound up adapting “It” into comics form for the first time ever. GK: That comic was a real page-turner… one of the best horror comics I think I’ve read. Did you follow “The Heap” when you were a kid? THOMAS: By the age of seven or eight I was reading Airboy Comics [the successor to Air Fighters], and “The Heap” was in every issue. I couldn’t buy every issue, but I was always intrigued by this creature who just shambled onstage to mop up a story every issue and fight a different monster and never say a word. There were these heavy captions that had an almost literary feel. There was some very good artwork near the end— by Ernie Schroeder, as we know now, who also wrote the stories. So, earlier, when I was writing [The Incredible] Hulk and Herb Trimpe and I were looking for new villains, I decided to do The Heap. Herb was familiar with him, too, I think. I named our character The Shape; I didn’t feel I should call it The Heap. Stan thought “The Shape” sounded feminine. I argued, “Men and women both have shapes.” But he insisted on changing it to The Glob, which was a name he’d used before, for a different character. It was a better name. The Glob was the first real character of that type in a Silver Age super-hero type story, at Marvel or DC or anywhere. GK: Who is the character that Steranko drew on the cover of Supernatural Thrillers when you adapted Sturgeon’s “It”? That doesn’t look like the character inside. THOMAS: Steranko decided to give it a more humanoid look, which was fine from a commercial aspect. I wasn’t going to try to get him to change it. We’d asked Jim for a cover, so I wanted to use his interpretation. I think it was a very effective cover.

The Shape Of Man-Things To Come The Glob, introduced in The Incredible Hulk #121 (Nov. 1969), was the first “It”/Heap-derived character to appear in the Silver Age, as written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Herb Trimpe—with a due nod, of course, to several Lee-&-Kirby swampsters from the 1959-61 period. Note the caption which sneaks in an homage reference to The Heap—and even to “The Shape,” the name RT had wanted to call the monster. (And dig the cartoon on p. 77!) [©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

stories. Even [Harvey] Kurtzman did a Heap, when he did that Inner Sanctum parody in an early issue of Mad. He even called that character “Heap,” which surprised me as a kid. The Heap might have even still been in comics at that time. I first read about “It” in the Lupoffs’ fanzine Xero in 1961 or so, where it was mentioned that The Heap had been based on the story “It” by Theodore Sturgeon. It was several more years before I got a chance to read the actual story. Artist Mort Leav, who drew the first “Heap” stories, said he knew nothing about the Sturgeon story, but of course he was the artist rather than the writer. Maybe the writer had read the story and didn’t tell Leav about his sources! The weird thing is that Sturgeon has said that he wrote “It” while on his honeymoon, and that it was one of the easiest-flowing stories he ever wrote. GK: You did a few other “Heap” takeoffs, as well, over the years….

GK: For your money, is “It” the best swamp-monster story you’ve ever read?

THOMAS: Well, in the early 1980s, Scott Shaw! and I did “His Name Is... Mudd!” in Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew! The pun worked pretty well, I thought.

THOMAS: Yeah, but of course, I haven’t read a lot of swamp-monster

In between, oddly, I was also responsible for Skywald Publishing intro-

The Thing About “Man-Thing”...

A Whole Heap Of Humor (Above:) Surprisingly, “Outer Sanctum,” the lead story in Mad #5 (June-July 1953), had featured a mirthful monstrosity drawn in lay-outs by writer/editor Harvey Kurtzman, with finished art by Bill Elder. Kurtzman referred to it as “Heap”—only one month after the final issue of Airboy Comics had gone on sale, featuring Hillman’s monster-hero of that name. Note that, by sheer coincidence, the terms “glob” and “swamp thing,” as well as the pronoun “it,” all appear in the panel! Repro’d from Mad, Vol. 1, produced by Russ Cochran, publisher. [©2008 E.C. Publications, Inc.] (Top right:) Writer Roy Thomas and artist Scott Shaw! parodied Sturgeon’s “It,” Hillman’s Heap, Marvel’s Glob and Man-Thing, and DC’s Swamp Thing—not to mention DC’s Golden Age Green Lantern foe Solomon Grundy—in “His Name Is… Mudd!” in Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew! #4 (June 1982). Inks by Chad Grothkopf. For Scott’s cover of this issue, see Alter Ego #72’s focus on Captain Carrot. [©2008 DC Comics.]

Still More Heaps of Heaps (Above:) The Heap debuted in the “Sky Wolf” feature in Hillman’s Air Fighters Comics, Vol. 1, #3 (Dec. 1942), with script by Harry Stein and art by Mort Leav. These panels are repro’d from the 1988 Eclipse trade paperback Air Fighters Classics, Vol. 1, #2. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.] (Left & center:) Skywald’s “Heap” debuted in the company’s black&-white Psycho #2 (May 1971) and shambled through that mag for nearly a dozen issues (cover by Hector Varella)… but the color comic The Heap lasted only one issue, dated Sept. 1971, behind a cover by Tom Sutton & Jack Abel. Roy T. had suggested reviving that character to his buddy, copublisher Sol Brodsky. In the 1980s the Hillman version of The Heap would be reanimated by Eclipse in its Airboy title. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

The Story Behind Marvel’s Swamp That Walks Like A Man

ducing a “Heap” character. I had lunch with [ex-Marvel production manager] Sol Brodsky soon after he left Marvel to co-found Skywald. He was looking for heroes to do. I couldn’t write for him, so he was kind-of picking my brain, and I wanted to help without getting too involved, since Stan wouldn’t have liked that. I told Sol, “Well, we [Marvel] have the Man-Thing, so you ought to get somebody to revive The Heap.” He remembered the character, since he’d been a comic book artist in the 1940s. I wasn’t that wild about the way the Skywald Heap was done, but interestingly, he has sharp teeth and all. It actually looks fairly close to the way Mort Leav originally drew “The Heap” in the early Air Fighters Comics. [laughs] The Heap had come full circle—but it’s still Man-Thing and Swamp Thing that stand out in modern readers’ minds!

Swamp Siblings Forever! (Left:) Bernie Wrightson’s pencils for a page from Swamp Thing #9 (March-April 1974). With thanks to Mike Burkey. [©2008 DC Comics.] (Below:) The Man-Thing guest-starred in Iron Man Annual #3 (1976). Script by Steve Gerber: layouts by Sal Buscema; finished art by Jack Abel. Repro’d from a photocopy of the original art, with thanks to George Hagenauer. [©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

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“I Never Looked Down On Comics” Artist & Illustrator EVERETT RAYMOND KINSTLER Talks About His Career In The Wild World Of Comic Books Interview Conducted by Jim Amash

Transcribed by Tom Wimbish & Theresa R. Davidson

verett Raymond Kinstler has always understood that the main point of art is to interact with the viewer. A storyteller from his earliest days at Cinema Comics with fabled editor Richard Hughes, Ray honed his craft at MLJ, Parents’ Magazines, Avon, DC, Timely, Classics Illustrated, and Western Publishing. His inside-frontcover art for Avon was a showcase of masterpieces of illustration, rendered in worshipful admiration to artists like James Montgomery Flagg (with whom he became close friends). At the same time, Ray was filling the pages of pulp magazines, children’s books, and paperbacks with superior illustrations. Never content to stay in one place, Ray eventually left all that behind to become one of America’s greatest portrait painters. Celebrities such as James Cagney, John Wayne, Katharine Hepburn, and Scott Carpenter are among the many celebrities to pose for Ray. He has painted five US presidents: Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton; the Ford and Reagan paintings being the official White House portraits.

Jim Vadeboncoeur’s Everett Raymond Kinstler: The Artist’s Journey through Popular Culture - 1942-1962, co-written with the artist, details that time period so thoroughly (and in color!) that there’s no way we can improve on what Jim V. has done. So we didn’t even try. In fact, we worked hard to avoid using more than a handful of the same images he printed in his book (see ad on p. 19). What we did was to focus on Ray’s comic book work, as is our usual wont. To me, he has always been an ideal role model for comic book artists, because, as Rod Stewart once said, “Every picture tells a story,” whether it be on canvas or in the four-color world of comics. And few tell it better than Everett Raymond Kinstler, the master storyteller. —Jim.

“I Just Desperately Wanted To Become An Artist” JIM AMASH: Tell me about your early life. EVERETT RAYMOND KINSTLER: I was born in New York City on August 5, 1926. The interesting thing about that date is that one of my best friends was Anthony Benedetto, whom you know as Tony Bennett. He was born August 3, 1926, in New York City, just a couple of days before I was.

Two Men—Two Myths Ray Kinstler (above) in his first National Art Clubs studio, circa 1950— at a time when he was also drawing comic books—and a page from one of his famous “Zorro” issues of Dell’s Four Color Comics (#574, Aug. 1954, to be exact), based on the Disney TV version of Johnston McCulley’s masked hero, who’s been introduced in pulp magazines in 1919. Repro’d from a scan of the original art, with thanks to Mark Muller; scripter unknown. The photo of Ray, as he is called by his friends, appeared courtesy of Kinstler in the book Everett Raymond Kinstler: The Artist’s Journey through Culture 1942-1962; with special thanks to Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. [©2008 Disney Productions, Inc.]

Everett Ray Kinstler Talks About His Career In Comic Books

When I graduated Public School #166 in New York City, I went on to the School of Music and Art. When I tell people that I dropped out of high school, most people assume it was because I was not able to keep up academically. But the years that they chose us, the first years of the High School of Music and Art, you almost had to be an honor student to get in. I went to Music and Art for about a year, and it was at the beginning of my second year that I left and went to the School of Industrial Arts. I didn’t last there very long, either. Tony and I were in the same class, but I have no recollection of him from that time, because I only stayed there for one term. JA: Was money part of the reason why you left the school? KINSTLER: No. I was an only child from a middle-class family. We didn’t have much money, but we were not poor. There was always food on the table. In the ’30s, my mother had to go to work during the Great Depression. It was nothing more or less than a consuming desire. I just desperately wanted to become an artist. I started drawing when I was three or four years old. I used to copy comic strips and pictures of movie stars from the newspapers. During the period in which I grew up, there were possibly 10 newspapers every day in New York City, and my parents would bring home magazines like The Saturday Evening Post, Liberty, and Collier’s. From the age of five or six, I absolutely fell in love with the imagery, the stories, and the color in those magazines. I copied the work of illustrators such as James Montgomery Flagg, and some of the sports cartoonists. There was a man named Pap—Tom Paprocki, I think his name was—who did wonderful black-&-whites for the sports page. There was also Burris Jenkins, Jr., a sports cartoonist who focused on the Brooklyn Dodgers and who coined the phrase “Them Bums.” By nine or ten, I was drawing all the time. Motion pictures also had a profound effect upon me. I also drew portraits of my parents, Joseph and Essie. JA: Was there a particular studio whose movies you liked best? KINSTLER: I liked all the obvious people. Gary Cooper was great, even before John Wayne became as popular as he did. I was already 12 or 13 when people like James Cagney and John Wayne came along. You have no idea—and I can’t explain it to you—what it was like to spend time with Wayne, Cagney, and Katharine Hepburn in the late ’70s and early ’80s; it was like reliving my past.

got those very sensuous women and wonderful drybrush qualities. LaGatta was known for lush, wet, naked-backed women. He seemed to like the fanny more than the front, which is okay, too. [laughter] Matt Clarke and his brother Benton used to do most of the Westerns for The Saturday Evening Post. They were both students of Harvey Dunn. Dunn was a giant, an absolute giant. Even though it was during World War II and all the men were in the service, I couldn’t get into his class because it was packed. Milton Caniff was maybe the most consummate storyteller in comics. His use of angles and shots... nobody had done anything like that before. Caniff was as important as—and made a contribution that to me was very similar to—what Orson Welles did with Citizen Kane. And those dates were parallel, by the way. JA: When you went to the movies, what grabbed you? Were you looking at camera angles, shots, and how scenes were lit? KINSTLER: Not pointedly. I was most interested in adventure, stories that dealt with pirates, Westerns, action... historical movies on the grand scale. Anything that had imagery and personality had an enormous influence on me, as did many of the actors of the day when I was very young, some of whom I got to know years later, like Fredric March, who won the Academy Award two or three times. I loved the Barrymores— Lionel and John—Gary Cooper, Errol Flynn... all the obvious people… in movies like The Lives of a Bengal Lancer and Captain Blood, which were great adventure, swashbuckling, and had great imagery. They had an enormous effect on my career, without question. JA: When you were young, did you write and draw your own comic strips? KINSTLER: Yes. When I was in public school, I would copy pictures of movie stars and baseball players, and sell them to the class for about a nickel apiece. I was also making up strips of my own. One was based on maybe my first favorite comic strip: Secret Agent X-9, by Alex Raymond, based on the Dashiell Hammett character. I also drew my own panel strips when I was about 13 or 14. I was more influenced by Raymond than Foster.

“I Answered An Ad In The New York Times For A Comic Book Inker” JA: When you left school, what did you do?

JA: Did you go to art museums when you were a child? KINSTLER: No, not at all. The newspaper comic strips were my biggest influence. I wasn’t as interested in the cartoons, but in draftsmen like Hal Foster [Tarzan], Alex Raymond [Flash Gordon], Milton Caniff [Terry and the Pirates]. There were others I liked, like Raeburn Van Buren, who drew Abby ‘n’ Slats, and was a very fine pen-and-ink artist. Strips like Buck Rogers didn’t interest me much; I seem to have veered towards the men who were superior draftsmen and knockout storytellers, of which Caniff was in a class by himself. Raymond and Foster were master illustrators with classical styles, particularly Raymond, who swiped from magazine illustrators like John LaGatta and Matt Clark, where he

Two Flashes Of Alex Raymond Kinstler says his greatest influence among comic artists was Alex Raymond, beginning with his strip Secret Agent X-9— and, later in this interview, that he enjoyed doing “Hawkman” in two issues of DC’s Flash Comics (as seen on p. 37) because that hero was clearly inspired by the high-flying Hawkmen of Mongo in Raymond’s newspaper strip Flash Gordon. The X-9 panel at left was sent by Al Dellinges; the panel at right, from the Flash Gordon Sunday page for July 22, 1934, was reprinted in Kitchen Sink’s Flash Gordon by Alex Raymond, Vol. 1, in 1990. [©2008 King Features, Inc.]

“I Never Looked Down On Comics”

Setting the Standard Young Kinstler inked Ken Battefield in such Standard/Nedor/Pines titles as Black Terror #7 (Aug. 1944) and “The Fighting Yank” in Startling Comics #30 (Nov. ’44). Writers unknown. Thanks to Jim V. for this art, which appeared in Vadeboncoeur & Kinstler’s book. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

KINSTLER: This was a period when kids did not drop out of high school unless their families needed money. This was not the case with me; I was just following a calling. Let me try to make it short. I was at Music and Art; I was good in English and French. I was a valedictorian of my class when I graduated from public school. The other valedictorian was a man named Robert Brustein, who has been the drama critic at New Republic for the last 30 years. He founded the Yale Repertory Theatre, and he’s the director of theatre at Harvard. We’re still best friends. At Music and Art, I found that the work I was interested in—the illustrators, Norman Rockwell, the magazines, and the adventure strips, which is what I had visualized myself doing—was very much looked down on and almost scorned by the teachers there. My grades suffered, because I was so unhappy with the situation. I was very disinterested, and became a disgruntled student. I wasn’t hostile or troublesome, though. I heard about the School of Industrial Art, which was a trade school. It was exactly what its title suggests: you were exposed to, taught, and encouraged to do renderings in scratchboard pen-and-ink of watches and rings, so you could make a living working at a newspaper or a photoretouching place. I was happy because I was able to work in tempera, watercolor, and learn how to illustrate. Remember, there was still a very vital school of American illustration in this country. At that point, there were pulp magazines, and slick magazines, filled with illustrations by remarkable painters and artists, many of whom had started out wanting to

be so-called “serious” easel painters, and found they were making a living as illustrators. I was restless. I wanted to get into the field, so to speak. I was reading the comic books, and I answered an ad in The New York Times for a comic book inker, just to learn the trade. Remember, too, that most of the men between 18 and 38 were being drafted, unless they had physical disabilities; it was the height of World War II. I answered an ad for an inking job at Cinema Comics at 45 West 45th Street. I think they were on the 7th floor. The man who ran it was named Richard Hughes, who was 40 years old or so. The big feature they had was “Fighting Yank,” and they were also doing war comics. They had a bullpen with just two people there, one named Ken Battefield, who was—and you have to remember that I was only 15 years old, so everyone looked ancient to me—probably close to 40, because he was not in the service. He had a drawing board right by the window. Mr. Hughes hired me; I think I got $35 a week, and that was to include Saturdays. I got the drawing table directly across from Ken at the other window; we faced each other. I remember a lot of people who came in, doing freelance work, like Maurice Gutwirth. I also remember Robert McCay, who was the son of Winsor McCay. He started re-syndicating his father’s comic strip—Little Nemo—and added his name to it. He changed his name to Winsor McCay, Jr. He was a very sweet man, but I think he had some alcohol problems. JA: John Belfi knew McCay in the Chesler shop in the late ’30s.

Everett Ray Kinstler Talks About His Career In Comic Books

KINSTLER: I remember Chesler. My father had to threaten him with a lawsuit once because he cheated me. I was 16 years old—I never forgot it; I didn’t know people behaved that way—and I did a strip for him freelance, and he didn’t want to pay me. My father, who was a businessman, got his lawyer. Chesler paid me, and I never worked for him again. JA: Do you think that feature might have been “Captain Flight”? I have you down as doing it for Superior Publishers, and Chesler was supplying a lot of places, so you may have done it for him, and it ended up in print there. KINSTLER: That sounds familiar. You probably know that Richard Hughes was married to the daughter of Ned Pines, who was the owner of Standard Publications, at 10 East 40th Street. Hughes was sort-of the jobber who supplied Pines with features. Pines also published a lot of pulp magazines, which was another big chunk of my life. JA: Bob McCay served in World War I, and Gill Fox told me McCay had been gassed, and that caused him problems. He didn’t believe McCay had a drinking problem, but John Belfi was quite certain that he did. I’ve reported both stories and would like to know which is accurate. KINSTLER: One of the things I remember about Bob is that he gave me one or two of his father’s editorial illustrations. One of them I gave to the Brooklyn Museum. They claim they can’t locate it, but I remember it clearly: two hands were holding a vise, and it was squeezing people in between. It was done for The New York American; Arthur Brisbane was the publisher, after Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo days. Bob gave me that wonderful pen-and-ink, which had some extraordinary cross-hatching, so

he must have liked me enough. Of the people who knew me in those years, a lot of them said I was very passionate. People say I was a nice kid, very committed. Probably it’s true, because I was not very complicated. I was just passionate about drawing, hungry to learn, and so enamored of all the wonderful people who had come before. I was a very innocent kid, and very sensitive about the fact that I had quit high school. When I say “innocent,” I don’t mean dumb-dumb, but rather that there was an openness about me. When I say I think Bob McCay had alcohol problems, and someone else says he had instead been gassed during World War I, I don’t know how to answer. I’ll say this: there was a real sweetness and a sadness about him; he looked to me like a man who was very desperate. I say that with compassion, not criticism. The fact that he was trying to peddle his father’s strips under his own name was very sad. It’s sad to see anybody get pushed down on their knees to make a living, and he was just having a hard time.

“The People I Met At Cinema Comics” JA: You say that when you got the job at Cinema Comics, there was another artist working there…. KINSTLER: His name was Sam Rosen, and he was a letterer. I don’t think he liked me. I was just a young kid coming along, and I’d meet people like this all too often, who couldn’t quite make it in their fields. It was just a 15-year-old kid’s instinct, but I just don’t think he cared for me very much. It had no consequence to me. Bob Oksner was the art director there. Bob spent a lot of time looking over my work, encouraging and criticizing what I did. He was gentle with that criticism, and never talked down to me. JA: What were the offices like? KINSTLER: 45th Street between 5th and 6th Avenue in Manhattan was choice commercial property, and still is. The office was modest; it didn’t really have any personality. There was a big reception room where you entered, and there might have been somebody at a switchboard. Hughes’ office was right behind it, and I think there was another private office back there, possibly for an accountant who would come in and out. There was a bullpen that was maybe 10' x 20', which contained a couple of drawing tables. Rosen had a drawing board in there. They had drawing boards for people who came in with their strips—like Maurice Gutwirth—to make corrections. They’d come in, sit down, and ink a couple of panels while they were there, or correct something. I don’t think there were more than four or five full-time people there. I remember Richard Hughes very well. He smoked a pipe, had kind of a blubbery lower lip, and wore glasses. He was a very nice man. If I ever met Mr. Pines, it was when I came out of the service and started doing pulps for Better Publications. For some reason, I think of him as a portly man with glasses.

