Alter Ego #93 by TwoMorrows Publishing

Roy Thomas’ Earth-Two Comics Fanzine

JUSTICE ON TWO WORLDS!

WE’RE COMING!

QUICK, GARDNER! WRITE US OUT OF THIS CRISIS!

WE’RE COMING!

WHY DON’T YOU JUST EDIT US OUT OF IT, JULIE? PLUS:

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& GEORGE KASHDAN

No.93 May 2010

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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. 93 / May 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 Artist

NOW WITH 16 PAG ES OF COLOR!

Carmine Infantino & Jim Amash

Cover Colorist Tom Ziuko

With Special Thanks to: Jack Adams Heidi Amash Dave Armstrong Mark Arnold Bob Bailey Kevin Barber Jerry Beck Jon Berk Dominic Bongo Rich Buckler Mike Burkey James H. Burns Dewey Cassell Bob Cherry Paty Cockrum Al Dellinges Joe Desris Roger Dicken Betty Dobson Rich Donnelly Michael Eury Michael Feldman Shane Foley Frank Giella Janet Gilbert Robert Hack Jennifer Hamerlinck Roger Holda

Wendy Hunt Carmine Infantino Terence Kean Jim Kingman Paul Kupperberg Bruce Mason Kevin McConnell Clifford Meth Kurt Mitchell Sheldon Moldoff Brian K. Morris Will Murray Tony Oliva Fred Patten Ed Quinby Dave Reeder Raymond H. Riethmeier Bob Rozakis Ken Selig Desha Swayze Marc Swayze Dann Thomas Anthony Tollin Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Jim Van Dore John Wells Alex Winter

Contents Writer/Editorial: All In Color For A Crime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Earth-Two: A Mini-History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Kurt Mitchell shines the spotlight on every true comics fan’s second-favorite planet.

Justice on Two Worlds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 The other Earth-Two stories, issue by issue, 1961-1986; tour conducted by Kurt Mitchell & Roy Thomas.

Flashes Of Three Worlds — Part I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 A quick look at 1949’s Flash Comics #105—the most important comic book on Earth-One!

“I Graduated From Plato And Aristotle To Superman And Batman” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Part I of Jim Amash’s incredible interview with DC Golden/Silver Age editor George Kashdan.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! The Truth About Comic Books!! . 61 Michael T. Gilbert presents a vintage attack on 1950s comics.

Tribute To Joe Rosen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . 69 FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 P.C. Hamerlinck spotlights Marc Swayze—and Fawcett Publications’ 1940s readers! On Our Cover: For the full, unfettered story behind this DC-lightful Carmine Infantino cover, as inked by A/E’s associate editor Jim Amash, see the first page of “Justice on Two Worlds.” [Heroes TM & ©2010 DC Comics; other art ©2010 Carmine Infantino & Jim Amash.] Above: This pulsating splash page by Gil Kane (penciler) and Sid Greene (inker) heralded the first “two Green Lanterns” story, in Green Lantern #40 (Oct. 1965). For more about it, see p. 14. Thanks to Bob Bailey. [©2010 DC Comics.]

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Joe Rosen

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. Eight-issue subscriptions: $60 US, $85 Canada, $107 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

All In Color For A Crime

he past never changes—only the present’s way of perceiving it. And of presenting it.

With this issue, at the same time as our TwoMorrows sister magazine Back Issue, Alter Ego adds a touch of color to what has been, for 9000 or so pages, an ongoing black-&-white examination of the ironically named Golden and Silver Ages of Comic Books. Well… black-&-white except for the covers, which have always been in color. For that matter, so have the interior pages of late, if you’re a subscriber to the digital edition. Truth is, adding 16 color pages to A/E is both more and less than I personally wanted to see. Less, because ideally the entire mag would’ve been in cover-to-cover color from the start—so that Superman and Captain Marvel could’ve battled it out in primary colors, and Captain America been portrayed as the red, white, and blue Sentinel of Liberty, and Green Lama and Yellowjacket and Blue Bolt revealed why they carry those color-specific names. But more than I wanted, too—because I’ve relished spotlighting b&w reproductions of original comic art and unpublished pages and commissioned sketches. Color, for all its glory, can be a tyrant… tempting an editor to choose a mediocre color image rather than a more important black-&-white one. Besides, paradoxically, drawings intended to be printed in color can be more clearly viewed, in terms of an artist’s style, if no colors obscure his/her pencil or ink lines.

A/E… and we’re also bound and determined not to let King Color warp the magazine. We’ll present “special color sections” of 16 pages if the occasion readily presents itself… or we’ll let the rainbow hues start up in the middle of one article and vanish halfway through the following interview if to do otherwise would necessitate shortchanging the content of one or both. But we’re not trying to fool you. You can count. So you know that economic factors have dictated that, as we add color, we drop 16 pages of our previous page count. (At least half those, however, had been taken up each issue by our largely repetitious TwoMorrows “catalog,” which we now ask you to access online if you’re interested in buying back issues—and we sincerely hope you will be. So we’re actually losing only a handful of article/interview pages per issue.) And we’ve a truly—dare we say it?—colorful subject with which to inaugurate this new era: the first of several issues showcasing DC’s 19611986 “Earth-Two” crime-smashing capers that couldn’t be squeezed into our four fat volumes of The All-Star Companion. And squeeze we did have to, even here—to the extent that, though the aesthete in us would’ve preferred not to, we took to abbreviating “Earth-One” and “Earth-Two” as “E1” and “E2,” at least half the time. But hey—all that space we saved probably adds up to another art spot or two over the course of the issue! (Even though it's the super-informative George Kashdan interview, rather than the E2 section, that soaked up most of this issue's interior color.) And who knows—that extra art spot may be one of the ones that’s in color! Bestest,

