Alter Ego #85 Preview

THE

Roy Thomas’ Combative Comics Fanzine

CAPTAIN AND THE

KRYPTONIAN!

$

6.95

In the USA

CATACLYSMIC CONFRONTATIONS No.85 IN THE COSMOS, May 2009 IN CANDY STORES —& IN COURT! SPECIAL

Superman & Shazam! hero TM & ©2009 DC Comics

SLUGFEST!

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82658 27763

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ALSO:

GOLDEN AGE GREATNESS WITH

´ LILY RENEE & CENTAUR COMICS!

Vol. 3, No. 85 / May 2009 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 Rich Buckler

With Special Thanks to: Rob Allen Heidi Amash Henry Andrews Matt D. Baker Dennis Beaulieu John Benson Jon Berk Dominic Bongo Lee Boyette Rich Buckler Susan Burgos Nick Cardy Dick Cole Mark D. Cotnam Craig Delich Michaël Dewally Betty Dobson Jim Engel Mark Evanier Jon R. Evans Jean-Michel Ferragatti Martin Filchock Jim Fitzpatrick Shane Foley Janet Gilbert Lew Glanzman Bob Greenberger Walt Grogan Lawrence P. Guidry Jennifer Hamerlinck Fred Hembeck

Greg Huneryager Jay Kinney Dominique Leonard Don Mangus Bruce Mason Jake Oster Barry Pearl Lily Renée Phillips Nick Pollack Rubén Procopio John James Pulaski, Jr. Ken Quattro Mikhaela B. Reid Bob Rivard Trina Robbins Fred Robinson Steven Rowe Bob Rozakis Jean Schanberger John Selegue Ted Skimmer Flo Steinberg Marc Swayze Jeff Taylor Dann Thomas Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Vaughn Warren Robert Wiener Monte Wolverton Alex Wright

Contents writer/editorial: Of Shazam!, Señorita Rio, And Centaurs . . 2 “I’m Not Typical For Doing Comics, You Know!” . . . . . . . . . . 3 The understatement of the year from Golden Age artist Lily Renée, interviewed by Jim Amash.

Centaur Spread . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 The amazing story of the little-known but astonishing Centaur Comics Group, by Lee Boyette.

“Pow! Bam! Zap!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Bob Rozakis spins Part 7 of his “Secret History of All-American Comics, Inc.”

Comic Crypt: In Praise Of Picto! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Michael T. Gilbert and Mr. Monster celebrate EC’s Picto-Fiction mags—and their most brazen imitator!

A Tribute To Creig Flessel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . 60 FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America #144] . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 P.C. Hamerlinck presents Marc Swayze, DC vs. Fawcett, Rich Buckler—& The Wall Street Journal!

On Our Cover: Especially for this issue, Rich Buckler re-did his cover for the historic “Superman vs.

Shazam!” tabloid-size comic of more than three decades ago—only switching the Superman and Captain Marvel figures! For the full story, see this issue’s FCA section and its intriguing interview with Rich. [Superman & Shazam! hero TM & ©2009 DC Comics.]

Above: A powerful “Lost World” splash panel by Lily Renée, from Planet Comics #42 (May 1946), repro’d from a copy as reprinted in Trina Robbins’ 2001 volume The Great Women Cartoonists.

Thanks to Trina for her blessing in using this art. [©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Creig Flessel

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: $88 US, $140 Canada, $210 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

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Of Shazam!, Señorita Rio, And Centaurs Y

et once again, we bit off more than we could chew. We really ought to be getting used to the taste by now.

How do these things happen?

Well, you start off simply—knowing it’s been a year since Alter Ego last featured a double-size helping of Fawcett Collectors of America—so you discuss one with FCA editor P.C. Hamerlinck, and between you, you even line up a spanking-new cover by your old buddy Rich Buckler to go with its Captain Marvel/Superman theme.

Next you talk with associate-editor-slash-indefatigable-interviewer Jim Amash to be sure that his entry for the issue, the long-awaited talk with Golden Age great Lily Renée, will be ready in time for you to line up and arrange ample art to accompany it. It will.

Then you recall that you have on hand this piece by Lee Boyette that you really want to get into the mag: an awesome overview of the fabled yet nearly forgotten (if that’s not a contradiction in terms) Centaur Comics Group and related companies of the late 1930s and early ’40s, stretching back even before the Golden Age. And you decide you’ve just gotta squeeze that in, too.

Well, when push came to shove, our shoehorn wasn’t quite up to the task. FCA’s twenty pages are here—and the complete Renée interview— but we had so much Centaur-related art on hand, thanks first and foremost to Lee Boyette and his pal Jon R. Evans, but also to several other generous souls, that we decided the only way to do Lee’s survey justice was to serialize it, hopefully with no more than a couple of months between installments. So that, by the time it’s been totally printed, you’ll have had an illustration-laden tour of the company that brought the world Amazing-Man, The Eye, and “Speed” Centaur.

Present and accounted for, naturally, for the 85th issue in a row, is Michael T. Gilbert’s “Comic Crypt.” Bob Rozakis’ faux history of AllAmerican Publications is back, with its penultimate A/E chapter—while Bill Schelly’s “Comic Fandom Archive” will return next issue. And, with that pulsatin’ preview, it’s time to charge ahead—on centaur-back, of course!

Bestest,

COMING IN JUNE

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“WHAT HATH KURTZMAN WROUGHT?” The Mid-1950s Color MAD Imitations— I.e., From SUPERDUPERMAN to NUTS!

2009 Adele Kurtzman; [Kurtzman self-caricature © ective copyright holders.] other art © 2009 the resp

• Furshlugginer full-color cover featuring art by Mad creator HARVEY KURTZMAN and some of the era’s greatest artists!

• The Mad wannabes of 1953-55—when everybody in comics was aping EC’s new smash hit! “Captain Marble”—“Drag-ula”—“Mighty Moose”—“Four-Flush Gordon”— “Prince Scallion”—“20,000 Leaks under the Sea”—“Tick Dracy”—surveyed by GER APELDOORN, with a sidebar on Harvey Comics’ horrific humor by JOHN BENSON! • Awesome ’50s art & artifacts by (take a deep breath!): ANDRU & ESPOSITO, AYERS, BERG, BRODSKY, BURGOS, COLAN, COLE, DAVIS, DISBROW, DITKO, DRUCKER, EVERETT, FAGO, GIORDANO, HARTLEY, HEATH, HUBBELL, KUBERT, LEE, MANEELY, MAURER, NOSTRAND, OVERGARD, POST, POWELL, REINMAN, SEVERIN, SIMON & KIRBY, WOOD, et al.—at their funniest and most frantic!

• Plus—a frank talk with Golden/Silver Age artist FRANK BOLLE (Crimebuster, Red Mask, Dr. Solar, etc.)—conducted by JIM AMASH! • MICHAEL T. GILBERT & GER APELDOORN on the “Lost KURTZMAN Years”—BILL SCHELLY’s Comic Fandom Archive—FCA with MARC SWAYZE & a special tribute to KURT SCHAFFENBERGER—& MORE!!

Edited by ROY THOMAS

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“I’m Not Typical For Doing Comics, You Know!”

The Life And Times Of Golden Age Artist LILY RENÉE

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NTERVIEWER’S INTRO: Lily Renée’s comic book work was mainly done for Fiction House during the 1940s on features such as “Señorita Rio,” “Werewolf Hunter,” “Jane Martin,” and “The Lost World.” I must admit that, as much as I like her work, I have a greater fascination for her biography. Born during the 1920s in Vienna, her youthful struggles against the Nazis and the prejudices of the war-torn England populace are compellingly heart-wrenching. I admire Mrs. Lily Renée Phillips for her bravery and strength in the face of troubled times and unenlightened attitudes, and I imagine everyone who reads her story will feel the same. —Jim.

“Vienna Was A Beautiful City” JIM AMASH: Did you get a lot of support from your family? How supportive were people of you being an artist?

LILY RENÉE: They were proud of my ability to draw. When I was six years old, a lot of things happened; in a way it was the high point of my life. I had an art exhibition of my drawings, and also won a contest for a photo of me that my mother sent in. The prize for the contest was a movie contract, but my father was not letting his daughter enter show business. At school I was chosen to dance the little rose in the Schubert song “Heidenröslein.” The head of the education department was there and said to my parents he would see to it that I was admitted at the opera-ballet. Again my father would not let me join.

JA: Were there art classes in school?

RENÉE: Yes, my artwork from the exhibit was from my art class.

JA: You say you were living a little bit in your own kind of fantasy world….

Señorita Renée (Left:) A recent photo of Lily Renée, which appeared with the too-short article about her in Alter Ego #70. (Above:) A Fight Comics splash by Ms. Renée, as retouched and reprinted in AC Comics’ America’s Greatest Comics #14 (2006). [Photo ©2009 Trina Robbins; page ©2009 AC Comics, Inc.]