Kinstler Takes Flight A Kinstler “Captain Flight” splash is printed in Vadeboncoeur & Kinstler’s 2005 tome, but these two unsigned drawings from the short-story text pages in Captain Flight #2 (May ’44) are also attributed to him by the Grand Comic-Book Database (see ad on p. 75). Thanks to James Ludwig. Jim and our other cavortin’ contributors picked up some of the art scans in this issue and others from http://goldenagecomics.co.uk, so we all want to draw attention to that website as a go-to source for public-domain comics material. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

I don’t remember all the people I met at Cinema Comics, but the one who made the biggest impression on me was Patricia Highsmith, the novelist. I had a crush on her, but I was 15 or 16, and she was probably 23, and had graduated from Barnard College, which is part of Columbia University. I was probably nagging her, like, “Can I carry your books, Miss

“I Never Looked Down On Comics”

Highsmith?” I once said to her, when she was sending down for a CocaCola, “Let me get it for you,” and she gave me a nickel. I came back up with a Pepsi-Cola, and I said it was the same price, but you got a couple of ounces more. She said to me [sternly], “Everett, when you get older, you’ll go for quality, not quantity.” That was the end of my crush on Patricia Highsmith. [mutual laughter] I don’t think I was on staff for six months. I got the itch again; I can’t qualify this. I remember Ken Battefield telling me, “You really need some training. Do you ever draw from life?” I said, “Just my mother, my father, and some friends.” So I went over to the Phoenix School of Art, run by a man named Lauros Phoenix—which is a great name—I think it was then on Vanderbilt Avenue. I’m a little mixed up between the Phoenix School and the Grand Central School of Art, which was where Harvey Dunn was teaching. I couldn’t get into his class, but I did get into a class with a man named Cliff Young, who was a comic book inker. One of the things he did toward the end of his life was to be the assistant of a man named Allyn Cox, who was restoring all the murals in the United States Capitol Building. In the ’60s and ’70s, Cliff was helping Cox with the murals. Cliff was a very nice man, and I took some drawing classes with him and got to know him well. I liked him a lot. Anyway, one night, Franklin Booth—the pen-and-ink artist—came in, white-haired and black-browed, and talked to the class. He was of another era, but I knew his work. I think the book Drawing in Pen and Ink, by Arthur Guptill, came out while I was with Richard Hughes, because I still have that copy of that original book, with its black cover. People like Booth, Gibson, and Flagg were represented—all the great pen-and-ink artists—so I knew who Franklin Booth was. I was also seeing all the pulp magazines, which had artists like Tom Lovell—the quintessential illustrator of The Shadow—who had by that time been drafted. Tom became a very good friend of mine. To take you back to those years, I went to the Grand Central School of Art at night and took a class with Cliff Young, and at that point I had already tasted the fruit. I went up to the Art Students League on 57th Street—the League was legendary—to see the instructors’ show, and I saw a painting by a man named Frank Vincent Dumond, who was born in 1865 and taught at the League for 58 years until his death in 1951. Among

Aiming Young Cliff Young drew this sketch in 1942 for the sketchbook of fledgling artist George Roussos. With thanks to the Heritage Comics Archives, as retrieved by Dominic Bongo. [Green Arrow TM & ©2008 DC Comics.]

HighSmith Confidential A photo of one-time comic book writer Patricia Highsmith later in life. Among other things, she later wrote the novels The Talented Mr. Ripley and Strangers on a Train, both of which were made into successful films. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

the people who studied under Mr. Dumond were Georgia O’Keefe, Norman Rockwell, and James Montgomery Flagg. I saw this full-length, oil portrait there of his son in a Boy Scout uniform, and I said, “Oh my God, that is a painting!” I had never picked up a paintbrush except for the few watercolors I did in high school, but I thought to myself, “My God, that’s how I’d like to paint.” Mr. DuMond taught in the afternoons, and I asked Mr. Hughes if he would give me enough work so I could freelance, and he did. JA: I understand Cliff Young also worked with Dean Cornwell. Do you know if that is true? KINSTLER: Dean had a lot of assistants, and I think Cliff did a little work with him. JA: Since we know very little about him, what can you tell us about Cliff Young? KINSTLER: He was a very modest man; nice-looking, with a mustache. He probably died in the 1970s. When I was working on portraits in Washington, I used to stay at a place called the Cosmos Club, which was a prestigious club. When Allyn Cox was in residence there, restoring the murals for the Capitol, and Cliff was working for him, remember asking Allyn if Cliff was staying there, and Allyn said, “Oh, no, I have him roomed in a hotel,” as if Cliff wasn’t qualified enough to stay at the Cosmos Club. Allyn was a bit of a priss; a decent man, but a bit tedious. Cliff was gentle and soft-spoken, and not particularly colorful. I say this with a sense of modesty, but my career had taken off by then, and I was getting a lot of publicity and painting a lot of important people, and I think Cliff was very pleased about it. He used to like to tell people, “Ray studied with me.” JA: Was Richard Hughes a hard taskmaster? KINSTLER: No. He was decent to me. I don’t believe he had children, and I’m not likening myself to his son, but he was very caring toward me, and very sympathetic. A very soft-spoken man; I never heard him raise his voice. He was always very encouraging. When I went in to see him about going freelance, I think he was very sympathetic that I wanted to branch out, and he guaranteed me that I would have plenty of work. In fact, when I went freelance, I was making $55 a week. JA: Besides Patricia Highsmith, do you remember any of the other writers working there? KINSTLER: There was Frank Bourgholtzer, who later became an newscaster on NBC. I don’t know why he wasn’t in the service, because he

Everett Ray Kinstler Talks About His Career In Comic Books

ink bottle and a piece of cardboard taped to the drawing board. I would dip in with a #3 Windsor & Newton brush, drag some of the ink off onto the cardboard to get a point on the brush, and then go right in on the inking. Ken was about a foot away from me, with his drawing board facing mine. He would finish a page, hand it to me, and I’d just sit there mechanically and ink. It was totally from the wrist out, because I really didn’t enjoy his pencils that much. They weren’t challenging to me in the sense that I could really interpret them. He was the only person that I ever inked for. JA: What did you show Hughes that got you the job? KINSTLER: One was a comic strip I had done about a secret agent that was very influenced by Alex Raymond’s Jungle Jim. I wrote the script and did the lettering. The background was a bit like Terry and the Pirates, in the China Seas. Writing the text kind-of interested me. I had another page called “Ships and Men,” in which I drew destroyers crashing through the ocean waves, and I remember that, in the upper left, I had an old-time whaler with a round wheel. Obviously, I was very caught up with the romance and swashbuckling of the movies. I showed him those two strips, and I think I also had some heads of movie actors I had copied from newspapers. Also, when I was at the High School of Industrial Art, I did a lot of renderings with stippling, advertisements for things like Goodyear Tires, where I’d have a boxer knocking out

Baby, It’s Cole Outside! The splash of the “Jimmy Cole” story from Standard’s Thrilling Comics #45 (Dec. 1944). Thanks to Jim Ludwig. For the lush artwork Kinstler was then doing for Popular Publications, Street & Smith, and other pulp-mag publishers, see the Vadeboncoeur/Kinstler book; with A/E’s limited space, we decided to concentrate primarily on comics images. Scripter unknown. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

wouldn’t have been more than 40 at the most. He was kind-of lanky, and I think he was from somewhere like Texas. He looked a little like the actor Dennis Weaver, with a black mustache. He was semi-staff; he came in maybe two or three days a week, and would sit at one of the drawing boards in the bullpen and write. I was “the kid” to everybody. I don’t think Frank and Ken Battefield palled around too much. Ken was sort-of a loner. I don’t mean that as a positive or negative. I don’t think he had many social graces, whereas Frank was a college guy who was doing some writing. JA: How did you work with Ken Battefield? KINSTLER: I was basically inking his work. I guess they gave me tips. Recently, I was looking at some of the work I did during those years, and it was more sophisticated than I thought. Battefield was a journeyman artist; he penciled without any imagination. He was able to knock things out. He was a bit of a jobber, and I don’t mean that as unkindly as it sounds. He cranked things out without much feeling. I would say Ken was kind-of a disappointed man; he had talent, but he never did much with it.

The Boys ’N’ The Hood JA: When you started inking, were you just doing backgrounds? KINSTLER: I was doing complete ink jobs over Ken’s work. We used art gum erasers, and the smell of those damn erasers in the summertime—we didn’t have air-conditioning, and it was warm, and I can still smell the India ink, which began to give off an odor. I remember having a Higgins

Though Kinstler drew relatively few super-hero stories, some of those are visually memorable—such as this action page from MLJ’s Black Hood #15 (Summer ’45). Scan sent by Jay Kinney, Gregg Whitmore, & Glenn McKay. And wait’ll you see the cover and splash of BH #15 next issue, when we finally cover MLJ’s Golden Age heroes in depth! The writer is, alas, unidentified. [©2008 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

“I Never Looked Down On Comics”

another boxer, and a title saying, “They’re tough.” I probably showed him a couple of those. JA: Since you were so young, and this was your first paying job, did you want the original art of any of the pages that you were inking? KINSTLER: No, not at all. It wasn’t my work. I had that instinct right then and there: it was not my work.

KINSTLER: I would think so. I can’t conceive that I just did them. Even when I was more established and had solid relationships with Sol Cohen at Avon and Matt Murphy at Western Publishing, I still had to get my pencils approved. JA: I assume it got lettered and then came back to you for inking, right? KINSTLER: Exactly.

“When I Was Drafted…”

“I Didn’t Experience Any Difficulties”

JA: For that company, I have you doing “Doc Strange,” “Fighting Yank,” “Jimmy Cole,” Real Life Comics, “Scarab,” and “Silver Knight.” On a few of those, I have you as doing complete art, not just inking. Did you start penciling when you went freelance?

JA: Since you were very young when you started penciling and inking for Hughes, how was he about critiquing your pencils?

KINSTLER: When I went freelance, I drew the whole thing. That’s when I ran into Chesler. In 1945, before I was drafted, I had already gone up to Popular Publications, which was Ned Pines’ competitor. They published Argosy and Adventure. I did a bunch of dry-brush drawings for Popular Western, Popular Detective, and Western Tales. I was doing drawings for a lot of pulps, and I was getting $8 a page for single-page drawings, and $15—which was a big number then—for a double-page spread.

KINSTLER: I was producing, I came through, and I was not difficult to work with. I didn’t experience any difficulties. The only thorns were men like Chesler. There were probably editors I didn’t warm up to, but I was getting deeply involved in the pulps, and that gave me terrific freedom, because there they’d basically just toss me a manuscript. I’ve got one classic letter from Red Murphy—a major editor at Popular Publications— that perfectly describes how I’d get an assignment. It says, “Hey kid, give me a good, splashy double-page Western. I want a girl with big tits, and I want a lot of action.” That’s how I got assignments. I didn’t have to show any pencils on the pulps; I would just come in with the finished illustrations.

I also worked for Street & Smith, the most prominent pulp publisher; they had Doc Savage and The Shadow. I remember that in November 1945 my illustrations for The Shadow came out while I was in the Army, which means I did them before I went in. When I was drafted, I was stationed in New Jersey. I was a staff sergeant, and did a 4-panel comic strip called Strictly G.I. for the camp newspaper every week. I was also getting an assignment just about every week from Popular Publications. I’d pick it up on my day off, draw it while in camp, bring it in, and they would give me another one. For the year-plus that I was in the service, I had a lot of illustrations published, so my name kept getting out there. I went in in September 1945, and came out on New Year’s Day in 1947. For the year and a half that I was in, I was doing three or four illustrations a month, so that was almost 50 illustrations by the time I came out. I think I did a couple of covers for Tom Mix and Hopalong Cassidy at Fawcett after I got out of the service, but all I’m certain of is that I painted the covers in casein. JA: How did you have time to do illustrations while you were in the Army? KINSTLER: Well, I was in camp... a staff-sergeant in a cadre. Here I was a high-school dropout, and they put me in charge of a finance section. I was part of an infantry unit, but because everybody was getting discharged, they put me in charge of the entire unit, which tells you a little bit about the Army. I guess I drew them during the day, or at night at camp, or I came in and worked on the on my days off. That was good, because, when I was discharged, I still had my connections. JA: I have you working for MLJ in 1945. Do you remember the editor, Harry Shorten? KINSTLER: No, I just remember Mr. [John] Goldwater. For some reason, I think he was a friend of an uncle of mine at Playbill magazine. I was introduced to Goldwater through somebody, and then I did a couple of issues of The Black Hood. I remember doing a couple of covers for that, too. I did the complete art on those; after my days with Richard Hughes, I never inked anybody else again.

Parting Is Such Sweet Zorro

JA: When you started doing complete art at Hughes and MLJ, did you have to get your pencils approved at either company?

Zorro rides again—in this scan of original Kinstler art from Dell’s Four Color Comics #538 (March 1954)—in a story titled “The Mask of Zorro.” Writer unknown. Thanks to Mark Muller. [©2008 Disney Productions, Inc.]

Everett Ray Kinstler Talks About His Career In Comic Books

There was also a fellow working on Argosy at Popular Publications named Ernie Maciocce. He was an Anthony Quinn type: very tough, likable, and warm. I remember that one of the art directors said something to him, and he said, “You got three balls? If you’ve got three balls, you can open your mouth and talk to me. Until then, you shut up.” He just didn’t like bullies or pompous people. He was another one of those people who was awfully nice to me along the way.

JA: I didn’t know you knew him. I knew you used the same model: Steve Holland.

JA: Since the first Shadow pulps appeared when you were five or six years old, how did you feel about illustrating The Shadow?

KINSTLER: Yes. It consisted of subject matter and other artists’ work. I would run to the New York Library picture collection and take out everything I could find to build up my own filing cabinet, for which I was also buying movie stills for a nickel apiece on 42nd Street and 6th Avenue. I often wasn’t sure whether I’d even seen the movies, but it was a terrific reference collection, because I had all of MGM’s sets and costumes. Later, when I was doing the Zorro comics, I had all of these stills of Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., and Tyrone Power. In the ’80s, I got to know Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and John Carradine, and did drawings of both of them. Once I’d gotten to know them, I said to them, “I used to use you guys as my models.” They liked hearing that.

KINSTLER: I loved it, and I’ll tell you a couple of reasons why. It was an established character; everybody knew The Shadow. One of the artists I swiped from—because I must have had good taste—was Tom Lovell. He set the standard for the Shadow illustrations. He was always a successful and admired illustrator. He lived in Connecticut, and was one of the major players in the big magazines. Then he moved out West, and became famous out there, and made a fortune. I mean, his paintings were selling for deep in the six figures. I also illustrated a couple of Doc Savage stories. When I was at the High School of Music and Art, one of my closest friends was Jimmy Bama [artist of, among other things, many of Bantam’s Doc Savage paperback covers. —Jim]. We were once sketching down at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and we were picked up by the FBI. [Jim laughs] We didn’t know any better; we were just drawing details. I remember doing sketches of Jimmy, too.

KINSTLER: Yes, I used Steve Holland a lot for men’s magazines and paperback covers. JA: Once you started drawing comic books, did you build up a reference file?

In the 1950s, when I got back into comics in a heavy way with Zorro, it was a step backwards for me, but only in the sense of the direction I was moving in. I never looked down on it; quite the opposite. If someone were to ask what period of my career was the most vital, it was definitely the comics. JA: When you got out of the service, I have you as working at Fawcett and DC Comics, and in 1947 on True Comics for Parents’ Magazine. Where did you go first after the war? KINSTLER: I think it was Fawcett. I was groping around, trying to get back into the field, and I went back into pulps heavily. My assistant art director at Fawcett was Robert Rickwell. The art director there was Al Allard. Bob is three or four years older than I am, and I think he may have been in the service. He’s just a very warm, likable guy. Most of these people I’m talking about were people I valued; good people, decent people, people with humor and warmth. Bob Rickwell certainly had it, and he became a very successful art director. Up until very recently, he designed the major publications for the big drug companies. Bob was warm, supportive, and interested. He loved art, particularly Milton Caniff ’s. JA: When you did covers for Fawcett, I’m assuming you had to submit roughs first. KINSTLER: Always. I would take eight-by-ten sheets of watercolor paper, and I would do four or five quick watercolor sketches, and submit those. I still do watercolor cartoons in letters I write. That’s just been part of my training. JA: Did you do interior story illustrations for Fawcett? KINSTLER: Not that I remember. I think they wanted me to do the Hopalong Cassidy series —pretty much exclusively that. I had no job and no money, but I did not like the idea of being pinned down. For Fawcett, I know I did at least two Tom Mix covers, and I remember clearly one Hopalong Cassidy, with him standing in his black pajamas [Jim laughs] over somebody he had knocked down. I couldn’t have done more than four covers for Fawcett. I veered away because I didn’t want to get pinned down exclusively. JA: What do you remember about Al Allard?

Day Rates For Pi-Rates Whether he recalls it or not, Kinstler drew—and even signed, rare at DC in those days—the “Black Pirate” story in All-American Comics #89 (Sept. 1947). But he only used his first two names, as “Everett Raymond.” See the splash of this tale in The All-Star Companion, Vol. 2. Scripter unknown. [©2008 DC Comics.]

KINSTLER: Not much. Bob Rickwell was of my generation, but Allard was a generation before us, and was more of an executive. I don’t recall many dealings with him. He was businesslike and pleasant, but that’s about all. Fawcett was a major contender in the publication field, and the

“I Never Looked Down On Comics”

An Hawkward Pause Pages of Kinstler’s two “Hawkman” entries, from Flash Comics #87 & #89 (Sept. & Nov. 1947). With art over the years by Moldoff, Kubert, and Kinstler, is it any wonder the Feathered Fury has always been one of the best-remembered of Golden Age super-heroes who never had their own solo titles? The script for “Peril at High Tide!” (at left) is credited by the GCD to Robert Kanigher, that of “The Crimes of the Acrobat” (right) to John Broome. Thanks to Al Dellinges & Bob Bailey. We ran the splash of the latter adventure back in A/E V3#4; see TwoMorrows ad bloc at the end of this issue. [©2008 DC Comics]

comic book thing was just a very small facet for him. I don’t even think he was particularly interested in it.

JA: I have you working on True Comics for Parents’ Magazine around 1947 and ’48.

“I Had Fun Doing ‘Hawkman’”

KINSTLER: I remember showing them my samples. Their offices were somewhere near Grand Central Station. It was a very sterile atmosphere. I remember a feature I drew about Matthew Henson, a black man who went with Admiral Peary to the North Pole. I did a couple for stories for them, but I did not enjoy them. They were very businesslike; working there didn’t appeal to me.

JA: In 1947, you started freelancing at DC. Who did you work with there? KINSTLER: I remember Bob Kanigher and Julie Schwartz, but not particularly well. I do remember Kanigher saying at one point, “Kid, your stuff is old-fashioned; you draw every man with a mouth like a razor blade.” I was influenced by these square-jawed illustrators like J.C. Leyendecker and Flagg. I didn’t particularly like working for him, but my dealings with them were very limited. They were not significant to me, because those were the years where I was moving into paperbacks, and more heavily into pulps. That’s basically when I fell into Avon. JA: Here are the features I have you doing at DC in around 1947: “Black Pirate”… a couple of “Hawkman” stories, including a cover for Flash Comics… a few romance stories, including one for Girls’ Love Stories…. KINSTLER: I don’t particularly recall doing any of that except “Hawkman.” “The Black Pirate” sounds familiar, but I’d have to see it. I had fun doing “Hawkman” because it was based on the Alex Raymond Hawkmen storyline from Flash Gordon. I saw the character, and I remembered Vulcan and the Hawkmen.

So much of what I did was very motivated by the people I worked with. If I found somebody like Sol Cohen at Avon or Matt Murphy at Western Publishing, I had a great time, because they were pals. JA: You didn’t sign the work you did at most of the places you worked. Were you explicitly told not to sign? KINSTLER: I was told that my signature would be taken off if I signed it. I always took pride in using my name. When I was drafted, the first morning, we fell out in a big yard at 5:00 in the morning. We were all in these herringbone jumpsuits, and we had these little caps on, and I thought, “My God, I’ve lost all my individuality.” I can still feel the absolute loneliness of it. Wherever I found a publisher that would not let me sign my work, that was a good barometer for me; it was an intuition on my part that I didn’t want to keep working there. It was a matter of retaining my individuality and having my name on something.

