Alter Ego #91 by TwoMorrows Publishing

Roy Thomas’ Reflective Comics Fanzine

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No.91 January 2010

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

“WHAT HATH KURTZMAN WROUGHT?” THOSE MID-’50s COLOR MAD WANNABES - Part II starring TM

ROSS ANDRU & MIKE ESPOSITO OTTO BINDER L.B. COLE JACK DAVIS JAY DISBROW HY FLEISCHMAN HARVEY KURTZMAN HOWARD NOSTRAND BOB POWELL WALLY WOOD

Golden Age artist JACK KATZ talks to JIM AMASH MICHAEL T. GILBERT on 1940s-50s comics defender LAURETTA BENDER CENTAUR Gallops Again! BONUS!

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

Vol. 3, No. 91 / January 2010 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 Artists Jerry Ordway & Emilio Squeglio

Cover Colorist Tom Ziuko

With Special Thanks to: Heidi Amash Henry Andrews Ger Apeldoorn Bob Bailey Matt D. Baker John Benson Jon Berk Bill Black Lee Boyette Chris Brown Aaron Caplan R. Dewey Cassell Michaël Dewally Jay Disbrow Michael Dunne Jerry Edwards Mike Esposito Jon R. Evans Michael Finn Shane Foley Janet Gilbert Mike Gold “Golden Age Comic Book Stories” Michael Grabois Walt Grogan Jennifer Hamerlinck Heritage Comics Archives Roger Holda Jonathan Jensen Jack Katz Denis Kitchen Mark Lewis Jim Ludwig

Bruce Mason Harry Mendryk Peter Meskin Philip Meskin Frank Motler Mark Muller Will Murray Peter Normanton Dorothy Ohlinger Jerry Ordway Nigel Parkinson Vern Patrick Barry Pearl John Pennisi John G. Pierce Ken Quattro Charlie Roberts Fred Robinson Steven Rowe Adrienne Roy Peter Schilder Ed Schumacher Scott Shaw! Joe Simon David Siegel Emilio Squeglio Ken Stringer Marc Swayze Jeff Taylor Dann Thomas Dr. Michael J. Vassallo Hames Ware Robert Wiener “Yesterday’s Papers”

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Frank Coghlan, Jr.

Contents Writer/Editorial: “Life Is What Happens To You While You’re Busy Making Other Plans”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 “We Considered [Comics] An Art Form” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 First Kingdom writer/artist Jack Katz talks to Jim Amash about his own work—and many others’.

“What Hath Kurtzman Wrought?” – Part II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Ger Apeldoorn’s look at the mid-1950s Mad wannabes—with a Harvey sidebar by John Benson.

Centaur Spread – Part III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Lee Boyette on that early company’s comics and the people who created them.

Comic Fandom Archive: Headline—The Forgotten Fanzine 58 Bill Schelly & John G. Pierce continue coverage of the early-1960s fanzines of Steve Gerber.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt: Dr. Lauretta Bender – Part III . 63 More on comics’ 1940s-50s “anti-Wertham,” by Michael T. Gilbert.

re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . 69 FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] #150 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 P.C. Hamerlinck proudly presents a sesquicentennial celebration of FCA, featuring Jerry Ordway, Emilio Squeglio, Marc Swayze, & the Fawcett’s “dark” heroes. On Our Cover: Captain Marvel artists of two different eras—but both drawing the original Big Red Cheese of their day—are Jerry Ordway, writer and cover artist of DC’s 1990s Power of Shazam! series, and Emilio Squeglio, who drew as a production artist for Fawcett during the late Golden Age. Jerry penciled most of this cover and positioned the mirror-image of Cap, and Emilio took over from there, for a Hands-across-the-Decades delight. For more on their happy connections with the World’s Mightiest Mortal, see this issue’s double-size FCA section. [Shazam! hero TM & ©2010 DC Comics.] Above: To augment our continuing coverage of the colorful early Centaur Comics Group, we present this dynamic splash panel by Human Torch creator Carl Burgos from Amazing-Man Comics #8 (Dec. 1939), featuring his “post-1950” hero “The Iron Skull.” Thanks to Lee Boyette & Jon R. Evans. [©2010 the respective copyright holders.] Alter EgoTM is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: 32 Bluebird Trail, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Single issues: $9 US ($11.00 Canada, $16 elsewhere). Twelve-issue subscriptions: $88 US, $140 Canada, $210 elsewhere. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © Roy Thomas. Alter Ego is a TM of Roy & Dann Thomas. FCA is a TM of P.C. Hamerlinck. Printed in Canada. ISSN: 1932-6890 FIRST PRINTING.

writer/editorial

“Life Is What Happens To You While You’re Busy Making Other Plans” —John Lennon I ’m proud of the contents of this issue, focusing as it does on the work of First Kingdom creator Jack Katz, Howard the Duck cocreator Steve Gerber, Dr. Lauretta Bender of DC’s 1940s advisory board, several of the men behind the original Big Red Cheese, the Centaur comics group, and more of the color Mad imitations of 1954-55.

But it’s about something else that I want to write now. Because the past few days have got me to thinking about… transitions. In the space of a couple of weeks came the news that Golden/Silver Age artist Sheldon “Shelly” Moldoff (of “Hawkman” and “Batman” fame) is in a Florida hospital… that Shel Dorf, co-founder of the San Diego Comic-Con, passed away (and of course tribute will be paid to him in a near-future issue)… that, far more happily, A/E contributor Michaël Dewally and his wife Heidi have become the parents of a baby girl named Alizée… …and that Ger Apeldoorn, author of our study of 1950s Mad wannabes (and, last issue, of Stan Lee’s writings of the 1940s & ’50s), was recently operated on for a tumor which has affected his motor skills, some of which he’ll have to spend the next few months relearning as he recovers. I invited Ger, who writes sitcoms for TV in his native Netherlands, to speak directly to A/E’s readers. Here are excerpts from his most recent e-mail to me, reprinted with his blessing: Because the tumor was on my cerebellum, the higher functions are still operating; and because it was probably a benign tumor, they have kept me waiting for an operation for 2½ weeks. Bored out of my skull, I had time to think about what I really want to with the next fifteen years of my creative life. I used to fixate on my craft and skills and getting better and more knowledgeable. The next fifteen years will be about what I have to say. And I won’t even have to look for that,

because most of these things come to me with an air of inevitability. I am already being offered new projects which I may have to turn down, if I want to keep a clear head.

Fortunately, I have saved enough to give me half a year to get everything sorted in body and mind, and even then I will have enough left for my yearly pension fund (the curse of the freelancer) and that 4week trip through the Rocky Mountains I have been planning for myself, my girlfriend of 30 years, and my 15-year-old son and 12-yearold daughter, a trip to Los Angeles in April to meet some American TV writer friends, a convention trip (either to New York or some other place where I can meet Internet friends like Doc Vassallo and cartoonist friend Mike Lynch, or possibly do some research at Ohio State…) after I have finally married my girlfriend, who said yes to my belated proposal before I went into surgery. It’s the secret symmetrical life of a recovered artist, and you are now officially part of it. No obligation on your part, but for me it would mean a lot to shake your hand at some point.

Ger goes on to say that, if his illness had to come, it “couldn’t have come at a more appropriate moment,” as he had just finished scripting the third season of a successful TV series, and that “the main actress has just gotten pregnant, so we have an eight-month reprieve” before he has to consider whether he wants to get into harness again. Either way, he says that comics and Alter Ego will remain very much a part of his future… and we couldn’t be much happier about that. Live long and prosper, friend! Bestest,

COMING IN MARCH

SWORD-&-SORCERY IN THE COMICS—PART III! • Fantastic painted cover by RAFAEL KAYANAN, artist of Marvel’s 1990s Conan the Adventurer comic! • Sword-and-sorcery spotlight on DC’s Sword of Sorcery (“Fafhrd and The Gray Mouser”) by DENNY O’NEIL, HOWARD CHAYKIN, & WALT SIMONSON and Claw the Unconquered by DAVID MICHELINIE & ERNIE CHAN—Charlton’s Hercules by JOE GILL & SAM GLANZMAN—Gold Key’s Dagar the Invincible by DON GLUT & JESSE SANTOS— plus more s&s art by JOHN BUSCEMA, GIL KANE, BERNIE WRIGHTSON, et al.! • JACK KATZ on SIMON & KIRBY, on his own work for Marvel, DC, Warren, & Skywald—and on his groundbreaking graphic novel The First Kingdom—interviewed by JIM AMASH! • Plus—FCA featuring MARC SWAYZE & the Fawcett comic book readership—MICHAEL T. GILBERT concludes his study of DR. LAURETTA BENDER—still more 1960s fan-creations of STEVE GERBER—& MORE!! Edited by ROY THOMAS

NOTE: IF YOU PREFER A SIX-ISSUE SUB, JUST CUT THE PRICE IN HALF!

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

“We Considered [Comics] An Art Form” Part I Of A Far-Ranging Interview With JACK KATZ, Creator of The First Kingdom Conducted by Jim Amash

Transcribed by Brian K. Morris

ack Katz‘s comics career has been a long and winding journey down various and occasionally bumpy roads. At the High School of Industrial Arts, he became buddies with future comic artists Alex Toth, Pete Morisi, and Alfonso Greene, and all four became friends with the legendary newspaper and comic book artist Frank Robbins. Jack got his feet wet in the comic book business working on “Bulletman” and “Jughead,” had very brief stops at the Harry “A” Chesler and the Ben Sangor shops, and worked for a short time in the Jerry Iger shop, before

spending five years in the production department at King Features Syndicate. After stops at Standard Publications, the Joe Simon/Jack Kirby shop, Hillman, Fiction House, Timely, and ghost jobs on Terry and the Pirates and Kerry Drake, Jack left comics for the teaching world. Returning to comic books in the late 1960s, Jack freelanced for Marvel, DC, Warren Publications, and Skywald before leaving the commercial comics world behind him. In 1974, Jack began his seminal work, The First Kingdom, while returning to teaching art. His newest book, Legacy, is now on sale, and Jack’s working on his next two books, which will complete the First Kingdom trilogy. In both halves of this interview, Jack not only discusses the twists and turns of his career, but his relationships and observations of the many people he’s known in the industry. In this part, you’ll meet Alex Toth, Pete Morisi, Alfonso Greene, Frank Robbins, Hal Foster, Alex Raymond, and Mort Meskin through the reflections of a comics rebel who strove to find his artistic voice despite internal struggles and the vicissitudes of the comics medium. —Jim.

“I Can Give You $4 A Page” JIM AMASH: Jack, I’m assuming you were born, so tell me when and where. JACK KATZ: I was born, in Brooklyn, 9-27-27. Then the next day—two days, actually—I went to Canada, and lived there until I was 7½. I might as well tell you my real name, but it’s not “Katz.” What had happened is, my grandfather’s name was Spevack, believe it or not. At Ellis Island, there was this German policeman. My grandfather says, “My name is Katz. It’s short for ‘Polychromekatzenheimer,’” or something like that. [laughter] “From now on, in America, your name is ‘Katz.’” “But the Spevack family is a very big family in Europe.” The policeman said, “It doesn’t matter. You’re a Katz,” and so Grandpa abided by that, said his name was Katz, and they put it on his certificate. JA: What got you interested in being an artist? KATZ: Believe it or not, my other Grandma sent us a package. I

A Kingdom By The Sea (Above:) Jack Katz in 1982, holding the Inkpot Award presented to him by the San Diego Comic-Con—and, at left, a page (p. 421, to be precise) from his 24-book, 800-page The First Kingdom, produced between 1978 and 1986. More images from and discussion of Katz’s magnum opus will be seen next issue, along with more specimens of his Golden and Silver Age work. Thanks to Jack for the photo, and to Mark Muller for the art scan. [TFK ©2010 Jack Katz.]

Part I Of A Far-Ranging Interview With Jack Katz

Jungle Lords Vs. Ancient Civilizations (Left:) Ape-men and Vikings—the two major artistic themes in the career of Harold R. Foster, the future creator of Prince Valiant—were already intertwined in this 1935 panel from his Tarzan Sunday newspaper comic strip. That feature, written and drawn by Foster (seen in photo), made an indelible impression upon young Jack Katz. [©2010 Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc..] (Below:) A white-skinned jungle king encountering time-lost peoples, of course, was a recurrent subject in ERB’s Tarzan novels, and Katz would draw his own hero “Zangar” (apparently co-created by writer Gardner Fox) years later, in Skywald’s Jungle Adventures, which will be covered next issue. Seen here is JK’s cover for JA #3 (June 1971); thanks to Jerry Edwards, who carried on a lively correspondence with Jack from 1979-82. [©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

was six years old and, well, I was always drawing, even then. But this package was wrapped in these Sunday newspaper supplements. I think it was a Hearst paper, and it had Tarzan by Harold Foster. Everything I tried to do, he did perfectly, so he became my hero. He was like a stimulus. He was like music. You interpret the piece subliminally, and it just either enlivens you, or you get turned off by it. None of the other artists did that for me. As a matter of fact, Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon—I wasn’t too excited about it because it was on another page, and it didn’t mean anything to me. I was also heavily influenced by classical music, of which I have a tremendous collection from the 1890s to about 1960; modern American composers and English composers and French composers. I was drawn to music, there was no question about it. I used to watch all Leonard Bernstein rehearsals for Carnegie Hall. JA: When you started seeing the comic books— KATZ: I really detested them, because to me, the art was extraordinarily important. My father would take me to the art museums. I saw Rubens and Rembrandt, extraordinary efforts in art. I never really found comic books to have anything that was going to have anything to do with that. It was going to be a lower form of art. However, when I was about 13, my mother knew somebody who was working with Quality Comics, before they were Quality, and took me up there. I wasn’t trying to get work. I just wanted to see what was happening there. There was Lou Fine, and I saw the way he was working over his pencils. He had about five billion lines before he accepted one line on the page. And there were a couple other artists there. I saw Fred Guardineer, among others. He’d been finishing some inking, and I saw his stuff was very exacting. They were across the street from the Chrysler Building. They called it “the rooftop paradise.” JA: Editor George Brenner used to boot people out of the Quality offices. KATZ: He took a look at my sketches. He said they looked good, but I needed a lot of work and anatomy study. He treated me pretty good, I must admit. JA: How did you meet up with C.C. Beck? KATZ: Because the word was out that he was looking for help. I met this guy who worked for the Beck [and Pete Costanza] shop who said, “Look, I can give you $4 a page.” I don’t remember who he was. JA: The date I have for that is 1943. How did you hear that they had a studio? Did you hear about it in school [The School of Industrial Arts]? KATZ: Yes, and the scuttlebutt was always about how to get into the business. A lot of people were only interested in getting into the

magazines. There was a guy by the name of Ralph Gross, and another by the name of Vito Colavito. Do you know who Vito was? JA: Alex Toth used to talk about him. His brother was Rocky Colavito, who played for the Cleveland Indians. KATZ: Right, and Vito was Dean Cornwell’s assistant. He didn’t do any drawing or anything, but he just was kind of a gofer. Both of those guys were talking, and they had access to addresses and potential stuff. They asked me, “Hey, would you like to do comics?” I said, “Well, that doesn’t

“We Considered [Comics] An Art Form”

sound like a good idea.” But Vito gave me the address of the guy who was working for Beck, so I went over there. Beck just looked at me—I was just sort-of a tall, skinny fool—“$4 a page,” ’nuff said. [mutual laughter] I did this for at least eight to ten months. I was very slow because I had to have perfect anatomy in my drawings. I only saw Beck a couple of times. JA: You did “Bulletman” for this artist. What else? KATZ: He handled some “Archie“ stuff, and I did a little “Jughead.” I think I helped on one “Archie,” but I only did about half the story. They loved my drawings, but they hated the time I’d spend on them. [Beck and Costanza, and everybody who worked for them] were packaging for everybody. This is how they saved the day, because a lot of artists were late on jobs. If one part of the package didn’t come through, the other would. Sometimes I was asked to redraw things. Nothing important, but to tell the story better. So if I had a shot from one angle and he wanted it from another, I had to erase, sometimes, a quarter of a page. I did it, cursing under my breath. I did such good drawings, but drawings don’t pay you. You’ve got to be able to tell a story, it’s that simple. I think I was paid in cash. JA: So it was under-the-table payment. Apparently, you were working for someone who was working for the Beck and Costanza studios rather than the studio itself. Do you remember who this man was? [Jim mentions the names of a few possibilities.] KATZ: All I remember is that he was a tall guy with a big, big belly.

“I Worked for Jerry Iger… For About $30 A Week In Cash” JA: So you did that for eight months, which leads you into 1944. KATZ: In 1944, I worked for Jerry Iger, on salary, for about $30 a week in cash. There was a number of stories he was turning out. He took old stories, and some of them were by Reed Crandall, believe it or not, and they needed some details on the uniforms. I would put in the details. I did quite a bit of work there. I did some pencils. That’s when I met Matt Baker, and I really affiliated with him. Matt, I thought, was one of the most wonderful gentlemen—he reminded me of Nat “King“ Cole. His voice was very beautiful, he was a very good-looking man. He had a bad, bad heart. In fact, when we used to walk down the stairs to go to a place to eat, he had a difficult time breathing, and his eyes looked like they were

Giants In The Earth Jack with his oh-so-brief boss C.C. Beck and others at a San Diego Comic-Con, late 1970s or early ’80s. From left to right are: legendary “S.H.I.E.L.D.“ writer/artist Jim Steranko, Jack “King” Kirby (’nuff said), “Captain Marvel“ co-creator/artist C.C. Beck, “Superman“ co-creator/artist Joe Shuster, Jack Katz. Photo courtesy of the latter; sorry the quality isn't better, but Jack tells us this version was already enhanced from a blurry original.

popping out. He’d get tired from walking too much, though it wasn’t that obvious. The reason I got fired from Jerry Iger’s is that I looked at Baker’s stuff and said, “Your stuff is so beautiful. If you can just show your stuff to places like The Saturday Evening Post, and some of these other places, you really should. You’re better than the rest of us.” I figured Matt was afraid that if he were to jump into that, he might not make it, and he knew the tension that was going on with the illustration market. They were bringing more and more photography into the set. Unfortunately, a guy whom we were walking behind overheard me. He told Jerry Iger about it, and Iger asked me, “Did you tell Matt to quit this job?” I said, “No, I said he didn’t have to quit to do illustration.” He said, “Well, you’re fired.” Frankly, I was about to go anyway. I was there six or seven months. JA: How did Iger treat you and the others? KATZ: You know how they used to make up these imitation countries in the movies? Iger was like a sergeant in one of those imitation countries; he was kind of a buffoon, and at the same time you had to take him seriously. He would strut around like he was somebody special. JA: Do you think Matt Baker was accepted there, considering the prejudice of the times?

Iger And—Well, That’s Definitely Not Eisner! Jerry Iger dines out in New York in 1942 with his writer and later studio partner Ruth Roche. This photo first appeared in Jay Disbrow’s important study The Iger Comic Kingdom, which was reprinted in full, with many illustrations, in A/E #21… still available from TwoMorrows. [©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

KATZ: Matt was accepted, at least to his face. I don’t know what all went on there, but really, Matt and I got along beautifully. I used to just praise his stuff to the ceiling. I used to say, “I wish I could draw women like you.” He thanked me and, in fact, Jerry caught me twice just taking a look while Matt was drawing women in the stories, and told me to get back to my desk. Matt was older than me, of course. He won by way of his art, and he won in spades. Really, none of the others could draw half as well as he could. He was treated with respect. He was a very quiet man. He didn’t like to talk about his heart problems. Later on, he said, “Look, Jack, I have a bad heart, and there’s no way I’m going to turn that around.” He was very, very straightforward, didn’t complain. He did his work. He was, in my opinion, one of the top illustrators, and a good storyteller. I admired him as a person, and his skin color was meaningless to me. With me around, no one in the shop ever, in any way, disparaged him. Besides, Jerry Iger would walk around, strutting with his belly out, and he would look at you. Man, he would freeze everyone.

Part I Of A Far-Ranging Interview With Jack Katz

JA: It wasn’t a matter of respect. They just feared Iger because of a paycheck. I never heard anyone say they respected Jerry Iger. KATZ: It’s not a question of respect. He ran it like a martinet; a strict disciplinarian. JA: Were there any other people coming in and out of there? KATZ: Yes. There was a very good artist [Maurice Whitman] at that time who had a tremendous love for Reed Crandall, because we had some Crandall stories that had never been published. Nothing like “Blackhawk,” though. Whitman imitated Crandall quite a bit. Al Bryant used a lot of very, very Midwestern sayings, kind-of like a cowboy. He was a fan of Crandall’s, too. You could see it in his work. JA: Tell me about Ruth Roche. KATZ: She wouldn’t give me a compliment. But I was so thin at that time, whenever I walked in sideways, they let me have it—in fun, of course. She and Jerry had something going between them. They didn’t flaunt it, but it wasn’t hard to figure out, either. You know the way it worked there. They had pages that had to be finished. So maybe this guy’s arm wasn’t finished on one page. I’d pencil in the arm, and someone would ink it, or I would pencil in some backgrounds, and then I would ink it. There was just stuff that was left unfinished. They would get me, and another guy who was a little older than me (I forget his name)... the both of us used to get all these crap pages to fix. Sometimes there was a tear in the page. We’d have to repair it, and then very carefully, carefully pull the drawings together—things like that.

JA: Did you ever work for Harry Chesler? KATZ: Yes, I did, and I don’t remember what I did for him. I did one pencil job for him while I was in high school.

“[Alex Toth] Created A Style That Everybody Started To Imitate” JA: Let’s talk about your high school days a little. In fact, since we both knew Alex Toth very well, let’s start with him. KATZ: We were in the same classes together. He was younger than me, and was very bright. He was good in English class. I was terrible in English. I would say he was a very good student. He was quite the young athlete. I remember seeing him leap over four trash cans. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I could only leap over one. Alex really should have gotten an athletic scholarship. As we started to assimilate with each other more and more, both of us were talking to guys like Alfonso Greene. We all tried to get into the comics business. The first thing that Alex did was to find some guy that he could imitate, that he felt comfortable with, and that was Frank Robbins. We used to go down to Frank Robbins’ house quite often. Frank did practically no penciling, and Alex watched him ink. He studied Frank’s stuff very intensely, trying to absorb everything he could. Finally, Alex got a job at Famous Funnies, across the street from me, and his work was looking just like Frank Robbins’. JA: Sometimes they called Alex “Sandy” or “Shandor” which was Hungarian for “Alexander.” Joe Kubert always called him “Alec” and you called him “Al.” So what did he normally go by? KATZ: Well, I called him “Al.” I used to go up to his house, and they used to keep a lot of food in the Frigidaire. Lots of Hungarian meals. Those hamburgers... sometimes they were spiked or something. My eyes used to pop when I ate them. [laughs] They were spicy, but then sometimes they were bland. JA: You never saw his father, did you? KATZ: No. His mother was a very nice woman. She was nice to me, very clean, she kept the house immaculate. When she talked to Alex as if he’d done something wrong—let’s say he didn’t pick up the garbage—she would just tell him, very, very straightforward, to clean up his mess. Did he have a sister? JA: No, he was an only child.

An Acre Of Baker Artist Matt Baker (below right) in a 1940 photo, observing a splash page from St. John Publishing’s Pictorial Romances #12 (March 1952). Photo courtesy of Fred Robinson and Matt D. Baker; thanks to Michaël Dewally for the art scan. (And congrats to Michaël and wife Hedi on the birth of their baby girl Alizée on Oct. 18, 2009—he must’ve sent this scan from the hospital!). Oh, and for extended coverage of the talented Baker, including his fabled “cheesecake” comic art, pick up a copy of Alter Ego #47; see the TwoMorrows ad bloc in this issue’s back pages. [Photo ©2010 Fred Robinson; daily ©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

“We Considered [Comics] An Art Form”

Jack Katz—American Dreamer Although Jack is talking here mostly about Alex Toth, it occurred to us that this is still a Jack Katz interview—so we felt we should toss in samples of his work from time to time, too, even if we’re getting a little ahead of the narrative chronologically. Above is a 1995 drawing labeled “From American Dreamer, by Clare Menreay [sp?] Savage 1912,” with handwritten notes that are probably quoted from that century-ago story or biographical account; it seemed to us to fit, at least loosely, with Jack’s accounts of the early Toth. [©2010 Jack Katz.] Jerry Edwards, who sent the sketch, relates: “My understanding of the art Jack shared with me during our correspondence 19921995 was that he was just enjoying doing sketches and fuller art of various scenes in books he liked or remembered, in addition to just drawing out a scene in his own mind or memory…. He wasn’t sharing art that he was doing for a work project. He was just drawing these various Images for his own pleasure.”

KATZ: There was a cousin or something, because I remember someone being there. I think she had left something at his house or something. I’ll tell you more about Alex. Sometimes I was talking to him and he could actually shut everything out, including whatever I was saying to him. By telling you this, it sounds insane, okay? But I don’t care. I’ve seen it in a few people. There was this look in his eyes, like he was abandoned or at least felt that way.

somebody stole his lunch or something, but I didn’t want to go near him because I knew how angry he could get. I left because, when Alex acted like that, forget it! You were in trouble. It was best not to be around.

JA: He had a bad childhood. KATZ: I know. There was something—maybe his father walking out or something—I didn’t even know that—but his mother really took care of him. I mean she really took care of him. And Alex was a very compliant son. He did as he was told. JA: Because of the way Alex’s father was, he was the apple of her eye and the center of her universe. KATZ: That’s right, and she would just spin out of orbit if she found he was leaving for somewhere. She would try to keep him around. One day, he got up from the table and she said, “Where are you going, Alec?” He’d have to ask permission to go to the bathroom. He was sometimes scary, though. He behaved very strangely, but then he would calm down. He would speak severe rhetoric, and then suddenly, he was back to normal. A couple of years before he died, I was talking to him about these kinds of things, and he really started to open up about it. Okay, let me bring out a point here. You see, the way he functioned was an absolute product of his upbringing. How would you feel if your father abandoned you? It would have been pretty horrible, wouldn’t it? I’m not trying to justify his actions, but there are explanations for some of it. My goodness, he threw a fit one day at school in the lunchroom. Something had happened that caused him to go off the deep end. I think

Keeping A Streak Going The snapshot of Alex Toth (who wasn’t a man wild about being photographed) may be from the 1970s, but the action panels above date from All-American Comics #99 (July 1948), the last Toth-drawn “Green Lantern” story that would appear in that title. With #100 Toth and writer Robert Kanigher would launch the “Johnny Thunder” cowboy feature that would headline the mag. The photo appeared in the DC-produced fanzine Amazing World of DC Comics #5 (1975). Oh, and just in case you’re wondering—the “GL” page is being narrated by none other than Streak the Wonder Dog (courtesy of the scripter, possibly RK)! [GL page ©2010 DC Comics.]

Part I Of A Far-Ranging Interview With Jack Katz

JA: At the school, there was you, Alex, Pete Morisi, Alfonso Greene, and Ezra Jackson [later an Iger shop artist]. KATZ: And of course, there was Antonio Benedetto [later known as Tony Bennett], who’s still singing. I didn’t get to know Ezra Jackson. Alex knew him better than I did. I hung around with Alex, and he had two or three friends, but he was basically a loner. I don’t remember him dating in school. Alex seemed, to me, to have a bad temper. That kept some people away. In the last conversation we had, before he died, Alex told me that he had a mental disease. I didn’t know what he meant by that, but look... we both know he had problems. JA: Well, Alex was, by his own admission, a manic-depressive. We talked about that many times. Anyway, he told me that it was Greene and Jackson who really fired up his interest in drawing comic books. KATZ: Yes, he was thinking in that direction, and looking at their stuff. In fact, Greene took me back up to Quality Comics. Believe it or not, Fred Guardineer was still at the same desk. I said to myself, “All these years and he never finished that page.” Alex was not only a great draftsman, but he created a style that everybody started to imitate, especially at DC and Standard. But we lost contact for a while as we went on to our careers. I talked to him once while I was at Skywald. I reconnected with him when I was doing The First Kingdom, actually. I asked, “Al, would you be able to write a forward for me?” I sent him about 20 pages of a 33-page story, and he gave me a forward, lettered without measured lines or anything. His lettering was extraordinary, very controlled. After that, we talked quite often. JA: So you knew him through the time that his wife Guyla had cancer? KATZ: Yes. He was very emotional, very unhappy during that time. He wouldn’t answer the phone. And then he started not going out of the house for long periods of time. He shut people out of his life whenever he could. You already know all that. JA: Did you spend any time in person with him during these years?

“Al, Would You Be Able To Write A Foreword For Me?” Jack sent Toth “20 pages of a 33-page story,” doubtless from the first issue of The First Kingdom, and Toth sent the handwritten intro seen below. As related by interviewer Jim Amash, Jack believes that George Lucas used the character in the first panel on the above page from Book 1 as the basis for the character Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back. Thanks to Mark Muller. [Page ©2010 Jack Katz; intro ©2010 Estate of Alex Toth.]

KATZ: Yes, at two conventions. At one, he was telling my wife about how old he was, not realizing that I was several months older. [mutual chuckling] Many people hung around with him because he was Alex Toth, but I could see there were times when he seemed, even with a bunch of people around him, a little scared. JA: “Uncomfortable” might be a more accurate description. KATZ: Yeah, but he looked like there was a little fear, though he held his

JA: He wasn’t a perfect man, but he was basically a good, decent person. KATZ: Yes, basically, he was. JA: You were in art classes with him. What did you see out of him, artistically, in high school? KATZ: In the beginning, he had no style at all. He was just doing the usual school drawings. The best artist of all of us was Bill Spewack. Bill was unbelievable; a guy with incredible talent. Alex was not the best artist in the class, but he certainly wasn’t the worst, either.

“We Considered [Comics] An Art Form”

own. It reminded me of when I knew him as a young kid, with that blank stare. He had to be measured in his answers. JA: When you talked to him on the phone all those times, what would you guys talk about? KATZ: We talked about the old days, and what I was doing, and he would ask me how far along I was on The First Kingdom. I asked him what he was doing, stuff like that, and he equivocated sometimes. But on the other hand, he was pretty open. We would talk about Frank Robbins, we’d talk about a number of people that we knew in the past. The past was a favorite topic of his. JA: You said toward the end of his life that he told you that he had a “mental disease.” He was bipolar. Had you not guessed that before? KATZ: I knew he was very disturbed, and I essentially had to drag this out of him. The last time I talked to him, I was very concerned. He was really way down. I called him and said, “It’s Jack.” He said, “Jack who?” I realized right there and then that he probably didn’t remember me. We’d known each other since—my God—we met each other when we were 16. And then he hung up on me. He said, “I don’t know you.” JA: I’ve been told his mind was as sharp as ever. You had to have caught him on a bad medication day.

KATZ: Yes, I know. But it was to support an ideal composition. JA: Alex would talk to me about his hopes and fears for the comic book industry. When he would tell you, “I can’t do this anymore,“ did you ever try to talk him out of it? KATZ: I told him, “Look, everybody goes into a dry period, and your creative juices that you have, just at this particular time, they’re recharging the batteries.” We have what’s called an “ideational foundry.” The ideational foundry is where the juices and the electrical kinetic energy are linked so that we can create words. Our bodies, our systems, our circulatory systems, the ability to breathe the air and expel carbon dioxide; and also where those juices create thought and motor responses. That ideational foundry is hardly ever talked about except by the original gestalt school of psychology who were physical scientists. They have been effectively dismissed by the psychologists today. But those guys broke that thing down and said, “That’s where it comes from.” This is what I was talking to Alex about. I explained that “The ideational foundry, right now, it’s at rest. It’s preparing for more work.” I was also trying to cheer him on, I might as well tell you. I didn’t attack him, as such. I merely said that his foundry is dormant at this time, that he should just let it rest for a while. Go golfing, gorge yourself, but do anything to get away from it, and let it start to go up again.

KATZ: It must have been that. In fact, his speech was slurred. It must have been some heavy dose of something, but he was pretty ill at that time, very ill. It hurts me deeply to say this stuff. He should still be here, dammit! He should be creating things! He was such a brilliant man. I wanted to go to see him. I also wanted to go and see [clarinetist and band leader] Artie Shaw, whom I knew. Something told me to call Artie Shaw. I called and the nurse, who I knew, said to me, “Jack, pray for him. The doctor’s taking his blood. We don’t know how much longer he’s got.” And about half a week later, he died, and I didn’t get a chance to talk to him one last time. I tell you, I started to cry like a little baby, because he was so important to me. I was good friends with Buster Crabbe, too. All these people that made these amazing inroads in the ’30s and the ’50s are all gone! I’m like a dinosaur, still going around for a maiden to jump. [chuckles] JA: Did Alex and you talk comics theory? KATZ: Sometimes. We would talk about composing a page with a lot of lettering versus how you compose a page with a little bit of lettering, and what part of the page you would emphasize to get the greatest impact so that there’s a cliffhanger at the end of every page, which is what I did in The First Kingdom. Every page was like a Sunday page with the cliffhangers, emphasizing the most significant part of the page so that you bring out the best impact, to get the readers hungry to know what’s coming up in the next page. It’s the way you go about designing the page. Sometimes on the phone, we’d discuss how to structure a page. He was one of the few guys that knew what the phrase “biparabola perspective” was. Let me explain what it is, okay? We have two round eyes and the focal point of attention is on one specific thing. But because we have two round eyes, we have peripheral vision. To create the three-dimensional power that we use not only for the page, but for the characters and the backgrounds... what happens is when you look at Giotto’s work, it’s flat. But Peter Paul Rubens’ work was three-dimensional because he covered one eye when he was reviewing his work. Then you cover the other eye, it’s almost a different image. And so what he did, he telescoped both to a biparabola perspective. That’s something Alex and I both understood. And Alex had a photographic memory. JA: Alex used photographs sometimes, but he filtered them through his own perception.

Going Deep This page from Book 14 of The First Kingdom may or may not be an example of the “biparabola perspective” which Jack Katz and Alex Toth discussed three decades ago… but there’s an undeniable feeling of depth, of deep space. Thanks to Mark Muller. [©2010 Jack Katz.]

Part I Of A Far-Ranging Interview With Jack Katz

wanted to take, and now I’ll be able to do it.” And he took his older course books and gave them away to somebody, even though he paid $300 for the older set. He gave them as a gift. He could be very generous. KATZ: Alex was desirously learning. JA: Alex felt like he was never too old to learn. He was still looking for the key to something, artistically. Whatever it was he was looking for, I don’t think he ever found it. KATZ: The musician Bix Beiderbecke was also trying to find that note. I feel bad, relating to you some of the things about Alex, even though you knew most of this. But we have to get a clear picture for history’s sake. I once said to Alex, “For a few minutes, you were Shirley Temple, and then in a split second, you’re Boris Karloff.” [Jim laughs] And he said, “That’s me!” [laughs] JA: Tell me the Alex Toth story about being thrown up in the air. KATZ: It was graduation day and everything goes wild, especially in that school. It was pretty much mayhem. The young kids who had just gotten into that school always used to take advantage of the graduates, and after graduation, there was Alex, and they grabbed hold of him. They put him on their shoulders, but then they picked him up high, and they kept throwing him up in the air, and his head hit these beams. The school had been a hospital during the Civil War, so these ceilings weren’t that high, and there were these crossbeams which were even lower. So they got him good. He was very shaken by it. After he was on his knees, Alex got up, he shook it off, and then off he went, walking out the door, holding his head.

JA: Alex didn’t want to leave that house because he used to tell me he was so unhappy with the world. He’d say, “Stop the world, I want to get off,” and he’d tell me, “I’m sitting here, waiting to die and join Guyla.” KATZ: I know that. Dammit, he told you that, didn’t he? Remember, he was my friend. We were kids together. It was hard for me to hear him like this, and not be able to help. JA: He was not going to allow us to help him. KATZ: He would not allow it. As our conversations continued, he became more and more distant and, in fact, there was a sense of futility in him. He thought there was no future for him. He once said he looked in the mirror, and saw somebody dying. I look in the mirror, and I see an old man who’s looking at me curiously with the most vicious smile I’ve ever seen. And who is that guy in my mirror? Alex must have had those kind of thoughts, too. JA: He’d call me up and say, “It’s your favorite manic-depressive calling.” We had many, many discussions about it. But I’ll tell you this: he never stopped trying to learn. He called me up one day, very excited. You remember the Famous Artists Course? The course books changed over time, and there was a particular year—I don’t remember which year it was—but he said it was the best, and he finally got those books. He paid over $500 for them, and he was taking the course. And Alex was in his sixties at the time. I said, “Alex, why are you taking that course?” He said, “Well, you know, this is the one particular course year I always

So far as his acts of kindness that you’ve mentioned: there was one boy who had a difficulty in trying to negotiate this drawing. I forget what the heck it was all about, it had to do with a hand, or something like that. So Alex showed him how to do it. It wasn’t exactly the best way, but it gave him some kind of direction to go in. So this is a part of Alex that’s there. Look, what did they say about Brutus? He was “the noblest Roman of them all?” Well, neither he nor I nor anybody is a noble Roman, but at least Alex did a lot of good things. As you know, he was extremely creative, very inventive with his work, and he simplified things down to their lowest elements. I found his stuff very intriguing, but I could never do anything like that. As you noticed, The First Kingdom has about sixteen billion figures in one panel. [chuckles]

“Because Of The Money Business, [Frank Robbins] Had To Go Into Comics” JA: Alex told me, “There’s more work in one of Jack’s pages than one of my stories.” [mutual laughter] How did Alex and you get the idea to visit Frank Robbins? KATZ: Alex got the address from Alfonso. He also got the address of Mort Meskin, and so we visited him, too. Alex was in awe... very deferential to Robbins at that time. I didn’t blame him, because what we saw on the table was his first ideas for Johnny Hazard. Robbins was finishing up his run on Scorchy Smith at the time, and those first Hazard dailies—they were brilliantly drawn! The guy was just tremendous. And the one person we talked about was Bert Christman. Robbins said, “The guy did black-&white like nobody’s business.” We had talked about the fact that he had been killed while flying with the Flying Tigers. [NOTE: Actually, Christman was killed by Japanese sniper fire after he had parachuted from his plane—a fact Alex often lamented. Frank Robbins illustrated the sad ending in a Life magazine article in the early 1940s entitled “How Bert Christman Died.” —Jim] JA: I’m amazed because here’s Robbins, working his tail off on two different strips, but he’s making time for you guys. KATZ: Well, he could work and talk at the same time. Sometimes I went

“We Considered [Comics] An Art Form”

with Alfonso, and sometimes with Pete Morisi. I went there because he had foils, and I asked him to let me foil-fight with everybody, [mutual chuckling] including Frank, who always bested me. He was amazingly quick, but I could beat his letterer, whatever his name was. But you couldn’t beat Frank with a foil. During the War, Frank was very, very proRussia because of the German invasion; they were our Allies at the time. I think he may have had a real Russian background.

