Alter Ego #88 by TwoMorrows Publishing

Roy Thomas’ Major Comics Fanzine

MAJOR MALCOLM WHEELERNICHOLSON THE VISIONARY WHO FOUNDED DC COMICS!

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No.88 August 2009

THE

BATCAVE C O M P A N I O N NOW SHIPPING! Batman. Is he the campy Caped Crusader? Or the grim Gotham Guardian? Both, as The Batcave Companion reveals. On the brink of cancellation in 1963, Batman was rescued by DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz, who, abetted by several talented writers and artists, gave the hero a much-needed “New Look” which soon catapulted Batman to multimedia stardom. In the next decade, when Batman required another fresh start, Schwartz once again led a team of creators that returned the hero to his “creature of the night” roots. Writers Michael Eury (The Krypton Companion, The Justice League Companion) and Michael Kronenberg (Spies, Vixens, and Masters of Kung Fu: The Art of Paul Gulacy) unearth the stories behind the stories of both Batman’s “New Look” and Bronze Age (1970s) comic-book eras through incisive essays, invaluable issue-by-issue indexes, and insightful commentary from many of the visionaries responsible for and inspired by Batman’s 1960s and 1970s adventures: Neal Adams, Michael Allred, Terry Austin, Mike W. Barr, Steve Englehart, Mike Friedrich, Mike Grell, Carmine Infantino, Joe Giella, Adam Hughes, Sheldon Moldoff, Will Murray, Dennis O’Neil, Bob Rozakis, Mark Waid, Len Wein, and Bernie Wrightson. Featuring 240 art- and info-packed pages, The Batcave Companion is a must-have examination of two of the most influential periods in Batman’s 70-year history.

Written by Back Issue’s

MICHAEL EURY & MICHAEL KRONENBERG ISBN 978-1-893905-78-8 $26.95 in the U.S. plus shipping Batman, Robin, and all related characters and indicia are TM & © DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission.

TwoMorrows. Celebrating The Art & History Of Comics. TwoMorrows • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 • E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com

Vol. 3, No. 88 / August 2009 Editor Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout Christopher Day

Consulting Editor John Morrow

FCA Editor P.C. Hamerlinck

Contents

Comic Crypt Editor Michael T. Gilbert

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

Circulation Director

Christina Blakeney talks to Jim Amash about her illustrious grandfather, Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson

“His Goal Was The Graphic Novel” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Douglas Wheeler-Nicholson on his father and the early days of DC—and Superman!

Bob Brodsky, Cookiesoup Productions

Cover Artist

“He Was Going To Go For The Big Idea”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Nicky Wheeler-Nicholson Brown in search of her grandfather’s super-secrets

“The Old Beezer”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Winslow Mortimer

The Major’s daughter Antoinette Wheeler-Nicholson on her legendary sire

Cover Colorist

Beaver Hats! Hobo Disguises! Naked Women On Horseback!. 55

Tom Ziuko

With Special Thanks to: Jack Adams Jon Adams David Allen Heidi Amash Henry Andrews David Armstrong Michael Barrier Jim Beard Jon Berk Christina Blakeney Dominic Bongo Matt Brady/ Newsarama Jason Brown Nicky WheelerNicholson Brown Nick Caputo Michael Catron Bob Cherry Chet Cox Keith Dallas Teresa R. Davidson Dwight R. Decker Michael Dunne Mark Evanier Michael Feldman Ron Fernandez Shane Foley Ron Frantz Jeff Gelb Janet Gilbert Irv Goldfarb Jennifer Hamerlinck Greg Huneryager Jim Korkis Phil Latter

Writer/Editorial: Major Revelations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 “A Real Iconic, Quintessential American Figure” . . . . . . . . . . 3

Stan Lee Dominique Leonard Michel Maillot Dan Makara Sam Maronie Bruce Mason Monroe Mayer Sean Menard Sheldon Moldoff Brian K. Morris Mrs. Eileen Mortimer Frank Motler Will Murray Christine Quigley John G. Pierce Bob Rivard Charlie Roberts Dr. Peter Schilder David Siegel Howard Siegel Marc Swayze Carl Taylor Jeff Taylor Dann Thomas Anthony Tollin Michael Uslan Jim Van Hise Len Wein Antoinette WheelerNicholson Douglas WheelerNicholson Ian WheelerNicholson Eddy Zeno

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, John Wright, & Roger Armstrong

Pioneer comics artist Creig Flessel tells Ian Wheeler-Nicholson about 1930s National/DC!

“Cartoonists Are Like Kids!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Mrs. Eileen Mortimer interviewed by Eddy Zeno about her late husband, Golden Age artist Win Mortimer

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! Dr. Lauretta Bender – Part II . 65 Michael T. Gilbert re-introduces the “anti-Wertham”—one of comics’ early defenders

Comic Fandom Archive: John Wright, 1933–2008 . . . . . . . 71 A tribute to John Wright, one of the bright lights of early comics fandom, presented by Bill Schelly

In Memoriam: Roger Armstrong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . 77 FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] #147 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 P.C. Hamerlinck showcases C.C. Beck, Marc Swayze—and Fatman the Human Flying Saucer! On Our Cover: What to feature on a cover of an issue of Alter Ego largely centered around Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, the little-known visionary who basically founded DC Comics? A/E is primarily a magazine devoted to super-hero comics of the Golden and Silver Ages, and the Major was gone from the company by spring of 1938 when Superman made his debut in Action Comics #1, while Batman was still a year in the future. Still, those two are beyond all doubt the greatest icons of that comics giant—so we chose a classic drawing by Winslow Mortimer done for a DC public service page honoring the Boy Scouts of America. It appeared, among other places, on the inside back cover of AllStar Comics #53 (June-July 1950), and was reprinted recently in the Comic Crypt section of A/E #62. Somehow it seemed fitting to have Superman, Batman, and Robin saluting the Major! Thanks to Nicky Wheeler-Nicholson Brown and the W-N family for the photo, which is also seen and discussed on p. 9 of this issue. [Art ©2009 DC Comics; photo ©2009 Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson Estate.] Above: One of the more notable one-page “comic strips” in 1935’s New Fun #1 was artist Clem Gretta’s “Don Drake on the Planet Saro,” a Flash Gordon wannabe. In this fourth panel on the 12-panel page, Don and his companion Betty land on Saro after their hot-air balloon (!) somehow manages to rise “beyond Earth’s gravity-pull”—and, where Flash encountered Hawkmen, Lion Men, and the like, this pair at once run into—“midget men”! All P.C. aside, it all reminds Ye Editor of something Golden Age writing star Gardner Fox once wrote him: “Anything worked in the comics in those dear, departed days!” Thanks to Ron Frantz for the photocopy. [©2009 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: $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

Major Revelations

ajor Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson has long been one of the great mysterious figures in comic book history.

A shadowy presence who founded National Allied Publications, which over time evolved into the entity now known as DC Comics—one of the earliest, and soon one of the largest and most influential, companies ever to publish comic books. The man who, for whatever reason or combination of reasons, abandoned the then-standard practice of simply licensing the rights to reprint previously printed newspaper comic strips in favor of producing brand new material that only looked like comic strips. And, of course, since it was National/DC’s issuing of Action Comics #1 in 1938 that knocked the fledgling industry on its collective ear and led to (as well as led, period) its so-called Golden Age, that makes “the Major,” as he’s often been familiarly referred to, an even more important legend in the history of the medium. Until now, though, precious little has been written about him that didn’t emanate ultimately either from his early (and respectful) artistemployee Creig Flessel—or from those who learned the “facts” directly or indirectly from the men who in ’38 forced the Major out of the company he had founded.

his immediate family, including his son and two grandchildren. In addition, one of the latter interviewed the Major’s daughter for us, so that we have first-hand accounts by no less than two of his five children. Besides that, one of the Major’s grandkids conducted a final interview with Creig Flessel, not long before that colorful artist left us last year at the age of 96. These are folks who have made a special effort, especially over the past few years, to thoroughly research the Major’s life and work and surviving documents (such as they are), with the purpose of correcting the historical record and dispelling what the family feel are myths that have grown up around him. When future histories of DC comics—or indeed, of the field as a whole—are written, they will need to take into account what follows over the next 56 pages, if they’re to be taken seriously. Alter Ego is both proud and grateful that, through the good efforts of Jim Amash (as well as film producer and one-time comics writer Michael Uslan), we were invited to be the ones to first put the Wheeler-Nicholson family’s side of the story on the public record. And may we immodestly add: that story also makes a damn good read! Bestest,

And it turns out, according to the Wheeler-Nicholson family, that much of what we “knew” about him is flat-out wrong… or, at the very least, hotly disputed. For, if interviewer/associate editor Jim Amash couldn’t ask the Major himself at this late date about the facts of the case, he could do what is often the next-best thing: he spoke with no fewer than three members of

P.S.: Our apologies to Jeff Jaworski for our accidentally crediting another with providing us with the splendid Rick Veitch illo we used as last issue's Marvelman/Miracleman cover.

COMING IN OCTOBER

SPEND A HAPPY HALLOWEEN WITH

1950s HARVEY HORROR COMICS! • SIMON & KIRBY’s Stuntman presents the nefarious art of HOWARD NOSTRAND—in a haunting “brand-new 1950s” Harvey composite cover! • HARVEY COMICS Horror of the Fear-Fraught-’50s! Never-before-printed interviews with terror artists HOWARD NOSTRAND & WARREN KREMER & eldritch editor SID JACOBSON, conducted by Squa Tront’s JOHN BENSON! Plus the awe-full (but sure not awful!) art of BOB POWELL, LEE ELIAS, AL AVISON, DICK AYERS, SID CHECK, MANNY STALLMAN, JOHN GIUNTA, JACK SPARLING, JOE CERTA, JOHN BELFI, RUDY PALAIS, & others! • 1950s Harvey artist KEN SELIG, interviewed by JIM AMASH! • Plus: FCA with MARC SWAYZE, BILL FUGATE, & “The Half-Life and Times of Mr. Atom”—MICHAEL T. GILBERT on that 1950s comic book cut-up (literally!) DR. FREDRIC WERTHAM—BILL SCHELLY (at last) presents MARVIN GILES on the 1960s Detroit Triple Fan Fairs—& MORE!! Edited by ROY THOMAS ; Simon & Estate of Jack Kirby [Stuntman art ©2009 Joe ctive copyright holders.] other art ©2009 the respe

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TwoMorrows. Celebrating The Art & History Of Comics TwoMorrows • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 • E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com

Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson: The Visionary Who Founded DC Comics

Part I

“A Real Iconic, Quintessential American Figure” CHRISTINA BLAKENEY Introduces Us To The Wondrous World Of MAJOR MALCOLM WHEELER-NICHOLSON

Interview Conducted by Jim Amash

Transcribed by Brian K. Morris

NTERVIEWER’S INTRO: Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson is often thought of by comic book historians as the least known and least understood of the several “fathers“ of the modern comic book. We have known that he served in the United States Army, wrote pulp stories, and failed at syndicating newspaper strips—and, though recognized as the founder of DC Comics (originally known as National Allied Publications), he is best remembered for losing the company right before the initial appearance of Superman (whose first rescue was that of the company that published his exploits). The only other certain fact that we had was that he died in relative obscurity (with a universally accepted 1968 death date—which we now know to be incorrect!). As long as this status quo existed, the Major’s story remained a woefully gaping hole in comics’ history. Thankfully, happily, and not a moment too soon by our lights, this glaring omission has come to an end. Several members of the WheelerNicholson family have finally gone on record to tell us about the Major. They will correct and expand upon previously held beliefs that have cloaked his life and death, the circumstances surrounding both the publication birth of “Superman” in Action Comics #1 in 1938 and the wresting of the company from founder WheelerNicholson’s hands. The first of my three interviews is with the Major’s granddaughter Christina Blakeney— followed by one with his son Douglas Wheeler-Nicholson, then with Nicky Brown, the daughter of Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, Jr. After that comes Nicky’s own talk with Antoinette WheelerNicholson (“Aunt Toni”), the Major’s daughter… and we’ll wind up

Spanning The Years Christina Blakeney (above left) and her grandfather Major Malcolm WheelerNicholson, who is pictured in 1948. Their images flank the cover/first page of New Fun #1 (Feb. 1935), the first magazine from the company that would one day become National Periodical Publications, Inc., then DC Comics—and a key panel from Superman’s first public appearance, in the 1938 Action Comics #1. The tabloid-sized New Fun was the first regularly published comic book featuring new material rather than newspaper comic strip reprints; the “Jack Woods” Western adventure “strip“ on its cover was drawn (and signed) by Lyman Anderson. The “Superman” panel is reproduced from the 1971 Crown hardcover collection Superman from the 30’s to the 70s. Thanks to Christina Blakeney and to Nicky & Jason Brown, respectively, for the photos—and to Ron Frantz for the photocopies of New Fun #1. [Comic art ©2009 DC Comics; CB photo ©2009 Christina Blakeney; Major MWN photo ©2009 Finn Andreen.]

Christina Blakeney Introduces Us To The Wondrous World Of Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson

with an interview concerning the Major conducted by Douglas’ son Ian Wheeler-Nicholson with early comics artist Creig Flessel. Many thanks to Michael Uslan, who pointed Nicky in my direction at the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con, where the Major was being posthumously (and very deservedly) honored. My appreciative thanks to Christina, Douglas, Antoinette, Ian, and especially Nicky—who helped coordinate these interviews—for their time and willingness to share their family history and Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson’s story as they have known and lived it. Now, you will, too. And, when you’re done here, you can check out the family’s website: http://majormalcolmwheelernicholson.com —Jim Amash.

“The Smell Of Burnt Toast And Vinegar” JIM AMASH: So when were you born?

CHRISTINA BLAKENEY: 1949. JA: [chuckles] Now the question I should have asked you first— BLAKENEY: What’s my relationship with him? He was my grandfather. My mother Marianne was his second oldest daughter. The oldest was my aunt Toni, Antoinette. JA: What are your earliest memories of him? BLAKENEY: Going to visit my grandparents on Long Island in various places. Gosh, there were a couple of different ones. One [memory] was just sort-of the impression of their home full of books, full of sort-of remaining mementos from my grandmother’s European life. JA: Did he have a nice library in his house? BLAKENEY: I was pretty little, but as I recall, there was always an abundance of books. There was always a big emphasis on literature, reading, conversation, any sort of intellectual pursuit. There was a huge regard for that always with my grandparents. Another really prevailing thing that I always will associate with him is the smell of burnt toast and vinegar, because I don’t know if you’ve heard this story from Nicky or anybody else…. JA: I haven’t heard a single story. You’re the first one I’m interviewing. BLAKENEY: Okay. My grandfather would make his breakfast with coffee. The specific way he made coffee had eggshells in it so that the grounds would rise to the top or sink to the bottom or whatever… I’m not a big coffee person. The other thing that he always made for himself was poached eggs on toast, and there was always vinegar in the water that he poached the eggs in. And he invariably burned the toast. [laughs] My very strong recollection is that distinctive smell of burnt toast, and seeing him scrape off the burnt area. He was so consistent about this. JA: So he would make you breakfast. BLAKENEY: No, I don't remember him making it for me. It’s just that I remember him making it. That was his breakfast. What else do I remember? He was very elegant, not verbose—sort-of measured—thoughtful, very appreciative and affectionate to his granddaughters.

“Nick And Squeegee” JA: Then he was not the type of grandfather who would bounce you on his knee like some grandfathers do with little kids? BLAKENEY: Mmm, maybe put one on one’s knee and tell a story or listen. I don’t remember a bouncing element to things. He often smoked a pipe or had a pipe in his mouth or in the vicinity. I remember sitting on his knee, and I remember him being very intrigued and appreciative of his daughter’s little girl, let’s put it that way. So I just remember a lot of admiration and affection.

A Little Question Could this page with its “little people” drawn by Dick Loederer for New Fun #1 be an early version of the “funny little, almost Swedish fairy tales with elf-like figures” that Christina remembers her grandfather writing about? (See next page). Thanks to Ron Frantz. [©2009 DC Comics.]

JA: Do you remember what kind of stories he’d tell you? BLAKENEY: No. I remember certain letters I have containing certain stories that he would write to my

“A Real Iconic, Quintessential American Figure”

guess it was for spray painting. He had one room in this one apartment set up as a lab where he was conducting these experiments. I remember everything being sort-of white and draped, and he was perfecting this invention, which it’s rather unfortunate that he didn’t have a patent on, because it’s something that’s very much used now. My biggest recollections were about his military background, because there were photographs of him in uniform. My Uncle Douglas was also a big horseman, so there was an equestrian connection... polo and that sort of thing. JA: Did anyone ever call him “The Major?” BLAKENEY: Probably, because I don’t remember him ever being addressed as “Malcolm.” “Malcolm” was always my uncle, not my grandfather. My grandfather was called “Nick,” and that’s what I called him. I didn’t call him “Grandpa.” “Squeegee” was my grandmother’s nickname. You know what a squeegee is? JA: Yes. Is there a story behind that? BLAKENEY: Yeah. Do you know anything about my grandmother? JA: Almost nothing.

mother and her siblings about funny sort-of characters. It was a way of giving them a lesson in manners somehow. There was one called “The Goops.” “They lick their fingers, the Goops, they lick their knives. Oh, they lead terrible lives.” It was about deportment and about behaving themselves. And there were these funny little, almost Swedish fairy tales with elf-like figures that he would write about, and I think actually drew. JA: I didn’t realize he did any drawing at all. BLAKENEY: Well, I think maybe it was something that was already drawn, and he put the names to them. That was probably more likely. JA: You said he was not verbose. Was he shy? BLAKENEY: No, there was always conversation, but he was a Santa Claus figure, if you know what I mean. In a group of his peers, he probably was the life of the party at times. But he had a run for his money with my grandmother, who was a very, very interesting character, and very articulate. JA: Did he spend time with you on birthdays or holidays? BLAKENEY: No, because our whole family was not structured like that. If we were there, then he would be attentive. But there was nothing Norman Rockwellian about that scene, for sure. He was an inventor. Well, his one invention that I remember him working on was a compressor gun for doing things like painting houses. I

BLAKENEY: Okay. She came from a very good house in Stockholm. She was Swedish, and was one of the first women to be educated at a university at Uppsala, I believe, in Sweden. She was very refined, very cultured, very beautiful, and could not boil an egg to save her life. She was probably the worst cook in the whole wide world. [mutual chuckling] I remember hearing these terrible stories about this food that my mother and her siblings had to eat that was just really so awful, and every vegetable being cooked within an inch of its life. It’s just that I don’t think any of her domestic skills were in any way formed, because she grew up with servants. Then I think somebody got her one of those little squeegees to clean the windows. I guess she really took to it and, as a result, got that nickname. That’s why my grandparents were referred to as “Nick and Squeegee.”

“A Very Different Kind Of Family” JA: Did he have a military bearing about him? BLAKENEY: Oh, yes. Completely. Very erect posture, very physically possessed. JA: When he was relaxed, would he be different? BLAKENEY: No. JA: You were about 16 when he died. Did you ever go to him for any advice? BLAKENEY: No. The older I got, the less time I spent with him. I saw him when my mother took us to New York for the summer. We would spend time there in a rented house on Long Island or someplace. That was the time I spent with him, primarily. When I got older, we didn’t do that anymore. JA: What was your mother’s relationship with the Major like? BLAKENEY: I think she was very dear to him. My mother was really a sweet person. There were a lot of other family members who were a lot more high-profile. Aunt Toni was a stunner. There are a lot of large personalities in my family, and my mother did not have that kind of personality, but she had other traits that I think were very dear to him. I remember his letters to her that I’ve read, obviously, as an adult, and everything I’ve read [revealed his] admiration for her children, and her life. [The letters were] very loving. I’d say they had a really nice relationship.

Christina Blakeney Introduces Us To The Wondrous World Of Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson

New Fun—New Learning The “intellectual conversation” Christina mentions as an integral part of Wheeler-Nicholson family life most definitely spilled over into New Fun, whose first issue in 1935 featured various non-comics departments on science, stamp collecting, homemaking, etc., which sandwiched the comics material (and, inevitably, an early Charles Atlas ad). Thanks to Ron Frantz. [©2009 DC Comics.]

JA: Did your mother have any traits from either parent? BLAKENEY: That’s an interesting question. My mother had amazing style and having grown up in this really—I don’t know, have you read a lot of Nancy Midford’s books? Well, just as far as eccentric families are concerned, a very different kind of family. There was always a lot of intellectual conversation, a lot of intellectual challenging, a lot of no stressing of conventional avenues as far as their kids getting a good education, or commerce, or anything practical at all. Maybe there was not very much food on the table, but there would be candles, and a cocktail hour. My grandmother always had a cigarette holder. There was always this great sense of style about things, even if there was no money, and I think my mother got that, definitely. I think there was a very European influence that prevailed in my mother’s upbringing that she also passed on to me, actually. JA: So the talk was generally serious? Not much laughter? BLAKENEY: Oh, I think a huge amount of laughter. There was a lot of witty exchange. I think that was part of it—the humor aspect. My uncle Malcolm— Nicky’s father—was one of the memorable wits of all time. And Aunt Toni was pretty damn good, too. [mutual laughter] So there was a lot of banter, and humor was a huge part of it. JA: So even when you got a little older—say, like 10, 12, 14—you still didn’t talk to him all that much then? BLAKENEY: No. I think things shifted when my parents got divorced, and I can’t even tell you the year, so those trips back East were curtailed. JA: Was he a “grandkids should be seen and not heard too often” grandfather? BLAKENEY: No, my instinct is that he would have really enjoyed observing our progress. I think he would have been very interested in what we had to say. JA: Would you describe him as an intellectually curious person? BLAKENEY: Completely, as was my grandmother. The whole family was, actually.

“A Real Iconic, Quintessential American Figure”

“The Spirit Of Adventure” Christina speaks of the Major’s life as one of “high romance”—”larger than life”—and in a very real sense, it certainly was. When he wasn’t helping to create the comic book industry, he was skillfully channeling those emotions into such stories as illustrated here on covers of issues of Argosy and Adventure, two of the foremost pulp magazines of the day. Thanks to Michael Catron for the scans. Frank Motler tells us that “Naked Steel” was in the Sept. 12, 1931, issue of Argosy— and Nicky Brown informs us that “Sword for Hire” appeared in the May 1939 issue of Adventure. [Pulp covers ©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

JA: It doesn’t sound like they had a lot of money. BLAKENEY: It was feast or famine. My mother grew up in a chateau outside Paris, and in an apartment in Paris. Then they had a house in Gramercy Park, and then Long Island, too. Then there were periods where they were impoverished during the Depression. JA: The Depression was tough on everybody, with a 25% unemployment rate at times. BLAKENEY: Yes, exactly. I think that I would have to say that there was not a great, realistic connection to things monetary and commercial. He was not an astute businessman by any stretch of the imagination. JA: But he sounds like a very decent man. BLAKENEY: Yes, very, very much so. He was really remarkable.

“Larger-Than-Life Associations” JA: When did you find out about what he had done as far as the comic books were concerned? BLAKENEY: Probably when I was a teenager. JA: Who told you about it?

BLAKENEY: My mother. [It was part of the] family lore that started from my mother and Uncle Douglas. JA: Was this often discussed? BLAKENEY: After a certain point, yes, it was, and it was always discussed in the context of: what a shame he didn’t get the acknowledgment that he should have gotten. So there was a definite, I think, shift from my perception of his military background to the comic book stuff, and that probably happened when I was a teenager. JA: Do you have any thoughts on his legacy at this point? BLAKENEY: I think it’s somehow related to something you had mentioned, because I think my grandfather was a real iconic, quintessential American figure in his military exploits. The books that he wrote; the spirit of adventure, the European exploits and pursuit of my grandmother, I mean it was high romance, high adventure, high living, kind-of American—not swashbuckler, but you know what I mean. There were a lot of larger-than-life associations with him. JA: He wrote about myths and, in a certain way, he’s become a mythic figure. BLAKENEY: Yes, and I think that he conducted his life in that way, also. I think he embodied what he wrote or wrote what he embodied, to put it another way.

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Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson: The Visionary Who Founded DC Comics

Part II

“His Goal Was The Graphic Novel” DOUGLAS WHEELER-NICHOLSON, Son Of The Major, Reveals Startling Facts About The Early Days Of DC— And Superman! Interview Conducted by Jim Amash

Transcribed by Brian K. Morris

“I’m Uncomfortable Calling Him ‘The Major’” JIM AMASH: Do you have a birth date for the Major? DOUGLAS WHEELER-NICHOLSON: January 4th, 1890. JA: I understand he was born in East Tennessee. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: That’s correct. Let me explain something first. I’m uncomfortable calling him “The Major,” although everyone does. I refer to him as “the old man.” [Jim laughs] Not because he was an old man when I knew him, but it’s an old Army term that refers to the commanding officer. So you’ll get a grizzled old sergeant talking to a 17-year old lieutenant, calling the lieutenant “the old man.” JA: Fine. Before I ask about his early career, did people call him “the Major”? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: It was either “Nick” or “the Major.” Mother and close friends called him “Nick,” as in “Nicholson.” I never heard anyone call him “Malcolm.” JA: According to your website, his grandfather was Dr. Christopher Wheeler, a Massachusetts-born Cavalry officer and surgeon. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: And also the founder of the first newspaper in Jonesborough, Tennessee, which is still extant, amazingly. JA: The Herald and Tribune. What do you know about his grandparents? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Just what’s in the local histories. Christopher was an Army surgeon, he was a Cavalry officer, and eventually a newspaper owner. The family, way back, always seems to have veered towards journalism, writing, and so forth, and that hit heavily with the old man’s mother. She also became a journalist, and led him into that field. JA: And the family, at some point, moved to the Pacific Northwest? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Yes, that’s a strange part of his history. The old man’s mother, Antoinette Wheeler, was a really weird old bird. She

Generations (Left:) Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson—”when he was first in the Army,” according to granddaughter Nicky. She‘s “not sure of the date, but he is very young, so probably soon after he first entered the Army circa 1913 or so.” (Above:) Two later generations of the family— the Major’s son Douglas Wheeler-Nicholson, and Douglas’ niece Nicky WheelerNicholson Brown, sharing a laugh at the 2008 San Diego ComicCon, where they accepted the Hall of Fame award given in memory of the founder of DC Comics. The photo was taken by Nicky’s sister Christine Quigley. With thanks to Nicky & Jason Brown. [MWN photo ©2009 Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson Estate; Comic-Con photo ©2009 Christine Quigley.]

was very strong, very intelligent, and had kind-of a tenuous grip on accuracy and information. His father’s last name was Strain. When he died in 1894, just after the birth of a second son— Malcolm’s brother—she split and moved to New York, got into journalism, and then was offered a job starting a magazine on the West Coast for women, so she moved out there. She changed her last name to “Straham,” which is a related name. It comes from the same sources, but his actual name was “Strain.” Later on, when she met T.J.B. Nicholson on the Coast and they decided to marry, she took her maiden name Wheeler again and appended it to his, Nicholson, which explains the hyphenated name. JA: I had wondered, because hyphenated names, unless you were British, were very uncommon in those days. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Well, of course, he was British, and she was sort-of faux-British. That is to say, her family was from Virginia, and she was very conscious of class. JA: Do you remember the name of the women’s magazine? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: No, I don’t. We’re due out there, actually, to

Douglas Wheeler-Nicholson, Son Of The Major, Reveals Startling Facts About The Early Days Of DC—And Superman!

My Kingdom For A Horse From a tender age, Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson was involved with horses—and in New Fun #1 there are at least three comics features, plus a text story, which have a Western flavor. One of the former is Tom Cooper’s “Buckskin Jim, the Trail Blazer”—while the short story “Spook Ranch” features two illos whose artist is, alas, unknown. Thanks to Ron Frantz. [©2009 DC Comics.]

meet with the Straham family and to really dig into that part of our research. JA: How many children did they have? There’s the Major— WHEELER-NICHOLSON: And the brother Christopher—they called him Crit—who was four years younger than my father. Their name, when they first went out there, was “Straham,” so the old man was born with that name. He also had a sister, but I don’t know her name. She died the same year that the father died, 1894, in Tennessee. JA: When they moved to Portland, Oregon, what do you know about their financial circumstances? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: She was doing quite well. She was a journalist, and she had this magazine. She was heavily involved with politics, and they had a horse farm. They raised Arabians and thoroughbreds and trained them, then sold them; bought and sold, and so forth. And when my father was going to school, he also worked for the local newspaper— [probably] local news stuff. No fiction that we know of. He was 12, 14 years old, and he was already breaking and training horses.

“They Were Intellectuals” JA: At the website, there’s mention of how the house was filled with books, and a constant stream of visitors. What do you know about that? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Only what we’ve learned from him in terms of talking about his background. We know Antoinette Wheeler was in correspondence with and knew Rudyard Kipling, as well as Teddy Roosevelt and other people who passed through Portland. She was one of the people you saw when you went to Portland.

JA: Undoubtedly, he would have met them, too. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Oh, yes! JA: What do you remember him saying about those early years? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: He loved the life out there. It was all outdoors, it was all a very intellectually fermenting life in the home, and contrasted with the incredible outdoor life of running a farm. I have pictures of him cutting wheat with a huge scythe, at age 22 or 23. They were growing and cutting their own wheat for the horses. JA: I’m fascinated by the fact that you have a picture of him as a young man on the farm, holding a scythe. People didn’t take many pictures back then. Would you say they were middle class, higher middle class? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: That’s a tough one. If you wanted to rate it by pretension, I’d say “aristocracy.” That was where Antoinette Wheeler saw herself. But they weren’t part of the conventional middle class. They were intellectuals, with this journalism and running a farm and a horse farm, which put them slightly up. So it didn’t put them into a proper category. Monetarily, I would say they had a modest living. JA: Did he draw or play any music? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: No, he had no talent for drawing. JA: Do you know what made him decide to pursue a military career? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: He apparently always had an interest, which was, oddly, a little bit counter to the family’s intellectual pursuits. An intellectual life and life in the military don’t necessarily go together. Of course, what he chose in the military was the Cavalry, which reflected his lifelong working with horses.

“His Goal Was The Graphic Novel”

JA: Are there any interesting stories about his childhood that he told you? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: One of the amusing ones was that the mother came from the East Coast, and the horsemanship there was all English Saddle. When they rode to school, the local young Western riders would snicker and say, “Look at the Englishmen ****ing their saddles,” [mutual laughter] as they were posting properly. I don’t remember specific conversations. I just remember a specific attitude of his loving the life they lived there. You know, he and his brother actually introduced T.J.B. Nicholson to their mother. He was their schoolmaster… an English stockbroker who decided to come over and see the United States, travel around. He worked jobs and then [became a teacher]. The young men, being without a father, adored him. They dragged him home and thereby came a romance. My father always spoke of him as his father, and even in official things he would say “My father was from London.” I don’t know what the story is with his actual father, but apparently she had no interest in retaining his relationship, intellectually, through memory, or any other way. [She totally] canceled it out. The research we’ve done of that family down there, it’s a perfectly respectfully family, so I don’t know [what the explanation is]. JA: Yet the Major was an outdoors type and a literary type. That’s a pretty interesting contrast. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Yes, absolutely both of those things. He went to military school. He was two years, working as a journalist, and then had to make up that time. He did four years in two, and was not only at the top of his class, he was captain of the polo team, he was just about everything. Interestingly, I went to the same school, Manlius Military Academy, 30-odd years later. I went there in 1945, and he was there in 1909. My brother Malcolm went the year before me. I was a terrible cadet, but I enjoyed it. JA: Was he still remembered when you went? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: I didn’t see any plaques or anything, but Malcolm had picked up some information about him. We intend to go back there and dig into this. It’s still a school—a secular private school. It’s not

military. They’ve got boxes and boxes of [material relating to] all those years, and they’ve said, “Come and spend whatever time you want.”

“His Was A Lone Voice Crying Out” JA: So by 1917, he becomes one of the youngest majors in the cavalry. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: And it’s strange, because bear in mind that his whole problem with the Army then was the issue of time in grade bringing you ahead, rather than a meritocracy. He’d managed to overcome that personally, and he still said it was a lousy system because most people didn’t overcome it. JA: I know it led to his problems later, but we’ll do this a bit at a time. I was interested in the fact he was chasing Pancho Villa. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Pancho Villa came across the border and attacked an American town, and really gutted it. Villa suffered from what he believed was an injustice—and may well have been, for all I know— and it was Columbus, Texas, that he tore apart. That was in 1916, and John J. Pershing—later the [US] Chief of Staff in the First World War— was sent down there to take him out. They went into what they called “the punitive war,” and several Cavalry units—not only the old man’s, but several others—were sent down there to chase Pancho Villa across the border. It was one of the first forays for the World War II General Patton in that war. They had a tough time, and really didn’t do terribly well. Pancho Villa got away because he knew the territory a lot better than they did, but it was an incredible experience for my father. JA: Did he ever have any comments about that experience or about “Black Jack” Pershing or Patton? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: He didn’t know Patton at all. He certainly knew Pershing, because he worked with him. He thought Pershing was a great general. After that, they went over to the Philippines under Pershing, as well, just before they all decamped for World War I. You realize we didn’t get into the World War until 1917. In the Philippines, they were fighting the Muslim Moros, the same tribes causing all the troubles right now, 90-odd years later. The same groups and the same fight. The life in the Philippines was very much modeled on the British Army. They were playing polo, and having this wonderful thing with Philippine señoritas and balls and dances, and then going on into the jungles, which was horrible. I mean, it was just hot and revolting and very, very tough duty, fighting these Moros. He based quite a few comic book stories on those incidents. JA: That would explain why he liked adventure books so much, because he was living adventures.… WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Yes, absolutely. JA: By 1917, he’s in Siberia.

Pershing Ahead As per the vintage cartoon, there was little success or glory for General “Black Jack” Perishing in his Mexican pursuit of Pancho Villa in 1916-17—but a year later, after US entry into the First World War, he became the commander of the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe, and a public icon.

WHEELER-NICHOLSON: He went over with Pershing to Europe, then he was assigned to a Cossack troop, and he was in charge of an American mounted artillery. Even though he was from the Cavalry, the artillery in those days were also mounted, but they didn’t have anything else. Cars were just coming in. And he had both an American artillery unit (it wasn’t a division, because it didn’t have the force) and a Cossack troop. From there, he started to do diplomatic work and was assigned to the Japanese general’s staff before he came back to Europe. So he was both in combat with Cossack troops and artillery in Siberia, fighting the revolutionaries, the Communists, and then assigned to diplomatic duty with the Japanese. All of this time, he was an

Douglas Wheeler-Nicholson, Son Of The Major, Reveals Startling Facts About The Early Days Of DC—And Superman!

avid student of warfare. He [studied] his books of war tactics, and he compared what he was seeing with what he was finding from the Japanese.

Man On Horseback (Left:) The Major during his US Cavalry days. His handwritten inscription at top left reads: “Much love to my darling daughter Toni and her family from her loving Daddy.” The one at right: “Snapped when facing my squadron (1st Squadron 9th Cavalry) Camp Stotsenberg Philippines 1918.” The Army camp was located in Manila. With thanks to Nicky & Jason Brown. [©2009 Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson Estate.”]

When he came back from Europe, he was assigned first to London—working with the British Army—then assigned with French Army, and then as commanding officer of the cavalry on the Rhine—with Germans. And all of the time, studying these different armies and comparing them with our own, and more (Above:) Talk about “writing what you know”! These covers of Adventure pulp magazine and more getting to [believe] we didn’t know what in hell we for Dec. 15, 1929, and July 1936 illustrate scenes from Wheeler-Nicholson stories dealing were doing. And I’ve started to look into the history there. Not with military action in Siberia and with the US Cavalry—two things he had experienced his history, but the history, and he was absolutely right. It was firsthand. Thanks to David Armstrong for the scans. [©2009 the respective copyright holders.] just deplorable. We murdered young men by throwing them into battle, not having a clue what we were doing. That has now They said, “My God, he’s so bright and brilliant.” But then, when he become known, but at the time, his was a lone voice crying out, “Hey, started attacking them, saying the whole system is really wrong, they everybody! Hello!” became significantly less enchanted, and not only didn’t listen to him, but tried to shut him up. His own reputation began to suffer. And he was JA: It seemed like, for a major, he had quite a bit of contacts with people. nothing if not stubborn. If he wanted to go after something, he just stayed Did he ever write about this stuff? Are there letters that he wrote or on it. Nothing would deter him. diaries? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Yeah, he did write. We don’t have a lot of that left, unfortunately. Nobody over the years took a great interest in it, and he never really talked a lot about it. He was a great raconteur. At any social situation, within five minutes, people would be sitting there, openmouthed, listening to him. He kept conversations going. But he didn’t talk at great length about “Here’s what life was like with the British Army.” He faulted their polo teams because their stirrups were too short, and they were easily bounced out of their saddles. The Americans were pointed out as being rough players. He was saying, “Christ, lengthen your stirrups, and shut up.” JA: Do you think he had any desire to be a general? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: I think originally, but towards the end, he’d sort-of come to the conclusion that he’s not going to win this battle, and he’s beginning to lose interest in the military. He doesn’t see himself staying, and either living with conditions he couldn’t stand or having a real chance at changing them. He began to think, “Maybe I ought to be—” I mean, his letter to President Harding, which was a direct invitation to a court-martial— He’d been writing to his own superiors, and to the Army High Command and so forth, trying to go through the regular channels and getting nowhere; in fact, getting more and more antagonism, because part of the reason he was advanced so early on was that he was always coming up with new tactics and new strategies, which the High Command loved.