Everett Ray Kinstler Talks About His Career In Comic Books

They were comics all the way. I was having more fun with the pulps, because I loved the illustrations, and I loved reading the stories. When I went to see Sol, I probably just took him what would be logical. JA: What do you remember about Avon’s offices? KINSTLER: When I was doing paperback covers for them, they were at 57th Street and Madison Avenue, which is the choicest—then and now— real estate in New York City. Joe Meyers was the publisher. His younger brother Harold was there, too. The offices were almost like a penthouse. I believe it was on two floors. It’s possible it was on one floor which was a big, big floor. Something sticks in my mind that they were somewhere else and that when I went there, they were just moving because the company was doing so well. They started with paperbacks. Joe Meyers was a jobber. He had started selling encyclopedias and had a reprint house for paperbacks. The paperback business suddenly became big stuff, and Joe got in very early. But, he had no more feeling about the comics and good literature than my dog here does. [laughter] That’s not meant as a compliment and it’s not a criticism; it’s just a fact. He was looking at sales figures. JA: Sure. But Sol Cohen was interested. I guess, being an editor, he would’ve had to be. KINSTLER: He was editor of the comics. He was totally in control. I don’t even recall his having an assistant.

…’Cause It’s Witchcraft… One of Kinstler’s most creative and (artistically if not financially) rewarding periods in comic books began when he started working for Avon Periodicals in 1948. Here is his inside front cover art for Witchcraft #5 (Dec. 1952-Jan. 1953), which like all inside front covers in this era was printed in black-&-white, with that fact plus the superior paper stock showing off ERK’s work to best advantage. Scan provided by Michael T. Gilbert. Scripter uncertain—as is the case in all Avon stories from which art is repro’d with this interview. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

JA: Did you ask them why you couldn’t sign? KINSTLER: They didn’t provide reasons. They wouldn’t let me at Western Publishing, and that was the only negative about working there. I drew some one-shots for them, and Silvertip, which I had a great time with—I loved creating whole books—but signing was against company policy. That’s why I pulled away. Part of it was the pull of other things that I wanted to do, but with the Zorro books, with which I had great fun, Matt Murphy said, “Ray, it’s the company’s policy. They will not let the artist sign it.” That was just enough to discourage me, and I became less interested in working that way, but I stayed on at Western because I had a lot of freedom working with Matt, and we were very close friends.

“I Was The Fair-Haired Boy [At Avon]” JA: I have you as being at Avon off and on from ’48 to ’54, doing war, Western, science-fiction, crime, horror, and romance. Sol Cohen was your editor the whole time. Was he the one who hired you? KINSTLER: Yes. I was not as committed to the comics as people like Joe Kubert, Frank Frazetta, or Wally Wood, though Frazetta later moved on.

“I Never Looked Down On Comics”

This Time The Cavalry Needs Help—From The Highway Patrol! Broderick Crawford, soon to be the star of the vintage TV series named above, starred in a 1953 movie called Last of the Comanches—the one-shot comic book version of which was drawn for Avon by Everett Raymond Kinstler. Seen here (clockwise from top left) are the cover, inside front cover, splash page, and two story pages. Thanks to Jay Kinney for the splash, and to Jim Ludwig for the other art. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Everett Ray Kinstler Talks About His Career In Comic Books

JA: Did Avon have a bullpen for the comics? KINSTLER: Not that I remember. Sol had his own office, and I would bring my art to him. There was probably a workspace, but I don’t think he had people on staff, though he may have had a young guy doing lettering for him and doing some touch-ups and mechanical work. Unlike some comics companies which had bullpens, I don’t remember that at Avon. But I remember his office had windows, and it was up on a high floor looking across the city. Sol Cohen was very colorful. He was a big guy with a mustache and heavy features; he smiled easily and often. Of all the people I’ve ever worked for, there’s no one I enjoyed more than Sol Cohen. He had a tremendous warmth. He was volatile, and I think he could be pretty rough with some people; I don’t think he had much patience. From my standpoint, he was aces all the way. He was extremely enthusiastic about everything I did. The best times I had were drawing the inside covers. That’s what I enjoyed and treasured the most. I took scenes out of stories, and totally created those inside cover pages. I didn’t even have to show him my pencils first. Sometimes I did the first feature in a book, and Sol would say, “Everett, I’ve got this cover or this cover for you,” or “Do you want to do the inside pages?” And I said, “I’d love to do the inside pages.” Because I did a lot of the inside pages, I didn’t do the covers on the other side of them. Their covers were so spicy...what was it? Teenage girls, drug addicts, that kind of stuff. And then we got caught up in the Comics Code with that.

and he would say to somebody, “I don’t like that stuff you’re doing.” But happily for me, he really did like my work and gave me total freedom. In fact, I visited Sol once and presented to him my oil painting of Venice. JA: What do you remember about Wally Wood at Avon? KINSTLER: He was thin... I mean underweight. He was a private kind of person. We liked each other a good deal, and occasionally went to lunch… whereas with Kubert, our relationship was always pleasant but we weren’t close friends. I remember being influenced by Kubert. His work had a graphic quality like Milton Caniff ’s. JA: You know, it’s interesting you say that, because I noticed in The Hand of Zorro comic that you did, a few figures that look kind of Kubertish. I had wondered if Joe had influenced you in that way. KINSTLER: Without question. I inked most of that story with a brush and was a little heavy-handed. I think I was also doing Silvertip for Western Publishing. My work on that book was more linear, but even then I began to drift here and there into heavier brush work. JA: The inside covers were mostly pen, weren’t they? KINSTLER: They were always pen. The only exception was a “Kenton of the Star Patrol,” which was my tribute to Alex Raymond. That was total

JA: Regarding the inside covers: did you letter them? KINSTLER: No, I never did any lettering, except maybe in Jesse James. I might have lettered that in freehand so I could fit a character’s head around it or something. JA: So you were free to make up what you wanted. There wasn’t a script of any kind? KINSTLER: Not really. What I would do is to get one of the writers working there, like Noah Gordon, to help me. He’s a novelist, and recently sold one of his novels for the movies. He had graduated from Boston University and did a lot of writing for Sol Cohen. He could give you a lot of really good insights into Sol. I don’t think he cared for Sol as much as I did [laughter]. Sol and I just hit it off. He was garrulous, he was expressive,

Riot On! ERK’s front covers, outside and inside, for Prison Riot #1 (a.k.a. “#40” of Avon’s “one-shot” series), published in 1952. These one-offs generally weren’t dated according to month. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

“I Never Looked Down On Comics”

feel like I had to make it look like Kubert’s Jesse James or anyone else’s. JA: Did you have the same freedom when you did covers?

Strange Reprinting Kinstler did “Kenton of the Star Patrol” and other science-fiction tales for Avon, as pre this cover for Strange Worlds #3 (May 1951)— and the splash of an ERK story that was reprinted by IW circa 1964 in its own Strange Worlds #9 (or was it “R5,” as per the Gerbers’ Picto-Journal Guide to Comic Books?). Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

KINSTLER: Yes. It was really most satisfying. I was working very hard in those years. Here’s another thing that was very important… to me, at least. Sol was also editing a lot of the paperbacks and he was feeding me covers to do, and I’ve got a lot of funny stories about that period, of cowboys and cleavage. I was doing everything from paperback covers to the comics for them, and I remember doing one book for them where I not only did the covers but I had some illustrations inside in pen and ink. So I was doing these Westerns, detective

brush. The rest of them were pen-and-ink jobs. JA: But you could have used a brush. That was just your preference. KINSTLER: I could’ve done anything when I worked with Sol Cohen. I was his boy, and I could pick and choose what I wanted to do. As far as the inside covers, I would see the stories that were going to be in that issue and I would make notes on each story. On occasion, one of them would be mine, but for the most part they weren’t. With Jesse James, maybe Joe Kubert did the lead story. I would read it and take some lines from it, or I would make a synopsis of each of the stories that appeared in there. I had total freedom. I didn’t

When Love Comics Went To Pot A rarity in mainstream comics then or now was the marijuana-based storyline in Avon’s Realistic Romances #16 (1954). Thanks to Jay Kinney. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Everett Ray Kinstler Talks About His Career In Comic Books

Blazing Saddles What comes after the Trifecta? The Quatrofecta? Kinstler drew the cover, inside front cover, and lead story in Avon’s Blazing Sixguns #1 (1952, “#9” in its one-shot series of series)—then the whole magilla was reprinted (minus the names of the gunfighters) in the 1960s by IW (Israel Waldman’s company). Actually, of course, it’s always great to have two chances at picking up good comic art—but even the IW reprints are pricey these days! [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

stories, Somerset Maugham and Aldous Huxley, Agatha Christie... and Sol had stepped in to edit the art on paperbacks, which was a big facet of Avon. The publisher, Mr. Meyers, would ask Sol, ”What books are selling?” Point Counter Point [by Aldous Huxley]. “Who’s the artist?” “Kinstler.” “What else is selling?” ‘Somerset Maugham’s Ashenden.” ‘Who’s the artist?” “Kinstler.” I was getting the credit for the sales. He wasn’t crediting the authors. I was the fairhaired boy up there. JA: There’s a prevalent theory in comics and pulps that the covers sold the magazines as much if not more than the interiors. KINSTLER: I know it was true with the paperbacks. Because I painted a bunch of covers that had nothing to do with the story, and I would paint samples... Westerns... and they would pop them on the covers. One of the classic ones was of a gunfighter fanning a gun, spinning around with a six-

“I Never Looked Down On Comics”

shooter. Now, nobody had paid attention, but in the book, the gunfighter had lost the use of his right arm. But they bought the cover and there he was shooting with his right. But by then, Jim Amash had bought it.

Avon, I was wondering if maybe you had found that, say, less interesting than... KINSTLER: No, I enjoyed it quite a bit.

JA: [laughter] Right!

“One Is Influenced By The Artists They Like”

KINSTLER: You fool!

JA: I am curious about who your earlier influences were then. Joe Kubert influenced you in the ’50s….

JA: Nobody ever said I was bright! [more laughter] KINSTLER: I lived on my looks for years. [Jim laughs] Anyway, that was an integral part of Avon. What I told you about my signature... I was able to sign everything at Avon. Was it because I thought I was good? That wasn’t the point. It was a matter of being an individual. I wanted credit for the work I did. JA: You did a wide range of genres for Avon. Did you have a favorite genre that you liked drawing? KINSTLER: No. I liked the inside covers. It was that simple. Where I had a genre was really more at Western Publishing. I loved the Silvertip comic book, Zorro, and the one-shots. JA: But since you did some romance for

KINSTLER: There’s no question... one is influenced by the artists they like. I like the way Joe was able to tell a story. I liked his graphic quality. I can’t attach much more than that, except I did it admiringly. I loved his storytelling. I was never halfhearted about anything I did. I’ve always worked with a clear conscience and a passion. But I was moving away from comics because I was really trying to concentrate more on the paperbacks. I did some illustrations for men’s magazines, I was doing some album covers for Columbia Records. So the comics, you see, were not stimulating me, and that, maybe, was part of it, too, until I actually stumbled into Western Publishing. Around 1984, Marvel reprinted a comic book story about a bank robber... it was called “The Man in the Tank.” I know I drew a few stories for Timely, but I don’t remember anything about working for them. JA: Getting back to these inside covers again. When you lay them out, you’ve got several scenes on those inside covers. You’re telling a story but this is not panel-to-panel continuity. This is a whole piece of art, not separate components. Did you do layouts first? Did you do thumbnails? I’m curious about your approach. KINSTLER: I didn’t have to show anybody anything in advance, as I said. The only thing I had to do was to leave room for the lettering JA: So you actually did some rough sketching and drew it with a pen?

Here’s A Comics Title That Won’t Be Revived Anytime Soon Amid all its oneshots, Avon actually managed to produce five whole issues of White Princess of the Jungle, with considerable art by Kinstler. (Counterclockwise from above:) the cover of issue #1 (July 1951), apparently ERK’s only contribution to that issue… and the inside front cover and a splash from #5 (Nov. 1952). With thanks to Jim Ludwig & Michael T. Gilbert. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Everett Ray Kinstler Talks About His Career In Comic Books

“I Told The Witch Doctor I Was In Love With You…” (Left & below:) ERK’s covers (inside and out) and splash from the 1952 Phantom Witch Doctor #1— a.k.a. “#38” in Avon’s non-series series. Nice work if you can get it— but we don’t suspect you’ll find in the cheap backissue bins at the local comics flea market! (And does anybody else out there remember the 1950s novelty song from which we took this caption’s hectic heading?) [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

“…At The Old Ball Game!” (Above:) On this splash for Ziff-Davis’ Baseball Thrills #3 (Summer 1952), Kinstler drew some of the most famous players in the history of the game. Repro’d from the bound volumes of editor Herb Rogoff. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

“I Never Looked Down On Comics”

Of Bullets And Blades After his spell at Avon, the artist also drew a few stories for other companies. The Western back-up splash is from Timely/Atlas/Marvel’s Wyatt Earp #3 (March 1956)… while the page from an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Pit and the Pendulum” is from St. John’s Amazing Ghost Stories #14 (Oct. 1954)—actually a reprint from Ziff-Davis’ Nightmare #2 (Fall 1952). Thanks to Jim Ludwig & Jay Kinney, respectively. [©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.”]

KINSTLER: Absolutely. But the difference was, with the interior work, after the pencils were drawn, they were lettered and given back to me. I inked the whole thing, bang, bang, bang. I always made sure I could figure out very clearly what the lettering was. They would adapt to me. By that I mean, if I didn’t leave enough space, they’d shorten the sentence. That’s how much control I had. They would amend the text to fit my art, and Noah Gordon wrote the text. Now that I think about it, Noah might have been on staff with Sol for a while. JA: When you were penciling, and maybe this is a blanket question for Avon and Western Publishing: how tight were your pencils when you submitted them for approval? KINSTLER: With Western Publishing, they were pretty tight. They were a conservative company. The only pencils I ever sacrificed were for Western. John Wayne had made a terrible movie called The Conqueror. I penciled the comic book adaptation and thought those were some of my best pencils. I spent more time on them because I had something like 300 stills for reference. It was a very busy time for me. I became less and less interested in comics. I had just gotten married and asked Matt Murphy, “Could I bow out of this one? Could you find an inker?” I felt very bad about that. The only time I had penciled for anybody or inked for anybody else was at Cinema Comics. JA: Do you remember who inked The Conqueror?

KINSTLER: I have no idea. I’m not sure I ever knew. JA: So your pencils for Avon were tight enough to know what you were doing. Would Sol Cohen ever ask you to make corrections? KINSTLER: Rarely. I was pretty tuned in to what they wanted, as I was with Matt Murphy. Matt never asked me for much in the way of changes. I just had to be careful that my style didn’t get too graphic. They were a little bit more family-oriented. The violence had to be held back. JA: Western was a very squeaky-clean company. Since they also had the licensing from Disney, they couldn’t afford any problems. I’m assuming you quit working for Avon because their comics were discontinued by ’54. KINSTLER: That could be part of it. Maybe that’s when I went to Western. I was still deep into the pulps and paperback covers. I was not allowed to sign my name, except on rare occasions. Sometimes I would sign my work, and my signature wouldn’t fit on the page, so it was cropped. JA: From 1953-1955, you had work in some of St. John Publications comics. They were all reprints. Those must have been stories from another company. KINSTLER: I guess so. Many things I probably never saw.

Everett Ray Kinstler Talks About His Career In Comic Books

JA: Your editor at Ziff-Davis was my friend Herb Rogoff. KINSTLER: He was another guy that was neat to work for. I drew some sports comics like Baseball Thrills and Bill Stern’s Sports Book for him. I’ve kept in touch with Herb over the years. He went to work for Grumbacher Paints. Herb flew up from Florida when PBS filmed the documentary on me in New York. JA: You did get back some of your originals from Avon, didn’t you? KINSTLER: The inside covers. I made sure I got most of those back. I have approximately 40 of them and 20 of my painted covers. I really felt like I had my imprimatur on my painted covers and inside covers. I was never able to get back any of the interior pages or line-drawn covers. I wasn’t as interested in them because the inside covers were purely my artwork. Because someone else colored the line-drawn comic covers and interior pages, I didn’t consider them my work. When I painted paperback covers, that was the end result. I got many of my pulp illustrations back because they were totally my work.

On James Montgomery Flagg: “I Loved The Old Bastard!” JA: Tell me about your friendship with James Montgomery Flagg. KINSTLER: When Flagg died in May of 1960, I delivered one of the eulogies for him; Dean Cornwell did the other. I met Flagg when I was studying with Frank DuMond at the Art Students’ League. I asked the doorman if I could go up and see Flagg. I called him on the house phone and he was not very receptive. I told him I was about to be drafted and I wanted to meet him. I was not about to be drafted; I was about a year away from it. But he did ask me up and I showed him my work. When I was in the Army, I wrote to him. One thing about Monty: he always responded. He sent me a little watercolor that I still have in my studio in New York. My return address read “Sgt. Everett R. Kinstler,” my P.O. Box, and Camp Fort Dix. He had cut that off of the envelope, pasted it down, and sent it to me. All he had on the back of the envelope was “Flagg, New York City.” Later, I sent him a couple of my art reproductions I did, and he was very critical about one of them. He wrote back, “I understand your kind words better than this drawing.” [mutual laughter] There’s a wonderful book by Susan E. Meyer called James Montgomery Flagg that everyone should get. It contains watercolors, pen-and-ink drawings, and even a couple of comic strips about John Barrymore. The book was dedicated to me. I only mention this because included is a photo of us that was taken shortly before he died. Flagg was legally blind in his later years, and I visited him weekly for years. We would finish off a bottle of Cutty Sark and a pack of cigarettes and talk about everything from Sargent’s watercolors to some of the women he had been with or some of the personalities he had known over the years. We talked about art a great deal. He had a secretary— a companion—who read the newspapers to him.

Dean Cornwell would visit him one night a week. Other visitors included Arthur William Brown and Rube Goldberg, both of whom were around his age. Finally, they couldn’t handle visiting him anymore because he became more difficult; he was outspoken and sarcastic. He was very unhappy. He was embarrassing to be with. [slight chuckle] He would tell off taxi drivers and waiters. He was an impressive-looking man, about 6'2". He looked a lot like his “Uncle Sam.” He was a crusty son of a bitch! I loved the old bastard! [mutual laughter] I once told him, “All the dirty words I learned, I learned from you, Monty!” Monty was totally honest in his opinions. He didn’t operate on different levels. If he didn’t like you, you knew it. He didn’t care if you were a DuPont, a Rockefeller, or a delivery man. You knew where you stood with him. It was an admirable quality, but he could be very cruel and unkind to people. I would tell him that sometimes and he’d order me out and say, “Don’t slam the door on your way out!” [mutual laughter] On one occasion, I wouldn’t answer the phone because I knew he was calling and calling. Then I got a very pathetic drawing from him and he wrote “I miss you. I’m worried.” His handwriting was barely legible. I got teary and I called him and everything was fine. At one point he said, “You don’t love me anymore” and I said, “Monty, I love you, but I really don’t like you.’” [mutual laughter]. He said, “You’re outta here again!” He was legally blind, but he could see images and shapes, though he couldn’t draw or sign his name. Occasionally someone would do him a favor and I would say, “Monty, they don’t want to get paid. They would love to have one of your drawings.” He’d say, “I don’t want to give them one of my drawings.” He had hundreds of them stacked in the closet. I would talk him into doing this. I would say, “Why don’t you give him this one. It’s unsigned.” I would have to hold his hand and guide it. JA: Why had he become so unhappy? KINSTLER: Part of it was because he had lost his vision and partly because, after 50 years of being in the limelight, life had passed him by. He had been so successful and strikingly good-looking. He had the world by the balls, but then he suffered a stroke which affected his eyesight. Because of his rudeness, he had alienated so many people who had cared about him. But that was his nature. Monty was sarcastic, witty, and brilliant. Occasionally, I would be sitting with Monty and he would look over at me and say, “I’m sorry I’m like this. I wasn’t always like this.” He knew I cared about him.

Our Flagg Once again we borrow both a photo—and, this time, even a caption—from that wondrous Vadeboncoeur/Kinstler book: “James Montgomery Flagg and Everett Raymond Kinstler, taken just two months before Flagg’s death in 1960.” Flagg is seen on the left in the photo. At left is Flagg’s most iconic image—his 1917 recruiting poster often referred to as “Uncle Sam Wants You,” which was utilized again during World War II.

“I Never Looked Down On Comics”

He was as close to genius as any artist I ever met. I don’t think he was a great artist, in the sense of history, but he was the most talented artist I ever met. He had a profound influence on my life and I think of him all the time.

“After All, He Was Working For Western!” JA: Tell me about your editor at Western, Matt Murphy. KINSTLER: He hired me. I remember going over to his office, which was walking distance from my studio. We shook hands on an agreement that I was assigned to do what I think was the first series I did for them: Zorro. Matt said, “I think we really ought to celebrate!” so he pulled his desk drawer open. I thought he was going to pull out a bottle of whiskey, but he was just reaching for a Kleenex. [mutual laughter] I should’ve known better. After all, he was working for Western! I liked Matt a lot; he was a friend. He was one of those people who, occasionally when something came out in the newspaper, would contact me and congratulate me on my success. Matt had a modest office with a desk. He didn’t keep a bottle of whiskey in the lower drawer like Red Murphy at Popular Publications. Red would pour himself a shot occasionally. I was really overwhelmed to see this at 17. And he was really old, being 30. [mutual laughter] Matt Murphy’s office was just like any other office. It could have been an insurance salesman’s office. There was nothing really in the way of art hanging. He lived in Bronxville, about 30 minutes out of Manhattan, and I occasionally had dinner with Matt, his wife Mary, and their little girl. Matt was devoted to me, no question about it. Once, he said, “Ray, it’s not coming from me, but they think your work is becoming a little too graphic.” That’s why, when Silvertip came out, my style was more gentle.