The Duke Of Hazard JA: I know Alex liked to fence. I did that with him once. KATZ: Yes, he did. He may have fenced with Frank when I wasn’t there. Alex visited Robbins by himself a number of times. Robbins had a very good gun collection, too. I think I saw about six guns there. JA: Did Robbins ever impart any art advice to you guys?

Frank Robbins—seen in a photo from his heyday drawing the influential newspaper comic strip Johnny Hazard—and a JH display illustration. Both were retrieved from the more-than-worthwhile Golden Age Comic Book Stories website, which Roy’s old buddy Mike Gold turned him into a few months back. Check it out—there’s a lot more there than just comic book stories (not that that wouldn’t be enough)! [©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

KATZ: No, he didn’t. He said, “You try your best. As you develop, you’re going to develop your own style.” I showed him my work; he thought I was good. He thought Alex was good. Alex would imitate Frank to a point

Hazard-ing A Guess (Above:) The first two dailies from a superlative Johnny Hazard action sequence that began on Oct. 22, 1946. Remind us to show you the rest of it sometime! Robbins was perhaps the best of the strip artists influenced by Milt Caniff’s Terry and the Pirates. Repro’d from Johnny Hazard, Vol. 3 in the U.S. Classics Series. [©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

Part I Of A Far-Ranging Interview With Jack Katz

he was like another kid. I’ll tell you one thing: he had a series of dirty jokes that could have gone on from today until time immemorial. He ran them over, never repeating himself. One day, Pete Morisi, who never laughed at anything—talk about a cold fish—he cracked up Petey, and I saw that stomach giggling. [mutual laughter] So we’re riding home on the train, I said, “Well, Petey, what do you think?” He says, “God, that guy’s got a vulgar tongue, but it’s so great.” JA: What do you think it was about you guys that Robbins liked, and encouraged you to come over? KATZ: We were very sincere about comics. We considered it an art form. He wanted to be a Fine Artist, but because of the money business, he had to go into comics. JA: Whenever Alex talked about Robbins to me, it was always in admiration. Do you want to tell the story about Alex and Robbins having their argument? KATZ: Here’s how I found out: Sol Brodsky told me that one day Alex and Frank were near the elevators, and they practically jumped at each other’s throats. Frank called Alex a fascist, and Alex called him a Communist, and they were at each others’ throats. According to Sol, Gray Morrow got between them, and if he hadn’t done that, they were ready to go at it. Alex got red in the face. When he did that, watch out! The clouds are coming down. I don’t know how they fell out. I don’t know what started it. But it did happen, that I know. I don’t know if either of them meant any of the things they called each other, but it was a serious, serious altercation. JA: What was it like where Alex lived as a teenager? KATZ: The apartment was fairly dark, and wasn’t very large. There was not much light in the place at all. They kept the curtains kind of low. There was a deep coldness there. When I was with him, we were buoyant. Alex would jump over ashcans, and then we’d go up the stairs and suddenly, everything changed when his mother spoke to him. In some ways, she was very imperious. She was very, very powerful in his life.

Greene Acres Alas, we’ve never seen a photo of African-American artist Alfonso Greene, but at least he signed quite a bit of his work, which helps us identify it! From Eastern Color’s Heroic Comics #63 (Nov. 1950), which dramatized reallife stories. Thanks to Ken Quattro. [©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

where it was almost like looking at the same thing. He would copy the stuff directly. JA: How did Robbins take that? KATZ: He didn’t mind. He was very proud that some of us thought he was that good. We all showed him our work. Alfonso Greene’s work was very much like what Alex developed into. It was very clean, very neat, and he had a very commercial style. As a matter of fact, when he came down to my house one day, my father preferred his work over mine. He said, “It’s more professional-looking.” JA: Would you usually go in the mornings or afternoons or evenings? KATZ: We’d play hooky from school sometimes. We did that to see Mort Meskin, too. Once, I went there by myself, and had scrambled eggs with Robbins. Robbins had a physical problem, and he’d been taking shots for it. Somehow, he overcame it and I remember his wife—what was her name again? He had a number of girlfriends, but once this woman came over, the whole atmosphere of the house changed. She seemed to take over everything. Women seem to groom men. They take them out of the stable, and no more running around in the forest. [chuckles] So he became more businesslike, more centered, because when we were there,

I remember that he was in love with Reed Crandall and Lou Fine’s work, and I was crazy about Lou Fine, Alex Raymond, and Hal Foster. I think he liked Reed Crandall better. And then, of course, I fell madly in love at that time with Mac Raboy’s work. I met him once when he went up to King Features to take over Flash Gordon. He never reached that peak again, never. My God, they were brilliant. Burne Hogarth used to stay in my house—and he used to say, “That guy, he made magic with a brush.” JA: What did you think of Raboy? KATZ: He was doing “Captain Marvel Jr.” at the time. He was kind-of a grumpy guy, I think. He seemed very withdrawn. One of the things I will tell you is, he used to walk around with a lot of Alex Raymond Sunday pages under his arm. Raymond was like a god to him.

“I Know That Alfonso [Greene] Did Not Take That Gun” JA: Let’s talk a little more about Alfonso Greene. What did you know about his home life? KATZ: He seemed to get along very well with his mother. There were no problems. She would tell him what to do, and he would do it. He was very dutiful, devoted to his mother. They seemed to love each other. JA: Was he an only child? KATZ: I can’t remember. There might have been a sister, I don’t know. They had a nice place around 115th or 116th Street. He was really generous to me, a nice guy. He re-introduced me to the gang at Quality Comics, stuff like that.

“We Considered [Comics] An Art Form”

JA: Did he seem like a troubled person? Because he certainly had his share of problems. KATZ: Yes, he did. There were a number of incidents. He was in gangs. I want you to know something; I was in a gang at the age of nine, okay? We used to have street war gangs. It was a territorial thing. There was about, I would say, 50 of us and about 60 of them. There were some knives, and there were some real knock-down, drag-out fights. One time I hit a guy in the head with a bottle. That did it. Everybody was on everybody, and then suddenly the police knew about our activities. We heard these whistles, and everybody scattered. I felt terrible about hitting that guy, and then it happened again. Later on, a small group of us were caught at Grave’s End Bay. That’s where the Mafia used to drop their people off, and we used to find their bodies floating in the water. My mother got us out of that neighborhood. In fact, two of the guys ended up in the electric chair. I was in a rough, rough area. One of them turned out to be a judge. [chuckles] JA: You were drawing when you were nine. Was that frowned upon by other gang members? KATZ: I never let them know. Here’s what it broke down to: the Jews and the Italians got together against the Irish and the Poles. And then we switched. Alfonso was up in Harlem. That was a different thing, and it was not quite as violent as it is now. I think I was in a more violent neighborhood than he was. You want me to tell you the story about the gun? One day, Alfonso brings over a .38 Police Special. The minute Frank saw it, he took it in his hands and it was almost like a sex job. [laughter] There are some people who love guns, and Frank had a nice gun collection. Frank takes out the World War I Mauser, Alfonso sees the Mauser, and he was not impressed

Swashbucklers And Sojourner Truth Like Toth, Alfonso Greene did work for National/DC in the mid-1940s. (Left:) An action panel from his “Black Pirate” saga in All-American Comics #73 (May 1946). (Right:) The splash panel of one of the mini-histories that were featured in early issues of Wonder Woman—in this case, #13 (Summer 1945), telling the tale of ex-slave Sojourner Truth. The (signed) splash panel of the buccaneer yarn is currently on view in Roy’s and TwoMorrows’ All-Star Companion, Vol. 4—while Jim Ludwig tracked down this particular “Wonder Woman of History” episode. The scripters are uncertain—’cause frankly, we’ve got our doubts that tennis great Alice Marble actually scribed the WW #13 entry. [©2010 DC Comics.]

with it. To Alfonso, a gun had to be big, but he didn’t realize that Mauser had as powerful an impact as a—well, not as much as a .38, but it wasn’t pretty. It was beautifully tailored. It was like a Messerschmitt without the wings. A couple of weeks later, Frank called us and said his Mauser was stolen. The house was broken into. Alex and I came over at the same time

In A Timely Fashion Just to underscore Alfonso Greene’s versatility, here are samples of work he did for Timely. (Left:) A Codeapproved “horror” splash from Journey into Mystery #49 (Oct. 1957). (Right:) An historical piece with an almost Western feel from the penultimate issue of Marines in Battle (#24, July 1958)—and yes, Alfonso drew actual Westerns, as well. Thanks to Jim Ludwig for the scans. [©2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Part I Of A Far-Ranging Interview With Jack Katz

it all in. And he did tell you the story as well, didn’t he? JA: Yes, but Alex told me he suspected that Alfonso had taken the gun. KATZ: Why would he take the gun? He was more fascinated with heavy weapons. Alfonso said, “Any weapon that’s definitely like a feather in my hand isn’t worth a damn, because if you take it out fast, even in self-defense, it could just fall out of your hand.” JA: Alex told me that Alfonso was in and out of jail. But you didn‘t consider him a threat to you? KATZ: No, he was very good to me. We were very good to each other. I understand he was in jail twice, for brief periods of time, then he was let go. JA: How serious was Alfonso about his artwork? KATZ: Very. Did quite a bit of art for several companies. His stuff was, for that period, some of the highest professional quality work. The last time I went with him to Frank Robbins’ was about a year after the gun incident. Alfonso seemed to become more somber, more serious. I never considered him a threat. He would never hurt us—in fact, he had such a great love of art and artists. To him, that was sacred above anything else. JA: Did Robbins ever suspect any of you guys of doing that break-in? KATZ: No, Frank was very good to me. We did have a fallingout many years later. It was when I divorced my second wife, and I needed to talk to him. He was pretty cold and distant, and he didn’t want to have anything to do with it. I’d seen him

Table Stakes Submitted for your approval: a Frank Robbins-written-&-drawn “Batman” page from Detective Comics #426 (Aug. 1972)… and a multi-figure study of a slightly friendlier type of combat drawn by Jack Katz in 1997. Thanks to Ed Schumacher & Jerry Edwards. [“Batman” page ©2010 DC Comics; sketch at right ©2010 Jack Katz.]

when we found out about this, but the evening after Frank spoke to us—the day before we came over—he found out that somebody had been killed with a Mauser with the same caliber bullet. The Mauser had been found either in an ashcan or a dumpster. I said to Frank, “Did you hear the news with this Mauser?” And he said, “What Mauser?” and tells us, “Forget it, it’s all over.” So yes, somebody had been killed, and we didn’t know exactly what happened. I was scared, and Alex was just listening. I called Alfonso, and he said he’d heard the news, but I know that Alfonso did not take that gun. I can assure you he didn’t. I knew Alfonso: he would admit to almost anything. He would always brag about the things that he did, but this was inconceivable. We never found out the truth, but my God! I had only seen the darned piece once, and that was that. You know, the funny thing about this whole thing: Alex, when he was listening, had that expression that I told you about. He was really taking

“We Considered [Comics] An Art Form”

many times, and I was surprised at his attitude. I thought he would give me not too much comfort, but at least listen to me. No, he didn’t want to. JA: When you saw the Johnny Hazard strips: did he discuss it with you or discuss his problems with the syndicate over Scorchy Smith? KATZ: He discussed it with me one day. I came down by myself and he told me, “I’m preparing this for King Features.” And I said, “That’s about a thousand times better than Scorchy Smith.” He says, “Well, I’m barely working on Scorchy Smith. I’m putting everything into these. What do you think, Jack?” I said, “Frank, this is the best you’ve ever done.” JA: Did he have an art assistant at the time, besides a letterer? KATZ: I’ve got news for you. So far as Frank’s concerned, he knocked off a set of dailies in one day by himself. He was like a machine. He was not quite as fast as Marvin Stein, but he was good. He did a number of paintings which were magnificent, too. His paintings sold for very high prices, and he did very well for himself, I must admit.

“[Pete Morisi] Liked George Tuska’s Work” JA: Tell me more about Pete Morisi. KATZ: Petey lived in the toughest area in New York City. He lived in Greenpoint, and there was a guy by the name of Bolero who was so strong and so powerful that everybody trembled before him. They were more dangerous than any of the people that I was ever affiliated with. I mean this was the really hardcore—everything went on there, and Pete somehow managed to separate himself from that. JA: So Pete was in gangs, too? KATZ: No, he was a big guy, so nobody really picked on him, or tried to coerce him into a gang. We used to play handball together at these courts, and then these guys would come in, and Pete would say, “It’s time for us to leave.” We left because they were going to have it out with each other. Many times we went down to Frank’s house, and to Meskin’s. Pete’s family came from Napoli, northern California, so I think they were Lombards, and the Lombards came from Germany. So he had this very strong tough demeanor. One day, we had gone to I forget whose house it was, and we got a ton of original Hogarth Tarzan art. When we were going home on the train, I said to him, “What the hell? Here, take mine.” I had about fifty Sundays, and he appreciated it very much. Pete had a terrific collection of Hogarths. Besides, I did not think that Hogarth was as good as Hal Foster or Alex Raymond. JA: Was Pete a good student in school? KATZ: Yes. He was a better student than I was. I really had the worst marks in the world. All I loved was Art. That’s all I cared about. His drawing was not that good. It was never that good, in my opinion. He got by through copying, by doing a number of things to execute a pretty good drawing, but he had great difficulty with his work. He liked George Tuska’s work. We talked about things, we’d draw things, and twice we made the rounds to see if we could get work from the comics companies. Neither of us got work, and we’d say, “They don’t want good work.” JA: All you guys who were together—you, Alex, Pete, and Alfonso—was there a leader? Or were you just a group of guys?

Copping Out The late Pete Morisi was, for much of his career, a policeman who secretly moonlighted as a comic book artist. While he’s best remembered today for his Peter Cannon - Thunderbolt series for Charlton, he worked for numerous companies. Here’s his splash page from Comic Media’s Weird Terror #7 (Sept. 1953). Thanks to Bruce Mason. Scripter unknown. [©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

KATZ: I became part of a splinter group. We were very individual. We accepted each other as such. In fact, that’s the only thing we had in common. Pete was leaning towards Tuska, Alex leaning towards Frank Robbins, and Alfonso wanted to get that Quality Comics look about his work. I was nuts about Foster, Raymond, and Dean Cornwell. After high school, I saw Alex a few times, I saw Pete a few times, and Al a few times, but we went our own separate ways. I knew Joe Orlando back then, too. I never expected him to turn out the kind of work that he did. He was never a great artist, of course, but on the other hand, he did get himself in as an editor. JA: What was Orlando like when he was young? KATZ: He hung around. Well, you must know there was an Italian faction. They were very, very together, and he was good friends with Vito Colavito. We barely spoke to each other, and I did not take him very seriously, because I was a snob. I always judged the guys in school by their ability to draw. To me, excellence was the only quality a person had to have. And character, I always made allowances. All right, this is how I am. What’re you going to do? You going to arrest me? Joe was not up to the measure of what I thought was quality work.

Part I Of A Far-Ranging Interview With Jack Katz

“[Mort Meskin] Said… ‘You’re Going To Become Competition’” JA: I’d like to hear about Mort Meskin. KATZ: He had this tiny little place downtown in the West Village. Alex and I used to marvel at the way he’d draw these beautiful pages, like “Vigilante.” He liked our stuff. He said, “You’re pretty good. Eventually, you’ll be in the business. You’re going to become competition, and I don’t know if I should even talk to you guys.” [mutual chuckling] I’ll tell you something: if he had a bad date, he had a difficult time talking because he stuttered. But if something good happened, he’d talk fluently. So I guess it was like it’s the way he would breathe, the reverberations of the evening before. He did tell us that you have to watch out for certain editors because they’ll have you change whole pages. And he said that you have to be very guarded about how you draw women. You can’t draw them in awkward poses, and described how guys would walk close to women... things like that. He was very good about giving advice, but he was always very, very nervous. Mort was always talking about how girls treat guys badly, but he was going out on dates and he didn’t do very well, until he got married. He seemed to be very angry about his dates. This is the one thing he used to talk about to us, and we were, what, 16 or 17 years old. And yet, there was like this common language between guys where women were concerned. I don’t know, he seemed very nice. In fact, we could stay as long as we wanted, until finally we had to get home.

said, “Would you ever put that kind of work in again?” He said, “No.” He also said, “Jack, one of the advantages of comics is you can learn how to draw and get paid for it,” which is an interesting way of looking at it. I always thought about that. For instance, just one aside to Hal Foster which we can go to when I’m at my King Features days: he said to me that if he had known that you could get away with all this stuff, he would have never worked so hard. But then when Foster got caught up in his style, he had to keep drawing realistically.

“[Alex Raymond] Was Always In Need Of Money” JA: Let’s get back to your career. After you left the Iger shop, you worked for the Ben Sangor shop, around 1946. KATZ: Yes, but here’s what happened. To make extra work, there was a guy who said, “Hang on, kid. I’ve got a couple of pages for you.” It was some hero job. I never, never signed it. I took in the penciling job and he said, “Don’t worry. When this is over, you will not even recognize it.” Well, that’s the kind of work I was doing, because I was just picking up outsourced work. This guy (I don’t remember his name) would call me,

JA: Would he work while he talked to you, or would he quit working? KATZ: Sometimes he would just work on the page, mostly pencils. I never saw him ink. JA: Alex said that sometimes Meskin would take a page, kind-of gray it out with the side of a pencil, then take an eraser, and start picking out the white areas. Did you ever see him do that? KATZ: Yes, and I’ve never seen anybody else ever work like that. I don’t know how he did it or why. And he used to cut the eraser down until it’s almost like a pinpoint. On the other hand, Mac Raboy drew pages barely over print size. JA: Tell me about going to Lou Fine’s house. KATZ: The first time I went there, he offered to do a drawing for me. I told him, “Could you do a drawing of a guy with a checkerboard shirt and a lumberjack jacket?“ He said, “I just want to do a drawing.” “What about some anatomy?” He says, “My God, Jack. I’ll tell you what,” and he drew a full figure of me in my clothing with pen and brush. Of course, I got rid of that drawing eventually, which was a mistake on my part. Then again, I’m filled with mistakes. Well, I talked about how to get a better deal, and which companies to go to. And he said, “Now, the companies are getting stranger.” When he started, it was a whole different ball game. I told him I met him when I was 13 years old, and that he drew lots of lines on a figure trying to find the right one. But when I saw him later on, he would use just one or two lines on a figure. He had figured everything out. It seemed to come easy to him. I told him that the “Ray” and “Black Condor” stories he did for Quality were the apex of his comic book work, and he said, “Yeah, no question about it.” I

From The Golden Age Mort Meskin in the 1940s—and a glorious splash page from Spark Publications’ Golden Lad #1 (July 1945), from the Golden Age Comic Book Stories website mentioned back on p. 11. For reasons no one seem to know, Meskin sometimes signed his name using some form of the word “Morton.” Photo courtesy of his sons Peter and Philip; check out the magniloquent Meskin coverage in A/E #24. [Page ©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

“We Considered [Comics] An Art Form”

and say, “Look, this guy’s behind in his pencils. Just help us out with this and that.” It was adventure stuff, one being part of a jungle story. They often asked me to come back. But by that time, here’s King Features. When I was 19, I had a chance to get in with—I can never remember the name of that company, but he was in midtown Manhattan, and he wanted me to start working on his books. In the meantime, I’d gone up to King Features, saw managing editor Joe Musial, and showed him a daily strip that I thought was going to hit the spot. Joe said, “This is great stuff, but right now, we’re not interested in using it. But would you like to work for us?” I said, “What would I do?” He said, “You’ll be a detail man.” What the hell does that mean? I’m doing lettering, I’m doing paste-ups, I’m doing everything—for $11 a week. [laughs] Al Scaduto was also in production, specializing in lettering. He became Bob Dunn’s assistant on They’ll Do It Every Time. There was one guy there who hated my guts. He had been an officer during the war, and no matter what I said to him, he would never talk to me. It was as if I didn’t exist. There were a lot of people there. There’s Frank Cheleno [sp?], who was my immediate boss. He’d been a sergeant in the war. I met Alex Raymond quite a few times. He would deliver strips, and then would go out to Denny’s Hideaway to drink. Alex was very kind to me. He took a look at my stuff and said, “If you’re going to do comics, you’re wasting your time.” I said, “Why?” And he said, “You’re a born

Back In A Flash Alex Raymond, creator of the landmark Flash Gordon strip, at the drawing board—backed up by some of the panels that influenced several generations of comic strip and comic book artists. From the 1990 Kitchen Sink Press hardcover Flash Gordon by Alex Raymond, Vol. 1. [Art ©2010 King Features Syndicate, Inc.]

illustrator.” He was the one who keyed me into Dean Cornwell, and these other illustrators. He took me to lunch a couple of times, but basically, he hung around Ford Green and Sylvan Byck, who had worked his way up the King Features ladder. In the beginning he worked for nothing to get to King Features, and then slowly but surely, Byck became the top boss. There was a guy by the name of Broden [sp?], and then there was Stanley Kaye, who had done a lot of work for DC. He had been a sergeant during the war. He was very friendly to me. As a matter of fact, he used to invite me to his home many, many times, and I never went there. One day he said, “Look, I don’t care who tells you this, but no matter. I know you’re studying anatomy. You’ve shown me some of your comic books that you did. Stay with comics. You’re going to do something with comics.” JA: Any personal stories about Alex Raymond? KATZ: He was always in need of money. The guys at King Features used to bring clothing for his children, because he never made enough to make up for that damn place that he bought up in Connecticut. JA: The house that cost $25,000—a fair amount of money at that time? KATZ: Yes! And I used to ask him, “Why did you give up Flash Gordon?” First, he was telling me that the reason he gave up Flash Gordon was that he made more money doing Rip Kirby. Then he told me that detective stories were more contemporary at that time, and he thought Rip Kirby would do much better. This guy at King Features, Eddie Cetera [sp?], told me that Alex had fallen in love with Errol Flynn. And then he went to Hollywood, and met Errol. He finally found out that Errol was kind of a fascist. JA: Some people have thought that Flynn was, at the least, a Nazi sympathizer.

Six Days Of The “Condor” Lou Fine, circa 1942—and his splash page splash for Quality’s Crack Comics #14 (July 1941). The photo, courtesy of his friend and fellow artist, the late Gill Fox, appeared more fully in A/E #17, the issue which focused on Fine’s classic work… while the “Black Condor” page was retrieved from the Golden Age Comic Book Stories website. [Black Condor TM & ©2010 DC Comics.]

KATZ: Yes, he was. But more important than that, Alex Raymond had created Captain Sudan, whom he based on Errol Flynn. Then he became so disenchanted with Errol Flynn, because of what he learned. Flynn tried to enlist Alex into—well, not exactly pro-American business, let’s put it that way. So it happened that Alex, the only time he ever killed a good-guy character that he had created, was Captain Sudan. That was his way of shedding himself of that situation. JA: Personality-wise, how open would you say Raymond was?

Part I Of A Far-Ranging Interview With Jack Katz

like a real novel that’s beautifully written, and then beautifully illustrated.” He told that to me twice. Raymond also talked to me about attempting a visual novel. He said, “Yes, it would be nice, but there’s just not enough time. You’d just be grinding this stuff out.” I talked about how much I loved Tarzan and stuff like that. But Foster said, “Tarzan belongs to another fellow,” meaning Edgar Rice Burroughs. He didn’t get along with Burroughs. I don’t know who did. JA: I always had the impression that Foster was more of an aloof type of person. KATZ: This will shock you when I tell you this: he had the same temperament as Ronald Reagan. He really did. He was like a lumberjack. He walked to the United States from Canada to get that job. He was very much a self-made man. He was like a guiding light to me, starting when I was a six-year-old. Of all the artists I’ve seen, he’s closest to my heart. JA: Did he make much small talk with you? KATZ: He did, but his talk was basically about art. He was very to-thepoint. He never made asides like Raymond would, or even make a little jocular remark. He treated the business as if he was a scientist. He was “royally noble.” There was nobody like him, not even Raymond. JA: Did Foster or Raymond try to get their originals back? KATZ: They all did, but they worked for the company store. Once they bought your work, it‘s like buying a painting from a museum. It’s their property. So far as the esoteric, the art, the heart of the thing, they don’t care about that. All they knew was those comics were used to sell papers. JA: Did Foster and Raymond consider themselves to be newspapermen? Milton Caniff thought he was.

In Caverns Measureless To Man In the Marvel Age Sub-Mariner #17 (Sept. 1969), Jack Katz—using the pseudonym “Jay Hawk”—penciled this page which echoed the glory in the medieval vistas of Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant and the grandeur of the towers of Mongo in Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon. A couple of the faces may have been altered by Marie Severin, who drew the latter part of the story—see details next issue. Inks by Mike Esposito. Thanks to Barry Pearl for the scan. [©2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

KATZ: [Paris Hilton’s grandfather] James Hilton was the most glamorous dresser. He influenced not only Alex, but so many people. If he came to a party, all heads would turn. Raymond wore a mustache like Hilton’s, and tried to dress like him, too. Hal Foster was a great influence on Raymond. Raymond would come in much more often than Foster. If they were both in at the same time, Alex would look at him with reverence. You know, “Hal Foster was here.” It meant a great deal. Hal Foster was an extraordinary gentleman. Sometimes I acted as a receptionist. When Flossy Martin was the receptionist—do you remember her? She was a Ziegfeld girl, and was a friend of some of the powerful people at King Features. Well, whenever I was at the desk, Foster would look at my drawings and say, “For Heaven’s sakes, didn’t I show you how to put in the dark areas?” Many times he would come over, take my pencil out of my hand, and put in the blacks in my drawings. He was the first person I heard use the term “visual novel.” He said, “You know, someday, people are going to do visual novels. Maybe I’ll do one.” I said, “But what you’re doing, putting it together, it’s kind of a novel.” He said, “No, it’s not the same. A visual novel is like a brand new story with a beginning, and a middle, and an end like Shakespeare’s plays,

KATZ: That’s true. I used to visit Milt when he was living in Palm Springs. Milt was a very kind man, and he used to take us to the Racquet Club. It was run by an actor [Charles Farrell]. The first thing Milt would do is order us orange juice. I’m telling you, it was a meal in itself. They were tremendous since Farrell believed in oranges. Milt was very enamored of my drawing ability. He wrote a forward for The First Kingdom. He said, “Jack, if I was starting out now and I saw your work, I’d be very, very jealous.” [chuckles] He liked to talk about Noel Sickles. Once Milt had a big show down in San Diego, around 1975, ’76. I’m at the same table with him and Sickles, and I said, “Look, I’m doing The First Kingdom. All these guys are writing forwards for me. Would you like to do it?” Sickles said, “Jack, I’m poorer than a churchmouse. I don’t know where my money’s gonna come from.” He was really hurting very badly, and here’s a guy who had illustrated for Life magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, wherever he could get a buck. And now, his work was no longer salable. What a tragedy. JA: What was [King Features editor] Sylvan Byck like? KATZ: Sylvan was the most fascinating guy I’d ever met. He saw what I was trying to do, and said, “It can be done, depending on the comics. It can’t be the newspapers.” He said, “Jack, I don’t know what you’re going to do, but the way things are going, continuity strips may be out eventually, “ and I couldn’t believe him then. He said, “We’re making better money with the one-panel strips, and everything else is doing very, very well. In fact, people don’t pay that much attention any more to movies.” Television was just starting in, and he could see the handwriting on the wall. Then one day, he said, “We’re looking for somebody to help Alex Raymond with the pencils on Rip Kirby,” and I didn’t know what was going on at that time. Byck showed me how a person should sit. He looked at me and says, “Look, I’ve got a pipe in my hand. What’re you going to think of a person sitting like this and thinking? Just draw his pipe in like this. If you could work up some samples, I’d like to see what you can do; then I may put you on John Prentice’s stuff, okay?” By the way,

“We Considered [Comics] An Art Form”

that same week, guess who comes in? Mac Raboy to do Flash Gordon.

immediately.

JA: What strips were you lettering?

JA: Describe the office to me. When you walked in, what did you see?

KATZ: It didn’t matter. It was just like they threw it on your desk. And I did a lot of paste-up work, and a lot of changes, and a lot of this and a lot of that. I didn’t really do much artwork at all. I left in 1951 to work for Standard Publications.

KATZ: Well, there was Mike Peppe talking to the secretaries.

“Mike Peppe Hired Me Immediately” JA: I have you listed as working for Hillman around 1949 on Western Fighters. KATZ: I did some Westerns with them, maybe two stories. I did some pencil backgrounds on a couple of “Doll Man” stories for somebody around that time, too. I took the gamble of my life as I’d done all my life. I quit King. I’d just gotten married to this woman, and I started making up samples. The first place I went to was Standard, and Mike Peppe hired me

JA: So there was no reception room. KATZ: No. Eventually, they had a receptionist, but the thing is that Alex Toth was there. Mike was inking Alex’s pencils, but Alex told me he really thought that Mike butchered his work. I saw some of the inks that Mike did, and I thought that he did a pretty competent job. JA: Did you ever deal with Joe Archibald? KATZ: No, I was dealing with Peppe, but they gave me lots of stories. Even when they were falling apart, when they were losing everything, I got some of the last stories there. Everybody was inking my stuff, and destroying it. I did “The Quest of the Chlorophyl Monsters”—this I remember very, very vividly. I put in unbelievable drafting into that story, and they gave it to an inker who walked all over it with hobnailed boots. To this day, I just feel that my stuff is not easy to ink. You know who Mike Peppe was like? Joe Garagiola. That kind of outgoing personality. He was built pretty good, he wasn’t too tall or anything like that, but he looked really nice and slick. He always wore a white shirt with his sleeves rolled up. We were always telling each other jokes. They were always telling jokes in the office, and I just wanted to get a script and leave. [chuckles] It was always a social thing with those guys. They were always having fun, but when Alex came up one time, all he wanted to do was turn in a job and get another script. He was not too demonstrative with Mike. I don’t know whether they got along or not. JA: Do you remember how much you got paid? I know Alex took a cut in pay to work for them. He was making fifty bucks a page for DC. KATZ: What was he making at Standard? JA: Alex told me and I can’t remember for sure. I think $35 a page. KATZ: For the pencils, I was making about $18, believe it or not. Not a very good price. And I always stuck to the scripts, because Mike didn’t want the writers to give him a hard time about it. Mike loved everything I did. They seemed to be almost like a family with the guys in the bullpen there, whatever they were doing, lettering and maybe inking, and doing production work. The only other place that seemed to be like that was Quality Comics. But at Quality Comics, everybody was separated by partitions, so that they didn’t have a chance to really talk. JA: Do you remember who any of your writers were at Standard? KATZ: No. JA: For Standard, you did horror, war comics, and some romance. Did you have a preference, genre-wise? KATZ: I just wanted to get work. I liked doing the science-fiction, but that’s just about it. I was slower than the other artists. JA: What did you know about Mike Peppe on a personal level?

A Peppe Artist Artist Mike Peppe (seen in photo) served for some time as art director of Standard/Nedor/Pines comics line; his last name is pronounced like the word “peppy.” At Standard he often inked the pencils of Alex Toth, as in this page from Intimate Love #21 (Feb. 1953?). Both snapshot and art scan were provided by R. Dewey Cassell, who has written an excellent study of the work of Mike Peppe which will appear in as early an issue of Alter Ego as we can manage! [Page ©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

KATZ: I knew he was a player. It was a different time, a different world. He seemed to enjoy life more than anybody I knew in that business. I must tell you, he was always smiling, cheerful. He always had a black book full of numbers; there was something about him that made you feel good. Well, he

Part I Of A Far-Ranging Interview With Jack Katz

Why Reeks The Goat On Yonder Hill— Who All Day Dines On Chlorophyll? So ran a joking rhyme back in the 1950s, when chlorophyll was being touted as the best thing to happen to toothpaste since… well, since teeth! (That’s probably the reason that vegetable-coloring matter was used in conjunction with the story’s aliens.) Jack penciled this tale, whose splash is seen at left, and feels that the happily unidentified inker butchered it. Thanks to Michael Grabois, Roger Holda, and Michael T. Gilbert for each answering the call for scans from this story from Standard’s Lost Worlds #5 (Oct. 1952). But, as the first-named Michael pointed out, an editor back in ‘52 neglected to correct the unknown scripter’s (or letterer’s) misspelling of “chlorophyll.“ [©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

liked my work, so of course I liked him. [chuckles] JA: I know John Celardo and Mike Sekowsky were working there. Did you run into them? KATZ: I saw them occasionally, but we didn’t socialize. I seldom saw Alex there. He had to get the scripts, and he had to take off. “Hello, Jack. How’re you doing?,” nothing else. JA: From there, I have you as doing some Westerns for Fiction House around 1952. But I have that as pencils and inks. Is that correct? KATZ: I think I inked one story. I might have penciled a story, too. JA: You saw what EC Comics was doing in their horror comics. Did Standard have any qualms about going too far? KATZ: No. I was never censored. They were pretty liberal about that.

Horror You Doin’? (Above & right:) Two more horror splashes by the young Jack Katz— respectively, from Out of the Shadows #7 (Jan. 1953, above) and The Unseen #9 (March 1953)… courtesy, also respectively, of Frank Motler and Ken Quattro. The latter Standard/Nedor is repro’d from a scan of the original art, which Ken informs us he used to own. [©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

“We Considered [Comics] An Art Form”

KATZ: My friend, a lot had to do with that crazy maniac. He was out to destroy the comics. JA: Were you ever told at Standard, that they were trying to compete with EC? KATZ: No, it’s just that it was an open secret that EC was still top dog, no matter what anyone else did. JA: What did they say to you when Standard folded? KATZ: “Jack, you may have to look for other work, because you’ve got the last script we’ve got here. We know you’ve got a wife and children, and we will definitely pay you for it.” That’s the time they raised me to 25 bucks a page. And then they made sure I got that money. It was an 8-page story. Jim Amash’s interview with Jack Katz will conclude in Alter Ego #92, with discussion of Simon & Kirby; Jack’s work at DC and Marvel, Warren and Skywald; and The First Kingdom and beyond.

Me, Katz! (Above:) Some of the earliest comics work which can be positively ID’d as Jack’s are his stories drawn for Standard—such as this moody splash page from Adventures into Darkness #10 (June 1953). Scripter uncertain. Thanks to Jim Ludwig. [©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

JA: How were you told Standard was folding its comics line? KATZ: They seemed to be having some very serious meetings when I came up. Then I heard that they might have to cut the comic book line because of it not bringing back as much money as they wanted. JA: You don’t think this had anything to do, then, with what was happening with Dr. Wertham?

Kingdom Come Jack Katz in the late 1970s, in front of a comics store announcing that The First Kingdom #2 has arrived. He’s flanked here by page 188 of his ultimate creation, The First Kingdom. Thanks to Jerry Edwards for the art scan. [TFK page ©2010 Jack Katz.]

“What Hath Kurtzman Wrought?” Part II Of Our Issue-By-Issue Look At The Mid-1950s Mad Comics Imitations by Ger Apeldoorn

A/E

EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: Alter Ego #86 cover-featured the first half of Ger’s guided tour of the dozen or so Mad wannabes of 1953-55. Those were the years when Harvey Kurtzman’s inspired brainchild was still a four-color comic, before that alreadybestselling EC title was transmuted into a black-&white 25¢ magazine and swiftly grew under Kurtzman, then particularly under second editor Al Feldstein (and publisher Bill Gaines), into a national phenomenon. Along with delving into the historical background of parodies done in comics style, Part I of this article surveyed St. John Publications’ Whack (plus a left-over tale or two printed in The Three Stooges), Timely/Marvel’s Crazy, Wild, and Riot (including the three 1956 issues of the latter, which was briefly revived after Mad had moved on to its b&w format), and Charlton’s Eh! (whose four final issues were retitled From Here to Insanity). In this segment, with art provided by Ger himself except where otherwise noted, the author covers the remaining color comics whose logos were featured in the classic “Julius Caesar” how-to-parody story in Mad #17 (Nov. 1954)—plus the one or two that weren’t. Once again, because it, like Mad #1-23, has been fully and beautifully reprinted in still-available hardcover volumes by Russ Cochran, EC’s own official Mad imitation, Panic, which was edited by future Kurtzman successor Feldstein, receives no separate detailed listing—but samples from its (and Mad’s) pages will be seen in what follows, for contrast with work in the “unauthorized” Mad competitors, beginning on the facing page with…

When Kurtzman Went Mad An EC house ad for Mad #3 that appeared in Weird Science #18 (March-April 1953)—and, at top of page, a far later self-caricature of Mad creator Harvey Kurtzman, featuring his trademark signature. The Mad cover art is by Kurtzman, who probably also laid out the ad’s framing art, which was finished by Wally Wood. Thanks to John Benson for the portrait by HK. [Kurtzman art ©2010 Harvey Kurtzman Estate, courtesy of Kitchen, Lind & Assoc., LLC; EC house ad ©2010 William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.]