JA: The letter where he criticized the Army’s command chain— WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Well, he had a bunch of criticisms. The training, the business of advancement through time and grade rather than meritocracy... there was a whole litany of problems that he found with the Army. The public announcements in The New York Times and so forth sort-of settled on one or two, but he had very thoughtful reasons why things should be changed. He said, “We must change. We have been sending people into battle unprepared, and we can’t do this.” He knew he was heading for a court-martial, and he knew that a court-martial isn’t the same as being thrown out of the Army or cashiered; it means he’d get a slap on the wrist. They say, “You shouldn’t have done that,” but what happens with it is your chances of advancement became nil. What they did was to set him back to what they called “51 files,” which is time and grade, the things that would let him get advancement; and it, in effect, ends his career. So he’s still in the Army, and he has his rank, but he would not ever be promoted, and he knew that. He took that chance, and when they did what they did, he fought them with that. He said, “Okay,” and then he retired. At one point, he was traveling while his court-martial was going on, between Boston and his post in Fort Dix, New Jersey. Mother was in Boston—she had been ill. He came back from there late one night and couldn’t get into the barracks. He started to go into one of the windows, and a guard shot him from upstairs. The Army had been trying to shut him up, because by this time Congress had gotten hold of all of his

“His Goal Was The Graphic Novel”

reports and was asking questions: “What is it this guy is saying? What do you mean, the Army is so awful? What should we be doing?” and so forth and so on. And the Army was saying, “For God’s sake, Major, shut up! Stop it!” But the fuss had already started, and they couldn’t stop it. Being shot at was so clearly an attempted assassination to shut him up. Guards don’t sit in upstairs windows. You don’t shoot a person before saying “Who goes there?” during peacetime. Maybe in the middle of the war, but certainly not in the barracks. So it was tabbed that way by his friends in the military, but he miraculously survived. The bullet went right into his temple—you could see the scar the rest of his life—came down behind his ear, making him deaf in that ear, and came out his spine. And he was awake while he lay there; he got no help for over two hours. He had his hand over his temple with the blood coming out, and they finally came and put him into a hospital. JA: Was this incident ever investigated? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: The rumors came out that it was an attempted assassination, but it was just hushed up. When he recovered—which wasn’t very long because amazingly little damage [was done]—he was back fighting the court-martial. He was slapped on the wrist, and he said, “Okay, thank you very much,” and he retired in 1923. In 1922, he was convicted of violating an Article of War in publishing his letter in The New York Times. In ’24 he sued General Sladen— who was the commanding officer in Europe, who by that time had become the head of West Point—for defamation. Sladen had been his great supporter when he was in Europe. And then, when Sladen, among others, tried to shut him up and he wouldn’t shut up, Sladen started his defamation.

both young aristocrats. Mother spoke four languages fluently, and her sister spoke seven. Mother was reputedly the most beautiful woman in Stockholm. She was Swedish by birth. They had a rather lengthy courtship, over a year and all over Paris and Europe. It was unbelievably romantic, this young Cavalry officer and this beautiful Swedish lady going to the balls and living in postwar Paris, which was really the place to be. They married in 1920 in a very fancy Army Cavalry wedding in Germany, and had their honeymoon in Stockholm, where he met his new relatives. Antoinette was born in Stockholm in 1922. In ’23, the second daughter, Marianne, was born, and in ’27, my brother Malcolm was born. In ’28, I was born and in ’32, Diane was born. JA: What kind of parents were your parents? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: The Swedes are the most formal people in the world, that is, before they have the third Vodka. But Mother, particularly, the aristocratic Swedish, was a stickler for manners, language, etc. You did not end your sentence with a preposition, period. And manners: when we met older people, we’d click our heels and slightly bow. I still do that today. The old man was very fond, and totally distant. He was totally in his own world. He adored my older sister Antoinette, and they were sortof buddies. He’d gotten rather close to Malcolm and then finally, with Diane, the youngest daughter. Those two were very close. I had a friendly, but sort-of distant, relationship with him. He wasn’t a doting parent; he didn’t take you out and play baseball, or anything like that. He was always much too busy. He was involved with world affairs in his head all of his life. JA: Then it was a very proper household. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: That’s the one side of it. The other side of it was totally bohemian. We did exactly as we pleased. As long as you were speaking properly, no one cared whether you were defaming the Pope or whatever. [mutual laughter] Dinners were huge intellectual affairs, even as younger children. We went through periods of being very wealthy and being very poor, but there were always candles on the table, and a full dinner, and discussion about world affairs. We were listened to, and if what we said didn’t make sense, we were told, “That’s stupid.” If it made sense, we were listened to with great respect. We were encouraged to speak and question. The smarter we were, the happier they were.

JA: His mother publicly lobbied on his behalf during his military problems. So she must have had some kind of clout to have been able to be heard. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: She knew Teddy Roosevelt and was close to Roosevelt’s sister, who also championed the old man on his path. She wrote to Harding and the Roosevelt family, so she had entrée.

“He Was Involved With World Affairs In His Head All Of His Life” JA: How much writing did he do while he was in the service? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Other than his writing his various letters and his book Modern Cavalry, he didn’t write any fiction that I know of. JA: He was married in Paris in 1920. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Yes, he met Mother [Elsa Björkbom] in Paris. She was down there with her sister from Stockholm. She was there to study painting, and her sister was there to study language. They were

Bullets, Buccaneers—And Barracks The Major’s byline appeared in the context of guns on numerous pulp covers such as this one for the May 15, 1933, issue of Adventure, whose featured MWN story was titled “The Breaker of Brynas”—but there was nothing romantic about being shot at in his own barracks one night in the early 1920s. Thanks to David Armstrong for the cover scan—and to Frank Motler for the story ID. [©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

We were part of the scene. We weren’t encouraged to be pushy or bratty. The household was not the children taking over and interrupting, as you see so often today. We were there on sufferance to add our voice if we had something intelligent to say, but not to take over. It was an adult time, and we were allowed in as mini-adults.

Douglas Wheeler-Nicholson, Son Of The Major, Reveals Startling Facts About The Early Days Of DC—And Superman

All In The Family (Left:) The “young Cavalry officer and this beautiful Swedish lady”—the Major and Elsa. Nicky Brown says this was “taken in Europe around the time of their marriage circa 1920. He has on his uniform and she is in white.” (Center:) The Wheeler-Nicholsons’ two oldest daughters, circa 1929— Marianne (on the left) and Antoinette. (Right:) Diane, the Major and Elsa’s youngest daughter, continues the family’s love of horses. This photo was taken circa early 1940s at their Long Island home. Thanks to Nicky & Jason Brown for this trio of pics. [Photos ©2009 Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson Estate.]

JA: How hands-on were your parents with regard to your personal education? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Distressingly little, as far as schoolwork went. They just assumed we would do our work. Sometimes we did and sometimes we didn’t. But we were reading and discussing Shakespeare and the Russian novelists when we were 10, 11 years old. I’d read War and Peace three times by the time I was 16. The whole household was a discussion group, so that we were all reading this, we’d get an interest in some vein of things that the old man and Mother would push us into. I’m thinking of the Russian writers particularly, and then we’d all be reading and talking and arguing about it. It was like an Oxford seminar to be in the house, so we had lots and lots of education in terms of informal. But in terms of anyone checking our schoolwork, nobody did. JA: Were your parents affectionate towards each other? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Very. Very openly, and clearly the old man adored Mother, and they were very affectionate. Even with a lot of the financial troubles which caused strain whenever they occurred. If we were coming in late from a date at 17 years old at two in the morning, you’d hear them in their room talking and chattering and laughing and going on. It was amazing.

was impending, his whole study was lined with maps of what was happening and he read every article, and listened to every news broadcast. JA: What made him laugh? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: He had sort-of a corny sense of humor. I mean every now and then, a practical joke was not above him. He liked to laugh, and he laughed easily. JA: What made him unhappy? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Discord in the house. He was incredibly impervious to bad situations. He suffered them with great good will; nothing seemed to really bother him. One of the times that we were dead broke—that would have been 1937—the electricity was turned off for lack of funds and therefore the stove didn’t work. I remember going down to the garage downstairs beneath the house. He was in the garage sitting on a concrete floor, with a little fire going, and [boiling a] pot of coffee. He was in his bathrobe, sort-of squatting, and perfectly sanguine. Physical things didn’t distress him. Setbacks, he took them and soldiered on.

JA: Did he have any hobbies? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: No. In a way, world affairs, geopolitical affairs, was his hobby all of his life. Even during ’36, ’37, ’38, as the comic books were going and war

We Kinda Hope Coop’s Got Nine Of Them! The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935), starring Gary Cooper, was a favorite movie of the Major’s. Matter of fact, an action image from the film was printed in New Fun #1—though not this one. [©2009 Paramount Pictures or its successors in interest.]

He liked classical music, but not on the high end. He sort-of thought of the Bach variety as “Tweedle-dee” music, but he loved the Romantics, the Tchaikovskys, the 19th-century composers, and opera. He and Mother liked the same kind of music. He didn’t like pop culture, particularly. Considering that he’s the Father of Comic Books, it’s sortof strange to say, but it’s true. He had very little interest in [radio

“His Goal Was The Graphic Novel”

shows]. We were all addicts to shows like The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet. He liked movies, the early Lawrence Olivier films and that kind of thing. Mother loved the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers kind of movies; he liked those, too. But he really loved The Lives of a Bengal Lancer and that kind of thing, showing the British Army fighting. JA: If he saw anything in these movies that was historically inaccurate, would he comment on it? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Yes, he did. “Oh, that’s ridiculous. We wouldn’t do that.” He’d see people shooting someone with a pistol 200 yards away, it’s like “My God, that wouldn’t have happened.”

“He Had Always Desired To Be In Publishing” JA: Let’s discuss his publishing. He started in 1925 with his own newspaper syndicate, Wheeler-Nicholson, Inc. Do you have any idea of what made him venture into that? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Only that he had always desired to be in publishing, and writing was kind of a stopgap. It was a way of making some money so he could do what he wanted to do, which was get into publishing. [He thought:] “Well, I can make money writing. It shouldn’t be a problem.” So he started writing pulp stories, and from that he went into comics. JA: It’s odd for a guy who wasn’t overly crazy about fiction and pop culture to be doing that. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Yes, it is. I mean, it was one thing seeing it, the other was producing it, which he did enjoy. He enjoyed writing those things. That was not a chore for him. JA: The strips and short stories: how many of those do you think he wrote himself? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: He wrote all of the short stories. He was very prolific, extremely. My daughter Nicky has a count of how many things he wrote, and she’s still finding more. JA: When he started publishing the newspaper strips in the ’20s, he wrote Ambitious Ambrose and Highway Henry. So he must have had something going on to be able to write a cartoon strip. You just don’t go from being in the military to writing cartoon strips. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Yes, I guess he did. What school was there for that, you know? Whoever did it had to just jump into it. There wasn’t a whole lot of history to go by. Nicky has pointed out that even his writing was very much like a comic strip. He sets a scene, and then some dialogue occurs within it, and that’s what his adventure stories are like, and that’s what comic strips are like. So he was kind-of writing in that form even when he was writing prose. JA: He published the first comic strip version of Treasure Island. As far as you know, did he identify with that kind of story? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Oh, I don’t know. Those books, all the Robert Louis Stevenson and the Fenimore Cooper books, were things that he had given my brother and me to read as young kids. I think that, to the degree that we loved them, he used that as his marketing gauge for what he should be using as something to turn into a graphic novel. And the graphic novel was one of his goals. That was where he saw it going. JA: It’s too bad he didn’t get a chance to do it. But his business wasn’t funded. I guess it was one of the first lean periods. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Yes, he made lots of money writing early on. When he diverged from writing to publishing, and did both full-time, he

The Treasure Of His Company The Major scripted the adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic Treasure Island which debuted in New Fun #5 (Aug. 1935). This page (one of two in the chapter) is from More Fun Comics #9 (March-April 1936), after New Fun’s title had been formally changed. Art by Sven Elven. Thanks to Henry Andrews. [©2009 DC Comics.]

wasn’t making money, originally, at publishing. We suffered financially as a result. JA: What kind of businessman was he? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Terrible. I mean terrible. [to Nicky] The question was, “What kind of a businessman was he?” [Douglas and Nicky laugh] I guess I’m a worse one, but I can’t imagine anyone else being any worse than he was. JA: Why? Did he just not pay attention? Did he not have the facilities? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: To some degree he was a brilliant businessman in the sense of deciding what should happen, what kind of things should happen, even how to do them, but terrible at administrating them on a day-to-day basis.

“I’m Going To Be Doing Comic Books” JA: At some point in the ’20s, your parents went back to France. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: That’s right. He was writing then and doing extremely well. We lived in a beautiful, big apartment in Paris in a lovely chateau out in the country. I was born here, but we went there just after I was born. My first years are really in France, and I came back here, speaking only French. [continued on p. 18]

Douglas Wheeler-Nicholson, Son Of The Major, Reveals Startling Facts About The Early Days Of DC—And Superman!

Interlude #1: “One For All—And All For One!” The Major adapted Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers into comics form. Michael Catron, who sent us scans of these ten dailies (plus one more), writes: “Don’t know all the details, but the strip is signed ‘Afonsky’ (sp?), who later did [the comic strip] Little Annie Roonie. So it’s not the same strip [that appeared in More Fun Comics beginning with #12, Aug. 1936], though it could be from the same script…. I’ve never seen those early [issues]. But the panel-to-panel flow, without borders and with overlapping images, would make it very difficult to re-paste as comic bookpages…. He did sell it as a comic strip, along with 3 or 4 other features. Treasure Island, I think, was another. The Major was clearly into the comics biz before he got into comic books. Before National Allied, there was the Wheeler-Nicholson Syndicate.” Oh, and Jim Amash informs us that artist Afonsky's first name was Nick. [©2009 Major Malcolm-Wheeler-Nicholson Estate.]

“His Goal Was The Graphic Novel”

Douglas Wheeler-Nicholson, Son Of The Major, Reveals Startling Facts About The Early Days Of DC—And Superman!

[continued from p. 15] JA: And then, in 1929, the Stock Market crashed. Did it wipe him out? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: No, he didn’t have that much money in the market. It didn’t affect him initially. Immediately, it was more that the market for what he was doing dropped tremendously. He was exasperated by this, and said, “Well, okay, now I'm really going to get into publishing,” and he wrote even less. It wasn’t that the [pulp] market was that bad. As late as 1948, when the pulp market had long since died, he published 20, 25 stories that year. He’d gone back to writing after the demise of his comic book business. But at that point, [The Great Depression], he made the decision, “I’m going to be doing comic books.” JA: He had two shots at syndicating newspaper strips, and he tried it again, I guess, around the late ’20s, early ’30s, and again, it didn’t work. How much do you think the failure was his fault or the Depression’s fault or a combination? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: I don’t know. I suppose it was a combination, and perhaps he was learning his game. He was persistent. JA: What do you think led him to doing comic books? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: The belief that it was an incredible way to really get culture to the masses, if you like, to use both words and pictures and to get the classics, to get new writing to the masses. His goal was the graphic novel. That’s where he wanted it to go, and the comic strip, in itself, was a means. He started out with the humor stuff. He started to switch it over to adventure stories, like Adventure and Detective Comics. JA: When I look at the early WheelerNicholson comic books, the humor features tend to be more filler than anything else. He’s looking more for adventure or detectives or serializing the classics. Do you think he had more faith in doing the serious stuff like Treasure Island or Ivanhoe, rather than the humor stuff?

Fun, Fun, Fun! (Above:) The official title of National Allied‘s first publication, New Fun #1, has been the subject of controversy for years, since copies of it are so rare—and since DC didn’t reprint it in its laudable Millennium Editions series: Was the precise title New Fun—or New Fun Comics—or (as per the cover) New Fun - the Big Comic Magazine—or even, as rumored in some circles, Fun Comics? Fortunately, several years back, collector Ron Frantz sent Ye Editor full-size photocopies of the entire issue—so here‘s the copyright/contents page, which should settle the matter once and for all: As per indicia, its official title was New Fun—rendered “New FUN” in the indicia—and it was published “monthly” at 49 West 45th Street in New York City. Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson was listed as president, T.J.B. Nicholson [the Major’s step-father] as treasurer, Richard Heins as assistant treasurer, R. Andreen as secretary—with Lloyd Jacquet as editor, Dick Loederer (who drew the elfish illos) as art editor, and Sheldon H. Stark as cartoon editor. Note, however, that in the coupon at the bottom of the page—on which readers were encouraged to comment on their favorite features—it‘s referred to as “New FUN Magazine”—and in the note beneath the numbers (if you happen to have your magnifying glass handy) simply as “FUN.“ Curiously, on DC letterheads and the like during the 1940s, even after its name had been formally changed to More Fun Comics, it was often listed simply as “Fun Comics” (though see p. 37 for a notable exception!). With such an ongoing identity crisis, small wonder that More Fun became the first of DC’s traditional “Big Eight” monthlies to be canceled… with #127 (Nov.-Dec. 1947), by which time it had been transformed into purely a humor comic. Thanks to Ron Frantz. [©2009 DC Comics.]

“His Goal Was The Graphic Novel”

WHEELER-NICHOLSON: I knew Cook. He was sort-of portly, a roundish face, grayish hair, sparse. I may have known the other guy; I don’t remember him, though. JA: Was this your father’s company, and they were working for him? Or do you think they had a piece of it? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: To the best of my knowledge, they did not. I didn’t have a lot to do with [the other men]. During that time, ’34, ’35, he was virtually living in the city, and coming home on weekends. We were in Great Neck as of ’34, and it was a terrible time. We were so broke, it was horrendous. And often with the electric out, and no food and what have you, he was coming home every weekend and just busting his butt to pull this together. So after about ’36 or so, Malcolm and I started to go [to the office] with him. That kind of coincided with when Whit Ellsworth and Vin Sullivan came into the picture.

Hand Me My Chateau, S’il-Vous-Plaît! Nicky Brown feels that her grandfather’s story “The Baldassare Ruby,” in the July 5, 1930, issue of Argosy, was “perhaps influenced by the chateau in which they were residing at the time northeast of Paris. The chateau has an old castle keep on the grounds and dates back to the 1500s.” It well could’ve inspired the “Medieval Romance” pictured on the cover at left. Nicky revisited that chateau in spring of 2009. At any rate, that chateau must’ve inspired the Major, because five 1931 issues of Argosy (March 21 & 28, April 4, 11, & 25) serialized his story (novel?) “The Battle of the Silent Men,” which is described on the depicted cover as dealing with “War-Time Spies in a Grim Old French Chateau.” Guess you’d have to read the story to learn why the foreground figure is an ancient, armored charioteer! Thanks to Frank Motler for the dates of the issues. Thanks to Mike Catron for the cover scans, and to Frank Motler for the dates of the issues. [©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

JA: Cook and Mahon didn’t stay with him very long. They went off and started their own company. Do you happen to know how Sullivan and Ellsworth came on board?

WHEELER-NICHOLSON: No. Both were artists, and they came in just as employees. The old man, I don’t think with any scientific form, just said, “Well, can you work full-time and assist me in the editing?” [He could have asked] somebody else… Creig Flessel, for example. I don’t think there was any magic to it. They happened to be there at that time.

WHEELER-NICHOLSON: I think the humor stuff was totally a way of breaking in. It was not where his interests lay. From the beginning, his intentions were talked about continually in the house. He explained why he was [publishing], where it was going, and that includes long discussions on “Superman” before it ever came out. It was his vision, the dream of this being a new art form. That was reiterated The Cheap Detective— many different ways.

Only 10¢!

JA: He was the first comics publisher to do new material. Because he thought of a graphic novel in much the way that we think of them today, do you think that‘s the reason why he had no interest in just doing reprints? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: I think there were several reasons. One is that he could create the stuff himself. He enjoyed doing that. He could make this happen and not just use someone else’s work, which didn’t interest him that much. So if he was to reach his goal, which was [expanding] a blooming art form, he would have to be creating new stuff to put in it. He couldn’t just reprint stuff from a newspaper. JA: And then he’d have to pay royalties. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Yes, it was the money thing, too. You could hire a bright young guy of 22 a lot cheaper than you could pay royalties to newspapers. JA: New Fun started in 1935. You would have been about seven years old. When he started this, there were two other people involved in the company named Bill Cook and John Mahon.

Detective Comics #1 (March 1937) was, as Les Daniels said in his 1995 history DC Comics: Sixty Years of the World’s Favorite Comic Book Heroes, “the first successful comic book with a single theme.” Art by Vin Sullivan. One or two previous one-shots with detective themes had been published previously, but they had had no second issues. Daniels’ generally excellent tome is marred only by the restrictions clearly placed on him by DC, such as feeling compelled to whitewash Donenfeld and Liebowitz’s hostile takeover of the Major’s company. [©2009 DC Comics.]

Douglas Wheeler-Nicholson, Son Of The Major, Reveals Startling Facts About The Early Days Of DC—And Superman!

WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Well, it was that and also, that’s what he wanted to say, and he wanted this character to do this. JA: So he would create a character and write it, then he’d give the script to whoever the artist was. Do you think he did any humor writing, or was most of it detectives and adventure? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: He did very little humor writing.

“Terrible, Tough Times” JA: Creig Flessel told me that the building he remembered was on 28th Street, Fourth Avenue, on the fourth floor. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Yes, that’s what I remember. JA: At one point, they were also in the old Holland Hotel. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Yes, but I don’t remember that. JA: And then Creig said, “We moved uptown to the old Graybar Building on Lexington Avenue.” WHEELER-NICHOLSON: That’s the coup-de-grace. That’s when Harry Donenfeld actually took over, in a sense. That was a month before “Superman” came out on June 8th. JA: So what you mainly remember is the building on 28th and Fourth.

We Already Gave At The Office… We’ve run this 1990s sketch by the late great Creig Flessel a time or two before—but since it depicts Major Wheeler-Nicholson, his two editors, and the young artist who shared an office with them, we felt we should show it again. This was Creig’s symbolic recollection of the early days of National Allied Publications, Inc. (Left to right:) Vin Sullivan, the Major (in fedora), Creig, and Whitney Ellsworth. The Major’s fedora may be the ultimate source of Creig’s references to his wearing a “beaver hat”—as discussed in this interview, and by Creig on p. 57. [©2009 Estate of Creig Flessel.]

JA: Sullivan and Ellsworth were both editing and drawing, and in Ellsworth’s case, writing, too. The early characters that your father published, how much writing of those did he do? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: A lot. His imprint was not only in his creating the features and saying, “Let’s have a character that does this, this, and this,” giving it to somebody else, but editing what they were doing if he wasn’t, himself, writing it. A lot of it, he was actually writing in the ’35, ’36, ’37 period.

WHEELER-NICHOLSON: That was ’37 and ’38, right. Fourth Avenue, which is Park Avenue South now. But the building had other publishers in it, as well. JA: Then that’s why he was there. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: I’m sure you’re right. Donenfeld had an office there on another floor. JA: Donenfeld was doing some magazines and spicy pulps. But all the Major did was comic books. He had no other publishing besides that. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Not that I know of. The particular part of the offices that I remember is one largish room, maybe 18 x 20, with a couple of desks and a couple of drawing boards. One of those desks was the old man’s, so he was in an open area. He didn’t have a private office in my memory. There were doors going to other places, too. JA: This is what Creig told me: “There was one fairly big-sized room that we worked in. Vin Sullivan was in one corner and Ellsworth was in

JA: Then he didn’t have to pay a writer a salary. [chuckles again]

[continued on p. 24]

Big Whit & Little Linda An older and wiser Whitney Ellsworth, in a purposely pixilated photo from that strange 1985 publication Fifty Who Made DC Great—and three panels from the first appearance of his “Little Linda” character, in New Fun #2. Thanks to Bob Rivard, who owns a copy of that rare issue but reports these panels are all he could salvage of “Little Linda” in a scan; still, as he says, it suggests the feature’s Little Orphan Annie inspirations. Will Murray’s study of Ellsworth’s career will appear in the very next “early-DC” issue of Alter Ego. [Little Linda TM & © DC Comics; photo ©2009 DC Comics.]

“His Goal Was The Graphic Novel”

Interlude #2:

“Superman Created By Jerry Siegel & Russell Keaton” Is it really possible that the above phrase, rather than one ending “Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster,” might have become the byline on today’s “Superman” stories? According to a recent posting on the Newsarama website, art and script have surfaced to vindicate the longstanding rumors that, circa 1934, writer Siegel approached other artists besides Shuster to draw the proposed newspaper strip, after Joe began to lose heart over the prospect of selling it. Most prominent among these possible alternates was Russell Keaton, then ghost artist of the Buck Rogers strip (and future artist/creator of the aviation strip Flyin’ Jenny, of which numerous examples have been seen in Marc Swayze’s columns in FCA); but Keaton decided in the end not to become involved, since the teenage Siegel was then basically an unknown quantity. According to writer Jeff Trexler in the Newsarama piece, the material Siegel and Keaton created together was rediscovered by the Siegel family in 2007. It consists of Siegel’s letter to Keaton which included two weeks’ worth of scripts (the first of which is reprinted on this page) and the nine sample dailies which appear on the following two pages. Our thanks to Newsarama (and to Matt Brady) for permission to pick up this material from their website. And thanks to Michael T. Gilbert and Jim Amash for bringing these strips to our attention. [Letter ©2009 Estate of Jerry Siegel; Superman is a trademark of DC Comics.]

From The ‘30s—To The 21st Century! The dust jacket of Crown Publications’ 1971 hardcover Superman from the 30’s to the 70’s boasts a central Superman image which is at least based on a figure by Wayne Boring, one of the first artistic assistants hired by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster (and during the 1950s & ‘60s one of the hero’s major artists). The four background panels are early “Superman” panels by Siegel & Shuster. [Book cover ©2009 DC Comics; Superman TM & ©2009 DC Comics; letter ©2009 Estate of Jerry Siegel.]

Even Without Drawing A Cape, He Kept 'Em Flying! (Left:) Artist Russell Keaton in 1943, as a member of the Army Air Corps Reserve. Photo courtesy of Marc Swayze.

Douglas Wheeler-Nicholson, Son Of The Major, Reveals Startling Facts About The Early Days Of DC—And Superman!

“…Came To Earth With Powers Far Beyond Those Of Mortal Men…“ At this point we’ll cut you free to savor the nine Siegel & Keaton dailies on this and the facing page, and to come to your own conclusions as to how well such a collaboration might have worked out. Since Superman himself does not appear on these surviving strips, we can only speculate how Keaton might have drawn the character—or if even the iconic costume might have been altered considerably by his input. As you’ll see, there are significant differences here from the hero’s origin as related in early issues of Action Comics and Superman—beginning with the names of Kal-L’s adoptive parents…! [Art & text ©2009 the respective copyright holders; Superman is a trademark of DC Comics.]

“His Goal Was The Graphic Novel”

Douglas Wheeler-Nicholson, Son Of The Major, Reveals Startling Facts About The Early Days Of DC—And Superman!

[continued from p. 20] another corner.” But he said the Major had his own private office. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: I don’t remember that. It may be. Maybe we were only in the large room when he was talking with Vin or Whit? I used to draw, myself. I was a budding artist. Whit was a lovely man. He would set me up with a drawing board, and I was just in hog heaven for as long as we were there. So my memory is of that largest room with the desks in it and Vin and Whit. I thought the old man’s desk was in there, too, but maybe not. JA: It could be that at one time he had his own office, then couldn’t afford it, and gave it up. Creig remembered that he used to bring his own drawing table… and there was a filing cabinet and a beat-up old leather couch. Do you remember that? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Yes, absolutely. Whit always reminded me, in retrospect, of Dylan Thomas. The round face and curlyish hair and a benign, sweet expression on his face. He was a very nice man. Quite a

contrast to Vin Sullivan, who was sardonic—not a word I would have applied at that time, that’s in retrospect—and kind-of not a very nice person from the point of view of a child. At that point, I was ten years old, and it was clear he didn’t like Malcolm and me being in the office, as opposed to Whit, who was very gracious. JA: Since they were editing, was the Major going over the editing with them? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Yes. When we were there—maybe that’s why I remember the old man in there—he would be working with them at their desk or drawing board or what have you, going over things. He had no trouble being very direct and, at the same time, very politic. He wasn’t at all high-handed: “What the hell is this? This stinks!” Nothing like that took place. It was, “I wonder if we could make this more like—” He was a very ingratiating person, very diplomatic in his relationship with them. “Hey, I’m looking at this and it seems to me maybe if we tried it more this way, it would work a little better,” that kind of language and approach. JA: Do you feel Ellsworth and Sullivan respected your father? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Certainly, Whit did. I’m not sure of that with Sullivan. I always felt, even when the old man was talking to him, a little sort of [mutters] “Mm, what are you bothering me for?,” even as diplomatic as the old man was. JA: Your father did not have a secretary, did he? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: No, not there. He had a secretary for his writing, but not for his work there. Anything like that would be farmed out—during the Depression—to other services rather than keeping a fulltime person. JA: Was he his own accountant? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: I can’t believe it, because I don’t think he could add two and two. [Jim laughs] I don’t think he was his own accountant. I don’t know who was. God knows if there was any being done until Jack Liebowitz came into the picture. JA: The reason why I’m asking this is that there are stories about how he wouldn’t pay people. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Yes, and that’s absolute BS, and Creig put the lie to that. Creig said he always got paid, but sometimes the old man ran out of money. We all did, and all of us suffered, including him. God knows he suffered. I can attest to that. We were many times without money. But stiffing people was not his act. Quite the contrary. He wanted people to make money with him, so he would share whatever he had, and that was nothing. JA: Creig told me, “Sometimes the Major didn’t have the money to pay people and then sometimes, he’d say, ‘I’ll have a check for you next week.’

The Vin Sullivan Show (Above:) A Vin Sullivan “Beany” page from New Comics #3 (Jan. 1936)—the mag that would evolve into first New Adventure, then into Adventure Comics. Thanks to Greg Hunyager. Sullivan would soon leave National/DC to co-found Columbia Comics, and by the mid-’40s would launch his own excellent decade-lived comics line, Magazine Enterprises, as related in A/E #10. A Sullivan interview also appeared in #27. Both are still available from TwoMorrows, hint, hint. [©2009 DC Comics.] (Right:) In this photo taken at the 1998 San Diego Comic-Con, Sullivan (on far right) enjoys a laugh with another vintage DCer, artist Fred Guardineer, who wrote and illustrated “Zatara” for Action Comics #1 and also drew one or two of that mag’s very early covers. Thanks to Jon Berk.

“His Goal Was The Graphic Novel”

thought your father was a dreamer who didn’t always have the money to back his dreams. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: That’s exactly correct. Creig is dead right on.

“All Those Artists And Writers Knew Each Other” JA: How did your father dress? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: He was very conservative. You have to realize, Jim, that, after the demise of the comic book business, none of us became involved with it. It was over and done. I only knew comic books like any other 10-, 11-, 12-year-old, buying and reading them. I didn’t really dig into that stuff, and the old man never looked back. So we weren’t aware until we started looking into his history of all these horrible stories. And had any of us been aware, we’d have done something about correcting the stories. One of the stories had him wearing a French Army officer’s cape. Well, the chances of that happening are like my dressing up like Marlene Dietrich. He was very conservative. JA: No beaver hat, then? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: No beaver hat. He never owned a beaver hat. He wore a fedora, and we have pictures of that. He always had the front and back down. Now one of the fedoras that he owned had a slight nap to it, sort-of burnished. It was a very conventional hat. Somebody may have morphed that into a beaver hat, but it‘s just absurd. In the summertime, he wore a panama the same way, with front and back down. It was a continental look, and it’s the way I wear those kind of hats. JA: How tall was he?

Sven Come Elven Among the artists the Major’s children may have encountered at the National Allied offices is Sven Elven. Besides the “Treasure Island” art seen on p. 15, he also illustrated the legend of “Robin Hood,“ as per this page from New Adventure Comics #28 (July 1938); whether he, the Major, or someone else scripted it is unknown. Thanks to Greg Huneryager. [©2009 DC Comics.] At right, courtesy of David Armstrong, is a real rara avis: an original sketch by Elven, drawn on a postcard. On the back is the artist’s handwritten note: “Cooksburg NY Oct 23 - 37. My Dear Friend, I am extremely sorry to have taken so long, but time is not always my own. Thank you for your compliments, would you be interested in my contributions in ‘Fun Comics’ and ‘Detective Comics,’ & ‘Three Musketeers’? Sincerely, Sven Elven.” Sadly, we’ve never been able to turn up a photo of Elven—but yes, that was apparently his real name. [©2009 Estate of Sven Elven.]

He would stall them.” But Creig said that, because he worked in the office and he was in sight every day, that’s why he himself got paid. He also said that sometimes, if a process server or if somebody came, wanting money, your father would leave the office and go out the back way. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: I’m sure he did. What the hell else was he going to do? That’s perfectly credible. Those were terrible, tough times. JA: Creig went out of his way to say that he didn’t think your father was dishonest. He thought your father just didn’t have the money. He made that distinction very clear to me, because he did not like Harry Chesler, who was a comic shop packager, and was perceived by some to be a crook at times. Creig said the Major was not like that. He told me he

WHEELER-NICHOLSON: He was between five-eight and five-nine, very average height then. Today, he’d be considered short. JA: By this time, in these comics, is he thin? Is he portly?

Douglas Wheeler-Nicholson, Son Of The Major, Reveals Startling Facts About The Early Days Of DC—And Superman!

a blazer-like jacket with slacks, beautifully cut, and his business ones were three-piece suits, and they were also beautifully cut. JA: I was thinking, since you were kids and he was doing comics, did he ask you and your brother Malcolm for your opinions on the comic books? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Not really, no. It’s funny when you think about it, but no. Our discussion were more our questioning him, and his responding and giving us insights as to what he was up to, and why, and that sort of thing. JA: Would you ask about the artists or anything? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Yes, and some of them we knew. I’m told that I met Siegel and Shuster. I have to admit I don’t remember. JA: At your website, there was a comment that Jerry Siegel had given your father the credit for starting their career. He said, without the Major’s help, they never would have made it into print. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: That’s a direct quote. He was aware of all the bad stuff that Liebowitz and Donenfeld had put out, aided and abetted by Vin Sullivan. He knew that he was saying something that was counter-politically incorrect. JA: What other artists and writers do you remember? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Not really any of them. I have a dim memory of Flessel only after he reminded me of who he was and what he looked like. JA: Since the Major obviously couldn’t do all the writing, how did he recruit writers and artists? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: I don’t know. All those writers and artists knew each other, and this one would recommend that one, and that one would [tell someone else]. They would hear about it and come to see him, and say, “Here’s my portfolio.” It was the Depression, and they were all hungry. JA: Since your father had written for the pulps and had had newspaper contacts before, did he ever recruit any of his old friends to do any writing for him?

New Fun With Ivanhoe-ho-ho! Raymond Perry is credited in the Grand Comic-Book Database with both art and script for the adaptation of Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe that began in New Fun #1—but Douglas says the Major wrote some of the material in early issues, so who knows? At the bottom of this and several other pages in #1 was an “Oswald the Rabbit” strip drawn by John Lindermayer and published “by arrangement with Universal Pictures.” It was probably copyright-questionable material like the latter that caused DC to decide against reprinting that landmark issue at the turn of this century. “Oswald“ had been created by a very young Walt Disney, who‘d signed away ownership of him—just as countless other artists would later do to Uncle Walt. Thanks to Ron Frantz. [©2009 DC Comics.]

WHEELER-NICHOLSON: He was barrel-chested, a bit overweight, but not terribly, essentially fit. Very erect, very military. You wouldn’t have seen him without a tie or a business suit. Now bear in mind this is a few years after his heyday, when he had money and all his clothes were tailored. So many of the clothes left over were really first-class clothes, but then they began to get tattered. I remember Creig mentioning the old man’s camel hair coat, a tattered raggedy thing, and I remember that. It was probably, at some point in time, a lovely coat. But some stuff that he wouldn’t wear that continually was perfectly good. His informal dress was

WHEELER-NICHOLSON: I don’t know that he did. Remember, the writing, unlike the comic thing, was a very solo thing. They wrote their stories, not dealing with other writers, sent them to various publishers, and they were printed. They were not really in a community. He didn’t have lots of interaction with other pulp writers. JA: But when you go to offices, you meet people. Perhaps, when he was publishing, he might have contacted a writer he might have met at one of the publishing houses. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Not likely. I think that he was drawing from the existing pool.

JA: Creig Flessel drew a fair number of covers for your father. Would your father be active in editing and discussing what would be on the covers? Did you see that? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Yes. I remember so many of the conversations. Sometimes there were covers; sometimes, over writing, “Well, listen, why don’t we do this? Why don’t we change that? Is this a possible thing? Why’d we do this?,” on all of the types of things that were going on. At one

“His Goal Was The Graphic Novel”

time or another, he’d be, in effect, editing those things. JA: Then he would help make the determinations on what the covers looked like. Would he been detailoriented enough to go down to approving the very logos and things? Or would he have left that to Sullivan or Ellsworth? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: I think [he left that to his editors]. Any conceptual thing… if a feature was going out the first time, he would definitely be involved in that. But after that, he would not look at each issue and say, “Well, let’s make it a little bit more this way or that.” JA: Did he determine what would be the lead feature of a book? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Oh, yes. Oh, absolutely! That he wouldn’t leave to anyone else. JA: At DC Siegel and Shuster were doing a serial about a character called “Dr. Occult,” and one of the chapters appeared in Cook & Mahon’s Comics Magazine, with the name changed to “Dr. Mystic.” Yet it’s part of the same storyline, and then it goes back to “Dr. Occult” in the DC book. Do you know anything about that?

