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Stuntman art ©2009 Joe Simon & Esta Harvey horror art ©20 09 Harvey Publications te of Jack Kirby; or successors in interest .

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Vol. 3, No. 89 / October 2009 Editor Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout Christopher Day

Consulting Editor John Morrow

FCA Editor P.C. Hamerlinck

Comic Crypt Editor Michael T. Gilbert

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

Cover Artist Howard Nostrand, Joe Simon, & Jack Kirby

Contents

Cover Colorist Tom Ziuko

With Special Thanks to: Heidi Amash Ger Apeldoorn Mark Arnold Rodrigo Baeza Bob & Becky Bailey Jean Bails John Benson Lee Boyette Chris Brown Bob Burr Mike Burkey Ernie Colón Jon B. Cooke Sumner Crane (Estate) Teresa R. Davidson Angelo De Cesare Michaël Dewally Shel Dorf Shane Foley Bill Fugate Janet Gilbert Marvin Giles Mike Gold Julia Gorton Rudolph Grey Jennifer Hamerlinck

Alan Harvey Roger Hill Jonathan Ingersoll Sid Jacobson Alex Jay Bill Jonocha Jay Kinney Marv Levy Jim Ludwig Don Mangus Bruce Mason Harry Mendryk Brian K. Morris Frank Motler Dave O’Dell John G. Pierce Seth Powell Greg Preston Joe Rubinstein Brian Sagar Ramon Schenk Ken Selig Marc, June, & Desha Swayze Dann Thomas Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr.

Writer/Editorial: Happy Halloween From “HORROR-vy” Comics . . 2 “Silver Threads Among The Mold”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 An ominous overview of Harvey Publications’ 1950s horror comics by John Benson.

“Drawing Comic Books Is A Means To An End”. . . . . . . . . . . 13 Artist Howard Nostrand on Harvey Comics, Bob Powell, and Other Phenomena.

“You Could Get Away With Murder!”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Sid Jacobson speaks of his years as Harvey editor—and he’s proud, do you hear me—proud!

“Strange Things Went On In Those Days”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Artist Warren Kremer on Casper the Friendly Ghost and other four-color haunts.

“Come Back When You Learn How To Draw” . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Harvey artist Ken Selig talks about the company early days under the Comics Code.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! Doc Wertham’s Straight Talk About Comix! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Michael T. Gilbert annotates the juiciest quotations from Seduction of the Innocent.

A Memory Of The Early Detroit Triple Fan Fairs . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Bill Schelly spotlights Marvin Giles’ reminiscences of one of fandom’s earliest events.

FCA (Fawcett Collectors Of America) #148 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 P.C. Hamerlinck presents Marc Swayze, the Fawcett/Charlton connection, and Mr. Atom.

On Our Cover: Our special thanks to collector Roger Hill for providing a page of original art by featured artist Howard Nostrand from Black Cat Mystery #44 (June 1953)—and to our esteemed copublisher John Morrow for providing a piece of unpublished art from the unreleased Stuntman #3 (circa 1946) by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby to put it in context. [Splash page ©2009 Harvey Publications or successors in interest; Stuntman art ©2009 Joe Simon & Estate of Jack Kirby.]

Above: One of Warren Kremer’s most gruesome Harvey horror covers—but then, he only did a handful of covers in that genre, generally being content simply to do rough sketches from which other artists worked. But this “For Whom the Bell Tolls” masterpiece done for Witches Tales #25 (June 1954) amply demonstrates that it wasn’t because Kremer couldn’t hold his own with the best of them! Thanks to John Benson for the scan. [©2009 Harvey Publications or successors in interest.]

Alter EgoTM is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344.

Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: 32 Bluebird Trail, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices.

Single issues: $9 US ($11.00 Canada, $16 elsewhere). Twelve-issue subscriptions: $88 US, $140 Canada, $210 elsewhere. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © Roy Thomas. Alter Ego is a TM of Roy & Dann Thomas. FCA is a TM of P.C. Hamerlinck. Printed in Canada. ISSN: 1932-6890 FIRST PRINTING.

Part 1

The 1950s HARVEY HORROR COMICS

3

Silver Threads Among The Mold An Ominous Overview Of Harvey’s 1950s Horror Comics

by John Benson

Author’s Introduction:

“What If They Gave A Comics Convention And Nobody Came?”

T

he 1981 Pleasure Dome Convention, held in Wilmington, Delaware, was really one of the great ones. Hosts and comics store proprietors Tom Watkins and Craig Dawson had arranged for a large, wellstocked dealers room, and the hotel facilities were outstanding. The theme of the convention was 1950s Comics, and a good complement of guests was lined up, including Dick Ayers, Jay Disbrow, Dick Giordano, Don Heck, Frank McLaughlin, Denny O’Neil, and Howard Nostrand. My recollection is that all, or at least nearly all, of these luminaries showed up.

A swell little program book was prepared, with a specially done cover by Ayers, an interview with Nostrand, an article on DC “horror” comics by Robin Snyder, and one on the Harvey horror comics by yours truly.

In fact, everything about the convention was great except one thing: attendance was literally about as near zero as you can get.

It would have been ridiculous to hold formal panels, so the organizers

Which Way To The Witches?

(Left:) Dick Ayers’ cover for the program book for the 1981 Pleasure Dome Comics Convention—the publication which first printed both this essay and John Benson’s interview with Howard Nostrand that begins on p. 13. (Above:) This Jan. 1951 cover for Witches Tales #1, probably drawn by Al Avison, started the New Year (and the second half of the century) off with a bang—or maybe with a scream. Except where specified otherwise, all art accompanying the four parts of this coverage of Harvey horror was supplied by John Benson… and special thanks to Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., for sharing with us his Harvey Horror Checklist, which proved invaluable for finding issue dates and other data. [Pleasure Dome art ©2009 Dick Ayers; cover of WT #1 ©2009 Harvey Publications or successors in interest.]

made an announcement over the PA system that the pros would be sitting in the lounge area of the hotel lobby, and anyone who’d like to talk with them would be welcome to join them. Two or three people took up the offer. I had a nice conversation with Nostrand. One thing I recall is that as he was idly flipping through the program book he came to a page with a sports car in it reprinted from one of his Harvey horror stories, and he said, “That’s my car.” A pause, and then: “I drove it here today.” I was amazed that he still had the same car 28 years later.

Below is my article for that program book, somewhat modified and slightly updated to eliminate some of the more glaring errors. As we indicated above, its title was…

4

An Ominous Overview Of Harvey’s 1950s Horror Comics

An Age Of Heroes The changing face of heroism at Harvey Comics.

(Clockwise from top left:) Several of its super-heroes held their own with Superman, Captain America, et al., during the World War II years, as per this vintage house ad for Green Hornet, All-New, Speed, and War Victory. Radio licensee Green Hornet, at least, would live on into the “crime comics” era, but most of the rest ran out of steam early. Scan courtesy of Bruce Mason. [©2009 Harvey Publications or successors in interest.]

An unpublished page from a story produced by the team supreme of Joe Simon & Jack Kirby for an unproduced third issue of Stuntman Comics, circa 1946—courtesy of John Morrow. One of its figures, of course, was used on this issue’s cover. [©2009 Joe Simon & Estate of Jack Kirby.]