So we’re patently pleased to add interior primaries and pastels to

COMING IN JUNE

EARTH-TWO—PART 2! The Twin-Earths Team-Ups—And George Kashdan—Just Keep On Coming! • Striking cover by JOE STATON & DICK GIORDANO—originally intended for All-Star Comics #75! • “Justice on Two Worlds—Part II!” Mr. & Mrs. Superman—Dr. Fate & Hourman— Starman & Black Canary—Power Girl & The Huntress—Batman & Robin—plus lots more, chronicled by MITCHELL & THOMAS! Amazing art and artifacts by ANDERSON * COLAN * GARCIA-LOPEZ * SIMONSON * GIFFEN * STATON * SCHAFFENBERGER * SWAN * BUCKLER * VOSBURG * DILLIN * APARO * NEWTON * NOVICK, et al.! • The second installment of the GEORGE KASHDAN interview, conducted by JIM AMASH—spotlighting his fellow Golden/Silver Age DC editors, not to mention ADAMS * CARDY * CERTA * DRAKE * FRADON * GRANDENETTI * HEATH * HERRON INFANTINO * KANE (both of ’em) * KIRBY * KUBERT * MOLDOFF * PAPP * PARIS PURCELL * ROUSSOS * SAMACHSON * SPRANG, & numerous others! • FCA with MARC SWAYZE & Nyoka the Jungle Girl * MICHAEL T. GILBERT with more on DOC WERTHAM * STEVE GERBER’s Crudzine—& MORE! Edited by ROY THOMAS

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Earth-Two: A Mini-History An Oracular Overview Of Twin Worlds According To Schwartz, Fox, Et Al., 1961-1986 by Kurt Mitchell A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: This piece has been abridged by the author from his longer article on the subject published in The All-Star Companion, Vol. 3 (2006). If [physicist Hugh Everett’s “many worlds” theory of wave function decoherence] is correct, then at this very instant your body coexists with the wave functions of dinosaurs engaged in mortal combat. Coexisting in the room you are in is the wave function of a world where the Germans won World War II, where aliens from outer space roam, where you were never born. — Michio Kaku, Parallel Worlds: A Journey through Creation, Higher Dimensions and the Future of the Cosmos (2005), page 169 Two objects can occupy the same space and time—if they vibrate at different speeds! My theory is, both Earths were created at the same time in two quite similar universes! They vibrate differently—which keeps them apart! Life, customs— even languages—evolved on your Earth almost exactly as they did on my Earth! — Barry Allen, The Flash #123 (1961), p. 4

hen DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz and writer Gardner Fox first introduced the parallel world they named Earth-Two, their goal was simply to tell an entertaining story (and sell a few hundred thousand comic books). If they were aware of Hugh Everett’s radical theory, quoted above, they may have wondered what all the fuss was about: parallel Earths had long been a staple of science-fiction and sf comics. Nevertheless, “Flash of Two Worlds” in 1961’s The Flash #123 was something special—so special that we’re still talking about Earth-Two nearly half a century after that seminal issue. The collective creative effort of some 180 different writers, artists, and editors, the original E2 cycle encompasses over 400 individual comic books published between 1961 and 1986. That’s a lot of history to take in. In this survey, therefore, we shall divide it into three overlapping periods imaginatively labeled Early, Middle, and Late. The Early Period (1961-75) is dominated by the editorial personality of Julius Schwartz. Reintroducing the Golden Age members of the Justice Society of America in his various super-hero titles, Schwartz laid out the basics of the multiple-Earths paradigm. The Justice League of America and other Silver Age super-heroes live on “Earth-One.” The JSA and other World War II-generation mystery-men live on “Earth-Two.” Some E1 characters—Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, et al.—have twins or “doppelgängers” on E2 (or is it vice versa?). Each world occupies the same space as the other but vibrates at a different frequency on the molecular level. There are an infinite number of such realities existing side by side. By altering their vibratory rate, people can cross from one to the other. If you understand these ground rules, you’ve just passed Multiple Earths 101. The seed had been planted in 1956’s Showcase #4, when nascent superhero Barry Allen borrowed his heroic alias from the 1940s Flash, whose comic book adventures he’d read as a boy. By this device, Schwartz (and scripter Robert Kanigher) acknowledged DC’s past even while making a clean break with it. Over the next five years, Schwartz and various collaborators similarly updated Green Lantern, Hawkman, The Atom, and the JSA itself, reconceived as the Justice League of

Parallel Whirls (Above:) Far as we can tell, the concept of parallel universes—at least as promulgated by a scientist—goes back to a physicist named Hugh Everett, who proposed it in 1957, though his theory took decades to be taken seriously by his peer group. But DC editor Julius Schwartz and writer Gardner Fox weren’t far behind Everett, at least in pop-culture terms, with their “Flash of Two Worlds” epic in The Flash #123 (Sept. 1961). Here, Julie and Gar are seen in the first panel from the classic “The Strange Adventure That Really Happened!” in Strange Adventures #140 (May 1962); thanks to Bill Schelly. (Left:) A reprinting of “Flash of Two Worlds” was to have been featured in the premier issue of a title called Demand Classics (Oct.-Nov. 1978). A cover was duly penciled by Dick Dillin and inked by Frank McLaughlin, as an homage-with-a-difference to the ’61 original by Carmine Infantino & Murphy Anderson, which can be seen on p. 6. This less-than-perfect reproduction of the Demand Classics #1 cover saw print in the newszine The Comic Reader #158 (July ’78)… but the projected comic fell victim to that era’s infamous “DC Implosion” and was never published. Thanks to Jim Van Dore for sending us this scan. [©2010 DC Comics.]

Earth-Two: A Mini-History

There were the now-annual crossovers in JLA #37-38, 46-47, and 55-56. Schwartz, Fox, and artist Murphy Anderson also produced tryouts starring teams of JSAers—Dr. Fate and Hourman in Showcase #55-56, Starman and Black Canary in The Brave and the Bold #61-62—then reintroduced The Spectre, whose solo stand in three issues of Showcase earned him his own title. Golden Age stars reintroduced during the aforesaid explosion include Sandman, Wildcat, Mr. Terrific, Johnny Thunder (with his Thunderbolt), and an all-grown-up Robin. The popularity of the recurring Flash/Flash team-ups led to other JLA/JSA duos. A GL/GL pairing in Green Lantern #40 warranted three sequels, while The Atom #29 & 36 costarred heroes whose dissimilarities posed quite different storytelling challenges than the identically-powered Flashes or GLs. Gardner Fox’s last issues of JLA (#64-65) added a new JSAer: The Red Tornado, an android with no connection to the 1940s heroine of that name. The JLA baton passed in order to writers Denny O’Neil, Mike Friedrich, Len Wein, and the team of Cary Bates & Elliot S! Maggin. Each brought his own sensibility to the tradition: O’Neil shook up the status quo, relocating Black Canary to E1; Friedrich used identical JLA/JSA rosters; Bates and Maggin co-starred in their twoparter. Wein made the biggest imprint on E2 continuity, reintroducing the early-’40s Seven Soldiers of Victory (from DC’s Leading Comics #1-14), the Freedom Fighters (composed of Quality Comics characters DC had purchased) who dwelt on “Earth-X,” where the Nazis had won World War II, and Sandman’s kid sidekick Sandy. In Flash #179, the E1 speedster visited “Earth-Prime,” supposedly our own universe where super-heroes are fictional. Even as parallel universes multiplied, JSA appearances outside the summer crossovers dwindled. Despite a steady influx of Golden Age revivals—including Fawcett’s Captain Marvel of “Earth-S” (for Shazam)—the early ’70s left E2 fans hungry for more.