“What Hath Kurtzman Wrought?”—Part II

FLIP The Harvey Girls And Guys In the year in which one Mad imitation swiftly followed another, Harvey Publications was not quick to join the parade and was one of the first to drop out of it. The premier issue of Flip didn’t appear until April 1954, the second and final one two months later. Both issues were almost completely illustrated by Bob Powell and Howard Nostrand, under editor Sid Jacobson. Nostrand had started in the business as Powell’s assistant and in 1952 had left that artist’s studio to work on his own. Both did a lot of work for the Harvey war, horror, and romance titles. In an interview with Bhob Stewart for Graphic Story Magazine #16 (June 1974), Nostrand said this about the title: “Bob Powell was not a particularly humorous fellow. He didn’t know how to write humor. He didn’t know the whole premise of humor. The whole thing just eluded him. When we were doing this humor magazine for Harvey, I ended up writing the whole damn thing and drawing half of it, and Powell was doing the other half.” [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: See an interview with Howard Nostrand, and coverage of Harvey’s 1950s horror mags, in A/E #89. Photos of both Nostrand and Powell can be found there.] Apparently a third issue of Flip was planned, because sketches (with script) by Nostrand for three pages of a satire of “Sheena, Queen of the

He Said, Sheena Said… (Left:) Howard Nostrand’s circa-1954 layouts for the splash page of “Shaända the Jungle Gal,” which, he said in Bill Spicer’s Graphic Story Magazine #16 (Summer ’74), was done for the never-published third issue of Harvey Comics’ Flip. The writer/artist added that such layouts were the form in which he submitted stories he was also going to draw. Thanks to Aaron Caplan for gifting Ye Editor with a copy of GSM #16! (Above:) Still, obviously, some script and art changes were made… for when the tale finally saw print in Harvey Hits #1 (Sept. 1957), it was as “Shirl the Jungle Girl,” with much of the dialogue altered. Even the sequence in which Shaända swings into a tree had become Shirl (with reduced cleavage) carelessly letting a tree branch knock her off an elephant’s back. While the “Shirl” title is clearly cleverer than “Shaända,” the earlier gag sequence was almost undeniably superior. Of course, Nostrand may have decided to do these changes on his own, without prompting by editor Sid Jacobson. John Benson, who sent this scan, tells us: “The faces of the [story’s] villains, which Nostrand had intended to resemble Tim Tyler and Spud [according to GSM #16], have been changed by another artist, though this may have been dictated by the Harveys, not the Code.” Benson reports that Nostrand had also worked on other material for Flip #3 before the title was canceled. Incidentally, the rest of Harvey Hits #1 was composed of reprints of the newspaper comic strip The Phantom. [Art & story ©2010 Harvey Publications or successors in interest.] John informs us that the next issue of his magazine Squa Tront, which is due out sometime this year, will feature more details about “Shirl/Shaända,” including an interview with Howard Nostrand in which he discussed the story.

An Issue-By-Issue Look At The Mid-1950s Mad Comics Imitations

Jungle”—titled “Shaända the Jungle Gal”—are likewise printed in GSM #16, with these comments by the artist: “‘Shaända’ was one of the last things I did for the Harveys. This was for their magazine Flip. This was the way I submitted a script to them; any corrections would be done on these before I went to finished art.” Notes on the art say: “The hero will look like Jungle Jim… the villains will slightly resemble Tim Tyler and Spud [characters in Lyman Young’s comic strip Tim Tyler’s Luck].” But there was no Flip #3. Powell and Nostrand did do a lot of “funny” stories for Harvey’s horror books, though, some even predating Flip. [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: See Interlude on pp. 28-33.]

noodle-needers, you are about to lose your heads (all two of them), blow your tops (out should come sawdust) and FLIP your lids! You are about to enter a world that goes from here to insanity.”

Flip Topline: “Humor Brewed in a Cracked Pot” Publisher: Illustrated Humor [Harvey], 1860 Broadway, New York, NY

#1 (April 1954) Cover: Howard Nostrand “Puncho Villa.” Art by Howard Nostrand. 5 pp.

This doesn’t seem to be an actual parody of All in all, one can say that Flip belonged to any movie or TV or radio series. In 1934 there crème de la crème of Mad imitations, mainly had been a Hollywood movie biography of because of Nostrand and Powell’s contributions. Pancho Villa (Viva Villa!) featuring Wallace The stories aren’t bad, and both issues contain at Beery—and in 1952 Marlon Brando had least one “classic.” The contents pages are the same [©2010 Harvey Publications or successors starred in Viva Zapata!, about a compadre of as in all Harvey titles, sporting snippets of the in interest.] Villa’s who fought in southern Mexico while splash pages on the right-hand side and short Villa was running wild in the north, and that may have been the descriptions of the stories on the left. The latter area in the first issue is inspiration for this spoof. used for a short editorial introduction: “Brothers, sisters and fellow

MINI-INTERLUDE:

Foo On You! The odd magazine called Foo—not quite a comic book—was published in 1951-52, beginning just prior to Mad. Researchers Frank Motler and Steven Rowe sent the art spots seen in this montage. Part of the cover of Foo #1 (Sept. ’51) and #2 (Feb.-March ’52)… a back-cover ad parody from #2… and the cover of #3 (May ’52). John Adcock, on his website Yesterday’s Papers, reproduces a fake ad for “O’Peefes Beer” from Foo and wonders if, since “O’Keefes” was a well-known Canadian brand of beer, Monarch Publishing was perhaps a Canadian company. The mag, he says, “targets adults with such tales as ‘Love Life of the South American Male Flea.’” He notes that the cover of “the first issue had a byline ‘by the editors of Mud.’” But that can’t have been a reference to Mad. Adcock adds: “Foo was not that funny; the humor is very heavy-handed lowbrow stuff.” Still, he feels it might’ve been an influence on Kurtzman & Bill Gaines’ Mad: “It’s almost certain that [Foo] would have been for sale on New York newsstands.” [©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

“What Hath Kurtzman Wrought?”—Part II

A “Villa” With A View The first and last pages of this story from Flip #1 show Nostrand basically channeling Kurtzman, Jack Davis, and Wally Wood— whether entirely consciously or not. The pacing is very similar to Kurtzman’s in Mad and the EC war mags, but by now that style had become second nature to Nostrand. Thanks to John Benson. [©2010 Harvey Publications or successors in interest.]

“Kwickie Kwizeroonie.” Art by Bob Powell. One page. Quiz parody. “How to See a Bad Movie.” Text story. “Aladdin’s Lamp-oon.” Art by Powell. Five pp. Genre parody. Although Nostrand says Powell was a man with little sense of humor, he did a considerable volume of work in that field. After Flip, he was seen in nearly as many Mad magazine imitations as was Carl Burgos. At the end of the ’50s Powell helped Joe Simon launch Sick and did a lot of work for that successful Mad-style mag. His style always had a streak of lunacy to it, and he used it to great advantage for his news satires there. In Flip, however, his art is just a little too manic for comfort. Still, he is a great and underrated artist, who deserves to be remembered for more than his short stint drawing for Marvel in the ’60s. In this story, drawn in a style similar to his late-’40s comedy shorts, the magic lamp has a “lazy genie” (a slow djinn) who proceeds to grant Alladin’s wishes in such an insane way that in the end he’s glad to be rid of him. Not much of a story, but very well told. “V...- for Wampire.” Art by Nostrand. 5 pp. Horror parody. This is the absolute high point of the book, and in fact of the two-issue series. It seems an obvious riff on Wallace Wood’s “V-Vampires!” in Mad #3, but Nostrand denied this in the Graphic Story Magazine #16 interview: “No, no…. The treatment I have here is strictly Bill [Will] Eisner. I hadn’t seen Wood’s ‘V-Vampires!’” He added that the story may have been written by Nat Barnett, who “wrote a lot.”

A Lad An’ His Lamp Bob Powell’s splash page for a parody of Aladdin (the more usual English spelling) from the Thousand and One Nights and a Night, a.k.a. The Arabian Nights. Thanks to John Benson. [©2010 Harvey Publications or successors in interest.]

An Issue-By-Issue Look At The Mid-1950s Mad Comics Imitations

Vampire U.—Class Of ’54 (Left:) A Kurtzman/Wood page from “V-Vampires!” in Mad #3 (Jan.-Feb. 1953), as grey-toned for “3-D” reprinting in Three Dimensional E.C. Classics #1 (Spring 1954). For Kurtzman’s cover for Mad #3, see p. 22. [©2010 EC Publications, Inc.] (Right:) Nostrand’s splash page for “V...- for Wampire!” in Flip #1. The artist thought the story’s scripter might’ve been by Nat Barnett. Thanks to Ger Apeldoorn. [©2010 Harvey Publications or successors in interest.]

“Phoney Crime”: Art by Powell. One page. Crime parody.

#2 (June 1954) Cover: Howard Nostrand

“That’s my husband! He’s been stabbed, shot, poisoned, choked... and looks very out!” Six panels full of extreme poses are all you get to help you ferret out the facts and figure out who the real murderer is. Send your answers to “Cannonball Cobb, c/o Central Exchange, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, Ashkenazi, India!”

Contents page, standard format (see #1). “Just read... FLIP! Because FLIP contains “Oyoudoll,” the ingredient that makes your tummy ache... your head swim... your eyes bloodshot!” “Breaking through the Huckle Barrier.” Nostrand. 5 pp.

“Scotch and Waterloo.” Text page. A bit of nonsense about the Duke of Wellington on the day of the battle at Waterloo. Lucky for the writer that these things never had a byline!

A satirical story about the first plane to break the sound barrier. Nostrand pushed back his normal style even more to really look like Wallace Wood. No more dirty inking such as usually exemplifies his work, but clear ink lines. It’s almost as if another artist were involved. In his storytelling he more and more tries to imitate Kurtzman’s panel-to-panel pacing.

“For the Love of Mike.” Art by Powell. 5 pp. Floating head panel. Love-comic parody “from the passionate pages of Reform School Romances.” Powell is drawing everything plus the kitchen sink. Like many artists, he made the mistake of thinking that the secret of drawing like Will Elder was to fill every corner of every panel.

“Ulysses.” Art by Warren Kremer (confirmed in Kremer interview printed in A/E #89; page reprinted there).

“What Hath Kurtzman Wrought?”—Part II

Flip Out From four stories in Flip #2, the final issue (clockwise from above left): “Breaking through the Huckle Barrier,” art by Nostrand doing his best Wally Wood (which was very good indeed!)… “Boston Tea Party,” art by Powell… “The Shriek of Araby,” art by Nostrand, channeling Jack Davis this time… and “Good Old Mother Meddler,” art by Powell. Thanks to John Benson for the scans. [©2010 Harvey Publications or successors in interest.]

An Issue-By-Issue Look At The Mid-1950s Mad Comics Imitations

“Fight against Scares.” Text page by Leopold Mxtplk (a pseudonym for a world-famous manufacturer of laxatives). Tale about Sex-Lox (a pseudonym for the laxative Ex-Lax, which got a lot of laughs on radio and TV in those days, especially because of its chocolate-flavored version!) “Boston Tea Party.” Art by Powell. 5 pp.

[artifacts of the 1920s, when the Sheik film was made with star Rudolph Valentino]…. Since this was a black-&-white movie… they did it in two colors, sepia and yellow ochre, I think. Instead of having the white borders around, we had black borders with round corners so it would look like a movie frame.” Nostrand was justifiably proud of his work on this story. Even Harvey Kurtzman commended him on it. At least it’s a satire of something concrete. “Ulysses.” Art by Kremer. One-page gag.

An historical satire, which is a fancy way of saying it is a funny story set in a historical setting. Turns out the instigator of the Boston tea party secretly was a coffee manufacturer.

“How to Write a Ghost Novel.” Text page. [“Get a ghost writer.”} “Good Old Mother Meddler.” Art by Powell. 5 pp. Love problems parody.

“The Shriek of Araby.” Art by Nostrand channeling Jack Davis. 5 pp. Silent movie parody.

As was the case in the early issues of Mad, Powell and Nostrand were mainly just doing silly versions of the stuff they usually drew. Although this must have been a great outlet for them and leads to some powerful art, story-wise it’s a dead end. It is a pity we didn’t get to see what they’d have done if they had gone beyond the obvious targets.

This justly celebrated parody of the silent movie The Sheik was discussed at length in the Nostrand interview in Graphic Story Magazine #16: “We are wafted back in time to the strains of [the song] ‘Japanese Sandman’… [there’s] bathtub gin and all that jazz

[Continued on p. 33.] through her magic mirror. When Feldstein decided to run a “Grim Fairy Tale” in the first issue of his own Mad imitation Panic (Feb.-March 1954), the story was indistinguishable in style from the later horror-title entries.

INTERLUDE:

Harvey’s Humorous Horror by John Benson That Flip was one of the last Mad imitations to reach the newsstands comes as no surprise. Harvey Comics was a conservative outfit that did not tend to rush into new trends. But while this was true of Alfred Harvey and his brothers, it wasn’t necessarily true of Sid Jacobson, who in late 1952 became editor of most of their comics. The company’s horror comics already had enough of an EC look to them that EC, in the letters page of The Haunt of Fear #15 (Sept.-Oct. 1952), warned readers the Harvey titles were imitations and mentioned the titles by name—the only horror comics they ever so honored. But Jacobson really tried to get beyond a mere visual resemblance. He very actively attempted to improve quality by following EC’s lead. As he said in an interview printed in Alter Ego #89: “I came in, new to the whole business, and I looked at EC and I said, Oh, my God... why don’t we strive to do this?.... No one else was doing anything worthwhile.” Jacobson quickly made several important changes. He made Howard Nostrand (who had previously been working in Bob Powell’s shop) a regular artist for the company in his own right, and he urged Nostrand to work in the style of Jack Davis and Wallace Wood. The stories began to have twist endings, presented ironically in the somewhat gleeful style of the EC tales. It’s important to remember that there was always a certain tongue-in-cheek attitude to EC’s horror comics, which only became more pronounced as time went on. As early as May 1952 EC was printing parody horror titles of popular songs from readers in their letter pages—“It Takes Two to Strangle,” “As Slime Goes By,” and so forth—which became a continuing feature there. And at the very same time that Harvey Kurtzman was producing the first issue of Mad, Al Feldstein was working up his first “Grim Fairy Tale” in the office next door. Although their shock endings were grim enough, the stories in the series (which eventually ran to 15 entries) were written in a somewhat humorous, tongue-in-cheek style from the beginning. Under the influence of Mad, that humor element became ever more pronounced, eventually featuring corny dialogue, puns, asides to the reader, and silly signs. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (Haunt of Fear #22, Nov.-Dec. 1953, art by Jack Kamen) even had Howdy Doody talking to the Wicked Witch

So it wasn’t much of a stretch for Jacobson, over at Harvey, to introduce humor and parody into their horror comics. The Harveys may have been conservative about starting new titles, but Jacobson had a fair amount of freedom as to what went into the existing ones. In Witches Tales #19 (June 1953), he began “Mother Mongoose’s Nursery Crimes,” a one-page feature that ran in every issue until #26 (the final issue to contain original material). Drawn by Nostrand in his most humorous style, each segment features a brief, nursery-rhyme-like ditty, usually featuring snippets of actual nursery rhymes. A few months later, a similar one-page feature was inaugurated in Chamber of Chills #19 (Sept. 1953)—“Chilly Chamber Music,” with popular songs reworked into horror themes not unlike what readers did in the EC letter pages. Nostrand illustrated most of these, with Powell also doing a few. The feature ran through #24, and also appeared in Tomb of Terror #13.

What’s Good For The Mongoose… There were several episodes of “Mother Mongoose’s Nursery Rhymes” in Witches Tales. In this one from WT #22 (Dec. 1953), a Dick Tracy type wears that comic strip’s famous and prophetic “two-way wrist radio” with a CBS microphone on it. Thanks to John Benson. [©2010 Harvey Publications or successors in interest.]

“What Hath Kurtzman Wrought?”—Part II

The following month, Jacobson initiated a feature called “Boo of the Month,” although the first entry in the series isn’t based on any book. “Noah’s Arg-h” (Tomb of Terror #10, July 1953, art by Nostrand) is about a fellow named Noah who built an ark, but he isn’t the Biblical character. It’s a lighthearted story by horror standards, and the idea for the series was probably influenced by Mad. Certainly one panel, Noah incongruously attired in dark glasses, sandals, and Hawaiian style shirt and shorts, was Mad-inspired. The next entry, “The Rift of the Maggis,” (Tomb of Terror #11, Sept. 1953, art by Nostrand) is a cynical horror version of the famous O. Henry story “The Gift of the Magi,” again rather lighthearted. The third tale, “Don Coyote” (Tomb of Terror #12, Nov. 1953, art by Powell) is definitely in the Mad style and has more claim to be called a “Mad imitation” than many of the tales in Eh! or Madhouse. It features a Don Quixote-like character transposed to a Mexican setting in accord with the punned name. (And his sidekick “Sancho Pinza” looks a lot like the Cisco Kid’s sidekick Pancho, although that may be coincidental.) Powell inserts numerous silly “gag” signs and impossibilities such as an open manhole in a Western town, he exaggerates the characters’ facial expressions, and the dialogue attempts to be amusing. There are no horror elements in the story, and the only violence comes at the end when Sancho shoots Don Coyote, causing those perfectly round bullet holes that Kurtzman mocked in his parody of parody comics, “Julius Caesar” (Mad #17). At this point Jacobson’s commitment to Mad-influenced material expanded significantly. He started up a second nominal satire series, “Silver Scream,” in the Dec. 1953 issue of Black Cat Mystery (of which more later). He was able to convince the Harveys to launch the fullfledged Mad imitation Flip with a cover date of April 1954. And, most fantastic of all, midway between these events, he converted Witches Tales to a policy of funny horror, or, as it’s described in the editorial introduction of the Feb. 1954 issue, “something to chill your spine and tickle your funny bone.” For the new policy, the “Boo of the Month” feature was transferred from Tomb of Terror. The first Witches Tales installment was “Ivan’sWoe” (issue #23, Feb. 1954) in which Nostrand created a near-wordless, 9-panel page of knights in combat (see A/E #89) that echoed a similar three-page battle in “Trial by Arms,” the Wallace Wood story in TwoFisted Tales #34 (July-August 1953), although, with one small exception, Nostrand did not copy any of Wood’s figures directly. Nostrand told Bhob Stewart: “I was trying to zing Wally a little bit.... I wanted to make it look flat out, look like he did it... an in-group joke.” This pastiche is rather famous, or infamous, because the original is an EC story. What’s often forgotten is that the entire script is a swipe of the EC story, which probably led inevitably to Nostrand doing his famous page, though, unlike Wood, whose story was planned around the fight scene, Nostrand had to juggle the script to create his full-page fight. This “Boo of the Month,” though a pastiche, is not a parody of anything and is

not particularly humorous. More in the parody vein is the first story in the issue, “Huckster,” with art by Manny Stallman. Its first page is a one-panel scene of Times Square filled with amusing signs, including a movie poster that boasts “A Sid J. Kobson Production with a cast of three.” The story is about a con man who is finally killed by one of his victims; on arriving in Hell he quickly cons the Devil into a soft job. The other two stories in the book are also told in a lighthearted fashion, particularly “Wigmaker” (art by Joe Certa & John Belfi), whose protagonist happily hums popular songs as he gets the hair for his wigs from graveyard coffins, until he meets his match when he tries to take the hair from Geronimo’s corpse. The next “Boo of the Month,” “Mutiny on the Boundary” (Witches Tales #24, April 1954), was inspired more by the movie than by the book. “Captain Blah,“ as caricatured by artist Powell, resembles the film’s Captain Bligh, Charles Laughton, and he speaks with a heavy lisp. Aside from that, it’s a pretty straight rehash of the famous story, only with a horror ending. More in the satire vein in the same issue is “Eye Eye, Sir,” a private eye parody with art by Sid Check. The story spoofs the firstperson narrative style found in hard-boiled detective novels and films, and features a series of goofy encounters with various informants who go gaga over the detective’s beautiful client. The structure of the story is not unlike Kurtzman’s tales in the earliest Mads. “Ali Barber and the Forty Thieves” (Witches Tales #25, June 1954, art by Powell) was the next “Boo of the Month,” a pathetic mish-mosh about an inept barber. Far more interesting in that issue is one of Nostrand’s most famous stories, “What’s Happening at... 8:30 P.M.” This is often described as a pastiche of Kurtzman and Wood’s “V-Vampires!” in Mad #3 (Feb.-March 1953), but Nostrand denied having seen that story when he did “8:30 P.M.,” claiming Will Eisner and The Spirit as his influence. In truth, only the opening panel (see p. 31) seems to owe anything to the Mad story, a character shlup-shlep-shlup-ing (or klek-klek-klek-ing in Kurtzman’s case) across a foggy cityscape with a clock tower in the

Stick Out Your Tongue And Say “Boo!” Panels from the first and third “Boo of the Month” entries—from “Noah’s Arg-h” in Tomb of Terror #10 (July 1953) and from “Don Coyote” in #12 (Nov. 1953), with art by Howard Nostrand and Bob Powell, respectively. Thanks to John Benson. [©2010 Harvey Publications or successors in interest.]

An Issue-By-Issue Look At The Mid-1950s Mad Comics Imitations

More “Boo” For a Buck (Below:) The “Boo of the Month” tale in Witches Tales #23 (Feb. 1954) was Nostrand’s “Ivan’s-Woe,” other art from which was seen in A/E #89. (Right:) Actually, John Benson feels that the Manny Stallman-drawn story “Huckster,” in the same issue, was “more in the parody vein.” Thanks to John for the scans. [©2010 Harvey Publications or successors in interest.]

background; and even in that panel Nostrand’s placement of the story’s title on a billboard that’s part of the cityscape is pure Eisner, not Kurtzman. Regardless, this story is very similar in style and atmosphere to Nostrand’s stories for Flip, and captures the feel of the early Mads more than any other story in the Harvey horror comics, drawing on that “touch of mystery” that Kurtzman said he tried to impart in Mad. Also in the issue is “Monopoly,” illustrated by Stallman, which is quite similar to the earlier “Huckster.” In a city plagued by vampires, an enterprising businessman strikes it rich selling silver bullets and other anti-vampire paraphernalia, using huge billboards and skywriting to advertise his product. He’s done in by vampires wearing bulletproof vests. The final Witches Tales to have original material (#26, Aug. 1954) continued the humor theme. Once again, the “Boo of the Month,” “Withering Heights,” illustrated by Powell, is probably more influenced by the movie version than the book, and is a nearly-straight adaptation of the original with a horror ending. Again, it is the other stories in the issue that fall more into the humor category. Stallman illustrates yet another story about an enterprising businessman, this time one who finds a man who cannot die and bets his fortune that no one can kill him. Another story, “Go Vampire,” drawn in a cartoony style by an unidentified artist, features a young vampire back from Vampire U. who just can’t get into the

vampire thing, even when Dad sings the old college pep song, “Bite ’Em, Bite ’Em, Rintintin!” Last is “Up There” (art by Certa), the story of a mountain climber who becomes insane after he scales the highest peak in the “Himolya” chain only to find an abandoned hot-dog stand at the top. (The cover of the issue has the climber discovering skeletons at the top of the mountain.)

Boats And Broads Witches Tales #24 (April 1954) featured Powell’s “Mutiny on the Boundary” and the Sid Check-drawn detective spoof “Eye Eye, Sir.” Thanks to John Benson. [©2010 Harvey Publications or successors in interest.]

“What Hath Kurtzman Wrought?”—Part II

You Say “Klek,” And I Say “Shlup”— Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off! Though Nostrand denied its influence on his own story, the splash page of Kurtzman & Wood’s “V-Vampires!” from Mad #3 strongly foreshadowed the look of Nostrand’s splash for “What’s Happening at… 8:30 P.M.” in Witches Tales #25 (June 1954), though the two stories were not similar in terms of plot or theme. Also seen (below right) is p. 4 of the Harvey (Harvey Comics, that is!) tale. Thanks to John Benson. [Mad #3 page ©2010 E.C. Publications, Inc.; “8:30” art ©2010 Harvey Publications or successors in interest.]

Let’s return now to the other continuing series, the “Silver Scream.” Surely the most amazing of all the Harvey “parodies” is “Low Noon” in Black Cat Mystery #47 (Dec. 1953). (See p. 33) Like many in these series, the script isn’t so much a parody of the movie High Noon as it is a retelling of the film with an ironic horror ending tacked on. But in a way, that’s almost beside the point. In Mad, Kurtzman had satirized popularculture characters who had appeared in movies, such as Tarzan and Sherlock Holmes, and had done a parody of the then-20-year-old King Kong with Elder art that didn’t really try to (shall we say) ape the film. But he didn’t parody a current film (though Kong had recently had a major and very successful re-release) or use the style of realistic, illustrational caricature for which Mad ultimately became known until his own parody of High Noon, “Hah! Noon,” in Mad #9 (Feb.-March 1954). The Nostrand story, cover-dated three months earlier, has the complete look and feel of a later Kurtzman Mad movie parody. In his best “Davis style,” he captures Gary Cooper perfectly, a stronger caricature of the star than Davis himself used for most of Kurtzman’s later version. The script of the Harvey story, probably written by Nat Barnett according to Jacobson, features the movie’s theme song throughout the story, as does Kurtzman’s later version. High Noon was the first film to use a theme song throughout in that way, and it was much remarked upon at the time. (The Harvey writer uses an entirely new set of lyrics to cover the same ground as the original, probably in deference to copyright law.) In the Harvey story the sheriff accidentally kills the wrong man, which also happens in the later Kurtzman version. It is uncanny to realize that Nostrand and the Harvey writer actually used the same film to prefigure so many elements of the archetypal Mad movie parody several months before the master himself first did it in Mad. Nostrand stated that he was influenced by Davis’ “Betsy,” in Two-Fisted Tales #34 (July-Aug. 1953), when he did this story, and there is indeed a sheriff in “Betsy” that looks a lot like Gary Cooper.

An Issue-By-Issue Look At The Mid-1950s Mad Comics Imitations

After this great start, the “Silver Scream” feature reverted to two stories that drew on public domain novels that happened to have been made into movies. “Les Miserables” (Black Cat Mystery #48, Feb. 1954, art by Stallman) has little to do with the novel or the film. The lead character is named Les Miserables, get it? “The Three Musketeers” (Black Cat Mystery #49, April 1954, art by Nostrand) reveals D’Artagnan to be a crook at the end. These were followed by “Moe Gambo” (Black Cat Mystery #50, June 1954, art by Powell), a cynical tale of murder and betrayal in the jungle that didn’t caricature the players in the recent movie Mogambo. These three stories used some of the elements of the source material without in any way satirizing or commenting on them. With minor changes, the nominal source could have been eliminated completely, leaving only a generic Harvey horror tale.

EC’s Panic, “Come Back, Little Streetcar” (#2, April-May 1954), but the Harvey creators seem to have gone their own way and probably hadn’t seen the Panic version.

The final “Silver Screen” entry, however, is closer to true parody than anything else in the Harvey horror comics. “Come Back Bathsheba” (Black Cat Mystery #51, Aug. 1954) is a genuine parody of the film version of William Inge’s play Come Back, Little Sheba. Nostrand again uses the Mad style of illustrational caricature to depict Burt Lancaster, with mighty chest and shoulders. And even more significantly, the dialogue is a clever send-up of Inge’s mannered, poetic ruminations. Only the denouement reverts to horror. This appeared after one of Al Feldstein’s better efforts in

The Harvey titles featured a few true Mad-style parodies and a greater number of humorous (or supposedly humorous) stories that were certainly influenced by Mad in one way or another. Although most of them have little to do with parody, they have as much claim to being “Mad imitations” as much of the material in the dozen titles on the stands at the same time that generally fall under that rubric.

When Flip started up, the Harveys issued an edict: no specific parodies, only generic humor. They had heard of Mad’s problems with National/DC (over “Superduperman”) and Life (over the cover of Mad #11) and were fearful of lawsuits. Jacobson felt that this fatally wounded Flip. But somehow, in the horror titles he had been able to run very specific versions of two current movies, High Noon and Come Back, Little Sheba, and to reference the title and setting of a third, Mogambo. Perhaps he was able to slip these past the Harveys, or perhaps the Harveys were less worried about retaliation from Hollywood than from print media.

The Play The Th-Inge In the case of the movie made from William Inge’s stage drama Come Back, Little Sheba, it was EC that got there first—but in Feldstein’s Panic, not in Kurtzman’s Mad. (Above left:) The splash page from Panic #2 (April-May 1954), with script by Al Feldstein and art by Jack Davis. (Above right:) The splash and p. 3 from the “Silver Scream” version drawn by Howard Nostrand in Black Cat Mystery #51 (Aug. 1954). Both stories parodied the style of the play and film, but EC’s caricatures owed less visually to movie stars Burt Lancaster and Shirley Booth—and Panic credited the play to a combination of the names of Tennessee Williams (author of A Streetcar Named Desire, from whom the parody took part of its title), William Inge (not to mention the word "syringe"!), and Death of a Salesman playwright Arthur Miller. [Panic art ©2010 E.C. Publications, Inc.; Black Cat art ©2010 Harvey Publications or successors in interest.]

“What Hath Kurtzman Wrought?”—Part II

“Wait Long”… And Parody Longer! Nostrand’s masterful splash page from Black Cat Mystery #47 (Dec. 1953), seen at left, captured the look of the 1952 Fred Zinnemann film High Noon, which starred Gary Cooper and featured a memorable theme song sung by Tex Ritter, also parodied therein. As John Benson points out, Nostrand’s caricatures of Cooper were closer than those by Jack Davis working over Kurtzman layouts in “Hah! Noon!” a couple of months later in Mad #9 (Feb.-March 1954), as seen above left. Yet, as per above right, Kurtzman & Davis had earlier portrayed a very Cooper-like sheriff in the story “Betsy” in Two-Fisted Tales #34 (July-Aug. ’53). Cooper’s manly good looks, the role of lawman, and the film’s popularity and adherence to the Aristotelian virtues all made both star and movie eminently parody-able. Even Walt Kelly’s Pogo Possum comic book had featured a Western spoof titled “Nigh Noon, or The Fiasco Kid Writhes Again” in its 13th Dell issue (July-Sept. 1953). [Black Cat art ©2010 Harvey Publications or successors in interest; Mad art ©2010 E.C. Publications, Inc.]

[Continued from p. 28]

GET LOST Just The Two Of Us... After working together for a couple of years for publishers such as Comic Media and Standard/Pines, the art team of Ross Andru & Mike Esposito decided to strike out on their own. They founded Mikeross Publications, which produced seven comics in the one year they were up and running, all appearing on the stands in 1954. After that they struck out for good, at least as publishers. The fact that they were nearly the only artists trying to publish their own comics in that area is a testament to the power the big publishing houses held over their artists, be it factual or in their minds. Most artists figured they could never be do it all themselves, even driven by the profit motive. Andru & Esposito must have been encouraged in their plans by the apparent success of Joe Simon & Jack Kirby, who broke free of their lucrative contract with Harvey to set up their own company Mainline at about the same time. But 1954 must have been one of the worst years to start up a new company. There were never more comics fighting for room at the stands, sales were dwindling because television was gaining ground, and there was the backlash of Dr. Fredric Wertham’s investigations in to the evils of comics. In their short time together they published some beautiful love comics (including two 3-D romance titles) and three issues of a Mad imitation called Get Lost. Apparently they took just one look at Mad #1

Auteur! Auteur! Since an excellent 2008 trade paperback reprinting all three issues of Andru (right) & Esposito’s Get Lost is still available from Hermes Press at www.HermesPress.com, we’re showcasing fewer panels from that series than would otherwise be the case. For more about that artistic team, Get Lost, and MikeRoss Publications, see the Esposito interview in A/E #53-54. Photo courtesy of Mike.

and decided they could do something like that themselves. And they could. Ross Andru’s artwork has always had a sense of the grotesque to it, and he shines throughout all their books. The stories are funny, the targets are well-chosen, and there is a lot of funny chicken fat. Some of the Get Lost material was reprinted in Marvel’s funny horror

An Issue-By-Issue Look At The Mid-1950s Mad Comics Imitations

comic Arrgh! in the early 1970s, although some of the art and text were updated in that situation. More recently, the whole run has been reprinted by Hermes Press, and even though the coloring looks a bit dull against the bright white paper, it is the best way of getting these stories. The book also contains a short interview conducted by Daniel Best, where Esposito (Andru died in 1993) tells the story of how they were sued by EC publisher William Gaines as an imitation of Mad. The suit was dropped when Mikeross went under, but neither of the artists ever got to work for EC. Both men went on to do some phenomenal work on DC’s war books and on a whole slew of popular super-heroes in the ’60s and ’70s. Together in 1972 they did another satire magazine called Up Your Nose, whose fate was even sadder than that of Get Lost, when it became shunned by distributors because of a supposed connection to cocaine. Ross Andru also did a couple of impressive pages for Fawcett’s Mad magazine imitation Lunatickle in the late 1950s.

success). As with all MikeRoss comics, the coloring and printing are superb. “Dr. Jerkyll and Mr. Hide.” Art by Andru & Esposito (signed “copied by Lord Andru and Lady Esposito”). 7 pp. Horror parody. “The Meddling Reporter.” Art by Andru & Esposito (unsigned). Text page with illustrations. Five inmates from Dr. Jerkyll’s Home for Lost Minds tell us what they think of Marylin Marrone. On the same page is an ad for an amazing device for seeing through walls (a window!)—and an ad for Get Lost. “Strain.” Art by Andru & Esposito (signed “Dru-Espo”). 6 pp. Movie parody.

Parody of the 1953 film Shane, starring Alan Ladd. A high-energy romp, illustrating with conviction that the kid in the movie who chased after the departing [©2010 Mike Esposito & Estate of Ross Andru.] Shane really was a big pain. This early movie Get Lost parody, made without the benefit of a clear example of the form Topline: “Bored with Life? The Comic Designed to Send You” from Kurtzman, is very well done. Sidebar: “Get Lost – The End in Comics” Publisher: MikeRoss Publications, Inc., 55 W. 42nd St., New York 36, NY “How It All Began.” 2-pp. text story.

#1 (Feb. 1954) Cover: Art by Ross Andru & Mike Esposito (signed “Dru-Espo”). Writer unknown. The cover suggests that of Mad #5, on which a beautiful woman is trying to seduce private eye Kane Keen (but having a lot more

How Little (love the ponies) Mike and Tiny (four-eyes) Ross met in Hell’s Kitchen, went to the High School of Music and Art together, sold their first work to Mr. X.X. Wolf (an obvious pun on Victor Fox), and finally won enough on a horserace to publish their own comics. With self-portraits of the artists.

“Strain” Didn’t Get Lost, But… The splash panels of “Four-Flush Gordon” and “Me? The Verdict?” from Get Lost #1—with art by Andru & Esposito (using pseudonyms) and Tony Mortellaro, respectively. Three pages of A&E’s excellent Shane takeoff, “Strain,” were seen in A/E #53. Scripters uncertain. “The Invisible Mr. Mann” from the first issue was reprinted in its entirety by Marvel in Arggh! #5 (Sept. 1975). [©2010 Mike Esposito & Estate of Ross Andru.]

“What Hath Kurtzman Wrought?”—Part II

“Me? The Verdict?” Art by Tony Mortellaro (signed). 5 pp. Crime parody. A parody of Mickey Spillane’s first hardboiled detective Mike Hammer novel I, the Jury in the broadest sense of the word. Andru & Esposito worked with Mortellaro on the Media Publications title Mister Mystery, where he may have drawn a famous “red poker to the eye” cover. He is less at ease drawing humor. “Don and Martha.” Unknown. 2-pp. silent gag. In 1951 Stan Freberg released a supremely popular 45-rpm comedy recording titled “John and Marsha,” on which two lovers speak each other’s names over and over in all sorts of voices and displaying all sorts of emotions—telling a story in two names, as it were. In this quickie, Don and Martha bicker until they are both in their graves, still saying “Don?” and “Martha?” It’s a fresh gag, and the art is unusual but very well done. The artist uses a heavy inking line similar to that of Walt Kelly; the tree in the last panel seems to be lifted right out of Pogo. “Ace of Space – Four-Flush Gordon.” Art by Andru & Esposito (signed “Robsjon Gluck”). 6 pp. Comic strip satire. In the Hermes collection of Get Lost, Mike Esposito states that Robsjon Gluck was the pseudonym given to Harry Harrison on his 3-page text story in the next issue. But it’s unlikely he wrote this piece, though it has great-looking dames, a funny story, and some magnificent, humorous art—though not really in a style parodying the then-current Flash Gordon. The Flash Gordon comic strip has been lampooned in all sorts of ways; Andru & Esposito may have been the first to do so. (Along with the one in Mad #11 [May 1954], another noteworthy Flash Gordon lampoon, discussed in A/E #86, appears in St. John’s Whack #3, with art by William Overgard. My all-time favorite parody of the famous space-traveler was done by Kurtzman & Davis for Playboy’s Trump #2.) “Robsjon Gluck” in this case is clearly a pen name for editors/artists Andru & Esposito. The name “Robsjon” suggests it may be a amalgam of two first names (Rob and John), but the style is obviously Andru & Esposito’s— and I can’t find two last names of comic artists to support that theory.

#2 (April 1954) Cover: Ross Andru & Mike Esposito (signed) “The Invisible Mr. Mann.” Art by Andru, Esposito, & Pembroke (signed). 7 pp. Horror parody. “I Killed Cock Robin.” Art by Andru & Esposito (signed). 6 pp. Courtroom drama parody.