In May 1949, though, comic strip super-star Joe Palooka was still going strong in the 32nd issue of his own mag—and had even spun off humorous supporting characters like Little Max and Humphrey into their own Harvey titles. Max is the kid in the hat, at right center; Humphrey is the big guy wearing the cap, bottom center. Artist uncertain—but it probably wasn’t Palooka creator Ham Fisher. [©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

Silver Threads Among The Mold

5

Silver Threads Among The Mold Harvey Comics was a more stable company than many of the small, fly-by-night outfits that sprang up on the crest of the horror wave in the early 1950s. The company had started up in 1941 and was one of the few companies to survive and even thrive after the coming of the Comics Code. In the ’50s, Harvey published their standard fare of licensed characters (Joe Palooka, Dick Tracy) and “little kid books” (Little Max, Little Audrey), but also published a line of ’50s genre books: a couple of war books, a couple of romance books...and four horror titles.

About nine months after EC started up their horror titles, Harvey brought out Witches Tales #1 (Jan. 1951). Six months later they converted an existing title (Blondie, according to Overstreet) to Chamber of Chills, starting with issue #21 (June 1951). As so often happened, such as with EC’s Haunt of Fear, the Post Office caught the title change and forced them to consider it a new title, and the fifth issue is numbered “5.”

Two months later, Harvey converted Black Cat Comics, which had featured the super-hero character of that name, drawn by Lee Elias, into Black Cat Mystery Comics with issue #30 (August 1951). They attempted a slightly gradual conversion, with an Elias cover featuring the Black Cat character on the first horror issue, and cats on the next two covers. Inside #30, on the contents page (all Harvey books had a contents page), The Black Cat herself introduced the new editorial policy with all the subtlety of a candy merchant enticing school-children to try marijuana: “You’ll be seeing me in stories more thrilling and more terrifying than ever before. I won’t appear in all the amazing accounts myself, but each one of them is a story I want you to share with me because I’ve found it exciting.” Actually, she doesn’t appear in any of the stories, which are all horror tales, although the stories in the first issue are milder than the horror formula that Harvey had already established. Though it has more pages of art than the typical Harvey comic, this first issue has only three longer stories, a rare deviation from the Harvey (and industry) standard of four stories per issue.

Early in 1952 horror seemed to be booming for Harvey, as it was for the whole industry. They stepped up their

All Cats Are Black In The Dark Three of Black Cat’s nine lives.

(Above:) Splash for Black Cat #22 (April 1950), the comic in which a glamorous movie star donned mask and scanty costume to battle hoodlums; thanks to Mike Burkey for the scan of the original art, from his website www.romitaman.com.

(Left:) Harvey transitioned from super-heroics to horror by featuring Black Cat on the cover of issue #30 (Aug. 1951)…

But all pretense that this was still her mag ceased when the title cut to straight-out terror with #31 (Oct. ’51). All three covers are by Lee Elias, who’s seen (on right in photo below) with co-publisher Alfred Harvey in 1947. Photo courtesy of Mark Arnold—who received it from Alan Harvey, Alfred’s eldest son. See ad for Mark’s publication The Harveyville Fun Times on p. 73. [Art ©2009 Harvey Publications or successors in interest.]

three bimonthly horror titles to monthly publication for about eight months, and added a fourth title, Tomb of Terror (June 1952). This period of increased volume is, not surprisingly, the most lackluster in the run of the Harvey horror comics.

Unlike their other titles, the Harvey brothers didn’t identify the horror titles as Harvey books on the cover.

Perhaps they felt somewhat uneasy with this industry trend. They were slightly inconsistent here, though (as they were generally), because about ten issues of Black Cat Mystery do have the Harvey logo. The title also differs from the others in that the pages of the early issues are a quarter-inch wider.

It comes as no surprise that all these titles abruptly ended their horror run with the December 1954 issues.

The last two issues of all four titles are reprints of very early issues with new, toned-down covers, and Tomb of Terror was retitled Thrills of Tomorrow. But the titles didn’t die completely. Witches Tales became Witches Western Tales, with the word “Witches” in about six point-type on the cover. Black Cat reverted to reprints of the costumed heroine, then later returned to Codeapproved “suspense” material, including heavily-

Part 2

The 1950s HARVEY HORROR COMICS

13

“Drawing Comic Books Is A Means To An End” HOWARD NOSTRAND On Harvey Comics, Bob Powell, And Other Phenomena Interviewed by Sumner Crane, Rudolph Grey, & Julia Gorton

A/E

EDITOR’S NOTE: This interview first appeared in the program book of the 1981 Pleasure Dome Convention, Wilmington, Delaware, and was retyped and reformatted for A/E by John Benson.

The particular questioner among the above trio in each instance was never identified in the original printing. Only the most minimal changes have been made to the original text, except for the addition of section headings utilizing Nostrand quotes.

“Go See The Man” QUESTION: You just got out of the hospital?

NOSTRAND: Yeah.

Q: What was wrong with you?

NOSTRAND: You know… heart trouble.

Q: Did you go to a lot of movies in the ’50s?

NOSTRAND: No, not really.

Q: Your style’s very cinematic—just the angles...

NOSTRAND: That was left over, too, from this fellow I was working for— when I was working for Bob Powell—and he had worked for Will Eisner at one point when he started, and Eisner was always impressed by Hitchcock’s things where they set the scene...

Q: The establishing shot...

NOSTRAND: Yeah. But you keep the eye level moving around so it doesn’t

Chamber Of Nostrand Howard Nostrand in his studio, circa 1980-81, at the time this interview was recorded—juxtaposed with his cover for Chamber of Chills #20 (Nov. 1953), one of only two he ever drew for Harvey’s horror mags.

According to photographer (and co-interviewer) Julia Gorton, the young lady in the photo was named Trixie, and had simply tagged along with the three of them to Nostrand’s studio. Note the copy of the 1953 Adventures in 3-D #1 lying on the artist’s table. [Art ©2009 Harvey Publications or successors in interest; photo ©2009 Julia Gorton.]

get too boring, like the movie Lost Weekend, where it starts out with a panoramic view of the city, and then focuses in on one window on a particular building, then it comes in close and there’s a bottle hanging out the window on a string, then it goes in the window and there’s Ray Milland in there. In a comic book where you usually had six pages… you really didn’t have too much room to fool around like that.

Q: You had to do a lot of editing.

NOSTRAND: Yeah… plus most of the writers didn’t think pictorially. You got stuck with scripts that really weren’t great.

Q: I thought this one was pretty good: “The Inside Man” [Chamber of Chills #21].

NOSTRAND: Yeah. I had forgotten that thing.

14

Howard Nostrand On Harvey Comics, Bob Powell, & Other Phenomena

“Inside” Out The splash page of the Nostrand-illustrated “The Inside Man” from Chamber of Chills #21 (Jan. 1954). This was actually the second “#21” of that series, as CoC’s first four issues were labeled “#21-24,” taking over the numbering of Blondie Comics. Thanks to Chris Brown. [©2009 Harvey Publications or successors in interest.]

Q: How old were you when you got into comics?

NOSTRAND: When I started working for Bob Powell, I was a little less than 19 years old.

Q: How did you meet him?

NOSTRAND: My father was a school teacher, and some other teachers in the school belonged to a Badminton Club or something, and one of the guys at the Badminton Club said there was this cartoonist that needed an inker. I was sitting at home at that point, so my father said, “Go see the man.“ So I went and saw the man and brought along some crummy samples.

Q: How old was he?

NOSTRAND: Thirty-two. That was 1948. He’s expired now. He’d worked for Will Eisner before the war, then he went into the Air Force.

“The Whole [3-D] Thing Died Very Rapidly” Q: You were involved in the first 3-D comics. How did that happen?

NOSTRAND: I was working for Harvey Comics back then. Actually, three different publishers all came out with 3-D Comics at the same time.

There were 3-D movies back then, and the idea of the red-and-green glasses wasn’t particularly new, because I remember that from the World’s Fair in ’39.