Occult Favorite Siegel & Shuster’s “Dr. Occult,” who’d appeared in early issues of New Fun/More Fun, somehow became “Dr. Mystic” in Cook & Mahon’s rival Comic Magazine #1 (May 1936), in a typical 2-page installment which picked up exactly where the previous “Occult” had left off. (Above:) Mystic and his ally Zator are threatened in a cliffhanger ending by the “monstrosities” of the evil Koth, as per above image. But “Dr. Mystic” never reappeared. Instead (below), “Dr. Occult” returned in More Fun Comics #32 (Oct. 1936) when that mag was revived after a several-month hiatus, and the mysterious entities called The Seven arrived to save Occult and Zator. Oddly, “Dr. Mystic” was bylined “Siegel and Shuster”—while the resuscitated “Dr. Occult” was signed with the pseudonyms “Leger & Reuths.“ Both “Dr. Mystic” pages are on view in Fantagraphics’ recent collection Supermen! The First Wave of Comic Book Heroes 1936-1941. We wish DC would find a way to republish the entire historic “Dr. Occult” run—but it seems unlikely. [Dr. Mystic ©2009 the respective copyright holders; Dr. Occult ©2009 DC Comics.]

WHEELER-NICHOLSON: I think they were just pinched. I think those issues, they just sort-of said, “Here’s some stuff we can use,” and they changed the name and used it. JA: Why would they do that? Would the Major be involved in that in any way? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: No, no. JA: So you think that would be a wholly Siegel and Shuster— WHEELER-NICHOLSON: I don’t think it was even them. I think the guys putting out that little comic book just stole it. JA: Okay. I was trying to figure out why there were a couple of features that appear in the Comic Magazines that appeared in DC by the same people, and with the same characters. I’m thinking of Shelly Mayer here. I was wondering why that happened. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Yes, they would just use stuff that had been printed someplace else. JA: So you don’t think it was a business arrangement. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: I don’t think so. JA: Did you ever meet or know Shelly Mayer? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: I knew of him, and I may even have known him. I don’t remember.

“A Bad Choice” JA: How did your father meet Harry Donenfeld and Jack Liebowitz? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: They were in the same building, and he was always out hustling for cash, looking for backing, looking for money, looking for investors. Donenfeld presented himself as someone to do the printing for him, and the old man said, “Oh, yeah. Fine, this guy’s got some dough. Hey, how about investing in what I’m doing?” A bad choice.

So they started off with a business arrangement of the distribution only, and then eventually the printing, as well. Donenfeld took over a printing company. Then, “Yes, I’ll invest your money, but we will do your printing and your distribution. Then we’ll not only do that, but you’ll be my partner. Jack Liebowitz will become your partner and handle the books.” So the next thing he knew he had two partners instead of one, and they were in charge of finances, printing, and distribution, and he had no idea what was happening, none whatever. JA: Was he too trusting? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Absolutely. Absolutely. He would tend to believe what he was told. Years later, we found out a particular scam they had pulled in terms of pushing him into bankruptcy and taking over, by overprinting copies. One of the men working there, a young fellow who was from Great Neck and a family friend named Custer Livermore, who was the oldest son of very close family friends—he was a very bright young man, and owned a liquor store with a wonderful name, Blythe Spirits. He and his wife broke up, and she got the store and other things. He was sort-of drifting... “Now what am I doing?” And the old man said, “Come to work for me.” Detective Comics was going well, we were

Douglas Wheeler-Nicholson, Son Of The Major, Reveals Startling Facts About The Early Days Of DC—And Superman!

in January or so, Donenfeld—without really the right to do so—decided that Sullivan was becoming the chief editor, even though the old man was still on the masthead as the publisher. In effect, life went on as it had before because they kept doing the same thing they had been doing, with the old man protesting these motions. And that continued, that strange way of operating, for the next several months, right through May when finally they pulled the rug totally, and his name was taken off the masthead, and Donenfeld and Liebowitz moved up to Lexington Avenue. JA: Your father was very aware of copyrights, I am sure. So he knew that when he lost it, they took everything. It was lock, stock, and barrel. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Yes. JA: Did he even get any money when he was forced out? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: He may have received a very modest amount. I think not, though, because his posture was “I’m fighting this. I don’t

The Next Generation By mid-1938 Major Wheeler-Nicholson had lost control of National Allied to Harry Donenfeld (center) and his accountant and soon partner Jack Liebowitz (right). By the end of 1939 that pair would have a new partner of sorts, seen on the left: Max Charles Gaines, who headed the affiliated AllAmerican (AA) line. The Major had no dealings with Gaines, but we wanted a photo of Donenfeld and Liebowitz together, and this 1940 pic from Frank Jacobs’ 1972 biography The Mad World of William M. Gaines fit the bill. [©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

making money, the bill collectors had stopped knocking on the doors. But Custer went not in the creative end, but the financial end. When Donenfeld and Liebowitz started pressuring my father, and taking over the company, [Custer] counseled the old man. “These guys, go along with them. Take the 75 grand and run to the bank.” The old man said, “This is my firm. It’s crazy. I refuse, absolutely not.” And he was right, because they would have screwed him anyway, as they did Siegel and Shuster. But Custer said—this is after the fact when he was working, in effect, for Jack Liebowitz—that they would overprint. Detective was selling beautifully. If it was selling—I don’t know what the figures were— say it was selling 300,000 copies, they would print 400,000. It didn’t cost them that much more. They’d bring the rest of them back to my father as returns and say, “See? A hundred thousand didn’t sell.” And they claimed the firm wasn’t making any money because of all these returns. That was one of their scams. That was finally told to us by Custer, who was there. JA: I take it he’s gone now. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: He’s long dead, I’m sure. And that was a very big family thing. His mother disowned him for hanging in with [Donenfeld and Liebowitz] after the demise, because she was very close to my father and mother. I don’t mean disowned him, but said, “I’d really not like to see you.” My oldest sister was always very much on his side, saying, “He did what he could, and there was no reason for him to go down the tubes, as well.” So that was a big family deal. JA: How did Donenfeld and Liebowitz take it over, exactly? What did they tell him? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: We don’t know that. I don’t know that anybody living today knows that. I know that the Action Comics ashcan was developed late in December of ’37 as a vehicle for “Superman.” It was developed by the old man. Then, starting early in 1938, Donenfeld said, “Yeah, I’ll put the money into it. I love it.” Starting early in the year, they started a campaign of moving him away, saying, “Why don’t you just do the creative work? Dream up new products, and we’ll run this whole thing. Don’t you worry about it.” He said, “No, I don’t want to do that. This is what I do, and I brought the company this far.” So they were fighting then, but still on the same page to some degree. Then somewhere

Lights… Camera… Action #1! According to an excellent article by Gary Colabuono in Comic Book Marketplace #71 (Sept. 1999), the ashcan edition of Action Comics #1, published purely to secure copyright, was a “hand-stapled but untrimmed or just partly trimmed” item whose cover sported art that had been done for the cover of Detective Comics #2 (April 1937) but had been rejected… while its interior consisted of the partial contents of Detective #1. In 1995 Creig Flessel drew a re-creation of the above cover, suggesting he may have been the artist of the earlier version. It was, Colabuono says, the “only known ashcan with original [as opposed to reprint] cover art.” If the Action #1 ashcan was indeed prepared in December 1937 as Douglas reports, then the Major was almost certainly involved with it… but if “Superman” was already intended for inclusion, the famous cover of the actual Action #1 seems not yet to have been drawn. [©2009 DC Comics.]

“His Goal Was The Graphic Novel”

Casting Their Shadows The creations of the Siegel & Shuster team and of artist Bob Kane would prove of ultimate importance to National/DC ere long—the former with “Superman,” the latter in 1939 with “Batman.“ Can you detect hints of greatness in these earlier works by those talents? (Left:) The splash page of the very first “Slam Bradley” story, from Detective Comics #1 (May 1937). Repro’d from the 1990 DC hardcover volume The Greatest Golden Age Stories Ever Told. (Right:) The first page (of two) of “Professor Doolittle” by Bob Kane, from New Adventure Comics #28 (July 1938). Thanks to Greg Huneryager. [©2009 DC Comics.]

accept anything to do with it.” He did not accept this $75,000 gimmick, and his being the “creative director.”

“‘Superman’ Was A Major Subject Of Discussion” JA: What did he say to you about “Superman”? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: “Superman” was a major subject of discussion all the way from early fall of ’37, right through the ashcan proposal, right through all the troubles. It was a major source of discussion in the house. He thought it was extremely timely, and he was very specific about a Nietzschean kind of hero at this point of the Depression, and that this would be a perfect thing to put forth to the public at this time. He talked about it extensively. We talked about it at the dinner table. I’m sure if you ever get a chance to talk to my oldest sister, she’ll remember that very clearly. JA: Do you remember what he said about Siegel and Shuster? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: He was very complimentary about them. He liked them, and was extremely high on them as a duo. He was very much involved with them, as he was with everything. They would present something, and he would do his normal editing job. Now Siegel wrote a

whole thing about this, not dealing specifically with “Superman”— but it was very clear what their working relationship was. It was very much his saying, “Let’s do this.” That wasn’t the case with “Superman”— Siegel and Shuster had that idea—but he gave them the “Slam Bradley” idea. That was his character. He in effect gave it to them and said, “Let’s do a character with these characteristics.” And to him, it was a precursor to “Superman.” In fact, it was just a step away from— JA: Well, the Slam Bradley face is the Superman face. Who would have named [Slam Bradley]? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Oh, undoubtedly the old man. He was the creator of that strip in the sense of saying, “This is what we want to be doing.” And Siegel’s writing about it makes that very clear. JA: Do you think that “Superman” might have been the catalyst for Donenfeld and Liebowitz to ace your father out of his company? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: No. JA: You think that would have happened anyway? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Yes. JA: Here’s a story that Vin Sullivan has told, and I want to get your reaction to it. Vin Sullivan says they were going to do Action Comics,

Douglas Wheeler-Nicholson, Son Of The Major, Reveals Startling Facts About The Early Days Of DC—And Superman!

WHEELER-NICHOLSON: That may or may not be true; I don’t know that. JA: Well, I know this: I have a Baby Snooks radio show where Donenfeld is called “the discoverer of Superman” because they can’t use the word “creator.” WHEELER-NICHOLSON: [chuckles] He wasn’t the creator, the discoverer, or anything. He had nothing to do with the content of that magazine. JA: He claimed in this interview that he was the only person who had faith in the character. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: [laughs] But we have written proof of the old man saying, “This is a marvelous thing and let’s do it,” two years before that. I know that they said it. It wasn’t only him. If you read Jack Liebowitz’s obituary in the New York Times, his description of his role was in fact, the old man’s role. Neither of them had anything to do with the creation or the content. They were talking financials, the distribution, and so forth. It had nothing to do with “Should we use this character or that character?” at any time! JA: And you’re saying neither did Vin Sullivan.

The Mayer And The Major Young cartoonist Sheldon (Shelly) Mayer, who by the turn of 1939-40 would be the editor of the All-American Comics group, is widely credited with having enthused about “Superman” daily strip samples to M.C. Gaines, then his boss at the McClure Syndicate—with Gaines in turn promoting the strip to National/DC editor Vin Sullivan as Action Comics #1 was being prepped. Mayer’s work was already appearing in National Allied mags by New Comics #3 (Feb. 1936), as per this page of his “The Strange Adventures of Mr. Weed”—with thanks to Greg Huneryager for the scan! Photo courtesy of Shelly’s brother Monroe Mayer, Jim Beard, and Keith Dallas, author of TwoMorrows’ book The Flash Companion. [Art page ©2009 DC Comics.]

WHEELER-NICHOLSON: No, Sullivan had editorial say in things, but he certainly didn’t discover “Superman.” That was already a done deal. It had been lying on the old man’s desk with the old man saying, “I want it.” Jerry and Joe had said at one point, “We’re a little leery of turning it over to you, even though you want it, because of your finances.” And the old man said, “Well, as soon as I can get enough dough to do it, we’re going to do this thing.” And that’s documented! So while it was sitting there, waiting to be done, Detective Comics became successful. Action Comics was [being put together]; “Let’s do it now.” He went to Donenfeld, “Let’s have the money to do it.” Donenfeld decided, “Hey, this is going to go, and Detective Comics is already going. Let’s get rid of this guy who’s going to own 80% of it. We don’t want him to do that. We want that 80%.”

“Like A Snowball In Hell” JA: We discussed how Donenfeld and Liebowitz lied about the print runs to make him think he was going into bankruptcy. Was there any other things that they pulled like that?

Our interviewee, however, states that the Wheeler-Nicholson family has “written proof” of the Major’s acquaintance with and enthusiasm for “Superman” far earlier. This evidence will doubtless appear in the book which the family is preparing about their fabled forebear. We can’t wait to read it—and probably you can’t, either!

WHEELER-NICHOLSON: There were a bunch of things, because at that point they were in charge of finances, and he had no clue about them. He had to go to them—the enemy—to find out what the finances were. There was no objective view. They were in charge of printing, and they were in charge of distribution, so he was like a snowball in Hell. There was just nowhere to turn to get any relief in terms of whatever they wanted to do or say what they did.

and Shelly Mayer said, “I’ve seen this ‘Superman’ thing and you ought to use it.” Then Vin Sullivan said, “I looked at ‘Superman,’ and I thought it was good.” So he took the credit for wanting to publish the Superman character in Action.

JA: When your father started out publishing comics, was he dealing with Donenfeld from the beginning?

WHEELER-NICHOLSON: That is such [crap]! That is unbelievable! At the same time I have read that story, I’ve read the story that Donenfeld, of all people, went to M.C. Gaines and said, “I need an idea for this new magazine.” Well, I know Action Comics was developed by the old man as a vehicle for “Superman”! It’s just nonsense! JA: Another story I heard is that, when they published Action #1, Donenfeld looked at that cover and said, “This is so unbelievable, no one’s going to buy this.” And that’s why Superman didn’t appear on the cover for the next few months.

WHEELER-NICHOLSON: No. He was with a very respectable McGrawHill, I think it was. Donenfeld’s insistence, when he agreed to finance him, was that he shift his printing and distribution to him. But he had both different printers and distributors before that. JA: Donenfeld also had those spicy pulp detective magazines, but your father wasn’t involved with them. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: [New York City Mayor] Fiorello LaGuardia was really on a rampage to kill the burlesque shows and spicy magazines and so forth. Donenfeld was flailing around for something other to do right at that point. My father was a godsend to them. They saw the

“His Goal Was The Graphic Novel”

handwriting on the wall, that they were going to be put out of business, or be watered-down so badly that there would be no money in it. So the old man came along for them, which made them perfectly eager and willing to invest. JA: I’m a little surprised that the Major wasn’t consulting somebody else about “Should I do this or not?,” as far as giving control of the company away. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: I don’t know. There’s nobody still alive who knows who he was talking to, if anyone. JA: He must have had a lawyer. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: I guess he must have, but I don’t know that man’s name, and never heard it. I haven’t found anything in his papers that shows there was a lawyer involved. He was very much a person who would decide on his own to do things. He wasn’t great for consulting other people. My mother was one of his major sources of consulting.

WHEELER-NICHOLSON: There are varying stories on that. One of them is that he was given the rights to More Fun Comics as opposed to everything else, and he turned that down. They offered him—the figure I remember hearing was $70,000 a year as the person to be in charge of development, new projects and new ideas, and everything else. And he would relinquish his ownership. He said “No” to that, quite properly. You have to understand that, from his standpoint, he was dealing with employees. They were people who came to him and said, “Let’s do this.” He said, “I’m the owner of this company, and I’m A Sampling Of Sampliner the final word. I don’t want to do that. Go away!” And Donenfeld associate Paul they said, “Oh, yeah? Not so fast, my friend. You owe us Sampliner, in a detail from a late all this money. You have to go into bankruptcy.” But he ‘40s/early ‘50s photo provided didn’t owe them, and even the bankruptcy judge—I by the late Irwin Donenfeld (son don’t know if we’ve mentioned this to you—was a close of Harry) for his interview in A/E friend of Donenfeld’s. #26.

JA: Was she as trusting as the Major seemed to be? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: No, no. But he would consult her, then do what he wanted. JA: Did he just give them the company? Did he get any money at all?

JA: No, you didn’t. So the fix was in there, too. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Oh, yes. JA: Then you consider this to be a calculated effort to get rid of him. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Absolutely. Here were these two guys, and they see a fortune coming down the road and they say, “Well, do we want to have a small portion of that in terms of our ownership or do we want it all?” JA: And they wanted it all. So basically, he signed the company over to Donenfeld and Liebowitz. Do you know if Paul Sampliner was involved? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Yes, he was part owner of the distributorship. He had nothing to do with the day-to-day running of the magazines. JA: At the time the Major had the company, the copyrights of all the characters were his, correct? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: I believe so, yes. JA: So they naturally went to Donenfeld. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: I presume so. We don’t know that.

Variety Is The Spice Of Life Before Harry Donenfeld elbowed his way into the comic book field, his main claim to fame—or infamy, take your pick—was the so-called “Spicy” line of pulp magazines, such as Spicy Detective Stories (1934 cover seen here), Spicy Mystery Stories (‘36), and Spicy Western Stories (‘36). Oh, and there was Spicy Adventures, as well. The SDS cover painting is by Howard Parkhurst; the other two are by H.J. Ward, who’s remembered for later doing a Superman painting that hung for years in National/DC’s outer office. Note the story title “Batman” on the SMS cover, three years before Bob Kane and Bill Finger created their masked hero of that name. [©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

Douglas Wheeler-Nicholson, Son Of The Major, Reveals Startling Facts About The Early Days Of DC—And Superman!

JA: And that was when they moved the company offices, right? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: That’s correct… from Fourth Avenue to Lexington. JA: Your father was never at the Lexington Avenue offices? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: No, although I went in there with my brother Malcolm one time after it all took place. I don’t know why we were there or what we were doing.

“He Returned To Writing Stories” JA: So he essentially loses the company. What happened next? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: He returned to writing stories, and his major interest was military history. He had been following the growing war in Europe on a minute-by-minute basis. He had a huge map on his wall and on the study wall and was on the radio listening to every news broadcast, and reading every paper. He even got so liberal as to read a New York Times, as opposed to the Herald Tribune, just to get as much information as he could. JA: Did he keep his military contacts? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: No, not really. He was acting as an individual, totally. He wasn’t dealing with the War Department per se, or anything like that. JA: But he must have kept in touch with some friends he’d made during his military time. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Yes, he did. Tommy Thompson, for one, the inventor of the Tommy Gun. Tommy Thompson was brilliant, and a very good friend. The old man wrote the Battle Shield of the Republic in 1939, I guess. It came out in ’41, before we got into the war, and it was about the strategies that ought to exist, and what was wrong with [current strategies]. A lot of it was rethinking many of the positions he had had in his fight with the Army. This book was well-received by military analysts on what our strategies ought to be, and where our dangers lay. He was extremely knowledgeable in those areas. Then he wrote a second one after we’d gotten into the war, called Are We Winning the Hard Way?, again discussing our strategies and things we were doing right, things we were doing wrong. He had a very low opinion of the War Department in general. He liked General Eisenhower. He thought he was doing a good job, but that guy who was running the whole “soft underbelly”—as Churchill called it—of the Italian campaign, Mark Clark... my father felt he was a butcher, that he just sent men off to die. And he did. It wasn’t a very good Army. I mean, it got the job done. There was a lot of gearing up and a lot better stuff happening in the Second World War, but the First World War and that period afterwards had been dreadful. The critique of our behavior in the First World War was scathing. There was a lot of talk about it during 1920, ’21, ’22, the time he was having his battle. There were those in agreement with him, and they were digging into why did these deaths occur? How come that happened? So he was on a crusade that had very real issues and [wanted an avoidance of the problems of the First World War]. JA: What did the Major think of General Marshall and Patton?

The Major Takes A Look At Defense (Left:) The dustjacket of Wheeler-Nicholson’s 1941 book Battle Shield of the Republic. Thanks to Nicky Brown. (Above:) The Major also scribed war-related articles for popular magazines, such as this piece from the Aug. 12, 1941, issue of Look. In it he unfavorably compared US tanks to those of the Germans, several months before America would enter World War II. Thanks to Mike Catron. [©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

WHEELER-NICHOLSON: He loved Patton; he thought he was a good general. He was not that enamored of George Marshall. He knew Marshall personally, and he thought he was a politician. He thought Eisenhower did a brilliant job of pulling the Allies together, and getting D-Day to happen. JA: Did he have an opinion of British General Montgomery? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: I don’t remember it. I do remember that he thought he was arrogant, but so did everyone else. JA: Well, it was an accurate opinion. I should backtrack here. Do you remember how he felt when he lost DC Comics? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: I do remember, yes. He was a man who rarely showed his emotions. He was very calm. He rarely got mad. If he disagreed, even violently, his propensity was to convince. One of his comments was, “It’s not the veins on his neck that stand out in an argument, it’s the facts.” He would—it’s not the word I want, but I can’t think of another one—cajole people into his point of view, rather than hammer it in. He never raised his voice, he was very calm. But to answer your question, he was close to a breakdown, as close as we’d ever seen. He started drinking. He drank heavily for a short period. He was threatening to leave everyone and join The Black Watch to fight the Nazis. [mutual laughter] He was in really tough shape, and Mother sort-of smoothed it up, but he was ranting around the house, which is an incredible attitude for that particular man. He wasn’t like that. But that wasn’t a very long-

“His Goal Was The Graphic Novel”

lived period. Two months, maybe two and a half, three months. JA: I take it most of his anger was towards Donenfeld and Liebowitz. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Yes. He eventually took sort-of a philosophic view, and never looked back. Mother never got over it. She hated them, and any time any mention of them came up, she would spit fire. JA: So as far as you know, he lost the company and got nothing for it. Did he blame himself very much, do you think? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: I don’t know whether he did. Probably he didn’t ever sit there and do a mea culpa. He just stopped it. That whole subject was no longer discussed. After having been a major subject of conversation in the family, talking about upcoming issues and the upcoming publication of “Superman,” and working on “Superman,” it just stopped. That all stopped a couple of months before “Superman” came out. We didn’t see a specific day with all that. You don’t notice it day-today, but my brother and I were down in the Village in Great Neck, and we had seen, months before, the proposed cover. We saw the magazine on the stand, brought it home, and said, [excited] “Oh, it’s finally out!” And the response was sort of, “Mm-mm, yes. Well, that’s nice.” We weren’t told at 11 and 12 years old, “I’ve lost the whole company.” We just sort-of got the idea over a period of time. I asked my oldest sister that same question: “Was there any time they actually sat you down and said, ‘Hey, this is what happened, the whole thing has been lost.’” She said no, she just finally got the idea, as we did. And from then on, we had no more connection with the comic book world. We just bought comic books like any other kid, and didn’t feel a connection to it. He went on, got into his military writing—which wasn’t very lucrative—very prodigiously. Despite the fact that it wasn’t a great market, we lived very nicely. Even though we lived in a nice upper-middle class town and a nice upper-middle class house, it’s always dicey when you live with a person whose income is from writing. You know, you sell a story and everybody has plenty of money. And then that runs out, and you write another one, shop it around, and then money comes in. And so it was always up and down and up and down. We were always broke one day, and lots of money the next day. But we certainly did persevere.

“He Was Actively There Right Through Two Months Before… Action #1 Came Out” JA: When you saw “Superman” on the stands, you said you had already seen the early artwork. What did you see?

“Superman Turns Out To Be Flash In the Pan” The above line from the lyrics to the classic Ira Gershwin/Vernon Dukes song “I Can’t Get Started” makes the perfect header for this art spot, because: (Left:) As most A/E readers already know, the “Superman” story in Action Comics #1 (June 1938) was composed of cut-and-pasted unsold “Superman” daily strips by Siegel & Shuster. The tale started up in medias res on this second page, after a first page that covered the hero’s amazing powers and his coming to Earth as an infant from an unnamed “distant planet”—panels also doubtless clipped from various dailies. Repro’d from the hardcover Superman: The Action Comics Archives, Vol. 1. [©2009 DC Comics.] (Center & left:) While the matter is still very much in dispute, the late artists Sheldon Mayer (photo on p. 30) and Harry Lampert (photo here, courtesy of Sam Maronie) each separately and no doubt sincerely maintained that they were the ones who cut, pasted, and otherwise turned those previously unprinted “Superman” dailies into comic book pages. In 1939 Lampert would draw the very first “Flash” story, in Flash Comics #1 (Jan. 1940); seen here is his 1999 re-creation of a panel from that tale. [Flash TM & ©2009 DC Comics.]

WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Just the cover [Action #1], and some of the strips. I mean, we’d seen lots of stuff. We had lots of comics, rooms full of them, a garage half full of those comics. Unbelievable. JA: The “Superman” art you saw was not pages, it was strips. Correct? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Correct. JA: I wanted to make sure of that, because there’s also an ongoing battle over who made those strips into pages. Shelly Mayer claimed he was the one who pasted up the strips into pages for Action #1. And then there was an artist named Harry Lampert who claimed he had done it for

Douglas Wheeler-Nicholson, Son Of The Major, Reveals Startling Facts About The Early Days Of DC—And Superman!

Wanna See Where Superman Got His Face? It’s Easy! (Left:) The title page image from Flying Buttress’ hardcover series Wash Tubbs and Captain Easy, which reprinted Roy Crane’s influential 1924-1943 Wash Tubbs strip. [© NEA.] (Center:) Slam Bradley and his diminutive pal Shorty (in a panel from Detective Comics #1) owed a lot to Captain Easy, soldier of fortune, and his little buddy, the titular star of the Wash Tubbs comic strip. Reprinted from The Greatest Golden Age Stories Ever Told. [©2009 DC Comics.] (Right:) The resemblance between Crane’s Captain Easy and Joe Shuster’s Superman in Action Comics #1 (see right) is obvious. The main difference is that the Man of Tomorrow traded in Easy’s and Slam’s hooked noses for straight ones. Repro’d from Superman from the 30’s to the 70’s. [©2009 DC Comics.]

Donenfeld and Liebowitz. So there’s two people making the claim, and that’s why I was trying to ask you what you saw. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Certainly it was done under the old man’s aegis because, again, you get back to the timing. He was actively there right through two months before June 8th, the day the first Action came out, and the total cessation of his involvement coincided with the move up to Lexington, which was two months before. And the magazine had been done by then. It even went to the printers. That issue was totally done when he was there, under his aegis. Donenfeld didn’t actually have ownership until July or August of that year. JA: Let me ask you a couple more “Superman” questions, then we can get off that subject. You said he never discussed the comic business again. Did you feel that it was a subject not to bring up? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: We didn’t avoid it. We had “Superman” comic books around the house, probably each one striking a blow at his gut. But there was no “Don’t bring that trash in here!,” or anything like that. It just wasn’t discussed. JA: You said he’d stored old comics in the garage. Did he store original art there,too? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Yes. The last place that I remember it being was in the house that we moved to after he had lost the company. And that garage had a studio above it which became his study, where he wrote. It was kept by the family—not all of it, certainly, but portions were kept up until many years later, even after he had died. They were kept by my older brother Malcolm as recently as the ’60s. And one huge cache of them got totally destroyed by one of my nephews, who inadvertently started a fire in there. Then nobody had any interest in it anymore. You know, there was just no strong effort to keep it. Malcolm was not too interested in it, and his wife didn’t understand the potential importance of it. It was out of my hands. JA: You folks had moved on from the subject once your father was out, but you must have had some thoughts about it when you saw the Superman serials or you saw merchandising , and certainly George Reeves on television. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Oh, yeah, we did. We knew there was a rumor that, when I was young, I looked exactly like Clark Kent. [Jim laughs] Really, exactly! Cleft chin, curly hair—of which there is none now— glasses; very, very athletic but also very studious. JA: Joe Shuster was a fan of Roy Crane, who did the Captain Easy [i.e., Wash Tubbs] newspaper strip. And that Superman/Slam Bradley face really comes from Crane.

WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Right, but I’ve got to tell you, I was closer to looking like him. [mutual laughter] I really was. It’s really so strange. JA: Well, I’m surprised that, with the Superman TV show such a big hit, there was no discussion of that in your house. Was there a reason you didn’t mention it? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: By that time, we had totally realized that we were no longer associated with it. It couldn’t help but occur to us that “Gee, if that had been, we’d be multimillionaires now,” but that’s about it. We didn’t sit there and agonize over it. All of us went on with our lives. I don’t know how the old man felt about it, in fact. Except for that brief couple-of-months period, he never showed any emotions. JA: If you had asked him, would he have told you? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: I think he would have dismissed it. “Oh, that’s past history,” kind of thing. I doubt that he would have gone into it, or been reflective about his own feelings.

“I Like My Coffee Strong And My Women Weak” JA: The period when he loses the company and he doesn’t have any money coming in, there’s got to be a period between that and his writing. What happened, financially? You said you were devastated. How did he keep everything together? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: He started to write immediately, as he had to get breakfast on the table. He wrote hundreds of stories, and he was clearly recognized by anyone who’s looked at the history, or at the time, as one of the two or three top pulp writers. He used to kid that he got 5¢ a word when everybody was getting 3¢ a word, and his favorite hero would be a stuttering hero with a machine gun. JA: [laughs] Did he ever write under another name? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Yes, he had at least one pseudonym. I don’t remember them now, but Nicky will tell you. He wrote the Bill Barnes stories under a different name. But he was extremely prodigious. JA: How much research he did for his fiction stories? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: He did quite a bit of research. He really wrote

“His Goal Was The Graphic Novel”

about where he had been and what he knew. His stories were either in the Philippines, on the Mexican border, in Europe, in the whole French/English/German area, and in Vladivostok, where he was stationed. He was a great student of history, and he could tell you when Louis XVI was decapitated, and so forth. So he wrote, essentially, about places and things where he knew the politics, the history, the current mores, and so forth. It’s not like he went off to South America or Africa—about which he knew nothing—and wrote stories about them. He wrote about what he knew. He often said that all of his stories resulted from his history. JA: Did he talk about his writing very much? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Not at all. I didn’t read his stories then. I’ve read them now and I love them. They’re terrific. I’ve not only read them, but I read one of them [“The Road without Turning”] for an audio book. JA: Do you know if he bounced ideas off anybody else? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Mother was his editor and his chief. She was an extremely literate person. The stories would be read to her, but she would sit there and hack away at them.

Let George Do It! Under the name “George L. Eaton,” Malcolm WheelerNicholson created and wrote the title series in the pulp mag Bill Barnes, Air Adventurer, which debuted from Street & Smith in Feb. 1934. Seen here is a Spanish-language edition of an issue, which appeared on the Bill Barnes Home Page website, run by “Dannysoar” and Hector Pelteado. [©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

JA: How keen an observer of the human condition was he? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: I think he was more a sociologist than a psychologist. He had a pretty clear idea of how people behaved. But his notions of individuals strike me, after reading some of his stuff, more as current psychology at work. German soldiers were easily shouted at and servile, German aristocracy was very noble and aristocratic in his stories. Those kinds of notions, that may or may not have any validity, tended to be his views. His stories were good for what they were. They’re adventure stories, and the dialogue was good. He assayed dialects, too, which weren’t too bad. He had some of the black troops on the Mexican border—and he had commanded black troops then—speaking in that sort of lingo. Then he had German guys speaking Germanic patois. His dialogue was good, credible.

[Cover art by Howard Cruse]

JA: Do you know if he plotted his stories out before he wrote them? Would he make an outline? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: I don’t know. He just seemed to sit there and pound away at the typewriter. He was a two-finger typist. For a lot of the time, he dictated on black cylinders and then sent them to a local stenographer. And then sometimes he would type changes. God, I don’t know how they did it. Every change they made, they had to retype the whole page. He wrote all day. The man never goofed off. He got up at six in the morning, making his coffee—his coffee was coffee grounds boiled in a pot

Douglas Wheeler-Nicholson, Son Of The Major, Reveals Startling Facts About The Early Days Of DC—And Superman!

with water and eggshells, until it was like sludge. He’d say, “I like my coffee strong and my women weak.” [mutual laughter] He’d be up that hour of the morning in his dressing gown. Within an hour, if he wasn’t in the city peddling stories, he’d be sitting there at the typewriter either on his military stuff or on pulp stories. [He preferred writing about the military more than the pulps, but] it paid less than the pulps. He was extremely hard-working.

rabidly anti-McCarthy. I just got back from service, and here were these two yo-yos Cohn and Shine going around to Army camps and deciding what books the soldiers could see. And his comment was, “Well, of course, I don’t agree with his methods! But after all, there are a lot of Communists there.”

JA: Did your father become politically active in his later years?

WHEELER-NICHOLSON: No, I doubt that very much.

WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Not that I know. I mean, politics in terms of War Department and Army, yes. But not in the civilian area. He was conservative. Not wildly conservative, and he was certainly liberal in his attitude towards blacks, for instance. [He had commanded blacks] and was dearly loved [by his men]. But he was conservative financially, and in other ways.

JA: It sounds like, as far as human rights were concerned, he was much more liberal.

JA: Did he have any feelings about the atomic bomb?

JA: He was writing military history for how long?

JA: And the Cold War came after that. Did he ever discuss it? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Yes. He had served with the Russians, and while he had a lot of admiration for their drinking capacity—they were about the only people in the world that’d outdrink him—he thought they were essentially not Europeans, that they were Slavic and Asian in character and caste; very wily, and not to be trusted worldwide, but extremely so on a personal basis. He had a wonderful time there. He loved the soldiers, and the Cossacks with whom he served. But as a nation, he really felt that he was not in any sense ready for détente.

WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Yes, and I will never forget when Senator McCarthy came along. To give you a sense of his right-wingedness: I was

WHEELER-NICHOLSON: That’s right. He didn’t condone [blacklisting]. But in terms of being diligent and being a good person, concerned with the military safety of the country, he’d be along with some of the Bush-y thoughts of today, of terrorism and all that. He was conservative, no question about it.

“A Lot Of Time, A Lot Of Energy”

WHEELER-NICHOLSON: He was very trepidatious about it. He felt it was the harbinger of bad things.

JA: So he was caught up in the Cold War, the HUAC committee sort-of thing.

JA: But do you think he would have been for blacklisting?

WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Military stuff? Let me think. He died in ’65, and at least five years before that—’59, ’60—I had become very successful, and was totally taking care of my parents. I had started a company, planning office space in buildings. He was getting old and was in very bad shape because he’d had major heart attacks. He had arteriosclerosis in his legs. He smoked cigarettes until the day he died. He kept trying those with the fancier filters to no avail, and doctors told him, “You’re crazy.” His mind was fine, but his physical abilities got worse and worse. He had gotten into inventing two products, and he was actively developing those, and was not writing as much at that time, the mid-1950s. JA: How did he feel about you going into the service? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: He thought that was wonderful. My brother Malcolm was very interested in the Army and joined. He briefly thought of a career in it. That didn’t interest me at all, although I had a great time there. It was very beneficial. I think every young man should be drafted and spend two years in the service. I was drafted in 1950. He was happy to see us in the service, and proud to see us walking around in a uniform. JA: What were the inventions he was working on? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: He was working on a very complicated paint system that became successful, then didn’t, [laughs] and a building system. He had gone over to Sweden in 1948 when Mother’s mother died. She had quite an estate, and he went over to settle it. While there, he got these two ancient, very potential inventions. He took them over, and he came back and started to develop them. JA: But neither really worked out for him, I take it. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: No, they did not. A lot of time, a lot of energy. JA: So you started supporting your parents in the late ’50s? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Or early ’60s… ’59, ’60, ’61, somewhere in there. My mother was a health nut and could have passed for someone 25 years younger. She lived into her 90s, and never went to a dentist for her teeth. She ate wheat germ and other healthy Scandinavian kinds of things. She died in 1988.

“The Aristocrat Of The Badlands” The Dec. 1948 issue of the pulp Popular Western cover-featured a “novelet” by the Major, in which he put his youth—growing up on a horse farm in Washington state, his experience on the Mexican border under General Pershing, etc.—to good use. Perhaps he felt the story’s title was somewhat self-referential? Thanks to Nicky Brown. [©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

“His Goal Was The Graphic Novel”

JA: What were his final days like? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: He was working. I don’t know what the hell he was writing or what he was doing, but he was working. He’d be pecking away at his typewriter, writing about world affairs. He wasn’t writing stories. But you’d go over there and he always, except for midsummer, built a fire every night. And he’d stop writing and my parents would have either their sherry or their martini. The rest of the time, he’d be in his study working. I never went in and said, “What is that? What are you doing there?” JA: Then you don’t think this writing was published? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: No, [and I don’t know what happened to it, either]. JA: Earlier you mentioned his heart attacks…. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: He had three heart attacks. He could get around. Stairs were very difficult for him, and in the last house they had together, Mother had to set up a downstairs bed area, as opposed to the bedroom, which was upstairs. She took the dining room and made it into a bedroom. He never succumbed to melancholy. He kept totally alive intellectually, and was up on everything happening in the political world, and working on whatever he was working on. He loved The Saturday Evening Post, and he liked one of the political commentary magazines, probably a more

conservative one, and The World Telegram. When it was alive, it was an afternoon paper and the Herald Tribune was a morning paper; he read both of them. Then they both went defunct, and he settled on the Times. He didn’t own a television. Had he gotten used to it, it certainly was a window onto the world, even then. He listened to the radio. They [remained social with] friends out there on Long Island. It was difficult towards the end when it was hard for him to move around. But up until very close to the end, they saw friends.