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The Life And Times Of Golden Age Artist Lily Renée

RENÉE: Yes, I was, quite a lot. When my cousin Charlie came over, we always pretended our carpet was really a flying carpet, and we had adventures in the exotic countries we visited. When I was alone, my fantasy showed up in my drawings.

JA: What was it like to live in Vienna back then?

RENÉE: Vienna was a beautiful city with a lot of style. There were many churches; the best known was a Gothic one with a very high spire called “Stephan’s Dome,” and the most beautiful one—which I could see from our windows—was “Karl’s Kirche,” which had a copper dome covered in green partina. There was a wide street called The Ring, which circled around the inner city and had all of Vienna’s important buildings on it: the Opera, two museums, the University, the Parliament, etc. We lived in the center of the city in a comfortable apartment. Life was less rushed than in New York. A lot of attention was paid to the preparation of food. I was an only child and often lonely. I started drawing at an early age, maybe at the age of three. Later I read a lot, as well. I also enjoyed dancing.

My Nanny took me to the Stadtpark [State Park], where she had to pay for an iron fold-up-chair to sit on, and I would play with my diabolo, or push my big wooden hoop with a little stick and run after it. There were “Do not step on grass” signs everywhere.

JA: What was your economic situation at the time of your childhood?

Austrian Anschluss, 1938 The German troops—this one from an armored car unit—received an enthusiastic welcome in Vienna. This photo is dated March 21, 1938. Lily says she mostly remembers that many of them arrived on motorcycles.

RENÉE: My parents were well off; we lived comfortably, had servants, and gave dinner parties. I had lots of toys but I was lonely.

JA: Did you have any friends who were interested in art and near the same age as you?

RENÉE: No, but the grownups around me were interested in art. I was taken to museums and art galleries, and through my parents’ friends I met some artists.

JA: What was it that you drew?

RENÉE: I drew clowns, ballerinas, tigers, and scenes that depicted what you would see in theatres. My parents took me to the theatre, where I saw some ballets, and I also went to dance classes. When I was older, I went to the opera twice a year with my school.

JA: During your teenage years, did you make a decision that you would make a career in theatre or art?

RENÉE: Yes, somehow I was convinced I would be involved in theatre or visual arts.

JA: You were a teenager when Hitler came to power in Austria. What was it like for you?

RENÉE: When Austria became a part of the German Reich, Jewish people lost all protection. A lot of people went to concentration camps. I wasn’t allowed to go to school, and it was just scary when walking out on the street. We always had to stand in line to get our documents stamped; and at one point, all the people who were standing in line were taken into a synagogue. The Nazis were standing all around us, and we were afraid they were going to set fire to the synagogue. Nothing happened, but I don’t know how long I stood in there. It was terrifying. I looked at one of these big men who was standing next to me. For some reason, I thought he was protecting me because I was a pretty girl. I looked at him, and I saw this totally cold face, and it was such a shock, and then I knew I was completely unprotected. I think I was thirteen when this happened.

JA: The people in the town: were they pro-Nazi or anti-Nazi?

RENÉE: Apparently, the Nazis were welcomed with open arms by the Viennese. It was awful. You have no idea. When they marched into

Vienna—well, they didn’t march. They came mostly on motorcycles. I can still hear the sound of the motorcycles in my mind: vroom-vroom-vroomvroom-vroom.

We were listening to the radio when the son of the people who lived in the same house knocked on the door and said the Nazi headquarters needed another radio. I couldn’t believe—this is how it started—images of the helplessness. I remember my father walking over to the radio, picking it up, and handing it to this guy. So we couldn’t listen to it any more. You had to be there; otherwise, you don’t know what it was like. Just trying to get out was very hard, because we didn’t have any relatives in other countries. We lived this way for about two years.

Everybody was trying to get out, but without a passport that allowed you to re-enter, other countries were not willing to let you in. We had to have someone who guaranteed that we would never be a burden on the state. That was hard to find if you did not have relatives in other countries. I had taken English in school, and was given a correspondence friend by the name of Molly Kealy in England. My parents had invited her to spend the summer with us the year before Hitler came to power, but her parents thought she was too young. Now we were asking them to send a visitor’s permit for me to come to England. It took almost a year for it to arrive. It helped me to get on one of the children’s transports (Kindertransport) for which England paid the Nazis for every child on it.

I went to England late in ’39. I had to say goodbye to my parents. All the parents were standing behind bars at the station, and the children were waving to them. We had a cardboard square with a number on it around our necks, and we were given food parcels. As soon as the train started moving out of Vienna, everybody was eating.

The Nazis were at the border and inspected our luggage. I had made a terra cotta figure which I was really proud of, and they took it out. It was wrapped in towels, and the guard stomped on it. He stomped on it and broke it into pieces. The woman who was the head of the Kindertransport came over to me because I was crying. She said, “Don’t cry, you can make another one. You are in one piece, and you’re getting out of this.”

JA: When you were at the train station, were you afraid that you wouldn’t ever see your parents again?

“I’m Not Typical For Doing Comics, You Know!”

RENÉE: Of course. All of us were; that’s why we were eating. We wanted to be reassured. The youngest one was under a year old. I would say about a hundred children were on this train, which was paid for by England.

“When I Came To America…”

JA: And what happened to you there?

RENÉE: Molly was a lovely girl, but her mother thought by bringing me over she would get unpaid help in the household. I think I was a shock to her: too well-dressed and not trained in household duties. At home, I was not even allowed in the kitchen, since our cook did not like it. Anyway, Molly and her dad ate their main meals out, and Molly’s mother would eat after she sent me to the store for some groceries. The only meals I had were breakfast, and in the late afternoon when everybody was home for “high tea.”

During this time I was trying to get my parents out of Austria. England let people in if they had a domestic situation, meaning they could be a cook or a butler. My parents were willing to do anything to get out of

5

Austria. I was interviewed by two very nice families in lovely homes, where I described how my mother was a fabulous cook, and how my handsome father was suited to be their butler. Both families backed out, saying that they would not feel comfortable with my parents as domestics because they would be too much like their peers. They did not see that it was a matter of life or death.

Anyway, the war broke out, and we were cut off from Austria. Molly’s mother thought she was stuck with me and said, “You don’t even know if your parents are still alive.” After that, I knew I could not spend another night in that house. I walked into Leeds from Horseforth, a suburb of Leeds, with no money for the bus fare, and went to an employment agency, where I lied about my age and said I want to be a “mother’s helper.” I got a job right away, since there were so many requests for “mother’s helpers”!

JA: The situation with the wicked mother…how long did that last?

RENÉE: Less than a month.

JA: When did your parents get out?

RENÉE: I did not know what was happening to them, since I was completely cut off. But they got an affidavit and came to New York about 18 months after I left Austria. They wrote to Bloomsburg House, which was the agency that helped children who were on the Kindertransport, and asked for us to be united. Bloomsburg House wrote to me and told me about my parents’ request, and that I was scheduled to leave for America.

Unfortunately, I had the worst listing as an alien you could have— “enemy alien,” because I had lied about not having a camera when I was asked by a Scotland Yard agent. I was afraid they would take it away from me, and it was a very good camera. Because of this, I was not supposed to move and had to report every week to the police station. I decided not to tell anyone, called my cousin in London, took a taxi to the train station in the middle of the night, and went to London.

JA: When your parents got to America, were they able to take any money with them, or did they just go with the clothes they were wearing?

RENÉE: My father inherited two apartment buildings in Vienna, which he gave to the Nazis in order to get out. They were able to put their furnishings and china and all of that into what was called a “lift.” You could put all of your stuff on a wagon on the railroad. Unfortunately, the train was bombed in Holland, and everything was destroyed. They came to America with nothing.

JA: How did you get the money to come to America? Or did you need it?

RENÉE: I came on another children’s transport that traveled from England to America.

JA: So you came to America…

RENÉE: ...on the Rotterdam. It was ironic, since it was a ship from the Holland-American line, of which my father had been the director in Vienna.

JA: Did you go to New York?

War Stories Lily Renée’s artwork appeared in a good many war-oriented Fiction House comics, as in this copy of Rangers Comics #26 (Dec. 1945) whose Joe Doolin cover she autographed for collector Vaughn Warren. It contained one of her “Werewolf Hunter” tales. Thanks to Vaughn and to John Selegue. [©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

RENÉE: Yes. We were supposed to leave in a convoy, but the sailor who was trying to get the anchor up fell overboard, and we were unable to leave [at that particular time]. [Once we were on the ocean,] we sailed in a zigzag pattern. Everybody was seasick. A boy and I were the only ones who were not seasick and could enjoy every meal. On its return trip, the Rotterdam was sunk by a U-boat.

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Centaur Spread The Amazing, Keen, and Funny Story Of The CENTAUR COMICS GROUP

by Lee Boyette

A/E

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following article and its attendant listings were put together by Lee B. especially for this magazine.