Q: It says in that 3-D comic that Leonardo Di Vinci knew about it.

Apartment 3-D Nostrand’s cover for Adventures in 3-D #1 (Nov. 1953), and Al Avison’s for True 3-D #1 (Dec. ’53). Both illustrations were reprinted as full-page 3-D pinups inside, though of course not in color. [©2009 Harvey Publications or successors in interest.]

“Drawing Comic Books Is A Means To An End”

15

talked to this one fella about this business of doing pretty girls and he said “You’ll catch onto it eventually—get the hang of it.” So I said: “OK, who draws pretty girls?” I figured Daisy Mae looks pretty good, so I started...if you look at some of the girls I used to do back then, they all looked like Daisy Mae. Q: Like her [first panel of “Jungle Drums”]?

NOSTRAND: Yeah. Looks like I used a rubber stamp on the faces. It was a trick, a certain type nose and mouth.

“Powell Had Four Guys Working For Him” Q: So what did you think when you first met Bob Powell? What was your first impression?

NOSTRAND: I thought I was gonna make $8,000,000 a week, you know, and that of course didn’t happen.

Q: He impressed you as a money-maker?

NOSTRAND: Well, he was that. When I started working for Bob, I was making $25 a week.

Daisy Mae Does Africa Splash of “Jungle Drum” from Adventures in 3-D #1, which Nostrand felt illustrated the way he based many of his female characters on Daisy Mae, Li’l Abner’s longtime girlfriend in Al Capp’s classic comic strip (seen at top right in the daily strip for 9/18/49). In the print edition of this issue of A/E, 3-D comics’ red-and-green line art will reproduce as two slightly different art images, one slightly darker than the others; readers purchasing the digital edition will see one image in red, one in green (plus a 3-D version, if they happen to have a pair of red-and-green specs handy).

[Harvey art ©2009 Harvey Publications or successors in interest; Daisy Mae art ©2009 Capp Enterprises, Inc.]

Q: What did he look like?

NOSTRAND: Uh, heh heh. Oh, I shouldn’t be mean to the guy. He looked a lot like some of his characters.

Q: Some of the less handsome ones?

NOSTRAND: He wore glasses and had kind of a round face. He looked like the eyeglass-maker in “Colorama” [Black Cat Mystery #45]. I wouldn’t say he was fat, necessarily; he was a little overweight for his size.

Q: So he was a money-maker?

Q: You didn’t sign it.

NOSTRAND: Yeah, there were three of us working for him—George Siefringer, Marty Epp, and myself. Marty and I got $25 a week and George got $35 a week, so he was paying less than a hundred a week in salaries and we were doing about $1000 a week back then. So Bob did all right.

We were doing about 30 pages, maybe a little bit more sometimes, and— Harveys, they paid the best rates—Bob was getting $35 a page from Harveys. We were also doing The Shadow, Doc Savage, and Nick Carter for Street & Smith, and the rates were kind of chintzey. [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: See a photo of Bob Powell and his three artistic assistants on p.

11.]

NOSTRAND: Nobody signed their work for Harvey except Lee Elias.

Q: What did you do?

Q: Did you ink it?

NOSTRAND: When you look at things like this, seeing as it was 3-D, it was always trying to get something in the foreground against something in the background. I mean, that’s why you have all these close-up things here.

NOSTRAND: The inking. Bob would pencil the thing, I would ink the figures and George inked the backgrounds and Marty would work along with George and me on the backgrounds and Powell put the faces in.

‘Cause, actually, when you look at a picture, you look at the face first and the rest is kind of incidental. Look at some of Caniff s work, for example.

[Nostrand takes a Caniff comic strip out of his drawer] The inking is kind of sloppy, actually; you tend to look at the faces instead. I mean, some of this stuff [indicates the clothes] is just crude... like this. I mean, what kind of folds are these?

Q: Did you write the stories in that issue?

Q: It’s sloppy.

NOSTRAND: No. They had a bunch of writers.

NOSTRAND: I worked for Caniff for a little while after Bat Masterson [comic strip] died. I did the figures and he put in the faces. After a little while it turned out to be a little drudgery.

NOSTRAND: Yeah. So Leon Harvey had something to do with it. But anyway, DC had theirs. I forget. There were about three different outfits doing this thing, each one claiming they originated it. But it all went for naught, because the whole thing died very rapidly.

Q: [shows Adventures in 3-D #1, “Jungle Drum” and “The Hidden Depths”] Is this your work?

NOSTRAND: Yes.

NOSTRAND: Yes. That’s some of my “Jack Davis” stuff. [laughs] Q: However, it is not Jack Davis. You’re mentioning it; I wouldn’t.

Q: Did Powell?

NOSTRAND: Sometimes. Powell used to do love stories. I never could do love stories. I couldn’t draw pretty girls worth a tweet back then...so I

Q: When you’re inking someone else’s work, how rigid would you be?

NOSTRAND: I tried to put in my own style, actually, but it doesn’t seem

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Part 3

The 1950s HARVEY HORROR COMICS

“You Could Get Away With Murder!”

SID JACOBSON On His Time As Harvey Editor Interview Conducted & Transcribed by John Benson

I

NTERVIEWER’S INTRO: My conversations with Howard Nostrand at the 1981 Pleasure Dome Convention and afterwards led me to talk with Sid Jacobson. I had amassed a complete set of the Harvey horror comics even before I met Nostrand, and was eager to make the acquaintance of the man who had edited the books. The interview took place on Nov. 13, 1984, at Marvel Comics, where he was then editing that company line of kiddie titles, known as Star Comics.

“I Really Think We Got Better” JOHN BENSON: This setup here at Marvel must be completely different from the way the Harvey outfit was, right? That was just a little joint, right?

JACOBSON: Well, yeah, they all were, for a long time. This is unusual for anything in comics.

Triad Of Terror Sid Jacobson in a recent photo—overlooking artwork rendered by the two key Harvey horror artists interviewed by John Benson. (Above:) Howard Nostrand splash page from Black Cat Mystery #44 (June 1953), partly viewed on our cover. Repro’d from scan of original art, courtesy of Roger Hill. (Left:) Comic Book Artist #19 (2002) attributed the cover of Tomb of Terror #15 (May 1954) to Warren Kremer; editor Jon B. Cooke noted that: “Stephen Sennitt's final horror comics survey, Ghastly Terror, calls [it] the fourth most gratuitous pre-Code horror comic cover ever.” Ulp! We think we'll pass on checking out the three that beat it out! Photo courtesy of Sid Jacobson. [Art ©2009 Harvey Publications or successors in interest.]

24

“You Could Get Away With Murder!”

25

JB: Were you the editor at Harvey?

JACOBSON: Yeah. For most of...

JB: What was your relationship with the Harvey brothers?

JACOBSON: I worked for them. My sister had worked for them years before, when they did the Fun Parade and Buddies magazines. Those were the things that they started with. Army and Navy gag panel cartoons.

That was really their start. So when my sister went to college, she did gags for them, she and some friends of hers. As a kid I got all those early Harvey comic books.

JB: When did you start with them?

JACOBSON: 1952. 1953?

Getting A Toehold At Harvey Jacobson identifies Chamber of Chills #16 (March 1953) as one of the first Harvey horror comics which he edited. The Nostrand work to which he refers must be his story therein, “Curse of the Black Panther,” since its cover is signed by Lee Elias. [©2009 Harvey Publications or successors in interest.]

JB: Were you in charge of all of them?