The Zorro And The Pity We’ve pretty much let Kinstler’s “Zorro” art represent his work for Dell/Western, though he also drew various other features for the company. Here are the inside front cover of Four Color Comics #538—and a page from FCC #574 (Aug. 1954). Thanks to Mark Muller. [©2008 Disney Productions, Inc.]

At the time I was also doing children’s books for Random House and Dodd-Mead. It wasn’t quality as much as quantity, although I did my best on everything. I wasn’t earning that much. I never made money, but that wasn’t what I was in it for, anyway. I just wanted to keep busy. JA: When you did the Silvertip comics, did you read the books by Max Brand first? KINSTLER: No, I don’t believe I did. The scripts were done by others, but I don’t remember who. Matt gave me a lot of flexibility, but within that framework of no blood and violence. I had a good time. The few I drew, I really felt good about. JA: What was your page rate at Western? KINSTLER: I think it was $18 to $20 per page. I don’t think I earned over $100 a week. JA: I noticed that most of the other artists at Western used a standard grid for their page layouts, but you did not. KINSTLER: One of the things I tried very hard to do was break away from the boxes. You have no idea how revolutionary that was. I had to beg them to let me do that. I wanted to do it more, but poor Matt had his hands full with what I was doing. While I was laying out the pages, I was allowed to edit the script. I also did this with Sol Cohen at Avon.

Everett Ray Kinstler Talks About His Career In Comic Books

Tolstoy Would Be Proud! In the mid-1950s, Kinstler also drew for Lev Gleason Publications, as per this cover for Crime and Punishment #69 (Oct. ’54). The corresponding story inside was drawn by Bob Brown. Thanks to Frank Motler. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

JA: You viewed your pages as one piece of art, while many others just illustrated panels on a page. KINSTLER: That’s what I intended. Most people illustrated. I was trying to tell a story. There’s a big difference. This was also true for the books I illustrated, some of which were for a teenage audience. I drew the illustrations based on pieces of the story and designed them within the page.

admire that man enormously!” I’ve quit drinking, but then I had had just enough to make me loose, and I had to go over. He was in the middle of a conversation with some people. I said, “Sir, this is a terrible thing to do in a club, and I probably won’t see you again, but I just have to tell you I’m a really big fan of yours. I think you are to comics what Orson Welles is to movies!” I looked over at the other people and said, “I’m so sorry, but I just admire this man this man so much that I simply had to tell him.” He said, “It’s nice to hear this and I’m pleased you came over here to tell me. What’s your name?” I introduced myself and told him I was a member of the club, and he said, “Thank you so much for those warm words.” I started to walk away and he said, “Wait a minute. You’re not the Kinstler who did these portraits here.” I said, “Yes, these are some of my paintings.” Caniff says, “And you think I’m an artist!” Well, what a compliment! We got to be extremely good friends. We were not intimates, but I got to know him the latter part of his life. JA: Why didn’t you write your own comic book stories? KINSTLER: It never appealed to me. Think about what I was doing then. With all the pulps, the paperbacks, and the book illustrations, I just didn’t have time. I was like an actor. I was taking on every part I could get, as if I was part of a repertory company. That’s how I see myself. If I was doing a syndicated strip, then I would have written my own stories. JA: Speaking of repertory companies, you had a repertory company of actors that appeared in your stories, like Fredric March and John Carradine in The Hand of Zorro. How often were you in your stories?

JA: As you were rewriting the scripts, did you pencil in the dialogue on your art? KINSTLER: Yes. For example, I would go to Matt and say, “I’ve got Zorro. I’m going to combine the three panels with a long figure here, and I think it will make for a more interesting layout. It tells the story better.” Happily, Matt was convinced. JA: I noticed that you thought of the balloons as part of the panel composition. KINSTLER: Oh, yes, very much so. The only time I had a problem with it was when they used Leroy Lettering. Mechanical... I hated it. JA: Your pages were always well-balanced. The way you spotted blacks, the way you moved your camera from medium shots, to close-ups, to long distance... KINSTLER: I credit Joe Kubert for that. I learned from looking at his work. Caniff was a very powerful influence. I got to know Caniff later. JA: Tell me about Caniff and how you met him. KINSTLER: I was at the Player’s Club at a function with Staats Cotsworth. [NOTE: Cotsworth was radio’s Casey, Crime Photographer. —Jim]. I recognized Caniff because I had seen pictures of him. I said to Staats, “Is that Milton Caniff?” He said, “Oh, yeah. Milt’s a long-time member here. He loves the club.” I said, “No kidding. I

Bill And Ray—Both Still A Long Way Off From Aces And Eights! Kinstler’s covers, front and inside, for Avon Periodicals’ Wild Bill Hickok #11 (1951?). ERK’s Western covers and stories represented some of the best work that was being done in the comics field in the 1950s—but then, so did his art for quite a few other genres, as well! [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

“I Never Looked Down On Comics”

KINSTLER: Never. However, if you see a strikingly good-looking man with great charm and—what is the line? swashbuckling... from the waist up he’s swash and from the knees down he’s buckling— [mutual laughter]

“I Always Did My Homework” For Classics Illustrated JA: You worked for Classics Illustrated during a down period, from ’59 to ‘61. KINSTLER: I drew a couple of pages here and there. I was losing interest. There was a total lack of individuality. Everything I was tracking had fallen apart. My style was out of vogue. They wanted more designed covers. The paperbacks were using more lettering and design. When I got a page from them [CI], it was stuck next to one done by Gerald McCann or somebody else. I hated it. I think I did a couple pages pretty well because I worked very hard on them, and I did a couple of fillers that were okay. They wouldn’t let you sign your work, either, and were a cold bunch to work for. JA: I understand they were very nit-picky about details. KINSTLER: Terrible! JA: How much research were you doing for them? KINSTLER: A lot. I always did my homework. I remember doing a story about the French Revolution, and there was something about a tennis court, and I approached it like I did book illustration. I researched it and I took it very seriously.

JA: When you went back into comics, it was for economic reasons? KINSTLER: Yes, totally. I was about 30 years old, and married. Paperback books were turning to graphic design, and I was considered a hard-boiled illustrator. There was a very nice piece in People magazine in 1976 called “Painting the Cabinet Turns Out to Be a Career for One Time Comic Book Artist.” I was quoted as saying I was famous in those days for doing the two C’s: cowboys and cleavage. The bottom had started to drop out of the paperback market, and I was concerned about earning a living. JA: Once you left comic books, did you ever have a thought about returning? KINSTLER: Never. That’s why it was so unfortunate that I had to go back to Classics Illustrated. By that time, I had already connected with Portraits, Inc., which was the biggest agency that deals in portraits. I was painting portraits, but I wasn’t getting enough work and I had a family to support. I have always been responsible about paying my bills. That was a work ethic instilled in me by my father. I never paid anything on credit and I never had a gambler’s instinct. In that respect, I was very conservative. In the late ’50s, I was married and I was having a hard time making a living. This was after 15 to 18 years of having regular work. I thought, “Where the hell am I?” and I got very nervous. Classics Illustrated was down the street and they were able to feed me a couple of pages here and there. I never looked down on comics and I am appreciative of the training I received in comics; it was just that I was heading in a different direction. But I was always proud of my time in comics, and I never shy away from admitting how important that experience was to me.

EVERETT RAYMOND KINSTLER Checklist [NOTE: The following Checklist is primarily adapted from information that appears in the online Who’s Who of American Comic Books (19291999), established by Jerry G. Bails. See ad on the next page to learn how to access this invaluable website. Names of features which appeared in both magazines of that title and in other magazines, as well, are generally not italicized below. Special thanks to Jim Amash & Teresa R. Davidson. Key: (w) = writer; (a) = full art; (p) = pencils only; (i) = inks only; (n.d.) = no date.]

Name: Kinstler, Everett Raymond (b. 1926) (artist) Pen Name: Everett Raymond Education: Art Students League; Grand Central School of Art; High School of Music and Art; School of Industrial Art; Phoenix School of Art Influences: Alex Raymond; James Montgomery Flagg; Milt Caniff; Hal Foster; Joe Kubert Member: American Water Color Society; The Allied Artists; Century Association Dutch Treat Club; Player Club; Lotos Club; Century Club; National Academy of Design; American Watercolor Society; Pastel Society; Allied Artists of America; The Artist Fellowship (past president); National Arts Club (Vice-president) Print Media (non-comics) (Artist on all): Juvenile Books: Great Barrier Reef; Our Federal Government 1958; Cowboy Andy 1959; Story of Dan Beard 1970. Magazines: Avon Science Fiction and Fantasy Reader 1953; Dime Detective (n.d.); Dime Western (n.d.); Doc Savage (n.d.); Ranch romances 1953; Startling Stories 1953; Texas Rangers 1959-58; The Shadow (n.d.). Paperback Book covers: 1949, 1955 Teacher: Art Students League 1969-74 Fine Arts (Painter): landscapes; portraits [President Ford and other celebrities]; painting exhibits: Grand Central Galleries [New York City]

Hood-Winked! ERK drew the covers for several issues of MLJ’s The Black Hood, including that of #17 (Winter 1945). Thanks to Jim Ludwig. Don’t miss our extended MLJ coverage next issue! [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Everett Ray Kinstler Talks About His Career In Comic Books

Honors: Honorary Doctorate, Rollins College (Florida) 1983 Overseas Comics: Zorro (a) c. 1963 COMIC BOOK CREDITS (Mainstream US Publishers): Archie Comics Publications: The Black Hood (a) 1945; covers (a) 1945 Avon Periodicals: Blue Gorilla (a) 1952; Butch Cassidy (a) 1950-51; covers (a) 1950-55; Kit Carson (covers)(a) 1950s; crime (a) c. 1948-54; horror (a) c. 1948-54; inside front covers (a) early 1950s; Jesse James (a) (n.d.); Last of the Comanches (a) 1953; romance (a) 1952; science-fantasy (a) c. 1948-54; Star Patrol (a) (n.d.); war (a) c. 1948-54; Western (a) c. 1948-54 Better/Nedor/Pines/Standard: Black Terror (i) 1944; Doc Strange (a) 1944; Fighting Yank (i) 1944; Jimmy Cole (a) (n.d.); Real Life Comics (a) 1942-45; The Scarab (a) 1946; Silver Knight (i) c. 1948 DC/National (& affiliated): Black Pirate (a) 1947; covers (a) 1947; Girls’ Love Stories (a) 1949; Hawkman (a) 1947; romance (a) 1950 Dell/Western: Adaptations (a) 1960-61; The Conqueror (movie adaptation) (p) 1956; Santiago (a) 1956; Silvertip (a) 1954-57; Silvertip and the Fighting Four (a) 1956; Steve Donovan, Western Marshal (a) 1956-57; The Swamp Fox (a) 1961; Westerns (a) 1956-61; Zorro (a) 195354, 1960 Fawcett Publications: Western covers (paint) 1946-48 Gilberton/Classics Illustrated: Classics Illustrated Special (a) 1959-60; The World around Us (a) c. 1959, 1961; Westerns (n.d.)

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

Marvel/Timely: horror (a) 1953; war (a) c. 1953; Wyatt Earp back-up (a) 1956 Parents’ Magazine Press: True Comics (a) c. 1947

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Created by Jerry G. Bails

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

St. John Publishing: various features (a) 1953-55 (all reprint) Superior Publishers: Captain Flight (a) 1945 Ziff-Davis Comics: Baseball Thrills (a) 1952; Bill Stern’s Sports Book (a) 1952; covers (a) 1952; horror (a) 1952; jungle (a) 1952; Nightmare (a) 1952; romance (a) 1952; science-fantasy (a) 1952; Tops in Adventure (a) filler 1952; war (a) 1952

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Oop, Oop, And Away! A Short Celebration Of Alley Oop‘s 75th Anniversary On The Newspaper Comics Page Article by Jack Bender

ou think comic books can’t have an influence on a person’s career? Think again.

The first comic book I ever read featured “Alley Oop.” Today I am in my 18th year of drawing that newspaper comic strip and drew the most recent series of Alley Oop comic books. My wife Carole has assisted on the strip since 1992 and began writing it in 2001. I was very, very young when my parents brought home a copy of Mammoth Comics from the “dime store” for me to read, but my love affair with Alley Oop began that day and never let up. And apparently I am not the only person out there who admires the character. Our comic strip still appears in over 600 newspapers, with an estimated 26 million readers every day, plus many more on the Internet.

Generation Moo Jack and Carole Bender, the current artist and writer of the Alley Oop strip, with the children of the caveman’s creator, V.T. Hamlin. (Left to right:) Jack Bender, Teddy (Teodoro) Hamlin Dewalt, Carole Bender, & Jon Hamlin. Photo courtesy of the Benders. Shown at left is Jack’s cover for Alley Oop Adventures #1 (Aug. 1998) from Antarctic Press; repro’d from a photocopy of the original art. [Comic cover ©2008 NEA, Inc.]

That compares favorably with the peak reached in the days when Oop’s creator called the shots, daily and Sunday. (If your hometown newspaper doesn’t carry Oop, take a look at it, daily and Sunday, at comics.com/comics/alleyoop or beg your newspaper to add it.) Oop even was the symbol of early comic book fandom. The “Alley” award, a statue of the caveman, was given to honor outstanding talent from 1961 to 1969. And don’t forget the wonderful rock song by the Argyles, which lives on. Alley Oop’s comic book life began in 1936 and has extended into this century. Oop has appeared in some 189 different comic books, mostly in reprints of the work of the great V.T. Hamlin, who created the strip. Frank Johnson did the two Dell books in the 1960s, and I did most of the new art in the Antarctic series of 1998 to 2000. Those are the only two comic book entries that contained original art other than splash pages and covers that showcased the Hamlin reprints. In addition to those 189 comic books out there for Oop fans to collect, there are many other compilations that may or may not be considered comic books. These would include the Menomonee Falls Guardian, The Sawtella Chronicles published by Ken Pierce, the three Dragon Lady Press books, the three Kitchen Sink books, a fourth book in the same chronology published by Manuscript Press, Strip Adventure magazine, the current Comics Revue magazine, and the especially comprehensive series Alley Oop: The Magazine, now in its 27th issue (which celebrates Oop’s 75th anniversary with the NEA syndicate).

Oop, Oop, And Away!

There also are numerous foreign-published Oop comic books, translated into the language of the respective countries. No other vintage adventure comic strip is still so alive as Alley Oop, continued by Carole and myself, perhaps the only husband-and-wife team producing a comic strip today. Thanks to our friend Ray Snodgrass, supplemented by our own research and collection, page 54 features as complete a list as is known of Alley Oop in comic books.

Oops! (Right:) The cover of The Funnies #17 (Feb. 1938) may not have been drawn by V.T. Hamlin, but it demonstrates that the Moovian was already a star—and he was still a year and a half away from beginning his time travels! (Below left:) In Oop comic books of the Golden Age, new splash pages were often drawn, probably by hardworking comic book company staff artists, to break the strip reprints into chapters. This one for Standard’s Alley Oop #14 (Sept. 1948) heads a reprint of Oop and Ooola in the days of pirates. (Below right:) Artist Frank Johnson drew new stories for Dell’s two-issue run of Alley Oop in 1962-63. Repro’d from a photocopy of the original art, courtesy of Jack & Carole Bender. [©2008 NEA, Inc.]

Alley Oop’s 75th Anniversary On The Newspaper Comics Page

More Oop-and-at-’em Comic Book Covers With numbering to drive a collector crazy! (The first four shown here are, clockwise from above left:) Alley Oop #3, “A Four Color Comic,” Dell (1938)… Alley Oop #1 from Visual Editions (Standard), (March 1948)… Alley Oop #2 from Argo Publications (Jan. 1956)… Alley Oop #2 (Sept.-Nov. 1963) from Dell. Whatever titles these comics may have sported on their covers, the indicias all recorded nothing but the actual name of the strip. (Right:) Just for good measure, we’ve tossed in a copy of a 1955 Brazilian Alley Oop comic book—but sender Jack Bender forgot to tell us (assuming he knows!) what “Brucutu” means in Portuguese! [©2008 NEA, Inc.]

Oop, Oop, And Away!

Alley Oop In Comic Books 1936 Famous Funnies #19 (Feb. ’36) until #25 (Aug. ’36). Reprints of Sunday strips, starting with Oct. 28, 1934. Published by Eastern Color. 1936-40 The Funnies #1 (Oct. ’36) to #44 (June ’40). Reprints of 1936 daily strips. Published by Dell. 1937-38 The Comics #3 (1937) to #11 (Nov. 1938). Published by Dell. 1938 Mammoth Comics #1, reprints of dailies. Published by Whitman. 1940 Hi Spot Comics #2 (Nov. ’40). Reprints of Sundays from 1938 dated Nov. 13, 20, 27. Published by Dell.

(all reprints of dailies) (10) 4/15/35-6/28/35, (11) 11/3/39-4/26/40, (12) 7/30/40-10/24/40, (13) 4/12/41-8/2/41, (14) 8/4/41-11/24/41, (15) 10/25/40-3/21/41, (16) 4/29/40-11/22/40, (17) 8/16/4411/24/44, (18) 7/29/46-12/2/46. 1955-56 The Adventures of Alley Oop, Nov. ’55 to March ’56, three issues. Argo Publishing Co. Contents as follows: (1) selected dailies 6/15/53-9/8/53, (2) selected dailies 9/21/53-11/12/53 and selected Sundays 5/24/53-6/28/53, (3) selected dailies 3/22/54-6/5/54 and Sunday 12/26/54. 1962-63 Alley Oop Comics #1 (Dec. ’62) & #2 (Sept. ’63), Dell Publishing Co. Original material by Frank Johnson.

1941-46 Red Ryder Comics #3 (Aug. ’41) to #32 (March ’46). Reprints of consecutive Sunday strips dated March 26, 1939, to March 30, 1941. Published by Dell. (Red Ryder Comics was a continuation of Hi Spot Comics.)

1998 Alley Oop Adventures #1 (Aug. ’98), #2 (Oct. ’98), & #3 (Dec. ’98. Published by Antarctic Press. All new, full-color stories by Jack Bender, Dan Davis, Carole Bender, and Dave Graue.

1942 Four Color Comics, Series II, #3, reprints of dailies from Dec. 11, 1937 to July 19, 1938. Published by Dell.

1999 The Collected Alley Oop Adventures #1 (March ’99), Antarctic Press. New cover and lead story plus contents of Alley Oop Adventures # 1-3 in full-color trade paperback format.

1945-46 G.I. Comics, 73 issues. Reprints of Sundays from Dec. 24, 1944, to May 12, 1946. (no date) Super Book of Comics #9, Omar Bread Co., giveaway, Western Publishing Co. 1947 Super Book of Comics #9. Hancock Oil Co. giveaway, Western Publishing Co. The same book as the Omar giveaway. 1947-49 Alley Oop Comics, which started numbering with #10 (Sept. ’47), through #18, Oct. ’49. Nine issues. Published by Standard Comics. Contents as follows:

1999 Alley Oop Quarterly #1 (Sept. 1999). Antarctic Press. Color cover, b&w interiors by same crew as listed in 1998. 1999 Alley Oop Quarterly #2 (Dec. ’99). Antarctic Press. 2000 Alley Oop Quarterly #3 (March 2000). Antarctic Press.

Alley Oop’s 75th Anniversary On The Newspaper Comics Page

Special Alley Oop Section:

Evolution Of A Comic Strip Caveman

From Antediluvian To Art Deco Alley Oop was created, written, and drawn by Vincent Trout Hamlin (1900-1993), seen at top right in a caricature by George Scarbo from Martin Sheridan’s groundbreaking 1944 book Comics and Their Creators. Though Oop got off to a self-proclaimed “flying start” with its first daily on Aug. 7, 1933, the strip really took off when, on April 7-8, 1939, Hamlin transported Oop and his lovely ladyfriend Ooola to the 20th century via Dr. Wonmug’s time machine, in the two dailies seen below. [Caricature of Hamlin ©2008 the respective copyright holders; Oop strips & characters ©2008 NEA, Inc.]