As it turned out, however, the amount of information covered on a subject about which relatively little has been written— added to the outpouring of scans of Centaur artwork from several enthusiastic collectors, on top of those provided by Lee and his friend Jon R. Evans—has forced us to split the material into several parts, in order to be able to fully illustrate the piece.

Our heartfelt thanks to Jon for helping expedite this survey in every way.

Meet You In The Funny Pages Brimming with artists such as Rafael Astarita, Bill Everett, Jack Cole, Will Eisner, Basil Wolverton, Carl Burgos, Paul Gustavson, Harold De Lay, Tarpé Mills, and Fred Schwab, and with a roll call of characters that includes Amazing-Man, The Eye, The Shark, Meteor Martin, The Arrow, Blue Lady, The Rainbow, “Speed” Centaur, Little Dynamite, Fire-Man, The Owl, and Mighty Man— the Centaur group of comics remains a complex, baffling mystery… mainly as to how, and why, they managed to last for so long with such confusing issue numbers and titles, while going through so many renovations (and re-issues) with so little style, content, or quality!

with the May 1942 issues. But there are no less than three companies that existed before Centaur which have ties to it. Confused? Allow a longtime comics researcher to elaborate: In early 1936, two ex-employees of Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson (founding publisher of National/DC)—William H. Cook and John Mahon— inaugurated a new line of comics: The Comics Magazine Company. Its initial offering was titled The Comics Magazine and had a cover date of May 1936.

It consisted mainly of one-to-two-page stories of various types: humor, funny animal, Western, puzzles, text stories, and magic tricks—

Joseph J. Hardie’s Centaur line began with March 1938 cover dates and ended

The Beginning And The End Amazing-Man—the classic hero and the best-known character to come out of any Centaur-related comics title—flanked by the earliest and latest covers dealt with in this multi-part article: The Comics Magazine #1 (May 1936) & the 1942 oddity C-M-O Chicago Mail Order Company Comics #2; cover artists of both uncertain. Thanks to Jean-Michel Ferragatti for a scan of Sam Glanzman’s cover for Amazing-Man #15 (Aug. 1940). Except where noted, all art accompanying this article was either provided by Lee Boyette & Jon R. Evans, or (in the case of a few covers, such as the ones above) are repro’d from the Gerbers’ indispensable Picto-Journal Guide to Comic Books. [©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

Naturally, we regret that photos (or other images) of most of the publishers, editors, and other creative personnel mentioned are unavailable.

Centaur Spread

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Clock Work (Left:) George Brenner’s hero The Clock graced the cover of the fifth issue of Funny Picture Stories, dated Nov. 1936. He was the first masked modern-day hero in comic books. This issue’s story was recently reprinted in Fantagraphics’ excellent volume Supermen! The First Wave of Comic Book Heroes 1936-1941, edited by Greg Sadowski.

(Above:) For some long-forgotten reason, writer Jerry Siegel & artist Joe Shuster’s 2-page series “Dr. Occult” appeared in FPS, Vol. 1, #1, with his name changed in mid-continuity to “Dr. Mystic.” The next month, Doc was back home in More Fun Comics. For the two preceding panels of this installment, see the forthcoming All-Star Companion, Vol. 4. Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert, Bob Rivard, & Henry Andrews—all of whom sent us these scans. [©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

some illustrated in color, some in black-&-white. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, friends from Wheeler-Nicholson’s company, provided a single two-page installment of “Dr. Mystic,” a “Superman” precursor. Other contributors included Ellis Edwards, Matt Curzon, William Allison, John Patterson, future All-American Publications and DC editor Sheldon Mayer, and future Pogo creator Walt Kelly. Beginning with #2, the “Comics Magazine” title was printed minuscule on the cover, above the far larger phrase “Funny Pages.” With the fourth issue, the name became officially The Comics Magazine – Funny Pages; and with #6 it was retitled simply Funny Pages.

(The course of comic book history would have been changed—though in what ways, it’s impossible to say for certain—had Cook and Mahon purchased “Superman” from Siegel and Shuster, which the writer-andartist team had been trying to sell in one form or another since as early as 1933, rather than a single installment of “Dr. Mystic.”)

Cook and Mahon then added Funny Picture Stories, with a first issue dated November 1936, a sister comic with most stories running from two to seven pages in length. George Brenner’s “The Clock,” the first “costumed” hero in comics, was cover-featured. FPS #4 (Feb. 1937) contains Will Eisner’s great Beau Geste-style adventure story “The Brothers Three.” Color and black-&-white were also used here, ending with issue #7, dated June 1937.

C&M’s next effort—Detective Picture Stories #1 (Dec. 1936)—is the first recorded comic book featuring a single theme—in this case, of course, detectives and crime. Issue #4 of DPS (March 1937) contains Eisner’s classic detective story “Muss ’Em Up!,” while #5, the final issue, has both Bob (“Batman”) Kane’s first “serious” story, “Case of the Missing Heir,” and “The Clock,” who was cover-featured.

Western Picture Stories #1 (Feb. 1937) is the first Western comic, continuing Cook-Mahon’s ground-breaking efforts. Eisner’s art appears in early issues: “Top Hand” in #1, “Sheriff of Caribou County” in #2, and

Seeing Stars Even the guy on the smaller cover-within-a-cover of Star Comics, Vol. 1, #15 (Nov. 1938), at bottom right is seeing stars—and so, presumably, is the tiny figure in that cover… well, you get the idea of an “infinity cover.” Art by Martin Filchock. [©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

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The Amazing, Keen, And Funny Story Of The Centaur Comics Group

Even Giants Have To Start Small Early Cook-Mahon work (clockwise from above left, with all art ©2009 the respective copyright holders): Future Spirit creator Will Eisner’s “Brothers Three,” from Funny Picture Stories #4 (as reprinted in Amazing Mystery Funnies #2 for Sept. 1938) is juxtaposed with a 1941 photo of Eisner which appeared in the 1982 Kitchen Sink book The Art of Will Eisner; An autographed page from Eisner’s detective yarn “Muss ’Em Up,” from Detective Picture Stories #4 (March 1937); Bob Kane’s first attempt at a “serious” story, as opposed to a humorous one, from DPC, Vol. 1, #5 (April 1938)—flanked by a photo of the artist after he had co-created “Batman” for National/DC; Eisner again—with “Top Hand,” from Western Picture Stories #1 (Feb. 1937), as reprinted in Keen Detective Funnies, Vol. 2, #6 (June 1939, actual #10).

Shortly before his passing a few years ago, Will Eisner was interviewed by Jim Amash for Alter Ego #48; that issue, and others mentioned in these captions, are still available from TwoMorrows, as per the ad bloc at issue’s end.

[Eisner photo ©2009 Will Eisner Studios, Inc.; pages ©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

Centaur Spread

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Too Many Cook-Mahons Spoil The Broth?

Cook-Mahon’s Detective Picture Stories beat Detective Comics to the punch by four months (as per the cover of DPS #1, above left), but didn’t have quite as much staying power. After that, from left to right, come images of: A panel from DCP #4 (March ’37) featuring a newsstand that displays Cook-Mahon comics (artist & writer unknown); This classic cover for DCP #4 (March 1937), which Lee Boyette IDs as the work of artist Rodney Thompson. It was seen in a reprinted version in the previous issue of Alter Ego—where it was identified as having been drawn by Gus Ricca. (Whichever is correct, it’s a strong image!) [©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

“Man Hunt” in #3, all later reprinted by Centaur. Mostly stories were 7 pages long, and were a mix of color and black-&-white.

While these titles were being published, Harry “A” Chesler began his comic company’s history, with covers dated Feb. 1937. He published both Star Comics and Star Ranger. These were large-size (8 ½" x 11") and were in color. His Star Ranger #1 ties CookMahon’s Western Picture Stories #1 as the first Western comic.

Chesler published 52-page comics, while Cook-Mahon’s were 64 pages. Star Ranger #4 & #5 each have one-panel gags by Eisner.

Young King Cole Future Plastic Man creator Jack Cole’s first published stories appeared in the April 1938 Funny Picture Stories, Vol. 2, #7 (seen at left) and in the same-date Star Comics #11. See A/E #25 for extensive coverage of this comics genius. The photo of Jack Cole appeared with a 1999 article by Art Spiegelman in The New Yorker magazine, courtesy of JC’s brother Dick. [©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

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W

hat if, instead of selling his share of All-American Publications to National/DC co-publishers Harry Donenfeld and Jack Liebowitz in 1945, as happened in The World We Know, AA co-publisher Max Charles Gaines had instead bought DC from them?

newsstands in the late 1940s, with both versions eventually being cancelled) the AA characters Green Lantern, The Flash, and Wonder Woman had instead become the surviving Golden Age heroes—stars of comic books, radio, movies, and TV? (Even so, in Our World, all art on the next 6 pages features characters trademarked and copyrighted by DC Comics.)