JACOBSON: All of them. Well, first I did all the weird and the war, and [Joe] Palooka. And then when all that changed, I did all the younger line, the “Casper,” the “Richie Rich,” etc.

JB: What did Warren Kremer do?

Local Color Splash page of “Colorama,” the story from Black Cat Mystery #45 (Aug. 1953) which was scripted by the comic’s editor, Sid Jacobson. Thanks to Mark Arnold. [©2009 Harvey Publications or successors in interest.]

Chris Brown, who wrote an essay about “Colorama” that unfortunately could not be squeezed into this issue, notes that Harvey reprinted the story (somewhat “censored” by the Comics Code) in Black Cat Mystic #61 (Jan. 1958)—then reprinted the reprint in Shocking Tales Digest in 1981. “The preCode version,” he reminds us, “was printed in black-&-white, one-quarterpage size in the Summer 1974 Graphic Story Magazine #16, and then again in black-&-white in the Spring 1991 comic Tales Too Terrible to Tell #2,” while “The Best of Horror and Science Fiction Comics from 1987 reprints the post-Code version in color. Sadly, the only way to own a color copy of the pre-Code version is to obtain a copy of Black Cat Mystery #45.” [©2009 Harvey Publications or successors in interest.]

JACOBSON: Same thing; we worked together. Warren had been there before I was. And he worked in the adventure, war, horror [genres]. And he had worked on Joe Palooka and Little Max, also. And I think he did some work on Humphrey.

JB: There was a lot of good stuff in their horror comics.

JACOBSON: Yeah, yeah! They were good. I did the good ones.

JB: Why was [Lee] Elias permitted to sign his name and nobody else was?

JACOBSON: Well, because they thought he was that important and that good, and he had a following. And he was good. I mean, [Al] Avison was there.... The first people they worked with were Avison, I believe Elias, and Joe Simon & Jack Kirby. So, there was really a special relationship they had. [he looks through the horror comics] Warren Kremer did some covers. And some stories. I didn’t do any of these early issues. I did “Transformation” [Witches Tales #14, Sept. 1952]. Or did I do that? No.

26

Sid Jacobson On His Times As Harvey Editor

Cobwebbed Curtain Going Up… A montage of Harvey horror by a cornucopia of artists, all from issues of Chamber of Chills (clockwise from top left:) A Rudy Palais splash from #10 (July 1952)…

“Dungeon of Doom” by the little-known Vic Donohue from #6 (March 1952)…

“The Skeptic” by Joe Certa (pencils) & John Belfi (inks) in #22 (March 1954), repro’d from a scan of the original art…

Al Avison must’ve avoided the dungeon of doom only to wander into a “Cave of Doom” in #10. [©2009 Harvey Publications or successors in interest.]

Part 4

The 1950s HARVEY HORROR COMICS

41

“Strange Things Went On In Those Days” WARREN KREMER On Casper The Friendly Ghost And Other Haunts

I

Interview Conducted & Transcribed by John Benson

NTERVIEWER’S INTRODUCTION: It was through Sid Jacobson that I met Warren Kremer. In fact, while I was interviewing Jacobson, he phoned Kremer and told him I would be contacting him. I visited Kremer at his home on April 1, 1985, and recorded the following interview. I had some idea that it might eventually be published (though I didn’t know it would be nearly 25 years later!), but my primary interest was to learn more about Kremer and his work on the Harvey horror comics. I had brought the entire set with me, and during the afternoon I asked Kremer to go over them and try to identify the artists. He also pulled out and showed me a great deal of the work that he had done over the years. (Unfortunately, I did not have the foresight to get copies of most of it.) Most of the casual discussion while we were looking over my comics has been eliminated from this transcript, but some has been retained because it describes the early work in his career or includes interesting comments on the horror comics.

Kremer Vs. Kremer (Above:) Warren Kremer and his wife Grace in 2002, the year before the artist passed away— juxtaposed with two primo specimens of very different styles of his comic art. (Far left:) One of his few finished horror covers, for Tomb of Terror #1 (June 1952). (Left:) A Kremer sketch of Richie Rich and Casper the Friendly Ghost, both of whom he drew for Harvey with phenomenal success in the 1950s and beyond. Thanks to Mark Arnold for sending the photo and the RR/Casper art; thanks also to photographer Bill Janocha and editor Jon C. Cooke for permission to use the photo, which appeared in JBC’s Comic Book Artist [Vol. 1] #19 a few years back. [Richie Rich & Casper TM & ©2009 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.; BCM cover ©2009 Harvey Publications or successors in interest.]

“In Those Days Industrial Schools Were For The Dummies” JOHN BENSON: What was your first job?

WARREN KREMER: I worked for the [New York] Journal-American [newspaper]. When I was in high school, the School of Industrial Arts... well, prior to that I was in the School of Music and Art, and that was for the fine arts, and that’s not what I wanted. I was a kid, what did I know?

When they started Music and Art I was one of the first students. What

42

Warren Kremer On Casper The Friendly Ghost And Other Haunts

they did was, they went around the city to all the schools and picked out students that were artistically inclined, and I was one of them, and they made up the student body of the High School of Music and Art that way. I stayed there one year, and I’ll never forget the principal, Dworkin. She was a woman, she was so upset, why did I want to leave, and all the opportunity in the world? It was a beautiful school. What it was, was a teacher’s training school and they turned it into Music and Art, and it was just beautiful. It had elevators, it had marble floors. I mean I was a kid, never in a school like that. So anyway, I told her that it wasn’t what I wanted, and I wanted to go to this other school that I heard of, the School of Industrial Arts. She said, “Ohhh...”

In those days industrial schools were for the dummies. Not that I was so brilliant. So, she couldn’t stop me, of course, but she tried to make me stay there, because the school was beautiful. And all the kids had their own sets of anvils and hammers in the crafts class, and we had our own easels, you know. So here I go, I shift over to the School of Industrial Arts, and it was in a little, rinkydink building down at 40th Street between Eighth and Seventh Avenues that was rebuilt in 1860—the building was rebuilt, so you know what kind of building it was—it was awful. Kind-of a little dinky auditorium, and the supplies were nil, and it was such a vast difference, but nevertheless, you know, I learned layout and advertising stuff.

remains there, where they sell cars. So the first thing you know I was working steady up there. I’d go up there weekends, anything. And he paid me out of his own pocket 15 or 20 dollars a week, and I used to work on layouts, I helped him on—see, he was in the promotion department, Charlie Knickerbocker, and that section of the Journal-American. In those days they did a lot of promotion for the salesmen to sell ads, and I used to help. It was good experience.

So the first thing you know, through him I met a fellow called Lester Lonergan, who was an actor. He played in pictures like All Quiet on the Western Front, he had like eight parts in there; he played a doctor, he played a soldier, a guy in the street, that kind of thing. And Lester came up one day and said to Seaman, “You think Warren would be interested?

There’s a job at Ace Magazines; they’re looking for an artist.” So he told me and I said, “Yeah.” Of course, he lost me, but... I went over there and I got the job in the art department, lettering and doing layouts.

And I worked there for 8 years at Ace magazines. That’s where I met my wife. They put out Rotogravure books, Secrets, Revealing Romances, that kind of thing. They had a photography book, they had an aviation book called Flying Aces. This was all in Rotogravure; they were called slicks. And then they had a string of pulp magazines, Westerns, detectives, sports. And then they went into comics. But they went into comics with

JB: When you were at Music and Art, did you know any of the guys there who were later comic artists?

KREMER: Alex Kotsky was in my class.

JB: Al Feldstein?