Poster Boys—And A Gal This poster hails from the latter 1970s, the “middle period” by Kurt Mitchell’s reckoning. We kept meaning to fit it into a volume of The All-Star Companion series, but never found quite the right spot. We’re not sure of the artist, but it might be the work of Dick Giordano. Thanks to Al Dellinges. [©2010 DC Comics.]

America. The latter new heroes and a few of the old guard—Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, Aquaman, Blackhawk—made E1 a world of heroic fantasy as rich and colorful as its Golden Age predecessor, a predecessor few young readers even suspected existed. Flash #123 changed all that. On the surface a typical Schwartz sci-fi fest, something subtler and more layered was at work. The world of the E2 Flash had a tangible history, accessible to any readers who could track down its yellowing relics. The two Flashes met again in Flash #129, whose flashback to All-Star Comics #57 (1951), the last Golden Age “JSA” tale, gave us our first look at the E2 Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Hawkman, and Atom, plus two “new” heroes, Black Canary and Dr. MidNite. In Flash #137, a forcibly-reunited Society vowed to stay together, a promise spectacularly fulfilled a few weeks later in Justice League of America #21-22. There, seven JSAers, including founding members Dr. Fate and Hourman, teamed with the JLA to battle villains from both worlds. Reader reaction and sales led to a sequel: JLA #29-30 introduced “Earth-Three,” where history “happened backward” and the Crime Syndicate of America, evil counterparts of the JLA, ruled. [Aside #1. If readers thought the formula was as simple as “1940s = Earth-Two,” however, Hawkman #4, which reintroduced Zatara the Master Magician as an E1 character, proved otherwise. Schwartz would use the same strategy to revive Sargon the Sorcerer and The Vigilante on E1.] The mid-’60s brought a small explosion of comics with an E2 theme.

[Aside #2. Not everyone at DC was as invested in the E2 concept as Schwartz. Issues of The Brave and the Bold featuring JSAers Spectre and Wildcat, for example, didn’t mention the theory of parallel Earths; and a second “Spectre” series in Adventure Comics (#431-40) ignored his Silver Age continuity altogether. Neither 1st Issue Special #9, a memorable “Dr. Fate” solo story, nor Super-Team Family #2, a Wildcat/Creeper team-up, mentioned Earth-Two.]

The Middle Period (1976 through the early ’80s), which overlaps with the Late Period covered below, saw the revival of All-Star Comics, beginning with #58. Launched by editor/writer Gerry Conway, this new “Justice Society” series (also called “All-Star Super-Squad” for its first year) spotlighted teen heroes Power Girl (the E2 equivalent of Supergirl) and The Star-Spangled Kid. Writer Paul Levitz and penciler Joe Staton assumed the creative duties as of #66, continuing to explore the theme of super-heroic generations by introducing The Huntress, daughter of E2’s Batman and Catwoman. DC Special #29 by the same team revealed the previously unrevealed origin of the JSA. Their trilogy of “Power Girl” stories in Showcase #97-99 did not lead to an ongoing series, but their “Huntress” origin in DC Super-Stars #17 led to solo stories in Batman Family and a five-year run in Wonder Woman. When low sales led to All-Star’s cancellation with #74, the “JSA” feature moved to Adventure Comics. The violent death of Batman in Adventure #462 stunned readers. Clearly, nothing could be taken for granted in an E2 story. Over in Schwartz’s titles, the two Flashes still teamed up regularly. In Action Comics #484, the E2 Man of Steel married Lois Lane and soon launched a “Mr. & Mrs. Superman” series. “Whatever Happened to…?,” a new backup series in DC Comics Presents, spotlighted a number of E2 heroes, while various E2 villains challenged Schwartz-edited E1 stars. The hit 1970s Wonder Woman TV series inspired DC to replace the E1 Amazon with her E2 doppelgänger and to set her exploits during World War II. Elsewhere, the E2 Emerald Crusader guest-starred in Green

An Oracular Overview Of Twin Worlds According To Schwartz, Fox, Et. Al., 1961-1986