Just imagine… a comic book industry in which (due to legal problems with Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, and Bob Kane, which resulted in there being two competing versions of Superman and Batman on the nation’s

Not a dream (precisely)… not a hoax (because we tell you about it up front)…just an imaginary tale of an alternate universe we call Earth-22, and of…

The Secret History of All-American Comics, Inc.

by Bob Rozakis

Book One – Chapter 7: “Pow! Bam! Zap!” [NOTE: This chapter’s interview with Ted Skimmer, longtime AllAmerican production man, has never been printed before.]

BOB ROZAKIS: From the time DC was merged into AA, there wasn’t much change in the AA staff for a long time, was there?

The Other AA Editors Were Green With Envy… …when AA Green Lantern editor Mort Weisinger (seen in previous installments) acquired an assistant editor—namely, E. Nelson Bridwell, the guy who really put together many of those 80-Page Giants. He’s seen here in a photo taken by Michele Wolfman for The ACBA Newsletter for June of ’73; with thanaks to Flo Steinberg.

Below, repro’d from a photocopy of the original art, is a panel from Green Lantern #39, penciled by Carmine Infantino, that was reprinted in one of the earliest 80-Page Giants. Thanks to Dominic Bongo & the Heritage Comics Archives.

TED SKIMMER: You have to realize that throughout the ’50s and much of the ’60s the comics business was a closed shop. The guys who had started the business in the 1940s were pretty much all still there. The leaner times had weeded out some, but for the most part, the faces you would have seen in the AA offices in 1950 were the same ones, albeit older, that were there in 1969.

Even on the freelance side, there wasn’t much change. Guys like Kubert, Infantino, and Toth, who were the “kids” when they started working for us a few years after the War, were only in their forties when the second generation started arriving. Mort Weisinger was only 55 when he retired in 1970.

I guess you could say that Bill Gaines and Julie Schwartz were somewhat responsible for the “second generation” of people getting into the comic book business. Certainly they had tapped into something when they started printing letters from the readers in the books in the early ’50s.

E. Nelson Bridwell was one of their regular readers—and letter-writers— and he said that having his letters published in the books made him feel much more comfortable about asking for a job in the early 1960s.

BR: Well, Nelson came to the company a lot earlier than my compatriots and I did.

SKIMMER: Nelson got hired as the result of one of Mort’s “salary negotiations.” At the time Mort was editing the whole line of Green Lantern books, so he had, what, six or seven titles? He somehow convinced Charlie that he was carrying a much heavier workload than the rest of the editors, so, in addition to wanting more money, he needed an assistant.

Nelson had already moved from Oklahoma to New York and was doing

some writing for Kurtzman’s Mad magazine at the time, but he was looking for a full-time job. We didn’t think he’d last long, having to deal with Mort, but he did.

BR: But how did Mort convince Gaines that he deserved an assistant when no one else did?

SKIMMER: It was the popularity of the Annuals that Mort used to convince Charlie. While the other editors were also producing a few, under the blanket 80-Page Giant title, it was the Green Lantern ones that appeared most often. Nobody on staff, nor among the readers for that matter, seemed bothered by the concept that “annuals” were coming out two or three times a year!

Nelson, as it turned out, was the perfect choice to handle these books

“Pow! Bam! Zap!”

Sidebar: Editorial assignments at AA in 1964. Weisinger edited only seven regular titles while each of his colleagues edited eight.

MORT WEISINGER Green Lantern All-American Comics Doiby Dickles Cathy Crain Kid Lantern Sensation Comics Comic Cavalcade

for Mort. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of the books, dating back to the ’40s, and a remarkable memory. Mort would be talking about an old story, and Nelson would pull it out of the file of old issues in a matter of moments.

The film negatives that AA would use to produce the reprint books dated back to the early-to-mid-1950s. That there was only a decade or so worth of material did not appear to be a problem. At the time, the majority of the audience was boys ranging in age from about 10 to 14. With the audience turning over every four years or so, reprints from five years ago would be new material for them.

There was one other problem, though. Weisinger took full advantage of this reader turnover and would frequently reuse old plots. Sometimes the stories would start the same way and go off in different directions; other times they would be almost identical.

BR: I remember finding a couple of those.

SKIMMER: [laughs] Only a couple? After the first few months, Mort was letting Nelson handle the reprints by himself.

Nelson would suggest something like “Green Lantern’s Greatest Foes,” and Mort would just nod and say okay. He might look at the stats of the stories or the cover, but mostly he didn’t care. One time, however, Nelson suggested “Secrets of Green Lantern,” and Mort said to him, “Yes, I like that. Be sure to include that story where Alan’s friend accidentally finds out he’s Kid Lantern.” So Nelson says, “Which one?” and pulls out three different issues in which Mort had used the exact same premise… one from 1952, one from ’57 and the last from ’62!

JULIUS SCHWARTZ Superman Batman Flash Comics All-Flash Justice League of America Aquaman Green Arrow Sugar & Spike ROBERT KANIGHER Action Men of War G.I. Combat Our Army at War Our Fighting Forces Captain Storm Star Spangled War Stories Wonder Woman Metal Men

BR: Oh, I know about Nelson’s memory. I’d be talking about a plot point with Julie and suddenly Nelson would say, “You can’t do that. In issue such-and-such it was established that…” and then he would go to the filing cabinet, pull out a twenty-year-old comic book, flip to the exact page, and point at a panel. Sometimes Julie would go along, and sometimes he’d just growl and say, “I don’t care what it said in 1957!”

MURRAY BOLTINOFF Blackhawk The Brave and the Bold Doom Patrol Hawkman Challengers of the Unknown Sea Devils Tomahawk Rip Hunter, Time Master JACK SCHIFF Strange Adventures Mystery in Space Weird Science Tales from the Crypt Falling in Love Heart Throbs Young Love Young Romance

45

A Thorny Issue A classic Julie Schwartz-edited issue of All-Flash (#185, Dec. 1967), featuring the return of The Thorn. Original art, which looks like Infantino pencils, repro’d from the collection of Lawrence P. Guidry.

ROTATING EDITORS Hollywood Funny Folks (Jerry Lewis, Bob Hope, Fox & Crow) Showcase 80-Page Giants (reprints)

SKIMMER: Well, that was probably one of the reasons Mort treated Nelson so badly.

Mort interpreted Nelson knowing about multiple uses of the same plot as a way his assistant was showing him up. But Nelson didn’t have a mean bone in his body; he was just doing what he thought Mort wanted.

But Mort made no attempt to disguise his contempt for Nelson, and often referred to him as “that idiot.”

BR: Didn’t he fire Nelson at one point?

SKIMMER: Indeed he did. In 1965, Weisinger fired him and replaced him with Roy Thomas. However, Roy would not tolerate Mort’s abuse and left for Marvel after two weeks. This forced Mort to grudgingly rehire Nelson, telling the staff that he’d had Thomas fill in while Bridwell had taken a “vacation.”

BR: Aside from adding Nelson to the staff, there was another big change in ’64. How did Julie end up editing the “Flash” books again?

SKIMMER: By 1964, sales of Flash Comics and All-Flash had fallen off substantially.

Under Jack Schiff, the character had been reduced to battling aliens, being changed into bizarre forms like the Zebra-Striped Flash, or chasing the one-shot gimmick villain of the

[This art ©2009 Michael T. Gilbert.]

[©2009 True Problems Publications.]

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Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

In Praise of Picto!

by Michael T. Gilbert Pity the poor sap who invested his life savings in an Edsel knock-off, certain it was going to be the next Mustang. Or the loser who just knew that Beta Max was the wave of the future, and went broke building a cheap copy. That’s pretty much the story of Myron Fass’ ill-fated attempt to jump on the Picto-Fiction bandwagon.

Picto-Fiction began in 1955, as a last-ditch attempt to save Bill Gaines’ failing Entertaining Comics line. After achieving critical and earlier financial success with titles like Weird Science, Tales from the Crypt, and Mad, EC was on the verge of bankruptcy, thanks to devastating publicity from a 1954 Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency. The Senators seemed convinced that lurid crime and horror comics were hurting kids.

To his credit, EC publisher Gaines volunteered to defend the industry on camera, but his testimony proved disastrous—a fact that his competitors and distributors never forgot.

Soon, a tough Comics Code was instated by most publishers. Mags containing crime, horror, or terror (with the latter two nouns expressly forbidden as part of a title) were clamped down on, effectively killing EC’s Crime SuspenseStories, Vault of Horror, and an advertised fourth EC horror title, The Crypt of Terror. Gaines and Feldstein believed this provision was designed to destroy EC. If so, the plan worked.

Needling The Comics Code (Above right & below:) Artist Jack Kamen’s cover and two pages from “The Needle,” from Shock Illustrated #1 (Oct. 1955), EC’s first Picto-Fiction title. [©2009 William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.]