KREMER: I don’t recall him. He wasn’t in my class. See, I’m talking 193637. I graduated in ‘39. There was another guy, Bernie Gillen [or Giller?]. I don’t know whatever happened to Bernie—if he stuck to art. A lot of guys that I knew in those days that went to the art school. The war came along, and before you knew it they were working in war plants making a lot of money. I was making a lousy $25 a week and they were making 60, 70, 80 dollars a week. They were all with cars, and... you know, they were all big shots. But I stayed with my art, and some of these guys are not in art today. But that was the beginning.

Well, prior to this, too, I used to work with my father in sign-painting, used to work in the Statler, lettering signs on buildings. I lettered trucks and I lettered fences, and all that kind of stuff. I did a lot of sign-painting, I did show cards, paper signs, tin signs, swing signs, you name it. I did that for a couple of years with my father, while I was going to school. See, there was a thing in the Industrial Arts High School that if you did artwork that you got paid for, it could go as a credit. So I used to bring paper signs into the school, and tack them on the board in sign painting class, and letter “Merry Christmas from the boys,” whatever. I would get a couple of dollars for the sign, and the teachers would let me do it! Because what’s the sense of me doing student work when I can really do work that was going to pay? So they allowed that and that was just great. I’ll never forget one time the teacher was looking over my shoulder and I was lettering the word “Christmas.” And he says [tough voice] “How do you spell Christmas?” [feigns panic, as if checking the spelling]. And it was right, you know, and I looked around, and he’s laughing. That was one of the sign-painting teacher’s jokes.

So one day this teacher at the School of Industrial Arts, Bob Seaman, asked me, was I doing anything after school, did I want to come up to his studio. I said yeah. And I went up and he had a studio...before they put up the Gulf & Western building [now the Trump building], there was a little clap-trap triangle building there, and it was owned by Hearst, and it was very cathedral-style in its architecture, and even the halls had cathedral ceilings that arched. But it was only a two-story building, it only had a loft, and below it were all these big stores that sold automobiles, Oldsmobiles...that whole area up on Fifty-ninth Street, some of it still

Keep ’Im Flying!

Some of the earliest Kremer comics work that Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., has come across is this aviation fact page in Ace Magazines’ Our Flag Comics #2 (Dec. 1941)—dated the same month as the attack on Pearl Harbor, but probably on sale at least a month or two earlier. Note Kremer’s signature.

Whether or not he also wrote the feature is unknown. [©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

“Strange Things Went On In Those Days”

43

Aces In The Hole Some early Kremer work, scans courtesy of Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. (Above left:) Though Kremer doesn’t touch on it in the interview, he apparently did a spot of work for the expiring Centaur Comics Group—in its C-M-O Comics #12 (Dec. 17, 1942). “C-M-O” stood for “Chicago Mail Order Company.”

(Above right:) Warren even got into the “heroic comics” game on occasion, drawing the cover of Four Favorites #26 (Nov. 1946), featuring The Unknown.

(Left:) As “crime comics” moved to the fore, Kremer could be found drawing such fare as this story from Ace’s Crime Must Pay the Penalty #2 (June 1948).

(Below:) And when horror superseded crime as the coming genre, he contributed this cover to Ace’s The Beyond (#2, Jan. 1951). [©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

56

“Come Back When You Learn How To Draw” Artist KEN SELIG Talks About Harvey’s Early Comics Code Days Conducted by Jim Amash

Transcribed by Brian K. Morris

K

en Selig has had a long career, dating back to 1954, when he started at Harvey Publications as a production man, before becoming an inker and art director. After his Harvey days, Ken began inking for Archie Comics, where his work continues to appear in many Archie digests. From our private conversations, I know Ken is proud of having spent his life doing fun, wholesome comics for a young audience, not to mention the adults who also need a good laugh now and then. Since this month’s Alter Ego concentrates on Harvey Publications, I thought it was time to give credit to this dedicated cartoonist who has always been too modest to say much about himself.

And since he is that way, we spent most of our time discussing some of the people he knew at Harvey, and in the process, learn a little bit about Ken, too. Special thanks goes to my good buddy Don Mangus for his diligent research, and to Ken for taking the time to share good memories of a good company, now gone, but certainly not forgotten. —Jim.

I Ink, Therefore I Am (Above:) Ken Selig working on an “Archie” page at a Holiday Inn while traveling in 2008. Incidentally, Teresa R. Davidson, who helped out her friend Jim Amash by forwarding this photo to us, says that she lettered the story he’s working on. Note that his makeshift drawing board is propped up by an ironing board. Thanks to Ken for all photos accompanying this article—and to Jim Amash & Teresa R. Davidson for forwarding them.

(Left:) A page from Archie Double Digest #199 (Aug. 2009) that features Selig’s inks. Unfortunately, these publications don’t give credits, and Ken Is uncertain of the penciler, or when the story may have originally run. Jim Amash believes the page was penciled either by Pat Kennedy or his brother Jim. [©2009 Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

“A Board Man” JIM AMASH: Let’s start with Alfred Harvey.

KEN SELIG: Well, the biggest impression that Alfred Harvey made on me was with my youthful orientation, such as it was. Newspapers, more than comic books, meant everything to me. I didn’t come aboard Harvey Publications until 1954, although I did have an experience where I was turned away from Harvey in 1948, when I was in the High School of Music and Art in New York. During a brief vacation, I went up to Harvey, and was seen by a female editor who was really a rough sort, but I did have an impression from her that there was an honesty to it. What she had said to me was not too kindly: “Come back when you learn how to draw.”

JA: There were two women editors there. One was Ann Barrett and the other was Louise Hill, who I think was who you were talking to. Do you remember anything about her?

“Come Back When You Learn How To Draw”

57

A Little White-Out For “Little Audrey” A “Little Audrey” half-page filler drawn for Archie by artist Steve Mufatti in 1951. Ken says, “These would come into the art department needing white-out in Audrey’s hair”—and it was Selig’s job as a production artist to apply it. Little Audrey had begun life as a series of Paramount cartoons between 1947 & 1959. [©2009 Harvey Publications or successors in interest.]

SELIG: I wouldn’t be able to put a name to her. She was something like a female in that Dick Powell movie, Murder, My Sweet, [chuckles] meaning that she was an arm-twister. But what I picked up from her was an aspiration that I had a respect for, meaning that she was telling it the way it was. And a guy like myself who was seeing himself as something like a hotshot who was going to burst on the scene and immediately write the next Great American Comic Strip... it obviously—just from her manner with me—was not going to happen. What she did was that she put me in my place.

She was not there when I came back in 1954. That’s when I began to see the editors, Alfred Harvey per se. My first impression was because I was interviewed by the art director, Otto Pirkola, and then he called in Leon Harvey. Leon Harvey was the man who really gave me a grilling. Later on, his brother Alfred came in, a real big guy and very impressive. I was also introduced to Robert [Harvey] at the same time. I was a student at the Cartoonists and Illustrators School, where I’d gotten a recommendation from Silas Rhodes to go to Harvey. All three of them represented newspapermen to me, and that was, to me, all-important. I really wasn’t into comic books, I was into newspapers, but I needed work badly. I gathered from Otto Pirkola that the job was mine if I wanted it, and I would be replacing a fellow by the name of Don Heck. I got a job as a board man.

“They Were Twins, You Know” JA: What a terrible thought: “unnecessary cleavage.” Okay, who actually hired you?

SELIG: Leon Harvey and Otto Pirkola.

JA: Describe each person’s function, beginning with Alfred.

SELIG: Alfred, being the president since 1940, was the man who originated the company, but he had brought in his brothers, Leon and then Robert. He started the company with Pocket Comics. Alfred wasn’t that self-evident. There was some kind of an agreement between Alfred and Leon— they were twins, you know—where the art department was Leon’s domain, and the editorial department was Alfred’s. Sid Jacobson was the chief editor, even though he may not have been called that.