“He Just Liked The World Around Him” JA: Where were you when he passed away? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: My older sister Antoinette, who was then and now in California, called me at my office in New York and said that he had died. My brother and his wife took care of the funeral details, and we all went out for that. JA: Was it a military funeral? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: No. We could have had, but we didn’t. The family was very secular and not big about life after death. I mean, once it was over, it was over. It was a very nice funeral at a place out in Long Island. JA: For the most part, he was a strong guy who essentially, even through bad times, still had an inner happiness he never seemed to lose. Is that a good description?

Before “Superman”—The “Super-Police”! The Major’s interest in having the United States keep up with the latest weapons technology, and in the inventions he championed in his later years, was perhaps preshadowed by the “2023 Super-Police” feature that had debuted in 1935’s New Fun #1, with art by Clem Gretter and script by Ken Fitch (who would later co-create “Hour-Man” for DC). Thanks to Robert Wiener. [©2009 DC Comics.] Above is an interesting artifact: Wheeler-Nicholson’s May 6, 1936, letter to the artist agreeing to return ancillary rights to “Super-Police” and another strip to him upon request. Note that, at this time, the Major’s business stationery referred to “More Fun Magazine, Inc.” rather than to National Allied Publications, Inc. [©2009 Estate of Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson.]

Douglas Wheeler-Nicholson, Son Of The Major, Reveals Startling Facts About The Early Days Of DC—And Superman!

WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Yeah, a buoyancy. JA: When you think of him, what do you think of? WHEELER-NICHOLSON: His general attitude, which was very attractive. He just liked the world around him. He got pleasure out of thinking, of dealing with people, of his own work. He dug into stuff for his own interest. Towards the end, when there was no market for [his writing] or anything, he was just interested in things, which is why he was studying and writing about them and so forth. I think of him having a very even temper and [being] a pleasure [to be with]. He was distant as a father, but was perfectly warm. JA: So he wasn’t the type to tell you he loved you, but you knew he did. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: He actually said that once. I was quite shocked. [laughs] I was a very independent cuss, and I guess he was stressed out or something. This wasn’t during his shake-up period. He sort-of took after me sort-of unfairly about something. I just listened to it and then I left. Nobody knew where I was, and he was chagrined. I’d climbed up in the second-story window and went up to the attic, but nobody knew it. They thought I’d run away forever. When the rapprochement finally occurred, he said, “You know I loved you as much as I could.” I said, “What???” [chuckles once again] It was so uncharacteristic, but he said it. He wasn’t an overtly affectionate person, but very warm. He loved us all at the table and talking and arguing, and so forth. He loved to initiate it, and watch it go. JA: Did he ever work with cars or build furniture... that kind of thing?

WHEELER-NICHOLSON: The family had, from time to time, sort-of roused itself a little and said, “This is really shameful. We want to do something to resuscitate his name, since he was so critical to comics,” and nobody did anything about it. Nicky galvanized everybody into that mode of “Let’s get serious about this” about four years ago. Mother was bitter to the end, I know that. I’m not bitter. I mean, it was so much out of my life for me not to be bothered with it. But I think that a grave injustice has been done him. I have no feeling about it for myself. It’s just not relevant to my life. I’ve had a very full, full life. I’m 81, and I’ve had huge successes and I’ve been broke. I’ve got lovely children. But we do want to set the record straight. That’s the motivation and it’s very important, I think. It’s fascinating to me how all of the next generation— that is Nicky and all her peers, my daughter’s children, and my other niece’s children—are much more interested in this than Diane and I were. I want to see something happening for his sake. I don’t want that record, the official Donenfeld/Liebowitz/Vin Sullivan record being the one that’s there. JA: I can understand that. You want to fight for your father’s reputation, and you should. Frankly, it’s past time, but it’s easy for me to say that. Still, you sound like a proud son. WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Oh, I am. I think he was a fabulous man. He was incredible. He was certainly one of the brightest people I’ve ever met. He had a sense of the whole world at any one time, and he was a history fanatic, he was a language fanatic. The military was just a subchapter of that and his general interest in world events completely, and that’s what his mind was about. He was a gentle man.

WHEELER-NICHOLSON: No, he was a gardener, growing flowers. He used to go around in terribly disreputable gardening clothes. And my older sister, when a date would come, said, “That’s the gardener.” [mutual laughter] JA: As far as you’re concerned, when did you start thinking about all this: DC Comics and “Superman”? When did they start meaning anything to you?

A Super Marketplace The most enduring legacy of Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, in the eyes of the world, is that he founded the company that would soon give the world “Superman”—not only in the comics, but in film, radio, television, and many other media, and in a truly formidable pile of merchandise, as merely suggested by these two photos from Sotheby’s auction catalog for June 18, 1994. Seen here are figurines, toys, dolls, puzzles, and (on the right) what the catalog described as “Miscellaneous Superman Memorabilia, from the 1960s and onward, comprising pins, rings, buttons, badges, soda caps, and a belt buckle”; there were approximately 130 items in the latter lot. [Superman TM & ©2009 DC Comics.]

Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson: The Visionary Who Founded DC Comics Part III 39

“He Was Going To Go For The Big Idea” NICKY WHEELER-NICHOLSON BROWN— In Search Of Her Grandfather’s Secrets Interview Conducted by Jim Amash

Transcribed by Brian K. Morris

“A Lot Of Mythology In The Family” JIM AMASH: Nicky, you get the tell the readers who you are. NICKY BROWN: [laughs] I am the daughter of Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, Jr., the oldest son of Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson. JA: Tell me about researching your grandfather’s history. BROWN: When I started asking a lot of questions, I realized that people in the family had a funny kind of attitude [about my grandfather]. On one hand, people were very proud of the Major. But on the other hand, there was this sort-of uncomfortable feeling about what had happened and, as you’ve discovered, once [he lost his comics company], he never really talked about it again. People in the family talked about it, but no one ever really talked about it with him, because he didn’t want to talk about it. So there was a lot of mythology in the family that grew up around this issue. What I’ve done, basically for my family, is put together a timeline through our family, and now my family is able to speak about things in a lot more informed way—not just from memory, but also from the things that I’ve discovered about the past. That’s how it got started for me. About ten years ago, I got the idea that something really need to be done. It took me a long time to work through all of that, to get people to the point where everybody was pretty much on the same page, and want things to happen in a good way, and to see my grandfather’s reputation restored.

“Strange Visitor From Another Planet” Nicky Wheeler-Nicholson Brown watches as her uncle Douglas speaks at the Eisner Awards ceremony at the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con. The WheelerNicholson family was happy for a chance to begin to set the record straight concerning their legendary ancestor’s life and accomplishments. Thanks to Nicky & Jason Brown for the photo, which was taken by Christine Quigley. [©2009 Christine Quigley.] While Batman, in recent years, has perhaps become nearly as iconic as the Man of Steel, it’s still Superman who has been the ultimate fountain of DC Comics’ influence over the past seven-plus decades. One of the artists most identified with Siegel & Shuster’s creation was the late Curt Swan, who by the 1960s had succeeded Wayne Boring as representing “the look” of the last son of Krypton. This pencil drawing was done for Michael Dunne, who generously shared it with us. [Superman TM & ©2009 DC Comics.]

JA: Douglas told me about a lot of the early parts of the Major’s life that he knew. Do you want to expand on any of that? BROWN: I would like to go through my timeline a little bit and throw some things out to add to what he talked about. One thing that is good to know is that [my grandfather] came out of a background of publishing and writing, since his grandfather started the Herald and Tribune in Jonesboro, Tennessee, which is in East Tennessee. Antoinette—the Major’s mother—was a writer because she grew up in this household of

newspapers and writing. She was also a very good horseback rider, because her father was a really excellent horseman. That line is something that is part of the family. It didn’t just appear out of nowhere. She had a very difficult early life, and I think this affected my grandfather. When she was still a very young woman with four small children, first her father died, then her husband died, and then her oldest child, who was only six, died. And at the same time, she gave birth to her youngest child by herself, since her husband was deceased. It really affected her, and she left East Tennessee, and went to New York where her sister was working as a nurse. From there, she got hired to go out to Portland, Oregon, to start a newspaper. She was a suffragette; and at the time, there were all these women’s magazines that were very popular that were started by these suffragettes, like Women’s Club and Women’s Magazine. She was very

Nicky Wheeler-Nicholson Brown—In Search Of Her Grandfather’s Secrets

Rocket-Ship To Outer—Mongolia? Leo O’Mealia was undeniably one of the best draftsmen working in the early days of comic books. These pages from a serialized adventure from More Fun Comics #24 (Sept. 1937) take place in the Asian hinterlands rather than in the Philippines, but one has to wonder if the story might’ve been scripted by Major Wheeler-Nicholson himself. In any event, it definitely reflects the kind of pulp stories he’d been writing—even if Bob Merritt has a mode of transportation that pushes the tale even further into the realm of fantasy. Thanks to Greg Huneryager. [©2009 DC Comics.]

politically involved, and knew all kinds of people from her magazine writing, and so this was part of the Major’s background, coming out of a very literate, articulate, intellectually active family. One thing about my grandfather is he commanded Troop K of the African-American Buffalo Soldiers. Years later, when the whole segregation/integration issues were going on in the late ’40s and early ’50s, there was a magazine called The Negro Digest. They asked him to write an article about his experiences commanding Troop K. He wrote about the abilities and the intellect of the men who served under him, which was a proof, of course, that these people should be integrated. JA: President Truman desegregated the military in 1948. BROWN: That’s when the article was written. He was concerned always about people who were getting short-shrift, who were not getting a fair shake. This was one of his big things with the Army, because the Army, at that point, was all very elitist, not egalitarian. He was very much against that even though he, personally, benefitted by that. I found this wonderful book called Machine Guns, written in 1917. He’s mentioned in it for the work he did with a group of men when he was in the Philippines, and he won all these awards for training these guys to go from a standing position to battle readiness. He broke all these records, but what that book doesn’t say, that my great-grandmother quoted years later, was that he asked for what she referred to as “the guardhouse bums,” the habitual

offenders, and those are the guys he took and trained. Those are the guys with whom he broke all those records. I’ll give you the exact quote from an interview with her in The Morning Oregon of November 17th, 1922: “Six years ago in the Philippines, Major Nicholson proved his contention that the best men in the Army are ruined by stupid methods of punishment which are meant for discipline. He asked for the ‘guardhouse bums,’ habitual offenders to put in his machine gun troop, and with them he broke the world’s record for machine gun work, which is still the record in three months’ time.” So this is kind of the crux of his personality, a knight-errant type of man. [mutual laughter] You know, justice for all people, which is kind of interesting when you think about the [concept of the] super-hero. It’s very much part of who he was. I’ve recently come upon some declassified documents that talk about him. There was a guy in Intelligence who was on a ship with the Major’s mother, who had been out to see him in the Philippines. She was coming back from the Philippines to United States. This man heard her talking about having been out there, so he engaged her in conversation, and he wrote this whole report up about her. It was all about how he was so amazed at how intelligent she was. [mutual laughter] From everything I’ve heard about her, she was pretty kooky, but she encouraged my grandfather to be the very best he could be. She also gave

“He Was Going To Go For The Big Idea”

Up In The Air, Junior Birdmen!

putting books into a graphic form that could be read by the general public. As typical of him, he didn’t know how to turn that into money because he didn’t focus on the money part of it—he focused on the creative end of it. He never seemed to get into partnership with someone who could do the money end of it.

As mentioned in the preceding interview, in the 1930s the Major wrote the first six lead stories of the Bill Barnes, Air Adventurer pulp-magazine series as “George L. Eaton.” Seen here is another cover from a Spanish-language edition, plus two interior illustrations from various issues. With thanks to the Bill Barnes Home Page website. [©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

From there, they went to France for a couple of years. But interestingly, he was going back and forth between France and New York. I found his name, a couple of times, on ship [manifests], and the only thing I can figure is that he was going back and forth to meet with publishers. When the Stock Market crashed, they went back to the United States. He was still writing, but things started to get worse and worse. In 1934, he wrote the first six Bill Barnes, Air Adventurer pulp stories under the pseudonym “George L. Eaton.” The publisher was Street & Smith. He was also beginning to publish comic books at the same time.

“One Of The Most Prolific Pulp Writers Of His Day” JA: Do you know what gave him the idea to do comic books? BROWN: I just think that it was something that he always wanted to do. JA: There was Famous Funnies which was put out by Dell, which was before the Major started publishing. I was wondering, would he have seen that?

him a sense of entitlement, a very romantic entitlement indicating that they were descended from whatever. [laughs] I think that had a lot to do BROWN: Oh, of course he did. with how he thought of himself. It gave him a lot of confidence, but it may have also given him a false sense of things in a way. I can’t say that for JA: So the idea could have come from seeing Famous Funnies on the sure, but it’s just a feeling that I have from the letters that I’ve read stand. between the two of them, and the way she wrote to him, and the way she talked about him, as well as the things my Aunt Toni has said about her. She doted on him and really encouraged him, but I don’t think she was totally realistic about things. I think that Famous Is As Famous Does might have been part of the problem with his Army fight, Famous Funnies #1 (1934) wasn’t that he was in this sort of rarified situation. He had been the first true “comic book” in the promoted very rapidly and given a lot of really interesting modern style—that, depending on assignments and then he met my grandmother. how you look at it, was either The They both had a really strong sense of entitlement. Not in a negative way, but just in a sort-of “We must be noble at all costs” kind of way. I think that affected him a lot [when he took on] the Army. I think that he genuinely believed that terrible things were going on, and that he should do something about it. And I also think there are other things that we don’t know yet that I’m still pursuing with some of these documents that are just now, or recently have been, declassified. [In regard to his] publishing, it’s only natural that he would want to do that, given his background. When he started his first publishing venture in 1925, he worked with really interesting people. He worked with a man named N. Brewster Morse, who was a pretty well-known playwright and also wrote some movie scripts. The major also worked with an artist named Oscar Hitt, who was well known at the time. It was the first time that Treasure Island was put into a newspaper. So from the very beginning, he had this idea of

Funnies that debuted in 1929 and ran for a year, or the reprint Funnies on Parade (1933). But The Funnies was a tabloid-size publication in newspaper-strip format (albeit featuring original strips), and Funnies on Parade was a one-shot populated entirely by reprinted strips. After its own one-off Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics in ’33, Eastern Color Printing Co launched FF as an ongoing title the next year, featuring retreads of Mutt & Jeff and other newspaper comics. It only remained for the Major to come along a year later and utilize new material in the magazine-size format, and the modern comic book format was born. [©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

Nicky Wheeler-Nicholson Brown—In Search Of Her Grandfather’s Secrets

BROWN: I think he just was looking for some way to get back into publishing and syndication, because that was always what he wanted to do. I think he must have seen some of those early comic books come out. There have been some snippy little remarks from some writers about why the Major used new material, like, “Oh, he did it because M.C. Gaines had sewn up all the syndication.” I don’t know if it’s true that [Gaines] had sewn up all the syndicated strips, but that’s what some people have written, and some people have said that’s Jacquet, Okay the reason that my grandfather decided to Lloyd Jacquet was “involved” do original work. I don’t [believe that], briefly with National Allied because even if he had been able to get a before forming his own lot of those syndicated [strips], he was the comics shop with Bill Everett, type of person who would do something Carl Burgos, et al., and bigger, and more unusual. He was going to producing material for Timely, Centaur, Novelty, and other go for the big idea. He was not going to go companies. Detail of a 1942 for the idea that could possibly make a lot photo from The New York of money. [mutual chuckling] It just World-Telegram newspaper, makes perfect sense to me, especially which appeared in an issue of given the fact that when he first did syndiComic Book Marketplace. The cated strips, he was working with people entire photo was printed in like playwrights and well-known artists, A/E #22. and that he would automatically want to do original material. He would want to put his own stamp on things. JA: But he had to recruit people, and a lot of early comic book companies placed ads in newspapers looking for writers or artists. I wonder if he did that. BROWN: I’m sure he did, because I know he did [when he put together the earlier newspaper strips]. I’ve seen some of the advertisements where he was recruiting people. JA: Well, he somehow managed to run into William Cook and John Mahon. BROWN: I think he knew them from the military, or maybe I’m thinking of Lloyd Jacquet. JA: Yes. Lloyd Jacquet was in the military, and I know he was involved early on with the Major’s comic books before he went out on his own and formed his own studio, which was Funnies, Inc. Do you think he knew Jacquet from the service?

L. Eaton.” And there were two hardcover fiction books: one that was published in 1922 called Death in the Corral, and Death over London in 1940. He published four nonfiction books: The Modern Cavalry in 1922, Battle Shield of the Republic in 1940, America Can Win, 1941, and Are We Winning the Hard Way? in 1943. JA: Do you know if any of his stories appeared in any Harry Donenfeld publications, such as his “spicy pulps?” BROWN: The Major was very conservative in some ways, and I don’t think he would have submitted anything to them. He never wrote anything like that. His stories are really PG. It sort-of goes along with that whole code of chivalry, how a soldier behaves kind-of thing. That’s not to say there might be one out there, but so far, I have not discovered it. What I think happened is he had offices, both times, on I think it was 4th Avenue, but it was actually Madison, where a lot of pulps publishers were based. Harry Donenfeld had offices in the same building. Now I don’t know if Harry Donenfeld was actually in that office. He’s quite a character. He had so many companies, all these companies that he played a shell game with. He had a couple of different offices under different publishing names, and one of them was in one of the buildings that the Major had his offices in. I don’t think it was specifically Harry Donenfeld’s office, but it was one of his publishing companies.

“He Was Really Shocked By [Donenfeld & Liebowitz’s] Behavior” JA: So it wouldn’t have been hard for them to get together. BROWN: Well, also, the guy who was running it was supposedly the publisher, but it was actually Donenfeld who was the publisher. The guy who ran it also wrote things for the Major’s first comics. His name was Adolphe Barreaux, who wrote “Sally the Sleuth.” He was an artist/writer featured in the Major’s very first comic book, New Fun #1. He wrote something like a buried tribe sort-of historical-type cartoon for the Major. [laughs] It wasn’t anything like “Sally the Sleuth,” for sure! It was some sort of National Geographic type of thing. And Harry had that company—the magazine was called Spicy Detective—Trojan Publishing, supposedly owned by Adolphe Barreaux. But Gussie Donenfeld, Harry’s wife, was actually listed on the incorporation data. JA: It was an old tax dodge. And if a company got busted for publishing something too salacious, it wouldn’t affect his other publishing ventures.

BROWN: Yes, I do. The other thing to remember is that he knew a lot of ex-service people, and he was very well known in the pulps. I’m pretty sure Jerry Siegel knew who he was from the pulps. JA: Siegel was an avid pulp reader. BROWN: And my grandfather was one of the most prolific pulp writers of his day. I haven’t even found everything that he wrote. JA: Do you have a current tally? BROWN: The earliest story that I’ve found is “The Wolves,” which was published in McClure’s Magazine in August of 1924. So far, my tally is a total 87 pulp novels, novellas, and short stories, and ten serials. They appeared in 27 different magazines, such as Argosy, Adventure, Blue Book, Giant Western, Triple Western, Exciting Westerns. Then McClure’s, which is another pretty well-known magazine, Popular Magazine, Popular Westerns, Short Stories, and Thrilling Adventures. And there are fourteen additional reprints and simultaneous appearances in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and Great Britain. And then there were six under the pseudonym “George

“He Was Going To Go For The Big Idea”

BROWN: Anyway, I think that’s how he knew about it, and that he had plenty of money. I think he held off going to him until there was no other way. Given the way our grandfather was, I’m pretty sure he tried everything but that, because he wouldn’t have totally approved. JA: It would have been nice if, somewhere, the Major had expressed thoughts about his “partners.” BROWN: Well, he had some pretty strong feelings. He did express them to his mother, and I have letters from the two of them during that period when everything went down. It’s pretty clear that he was really shocked by their behavior, and what they did to him. Initially, he was just shocked because he came from such an old school where a gentleman makes an agreement, and you shake hands. He was really almost an anachronism. He was ten years older, at least, than all of those guys who were working for him. He was still going by the old-fashioned ways of doing business, and it was now a new era. I think he had very innovative ideas in terms of his artistic ideas. But in terms of the business and how the business was operating, I think he was still living in sort-of a European kind of old-fashioned concept. From the letters, I really have to say that his initial reaction was just total shock, that people would try to steal your company from you. That’s essentially what it amounted to, because they forced him into bankruptcy. He didn’t agree to it: that’s why it was a big deal, and that’s why part of what’s going on today with the Siegels and the Shusters, and DC Comics, is rooted in that situation. Part of the problem has to do with all those shell games, and the various companies. Basically, it’s just sort of based on nothing, and those Time Warner lawyers have made it into something. JA: Was the Major very concerned about copyrights? BROWN: Some things he copyrighted, and some things he didn’t. By the time all of that happened, I don’t think he could anything about it. They had cornered him, and basically pulled the rug out from under him. JA: Do you have any documents pertaining to this stuff that survive? BROWN: Yes. Right now, I’m going through a bunch of documents with the bankruptcy lawyers, and so that’s why I’m not saying much more, because I’m still figuring all that out.

Sally Was A Good Old Girl “Sally the Sleuth” was one of the earliest pulp-magazine comics-style features, in the pages of Harry Donenfeld’s Spicy Detective Stories. She apparently did most of her detecting in bra and panties, although, according to the website “Don Markstein’s Toonopedia,” she “did flash an occasional breast.” Her predecessor by a year or two was the more famous Jane by Norman Pett in England’s Daily Mirror. The “Sally” artist (and presumed writer) was Adolphe Barreaux, who also drew “The Magic Crystal of History” beginning in 1934’s New Fun #1. Thanks to Don Markstein’s Toonopedia and Ron Frantz. [©2009 the respective copyright holders; “Oswald the Rabbit” © Universal Pictures or their successors in interest.]

I want to emphasize again how incredibly prolific a writer he was. My interest has always been the pulp fiction, because I’m a writer. It’s really clear that [he wrote a lot of stories] right up until 1934, and then it starts up again about 1938. In that middle section, all of this man’s artistic energy went into comics. JA: Do you think that Donenfeld and Liebowitz would have forced him from the company, “Superman” or no “Superman”? BROWN: Definitely. I don’t think they quite realized how big “Superman” was going to be. I think a lot of the mythology that sprung up, like “I

found [‘Superman’] in a slush pile,” came later. I think people made up the mythology afterwards. I think that Whit Ellsworth and Vin Sullivan may have had an idea that “Superman” was going to go over, but I don’t think any of them had a clue that it was going to be as big as it was. JA: You can’t predict that kind of success. Do you know if there’s any truth about him still having some kind of ownership of More Fun until 1947? BROWN: I’ve heard that story. That’s one of the things I’ve been researching, but I can’t find anything that says he owned it. I think that may have to do with copyright issues. He may have had the copyright up

Nicky Wheeler-Nicholson Brown—In Search Of Her Grandfather’s Secrets

BROWN: I think it was a little bit of both. Also, I think he got much more interested in writing nonfiction, because he wrote a lot of magazine articles in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s. He wrote for all these very obscure kinds of intellectual journals, like The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. He wrote some for Harper’s Magazine, and he wrote a couple of articles for Look Magazine. He was writing about politics and the military, he was writing about the Cold War a lot, and he wrote for some what would be considered conservative magazines—sort-of like a William F. Buckley intellectual type of thing. When I was a little kid, my mother showed me a UN publication that he wrote for a lot—I just can’t think of the name of it off the top of my head.

Jerry & Joe & Maybe Lois By the 1980s—their final decade, alas—Joe Shuster (left) and Jerry Siegel could enjoy a mild joke about their joint creation “Superman”—assuming, of course, that this photo from the intriguing website “Dial B for Blog” isn’t primarily a child of PhotoShop. [©2009 the respective copyright holders.] Back in the ’30s, however, before the Man of Tomorrow took his first four-color bow, the pair were churning out stories like this “Dr. Occult” episode from More Fun Comics #9 (March 1936). One character (plus her “duplicate”) that Jerry wrote and Joe drew in this tale is “Mrs. Amster,” as per these panels sent by Dan Makara, who reminds us: “I’ve read that Jerry Siegel’s inspiration for Lois Lane was a classmate named Lois Amster. Note the woman’s name. Ah, the obscure things one finds on the Internet!” Indeed! [©2009 DC Comics.]

JA: Was he living well, say, into the ’40s and the ’50s?

until 1947. But they didn’t do anything with that. They let that magazine go into nowheresville because they didn’t want him to have any money.

JA: Do you think he got anything at the time More Fun was being published? BROWN: I don’t think so. If he did, it was just pennies. One of the stories that I have heard from one of my aunts was that at Christmas a year or two after he lost the company, the Major had to go to Liebowitz’s house in Great Neck. He was begging him for money just to be able to provide Christmas for his children. It was nasty. They were nasty to him, and I don’t think it was so much Donenfeld as it was Liebowitz. JA: Jack Liebowitz was a hard man. He lived to be a hundred, and I don’t think he ever in his life made a decision that wasn’t based on financials. Do you know if the Major got any money that day?

BROWN: The impression I got from my mother was that it was an up-and-down period. They had a nice three-story house in a really nice section of Great Neck, but there were times when they didn’t have any money, and he would write something. The way she always put it to me is that they wouldn’t have any money, and they would eat boiled potatoes. Then he would sell an article, and all of a sudden, there would be money. And if they had it, they shared it with everybody, so everybody would have plenty of wine and whatever. Then it was gone again. She didn’t have a clue about anything like that, my grandmother. Like sometimes, when men are artistic, their wives are really good managers. Well, forget it! She didn’t have a clue. She grew up under rarified circumstances, and just had no idea! You’ve got to hand it to her for having survived that situation. Basically what happened was that my father and Uncle Douglas went into business together. They were on the forefront of the whole corporate office planning type thing, very innovative and very successful. They made big bucks and basically, between the two of them, took care of my grandparents. JA: What was your father’s opinion of his dad? BROWN: He loved his father. He had more of a relationship with him

BROWN: No, he didn’t give him anything. My grandfather was a very proud man, and for him to do that, that should tell you how [bad things were].

“An Up-And-Down Period” JA: Douglas thinks the Major wrote up until the early ’50s. BROWN: The last thing I’ve found was in 1956. What he wrote mainly in the late ’40s and ’50s were Westerns because that was really popular then. So it wasn’t so much the military stuff then, it was more the Westerns, all under his own name. JA: Did the byline read “Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson,” or would the word “Major” be in front? BROWN: I think more in the early days, it was “Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson,” and then in the ’40s, it was just “Malcolm WheelerNicholson.” JA: Did he quit writing because the market was gone, or because of his health?

Guess Who’s Going To Dinner The Major and some of his family dine out, circa the mid-1940s. (Left to right:) Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, Jr.; mother Elsa; Marianne Wheeler-Nicholson, and the Major. Taken at Casino Russe in New York City. Nicky writes: “It may have been a birthday celebration for my grandmother [Elsa]. My father was on Okinawa at the end of the war, so this may have been just after he came back.” [©2009 Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson Estate.]

“He Was Going To Go For The Big Idea”

because he was the eldest son, and he was Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, Junior. He went to Manlius, also, and did very well. As Douglas told you, he was thinking of going into the military. My father was really quite a brilliant man. He really thought very highly of his father. He always spoke very highly about him to me. It’s interesting, in a way, my father really was the catalyst for all of his kids. He was the one who had all a lot of these archival papers, and he gave them to me. He said, “I want to make sure you know who you are.” That’s how I ended up with a lot of things. JA: Do you have any anecdotes about the Major that we can use? BROWN: My Aunt Marianne, who passed away in the 1980s, was the Major’s second daughter. She and my Aunt Toni were really close to their father. Marianne remembered going with him to the Post Office, and collecting envelopes that had quarters in them from children sending in to be members of the Junior Federal Men club. Kids could send in a quarter, and get a pin. They would sit around the kitchen table, and open all these envelopes with quarters in them, and then stick these pins in envelopes, and mail them out. My Aunt Diane really adored [her father], too. She just thought he was fantastic. She remembered going to Cuba on the famous Cuban trip. It turns out that Donenfeld sent my grandfather, my grandmother, and my Auntie Diane— she would have been six at the time—to Cuba, along with Whit Ellsworth and Vin Sullivan in March of 1937. The reason I know that it was March is because I found Vin Sullivan’s and Whit Ellsworth’s names on a ship’s manifest. They were working up ideas for Action Comics. They were there for about a week or so. Whit Ellsworth and Vin Sullivan left without my grandfather and grandmother, who [stayed there for a while]. This was a big largess on the part of Harry Donenfeld. This is when they went into partnership with one another, and this was the grand gesture from Donenfeld to fund them, and to give them a vacation, and a much-needed break. I think that’s when [Donenfeld and Liebowitz] were plotting to take the company over. They did offer him $75,000 to stay on as Creative Director. But he didn’t take it. He discussed it with a family friend that everybody called Uncle Richard. Uncle Richard tried to tell him, “You need to take this money, and stop being so prideful.” But he refused, because he felt like it was his company. When I talked to Michael Uslan, he said that he had heard that figure before, and I think that was a figure that was also offered at one time to Siegel and Shuster. I don’t know if that’s accurate or not, Jim. I don’t have a piece of paper to document it, but I’m just saying that’s one of the stories.

Coming In On A Wing And A Prayer Though a fortune slipped through his own fingers, the Major had provided America’s Depression-era kids with excitement and adventure with such features as “Wing Brady, Soldier of Fortune” in New Fun #1. Thanks to Ron Frantz. [Wing Brady ©2009 DC Comics; Oswald the Rabbit ©2009 Universal Pictures or its successors in interest.]

JA: If they had that much money to give him, he should have been suspicious when it came to bankruptcy. BROWN: That’s exactly the point. They’re not going to send him a letter, saying, “We’re going to offer you $75,000.” They were very, very clever, the way they dealt with everything. Everything was said, nothing was written, and then they forced him into bankruptcy. You see, they offered it to him initially and he said, “No way.” Then they said, “Okay, you don’t want the money, you’re going anyway. Bye bye.” JA: How hard did he fight that bankruptcy? BROWN: He fought it. As I said, I’m working with the bankruptcy

lawyers because some of it, it’s so complicated that I’m trying to make sense of it. I know this is difficult because it puts DC Comics in a very bad position. Donenfeld and Liebowitz did not do DC any favors. Because they didn’t deal fairly with people, they left the people who came after them in a difficult position. It’s not [the current regime’s] fault. I think they’re basically very good people. I think they mean well, and I think they want to do the right thing. But because of the way things got done in the beginning, it’s put them in a difficult situation. So if they acknowledge the Major’s contribution, then they are probably worried they’re going to open themselves up to all kinds of problems. It’s kind-of crazy for them to be all that worried.

Nicky Wheeler-Nicholson Brown—In Search Of Her Grandfather’s Secrets

JA: I don’t think they would be, because this happened so long ago. BROWN: They are definitely worried. There’s been a decided change in the last year. I don’t quite understand it, and I’ll tell you where I think it comes from. I think it comes from the corporate Time Warner legal department. I don’t think it has anything to do with anybody at DC, and I think that just the corporate legal guys are beside themselves, worrying about the bottom line. They have no idea about any of this stuff, about the history of comics, nor do they care. I think that they’re just very nervous that we could start something the same way the Siegels did with copyright issues. I mean, if I had a million dollars right now, hey, I might do that. But I don’t have a million dollars, and I don’t have a hundred years, either. I have to say that the people that I’ve come in contact with at DC have all been just as nice as they can be. I want people to know that.

“If I Make Money, You Make Money”

BROWN: No. Anything else would be silly. We should all be working together. It enhances what their background is, to have this man who’s so interesting and artistic and talented, to have him as one of the founding fathers of DC Comics. So what’s the big deal? I just think it’s silly for there to be any adversity at all. JA: Were you under the impression that there were any shouting matches between the Major and Donenfeld and Liebowitz? BROWN: Oh, I’m absolutely certain there were. I think there were probably quite a few tiffs. Donenfeld had a cold streak, but not so much as Liebowitz did. Donenfeld was more of a [product of his environment], a real tough cookie who was basically looking out for himself. But I don’t think he was as vindictive a person. I think it was just business. “This is the way I do business, and if you’re not smart enough to do business my way, tough!” But with Liebowitz—he comes across almost vindictive, a kind of really cruel thinking.

JA: Correct me if I’m wrong, but my impression is that the only thing you’re looking for is recognition for your grandfather.

JA: Do you know if the Major had any contact with Siegel and Shuster after he left the company?

BROWN: Absolutely.

BROWN: I don’t think so. I suspect that—and this is just a guess on my part from what I’ve read so far—they were, Siegel in particular, looking to do the best he could for himself, as well he should. In late 1937, he was approached by somebody, either Sullivan or Whit Ellsworth, I don’t know who, and I think that [Siegel and Shuster] were told then that the Major was not going to be with the company any more, and that they were going to have to deal with Liebowitz and Donenfeld from here on out. They signed those documents in December of 1937 with DC Comics. That is not the Major, okay, even though he still owned DC Comics. See, this is December of ’37 and January of ’38, when everything came to a head and I think that the Major was into getting Action Comics out— getting “Superman” out. He was focused on that, and I don’t think he was aware of what was about to happen. I think it came as a total shock and I think that somebody went to [Siegel and Shuster], and got them to sign these agreements.

JA: And I’ve not been under the impression that you’ve had anything else in mind.

If you read those legal documents, my grandfather never wrote anything like that in his life, okay? Sheldon Mayer, he was always complaining about him for some reason, was quoted at one point as saying, “Yeah, he had these contracts instead. ‘If I make money, you make money. If I don’t make money, you don’t make money.’” What’s so bad about that? In other words, we’re all in this together. I’m going to do everything I can to see we all make money. That comes from being in the military. “I’m the guy in charge of my platoon. My command, my group of men, and I’m responsible for them. They need to be well taken care of.” JA: The contracts you’re talking about with Siegel pertain to what? BROWN: Those are the contracts that are in the lawsuit right now that have to do with Work for Hire. That was the first time that they signed anything like that. They didn’t sign anything like that with my grandfather. They were working with him way before that. They were doing “Slam Bradley,” “Doctor Occult,” among other things. JA: Are you saying that Siegel and Shuster had some awareness of what was going to happen, but they didn’t tell the Major? BROWN: Yes, because it was not in their interests. It was not in anybody’s interests to tell him anything. Clearly, he was going to be the fall guy. He was going down, and I think everybody was aware of it. Unfortunately, because he was not in the office every day, he wasn’t picking up on all of that.

Don’t Make A Federal Case Out Of It! Before “Superman,” Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster kept busy with such National Allied features as “Dr. Occult,” “Henri Duval,” “Spy,” “Radio Squad,” “Slam Bradley”—and “Federal Men,” as per this high-flying page from New Comics #3 (Feb. 1936). Thanks to Greg Huneryager. [©2009 DC Comics.]

JA: Do you think if the Major had managed to keep the company, he would have shared the copyright with Siegel and Shuster? BROWN: Absolutely. He would have absolutely done that.

“He Was Going To Go For The Big Idea”

In The Air—And On The Air! (Above:) The origin of Superman was related in the first two weeks of the newspaper strip, as seen by these bookending dailies from Jan. 16 & Jan. 28, 1939. Script by Jerry Siegel; art by Joe Shuster. (Left:) This ad for the Adventures of Superman radio series appeared in, among other places, Superman #19 (Nov.-Dec. 1942). The Mutual Broadcasting version hit the airwaves in Feb. 1940, though there had already been an earlier version around the turn of 1939. Thanks to Bob Cherry. [©2009 DC Comics.]

knowing what was going on, but he was only out of it to the extent that he didn’t realize the kind of people he was dealing with. But in terms of what was going on with the material and the people, he was very well aware that [Siegel and Shuster] had good ideas. He wanted to promote them, and he was suggesting “this is what you need to do.” JA: If the Major had kept control of the company, “Superman” would have been in Action Comics #1, correct? BROWN: Right, that was the idea. That was the idea all along. JA: Why do you think the Major would have shared more freely with Siegel and Shuster than Donenfeld and Liebowitz?

JA: In what correspondence you have, is there correspondence before the Major loses the company, with him talking about “Superman”?

BROWN: Because that’s just the type of person he was. It just wouldn’t have occurred to him. Well, there’s that letter everybody touts all the time. It’s very revealing if you actually know him as a person, the letter where he says, “I think you’d do better to wait for syndication,” that everybody touts as him being an idiot. When you actually know the man, when you read that letter, what you see what he’s saying to them is, “You’ll make more money if you do this.”

BROWN: Yes. [With Jerry Siegel.]