In Praise Of Picto!

News venders refused to stock any comics (except for Classics Illustrated and the squeaky-clean Dell line) that didn't carry the Comics Code seal, and most EC titles quickly died. A subsequent sanitized line of Code-approved “New Direction” EC titles fared little better.

The one bright spot on EC’s horizon was Mad. Harvey Kurtzman’s brainchild had recently transformed itself from a 10¢ color comic into a 25¢ black-&-white magazine, and was selling phenomenally. Better yet, as a magazine aimed at a supposedly older audience, it wasn’t subject to the Comics Code. So publisher Bill Gaines and editor Al Feldstein came up with a brilliant idea: Why not convert all their titles to a similar format?

With few other options available, it sounded like a good idea. Working with cartoonist Jack Kamen (and writers Dan Keyes and Robert Bernstein), they set to work on Shock Illustrated #1 (Oct. 1955), their first Picto-Fiction title. Though actually a variation of the old Big Little Books, Feldstein’s intro in that issue describes this “new” form: “SHOCK Illustrated” is the first of a new series of magazines to present a novel and revolutionary development in the art of story-telling. We at E.C. call this new form of adult entertainment “Picto-Fiction.” Picto-Fiction is a careful combination of two arts: the art of writing and the art of illustrations.

I’m Shocked—Shocked (Right:) Contents page for EC’s Shock Illustrated #1. [©2009 William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.]

Fass Food (Below:) Two pages from Fass’ imitation, True Problems #1 (June 1956). [©2009 True Problems Publications.]

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In Memoriam

59

Creig Flessel (1912-2008)

“A Pioneer Artist Of Comics”

C

by Mark Evanier

reig Flessel, a pioneer artist of comics, passed away on July 17, 2008, at the age of 96. He had recently suffered a stroke.

Flessel was born February 2, 1912, in Huntington, Long Island, New York, the son of a blacksmith. He attended Alfred University in New York, which is where he met the future Mrs. Flessel, graduating in 1936. One of his classmates, he always noted with pride, was Charles Addams.

His first job in comics was assisting cartoonist John H. Striebel on the newspaper strip Dixie Dugan. This also brought him a career in advertising art, as Striebel was doing a lot of it at the time, mostly featuring the characters from the radio show Vic and Sade. Over the years, Flessel would bounce back and forth between the two fields: when he wasn’t doing comics, he was drawing for advertising, primarily for the Johnstone-Cushing art service. Over the decades, he did thousands of magazine ads and commercial storyboards, primarily but not exclusively in comic strip form.

His non-advertising cartoons appeared over the years in publications as diverse as Boy’s Life and Playboy, but it was his work for the early DC Comics that made the most history. His first work for them seems to have appeared in More Fun Comics #10, cover-dated May of 1936. He also did a strip in the first issue of the historic Detective Comics and drew the covers for issues #2-17, as well as many other covers for early DC titles.

His work also appeared inside many comics for the firm. He did numerous stories of “The Sandman” in Adventure Comics, and he cocreated a character named “The Shining Knight,” who was featured in the same title.

In 1940, DC editor Vin Sullivan moved over to the newly-formed Columbia Comics, and Flessel began to freelance for him there, as

well. In 1943 Sullivan founded his own company, Magazine Enterprises, and Flessel signed on as associate editor. He returned to DC from time to time, drawing for them again briefly in 1949, in the late 1950s (mostly as an inker on “Superman”-related comics), and then in the early ’70s on comics that Joe Simon was editing for the company, including Prez.

All this time, he was primarily engaged in advertising art, though he occasionally assisted Al Capp on the Li’l Abner newspaper strip; and from 1960 to 1971 he drew another strip, David Crane, which he took over from Winslow Mortimer. The National Cartoonists Society honored him in 1992 with its Silver T-Square Award for extraordinary service, and the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco and Jeanne Schulz honored him in 2007 with the Sparky Award, named for Jeanne’s late husband, Charles Schulz, creator of Peanuts. Creig was also a nominee for the 2008 Hall of Fame Award at the Comic-Con International.

In 2000 he and his wife Marie (yes, the spouse he met at Alfred University) moved from the East Coast to a home in Mill Valley, California, to be closer to their son Peter and several grandchildren.

(They also had a daughter, Eugenie, who followed in Dad’s footsteps by becoming a successful illustrator.)

Creig never stopped cartooning and was often a guest at comics conventions, where I had the pleasure of interviewing him and chatting on many occasions. He was a delightful man who acted as if you were doing him a favor by asking him for an autograph or posing some question about his long, long career.

This tribute originally appeared in a slightly different form on Mark Evanier’s website www.newsfromme.com, always an excellent source for information on comics and many related (and unrelated) topics. Creig Flessel was the subject of an in-depth interview in Alter Ego #45, and will be prominently featured again in issue #88, which will center around National/DC founder Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson and other early giants of that company.

Creig’s Crowning Moments (Above:) A 1943 photo of Creig & Marie Flessel (they’d been married in ’37). (Left:) Two of the artist’s recent drawings: a color Sandman he drew for collector Dominique Leonard at age 93… and an illo he did in gratitude when he received the Sparky Award, as noted in the tribute. The photo accompanied an interview with CF that appeared in Comic Book Marketplace #15 (July 1992). [Sandman TM & © 2009 DC Comics; Snoopy TM & © 2009 United Feature Syndicate; self-caricature © 2009 Estate of Creig Flessel.]

[Art Š2009 DC Comics.]

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By [Art & logo ©2009 Marc Swayze; Captain Marvel © & TM 2009 DC Comics]

So Many Ways, So Little Time [FCA EDITORS NOTE: From 1941-53, Marcus D. Swayze was a top artist for Fawcett Publications. The very first Mary Marvel character “There are just so many ways the human figure can sketches came from Marc’s drawing table, and he illustrated her be depicted!” was the 1942 earliest adventures, including the classic origin story, “Captain Marvel remark from Fawcett artist Introduces Mary Marvel (Captain Marvel Adventures No. 18, Dec. Mac Raboy. “Even fewer ’42); but he was primarily hired by Fawcett Publications to illustrate when the human figure is a Captain Marvel stories and covers for Whiz Comics and Captain girl!” responded Swayze, Marvel Adventures. He also wrote many Captain Marvel scripts, and busy at his board with the continued to do so while in the military. After leaving the service in first drawings of Mary 1944, he made an arrangement with Fawcett to produce art and Marvel. The above Raboystories for them on a freelance basis out of his Louisiana home. There drawn “Capt. Marvel Jr.” Captain Marvel Jr. … but his remark he created both art and stories for The Phantom Eagle in Wow panel appeared in Master was also appropriate to the one on mine.

Comics #25, April 1942.

Comics, in addition to drawing the Flyin’ Jenny newspaper strip for [©2009 DC Comics.]

Bell Syndicate (created by his friend and mentor Russell Keaton).

“Even fewer, Mac,” I responded, “… when After the cancellation of Wow, Swayze produced artwork for the human figure is a female!”

Fawcett’s top-selling line of romance comics, including Sweethearts and It took only a brief study of the subject to reach the conclusion that Life Story. After the company ceased publishing comics, Marc moved action, in our day, was an essential element of the comic book. Writers, over to Charlton Publications, where he ended his comics career in the artists, and editors knew it. Readers expected it … and usually got it. If mid-’50s. Marc’s ongoing professional memoirs have been a vital part of your job was drawing a feature character, then you’d better be able to FCA since his first column appeared in FCA #54, 1996. Last issue, Marc picture him … or her … in all sorts of physical contortions. That’s what discussed his writing of Captain Marvel scripts while serving in the Mac was talking about. If you weren’t careful, before long you’d be army during World War II. In this installment, he takes a look at action repeating yourself. comics—the Fawcett way. —P.C. Hamerlinck.]

T

The question with which I coped, still unsettled, was Mary’s costume.

That skirt … how would it behave when Mary went into action … the extreme, frenzied type of action demanded of comic books in the early ’40s?

here was once a mythical fancy that wafted up and down the Fawcett halls to the effect that it was distasteful to depict a clenched fist actually landing on its mark. Better, went the opinion, that the action be shown just after, or just before, the impact.

Busy with the first sketches of Mary Marvel at the time, I never went for that crap. Nor did Mary. When she deemed it deserving that an obnoxious antagonist receive such forcible combat, that’s exactly what he got … a dainty smash, right smack in the snoot!

The usual day at my desk in 1942 was drawing Captain Marvel, who had been eased to one side temporarily to allow for this interim assignment … “a young girl about Billy’s age.”

Mac Raboy, a few tables over, was heard to mumble, “There are just so many ways the human figure can be depicted.” Mac was obviously thinking of the character on his drawing board …

“Right Smack in the Snoot!”