He sat in the room that was just bordering on Alfred’s office, so he had a lot more to do with Alfred than I did.

JA: Describe what a “board man” is for readers who may not know that term.

SELIG: For the most part, a retoucher.

When the end product came in from the cartoonists and the writer, it occasionally needed touching up or reviewing, and a board man’s job was to make corrections.

When I signed on at Harvey, I was given a very difficult assignment: to adjust bust lines of the female characters in our comics.

This was after Dr. Wertham and the Senate hearings about crime comics. The Harveys had to toe the line, and the unnecessary cleavage had to be eliminated.

Hittin’ ‘Em With Their Pocket Book Pocket Comics #1 (Aug. 1941) was Harvey’s first comic book— and was, as the name implies, “pocket-size,“ though with 100 pages. The art has been (very tentatively) credited to Bob Powell by the Grand Comic-Book Database. [©2009 Harvey Publications or successors in interest.]

I was very impressed by Leon’s very polite manner. Alfred was a little more flamboyant. Alfred was what I called an ex-newspaperman. Harvey Comics at that time dealt with the newspaper syndicates.

This is one of the reasons why I wanted to work there. I thought if I couldn’t get onto a newspaper, which I tried very hard for, I could get as close to a newspaper as possible. It was this company, Harvey Comics, which in 1945 started publishing Terry and the Pirates comics. That meant to me that they had some kind of affiliation with the Chicago Tribune, New York News, and I had an idea I could fit in there somehow.

JA: Harvey was publishing a lot of newspaper strips as comic books, like Dick Tracy, Kerry Drake, and Steve Canyon.

SELIG: Yes, and Alfred was what you might call the editorial director, but their functions seemed to overlap. By their own

67

68

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

books she liked and was told ‘corpsies.’ This baffled the researcher (that name would fit so many!). It finally developed when she produced the book that she meant ‘Kewpies.’ It was one of the very few artistic comic books [but]… what was impressed on this child’s mind… were the ‘corpsies’ she had seen in the crime comic books of her friends.” Corpsies? Yipes! Get that poor kid some Xanax®, Doc!

Introduction

by Michael T. Gilbert

M

ost comic fans are familiar with Seduction of the Innocent, Dr. Fredric Wertham’s comicskewering bestseller from 1954. But, truth be told, how many of you have actually read it? I blush to admit that I hadn’t, despite getting a copy in a trade some years ago. Well, I finally cracked it open—and found a steaming heap of, uh, “knowledge” to wade through!

It’s also filled with unintentionally hilarious, jawdropping statements. As a public service, we at Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt have gone through all 297 pages and tossed out all that boring “educational” stuff willynilly, and collected the stupid stuff. In the local parlance, it’s called “shooting fish in a barrel.” Your humble host has also taken the opportunity to insert a few snarky comments where appropriate.

***

Wertham illo from Ladies Home Journal (Nov. 1953). [©2009 Ladies Home Journal.]

P. 229: Wertham related this amusing exchange between a nine-year-old boy and his teacher. She asked him which comic he liked best and, according to Wertham, “… he answered without hesitation: ‘Human Torture.’ You mean ‘Human Torch,’ don’t you? ‘No,’ he said positively, ‘Human Torture.’” Hmmm! Did the kid read the panel from Atlas’ Combat Casey that’s printed on the facing page? *** P. 36: Wertham writes that David Dempsey of The New York Times quoted a Julius Caesar comic book: “‘Our

We at Alter Ego hope you appreciate our efforts.

Doc Wertham’s Straight Talk About Comix!

by Michael T. Gilbert P. 89: ”I have known many adults who have treasured throughout their lives some of the books they read as children. I have never come across any adult nor adolescent who had outgrown comic-book reading who would ever dream of keeping any of these ‘books’ for any sentimental or other reasons.” Uh, Doc, I hate to break it to you, but… *** P. 255: “Moreover, the old or returned comic books continue to be sold, shipped abroad, traded secondhand, borrowed and studied, as long as they hold together.

Old comic books never die; they just trade away.”

Shades of Gen. MacArthur! Speaking of trades, I’ll give you this Classics Illustrated comic for that old Action #1, Doc! *** P. 33: “Blood flows freely, bosoms are half-bared, girls’ buttocks are drawn with careful attention.” And your point is…? *** P. 35: “One Lafargue researcher asked a little sixyear-old girl what comic

Corpsies BAD! Kewpies GOOD! Got It, Kid? Bill Everett’s “Zombie” from Atlas’s Menace #5 (July 1953). [“Menace” splash ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.; cover of Rose O’Neill’s Kewpies #1 (Spring 1949) ©2009 Will Eisner Studios, Inc.]

Author ToplineArchive Comic Fandom

74

A Memory Of The Early Detroit Triple Fan Fairs And Some Who Were There I

by Marvin Giles letter to Roy which accompanied this piece, he wrote: “Through telephone communication with my long-time friend Shel Dorf [whose article on the first Detroit Triple Fan Fair appeared in A/E #31], I learned that you plan to have [articles] in Alter Ego relating to the earliest comic conventions. So at Shel’s behest, I am sending to you my own recollections of those days when we were all younger – but with little foreknowledge of the exciting times yet to come. It is my hope that you will be able to use this account that I have ‘jotted down’ in your fine magazine.”

NTRODUCTION BY BILL SCHELLY, CFA EDITOR: One of the great, largely untapped resources when it comes to the documenting of fandom’s early years is what must be a vast pool of memories stored in the heads of Those Who Were There. Matters of fact are available to anyone tenacious enough to do the research, but memories are one-of-akind. We are fortunate indeed, then, when fans share their unique remembrances with us.

In this instance, the Comic Fandom Archive and Alter Ego are delighted to offer the memories of Marvin Giles, stalwart of comic fandom (and other fandoms’ too) as he casts his mind back to the mid-1960s. In Marvin’s

Speaking for Roy and all the A/E gang, Marvin, we are thrilled that you felt moved to submit the following evocation of the early Detroit Triple Fan Fairs, the first of which was held in July 1965, the weekend before the second New York City comics convention (which I like to refer to as the first “full-service” comicon). They were as important to fans in the Midwest as the early New York cons were to those in the Northeast, and are fascinating in their own way, for they were a little different in their multi-fandoms scope. We’ve had it on the shelf for quite a while now… and it’s high time we shared it with A/E’s readers… as Marvin takes center stage....

I

t was an age when we thought that we were alone, or nearly so, in our great love of the comics—represented in both comic books and newspapers, an integral part of illustrative art in totality. It was a time, too, when one might, as I did, haunt secondhand bookstores with the hope and expectation that he or she might find items of his or her longing—things that had for the eyes and the mind an intrinsic beauty—not given or many others to know, or so we thought.

The Fan And The Fair Marvin Giles at a 1960s comicon (photo courtesy of Jean Bails, from the Jerry Bails collection)—and the first official announcement of The Detroit Triple Fan Fair, as typed and printed on a spirit duplicator by Jerry G. Bails, founder of Alter Ego—and a co-founder of comics fandom itself. Note that “Comic Art” is listed third, after “Fantasy Literature” and “Films,” among the three principal themes of the convention/gathering. And notice the squib along the bottom, alerting fans to the upcoming article on fandom then about to appear in Newsweek magazine. Said article duly appeared in the Feb. 15, 1965, issue—and was reprinted as an item of comicshistorical interest in A/E #12, which is still available from TwoMorrows. [Art ©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

A Memory of the Early Detroit Triple Fan Fairs

75

I had come up from North Carolina only a few years before and had gone around to the bookstores in Detroit that specialized in older material and had broached the question to all: “What do you do with comic books, Big Little Books, pulp magazines, newspaper comics, and such items when they are brought to you?”