Lantern #108-12, the 1940s Batman joined forces with several WWII heroes in The Brave and the Bold, and Dr. Fate appeared with the E1 Batman in B&B #156. The annual JSA/JLA crossovers continued, with the teams encountering Earth-S’s Squadron of Justice (the Fawcett heroes), The Legion of Super-Heroes, Jonah Hex and other heroes of history, The New Gods, and the Secret Society of Super-Villains, and solving the murder of Mr. Terrific. But it would be JLA #193’s All-Star Squadron insert in 1981 that would herald a new era of Earth-Two history. [Aside #3. The 1970s saw more Golden Age DC heroes revived as E1 characters: The Guardian and the Newsboy Legion in Jimmy Olsen #133… an updated Manhunter in Detective Comics #437… TNT and Dyna-Mite in Super Friends #12… Robotman and Air Wave in JLA #144 and Green Lantern #100, respectively. And then there’s Quality’s Plastic Man, whose post-Golden Age history at DC would require a book of its own to explain.] The Late Period (1981-86) is, like the Early Period, characterized by a predominant editorial voice. Roy Thomas, a lifelong JSA fan, used his new E2 titles to explore that world’s past, present, and disappointingly shortlived future. The premise of All-Star Squadron was logical: If super-heroes had existed, President Franklin Roosevelt might well have conscripted them after Pearl Harbor into a single organization answerable directly to him. Thomas’ dictum that all 1940s DC and Quality heroes originated on E2 freed 62 pre-existing super-heroes to serve with the Squadron during its 70-comics run—also ringing in the star of 1978’s Steel the Indestructible Man and several new heroes created to provide much-needed gender and racial balance. The series interwove authentic World War II history with Golden Age continuity, rooting the Squadron’s fantastic adventures in reality. Guest stars, too, were plentiful, including Earth-S’s Marvel Family. Infinity, Inc. #1 (and three time-perplexed issues of All-Star Squadron) introduced “the sons—the daughters—the protégées of the legendary Justice Society of America.” The JSA were frequent guest stars, but the series focused on the kids. The older heroes had problems of their own. In the 1985 mini-series America vs. the Justice Society, a diary left by the late Batman accused the JSA of secretly aiding Hitler during WWII. Although the majority of his E2 work was for new titles he developed, including Secret Origins, Thomas also wrote World’s Finest Comics #271, featuring the origin of the E2 Superman/Batman team; co-wrote with Gerry Conway the 1983 JLA/JSA crossover that revealed Black Canary was her own daughter; and plotted DC Comics Presents Annual #3, a team-up of the two Supermen and Captain Marvel, for Julius Schwartz. The latter editor was making comparatively spare use of the E2 characters during this period outside the “Mr. & Mrs. Superman” and “Whatever Happened to…?” series, utilizing Vandal Savage as a recurring foe of the E1 Superman and gueststarring Power Girl in DCCP #56 and the Freedom Fighters in #62. The occasional E2-themed story continued to turn up in The Brave and the Bold, and a “Dr. Fate” series ran for some time in The Flash. However, a growing editorial “consensus” at DC that the multiple Earths were confusing and restrictive led to their elimination via the 1985-86 maxi-series Crisis on Infinite Earths. There was a final abbreviated JLA-JSA team-up in 1985 (Infinity, Inc. #19 & JLA #244); but, over the course of the 12-issue epic crossover in Crisis, Earths-Three and -Prime were destroyed and Earths-One, -Two, -4 (the Charlton superheroes), -S, and -X universes all merged. In the new DC Universe, the E2 Superman, Batman & Robin, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow & Speedy, and Aquaman had never existed. JSA history had to be rewritten. Those challenges would be met in post-Crisis issues of Infinity, Inc., in the Young All-Stars series that replaced All-Star Squadron, and in the new Secret Origins title. But first, the “JSA” saga came to an apparent close in the Last Days of the Justice Society Special (1986), in which most of the group were exiled to a Ragnarokian equivalent of a mobius strip, to

Squadder’s Rights Rich Buckler’s cover of the French edition of All-Star Squadron #1-2— roughly translated here as The Squadron of the Stars. Oddly, several of the hero “photos” on the wall behind Dr. Mid-Nite, Hawkman, and The Atom got dropped—and Green Lantern’s shirt wound up yellow. RT wishes he could recall who sent him this mag, published in France in 1982. Inking by Dick Giordano. [Art ©2010 DC Comics.]

prevent the Twilight of the Gods from destroying the new Earth. Still, super-hero comics being what they are, the JSA would return by 1992, and has appeared in hundreds of comic books and graphic novels in the quarter-century since Crisis. Even Earth-Two itself has been brought back in the past few years, perhaps proving the point of those who contended that it never should have been “destroyed” in the first place. And yet, for some, something is missing. The affection that the Silver and Bronze Age generations hold for Earth-Two may seem inexplicable to modern readers accustomed to comic book universes crammed to the rafters with super-heroes. But the continued interest in these old stories— reflected in the recent spate of JSA-related trade paperback collections— suggests that their appeal is cross-generational. As for those still disconsolate over its loss, we may find some comfort in Hugh Everett’s theory of infinite possibilities: somewhere, somehow… Earth-Two lives. KURT MITCHELL is a former freelance artist, computer programmer, methodologies analyst, and database designer who has finally found his true calling as a comics historian. A 1970 graduate of the University of Washington, he lives in Tacoma, Washington, with a cranky old cat named Bittys, a hunka hunka burnin’ dove named Elvis, and waaaay too many comic books.

Justice On Two Worlds The Other Earth-Two Stories – Issue by Issue, 1961-1986 Part I Of A Companion Feature To The All-Star Companion, Vol. 1-4 by Kurt Mitchell A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: The four volumes of TwoMorrows’ All-Star Companion series, edited by Yours Truly, dealt with not only the 1940-1951 history of “The Justice Society of America” in All-Star Comics (including the members’ solo tales during that era), but also with the JLA/JSA team-ups of 1963-85, with the latter-’70s “JSA” feature, and with DC comics series set in whole or in part on EarthTwo, such as All-Star Squadron, Infinity, Inc., and Secret Origins (as well as the post-E2 The Young All-Stars). That, however, still left uncovered a number of E2 stories of the pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths decades. In this article, Kurt Mitchell has recorded pertinent information concerning each of those series, character by character… a listing long enough that it will need to be continued in next month’s A/E and beyond. By and large, Ye Ed has been content to work with Kurt on choosing the illustrating artwork, to write the accompanying captions, and to shoehorn a few words into the narrative where it seemed appropriate. We commence with…

THE FLASH

t all started with the Fastest Man Alive.

The Golden Age Flash was the first Earth-Two super-hero that readers of the late 1950s would meet. Middle-aged, married, a respected research chemist and businessman, Jay Garrick was the very picture of contented domesticity, his days as a costumed crimefighter behind him. Yet it took only a nudge from his young Earth-One counterpart in The Flash #123 (Sept. 1961) to bring the original Scarlet Speedster out of retirement, beginning a chain of events that over the next two years would lead to the return of the entire Justice Society of America. Hawkman may have been chairman of the JSA, but The Flash was its heart: ever the most amiable of

Carmine Of Two Worlds Back on our contents page, we promised you the full story behind this issue’s cosmic cover, and here it is: As you surely already know, Carmine Infantino (on the right in the photo below) penciled the cover of the very first full-fledged Earth-Two tale (“Flash of Two Worlds” in 1961’s The Flash #123)—so we truly feel honored that, though he draws very little nowadays, this legendary artist consented to pencil a multi-hero version of that classic illustration for this mag. ’Twas tricky for Ye Ed to decide precisely whom to depict on the opposite sides of that brick wall. The Silver Age Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, and Atom were inevitable on the “Earth-One” side—with The Spectre added because he was the final Earth-Two hero to be revived as a solo star, in one form or another, by editor Julius Schwartz. (Besides, the Ghostly Guardian would have no trouble crisscrossing between those twin worlds.) On the other side, just as inevitably, are the E2 Flash and Green Lantern—and, though the E2 Hawkman would’ve been visually repetitious, the Golden Age Atom would’ve fit in, certainly—but we asked Carmine instead to show the E2 Superman and Wonder Woman, each of whom starred for a time in a solo series set in that world. As for the substitution of Julie Schwartz and writer Gardner Fox for that single, faceless, falling-girder-menaced workman on the cover of Flash #123—that, too, was a natural choice! Thanks, Carmine—and Roy, who’s been a major Infantino fan since that July 1956 day he purchased Showcase #4 at Fulenweider’s Drugstore in Jackson, Missouri, will always treasure your original pencils (seen above) for the drawing, which now hang proudly on a wall in the Thomases’ home. [Heroes TM & ©2010 DC Comics; other art ©2010 Carmine Infantino.] Oh—and the photo, taken a few years back at a comics convention in New York City, shows Carmine and Roy talking over those 1960s-70s days when they were respectfully competing on the newsstand. Our thanks to the picture-taker, whose name somehow got detached from the scan.