A Tales From the Crypt Parody? For Sewer! (Above:) Get Lost #2’s Andru & Esposito splash for its EC send-up. After this, are you surprised that EC publisher/managing editor Bill Gaines and editor Al Feldstein vowed that neither of those gents would ever work for EC? Scripter unknown. [©2010 Mike Esposito & Estate of Ross Andru.] (Left:) Get Lost clearly so enraged Gaines that he (and/or editor Feldstein) had it lampooned on Basil Wolverton’s cover for Panic #4 (Sept. 1954). In case you can’t quite read the text on the cover of the inset comic held by the twin on the right, it says: “We Put This Out So You’ll GET STUNG,” with the vertical line “BUY ME SUCKER.” If the blonde holding the gorilla seems familiar, that art is taken from the Harvey Kurtzman illo that had appeared very small on the cover of Mad #13 (July ’54), but here she spouts new dialogue: “Familiar drawing style?” By the time Panic #4 hit the newsstands, however, Get Lost had already gone under after three issues. [©2010 William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.]

“The Meddling Reporter.” Art by Andru & Esposito (unsigned). Half-page illustrated feature. Five passers-by at New York’s LaGuardia Airport (including a suspicious-looking alien) answer the question “Do you believe in flying saucers?” The three-eyed Xylqumbli Qzyllk denounces the rumors as a cheap publicity stunt. “I Was a Burden to the Community.” Art by Andru & Esposito (unsigned). Half-page illustrated ad for Get Lost. “How to Make Your Own Comic Book!!” Art by “Robsjon Gluck (top-notch, star comic artist)”—actually Andru & Esposito

An Issue-By-Issue Look At The Mid-1950s Mad Comics Imitations

Killed Cock Robin?” This 4-page story is just another funny horror tale, as well, but it’s saved by the fact that at the same time it is a parody of EC’s Crypt Keeper, one of the three “Ghoulunatics” who introduced EC’s horror stories in its trio of supernatural horror comics. In four packed pages, A&E tell the story of the vampire Marsha and the ghoul Jon (see? we told you that Stan Freberg record was popular!), complete with commentary by an insanely verbose “host.” He (or she?) even uses the trademark ECism “ugh... choke” at the end of the story.

(unsigned). 3-pp. illustrated text story. Some not very serious advice on how to draw a comic strip, together with three samples to see how an artist illustrates a writer’s script. “The Sewer Keeper.” Art by Andru & Esposito (signed “drawn by Sickly”). 4 pp. EC parody. Many of the so-called parody magazines that sprang up after Mad was a success tried to be funny by doing horror parody stories. Maybe it’s because horror comics were such a hit at that time. Or maybe because it seemed easy. Whatever the reason, most of these are neither funny nor as hip as they want to be. Maybe it’s me, but where the humor in pointing out that Frankenstein is in some ways a ridiculous figure? In this issue Andru & Esposito fall into the same trap. After doing fresh and funny satires on Flash Gordon and Shane in issue #1, here they offer parodies of H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man (and of course the Universal movie version) and the nursery rhyme “Who

“Don’t Miss S.S. Gigantic.” Art by Andru & Esposito (unsigned). One page. Movie ad parody.

Long before Al Feldstein did something similar in Panic #11 (or Stan Lee in Riot #3), Andru & Esposito lampoon Cinemascope films with a ridiculous movie ad and a stretched-out drawing to show how your face would look on this revolutionary new screen.

Too Hot To Hondo Since we tossed the John Wayne caricature from it onto the cover of Alter Ego #86, which showcased the first half of Ger’s article—here (at left) is the entire splash of Get Lost #3’s spoof of the 1953 Western movie Hondo, which bore certain similarities (including the presence of a young boy) to the earlier Shane. But we never could figure out why the Get Lost spoof was titled “Sam”—after the hero’s dog! (That was the canine’s name in the movie—though Internet sources say the actual animal actor was unidentified in the credits.) Scripter unknown. At right, repro’d from the Russ Cochran black-&-white hardcover EC reprint volumes, is Wally Wood’s splash for the Hondo parody that appeared in Panic #4 (Aug.-Sept. ’54); script by editor Al Feldstein. [Get Lost art ©2010 Mike Esposito & Estate of Ross Andru; Panic art ©2010 William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.]

“What Hath Kurtzman Wrought?”—Part II

“Robin the Hood.” Art by Paul Hodge (signed). 6 pp. Genre parody. Not an exceptional artist, Paul Hodge has worked very hard to make the pages look good. They are full of chicken fat, but the art is still clear and the story easy to follow. Not bad for a first-timer. Why anyone would do a Robin Hood takeoff after Severin and Kurtzman had done it so well one year earlier in Mad #4, I don’t know.

#3 (June 1954) Cover: Ross Andru & Mike Esposito (signed). “They Called Him—Sam.” Art by Andru & Esposito (unsigned). 5 pp. Movie parody. A great parody of Hondo starring John Wayne, even sending up actual moments from the film. The caricature of the Duke is quite good, and sustained throughout the story. Though generally the division of labor between Andru and Esposito was that Ross penciled and Mike [©2010 Mike Esposito & Estate of Ross Andru.] inked, it is possible this story was inked by someone else, as it has far more detail than their usual slicker stuff. Perhaps the inking on some Get Lost stories was done by one or more unnamed embellishers, though Esposito doesn’t name any in his interviews about this period, apart from Marty Thall.

“The Meddling Reporter.” Art by Andru & Esposito (unsigned). Half-page illustrated article. Visitors to Grand Central Station answer the question: “What do you think about the Kinsey Report on women?” The other half of this page includes a fake ad for guns and an announcement: “Stand by—coming next month: a big contest!! In issue #4!!!! Fun..! Kick..! And $ MONEY $.” Clearly Andru & Esposito were planning a fourth issue when they decided to call it quits. My guess would’ve been that at least one story—“Captain Marble Flies Again!” was (at least partially) finished and ended up in Nuts! #5 (see p. 43 of this issue). But Mike Esposito denies this in published interviews. “Vy Iss der Sun? By Z. von Fraud, Top Notch Star Comic Book Writer.” One-page text. Vy iss der sun? Because! Dot’s vy! “A Ride in the Subway.” Art by Andru & Esposito (unsigned). 5 pp. Social satire. Andru & Esposito were correct in pointing out that they were the first on the stands with specific satires of current movies and classic books. Here’s another first: a satire on social issues or occasions. In this look at a subway ride during the rush hour, they explore daily life in the same way Kurtzman would later do in stories like “Restaurant!” in Mad #16 (Oct. 1954). I doubt if Kurtzman looked at Get Lost to get his ideas, but at least he and the Andru/Esposito team were thinking in the same way, which makes the disappearance of Get Lost after three issues all the sadder. The character of The Crusher in this story looks remarkably like the main character in “Me? The Verdict” in Get Lost #1, only better drawn. Which makes me wonder how many layouts the team did

“The Circle, the Triangle and the Square.” Artist unknown. One page. Satirical gag. No real art was involved, so it probably was done by one of the editors. A circle tries to teach a square how not to be square. He is helped by a triangle, but they can’t change the square, because: “Let’s face it... once a square, always a square!!!” “It’s All in der Mind.” Art by Andru & Esposito. One-page illustrated ad for Get Lost. “Der Spider und der Fly.” Credited to “Z. von Fraud.” Art probably by Andru & Esposito. 2-pp. illustrated poem. “The Some-Thing.” Pencils by Ross Andru, inks by Marty Thall (signed). 5 pp. Horror movie parody. Thall is the pseudonym of the artist Martin Rosenthall, who also worked on the cover of Andru & Esposito’s love comic Heart and Soul #2 and was a partner in Mikeross for the last half year of its existence. There are some romance and Western stories from Prize (Young Love) and Comic Media (Death Valley) in the same period that seem to be by the team of Andru and Thall. “Wha-D’You Say...?” Letters page. The editors reply rather seriously to the claim that they are nothing more than an imitation of Mad.

The Thing-ing Man’s Parody Mag For some reason, Andru & Esposito decided to belatedly adapt the 1951 science-fiction/horror film The Thing (a.k.a. The Thing from Another World) in 1954’s Get Lost #3. Martin Thall (who was interviewed in A/E #52) rather than Esposito inked Andru on this one; the scripter is unknown. The climactic page with the alien—which, taking its cue from a line in the Christian Nyby-directed movie, is basically a huge walking carrot—was seen in A/E #54. The entire story was also reprinted in Marvel’s Arrgh! #4 in 1975. [©2010 Mike Esposito & Estate of Ross Andru.]

An Issue-By-Issue Look At The Mid-1950s Mad Comics Imitations

Gocart pulling a boat called the African Jack. The not-altogether-unsightly art is in the Milton Caniff/Lee Elias school—could it be by Bernard Baily? This unidentified artist has stories in all issues of Nuts! and may even have drawn the covers to #4 & #5; the same style turns up in many of the 1958 Mad magazine imitations.

for the stories they didn’t draw themselves. In this cluttered story, Andru’s art looks like a cross between that of Jack Davis and Joe Orlando’s first humor work in Panic. “Gunga Dean.” Art by Andru & Esposito (signed “by Robsjon Gluck”). 5 pp. Book parody. Ross and Mike end the series with a hilarious parody of a famous Rudyard Kipling poem and the classic film made from it in 1939. Full of crowded but still clear art, and a story where Gunga Din is somehow an Indian version of Dean Martin.

“Li’l Abernathy.” Unknown. 6 pp. Comic strip parody.

Although this is a parody of the newspaper strip Li’l Abner, neither the characters nor the art style resembles Al Capp’s. The art style is almost too realistic to be funny; it employs a lot of zip-a-tone, and the compositions suggest the story may have been The First In Nothing drawn for 3-D. Also in this issue is an ad for Animal Fun #1 (Dec. 1953), a recent 3-D Premier Magazines was not a large company, comic, so this story may have been part of and all of its titles (in the crime, Western, and an aborted 3-D satire book à la St. John’s [©2010 the respective copyright holders.] romance genre, with one horror book thrown in) Whack #1. (Animal Fun itself is a rarity, as it seem to have been published between 1951 and contains new 3-D adventures of Timely’s mid-’40s features “Billy & 1956. Their slogan was: “If it’s a Premier comic it’s a good comic,” but a Buggy Bear,” “Buzzy,” and “Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal.” These may more accurate tagline would have been: “If it’s a Premier comic it’s have been inventory stories sold to Premier—one of them has an probably the last one you’ll see.” early Timely job number, and the other tales may have been left over from before the job numbers were introduced in 1945.) One of the alleged contributors to this magazine whose work I couldn’t

NUTS!

specifically identify is Harry Harrison. Harrison had started out as an artist, working with artist Wallace Wood in the early ’50s. They worked in tandem for EC, but when Wood went solo, Harrison drifted towards packaging comic books for several companies. On his official website he says he did this for Girls’ Love Stories, Beware!, and “an imitation Mad magazine called Nuts!” He also says he wrote “some of the scripts” and “drew the cover and produced a two-page filler for each of them.” He probably means the text fillers, which makes it likely that he wrote the missive on the letters page in #5 by “Robot X397-4221 from Iron City, Michigan” asking for a story where the hero is an automobile or a drill press, and the one by a “Happy O’Hanrahan from Laredo, Texas” asking for $225 to pay for the hospital bill because he laughed so hard he fell off the stairs and broke his leg. The third issue is fairly hard to find, because it features Marilyn Monroe on the cover (called “Marywin” here).

“Great Nobodies of History: Knucklehead Knelson.” 2-pp. text story. “Scarface!” Art by Alvin Hollingsworth and [——] Sargeant. 7 pp. Crime parody. The story of Scarface Joe Brown, public enemy #1. The hero looks like Fearless Fosdick with a beret, and one of the gangsters resembles a Wally Wood midget. The whole thing is a grab-bag of different styles. Hollingsworth and Sargeant would go on to do a lot of work in 1958 Mad magazine imitations, most notably Frenzy and Thimk. Hollingsworth was an interesting African-American artist who worked in all parts of the field, from newspaper comics such as Scorchy Smith to gag cartoons for Dude (a Playboy wannabe). He later turned to painting. “Marvin’s Monster.” Art by Hy Fleischman? 6 pp. Horror parody. Mad scientist tries to create a suave monster using “classic private eye Rip Smirby” for body parts. (Since Rip Smirby is a “private eye,” he’s drawn with only one eye.) The females on the last page are fetching. The story isn’t signed, but a tombstone on the splash page says: “Hy Fleischman worked all week without sleep to get this story in on time!” The art resembles that of Joe Orlando, but that’s probably just the result of swipes.

NUTS! Topline: “No Ifs or Buts—This Comic Is— [NUTS!]” Side Banner: “That Crazy Mad Comic” Publisher: Premier Publishing, South Justison St., Wilmington, Delaware

#1 (March 1954) Cover: Hy Fleischman?

#2 (May 1954)

“Home Cooking.” Unknown regular. 6 pp. Genre parody.

Cover: Artist unknown.

Movie producer Orson Bells goes to Africa to film his latest epic and ends up in a cannibal’s pot. In Mad #6 Kurtzman and Elder did something similar in their take-off on King Kong. Here the story doesn’t really go anywhere, though they do meet Humphrey

“Sane.” Unknown regular? 7 pp. Movie parody. Shane was (along with Come Back, Little Sheba) the most-often-parodied movie during the period of four-color Mad imitations. John Severin drew “Sane” for Mad #10 (April 1954), [Continued on p. 41] [©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

“What Hath Kurtzman Wrought?”—Part II

Nuts! To You! Clockwise from top left, the splashes of the four comics stories in Nuts! #1, in the order in which they appeared in the issue: “Home Cooking” by an unknown artist… “Li’l Abernathy” by ditto… “Scarface!” by Alvin Hollingsworth & [first name?] Sargeant… & “Marvin’s Monster” probably by Hy Fleischman. Thanks to Michaël Dewally. [©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

An Issue-By-Issue Look At The Mid-1950s Mad Comics Imitations

A Second Dish Of Nuts! Clockwise from top left: the splashes of the four comics tales from Nuts! #2. Artist Hy Fleischman signed the “Peter Gorre” and “Shamus” entries. The main text says pretty much everything about these parodies that needs saying. Thanks again to Michaël Dewally. [©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

“What Hath Kurtzman Wrought?”—Part II

[Continued from p. 38] and Andru & Esposito had done “Strain” in the first issue of Get Lost in February of that year. It’s unlikely that any of the teams saw each others’ versions before doing their own. Which only goes to prove that satirical minds think alike. The very loosely inked art is quite good, and the satirical content isn’t too shabby, either. There are even some nice action scenes. “Peter Gorre, The Delirious Traveler.” Art by Hy Fleischman (signed). 6 pp. Radio show parody. For the past 22 years Peter Gorre has been the narrator of the radio horror show The Delirious Traveler. He is found by a man who’s been looking for him all that time because his wife wants to meet him. When he takes Gorre home, she’s become an ugly crone and throws them out the window. Maurice Tarplin was the actual narrator of the radio series lampooned here: The Mysterious Traveler, which ran from 1942 till 1952 and at one point was heard almost daily. Film actor Peter Lorre, of course, appeared in numerous horror and suspense movies, but had nothing to do with that radio series. “Try Lumpy Chew!” 2-pp. text story. This is possibly one of Harry Harrison’s text pieces, an unimpressive romp about an advertising writer named Whiz who is trying to sell Lumpy Chew chewing tobacco by getting “big shot testimonials.” After he spends $3,000,000 on the campaign, everybody is talking about it, but no one knows how many plugs of tobacco are actually sold. When it turns out to be only two (one to the advertising writer and one to the company president), he jumps off the Umpire State Building. Everybody had always warned Whiz that he would spread himself too thin one day. “Come Back Little Heba.” Unknown regular? 6 pp. Movie parody. Nuts! takes the name and the theme of the movie Come Back, Little Sheba (see p. 32) to tell its own story about a skinny alcoholic and his fat wife. No caricatures are attempted, and there is no further reference to the play or movie. It’s drawn in a fairly lively fashion, probably by the same artist as the first story in this comic, but doesn’t amount to much. “Marvin Shame, Shamus.” Art by Hy Fleischman (signed “Fleischman”). 6 pp. Detective parody. Heavily influenced by Mad. The hero looks like a cross between Will Elder’s version of Joe Friday in Mad #3 (complete with orange raincoat and Sherlock Holmes-style hooked nose) and Dick Tracy, there are girls swiped from Prince Valiant and Terry and the Pirates, and the rocks in the wall come from Elder’s mausoleum in “Outer Sanctum” in Mad #5.

#3 (July 1954) Cover: Hy Fleischman? “Prince Oyly Can.” Unknown regular? 7 pp. Hollywood parody. Shedda Shopper tells the exclusive story of how the palpitating pasha Oyly Can wooed and wed gorgeous Rosita Oatmeal, spoofing

Put The Blame On Nuts! Nuts! #3’s splash lampooning a royal wedding of sorts—and a photo of the actual happy couple, Prince Aly Khan and movie star Rita Hayworth, upon their marriage in 1949. That marital bliss must’ve lasted all of fifteen minutes. They were divorced two years later. The artist (like the writer of all the Nuts! stories) is unidentified. Thanks to Jim Ludwig. [Nuts! page ©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

the media coverage of the marriage of Aly Khan, Prince of Persia, to actress Rita Hayworth in 1949 and their subsequent divorce in 1951. But it’s actually just an excuse for a silly story about an actress chasing a prince. And maybe a tad out of date, even then! Shedda Shopper (a stand-in for movie gossip columnist Hedda Hopper) is drawn in the second-rate Milton Caniff style seen in the story “Home Cooking” in Nuts! #1 , but otherwise it looks a lot like the same artist worked on “Sane” and “Come Back Little Heba” in #2. Perhaps a different inker was involved. “Buried Alive! or Dig That Crazy Body!” Art by Fleischman (unsigned). 6 pp. Funny horror. “Bats on Broadway.” 2 pp. text story. “How to Marry a Zillionaire or Flat Foot Floosie Loves Me!” Art by Fleischman (signed “H.F.”). 6 pp. Movie parody only in name. Otherwise it’s just a story about a girl marrying a gangster. “Garter Gadflea and His Friends...” Art by Fleischman (unsigned). 6 pp. Television parody. An uncensored look at [©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

An Issue-By-Issue Look At The Mid-1950s Mad Comics Imitations

A Couple Of Real Nuts! “Johnny Bell” (real name = John Belcastro) drew and even signed “Prince Valuable” in Nuts! #4—while Hy Fleischman drew the “Classy Comics” page above right as part of the “Comics Is Wonderful!” feature. Thanks to Jim Ludwig. [©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

the radio/TV series Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts from the 1940s and ’50s.

Mad #13 (July 1954) had appeared only two months earlier. William Overgard had done his splendid version for St. John’s Whack #2 in May of that same year, so he has the honor of being the first. This one is okay, but it’s clearly the weakest of the three. It is unsigned, though there is a sign on the grass on the splash panel saying “Johnny Bell,” which is listed in Jerry Bails’ Who’s Who as a pseudonym for John Belcastro. I don’t think this artist did any other work for Nuts!, which is too bad, because this tale works out just fine, making this issue one of the high points of the series. The story isn’t too bad, either. Prince Valuable meets “Superman” when he tries to pull his magical Singing Sword from a stone and pulls up the bottom of the panel, as well. He fights off some barbarians (including one named Thor). In the end he leaves his girlfriend for a chest of gold, and she goes off to Hollywood for a career in television.

#4 (Sept. 1954) Cover: Artist unknown. “Tick Dracy!” Art by Fleischman (unsigned). 6 pp. Comic strip parody. Turns out Dick Tracy is a fan of Li’l Abner. And Li’l Abner is a fan of Joe Palooka. Only for some reason their names have changed beyond recognition, and though the characters look like the originals, their art styles don’t. As in most of Fleischman’s stories, the big-nosed Killroy character turns up. “My True Story by Darleena Krankevitjz.” 2-pp. text story. “Prince Valuable.” Art by John Belcastro? 5 pp. Comic strip parody. [©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

Another parody of Prince Valiant, one of the most parodied comic strips of its time. Wally Wood’s version for

“Ol’ Doc Fafufanick!” Art by Jack O’Brien (signed). Two 1-page gags.

Two gags about a professor which could have been fillers in any

“What Hath Kurtzman Wrought?”—Part II

humor book. O’Brien was a gag cartoonist who worked for all types of magazines in the ’40s and ’50s; he wound up at Charlton, first packaging the later issues of their Mad magazine imitation Crazy and later drawing Sad Sack as well as G.I. Juniors for Harvey. “Comics Is Wonderful!” Art by Fleischman (unsigned). 5 pp. Comics parody. A nutty-looking professor tries to teach us that comics can be educational. He shows us a “true history” comic (“The Decline of History”), a “Classy Comics” (Romeo and Juliet), a commercial comic (“Snippy Crunchies”), and an educational comic (“How To Fix Your TV Set”). “So if you want to travel, [have an] education or career... don’t join the army... or go to college... just read comics!” Another strong entry, and a sign that once the satire genie was out of the bottle anything could happen. One of the earliest “article” type of parodies. Unfortunately there is nothing in particular parodied, unless you count the fact that the lecturer is holding copies of Nuts! and Masked Ranger comics in the second panel. If the artist is indeed Hy Fleischman, this is his best work (though he did some impressive work for Lev Gleason’s Uncle Charlie’s Fables, as well). “The Nut House.” A letters page. “Teeny!” Artist unknown. 5 pp. Comic strip parody. A parody of the comic strip Penny by Harry Haenigsen, once a very popular newspaper strip about a teenager. The weird stylings of Haenigsen are not imitated, except perhaps in the look of the heroine. We can only wonder what a more committed artist would have done with this concept. No effort is made to make her father look like the quite prominent father of the strip, even though Penny was in The New York Herald Tribune, a paper no artist would’ve had a problem picking up. The title lettering is vaguely similar to the original, so someone must at least have remembered seeing it.

When Nuts! Lost Its Marbles If “Captain Marble Flies Again!” in Nuts! #5 seems a bit more on target than many of the parodies covered in Ger’s two-part article, it may be because this spoof, we now know, was scripted by none other than Otto Binder, the talented writer who had been responsible for many of the best tales starring Fawcett’s original Captain Marvel during the 1940s and early ’50s! This was first revealed—based on Binder’s own records, which had been provided by Jerry Bails—in John Benson’s article “The EC Writers” in his magazine Squa Tront #9 (1983). Above is a photo detail of Binder taken at the 1965 New York comics convention, courtesy of Bill Schelly. [©2010 the respective copyright holders.] All six pages of this Andru-&-Esposito-illustrated story saw print in Alter Ego #33—where Ye Editor listed one of the “A’s” in the “Shazam!” that “Billy Battyson” shouted in the story as standing for Ajax, rather than the correct Atlas. In 2004 inker Mike Esposito believed that the tale had been written by Nuts! editor Yvonne Rae… but now we know better. Thanks to Ger Apeldoorn for the scans.

#5 (Nov. 1954) Cover: Artist unknown “The Maine Mutiny.” Artist unknown. 5 pp. Movie parody. A new artist appears to have joined Nuts! for this parody, complete with Humphry Bogart caricature. Mad did its take-off on the movie version of Herman Wouk’s novel The Cain Mutiny (called “The Cane Mutiny”) in its Jan. 1955 issue, but if you’re Wally Wood you are allowed to be couple of months later. This artist draws himself into the story as a bald man with glasses when the story [©2010 the respective copyright holders.] turns romantic and the art veers into a parody of Dan DeCarlo’s good-girl art. Why Dan

DeCarlo? He was not yet the essential “Archie” artist he would later become; at this time he was still doing dumb-blonde gags with Stan Lee in Timely’s My Friend Irma. The artist probably thought it was the best way to draw a funny sexy girl. “Miss Burpgold Says....” Art by Fleischman (unsigned). One-page advertisement parody. “How to Drive a Car by X. Haust-Pipe.” One-page text story. “Popular Pictorial Science Handicrafts.” Art by Fleischman (unsigned). 6 pp. Magazine parody. The same professor that taught us about the educational use of comics last issue introduces a feature on a popular science magazine. Not a parody in the way Mad magazine would later do them… rather a series of one-page gags about sections of the magazine: testing a car; scientific discoveries; photo-hints; a home decorating guide; and building your own ship. But still quite clever. “Captain Marble Flies Again.” Art by Ross Andru & Mike Esposito (unsigned). Script by Otto Binder. 6 pp. Comic book parody. This parody of Captain Marvel by Andru & Esposito makes this issue of Nuts! the one to have from this series. Because, as good as the three issues of their own series Get Lost was, Andru & Esposito’s satire was never more on target or more suited to comic

An Issue-By-Issue Look At The Mid-1950s Mad Comics Imitations

book fans than in this parody. The art is a bit more hastily rendered (or at least inked) than their own company’s stuff, but, according to the Esposito interview in Alter Ego #53, it wasn’t left over from their own comic, which had folded only a couple of months earlier. “The Nut House.” Letters page.

Four single pages from something that looks like a cross between a take-off on They’ll Do It Every Time and a rejected submission for a newspaper panel... but see Frank Motler’s note under Bughouse #1 for info that may well apply to this issue, as well! The surprisingly well-executed art (it looks like Alex Toth working in a Jimmy Hatlo/Al Scudato style) makes me wonder about the artist’s identity.

“Arctic Air-Conditioner.” Art by Fleischman (unsigned). Ad parody.

“Dropsy-Turvy.” 2-pp. text story.

“Television... Blessing or Curse to Mankind?” Art by Fleischman (unsigned). 2 pp. Social satire.

“Doctor Jerque... Go And Hide!” 6 pp. Funny horror.

The pros and cons of television. Just before Nuts! ended, it began utilizing more sophisticated writing and taking on less juvenile subjects. Articles like this one and the two Fleischman did on educational comics and Popular Mechanics make Nuts! one of the better-written Mad imitations, even if the art is sometimes a bit off and the covers can be downright ugly. “Old Doc Fafufanik.” Art by O’Brien (signed). Two more gag pages.

MADHOUSE & BUGHOUSE When One Name Is Not Enough Ajax/Farrell was a small publication house that specialized in horror comics. Not the best-remembered books, so they are not the best-remembered company. When the whole satire thing was taking off, they decided to let their writers and artists have a go, as well.

#2 (May-June 1954) “Sara-Tann - Nature’s Backward Girl.” 6 pp. Inhuman disinterest item. “The Birth of a Notion.” 6 pp. Funny story about the movie industry. After tackling the newspaper industry in the first story, the mag’s lackluster regular artist takes on Hollywood. A washed-out director hopes for success with a new movie starring Monroelyn Russell, a pun on Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell, who looks like neither. They go to Africa to shoot the picture, but the (talking) animals stage a protest. The picture is never made and the director runs off ranting that he’ll try again with a 4-D picture… 5-D… 6-D! “Hot Sale for Cold Cash.” 5 pp. Topical story. The war between department stores Stacey’s and Cymball’s—standins for Macy’s and the now-defunct Gimbel’s. “Dr. Magun’s Formula.” 2-pp. text story. “Hy’Watha.” 5 pp. Historical story about Pilgrims and Indians.

There were two editions of this title, both by Ajax/Farrell. The first ran for four issues in 1954 and was technically published by Excellent Publications. The second ran for another trio of issues numbered 1 to 3 in 1957 and was published by Four Star Comics. The satirical content of the latter title is even lower than that of the first. The second run does contain some art by Kurt Shaffenberger, who was freelancing on the company’s romance titles at that time. The unknown main artist is nothing to write home about, which makes it harder to find any information about him. Since virtually no artists in either magazine are identified either by signature or via research, we have generally omitted that notation below in the interests of space, except in the case of the occasional bylined feature—although the artists all seem to have been part of the S.M. (Jerry) Iger comics shop.

#3 (July-Aug. 1954) “Blimey, Old Chap… It’s a Crime.” 6 pp. Genre parody. Presented as a movie, but this isn’t a parody of any movie in particular. In the introduction mention is made of “the flickers,” flaunting the accepted knowledge that you should never print an “l” and an “i” next to each other in a word where they could blend together as a “u.” In the story Shylock Homes works with Doctor Botson to solve a non-existent crime.

Madhouse Publisher: Excellent Publications [Ajax/Farrell], 30 East 60th Street, New York, NY

#1 (March-April 1954) “The Murky Mystery of Rue de la Phew, or Guilty Gertie’s Revenge!” 6 pp. Humor story. “Shh! Sneak a Look at the Kornsey Report.” 6 pp. Kinsey Report reference. When Dr. Kornsey tells his secretary his secret, a worldwide race is on to find it out from her. We will tell you here for free: the professor has grown an ear of corn into a bottle without disturbing a single, precious kernel. Kinky, huh? “What a Family!” Art by Collin Allen (signed). 4 pp. Gag strip. [©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

“What Hath Kurtzman Wrought?”—Part II

“Peter in the Pen.” 6 pp. Funny crime story. “Emily Ghost Guide to Midnight Manners.” 5 pp. Funny horror. “Cool Cash.” 2-pp. text story. “Uncle Featherby Weather—or Not?” TV parody. A day in the life of a television weatherman. Uncle Featherby kisses a girl, but his wife catches him.

#4 (Sept.-Oct. 1954) Researching this book on comics/animation artist Scott Shaw!’s excellent “Oddball Comics” website, I found that the 1957 Madhouse #2 (second series; see following page) is a reprint of the contents of this issue with a new cover. I have adapted some of Scott’s commentary, since I only have the reprinted version. The most interesting thing about the issue is its cover, which was clearly inspired by the surrealistic style of the controversial artist Salvadore Dali (1904-1989). [©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

“Crazy Mixed-up Arizona.” 7 pp. Funny cowboy. “Annie Doesn’t Live Here Anymore... She’s Gone, Man!” 5 pp. Funny crime. The source of this title is a 1933 pop tune called “Annie Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” recorded by the orchestra Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians. It later became the inspiration for the title of the 1974 film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, directed by Martin Scorsese—which in turn led to the long-running TV series Alice.

joining forces: “And so, we leave our friends, as they really dig the weirdest music this side the grave…we can escape, if we go, man, go- go-go….” “Pssst - Confidential (My Eye!) The Uncensored Lowdown of Joe Blow’s Rise to Fame!” 7 pp. Magazine parody. A spoof of the then ultra-popular celebrity-gossip magazine Confidential. Unlike that rag, however, Madhouse doesn’t name names.

“Flat Foot Floogie.” 2-pp. text story.

Madhouse [Vol. 2]

“Going - Going - Real Gone!” 7 pp. Ghost story. On a whim, a zoot-suited “bop-kat” buys an abandoned house. When he hosts wild dance-hops there, the ruckus literally raises the dead. The goofy ghost of a crooner organizes his living-dead pals to scare the dancers out. When the latter prove immune to these tactics, the ghostly gang re-paint the structure’s interior with a “modern art” theme and assemble a Spike Jones-style orchestra “to make noise that will drive them into insanity!”—only, turns out the hepsters love the music! One teenager reacts with wildly positive enthusiasm: “Gimme some skin, friend Clyde!... When it comes to decorating, you’re hep! And that band you got is the gonest!” Not surprisingly, this story ends with the haunts and the hepsters

Publisher: Four Star Comics, [Ajax/Farrell], 30 East 60th Street, New York, NY The second incarnation of this title from the same publisher, but with another name as publication house. For some reason this is also called “Volume One,” thereby confusing collectors; only by the year of publication can you keep these comics apart. My personal copy of #2 was sold to me as being from 1954, probably because the seller had looked not at the indicia but only in his Price Guide. Or else he thought the 1957 edition was just a reprint of the 1954 series. On the second series the cover logo is slightly smaller than on the first, with the Ajax logo taking up a bit more room in the wavy rectangle in the left-hand corner. It is

Going To The Madhouse Alas, neither we nor anybody we knew could come up with any interior art from Ajax/Farrell’s 1954 Madhouse #2-3 (or most issues of Bughouse). But, happily, the interiors of Madhouse #2 of the second series in 1957 were basically a reprinting of #4 in ’54, and reader Jim Ludwig sent us scans of that issue’s four splashes. Not that art or script is much to write home about, but at least it shows the kind of material that was lurking behind those covers with the extra-tall lettering! [©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

An Issue-By-Issue Look At The Mid-1950s Mad Comics Imitations

Covers of Madhouse #1-3 (1957)

sometimes claimed there was a fourth issue of this series, but that can’t be confirmed and seems unlikely.

#1 (June 1957) A reprint of Bughouse #4 (see below) with a new cover by the usual unknown Iger shop artist—a scene from “The $64 Billion Dollar Question,” a story not included in the issue.

#3 (Oct. 1957) Contents are mostly reprinted from 1954 Madhouse #2, plus “Hugh Dunnit in the Case of the Missing Ink Blot!”—which may or may not have appeared in the earlier issue. The cover of this one, too, was probably new.

Bughouse Publisher: Excellent Publications [Ajax/Farrell], 30 East 60th Street, New York, NY

#2 (Aug. 1957) A reprint of Madhouse #4 with a new cover (artist unknown), on which cowboys watch a drive-in movie coming to life. Don’t ask.

The best thing about these Ajax/Farrell magazines is the titles of the individual stories. While many Mad imitations stayed away from recognizable targets, these stories seem to be about specific TV or radio

From The Madhouse To The Bughouse Also, lucky for us, the 1957 Madhouse #1 incongruously reprinted tales from Bughouse #4—allowing us (through the good offices of Jim Ludwig & Michael T. Gilbert) to showcase these two splash pages that appeared in both of them. There! Now does that make you feel all better? [©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

“What Hath Kurtzman Wrought?”—Part II

programs or trends. The execution is, however, generally poor. Most of the artists involved have no flair for parody; they are just serious artists slumming. And the stories never seem to hit the targets for which the titles seem to be aiming. This lackluster quality of the art and the stories is the reason I stopped buying both comics after I had a few of them. There are only so many poorly executed ideas you can stand to read. (So a special thanks to Frank Motler for indexing the contents of #1-2 for this piece!) Robert Farrell is listed as publisher, Ruth Roche (of the Iger comics shop) as editor, and S.M. Iger (that’s Jerry Iger to us) as art editor.

#1 (March-April 1954)

“The Looneys…What a Family!” Art by Collin Allen.” 6 individual pp., copyright at bottom of each page for King Features Syndicate. (The feature is listed as “® Collin Allen.”) The one-pagers are titled: “Cheap Freeze” “Who’s Leo?”

#3 (July 1954) “The Late-Late-Late-Late Show.” 6 pp. Horror parody. A guy has to tie up his wife so he can watch the late show on TV. He buys three TV sets, but people start emerging from them into his living room. First there is a vampire, whom he gives to his wife (she doesn’t mind because the vampire is cute, which he is not); then he has to fight off Indians from a Western show. In the end he ends up with Hearththrob Dalye... a fugitive from a love film. “Mr. and Mrs. South, or Look, Yo’all—No Head!” 6 pp. Radio/TV parody.

“Salami and the Seven Nails.” 5 pp.

“Grand-Father’s Clock”

Mr. and Mrs. North began on radio as a situation comedy, but by 1942 it had shifted to a lighthearted murder mystery show. A pilot for a TV version was made in 1949, but the series wasn’t produced till 1952. It starred Richard Denning as publisher Jerry North, and Barbera Britton as his wife Pamela. The series ran until July 1954, so this takeoff appeared just in time! It isn’t much of a parody, though. The writer and artist probably took their clues from the radio version, because the husband and wife don’t look like caricatures, and nothing in particular is lampooned.

“Errant Boys” “Hide and Sick!” “Sparring Partners” “That Thing in the Window.” 5 pp. “Dropsy-Turvey.” 2-pp. text story, no illos. “Strife with Father.” 5 pp.

#2 (May-June 1954) “The Tin Man.” 6 pp. “Smellbound.” 6 pp. “Oh, for the Life of a Wife of a Werewolf.” 5 pp. “The Sad Spirit.” 2-pp. text story, no illos. “Robin the Hood & His Hairy Men.” 5 pp.

“Captain Kiddeo, Space Bum.” 5 pp. Kids’ TV show parody. Captain Video was of course also superbly spoofed by Kurtzman & Davis in Mad #15’s “Captain TVideo.” Bughouse got there first, but other than the title the spoof seems to have nothing to do with the 1950s DuMont network television series. “Crazy Mixed-Up Kid!” 2-pp. text story. “The Trans-Continental.” 5 pp. Radio show parody. About a month before Kurtzman & Davis lampoon the TV version of The Continental in Mad #14 (Aug. 1954), Bughouse takes on the radio version. The Continental was a unusual television show on CBS in 1952—a tidbit for bored housewives looking to add a little excitement to their lives, which followed the news twice a week. Suave, sultry-voiced Renzo Cesana, Italian by birth but American by choice, was the only performer. Each night, in a glamorous setting, he would provide a romantic monologue directed to women. He was promoted as an Italian count, a member of one of the leading families of Rome, and had been doing a similar

An Issue-By-Issue Look At The Mid-1950s Mad Comics Imitations

program on a local station in Los Angeles for several months before CBS brought him to New York. The show ran for exactly a year, ending in January 1953. Which gives you some idea of the time it took to get a parody into print, because Kurtzman’s version must have been begun before the show ended, yet it wasn’t on the stands till summer of ’54!

George Peltz, both of whom worked for Star Publications’ horror comic Spook Suspense Stories, often behind L.B. Cole covers. Both artists did some work for Classics Illustrated before disappearing from the comic book scene. Disbrow recently created a 312-episode web comic called Aroc of Zenith.