Despite a Fawcett opinion opposing excessive brutality, when Mary Marvel deemed it deserving of a foe … that’s exactly what he got. Panel from Captain Marvel Adventures #19 (Jan. 1943), “The Training of Mary Marvel.” Art & script by Marc Swayze. [©2009 DC Comics.]

As the work day came to a close, Reynold “Andy” Anderson, veteran of the Fawcett non-comics art staff, approached with a reminder of our plan to attend a sports event that evening at Madison Square Garden.

The occasion was a tennis tournament … and the ladies so expertly brandishing the rackets out on the courts provided a solution to the problem I’d left at the office. The typical brief but snuggly-fitting outfits they wore was an ideal suggestion for the costume I hoped to have Mary Marvel wear in her future comic book adventures.

Comics executive editor Rod Reed, describing the original Mary Marvel

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From Carbon Copy To Digital Duplication National Vs. Fawcett Through a 21st-Century (SPAM) Filter

I

by Jean Schanberger Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck Illustrations by Rubén Procopio

n 1953, following twelve years of protracted, aggressive, nearexhaustive litigation which ultimately proved fatal to one of its combatants, Fawcett Publications, the lawsuit in which National Comics Publications claimed that Fawcett’s highly successful Captain Marvel character was in effect a copy of its predecessor Detective Comics, Inc.’s, earlier-created Superman character, was finally resolved.

Reams of carbon paper, miles of typewriter ribbon, countless hours of lawyer, administrative, and go-fer time, “scorch the earth” evidencegathering, a trial to verdict, a pivotal appeal, and tedious preparation for another almost-trial later, it was over. Fawcett agreed to pay $400,000 and discontinue publication of Captain Marvel and The Marvel Family.

[Superman, Clark Kent, Lois Lane, & Shazam! heroes TM & © 2009 DC

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FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America)

character that comic book empire BG “Big Guy” Comics felt was too much like one of its flagship characters, SuperDude. After BG sued, Wannabe stopped publishing its new character after just six issues. BG was well known for protecting SuperDude’s turf; just last year it had won a lawsuit against another smaller comic book publisher who published only one issue including an allegedly infringing character.2 Glancing at the art proofs laid out on Optimisto’s worktable, everything looks good until an illustration of a clean-cut, broad-shouldered, muscular, super-heroic character in a form-fitting red suit and yellow boots with a cape and a lightning bolt emblazoned on his chest catches your eye. There is something vaguely familiar…

“Who’s this character and what’s his story?” you venture guardedly.

[Superman & Shazam! hero TM & © 2009 DC Comics.]

As a practical matter, this was the catalyst for Fawcett’s decision to exit the comics business almost entirely. The details of this grisly legal battle, which may have germinated the term “Bet the Company litigation,” have been thoroughly, lovingly, and entertainingly documented in these and other pages, and will not be comprehensively repeated here.

Rather, let’s take a “then and now” look at the legal dynamics of the lawsuit as it occurred throughout the Golden Age of Comics, and explore a hypothetical situation: “What would happen today?” Join us in a journey bringing the Superman/Captain Marvel dispute into modern day!1

Protecting The Turf For starters, let’s assume you’re Assistant General Counsel at Wannabe Comics. This means you’re a mid-level in-house lawyer whose job is to keep the business people out of trouble. On this day, you nosed your leased 5-series BMW into your reserved parking space and, carefully balancing your Starbucks® Cinnamon Dolce Latte on your briefcase, ducked into the garage elevator as it closed, catching the eye of one of your frequent internal clients, Antonio Optimisto, the Creative Director for Wannabe.

“Hey, how’s it going?”

“Great. You?”

“Oh, that’s Captain Marvel. He’s a new superhero. His alter ego is a boy, who meets a wizard, who gives the boy the power to transform into Captain Marvel with a bolt of magic lightning he creates by saying ‘Shazam.’”

“Shazam”?

“It’s an acronym for Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, uh, some others…

There’s about a half dozen different villains in the works, and we’re thinking we’ll create a Marvel Family around him, too.”

“You don’t think he looks a lot like SuperDude?”

Optimisto takes a moment to re-establish eye contact with you. “Well, sure he does, but the story’s pretty different. Besides, what can you really do these days that’s truly original? Practically every one of these books has a guy in tights who can save the world against evil. SuperDude can’t be the only guy at the trough. Bob told us, ‘Give us a SuperDude, only have his identity be a 10- or 12-year-old boy rather than a man.”3 Isn’t that different enough?”

Is It Different Enough?

Is it different enough? What if it’s not? What’s at stake? These are the questions at the heart of copyright infringement claims, both in the 1940s and today. Let’s take a comic book-sized look at the structure of copyright law:

“Good. Hey, I got some stuff I need to show you. You around this morning?”

The Copyright Act of 1909 was the operative law in Superman and Captain Marvel’s day, and remains so now. For National to have prevailed

And so it innocently began. Your days are filled with “Can we…” “We wanna…” “Whadya think about…” and “Can you take a look?” requests just like this, all asking you to walk the sometimes extremely fine line between what the business wants to do and whether or not it is “legal.”

There are few “yes” or “no” answers; rather, your advice and recommendations are based not only on your law school degree and legal training, but your experience-based understanding of your client’s business goals and risk tolerance.

1 For purposes of this excursion, we request that you suspend your reality-based belief that this dispute wouldn’t arise today because DC Comics—formerly National—now owns the rights to both Superman and Captain Marvel.

2 Fawcett aficionados will recognize this history from National Comics’ 1940 lawsuit against it over Fawcett Publication’s Master Man (“The boy becomes the strongest man on earth!”), the lead character of Master Comics, as well as Detective Comics’ successful case against Fox Comics for the sole appearance of Wonder Man in its May 1939 release of Wonder Comics #1, the first copyright infringement lawsuit in comic book history. Will Eisner reportedly created Wonder Man under protest of his instructions to make a Superman-type character.

3 This infamous Captain Marvel-era quote is attributed to Fawcett VP/Circulation Manager Roscoe Kent Fawcett, and extracted from P.C. Hamerlinck’s 1997 article, “The Fawcetts Could Do It As Well, or Better, Than Anybody: The Roscoe K. Fawcett Interview,” later reprinted in the 2001 TwoMorrows book Fawcett Companion.

An hour later you stick your head into Optimisto’s crowded office, which looks like a cross between a children’s playroom and a newsstand where an explosion has occurred. You’re always glad to be asked there, hopefully while there’s still time to give advice and head off any really big problems.

Before they hired you, at least one thing got past the lawyers—a

From Carbon Copy To Digital Duplication

71

against Fawcett, or BG against Wannabe, the copyright holder must show: (i) Ownership of a valid copyright in an original work expressed in a tangible medium; (ii) Actual copying by someone who had access to the copyrighted work, resulting in “striking similarity” between the copyrighted work and the alleged copy; and (iii) Misappropriation of the work such that the intended audience would see substantial similarities between the two works.

How similar is “substantially similar”? The standard is somewhat vague and extremely fact-specific. Two methodologies are used to analyze it: the subtraction approach, which blacks out unprotected elements of the work, then assesses whether or not the balance has substantial similarity to the protected work; and the totality approach, which compares the work’s overall concept and feel to the corresponding copyrighted work.

The creator may have a defense to an infringement claim if it can be shown that the work was created independently without access to the copyrighted work, if the copying is so minimal as to be trivial, or if it qualifies as fair use (available in very limited, typically non-commercial circumstances).

If copyright infringement is proven, the copyright owner may be entitled to several types of damages. Depending on the facts of the case, these may include any ill-gained profits made by the infringer through the infringing work, punitive damages to punish the infringer for the wrongful conduct, losses to the copyright owner including lost license fees and profits, statutory damages that are pre-established by law to deter infringement, and attorneys’ fees.

Beyond paying damages, the infringer may be required to stop using or selling the infringing work, and may be required to deliver or destroy the infringing work so that it may not be sold.

[Superman & Shazam! hero TM & © 2009 DC Comics.]

“Another SuperDude Ripoff” Now, flash forward three months to a skyscraper on the other side of town. Put yourself in the high-end Italian loafers of the Associate General Counsel, Intellectual Property, for BG Comics. Just as you stepped off the elevator this morning onto the seventh floor, a discrete tone sounded in your iPhone®’s Bluetooth® headset.

“Hello?”

“Malone, get the hell in here.” Frequent caller Joe Hurley, Senior Vice President of Marketing, gives you his usual morning greeting.

“Be right there.” Within five minutes you stick your head into his spacious, lavishly appointed corner office, the Manhattan skyline comprising its rectilinear background like a painted animation cel. “Hey, Joe. What’s up?”

Hurley picks up a comic book from his desk and slams it down in front of me. “What the hell is this?”

The colorful cover of one of BG’s competitors, Wannabe Comics, practically leaps off the desk at you, sporting a SuperDude-like, AllAmerican-looking, masculine hero character in a red suit with yellow accessories. On his chest, where your eye is fully accustomed to seeing the SuperDude “S,” there is a lightning bolt.