JA: I think the comic book didn’t propel “Superman” into the public consciousness as much as the radio show and the newspaper strips did. It would have been no hard thing for the Major to get “Superman” into the newspapers. It could have still happened similarly to the way it did because the newspaper strips were read by adults as well as kids. BROWN: That’s what he thought was the most important thing to do originally. People have portrayed the Major as being out of it and not

“In Our Family—It’s Like A Curse” JA: The Major’s children: I’d like to have the birth years, and the death years of the ones who are gone. BROWN: Antoinette was born February 20th, 1921. Marianne was born July 4th, 1923, and she died in 1985. My father [Malcolm] was born in November, 1927, and he died in 2003. Douglas was born in February of 1928. Diane was born in March of 1931, and she died in 2006. In the last years of her life, she was really pushing me to get a lot of this stuff done. JA: Why do you feel the older generation didn’t do anything before now? BROWN: My sense of things is that along with the pride in him is also the sense of, “Oh, my God! He lost DC Comics and Superman!!!” [laughs]

Nicky Wheeler-Nicholson Brown—In Search Of Her Grandfather’s Secrets

The Major’s Four-Color Legacy Along with “Superman,” the entire tradition of super-heroes flows from Major WheelerNicholson’s venture into comics publishing. National/DC alone, in the next few years, would spawn some of the best-known and most important of the genre, as illustrated here by (clockwise from above left): “Hawkman” and “Batman”—in a drawing by self-caricatured artist Sheldon Moldoff, who drew the former from Flash Comics #4 till 1944; he was also one of Bob Kane’s first assistants on “Batman,” and ghosted the feature during the 1950s and ’60s. Thanks to “Shelly” for the letterhead drawing. “The Flash”—co-created by writer Gardner Fox and drawn in Flash Comics #25 (Jan. 1942) by the series’ main 1940s artist, E.E. Hibbard (reportedly with Hal Sharp inks). Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert. “Green Lantern”—created by artist Mart Nodell (with “Batman” co-creator and writer Bill Finger). This commission drawing was done for collector Phil Latter in 1986. “Green Arrow” and “Aquaman”—written by Mort Weisinger and drawn, respectively, by George Papp and Paul Norris, these two DC-proper heroes were both introduced in More Fun Comics #73 (Nov. 1941) and have been continuously in print ever since. These panels from their first tales were reprinted in the Millennium Edition of that landmark issue. “Wonder Woman”—this creation of psychologist William Moulton Marston and artist H.G. Peter was the most famous of the four characters shown on this page who were conceived for M.C. Gaines’ All-American Comics line between 1939 and 1941. Only “Superman,” “Batman,” “Green Arrow,” and “Aquaman” originally appeared in National/DC proper; but AA was closely affiliated with DC from the outset, and in 1945 Donenfeld and Liebowitz purchased the company lock, stock, and bullets-andbracelets. This pair of unpublished, unballooned panels, retrieved from the Heritage Comics Archives by Dominic Bongo, is from the never-published 1942 story “Queen Hepzibah’s Revenge.” See A/E #23 for more of it. [Hawkman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Aquaman, & Wonder Woman TM & ©2009 DC Comics; Moldoff caricature ©2009 Sheldon Moldoff.]

“He Was Going To Go For The Big Idea”

The Beat Goes On… (Right:) According to Wikipedia, Dana Wheeler-Nicholson, the Major’s granddaughter, has been featured in such movies as Fletch (with Chevy Chase, 1985), Tombstone (1993),and Fast Food Nation (2005), and for roles on such TV series as Seinfeld, Law and Order, Sex and the City, and Friday Night Lights. [Still ©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

There’s a lot of shame attached to that. So in our family, there’s this sense of it‘s like a curse, and that’s how people refer to it, but not the way that people in the comics world refer to “The Curse of Superman.” JA: How is actress Dana Wheeler-Nicholson related to the family? BROWN: She’s Douglas’ daughter. My cousin Charlotte is an awardwinning architect. And my cousin Diane Harley, Aunt Toni’s youngest daughter, is a very well-known professor at UC Berkeley, and her brother is an international banker of some note. There are two lawyers in the family; there are some people who have done a lot in their lives.

JA: So they didn’t want to publicize what they might perceive as a failure of losing DC Comics? BROWN: Right. I don’t think it’s that they didn’t want to publicize it, I just think that people have very divided feelings about it. How do you talk about this without talking about the fact that [the Major] did lose it? How do you mythologize someone who has had that kind of huge failure? JA: Well, I’ll say this: George Washington lost more battles than he won in the Revolutionary War. But when it counted, he did win. If you look at a lot of famous people, you’ll find things like that. BROWN: Yeah, and I think that’s because my grandfather was not afraid to reach out for something. His whole life was like that. I don’t think he had any shame about it at all. Like all creative people, he was a complex character who had a lot of really good ideas. He was a visionary, and he deserves to be remembered in that way.

Button, Button—Who’s Got The Button? But first and foremost of all comics super-heroes was Superman—who not only outlasted nearly all his Golden Age comic book colleagues, but most of his comic strip contemporaries, as well! In this full-page ad for Kellogg’s Pep that appeared in DC issues on sale in spring of 1946, the Man of Steel is shown doing a juggling act with most of the other 17 “comic buttons” that came in packages of the breakfast cereal. Of the other characters, only those from Blondie and Popeye (and Junior Tracy of Dick Tracy) can still be read in the morning newspaper—but not, for some years now, over a nice milkfull bowl of Pep. [Superman TM & ©2009 DC Comics; other characters TM & ©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

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Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson: The Visionary Who Founded DC Comics Part IV 51

“The Old Beezer” Conversations With ANTOINETTE WHEELER-NICHOLSON HARLEY About Her Legendary Father Conducted & Transcribed by Nicky Wheeler-Nicholson Brown

NTERVIEWER’S NOTE: I began seriously researching the facts about my grandfather’s intriguing story around 1998. Besides archival research, I have interviewed various relatives, especially the children of the Major and his wife Elsa. The following comments from the Major’s eldest daughter Antoinette are distilled from various interviews which took place between 2001 and as recently as April of this year. Douglas Wheeler-Nicholson, the younger of the Major’s two sons (and my uncle), was present at all but one of the sessions, and asked a few questions, as well. In 2001 Aunt Toni read Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay, and although it is a fictional account of the Siegel and Shuster story, there was enough factual information that caused her to reconsider her father’s story and his connection with Superman. Independently of my own research, she also did some research, including talking to comics historians and to Paul Levitz, the current president of DC Comics. —Nicky.

“For Many Years… I Couldn’t Even Look At A Comic” ANTOINETTE WHEELER-NICHOLSON HARLEY: You know, whatever information one can glean from the web or anything else is divided into the party line, which are some murky references to the old Beezer [the Major], but just cut off at various stages. DOUGLAS WHEELER-NICHOLSON: Is this a new interest of yours? HARLEY: No, I’ll tell you what triggered it. For many years, as you know, I was so turned off, I couldn’t even look at a comic. Never. I just couldn’t stand it. I remember a garage that we had in one of the houses we lived in that was stacked with “Superman” comics, a garage full of the first printings of “Superman” which [Harry] Donenfeld had said weren’t selling. You know, this business of trying to cut the old Beezer [Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson] out of the action before “Superman” emerged is just a lot of baloney. He was there. He was the one that published that originally. And they have absolutely wiped that out. I’m looking at [this] as kind-of setting-the-record-straight department. To be very blunt about it—I don’t like unfair things. The old Beezer had his warts, God knows, but he didn’t deserve this. He had a lot of guts. I remember him putting that thing [the comics] together,

The Kids Are All Right A circa-1935 pic of three of the Major’s children: Antoinette, Malcolm Jr. (in foreground), and Douglas. “When this photo was taken,” Nicky writes, “Aunt Toni was probably around 14-15, with my father 8 or 9 and Douglas 7 or 8. Antoinette as the oldest child was very close to her father and carried the brunt of much of the difficulties of that time in order to spare the younger children.” Thanks to Nicky Brown for the photo. [©2009 Major Malcolm WheelerNicholson Estate.] As Antoinette states in this interview, for some years after her father lost National/DC to Donenfeld and Liebowitz she “couldn’t even look at a comic”—but now that she has regained her equilibrium, we hope she won’t mind us running below this late-’40s publicity shot of Kirk Alyn, who portrayed Siegel & Shuster’s hero in both Columbia movie serials, perusing a copy of Superman #51 (March-April 1948). With thanks to Jim Korkis. [Superman TM & ©2009 DC Comics.]

Conversations With Antoinette Wheeler-Nicholson Harley About Her Legendary Father

Say It Ain’t So, Joe (Left:) For some years, from the late 1940s through the end of the ’70s, when they finally reached a settlement with DC Comics with the help of Neal Adams and Jerry Robinson, original “Superman” writer-&-artist team Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster doubtless felt the same way toward images of their hero as Antoniette did. Still, it would seem that, even in 1960, Joe sketched the head of the Man of Steel on this envelope. Wish we were certain who sent us this scan. [Superman TM & ©2009 DC Comics.] (Below:) This iconic panel, first printed in Action Comics #1, was probably seen by Antoinette in the form of the original comic strip dailies, months before they were published. Repro’d from the book Superman from the 30’s to the 70s. [©2009 DC Comics.]

and freezing in the wintertime. The old Beezer owed them [Donenfeld and Liebowitz] money for the printing and the distribution. He did not ever investigate what the actual sales were of the comic books. That’s another huge mistake he made. It takes a lot of hubris just to ignore things like that, and not size up the people you are dealing with. You know what I mean? NICKY BROWN: Do you remember anything about Nick [the Major] being offered a buyout [by Donenfeld and Liebowitz]? HARLEY: I think so. That sounds familiar. One of the things I do remember was that Custer Livermore was a neighbor [who] got involved with DC Comics. [Donenfeld and Liebowitz] got hold of him. I think they were trying to buy him [MWN] out, and Custer explained to my father that the way they had rigged it up, there was just no way he could hold on to it. [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: As related in detail on p. 27.] NB: He was forced into bankruptcy. He didn’t voluntarily go into it. HARLEY: From what you have gathered so far, you could make a case for grand collusion. But that is not going to help anything. Who needs it? I think the track you’re on is absolutely correct. It’s a fascinating story. NB: Do you remember seeing the cartoons [i.e., sample comic strip dailies] of Superman before it came out? HARLEY: Probably. But what I do remember is my father discussing the Superman concept. I graduated from high school in 1939, so I must have been about 15 or 16. I remember my father discussing literature. He was very interested in my education, especially Shakespeare. I remember very early on in the cartoons that he thought of the concept of Superman in the comics as the figure of a hero type. He was very clear on that, and I remember seeing the illustrations. They probably were at the house, but it was early on. I think they were done on artist’s paper. They weren’t in published magazine form. I remember there was nothing [else] like it, and he also came up with the idea of the [modern comic book]. He not only came up with the idea, but he turned it into form.

“The Powers-That-Be… Decided That They’d Better Shut Him Up” DWN: Do you remember anything about the stories about how mother and the old man met in Paris? HARLEY: It was terribly romantic. She was there because her father had died, and there was some money released, I gather. And he was pretty authoritarian, I gather. And so they all went crazy [with the money], Uncle Oscar being the chief one. Parties, champagne, parties at the opera... [all kinds of activities]. Mother broke loose, and was studying Oriental Art at the Sorbonne. Who introduced mother and father? I have no idea. That would be a fascinating story all on its own. Because she was supposed to be protected, you know. They met, and he pursued her madly, and proposed to her in the Eiffel Tower. Wouldn’t let her down for lunch or something till she said “Yes,” which she did, unfortunately. [laughs] Or as the case may be, hooray. She went back to Stockholm to have me. It was 1921, 18th of February, in the middle of a blinding blizzard. We stayed there in her very lavish home until my father—who had been sent back to the States—and his mother Antoinette came over six months after I was born. They took us all back to Camp Dix, New Jersey, which was a horrible place. Mother always ascribed that sojourn there to her neuralgia problem. Their accommodations were horrible, and the winds would howl through. Even allowing for some exaggeration, it sounded pretty grim. The old Beezer at that point had decided that he was going to take on the Army, and admonish them for their bad system, which was not advancing people by merit rather than seniority. However you don’t do that while you’re in the Army. [So] he was court-martialed for insubordination.

“The Old Beezer”

DWN: Of course, he could have stayed in and fought his way back up, but he just…

Roosevelt, and she tried like the dickens to get him in [West Point], but he couldn’t, so he ended up at Manlius.

HARLEY: He chose not to. You gotta hand it to him for standing up. Let me just tell you one more thing. He was shot through the head. The powers-that-be were so alarmed and threatened by the idea of having a merit system introduced, that they decided that they’d better shut him up. They tried to. And I remember very well, several years later, this bullet emerging out from his back. It had traveled all over, and there was this big abscess and the damned bullet came out. It had traveled from his temple…

DWN: But [after the Army] he was generating enough to at least get into this and to get all of us to France.

DWN: Right down the spine. Right down and out his back.

HARLEY: Oh yes, he was making money. I remember sitting, listening to him dictating to his secretary. He worked several hours a day on that, and then he’d take [Marianne] and me, and say, “Well, come on, kids, let’s go to the Left Bank and look at the freaks.” And we’d have our little grenadine and fizzy water, and he’d have his wine or whatever he was drinking. And we’d sit there and it was a lot of fun. DWN: What did the household consist of at the Chateau?

HARLEY: It’s unbelievable. NB: Do you know how he got to Manlius?

“I Remember The Old Beezer Giving Me Advice” HARLEY: He wanted to get into the Army, and West Point, but he couldn’t do it because of his left eye. He failed the physical exam, so he went into Manlius. His mother tried to get him in by writing to [Teddy]

HARLEY: Fourteen servants. Jean and Augustine were the factotums. The general, the maitre d’ or whatever, and Jeannine was the housekeeper. It was a huge place, complete with rats all over the basement, which is where the cooking facilities were, too. [Marianne] and me would have breakfast in bed, and they would give us these big hunks of French bread and chocolate. Hot chocolate for breakfast. And we didn’t like that particularly. We drank the hot chocolate, but we stuffed all the bread in nooks and crannies, which attracted rats and things. And nobody paid any attention to us. We had one Danish governess who was what you would

Sign Up For Adventure For the decade or so after he left the Army, the Major made a good living writing for top pulp magazines like Argosy and Adventure. Thanks to Dave Armstrong for these scans of the covers of the Jan. 1 & Feb. 1, 1932, issues of Adventure. [©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

Conversations With Antoinette Wheeler-Nicholson Harley About Her Legendary Father

something like that. After that, we lived in Great Neck, where I graduated from high school in 1939. A polio epidemic hit, and the old Beezer and Mother decided to get out of the city, figuring it would be less of a chance of our getting polio. NB: What kind of personal memories do you have of him? HARLEY: I remember the old Beezer giving me advice about reading and about religion. I think if he had a favorite religion, it was Buddhism. There are few people who have faith, you know, and usually they’re very good people. The old Beezer said the thing to read was the history of religion, and that everything in history would fall into place if you examined the religions of the various factions. It was the first politics, that’s what it was, with the priest figurehead. You could really stun the natives with a nice… You could keep everybody in line. He was very witty and erudite, but not in a preachy way. I think of the fact that he always listened to the Metropolitan Opera on Saturdays. I think of him reading. He said if I read nothing but Shakespeare and Dickens, that I would encounter every person that I bumped into in my lifetime. They produced such prototypes of humanity. It was pretty heady stuff. He treated me as an adult. We had a very nice relationship. NB: He seems to have been very loving towards you and Marianne. HARLEY: Oh yes. I think that he became tangled up with so many things after the comic book business. I think the other [children] suffered neglect because he was so terribly busy fighting trying to make a living, and to survive. I was very fortunate. I think each child has their own relationship with a parent, and I was lucky that I was the firstborn.

Man Of Tomorrow On The March Superman, an important part of the Major’s inheritance to the world, was from the start an influence for good—as per this public service ad from 1943-44 DC Comics. [©2009 DC Comics.]

call a big woman. When she hit a chair, she’d stick her leg out and you hoped you weren’t going to be under her, because you would be demolished. I’m trying to figure out when we were in Europe. It was in the ’30s at some point when we scuttled out of Europe. I do have a passport which has [the] date on it. Where I was in charge of getting you [the other 3 children] across the Atlantic. There were the four of us children. Diane wasn’t even in the picture at that point. So we moved back [to America], and I believe we moved to Gramercy Park. I was probably 11 years old. NB: Do you know why they came back from France? HARLEY: Everything dried up. The Depression really hit us because they couldn’t afford to live there. And they got out, and sent me with my father’s secretary, Murray. There were several stops between Gramercy Park and Great Neck. I have a recollection of us being in Tenafly, New Jersey, for some reason or other when he started trying to pull the Superman thing together. One place we lived was in Westport, Connecticut, where we froze because we didn’t have any fuel in the wintertime. We were really poor then, I mean really. I remember going to school in a summer dress, and some hand-me-downs. That was not fun. I was probably in junior high or

Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson: The Visionary Who Founded DC Comics

Part V 55

Beaver Hats! Hobo Disguises! Naked Women On Horseback! Late Legendary Artist CREIG FLESSEL Discusses The Early Days of Comic Books With The Grandson Of One Of Its Founding Pioneers

Interview Conducted & Transcribed by Ian Wheeler-Nicholson

NTERVIEWER’S INTRO: In December 2007 I had the opportunity to sit down with fabled comic book illustrator Creig Flessel (1912-2008), one of the first artists hired by my grandfather, Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson [1890-1965], to work on his new comic book, New Fun, in 1935. New Fun was published by Wheeler-Nicholson’s National Allied Publications, the company that would one day become DC Comics, though my family has no connection to the company today—which is part of what I wanted to talk to Creig about. Creig was 95 when we sat down to talk, and still drawing actively. He showed me around the California home he shared with Marie, his wife of more than 70 years. On the desk and shelves of his cluttered office, reams of drawings from many decades were literally spilling over one another. He was cheerful and energetic and filled with happy memories of the early days of the comic book era, which he graciously agreed to share with me and a tape recorder. This interview meant a lot to me and my family. Over the years, my grandfather’s reputation has been persistently shadowed by rumors of questionable financial dealings, which purportedly led to his loss of control of the company he had founded to his co-publishers, Harry Donenfeld and Jack Liebowitz. Donenfeld and Liebowitz took total control of the company in 1938, shortly before it had its first real success with Action Comics #1, featuring the debut of Superman—a character created by two more of Wheeler-Nicholson’s hires, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. My grandfather (known as “the Major” for the rank he had held in the US Cavalry during the First World War) went back to what he had been doing before, supporting his family as a writer of fantastic stories, many of which were published in such pulp magazines as Black Mask and Argosy.

Caught In The (Creative) Act! Creig Flessel in a 1992 photo/self-caricature combo put together for an interview conducted by Charlie Roberts for Comic Book Marketplace #15 (July ’92)—flanked by two examples of Creig’s artwork. At left is the cover of Detective Comics #15 (May 1938), one of many he did for the early National/DC; above is a ’92 pencil sketch of Sandman done for collector Bruce Mason. The Sandman, of course, was a DC “latecomer,” not debuting till 1939—the artistic creation of Bert Christman (probably with writer Gardner Fox); Creig took it over in 1941, when Christman left for what turned out to be a fatal tour of combat with Chennault’s Flying Tigers in China. For full coverage of both Flessel and Christman, pick up a copy of Alter Ego #45. [CBM art ©2009 Estate of Creig Flessel; cover ©2009 DC Comics; Sandman TM & ©2009 DC Comics.]

Creig Flessel Discusses The Early Days Of Comic Books With The Grandson Of One Of Its Founding Pioneers

It’s true that National Allied Publications as a company had its shares of ups and downs during my grandfather’s tenure as founderowner. As Creig says below, sometimes people didn’t get paid. But, as he goes on to say, it was something they were all prepared for. My family and I believe that my grandfather’s financial problems as owner of National Allied were the troubles of a man who put himself on a limb to create a new and untested medium in the middle of what is still so far the worst financial collapse in American history. We believe that he was, as the man said, “not a crook.” I was pleased to find that Creig, for his part, agreed with me.] Sadly, Creig Flessel passed away in July 2008, at the estimable age of 96. I am honored to have had this chance to speak to a man who was so obviously happy because he had spent his life doing what he loved most: drawing.

“The Major Offered Me A Job In 1935” IAN WHEELER-NICHOLSON: How did you get into drawing comics? CREIG FLESSEL: In 1930 I went to the Grand Central Art School. And I had to support myself, so I worked for the school. In the first year I was a janitor, a hall monitor, and a bouncer. [laughs] Well, not a real bouncer. The school was actually in Grand Central Station. So if you were a businessman and you had business in New York, you came in from Westchester in the morning. In those days there were only two trains a day, in and out. So the next train back wasn’t until 5, so what are you going to do for the rest of the day? So they figured out that if you went to Track 17 and took the elevator to the 7th floor, there was an art school up there, so all the businessmen would go there to watch the nude models. After a while there were more of them than students! [laughs] So by the time I got there in 1930, the lady who was running that place said, “We need somebody to monitor these people, to see who’s coming in

and who’s coming out.” So I got the job, and businessmen would come in, and I’d say, “Are you a student?” They’d say, “No!” So they used to call me the bouncer. Which was ridiculous, because I was 6 feet tall and only 150 pounds. You could have blown me away! I couldn’t keep anybody out. But I worked as a hall monitor and later a class monitor, and so I got an education. Two years after that, I was out working for the pulps, making the rounds. IWN: So you came to work for my grandfather. FLESSEL: Yes, the Major offered me a job in 1935 drawing covers and stories for More Fun. IWN: I’ve always been curious what the offices were actually like in those days. FLESSEL: Well, we were on the fourth floor of the Holland Hotel on 28th Street. The offices were very bare. They were not a place where you would entertain somebody with money. You took them down to the corner saloon. There was nothing. IWN: Was it just one big room crowded with desks and drawing boards? FLESSEL: No, there were different rooms. There was a reception room, and then there was the editing room, with a big table in the middle, and I remember a moth-eaten leather couch, a great big couch where everybody sat when they weren’t working on something, smoking. Everybody was always sitting on that couch, smoking all around me, and I was a nonsmoker! [NOTE: See Creig’s 1990s cartoon on p. 20.] And of course the magazines weren’t selling that great, so you had to climb over the magazines. They would bring back these sacks of unsold magazines. They’d come back from the newsstands and just throw them on the floor somewhere, so you’d have to climb over unsold old magazines to get to your desk. Vin Sullivan and Whitney Ellsworth were in and out. Vin did most of the pasteup, and Whitney did the editing. Vin was editing, too. IWN: What exactly was your job there? FLESSEL: I would illustrate the stories that Vin and Whit would write, and I did all the covers. They’d just say, “We need a cover,” and there were no guidelines. Generally, I’d do covers based around the time of year, or what was happening in the news, or something I had just read. Or whoever’s work I was swiping that week! [laughs] I pretty much had free rein. I created the character of Steve Conrad, and Hanko the Cowhand, and Cutt Morgan. IWN: So the Major wasn’t leaning over your shoulder guiding your steps or anything like that?

Hey, Kids—Adventure Comics! Reportedly, Flessel’s first cover for New Adventure Comics was #15 (May 1937), at a time when the covers still spotlighted kids in light-hearted action that was often a parody of adult adventure scenes. With #23 (Jan. ’38) the Major and/or his editors must’ve seen the light, because from that point on the covers featured adults in peril (often from wild beasts), until The Sandman arrived on that of #40—also drawn by Creig. [©2009 DC Comics.]

FLESSEL: No, no. He couldn’t afford to insult anybody at that time! [laughs] Nobody knew what comics were going to be, you know. It was such a new medium that who could say what was right and what was wrong? You had magazines, and you

Beaver Hats! Hobo Disguises! Naked Women On Horseback!

had the pulps, and you could print pretty much whatever you wanted as long as it was legible. But this was a new idea.

FLESSEL: “Superman.” That was it. But not until the wartime. Then the full magazines of comics took off. [Jerry] Siegel and [Joe] Shuster had made the mistake of trying to sell the “Superman” idea to the newspapers first, but no one wanted it, no one had heard of it, and they weren’t interested. The Major, to his credit, believed in it and gave them a chance. I used to see Siegel and Shuster come in and get other ideas rejected before, but two years later they were the hottest thing on the press. They knew it was a great idea and they kept selling it.

IWN: How many different books were you doing each month? Was it just the one, or was it a couple? FLESSEL: It was just the one, but I was mixing that up with trying to get into advertising at the same time, and I was still doing pulps, so I’d do whatever had to be done. I mean, if they needed a Hanko the Cowhand cover, I would do that. I brought my own drawing board, my own drawing table, and I sat there in the office instead of doing it at home, because I knew the money was scarce, and if there was any money and I was there, they had to pay me. So I got paid first!

IWN: They really pushed for it. Did they go everywhere together? FLESSEL: They always worked together. They were like a team. Jerry Siegel was usually the one who would bring the ideas in. I got to know them because I was there in the office.

IWN: Very smart. FLESSEL: Well, I had a wife to support. A wife who was working at the time, making $25 a week. In 1935, ’36, ’37, that was big money. But I sat there and worked, so I saw everybody, the artists coming and going and delivering their work. A lot of them didn’t get paid. Eventually a lot of them did, but I remember meeting Freddie Guardineer 20 years later, and he always kept his books very carefully, and he’d say, “Look at that story. Gee, you know, I never got paid on that.”

IWN: So there was just no money at all?

Leave It To—The Fedora!? The Major in one of his fedora hats... in a pic taken in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1948 by Finn Andreen, a cousin of Douglas and Malcolm, Jr. Over the years, Creig Flessel described the Major as wearing a “beaver hat”—while his son Douglas insists (see p. 25) that he owned no such hat, but only fedoras—though one of them might have looked to Creig as if it were made of beaver fur. Flessel's classic 1990s drawing of the Major in a hat appears on p. 20, but so far as we can tell Creig referred to it as a “fedora,” so perhaps it's not meant to be the “beaver hat.” We pledge not to rest till we solve this mystery of history! Thanks to Nicky Brown for sending the photo. [©2009 Finn Andreen.]

It was just $5 for a page, but I got $10 a cover. They’d look at me and say, “What did you do?” And I said, “Well, I did five covers this month.” “Oh, so that means you get $50? You’re gonna break us!” But I’d get the $50. And that was all right, because we were paying $35 a month for our apartment then! IWN: Right. Yeah, rents have gone up a little since then.

FLESSEL: A little bit! [laughs] That’s why I wanted to switch to advertising. The first advertising job I did, I got $300 a page! I couldn’t believe it.

“Shenanigans” IWN: You said they brought back stacks of unsold magazines. The company was in trouble from the beginning? FLESSEL: There was no money. There were always guys hanging around trying to serve the Major with notices. Whenever he’d leave, the Major would go out, peek in the hall, get in the freight elevator, and go out the back way, north on 28th Street, because the process servers would be waiting down in the lobby. And we’d say, “Well, he got away today!” [laughs] But many times when he went out the front door, they would nab him because process servers had all sorts of disguises, you know. They looked like delivery boys, they looked like hobos, but they’d serve him. It wasn’t his fault. No one was buying the magazines. Until the war came and you could sell them to the GIs overseas. At a nickel or 10¢ apiece, you couldn’t go wrong. And the GIs loved them. IWN: Was that because the soldiers loved the “Superman” stories?

FLESSEL: I knew there was money coming from [publishers] Harry Donenfeld and Jack Liebowitz uptown, and it didn’t concern me. I’m a country boy. I didn’t know anything about the shenanigans that were going on with those two. It’s a shame somebody didn’t get to Vin Sullivan before he died and get the real story, but he carried it all with him to the grave. Donenfeld and Liebowitz started out by publishing girlie magazines, did you know that? IWN: Yes, that was their original business, right?

FLESSEL: That’s right, and they had learned their lessons about publishing and they wanted to make their business legitimate, so they latched onto the comic books. And in 1935 they met the Major and Bill Cook—have you heard of him? And they were the perfect guys, so they all went into business together. I don’t remember Will Eisner being there at all. Eisner and Iger get the credit for the early comic books, but New Fun was a bigger edition, bigger than regular comic books, you know—what do you call that? IWN: Tabloid size? FLESSEL: Yeah. Before New Fun, all there was were the reprints where they’d cannibalize the funny pages from the paper and reprint them as a book. IWN: So what was my grandfather’s role? FLESSEL: He was always out, scouting out money. But he was the idea man, too, so artists would come in looking for him and I’d say, “Well, the Major’s not in,” and Whit or Vin would take over. The Major stayed out of sight most of the time. He was a very quiet man. He was a creative person. He wasn’t a businessman. And he didn’t have a dime. He liked to dress well, but his clothes were all ten years old and threadbare. He always wore this beaver hat and this moth-eaten coat, and he had a small attaché case he always carried with him. And we finally looked in it one day, and it was just a couple of the things that the process server had given him. No copy. He was supposed to have a story written up in there. I remember your father coming in once as a kid. Came in with his mother and little sister. I remember the Major’s wife was very charming, and the kids were well dressed, polite.

Creig Flessel Discusses The Early Days Of Comic Books With The Grandson Of One Of Its Founding Pioneers

Supermen—From The 30’s To The 2000’s (Left:) Creig was still drawing—and drawing well—at age 93, a couple of years back, as witnessed by this color sketch he did for Belgian collector Dominique Leonard. [©2009 Estate of Creig Flessel.] (Above:) Here’s Creig at a comics convention about a decade ago, flanked by a couple of the “new kids on the block”—or at least, they had been in 1938! Sheldon Moldoff (on left) and Fred Guardineer (right) both made their debuts in Action Comics #1—Shelly on a sports page on an inside cover, Guardineer writing and drawing the initial tale of “Zatara the Master Magician.” Thanks to David Siegel for the photo.

FLESSEL: Everybody was struggling. We didn’t go into it expecting it to make money. You had to do it because you loved it. We had no idea if this thing would still be around in a year. But that was the risk we all took. We knew it was an untried thing. And it was the Depression. Come on! Nobody had any money! IWN: Did my grandfather seem nervous, or was he pretending everything was OK? IWN: Did he have his own office in the place, or was it more casual? FLESSEL: He had his own office, but I never went in there more than once or twice. He was a formal guy. Polite, but formal. I was just a kid, and he seemed much older than me. Well, he was from another generation. He had been in the First World War, and all that. And I had just started working with the Major when I left to get married. He had his secretary—he could afford a secretary for a while—get us a silver bowl, as a wedding present. IWN: That’s nice. FLESSEL: He was very sentimental.

“[The Major] Wasn’t A Crook” IWN: I want you to know how much I appreciate your speaking with me. It’s nice to meet somebody who has fond recollections.

FLESSEL: Well, he put on a good front, and he was always polite, very polite. And he was a ladies’ man, and he’d kiss their hands, and so forth. I remember once, there was a new show called Lady Godiva on Fifth Avenue, and it had a girl who rode a horse nude on stage. So we thought it would be great to draw this girl nude on her horse, so we wanted to get her to pose for us on horseback. So the Major knew all the agents and so forth, so we all walked over to the show to try to get the girl to pose for us. And in the club there was this big veil in front of the stage, and the girls would be dancing nude on stage but you couldn’t quite see them through the veil from the audience. But we went backstage, and the Major talked to the girl’s agent, and she said she didn’t mind taking her clothes off and posing for us artists, but she refused to do it if the old man was there—the old man was the Major, and he wasn’t that old, but he seemed old. We were all young guys in our twenties and she said she didn’t mind posing for us, but she didn’t want to pose for the old man. And he was indignant. [laughs]

FLESSEL: Oh, he was a lovable guy. But it was stacked against him. You knew right from the beginning, it wasn’t going to work. But he wasn’t a crook. He never stole anyone’s paycheck on purpose. I’m not saying he was the best businessman, but he never ripped off anybody that I know of. I mean, sometimes we didn’t get paid, but if he didn’t pay us it was because there wasn’t any money. IWN: They were hard times for everybody. I suppose he and his wife were not the only ones having a hard time making ends meet in those days.

Ian Wheeler-Nicholson is a freelance writer and editor and lives in Brooklyn, New York. For more about Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson and his role in the early days of comic books, see the family website majormalcolmwheelernicholson.com

Ian WheelerNicholson

“Cartoonists Are Like Kids” An Interview With Mrs. EILEEN MORTIMER, Widow Of Golden Age DC Artist WINSLOW MORTIMER

by Eddy Zeno

NTERVIEWER’S INTRO: The following conversation was conducted by phone on Sept. 21, 2006; quotations from a follow-up letter from Mrs. Mortimer in spring of 2007 have been edited into the text, to provide additional information. EDDY ZENO: Please tell us about your husband.

EILEEN MORTIMER: Win was born May 1, 1919. He always wanted to draw— cartooning was his life. While first trying to break into the business, he didn’t want to go back home till he was successful. When he sold something to The Saturday Evening Post—that’s when he went home to tell his mother. [chuckles] EZ: Did Win paint?

A Win-Win Situation Win Mortimer seems to be contemplating a 1997 re-creation he’d done of his cover for Detective Comics #120 (Feb. 1947). The photo was supplied variously by Eddy Zeno, David Siegel, and Charlie Roberts; the art scan was sent by Dan Makara, who both commissioned and (later) colored the piece. [Batman TM & ©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

MORTIMER: No, Win didn’t paint, but his father did. His father was head of a poster department and was a color expert. He also did watercolors and cartooning. He worked for Howell Lithography in Canada. EZ: When did you and Win meet?

MORTIMER: We met in 1941. I started in Canada and so did Win. We were married in July 1942. His mother died the day before we were married. She’d been ill for a long time. [Later] Win was going to the Art Students League [in New York] and had other commitments. He studied under George Bridgman. Stan Drake [creator and long-time artist of the newspaper comic strip for The Heart of Juliet Jones] went to the Art Students League when Win went. They were good friends. He died the year before Win. EZ: How did your husband get a job with the company which later became DC Comics? MORTIMER: Win had an appointment at DC Comics and he saw Harry Donenfeld, Whitney Ellsworth, and Jack Schiff. They took his artwork and he had to wait a long time. Finally, they came back with it and said, “How soon can you start?” Neither of us were citizens at that time. Later, he became a citizen because of me. I’m an American through my father. We found an apartment in Mount Vernon, New York. They put anyone new in the bullpen. Win used to say they turned out work like popcorn. [laughs] He

was a ghost artist for [Joe] Shuster. He did more covers [than anything]; he got to be the expert on covers. I still have a couple of Batman and Robin covers on the wall. Win did the daily Superman strip. Wayne Boring did the Sundays and eventually the dailies again. Wayne was making plenty. He had a beautiful second wife and we went to their home for many parties. We lost track with them when we had our second daughter and moved to a house. Later, Win spotted Wayne Boring in Steinbeck’s Department Store. They tried to avoid each other because it was sad; Wayne got fired and wound up broke; he was reduced to working in the men’s department. EZ: Mr. Boring later moved to Florida and took a job as a security guard toward the end of his life. MORTIMER: I didn’t know that.

An Interview With Mrs. Eileen Mortimer

connected with the Guggenheim. His father was a Methodist minister. John even did some writing on the strip. He died about fifteen years back. EZ: What came after David Crane? MORTIMER: Win had a long relationship with the Toronto Star. He had written poetry for the paper years before. For each poem they paid him $10 if they used it, so he always kept up with the Star. When Win finally got his own strip in 1960, that was his dream come true. It was published by the Keep ’Em Flying, Canada! Toronto Star and was called Two World War II-vintage cartoons by WM. (Left:) A Larry Brannon, about an poster done for the Canadian war effort. (Above:) The investigator. Win was writing, punchline (and precise venue) of this Mortimer gag inking and lettering it. He put cartoon is unknown—but that seems to be Adolf Hitler his heart, soul, and everything warming his backside on the left. So maybe that’s into that strip. He was doing so Benito Mussolini on the right? Thanks to Sean Menard much, he eventually got tired EZ: When did your husband stop illustrating the Superman for both illos. [©2009 Estate of Winslow Mortimer.] of it and it finally petered out. daily newspaper strip? It had no appeal down here [in MORTIMER: In 1956, when he got the David Crane strip. I have a photo the US as opposed to Canada] and was more like illustration than here from Newsweek, the March 12 issue; they were going to run David comedy. That was not his thing as much as comic art. Crane. They sent a professional photographer to take a lot of pictures. EZ: What other things did Win do? EZ: Did it actually run in the magazine? MORTIMER: Win drew “Full Steam Foley” [for World’s Finest Comics], MORTIMER: I don’t know, but [the strip] ran in about 600 papers. David The Hulk, The Honeymooners. He also helped Al Capp with Li’l Abner. Crane was a small-town minister. Win had a good Biblical background; he He drew Fat Albert. He did Obadiah Fry in the local Putnam [Country could quote anything. Anyway, the Hall Syndicate had to meet me before Courier] paper. He did Big Bird for Little Golden Books and Barbie for they’d approve Win as the artist on the strip. I clinched it for him. After Western Printing; this was in the ’60s and ’70s or later. Marvel wanted that, when the syndicate would have dinners, Bob Hall [President of Hall him, too. Win did “Spider-Man” with Stan Lee [Spidey Super Stories], and Syndicate] would always like for me to sit beside him and his wife. he did Ms. Marvel. He drew editorials of Governor Pataki and other local [laughter] But Win was getting restless. He wanted to have his own strip. politicians. Hartzell Spence took over David Crane. Other things he did— [Earlier, around 1954,] Win had proposed a newspaper strip called Win worked for Neal Professor Tipp. Tipp was based on an actual person, whose real name was Adams’ Continuity John Rice. He was a teacher at Rollins College in Florida. He was Associates for 11 or 12

Superman And Sparks (Above:) The Superman daily strip for June 9, 1951. Special thanks to Bruce Mason. Though Win Mortimer drew it, the byline says “Wayne Boring.” (Right:) Win was drew numerous Golden Age comic book stories starring Superman and/or Batman and Robin—and on World’s Finest Comics covers. On the cover for WFC #49 (Dec. 1950-Jan. 1951), he drew that trio of titans, plus new hero Tom Sparks, Boy Inventor, whose adventures he illustrated. Of course, Win also illustrated the Boy Scouts public service ad whose Superman, Batman, and Robin figures are reproduced on the cover of this issue of Alter Ego. [©2009 DC Comics.]