#15 (#1) (June 1954) #4 (Sept. 1954) With this issue Bughouse dropped the satirical angle. It was just a book of not-so-funny funny stories. “The Inner Cell-fff!” 7 pp. Funny story. “Of course no one knows your inner self but you! But have you ever thought of the horrible possibilities if it came to the surface and overpowered the real you?” No, not really. For collectors who are interested in that sort of thing: a poet dressed in a black [©2010 the respective copyright holders.] body suit (who ends up “in the booby hatch”) has a bald pointy head, so he could be seen as the first pinhead to feature in the comics. His landlord has a completely flat head… but he is not the first Flat-Top, because there was one in Dick Tracy years earlier. How’s that for complete commentary? “One Way Ticket.” 5 pp. Funny story. “Dig That Jolly Jungle!” 2-pp. text story. “Just Plain Bull.” 7 pp. Funny story. “The Diary of Zoo Zoo Gay Gone.” 7 pp. Glamour gal Zoo Zoo Gay Gone (yes, that’s supposed to be a takeoff on Zsa Zsa Gabor) meets Tooloose LaTruck and a handsome leading man who looks like Maurice Chevalier. The guys get in a fight and punch Zoo Zoo in the eye. Because Tooloose is so small, see?

UNSANE! When You Wish upon a Star Unsane!, from Star Publications, was a late entry into the satire game and didn’t get beyond a single issue. It is quite rare, so it is entirely possible that it never even reached the stands, although my copy seems to be quite well-read.

Unsane! Topline: “Don’t Flip!” Publisher: Star Publications, Inc. – publication at Wilkes-Barre, PA – editorial address: 545 Fifth Avenue, NY 1, NY (with special thanks to Frank Motler for this info) This book contains two stories drawn by Jay Disbrow and two by

Cover: L.B. Cole “Twenty Thousand Leaks under the Sea, by Jules Fern.” Art by Jay Disbrow. 6 pp. This opening story is typical of the material in this book. Taking its cue from the announced Disney movie (which wouldn’t be in the theatres until the end of the year), it tells the story of Captain Zemo’s efforts to build a submarine. He steals rivets from the Eiffel Tower, hijacks a crew, and explores the ocean bottom in windbreakers and an umbrella. When the ship is launched, it hits a fish and falls apart. Zemo goes to the isle of Capri, changes his name to Spike Joans, and starts a band. This is where most of these second-rate magazines go wrong. They take a title and a general knowledge of a story, then build their own silly version filled with slapstick and puns. Add a lot of inappropriate signs such as “Sink me” or “This garment is protected against shrinkage.” The Panic and From Here to Insanity parodies of the same film were covered in A/E #86. “Andre Gigolo.” Artist unknown. Gag page. “Bo Jest & the White Feather.” George Peltz (signed). 6 pp. Vaguely based on the classic 1939 movie Beau Geste. “The Case of Mistaken Identity.” 2-pp. text story. “Frank Bunk—Bring ’Em Back Dead or Alive.” Art by Jay (“Monkey Man”) Disbrow. 6 pp. Book/movie parody. The publication of Frank Buck’s 1930 book Bring ’Em Back Alive made its author an international celebrity. An intrepid Texas animal collector and jungle adventurer, he enraptured generations of readers with his tales of capturing alive many kinds of animals, from birds to snakes to elephants. Having no tranquilizer darts in those days, he learned to build traps and snares in ways that prevented injury to the animals he caught. Buck always accompanied his animals on shipboard to America to be sure they were well treated, and refused to sell to anyone who did not have an impeccable reputation for animal care. (At least, that was the official version—and since he wrote the books and starred in the movies, some of which had been re-released in the years prior to this parody, who was gonna argue with him?) “Kit Carsick... Indian Scout.” Art by George Peltz (signed). Six pages. TV parody.

“What Hath Kurtzman Wrought?”—Part II

Come Out, Jay Disbrow—We’ve Got You Surrounded! It didn’t look like we weren’t gonna be able to score any interior art from Unsane! #15. In the eleventh hour, Frank Motler put us into contact with a lady selling a copy of the issue on the Internet—and, although “OHLIE1” (her online moniker), proprietor of the eBay store “Dotsstuff” for owner Vern Patrick, reports that her scanner’s temporarily out of commission, she took photos of the comic’s “20,000 Leaks under the Sea” and “Frank Bunk” splash pages for us. Thanks to her generosity, and A/E layout guru Chris Day’s hard work, we get a taste of the two Unsane! stories written and drawn by Jay Disbrow. Jay is also the author of the 1985 book The Iger Comic Kingdom, which was reprinted in back in Alter Ego #21 (still available—hint, hint!). What’s more, he’s written a piece on his friend and sometime boss, fellow artist L.B. Cole, which we hope to print ere long [©2010 the respective copyright holders.] Oh, and we wanted to show our gratitude to OHLIE1 by pointing A/E’s readers her way, so check out her store at dotsstuff@gmail.com or call her at (712) 347-6521. Who knows? Unsane! #15 may still be on auction! Thanks again, Ms. O!

Probably a parody of the Western show The Adventures of Kit Carson, which ran from 1951 to 1955 in syndication. [EDITOR’S NOTE: Back in A/E #86, we repro’d the splash of a parody of the TV series Mister Peepers… and erroneously ID’d it as being inventory from Charlton’s Eh!/From Here to Insanity. In point of fact, since “Mister Creepers” was printed in Ajax/Farrell’s Terrific Comics #16 (March 1955), otherwise starring the Iger super-hero “Wonder Boy,” it was almost certainly left over from Madhouse or Bughouse, instead. Mea culpa!]

SUPER FUNNIES Publisher: Superior Publishers Limited, Canada [Superior Comics] Another one I didn’t get. Nor does it look like a book I will be looking for anytime soon. The data for this book were kindly provided by Chris Brown. The Grand Comic-Book Database lists William Zimmerman as publisher, Bertram J. Krieger as business manager, and Harry L. Cohen as editor.

Super Funnies #2 (March 1954) In A/E #36 John Bell describes how Canadian reprint publisher

Superior was the only company in that country producing original books for both the Canadian and American markets after 1948. All these books were filled with material from American comic book packager the Iger Studios. Apparently this went on for some time, because in 1954 they changed their title Super Funnies, which had been a one-shot “Dopey Duck” 3-D comic for its first issue, into a parody title for the second. Apparently there was very little satire going on here, with more than one story possibly repackaged from another source. After this the book changed to a Western comic for its final two issues. Cover: Artist unknown (as are the identities of any and all interior artists) [©2010 the respective copyright holders. Thanks to Jim Ludwig]

An Issue-By-Issue Look At The Mid-1950s Mad Comics Imitations

And why would Martin Goodman pull the plug on all three parody titles when there was no new fad coming to take its place? Stan Lee clearly enjoyed writing the genre; in his biography he says he was very proud of his humor work. There must have been signals from the distributors that

Super, Man! The splashes to three of the four comics stories in Super Funnies #2. Curiously, the vampire in “Dr. Acula” strongly resembles the main figure on the cover of Ajax’s 1954 Bughouse #2… but SF isn’t a reprint of any Ajax issues, though the artwork for both was apparently done by the Iger Studios. Thanks to Jim Ludwig. [©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

“Dr. Acula.” 8 pp. “Little Dead Riding Hood.” 7 pp. “Sam Bucket—Private Stye.” 2-pp. text story. “Crime against Man! Meet Mike Barnnut.” 8 pp. “Dopey Duck - It’s Snow Fun!” 7 pp.

In Conclusion: So what happened in 1954? Mad had made its debut in 1952, was a huge success by 1953, and spawned a horde of imitators. By the end of ’54, nearly all of them had disappeared. This was not something new. It had happened to every genre: super-hero, romance, crime, horror, teen humor, funny animal. Anything new or potentially successful was quickly adopted by the other publishers. And most of the knockoffs would fail. But in all of those cases at least some of the competitors were left standing. In this case only two remained: the EC-owned Panic and Charlton’s little comic that could: Eh!/From Here to Insanity All the others disappeared without making a dent. So what was the reason for that? Could it have been quality? Kurtzman’s Mad is without a doubt better than any of its imitators. The satire was more on target, and the writer as well as the artists took more time getting to know their subject. And it doesn’t hurt to have Will Elder, Jack Davis, and Wallace Wood on your side. Yet Andru & Esposito’s Get Lost was quite good, and Whack was a great package, with good art, funny stories, and very secure of its targets. Maybe it was timing. Almost all the Mad wannabes appeared on the stands at the same time. Some must have sold a few copies, but others must have gotten lost in the shuffle. Andru & Esposito’s Mikeross Publishing went under, just as their template Simon & Kirby’s Mainline did. St. John was faltering, too, after losing a lot of money on the collapse of the 3-D fad, although they did continue publishing The Three Stooges.

these comics just weren’t selling. Mad itself didn’t drop the ball. As soon as it became clear that the comic was going to be besieged by imitators, they jumped up the frequency from bimonthly to monthly. New artists were tried out, and two issues were padded with old material by Kurtzman himself (“Hey Look!” and “Pot Shot Pete”). And they used valuable ad space to alert their readers for imitations. Until they came up with Panic, Mad’s only official imitation. Maybe the banning of Panic #1 (cover-dated March 1954) in Boston and the whole of Massachusetts scared everyone just enough to give up on satire. It was a scary time. No one wanted to take risks. For the next couple of years comics would become blander. It would be left to Mad the magazine to carry the torch— outside the perceived comic book ghetto.

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

A quarter of a million records, covering the careers of people who have contributed to original comic books in the US. “The Masked Marvel” springs into action in Centaur’s Keen Detective Funnies #22 (July 1940). Art by Ben Thompson. Thanks to Robert Wiener. [©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

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Centaur Spread – Part III Continuing Our Look At The Colorful CENTAUR COMICS GROUP & Related Companies by Lee Boyette NOTE FROM LEE BOYETTE: I wish to acknowledge my good friend Hames Ware, without whom this article would have been impossible to write. His information, input, encouragement, and guidance have been a source of inspiration for many years.

A/E

EDITOR’S NOTE: In issues #85 & 87, Lee related the saga of the early but little-known Centaur Comics Group and its even more obscure predecessors and descendants. This time, we continue with his catalog of the various comic book titles, arranged

In the Centaur Ring These two house ads call attention to some of Centaur’s most famous heroes—if that’s not a contradiction in terms for such a little-known line. The ad above is from Amazing Mystery Funnies, Vol. 3, #10 (Oct. 1939)… the Amazing Man Comics ad from AMF #20 (May 1940). Lots of great Jacquet shop/Funnies, Inc. artists show up here. The “Amazing Man” splash is by Bill Everett, “The Shark” by Lew Glanzman, “The Iron Skull” by Carl Burgos, and “Minimidget” by John Kolb (the latter of whom is not on the list of Centaur personnel)… while “Speed Centaur” and “Fantom of the Fair” are probably by Gustavson, and “Masked Marvel” by Ben Thompson. Pics of Everett, Glanzman, Burgos, and Gustavson were seen in A/E #85. And in case you’re wondering—the name “Amazing-Man” was often hyphenated in the various stories, but not always in its cover logo. [©2010 the respective copyright holders.] Incidentally, as a sort of shorthand, the term “Centaur” will generally be used in these captions to refer to the entire group of companies often referred to by that term… but, as the list on the next page or so details, there were actually at least four corporations or partnerships (and some of these had more than one name!).

by company, and a listing of the known personnel of those companies. All art in this chapter was provided by Lee and his colleague Jon R. Evans, unless otherwise noted. And now, let’s saddle up the ol’ Centaur—and cantor along…!

The Colorful Centaur Comics Group & Related Companies

One From Column “A,” And… Here’s a sample page from each of the four company listings (clockwise from top left): The contents page of Comic Magazine Company’s Detective Picture Stories, Vol. 1, #1 (Dec. 1936). The figure seems to be a fuller version of the cover art by William Allison, which was depicted in A/E #85. The W.C. Brigham cover for Chesler’s Star Comics #1 (Feb. 1937). Dick Ryan’s cover for Ultem’s Funny Pages #16 (a.k.a. Vol. 2, #5, Jan. 1938)—whose New Year-themed cover must’ve come as a surprise if there was any lead time built into its publication. The cover of Centaur’s Amazing Mystery Funnies, Vol. 2, #4 (real #8, April 1939). Artist uncertain, but it resembles Bill Everett’s work, and Wild Bill is credited with drawing the covers just before and after this one. [©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

Centaur Spread—Part III

List Of Centaur And Related Comic Books—All Issues # of Issues: Title:

(Starting & Finishing Dates:)

Comic Magazine Company (William H. Cook & John Mahon): 11

Comics Magazine / Funny Pages

(May 1936–June 1937)

Funny Picture Stories

(Nov. 1936–June 1937)

Detective Picture Stories

(Dec. 1936–April, 1937)

Western Picture Stories

(Feb. 1937–June 1937)

Chesler (Harry “A” Chesler, Jr.) 6

Star Comics

(Feb. 1937–Sept. 1937)

Star Ranger Comics

(Feb. 1937–Sept. 1937)

Coco Malt Big Book of Comics

(1938–no month)

Ultem (Frank Z. Temerson & I.W. Ullman) 5

Funny Pages

(Sept. 1937–Jan. 1938)

Funny Picture Stories

(Sept. 1937–Jan. 1938)

Star Comics

(Nov. 1937–Jan. 1938)

Star Ranger

(Nov. 1937–Jan. 1938)

Centaur/Comic Corporation of America (Joseph J. Hardie, Raymond J. Kelley, S.J. Fried, E.L. Angel): 2

Amazing Adventure Funnies

Amazing-Man Comics

(Sept. 1939–Jan. 1942)

Amazing Mystery Funnies

(Aug.1938–Sept. 1940)

Arrow Comics - CCA(Oct. 1940, Nov. 1940, Oct. 1941)

Chicago Mail Order Comics (C-M-O) Comics (CCA) (1942–no month)

Comic Pages

(July 1939–Dec. 1939)

Cowboy Comics

(July 1938–Aug. 1938)

(June 1940–Sept. 1940)

Fantoman

Funny Pages

(March 1938–Oct. 1940)

Funny Picture Stories

(March 1938–May 1939)

(Aug. 1940, Oct. 1940, Dec. 1940)

Keen Detective Funnies

(July 1938–Sept. 1940)

Keen Comics

(May 1939–Nov. 1939)

Liberty Guards (CCA)

(no date)

Liberty Scouts (CCA)

(June 1941–Aug. 1941)

Little Giant Comics (Aug. 1938, Oct. 1938, Feb. 1939)

Little Giant Detective Funnies

(Oct. 1938–Jan. 1939)

Little Giant Movie Funnies

(Aug. 1938–Oct. 1939)

Man of War (CCA)

(Nov. 1941–Jan. 1942)

Masked Marvel

(Sept. 1940–Dec. 1940)

Star Comics

(March 1938–Aug. 1939)

Star Ranger

(March 1938–May 1938)

Star Ranger Funnies

Stars and Stripes Comics (CCA) (May 1941–Dec. 1941)

Super Spy Comics

Uncle Joes’ Funnies

Wham Comics

(Oct. 1938–Oct. 1939) (Oct. 1940–Nov. 1941) (1938–no month) (Nov. 1940–Dec. 1940)

World Famous Heroes Magazine (CCA) (Oct. 1941–April 1942)

Comin’ In On A Wing And A Prayer Harry Sahle’s “Air Man” splash page for the hero’s first tale, in Keen Detective Funnies #23 (Aug. 1940). Script by George Kapitan. See photo of Sahle in A/E #85. Thanks to Jonathan Jensen for the scan. [©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

The Colorful Centaur Comics Group & Related Companies

Centaur Personnel – 1938-1942 Joseph J. Hardie

publisher, editor 1938- 1942

Jack Alderman

artist 1940, “Masked Marvel”

Rafael Astarita

artist 1938 - reprints & “Round Table Adventure”

Al Anders

artist 1939-40 - “Phantom Rider,” “Fantom of the Fair”

John Belfi

artist 1939-41 (cousin to Albert Tyler) “Detecto”, “Blue Lady”

Charles Biro

artist 1938 – covers, “Block & Fall,” “Smart Alek”

Carl Burgos

artist & writer 1938-40 – “Last Pirate,” “Stoney Dawson,” “Iron Skull,” “Air Sub D-X,” covers

Raymond Burley

artist 1938-40 – “Capt. Jim,” “Super Spy,” “Profiles of Famous People”

Harry Francis Campbell

artist & writer 1939-42 – “Dean Denton,” “Jon Linton,” “Dr. Synthe,” “Human Meteor,” “King of Darkness,” covers

Jack Cole

artist & writer 1938-40 – “King Cole’s Court,” “Cheerio Minstrels,” “Mantoka,” “Little Dynamite,” “Home in the Ozarks,” covers

John Compton

writer 1940 – text pieces (other?)

Norman Daniels

writer (a.k.a. John Benton) 1938-39 Westerns, sea stories

Harold De Lay

artist & writer 1940 – “Mad Ming,” covers

William E. Eisner

writer & artist 1938-40 – reprints, “Wild Tex Martin in Man Hunt” “Top Hand,” “Sheriff of Calibu County,” “Muss ‘Em Up,” “The Brothers Three”

Ken Ernst

artist 1939-40 - “Gabby Flynn”

William B. Everett

writer & artist 1939-40 – covers, “Sky Rocket Steele,” “Dirk the Demom,” text illustrations, “Amazing-Man,” “The C-20 Mystery”

Lachlan Field

artist 1938-40 - “Inner Circle,” “Spy Hunters”

Martin Filchock

writer & artist 1936-42 – “Mighty Man,” “The Owl,” “Fire Man,” “Dopey Kits,” “Rip Burns,” “Signals in the Sky,” “Headless,” “The CC Kid,” “Bob Colbuuy.” “The Buzzard,” “The Ermine,” covers, et al.

Kenneth Fitch

writer 1938-40 – “Jack Strand,” “Top Guy,” “Dan Hastings”

’Chute The Works! Harry Francis Campbell drew the “Dean Denton” and “Jon Linton” features. Here’s the artist spotlight on Campbell from Amazing Mystery Funnies #20 (May 1940). His cover for Keen Detective Funnies V2 #6 (actual #10, June 1939) was seen in A/E #85. [©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

Frank Frollo

artist 1938-42 - “Jack Strand,” “Death’s Legion,” “Blue Lady,” “State Trooper,” “Lucky Coyne,” “Trail of the Mammoth”

Terry Gilkison

artist 1939-40 – “Corp. Merrill,.” covers, text illustrations, fillers

Ray Gill

artist 1939-41 – “Air Man,” text pieces

Sam Gilman

artist 1939-41 – “Iron Skull,” Vapo-Man,” “Masted Marvel,” “Dan Dennis,” text illustrations

John Guinta

artist & writer 1939-40; “Magician from Mars,” text illustrations

Louis Glanzman

artist & writer 1939-41 – “The Shark,” “Amazing-Man,” “Blue Fire,” “Air Man,” “Capt. Curry,” “Dopey Danny Day.”

Sam Glanzman

artist 1940-41 - “Amazing-Man,” “The Shark,” text illustrations

Robert Louis Golden

artist & writer 1939-40 - “Jungle Battles,” “Kardo, the Monster Maker”

Fred Guardineer

artist & writer 1938-39 - “Copperhead Canyon,” “Wild Horse,” “Dan Hastings,” “Bombs of Destiny,” text illustrations, centerfolds

Paul Gustavson

artist & writer 1938-41 – “The Arrow,” “Crane,” “Fantom of the Fair,” “Sand Hog,” “Speed Silvers,” “Homer Butts,” “Black Panther,” “Amazing-Man,” “Man O’ War,” covers, fillers

Maurice Gutwirth

artist 1939-40 - “Lucky Coyne,” Westerns

Creig Flessel

artist 1938-39 - “Cutter Carson”, “Silver Saddle”

Will Harr

artist 1938-39 - “Sky Menace,” “Bombs of Destiny,” “The Midshipman,” text pieces

Gill Fox

artist & writer 1938-39 - “Stranger than Fact,” covers, fillers, “Detective Schultz’s Luck”

Harold Hughes

artist 1939-40 - “King of the South Seas” “Terry Conaway,” “King in London.” “Gentlemen of Fortune”

Centaur Spread—Part III

Malcolm Kildare

artist/writer 1939-40 - “Knickenbocker Knights,” “‘Speed’ Centaur,” “Magician from Mars”

Marv Levy

artist 1941-42 – “Kisco Sid”

Bob Lubbers

artist 1940-42 – “The Arrow,” “Reef Kincaid,” “Liberty Scouts,” World Famous Heroes Magazine, covers

Tarpé Mills

artist & writer 1938-40 (a female artist— unusual at that time) “Barry Finn,” “Diane Deane,” “Cat-Man,” “The Vampire,” “The Ivy Menace,” covers

Clair S. Moe

artist & writer 1938-40 (another female artist) - “Yellow Terror,” “Circus & Sue,” “Dean Masters,” “Sonny Darling”

Charles Pearson

artist 1939-40 – “Spank O’Leary.” “Crime Tracking Televisor”

Harry Ray Ramsey

artist 1939-40 – covers, text pieces

Eye, Eye, Sir! “The Eye Sees”—and comes to the rescue—in these Frank Thomas panels from Keen Detective Funnies #19 (April 1940). It’s likely that Thomas wrote this story as well as drew it. Thanks to Robert Wiener, who recently sent us a virtual treasure trove of photocopies of the original art of pages from Centaur mags— more of which will be seen in future installments of this study. [©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

Pierce Rice

artist 1941-42 – “Man o’ War,” covers

Ed Robbins

artist 1940 – “Masked Marvel,” “Craig Carter,” “Fantoman,” covers

Dick Ryan

artist & writer 1938-39 - “Show Boat,” “Pokey,” “Missing Links,” covers, centerfolds.

Harry Sahle

artist 1940 – “Air Man,” “Fantoman”

Fred Schwab

artist & writer 1938-40 - “The Great Boodini,” “Davy Jones,” “Wilbur,” covers, fillers.

Joe Simon

artist 1940 - “Ranch Dude,” covers.

Harry Taylor

artist 1940-41 (assistant to H.E. Campbell) “Dr. Synthe,” “King of Darkness,” “Dash Dartwell”

Frank Thomas

artist & writer 1939-41 - “Fantom of the Fair,” “The Eye Sees,” “Dr. Psycho/Hypno” “Solar Man,” “Chuck Hardy,” covers

Ben Thompson

artist 1939-40 – “Masked Marvel,” covers, text pieces

Albert Tyler

artist 1939-40 (cousin to John Belfi) – “Super Spy,” “Detecto”

Lloyd Victor Jacquet

editor & writer 1938-40 – texts, (pseudonyms/pen names = Dyoll, Lloyd Victor, LVJ )

Basil Wolverton

artist & writer 1939-42 – “Space Patrol,” “Meteor Martin”

Bob Wood

artist 1938-39 – “Phoney Crimes,” “Little Back Bag,” covers

Martin Filchock’s Night To “Owl” “Air Man” may have stuck around a bit longer and gotten a cover shot, but the first flying, winged hero in comics—tying “Hawkman” in DC/AA’s Flash Comics #1—was “The Owl,” scripted and drawn by Martin Filchock. This feathered fury’s only appearance was in Funny Pages #34 (Jan. 1940), but he should’ve stuck around longer in his yellow costume and gray wings. See our in-depth interview with Martin F. in A/E #64. Thanks to Henry Andrews for the scan. [©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

In a near-future issue of A/E, Lee Boyette will conclude his study with a profusely illustrated cataloging of the heroes of Centaur Comics.

Comic Fandom Archive

Headline– The Forgotten Fanzine! The Teenage Creations Of STEVE GERBER - Part II by John G. Pierce Introduction: Last issue, John began his coverage of Steve Gerber’s early days in comic fandom with a discussion of Steve’s amateur characters, who appeared in the pages of Gerber’s early fanzine Headline. This time, John goes into more depth about one of the first of the fabulous fanzines of the 1960s. —Bill Schelly.

This approach, too, would become the basis for many a fanzine devoted to new comics about original, fan-developed characters. Perhaps the most notable of these would be the Texas Trio’s Star-Studded Comics… but the first such was Steve Gerber’s Headline.

“Headline’s Got Everything!”

The eventual appearance of Headline #1 probably owes a great deal to Dr. Jerry Bails, the man generally regarded as “the Father of Comics Fandom,” for it was via Jerry that Steve met his earliest contributors. These were fans who had been receiving Alter-Ego and had written to Jerry with some of their own ideas for original characters.

he first fanzine devoted exclusively to comic books—most especially, to comic book super-heroes—was Alter-Ego (the name was originally hyphenated), published and edited for March 1961 by Jerry G. Bails, with Roy Thomas listed as co-editor. Following in the wake of its first issue came other fanzines devoted to comics heroes.

Alter-Ego #1 had featured news (in a section called “On the Drawing Board,” which Jerry Bails soon launched as a separate publication of that name; later its title was changed to The Comic Reader), parodies (Roy Thomas’ “Bestest League of America,” showing some of the skills and punniness he would years later apply to Not Brand Echh and Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew!), articles, and original fiction. The fiction in Alter-Ego #1 & 2 was by Roy Thomas, as well. Technically, what he wrote therein was labelled a “revival,” since it was a new version of the old DC hero, The Spectre. (Before long, DC decided to put the clamps on allowing fanzines to use their copyrighted characters in this fashion.) However, except for visual aspects, this incarnation retained few of the attributes of the comic book Spectre of the More Fun and AllStar Comics in the early ’40s, and was, in more ways than not, an original character created by a fan.

When Headline #1 appeared around the spring of 1962 (only a year after Alter-Ego #1), the cover—which was depicted last issue—showed three as-yet-unidentified super-heroes stating consecutively, in Huey, Dewey, and Louie fashion: “At last...” “...the long-awaited...” “....first issue of....” as they displayed a banner reading “Headline No. 1.” “Long-awaited” was an understatement of fantastic magnitude, for it had been in the planning and preparation stages for over a year. Following the cover, rendered in dittoed color by Headline’s co-editor and main artist, Paul Seydor, a page called “Policies of the House” welcomed readers to “the first issue of the most unusual fanzine ever. Many of the current fanzines are devoted to movies—they’re good. Some are TV fanzines—also good. Comic fanzines are good, too. Well, Headline is all of these in one. If your special like is comics, we’ve got spectacular stories about all-new original comic heroes and articles about comics— old and new. Is your dish TV? We’ll have articles on current TV programs. From time to time, we’ll run articles on movies and their stars. Headline’s got everything!” With this enthusiastic, if not totally accurate, description, a new fan-editor launched his first publication. (Headline #1’s indicia art and several other fan-drawings by Gerber were seen in A/E’s previous issue.) Strangely, the fanzine’s first feature was not a super-hero, but a tale scripted by Steve and called “When Knighthood was in Flour”—a short comedy story which he had written originally as a

Deadlines And Headline (Above:) Steve Gerber (circa the 1980s?), when he’d become a successful producer and writer of TV animation—and (at left) the initial two Howard the Duck daily newspaper strips, from 1977. Script by SG; art by Gene Colan. [Howard strips ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Headline: The Forgotten Fanzine

creations, so he would enlighten them. “As you may have guessed by now, I’m the humble, modest type. Seriously, this column is not an outlet for my bragging. (I use the whole magazine for that!) It’s a one-page series to introduce you to my various super-hero creations, so that they may be used in later issues without having to explain their origins,” Steve explained. This first installment featured Saturn-Boy, already discussed in Part I of this series. And, having decided that readers might be curious to see his other heroic creations, Steve did a whole page consisting of his Heroes’ Club. (See A/E #90.) The following feature was Headline #1’s only departure from the original fan-fiction format—an article by Doug Marden on the original Flash. Though hardly a comprehensive article by today’s standards, it was fine for younger fans who hungered and thirsted after any bit of information on 1940s stories, in those days before reprints were readily available. Included was a crude tracing of the cover of Flash Comics #1— but remember, Headline’s medium was ditto, so this was probably the best that could have been done. As I said, for the time, it was fine.

Cats! Writer/editor Steve Gerber traced panels from a few of Roy Thomas’ own amateur comics (done at age 11 or so) for the “Original Heroes of Yesteryear” feature in Headline #1. Seen at left are a page that features panels from tales of the masked jungle hero “Cat-Man.” The “Phantom Man” page referred to was repro’d in A/E #50. [Text ©2009 Estate of Steve Gerber; art ©2009 Roy Thomas.]

school assignment. It had nothing to do with super-heroes or comics, though it did contain a masked villain, The Green Knight, who was eventually unmasked by the three bakers, Harry, Nathan, and Stupington. Steve’s teacher had given him the very high grade of A- on the work; Headline’s readers were to rate it considerably lower. Somewhat wearily, perhaps—or maybe warily—the reader must have turned to “Beware the Supernatural,” a series designed to showcase supernatural heroes, its first entry being my own creation, The Black Hand. That first story, a rather undistinguished origin called “The Haunted House of Black Hand,” did at least have the boost of a full-page illustration by Paul Seydor. Now, finally, readers were able to identify one of the figures on the front cover—a purple-garbed, faceless creature, cast rather in the mold of The Spectre, named Black Hand. (I might as well point out here that this is not exactly the way I had originally envisioned the character, who was inspired by Roy Thomas’ Spectre revival in A/E #1-2, and by comments about the original version which had appeared in A/E’s letter column. At first I had made The Black Hand a white-skinned figure in typical ghostly fashion, with only his hands, the source of his great power, being black. But Steve suggested a better idea, from another source of inspiration—a villain called The Invisible Destroyer, an early foe of the Silver Age Green Lantern, from Showcase #23. The idea of a costumed figure, with a mask and cowl but an invisible face, appealed to me, so I restructured the character in accordance with Steve’s suggestion. In a later story, that face would play an important role.) The last page of the “Black Hand” story also contained a list of “Coming Attractions in Headline.” It is significant to note that, of the five listed, only two actually appeared, both in the second issue; the other three never “came.” Next, fans were treated to two pages of pure Steve Gerber—writing and artwork. The latter term is used rather advisedly, for Steve never claimed to be an artist, yet he insisted on decorating Headline with his cartoony drawings. This section was called “What a Bunch of Characters!” and was based on the premise that readers were dying to know about Steve’s

It was back to original fiction for the next piece, “The Good Samaritan,” by Larry Montgomery. Though not badly written, it featured the least-original hero, as Earthman Jim Benson was given, by a spaceman, a ring capable of emitting powerful blue lightning bolts. Along with this, Kalnor (the spaceman) gave Jim a costume not unlike that of the Silver Age Flash, and told him to guard Earth from peril. (So a second figure on the cover was now identified.) As might be expected, readers noticed a resemblance between this character and a certain popular DC hero of the day, so Jim Benson never turned up again, though “more thrilling exploits of The Guard” were promised. (To be fair, it should be noted that The Guard’s ring was not quite as extensive in the scope of its powers as Green Lantern’s was and is. It could restore wounded and damaged people and objects, as well as enable the wearer to see great distances, make his body hard as steel, and become invisible. Nonetheless, what future could there be for a character who was still little more than Green Lantern wearing Flash’s costume?) A half-page ad (done by an eight-year-old boy, readers were informed) for Headline #2 was followed by a couple of pages of advertisements by independent advertisers—and then readers came to the first installment of “Original Heroes of Yesteryear,” a feature devoted to the characters created by prominent fans during their youths. The fan whose work was spotlighted in issue #1’s presentation was none other than the ubiquitous Roy Thomas. The article itself was written by Steve, and augmented by several drawings done by Roy nearly a decade earlier: Cat-Man, Phantom Man, and the cartoony Super-Kat (who changed from Klarence Kat by saying “WOEM”—“Meow” spelled backwards). And finally came what most readers had probably been hoping and waiting for: an original strip, “Little Giant.” The credits read “Story by S.G. Ross – Art by Ronn Foss.” This bears some explaining. Ronn Foss was no stranger to fandom, having already drawn various strips including Parley Holman’s “Dimension Man” in the latter’s fanzine Spotlite. Subsequently he would draw a strip called “The Eclipse” (sort-of an unofficial Dr. Mid-Nite revival) for Alter Ego. Ronn’s artwork was very much a blend of his two greatest influences, Joe Kubert and the Simon & Kirby team of the ’40s. Ronn’s work on “Little Giant” was adequate, though far from the quality he would achieve in photo-offset printing in later fanzines. But what about S.G. Ross? How many people knew his real identity cannot be determined now, but any sharp-eyed reader should have remembered that Little Giant had been listed among the membership of the Heroes’ Club in the “What a Bunch of Characters” column earlier in the fanzine. Insofar as Steve Gerber frequently signed himself “S.R.G.,” it shouldn’t have been difficult to determine that “S.G. Ross” was merely a pseudonym for “Steven Ross Gerber,” if indeed it ever really was a secret, though Steve clearly believed it to be so.

The Teenage Creations Of Steve Gerber—Part II

They Might Be Little Giants The first, third, and final pages of Ronn Foss’ rendering of Steve Gerber’s “Little Giant” story. Drawing on a sheet for reproduction via the machine called a spirit duplicator wasn’t easy. You had to press hard— ’cause you were making a sort of “carbon copy”—and you couldn’t erase! The photo of Foss is dated 1964, a year after this tale was drawn. [Text ©2009 Estate of Steve Gerber; Art ©2009 Estate of Ronn Foss.]

The strip introduced young reporter Tom Jorman, whose contact with a disconnected plug from a computer (huge things back in those days, remember, and quite unlike what we mean when we use the term today) enabled him to leap high, dispatch bolts of electricity, and even grow or shrink to certain degrees. Due to his small stature, not unlike that of DC’s Atom of the 1940s, as well as his size-changing abilities—which were not actually employed in the first chapter—he took the nom de guerre of Little Giant. The first chapter ended with his defeat at the hands of a villain called The Wheel, with a promise of more to come. (This, by the way, was not Gerber’s original concept of Little Giant. His earlier, unpublished, version had been a five-year-old boy whose contact with a computer had somehow caused him to seem to die, then to grow physically until he appeared to be about college age, though he was small in stature like the original Atom, his inspiration. But artist Ronn Foss had rejected this version because he preferred to work only with characters “who have pro potential,” as he felt that the various other characters he had done—such as Dimension Man—seemed to have. As he once explained to me: “These dead ((literally)) characters may fascinate us as fans, but they have no pro potential.” This was prior to DC’s revival of The Spectre, and some years before Deadman or any of the other “dead” heroes and figures

Headline: The Forgotten Fanzine

who would later come into comics. And Ronn apparently overlooked the fact that the boy had only seemed to die. Nonetheless, Gerber revised his feature into a concept Ronn found more amenable, even though it was less original than his first idea.) And, apart from a few more ads and acknowledgements, and left-over business, that just about concluded Headline #1. Oh, the back cover did feature one of Gerber’s drawings, this one of himself and Paul Seydor, standing under a finish line sign. “Hey, Paul! Don’t look now—but Headline made it!” To which Seydor replied, “It took long enough, eh, readers?”

Headline #2 It was yet another long wait for Headline #2, which appeared the following year. Paul Seydor provided a nicely symbolic cover displaying gloves, boots, a belt, a cape, and a mask. Steve’s “Ye Olde Print Shoppe” of editorial comment provided some extra information about some of the contents, and forecasted future events with only a bit more accuracy than had #1. Then, readers were treated to Part I of “That Mighty Man of Steel.” While it may seem strange to us today, in those days fanzine articles on Superman were quite rare. Most of the article writers of that day either had very little use for Superman, or at least had strong antipathy toward Mort Weisinger‘s handling of the character (which was sometimes confused for dislike for the character himself). Steve was an exception to the rule, in that he actually liked Weisinger’s Superman treatment (“Writing like this keeps me on my toes,” he once commented), though whether his readers considered his views a welcome exception is another point. Part I consisted of an Adventures of Superman TV guide of sorts, compiled by George Paul. It listed the episodes of the popular 1950s television series alphabetically by title, along with a one-sentence statement of each episode’s theme, only two of which were reported

inaccurately. The author of each tale was given, along with an “NN” (for Noel Neill) or “PC” (for Phyllis Coates), in order to distinguish which actress had played Lois Lane in that particular episode. However, no attempt was made to determine the exact order or season of the episodes, admittedly a difficult task without greater resources in those days. It remained for professional writer Gary Grossman to do the job properly years later. Nonetheless, what George Paul provided was adequate at the time. Then came “Plunder of the Psycho-Pirate,” Melvin Herbers’ summary of the stories found in All-Star Comics #23 and 32, which had featured the JSA’s two battles against the forenamed villain. In those days, All-Star Comics and the Justice Society of America were considered the acme of comics collecting, due largely to the influence exerted by fandom’s founder, Dr. Jerry Bails, a great and long-time JSA enthusiast, and his cohort Roy Thomas, who two decades later would display his love of the JSA for the comics-reading world to see in All-Star Squadron. So any article on the JSA was bound to be well-received. Next, editor Gerber took over for the second installment of his “What a Bunch of Characters!” (which was never well-received). This time, he spotlighted The Comet, who was covered in Part I of this series. A full-page Paul Seydor drawing of The Black Hand confronting a giant bat welcomed readers to this issue’s “Beware the Supernatural” and its offering titled “War of the Spirits,” starring that hero. Though it was credited to S.G. Ross and myself, all the writing had been done by Gerber, who (I freely admit) did a much better and more stylish job on this tale than I’d done on the origin story. Steve had not cared for the second story as I had written it, so he extensively rewrote it, while still generously placing my name first in the credits. Though some of what I have recounted in this article may make it seem as if HL was a slapdash operation, it really wasn’t. Particularly where fiction was concerned, Steve did not operate a totally laissez-faire enterprise. He edited—and that was his privilege, as editor. In this story, The Black Hand went up against his opposite number, The Death Spirit—obviously inspired by the nefarious Count Dis from Roy Thomas’ version of The Spectre in Alter-Ego #1-2. With the power flowing from his ebony hands failing to stop Death Spirit and his minions, Black Hand learned of the reserve power available in his face— that, by making it visible, he could dispatch his foes to the nether regions and undo their damage. I had based this idea partly on the concept in The Phantom newspaper strip that no one could look at his face and live. That was a superstition cultivated by The Phantom, who was, after all, only a human being with no super-powers. But what if it were possible? Then, too, certain passages in the Old Testament refer to the fact that no one can look on the face of God and live, though I’m hesitant to claim that as inspiration, as it makes it seem I was trying to compare Black Hand to God. So we’ll stick with the Phantom explanation. The value of the story was increased considerably by two more full-page Seydor drawings. This was followed by “Coming Headline-Makers,” a listing of three more upcoming events, which would prove to have an accuracy of 33.3%. For Headline, that wasn’t too bad. “Headline’s Letter Men” was the title given to the letter

Headline Makers Masks were apparently all the rage on early fanzine covers! Above is Paul Seydor’s cover for Headline #2 (1963). Just as Steve went on to do noted work in the fields of comics and animation, his boyhood chum and co-editor Paul Seydor (see photo) achieved success in the movie and TV industry, with work as a film editor on flicks from Never Too Young to Die (1986) through Major League II, Tin Cup, The Island, Barbershop 2, and Obsessed (2009), and is still on the job. Thanks to Ken Stringer for the loan of the fanzine, and to Aaron Caplan for putting us in touch with Ken. [Text ©2009 Estate of Steve Gerber; art ©2009 Paul Seydor.]