And all of the answers were something like, “We have no market for that stuff. We trash it.”

I made one proposal to these dealers: “I’ll make it worth your while to save these things for me.”

And suddenly a new business was born for them, at least on a minute scale….

Soon afterward, I met Bob Brosch, a teenage youth, and his sister, and they had the same collecting instinct for this “glorious junk” (to use Jules Feiffer’s phrase) that I did.

A little later still, Bob told me that he was taking a part in forming a convention in our Detroit city for those others who had interests similar to our own: this love of comics and related fields such as movies, radio, TV in its infancy, pulps, etc.

I took absolutely no part in the planning for this one-day affair of July 24-25, 1965, though I did ask if I might deliver a talk on the writings of Edgar Rice Burroughs. My offer was accepted as part of the planned program.

Came the day and there I was with my wife, Burda—and there were others, then of destiny unknown, but whose impact in comic-future would range from small to huge, and we were shaking hands with them, and it was our first day of meeting with some whose span of friendship for us reaches into this very hour.

I shall not attempt to categorize them or their future fame, for really we were as one in our love of the comics.

But: there was Shel Dorf, he of physical largeness. He looked like the football player that Milton Caniff would one day pattern after him in the strip Steve Canyon and name “Thud Shelly”—and he had a smile and a mind and a love to match. I did not know just how he and Bob and perhaps others had put it all together in brief ad hoc fashion, but one thing was certain—Shel was the first among equals.

And there was Howard DeVore, mailman and noted science-fiction collector and a friend of writers in that field—whose roots in that genre I

In The Beginning Was The Logo The tripartite logo for the Triple Fan Fair, seen above, was designed by Shel Dorf (seen above left in a grainy 1965 photo)— while the program book for the ’65 con was designed by Carl Lundgren. [©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

In his article Marvin gives Shel Dorf full credit for christening “The Detroit Triple Fan Fair.” Roy Thomas notes that, back in the day, fellow Detroiter Jerry Bails told him he believed he himself had coined that term… but Jerry was reluctant to contradict others in print, since he didn’t feel proprietary about it. Well, whoever came up it with—it was a great name!

do believe stretch back to what is lovingly remembered as “First Fandom.”

And also Eugene Seger, who has sometimes been referred to by the appellation “Mr. Buck Rogers” for his love and knowledge of that early comic strip adventurer into the known and unknown.

And there were about one hundred others, and we were seated, and I was giving my talk and trying to configure Tarzan in their minds as he was in mine with his wild ululation in dark jungle, and a beautiful young woman sat their amidst the listeners, her eyes locked intensely upon mine, and I spoke with her briefly afterwards and learned her name—Ramona Much; and years later, when I joined the Burroughs Bibliophiles, I learned that she was a great Burroughs fan.

And Shel named our con “The Detroit Triple Fan Fair” and designed its logo, which expressed our love of comics, science-fantasy, and movies.

And the day was over, and it seemed that money had not been lost in the undertaking, and another gathering would come.

And between times, on a winter day with snow blowing, Shel and Eugene Seger and Carl Lundgren and I (and there might have been another one or two) gathered at the home of Prof. Jerry Bails to be interviewed by a reporter from (was it Newsweek magazine?).

He recorded our words about comics, and I tried to be philosophical about it all—but no dice; such was not deemed interesting to national readers.

And the hours deepened into cold gloom outside, and Jerry was kind enough to lend me several items from his valuable collection for private and pleasurable reading in my home. He was already clothed in a kind of fame strange to those who do not know its beauty—and now Jerry’s son, Kirk, is a good and generous friend to us.

[Art by Bill Fugate. Mr. Atom TM & Š2009 DC Comics.]

80

“that love stuff,” those scripts featuring passion and heartbreak did not provide much in the way of human activity. People… talking, talking, talking. The result: uninteresting, inert comic book panels. In my esteem it was a problem…that rested in the lap of… the artist!

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

[FCA EDITORS NOTE: From 1941-53, Marcus D. Swayze was a top artist for Fawcett Publications. The very first Mary Marvel character sketches came from Marc’s drawing table, and he illustrated her earliest adventures, including the classic origin story, “Captain Marvel Introduces Mary Marvel (Captain Marvel Adventures #18, Dec. ’42); but he was primarily hired by Fawcett Publications to illustrate Captain Marvel stories and covers for Whiz Comics and Captain Marvel Adventures. He also wrote many Captain Marvel scripts, and continued to do so while in the military. After leaving the service in 1944, he made an arrangement with Fawcett to produce art and stories for them on a freelance basis out of his Louisiana home. There he created both art and stories for The Phantom Eagle in Wow Comics, in addition to drawing the Flyin’ Jenny newspaper strip for Bell Syndicate (created by his friend and mentor Russell Keaton). After the cancellation of Wow, Swayze produced artwork for Fawcett’s top-selling line of romance comics, including Sweethearts and Life Story. After the company ceased publishing comics, Marc moved over to Charlton Publications, where he ended his comics career in the mid-’50s. Marc’s ongoing professional memoirs have been a vital part of FCA since his first column appeared in FCA #54, 1996. Last time, Marc told about the “phasing out” of the racially stereotyped character Steamboat from Captain Marvel stories in the 1940s. This time, he writes of the romance stories he illustrated for Fawcett after the demise of the Phantom Eagle in Wow Comics. —PCH.]

It was a serious matter. There had to be some sort of motion…of life… in those comic book panels… love stuff or not! A new study, a new interest was begun, completely private… a study of people… how they moved as they spoke. The result… the physical action of the body and limbs that people take to emphasize or clarify their spoke words… the gesture!

That was the answer I sought. I began close observations in which I had not the slightest interest other than how those folks moved. It was interesting.

S

omebody wanted to know which of the Fawcett features that came from my drawing board had provided the most creative satisfaction. If the artsy term refers to a certain feeling of gratification that is occasionally experienced upon completion of a project, surely the likely considerations would be Captain Marvel, Mary, and the Phantom Eagle.

An accurate answer to the question, though, would be… the romance comics.

Generally referred to around the office as

We Can Resist Anything But “Temptation” Marc writes: “A heavy assignment of Fawcett romance art led to a mad scramble for... activity... ways to keep these characters moving... those panels and pages alive!” Swayze-drawn splash page from Sweethearts #93 (Nov. 1950).[©2009 the respective copyright holders.]

82

Hey, Who Took That?!

An Addendum On The Fawcett/Charlton Connection

by Ramon Schenk Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck

A

As related by Frank Motler in his meticulously researched article, “… And Then There Were None!” (Alter Ego Vol. 3, #s 39, 40, 42, & 43), Charlton acquired licenses, the rights to characters, and in many cases stock material from a host of small publishers eager to get out of comics or to get their hands on some cash to solve their solvency problems. Among these small outfits—which included Toby, Mainline, Fox, Superior, Comic Media, and Prize—was one giant that stood well above them all: Fawcett Publications.

By the end of 1953, after Fawcett had dropped their entire comic book line, they still held in their hands a large stack of ready-to-print material which represented an enormous investment. Charlton probably paid pennies to the dollar for them, but perhaps Fawcett used the loss as a tax write-off and felt they came out the better.

Thus, a whole slew of Fawcett titles and characters were sold off to Charlton. Perhaps most prominent among them were the Western titles: Lash LaRue, Tom Mix, Six-Gun Heroes, Rocky Lane, and others.