“Cartoonists Are Like Kids”

The Minister And The Mortimers (Left:) Win and Eileen Mortimer in a 1957 photo taken for a magazine spread about the new artist of the comic strip David Crane, which he had inherited from original artist Creig Flessel—plus (below) Win’s daily for Nov. 7, 1956. Repro’d from a photocopy of the original art, courtesy of Ron Fernandez. Our thanks to Mrs. Mortimer for the photo. [Strip ©2009 Hall Syndicate, Inc., or its successors in interest.]

Before And After David Crane (Above:) In 1954 Win attempted to sell the daily strip Professor Tipp, but was unsuccessful. (Below:) Win drew the strip Larry Brannon for some time, beginning in 1960. The daily seen here is for June 19, 1962. Both samples courtesy of Ron Fernandez. [Prof. Tipp ©2009 Estate of Winslow Mortimer; Larry Brannon ©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

An Interview With Mrs. Eileen Mortimer

him as neighbors. [Besides his enormous contributions to comic books] he taught at Columbia and painted beautiful watercolors. Joe spoke at Win’s funeral but died later that same year, on Christmas Eve. We also know the [Joe] Giellas. Joe’s son Frank teaches art in New York. We knew Charles Schulz through the Cartoonists Society. Win was a member of the NCS for a long time. That’s where you get to meet everybody. We met a lot of the cartoonists at spring dances and socials. EZ: Did Win play golf, like so many other cartoonists? MORTIMER: Oh, he played for a while. But Win was an only child. He spent a lot of time alone. He would rather collect antique guns, or fish and hunt. He met Al Plastino and always spoke highly of him and his art. Al used to go hunting with Win. We also had two antique cars. He’d win at shows in the Ford category. EZ: Last question: Could you please tell us a little bit about the end of Win’s life and summarize what he was like as a person? MORTIMER: He died of multiple myeloma on January 11, 1998. It was bad. Toward the end, he had a walker. I’d walk him from the house to the barn and back. But… he had a good life; he was popular both here and in Canada. He didn’t know what it was like to starve (though it was tough after the war). He had the best of both worlds—New York City and our two acres in Carmel, New York, 45 miles from White Plains. It’s hard to believe he’s been gone for eight years. He was positively delightful; Win was an intellectual. He told great jokes; I miss his jokes. Cartoonists are like kids.

Full Steam Ahead! Lest we think that all Win’s DC work was on Superman and/or Batman, see above his “Full Steam Foley” splash from World’s Finest #46 (June-July 1950), sent by Eddy Zeno. [©2009 DC Comics.]

years. He learned a new technique working for Neal and wound up doing storyboards. He drew the “Joe Camel” mascot for Reynolds Tobacco. This was through the Young & Rubicam advertising agency, by way of Neal’s studio. He had a studio in the barn as well as in the house. When Molly the horse died, we converted her stall with many changes for Win as another studio. We also had 12 acres and a cottage in Canada at MacTier [Ontario] near Parry Sound. We fished and did a lot of hiking and boating and cooking fish that we would catch from Healy Lake. Nothing like fresh fish. It was such a nice restful place—no phone or TV, which was wonderful. We read a lot and had many parties with neighbors. Don Webster and his family had a cottage nearby. He was the curator of the Royal Toronto Museum in Toronto. Sometimes we would fly to our place if we were just going for the weekend, landing near our dock. EZ: Who else did you and Win know in the comics business? MORTIMER: I have a painting of Bob Oksner’s on the wall here. Bob and his wife Pat have two daughters. Joe Orlando was a good friend. We knew

Meanwhile, Back At The LBJ Ranch… An editorial-style cartoon by Win featuring Lyndon Baines and Lynda Bird Johnson on their Texas ranch—before, during, or after LBJ’s 1963-1969 Presidency. Thanks to Ron Fernandez. [©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

“Cartoonists Are Like Kids”

WINSLOW MORTIMER Checklist [NOTE: The following Checklist is primarily adapted from information contained in the online Who’s Who of American Comic Books (19281999), established by Jerry G. Bails. See website ad on the following page. Names of features which appeared both in magazine with that title and in other publications, as well, are generally not italicized below. Special thanks to Jim Amash and Teresa R. Davidson. Key: (a) = full art; (p) = pencils only; (i) = inks only; (w) writer; (d) = Monday to Saturday daily newspaper comic strip; (S) = Sunday comic strip.]

Name: James Winslow Mortimer (1919-1997) (artist) Birthplace: Canada Education: Art Students League Member: National Cartoonists Society Print Media (non-comics): advertising: Crest toothpaste 1985; artist of juvenile books 1982-93: Chuck Norris and the Karate Commandos #1 & #2, 1982-93; Menace in Space: Island of the Walking Dead c. 1986; The New Kroft Supershow (Little Golden Books) 1978; Very Busy Barbie 1993; Sesame Street Coloring Book 1982; The Amazing Spider-Man Unmasked Coloring Book c. 1983 (reprinted c. 1986); Marvel Super Heroes Jumbo Coloring & Activity Book 1986 Performing Arts: Artist: production art for film The Great Bank Robbery 1969 Commercial Art & Design: Continuity Graphics 1983+ Honors: Cartoonist of the Year, San Diego Comic-Con International 1997 [sic—precise designation uncertain]; Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Creator Hall of Fame Award 2006 Syndication: Batman and Robin (S)(p)(some i) 1946 for McClure Syndicate; Best-Seller Showcase (d)(a) 1977 for Universal Press Syndicate; David Crane (d)(S)(a) 1956-60, 1972-73 for Hall Syndicate; Larry Brannon (a) 1960-68 for Canada; Superman (ghost a) 1949-55 for McClure Syndicate; Wendy Marshall (a) 1965-68 Comics in Other Media: Editorial cartoons for Courier-Trader 1972-98; Obadiah Fry (a) for Putnam County Courier; Space Conquerors (a) 1972 in Boys’ Life Promotional Comics: Superman in the Great Cleveland Fire (a) 1948 COMIC BOOK CREDITS (Mainstreet US Publishers) Charlton Comics: Emergency (a) 1976-77; Six Million Dollar Man (p) 1976 Continuity Comics: Toy Boy (p) 1986 DC Comics: All-American Men of War (a) 1964; Batman and Green Lantern (a) 1966; Batman and Robin (a) 1945-58; Batman vs. Eclipso (a) 1966; Benny (p) 1970; Big Books (p) 1951; Big Town (p) 1951; Binky (p) 1969-70; Binky’s Buddies (p) 1969-70; Brat Finks (a) 1966; Captain Storm (a) 1967; Casebook Mystery (a) 1955; Cindy the Salesgirl (p) 1969; covers (p)(i) 1946-56, 1964-67; Cynthia (p) 1969; Falling in Love (a) 1968-72; Fire Fighters (a) 1956; Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion (a) 1972-73; Full-Steam Foley (a) 1950; Gang Busters (a) 1948-49, 1952, 1955; Ghosts (a) 1972, 1980; Girls’ Love Stories (a) 1965-72; Heart Throbs (p)(i) 196772; illustration of Batman 1992; Inferior Five (p) 1968; Jimmy Olsen (p) 1972, 1978, 1988; Johnny Law (p) 1951; Just Imagine Bruce Wayne (p) 1978-79; Legion of Super-Heroes (a) 1968-70, Lois Lane (p) 1977-79, 1988; Lori Lemaris (p) 1977; Love Stories (p) 1972; Mal (p) 1970; Merry, the Girl of a Thousand Gimmicks (a) 1948-49; Mr. District Attorney (a) 1955; My Greatest Adventure (a) 1956; mystery/occult (a) 1952-80; Newsboy Legion (p) 1972; Perfect Crime Mystery (a) 1948-49; Perry White (p) 1988; Plastic Man (a) 1967; Private Life of Clark Kent (p) 1988; Public Life of Bruce Wayne (p) 1978; public service pages (a) 1949-56; Robin (a) 1947-49; Secret Hearts (p) 1968-70; Secrets of Haunted House

(i) 1977; Special Crime Feature (a) 1950, 1955; Stanley and His Monster (a) 1966-68; Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy (a) 1947-48; Star-Spangled Kid featuring Merry (a) 1948; Superboy (p)(some i) 1947-52; Supergirl (a) 1969-70, 1972, 1980-82; Superman (a) 1946-49, 1955; Superwoman (p) 1980; Swing with Scooter (p) 1968-72; Tom Sparks, Boy Inventor (a) 1951; The Unexpected (p) 1981; Untold Tales of Filmland (p) 1949; What Do You Know about This Comics Seal of Approval? (a) c. 1955; The Witching Hour (a) 1972; Wonder Woman (p) 1968; World of Metropolis (p) 1988; Young Love (p) 1970-71; Young Romance (a) 1965, 1974-75; Zatanna (p) 1972 Marvel Comics: Annie (p) 1982 movie adaptation; Aunt May (a) 1981; Barbie (p) c. 1992; Dr. Druid (i) 1990; Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (a) 1973; Frankenstein (a) 1974; Giant-Size Chillers (i) 1975; horror (p)(i) c, 195255; Night Nurse (a) 1972-73, Spidey Super Stories (p) 1974-75, 1982; SubMariner (a) 1973 Western Publishing: Battle of the Planets (a) 1979-81; Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery (a) 1966; covers (a) 1978-81; Fat Albert (a) 1978-79; Grimm’s Ghost Stories (a) 1973-82; Professor Harbinger (a) 1967; Ripley’s Believe It or Not (a) 1967-68, 1971-79; The Twilight Zone (a) 1966, 1969-72, 1979

The WHO’S WHO of American Comic Books (1928-1999) Created by Jerry G. Bails FREE – online searchable database – FREE www.bailsprojects.com – No password required

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

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Dr. Lauretta Bender: Comics’ Anti-Wertham Part 2

by Michael T. Gilbert

his issue we conclude our reprinting of “The Effect of Comic Books on the Ideology of Children,” which we began in Alter Ego #88. This seminal comic book article, originally published in July 1941 in The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, XI, was written with Reginald S. Lourie, a renowned child psychiatrist and pediatrician. It is one of the earliest pro-comics articles, and a fascinating read, with references to long-forgotten heroes like Red Comet and The Face, as well as more familiar names such as Superman and Batman. The original article had no illustrations, but we’ve added them for this reprinting, to our knowledge the first such in almost 70 years. We are indebted to Dr. Bender’s son Dr. Peter Schilder for the photos used here, and for allowing us to reprint this article. Thanks also to The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, and to Janet Gilbert, who dug up the article as a Christmas present for her comics-obsessed hubby! And now without further ado....

The Effect of Comic Books On The Ideology of Children (Part 2)

waves, flames, mechanized forms of transportation, such as interplanetary traffic systems, solar forces by which gravity is overcome, etc. There still remain, however, the magic powers of capes and caps seen in Superman, the Bat Man [sic], the Flash, etc. Many of the heroes have merely magic power in their own body such as Pop Eye [sic] the Sailor Man, and the Flash. Red Comet can project himself by sheer willpower through space and time, he can make himself larger and smaller, he can perform prodigious stunts of strength. Furthermore, this power extends beyond his own body; he can transform his mechanized vehicle from land to water and vice versa. His associates may use guns with withering rays which paralyze the enemy. The greater magic needed in modern folklore is due to the greater dangers which assail society and the individual and which are often obscure due to scientific perfections, mechanized life, and group organizations. As has been stated by Moodie (3) normal, well adjusted children with active minds, given insufficient outlets or in whom natural drives for adventure are curbed, will demand satisfaction in the form of some excitement. Their desire for blood and thunder is a desire to solve the problems of the threats of blood and thunder against themselves or those they love, as well as the problem of their own impulses to retaliate and punish in like form. The comics may be said to offer the same kind of mental catharsis that Aristotle claimed was an attribute of the drama. The effect of the comic book in normal children is comparable to the therapeutic effect in the emotionally disturbed child. Well balanced children are not upset by even the more horrible scenes in the comics as long as the reason for the threat of torture is clear and the issues are well stated.

Discussion and Comment Comic books can probably be best understood if they are looked upon as an expression of the folklore of the age. They may be compared with the mythology fairy tales and puppet shows, for example, of past ages. Fairy tales, ballads, nursery rhymes, etc., have been carried along from generation to generation by word of mouth until, finally, the most telling and presumably the best have been saved and subsequently put in print, dramatized and expressed through other art media. Mythology has found expression also in various forms of art. All of these are what we might call an outgrowth of the social unconscious; the social problems of the times are expressed through them. Many of them have so well stated the fundamental human problems that they have remained vital throughout the ages and are the literature of choice for children, although originally created by and for adults. Ferenczi (4) has discussed this problem in relation to fairy tales, saying, “Phantasies of omnipotence remain the dominating ones. Just where we have most humbly to bow before the forces of nature, the fairy tale comes to our aid with its typical motives. In reality we are weak, hence the heroes of fairy tales are strong and unconquerable. In our activities and knowledge we are cramped and hindered by time and space, hence in fairy tales one is immortal, is in a hundred places at the same time, sees into the future and knows the past…. In fairy tales man has wings, his eyes pierce the walls, his magic wand opens all doors. A man may live in perpetual fear of attack from dangerous beast and fierce foes, in the fairy tales a magic cap enables every transformation and makes us inaccessible.” One recognizes in this at once the same problems with which the comic book deals, differing only in that phantasies of omnipotence are expressed in terms more appropriate to the present age. Since our enemies are no longer animals, and man-to-man combat is much less, these time honored subjects are re-emphasized in the comics and replaced by the problems of science, mass organization and social ideologies. The magic in the comics is therefore expressed in terms of fantastic elaborations of science, with all-powerful rays, cosmic

Dr. Lauretta Bender and son Peter Schilder in 1966. (On previous page:) Dr. Bender’s name appeared in most National/DC and All-American comics from 1944-54, as per the pages reproduced. [Photo ©2009 Peter Schilder.]

Dr. Lauretta Bender: Comics’ Anti-Wertham—Part 2

If the child seems to react with some emotional or behavior disorder to reading the comic books, the reason predisposing him to the trigger action it supplies lies within the child and should be sought. It is evident from our case studies that whatever anxiety, aggression or confusion was attributable to comic books could be traced further back to the basic traumatic factors within the children’s background. It is felt that even the more obviously emotionally unstable child should not be deprived of the possible benefits he will gain from reading comic books. We have found that a policy of having an adult talk over with the child any conflicting or disturbing ideas or misconceptions which children have picked up in their reading is valuable in preventing untoward reactions due to lack of clarity of the issues or to a poorly understood threat against the child. This can be done whether or not the adult has himself read the comic book. An experiment is being carried out now at Bellevue to see whether such a clarification of the extremely common misinterpretations by children of not only the material in comic books, but also movies and radio stories, cannot be accomplished in groups in a setting such as a classroom, with the teacher, at first under the guidance of the psychiatrist leading an open discussion. The chief conflict over comic books is in the adult’s mind. Disregarding parents who read comic books themselves, the usual first reaction of the child’s elders to this form of literature is a negative one. They are concerned about the supposed trash which usurps the place of good literature. It should be noted in this connection that some recently published children’s stories by recognized writers are more prone to cause anxiety in children than are comic books. (See Bender and Schilder (12) footnote, page 1004, on Susanna B. and William C., by Rachel Field.)

“Red Comet can project himself by sheer willpower through space and time,” wrote Dr. Bender. Can’t we all? From Fiction House’s Planet Comics #8 (Sept. 1940). Art by Ken Jackson. [©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

We have shown in the cases of several children how comic book material fits the problems of the individual child. This is not only in regard to the child’s attempt to understand his place in the world of modern science, warfare, and social organizations. It is also respecting his striving as an individual to solve his own everyday problems of right and wrong regarding aggression against him and his own impulses for aggression, counterbalanced against overwhelming feelings of inadequacies and inferiorities engendered by the lack of security in his own surrounding family relations and physical means. In this sense the comic books and strips become the dream life of the social group or of the individual in his relationship to the social group. Lorand (5) has stated “fairy tales have a constructive value; they fulfill children’s wishes; they have the same structure as dreams and their content is really nothing more that the disguised realization of wishes.” He also quotes Freud (6) to the effect that “psychoanalysis confirms using our recognition of how great an influence folk fairy tales have upon the mental life of our children. In some people the recollection of the favorite fairy tales takes the place of memories of their own childhood.” Lorand goes on to state that fairy tales may afford an outlet for tension resulting from conflicts in adults as well. He quotes, however, a case in which the telling of the fairy story by the mother constituted a form of seduction of the child resulting in a neurosis which extended into the child’s adult life. The question even here is whether the fairytale caused the neurosis or whether it was not the relationship between the child and mother, with the fairytale being merely the form of expression which the mother used. Any other form might have been substituted. Schilder (7) has shown in his analysis of Lewis Carroll and “Alice in Wonderland,” how the personal problems of the adult may find expression in children’s literature, tending to confuse children. Dr. Bender believed heroes like Popeye had “magic power in their own body.” But the spinach didn’t hurt, either! From Dell Four Color, Vol. 1 #25 (1942). Artist unkown. [©2009 King Features Syndicate, Inc.]

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

supply a real need for the child there can be no doubt. That writers who produce these comics do not have psychological insight into the child’s needs, there can also be now doubt, just as the author of Oedipus Rex didn’t have the psychoanalytic understanding of his dramatic production that we now have. It appears, however, that we do well to trust to the unconscious expressions of the comic writers. Efforts to remove magic from the plots, for example, would remove just that factor which makes it possible for the child to deal with overwhelming feelings of inferiority and inadequacy in these threatening times. Yarnell’s (11) study of “Firesetting in Children” shows that children may resort to really dangerous means of evoking magic to protect them against overwhelming odds. In its early days the comic book was thoroughly censored because the material had been previously edited to satisfy the newspaper editors who bought the daily strips. The independent publishers, however, had no such rein on their subject matter. As a result, the only check on what is produced at present is what children will buy. On the whole, children have managed this form of censorship fairly well. They form an extremely critical segment of the reading public especially when they must spend their own dimes for what they read. They consistently select comic magazines with the better art work and greater detail. The books with inferior art, too much spreading of subject matter, etc., fall out in a short time. They demand their money’s worth of blood and thunder. When one editor heeded adult criticism and took the more hideous features off his character called “The Face,” a flood of letters came from children asking to have the fangs, horns, and weird color restored. Many of the magazines

Super-heroes, Dr. Bender felt, were akin to modern fairy tales. But comic books also produced impressive versions of the real thing, as demonstrated by this beautiful 1943 Walt Kelly cover for Dell’s Fairy Tale Parade #7. [©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

This same problem of the use of folklore in the understanding and psychotherapy of children has been dealt with by Bender and Woltman (8) in their use of puppet shows with problem children. It has become evident that identification with the puppet character and seeing and reacting to puppet plays, lends an excellent opportunity for the solution of many emotional and personal problems of the child. All these forms of literary expression are for the child a method for experimenting with the emotional problems of his life. We may recall that Tessie (Case 1) said the comics did her imagining for her. In this respect it is evident that comic books may be compared not only with the dreams of the child, but also with such phenomena as day dreams, hallucinations, and phantasied companions of childhood. As Bender and Lipkowitz (9), and Bender and Vogel (10) have shown, these are constructive phenomena in the psychological mechanisms of the child, whereby he solves ego and personality problems which arise from the undue aggression or inadequate help of the parents or from the parent-child relationship. In regard to comic books and strips we may say that the same problems are dealt with, except that perhaps the emphasis is more on the social problems or the child’s relationship to the larger social order. However, in many cases these are merely symbolic of a child’s more intimate personal problems. The remarkable phenomenon of the enormous success of comic strip writers in satisfying the child’s needs in this regard is something that should make any of us humble in trying to become critics. That they

The good doctor also studied children’s reactions to puppets. I’m sure Carlo Collodi would have approved! This unusual crossover is from Walt Disney’s Pinocchio (Dell Four Color, Vol. 2, #92, 1946). Artist unknown. [©2009 Disney Productions, Inc.]

Dr. Lauretta Bender: Comics’ Anti-Wertham—Part 2

Aggression is dealt with in most of the stories, but its purpose as carried out by the hero is to prevent hostile and noxious aggression by others. Punishment is a constant factor, but it is justified punishment. Social insecurity appears again and again as the plots unfold, and its usual solution is portrayed as being found in group loyalties. A strikingly advanced concept of femininity and masculinity is displayed. Women in the stories are placed on an equal footing with the men and indulge in the same type of activities. They are generally aggressive and have positions which carry responsibility. Male heroes predominate, but to a large extent even these are essentially unsexed creatures. The men and women have secondary sexual mannerisms, but in their relationship to each other they are de-sexed. Sexual problems concern the comic books writers very little at the present time. The nuclear problems which concern them are group aggression and group loyalties, the scientific problems of overcoming time, space and gravity, and threats of social and economic insecurity. In conclusion, we repeat that the comic strip is the folklore of the times, spontaneously given to and received by children, serving at the same time as a means of helping them solve the individual and sociological problems appropriate to their own lives.

Bibliography 1. Moellenhoff, F. “Remarks on the Popularity of Mickey Mouse,” American Imago, I: 3, 19-32, 1940. 2. Kris. “Ego Development and the Comic.” Inter. J. of Psychoanalysis, 19: 1-10, 1938. 3. Moodie, J. The Doctor and the Difficult Child. New York, The Commonwealth Fund, 1940. 4. Ferenczi, D. S. Sex in Psychoanalysis. Boston, Richard G. Badger, 1916. Critics like Dr. Fredric Wertham complained about “hidden messages” in the comics. Ironically, some of the most twisted were from fellow psychiatrist Dr. William Moulton Marston, who co-created Wonder Woman under the pen name “Charles Moulton.” These panels from Wonder Woman #3 (Feb. 1943), featuring the Amazon’s pals getting baked in a pie, is food for thought! [©2009 DC Comics.]

encourage the evaluations and suggestions of their readers, sometimes giving prizes for the best ones. Some scathing indictments of comic books have appeared in the press and current periodicals. Editor Elzey Roberts of the St. Louis Star-Times in 1938 saw in the comics only fights, murder, domestic quarrels, fear, theft, despair, deception, torture, arson, and death. An article in Forum in 1936 denounced comics for portraying among other things sadism, cannibalism, bestiality, crude eroticism, torturing, killing, kidnapping, raw melodrama, crimes, criminals, vulgarity, etc. Sterling North, in the Chicago Daily News, added a stirring protest in a similar vein. Parent-Teacher Associations have written objections. The United Parents Association is said to have appointed a committee to investigate the modifiability of the prevalent type of story. Some agitation has also come from the old line boy’s magazines which have suffered greatly in circulation since the advent of comic magazines. All these voices have had little effect—children's likes and dislikes are still the deciding factor in what script-writers and artists produce. Subject matter in the comics deals with fundamental problems presented in caricature form. It may be remembered in its connection that caricature has been described by Kris (2) as a means of freedom to be primitive.

5. Lorand, Sandor. “Fairy Tales and Neurosis.” Psychoanal. Quart., 4: 234243, 1935. 6. Freud, S. The Occurrence in Dreams of Material from Fairy Tales, Collected Papers, 4. 7, Schilder, P. “Psychoanalytic Remarks on Alice in Wonderland and Lewis Carroll.” J. Nerv and Ment. Dis., 87: 159-168, 1938. 8. Bender, L., and Woltmann, A. “The Use of Puppet Shows as a Psychotherapeutic Method for Behavior Problems in Children.” Am. J. Orthopsychiatry, VI: 3, 1936. 9. Bender, L., and Lipkowitz, H. H. “Hallucinations in Children.” Am. J. Orthopsychiatry, X: 3, 1940.

Gruesome, ain’t he? And that’s the way the kiddies liked it! Mart Bailey’s “The Face” from Columbia’s Big Shot #1 (May 1940). The script is attributed to co-creator Gardner Fox. [©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

10. Bender, L., and Vogel, B. F. “Imaginary Companions of Children.” Am. J. Orthopsychiatry, XI: 1, 1941. 11. Yarnell, H. “Firesetting in Children.” Am. J. Orthopsychiatry, X; 2, 1940. 12. Bender, L., and Schilder, P. I”mpulsions, a Specific Disorder in the Behavior of Children.” Arch. Neur. And Psychiat., 44: 1940. 13. Berkman, A. “Sociology of the Comic Strip,” American Spectator, 4: June 1936. 14. Ryan, J. K “Are Comics Moral?” Forum, 95, April 1936.

That’s it for this issue. Next we’ll look at an opposing viewpoint; then-–more Dr. Bender!

Till next time…

“Women in the [comic book hero] stories are placed on an equal footing with the men,” says Bender. Here Wonder Woman beats Green Lantern and The Flash by a… er, nose, on Frank Harry’s cover for Comic Cavalcade #1 (Winter 1943). [©2009 DC Comics.]

Comic Fandom Archive

John Wright, 1933-2008 Alter Ego salutes the South African writer, fanzine publisher, and Golden Age comic book enthusiast whose fandom involvement began in the early 1960s Introduction by Bill Schelly

ith the passing of John Wright, we lose yet another of fandom’s founders, if someone very active in fandom as early as 1962 can be considered a founder—and John was. His fanzine The Komix, first appearing in that year, made a positive impression right away. Despite living in South Africa and never having visited the United States, he became close to many comics aficionados, for he was an inveterate correspondent. In Alter Ego #35 & 36 (April & May, 2004), we published “Fandom Across the Puddle,” a major interview with John. Now, sadly, we present the reminiscences of just four of the many fans whose life he touched, and who will greatly miss the erudite, talented and friendly comic book fan who lived in a distant land, yet made an positive impact on our lives.

Howard Siegel: We called ourselves the “Golden Triangle of International Fandom”: John Ryan of Australia, John Wright of South Africa, and Howard Siegel of the United States. John Wright and I had the privilege of paying tribute to “The Aussie” in Alter Ego #76. Now, sadly, I do the

John & Jack (Right:) John Wright’s widow Coral chose perhaps the bestknown photo of John for this leaflet that was handed out to friends and family upon her husband’s passing. Our thanks to Coral Wright for all photos of John appearing with this piece. (Right:) John himself was proud of this illustration by fan artist Ronn Foss, which depicted JW’s original character Union Jack on the cover of his fanzine The Komix #2 (April 1963). The fanzine was wellreceived in America. [Image ©2009 Estates of John Wright & Ronn Foss.]

same for my close friend of 44 years, who passed away on November 14th, 2008. John Wright was born on August 9, 1933, in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. During World War II Port Elizabeth was a strategic port of entry where armaments and supplies of all kinds were offloaded. American cargo ships carried comic books in their holds as ballast, and these soon made there way into the retail stores in the area and into the life of John Wright. They nurtured an intense and lifelong lust for American culture including comic books, movies, radio, and TV. Since this is Alter Ego, I’ll dwell on the comic books aspects, beginning with his own words: “My late kid brother and I discovered an Indian shoe repair store which also sold comics. They purchased them by the pound. We could buy any title for 4 to 6 pence. On a particular morning we both had enough money for two books and we drifted into the store. I found several desirable titles, among them an early Detective that pre-dated Robin and featured Batman of the long cowl period; but Brian opted for a miniature book starring a character we never heard of before— Jack O’ Spades. Yikes! The art to say the least was poor and he came to life from a deck of cards only when evil reared its head. “Another incident I remember took place in school. Miss Price, our teacher, told me, after catching me passing along a trade item, that comic books were rubbish and should be avoided. A few weeks later I tumbled across an article in a local magazine in which the author advocated comic books as a learning tool. I showed it to her. ‘He must be a crackpot,’ she replied. ‘No ma’am, a school principal.’”

South African Comic Book Enthusiast

An Untangled Web A younger John Wright in an undated photo—flanked by the cover of Zip Comics #30 (Oct. 1942). Whether as boy or man of mature years, John was unyielding in feeling that MLJ should never have replaced so strongly-conceived a hero as The Web with Red Rube, as happened in #39. [Zip cover ©2009 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

encounter with the character was after he’d been renamed The Puppeteer, which incidentally considering the costume, made no sense to my feeble mind.”

“Sid Greene: First became aware of this artist’s name in the ’50s via the DC books, and never cared much for his style. Seemed sort of blandish. Then I bought a couple of reels of microfilm from Jerry Bails, those containing Target numbers, and was pleasantly surprised to find that the gentleman had worked on the first “Target” stories and his style was great—and different. He drew hair like no one else I know of.

John left school at fourteen and traveled around Africa, finally settling down and earning a living. At one time or another he was a laboratory assistant, storeroom manager, nightclub photographer, project specialist, private investigator, and manufacturer’s representative, all the while moonlighting as an author. His list of credits includes 14 published novels under various pseudonyms such as Jay Doubleyou, Wade Wright, and Ugotta Bekidden. Many, such as Stuff from Which Super-Heroes Are Made and Charlie’s TV Set had comic book themes, and all were written in American idiom and set in either New York or California. His radio scripts varied from drama to romance and comedy, as were stories for TV in later years. Mickey Spillane said to him, “Keep writing and you’ll made lots of money.” John’s answer was, “Well, I don’t know about that, but I’ll certainly keep writing.” John’s favorite comic book character was The Face. As such, he maintained a long relationship with creator Mart Bailey, who would send him 10- or 12-page letters containing behind-the-scenes stories. One example was the fact that Mart, in an effort to help Roy Krenkel, signed Roy’s name to some “Skyman” stories. Joe Simon introduced John to “a professor at Wayne State University” (Jerry Bails), which in turn led to friendships with a legion of people sharing his interests. Inevitably he hopped on the bandwagon and produced his own fanzine The Komix, despite the difficulties associated with living on another continent and having rudimentary printing facilities available for the chore. The Komix lasted only two issues and had contributions from some of fandom’s early greats, such as Jerry Bails, Biljo White, Ronn Foss, Larry Ivie, Mike Vosburg, Rick Durell, and James Corral. One note of interest is that John created a super-hero called “Union Jack,” a name and theme that Roy Thomas, with permission, adapted for The Invaders when he was writing for Marvel Comics. Receiving a copy of The Komix #2 led me to invite John to be a fandom profile in my “Comic Collector’s Comments” column in Rocket’s Blast-ComiCollector. He responded immediately, and that began a lifelong friendship in which we shared many things. The routine was usually the same. I would send him cover repros, splash pages, single panels, as well as newspaper and magazine articles. He in turn would carefully critique each one and respond with comments and opinions. Here are a few examples from the hundreds of letters received over the years: “V-Man: Never found a copy of V-Comics, so my initial

“Shock Gibson and Capt. Freedom: From the days of Pocket and Spitfire I have always liked the Harvey product even when Shock Gibson and Capt. Freedom were forever, it seemed, modifying their costumes. I particularly liked ‘The Story behind the Cover’.” John also wrote guest articles for Canadian, Australian, and American fanzines, as well as several South African newspapers. He made sure that comic books would be a part of his writing in the latter. I oft times found it amazing how one person, living so far away and with no other collectors in his part of the world, was so aware of the many facets of our American culture. He had an insatiable appetite for comic books of the super-hero genre. Knowing so many of the early fandom pioneers who laid the foundations for what has become a worldwide hobby, John was indeed one of them.

Dwight R. Decker: I probably first got in touch with John Wright as a result of the MLJ connection. That is, due to an exposure at an impressionable age to the mid-’60s Mighty Comics Group revival of the Archie company’s old World War IIera super-heroes, I had become a lifelong fan of those characters. Sensing that the modern revamp didn’t exactly do the concepts much credit, I made an effort to collect the original Golden Age comics from when the company was known as MLJ, even though they were published well before I was born. Then, most likely, someone who knew both of us told me about a long-time comics fan in South Africa named John Wright, who was not only an MLJ fan as well, but was old enough to have actually read the comics as a boy when they were first published. Contact was made, we began corresponding, and quite a few letters went back and forth between the USA and South Africa over the years that followed. Most of what we had to say or even could say about MLJ comics was pretty much said early on, and the correspondence drifted to other topics. Though he was largely out of the comics-collecting hobby by then, he had been one of the pioneering comics fans at the very beginning of comics fandom in the early ’60s, and among other things was a mystery writer in the South African market, so there was plenty to talk about. Even so, we never got into personal matters and generally stuck to comics fan business rather than discussing, say, religion and politics. It wasn’t until I read John Pierce’s reminiscences about his correspondence with him just now that I had any idea of John Wright’s views on such topics. The subjects never came up when I was exchanging notes with him. Not that the original topic of MLJ didn’t arise again now and then, reminding me why I got in touch with him in the first place. I was looking

John Wright, 1933-2008

at MLJ comics the way an archaeologist might look at artifacts in a tomb: as interesting relics of a long-dead age. For John, though, they were the stuff of living memory. For instance, a truly excellent character called The Web was replaced in Zip #39 by the vastly inferior Red Rube, a blatant Captain Marvel knockoff by one of the staff funny artists. The Red Rube was an orphan boy named Reuben Reuben who was given powers by his ghostly ancestors in the Reuben family, and by shouting “Hey, Rube!” (the circus and carnival distress call), he could transform into a super-powered adult version of himself. As John wrote to me, his reaction as a kid reading the comics at the time was outrage: “Where the heck did MLJ find this character? I really disliked the bum, especially since it was evident he was using space that could have been occupied by the Shield, Hangman, Steel Sterling, or a bunch of others who were in every way superior. Even the art on most stories was pretty lousy.” Since I was viewing The Web’s replacement from a distance of decades after the fact, I could dispassionately reason that the editorial logic was obviously to imitate Captain Marvel in particular and The Web or other characters just didn’t fill the bill, but John remembered it with emotional involvement. When he expressed personal opinions like that, MLJ came alive for me. He had been there. Once I sent him a wartime issue of Pep Comics I’d turned up somewhere. The main reason I thought John might find it interesting was that a letter from a South African reader was featured on the Shield GMan Club page on the inside front cover. If you remember your World War II-era movies and other popular entertainment, Brooklyn, New York, was the funny place for a character to be from, and this letter probably got the spotlight because the reader was located in Brooklyn, South Africa (the common name being the result of Dutch settlers in both places). I merely sent the issue to John on a whim, for his possible amusement in seeing a letter from one of his countrymen. I didn’t expect the reaction I did get. It was probably the warmest thank-you letter I’ve ever received from anyone. It turned out that John had once owned a copy of that issue of Pep, and seeing it again all these years later brought back a flood of memories. I wish I had saved the letter, as in it he eloquently expressed the feelings of nostalgia for a long-ago childhood that apparently surprised even him when he opened the package and saw that comic book out of the blue.

even though things tapered off in the later years, whatever the subject when he dropped me a line, his letters were always warm, good-humored, and encouraging. Something he told me when Roy Rogers died in 1998 seems to apply here. The writer of an article for a newsletter published by John’s church solicited him for some comments about the famous cowboy hero, but misunderstood something he said and wrote that John had been a personal friend of Roy Rogers. John was a little startled when the piece appeared in print, since he hadn’t known Roy Rogers except as a projected image on a screen, but when he thought about it, he decided it wasn’t a bad way of putting it, after all. Although John had never met him, Roy really had been his friend in a lot of ways. An inspiration, a role model, even just a kindly presence whose company he enjoyed. I think much the same could be said about what John was to me. Although I never had a chance to meet him in person, he was a good friend.

John G. Pierce: John Wade Wright, with whom I carried on a sporadic (some might say “spastic”) correspondence from the early ’70s onward, was one of those many never-met-in-person friends whose presence in my life has become more valuable as time goes on, and particularly so when the friend succumbs to death. And there many ways in which John Wright brightened each day when a letter from him would arrive, many ways in which I appreciated this man from the other side of the planet. First of all, a part of me had to envy him for having been born soon enough to have been a fan of the Golden Age of Comics during the Golden Age itself—and yes, American (as well as British) comics did reach South Africa in the 1940s. Next to having the opportunity to discuss comics with professionals from the Golden Age (a commodity sadly declining, alas), I most value learning from the fans of that era what it had been like to be there: to actually purchase a Captain Marvel Adventures, All-Star Comics, or one of the early MLJ titles off the racks, and bathe in that sense of wonder. The following excerpt from a letter dated March 19, 1974, shows just one example of what I’m talking about:

Some years ago, the Archie company published a collection of Golden-Age Shield stories reprinted from the first several issues of Pep. I mentioned it to John in a letter, and it was evident from his reply that he was both keenly interested in the book and unlikely to find it on his own anywhere in South Africa. It seemed to me that if ever a book was made for a man, it was that book and that man, so I bought an extra copy and sent it to him. He may have no longer been an active collector, but he was still interested in these things and appreciated seeing his old favorites again now and then. In return, he was able to send me a few things on occasion, such as books in Afrikaans (the Dutch-derived language spoken in much of South Africa) when I had some interest in acquiring a reading knowledge of that language. It was one more project I never quite got around to, but the several Tarzan books translated into Afrikaans sitting on my shelf to this day remind me of John’s kindness when I see them. We continued to correspond off and on, but over the years it became more and more sporadic. It was probably my fault more than anything, as I was busy with various things and perhaps didn’t keep up with the exchange of letters as much as I should have. I may have assumed that John would always be around, and that one of these days, I’d get back to some serious letter-writing. One of these days, I’d do his letters justice, and maybe find out more about the man at the other end of the line and what he thought about things. Unfortunately, that day never came. Still,

The Captain And The Kid Another vintage photo of John—and that equally vintage Captain Marvel Jr. cover by Bud Thompson (from #29, April 1945) that cheered him up one sickday when he was a child. [CMJr cover ©2009 DC Comics.]