Justice On Two Worlds — Part I

mystery-men, his level head and gentle sense of humor anchored the group through all its Silver and Bronze Age incarnations. Perhaps that explains why, compared to virtually all his teammates, there were no lifechanging events or big emotional upheavals visited on him by the creative personnel who handled the character during those years. Aside from his revealing his secret identity to the public in the mid-’70s (an event first mentioned in the 1978 Flash Spectacular, a.k.a. DC Special Series #11), the E2 Flash of 1986 was the same centered presence he had been at his reintroduction in 1961.

later appearances but never allowed to overwhelm either hero or story.

One of the hero’s greatest contributions to E2 lore was his rogues’ gallery, including The Fiddler, The Shade, The Thinker (all reintroduced in The Flash #123), The Turtle (Flash #201), The Rag Doll (Flash #229), The Thorn (All-Star Comics #72), and even Flash Comics #1’s Sieur Satan (All-Star Squadron Annual #3).

Such matters were irrelevant to The Flash’s many appearances in which he was depicted in his Golden Age prime, notably in DC Special #29’s “JSA” origin (Aug.-Sept. 1977), a two-part team-up with the Amazing Amazon in Wonder Woman #239-40 (Jan.-Feb. 1978) during which he posed as his own Nazi counterpart, and throughout the run of the World War II-set All-Star Squadron, which featured a one-sided rivalry between Flash and his insecure Squadron teammate Johnny Quick. He would continue to be a major player with the JSA throughout the back-to-backto-back traumas of America vs. the Justice Society, Crisis on Infinite Earths, and Last Days of the Justice Society Special, surviving the eradication of Earth-Two only to be exiled, along with the rest of the JSA, to a Ragnarokian realm to help forestall the Twilight of the Gods, never to return.

Surprisingly, despite his recurrent appearances in The Flash and in the annual JLA/JSA crossovers in Justice League of America, Jay Garrick got only one shot at solo stardom: a back-up story in The Flash #201 (Nov. 1970) by Robert Kanigher and Murphy Anderson which established Garrick’s fear that age was eroding his super-speed, a theme touched on in

“Never” lasted all of six years. The JSA returned in 1992’s Armageddon Inferno mini-series. The Scarlet Speedster has remained a mainstay of the DC Universe ever since, as both elder statesman of a reinvigorated JSA and as avuncular mentor to Wally West, the post-Crisis Flash. It looks as though the Golden Age Flash has many more miles of road left to run….

THE FLASH #123 (Sept. 1961) COVER: Carmine Infantino (p) & Murphy Anderson (i) STORY: “Flash of Two Worlds!” – 25 pp. WRITER: Gardner Fox ARTISTS: Carmine Infantino (p) & Joe Giella (i) SYNOPSIS: The E1 Flash accidentally vibrates himself into a parallel universe, where Jay Garrick, the 1940s Flash, lives in retirement. The speedsters team up to capture E2 villains The Fiddler, The Shade, and The Thinker. Jay decides to resume his Flash career. Note Infantino’s autograph on the cover of Bob Bailey’s copy of The Flash #123. [©2010 DC Comics.]

NOTE:

• Jay Garrick is married to his Golden Age girlfriend, Joan Williams, and heads Garrick Laboratories, a chemical research company.

The Other Earth-Two Stories – Issue by Issue, 1961-1986

THE FLASH #129 (June 1962) COVER: Carmine Infantino (p) & Murphy Anderson (i) STORY: “Double Danger on Earth!” – 25 pp. WRITER: Gardner Fox ARTISTS: Carmine Infantino (p) & Joe Giella (i) JSA GUEST STARS: The Atom, Black Canary, Dr. Mid-Nite, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Wonder Woman, in flashback to All-Star Comics #57

SYNOPSIS: A comet strikes Earth-Two’s sun, unleashing a wave of deadly epsilon radiation. The E2 Flash travels to E1 to obtain a meteor whose chemical composition neutralizes epsilon rays. With his counterpart’s help, and despite the interference of Captain Cold and The Trickster, Flash returns with the meteor in time to save his world. NOTE:

• The E2 Flash utilizes an interdimensional matter transporter in this story, the first use of what would be labeled “transmatter” technology in Justice League of America #107.

A Key Scene

(Right:) In #129’s Flash-back to the events of All-Star Comics #57, the villain known as The Key was depicted in the symbolic mask shown on the 1951 mag’s splash page. He wore no mask in the story itself. Thanks to Bob Bailey. [©2010 DC Comics.]

THE FLASH #137 (June 1963) COVER: Carmine Infantino (p) & Murphy Anderson (i) STORY: “Vengeance of the Immortal Villain!” WRITER: Gardner Fox

SYNOPSIS: Vandal Savage captures six retired JSAers. He forces the two Flashes to battle each other, but eventually they free their comrades and apprehend the 50,000-year-old villain. The JSA decide to come out of retirement.

ARTISTS: Carmine Infantino (p) & Joe Giella (i)

NOTES:

JSA GUEST STARS: The Atom, Dr. Mid-Nite, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Johnny Thunder, Wonder Woman

• Savage traps Johnny Thunder rather than Black Canary, probably because he recalls JT

• Vandal Savage debuted in Green Lantern #10 (Winter 1943).

from All-Star Comics #37, while he’d never encountered the Canary.

• Hawkman wears his winged helmet rather than his later cowl-mask, though it’s colored totally yellow rather than orange-and-yellow. (But at least the colorist rendered JT’s bowtie yellow, instead of “Jimmy Olsen red” in the manner of many later colorists!)