The Teenage Creations Of Steve Gerber—Part II

column, but, as usual, a subtitle—in this case, “Reader Comment”—was appended. Letters from Buddy Saunders (who would later become a fanzine publisher himself, as one of the famed Texas Trio), Bob Harner, the highly critical L. L. Simpson, and lastly Steve Perrin (whose “Genie” story had already been advertised, correctly, for Headline #3) demonstrated that certain features of #1 had been popular with readers, while others had not. Among those generally receiving negative comments were Steve’s school assignment (you know, the thing with the three bakers and the knight), “The Guard,” and, somewhat surprisingly, “Original Creations of Yesteryear.” Most did not care for Steve’s “What a Bunch of Characters!” The other features had fared somewhat better, with the “Little Giant” strip being the top attraction. But either Steve didn’t quite get the message that more strips would be in order, or (as seems more likely) he didn’t have access to enough artists.

Gerber’s attention, annoying Seydor and prompting the nearby Comet-Girl to say, “Easy, Paul, he’s just changing partnership.... from a co-editor to a coed!” And finally, the back cover was another Black Hand drawing by Seydor. Though the fact wasn’t revealed until Headline #3, this scene had been from my own original “Black Hand” story, “War of the Spirits,” a scene which had been eliminated in the re-write done by Steve. In the next installment of John’s three-part look at Steve Gerber’s fanzine work, he deals with Headline #3 and an inside look at fanzine publishing of the early 1960s.

For those who find these early days of fandom as interesting as we do, I still have copies for sale (mostly at discount prices) of several of my books on that subject. The Golden Age of Comic “Original Creations of Yesteryear” #2 Fandom is the best-selling one of the Give The Artist A Big Hand! saw Paul Seydor relying heavily on direct bunch (with sales of two editions quotes from Jerry Bails to detail the One of Paul Seydor’s illustrations that accompanied Headline #2’s topping 4,000 copies), but background of that foremost comics fan, “Black Hand” story. [©2009 Paul Seydor.] the others have each been before launching into a description of well-received in their own some of his original creations. Jerry’s drawings (traced by Paul) of three of way. They are available at www.billschelly.com. —Bill. these embellished the piece: Dr. Psycho, The Human Fly, and Micro (a size-shrinker of the type Jerry had had in mind when he’d first recommended to Julius Schwartz that he revive the Atom in that mode). As Ronn Foss was unable to contribute this time, the “Little Giant” strip was replaced by a feature called “The Falcon,” written and drawn by Paul Seydor. The Falcon had originally been depicted on the cover of #1 as a costumed hero, a sort of wingless Hawkman (and with headgear more resembling that of Hawkgirl), though he had made no other appearance in that issue. However, the strip in #2 told a story of one man’s rebellion against the Falconese in the year 3065, a science-fiction story sans superheroics. Presumably, had the strip continued, we might have seen this lone rebel become The Falcon. An ad followed. Looking back upon the ads of four decades ago is perhaps one of the most heart-breaking activities in which a fan can engage. A sampling of some of the items offered for sale and their prices will suffice to demonstrate the significance of this statement: All-Star #14, 17, 18, 20, 22 — $5.00 @ Action #56, 57, 58, 62, 63 — $2.50 @ Captain Marvel Adv. #18, 28 — $2.00 @ World’s Fair #1, 2 — $15.00 @ Those World’s Fairs were out of sight, weren’t they? It is interesting to note that one could have purchased all five of the All-Star for less than the cost of one volume of a DC Archives today. (Yes, I know, it’s an apples-tooranges comparison. Yes, I know about inflation. And yes, for most of us younger fans at the time, those prices were essentially just as out of reach as today’s back-issue prices are. But still....) A “Hogman and Hogwash” parody of Hawkman and Hawkgirl was an imitation of Aukman from Roy Thomas’ “Bestest League” chapter in Alter-Ego #2. Acknowledgements followed, as did more ads and more of Steve’s drawings of himself, co-editor Seydor, and a female who attracted

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Dr. Lauretta Bender: Comics’ Anti-Wertham —Part 3 Introduction by Michael T. Gilbert

ver wonder what went on behind the scenes at DC Comics during the Golden Age? For instance, how much did DC pay the psychiatrists and psychologists on their Editorial Advisory Board to make sure their comics were kid-friendly? Did the experts use kids to field-test every single issue of Superman and The Fox and the Crow, or did they just wing it? Well, if you have wondered—do we have a treat for you!

1954 Senate Testimony of Dr. Lauretta Bender, Part One The Chairman: Dr. Bender, will you be sworn, please? Do you solemnly swear that the evidence you will give to this sub-committee of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate, will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God? Dr. Bender: I do. TESTIMONY OF DR. LAURETTA BENDER, SENIOR PSYCHIATRIST, BELLEVUE HOSPITAL, NEW YORK, N. Y.

The Chairman: Doctor, will you state your full Lauretta Bender, Feb 1935. [Photo name, address, and association for the record, ©2009 Peter Schilder.] In Alter Ego #87 & #88, we reprinted “The Effect of please? Comic Books on the Ideology of Children” from The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, XI. That 1941 article by Dr. Dr. Bender: My full name is Dr. Lauretta Bender. I am an M.D. My Lauretta Bender and Reginald S. Lourie, M.D., was one of the earliest New York City residential address is 140 West 16th Street. I have quite articles discussing the therapeutic effects of comics on children. It’s a a number of associations. The major ones are that I am a senior fascinating piece, referencing spanking-new DC heroes like Superman, psychiatrist on the psychiatric division of Bellevue Hospital, a civilBatman, Hour-Man, and Hawkman, as well as more obscure features like service position in New York City, a position I have had since 1930, Columbia’s The Face and Fiction House’s Red Comet. and since 1934 I have been in charge of the children’s ward. I am also a professor of clinical psychiatry in New York University Medical At the time, Dr. Bender was working at Bellevue Hospital in New York. School. I am also on the training program of the Veterans’ Ironically, the director of Bellevue’s mental hygiene clinic was Dr. Fredric Administration, which is associated with the New York University Wertham, the very man who in 1954 would demonize comics in his Medical School. I am on the editorial board of the National Comic bestseller Seduction of the Innocent. It’s unknown whether the two ever Companies as an adviser, on the advisory editorial board. This spring I discussed their opposing views on comics, though it’s quite likely. Dr. accepted an Bender’s son, Peter Schilder, doesn’t recall his mother ever specifically appointment as mentioning Dr. Wertham. In fact, when I asked him about it, he wasn’t consultant in child familiar with the name at all. psychiatry in the In any case, shortly after her article appeared, DC comics hired Dr. New Jersey Bender to head their Editorial Advisory Board. Bender’s credentials, Neuropsychiatric described in her testimony, were impressive and gave DC added crediInstitute. I think that bility. From July 1944 until 1954 (when the Comics Code Authority took covers the major over), her name could be seen in virtually every DC comic. But in her ones. testimony she states that she began working for DC as early as 1942, a The Chairman: year after her psychiatric journal article was published. In fact, that article Thank you. Counsel, directly led to her job at DC. you may proceed to Comic books had always been an easy target for critics. Almost from examine the doctor. the start, articles warned anxious parents about their dangers. It all came Mr. Beaser: Doctor, to a head in 1954 when Senate hearings were held to decide whether to we are inquiring ban all crime and horror comics, which Wertham singled out as particuhere into the larly damaging. Though the atmosphere was decidedly anti-comics, child possible effects of experts and comics industry veterans were invited to give testimony. crime and horror Some, including Mad publisher Bill Gaines, testified that comics were a comics on children, harmless outlet for kids. But many others declined to speak up. Dr. both normal and Bender, however, gave a well-reasoned defense of comics. We’re printing some who are her testimony in its entirety. emotionally Comics fans will find her nuts-and-bolts descriptions of DC’s inner disturbed. Could workings fascinating. One juicy tidbit includes the fact that she received you give us your three copies of each comic published during her tenure in the ’40s and ’50s. Talk about a comic fan’s dream come true! Her son Peter recalls that, New York’s Governor even though his mom never prevented them from reading comics, her Nelson Rockefeller and three children had little interest in the leftovers. Dr. Bender at

And now, here’s part one of Dr. Bender’s testimony from April 22, 1954.

Dr. Lauretta Bender: Comics’ Anti-Wertham—Part 3

opinion of the possible effects of this kind of reading material, crime and horror comics books, on, say, emotionally disturbed children, or a normal child?

Dr. Bender: In the field of the emotionally disturbed child, I have long been considered a professional expert. I consider myself such. My experience you have to realize is with children under the age of 12. However, it is true that I have been working 20 years with these children. Many of them have now reached adolescence and adulthood.

In my early years in working at Bellevue Hospital when we were hard put to find techniques for exploring the child’s emotional life, his mind, his ways of reacting, when the child was separated from the home and brought to us in the wards at Bellevue, I found the comics early on were one of the most valuable means of carrying on such examinations, and that was the beginning of my interest in the comic books. So that my first scientific paper on the comics appeared—I believe I gave it in 1940 before the National American Neuropsychiatric Association and it was published in 1941, before I had any connection whatever with the comic people. Now, when you ask me as broad a question as to what is the possible effect of such horror comic books—and the gesture makes it also broader—upon the emotionally disturbed and the normal child, it is almost overwhelmingly a broad statement. However, I have spent a great deal of time; I have written many articles. I, too, have a book in press which has at least a chapter on this subject, otherwise deals with it, and in general it is my opinion that the comics, [EDITOR’S NOTE: “Comics” is probably a transcribing error; Dr. Bender probably actually said “children.”] as I have known them and worked with them through these years and the kind of emotionally disturbed children that I have known and worked with, and my own three normal children show a remarkable capacity to select from the comics material they need and can use, a capacity which should not be underrated, and it is one of the specific characteristics of the comics that this kind of a selection can be used on the comics where it cannot be used, for example, in a movie. It can be used in television and it can be used in radio, by the television so they can turn it off.

They say, “Mom, don’t you know it is only television, it is not real.” In my opinion it is the same thing about these comics.

Mr. Beaser: What do you mean by “selection”? Selections of comics themselves, or selections out of the comics?

Mr. Beaser: In the final shot they showed the child getting away with the three murders. Do you think that a child would identify himself or herself with the little girl?

Dr. Bender: Both. Children love to collect comics. I will also say that the less intelligent children and those who have the least reading capacity collect the most comics. It is the story that we used to tell in school that if we could sleep on that enormous tome conceivably we could get something out of it and pass our exams the next day.

Dr. Bender: No. The child would only identify itself with such a child who had committed these 3 murders if there had been 3 murders in the child’s family, for which people were looking suspiciously at this child. In that case the child with horror would throw the comics out of the window.

In fact, I have frequently said I can make a diagnosis on a nonreading child who is brought into my presence for the first time with comic books stored away in his blouse—boys don’t like the word “blouse,” excuse me, shirt—like the squirrel has nuts stored away in their cheeks—now, as to these, Mr. Clendenen brought them in to me the other day. I told him I hadn’t seen any of these. The children don’t bring them on the ward at Bellevue. My children don’t bring them at home. And when I tried to look through some of them I thought they were unspeakably silly. The more an artist tries to show horror and the more details he puts into the picture, which most poor artists do, the sillier the thing becomes, and the children laugh at it.

Mr. Beaser: Would the child identify its mother—or its father, with the mother and father in the story comic?

The children also will frequently tell me—for instance, on television, I have to listen to it with my own children occasionally and I am aghast, “My God, how can you stand such things, children?”

Mr. Beaser: A child would not identify himself or herself with any one of the figures in there? For example, we had a picture yesterday and a story about a child who murdered her foster mother. Dr. Bender: Mr. Clendenen told me that story.

Dr. Bender: Not unless their mother and father were like that mother and father. Mr. Beaser: Since delinquency does appear in broken homes as well as others, assuming this is a broken home and they depicted a broken home, would the child identify his own mother and father with the pictures in the comic book? Dr. Bender: If he would so identify himself, then it would be his tendency again to discard the comic book or go into a panic. I have seen children in panics, as I say, not over comics usually because they are easily rejected, but over movies. I have seen children brought to

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

me in terrible panics, and interestingly enough most often the Walt Disney movies which do depict very disturbing mother figures. The mothers are always killed or sent to the insane asylums in Walt Disney’s movies. They are among my experience, except for Frankenstein, the worst movies in the world for children who have had a problem of the loss of a parent. I can speak of that with feeling because I have three children who lost their father when they were babies and I know the problem of exposing children to such problems as this. It can throw them into the kind of anxiety which is distressing, but the children will leave if they can or they will not read the comics, they will reject it. Mr. Beaser: We had another one of a child in a foster home whose foster parents turned out to be werewolves and he turned out to be a werewolf. What effect would that have on a child who is awaiting foster placement, or who has been in foster placement ? Dr. Bender: Mr. Clendenen has told me about that, too, and, after all, he is a social worker who has dealt with the placement of foster children. I wondered, after all, at the kind of imagination, if I can apologize in advance, that would conceive of The Committee seemed particularly shocked by the “The Orphan“ in Shock SuspenStories #14 (April anyone giving such a comic to such a child under 1954). Art by Jack Kamen; scripter Al Feldstein or Jack Oleck. [©2010 William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.] such circumstances. The chance of its happening, of Mr. Beaser: But the child awaiting foster placement has a number of course, is infinitesimally small, and I think the child would only read it normal fears? provided it was held down and the thing was read to it forcibly. Even then, I think if he was anywhere near a wholesome child he would Dr. Bender: Certainly. laugh at the situation and probably after looking at the foster mother when he got in the place and finding she did not look like a werewolf, he might say, “Well, you are not even a werewolf after all,’’ or something like that.

Mr. Beaser: So that is fair game, practically, for such a child? Dr. Bender: That is true. Mr. Beaser: Now, what about the effect of the crime and horror comics on a hostile child. Could he possibly find suggestions and also support for doing some of these things? In other words, he sees it there and he is going to do it. The Chairman: Did counsel use the word “hostile”? Mr. Beaser: Hostile. Dr. Bender: You asked me could he? Of course, he could, but I do not know of a single instance in which it has occurred. I would also say this, that a hostile child who is committing such crimes,

(Above:) ”The more an artist tries to show horror … the sillier the thing becomes!“ Case in point, Don Rico’s “Torture Room!” originally appearing in Atlas’ Adventures into Terror #4 (June 1951). [©2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

(Right:) Sorry, Lauretta— but the step-mom and dad in “The Secret“ were actually vampires, not werewolves. Close, though! From EC’s Haunt of Fear #24 (April 1954). [©2010 William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.]

Dr. Lauretta Bender: Comics’ Anti-Wertham—Part 3

even if he was one of those collecting crime books, collecting comic books of all types and carrying them around with him, does not usually take time out to go into the library or to find a reading place to sit down and study these books. It is conceivable, and I am sure if enough research work is done, sooner or later someone or other can find an incident in which a child can be got to say that he got the idea from such and such a comic book. I would not doubt but that maybe ten cases could be found in the United States. But if you then said to the child, “Did you ever see such a thing on television or movies?” or “Did you ever hear about it anywhere else, too?’’—well, the situation obviously becomes less specific. Mr. Beaser: We have heard this, and I do not know at this point from what source: Would you consider that excessive reading of crime and horror comics is symptomatic of emotional maladjustment? Does that indicate something might be wrong? Dr. Bender: Yes; I would say that. Mr. Beaser: If you came on a child who is devouring this stuff day and night? Dr. Bender: Well, let me be even a bit—maybe I should not be as personal as this. As I say, I had three children whose father was violently killed when the youngest one was a week old, in an automobile accident, not in a gang war, and those three children have that problem. How can such things happen? Most children don’t have such problems. Mothers can do the best they can to try to reassure such children. The oldest boy cannot tolerate anything in the way of a story, even Peter Rabbit, who, if you recall your Peter Rabbit, went into a garden where his father got into an accident at the hands of a hoe of a farmer and had been put in a rabbit pie. I had to take him screaming out of the puppet show on that picture. He would leave the room if Jack and the Beanstalk was being read to the other children. He would turn off the radio and he would reject any book or any comic that had any of these problems. My second son, who was a little older and a different type of child, instead of rejecting it has tried to solve the problem, and he is not so much addicted to crime comics, he is not addicted to crime comics at all, as far as that is concerned, but he loves to watch for hours on end

television, radio, and movies which deal with these same subjects. I think for him it is an effort to find a solution of the mystery of life and death and how it can happen that a child’s father can leave him even before the child knows the father. For my daughter, who was a baby, last year in school she spent the time writing for her teacher crime stories, murder stories, in which the bloody head of the person who had been attacked would lie on the lap of the beloved person, whoever it was, and an effort would be made to soothe it. This worried her teacher very much and she came to me with this problem. She said, “Is she reading too many crime comics?” I said, “As far as I know she doesn’t read them at all.” Not that I refuse them to her. She doesn’t listen to television like the second child does, and she doesn’t go to the movies very often. But I said, “It is her way of solving her problem.” Now, she has gotten that problem solved apparently. She has gone through this, and for her it is her solution. Now, I can well imagine children, and I know plenty of disturbed children from homes where they have less support than my children do, because, after all, my children have not only had the support of myself, but of our very many friends, who on occasions of these various things, and, after all, there are lots of children in the world whose fathers have been killed by gangsters or who don’t know who their fathers are, and who live in a gangster’s world and whose fathers are gangsters killing other people—I don’t know that crime is quite as bad in the world as we try to make it out to be, and these children I am sure will be disturbed by such things. If they have to be exposed to them, or are exposed to them, they should have a wise adult who can discuss the matters with them and talk it over with them. Mr. Beaser: Many of them do not. Dr. Bender: Many of them do not. Eeek! My stepson is a werewolf! Another panel from “The Secret“ in Haunt of Fear #24, scripted by Carl Wessler and drawn by George Evans. [©2010 William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.]

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Postscript: We’ll conclude Dr. Bender’s testimony next issue. Our thanks to Peter Schilder, Janet Gilbert, Peter Normanton, and Frank Motler. But before we go, we should elaborate a bit on the family tragedy Dr. Bender refers to in her deposition. In 1936 she married a Viennese psychoanalyst, Dr. Paul Schilder, a contemporary of Freud. This was 39-year-old Lauretta’s first marriage, and Paul’s second. Their union produced two boys, Peter and older brother Michael. A baby sister, Jane, followed in 1940. Tragedy struck while Lauretta and her newborn were still in the hospital. After visiting them, Paul was struck and killed while crossing the street. It had to be a

devastating blow, but somehow Lauretta carried on, raising three children while forging a brilliant scientific career. Till next time…

re:

On a personal note, I think that was the best Simon interview ever, by a long, long shot. And not just because of its length and all the fascinating new details that they cover. I always felt that past interviews were never able to bring out the real Joe, the one I knew, at least, but at times Jim certainly did. I would gush about all the great art, but I suspect I am somewhat biased on that subject. Harry Mendryk Then we’ll gush for you, Harry, since the scans you provided were an important part of the package. But that Jim Amash is one of the best interviewers currently working in the comics arena—well, gratified as we are to read your words, that was hardly news to us! And in this case he certainly had a subject worthy of his (and our) attention. Now for a letter from John Benson, editor of the EC fanzine Squa Tront. John has contributed in a major way to this issue and to #89: Dear Roy, The Joe Simon interview was a nice read. I really got a chuckle over Jim Amash (and you in the caption) praising Simon for his Ed Sullivan caricature in Cracked. It’s a cold swipe of Will Elder’s parody in Mad #27. When I saw the pictorial coverage of Hasting House’s Eerie Tales, I was hoping for some comment on it in the interview. Its being a small item in Simon’s career, though, he probably wouldn’t have remembered much. As I noted in Squa Tront #10, seven of the ten stories in Eerie Tales were reworked versions of Carl Wessler’s EC stories. I’m certain that Wesler himself wrote the Eerie Tales versions, the key clue indicating his authorship being the fact that several stories differ in significant detail from the EC originals—and those differences are in Wessler’s original synopses that he submitted to EC! This is particularly true of “The Suckspect,” which follows his synopsis closely but is only slightly related to the story he finally sold EC. In addition, three of the Eerie Tales stories carry Wessler’s original synopsis titles (which differed, as usual, from the final EC titles).

e—well, okay, “I,” meaning Roy—can never seem to get caught up on our letters sections—but at least this issue we won’t fall any further behind. This time, we’ll be dealing with communications we received on A/E #76, the issue which cover-featured the work of Golden Age legend Joe Simon. First, though, our plaudits to Shane Foley for his rapturous rendering of Captain Ego and Captain Marvel’s 1950s buddy Tawky Tawny the Talking Tiger, about to fight a duel armed only with copies of Alter Ego. You’ve done it again, Shane—we’re just not sure quite what you’ve done again! Captain Ego, of course, was the creation of the late fan great Biljo White. [Captain Ego ©2009 Roy Thomas & Bill Schelly; Tawky Tawny TM & ©2010 DC Comics.]

And now, re A/E #76, we’ll commence with a letter from Harry Mendryk, one of the biggest Joe Simon fans around—and the gent who supplied much of the art we used in that issue. His was but one of many voices we heard in praise of the Simon interview, of course….

Wessler kept copies of his synopses, and he kept the EC ones together. (He still had them that way in 1983.) He obviously pulled them out and used them to write up new scripts for Eerie Tales. I asked him about this when I was writing the Wessler feature in Squa Tront #9, and he vehemently denied writing these stories, saying that he would never reuse a plot. It didn’t seem to me such a great sin (as noted in the Simon

Roy, Joe was absolutely thrilled with the Alter Ego. He loved the cover and all the interior art, and called Jim Amash to congratulate him.

Joe Simon Presents... The first time comics fans glimpsed Joe Simon's original 1940 drawing of Captain America was on the cover of the 1972 program book to Phil Seuling's New York Comic Art Convention. Thanks to the Golden Age Comic Book Stories website. [Captain America TM & ©2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

[correspondence, comments, & corrections]

interview, Jack Oleck did it frequently), but, not wanting to mar the feature for him (it was probably the first and only one on his work), I didn’t mention Eerie Tales in Squa Tront until after his death. One thing I would have asked Simon about is the fact that two of the three nonWessler-EC stories in the issue look as though the panels were cut up and re-laid out, suggesting that they were originally done for some earlier project. It would have been interesting to hear what Simon would have said on learning that most of the stories in that book had earlier appeared in EC’s. John Benson We appreciate the info, John. You should do a page-by-page comparison of the different versions of Wessler’s stories sometime in Squa Tront! And now, these quick studies re our “Joe Simon issue”: British cartoonist Nigel Parkinson, who currently draws the British Dennis the Menace (no apparent relation to the American comic strip/panel), writes: “You know I love Alter Ego and every last line of type and pixel of photo in it, particularly, in #76, the Alternate All-American History by Bob Rozakis! Absolutely fantastic—so well done that I almost believe it’s true, especially those movie serial and TV show mock-ups!” Frequent A/E artistic contributor Mark Lewis found the coverage of Fiction House artist Alfred Walker in Michael T. Gilbert’s “Comic Crypt” fascinating: “You can’t help but notice those splashes. Very Eisneresque, in the way he integrates the lettering so thoroughly into the image.” Dr. Michael J. Vassallo, part of the “Yancy Street Gang” that visited Dick Ayers last issue, writes of the Simon interview: “I could have provided nice scans of Simon-edited Goodman detective magazines and Simon & Kirby pulp illos. Also, the ‘Trojak’ story in Daring Mystery Comics is signed by Simon, but Hames Ware and Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., are 100% certain that, beyond the first few pages, the artist is not Simon, but August M. Froehlich.” Jeff Taylor says: “Especially liked the Joe Simon interview. It’s a real shame such a talented guy has always been in the shadow of his longtime partner Jack Kirby when he himself has been such a creative force in the industry, especially since he has had his hand in just about every major event in comics history. I was a big Prez fans back in the ’70s and loved his freaky original version of “The Outsiders” and—well, I’ll come right out and say it—‘I want a Brother Power The Geek action figure!!’ Oh, and two more things: (1) That Wild in the Streets cover on p. 50 is not from a video or CD but from a paperback book; I recognize the Pyramid imprint on the top. (2) On page 31, what is the poem being read in ‘A Rag, a Bone and a Hank o’ Hair’? I was hoping that, as an old English teacher, you might be able to identify it for me.” Well, actually, Jeff, I’d always kinda wondered about that myself— starting with hearing a similar phrase “a hank o’ hair and a piece o’ bone” in the 1957 hit song “Honeycomb,” sung by Jimmie Rodgers. I traced the precise quote Simon used on the Internet, bless it, and learned it comes from a late-19th-century poem by Rudyard Kipling titled “The Vampire,” at a time when that phrase was often used to refer to an evil yet tempting woman—and, in fact, Kipling allegedly got the idea for the poem from seeing a painting exhibited at a London art gallery. Its first stanza is: “A fool there was and he made his prayer (Even as you and I!) To a rag and a bone and a hank of hair (We called her the woman who did not care), But the fool he called her his lady fair (Even as you and I!)

Vamping It Up Immortal English author and poet Rudyard Kipling—and “vampire” Theda Bara, in a publicity shot possibly related to the 1915 film A Fool There Was. And if we have to tell you which of them is which, maybe you should be reading less heady fare. Is Kids’ Digest still publishing? [©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

Interestingly, the first four words of Kipling’s poem were used as the title of the 1915 silent film A Fool There Was, which made a star of Theda Bara, the movies’ first “vampire” (“vamp” for short), playing a beautiful, treacherous woman who seduces a diplomat—some years before Bela Lugosi flitted along. The movie people doubtless picked up that title from Kipling, as well. (Hey, and you thought this was just a comic book fanzine!) Comments or questions re this issue’s contents? Send them to: Roy Thomas e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com 32 Bluebird Trail St. Matthews, SC 29135 SPECIAL NOTE: Regular A/E contributor Charlie Roberts writes: “As many of you know, Shel Dorf, the founder of Comic-Con International (formerly the San Diego Comic-Con) passed away Tuesday, Nov. 3, after a lengthy illness. Shel’s brother Michael Dorf has asked Shel’s longtime friend Michael Towry to set up ‘The Shel Dorf New Talent Encouragement Fund’ in his honor. Michael Towry, along with Richard Alf and several other young comic collectors, was part of the original convention committee and helped Shel with the first several Comic-Cons…. “If any of you reading this ever went to the San Diego Comic-Con, enjoyed Shel’s many columns over the years in The Comic Buyer’s Guide, read the Steve Canyon comic strip which he lettered for many years, or just plain love comics and the graphics medium, this would be a great way to say ‘Thank you’ and to help a most worthwhile charity in the process. Donations may be sent to: Shel Dorf New Talent Encouragement Fund, c/o Michael Towry, P.O. Box 232497, San Diego, CA 92193. “You might also enjoy checking out Michael T.’s excellent Shel Dorf Tribute website: “Respectfully, Charlie Roberts.”

Monthly! The Original First-Person History!

Write to: Robin Snyder, 3745 Canterbury Lane #81, Bellingham, WA 98225-1186

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

here’s a thick, heavy folder here containing sketches ... some rough, some finished ... of characters and features dating as far back as our country’s entry into World War II. It bears the title, in bold freehand: “Doodles.”

qualities Phantom Arms about Mary The “doodle” at work … as a means to determine we felt it satisfactory action for the Phantom Eagle in a 1940s issue important to of Wow Comics. [Phantom Eagle TM & ©2010 respective maintain, but trademark & copyright holders.] difficult to cover in the text. They included that air of ladylike courtesy, and her surprise and awe at the super powers she possessed. You’d hardly be expected to recognize Clem, the little cowpoke who waddled around the grounds of the Circle M Ranch with his pal, Silo. Nor Le Noir, the bumbling Cajun ... or others, like Marty Guy ... and Christopher Chance. You see, they and others, like Jango the shepherd dog and Rod Reed’s banjo player, “Plink Plunk,” were intended for newspaper syndication. They were there, though, among the comic book doodle subjects. Doodles. I was about to throw them away... ...but I think I’ll keep ’em a while! Marc Swayze’s reminiscences of his years in the comics field will continue in the next FCA issue in Alter Ego.

The standard definition of that word, doodle, is a drawing scribbled aimlessly while occupied with something else. But let’s give it a little more credit than that. For one thing, the doodle had purpose ... like working out graphic problems that are so apt to arise in this business of ours ... the comics. The doodles in the folder had not been created to assure that Captain Marvel consistently “looked like” Captain Marvel. That was never a problem here. The obvious intention was to maintain and stress the ease and confidence that distinguished the World’s Mightiest Mortal from other super-heroes. Facial expressions was frequently a challenge when doing comic books art. An occasion is recalled where a full page of Captain Marvel heads were necessary to adequately acknowledge his reaction to a confrontation with Mr. Morris’s mean sister-in-law. Fear? You didn’t want your super-guy to look like a sniveling coward! Maybe consternation ... or disbelief ... but not fear! That one took some doodling! Most of the doodles of Mary Marvel show her in combat ... with her opponents being busted up pretty good, but never seriously injured. The objective, of course, was to illustrate

The Return Of Emilio Squeglio Further (Never-Minced) Words Of The Fawcett Artist by Emilio Squeglio Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck

milio Squeglio was a staff production artist in the comics department at Fawcett Publications before moving on to magazine layout and book design. Former “Captain Marvel” artist Chic Stone helped Emilio land a job with Fawcett in 1947—a highly creative but unfortunately tumultuous period for the company subjugated by litigation with National (DC), which in part led to Fawcett’s decision to terminate their entire comics line in 1953. Following the demise of the comics department, Emilio moved over to art-direct such Fawcett magazines as Startling Detective and True. He left Fawcett in 1955 to become art director of American Artist magazine, and went on to become a prolific, high-in-demand book designer for various publishers. Jim Amash conducted an informative interview with Emilio back in Alter Ego #41 (Oct. ’04); FCA followed up by just giving Emilio the microphone for two engaging encores in Alter Ego #64 and 65 (Jan. & Feb. ’07). We ask Superman and Captain Marvel to quit fighting and listen up, because it’s time again for Emilio to hold court. —PCH.

Knock Knock Knocking On Fawcett’s Door When I began my career at Fawcett Publications, I was already aware of Captain Marvel’s popularity. I used to see the comics around all the time. Before starting at Fawcett, my friend (and Fawcett comics artist) Chic Stone used to bring me stats of Captain Marvel pages. I started doing little freelance jobs for Fawcett while I was still in high school. I used to get $5 per drawing for doing spot illustrations for Mechanix Giant-size color illo drawn by Emilio Squeglio a few years ago as a surprise gift for Roy Thomas. Special thanks to John Morrow and Chris Day for their mammoth efforts in scanning this ginormous gem, which is framed in Roy & Dann’s gym/guest house. [Shazam! Heroes TM & ©2010 DC Comics.]

Fawcett Collectors Of America

Illustrated magazine. Chic would deliver them for me and I would get paid for them. Also while still in high school, I did some coloring of Captain Marvel Adventures pages. I used Doc Martin dyes to color them. I was getting $2 a page and sometimes would color the entire comic. At the time Fawcett also had a magazine called Cars, and I drew silhouettes from pictures for it; Frank Taggart paid me $10 a picture. So I was making a little bit of money before I got hired on staff by them. After I graduated from high school, I asked Chic to help me get in at a company. He was freelancing at the time, and one Saturday he called me up and told me to give Frank Taggart over at Fawcett a call, which led to an interview. I met art director Al Allard that day and I was hired. Chic had kept his word by helping me find a job. He didn’t say specifically that he would get me in at Fawcett; it just happened that way. DC’s lawsuit against Fawcett and Captain Marvel was already well under way when I was hired, and it had affected the comics department so badly that they needed all the help they could get. When Allard hired me, he said it may be a “limited job” and he didn’t know if they would be able to keep me on—but I grabbed the opportunity and everything still worked out.

The Office That Captain Marvel Built When I joined Fawcett Publications they had just relocated from the Paramount Building to 67 West 34th Street in NYC. They bought the entire building; Fawcett occupied half of it, and they kept what they called “the 13th Floor” free for parties. I commuted to their offices from Brooklyn just before I got married in 1952. I was with Fawcett for a total of nine years. A lot of the illustrators I met later while working on the magazines said how much they liked Captain Marvel. They thought he was a nice character. This is how most people viewed Captain Marvel back then. He never killed anybody or really hurt anybody; he only beat the hell out of guys who were bad. They cut the war stories fast once World War II was over, and then he went back to slamming crooks around again, but he never killed anybody.

Real Comic Books Vs. Wasted Illustration Fawcett was the comic book publisher as far as I was concerned. They did comic books … real comic books. You read them with a smile on your face. But there’s no laughter anymore in today’s so-called comic books. I see them in the stores and I wouldn’t buy any of them for any amount of money. I don’t think they’re worthwhile reading because they’re filled with nothing but destruction—quite different from what Fawcett used to put out. Fawcett’s comics were funny and enjoyable. A dime was a lot of money in those days, but you got your money’s worth. But for the amount of money that is paid for a comic book today, it just seems like wasted illustration to me. And the way they hammer away at everything and preach politics and all the … well, as far as sex goes, I’m a big believer in it, [laughs] but its content within comics can go just so far. I feel Archie is the only company today that still makes good comics. I believe all the other good comics disappeared when Fawcett quit publishing

them. Fawcett knew how to do comics … even with our strange and funny little fillers we use to have—strips like “Tightwad Tad,” “Captain Kid,” and “Dopey Danny Dee,” which were all done by freelance artists and then placed wherever they were needed. Today, all you have are all the different X-Men and fire-breathing demons and all this kind of stuff, and I just don’t go along with it. I think its degrading to put this stuff in the hands of kids, and for what they charge now they’re not even worth the dime that we used to pay way back in the ’40s. Fawcett went by a code of decency, and they were in tune to what a kid should read and what they shouldn’t read. I remember some of staff coming out of the meetings and having big arguments about what was good and what was bad for the comics. It was because of those meetings that I would always end up doing a lot of corrections to the pages, like removing certain types of poses that some artists would try to slip in—things like women bending over, etc., which were big no-nos at Fawcett. So I’d have to redraw certain things in a different way which wasn’t suggestive. The Fawcetts were very good people with better morals than most of the other comic publishers going at that time—outfits which had no morals whatsoever. I’m glad, in a way, that I didn’t finish my career working on comics, because I think I might’ve gotten out of it anyway, seeing what was going on in the ’50s when even we started to get into different things. Even though they began with Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang, the Fawcetts always held a high standard of morals which could never be deviated from; it was the only way their publications could be produced. Fawcett was dead set against a lot of stuff. The Fawcetts were gentle people who were pleasant to deal with. They came from Minnesota and were very different type of people from New Yorkers. They were smart business-wise, but not hard business types at all. I can remember one time when I was sitting in one of the meetings with Roger Fawcett, and the guy treated every one of us in the room so graciously that it seemed like we weren’t even in a meeting. All of the Fawcett brothers were nice people. They always spoke in a friendly, monotone voice. They never yelled at anyone and would speak to you like they were talking to a friend. It put all of us at ease. No one ever feared their bosses. We were always very respectful to them because they treated us right. I didn’t really want to leave Fawcett, but eventually moving over to American Artist magazine gave me an opportunity to do something different.

“The Worm” And Merry Marvels

Employee of the Month This photograph of 18-year-old Emilio Squeglio was taken by the human resources people during his first day on the job at Fawcett Publications, located at 67 West 44th St. in New York City.

The old stories show the simplified style of drawing we had in those days. But, while simplified, Captain Marvel continually evolved. I remember that C.C. Beck was very particular about how Captain Marvel looked, and when he’d go around the office he’d tell us whenever we needed to draw Marvel better. Comparing the early stories to the stories of the late ’40s/early ’50s, you can see how much Captain Marvel evolved through the years. He became a little more muscular and a little less simplified, and it was for the best because they did it in a way that improved the strip. A few of my favorite old Fawcett stories include “Captain Marvel and the Freedom

The Return Of Emilio Squeglio

artists disagreeing about some of those characters. They really tried pushing Mary Marvel, and even Uncle Dudley, but they gave up on him after a while. I thought Dr. Sivana was the greatest guy to hate! The Sivana Family were good characters, and I always enjoyed working on their stories. Besides Captain Marvel, I think the best character Fawcett had was Captain Marvel Jr. Junior’s stories were a lot more illustrative, thanks to the early artistic vision of Mac Raboy, a true illustrator who did beautiful work. I also think Marc Swayze’s work on Captain Marvel did a lot to improve the character.