South African Comic Book Enthusiast

but John was also a moderately successful novelist, writing in the hardboiled detective genre, as well as a scripter for radio dramas (a field which lasted far longer in South Africa than it did in the USA). When I asked him for writing advice, he was glad to help, while simultaneously noting that “I am no expert, and I have never yet regarded myself as anything more than just another hack.”

Suddenly You’re An Author John contemplates the cover of one of his novels, Suddenly You’re Dead (1964). As “Wade Wright,” he wrote a series of detective and/or hard-boiled novels that attempted to capture the American idiom and succeeded at it remarkably well. [©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

“When I was a little kid I would frequently speculate with my younger brother on the joy of having a young version of CM [Captain Marvel]. Had we been given the right to do so, we decided, we’d have given him a blue uniform and scarlet cape, etc. Ah, but a dream. One day I was bedded down with some ailment. It was raining heavily and pretty cold, as I recall. My mom and brother had gone off to town. When they returned my brother looked like a very smug canary—the one that broke away from the cat—and proudly produced the very first Captain Marvel Jr. we’d ever seen. The cover showed Junior poised in the air, reindeer below, fire either encircling him or the background. Him, I think it was. Funny how quickly one can forget that they’re not well.” Or another: “The origin story of the Hangman featured some dreadful art, yet I was never conscious of that until I saw the story many years later on microfilm. Later, when the Hangman became a hit, MLJ hired better artists [...] just the thing for a character who was and rightly so featured in somewhat macabre stories. HM was always a favourite.”

Of course, being rooted so strongly in one era can impair appreciation for the contributions of later times, and this afflicted John, as well. As time went on, he moved farther and farther from the then-current scene, being quite critical of the revived versions of several old favorites, such as All-Star Comics in the 1970s: “I’d have thought DC would have made this a special 64-page edition, trying to keep the standards of the original publication. What really gets me is the dialogue between the characters. It’s bad enough in the Marvel [books], the bickering and moaning, but it seems out of place at DC.” And when I sent him copies of the “New Look” Shazam! (#34, 35), as well as follow-up stories in World’s Finest, he could only say, “These are impostors!” Another reason to appreciate John was the fact that he was a writer, and as a budding scribe myself, I wanted as much insight into the creative process as possible. I knew him first as a writer from his character, The White Dragon, from the pages of the Texas Trio’s Star-Studded Comics,

He went on to describe a possible approach (and the following description seems to be from one of his Paul Cameron novels, though it could simply be a hypothetical example for the purposes of showing me his thinking process): “I try to imagine a particular character with a desire for something, or a motive for doing something. Let’s say an old man seeking vengeance for a wife who has committed suicide. We give the man an identity. We get to know him, what he looks like, how he acts, what he likes, hates—and a lot of other things, many of which will never be used in the actual writing. Now let’s take the old man and place him in a particular place—an environment which could be wholly foreign to him. We ask questions. Why is he there? Why this place—these people? And the answers start coming, and so a plot starts to develop.”

But it was not just in fannish terms that I appreciated John. He and I were both evangelical Christians, and especially in later years that aspect of our lives formed a larger part of the discussion. Finally, we were both rarities in fandom, political conservatives. I wish that others could have read John’s descriptions of life in South Africa, which, according to him, was never accurately portrayed in the news media, something I have no reason to doubt at all. And re-reading some of his comments can be almost a spooky experience years later, as with this from October 7, 1973:

“As I write this there is war in the Middle East again and once again Israel is branded as the aggressor.” Finally, I appreciated John Wright just because he was a fine fellow, willing to take his time to correspond with fans from across the ocean. He was never arrogant or condescending. Quite the contrary, he was always a bit self-effacing, aware of his own limitations and with a healthy, balanced view of his own place in the grand scheme of things. Comics fandom has seen few like him. We shall not soon see his likes again, I fear.

Bill Schelly: One of the things that strikes me as I read over the pieces above is that none of us—Howard, Dwight, John, or I—ever met John Wright face to face. This is proof that friendships of remarkable depth can be made, even though communication takes place solely through the mails, whether “snail mail” or e-mail. Back to the 1960s, the postal service was about all we had. It was something almost unique to the era, since long-distance phone-calling became commonplace in subsequent decades, as did plane travel to comicons that brought fans together. Being an ocean apart from John—“across the puddle” to use his expression—was only a minor impediment. While I remember John from the days of early fandom, primarily for his prose story “The White Dragon Strikes Back!” in Star-Studded Comics #8 (March 1966), I didn’t begin corresponding with him until the 1990s when I was researching the history of fandom. In October 2003, John agreed to be interviewed for the new incarnation of Alter Ego. That interview, conducted by e-mail, provided a fascinating picture of a young man who grew up on the comics of the Golden Age. (His first, which he remembered vividly, was Superman #4.) By the time the interview was completed, John and I had gotten to know each other fairly well, and

John Wright, 1933-2008

Exit The Dragon continued to trade occasional emails up to a month or two before his passing.

(Above:) Introductory illustration by fan-artist Buddy Saunders (as “Don Fowler”) to John Wright’s prose tale of The White Dragon, when his creation leaped from The Komix to StarStudded Comics #8 (March 1966). [Art ©2009 Buddy Saunders; White Dragon created by John Wright.]

In 2005, when I was choosing what would be included in the Hamster Press book The Best of Star-Studded (Left:) John may have left us Comics, I made sure the excellent physically, but as this piece has “White Dragon” tale was in the mix— revealed, he left behind a legacy of but I decided to surprise John by not creativity and friendship that still telling him. It was a thrill to receive endures. his excited email when he got the book, and saw his story resurrected. “I can’t express how pleased I was to discover my story in Best of Star-Studded!” he wrote.

Well … this writer can’t express what a pleasure it was to have known John Wright. He was a true gentleman who brought a unique perspective to comicdom, and whose love of comic books was second to none. NOTE: We hasten to add that Alter Ego #35 & 36, featuring Bill Schelly’s two-part interview with John Wright, are still available from TwoMorrows Publishing. Bill’s book The Best of Star-Studded Comics, with John Wright’s “White Dragon” story, can be obtained through his web site www.billschelly.com, along with The Golden Age of Comic Fandom and others of our associate editor’s fine books. Copies of Man of Rock, Bill’s biography of Joe Kubert, may still be available through Amazon.com when this issue of A/E appears. You can reach Bill by email at: hamstrpres@aol.com

In Memoriam

Roger Armstrong (1917-2007)

“Everything You’d Want A Cartoonist To Be” by Mark Evanier

oger Armstrong, a giant in the world of cartooning and a teacher to countless art students, passed away in his sleep on Thursday, June 6, 2007, at the age of 89.

This is a very difficult obit to write, because Roger did so much and meant so much to so many people. I want to underscore, so it doesn’t get lost in the career details, that while he had an amazing life as a cartoonist, he had an equally important—perhaps more important—life as an art teacher and watercolor artist. His landscapes were exhibited in every major gallery in Southern California and hundreds of accomplished artists cite him as a great tutor and source of inspiration. He encouraged so many to paint and draw, and led by example. Roger Joseph Armstrong was born in Los Angeles on October 12, 1917. His father was a writer and a gagman for silent comedies at Mack Sennett and later a screenwriter for 20th Century-Fox. Roger began drawing about the time he started walking and by age 16 was selling cartoons to local advertising agencies. His first drawings adorned the walls of the Pacific Electric Streetcar Depot in downtown Los Angeles. He attended Chouniard Art Institute for two years (1938-1939), but when the family hit a bleak financial period, he was forced to quit art school and take a job at Lockheed working on airplanes. Soon after, through a mutual friend, he met Chase Craig, who was editing the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies comic book for Western Publishing, and Chase hired him away from Lockheed to draw Bugs Bunny comics. A quick aside. Roger always told people he was in the first issue of Looney Tunes. One San Diego Con, I bought a copy of that rare book, took it over to him, and asked him to point out his work in it, since I couldn’t seem to find it. Roger hadn’t seen the issue in 30-some-odd years, but he paged through it... and couldn’t find anything he’d drawn. With semi-mock horror, he wailed, “I’m ashamed! I wasn’t in the first issue of Looney Tunes!”

An Animated Life Young artist Roger Armstrong, in a photo provided by Mike Barrier—juxtaposed with panels from a Seven Dwarfs comic book published by Western and a Bugs Bunny daily from the 1970s. Thanks to the lambiek.net website, in the Netherlands, for the scans. [Seven Dwarfs art ©2009 Disney Productions, Inc.; Bugs Bunny strip ©2009 Time Warner, Inc.]

But he was in most of the ones that followed...for years after. Eleanor Packer, the senior editor at Western Publishing, hired him to draw other comics for the company, including many of their Disney and Walter Lantz comics. Packer also recommended him personally to Lantz, who hired Roger to work at his studio for several years as a layout artist and animator. He worked intermittently in animation but preferred the comic strip and book format. He drew several newspaper strips for long runs but somehow managed to never get his name on any of them. They included Napoleon and Uncle Elby, Ella Cinders, and Little Lulu. He also drew the Disney Scamp strip from 1978 to 1988. For Western, he drew most of the Disney comic books at one time or another, most notably those featuring Scamp, Pluto, Goofy (or Super Goof)... and he seemed to have a special affinity for the Seven Dwarfs whenever they needed to be drawn. He did all the Warner Bros. comics, but often specialized in Elmer Fudd and Porky Pig. He even dabbled occasionally in adventure-style comics and was pretty good at them, though he said they took so long he couldn’t make any money in that style. I worked with Roger a number of times, writing Super Goof during a period when he drew it, and on The Flintstones for a time. In the ’70s, we were hired to whip up a few weeks of a Woodsy Owl comic strip, but it failed to sell. He was also one of the first members of the Comic Art Professionals Society when we formed it. I have a very vivid memory of him arriving at the first meeting and being introduced to another charter member, Don R. Christensen. Roger had been drawing Don’s scripts for comic books for over 20 years—and this was the first time they’d met. Roger was everything you’d want a cartoonist to be. He was funny and he loved to draw. He sure did it well... and for a long time. As these words are written, I haven’t heard any details yet about a memorial service… but I can guarantee you that, if there is one, it’ll be packed with artists who’ll credit him as a champion, as a role model and most of all, as a good and glorious friend. This tribute has been slightly edited from the one that appeared on Mark Evanier’s website www.newsfromme.com in 2007, and is ©2009 Mark Evanier. Alter Ego regrets that circumstances prevented our printing it sooner.

bash to send us an account of a magical visit he and a friend paid Stan at his home in 1968—and we got such a kick out of it we wanted to share it with the rest of you: Dear Alter Ego, Kudos on your Stan Lee 85th birthday issue. The stories brought back a flood of memories surrounding my favorite period in comic book history, but more importantly, reminded me again of one of the most exciting afternoons of my childhood (and yes, maybe my life!)

re:

oy here, rushing headlong into our too-brief letters section concerning A/E #74, which was primarily a celebration of Stan Lee’s 85th birthday (he’s had another one since then) by means of reprinting several vintage interviews from the 1960s and ’70s. To that end, our esteemed honorary masthead artist Shane Foley contributed this exciting drawing of the mags two “maskots,” Alter Ego (on the left) and Captain Ego (minus his boy buddy Alter), locked in battle à la Jack Kirby as per the cover of Captain America #106 (Oct. 1968). Right on target, as ever, Shane! [Alter Ego TM & ©2009 Roy & Dann Thomas; Captain Ego TM & ©2009 Roy Thomas & Bill Schelly.] To start things off with a bang: it was gratifying to hear from Stan Lee himself about the tribute issue:

Hey, Roy— This evening was the first chance I had to really look through the latest Alter Ego issue. It seems I’m always asking you for something—well, this is an exception. I’ve got to thank you for reprinting that really generous piece you had run [in a Phil Seuling con program book]. I think it was an awfully good idea of yours to just run old interviews instead of having new ones—because there’s really nothing new I can say, and I think fans would find the old ones more interesting. At least I did! Only thing wrong with the issue is, being thrust into the public eye once more, I’ve gotta keep trying to act like a nice guy—and you know how tough that can be—especially when a fella has grown into an 85-yearold irascible curmudgeon. But what the hell, I always wanted to be an actor! Stan And to date you’ve appeared in what must be a dozen films, albeit mostly in cameo roles, with larger ones in Chasing Amy and The Ambulance. And, no offense, but your admirin’ Bullpen always thought the movies should’ve tapped you to play J. Jonah Jameson in the “Spider-Man” movies! You could’ve brought your own cigars. Next up: regular reader Irv Goldfarb was inspired by our Lee birthday

I grew up on Long Island, and when my friend Barry discovered that Stan lived near us, he became absolutely obsessed with finding Stan’s house. He became acquainted with a kid who I believe was named Richard Goodkind, and Richard claimed he lived right next door to Stan in Hewlett Harbor. (We weren’t sure of Richard’s veracity until we found an issue of Strange Tales, I think it was, which included a credit on the splash page, thanking a “Richard Goodkind” for the story idea. So this kid had to be telling the truth!)

Looking up the three-digit exchange for Hewlett Harbor, Barry began by calling every single combination of phone numbers that started with that exchange and asking total strangers, “Hi, is Stan Lee home?” And naturally, with Stan being a total unknown back then, most people replied “Stanley who?,“ then hung up. After a few nights of this, Barry went back to Richard Goodkind and, in passing conversation, found out his address. The rest was easy. We’d travel to Hewlett Harbor and look for Richard’s house; Stan had to live on one side of it or the other!

So, on a sunny summer afternoon in 1968, Barry and I set out for Stan’s upscale neighborhood on our bicycles, each armed with a Marvel mag for autographing. Finding the right street wasn’t too difficult, and with homes the size of mansions (at least to us) dotting the tree-lined roads, there was only one house that could really be called “next door” to the Goodkinds’. Parking our bikes out front, Barry boldly paraded up the front walk and I followed timidly behind. When no one replied at the front door, Barry decided to go around back. Thinking this might be rude, I tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn’t be stopped. We knocked at the back door and were surprised when an actual butler answered (at least, in the photo album of my adult memory, he was dressed like a butler!). Not rattled in the least, Barry asked him if Stan Lee was at home. With a smile, he told us to wait just a minute and disappeared. Shivering in anticipation, we shrugged nervously at each other and waited. When the butler returned, he simply said, “Stan’s out by the pool. This way...” and led us through a small kitchen (again, my inner snapshot recalls areas of clutter that I imagined to be Stan’s unfinished scripts lying right where he had left them, waiting to be completed). We emerged onto a back deck, bathed in bright sunlight, surrounding a huge built-in swimming pool (a true symbol of wealth back then), complete with two bikini-clad blondes lounging about its perimeter. Stan (45 years old at the time, I deduce) greeted us with a warm handshake and introduced the two women as his wife and daughter. (Could Barry and I get any more wide-eyed?) I remember a typewriter perched on a table on a raised deck, a sheet of paper still in the roll, and wondered again what issue of which book we caught him in the midst of writing. Stan offered us Cokes and we accepted, the butler bringing us two small green bottles, the kind you usually only found in restaurants. The rest is a 40-year old blur, as Stan sat with us and asked questions about our fandom; unfortunately, the only query I really recall is when he asked who our favorite Marvel hero was. I quickly and decisively replied

[correspondence, comments, & corrections]

thought he might). To my surprise, about a week or so later, I got a letter in the mail with a Marvel logo on the outside. Tearing it open, I found a typewritten note from Linda Fite (who, as a true Marvelite, I knew to be on staff at Marvel—and I am still enough of a fan to remember that she married artist Herb Trimpe years later). The note thanked us for our visit, but begged us to please never let anyone know where Stan lived, lest a horde of Marvel Madmen descend upon his abode. Needless to say, Barry and I never said a word to anyone! Now, in return for this loyalty of four decades, I have a favor to ask: About 15 years ago, a folder I owned of key Marvel books was lost (stolen, I really think), and my autographed Not Brand Echh #1 was among them. So, Stan, if you read Alter Ego, would it be okay if I send you another book to sign?? Please?? And thanks for your time and the Coke… True Believer Irv Goldfarb No. Woodmere, NY Hey, Stan—if you’re reading this, give the guy a break, okay? After all, he hasn’t bothered you for other forty years! A/E #74 also featured, as per usual, “Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!” presided over by Michael T. Gilbert, which that time spotlighted a piece by Will Murray on the 1940s “Thor” series in Fox’s Weird Comics, about which Jeff Taylor had this to say: Hi, Anytime you cover Stan Lee, we learn something (especially those early interviews that happened closer to the events in question and hadn’t let his infamously bad memory have time to forget things).

A Touch of the Poe-et A/E #74 also featured an illustrated article by Jerry K. Boyd on Stan’s many cameos over the years in Marvel comics, but here’s one we left out: a pulsatin’ portrait by Don Heck done for Chamber of Darkness #2 (Dec. 1969). Rascally Roy confesses, though, that ’twas he, as the story’s scripter, who put those wondrous words on Our Leader’s lips. [©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

“Spider-Man!” and when Stan nodded vigorously; Barry said the same. (This annoyed me no end, as the two of us had indulged in many arguments, with me touting Peter Parker, while Barry argued that Thor was his favorite character. Convinced that once Stan had met my choice with approval, Barry was merely kissing his butt, I made a face and said, “But Barry, you always said you liked Thor!” and Barry spun some story about how he had recently seen the light and changed his mind… Oh, sure!) 45 minutes passed like 45 seconds, and soon Stan was excusing himself and telling us he had to get back to his writing. Instinctively feeling that, indeed, we had been there longer than we ever could have expected, we thanked Stan profusely and asked him if he would please sign our books. I offered a copy of Marvel’s newest product, Not Brand Echh #1, which Stan personalized to me atop the splash page with a black Flair pen, adding a “Face Front!” (or was it a “Hang Loose?”—I can’t recall). Barry then handed him a copy of Spidey #1, which impressed Stan. “Wow, this thing’s like the Gutenberg Bible!” he declared, and we laughed, almost understanding the reference. We thanked him again and left, both fairly speechless. Upon arriving home, my mother made me write Stan a thank-you note and send it directly to his house. It included an invitation to visit my house if he was ever in the neighborhood (no, even at 13, I never seriously

[Re “Will Murray’s article on the Golden Age Thor”:] Although I’m sure [comics publisher] Victor Fox got threatened by lawyers more than a few times, I can’t help feeling that was not the case with this character. Based on prior events, when he was sued, he dropped or changed a superhero immediately rather than just tapered off as he did here, and certainly not by removing things that made the character unique, in this case Thor’s helmet and hammer. No, it seems to me that, regardless of his placement in Weird Comics, he was never considered a character with any real potential by Fox, which is why he never appeared on any of the covers and was handled so inconsistently. [Re “the ongoing fallacy of attributing The Moth to Jim Mooney” in the same article:] Actually, the character existed before the young artist came along, as an antenna-headed guy in a hooded cloak who would spread out his butterfly-like wings from beneath his cape as needed. According to an interview Mooney did in AC’s Men of Mystery Comics, it was only when he came on board that it was decided, either by the editor or by the artist himself, to make him more Batman-like to the extent of even adding the kid sidekick Blackie (whom he recruited right out of the orphanage!). As I understand it, though, this story never saw print in its original form, and The Moth had his dialogue relettered to become The Lynx, which explains why such a feline-sounding character still had the ability to fly! Jeff Taylor Thanks for clearing up the “Moth” matter, Jeff, and your opinion re “Thor/Dynamite Thor” has also been duly noted. We’ll let Michael and Will decide if they wish to respond. Now, with all the coverage this issue of early DC and Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, we’ve just space for a few further, truncated comments re A/E #74—to wit: On page 12 we reprinted a Steve Ditko Dr. Strange figure done in the 1960s for the fanzine Aurora. Its editor/publisher (and now veteran comics pro) Len Wein gave us this bit of additional info: “Basically, Ditko drew the Doc Strange shot for me on a ditto master and I traced over it so it would reproduce.” As for what a “ditto master” is—we’ll leave that to the technology-history majors among you to explain to the young and unini-

re:

Thor Loser As noted by Will Murray in A/E #74, Fox Comics’ less-than-successful hero Thor went through an odd permutation or two even before he was transmuted into “Dynamite Thor.” (Above:) In Weird Comics #1 (April 1940) he had a helmet, hammer, and long blond hair, foreshadowing the Lee-&-Kirby version of more than two decades later. Art by “Wright Lincoln,” whom Will identified as being the team of penciler Pierce Rice and inker Arturo Cazeneuve. (Top right:) But abruptly, in Weird #4, Thor lost those three mythological accoutrements, though in #5 he gained a pair of gauntlets, seen at right. The artist of these panels, which are from #4-5, is unknown. [©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

tiated. And, not at all incidentally, we want to extend our condolences to Len and his wife on the fire at their L.A.-area home earlier this year, where they lost a considerable collection of comics and original art and, even more regrettably, their beloved dog. But they’ve soldiered on, and are doing well. Nick Caputo informed us that the Stan Lee interviews from Changes and Comic Feature reprinted in A/E #74 originally came from magazines in his personal collection (by way of that issue’s special advisor, Barry Pearl)… while the Don Heck pencil sketch of The Vision had been drawn for Nick in 1975 in his Marvel Comics Convention program book. We apologize for the omission of credit. Nick also ID’d the Spidey fight on p. 31 as being with Luke Cage/Power Man, from Amazing Spider-Man #120, and says the Warriors Three illo on p. 27 looks to him like Ron Wilson inked by John Tartaglione. He likewise feels that, “while [John] Romita did touch up the other Spider-Man figure from Esquire, the image you presented appears to be solely by Kirby-Sinnott. Note the errors in where the webbing is placed on the legs and back, and lack of spider symbol on back, mistakes Romita would have corrected.” Longtime fan-publisher Jim Van Hise informed us that the aforementioned Comic Feature interview with Stan was actually already a

[correspondence, comments, & corrections]

UnCaged Carl Taylor, longtime fan artist, likewise sent us the information that Gil Kane art we repro’d in A/E #74 was from Amazing SpiderMan #120—and he accompanied the info with both a sketch of Luke Cage, and with several drawings of our “maskot” Alter Ego, including this one where he’s shown battling Iron Jaw, a baddie whose name we forget, and Gemini (from Marvel’s criminal group Zodiac). Thanks, Carl! [Luke Cage TM & ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.; Alter Ego TM & ©2009 Roy & Dann Thomas; other characters TM & ©2009 the respective trademark and copyright owners.]

retread—from the long-running Rocket’s Blast-ComiCollector fanzine, which Jim himself has published and edited in recent years. Having dealt only with Barry Pearl and the interviewer, we were unaware of that fact, but again want to give credit where credit is due. Incidentally, folks wanting a list of available back issues of RB-CC can write Jim at 57754 Onaga Trail,

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Yucca Valley, CA 92284, or via e-mail at Jimvanhise@aol.com—and he can also be “found” on eBay as “Jimvanhise,” where he has an “eBay store” that features comics fanzines. David Allen e-mailed us re “Stan’s late-’60s comments about ‘McCarthy, including bracketed inserts ‘clarifying’ that he meant Senator Joseph McCarthy,” saying that Stan was obviously actually referring to “Democrat Eugene McCarthy, the anti-Vietnam War Presidential candidate. Joseph was about as similar to Eugene as Dr. Doom is to Aunt May.” That was my error, David. Chet Cox confirmed that the cover of the issue of Castle of Frankenstein magazine shown on p. 5 “was indeed [that of] the issue in which Stan’s interview appeared—mostly. Part of the interview had appeared in the previous issue… and there was about a year between issues!” Thanks for the additional info, Chet—though, by squinting real hard, we’d meanwhile managed to read the words “Stan Lee” on the covers, typeset in some sort of quasi-legible Art-Deco-cum-Ringling-Brothers font. Michel Maillot advised us that it was either he or Owen O’Leary, not Rich Donnelly, who’d sent us copies of unused John Buscema Captain America #115 penciled panels that appeared in #74. More such discarded art can be seen on his website at http://comicartfans.com/GalleryPlace.asp. “Comic Crypt” editor Michael T. Gilbert pointed out that, near the beginning of his section in A/E #74, I inserted the inaccurate statement that Jack Cole had created the original Daredevil for Lev Gleason Publications. I apologize; like Michael, I was well aware (but momentarily forgot) that the Golden Age DD’s first story (in Silver Streak #6, Sept. 1940) was drawn by Jack Binder (and reputedly written by the late Don Rico)… with Cole taking over in issue #2, wherein he partly redesigned the costume. Send those criticisms and commentary to: Roy Thomas Bluebird Trail St. Matthews, SC 29135

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

We’ll be waiting in October—in our Halloween costumes (probably wearing a sheet as Casper the Friendly Ghost), carrying a stack of Harvey horror comics from the 1950s!

scenes of a yarn, not to be seen again until the next story … or issue. Rarely did his participation make much difference one way or another with the plot. Once in a while, though, it did, as in “Captain Marvel and the Grand Steeplechase” (Whiz Comics #38, Dec. 1942) where he begins at his customary household chores and stays with the action to the closing scenes. In “Captain Marvel and His Country Cousin” (Captain Marvel Adventures #26, Aug. 1943) he appears on page 5 of the story for a brief introduction of Captain Marvel to the story’s ordeals. In “The Revolt of the Shadows” (Captain Marvel Adventures #17, Nov. 1942) he has an action-packed part from start to finish.

[FCA EDITORS NOTE: From 1941-53, Marcus D. Swayze was a top artist for Fawcett Publications. The very first Mary Marvel character sketches came from Marc’s drawing table, and he illustrated her earliest adventures, including the classic origin story, “Captain Marvel Introduces Mary Marvel (Captain Marvel Adventures #18, Dec. ’42); but he was primarily hired by Fawcett Publications to illustrate Captain Marvel stories and covers for Whiz Comics and Captain Marvel Adventures. He also wrote many Captain Marvel scripts, and continued to do so while in the military. After leaving the service in 1944, he made an arrangement with Fawcett to produce art and stories for them on a freelance basis out of his Louisiana home. There he created both art and stories for The Phantom Eagle in Wow Comics, in addition to drawing the Flyin’ Jenny newspaper strip for Bell Syndicate (created by his friend and mentor Russell Keaton). After the cancellation of Wow, Swayze produced artwork for Fawcett’s top-selling line of romance comics, including Sweethearts and Life Story. After the company ceased publishing comics, Marc moved over to Charlton Publications, where he ended his comics career in the mid-’50s. Marc’s ongoing professional memoirs have been a vital part of FCA since his first column appeared in FCA #54, 1996. Last issue, Marc discussed the urge he had to be in front of both drawing board and typewriter. In this issue’s installment, he touches upon Fawcett’s most controversial character—Billy Batson’s lovable, faithful valet and friend … Steamboat. —P.C. Hamerlinck.]

Unfortunately, there came a time when Steamboat’s inclusion in the cast began to have meanings other than those intended … his presence began to be viewed with disfavor. There were new changes afoot. It was a new day … for entertainment … for comics … for our land. I liked Steamboat, but he had to go. It was that role he played … that humble domestic of lowly esteem. People didn’t like it. So the Fawcett minds didn’t like it. The announcement was received with a memo rejecting a story idea I had submitted … a story featuring the character. The memo explained: “Steamboat is being phased out.” Phased out. So be it. May he rest in peace … Sometimes, though … when you look up … and standing there right next to your table … hands on the hips … puzzled frown on the face … you know!

o you ever, in reviewing those old comic books, run across a character that you’d just about forgotten completely, but who suddenly appears before you with hands on the hips, puzzled frown on the face … almost audibly demanding: “Why haven’t I been hearing from you before now?” That has been an occasional experience around here for some time, and the individual involved, a character from some of the very early Captain Marvel stories, has been a fellow by the name of “Steamboat.” Remember him? Steamboat didn’t work for Captain Marvel. He was Billy Batson’s valet, faithful friend, and confidant. Billy, you’ll recall, was Captain Marvel’s alter ego … the kid who could utter the word “Shazam” and become the World’s Mightiest Mortal. Come on … you remember! It has been difficult to determine for certainty a satisfactory classification for Steamboat … whether as a regular member of the cast, the Captain Marvel “family” … or just another … as the movie people might say … another “extra.” He would show up at times in the early

“Faithful Valet” Rarely did Steamboat’s “participation make much difference one way or another with the plot.” A scene from “Captain Marvel and the Grand Steeplechase” in Whiz Comics #38 (Dec. 1942). Script by Marc Swayze. [©2009 DC Comics.]

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

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Camp And Satire In Comics A Previously Unpublished 1987 Essay By The Artistic Co-Creator Of Captain Marvel by C.C. Beck Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck, from his Beck Estate archives

ccording to Rodale’s Synonym Finder, “camp” is “deliberately exaggerated affectation, display, posing, posturing,” or “banality, inanity, vapidity, garishness, gaudiness, lack of subtlety or refinement.” Comic book art has always been somewhat exaggerated and lacking in subtlety, but in recent years it has become so vapid, garish, and gaudy that it can now quite truthfully be called “camp art.” Why anyone would want to put such things into comic books is beyond my understanding, but that many comic books are garish, gaudy, and lacking in subtlety or refinement cannot be denied.

Camp in comics first came full-blown when Batman was put into television form. Comic characters are exaggerated to begin with, but they are acceptable because they are not realistically drawn and their actions take place in the unrealistic world of the imagination, where all kinds of strange things can happen without offending anyone. Comics are dreams made visible, and everyone knows that dreams are illogical and not true to life. Dreams are also nonsensical and usually quite boring when related to others. The better comic stories and characters are kept from being boring by being written and drawn by people who know how to condense, simplify, and eliminate the worst nonsense in dreams, making their product seem to be almost logical and believable—even though it stretches the imagination a bit. The better comics are never boring but can entertain readers week after week, month after month, and sometimes for generations. When comic characters are made into movie and television performers wearing costumes and makeup, they become silly and unbelievable. The more trick shots and special effects are added by producers, the more unbelievable the shows become. When “splats” and “booms” and “pows” are added in cartoon-style lettering, all appeal to the imagination is destroyed; the viewers are insulted by having things thrown in their faces. Batman became camp in its second definition: banal, inane, vapid, garish, gaudy, and lacking in subtlety or refinement. It was too deliberately exaggerated from its cartoon form by people who used no restraint but overdid everything and then threw it into the viewers’ faces as if pelting them with garbage and offal. There are people who love camp more than anything else. Old-time melodramas were exaggerated and affected, but they were never so filled with posing and posturing as today’s movies, television shows, and comic books are. Today’s comic characters flaunt their muscles, display their physical attributes, show off their powers, exult in their eccentricity, and prance about like peacocks. Lovers of camp adore such depravity. It is the strutting and flouncing about that I find most objectionable in today’s comics. Not only do the characters in today’s comics strut about showing off their attributes like peacocks displaying their tail feathers, but the writers display their skill at mishandling and mutilating the English language. The artists flaunt their ability to distort the human figure, to break their page layouts into album-like paste-ups of unrelated pictures, and insult the readers’ eyes with unreadable sound effects … cramped and

“Holy Curmudgeon!” Pow! Splat! Here comes actor Adam West, seen here in his renowned role as the Caped Crusader. C.C. Beck felt that the ’60s Batman TV show fell under his dictionary’s second definition of “camp”: “banal, inane, vapid, garish, gaudy, and lacking in subtlety or refinement” and that Batman was “deliberately exaggerated from its cartoon form by people who used no restraint but overdid everything.” [Batman TM & ©2009 DC Comics.]

jammed-in multiple word balloons, and totally uncalled-for exhibits of their mastery of chiaroscuro, technique, and startlingly realistic (but out of place) art. Satire is, according to my dictionary, “sarcasm, wit, irony.” There are two ways in which satire can be used. It can be used to belittle things and make them ridiculous (laugh-provoking,) or it can be used to magnify things and make them loathsome. Jonathan Swift, in Gulliver’s Travels,

Camp And Satire In Comics

boob who will swallow anything being offered to them. When satire fails, it usually does so because readers get the impression that someone is making fun of them instead of entertaining them with a story. Like camp, satire must never be overdone to the point where readers begin to believe that the real world contains the things seen in comic books or described in imaginative fiction. Swift had giants who were 72 feet tall and talking horses and filthy, bestial caricatures of humans called “yahoos” in his Gulliver’s Travels, but he placed them all in strange, far-off, undiscovered lands; he didn’t bring them to London or Paris or Tokyo as the makers of phony sciencefiction and horror movies do. Edgar Rice Burrough’s Tarzan was a satire, so deftly handled that hardly anyone realized that Burroughs was poking fun at the insufferably perfect British lord who was the hero of popular novels of his time. Sherlock Holmes was a satire; so were the characters in the early comic strips from which comic books were derived. All the old mythical gods and goddesses and heroes and evil demons were satires, not descriptions of real people. When artists make too realistic statues and paintings of mythical creatures they lose their power and become silly, unbelievable nonsense.

“Holy Corn Muffins!” Lunita, the Moon Witch, serenades Fatman into a “dance” in this camp example from Fatman the Human Flying Saucer #2 (June 1967)—written by Otto Binder and illustrated by C.C. Beck. While in 1987 the artist wondered why anyone would want to put “camp art” into comic books, he had obviously made some exceptions two decades earlier. See the next article. [©2009 respective copyright holders.]

Satire is a powerful weapon. In the right hands it can cut through the fetters and blindfolds which keep us from enjoying our lives. In the wrong hands, satire will destroy not only a great number of innocent, trusting souls—but the ones who are using it ignorantly and stupidly.

made the human race ridiculous by reducing its members to a few inches high and then poking fun at their pretentious behavior. George Orwell, in The Animal Farm, made communism loathsome by enlarging the powers of pigs to human proportions and then having the pigs enslave the other farm animals while chanting, “All animals are equal but pigs are more equal than anyone else.” In comic books, satire—like many other things—is often used for no apparent purpose. It is simply “thrown in,” as it were, to show off the writer’s or the artist’s skill. When it is used in this way, satire is pointless and confusing because the reader doesn’t know why it’s being used. It is then as out of place and useless as are displays of weird perspective, lessons in human anatomy, and examples of “artistic” layout and design, all of which are quite meaningless to comic book readers. To be effective, satire must always be presented quite seriously. The most outrageous distortions of real people and real things must be presented with perfectly straight faces by the writer and the artist. The readers know perfectly well that they are being kidded along, but they don’t want to be treated like a

“Secret Desires” Satire was never overdone—but was frequently applied—in “Captain Marvel” stories. Panels from “The Secret Life of Captain Marvel”–Captain Marvel Adventures #77 (Oct. 1947). Script by Otto Binder; art by C.C. Beck. [Shazam! hero TM & ©2009 DC Comics.]

High Camp HijinXXX The Human Flying Saucer’s Bizarre Landing by P.C. Hamerlinck

atman the Human Flying Saucer’s exuberant three-issue existence of “high camp” heroics and corny cuisine wisecracks lived for only a brief five-month period in the year of 1967.

The character was the creation of former Fawcett Publications executive comics editor Will Lieberson and his brother Martin, along with their friend Bernie Miller and his brother Joe. The foursome, after lamenting the glory days of Captain Marvel’s supremacy on the newsstands, and witnessing a mid-’60s super-hero resurgence in the marketplace, combined their last names and formed Milson Publishing Company, Inc.

“Take a Memo” Milson immediately retained the vastly competent services of Captain Marvel’s top creative team during the Golden Age of Comics—writer Otto Binder and artist C.C. Beck—to script and illustrate a new comic book character bestowed with three identities, and to be published under Milson’s “Lightning Comic” banner. (Other Fawcett alumni were eventually ushered in: former Captain Marvel/Marvel Family editor Wendell Crowley received a pressing call from Lieberson to edit and write stories for Fatman’s 3rd issue in order to help smooth over Binder and Beck’s first-ever battles with “creative differences”; later on, former Fawcett comics editor/writer Rod Reed wrote a script for the aborted 4th issue.)