Justice On Two Worlds — Part I

Flashes Of Two Worlds—Doctors Of Two Hospital Wards For the first time in the annals of E2 “Flash” stories, the original Fastest Man Alive wasn’t seen (or even mentioned) on the cover of The Flash #170—but that didn’t stop Drs. Fate and Mid-Nite from showing up to keep the Flashes of two worlds company. [©2010 DC Comics.]

THE FLASH #151 (March 1965)

COVER: Carmine Infantino (p) & Murphy Anderson (i) STORY: “Doomward Flight of the Flashes!” – 23 pp. WRITER: John Broome

COVER: Carmine Infantino (p) & Murphy Anderson (i) STORY: “Invader from the Dark Dimension” – 25 pp. WRITER: Gardner Fox ARTISTS: Carmine Infantino (p) & Joe Giella (i) SYNOPSIS: A rash of thefts committed by shadow creatures leads the E1 Flash to E2, where The Shade has been on a spending spree since allegedly going straight. With the aid of his E2 counterpart, Flash captures Shade and returns him to E1 for trial.

ARTISTS: Carmine Infantino (p) & Sid Greene (i) SYNOPSIS: The Golden Man of the planet Vorvan captures the E1 Flash to power the genetic accelerator that will turn prehistoric Vorvanians into mutants like himself. When Flash fakes his own death, Golden Man snares Kid Flash and the E2 Flash as replacements. He triggers the accelerator but, thanks to Jay’s extradimensional vibes, it devolves the mutant into a caveman. #173. Thanks to Bob Bailey. [©2010 DC Comics.]

THE FLASH #170 (May 1967) COVER: Carmine Infantino (p) & Murphy Anderson (i) STORY: “The See-Nothing Spells of Abra Kadabra” – 23 pp. WRITER: Gardner Fox ARTISTS: Carmine Infantino (p) & Sid Greene (i) JSA GUEST STARS: Dr. Fate, Dr. Mid-Nite SYNOPSIS: Abra Kadabra’s spell renders The Flash incapable of seeing, hearing, or otherwise perceiving criminals in action. Dr. Fate, Dr. Mid-Nite, and the E2 Flash secretly deal with the ignored crimes until they can trick Abra into lifting the spell.

The Other Earth-Two Stories – Issue by Issue, 1961-1986

worries he’s getting too old for crimefighting. Joan takes him to the Stockwood Music Festival to cheer him up. When The Fiddler tries to steal the gate receipts, Flash corrals him easily, restoring his self-confidence.

THE FLASH #201 (Nov. 1970) COVER: Carmine Infantino (p) & Murphy Anderson (i)

NOTE:

• The villain is here called “The Turtle Man,” as per the foe in the Silver Age Flash’s origin story in Showcase #4 (1956), also by Kanigher; but the 1940s speedster’s foe was known simply as The Turtle.

STORY: “Finale for a Fiddler!” – 7 pp. WRITER: Robert Kanigher ARTIST: Murphy Anderson SYNOPSIS: After getting winded during a battle with The Turtle Man, the E2 Flash

More Flash-Backs (Above left:) The Fiddler may have been the featured villain in the all-new E2 “Flash” solo tale in #210—but the capture of The Turtle Man was the favorite panel of both Kurt Mitchell and Roy Thomas. Thanks to Bob Cherry. See photo of artist Murphy Anderson on p. 13. (Above right:) While they weren’t new E2 “Flash” tales in the same sense the Kanigher/Anderson one was, a handful of 1940s stories starring Jay Garrick were redrawn in the mid-’70s. E.g., in Four Star Spectacular #1 (March-April 1976), Filipino artist Edgar Bercasio re-illustrated a saga from AllFlash #22 (April-May ’46), originally drawn by Martin Naydel—but using the original Golden Age script, credited in the GCD to John Broome. Odd, though—redrawing a story to stick it in a reprint book! Thanks to Bob Bailey. [©2010 DC Comics.]

ARTISTS: Irv Novick (p) & Frank McLaughlin (i) SYNOPSIS: An aging Vandal Savage traps both Flashes in Limbo. He compels them to find for him a duplicate of the meteor that made him immortal and dispatch it to E2. Freed by Tempus, Guardian of the Time Stream, the speedsters arrive back just as the meteor strikes and supposedly kills Savage.

Justice On Two Worlds — Part I

THE FLASH #229

THE FLASH #235

THE FLASH #236

(Sept.-Oct. 1974)

(Aug. 1975)

(Sept. 1975)

COVER: Nick Cardy

COVER: Ernie Chan/Chua (p) & Dick Giordano (i)

COVER: Mike Grell

STORY: “The Rag Doll Runs Wild!” – 20 pp. WRITER: Cary Bates ARTISTS: Irv Novick (p) & Frank McLaughlin (i) SYNOPSIS: Joan Garrick asks the E1 Flash to talk to her hubby about his recent moodiness over his inability to capture his old foe, The Rag Doll. After Barry helps Flash corral Rag Doll, they use him as bait for the real threat: The Thinker, who’s been secretly aiding RD to demoralize Flash back into retirement.

THE FLASH #237 (Oct. 1975) COVER: Ernie Chan (as Ernie Chua) STORY: “The 1,000 Year Separation!” – 11 pp.

STORY: “Vandal Savage—Wanted Dead and Alive!” – 18 pp. WRITER: Cary Bates ARTISTS: Irv Novick (p) & Tex Blaisdell (i) SYNOPSIS: Vandal Savage, trapped between dimensions, kidnaps Iris Allen and Carol Ferris to force E1’s Flash and Green Lantern to free him. They defeat him and rescue Carol, but “Iris” is an illusion. Little does Flash realize his wife is on E2, the prisoner of his JSA counterpart!

marry him. Flash removes the aura and returns home with Iris. NOTE:

• The E2 Flash was not seen on the cover of #237.

WRITER: Cary Bates ARTISTS: Irv Novick (p) & Frank McLaughlin (i) JSA GUEST STAR: Dr. Fate SYNOPSIS: Ignoring Fate and Jay’s warning, The Flash tracks down Iris in the 30th century. Her deadly aura is the work of The Reverse Flash, who will remove it only if she agrees to

STORY: “Nowhere on the Face of Earth!” – 20 pp. WRITER: Cary Bates ARTISTS: Irv Novick (p) & Tex Blaisdell (i) JSA GUEST STAR: Dr. Fate SYNOPSIS: The Flash scours the planet for his missing wife. Dr. Fate distracts him with illusory menaces, while he and the E2 Flash desperately try to cure Iris of a mysterious aura that will destroy the world if she and Barry ever touch again. They finally exile her to E1’s future.