It’s Not Just A Job—It’s A (Captain Marvel) Adventure I discovered over time that I was a better designer than I was a cartoonist. Design work is where I should have started instead of comics, but who the hell knew? A lot of people started off in comics and later moved on to other things, like Len Leone, who went on to become a book editor. Len first started in Fawcett’s comics department and was there for a number of years, going all the way back to when Chic Stone was there drawing “Captain Marvel,” just before the war. Al Allard gave me a choice when he told me Fawcett was getting rid of the comics department. He said he’d try to keep everyone with the company by moving us around to other departments if we chose to stay with them. And some of the people did leave, but at least I still had a job of some kind waiting for me there, so I stayed. Al put me on the detective magazines, where I worked on layouts and even posed in some of the magazine’s photos. (They thought I looked good!) [laughs] Al saw my design work improving each day, and he later moved me up as assistant art director on the magazines.

Train Kept A-Rollin’ Despite ongoing litigation with National/DC, Fawcett kept their comics line rolling along, producing memorable stories like “Captain Marvel and the Freedom Train” (Captain Marvel Adventures #85, June 1948)—a personal favorite of Emilio’s. He remembers doing some corrections on it. On this page, in which Dr. Sivana is trying to steal the Emancipation Proclamation before the ink is dry in 1863, C.C. Beck anachronistically drew Fawcett art director Al Allard in the first panel. [©2010 DC Comics.]

Train” (Captain Marvel Adventures #85, June ’48—I remember doing some corrections on it, and I liked the story’s historical figures); “Captain Marvel and the Boy Crook” (CMA #51, Jan. ’46—Billy looked a little more grown up in that one); “Captain Marvel and the Endless String” (CMA #55, Mar. ’46—just a really nice story); and “Captain Marvel Subs for Paul Bunyan” (CMA #51, Jan. ’46—this was the kind of work that Fawcett was all about). What about DC’s Shazam!? Well, I was never too happy with those stories, but the artwork wasn’t too bad in the early issues, although it’s pretty noticeable that Beck over-simplified the artwork. I’m glad I arrived late enough at Fawcett to never have worked on “the worm,” as I call him … Mr. Mind. A talking worm? It was too far-fetched for me. They did away with him after a couple of years, and then Otto [Binder] and C.C. started bringing in new characters like Mr. Tawny the talking tiger. I thought they were just grasping at straws at that point, and they didn’t get very far with him. I remember the editors, writers, and

Frank Taggert used to be assistant art director of True magazine before becoming very ill, so Al pulled me off the detective magazines and put me on True and the True spinoff titles. I was also doing things for the advertising department. Al had me all over the place, and wherever they put me, it worked out. It was a job and I enjoyed it. When I was a book designer I came in contact with the comic field again when I met Burne Hogarth and designed his book Dynamic Anatomy. He was drawing the Tarzan newspaper strip at the time. We spoke at length on comics while working on the book. (There’s a Hogarth biography in the works, and I am to be included in it.)

The Whiz Gang Besides Lenny Leone, I also knew Bob Laughlin, Ginny Provisiero, Edna Hagen, Wendell Crowley, Dagny West (who married Wendell), Kay Woods, secretary Elinore Mendelson, Roy Ald, and, of course, editor Will Lieberson. Will was a wonderful guy and I liked him very much. We used to kid around a lot and he always had a smile on his face. I knew Wendell very well, too, and remember when he used to dress up as Captain Marvel. It would be quite a sight to see this giant of a guy in the Marvel suit! Wendell was such a wonderful man. He was completely broken up when they shut down the comics department. The comics—and Captain Marvel—were his heart and soul. I’ll never forget how sad he was that day when they told him it was all over. Wendell tried to convince Fawcett to keep the comics going, and even offered to work for a smaller salary, but it never happened. There was just

Fawcett Collectors Of America

We Are Family, Sort-Of Emilio believes that, after the World’s Mightiest Mortal himself, Captain Marvel Jr. was Fawcett’s best character. They kept pushing Junior, but ultimately gave up on Marvel Family supporting player Uncle Marvel. Also, he found Dr. Sivana “the greatest guy to hate” and a joy to illustrate. 2009 drawings by Emilio Squeglio. [Shazam! heroes TM & ©2010 DC Comics.]

too much money being flushed away by the lawsuit to keep the comics going. This is why I always had to get everything out as fast as possible— to get some revenue coming in, because we knew it all might come to an end at any time. It was a bad situation. I stuck with Fawcett until 1955 before going to American Artist magazine. I always think about those days and wonder what would’ve happened if I had stayed with Fawcett. While I had good experiences with other companies, Fawcett always stood out as the best of the bunch. They were a company that knew what they were doing, and they were happy with the people they were doing it with and treated them right. They cared for their people. Roger Fawcett was like our mother hen. If you were sick, he would send a note and ask you how you were feeling and always kept in touch with everyone. You had to be a real bad sort of a guy to do them wrong. Al Allard would leave us alone in our work, but with one boot on and one boot off. One time when I was putting my stuff away at the end of the day he came up to me and joked, “Oh, doing nothing, huh?” Al always kept boosting me … kept putting me on better jobs … better magazines. He never chided me on anything, always gave me the thumbs up, and I appreciated that. I never saw him get angry with anybody. They all were decent men at Fawcett. [Editorial director] Ralph Daigh could be a little harsh sometimes, but I never really dealt with him much because he mainly just dealt with the editors. Allard took care of the artists; he would come around sometimes and see how things were going. If you had a problem, you would just go to him and he would always be there for you. When I told him I was going to get married, the first question he asked me is “Why?” [laughs] He wished me well and to have a happy life. And when I left Fawcett, he said, “Emilio, if those guys over there don’t treat you right, you come back here. You’re always welcome here.” That was nice of him to say that. If American Artist hadn’t worked out for me, I would have gone back to Fawcett and Al would have taken me back with open arms. I still kept in touch with the people there after I left, especially Al Pauly, art director of Fawcett’s advertising department. He was an older gentleman with many years of experience who taught me a lot. Will Lieberson and Wendell Crowley led our production meetings. Will would always start things out. They were open floor-type meetings where everybody was given their turn to speak. If you had a problem, you would have to go to either Will or Wendell, and either one them would take care of things, and always in a nice way. Wendell was a very pleasant guy, easy to talk to and joke around with. Pete Costanza hardly ever came to the meetings. Pete and C.C. Beck had their own studio in Englewood, New Jersey. Beck never had an actual

office when Fawcett was located at 67th Street, but he would come in to the office several times a week to look in on things. Beck would go over a lot of work with everybody; he’d lean over me sometimes and ask me how it was going. Once he said to me about some ‘Captain Marvel’ pages that had come back for corrections, “Why the hell can’t these guys get it right the first time?” Beck and Pete were busy running their studio. (My friend Joe Giella worked at their studio briefly in 1946.) But Pete usually stayed at the studio, while Beck was the one who went back and forth between there and the Fawcett offices. As the chief artist, Beck had a big role with overseeing all the “Captain Marvel” artwork. I would see Bill Parker [original writer and co-creator of Captain Marvel] around the office from time to time. Bill was a very nice man who had become editor of Mechanix Illustrated, so he was there every day.

Long Day’s Journey I was going 10-15 hours a day, every day, and it kept me very busy. Sometimes I would help out down in the promotion department because I had training in advertising. Al Allard would call me up and tell me to go down there and help them out for a couple of hours. I was kind-of like the gofer at Fawcett, running around doing a lot of different things. I never worked much on the cowboy comics, only minor changes that had to be made here and there on books like Gabby Hayes and Tex Ritter. There always seemed to be something wrong that needed fixing. I didn’t work on the romance comics at all. I mostly just worked on the Captain Marvel/Marvel Family books and their fillers. I didn’t care what it was, as long as it involved some drawing—which never involved anything too fancy. Fawcett was a pretty plain company that did good work; there was nothing fancy about them. I enjoyed being there and I had a lot of respect for the company and my fellow artists and staff. Besides making corrections on stories and fillers, I worked on a lot of the Captain Marvel Club ads. I did some of the drawings for them and made any corrections on them. They were always rushing things through, especially before it all collapsed, and it sort-of became overwhelming at one point. They use to pile up different pages and things on my desk, and I never knew how the hell I was going to get through all of it. And then the bottom fell out and everything had to go.

Superman Vs. Captain Marvel I’ve always completely disagreed with the whole “Superman vs. Captain Marvel” business. Captain Marvel is the “World’s Mightiest

The Return Of Emilio Squeglio

Mortal”… an American; Superman was an alien who came from another planet to America. I never knew why they even compared these two super-heroes—or why they later made them antagonistic towards each another in stories. I have always believed that there’s plenty of room out there for both heroes to do their thing. But back then, Captain Marvel was beating out Superman in every way. We used to sell over a million comics a month—even into the early ’50s—while DC was struggling enough that even Superman couldn’t be of much help to them. They sued us and wanted to get every penny they could from Fawcett by trying to disqualify Captain Marvel, and I think Captain Marvel has been mistreated ever since. Meanwhile, Superman has been all over the place, becoming the multi-million Model Mobster dollar property that it is. DC While Emilio worked primarily in Fawcett’s comics department until it was disbanded in 1953, he remembers how art has both of them now, and director Al Allard had him “all over the place” during his time at Fawcett, including posing for photos published in there’s still plenty of room for Fawcett’s various detective magazines, such as this one from Startling Detective (Nov. 1949). Can you pick out which them to co-exist. DC has the mobster is our own Mr. Squeglio? Emilio wound up working fulltime on Fawcett detective magazines after the comics kicked the proverbial bucket. [©2010 the respective copyright holders.] best of both worlds—and yet they’ve sort-of thrown it away. It’s a shame, and I don’t understand it. Superman was very good back then, too, but he just didn’t have the flair that Captain Marvel had. Besides the money involved, I’m sure it was one of the reasons why they did him in. I never got an up-close look at the “damaging” piece of artwork that

Baby You Can Drive My Car Emilio moved up as the art editor on Fawcett’s True (“The Man’s Magazine”), as well as on diverse True spin-off periodicals like the True Automobile Yearbook (1955). Above is a recent snapshot of Emilo next to his prized 1930 Model A Ford. [©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

Fawcett Collectors Of America

DC’s lawyers presented at the trial. I only saw it from the back of the courtroom, and I still couldn’t tell what exactly it was. And as suddenly as it appeared, it disappeared. But I have my suspicions as to where it went! Anyone connected with the comics department at Fawcett was affected during those final months before Captain Marvel was killed off, including the advertising department. I would have to go down there and help them out on the ads for the comics. That was around the time I was assigned to draw two giant life-sized, heavy cardboard cutout drawings of Captain Marvel and Superman for the trial. I didn’t have any razor blades to cut them out, so I had to use a little saw, and then color them before wrapping them up and attempting to get the damn things into a cab to haul them down to the court. The lawyers were trying everything and did what they had to do. They wanted to point out the contrasts between the two characters by displaying them life-sized, side by side. I don’t know what ever happened to those things; like all the other material from the case, they mysteriously disappeared. Another thing I had to create for the trial were comic circulation charts, using large stats and a big rolling pin so the lawyer could easily turn them over while presenting them in court. It’s always discouraging to see Superman and Captain Marvel fighting each other in the comics when they should be working together. The scowls on their faces look inappropriate. When I worked on comics they were actually comics, and Captain Marvel usually had a tongue-in-cheek smile on his face, even during the worst of times. Captain Marvel and Superman could have both continued to freely exist in their own worlds, but DC wouldn’t leave us alone. There was never any copying going on at Fawcett, I can tell you that. Nobody ever went near Superman’s books, and why the hell would they even need to? And yet the fighting went on for years and millions of dollars were spent. The whole thing was bleeding Fawcett dry, and I think that’s all the Superman people really wanted to do, because they didn’t have a legitimate case. They wanted to put Fawcett out of business because they knew that Fawcett knew how to do comic books, and they were very afraid of that.

Dynamic Designer Squeglio’s page from the 1977 Graphic Artists Guild directory, published during his time as a freelance book designer. Though starting out in comics, the artist learned early on in his career that he excelled more with design work than with cartooning. Many artists and writers started off in comics and then later moved on to other things, but all of us here at Alter Ego & FCA agree that Emilio is skilled in numerous facets of art. [©2010 Graphic Artists Guild.]

Today, when they draw Superman and Captain Marvel together, the illustrations are good and I respect the technique involved. What I don’t like is the content—the mindless fighting. Artists need to ask themselves, ‘What is the purpose of my drawing?’ I would tell them, don’t just make two guys fighting each other and don’t call them comic books just because there’s super-heroes in them. They’re not comic books and there’s nothing comic about them. Comic books should make you laugh.

All In Color And Then Some Comic books done up today as serious paintings… all I can say is that these guys are good artists and wonderful technicians, but the characters look like madmen with scowls on their faces and have muscles that don’t belong on the human body. Everyone is beating the hell out of each other and tearing down buildings with people inside them. I disagree with all of it. I’m not being a goody-two-shoes, but these artists could take all their talent and do something better with it. With all the bad days things we have out there today, couldn’t we put this “artwork” to better use? They might say, “Well, all that stuff is what kids are looking for!” While they can be influenced by things, that kind of stuff

is not what kids are looking for at all. It’s okay to teach them about good and evil—good in the form of someone like Captain Marvel, a hero who stood for right and who did away with evil. But that’s not what they’re doing today. I went into a comic book store not too long ago and I walked out of there after two minutes. I’ve always liked Johnny Romita’s Spider-Man—that’s a good little character. Even as a young boy, Johnny was a wonderful artist who could do beautiful drawings. I remember watching him draw in high school. He’d draw these beautiful girls, and he’s always understood how to properly tell a story. You don’t see Johnny drawing all these awful-looking people with oversized muscles and big feet. Instead, everything is beautifully done because Johnny puts his artwork to good use. There’s so many terrible-looking books out there now that it’s hard for me to even describe some of them or their complete lack of morals. I’m not a totally saintly guy, believe me, but I know right from wrong. I used to look at everything on the newsstand back in the old days. Besides Captain Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr., Captain America was

The Return Of Emilio Squeglio

another character I liked; Daredevil was another nice one. Batman was a good one, too; he looked great and fought evil by putting fear into people instead of hurting them. To be honest with you, I liked Superman, too—if only they had left it alone. The early ones that Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster did were pretty horrible, but they had a great idea. Captain Marvel was always a lot more light-hearted than Superman. I was never too fond of things like The Human Torch; he wasn’t even human. And Plastic Man was a little too absurd for me, with him stretching his arms out over a block away and all that stuff; it just didn’t sit right with me. The strip itself wasn’t offensive or anything, and the artwork was nice, but it just wasn’t my type of thing.

The Way We Were Over the past year I became friends with Jerry Ordway. He’s a wonderful artist and a really nice guy, but I’m not too crazy about his Captain Marvel. I’m not criticizing his drawing abilities, only his interpretation of Captain Marvel. That’s just my personal preference, but I do love the way he draws. I think that’s why we did our cover collaboration that way—so people could see the contrast between the two art styles: the one from today, and the one from yesterday.

Birthday Boy Here’s a photo taken at Emilo Squeglio’s home on May 19, 2009, when he had “the boys” over for an old-fashioned Italian lunch on his 82nd birthday. Standing left to right around Emilio are Tony D’Adamo, Stan Goldberg, John Romita, Seymour (Sy) Barry, and Joe Giella. The photo was taken by another buddy of Emilio’s in attendance, John Pennisi, chief illustrator for the New York Yankees.

I receive letters from all over the world … people in Germany, Belgium, Australia … they all want a drawing of Captain Marvel. They remember the original Captain Marvel and still like him the way he used

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to be. So why not give it to them? If publishers keep trying to reinvent the character, no one is ever going to like it. Captain Marvel and Superman need to stop fighting already … so quit making them so damn angry. Keep them the way they were.

Researching The Red Cheese I

by Jerry Ordway, Writer & Artist of The Power Of Shazam! Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck

admit to knowing little about Fawcett Publications’ Captain Marvel during my childhood. I grew up reading mostly Marvel Comics in the late 1960s, but I think my comic book horizons expanded in the early ’70s with Jim Steranko’s first History of Comics volume, as well as Jules Feiffer’s book, The Great Comic Book Heroes.

In Milwaukee, where I grew up, I got to know a guy named Kevin, who frequented the same used book store I did, and he absolutely loved Captain Marvel. He used to lecture me on how many bands Captain Marvel had on his wrists. That came in handy, years later, whenever I drew the character. In 1973, I purchased DC’s first issue of Shazam! and liked the initial story arc, written by Denny O’Neil and drawn by C.C. Beck, where the friends and inhabitants of Captain Marvel’s world had been frozen in a sort of suspended animation, via a substance developed by Dr. Sivana called Suspendium. The initial Shazam! series by DC was looked down upon by many fans, including by Beck himself, but I believe that first story was terrific. I also was very impressed by DC’s large-sized reprints of important first issues (Famous First Editions), including the first appearance of Captain Marvel. That book, as well as a couple of other large-format Limited Collectors’ Editions containing Fawcett reprints, became my bibles when I was doing my Power of Shazam! series for DC in the ’90s. Access to older Fawcett comics was limited at that time, but I owned

Old Villains Never Die From the early Captain Marvel canon came the Arson Fiend (Captain Marvel Adventures #2, Summer ’41, top left) and Muscles McGinnis (CMA #3, Fall ’41, directly above), as drawn by George Tuska. Seen at top right are Jerry Ordway's notebook sketches of the villains, done while he was gazing at a microfiche screen during his Big Red Cheese research. The Arson Fiend looked as menacing as ever when he appeared on the cover of Ordway’s Power of Shazam! #2 (April ’95)—and a troubled Muscles made it onto the cover of Power of Shazam! #3 (May ’95). [Shazam! hero TM & ©2010 DC Comics.]

Researching The Red Cheese

“Stinky” Printwhistle Lives! (Above:) Ibac’s second Golden Age appearance (Captain Marvel Adventures #9, April ’42), with art by the Binder Shop. (Right:) Jerry Ordway’s notebook sketches of Ibac, and his other version of “Stinky” Printwhistle drawn during his research. (Below:) The Ordster’s cover for Power of Shazam! #25 (April ’97), co-starring Ibac. [Shazam! characters TM & ©2010 DC Comics.]

some bootleg Golden Age [Flashback] reprints, published by Alan Light/Dynapubs, of comics starring Captain Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr. During the ’80s, when I was working with Roy Thomas on All-Star Squadron, we were frustrated that we couldn’t use Captain Marvel in the book because, at that time, DC Comics had to pay a flat fee to Fawcett Publications—whether The Marvel Family appeared in one panel or an entire story. Roy had to wait to do a story that DC determined worthwhile to justify the fee, and I returned to ink Rich Buckler’s covers for that storyline (All-Star Squadron #36 & 37, Aug. & Sept. 1984). DC had purchased the characters outright by the time I started work on my standalone graphic novel retelling Captain Marvel’s origin—which my editor, Jonathan Peterson, and I had conceived as an homage to The Adventures of Captain Marvel Republic movie serial—with high-flying adventure! When I was about halfway finished with the graphic novel’s full color artwork, I sought out Don and Maggie Thompson, longtime Cap fans, for advice and ultimately their approval. It meant an awful lot to me, and I wanted them to know I was treating the property with respect. Don and Maggie also represented comics fandom, through their editing and writing work on the Comics Buyer’s Guide. Given their blessings, I felt an obligation to hunt down whatever back issues of the old comics I could find.

Fawcett Collectors Of America

Pre-Internet, this meant hard work, even to fill in issues of the ’70s DC Shazam! series that I didn’t already own. Before I started work on the Power of Shazam! comic book series, I made a trip over to DC’s library to see what they had of Fawcett-era Captain Marvel-related material, but only found a few bound volumes. Apparently, since DC had only recently acquired the property, there was not much Fawcett material available to them. Unable to wait, I bought a microfilm reader, in addition to several years’ worth of Whiz Comics and Captain Marvel Adventures on microfiche. In reading though these issues, what struck me right away was that early “Captain Marvel” was full of dark stories, such as Cap fighting the Arson Fiend, as well as various monsters. Since my series was covering the Captain a few years into his career, I decided to map out my first year’s worth of stories using the early CM adventures as a template. Many diehard fans were upset that I had darkened Captain Marvel somehow, but those elements had all existed previously, even back to the origin story written by Bill Parker and illustrated by Beck. My plan was to show how Captain Marvel and Billy Batson could remain positive and upbeat even in the face of the reality of the world we live in—which to me is what has always set Captain Marvel apart from other heroes. Many comic creators have been hell-bent on taking their innocence away from them, but that’s what makes them special. The limitation of microfiche is that the machine is not portable, nor was I able to print out any pages for reference. I resorted to doing sketches while looking at the screen, and writing notes in my handy spiral notebook. I was amazed to discover that Joe Simon and Jack Kirby had drawn the first issue of Captain Marvel Adventures, followed by George Tuska. While dark elements were all there in the early stories, the Marvel

Family that everyone remembers so fondly developed over time. In early 1995, we launched The Power Of Shazam! monthly title, with Minnesota-based artist Peter Krause penciling the book. Pete would throw in Minnesota landmarks, while I personally added both Wisconsin and Connecticut references in the scripts. Since Fawcett Publications started in Minnesota, and ended up with headquarters in Connecticut, where I had relocated to, it seemed fitting. When we first revealed that Mr. Mind was our secret villain in the second year of POS, I devised an alien Venusian alphabet, and Mike Carlin, the books’ editor, printed up postcards at DC with the Mr. Mind decoder on it, offering it free to readers who sent in a stamped envelope. The response for the cards was a little too good, as Carlin and his assistant, Chris Duffy, had to spend an inordinate amount of their workday printing and mailing cards. We had even received a request from Harlan Ellison for a Mr. Mind card. Another sweet moment was when I was informed that Power of Shazam! had won the Parents’ Choice Award for favorite comic book in 1996. I lobbied to have that emblazoned on the cover of the comic, but no one else saw the value in it. Being associated with The Marvel Family has brought me into contact with so many wonderful individuals over the years. I met many of them in 1998 at a special fan function in Chicago, where I learned that the godfather of comic fandom, Jerry Bails, was a fan of my Shazam! series. The good Captain has recently connected me with Fawcett artist Emilio Squeglio, with whom I collaborated on this issue’s cover of Alter Ego. It’s terrific to see The Marvel Family live on in comics, and maybe a movie in the coming years. My time on Cap was a highpoint in my career.

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In Memoriam

Frank Coghlan, Jr. (1916-2009) Billy Batson Of The Big Screen

“H

by P.C. Hamerlinck

ey, I do look like that kid!” Frank Coghlan Jr. thought to himself as he perused the issue of Whiz Comics that he had purchased from a Los Angeles drugstore after Republic Pictures movie directors William Witney and John English—surprised to learn that the young actor had never heard of the character whose part he had just interviewed for—suggested that he go out and inspect a pulp adventure featuring Captain Marvel’s courageous 14-year-old alter ego: boy reporter Billy Batson … a character he was destined to portray.

Frank Coghlan Jr. died on September 7, 2009, at the age of 93. Having taken a short break from working on the MGM movie Men of Boys Town to interview for the part of Billy, Coghlan was in his mid-20s when he was cast in the 1941 movie serial The Adventures of Captain Marvel, a later-recognized landmark achievement in the genre. In spite of his age, Coghlan’s small stature, high-pitched voice, youthful demeanor and exuberance—combined with his talents and experience as a silent-movie child actor throughout the 1920s and ’30s—allowed him to credibly pull off the part with considerable ease… aside from losing an eyebrow hair or two after some flash powder-ignited “Shazam!” transformation sequences that were filmed.

“I Am Shazam!”

Frank was born March 15, 1916, in New Haven, Frank Coghlan, Jr., seen here with fellow actor Nigel De Brulier. The wizard Shazam elucidates Connecticut. The Coghlans moved to Los Angeles, Billy Batson’s duty “to see that the curse of the Scorpion is not visited on innocent people”— where their young son began working in films at age an archetypal scene from Republic Pictures’ 1941 superlative movie serial The Adventures of three. Becoming one of the busiest child actors of the Captain Marvel. late ’20s and ’30s, the freckle-faced kid, often billed as “Junior Coghlan,” had small parts in many films, lieutenant commander in 1965, he resumed an acting career in film and including the Charles Chaplin-directed 1923 movie A Woman of Paris: A television. During the 1970s, he worked in public relations for the Los Drama of Fate, before director Cecil B. DeMille signed “Junior” to a fiveAngeles Zoo where, by sheer coincidence, he landed a cameo role on an year contract. DeMille once described Coghlan’s look as “the perfect episode of CBS-TV’s Shazam! series in 1974, and met the screen’s new example of a homeless waif,” perhaps a foreshadowing of his Batson role Billy Batson, portrayed by 27-year-old Michael Gray. years later. Coghlan’s silent-era credits include the DeMille-produced 1927 drama The Yankee Clipper, and a baseball comedy from the same year “We were going to shoot at the L.A. Zoo,” Gray recalled, “and I was entitled Slide, Kelly, Slide. excited to meet Frank after I had learned that he worked there. When our crew arrived there, it was the usual hectic morning … people running Coghlan went on to play James Cagney’s character as a boy in The around, unloading trucks, stringing up light cables, and talking to actors, Public Enemy (1931) and co-starred in the 1932 Mascot serial The Last of both regulars and weekly players. At some point during the day, I noticed the Mohicans, as well as the 1938 Universal serial Scouts to the Rescue. a golf cart heading towards us, and when I recognized Frank behind the Coghlan also appeared in a 1934 comedy with Shirley Temple (Pardon wheel I got goose bumps. Frank stayed around for a bit and we got a My Pups) and in four MGM “Andy Hardy” films, and played a chance to chat and talk shop. It was all very cool, and I thought how lucky Confederate soldier in Gone with the Wind. I was to have met him…and I wondered if I was going to end up looking like him—after all, we did played the same character at around the same A naval aviator during World War II, Coghlan continued his career in age!” the Navy after the war, serving for many years as the Navy’s Hollywood liaison for motion pictures, television, and radio. After retiring as a

Out of over 400 screen appearances, Coghlan’s work in Captain

Fawcett Collectors Of America

“It was like having the Adventures of Captain Marvel serial—or a reasonable facsimile—live in-person,” Blair remembered. Having sat in a darkened theatre years before, watching Frank utter the magic word “Shazam!,“ it was a genuine pleasure for Blair to meet Billy Batson in person. “What a warm, kind man he was,” recalled Blair. “For hours he would answer question after question about Captain Marvel and his film career from the Houstoncon attendees… always pleasurable, patient, and never pretentious. I was indeed fortunate to have become friends with Frank… seeing him at other shows… corresponding and exchanging Christmas cards over the years. While I was in Hollywood, I saw him at special events and [we] had lunch together far too few times. I always found him [to be] like his four-color counterpart, Billy Batson—genial and fun-loving. While perhaps not all of the colorful characters in the super-hero universe may exist beyond the four-color page or 35mm film frame, I am certain of one thing: Billy Batson was real.”

Young Billy “Junior” Coghlan was 18 years old when he co-starred with Shirley Temple in the charming comedy short Pardon My Pups (Educational Pictures, 1934). Coghlan’s striking resemblance to Billy Batson was clear in the Captain Marvel serial seven years later—but even more so in his younger years.

Marvel has endured over the years and continues to delight people of all ages. In 1992, he wrote the autobiography They Still Call Me Junior, published by McFarland. I first contacted Frank Coghlan in the early ’90s. The pleasant-sounding voice over the phone still sounded like Billy Batson, circa 1941. A resultant correspondence was later transformed into a published 1996 interview in FCA (and reprinted in the 2001 TwoMorrows volume Fawcett Companion). In the piece, Coghlan told of his life-long friendship with co-star Billy (“Whitey”) Benedict, and he told of already having been friends for a number of years with Tom Tyler, the actor who portrayed Captain Marvel, before the two co-starred in the serial. He also said he felt that English actor Nigel de Brulier was “most impressive in his characterization of the venerable Shazam.” When pondering if Republic had made a Captain Marvel sequel, Coghlan was confident that the studio never thought the serial would ultimately become one of their finest works; otherwise a follow-up film would have been planned, as they had done for The Lone Ranger. But the actor pointed out, “If they would have done [a sequel], there would have been a problem. Soon after Captain Marvel was released, both Bill Witney and I were in the service for World War II.” Coghlan became a familiar face at nostalgia conventions during the ’70s. The fans adored the affable actor’s sweet personality and stories of old Hollywood… and of Captain Marvel. Earl Blair had Frank Coghlan as one of his special guests at the 1973 and ’74 editions of Houstoncon, along with stuntman David Sharpe, Billy Benedict, and director Bill Witney (in ’73).

Serial Heroes AC Comics’ Bill Black illustrated this marvel-ous Whiz Comics #22 cover re-creation, modifying it with Cap and Billy’s Adventures of Captain Marvel movie serial counterparts. The piece is autographed by Billy Batson himself, Frank Coghlan, Jr. [Shazam! Heroes TM & © 2010 DC Comics.]

Black, Blacker, Blackest Fawcett’s Dark Dopplegängers by P.C. Hamerlinck

hey are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever. —Jude 1:13 (NIV)

The ancient conflict between good and evil, ubiquitous in worlds both tangible and spiritual, and acknowledged as a universal truth of the human condition, has long been a thematic device within literature. Prevalent to these themes is inner evil—a combative struggle of one’s own morals often stemming from “dark” characteristics or forces where blackhearted individuals conduct their dark or “black” deeds. Hence, some of our more colorful fictionalized rogues from the past have felt the need to proudly attach the “black” moniker to their chosen pseudonyms. Golden Age comic book publisher Fawcett had their fair bunch of the blackest of black-named blackhearts:

Black Adam [Marvel Family Comics #1, Dec. 1945] The blemished predecessor of Captain Marvel was not only the blackest but has been ultimately the best-remembered of all the Fawcett scoundrels. Not a bad accomplishment at all for Black Adam, who was only a one-shot adversary of The Marvel Family during the team’s initial run.

In ancient Egypt, Prince Teth-Adam is chosen by the wizard Shazam to be his successor. When Adam says the wizard’s name, he changes into a superpowered being, endowed with the same powers (and a similar costume) that would one day be bestowed upon Captain Marvel. The enormity of his new powers quickly goes to his head. With a newfound thirst to rule the world, he overthrows the Pharaoh and assumes his throne. Infuriated with the behavior of his wayward champion, Shazam gives Teth a new name—Black Adam—and banishes him to the furthest star in the cosmos. The piqued, black-costumed figure spends a mere 5000 years racking up frequent-flyer miles as he gradually makes his way back to Earth. He finally arrives in the world of 1945, where Shazam has chosen three successors in America to take his place. It doesn’t take long for Black Adam to clash with The Marvel Family—but since everyone shares equal powers, the battle stands deadlocked. It takes the non-powered, tag-along member of The Marvel Family, Uncle Marvel, to bring Black Adam down by tricking him into saying “Shazam,” resulting in Teth-Adam reverting back to his 5000-year-old form… and instantly dying of natural causes.

Black Beauty [Captain Marvel Adventures #142, March 1953]

All of Captain Marvel’s immeasurable powers are pretty darn useless when he faces the seductive Black Beauty. The domineering and scheming bad girl takes full advantage of our hero’s natural bashfulness around the ladies—and for a while the Big Red Cheese is more like Big

Red Silly Putty in her hands. Additionally, the Black Beauty doesn’t take too kindly to any lip from her male flunkies. Pretending to be in love with the Black Beauty (oh, the humility), Cap gets close enough to the vixen to spray her with a can of tear gas, concluding her brief reign of crime and other transgressions. Over the airwaves, Billy informs his radio listeners that crime doesn’t pay, “not even for a woman,” and that “the only thing Captain Marvel really loves is smashing crime.”

Black Clown [Wow Comics #3, Fall 1941; America’s Greatest Comics #1, Fall 1941] Circus performer-gone-bad, the Black Clown (dressed in full clown attire, naturally) utilizes his playful pet pythons to squeeze the life out of his victims as he pulls off bank robberies and blackmail jobs. When the costumed hero Mr. Scarlet intervenes, he, too, [Black Clown TM & ©2010 the respective copyright holders] gets a big hug from one of the Clown’s pets— but you can’t keep a good man like Mr. Scarlet down, and he later exposes the Black Clown as Harry Parrish, a circus company owner. (In this early, pre-Pinky adventure, the writer must have passed on reading the series’ bible, because the super-powerless Mr. Scarlet is flying all over town!) In a subsequent story, the Black Clown is a member of one of the first super-villain groups. “The Death Battalion” is a Nazi-allied assemblage comprised of six prison-escaped criminals (Horned Hood, Ghost, Laughing Skull, Dr. Death, Black Thorn, and the Black Clown) under the leadership of The Brain, the administrator behind their plots against America. Mr. Scarlet trounces the entire squad, only to learn that The Brain is actually the prison’s warden, who engineered the jailbreak of the six villains. Mr. Scarlet only has to tangle with the Black Clown briefly in the saga, when he flattens Garganta, the jaded jester’s pet gorilla.

Black Dragon/ Black Dragon Society [Master Comics #21, Dec. 1941] A “menace to the democracies of the world” as well as an “ancient Oriental cult of torture and murder,” the [Japanese] Black Dragon Society’s campaign of terror is felt throughout America in this World War II-era tale. Unsurprisingly, the group is fronted by a [Black Dragon TM & ©2010 the respective copyright holders] fellow calling himself … the Black Dragon. The sadistic madman and his minions kidnap a US general and three other officers and escort them back to their digs for a little Asiatic Water Torture: “Water…dripping constantly until the mind snaps and the victim becomes a raving maniac.” A pre-masked Jack Weston, a.k.a. Minute-Man, puts an end to the Black Dragon’s fun and games, and afterwards the general gratefully tells the red, white, and blue hero that “America is very fortunate to have a boy like you.” Yes, especially since the cover date was the month of Pearl Harbor.

Fawcett Collectors Of America

Black Flamingo [Wow Comics #63, Feb. 1948] As a terrorist-extortionist-aviator (what a résumé!), the Black Flamingo operates a black, peculiar-looking plane with a loudspeaker built into its top which enables him to loudly announce his threats to everyone, including the local airlines, demanding payment for “protection” of any [Black Flamingo TM & aircraft flying over the South American ©2010 the respective country of San Danito. The black-masked, copyright holders] mustached maniac also has a thing for dropping “silent bombs” (sandbags) on top of other planes and critically damaging them (while proclaiming his aspiration to become “Master of the Skies”). But the Phantom Eagle kicks sand in the Flamingo’s face by dropping several of the “silent bombs” on him, damaging his enemy’s aircraft so severely that he slams down into the mountains below. The Phantom Eagle later learns that the Black Flamingo was Morel, a greedy airlines associate.

Black Hood [Master Comics #18, Sept. 1941] Master magician El Carim (“miracle” spelled backwards, in case you didn’t notice) uses those miraculous abilities of his to immobilize the Black Hood and his motley crew. While El Carim is “making one of his famous speeches” at a banquet, the Black Hood (dressed in…you got it, a black hood) [Black Hood TM & ©2010 the hurls a knife with attached note through the respective copyright holders] window. It reads: “Your Time Has Come.” El Carim departs the event to follow up on the mysterious note, warning his girlfriend Gladys not to follow him… but she ignores his warning (surprise) and is kidnapped by the Hood’s gang. The Black Hood can’t possibly compete with El Carim’s amazing abilities and, after saving Gladys, our ever-sensitive magician tells his lovely girlfriend: “Next time you do not obey me, I’ll leave you to your abductor’s mercy!” Their relationship, like El Carim’s career, didn’t last long.

Black Magician - I [Whiz Comics #19, July 11, 1941] Billy Batson assures his radio-listening audience that stories of witchcraft and black magic are “mostly pure imagination.” But a couple of listeners—the Black Magician and his son—agree they have to teach Billy “to respect our black art.” After a failed attempt to apprehend Billy, the eccentric, magician [Black Magician TM & ©2010 the respective (with his pet cat Lucifer) creates a small doll copyright holders] of Billy Batson. Elsewhere, Captain Marvel is dealing with the Black Magician’s pesky son. The kid calls Cap a big bully, so the World’s Mightiest Mortal agrees to a fight on a “more even basis.” Meanwhile, back at his lair, the Black Magician begins to apply black magic upon the Billy doll. “First to silence his blabbing mouth—this bit of cheese makes a fine gag!” After inserting pins into the doll, the real Billy becomes completely debilitated and unable to speak. The Black Magician is about to pierce the heart of the Billy doll, but the magician’s hungry cat eats away at the cheese from the doll’s mouth. Billy is now able to yell “Shazam!,” changing him like always into Captain Marvel—but a second bolt of lightning also comes down that changes the Billy doll into a Captain Marvel doll! Cap and his miniature doppelgänger put an end to

the Black Magicians’ follies. When Captain Marvel throws the magicians’ book of spells into the fireplace, the tiny figure of himself reverts back to an ordinary, lifeless doll (Cap calls it “a nice souvenir”); then our hero delivers the two black magic devotees to the local asylum.