Oop, Oop, And Away! 56

Sunday Morning Sci-Fi

This one’s worth turning the magazine sideways for, folks! Hamlin’s Sunday strip for Feb. 26, 1950, just about has it all: Oop—Ooola—Dr. Wonmug—the time machine—time travel—the oft-villainous Oscar Boom—and a predatory dinosaur. All it lacks is Dinny, Oop’s long-suffering reptilian companion. Roy Thomas obtained this primo piece in the 1960s when his friend Len Brown sent him to an old guy named Abe who lived in a small apartment in Brooklyn that was stuffed floor-to-ceiling with original comic strip art. Jack Bender has pronounced this perhaps the best-looking Oop original he’s seen! Special thanks to A/E layout man Chris Day for putting this and other oversize pages together from up to nine photocopies each! [©2008 NEA, Inc.]

Alley Oop’s 75th Anniversary On The Newspaper Comics Page

An Oop Artist Who Graues On You (Left:) Second Oop artist Dave Graue (on right in photo) with originator V.T. Hamlin. Graue (pronounced GROW-ee, 1926-1991) assisted Hamlin for some years and inherited the strip in 1971. Photo courtesy of Jack Bender. (Below:) Graue’s Sunday for May 6, 1990, repro’d from a photocopy of the original art, which the Benders generously gave to Ye Editor. [©2008 NEA, Inc.]

Time Traveling In Tandem Jack Bender began as art assistant to Dave Graue. He writes: “Glad to see Graue get some recognition. He worked on the strip 50 years, before retiring in April 2001; then he was killed in an auto accident at Christmastime [that same year]. Sad. A really fun guy and very conscientious. Hamlin told me, in our only in-person meeting, that he felt Graue was a ‘wonderful artist.’” This 11-26-95 Sunday dates from the period when Graue and Bender shared a byline; repro’d from a photocopy of the original, given to Ye Ed by the ever-gracious Benders. [© NEA, Inc.]

Oop, Oop, And Away!

Oop And Onward! Several examples of Jack & Carole Bender’s recent work. (Clockwise from top left:) (a) The cover of Antarctic’s second Alley Oop comic book, repro’d from a photocopy of the original art, with thanks to the Benders. (b) Jack’s pencils for a daily strip, done on tracing paper—a present to Ye Ed. (c) The Benders’ Sunday for Aug. 11, 2002, repro’d from the original art—yet another gift to Roy & Dann Thomas. Nice gag! (d) Jack & Carole’s dailies for Aug. 6 & 7, 2008, climaxing a sequence that celebrated Alley Oop’s 75th year on the newspaper comics page. Note the (enlarged) caricatures at bottom right of the latter strip of (l. to r.) Hamlin, Graue, & the Benders—the only four people ever to write and draw the classic (and still popular) feature. [©2008 NEA, Inc.]

May you have 75 more, Alley!

hat if… instead of selling his share of All-American Publications to DC co-publishers Harry Donenfeld and Jack Liebowitz in the mid-1940s, as happened in what we call the Real World, Max Charles Gaines had instead bought DC Comics from them?

“Batman” titles on the newsstands in the late ’40s) Green Lantern and The Flash and Wonder Woman became the premier Golden Age heroes—stars of comic books, radio, movies, and television, rather than the Man of Steel and the Caped Crusader! (Even so, in our world, all art on the next six pages features characters TM & ©2008 DC Comics.]

Just imagine… a comic book industry in which (due to threatened lawsuits by Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, and Bob Kane, which resulted in there having briefly been two competing versions of “Superman” and

Not a dream, not a hoax… just an imaginary story of an alternate universe and of…

The Secret History of All-American Comics, Inc. T

by Bob Rozakis heodore [“Ted”] Skimmer worked in the editorial and production department of All-American Comics from 1944 through 1997. During his 53-year career, he had a front-row seat for the history of the company, a history he’s agreed to share with us in this interview I conducted a few months ago. —Bob Rozakis.

Book One – Chapter 5: MORT-ification BOB ROZAKIS: Let’s talk about Mort Weisinger. I only met him once, in the mid-’70s, when Guy Lillian invited him up to the office to be interviewed for the Green Lantern issue of The Dynamic World of AA Comics. So most of what I know about him is what Julie Schwartz told me over the years. TED SKIMMER: Well, Mort came over from DC after we absorbed their line in the last half of the ’40s. Initially, he was working on Superman and Action Comics, but when they were cancelled, he was something of the odd man out. He had a couple of humor titles, I think, and one or two others. Then there was the situation with Billy Gaines over the horror books, and he ended up taking over Green Lantern and All-American from Julie. [EDITOR’S NOTE: See Chapter 2, “The Bill Gaines Years,” in Alter Ego #78 for details.] You know, people say a lot of things about Mort, and most of the artists and writers who ever worked with him didn’t like him. But he certainly knew how to sell comic books. He was the one who built the Green Lantern “family,” piggybacking on the success of the TV show in the 1950s. BR: But the first new direction was with Kid Lantern. SKIMMER: That’s right. DC had started a “Superboy” series in More Fun Comics, then moved it into Adventure Comics. It was dropped when we [AA] took over the titles, most probably because of the lawsuit between DC and Siegel and Shuster. But Mort knew there was an interest among the readers for younger versions of the heroes, so he proposed “Kid Lantern,” the adventures of GL as a boy. BR: Which revised the origin of Green Lantern substantially. SKIMMER: Well, yes, it did. But you have to realize that the readership back then was not like what it is today. After the war, the audience was reduced to kids, mostly boys, and mostly 8 to 12 years old. The vast majority of kids reading our books in 1949 were not old enough to have

read All-American #16, so they had no idea what Green Lantern’s origin was anyway. So, in Mort’s revised history, a much younger Alan Scott finds the lantern while he’s lost on a camping trip. Frightened and cold in the dark woods, he sees a strange green glow in the distance and follows it to a cave. Inside, he finds the lantern and the ring. After he uses the ring to save some other campers from a bear, he realizes he should use it as a superhero, and so he creates his costume and Kid Lantern identity.

It’s Always Fair Weather… Mort Weisinger (seated) and his old friend and later fellow editor Julius Schwartz, in a photo that first appeared in an issue of The Dynamic World of AA Comics, the company’s alwaysentertaining, ever-informative house fanzine sold by subscription and through comics stores. Mort and Julie, however, had their differences in later years.

BR: The story appeared in Sensation Comics #92 in 1949, when Mort took over editing. In exchange, Action Comics, which became first Action Western, then Action Men of War, went to Bob Kanigher, who had been handling the title. “Wonder Woman” had been the lead feature in Sensation, with “Wildcat,” “Lady Danger,” and “Streak the Wonder Dog” as back-ups.

SKIMMER: Wonder Woman’s popularity had started to fade by that point. Charlie’s [Gaines’] rights agreement with Marston was that he would

The Secret History of All-American Comics, Inc.

BR: Not like today, where everything is specially designed. SKIMMER: Nothing like that. Charlie would come into the production department and tell Sol Harrison, “Get me some artwork for a Green Lantern card game.” Sol would have someone go into the cabinet where the old artwork was kept and pick out a shot of GL, one of Alan Scott, the battery, the ring—whatever. Voila—Green Lantern, the Card Game. They just cut up the original art, because nobody wanted it. When the cabinet got full, they’d have somebody flip through it all, cut out anything they might want to use later—you know, head shots, nice poses, that kind of thing—and toss the rest.

Kids Will Be Kids! We recently discovered, in the hands of devoted “Green Lantern” fan Shane Foley, some of the original drawings from the time when the new Kid Lantern was being created—in sketches that have the Kid’s power ring on his right hand. The costume at top left was originally chosen, but the character wound up with a virtual dead copy of the adult outfit when Weisinger decided he should make it even more obvious to the reader that he actually was Green Lantern. The identity of the artist is uncertain, but, by coincidence, he has the same initials as Shane… which may be the reason our Australian buddy paid top dollar for these pieces a few years back.

continue publishing her own title, but he didn’t have to keep her as a feature in anything else. BR: Mort kept “Wildcat,” but he brought over “Congo Bill” and “Tommy Tomorrow” from Action. There were a couple more “Lady Danger” stories, but then she was gone. Inventory stories, I presume. SKIMMER: [laughs] There were always inventory stories. In any case, Mort was right on target with “Kid Lantern.” Sales on Sensation went up significantly, and in early 1950 he got his own title. Meantime, Green Lantern’s popularity continued to grow. After the two movie serials, they started on the TV series. There were a variety of product tie-ins… nothing like what we have today every time a movie comes out, but the company made a few dollars here and there. Green Lantern board games, Green Lantern kites, Green Lantern whiffle bats— lots of cheap toys. If they could slap a piece of GL art on it, it was done.

BR: There was still plenty of that in a filing cabinet when I joined the company in 1973. I used some of it for the Slurpee cups we did for 7-11. SKIMMER: Anyway, Mort’s new spin on Green Lantern becoming a super-hero while he was a teenager took on a life of its own. Alan Scott grew up in Littletown, where his parents Tom and Sarah owned a general store. Their nextdoor neighbors were the Coles. The father, Professor Cole, was an explorer who was always going off to exotic locales. BR: [laughs] And he always seemed to be wearing a safari hat and jacket, even around Littletown. I think there was one story in which they were having a family picnic by Littletown Lake and he was wearing the outfit.

SKIMMER: It made easy identification for the readers, and he was a regular plot device for the writers. Either he’d be stuck somewhere strange and Kid Lantern would have to go rescue him, or he’d bring home some rare artifact that would cause problems. His daughter Carol was Alan’s classmate; she was the teenage equivalent of Cathy Crain. Invariably, she’d be the one who’d get into trouble with the various treasures her father brought home. BR: Right. If he put a sign on it saying, “Don’t touch this!” she would say, “I wonder why?” And all hell would break loose because she would touch it. Mrs. Cole didn’t play much of a role in the series—but she apparently baked a lot of pies. Whenever there was a story in which Carol wanted to prove Alan was Kid Lantern, she’d come over with a piece of a pie that her mother had just baked as a pretext to get in the house.

SKIMMER: Mort’s next expansion of the “GL” line was when Doiby Dickles got his own title in 1953. That was a direct result of the TV series, because Joe E. Ross had become extremely popular as the comedy relief on the show. BR: Green Lantern’s Pal, Doiby Dickles was certainly a mouthful of a title.

MORT-ification

SKIMMER: Both Mort and Charlie wanted it that way. Any alphabetical list of titles would have it right under Green Lantern. They also insisted that GL had to be prominent on every cover, even if it was just a picture of him on a billboard in the background. No way would a potential reader not know this was a “Green Lantern” book. It was about this same time that Comic Cavalcade was reduced to a 32-page book for a dime, and the decision was made to team up Flash and Green Lantern in a single story in the book. Up till then, though Jack Schiff was officially the editor of the book, Mort was the story editor of the “GL” stories. When the team-ups began, they were Jack’s alone, and sometimes did not fully integrate what Mort was doing in the “regular” “GL” titles.

Timberano! One of GL’s most noteworthy foes, in the years after the original King Kong movie was re-released in 1953 and recognized as a classic fantasy, was Timberano, the giant gorilla made of wood and thus immune to his Power Ring. The Arboreal Ape first appeared in Green Lantern #120 (July 1960). Artist uncertain, but thanks for a scan of the original art to Shane Foley.

BR: Knowing how “protective” Mort was of his characters when Julie started the Justice League, I can imagine that this did not sit well. SKIMMER: Well, Mort was always able to “influence” Schiff a bit. Certainly a lot more than he could do with Julie. He insisted that GL get top billing in Comic Cavalcade, and that only changed in the mid-’60s when the Flash TV show was on. That was also the only time in Mort’s run on GL that Flash outsold him.

In 1956, though, Mort pretty much dominated the super-hero line, not just for AA, but in the entire industry. Green Lantern and, to a lesser extent, Flash and Wonder Woman, were it. Marvel’s revival of Captain America, Torch, and Sub-Mariner had come and gone, along with pretty much everything else. BR: So you had GL in his own book and AllAmerican and Doiby Dickles…. SKIMMER: And Comic Cavalcade. BR: Right, plus Kid Lantern in his own book and Sensation. And then Cathy Crain came out in Showcase and her own title. SKIMMER: Which made the “family” seven titles. With the monthly and bi-monthly schedules, there was pretty much a new “GL” book every week. I think Charlie suggested adding another title, starring Detective Henderson from the TV show, but Mort told him they would over-saturate the market.

Doiby Dickles, Where Are You? Green Lantern’s Pal, Doiby Dickles had a long run in his own comic book—but the stories of the comic cabdriver got sillier and sillier as the years rolled along. This is the cover of issue #23 (August 1957). Repro’d from a photocopy of the original art, from the collection of Shane Foley; with special thanks to Chris Day. At right is a scene of Joe E. Ross as Doiby Dickles with guest star Fred Gwynne as Gotham City police officers in the Season 6 episode “The Big Forget”—a tale set in an alternate reality in which no one remembers Green Lantern. Ross and Gwynne were reunited in 1961 as cops Toody and Muldoon in the popular series Car 54, Where Are You?, which was essentially an outgrowth of that Green Lantern episode in all but name. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

BR: Julie told me once that the real reason Mort objected was because he didn’t want to handle another book! SKIMMER: Well, keep in mind that back then there were three stories in each issue. An editor would have to handle a dozen or more separate stories each month. And they were

The Secret History of All-American Comics, Inc.

It’s A Girl! Concept sketches of Girl Lantern by the “SF” artist and an unknown artist—courtesy of the collections of Shane Foley and Larry Guidry, respectively—juxtaposed with the cover of All-American Comics #229 (May 1959), which introduced the super-heroine to the comics-reading world. Shane Foley, Larry Guidry, and Alex Wright each sent a copy of this classic cover—heroes all! Everybody out there remember Connie Caye's pet cat Jade, who could turn green and fly, don't they?

all self-contained, which meant lots more plotting. Mort had his shortcuts in that department. Since he knew his audience turned over in about four years, he would frequently go back to older stories, lift the premise, and give it to another writer. Nothing was being reprinted in those days, so unless a reader happened to have his older brother’s comics, he’d never know. BR: I remember discovering that when I was first on staff. I’d take an old bound volume from the library to read on my lunch hour. From time to time I’d be reading a story that seemed very familiar, though I knew I’d never read it before. There were a few that were almost identical for the first few pages and then went in a different direction. But I also remember finding a “Tommy Tomorrow” story that was virtually identical to a “Doiby Dickles” tale—something that was not very easy when you consider the differences in the characters. SKIMMER: So Mort was handling six of the titles—he didn’t take over Comic Cavalcade until the ’60s—but that didn’t stop him from expanding the franchise. He did a story in Doiby Dickles where Doiby finds a magic lamp and gets three wishes. His first one was for a female Green Lantern to become GL’s partner-in-peril. BR: But the story ended with her vanishing again when the wish was used up. SKIMMER: Yes, but that’s where the “Mort Magic” took over. They got a lot of letters asking to bring Girl Lantern back. Mort insisted there were hundreds, but it was more likely a couple of dozen. We never got hundreds of letters about anything. Even so, even getting a few letters about something meant kids were spending almost half the price of a comic book on a stamp—so that was a sign. So Mort got Otto Binder to write a story about a new Girl Lantern, a teenage one, who would show up in Gotham City. BR: Why did he make her younger? And Alan Scott’s cousin? SKIMMER: I remember that coming up in an editorial meeting. Mort said he didn’t want any confusion about Cathy Crain being GL’s girlfriend. By making Girl Lantern younger and related to him, he eliminated any possibility of there being a romance between them. She was the daughter

MORT-ification

of Alan’s aunt—his father’s sister—whom we’d never heard of before. After Girl Lantern was introduced, though, Aunt Beth started turning up from time to time in “Kid Lantern” stories.

original members— Lightning Lantern, Cosmic Lantern, and Saturn Lantern—come from 1,000 years in the future to recruit Kid Lantern to join their club. After ten centuries, lanterns have been found on planets throughout the universe, each one giving its finder different powers. And, as with Girl Lantern, the readers wrote and wanted to see them again.

BR: Nothing like retroactively adjusting history. SKIMMER: And then there was the whole “CC” initials thing. Carol Cole, Cathy Crain, and now Connie Caye. Mort got carried away with that whole thing. Did you know he originally wanted to call Lori the Mermaid Carmella Carp?

BR: “Hundreds” of letters, no doubt. SKIMMER: [chuckling] No doubt. Each time Mort brought them back, he added a few more characters with different powers. Eventually, when the Legion took over Sensation Comics, the readers would send in ideas for new characters and Mort would publish them in the letter columns.

BR: [laughs] Thankfully, sanity prevailed. And the whole idea of Connie living in the orphanage and keeping her existence a secret? SKIMMER: Well, she was only supposed to be 16 or so. She couldn’t be living on her own. She and her parents had been on a camping trip. There was a violent storm and a flash flood carried her parents away.

My Name Is Legion Love it or loathe it, the Lantern Legion was first introduced to Kid Lantern (and vice versa) in Sensation Comics #196 (April 1958). The precise artist is unidentified by collector Shane Foley, who supplied this scan of the original art—but it does have the look of having at least a Curt Swan layout.

BR: [reading from a comic] “Frightened and cold in the dark woods, Connie sees a strange green glow in the distance and follows it to a cave. Inside, she finds the lantern and the ring.” Sounds incredibly familiar, doesn’t it? SKIMMER: As I said earlier, Mort had no qualms about reusing plot devices. Of course, after playing out the orphanage gimmick, he had Connie adopted by the Danvers. BR: And then he had her real parents, Beth and Tom Caye, turn up alive after having been lost in the woods for two years.

SKIMMER: Right. Turned out they’d been injured when they were carried away in the flood, but had managed to survive and recover. And eventually found their way back to civilization. At first, they had no idea Connie had survived as well, so they didn’t even look for her. BR: I remember those stories from my early fanboy days. Girl Lantern was still operating in secret, and while saving people from a runaway tiger at the zoo, she sees her parents in the crowd. She thinks they are ghosts, coming to haunt her.

BR: I’m sure I sent in a few in my letter-writing days. SKIMMER: Kid Lantern costarred with the Legion in Sensation into the mid-’60s. Then they ran out of steam and Girl Lantern took over the magazine.

BR: Of course, they came back in the ’70s in reprints in the back of Kid Lantern, then started appearing in new stories, and eventually took over the whole magazine. That was after Mort had retired and Murray Boltinoff was handling the book. SKIMMER: Girl Lantern and the Lantern Legion were probably the two biggest additions to the “family” that Mort made during that period, but it seemed like every few months, he came up with something else that ended up spinning into a piece of the mythology. BR: The Bizarros, for example. SKIMMER: Again, something that started as a single story. In this case, it was a take-off on the Frankenstein story, done in a “Kid Lantern” tale. And, thanks to “hundreds of letters,” he did a new version in a “Green Lantern” story, this time making Bizarro more comical than tragic.

SKIMMER: Finally they are reunited and Connie goes from having no parents to having two sets. And then Green Lantern finally agrees it is time to reveal her existence to the world.

“Tales of the Bizarro World” preceded the “Legion” as the back-up series in Sensation. It only lasted about a year and a half. I guess there was only so much the readers could take of what was basically a one-joke series. “Us do everything opposite of what Earth people do.” Bizarro’s red power ring would only work on wooden things, for example.

BR: I always thought the stories lost some of their charm after that. Girl Lantern became like all the other super-heroes at that point.

BR: The readers would also send in “Bits of Bizarro Business” that were printed in the lettercols.

SKIMMER: And there were plenty of them by then, not the least of which was the mini-army Mort created with the Lantern Legion. Like Girl Lantern, the Legion was something that started as a single story. The three

SKIMMER: And there was the miniature city of Lantor, inhabited by tiny Green Lanterns, all living inside GL’s lantern. The Green Lantern Emergency Squad—like an army of gnats with power rings—coming to

The Secret History of All-American Comics, Inc.

Green Lantern’s Rogues’ Gallery Shane Foley has even collected these vintage sketches of some of Green Lantern’s greatest foes, made for some AA purpose. Seen here, of course, are The Fool, Nicky Napoleon, Bizarro, Brainiac, and Vandal Savage. What—no Harlequin or Solomon Grundy?

Nicky had first appeared back in AllAmerican Comics #38 in 1942. I dug up that issue one time and found the original didn’t have any magic powers; he just looked like Napoleon. Actually, he looked more like Peter Lorre! When he reappeared, he had changed his name to Nicky Napoleon and he would use his magical powers just to vex Green Lantern. Nelson Bridwell later explained they were Earth-1 and Earth-2 versions of the same character.

his aid. Villains like Brainiac, the Fool, and Timberano, Lori the mermaid, and Atlantis. Other editors might have used them as one-shots, but Mort kept building. Any character that showed up could be back at any time. BR: I remember when he first introduced Nicky Bonaparte, who was supposed to be a magical reincarnation of Napoleon; he turned Gotham City into early-19th century Paris. There was an editor’s note saying

SKIMMER: Yes, Nelson was the one who would try to bring the internal logic to Mort’s books. It didn’t always work, but, you know, all these ideas that Mort came up with, all these additions to the mythology of Green Lantern—they continued to expand the world of GL. The writers and artists and editors who came after him, a lot of them make jokes about what he did or dismiss it all. But, like it or not, there was a reason that Green Lantern was the number one selling hero for so many years… and that reason was Mort Weisinger.