Then followed the romance titles: Romantic Story, Sweethearts, and one issue of Negro Romances.

Humor titles included Funny Animals (formerly Fawcett’s Funny Animals), which featured “Hoppy the Marvel Bunny” (renamed “Hoppy the Magic Bunny”

by Charlton, although not too consistently), and TV Teens (published by Fawcett as Ozzie and Babs). The adventure genre was also represented by, among others, Nyoka the Jungle Girl (also appearing in Zoo Funnies) and Don Winslow of the Navy.

But the characters that were not a part of Charlton’s deal with Fawcett were the mystery men… the super-heroes. Fawcett would hang on to those, perhaps hoping to re-enter the comic book market again one day—or perhaps fearing that use of the characters by another company would rekindle DC’s lawyers’ appetite for new claims against them. Fawcett kept the rights, and its successors in ownership ultimately leased and then sold the rights to the Marvel Family characters and several others to (O irony!) DC. Therefore, Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., Mary Marvel, and other heroes were destined to be published only by Fawcett, and then, decades later, DC. Or were they?

The material that Charlton acquired from Fawcett must have been a bit of a mess: Photostats of published stories… original art of unpublished pages… photographs usable to design photo covers.

Why do I say this stack of inventory material was most likely in disarray? Well, if it had been carefully

A Puzzling Page The Marvel Family, thought to be dead after Fawcett’s cancellation of their comics line in 1953, popped up in Charlton’s Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #1 (Aug. 1956) in a C.C. Beck-illustrated “Marvel Family” puzzle page. Naturally, the Marvels are not named, and note that Mary’s costume received a minor alteration from the Charlton editors—presumably so they could claim she wasn’t really Mary Marvel but just your typical girl who happened to wear a lightning bolt symbol on her blouse and great big goggles on her head! Wisely, the head shots of Cap and Cap Jr. have been turned into helmeted spacemen. See article for more about this doubtless leftover page.

[Shazam! heroes TM & ©2009 DC Comics.]

85

The Half-Life And Times Of Mr. Atom Captain Marvel’s NuclearPowered Foe

by John Pierce Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck

F

or those of us now living, the world changed on September 11, 2001. However, those of an earlier generation will remember another such day when the world underwent a change—one that was perhaps even greater than that engendered by 9-11.

I speak of August 6, 1945, when a US B-29 Superfortress, the Enola Gay, dropped the first atomic bomb, nicknamed “Little Boy,” on Hiroshima, Japan. A subsequent A-bomb targeted on Nagasaki, Japan,

soon led to the country’s surrender and to the end of World War II (itself a momentous, world-changing event). But, more than that, the dropping of these two bombs ushered in the Atomic Age, an era characterized by great scientific progress accompanied by tremendous paranoia and fear.

Before the development and unveiling of the atomic bomb, the word “atom” (derived from the Greek word “atomos,” referring to something so small it cannot be divided) was rarely used in speech. But confining our consideration to its usage in the comics, we find that there were at least two characters who had been utilizing the word in their names for several years. One, of course, was “The Atom,” who debuted in All-American Comics #19 (Oct. 1940) and was essentially a short-stature strongman.

Another that same year was Fawcett Publications’ own “Atom Blake,” who premiered in Wow Comics #1.

After 1945, however, characters with atomic names, and powers, would become far more numerous. To cite a few: Spark Publications’ 1946debuting Atoman; Regor’s 1946 Atomic Thunderbolt; Prize’s 1945 “Atomic Man”; and, among others, a 1948 French hero, “Atomas.” Oh, and we shouldn’t forget Lex Luthor’s adoption of an alter ego in the 1950 Columbia serial, Atom-Man vs. Superman (the name “Atom-Man” had been picked up from a circa-1946 story on the Adventures of Superman radio series). The list keeps going. And even the original Atom at DC underwent a change in 1947, with a re-designed costume, the addition of the now-familiar atomic emblem, and an increase from weightlifter strength to super-strength (excuse me—“atomic” strength); some years

Upping The Atom (Top:) The cover to Captain Marvel Adventures #78 (Nov. 1947). The issue marked one of three Mr. Atom adventures from the Fawcett era.

Art by C.C. Beck.

(Left:) Opening page of the first Mr. Atom story, from CMA #78, which the villain himself narrates. Script by William Woolfolk; art By C.C. Beck, with an assist by Pete Costanza. Mr. Atom is featured in gigantic proportions in the splash panel for visual effect only; he was actually just an 8-to-10-foot tall robot ... but modern-age writers have made him skyscraper height. [©2009 DC Comics.]

86

The Half-Life And Times Of Mr. Atom!

energy to activate his brain, an explosion destroys Langley’s house. As Mr. Atom crawls out from under the wreckage, he becomes aware of his power.

Meanwhile, Billy Batson, having heard about the explosion, changes to Captain Marvel and goes to investigate. A barely-living Langley is pulled from the wreckage and flown to the nearest hospital, while Mr. Atom roams about, demonstrating his power, and contemplating his future.

Finally he concludes that “I was not destined for an inglorious serfdom! I am not weak like ordinary mortals! To rule over men … Yes! That is my destiny!”

Meanwhile, at the hospital, Langley comes to enough to tell Captain Marvel about his robot, but a search of the wreckage turns up nothing, leading Marvel to conclude that the robot must have been blown up.

“In Your Death, The World Shall Read Its Doom!”

Strong words fly as Mr. Atom and Captain Marvel battle in their first meeting—a panel from CMA #78. [©2009 DC Comics.]

later, in 1961, a new Atom was introduced in Showcase #34. 1960 saw the debut of Charlton’s ”Captain Atom,” an Air Force captain who was destroyed in an explosion, but who returned with an amazing array of nuclear capabilities, including the power to detonate himself and re-form his body elsewhere. It came in handy against alien invasions and the like.

It isn’t long before he realizes his mistake, as he is forced to confront Mr. Atom, who brazenly goes to the UN to proclaim his superiority to all of their armies and navies. Marvel appears to be defeated at first, but soon returns. Later, in response to Mr. Atom’s warning, Billy Batson, “on behalf of Captain Marvel,” issues his own warning to the rebellious robot.

Marvel and Atom meet again in a slugfest, the exact results of which are not shown. But since Mr. Atom is narrating the story, we know he must have survived, and indeed the final panels of the story show him in an underground, thick-walled lead prison, broadcasting by microphone.

(Exactly why anyone would give him such a forum is unknown.) It’s obvious that neither Cap nor the readers have seen the last of Mr. Atom.

But let’s return to November 1947 for a look at an atompowered villain, viz., the notable Captain Marvel foe, Mr. Atom, who first appeared in Captain Marvel Adventures #78.

Mr. Atom himself—a tall silver, black, and yellow figure—is the narrator of his own first adventure, as he tells of his creation by a Dr. Charles Langley, who considers himself “the first man in history to create life by artificial means.” (Perhaps Dr. Victor Frankenstein did not exist in that particular universe.)

But as the lifeless, robotic Mr. Atom is flooded with atomic

“The Most Powerful Villain Of All Time” Clockwise from far left: The second appearance of Mr. Atom also brought him his second CMA cover spot, on issue #81 (Feb. 1948)—the Comet Men as willing participants— and the blow given to Captain Marvel by Mr. Atom which marked, according to the story in CMA #81, “the first time in his career [that] mighty Captain Marvel is nearly knocked out.”

Maybe, maybe not; but it still made for a great follow-up tale. Art by C.C. Beck. [©2009 DC Comics.]