Alter Ego #81 Preview

Roy Thomas’ Halloweeny Comics Fanzine $

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No.81 October 2008

CAUGHT IN A

WEB OF HORROR

Man-Thing TM & ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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

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82658 27763

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10

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: Heidi Amash Michael Ambrose Richard J. Arndt Bob Bailey Jack D. Bails Jean Bails George Wilson Beahm Jack & Carole Bender Terry Bisson Dominic Bongo Jerry K. Boyd Christopher B. Boyko Frank Brunner Bob Cherry Gerry Conway Teresa R. Davidson Al Dellinges Scott Derrick Michaël Dewally Betty Dobson Rich Donnelly Peter Duxbury Mark Evanier Tom Field Shane Foley Carl Gafford James Galton Janet Gilbert Andreas Gottschlich Ron Goulart Lawrence P. Guidry Martin Greim George Hagenauer Jennifer Hamerlinck Mike Howell Chris Irving Eric Jansen Bruce Jones Michael J. Kaluta George Khoury

Jay Kinney Everett Raymond Kinstler Bob Latona Zorikh Lequidre Paul Levitz James Ludwig Michel Maillot Rob Maisch Glenn McKay Matt Moring Frank Motler Mark Muller Will Murray Barry Pearl Trina Robbins Herb Rogoff Alex Ross Bob Rozakis Steve Sansweet Ramon Schenk Howard Siegel Ted Skimmer Ray Snodgrass Bill Spicer Bhob Stewart Marc Swayze Joel Thingvall Dann Thomas Steven Tice Anthony Tollin Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Joe Vucenic Murray Ward Hames Ware Gregg Whitmore Tom Wimbish Lynn Woolley Alex Wright Dennis Yee

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.

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Caught In A Web Of Horror A Look At “America’s Nightmare Magazine” Of 1969-70

by Richard J. Arndt

H

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

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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

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(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]

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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.]

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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

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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

T

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”...

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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.

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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.]

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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

E

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.]

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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”

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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.

“I Had Fun Doing ‘Hawkman’” 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.

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

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.

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.

“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.]

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51

Oop, Oop, And Away!

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

Y

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).

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

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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.]

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W

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

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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.

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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.]

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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!

O

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!

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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.

So Who’s This “Gilbert” Guy, Anyway?

Vernon Greene’s 1940 version of the hero, from The Shadow newspaper strip. [©2008 Advance Magazine Publishers, Inc./ The Condé Nast Magazines.]

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:

[Shazam hero TM & ©2008 DC Comics; Mar-Vell TM & ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

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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.

By [Art & logo ©2008 Marc Swayze; Captain Marvel © & TM 2008 DC Comics]

[FCA EDITORS NOTE: From 1941-53, Marcus D. Swayze was a top artist for Fawcett Publications. The very first Mary Marvel character sketches came from Marc’s drawing table, and he illustrated her earliest adventures, including the classic origin story, “Captain Marvel Introduces Mary Marvel (Captain Marvel Adventures 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.]

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

R

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

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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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FCA (Fawcett Collectors Of America)

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