Next: “We Should Form A Club Or Society…”

Rough ‘n’ Ready (Above:) Bob Powell’s cover rough and his finished art for his first Shadow Comics issue (Vol.6 #12, March 1947). Adding a sexy babe to the mix was a good call, guys! [©2008 Advance Magazine Publishers, Inc./The Condé Nast Publications.]

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Bob Powell’s Shadow! by Michael T. Gilbert

then approached a young cartoonist named Will Eisner. In June 1940 comic book history was made when Eisner’s Spirit series appeared instead of The Shadow! But in 1939 Street & Smith’s new president, Allan Grammer, finally okayed a Shadow comic book. Though Gibson probably wasn’t involved with that first issue, he became the primary scripter with issue #2—at double the going rate! Spin-offs were nothing new for The Shadow. The dark avenger had made his very first appearance on July 31, 1930, as a narrator on Street & Smith’s Detective Story Hour radio show. The Shadow Magazine pulp followed on April 1, 1931, and was an immediate success. Later, the character graduated to his own radio show in the fall of 1932.

Who Goes There? The Shadow Knows! (Left:) Powell delineates Lamont Cranston, the best-known of of The Shadow’s various secret identities. [©2008 Advance Magazine Publishers, Inc./The Condé Nast Magazines.]

Keep On Truckin’! (Below & on next page:) Powell illustrated the story “No Safety in Numbers” for the Nov. 1946 Shadow digest. This type of illo, spread across two pages with room in the middle for the “gutter,” was for some reason called a “double truck” in the trade. [©2008 Advance Magazine Publishers, Inc./The Condé

The Shadow Comic Book!

ne of the most successful 1930s pulp publishers was Street & Smith. But when “Superman” debuted in 1938, comic book sales took off—and Street & Smith took notice. And what better feature of theirs to convert to graphic form than The Shadow, their top pulp title? So, in February 1940, The Shadow got his own comic, illustrated by Vernon Greene, under the direction of Jack Binder. Actually, the origins of the comic book go back even further. According to Shadow scholar Anthony Tollin, Walter Gibson (who wrote the bulk of The Shadow pulps) had tried to interest his publishers in a Shadow comic book as early as 1937, a full year before Superman came onto the scene. When Gibson noticed that early comic books (primarily comic strip reprints) were selling well, he pitched a Shadow comic book featuring all-new material to Street & Smith. But editor William deGrouchy wasn’t sold on the idea, and the proposal was scrapped. Not long afterward, Quality comic publisher Everett “Busy” Arnold approached Gibson about the possibility of doing a weekly Shadow comic book as a free Sunday newspaper insert, but deGrouchy nixed that idea, too. Arnold

Bob Powell’s Shadow!

On June 17, 1940, months after Shadow Comics debuted, a new Shadow syndicated strip began, scripted by Walter Gibson and illustrated by Vernon Greene. The team likewise did work for Shadow Comics. Charles Coll and his studio also provided serviceable, if uninspired, art. Though the comic book version sold well (almost half a million copies in 1941!), it lacked the moody atmosphere of the radio show and pulp magazine. That all changed in 1948, when Bob Powell took over. He got the job after Gibson, embroiled in a financial dispute with Street & Smith, refused to work on the pulp or the comic book. Soon after, Powell became the main creative force behind The Shadow comic book.

Howard Nostrand, Powell’s assistant, discussed the changeover in 1974, in the 16th issue of Bill Spicer’s Graphic Story Magazine: “I started working for Bob when I was 18. It was in 1948, and we were doing a lot of stuff for Street & Smith. We did “The Shadow,” “Nick Carter,” and “Doc Savage.” They had pretty grubby artwork back then. Back in 1948, Bill deGrouchy had a little studio he ran called Penn Art. I think he must have been paying $10 a page to turn out finished artwork. The stuff was really just miserable. We’d just sit there and look at the crap being bought. And, you know, this was “The Shadow,” “Nick Carter,” and “Doc Savage” and whatnot. We ended up doing the whole book then. I think we were getting $25 a page from Street & Smith.”

Things quickly improved when Powell and his studio took over The Shadow and back-up features like Nick Carter and Doc Savage. Powell’s Shadow first materialized (or dematerialized!) in Shadow Comics, Vol. 6, #12 (March 1947), the cover of which appears on our intro page. In the same interview, conducted by Bhob Stewart, Nostrand describes the workings of the Powell studio:

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

In The Nick Of Time Powell never drew a Shadow newspaper comic strip, but he did draw this comic strip sample featuring the famous early fictional detective Nick Carter, who starred in a Shadow Comics backup feature. Anthony Tollin believes Powell did two weeks’ worth of the Nick Carter strip. [©2008 Advance Magazine Publishers, Inc.; The Condé Nast Magazines.]

Bob Powell’s Shadow!

“There were two other fellows working with us. A fellow named Marty Epp and another one, George Siefringer. I started out doing inking, and George did the backgrounds. Marty was inking and doing some lettering and helping George with the background and cleaning up and doing who knows what all. Actually, when we got going, the quality of this work picked up a hell of a lot.”

Powell himself did the bulk of the pencils, along with some inking. He and Gibson protégé Bruce Elliott provided scripts.

The Powell Pulps! Powell, who had collaborated with Will Eisner early in his career, was an ideal choice for the strip. His Shadow had weight and substance, and absolutely brimmed with dark, gloomy atmosphere. Sometimes Powell even adapted original Shadow radio shows. He continued drawing Shadow Comics until the final issue, #101, in August 1949. The pulp version ended around the same time. Powell also drew a handful of illustrations for Street & Smith’s Shadow Magazine in the late ’40s, making him one of the few cartoonists to illustrate the character for both mediums. Space prohibits showing more than a sampling of Powell’s art, but these examples demonstrate why many consider Powell to be the finest cartoonist to illustrate “The Shadow” during the Golden Age!

The Lamp That Time Forgot (Left:) The Shadow, Nick Carter, and Margo Lane—caught in a rather embarrassing position! This was part of a lampshade painted by Powell in the late 1940s. See the entire ‘shade in Alter Ego #67. [Art ©2008 Estate of Bob Powell; Shadow, Nick Carter, & Margo Lane TM & © Advance Magazine Publishers, Inc./The Condé Nast Magazines.]

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Bullets Are Hard To Digest (Above:) In 1943 The Shadow Magazine changed from the traditional pulp size to a more streamlined digest. It reverted back to full size shortly before the series ended in 1949. Powell’s Shadow Mystery cover (Aug.-Sept. 1948) graced the final issue of the digest version. [©2008 Advance Magazine Publishers, Inc.; The Condé Nast Magazines.]

Endnotes We’d like to thank Anthony Tollin, whose “Four-Color Shadows” article in The Shadow (Double Novel Trade Paperback #13, Dec. 2007) provided much of the background for this piece. He also generously provided scans of The Shadow pulp illustrations. Check out his website at: www.shadowsanctum.com Anthony’s article was based on information provided by Will Murray, Bhob Stewart, Martin Greim, Bill Spicer, and our own Jim Amash. A big Mr. Monster thanks to all! Those curious about Bob Powell should check out Alter Ego #66 for an in-depth overview of Powell’s life and career, as well as Comic Crypt follow-up pieces in issues #67 and 69. Additionally, The Comics Journal #290 (May 2008) features a 40-page full-color section reprinting many of Powell’s finest horror comics, along with my overview of his career. Till next time…

The Shadow Girders His Loins

(Top & bottom right:) The cover and splash page, respectively, to Shadow Comics, Vol. 8, #9, (real issue #93) (Dec. 1948). Though the two main images are almost identical, Powell completely redrew the splash panel from a slightly different angle. Hey, Bob, what gives? Someone break the stat machine? [©2008 Advantage Magazine Publishers, Inc.; The Condé Nast Magazines.”]

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In Memoriam

Elmer Wexler (1918-2007) “This Man Could Really Draw—And In Any Style He Wished” by Jim Amash

he late Gill Fox, longtime comic book and newspaper strip artist, said of Elmer “Red” Wexler: “He’s a tough guy, served in the Marines. He once knocked a guy out with one punch. He doesn’t take any crap.” Then he gave me Wexler’s phone number and said, “You’ll enjoy talking to Red. He’s a straight shooter who tells it like it is. He doesn’t waste his time with people he doesn’t like.” “What if he doesn’t like me?” I joked. Gill laughed, “Then he’ll come down there and punch you out! But don’t let that intimidate you.” “Oh, thanks, Gill! Thanks a lot!”

I did find Red Wexler slightly intimidating, though he was very nice when I interviewed him [see Alter Ego #36]. Firm in speech, a nononsense observer who was quick to point out that his brief comic book career (at DC, MLJ, Standard, and Quality) didn’t mean that much to him. He was much prouder of his advertising work for various companies, including his own and the fabled Johnstone and Cushing art service in New York City. He did the Jon Jason and Vic Jordan newspaper strips, and for many years was a top illustrator. This man could really draw—and in any style he wished, something that can’t be said for a lot of people. Wexler was in the Marines during World War II and drew a pencil portrait of the famous war correspondent Ernie Pyle a few hours before the latter’s death from sniper fire. The drawing was given to the news services and was circulated around the world, though we were unable to find a copy (and are still keeping an eye out for it). I wanted to hear more about his war experiences, but I sensed he didn’t want to do a long interview, so I kept it short and to the point. I did notice—and Red himself pointed this out—that his memory failed him on a few subjects. I didn’t suspect that he was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. I do wish I had talked to him more, because he seemed a nice man who was justifiably proud of his career and life. He may have sounded tough and strong, but he was a good-hearted man.

“Red,” Black, & Slicked Back A circa-1960s photo of Elmer “Red” Wexler, between important images from two career phases of his life in comics: his cover for Pines/Nedor’s Exciting Comics #9 (May 1941), the issue that introduced the popular Black Terror, and a panel from the Rusty and Dusty commercial “comic strip” he drew, via Johnstone & Cushing Art Service, for inclusion in newspaper Sunday comics sections. The sponsor, of course, was Vaseline Hair Tonic. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

In Memoriam

Wayne Howard (1949-2008) “He Learned Most Of What He Knew About Comics From… Assisting Wally Wood” by Mark Evanier

ne of the few African-American comic book artists at the time he broke into the field, Howard learned his craft in the fanzines of the 1960s and at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. But he told me he learned most of what he knew about comics from his brief time assisting Wally Wood from 1968 to 1969. (Some sources say ’69 only, but you can see Wayne’s name hidden all throughout the backgrounds of DC’s Captain Action #1, which Wood and his crew produced in 1968.)

point, Jack arranged for him to take his samples in to show Carmine Infantino, who was the head guy at DC.

I only knew Wayne from a couple of phone calls in 1970, shortly after he left Wood. When Jack Kirby quit Marvel to edit his own comics for DC, Wayne kept phoning Jack and also me, hoping he could draw or at least ink something for the new projects. Unfortunately, DC didn’t want Jack employing other artists, so there was nothing there for Wayne. At one

A few days after the scheduled appointment, I asked Jack if he’d heard how Howard’s work was received. Jack replied, “Carmine thought he wasn’t ready yet, so he sent him to Connecticut.”

Charlton Days Wayne Howard, in the only known photo we have of him—and his imaginative cover for Midnight Tales #2 (Feb. 1973). With thanks for the photo to Mike Ambrose, editor/publisher of the excellent magazine Charlton Spotlight; see website www.charltonspotlight.com. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

I didn’t understand the response, so I asked Jack to explain. “I said Carmine sent him to Connecticut,” Kirby replied. Again, I didn’t get it. “Are you saying that Carmine looked at his work and said, ‘I don’t like the way you draw. Go to Connecticut!’?” “Yes,” Jack insisted. “Carmine told him to go to Connecticut.” It took a few minutes but I figured it out. Charlton Comics, the lowestpaying company in the business, was based in Derby, Connecticut. I asked Jack, “Are you saying Carmine told him to go try and get work from Charlton?” Jack, a bit exasperated with me, said, “Yes, Carmine sent him to Connecticut!” To Jack, “Charlton” and “Connecticut” were interchangeable. Howard did go to Charlton and did get work there... a lot of work, though he occasionally managed to get a job here and there for DC, Marvel, or Gold Key. I remember he inked one issue of Marvel Team-Up over Gil Kane pencils and did, I thought, a better job than a lot of folks who, unlike Wayne, got more work there. I have here the original art to an unpublished mystery story he did for DC over Mike Sekowsky pencils. Wayne’s most notable work for Charlton was the mystery title Midnight Tales, which he created and drew most of, and often wrote, as well. As Charlton cut back on publishing, Wayne’s career in comics pretty much went away, and he freelanced here and there until around 1982, whereupon he stopped working in comics altogether. Someone told me once that he’d become a policeman, but I don’t know if that’s true or if the person was confusing him with Pete Morisi, another Charlton mainstay who did work as a cop. The sources reporting Wayne’s death say that it was from a heart attack. He was 59. This piece was slightly edited from its original form on Mark Evanier’s website www.newsfromme.com; used with permission.

In Memoriam

Larry Woromay (1927-2007) “Hyper, Gory, And Downright Dizzying” A Remembrance by Mike Howell

arry Woromay’s Eerie Publications artwork epitomizes the madness of the early original art issues: hyper, gory, and downright dizzying. Dripping with decrepit atmosphere and generously ladled with blood and guts, Woromay’s output is some of the most nightmare-inducing and stomach-churning of the line. Therefore, it’s some of the best-loved… a fact which amused him thirty years later. Born in April 1927, Lawrence Woromay got his start in the illustration field in the early 1950s with illustrations for Ziff-Davis’ science-fiction pulps. He composed some excellent full-page line drawings and spot illustrations for stories by the likes of Rog Phillips and Stephen Marlowe. His horror pedigree began in 1951, when he drew a number of terror tales for Stan Lee (to whom he later referred as “that Spider-Man guy”) at Timely, doing excellent stories for Strange Tales, Adventures into Terror, et al. Woromay’s wife Ida told me that back in the day he was considered “the horror guy”… the artist that his peers would turn to for horror art tips. He especially liked the horror stories. He also drew for ACG and Ace’s horror comics. In the 1960s he was a busy comics creator, working for Harry Harrison’s art studio, predominantly doing pencils while Harrison and others handled the inks. During this period he did a lot of work for Charlton’s ghost and war comics. Charlton sometimes attached the name “Bill Woromay” to his work, though Larry wasn’t aware of that fact. He also went knocking on comics company doors looking for work. Ironically, this got him a nice 6-page story in Warren’s Eerie magazine in 1967—shades of things to come.

Another door he knocked on was that of his old Timely peers Myron Fass and Carl Burgos; luckily, they opened that door. Woromay’s work for their Eerie Publications is crazy and way over the top… super-gory, full of action, and oozing with dread. He really stamps the stories with his own style, ignoring the previous panel layouts and going off on a wild, creative tangent. His first work for the company hit the newsstands cover-dated Dec. 1969: “The Blackness of Evil” in Weird, V3, #5, and a twofer in Witches’ Tales V1#9… “The Devil’s Monster” and “Over Her Dead Body”! Over the next two years he contributed nearly three dozen gruesome tales to Eerie Pubs. My own personal favorite might be “The Witches’ Coven” with its disturbing inverted crucifixions and a real feeling of decay throughout. Great stuff, indeed! By 1971 Woromay’s tenure at Eerie ended and he moved on to other projects. One such was as puppeteer, then the director, of the Puppet Theater in Nassau County, NY. He designed countless large puppets for their productions, a job he enjoyed. This work lasted for twenty years.

The Woromay Files Larry Woromay, in a photo at top left taken late in life—and a phantasmagorical splash page from a story which appeared in what Mike Howell terms “the infamous Eerie Pubs.” Thanks to Mike for all photos and art accompanying this piece. [Comics page ©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Sometimes referred to as a Jack Davis imitator, his affection for Davis’ comics work is obvious. He said he’d always loved Davis’ used of many different-sized pen points and brushes to put real texture and depth into a drawing. In a discussion on an online message board about whether or

not some of Woromay’s artwork was really done by Davis, the webmaster responded with a definite “no” and added, “It looks like it was drawn by a mentally-disturbed 13-year-old who might have grown into a mass murderer. But hell, I like it anyway.” Woromay also cited Milton Caniff and, especially, Burne Hogarth

In Memoriam

The Horrors Of War—And Vice Versa Woromay penciled and Ernie Bache inked the splash of “The Surrender” for Charlton’s Army War Heroes #20 (July 1967)—while “Twanng” was done for an “Eerie Pubs” title. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

(whose Cartoonists and Illustrators School he attended in 1946) as strong influences on his style. He studied Hogarth’s Dynamic Anatomy religiously; it taught him to keep his work from getting static, to use movement, and to draw a comics page as a whole… not just as individual panels, but as a complete composition. This is certainly evident in his Eerie Pubs work. Even when he was knocking one out in the quickest, sketchiest style, his pages have an exciting sweep to them, always treating the eye to a swirl of motion. He had no real memories one way or the other concerning his work for Countrywide. It was just another gig, and a long time ago at that. After the Puppet Theater years, the Woromays packed up and moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where Larry pursued his greatest love… painting. Many of his paintings are Southwest-flavored and have a superb textual quality to them, thick with layers of paint from a pallet knife and brush strokes, creating an almost 3D effect. His pastoral portraits and landscapes are a very far cry from his crazed, violent work for Carl and Myron, but just as beautiful to behold. He had plans to add digital art to his repertoire as he got better acquainted with new technology. Sadly, on August 26, 2007, within a week of my being fortunate enough to speak with him, Lawrence Edward Woromay passed away. He was 80 years old.

re:

his accomplishments and world views. Paul Levitz Through his role, which was so instrumental, in the founding of modern-day comics fandom in the early 1960s, Jerry has had a positive effect on the lives of many people who don’t realize that he ever existed… or who know of him only as a shadowy legend from the Silver Age. But Jerry did exist, and we are all the richer for it. Thanks for your thoughts, Paul. Another aspect of Jerry’s life was touched on by Bob Latona, who, as he put it, “edited a fanzine called Vanguard, a long, long time ago”: Dear Roy— (I’ll go with “Dear Roy,” because that’s what I wrote circa 45 years ago when I ordered Alter Ego #2 from you, the one with your Spectre cover.) In your tribute to Jerry Bails, you might have put in a word about his kindness in counseling at least one younger fan when it came time to decide college and majors. At one point of my addled adolescence, I thought a Ph.D. in the Logical Foundation of Science like his would be a really cool thing to have, but something in his advice gave the impression that, even though we never met, he could tell I would never be able to hack the math. And boy, he was right! Bob Latona

ooks like Captain Ego, one of A/E’s miraculous “maskots,” has his work cut out for him—for, using the thought-personifying “Z-helmet” invented by the late Biljo White, artist Shane Foley has turned the Bernie Wrightson-drawn Yeti on the cover of Web of Horror #3, as seen on p. 9 of this issue, into a formidable foe indeed! Alter may have to bail Ego out of this one! [Art ©2008 Shane Foley; Captain Ego TM & ©2008 Roy Thomas & Bill Schelly.] While they sort that out, we’ve time for a few fast notes re A/E #68, which honored and celebrated this magazine’s founder, Dr. Jerry G. Bails, who passed away on Nov. 23, 2006… and in which Ye Editor recounted in pretty much full his 1970s association with the comic book adaptation of George Lucas’ monumental film Star Wars. We received a ton of additional tributes to Jerry for his pioneering work in comics fandom, which began with the launching of the first volume of Alter Ego as a spirit-duplicator fanzine in early 1961, followed soon by the first comics newszine and adzine, the first DC index, the Who’s Who of American Comic Books, and numerous other firsts. No room to run many of these latter-day missives, but we begin with a welcome and heartfelt comment from Paul Levitz, president and publisher of DC Comics (as well as former writer and editor and Junior Woodchuck):

Jerry was never shy about giving out advice re academia if he sensed that one wanted it, Bob. A few years ago, when he learned I was finally getting my Master’s degree (in the humanities), he wrote that he couldn’t see why I’d want to bother at my age, and given my career and inclinations. But he recognized that (along with keeping my wife Dann company as she got her own such degree), a part of me had always regretted not continuing my schooling years earlier, since in 1965 I’d turned down a fellowship in foreign relations in order to take an assistant-editorial job at DC, which led quickly to my work for Stan and Marvel. Jerry congratulated us both when the degrees came through. Now if I could only find the time to finish turning my thesis on “Comics and the Cold War” into a book for TwoMorrows, I think Jerry would’ve approved of that, as well. Besides a characteristically gracious note from Jerry’s wife Jean, we also heard from his brother Jack Bails: Roy, Jerry spoke of you so often that I feel like I know you. Jean sent me a copy of Alter Ego #68 dedicated to my brother. I was mesmerized from the moment I saw the cover. Everything about it reminded me of Jerry and his passion for super-hero comics. The pictures, particularly of our dad’s “Bails Recreation – Snooker” pool hall brought back memories. Nearly eight years younger, Jerry tutored me by reading “Justice Society” comics in the 1940s. His own super-hero stories put me to sleep many nights. Your magazine captured, in the words of Jean, collector friends, and fans, the essence of Jerry that I will pass on to my own children so they can appreciate the many facets of their uncle.