This character is demonstrating his apparent superhuman strength by single-handedly hurling a large vehicle into the distance, its driver tumbling from an open door. The strong man’s cape swirls around his

shoulders, reflecting the motion of the effort. You quickly fan through the pages.

Your eyes meet Hurley’s as you take a breath. “Well, it looks like the boys at Wannabe are getting clever with another SuperDude rip-off.”

“I should say so. Listen, this has got to stop. There’s just too much invested and too damn much at stake for us to keep fooling around with every Tom, Dick and Harry who dreams up, or thinks he dreams up, the next iteration of SuperDude. We’re not talking kid stuff here, we’ve got licensing deals, movie deals, merchandise, Internet, action figures, DVDs, graphic novels, TV shows, video games, ring tones, and God knows what’s coming out next week. This is a billion-dollar franchise, and I won’t stand for them trying to cut into it. We gotta nip this in the bud. Now. And if it puts ’em out of business, that’s just too damn bad.”

Number Crunching What would make Wannabe risk publishing Captain Marvel, almost certainly realizing that their cross-town rival BG, home of SuperDude, would be watching their every move, litigation talons at the ready? Well, if the character and comic book avoid infringing and find an audience, there’s a lot of money to be made, even in a media-saturated world.

In North American comic book sales during 2008, the monthly list of top 300 comic books includes about thirty publishers.4 Marvel and DC consistently dominate both the top 25 books and the list as a whole, with 4 Golden Age competitors included DC, Marvel, Fawcett, Quality, Standard, ACG, Lev Gleason, and Fiction House.

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SPLIT! XAM! And The Wall Street Journal The Day That Dueling Captain Marvels Hit The Headlines

T

by P.C. Hamerlinck

he contemptible comic book outfit known as M.F. Enterprises (named after its notorious publisher, Myron Fass), and their embarrassingly amateurish and unimaginative body part-splitting android character (created by Carl Burgos) that briefly desecrated the Captain Marvel name, were the subject of a Nov. 13, 1967, newspaper article nestled, remarkably, within the renowned and prestigious pages of The Wall Street Journal.

That article, pertaining to MFE’s lawsuit against Marvel Comics’ Martin Goodman over the ownership of the name “Captain Marvel,” not only cited quotes from Fass and Goodman, but also breezed through a brief history of the unfortunate fate which had bludgeoned Fawcett Publications’ original Captain Marvel—including a quote from Fawcett editorial director Ralph Daigh (labeled in print as a Fawcett “vicepresident” and “co-creator” of the original CM).

As many recall with great disdain—and still dream they could eternally eradicate from their memory—the MFE “Captain Marvel” shouted “Split!” to have his body parts separate… and then exclaimed “Xam!” (presumably pronounced “Zam!”) to call them back. The sheer loathsomeness of MFE resulted in more blatant thievery and insipid manipulation of other established characters, making the WSJ article’s report that the public purchased an average of “only” 100,000 copies (of 250,000 printed) of each issue of MF’s Captain Marvel a bit surprising, if not disturbing.

We Need An Atlas!

(Above:) Myron Fass exulting in a 1970s moment.

(Left:) A year or two before his Captain Marvel, Super Comics, Inc. (run by Fass’ old partner Israel Waldman), had reprinted the origin of a CM imitator—“Atlas, Man of Might”—in Daring Adventures #18. Its lead story was a retread from Great Comics Publications’ Choice Comics #1 (Dec. 1941). The youth destined to grow up to be the “human Atlas” received “the secret of strength” from “Atlas, Greek god of strength”—one of the same pantheon, of course, from whom the Big Red Cheese had derived his powers. The 1964 cover was penciled by Ross Andru and inked

by Mike Esposito. Writer and artist of the interior story unknown. [©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

The article was written by A. Kent MacDougall, a former newspaper reporter with the WSJ and the Los Angeles Times, whose articles over the years had sometimes reflected a left-leaning agenda. Now retired and a professor emeritus of journalism at the University of California Berkeley, MacDougall had actively marched in Viet Nam War protests while employed as a WSJ staffer—the same era during which he penned the Captain Marvel article.

Alter Ego editor Roy Thomas recalls being “startled” to see a serious mention of comic books in a major newspaper like The Wall Street Journal, the more so “because it was about [the] business, not the usual ‘Bam! Zow! Bap!’ stuff that made up most newspaper articles on comics for many years … and still rears its head way too often.”

The Dark Knight film producer Michael Uslan noted “fly-by-night” comic book companies headed by Myron Fass, Isadore [Israel] Waldman, and their ilk had sprung up in post-Golden Age years, surfacing again in full force during the ’60s as numerous speculators attempted to cash in on the success of the Batman TV show.

How Much Wood Would A Junior Woodchuck Chuck…

Michael Uslan’s photo and bio as printed in Amazing World of DC Comics #2 (Sept.-Oct. 1974). [Text ©2009 DC Comics.]

“Waldman’s Super Comics and I.W. Publications, without any authorization, reprinted old comic stories with new covers [including such Golden Age stalwarts as Doll Man, Plastic Man, Sheena, Torchy, and even The Spirit] until receiving cease and desist letters, if not the actual summons and complaints,” Uslan said. “Waldman would pop back up in

SPLIT! XAM! And The Wall Street Journal

FROM:

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1967 the post-TV Batman 1960s with a company reprinting the worst of old pre-Code horror comics, and a R-rated magazine called HellRider under the company banner of Skywald.

He was the ‘Wald’ and Sol Brodsky was the ‘Sky.’ I wrote a two-part satire of comic book publishers like Waldman and Fass and their companies in my back-up stories for Stan Lee’s Just Imagine Superman and Just Imagine Flash with Kyle Baker and Sergio Aragonés.

“My ‘Fly-By-Night Comics Group’ was inspired directly by Fass’ rip-off press that brought us [his] Captain Marvel. The legal theory was that Fawcett had constructively abandoned the trademark on Captain Marvel by failing to use it since 1954. But not only did Fass attempt to hijack Captain Marvel, but he also grabbed the names ‘Dr. Fate,’ ‘Plastic Man,’ and ‘The Bat’ (the latter [was] just close enough to sign his own legal death warrant, courtesy of DC Comics). When I first went to work at DC in the early ’70s and Sol Harrison assigned me to clean out ‘The Closet’ (which was similar to the last scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark), I found and read all the company’s cease and desist letters sent out to the likes of Victor Fox, Fawcett, Archie Comics … and Fass. With one magic word (‘Lawsuit!’), ‘The Bat’ became ‘The Ray’ and ‘Dr. Fate’ and ‘Plastic Man’ became other ‘duck-and-cover’ alternatives.” Uslan summarized Fass’ Captain Marvel as containing “awful stories and sub-par art” and being “the final insult to the memory and name [of] Captain Marvel.”

Uslan viewed the WSJ coverage of the legal incident as “a rarity from an era where comic books were just beginning to claw their way to respectability in mainstream society and press—as evidenced [a couple of years later] by Sgt. Rock making the cover of The New York Times Magazine section in an article covering Green Lantern/Green Arrow and the Age of Relevancy in comics.”

Roy Thomas and Alter Ego have arranged for FCA to re-present the Wall Street Journal piece in its entirety, complete with the three illustrations that originally accompanied it, on the facing page (with thanks also to Barry Pearl for reminding us about it some time back). The article, like the logo of The Wall Street Journal repro’d above, is © 1967, 2009 Dow Jones & Co., and is reprinted by permission….

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SUPERMAN VS. SHAZAM! The Rich Buckler FCA Interview Conducted by P.C. Hamerlinck

I

NTRODUCTION: A 1978 DC Comics house ad called it “The Battle Nearly Four Decades in the Making!” The oversized “Superman vs. Shazam!” (more formally, All-New Collectors’ Edition #C-58) comic book, marking Superman and Captain Marvel’s first true co-starring adventure, is now over 30 years old. While time has flown by faster than a speeding bullet or the speed of Mercury, the book still remains as fun and dynamic as when it first appeared, thanks to Gerry Conway’s script and the multi-faceted artistic abilities of Rich Buckler (in collaboration with supreme inker Dick Giordano). Rich’s powerful layouts effectively collided the two worlds of the Man of Steel and the World’s Mightiest Mortal together. One of the comics industry’s most prominent artists during the ’70s and ’80s, Buckler has drawn virtually every Marvel and DC super-hero at one time or another during his career. He is best remembered for his work on Fantastic Four in the mid-’70s, co-creating Deathlok with writer Doug Moench, and penciling early issues of All-Star Squadron. My interview with Rich, conducted in late 2008, focuses primarily on that memorable late-’70s epic …

“Superman vs. Shazam!”