Black Magician - II [The Marvel Family #2, June 1946] Mary Batson is out in the country enjoying a picnic with some friends, but a thug’s reckless hunting brings forth Mary Marvel, who puts him out of commission. Seeking revenge, the poacher stumbles across the Black Magician (dressed in your basic magician getup), who’s been perfecting his craft out in the [Black Magician TM & ©2010 the respective woods… with a special penchant for turning copyright holders] animal heads into heads of different animals. The two new acquaintances “head” over to the teen’s picnic area, where the Black Magician turns the head of one of Mary’s girlfriends into that of a deer. Before Mary can cry “Shazam!” he changes her head into an owl’s, and she, like her friend, loses her memory—remembering only that she “should say some word.” The six goddesses from whom Mary derives her powers appear in spirit form and, in order to stir her memory, hold up signs with their names on them (you know, like they do at airport baggage claims). When Mary reads the names of Selena, Hippolyta, Ariadne, Zephyrus, Aurora, and Minerva, she says “Shazam!” and Mary Marvel busts the Black Magician’s wand for good.

Black Marco [Whiz Comics #25-28, Dec. 12 1941 to March 20, 1942] The finale to the opus of Dr. Voodoo’s long quest to obtain the coveted Golden Flask eventually leads him to Black Marco, who has reigned in the Castle of Doom for years, while practicing the art of (what else?) black magic. With a humble abode named like that, it’s just [Black Marco TM & ©2010 one of those places you stay away from. But the respective copyright holders] the castle’s myths don’t intimidate Dr. Voodoo, who plans to invade Black Marco’s home and retrieve the Golden Flask that is in his possession. Approaching the castle, Dr. Voodoo notes Black Marco’s wry sense of humor from the sign posted outside: “Welcome! You now approach the Castle of Doom—and death!” But it’s ultimately Voodoo’s ally, Don Marco (the “good” Marco), who ends up doing all the dirty work by obtaining the Golden Flask and slaying Black Marco—apparently killing the guy so gruesomely that he tells Dr. Voodoo not to even look at Black Marco’s dead body, because he might “see something on the floor that would haunt your dreams for many nights.”

Captain Black Bunny [Fawcett’s Funny Animals # 32, Oct.-Nov. 1945] Yes, you heard me right: Captain Black Bunny. An earthquake causes a crack in the ground, and before the startled eyes of Hoppy and Millie flies out a black-costumed bunny: “Greetings, friends. Let me introduce you to the great and wonderful Captain Black [Captain Black Bunny TM Bunny—Me!” Residing within the Earth’s & ©2010 the respective copyright holders] core, he cheerfully informs them that he’s their new ruler. Hoppy reminds the stranger that there’s a certain Captain Marvel Bunny who is not going to take this news lying down, but Captain Black Bunny has never heard of him and

Black, Blacker, Blackest

doesn’t seem too worried anyway. “Bring him on!” the Black Bunny says while calling forth his gang of imps (sure, why not), who begin creating chaos all around as the bad bunny shouts, “I’m the Big Cheese now!” The Marvel Bunny finally confronts Black Bunny, and the two spar in an air battle as the locals look on and begin having some doubts about their hero’s ability to protect them. Wanting to prove himself to the villagers, Hoppy flies back to the spot where Captain Black Bunny first appeared and does a nosedive into the ground, penetrating deep towards the center of the earth. Black Bunny’s devilish imps can’t slow him down as Marvel Bunny dashes toward their leader’s castle, where Millie is being held captive. As Black Bunny removes his boots to rest, Hoppy enters and wallops him. Black Bunny begs for mercy, then slips his boots back on and zooms away, but Hoppy is on his “tail” and gives him his best “Sunday punch” before removing his foe’s boots. As the clever bunny suspected, his foe wore “trick boots with steel strings attached to tiny rockets inside them.” Back in town, Marvel Bunny tells the villagers that Captain Black Bunny was nothing but a “big fake,” and the townfolk agree never to doubt their Marvel Bunny again. (It’s often assumed, because of Black Bunny’s costume, that he’s a doppelgänger based on the Marvel Family foe Black Adam, but it needs to be noted that Captain Black Bunny actually appeared in a comic cover dated Oct.-Nov. 1945—before Black Adam’s appearance, cover-dated Dec. 1945. Draw your own conclusions. And, while you muse over it, I’d like to mention that the Marvel Bunny also once tousled with a bully named Black Bill the Bear—but don’t make me look up that one.)

Black Mask [Nickel Comics #1-3, May 17, 1940, to June 14, 1940] In his very first few exploits (which included his origin tale), Bulletman battled the conniving Black Mask. The villain wore a KKK-styled hood (a popular fashion choice for bad guys of the era), and his underhanded schemes and persistent brand of bedlam were the ideal ingredients to break in the new super-hero. Bulletman was given numerous opportunities by his opponent to [Black Mask TM & ©2010 the showcase his new abilities and substantial respective copyright strength (which was toned down a bit later). holders] The Black Mask was ultimately revealed to be Stephen Doane, a powerful newspaper publisher.

Black Pharaoh [Ibis The Invincible #1, 1942] The Black Pharaoh played a integral part in the origin of Ibis the Invincible, which took place some 4000 years ago. Inheriting the throne and crown of Egypt, the Black Pharaoh decides to forsake further worshipping of Osiris and instead focus on his own derisive desires. The god Set appears [Black Pharaoh TM & ©2010 the respective copyright before the Black Pharaoh and offers up some holders] demons to help assist in his depraved ambitions—which include enslaving all of Egypt and winning over the exotic Princess Taia. But the corrupted ruler is challenged by Prince Amentep—otherwise known as Ibis—and a mêlée ensues. However, before too long, Ibis finds himself imprisoned, and the Black Pharaoh barks for Taia to be brought before him. Meanwhile, Ibis’ accommodating uncle drops down to his nephew, through prison bars, the mystical Ibistick. Ibis is now free and ready to rumble with the Pharaoh, who is holding the princess captive. A scuffle begins and, as Ibis slays the Black Pharaoh, Taia throws herself in the way of an arrow shot by a Pharaonean guard that was intended for her prince. But the arrow

that pierces Taia is an “enchanted arrow” that puts her asleep for forty centuries. Unable to bear the thought of being without her, Ibis commands the Ibistick to put him to sleep for the same amount of time as his loved one. Their mummified bodies re-awaken in the 20th century, in a museum in the USA, and the reunited couple go forth to conquer evil in the new world.

Black Poet [Minute-Man #3, Spring 1942; America‘s Greatest Comics #2, Winter 1941]

When not attired in floppy hat, cloak, and fright-mask, the Black Poet—German SS agent Heinrick Von Strieber—masquerades as an American millionaire. He also likes to send his victims morbid poems written on paper soaked in poisonous acid. Minute-Man finally brings the Black Poet to justice, but the villain vows from jail to one day get out and write a poem for Minute-Man: “Only …

it will be on his tombstone!” The Black Poet does indeed have another confrontation with the patriotic hero later, but Minute-Man puts him back in the pen.

Black Rat [Bulletman #3, Jan. 1942; Bulletman #7, Sept. 1942; America’s Greatest Comics #2, Winter 1941] Perhaps the most visually interesting Bulletman opponent, the Black Rat is totally garbed to look like a big human rat—with Superman-style outer briefs. The Black Rat never appears out of costume, and his origin is never revealed. A gun-wielding murderous madman with superhuman strength, he proves to be an unsettling yet worthy adversary for Bulletman.

After having been knocked from a castle tower into the ocean by Bulletman at the end of their first encounter, the Black Rat reappears— washed up on shore, before getting back into action by forming a murderous gang of thieves. After a violent fracas in a steel factory, Bulletman knocks the Black Rat into a huge vat of molten steel to his apparent doom. Without any explanation as to how he survived his deadly bubbling bath, the Black Rat returns again for one last outing—this time as a member of the “Revenge Syndicate.” The super-villain group, comprised of Bulletman and Bulletgirl’s fiercest foes, also includes the Weeper and the Murder Prophet. At the tale’s stirring climax, the Black Rat and his fellow villains perish in a fire, meeting their suitable demise.

Black Sphinx [Wow Comics #7, Oct. 14, 1942] The mysterious Black Sphinx sends a warning to attorney Brian Butler (via trendy knifed-note delivery, which almost nails Butler’s secretary, Miss Wade) to stay away from a particular museum police case where a series of robberies have been occurring. [Black Sphinx TM & ©2010 Butler, in front of his knowledgeable the respective copyright secretary, becomes Mr. Scarlet and springs holders] into action. The Black Sphinx’s men, disguised as mummies inside the museum, are ready to embark on their

Fawcett Collectors Of America

next robbery when Scarlet steps in and stops them, while the Black Sphinx flees the scene with a stolen rare ruby. Now more than ever, the Black Sphinx is determined to eliminate the meddling Mr. Scarlet—and attempts to frame Butler for the theft of the ruby. The scheme doesn’t fly, and Mr. Scarlet (and sidekick Pinky) eventually detain the Black Sphinx, who turns out to be the museum’s chief guard, who wanted the ancient Egyptian treasures for himself.

Black Spider [Bulletman #1, Summer 1941] Sergeant Kent receives a note from the costumed crook called the Black Spider, warning him to “lay off ” or his daughter, Susan Kent, will die—so Bulletman and Bulletgirl slip into action. The Black Spider, wearing a Daredevil-like horned masked, lives in the wilderness inside a tree with his [Black Spider TM & ©2010 the respective copyright assistants. He compiles a “death list” with holders] seven names on it, and goes forth to begin checking names off the list. Bulletman and Bulletgirl are too late to prevent the Spider from murdering a judge on his list, while elsewhere his men kidnap Sgt. Kent. Jim Barr, a.k.a. Bulletman, learns the identity of the Black Spider, who is eventually stopped by the Flying Detectives. The villain’s identity is Jules Rey, a Frenchman sent up for murder. After his conviction, he was locked in a Paris dungeon. It was there that he went blind and “made friends” with all the spiders in his cell. When he escaped prison, he swore vengeance on all those who helped convict him (all the folks on his “death list”), and thus the Black Spider was born.

Black Thorn [Wow Comics #3, Oct. 14, 1942; America’s Greatest Comics #1, Fall 1941] Inventor Phineas Cox tries to sell his “mummy ray” (guess what that contraption was able to do?) to a US government agency called the Defend America League, but he’s dismissed as a “nut” and walks away grumbling, “I’ll show them!” A black KKK[Black Thorn TM & ©2010 the respective copyright holders] like outfitted villain (with a single horn in the middle of his forehead ), the Black Thorn has been busy stealing American defense money—until he’s caught by Mr. Scarlet, who exposes the criminal’s identity. The Black Thorn is not Phineas Cox, but a saboteur named Henry Hawley, manager of aforementioned Defend America League—the same man who rejected Cox’s invention earlier. Hawley’s phony “League” is actually a fifth-column organization, and after learning about Cox’s mummy ray, he takes the weapon from him and is about to torture the inventor for the ray’s formula…to sell to a foreign power. Mr. Scarlet later smashes the ray in front of Cox, telling him that it’s “too dangerous a weapon to exist. Never make another one … or Mr. Scarlet will be after you!” The Black Thorn does appear again, as part of the super-villain group “The Death Battalion.” [See the “Black Clown” section.]

Uncle Blacky [Mary Marvel #9, Feb. 1947] Okay, so he didn’t exactly hold a candle to Black Adam, but Uncle Blacky does share two things in common with Shazam’s fallen champion: he wears a black Marvel suit, and is equally determined to get rid of the Marvels. Uncle Marvel—along with Freckles Marvel and boy inventor Creighton Tinkerman—throws a surprise birthday party for Mary Marvel at the

Shazam Inc. office, and part of the surprise is that Mary must locate her presents all over town in a treasure hunt. But a gang of hoodlums on the floor above them are spying on Mary and her friends through a hole in their floor. Their leader, Uncle Blacky, of a new organization called Crime Inc., tells his men: “Shazam Inc. must be busted up before Crime Inc. has clear sailing. We got to rub them out, one by one!” He sends out two men [Uncle Blacky TM & ©2010 to trail Mary and Freckles, but their “rocketthe respective copyright bullet gun” is hardly troublesome for the holders] World‘s Mightiest Girl. After Mary locates Freckles’ present to her, the two return back to Shazam Inc. Now it’s Creighton’s turn to take Mary Marvel out to locate her next gift. Mary and her young male companion end up in a graveyard while hunting for the gift, and two of Blacky’s men appear with an atomic flame-thrower—but Mary has no problem stopping that attack, either, then finds her second gift. Blacky, by now quite perturbed over his men’s failures, decides to kill everyone below by pumping poisonous gas down into the floor’s hole. Mary Marvel flies her three friends to safety, then crashes through Uncle Blacky’s floor and slugs him across the room, putting Crime Inc. out of business, The story’s symbolic splash panel of Mary’s birthday party with her three friends in attendance depicts Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., and Pinky ready to eat cake, as well. Uncle Blacky looks pretty much like Uncle Marvel, except that his costume is black instead of red, and his hair has a bad dye job. Who knows why he even wears the black Marvel suit? Flights of fancy and of the imagination may have triumphed over logical explanations for every diminutive detail in those former days—but the inner evil within the blackest of hearts, alas, knows no boundaries of time.

THE RETRO COMICS EXPERIENCE!

Edited by MICHAEL EURY, BACK ISSUE magazine celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through recurring (and rotating) departments like “Pro2Pro” (dialogue between professionals), “BackStage Pass” (behind-the-scenes of comicsbased media), “Greatest Stories Never Told” (spotlighting unrealized comics series or stories), and more!

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“Spies and Tough Guys!’ PAUL GULACY and DOUG MOENCH in an art-packed “Pro2Pro” on Master of Kung Fu and their unrealized Shang-Chi/Nick Fury crossover, Suicide Squad spotlight, Ms. Tree, CHUCK DIXON and TIM TRUMAN’s Airboy, James Bond and Mr. T in comic books, Sgt. Rock’s oddball super-hero team-ups, Nathaniel Dusk, JOE KUBERT’s unpublished The Redeemer, and a new GULACY cover!

“Comic Book Royalty!” The ’70s/’80s careers of Aquaman and the Sub-Mariner explored, BARR and BOLLAND discuss CAMELOT 3000, comics pros tell “Why JACK KIRBY Was King,” “Dr. Doom: Monarch or Menace?” DON McGREGOR’s Black Panther; an exclusive ALAN WEISS art gallery; spotlights on ARION, LORD OF ATLANTIS; NIGHT FORCE; and more! New cover by NICK CARDY!

“Heroes Behaving Badly!” Hulk vs. Thing tirades with RON WILSON, HERB TRIMPE, and JIM SHOOTER; CARY BATES and CARMINE INFANTINO on “Trial of the Flash”; JOHN BYRNE’s heroes who cross the line; Teen Titan Terra, Kid Miracleman, Mark Shaw Manhunter, and others who went bad, featuring LAYTON, MICHELINIE, WOLFMAN, and PÉREZ, and more! New cover by DARWYN COOKE!

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“Mutants” issue! CLAREMONT, BYRNE, SMITH, and ROMITA, JR.’s X-Men work, NOCENTI and ARTHUR ADAMS’ Longshot, McLEOD and SIENKIEWICZ’s New Mutants, the UK’s CAPTAIN BRITAIN series, lost Angel stories, Beast’s tenure with the Avengers, the return of the original X-Men in X-Factor, the revelation of Nightcrawler’s “original” father, a history of DC’s mutant, Captain Comet, and more! Cover by DAVE COCKRUM!

“Saturday Morning Heroes!” Interviews with TV Captain Marvels JACKSON BOSTWICK and JOHN DAVEY, MAGGIN and SAVIUK’s lost Superman/”Captain Thunder” sequel, Space Ghost interviews with GARY OWENS and STEVE RUDE, MARV WOLFMAN guest editorial, Super Friends, unproduced fourth wave Super Powers action figures, Astro Boy, ADAM HUGHES tribute to DAVE STEVENS, and a new cover by ALEX ROSS!

“STEVE GERBER Salute!” In-depth look at his Howard the Duck, Man-Thing, Omega the Unknown, Defenders, Metal Men, Mister Miracle, Thundarr the Barbarian, and more! Plus: Creators pay tribute to Steve Gerber, featuring art by and commentary from BRUNNER, BUCKLER, COLAN, GOLDEN, STAN LEE, LEVITZ, MAYERIK, MOONEY, PLOOG, SIMONSON, and others. Cover painting by FRANK BRUNNER!

“Tech, Data, and Hardware!” The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, WEIN, WOLFMAN, and GREENBERGER on DC’s Who’s Who, SAVIUK, STATON, and VAN SCIVER on Drawing Green Lantern, ED HANNIGAN Art Gallery, history of Rom: Spaceknight, story of BILL MANTLO, Dial H for Hero, Richie Rich’s Inventions, and a Spider-Mobile schematic cover by ELIOT BROWN and DUSTY ABELL!

“Teen Heroes!” Teen Titans in the 1970s & 1980s, with CARDY, GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, PÉREZ, TUSKA, and WOLFMAN, BARON and GUICE on the Flash, interviews with TV Billy Batson MICHAEL GRAY and writer STEVE SKEATES, NICIEZA and BAGLEY’s New Warriors, Legion of Super-Heroes 1970s art gallery, James Bond Jr., and… the Archies! New Teen Titans cover by GEORGE PÉREZ and colored by GENE HA!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US (Digital edition) $2.95

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“New World Order!” Adam Warlock examined with JIM STARLIN and ROY THOMAS, the history of Miracleman with ALAN DAVIS & GARRY LEACH, JIM SHOOTER interview, Marvel’s post-STAN LEE editors-in-chief on New Universe, Logan’s Run, Star Hunters, BOB WIACEK on Star Wars and Star-Lord, DICK GIORDANO revisits Crisis on Infinite Earths and “The Post-Crisis DC Universe You Didn’t See,” new cover by JIM STARLIN!

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

“Monsters!” Frankenstein in Comics timeline and a look at BERNIE WRIGHTSON’s and Marvel’s versions, histories of Vampirella and Morbius, ISABELLA and AYERS discuss It the Living Colossus, REDONDO’s Swamp Thing, Man-Bat, monster art gallery, interview with TONY DeZUNIGA, art and commentary from ARTHUR ADAMS, COLÓN, KALUTA, NEBRES, PLOOG, SUTTON, VEITCH, and a painted cover by EARL NOREM!

“Comics Go to War!” KUBERT/KANIGHER’s Sgt. Rock, EVANIER and SPIEGLE’s Blackhawk, GEORGE PRATT’s Enemy Ace, plus Unknown Soldier, Wonder Woman’s return to WWII, the Invaders, Combat Kelly, Vietnam Journal, Sad Sack, the Joe Kubert School, art and commentary from AYERS, HEATH, KIRBY, ROBBINS, ROMITA SR., SINNOTT, and the return of GERRY TALAOC! JOE KUBERT cover!

“Family!” JOHN BYRNE’s Fantastic Four, SIMONSON, BRIGMAN, and BOGDANOVE on Power Pack, LEVITZ and STATON on the Huntress, Henry Pym’s “son” Ultron, Wonder Twins, Commissioner Gordon & Batgirl’s relationship, and Return of the New Gods. With art and commentary from BUCKLER, BUSIEK, FRADON, HECK, INFANTINO, NEWTON, and WOLFMAN, and a Norman Rockwell-inspired BYRNE cover!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US (Digital edition) $2.95

C o l l e c t o r

The JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR magazine (edited by JOHN MORROW) celebrates the life and career of the “King” of comics through INTERVIEWS WITH KIRBY and his contemporaries, FEATURE ARTICLES, RARE AND UNSEEN KIRBY ART, plus regular columns by MARK EVANIER and others, and presentation of KIRBY’S UNINKED PENCILS from the 1960s-80s (from photocopies preserved in the KIRBY ARCHIVES). Now in OVERSIZED TABLOID FORMAT, it showcases Kirby’s amazing art even larger!

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1970s DC WORK! Coverage of Jimmy Olsen, FF movie set visit, overview of all Newsboy Legion stories, KEVIN NOWLAN and MURPHY ANDERSON on inking Jack, never-seen interview with Kirby, MARK EVANIER on Kirby’s covers, Bongo Comics’ Kirby ties, complete ’40s gangster story, pencil art gallery, and more! Kirby covers inked by NOWLAN and ANDERSON!

KIRBY AWARD WINNERS! STEVE SHERMAN and others sharing memories and neverseen art from JACK & ROZ, a never-published 1966 interview with KIRBY, MARK EVANIER on VINCE COLLETTA, pencils-toSinnott inks comparison of TALES OF SUSPENSE #93, and more! Covers by KIRBY (Jack’s original ’70s SILVER STAR CONCEPT ART) and KIRBY/SINNOTT!

KIRBY’S MYTHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS! Coverage of DEMON, THOR, & GALACTUS, interview with KIRBY, MARK EVANIER, pencil art galleries of the Demon and other mythological characters, two never-reprinted BLACK MAGIC stories, interview with Kirby Award winner DAVID SCHWARTZ and F4 screenwriter MIKE FRANCE, and more! Kirby cover inked by MATT WAGNER!

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KIRBY COLLECTOR #49

Jack’s vision of PAST AND FUTURE, with a never-seen KIRBY interview, a new interview with son NEAL KIRBY, MARK EVANIER’S column, two pencil galleries, two complete ’50s stories, Jack’s first script, Kirby Tribute Panel (with EVANIER, KATZ, SHAW!, and SHERMAN), plus an unpublished CAPTAIN 3-D cover, inked by BILL BLACK and converted into 3-D by RAY ZONE!

Focus on NEW GODS, FOREVER PEOPLE, and DARKSEID! Includes a rare interview with KIRBY, MARK EVANIER’s column, FOURTH WORLD pencil art galleries (including Kirby’s redesigns for SUPER POWERS), two 1950s stories, a new Kirby Darkseid front cover inked by MIKE ROYER, a Kirby Forever People back cover inked by JOHN BYRNE, and more!

KIRBY’S SUPER TEAMS, from kid gangs and the Challengers, to Fantastic Four, X-Men, and Super Powers, with unseen 1960s Marvel art, a rare KIRBY interview, MARK EVANIER’s column, two pencil art galleries, complete 1950s story, author JONATHAN LETHEM on his Kirby influence, interview with JOHN ROMITA, JR. on his Eternals work, and more!

KIRBYTECH ISSUE, spotlighting Jack’s hightech concepts, from Iron Man’s armor and Machine Man, to the Negative Zone and beyond! Includes a rare KIRBY interview, MARK EVANIER’s column, two pencil art galleries, complete 1950s story, TOM SCIOLI interview, Kirby Tribute Panel (with ADAMS, PÉREZ, and ROMITA), and covers inked by TERRY AUSTIN and TOM SCIOLI!

WARRIORS, spotlighting Thor (with a look at hidden messages in BILL EVERETT’s Thor inks), Sgt. Fury, Challengers of the Unknown, Losers, and others! Includes a rare KIRBY interview, interviews with JERRY ORDWAY and GRANT MORRISON, MARK EVANIER’s column, pencil art gallery, a complete 1950s story, wraparound Thor cover inked by JERRY ORDWAY, and more!

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KIRBY FIVE-OH!

CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF THE “KING” OF COMICS

The publication that started the TwoMorrows juggernaut presents KIRBY FIVE-OH!, a book covering the best of everything from Jack Kirby’s 50-year career in comics! The regular columnists from THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR magazine have formed a distinguished panel of experts to choose and examine: The BEST KIRBY STORY published each year from 19381987! The BEST COVERS from each decade! Jack’s 50 BEST UNUSED PIECES OF ART! His 50 BEST CHARACTER DESIGNS! And profiles of, and commentary by, 50 PEOPLE INFLUENCED BY KIRBY’S WORK! Plus there’s a 50-PAGE GALLERY of Kirby’s powerful RAW PENCIL ART, and a DELUXE COLOR SECTION of photos and finished art from throughout his entire half-century oeuvre. This TABLOIDSIZED TRADE PAPERBACK features a previously unseen Kirby Superman cover inked by “DC: The New Frontier” artist DARWYN COOKE, and an introduction by MARK EVANIER, helping make this the ultimate retrospective on the career of the “King” of comics! Takes the place of JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #50. (168-page tabloid-size trade paperback) $19.95 ISBN: 9781893905894 • Diamond Order Code: FEB084186

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KIRBY COLLECTOR #53

Bombastic EVERYTHING GOES issue, with a wealth of great submissions that couldn’t be pigeonholed into a “theme” issue! Includes a rare KIRBY interview, new interviews with JIM LEE and ADAM HUGHES, MARK EVANIER’s column, huge pencil art galleries, a complete Golden Age Kirby story, two COLOR UNPUBLISHED KIRBY COVERS, and more!

Spotlights Kirby’s most obscure work, like an UNUSED THOR STORY, his BRUCE LEE comic, animation work, stage play, and see original unaltered versions of pages from KAMANDI, DEMON, DESTROYER DUCK, and more, including a feature examining the last page of his final issue of various series BEFORE EDITORIAL TAMPERING (with lots of surprises)! Color Kirby covers inked by DON HECK and PAUL SMITH!

Spotlights THE MAGIC OF STAN & JACK! New interview with STAN LEE, a walking tour of New York showing where Lee & Kirby lived and worked, re-evaluation of the “Lost” FF #108 story (including a new missing page), plus MARK EVANIER’s regular column, a Kirby pencil art gallery, a complete Golden Age Kirby story, and more, behind a color Kirby cover inked by GEORGE PÉREZ!

(84-page tabloid magazine) $9.95 US (Digital edition) $3.95

(84-page tabloid magazine) $10.95 US (Digital edition) $3.95

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DRAW! (edited by top comics artist MIKE MANLEY) is the professional “HOW-TO” magazine on comics, cartooning, and animation. Each issue features in-depth INTERVIEWS and DEMOS from top pros on all aspects of graphic storytelling. NOTE: Contains nudity for purposes of figure drawing. INTENDED FOR MATURE READERS.

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DRAW! #6

DRAW! #8

Features an interview and step-by-step demonstration from Savage Dragon’s ERIK LARSEN, KEVIN NOWLAN on drawing and inking techniques, DAVE COOPER demonstrates coloring techniques in Photoshop, BRET BLEVINS tutorial on Figure Composition, PAUL RIVOCHE on the Design Process, reviews of comics drawing papers, and more!

Interview and sketchbook by MIKE WIERINGO, BRIAN BENDIS and MIKE OEMING show how they create the series “Powers”, BRET BLEVINS shows “How to draw great hands”, “The illusion of depth in design” by PAUL RIVOCHE, must-have art books reviewed by TERRY BEATTY, plus reviews of the best art supplies, links, a color section and more! OEMING cover!

Interview, cover, and demo with BILL WRAY, STEPHEN DeSTEFANO interview and demo on cartooning and animation, BRET BLEVINS shows “How to draw the human figure in light and shadow,” a step-by-step Photo-shop tutorial by CELIA CALLE, expert inking tips by MIKE MANLEY, plus reviews of the best art supplies, links, a color section and more!

From comics to video games: an interview, cover, and demo with MATT HALEY, TOM BANCROFT & ROB CORLEY on character design, “Drawing In Adobe Illustrator” step-by-step demo by ALBERTO RUIZ, “Draping The Human Figure” by BRET BLEVINS, a new COMICS SECTION, International Spotlight on JOSÉ LOUIS AGREDA, a color section and more!

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DRAW! #14

RON GARNEY interview, step-by-step demo, and cover, GRAHAM NOLAN on creating newspaper strips, TODD KLEIN and other pros discuss lettering, “Draping The Human Figure, Part Two” by BRET BLEVINS, ALBERTO RUIZ with more Adobe Illustrator tips, interview with Banana Tail creator MARK McKENNA, links, a color section and more!

STEVE RUDE demonstrates his approach to comics & drawing, ROQUE BALLESTEROS on Flash animation, political cartoonist JIM BORGMAN on his daily comic strip Zits, plus DRAW!’s regular instructors BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY on “Drawing On LIfe”, more Adobe Illustrator tips with ALBERTO RUIZ, links, a color section and more! New RUDE cover!

KYLE BAKER reveals his working methods and step-by-step processes on merging his traditional and digital art, Machine Teen’s MIKE HAWTHORNE on his work, “Making Perspective Work For You” by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY, Photoshop techniques with ALBERTO RUIZ, Adult Swim’s THE VENTURE BROTHERS, links, a color section and more! New BAKER cover!

Step-by-step demo of painting methods by cover artist ALEX HORLEY (Heavy Metal, Vertigo, DC, Wizards of the Coast), plus interviews and demos by Banana Sundays’ COLLEEN COOVER, behind-the-scenes on Adult Swim’s MINORITEAM, regular features on drawing by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY, links, color section and more, plus a FREE ROUGH STUFF #3 PREVIEW!

Features in-depth interviews and demos with DC Comics artist DOUG MAHNKE, OVI NEDELCU (Pigtale, WB Animation), STEVE PURCELL (Sam and Max), plus Part 3 of editor MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ COMIC ART BOOTCAMP on “Using Black to Power up Your Pages”, product reviews, a new MAHNKE cover, and a FREE ALTER EGO #70 PREVIEW!

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DRAW! #17

DRAW! #18

DRAW! #19

BACK TO SCHOOL ISSUE, covering major schools offering comic art as part of their curriculum, featuring faculty, student, and graduate interviews in an ultimate overview of collegiate-level comic art classes! Plus, a “how-to” demo/interview with B.P.R.D.’S GUY DAVIS, MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ COMIC ART BOOTCAMP series, a FREE WRITE NOW #17 PREVIEW, and more!

In-depth interview and coverage of the creative process of HOWARD CHAYKIN, behind the drawing board and animation desk with JAY STEPHENS, more COMIC ART BOOTCAMP (this time focusing on HOW TO USE REFERENCE), and WORKING FROM PHOTOS by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY. Plus, reviews, resources and more!

An in-depth interview and tutorial with Scott Pilgrim’s creator and artist BRYAN LEE O’MALLEY on how he creates the acclaimed series, plus learn how B.P.R.D.’s GUY DAVIS creates the fabulous work on his series. Also, more Comic Art Bootcamp: Learning from The Great Cartoonists by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY, reviews, and more!

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

DOUG BRAITHWAITE gives a demo and interview, pro inker and ROUGH STUFF editor BOB McLEOD offers a “Rough Critique” of a newcomer’s work, JAMAR NICHOLAS’ “Crusty Critic” column reveals the best art supplies and tool tech, MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ COMIC ART BOOTCAMP gets your penciling in shape, plus Web links, reviews, and more!

(80-page magazine with COLOR) $6.95 (Digital edition) $2.95

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

2007 EISNER AWARD WINNER Best Comics-Related Periodical

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ALTER EGO #1

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

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

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

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ALTER EGO #4

ALTER EGO #5

ALTER EGO #6

ALTER EGO #7

ALTER EGO #8

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

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

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

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

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

(100-page magazine) $5.95

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ALTER EGO #9

ALTER EGO #10

ALTER EGO #11

ALTER EGO #12

ALTER EGO #13

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

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

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

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

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

(100-page magazine) $5.95

ALTER EGO #14

ALTER EGO #15

ALTER EGO #16

ALTER EGO #17

ALTER EGO #18

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

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

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

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

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

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(108-page magazine) $5.95

ALTER EGO #19

ALTER EGO #20

ALTER EGO #21

ALTER EGO #22

ALTER EGO #23

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

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

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

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

(108-page magazine) $5.95

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

(108-page magazine) $5.95

ALTER EGO #24

ALTER EGO #25

ALTER EGO #26

ALTER EGO #27

ALTER EGO #28

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

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

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

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

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

(108-page magazine) $5.95

ALTER EGO #29

ALTER EGO #30

ALTER EGO #31

ALTER EGO #32

ALTER EGO #33

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

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

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

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

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

(108-page magazine) $5.95

ALTER EGO #34

ALTER EGO #35

ALTER EGO #36

ALTER EGO #37

ALTER EGO #38

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

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

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

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

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

(108-page magazine) $5.95

ALTER EGO #39

ALTER EGO #40

ALTER EGO #41

ALTER EGO #42

ALTER EGO #43

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

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

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

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

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

(108-page magazine) $5.95

ALTER EGO #44

ALTER EGO #45

ALTER EGO #46

ALTER EGO #47

ALTER EGO #48

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

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

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

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

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

(100-page magazine) $5.95

ALTER EGO #49

ALTER EGO #50

ALTER EGO #51

ALTER EGO #52

ALTER EGO #53

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

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

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

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

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

(100-page magazine) $5.95

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ALTER EGO #54

ALTER EGO #55

ALTER EGO #56

ALTER EGO #57

ALTER EGO #58

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

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

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

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

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

(100-page magazine) $6.95

ALTER EGO #59

ALTER EGO #60

ALTER EGO #61

ALTER EGO #62

ALTER EGO #63

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

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

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

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

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

(100-page magazine) $6.95

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ALTER EGO #64

ALTER EGO #65

ALTER EGO #66

ALTER EGO #67

ALTER EGO #68

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

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

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

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

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

(100-page magazine) $6.95

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ALTER EGO #69

ALTER EGO #70

ALTER EGO #71

ALTER EGO #72

ALTER EGO #73

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

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

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

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

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

(100-page magazine) $6.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

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ALTER EGO #74

ALTER EGO #75

ALTER EGO #76

ALTER EGO #77

ALTER EGO #78

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

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

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

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

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

(100-page magazine) $6.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

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ALTER EGO #79

ALTER EGO #80

ALTER EGO #81

ALTER EGO #82

ALTER EGO #83

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

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

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

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

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

(100-page magazine) $6.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95

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ALTER EGO #84

ALTER EGO #85

ALTER EGO #86

ALTER EGO #87

ALTER EGO #88

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

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

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

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

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

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US (Digital Edition) $2.95

TITANIC TOMES FROM TWOMORROWS!

BACK ISSUE #38

DRAW! #19

KIRBY COLLECTOR #54

DOUG BRAITHWAITE gives a demo and interview, pro inker and ROUGH STUFF editor BOB McLEOD offers a "Rough Critique" of a newcomer’s work, JAMAR NICHOLAS’ “Crusty Critic” column gives the low-down on the best art supplies and tool tech, MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ COMIC ART BOOTCAMP helps you get your penciling in shape, plus Web links, reviews, and more!

STAN & JACK PART TWO! More on the co-creators of the Marvel Universe, plus a new interview (and back cover inks) by Bullpenner GEORGE TUSKA, differences between KIRBY and DITKO’S approaches, WILL MURRAY on the origin of the FF, the mystery of Marvel cover dates, plus MARK EVANIER’s regular column, a Kirby pencil art gallery, a complete Golden Age Kirby story, and more, behind a color Kirby cover inked by JOE SINNOTT!

(100-page magazine) $6.95 US (Digital Edition) $2.95 US Now shipping!

AGE OF TV HEROES Examines the history of the live-action television adventures of everyone’s favorite comic book heroes! FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER features the in-depth stories of the actors and behind-the-scene players that made the classic super-hero television programs we all grew up with. Included are new and exclusive interviews and commentary from ADAM WEST (Batman), LYNDA CARTER (Wonder Woman), PATRICK WARBURTON (The Tick), NICHOLAS HAMMOND (SpiderMan), WILLIAM KATT (The Greatest American Hero), JACK LARSON (The Adventures of Superman), JOHN WESLEY SHIPP (The Flash), JACKSON BOSTWICK (Shazam!), and many more! Written by JASON HOFIUS and GEORGE KHOURY, with a new cover by superstar painter ALEX ROSS! (192-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 US ISBN: 9781605490106 Diamond Order Code: SEP084302 FINALLY SHIPPING FEBRUARY 2010! ORDER NOW!

(80-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 US • Ships May 2010

(84-page tabloid magazine) $10.95 US Ships February 2010

SAL BUSCEMA: COMICS’ FAST & FURIOUS ARTIST

MARVEL COMICS IN THE 1960s

In 1968, SAL BUSCEMA joined Marvel Comics and quickly became one of their top artists, penciling such storylines as the original AVENGERS/DEFENDERS WAR and CAPTAIN AMERICA, as well as a tenyear run on THE HULK and 100 consecutive issues of SPECTACULAR SPIDERMAN. This new book by Alter Ego’s JIM AMASH with Modern Masters’ ERIC NOLEN-WEATHINGTON explores Sal’s life and career through an exhaustive interview with the artist, complete with extensive examples of his art, including a deluxe color section, and a gallery of work from Sal’s personal files! Ships Jan. 2010!

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

(176-page paperback w/16 color pages) $26.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490212 (192-page HARDCOVER with 32 color pages, dust jacket, and illo’d endleaves) $46.95 US • ISBN: 9781605490229 ULTRA-LIMITED HARDCOVER EDITION (52-copy numbered edition with a custom pencil portrait of one of Sal’s characters) $100 US • ONLY FROM TWOMORROWS!

Go to www.twomorrows.com for FULL-COLOR downloadable PDF versions of our magazines for only $2.95-3.95! Print subscribers get the digital edition FREE, weeks before it hits stores!

(224-page trade paperback) $27.95 US Diamond Order Code: MAY091042 ISBN: 9781605490168 • Now shipping!

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BRICKJOURNAL #9

BrickJournal looks at LEGO® Disney sets, with features on the Disney LEGO sets of the past (Mickey and Minnie) and present (Toy Story and Prince of Persia)! We also present models built by LEGO fans, and a look at the newest Master Build model at Walt Disney World, plus articles and instructions on building and customization, and more! (80-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 US • Ships January 2010

BRICKJOURNAL COMPENDIUM 3

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

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

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

MODERN MASTERS: MARK BUCKINGHAM (128-page trade paperback) $14.95 ISBN: 9781605490144 Diamond Order Code: FEB094473 Ships February 2010

MODERN MASTERS: GUY DAVIS by Eric Nolen-Weathington (120-page TPB with COLOR) $15.95 ISBN: 9781605490236 Ships January 2010 Each features an extensive, career-spanning interview lavishly illustrated with rare art from the artist’s files, plus huge sketchbook section, including unseen and unused art!

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