Roy— Thanks so much for the Jerry Bails memorial issue, and for sharing so much of Jerry’s life. It’s the nature of our particular circle that we often touch one aspect of each other’s lives for years on end without ever having the full relationships that come with family or friendship in geographically-knit communities. Notwithstanding that, or the age gap, I always deeply appreciated Jerry’s friendship, as well as his trailblazing which had so direct an effect on my life. It was good to get a window into the rest of

Jack D. Bails Higher praise for the issue we could not hope to receive, Jack. One reader, Rob Maisch, had a mild shock as he perused A/E #68: Dear Roy, Picked up Alter Ego #68 while here visiting Madison, Wisconsin, as I remembered meeting and admiring Dr. Bails during several conventions.

re:

I happened upon page 28 with the photos of the unknown 1969 Convention and thought that they looked an awful lot like the Howard Johnson’s Motor Lodge near Wayne State U. in Detroit, where the original Detroit Triple Fan Fairs had been held. On closer observation I was shocked and amused to find that the dorky-looking kid in the sport coat and tie behind the little boy in the striped shirt in the bottom right-hand photo on the group was indeed me! It was my first convention and my straight-laced, Chemical Engineer, Wing Tip shoe-wearing father had insisted (much to my chagrin!) that one must always dress “properly” when attending a “Convention.” Rob Maisch Well, at least maybe it made it easier for you to recognize yourself, Rob!

Four For Fandom This photo, taken the night before the Fandom Reunion Luncheon held in 1997 in Chicago, shows a quartet of fannish friends mentioned in Lynn Woolley’s letter. (Left to right:) Jerry Bails, Howard Keltner (of the Texas Trio), Roy Thomas, and Bill Schelly. Howard, alas, passed away only a short time later, but had been determined to make it to the reunion despite his rapidly failing health. Photo courtesy of Jean Bails.

Lynn Woolley perhaps spoke for many readers, especially those with a sense of comics history, when he wrote us: Roy, I kept wondering why it was taken me so long to finish reading A/E #68. Then I realized that the answer is Jerry Bails. The late Mr. Bails was and will remain a fascinating part of comics—and so I read the entire issue, which is something I usually don’t do. I learned a lot about the beginnings of fandom, and realized that Jerry has touched my life (his work in comics, though not his political views) for about 46 years, even though he probably never heard of me.

Of course, I read those early DC letters columns and, as an 11-yearold, responded to them. The first fannish publication I ever saw was a one-page dittoed “On the Drawing Board” with an illo by Harry Thomas. I still have it. My first fanzine was Batmania #5, which I also still have. I also picked up several of the early Alter Egos at conventions, and so, to me, the “Big Three” were Jerry Bails, Roy Thomas, and Biljo White. So sad to think that two of these guys are now gone. (Roy, please tell me that you’re exercising and watching your diet!) The issue was a fitting tribute to the Father of Fandom. May he rest in peace. Y’know, we kind-of had our own Big Three here in Texas. Instead of Jerry, we had Howard Keltner. Instead of Roy, we had Larry Hendon. And our Biljo was Buddy Saunders. Howard and Larry are sadly gone, but Buddy is going strong. A piece on “The Texas Trio” would certainly be appropriate for A/E. I’ll bet Bill Schelly could write it. (I might even be able to help. Larry was a close friend for years.) In addition, “Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt” is always a favorite column… I liked the interview with Hames Ware…and, elsewhere in the issue, it was fun to hear of the history of the Star Wars comic. Lynn Woolley

Shaping Up! When he learned that a piece on the origins of Marvel’s Man-Thing was in the works, and knowing that Roy T. had wanted to call his and Herb Trimpe’s homage to The Heap “The Shape” (as related on p. 26 of this issue), Andreas Gottschlich sent the accompanying original cartoon, which featured Ol’ Greenskin—in whose comic that particular Glob first appeared—as well as caricatures of Roy and Stan Lee. And, connoisseurs of comic art that we are, we figured we might as well publish it! [Hulk TM & ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.; other art ©2008 Andreas Gottschlich.]

Actually, Lynn, Bill Schelly has already written fairly extensively about the Texas Trio in his still-inprint 1990s books The Golden Age of Comic Fandom and The Best of Star-Studded Comics (see ad on p. 81)… and an interview with Buddy Saunders is in a queue for a future issue of A/E, as well, though we’re kinda backed up right now in all departments. (And, if I have any inclination not to exercise and

[comments, correspondence, & corrections]

watch my diet—which I most definitely do, alas—it’s more than made up for by Dann’s eagle eye!) Speaking of regular contributor Hames Ware, incidentally, he informs us that the radio show he narrated was actually called Precious Memories, and that he believes it can still be googled under that name for more info. And our apologies to Murray Ward, who pointed out (and he wasn’t the first one to do so!) that we accidentally ran a photo of fellow fan/collector Murray Bishoff along with MW’s tribute to Jerry Bails in #68. “Oh well,” he says philosophically, “at least it’s a change from being mistaken for Will Murray….” Also—we neglected, last issue, to include some information sent by sf/mystery/pop culture author Ron Goulart. He enjoyed the Nick Cardy interview in A/E #65: “Would like to point out, however, that the [Quality] ‘Quicksilver’ page on display is actually by Paul Gustavson. The ‘Nick Cardy’ byline remained on that feature no matter who drew it. As I recall, it was even on the episode that Jack Cole drew.”

The Men Behind The Star Wars Comic Now, about my article on the genesis of Marvel’s Star Wars comic in 1976:

(Left: James Galton, then president of Marvel Comics, in a 1978 photo from the quarterly company newsletter Marvel Update (with thanks, methinks, to Howard Siegel). (Above:) A previously unpublished photo taken at the San Diego Comic-Con held in the

summer of 1976, to hype both film and (incidentally) comic book nearly a year before I had figured that that fairly Star Wars premiered. (L. to r.:) An unknown convention worker… Charlie Lippincott, extensive account would be my last George Lucas’ point man at the time… Roy Thomas and Howard Chaykin, writer/editor word on the subject. However, some and artist, respectively, of Marvel’s then-upcoming Star Wars #1-6. That’s the early time after A/E #68 came out, I Chaykin poster being projected onto the screen. Thanks to Steve Sansweet. received a call from my friend Dr. Matthew J. Bruccoli, professor of literature at the University of South Carolina—who, to Dann’s and my sation, whether or not any “throwing out” was involved. But my memory, great sorrow, passed on suddenly this past June. Matt was one of the world’s like that of other human beings, has had stranger tricks played upon it… foremost authorities on F. Scott Fitzgerald and the “Scribner’s authors” Thus, since Charlie Lippincott himself never responded to my attempts to (Hemingway, Wolfe, et al.), but, more to the point here, he was also a communicate with him, I contacted Steve Sansweet, co-author of the publisher of many academic works related to literature and authors. This massive 2007 “documents” volume The Star Wars Vault. A few years back, latter activity kept him busy and traveling, and put him in touch with Steve had done extensive research on all aspects of what the book called people all over the world. This time, he was phoning to tell me he had just “Thirty Years of Treasures from the Lucasfilm Archives,” including the spoken on some matter with a James Galton, who had mentioned that in Marvel comic, one of the earliest “merchandising” arrangements made in the latter 1970s and 1980s he had been president of Marvel Comics. When conjunction with the movie. He concurred that everything he had uncovered Matt had mentioned my name, he responded with fondness for me because, underscored my memory that there had been no attempt by Lucas or 20th in Matt’s account of Jim’s words, “He made me rich.” Century-Fox to be paid for the Star Wars comic until later… the post-movie Since I’d made several attempts in the past to learn Jim’s current whereissues and the numerous reprintings of #1-6, which Jim Galton (like then abouts, I prevailed upon Matt to give me his address, and I mailed him a editor-in-chief Jim Shooter) has confirmed virtually kept Marvel solvent copy of A/E #68, since Star Wars had been launched on his watch. Ere long, during a bad period at the end of the 1970s. (Hence the modest subtitle of Jim phoned me. It was our first conversation since a meeting in passing at my article in A/E #68: “The Comic Book That Saved Marvel!”) Steve and I the San Diego Comic-Con sometime in the 1990s. suspect, though we cannot prove, that Jim may be recalling some other licensing deal in this instance, rather than Star Wars… and that it was Jim politely took issue with several remembrances of mine in the article, someone else, not I, whom he threw out of his office. which was only to be expected, since naturally we’d beheld these events from differing perspectives. I invited him to put his comments in writing for publiIt is, of course, not impossible that Steve overlooked something in the cation, but he declined to do so, citing reasons of health. We did speak on Lucasfilm Archives… and that I’ve forgotten that detail… but at this point, the phone for some time, however, and I made copious notes—which for the with all due respect for Jim Galton, who definitely played a significant part life of me I could not locate when the time finally rolled around to deal with in turning around Marvel’s fortunes during a difficult period, I’ll have to A/E #68 (and for which I’m still looking). I do remember much of what we stand by my own memories. But Jim also graciously provided several other discussed, however. tidbits of information about that era, and, if he’s willing, I hope to tape an interview with him in the very near future…. I was surprised to hear Jim say that, at the outset, George Lucas’ people (by which I assume he primarily meant Charlie Lippincott, the only repreIn the meantime, send those e-mails and epistles to: sentative with whom I dealt) originally wanted payment for even the sixRoy Thomas e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com issue adaptation of the film, which of course was begun roughly a year 32 Bluebird Trail fax: (803) 826-6501 before the movie was released in May 1977. Jim said that, based on the nonSt. Matthews, SC 29135 performance of one or two earlier film adaptations (probably The Golden Voyage of Sinbad in Worlds Unknown #7-8 in 1974), “I threw you out of And don’t miss next issue’s coverage of the MLJ supermy office.” In 1976 I was no longer Marvel’s editor-in-chief, and had recently heroes. You don’t want The Hangman showing up at your decided against returning to that position despite being “vetted” by new place in the dead of night, do you? publisher Galton, moving to Los Angeles instead, so I had relatively few dealings with Jim… so I felt I’d probably have remembered such a conver-

Captain Marvel, as one of those fellows in the capes and long drawers on the covers of those books, should be more impressive in the performance of his feats. I saw that, as a competitive game among them, being waged there on the newsstand racks, but actually to be settled … on various drawing boards? It’s a wonder now what the future with that company might have been, had I clung to that misconception.

[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 No. 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 discussed the importance of “doodling.” In this installment, he brings us back to 1941 … and the real Captain Marvel. —P.C. Hamerlinck.]

They spoke of the work I had submitted being in the art style they sought. I believe it was not so much the style, as the technique. Any special effort spent in the preparation of those samples would have gone toward the unusually heavy outlines and scarcity of shading of the figures. It boiled down to the pointed brush, popular among the New York comic book artists, versus the flexible metal pen I favored. Their major concern, though, was not art styles or techniques … these people were in need of help. Experience had taught that in order to maintain the identity of their feature character consistently, it was

“W

hy don’t you write something about when you were drawing and writing those Captain Marvel stories?” The question came from a faithful reader of this column … and it was food for thought. “The real Captain Marvel,” he added. More thought! The period he was talking about would have begun the very first day I showed up at Fawcett in 1941. The purpose of my being there was to draw Captain Marvel … in story art, on covers, and wherever else needed. My writing of stories began shortly afterwards … voluntarily, at first. Captain Marvel was young at the time, it having been only a matter of months since his first appearances in print. Already he had undergone changes. The buttoned-down chest flap was gone, as was the fringed sash that had dangled from his waist. In place of the original slender physical build was the more familiar heftier frame. And he had begun to emerge from the growing crowd of comic book super-characters … at the sales counter. It was a meaningful time in the life of Captain Marvel … also in mine. I knew so little about comic books … or of the super-hero craze that was going on at the time. My assumption was that

Where’s The Beef? Marc Swayze’s cover for Whiz Comics #37 (Nov. 1942) shows the “heftier frame” that Captain Marvel had assumed within two or three years of his creation, both in his own work and in that of C.C. Beck and his art shop. [©2008 DC Comics.]

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

necessary that the art be carried on “in-house,” rather than by available outside art services. In the house, however, to fill that bill had been only one individual … the creator of the original concept, C.C. Beck. Thereafter we worked side by side, Beck with some assistance from Pete Costanza, and I, at my preference, working alone. The objective before us was clear … assurance that Captain Marvel remain the same in every way. And I don’t recall a single instance where we compared our work “to see.” In my case, and I suspect Beck’s, it was simply a matter of drawing Captain Marvel as we knew him to be. I was fortunate in having realized the true identity of the superhero. Captain Marvel was not the glorious gladiator I had imagined. A super-hero, to be sure … but there was more to it than that. There was a quality that made him … different. It was a realness … a warmth … that caused him to exist above and beyond the comic book page. To me that was the real Captain Marvel … the one that could be counted on to greet you with a friendly wave from across the street. And it was the Captain Marvel I drew … and certainly wrote about. But let’s not forget about another … likely the most fondly remembered of all alter egos … Captain Marvel’s other self, Billy Batson! Remember? “So long, folks!” Marc Swayze will return in the next issue of Alter Ego with more reminiscences of his years in the comics field.

Trading Places Contrasts And Comparisons Of Captains Marvel & Mar-Vell—& Their Alter Egos

by Zorikh Lequidre Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck

egular readers of this publication know the many reasons why the original Captain Marvel, created by Bill Parker and C.C. Beck, is unique among comic book super-heroes. One of those reasons has to do with his name. No other super-hero name has ever been used by so many different comic book characters (not counting reboots, revitalizations, and re-interpretations) and published by so many different comic book companies in the US and abroad. Among these CM-named characters were two published by Marvel Comics: Captain Mar-Vell, the alien warrior who became Captain Marvel, protector of the universe—and Genis-Vell, that character’s son, who recently adopted the Captain Marvel name in tribute to his father’s legacy. These were the two CMs who most often reflected and referenced the original Captain Marvel by having the heroes’ alter ego be a separate, non-powered person. Where the World’s Mightiest Mortal had Billy Batson, Mar-Vell and Genis-Vell had Rick Jones.

Enough “Marvels” In This Caption For You? Two titanic transformations. (Above:) Billy Batson becomes Captain Marvel in Fawcett’s Captain Marvel Adventures #130 (March 1952), with art by C.C. Beck and Pete Costanza, in a story probably written by Otto Binder. Thanks to Scott Derrick. [©2008 DC Comics.] (Left:) Rick Jones switches places for the first time with Mar-Vell in Marvel’s Captain Marvel #17 (Oct. 1969). Script by Roy Thomas; art by Gil Kane & Dan Adkins. [©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

When creating a character with the same name as a previous character—especially one as famous and with as much of a legend and fan following as the original Captain Marvel—one must make a conscious choice as to how much you will “tribute” the earlier character, and how much you will not reference the earlier character at all. The public record is conflicted as to whose idea it was for Marvel Comics to have its own Captain Marvel. In Les Daniels’ Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World’s Greatest Comics, it is stated that, after the publication of MF Enterprises’ short-lived Captain Marvel series from 1966, Stan Lee “thought it would be terrible if someone else had the name when we were Marvel Comics … I thought we’d better do a book, so I wrote one about an alien from another planet.” Roy Thomas, however, says something different in Alter Ego #50 and in his introduction to the Marvel Masterworks edition reprinting the first year’s worth of Marvel’s Captain Marvel stories. Thomas states that it was publisher Martin Goodman’s realization that he had to protect his investment in the name “Marvel” by having a Captain Marvel of his own, and gave Stan Lee the assignment of creating one. Thomas even recalls that Lee “was not thrilled about doing this.”

Trading Places

This Captain Marvel’s first adventures involved him being sent to Earth alone by his superior officer, Colonel Yon-Rogg, who had designs on his beloved, Medic Una—whose parting with Mar-Vell was both sad and tragic. CM wound up battling a Kree Sentry (giant alien robot) in the first of many struggles in which he tried to balance his duties and loyalty to the Kree Empire with his growing concern and affection for the people of Earth. However, this was the era of pop-culture comics. Spider-Man, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, and others had caused a sensation in college campuses and counter-cultural communities … and the Batman TV series had incited a renaissance in super-hero comics, proving that taking super-heroes either seriously or as camp were both commercially viable. Whether or not this was the reason for the creation of a new humor comic, Marvel proved that it was quite capable of poking fun at itself with Not Brand Echh, a 25¢ book loaded with parodies of its own and other companies’ comic book characters and more. In issue #9 (Aug. 1968), they attacked the first three issues of Captain Marvel. The story was the adventure of “Captain MarVinn”keeping an eye on the “Scent-ry” while trying to remember what his mission is and attempting to communicate with “Colonel Egg-Nogg,” who is giving him the brush-off as “Medic Uno-Who” drowns the “Kreep” spaceship in tears. In this story, with Roy Thomas and Gene Colan reprising their writer/artist tandem, there were no fewer than seven blatant references to a Captain Marvel that had not seen print for fifteen years … from Mr. Mind appearing on the splash page…, to a black-haired boy in a red sweater selling newspapers… to Disney’s Seven Dwarves portraying the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man (with “Injustice” replaced by “Lust,” and “Lust” being “censored”) … to a reference of a “Station WHIZZ” … to “Dr. Sivanna” working on the Scent-ry … and to the Big Red Cheese himself standing outside a phone booth, while Mar-Vinn expounds upon the absurdity of changing in a phone booth and wished he had “a magic word or something, like maybe SHAZAM ...”

Mind If I Play Through? Mr. Mind was penciled in by writer Roy Thomas into in the otherwise Gene Colan-drawn splash of the “Captain Marvin” parody in Not Brand Echh #9 (Aug. 1968). Inks by Frank Giacoia. At this time, the ink on the stories being lampooned was barely dry in the first three Mar-Vell tales. For the entire story, see either the hardcover Marvel Masterworks: Captain Marvel, Vol. 2, or the black-&-white Essential Captain Marvel, Vol. 1. [©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

First appearing in the pages of Marvel Super-Heroes #12 (Dec. 1967), Stan’s Captain Marvel pointedly had no relation to the original Parker/Beck creation previously published by Fawcett. In fact, one could make an argument that Lee was more influenced by Superman than anything else. As he was created by Lee and developed by Roy Thomas, Captain Mar-Vell was an alien soldier sent to earth as a spy to determine if humankind should be destroyed. He took on a secret identity as a mildmannered rocket scientist named Walter Lawson. He wound up defending mankind from various threats, and he and his alter ego had a romantic triangle relationship with the head of security at a missile base. So not only was he an alien (and the end of his name coincidentally rhymed with Superman’s Kryptonian family name, el), he also had the Clark Kent/Lois Lane/Superman dynamic. Furthermore, the woman in that triangle was named Danvers, the secret-identity last name of Superman’s cousin, Supergirl. Thomas swears this was an accident, but the similarities were only increased when Miss Danvers later became Ms. Marvel, a female super-hero with similar powers to Captain Marvel. One letter-writer to the comic even inadvertently (assumingly) referred to Danvers as “Linda,” the first name of Supergirl’s alter ego, although by then Miss Danvers’ first name had been established as “Carol.”