A 1953 Will Lieberson gag drawing from a card given to him by the Fawcett comics staff to commemorate his 10-year anniversary as their executive editor. (The card, written by John Messmann, drawn by Ed Ashe and Carl Pfeufer, and lettered by Al Jetter, was seen in its entirety in the out-of-print TwoMorrows book Fawcett Companion.) [©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

A wealthy and portly young man named Van Crawford, still living at home with his disappointed parents, spent his days bird-watching, growing orchids, collecting puppets, and raiding the refrigerator. As Fatman, he was a colossal, lumbering parody of a super-hero dressed in a self-made green costume. And when he managed to get up a fast enough running start, Fatman was able to rapidly turn himself into a metal Human Flying Saucer and whisk away into the sky. Binder and Beck were paid by Milson for their work on the three Fatman issues—and were actually promised a share of the publisher’s profits when they’d start rolling in. But there were never any proceeds gained from Milson’s initial $64,000 investment—flushed away by failure to arrange for proper distribution of the book. Milson filed for bankruptcy shortly after the three issues were completed—and before the cumbersome comical hero had a chance to compete in the mounting Silver Age super-hero renaissance. With exception to possible blurbs in small-press, mimeographed fanzines, very few welcoming media outlets existed at that time where one could properly market a new comic book. These austere realities were perceptibly manifested with an absurd and ineffectual endeavor spear-

“Naked Lunch” At left is the notorious issue of Will Lieberson’s adult sleaze-mag Monsieur (Dec. 1966) containing “Will Little’s” article vainly promoting his latest business venture: Fatman the Human Flying Saucer. Our censor-serving panel inset—of the always-hungry hero, Fatman—is taken from FM #1 (April 1967). [©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

High Camp HijinXXX

headed by Will Lieberson to market Fatman within one of his pornographic magazines. The demise of Fawcett’s line of comics during the 1950s resulted in a panic-induced dispersion of its creators—talented individuals who desperately sought to latch onto any ventures that could be equally (or even remotely) as lucrative as Captain Marvel and company had been for them the previous decade. One of the Captain’s castaways, former Fawcett comics executive editor William H. Lieberson left the company to publish and edit a succession of self-created magazine failures, including TV Junior, Military Life, and HiFi/Camera World before ultimately succumbing to peddling adult sleaze periodicals such as Jem and Monsieur. (Lieberson eventually went on to fulfill his aspirations of working as a theatre director on and off Broadway. He died on January 15, 1995.) Lieberson edited Monsieur under the pseudonym “Will Martin”; the Fatman article, “UFO Identified,“ appeared in its Dec. 1966 issue—four months prior to Fatman’s comic book debut—and was written by “Will Little” (another Lieberson non de plume). Adding to the unfortunate peculiarities, a smiling Fatman was incongruously displayed in between photos of exposed ladies in the magazine’s table of contents. Monsieur contained “Kicking It Around,” a column of hackneyed adult humor by former Fawcett comics editor/writer Rod Reed; another of the magazine’s columns were by Joe Miller (a Milson partner) and Kenneth Dennis (editor of Fatman #1), who was also Monsieur’s managing editor (as “Richard B. Kendennis”) and author of several articles within the

magazine (under several different pseudonyms, of course). Lieberson may have fruitlessly convinced himself that potential new fans of Fatman—i.e., readers of the old “Captain Marvel” stories—had now moved on to considerably more explicit and salacious forms of entertainment. His Fatman article, proudly proclaiming Binder and Beck as “pop literary heroes,” also described the World’s Mightiest Mortal as “immortal” and an “often clumsy galoot” who was once a big favorite with “the real swingers”; his “high camp” tag for Cap was more pop culture jargon from that era. Additionally, Lieberson took a well-deserved jab at Myron Fass’ Captain Marvel that was being published at the time, and made a point to positively plug Milson’s other upcoming comic—the halfheartedly-conceived Super Green Beret, Otto Binder’s abysmal war/superhero hybrid, set within the increasingly unpopular war in Vietnam. Alas, Fatman’s frolics were fried and barbequed—but the series may have at least served as a catalyst for the revival of the original Captain Marvel that following decade. It’s highly improbable that Will Lieberson’s futile “promotion” of Fatman, found tucked inside one of his dirty magazines, was of any consequence to anyone. Yet, for the sake of comic book history, we re-present the article “UFO Identified” by Will Little (Will Lieberson), as published in Monsieur Vol. 9, #2 (Dec. 1966): Shazam! A bolt of lightning! A clap of thunder!

“Whiz Banged” Holy Moley! Here’s the opening two-page spread of the “Fatman” article from Monsieur (Dec. ’66), drawn especially for Will Lieberson by Captain Marvel/Fatman artist C.C. Beck. But the article erroneously lists 1952 as the year Fawcett stopped publishing comic books; in reality, it was 1953. [©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

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adults. (Yes, adults. The Captain was a big favorite with GIs, the campus crowd, and the real swingers everywhere else.) Although there was no such expression back then, the only way to describe Captain Marvel is that he was “high camp.” Since this is all true, you are probably wondering what I meant when I said “Captain Marvel was the greatest comic character of all time—that is, until now.” Well, before all his old fans start a movement to deport me for un-American activity, I’ll explain. It’s just that Beck and Binder, for the first time since 1952 when a court order sent Captain Marvel out to pasture, have joined forces again, and are using their great talents on a new comic book character, Fatman, The Human Flying Saucer. Judging from the sneak preview they gave me of the first issue, this new character has every chance of not only matching Captain Marvel’s popularity, but of surpassing it. (The Captain Marvel now on the stands has nothing to do with the old comic book hero or with Beck and Binder. It’s just a cheap attempt to cash in on the Captain Marvel name and would be a bad comic no matter what they called it). It isn’t that Beck and Binder hadn’t thought of teaming up before this, but that nothing ever came along that mutually fired their imaginations until the Fatman. Up till now, Charlie was content to do other types of art work down in Miami, while Otto wrote science-fiction and other comics. (Actually, this seems to be a fertile period for Binder because while he and Beck are collaborating on Fatman, Otto is also working on another new comic book character that is about to come out on the stands any day now, Super Green Beret. This, too, looks like a real winner, since it combines authentic war action with a dual-identity character, a boy turned super soldier.)

This Time Around, “S” Probably Wouldn’t Have Stood For The Wisdom Of Solomon! Actually, a third comic was planned from Milson/Lightning: Captain Shazam, about which little was ever revealed, alas—but that phrase “a turned-on super swinger!” doesn’t exactly make one’s mental mouth water, does it? At that time, the word “Shazam,” not being under trademark by Fawcett or anyone else, could have been appropriated by Lieberson and the boys. Thanks to Jeff Gelb. [©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

But who appears? Captain Marvel, the greatest comic book character of all time—that is, up until now? No, not Captain Marvel, but the two live characters most responsible for the Captain’s solid niche in the Hall of Fame’s contemporary wing dedicated to pop literary heroes—Beck and Binder. That’s right, artist C. C. Beck and writer Otto Binder, who teamed to make him the number one seller of all times in the comics field. Captain Marvel sold two million copies a month. It took his nearest rival, Superman, two months to sell half as many copies. The reason for Captain Marvel’s unparallel success can be pinpointed to the fantastic imagination of Charlie Beck, who brought the solidly packed and excitingly-plotted scripts of Otto Binder to life. Yes, life, because to everyone who worked on Captain Marvel, as well as to all his fans, the immortal, but bashful and often clumsy galoot in the fancy red long-johns, was a real as the guy sitting next to you right now. Although every Captain Marvel script was loaded with action, so were the stories in many rival comics. What made Captain Marvel so special was that the scripts were written and drawn with a subtle, tongue-in-cheek sense of humor that made it possible for him to be accepted on one level by the kids, and on another by the

Although there is no similarity between Captain Marvel and Fatman, Beck’s style of drawing is so distinctive (and excellent) that anyone who would recognize Marvel will immediately know that The Human Flying Saucer is being done by the same artist. As for the Binder scripts, while they are custom-written for Fatman, they, nevertheless, will have a great deal of the original Captain Marvel secret formula which will delight all the old Marvel fans, as well as the countless millions of youngsters who will now get a chance to see what a great comic character is really like. We would like to describe a typical Fatman adventure, but there’s nothing typical about this original character or his adventures. The format gives Beck and Binder a limitless horizon in which to set their stories—on earth, in outer space, below the sea, or anyplace else an ordinary, chubby, next-door-sort-of-guy, who can change himself into a Human Flying Saucer, can find action. Long live Fatman! Long may he eat! And that goes for all those connected with him.

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WHE % N YO ORD U ONL ER INE!

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COMIC BOOK PODCAST COMPANION Comic book podcasts have taken the Internet by storm, and now TwoMorrows offers you the chance to go behind the scenes of ten of today's top comic book podcasts via all-new interviews with the casts of AROUND COMICS, WORD BALLOON, QUIET! PANELOLOGISTS AT WORK, COMIC BOOK QUEERS, iFANBOY, THE CRANKCAST, THE COLLECTED COMICS LIBRARY, THE PIPELINE PODCAST, COMIC GEEK SPEAK, and TwoMorrows’ own TUNE-IN PODCAST! Also featured are new interviews about podcasting and comics on the Internet with creators MATT FRACTION, TIM SEELEY, and GENE COLAN. You'll also find a handy guide of what you’ll need to start your own podcast, an index of more than thirty great comic book podcasts, numerous photos of your favorite podcasters, and original art from COLAN, SEELEY, DC's MIKE NORTON, and many more! By ERIC HOUSTON, with a spectacular new cover by MIKE MANLEY. (128-page trade paperback) $15.95 • ISBN: 9781605490182 • Now shipping!

ALL-STAR COMPANION Volume 4 The epic series of ALL-STAR COMPANIONS goes out with a bang, featuring: Colossal coverage of the Golden Age ALL-STAR COMICS! Sensational secrets of the JUNIOR JUSTICE SOCIETY! An index of the complete solo adventures of all 18 original JSAers in their own features, from 1940 to 1951! The JSA's earliest imitators (Seven Soldiers of Victory, All Winners Squad, Marvel Family, and International Crime Patrol)! INFINITY, INC. on Earth-Two and after! And the 1980s SECRET ORIGINS series! With rare art by ALEX ROSS, TODD McFARLANE, JERRY ORDWAY, CARMINE INFANTINO, JOE KUBERT, ALEX TOTH, GIL KANE, MURPHY ANDERSON, IRWIN HASEN, MORT MESKIN, GENE COLAN, WAYNE BORING, GEORGE TUSKA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, GEORGE FREEMAN, DON NEWTON, JACK BURNLEY, MIKE MACHLAN, HOWARD CHAYKIN, DICK DILLIN, and others. Edited by ROY THOMAS.

CAPTAIN ACTION: THE ORIGINAL SUPERHERO ACTION FIGURE

(240-page trade paperback) $27.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490045 Now shipping!

(Hardcover 2nd Edition)

CAPTAIN ACTION was introduced in 1966 in the wake of the Batman TV show craze, and later received his own DC comic book with art by WALLY WOOD and GIL KANE. Able to assume the identities of 13 famous super-heroes, his initial career was short-lived, but continuing interest in the hero has led to two different returns to toy-store shelves. Lavishly illustrated with over 200 toy photos, this FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER SECOND EDITION chronicles the history of this quick-changing champion, including photos of virtually EVERY CAPTAIN ACTION PRODUCT ever released, spotlights on his allies ACTION BOY and the SUPER QUEENS and his arch enemy DR. EVIL, an examination of his comic-book appearances, and “Action facts” that even the most diehard Captain Action fan won’t know! The original softcover edition has been sold out for years, but this revised, full-color hardcover second edition includes behind-the-scenes coverage of CAPTAIN ACTION’S TRIUMPHANT 2008 RETURN to comics shelves in his new series from Moonstone Books, and spotlights the new wave of Captain Action collectibles. Written by MICHAEL EURY. (176-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490175 • Now shipping!

MARVEL COMICS IN THE 1960s: An Issue-By-Issue Field Guide

The comic book industry experienced an unexpected flowering in the early 1960s, compliments of Marvel Comics, and this book presents a step-by-step look at how a company that had the reputation of being one of the least creative in a generally moribund industry, emerged as one of the most dynamic, slightly irreverent and downright original contributions to an era when pop-culture emerged as the dominant force in the artistic life of America. In scores of handy, easy to reference entries, MARVEL COMICS IN THE 1960s takes the reader from the legendary company’s first fumbling beginnings as helmed by savvy editor/writer STAN LEE (aided by such artists as JACK KIRBY and STEVE DITKO), to the full maturity of its wild, colorful, offbeat grandiosity. With the history of Marvel Comics in the 1960s divided into four distinct phases, author PIERRE COMTOIS explains just how Lee, Kirby, Ditko, and others created a line of comic books that, while grounded in the traditional elements of panel-to-panel storytelling, broke through the juvenile mindset of a low brow industry and provided a tapestry of full blown pop culture icons. (224-page trade paperback) $27.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490168 • Ships August 2009

GRAILPAGES:

Original Comic Book Art And The Collectors GRAILPAGES brings to light the burgeoning hobby of collecting the original, hand-drawn art that is used to create comic books! Beginning more as a novelty, the hobby of collecting original comic art has expanded to a point where some of the seminal pages commonly run more than $10,000 each. Author STEVEN ALAN PAYNE lets you meet collectors from around the globe and hear their passion in their own words, as they detail collections ranging from a few key pages, to broad, encompassing collections of literally hundreds of pages of original comic art by such artists as JACK KIRBY, JOHN ROMITA SR., and others! Balancing out the narratives are incisive interviews with industry pros, including writers GERRY CONWAY, STEVE ENGLEHART, and ROY THOMAS, and exclusive perspectives from Silver Age artists DICK GIORDANO, BOB McLEOD, ERNIE CHAN, TONY DeZUNIGA, and the unparalleled great, GENE COLAN! Completing the book is a diverse sampling of breathtakingly beautiful original comic art, some lavishly presented in full-page spreads, including pages not seen publicly for decades. Fans of comic art, comic books, and pop culture will find in GRAILPAGES an appreciation for a uniquely American form of art! (128-page trade paperback) $15.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490151 Diamond Order Code: JAN094470 • Now shipping!

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

2007 EISNER AWARD WINNER Best Comics-Related Periodical

Go online for an ULTIMATE BUNDLE, with all the issues at HALF-PRICE!

DIEGDITITIOANL ONLY!

ALTER EGO #1

ALTER EGO #2

ALTER EGO #3

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

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

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

(80-page magazine) SOLD OUT (Digital Edition) $2.95

(100-page magazine) $5.95

DIEGDITITIOANL ONLY!

ALTER EGO #4

ALTER EGO #5

ALTER EGO #6

ALTER EGO #7

ALTER EGO #8

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

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

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

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

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

(100-page magazine) $5.95

(100-page magazine) SOLD OUT (Digital Edition) $2.95

(100-page magazine) $5.95

ALTER EGO #9

ALTER EGO #10

ALTER EGO #11

ALTER EGO #12

ALTER EGO #13

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

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

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

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

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

(100-page magazine) $5.95

ALTER EGO #14

ALTER EGO #15

ALTER EGO #16

ALTER EGO #17

ALTER EGO #18

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

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

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

Spotlighting LOU FINE (with an overview of his career, and interviews with family members), interview with MURPHY ANDERSON about Fine, ALEX TOTH on Fine, ARNOLD DRAKE interviewed about DEADMAN and DOOM PATROL, MR. MONSTER on the non-EC work of JACK DAVIS and GEORGE EVANS, FINE and LUIS DOMINGUEZ COVERS, FCA and more!

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

(100-page magazine) $5.95

(108-page magazine) $5.95

ALTER EGO #19

ALTER EGO #20

ALTER EGO #21

ALTER EGO #22

ALTER EGO #23

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

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

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

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

(108-page magazine) $5.95

The IGER “SHOP” examined, with art by EISNER, FINE, ANDERSON, CRANDALL, BAKER, MESKIN, CARDY, EVANS, BOB KANE, and TUSKA, “SHEENA” section with art by DAVE STEVENS & FRANK BRUNNER, ROY THOMAS on the JSA and All-Star Squadron, more UNSEEN 1946 ALL-STAR ART, MR. MONSTER on GARDNER FOX, FCA, and more! DAVE STEVENS and IRWIN HASEN covers!

(108-page magazine) $5.95

ALTER EGO #24

ALTER EGO #25

ALTER EGO #26

ALTER EGO #27

ALTER EGO #28

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

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

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

VIN SULLIVAN interview about the early DC days with art by SHUSTER, MOLDOFF, FLESSEL, GUARDINEER, and BURNLEY, MR. MONSTER’s “Lost” KIRBY HULK covers, 1948 NEW YORK COMIC CON with STAN LEE, SIMON & KIRBY, JULIUS SCHWARTZ, HARVEY KURTZMAN, and ROY THOMAS, ALEX TOTH, FCA, and more! Covers by JACK BURNLEY and JACK KIRBY!

Spotlight on JOE MANEELY, with a career overview, remembrance by his daughter and tons of art, Timely/Atlas/Marvel art by ROMITA, EVERETT, SEVERIN, SHORES, KIRBY, and DITKO, STAN LEE on Maneely, LEE AMES interview, FCA with SWAYZE, ISIS, and STEVE SKEATES, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, and more! Covers by JOE MANEELY and DON NEWTON!

(108-page magazine) $5.95

ALTER EGO #29

ALTER EGO #30

ALTER EGO #31

ALTER EGO #32

ALTER EGO #33

FRANK BRUNNER interview, BILL EVERETT’S Venus examined by TRINA ROBBINS, Classics Illustrated “What ifs”, LEE/KIRBY/DITKO Marvel prototypes, JOE MANEELY’s monsters, BILL FRACCIO interview, ALEX TOTH, MR. MONSTER, JOHN BENSON on EC, The Heap by ERNIE SCHROEDER, and FCA! Covers by FRANK BRUNNER and PETE VON SHOLLY!

ALEX ROSS on his love for the JLA, BLACKHAWK/JLA artist DICK DILLIN, the super-heroes of 1940s-1980s France (with art by STEVE RUDE, STEVE BISSETTE, LADRÖNN, and NEAL ADAMS), KIM AAMODT & WALTER GEIER on writing for SIMON & KIRBY, ALEX TOTH, MR. MONSTER, and FCA! Covers by ALEX ROSS and STEVE RUDE!

DICK AYERS on his 1950s and ’60s work (with tons of Marvel Bullpen art), HARLAN ELLISON’s Marvel Age work examined (with art by BUCKLER, SAL BUSCEMA, and TRIMPE), STAN LEE’S Marvel Prototypes (with art by KIRBY and DITKO), Christmas cards from comics greats, MR. MONSTER, & FCA with SWAYZE and SCHAFFENBERGER! Covers by DICK AYERS and FRED RAY!

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

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

(108-page magazine) $5.95

ALTER EGO #34

ALTER EGO #35

ALTER EGO #36

ALTER EGO #37

ALTER EGO #38

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

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

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

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

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

(108-page magazine) $5.95

ALTER EGO #39

ALTER EGO #40

ALTER EGO #41

ALTER EGO #42

ALTER EGO #43

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

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

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

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

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

(108-page magazine) $5.95

ALTER EGO #44

ALTER EGO #45

ALTER EGO #46

ALTER EGO #47

ALTER EGO #48

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

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

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

Spotlights MATT BAKER, Golden Age cheesecake artist of PHANTOM LADY! Career overview, interviews with BAKER’s half-brother and nephew, art from AL FELDSTEIN, VINCE COLLETTA, ARTHUR PEDDY, JACK KAMEN and others, FCA, BILL SCHELLY talks to comic-book-seller (and fan) BUD PLANT, MR. MONSTER on missing AL WILLIAMSON art, and ALEX TOTH!

WILL EISNER discusses Eisner & Iger’s Shop and BUSY ARNOLD’s ’40s Quality Comics, art by FINE, CRANDALL, COLE, POWELL, and CARDY, EISNER tributes by STAN LEE, GENE COLAN, & others, interviews with ’40s Quality artist VERN HENKEL and CHUCK MAZOUJIAN, FCA, MR. MONSTER on EISNER’s Wonder Man, ALEX TOTH, and more with BUD PLANT! EISNER cover!

(100-page magazine) $5.95

ALTER EGO #49

ALTER EGO #50

ALTER EGO #51

ALTER EGO #52

ALTER EGO #53

Spotlights CARL BURGOS! Interview with daughter SUE BURGOS, art by BURGOS, BILL EVERETT, MIKE SEKOWSKY, ED ASCHE, and DICK AYERS, unused 1941 Timely cover layouts, the 1957 Atlas Implosion examined, MANNY STALLMAN, FCA, MR. MONSTER and more! New cover by MARK SPARACIO, from an unused 1941 layout by CARL BURGOS!

ROY THOMAS covers his 40-YEAR career in comics (AVENGERS, X-MEN, CONAN, ALL-STAR SQUADRON, INFINITY INC.), with ADAMS, BUSCEMA, COLAN, DITKO, GIL KANE, KIRBY, STAN LEE, ORDWAY, PÉREZ, ROMITA, and many others! Also FCA, & MR. MONSTER on ROY’s letters to GARDNER FOX! Flip-covers by BUSCEMA/ KIRBY/ALCALA and JERRY ORDWAY!

Golden Age Batman artist/BOB KANE ghost LEW SAYRE SCHWARTZ interviewed, Batman art by JERRY ROBINSON, DICK SPRANG, SHELDON MOLDOFF, WIN MORTIMER, JIM MOONEY, and others, the Golden and Silver Ages of AUSTRALIAN SUPER-HEROES, Mad artist DAVE BERG interviewed, FCA, MR. MONSTER on WILL EISNER, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

JOE GIELLA on the Silver Age at DC, the Golden Age at Marvel, and JULIE SCHWARTZ, with rare art by INFANTINO, GIL KANE, SEKOWSKY, SWAN, DILLIN, MOLDOFF, GIACOIA, SCHAFFENBERGER, and others, JAY SCOTT PIKE on STAN LEE and CHARLES BIRO, MARTIN THALL interview, ALEX TOTH, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, and more! GIELLA cover!

GIORDANO and THOMAS on STOKER’S DRACULA, never-seen DICK BRIEFER Frankenstein strip, MIKE ESPOSITO on his work with ROSS ANDRU, art by COLAN, WRIGHTSON, MIGNOLA, BRUNNER, BISSETTE, KALUTA, HEATH, MANEELY, EVERETT, DITKO, FCA with MARC SWAYZE, BILL SCHELLY, ALEX TOTH, and MR. MONSTER! Cover by GIORDANO!

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ALTER EGO #54

ALTER EGO #55

ALTER EGO #56

ALTER EGO #57

ALTER EGO #58

MIKE ESPOSITO on DC and Marvel, ROBERT KANIGHER on the creation of Metal Men and Sgt. Rock (with comments by JOE KUBERT and BOB HANEY), art by ANDRU, INFANTINO, KIRBY, SEVERIN, WINDSOR-SMITH, ROMITA, BUSCEMA, TRIMPE, GIL KANE, and others, plus FCA, ALEX TOTH, BILL SCHELLY, MR. MONSTER, and more! ESPOSITO cover!

JACK and OTTO BINDER, KEN BALD, VIC DOWD, and BOB BOYAJIAN interviewed, FCA with SWAYZE and EMILIO SQUEGLIO, rare art by BECK, WARD, & SCHAFFENBERGER, Christmas Cards from CRANDALL, SINNOTT, HEATH, MOONEY, and CARDY, 1943 Pin-Up Calendar (with ’40s movie stars as superheroines), ALEX TOTH, more! ALEX ROSS and ALEX WRIGHT covers!

Interviews with Superman creators SIEGEL & SHUSTER, Golden/Silver Age DC production guru JACK ADLER interviewed, NEAL ADAMS and radio/TV iconoclast (and comics fan) HOWARD STERN on Adler and his amazing career, art by CURT SWAN, WAYNE BORING, and AL PLASTINO, plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, ALEX TOTH, and more! NEAL ADAMS cover!

Issue-by-issue index of Timely/Atlas superhero stories by MICHELLE NOLAN, art by SIMON & KIRBY, EVERETT, BURGOS, ROMITA, AYERS, HEATH, SEKOWSKY, SHORES, SCHOMBURG, MANEELY, and SEVERIN, GENE COLAN and ALLEN BELLMAN on 1940s Timely super-heroes, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and BILL SCHELLY! Cover by JACK KIRBY and PETE VON SHOLLY!

GERRY CONWAY and ROY THOMAS on their ’80s screenplay for “The X-Men Movie That Never Was!”with art by COCKRUM, ADAMS, BUSCEMA, BYRNE, GIL KANE, KIRBY, HECK, and LIEBER, Atlas artist VIC CARRABOTTA interview, ALLEN BELLMAN on 1940s Timely bullpen, FCA, 1966 panel on 1950s EC Comics, and MR. MONSTER! MARK SPARACIO/GIL KANE cover!

(100-page magazine) $6.95

ALTER EGO #59

ALTER EGO #60

ALTER EGO #61

ALTER EGO #62

ALTER EGO #63

Special issue on Batman and Superman in the Golden and Silver Ages, ARTHUR SUYDAM interview, NEAL ADAMS on 1960s/70s DC, SHELLY MOLDOFF, AL PLASTINO, Golden Age artist FRAN (Doll Man) MATERA and VIC CARRABOTTA interviewed, SIEGEL & SHUSTER, RUSS MANNING, FCA, MR. MONSTER, SUYDAM cover, and more!

Celebrates 50 years since SHOWCASE #4! FLASH interviews with SCHWARTZ, KANIGHER, INFANTINO, KUBERT, and BROOME, Golden Age artist TONY DiPRETA, 1966 panel with NORDLING, BINDER, and LARRY IVIE, FCA, MR. MONSTER, never-before-published color Flash cover by CARMINE INFANTINO, and more!

History of the AMERICAN COMICS GROUP (1946 to 1967)—including its roots in the Golden Age SANGOR ART SHOP and STANDARD/NEDOR comics! Art by MESKIN, ROBINSON, WILLIAMSON, FRAZETTA, SCHAFFENBERGER, & BUSCEMA, ACG writer/editor RICHARD HUGHES, plus AL HARTLEY interviewed, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more! GIORDANO cover!

HAPPY HAUNTED HALLOWEEN ISSUE, featuring: MIKE PLOOG and RUDY PALAIS on their horror-comics work! AL WILLIAMSON on his work for the American Comics Group—plus more on ACG horror comics! Rare DICK BRIEFER Frankenstein strips! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY on the 1966 KalerCon, a new PLOOG cover—and more!

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

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ALTER EGO #64

ALTER EGO #65

ALTER EGO #66

ALTER EGO #67

ALTER EGO #68

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

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

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

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

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

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ALTER EGO #69

ALTER EGO #70

ALTER EGO #71

ALTER EGO #72

ALTER EGO #73

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

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

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

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

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

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ALTER EGO #74

ALTER EGO #75

ALTER EGO #76

ALTER EGO #77

ALTER EGO #78

STAN LEE SPECIAL in honor of his 85th birthday, with a cover by JACK KIRBY, classic (and virtually unseen) interviews with Stan, tributes, and tons of rare and unseen art by KIRBY, ROMITA, the brothers BUSCEMA, DITKO, COLAN, HECK, AYERS, MANEELY, SHORES, EVERETT, BURGOS, KANE, the SEVERIN siblings—plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

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

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

ST. JOHN ISSUE! Golden Age Tor cover by JOE KUBERT, KEN QUATTRO relates the full legend of St. John Publishing, art by KUBERT, NORMAN MAURER, MATT BAKER, LILY RENEE, BOB LUBBERS, RUBEN MOREIRA, RALPH MAYO, AL FAGO, special reminiscences of ARNOLD DRAKE, Golden Age artist TOM SAWYER interviewed, and more!

DAVE COCKRUM TRIBUTE! Great rare XMen cover, Cockrum tributes from contemporaries and colleagues, and an interview with PATY COCKRUM on Dave’s life and legacy on The Legion of Super-Heroes, The X-Men, Star-Jammers, & more! Plus an interview with 1950s Timely/Marvel artist MARION SITTON on his own incredible career and his Golden Age contemporaries!

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ALTER EGO #79

ALTER EGO #80

ALTER EGO #81

ALTER EGO #82

ALTER EGO #83

SUPERMAN & HIS CREATORS! New cover by MICHAEL GOLDEN, exclusive and revealing interview with JOE SHUSTER’s sister, JEAN SHUSTER PEAVEY—MIKE W. BARR on Superman the detective— DWIGHT DECKER on the Man of Steel & Hitler’s Third Reich—plus art by WAYNE BORING, CURT SWAN, NEAL ADAMS, GIL KANE, and others!

SWORD-AND-SORCERY COMICS! Learn about Crom the Barbarian, Viking Prince, Nightmaster, Kull, Red Sonja, Solomon Kane, Bran Mak Morn, Fafhrd and The Gray Mouser, Beowulf, Warlord, Dagar the Invincible, and more, with art by FRAZETTA, SMITH, BUSCEMA, KANE, WRIGHTSON, PLOOG, THORNE, BRUNNER, and more! New cover by RAFAEL KAYANAN!

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

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

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

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ALTER EGO #84

ALTER EGO #85

ALTER EGO #86

ALTER EGO #87

ALTER EGO #88

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

Captain Marvel and Superman’s battles explored (in cosmic space, candy stories, and in court, with art by WALLY WOOD, CURT SWAN, and GIL KANE), an in-depth interview with Golden Age great LILY RENÉE, overview of CENTAUR COMICS (home of BILL EVERETT’s Amazing-Man and others), FCA, MR. MONSTER, new RICH BUCKLER cover, and more!

Spotlighting the Frantic Four-Color MAD WANNABES of 1953-55 that copied HARVEY KURTZMAN’S EC smash (see Captain Marble, Mighty Moose, Drag-ula, Prince Scallion, and more) with art by SIMON & KIRBY, KUBERT & MAURER, ANDRU & ESPOSITO, EVERETT, COLAN, and many others, plus Part 1 of a talk with Golden/ Silver Age artist FRANK BOLLE, and more!

The sensational 1954-1963 saga of Great Britain’s MARVELMAN (decades before he metamorphosed into Miracleman), plus an interview with writer/artist/co-creator MICK ANGLO, and rare Marvelman/ Miracleman work by ALAN DAVIS, ALAN MOORE, a new RICK VEITCH cover, plus FRANK BOLLE, Part 2, FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

First-ever in-depth look at National/DC’s founder MAJOR MALCOLM WHEELERNICHOLSON, and early editors WHITNEY ELLSWORTH, VIN SULLIVAN, and MORT WEISINGER, with rare art and artifacts by SIEGEL & SHUSTER, BOB KANE, CREIG FLESSEL, FRED GUARDINEER, GARDNER FOX, SHELDON MOLDOFF, and others, plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, and more!

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THE LATEST FROM TWOMORROWS!

BACK ISSUE #35

DRAW! #18

KIRBY COLLECTOR #53

“Villains!” MIKE ZECK and J.M. DeMATTEIS discuss “Kraven’s Last Hunt” in a “Pro2Pro” interview, the history of the Hobgoblin is exposed, the Joker’s short-lived series, looks back at Secret Society of Super-Villains and Kobra, a Magneto biography, Luthor and Brainiac’s malevolent makeovers, interview with Secret Society artist MIKE VOSBURG, plus contributions from BYRNE, CONWAY, FRENZ, NOVICK, ROMITA JR., STERN, WOLFMAN, and a cover by MIKE ZECK!

Features an in-depth interview and demo by R.M. GUERA (the artist of Vertigo’s Scalped), behind-the-scenes in the Batcave with Cartoon Network’s JAMES TUCKER on the new hit show “Batman: The Brave and the Bold,” plus product reviews by JAMAR NICHOLAS, and Comic Book Boot Camp’s “Anatomy: Part 2” by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY!

Spotlights THE MAGIC OF STAN & JACK! There’s a new interview with STAN LEE, a walking tour of New York showing where Lee & Kirby lived and worked, a re-evaluation of the “Lost” FF #108 story (including a missing page that just surfaced), “What If Jack Hadn’t Left Marvel In 1970?”, plus MARK EVANIER’s regular column, a Kirby pencil art gallery, a complete Golden Age Kirby story, and more, behind a color Kirby cover inked by GEORGE PÉREZ!

(80-page magazine with COLOR) $6.95 US Ships August 2009

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US Now shipping!

(84-page tabloid magazine) $9.95 US Now shipping!

ALL-STAR COMPANION Vol. 4

COMIC BOOK PODCAST COMPANION

MARVEL COMICS IN THE 1960s

Features: Colossal coverage of the Golden Age ALL-STAR COMICS! Sensational secrets of the JUNIOR JUSTICE SOCIETY! An index of the complete solo adventures of all 18 original JSAers in their own features, from 1940 to 1951! The JSA's earliest imitators (Seven Soldiers of Victory, All Winners Squad, Marvel Family, and Intl. Crime Patrol)! INFINITY, INC. on Earth-Two and after! And the 1980s SECRET ORIGINS series! With rare art by ALEX ROSS, TODD McFARLANE, JERRY ORDWAY, CARMINE INFANTINO, JOE KUBERT, ALEX TOTH, GIL KANE, MURPHY ANDERSON, IRWIN HASEN, MORT MESKIN, GENE COLAN, WAYNE BORING, GEORGE TUSKA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, GEORGE FREEMAN, DON NEWTON, JACK BURNLEY, MIKE MACHLAN, HOWARD CHAYKIN, DICK DILLIN, and others. Edited by ROY THOMAS.

Comic book podcasts have taken the Internet by storm, so go behind the scenes of ten of today's top comic book podcasts via all-new interviews with the casts of AROUND COMICS, WORD BALLOON, QUIET! PANELOLOGISTS AT WORK, COMIC BOOK QUEERS, iFANBOY, THE CRANKCAST, THE COLLECTED COMICS LIBRARY, THE PIPELINE PODCAST, COMIC GEEK SPEAK, and TwoMorrows’ own TUNE-IN PODCAST! Also featured are new interviews about podcasting and comics on the Internet with creators MATT FRACTION, TIM SEELEY, and GENE COLAN. You'll also find a handy guide of what you’ll need to start your own podcast, an index of more than thirty great comic book podcasts, numerous photos of your favorite podcasters, and original art from COLAN, SEELEY, DC's MIKE NORTON, and many more! By ERIC HOUSTON, with a spectacular new cover by MIKE MANLEY.

This issue-by-issue field guide presents a step-by-step look at how Marvel Comics went from being one of the least creative publishers in a generally moribund industry, to its most dynamic and original in an era when pop-culture emerged as the dominant force in the artistic life of America. In scores of handy, easy to reference entries, follow the company’s first fumbling beginnings as helmed by savvy editor/writer STAN LEE (aided by such artists as JACK KIRBY and STEVE DITKO), to the full maturity of its wild, colorful, offbeat grandiosity. With the history of Marvel Comics in the 1960s divided into four distinct phases, author PIERRE COMTOIS explains just how Lee, Kirby, Ditko, and others created a line of comic books that, while grounded in the traditional elements of panel-to-panel storytelling, broke through the juvenile mindset of a low brow industry and provided a tapestry of full blown pop culture icons.

(128-page trade paperback) $15.95 Diamond Order Code: MAR094433 ISBN: 9781605490182 • Now shipping!

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BRICKJOURNAL #6

Spotlight on CLASSIC SPACE SETS and a look at new ones with LEGO SET DESIGNERS, BRANDON GRIFFITH shows his STAR TREK MODELS, plus take a tour of the DUTCH MOONBASE with MIKE VAN LEEUWEN and MARCO BAAS, coverage of BRICKFEST 2009 and FIRST LEGO LEAGUE'S WORLD FESTIVAL and TOY FAIR NEW YORK photos! (80-page COLOR magazine) $8.95 US • Now shipping!

BRICKJOURNAL COMPENDIUM 3

Compiles the digital-only issues #6-7 (Vol. 1) of BRICKJOURNAL for the first time in printed form! Interviews with builders and JØRGEN VIG KNUDSTORP (CEO of the LEGO Group, features on LEGO FAN CONVENTIONS, reviews and behind the scenes reports on two LEGO sets, how to create custom minifigures, instructions and techniques, and more! (224-page FULL-COLOR trade paperback) $34.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490069 Diamond Order Code: JAN094469 • Now shipping!

CAPTAIN ACTION: THE ORIGINAL SUPERHERO ACTION FIGURE REVISED 2nd EDITION! CAPTAIN ACTION was introduced in 1966 in the wake of the Batman TV show craze, and later received his own DC comic book with art by WALLY WOOD and GIL KANE. Able to assume the identities of 13 famous super-heroes, continuing interest in the hero has led to two different returns to toy-store shelves. Lavishly illustrated with over 200 toy photos, this FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER SECOND EDITION chronicles the history of this quick-changing champion, including photos of virtually EVERY CAPTAIN ACTION PRODUCT ever released, spotlights on his allies ACTION BOY and the SUPER QUEENS and his arch enemy DR. EVIL, an examination of his comic-book appearances, and more, including his recent return to comics shelves and the new wave of Captain Action collectibles. By MICHAEL EURY. (176-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490175 • Diamond Order Code: APR091003 Now shipping!

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

VOLUME 21: CHRIS SPROUSE

(128-page trade paperback) $14.95 US ISBN: 97801605490137 Diamond Order Code: NOV084298 Now shipping!

VOLUME 22: MARK BUCKINGHAM (128-page trade paperback) $14.95 ISBN: 9781605490144 Diamond Order Code: FEB094473 Ships August 2009

Each features an extensive, career-spanning interview lavishly illustrated with rare art from the artist’s files, plus huge sketchbook section, including unseen and unused art!

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