Buckler’s Battle Royal (Left:) Rich Buckler’s surrealistic self-portrait, 2001. The painting appeared on a poster for his successful solo exhibition in Paris that same year at Galerie Natalie Boldyreff, a French art gallery owned and operated by Russians. Visit richbuckler.com to view more of Rich’s paintings. [©2009 Rich Buckler.]

(Above:) The Rich Buckler/Dick Giordano cover for the 1978 tabloid-sized All-New Collectors’ Edition #C-58 – a.k.a. “Superman vs. Shazam!” Julius Schwartz was the editor. Rich reversed the main figures for the cover of this issue of A/E. Scan courtesy of Walt Grogan. [©2009 DC Comics.]

P.C. HAMERLINCK: Rich, you were born in 1949. Fawcett Publications had ceased publishing Captain Marvel in 1953. How or when did you first become acquainted with the character?

RICH BUCKLER: I first became acquainted with the Captain Marvel books from articles in fanzines during the early stages of organized comics fandom. It was then that I met Jerry Bails and Roy Thomas. Jerry was in the process of putting a huge amount of Golden Age comics on microfilm, and I had the opportunity to read and peruse rare books that I could not afford to buy from comic book dealers. I was 17 or 18 years old—but at that tender age I knew I was going to become a comic book artist. I delved into the world of fanzine publishing; I started out as a publisher before I became a professional artist. The Golden Age of Comic

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FCA (Fawcett Collectors Of America)

Knockin’ ’Em On Their Axis In 1969, Detroit fan Rich B. drew this wraparound cover for Jerry G. Bails’ Collector’s Guide: The First Heroic Age. Rich recalls it as being “MLJ heroes,” though besides The Shield there were several more from various companies—and note which Fawcett hero made the front page! [Captain Marvel Jr. & The Spectre TM & ©2009 DC Comics; The Mighty Destroyer TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.; The Shield TM & ©2009 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.; Skyman TM & ©2009 the respective copyright holders; other art ©2009 Rich Buckler.]

Books lived on in Alter Ego, Rocket’s Blast-Comic Collector, and Paul Levitz’s Comic Reader. I contributed to just about every fanzine I could find, and then published a few myself. Those were the days before the Internet, so all of our networking was done by mail and telephone. A whole world had opened up to me in my discovering what came before I was born. My mom remembered a lot of these books from her childhood.

Captain Marvel was one of her favorites. It wasn’t long before I purchased a few dog-eared Golden Age comics via mail order—Captain Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr. among them—and he became one of my favorites too.

PCH: Some of your friends involved in fandom at the time—Roy Thomas, Alan Weiss, Arvell Jones—of course all went on to become comic book professionals themselves (and, incidentally, would all get their own shots on Captain Marvel). Before and during your work in the fanzines, were you only involved in comics as an avocation and for the escapism aspect, or did you have serious aspirations about joining the professional ranks?

BUCKLER: I had already decided I wanted to be a comic book artist, even before I got involved in fanzine publishing. I took this all very seriously from the beginning. I was thoroughly convinced that I could learn how to do it by meeting other professionals and studying and practicing. I did have trouble early on with other people not taking me seriously. I would get challenged by friends and new acquaintances. It always went something like this: “You want to be an artist? Okay, you draw a lot, but you never went to school for it. How are you going to do

it?” I would argue back, “Hey, these guys never went to comic book art school. If they can do it, so can I!” Of course, it wasn’t that simple. But there were no “comic book art schools” in those days, so that wasn’t even a choice—and it was true that I had absolutely no formal art education.

Everything I knew about art and drawing was from studying books and practicing. It was stubborn resolve and a certainty that I was born be an artist that kept me going. That, and the two people who believed in me the most: my mother and my sister. I met Arvell Jones during my fanzine publishing days. He and I collaborated on a lot of publishing projects, and we became close friends.

One day I visited Jerry Bails, and he wanted to hire me to do a wraparound cover for one of his publications. I think I was 19 years old at the time, and the assignment paid $50 (which was a lot, then). It was my very first professional work as a comics artist—and it was [drawing] Golden Age characters—from the old MLJ comics… I was thrilled! Jerry was very encouraging and inspiring. But at that point I was still years away from actually breaking into the comic book field. That would take several trips to New York, and eventually moving there—along with a whole lot of luck! Alan Weiss I knew from correspondence and telephone conversations. He contributed to my fanzines (and just about everybody else’s fanzines), and we exchanged ideas and encouraged each other. Alan’s drawing was always so much better than mine—the guy was (and is) amazing. In terms of overall drawing skill and finesse, I haven’t caught up to him yet.

Superman Vs. Shazam!

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BUCKLER: The cover idea was a “one-off.” I just came up with it at the office. Almost all of the covers I did for DC and Marvel were done like that—first thing that came to mind, I would sketch it out, and that was the one.

PCH: Would you purposely try to channel other artists’ styles for certain jobs? It’s obvious that you successfully tapped the Neal Adams approach for the “S vs. S” book.

Adams had only previously drawn Captain Marvel for a 1976 calendar and a couple of other merchandising pieces.

Had you seen, or were you inspired, by any of those? Was there an official editorial decision made for you to incorporate the Adams “look” for the book?

Red Punch (Above:) Battle panel from “Superman vs. Shazam!” Buckler remembered thinking beforehand, “This has got to be the biggest and most intimidating assignment I have ever gotten! (Right:) Scripter Gerry Conway, caricatured

by Dave Manak in Amazing World of DC Comics #14 (March 1977), not long before the project was launched. [©2009 DC Comics.]

PCH: Let’s fast-forward to “Superman vs. Shazam!” While there had begun a series of “Superman-versus-somebody” tabloid-sized comics, do you know who specifically conceptualized the “S vs. S” book? Its writer, Gerry Conway, told Michael Eury in an interview that it was “another Roy Thomas-influenced story” (“S vs. S” was released prior to Roy’s 1980s association with DC). Other reports claim Dick Giordano originated the idea for the book—or that it was the idea of its editor, Julie Schwartz, who had spearhead DC’s tabloid-sized books to begin with, though he considered his Shazam-related projects to be “low-lights” of his career.

BUCKLER: I’m not sure if it was Roy’s idea, but it does sound like him.

I got the assignment from Dick Giordano. Dick was thinking, at the time, that I could be groomed to be the new regular Superman artist; Curt Swan was planning on retiring. I was more than happy to get a chance to draw a Superman book (I learned to draw the human figure, originally, by studying and imitating Curt Swan from the comics).

PCH: According to Julie, the tabloid-sized comics were created as a marketing tool to get DC books prominently displayed and sold in stores outside of the usual venues at that time. But by 1978—the year “S vs. S” was released—the over-sized comics were on their tail end after a successful run.

BUCKLER: Yeah, they were a bit of a novelty. I knew they wouldn’t last.

But they sure were cool.

PCH: After Giordano assigned “S vs. S” to you, were you intrigued about illustrating a larger-sized, potentially higher-profile book?

BUCKLER: I remember thinking, “This has got to be the biggest and most intimidating assignment I have ever gotten! How the hell am I going to do it?” Remember, this was around the same time as the Neal Adams Superman vs. Muhammed Ali book—that was what I had to measure up to! “I better hurry up and start on it before they change their minds and figure out that I’m not up to it and give it to somebody else!”

PCH: Did you work with Julie on the layout of the “S vs. S” cover? Did you have to submit various cover concepts, or was the final version the first and only layout you came up with?

BUCKLER: I wouldn’t say “channel”—that’s not accurate at all. I didn’t become possessed or anything like that—just the opposite, actually. I’m a stubborn individualist. I never, ever drew anything that I didn’t want to draw. I would always throw off any and all restrictions. Somebody recently remarked in a trade magazine that I have a “quirky and complicated personality”—or something like that. Well, my main “quirk” is that I do whatever I want, and nobody could ever force me to think or act otherwise. If that’s complicated, I don’t see how. I love comics and I have a whole lot of favorite characters.

When I drew Fantastic Four, I drew my version of my favorite FF comics, which were drawn originally by Jack Kirby. So, I tried to evoke Kirby’s dynamics and sensibility in the new work I produced for that title. Same with Superman: Curt Swan for foundations, Neal Adams for flash and dynamics. I was coming from a “super fan” mentality, if you will. Give me Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD and I probably would have done my version of Jim Steranko. This was pure fun for me (and it still is).

At the time, DC was evolving a Neal Adams look for Superman. I did a lot of commercial comics work for Dick Giordano, and Dick was scheduled to ink the “Superman/Shazam!” book. What “style” to use? For me, it was a no-brainer. With any comics assignment, first and foremost was the storytelling. That has always been my strong point. You get that right and the publisher (at that time, anyway) didn’t care which “style” you chose to work in. Whatever I drew,

Hero-Hunter From Mars The book’s eyeball earring-wearing nemesis, Karmang, enlisted Superman/Captain Marvel adversaries Quarrmer and Black Adam to do his bidding . [©2009 DC Comics.]