The Captain Marvel series limped on for a year and a half, with several artist/writer changes, and becoming progressively more tragic and cosmic, until, according to Roy Thomas’ introduction in the second volume of Marvel Masterworks: Captain Marvel (reprinting issues # 1021), and in an interview from A/E #50, he thought of the original Captain Marvel as a possible inspiration for something that could pick up the sagging sales of the book. In his Marvel Masterworks introduction, Thomas “had this notion of doing a science fiction twist on … the 1940s character, by having Mar-Vell trade places with a young boy.” Roy was so excited by this idea that he got Stan Lee to put him back on the book as a writer (replacing Archie Goodwin). Only a few days later, by coincidence, artist Gil Kane expressed a desire to work on Captain Marvel. With the new direction planned, Thomas thought Kane would be perfect for the book, so Kane replaced artist Don Heck. Thomas had designed a new costume inspired by Atoman, an obscure Golden Age character published by Spark Publications in 1946. Kane helped him revise it, and in issue #17, “The Sensational New” Captain Marvel appeared. Whereas the classic Billy Batson/Captain Marvel was a creature of magic, this Rick Jones/Captain Marvel would be one of science-fiction. While the relationship between the personalities of Billy and Marvel was never really delved into, the new Thomas/Kane Captain Marvel would explore all aspects of it. And while Billy Batson and the “Big Red Cheese” had always basically seen eye to eye—with never a complaint about only being on Earth for part of the time, Rick Jones and “Silvertop” (Rick’s nickname for Mar-Vell, due to his white hair) would always have a degree of tension about the subject. Rick and Mar-Vell talked to each other all

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antidote to the radiation that had sent Mar-Vell to the Negative Zone, but that this energy only allowed Mar-Vell to stay on Earth for three hours at a time. Rick could stay on Earth indefinitely. This energy also gave CM his powers (flight, super-strength, resistance to energy weapons, etc.) by making real Mar-Vell’s will. But if CM should use the energy too fast, he would be automatically zapped back to the Negative Zone in less than three hours. Rick Jones had no powers from the nega-bands. Rick Jones (possibly inspired by DC’s “Snapper” Carr from Justice League of America) had been Marvel Comics’ token “sidekick” character from his very first appearance. He had partnered with the Hulk and Captain America before “meeting” Captain Marvel, but his relationship with CM was his longest-running continuous relationship with a superhero, lasting from that Oct. 1969 issue all the way to the end of the series with issue # 62 (May 1979) as well as the first three issues of Marvel Spotlight, ending in Nov. 1979. During that time, he and Mar-Vell alternated between being linked by the nega-bands and separated several times. Jones had an on-again, off-again musical career and a series of girlfriends, all of whom he wound up having to leave due to his superhero adventures. At one point, he actually got to use the powers of the nega-bands to be a super-powered hero himself. In his most significant moment, during the Kree-Skrull War, he proved to have within him the full evolutionary potential of the human race, and was able to use that to call forth super-heroes from the past to save the world (the result of which was to weaken him so much that in order to save his life CM had to rejoin with him). Late in the life of the series, Rick and CM had separated again, and it looked like they would part ways, but they just kept coming back together for further adventures. They were ultimately inseparable.

Up And Atoman (Above:) Roy Thomas borrowed much (though not all) of the look of Jerry Robinson’s Atoman—(seen is the cover of #1, Feb. 1946, from Spark Publications)—then Gil Kane adjusted it further for their jointly revamped Mar-Vell. (Right:) Rick Jones and Mar-Vell had a often uneasy relationship right from the start, as seen in these panels from The Avengers #89 (June 1971), the beginning of the “Kree-Skrull War” storyline, after the Kree captain had lost his own title. [Atoman cover ©2008 the respective copyright holders; Avengers panel ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

the time, while only in one very early instance were Billy and Marvel in contact with each other. [FCA EDITOR’S NOTE: The author is referring to the classic scene from Whiz Comics #11, Dec. 1940, where Cap “helps” Billy during a college entrance exam. There was also a rare conflict between the two in “Captain Marvel Falls in Love” from Whiz Comics #53 (April 1944), where Cap and Billy “Shazammed” back and forth while they quarreled with each other. —PCH] How did Rick and Mar-Vell talk to each other? As a result of exposure to anti-matter radiation from an exploding negatron sphere, Mar-Vell slipped into the Negative Zone. By casting illusions before young Rick Jones, he was able to lead the boy to a hidden Kree base in the middle of the desert and influence him to put on a pair of millennia-old “negabands”—which basically looked like golden bracelets. When banged together, these bands would force a trading of atoms between Rick on Earth and Mar-Vell in the Negative Zone. Captain Marvel could then bang the bands and trade atoms with Rick in the Negative Zone. This atom-trading only worked one way, though; only the person on Earth could affect the trade through the banging of the bands. It seems that the nega-bands provided a form of energy that was an

One of the key differences between Billy/Marvel and Rick/Marvel was the same as the key difference between Marvel comics and super-hero comics that had come before. Marvel comics told an ongoing story where things changed and progressed, and characters developed and grew. Earlier super-heroes, once they found their niche and their defining (and most marketable) characteristics, had tended to stay basically the same. A story published in, say, 1951 featuring the same characters as one in 1941 would likely be little affected by events that had gone on in the world of those characters; Billy Batson still worked at Station WHIZ … Freddy Freeman still sold newspapers … and Clark Kent still worked at the newspaper as Lois Lane pursued the secret of Superman. The facts of the relationship between Billy Batson and Captain Marvel were constant, and it was something you could count on. The relationship was magically-based, and furthermore, this was a comic book! Nobody cared about the inner psychological

Trading Places

Trouble In Paradise (Clockwise on this page from above:) An ethically-challenged Cap helps a ditto Billy on a test in Whiz Comics #11 (Dec. 1940)… and, behind the cover of Whiz #53 (April 1943), the two have a disagreement when the World’s Mightiest Mortal gets romantically involved, as shown at bottom right. Art by C.C. Beck & his studio. Scripters uncertain. [©2008 DC Comics.]

feelings of a growing boy who has the power to become an adult superhero. Comics were supposed to be an escape from reality, not a reflection of it. Marvel Comics had changed all that. Stan Lee said in his autobiography, Excelsior! The Amazing Life of Stan Lee, that he wanted to create heroes as “real, living people,” and with the help of artists like Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, succeeded in creating pop-culture sensations. Roy Thomas had come along in 1965 and quickly became a staff writer. His idea in 1969 took the escapism that Billy Batson/Captain Marvel had once given us and turned it into an examination of what it would be like if it all really happened. Rick Jones grew, things developed, and the nature of his relationship with CM changed over time. Some of these changes may have been brought on as mere attempts to save falling sales by having something new and exciting happen—but they were changes and developments, nonetheless. Successive writers each put their own spin on things, but regardless of the challenge or threat faced by Rick Jones/Mar-Vell, Rick was constantly complaining about having to spend time in the Negative Zone. Here he was with the power to transform into a super-hero, but much to his dismay, he really wasn’t the hero himself. There was a consistently ill-defined relationship between Rick and Mar-Vell’s minds. They could talk to each other, and appeared to share each other’s memories, and sometimes even share their moods and motivations, but they were still distinct personalities. Before continuing to compare and contrast Batson/Marvel and Jones/Mar-Vell, we have to look at the ultimate conclusion to Rick Jones’ relationship with the man of the Kree. Mar-Vell ultimately died of cancer in Marvel Comics’ first graphic novel, The Death of Captain

Marvel (long after having been finally separated from Rick Jones), written and drawn by Jim Starlin. But his beloved, the Titan Elysius, had saved some of his genetic material and cloned a son. Created by Ron Marz and first appearing in Silver Surfer Annual #6 (1993), this son named GenisVell took the super-hero name of Legacy, and later donned the title of Captain Marvel in honor of his father’s legacy. This all occurred during the early ’90s comic book boom, when Marvel Comics was flooding the market with new titles. This character replaced the female Captain Marvel, Monica Rambeau, as the holder of the name, both in the Marvel Universe and as a placeholder for the trademark that Martin Goodman had been so insistent on holding. It was not long before this new Captain Marvel ran into Rick Jones, and as a result of the “Destiny War” in Avengers Forever, a 12-part limited series by Kurt Busiek, Roger Stern, and Carlos Pacheco, became linked to Jones in the same self-sacrificing, nega-band-banging, atomtransferring way as his father had (except this time the transference was to and from the Microverse, not the Negative Zone, for some reason that was never explained).

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Too Much Of A Good Thing? Or—Reinventing The (Shazamic) Wheel The origin of the Billy Batson/Captain Marvel relationship was “reimagined” by Roy & Dann Thomas (writers) and Tom Mandrake (artist) in Shazam! The New Beginning #1 (April 1987), as seen above—then “reimagined” yet again only a few years later, at DC’s behest, by Jerry Ordway in his 1994 graphic novel The Power of Shazam!, as per panel at right. [©2008 DC Comics.]

This is how Marvel’s third Captain Marvel series started (the second was a series cancelled at six issues about Genis-Vell before he was bonded to Rick Jones), and this gave writer Peter David no end of material with which to work in examining the various aspects of the place-trading, hero/alter-ego relationship. By this time, both Roy Thomas’ and Jerry Ordway’s re-boots of the World’s Mightiest Mortal (Shazam: The New Beginning and The Power of Shazam, respectively) had established, clearly and incontrovertibly, that the original Captain Marvel was really Billy Batson in the body of a grown, adult super-hero. No longer was it possible to interpret the transformation between Billy Batson and Captain Marvel as a replacement of one person or personality with another. By the time Thomas and Ordway’s versions were first published (1987 and 1994, respectively), considering super-heroes as if they were in the real world and dealing with real issues was pretty much what had come to be expected by the mainstream. After such milestones, including the entire canon of the “Marvel Age” of super-heroes and Alan Moore’s Miracleman (another Captain Marvel-inspired character), the only thing one could do to any hero, if it had not been done before, was to reinterpret it in a more realistic manner—or create a new character very much like that old character just so that you could explore certain aspects of that character in a more realistic way. This would mean, of course, that where there had been uncertainty, inconsistency, or any haziness at all about an aspect of the character that you wanted to explore, a bold choice would have to be made that would give you something to work with. In the case of Captain Marvel, that uncertainty was the question of what happened to Billy Batson’s mind when Captain Marvel appeared. Roy Thomas had gone one way, with the idea that the hero and the boy were separate personalities in Marvel Comics’ Captain Marvel—and the other way, that the hero was the boy, in Shazam! The New Beginning. This was not a deliberate choice; it was simply what Thomas wanted to do with each character. To him, Mar-Vell was about science-fiction, and the original-inspired Captain Marvel was about magic.

From the very start of his Captain Marvel series for Marvel Comics, Peter David played with “Big Red Cheese” references. The very first time he had Rick Jones bang his nega-bands together to trade atoms with GenisVell, Rick yelled “SHAZAM!” to which this new Captain Marvel replied “SHAwhat?” Rick told him it was something Gomer Pyle said on television, and thus began a series of jokes, gags, and comments referencing the original Fawcett Captain Marvel. “Shwa-Zam!” became an oft-used sound effect for the transformation from Rick to Captain Marvel, or for the nega-band-powered bolts CM would shoot from his hands. In the middle of issue #12 (Dec. 2000) a fan asked Genis if he was the guy who was named “Captain Marvel” years ago. After Genis explains that that was his father, the fan jumped to the conclusion that he was Captain Marvel Jr. and yelled to everyone in the room, “This is him! The guy who can’t say his own name without turning into a non-super guy!” One of the most important elements of this Captain Marvel’s character was the fact that he was actually only a couple of years old, and that his mother had artificially aged him and implanted false memories of

Trading Places

nega-band powers made him near-omnipotent, and he even was able to eventually control Rick’s mind and drive him to suicide (he brought him back to life later). Rick tried to control him with the threat and use of a “psy-fry” technique (blasting pain into his mind), but the fact was that Genis resented having to share time with Rick every bit as much as Rick resented sharing time with him. In the Fawcett era and pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths DC Captain Marvel, the fact that Cap never experienced a childhood was never an issue. The fact that neither Billy nor Marvel was able to have a complete life because they had to share their time with each other never came up; it was magic … it was a comic book. The boy became a super-hero when he needed to, and the super-hero went back to being a boy when his work was done, and it was as simple as that. But in contemporary times, such matters needed to be addressed. This gave Peter David opportunities to make numerous comments on society and culture—all characteristics of his writings. Rick Jones had always wanted to be a super-hero. Thomas had established that he had read comic books while growing

All In The Family Artist Alex Ross, a few years back, executed this pencil illo of the Marvel (now Shazam?) Family, seen at left—and also drew his own version, depicted below, of a “Mar-Vell Family,” consisting of Mar-Vell, Ms. Marvel, and the 1950s Marvel Boy. (They're actually a pair of aborted Overstreet Price Guide cover concepts.) Thanks to Alex. Roy Thomas, by the way, blushingly admits that it was his own subliminal goof that gave Ms. Marvel the last name of “Danvers,” à la Supergirl. [Shazam heroes TM & © DC Comics; Marvel heroes TM & ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

growing up on his home planet. By the time he was bonded with Rick Jones, he was aware of this, and sought to learn from Rick’s experience about how to be a hero and live up to his father’s legacy. By now, Rick Jones was a jaded 30-something. Since the death of Mar-Vell, he had been associated with Rom, Spaceknight, rejoined Bruce Banner/the Hulk, seen several people close to him die, and been paralyzed by the Hulk himself. Though now recovered, all he really wanted was to live a quiet peaceful life with his wife, Marlo—but once he found himself bonded to Genis, he knew that wasn’t going to happen. In this case, the boy-to-hero relationship was actually reversed: now the adult was turning into a younger man when he changed into the hero. But, in a way, this was like the original Captain Marvel, in a way that the Jones/Mar-Vell relationship wasn’t; this time the hero had less real-life experience than the boy. Rick used this fact to relieve some of his frustration at having to trade places with the hero by playing occasional tricks on him, and he would berate Genis for not doing what he would tell him he should do as a hero— although, at times, Genis knew exactly what he was doing, and would pull out a surprise to save the day. Ultimately, Genis-Vell, faced with the gift of “Cosmic Awareness” without the maturity to handle it, went mad. His cosmic awareness and

FCA (Fawcett Collectors Of America)

lated by the Kree Supreme Intelligence—and that he and Mar-Vell had been growing symbiotically linked in their minds, and would not be whole without each other. The fact was that, without super-powers, there were some things that Rick just couldn’t handle on his own and would have to call on CM for, thus spending a part of his life in the Negative Zone, in the Microverse, or on the sidelines, which was practically a punishment in itself. This was brought home in Captain Marvel, Vol. 3, #14 (Feb. 2001). Most of the issue is taken up with Genis explaining to Rick how he came to start removing himself from his father’s shadow, and challenging that the reason Rick acts jaded and spitefully clings to his time on Earth rather than letting Captain Marvel have any more time there than necessary was because Rick had “always been jealous that you don’t have superpowers, and you’re too insecure to ever try and get them yourself. Basically you’ve always wanted to be a superhero but you don’t have the courage to try.” Rick admits to it. Despite certain similarities, Rick Jones is the exact opposite of Billy Batson. When it was revealed that Rick had “Comics Awareness” and can “see the matrix,” if you will, he again became jaded and cynical about his life. But at least Peter David was kind enough to expedite a sort of happy ending for Rick. He is finally separated from Captain Marvel, and then Rick and Marlo go off to a deserved “Happily Ever After” (however long it may last).

Marvels This recent drawing by collector Dennis Yee, which appeared in the apazine CAPA-alpha #522 (April 1008), shows the full range of Fawcett and Marvel heroes who’ve used that famous name. (Clockwise from center:) Captain Marvel/Mar-Vell in the costume/uniform he wore when he first came to Earth to spy for the Kree in 1968… Mar-Vell (or is it Genis-Vell?) as reconceived by Gil Kane & Roy Thomas in ’69… the original Big Red Cheese as per C.C. Beck’s design… and the female Captain Marvel of the 1980s. Thanks to Dennis & to Carl Gafford. Mercifully unpictured was the Fass/Burgos Captain Marvel of the mid-1960s. [Shazam hero TM & ©2008 DC Comics; other Captain Marvels TM & ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

up in an orphanage. His entire life as “sidekick” was one of his trying to fit into the superhuman community. The ability to transform/trade places with Mar-Vell was the closest he ever came. Although Mar-Vell early on established that he would not use his powers in Rick’s “petty squabbles,” if the boy ever saw something that needed the power of a super-hero, he could transform into/trade places with one. However, Rick never was able to hack it as a hero on his own. Captain America refused to keep him as a partner (traumatized by the oncepermanent death of his World War II sidekick, Bucky); the Hulk was too mentally unstable to be around. The constant parade of death and destruction that surrounded the life of a super-hero had burdened him with heavy guilt ever since he snuck onto that gamma bomb testing range which had led to Dr. Bruce Banner becoming the Hulk. Even when he was a nega-band-powered super-hero separate from Captain Marvel, writers Steve Englehart and Al Milgrom showed that Jones was being manipu-

In the case of the pre-Crisis Billy Batson, however, he had no dreams or intentions of being a hero; there were no super-heroes when he grew up, but there was a literary tradition of young adventurers such as Jim Hawkins from Robert Lewis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, Horatio Alger’s Luck and Pluck-style heroes, Herge’s Tintin, and Harold Gray’s Little Orphan Annie. These were all people without the obligations and support of a natural family, yet who had the courage to do good just because it was the right thing to do. Of course, neither Bill Parker, Otto Binder, nor any of the other Fawcett or early DC writers ever analyzed or examined Batson’s youthful inspirations, or even questioned the motivations of his character. He was courageous and pure of heart, and that was why Shazam picked him for the job. No introspection was necessary.

But Thomas and Ordway took Billy Batson in a different direction. He never asked for the power, and though he was courageous and pure of heart, he had such serious doubts about being a super-hero that it was something he had to get over in his very first adventures. Unlike Rick Jones, Batson was the person with the power after the transformation. While Rick Jones felt responsible for the destructive actions of the Hulk, his abandonment by Captain America (who in that instance turned out to be the Red Skull in disguise), and the ultimate insanity of Genis-Vell (all things that he had little or no control over), Billy Batson was responsible for everything Captain Marvel did, as he actually was Captain Marvel. This led to a maturation of Billy’s character—yet the strength of his character was his eternal youthful optimism and innocence. That is what made him distinct from Rick Jones, and unique among super-heroes. [Visit Zorikh Lequidre’s website captainmarvelculture.com.]

TWOMORROWS BOOKS by ROY THOMAS NEW FOR 2008

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

(192-page trade paperback) $21.95 ISBN: 9781893905887 Diamond Order Code: DEC073946

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!

NEW FOR 2008

(240-page trade paperback) $24.95 ISBN: 9781893905375 Diamond Order Code: AUG063622

ALL- STAR COMPANION VOL. 3

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

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

2007 EISNER AWARD WINNER Best Comics-Related Periodical

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ALTER EGO #1

ALTER EGO #2

ALTER EGO #3

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

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

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

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ALTER EGO #4

ALTER EGO #5

ALTER EGO #6

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

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

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

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

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

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

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ALTER EGO #9

ALTER EGO #10

ALTER EGO #11

ALTER EGO #12

ALTER EGO #13

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

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

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

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

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

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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!

ALTER EGO #14

ALTER EGO #15

ALTER EGO #16

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

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

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

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ALTER EGO #18

ALTER EGO #19

ALTER EGO #20

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

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

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

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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

ALTER EGO #22

ALTER EGO #23

ALTER EGO #24

ALTER EGO #25

ALTER EGO #26

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

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

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

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

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

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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

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ALTER EGO #32

ALTER EGO #33

ALTER EGO #34

ALTER EGO #35

ALTER EGO #36

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #37

ALTER EGO #38

ALTER EGO #39

ALTER EGO #40

ALTER EGO #41

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALTER EGO #42

ALTER EGO #43

ALTER EGO #44

ALTER EGO #45

ALTER EGO #46

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: AUG063690

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ALTER EGO #63

ALTER EGO #64

ALTER EGO #65

ALTER EGO #66

ALTER EGO #67

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

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

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

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

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

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

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(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: DEC064009

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ALTER EGO #68

ALTER EGO #69

ALTER EGO #70

ALTER EGO #71

ALTER EGO #72

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

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

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

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

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

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

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: APR074098

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: MAY073879

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ALTER EGO #73

ALTER EGO #75

ALTER EGO #76

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

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

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

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

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: JAN084019

(100-page magazine) $6.95 Diamond Order Code: AUG074112

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ALTER EGO #74

DIGITAL

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!

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 #3

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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 #30

ROUGH STUFF #9

WRITE NOW! #18

DRAW! #16

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!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Now Shipping

(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 Now Shipping Diamond Order Code: MAY084262

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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BRICKJOURNAL #3

FULL-COLOR LEGO Event Reports from BRICKWORLD (Chicago), FIRST LEGO LEAGUE WORLD FESTIVAL (Atlanta) and PIECE OF PEACE (Japan), a spotlight on our amazing cover model built by BRYCE McGLONE, interviews with ARTHUR GUGICK and STEVEN CANVIN of LEGO MINDSTORMS, to see where LEGO ROBOTICS is going, STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS, TECHNIQUES, & more! (80-page magazine) $8.95 US (Digital Edition) $3.95 Diamond Order Code: JUN084415

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!

1st Class Canada 1st Class Priority US Intl. Intl.

JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR (4 issues)

$44

$64

$91

$152

BACK ISSUE! (6 issues)

$40

$55

$63

$91

$112

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

$26

$36

$41

$60

$74

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

$78

$108

$123

$180

$222

BRICKJOURNAL (4 issues)

$32

$42

$47

$66

$80

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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