The Other Earth-Two Stories – Issue by Issue, 1961-1986

THE FLASH #247 (Mar. 1977) COVER: Rich Buckler (p) & Frank McLaughlin (i) STORY: “The Mad, Mad World of Abra Kadabra!” – 17 pp. WRITER: Cary Bates

FLASH SPECTACULAR, 1978 [a.k.a. DC SPECIAL SERIES, VOL. 2, #11] COVER: Jose Luis Garcia Lopez STORY: “Beyond the Super-Speed Barrier!” – 64 pp. WRITER: Cary Bates (w) ARTISTS: Irv Novick (p; pp 1-5, 17-37, 63-64), Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (p; pp 6-16), Kurt #247. Thanks to the GCD. [©2010 DC Comics.]

ARTISTS: Irv Novick (p) & Frank McLaughlin (i) SYNOPSIS: While Flash, framed for the murder of Abra Kadabra, sits in a 64th-century prison cell, the very-much-alive Abra plots to plunder the 20th. Unaware he has accidentally teleported to E2, he’s baffled by the appearance of another Flash. Eventually the combined Flashes overcome him, return him to his own era, and clear Flash’s name.

Schaffenberger (p; pp 38-49), Alex Saviuk (p; pp 50-62), Joe Giella (i; 1-5, 17-37, 50-64), Wally Wood (i; pp 6-16) & Murphy Anderson (i; pp 38-49) EARTH-TWO GUEST STAR: Johnny Quick SYNOPSIS: The Flash, Kid Flash, and the E2 Flash each finds himself in a situation contrived to force him through a hitherto unknown speed barrier. This is the work of the recently executed Gorilla Grodd, who uses the trio’s vibratory powers to collect his scattered atoms from limbo. Mentally reassembling his body, Grodd now gains super-speed—but the three Flashes still merge their atoms long enough to deliver a knockout blow. (Left:) Cary Bates. Art by Kurt Schaffenberger. [©2010 DC Comics.]

Flash Be Nimble, Johnny Be Quick! (Left:) Jay Garrick gets the cover spot on a People-style magazine in the Flash Spectacular, 1978. (Right:) Soon afterward, he and fellow speed-demon Johnny Quick “meet”—though only a single word balloon suggests it’s the first time they’ve run into each other. When developing All-Star Squadron a couple of years later, Roy T. figured Johnny was just joshing; at least, that’s his story, and he’s sticking to it. Incidentally, in The All-Star Companion, Vol. 3, Ye Editor wrote that scripter Cary Bates had gotten JQ’s “Magic Formula” wrong by adding that “X” at the end—but when he re-read the episode, he remembered that it was all part of the plot! Apologies, Cary! [©2010 DC Comics.]

Justice On Two Worlds — Part I

NOTES:

• According to this story, the E2 Flash and Johnny Quick—who briefly battle as part of Grodd’s scheme—have never met before. This “fact” will be ignored in the 1980s World War II retroactive-continuity series All-Star Squadron, and the discrepancy has never been explained.

• Johnny (Johnny Quick) Chambers is now an executive with Sees-All/Tells-All Video.

THE FLASH #305 (Jan. 1982) COVER: Carmine Infantino (p) & Mike DeCarlo (i) STORY: “Don’t Take My Wife, Please!” – 17 pp. WRITER: Cary Bates ARTISTS: Carmine Infantino (p) & Bob Smith (i) FS, 1978. Thanks to the GCD. [©2010 DC Comics.]

JSA GUEST STAR: Dr. Fate

SYNOPSIS: The Lord of Limbo kidnaps Joan Garrick as bait to lure the two Flashes, whom he wants to add to his collection of captive time travelers. Sent to Limbo courtesy of Dr. Fate, the speedsters deduce that the villain is himself a

prisoner of his realm. Though he disguises himself as one of the rescued captives, the Flashes close their inter-dimensional portal before the Limbo Lord can cross over.

GREEN LANTERN Despite frequent guest appearances in Silver Age Earth-Two stories, the original Green Lantern remained something of an enigma to readers. Reintroduced in The Flash #137 (June 1963), he received little attention in the annual JLA/JSA crossovers (apart from the inevitable invocation of his vulnerability to wood). His guest appearance in Showcase #55 (Mar.-Apr. 1965) alongside its stars, Dr. Fate and Hourman, was the first to mention his alter ego Alan Scott, now the president of Gotham Broadcasting. Inspired by the success of the two-Flash team-ups, editor Julius Schwartz and Green Lantern regulars John Broome and Gil Kane launched a similar series of encounters between the E1 and E2 power ring wielders, beginning with #40 (Oct. 1965). In that story, we met Doiby Dickles, the plucky little cab driver who aided GL in the Golden Age, and his antique cab “Goitrude.” It would be Doiby

Green Jobs While Fox and Infantino were the team supreme on the E2 epics in The Flash, writer John Broome and penciler Gil Kane were their cataclysmic counterparts in Green Lantern, likewise under editor Julie Schwartz. Photos are of Kane (above)—and (at left, l. to r.) Murphy Anderson, collector Bill Howard holding the original art to an Anderson-drawn Strange Adventures cover, and John Broome. The latter pic was taken by Jon Berk at a banquet during the 1998 San Diego Comic-Con; the former originally appeared in the program book for Phil Seuling’s 1970 New York Comic Art Convention. As for the illo above showing Julie, the E2 GL, et al., it’s courtesy of artist Ed Quinby and publisher Jim Kingman, from the cover of Comic Effect #47 (Spring 2009). For copies of that fanzine’s “Schwartz’s Greatest Hits” issue, contact Jim at jkcoeff@aol.com or P.O. Box 2188, Pasadena, CA 91102-2188. [Green Lantern, Ambush Bug, and Atomic Knight TM & ©2010 DC Comics; other art in illo ©2010 Ed Quinby.]

