Alter Ego #88 Preview

Roy Thomas’ Major Comics Fanzine

MAJOR MALCOLM WHEELERNICHOLSON THE VISIONARY WHO FOUNDED DC COMICS!

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THE FIRST GREAT DAYS OF NATIONAL/DC, CO-STARRING:

WHITNEY ELLSWORTH VIN SULLIVAN CREIG FLESSEL WINSLOW MORTIMER & MORE!!

[Winslow Mortimer art ©2009 DC Comics; photo ©2009 Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson Estate.]

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No.88 August 2009

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.]

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writer/editorial

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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.

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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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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

I

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.]

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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”

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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.

Nick & Squeegee Malcolm & Elsa Wheeler-Nicholson, circa 1934-37, in front of their home in Long Island. Thanks to Nicky & Jason Brown. [Photo ©2009 Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson Estate.]

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.

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

Part II

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“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

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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

11

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

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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”

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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.

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

“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

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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

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

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

I

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.]

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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.

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

Part V

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

I

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.]

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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

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

I

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.

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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”

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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.]

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[DC & AA pages Š2009 DC Comics.]

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Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

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

by Michael T. Gilbert

T

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.]

Comic Fandom Archive

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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

W

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.’”

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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

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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

A

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,

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High Camp HijinXXX The Human Flying Saucer’s Bizarre Landing

by P.C. Hamerlinck

F

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

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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.]