The Other Earth-Two Stories – Issue by Issue, 1961-1986

around whom the second and third GL/GL stories would revolve. It was not until the fourth team-up, #61 (June 1968), that GL himself was spotlighted, in a story depicting an ageing, frustrated Green Lantern worn down by years of strife. GL’s woes continued in the 1970s “Justice Society” series. A bankrupt Alan Scott lost control of Gotham Broadcasting in All-Star Comics #65 (Mar.-Apr. 1977), leaving him vulnerable to the psychological manipulations of The Psycho-Pirate. It took most of the JSA to end the brainwashed Lantern’s rampage in #68, but its ramifications were explored in a three-part back-up tale running in Green Lantern #108-10 (Sept.-Nov. 1978). Green Lantern #111-12 (Dec. 1978-Jan. 1979) teamed the Emerald Gladiators and the E1 Green Arrow on a mission to retrieve the stolen Starheart, as detailed under the individual issue listings below. . Although he continued to appear with the JSA through the end of their series in Adventure Comics #466 (Nov.-Dec. 1979) and in many of the annual JLA/JSA crossovers, there were no more guest shots in his counterpart’s title. The launching of writer Roy Thomas’ E2 titles All-Star Squadron and Infinity, Inc. reversed his slide back toward obscurity. GL

was a frequent participant in Squadron missions and was showcased in #20 (Apr. 1983), a powerful story illustrated by Jerry Ordway in which GL, during a Brain Wave-induced dream, destroys Japan with his power ring. It was in Infinity that Alan Scott met his children, the teenage superheroes Jade and Obsidian, sired during his one-day marriage to a woman he believed had died in a fire on their honeymoon—actually the multipersonality super-villainess The Thorn. He also encountered his former foe The Harlequin, who finally revealed she was actually Alan’s secretary Molly Mayne. The couple wed in Infinity, Inc. Annual #1 (1985), but their happiness was cut short when the JSA were exiled to Ragnarok in Last Days of the Justice Society Special #1 to prevent Gotterdammerung, the Twilight of the Gods, from destroying the multiverse. But nothing is final in the world of super-heroes. GL and his teammates soon returned from exile. The Emerald Gladiator went on to star in a short-lived solo series in the ’90s Green Lantern Corps Quarterly and even received a major facelift, regaining his youth and adopting a new action name: The Sentinel. Happily, that change didn’t take, but the original GL nonetheless remains a star of the post-Crisis DC Universe.

GREEN LANTERN #40 (October 1965) COVER: Gil Kane (p) & Murphy Anderson (i) STORY: “Secret Origin of the Guardians!” – 24 pp. WRITER: John Broome ARTISTS: Gil Kane (p) & Sid Greene (i)

SYNOPSIS: When a meteor’s radiation removes his ring’s vulnerability to wood, the E2 Green Lantern goes to E1 to see if it has a matching effect on that world’s GL. The “meteor” is actually Krona, a renegade Oan scientist reduced to bodiless energy and exiled 10 billion years ago. Krona, fixated on avenging himself on the Guardians of the Universe, possesses the E2 Lantern, whose

mind takes refuge in the E1 Lantern’s ring. The GLs’ combined willpowers drive Krona out of Alan Scott’s body and back into exile. NOTES:

• This is the first E2 story not written by Gardner Fox.

• Although still driving his cab “Goitrude,” Doiby Dickles is now Alan Scott’s chauffeur.

• The story of Krona’s quest to witness the origin of the universe will culminate in the 1985-86 Crisis on Infinite Earths series, which merged E2 and four sister realities into a single universe.

Justice On Two Worlds — Part I

Dickles tries to fix her up with “Green Lantrin,” which doesn’t sit well with Prince Peril. His battle with GL spills over to E1. He defeats both Lanterns and hauls the princess back to Myrg. The heroes recover and defeat him. Ramia chooses Doiby as her consort.

GREEN LANTERN #45 (June 1966) COVER: Gil Kane STORY: “Prince Peril’s Power Play” – 24 pp. WRITER: John Broome ARTISTS: Gil Kane (p) & Sid Greene (i) SYNOPSIS: Princess Ramia of the planet Myrg comes to E2 to find a worthy mate. Doiby

SYNOPSIS: A new gang runs riot on E1, led by Doiby Dickles’ taxi “Goitrude.” Green Lantern and his E2 counterpart fetch Doiby and his “space princeress” from Myrg to talk sense into “her,” only to find the cab’s been possessed by Sinestro. The trio overcome Sinestro and his flunkies, but “Goitrude” is destroyed during the battle. NOTE:

• No E2 GL on cover.

My Taxicab, The Renegade Green Lantern (Above:) My Mother, the Car, the TV sitcom about a 1928 auto that’s the reincarnation of Jerry Van Dyke’s mom, lasted but a single season in 1965-66… but it launched a thousand cruel jokes, and even spawned this two-GLs epic in #52. Sinestro, the defrocked Green Lantern, turned out to be behind the plot. The story served as a vehicle (pun intended) for Gil Kane to both pencil and ink. Thanks to Bob Bailey. [©2010 DC Comics.]

GREEN LANTERN #61 (June 1968) COVER: Gil Kane STORY: “Thoroughly Modern Mayhem!” – 23 pp. WRITER: Mike Friedrich ARTISTS: Gil Kane (p) & Sid Greene (i) SYNOPSIS: After 48 straight hours of combating a massive crime wave, an exhausted and frustrated Alan Scott/GL orders his ring to “get rid of all evil on Earth.” On E1, that world’s Lantern finds the entire population of E2 in suspended animation on the Utah salt flats. Reviving Alan, Hal points out his mistake: the potential for evil exists in everyone. After setting things right, the Lanterns squelch the crime wave. NOTE: #61. Thanks to Betty Dobson. [©2010 DC Comics.]

• While investigating a burglary at Wayne Manor, GL notes that Dick (Robin) Grayson no longer lives there.

The Other Earth-Two Stories – Issue by Issue, 1961-1986

GREEN LANTERN #108

SYNOPSIS: Escaping from the Green Dragons, Green Lantern meets the beautiful Lo-Lanke. She identifies the tong’s emerald energywielding leader as Lord Chang, the sorcerer who first formed the green meteor into a lamp. Kept alive for centuries by a sliver of the meteor, Chang wants GL’s ring and lantern. Riddled with doubt, the Lantern loses his next confrontation with the wizard.

SYNOPSIS: Lord Chang transforms himself into The Green Dragon. The sentient Green Flame of Life reminds GL that his ring will work only as long as “you have faith in yourself,” a faith he lost after his bankruptcy and enslavement by Psycho-Purate. His confidence restored, he forces Chang back into human form. The sorcerer, unaware of the energy’s vulnerability to wood, dies beneath a fallen tree.

(Sept. 1978) COVER: Mike Grell STORY: “The Champion of the Green Flame!” – 8 pp. WRITER: Cary Burkett (photo on p. 44) ARTISTS: Mike Vosburg (p) & Bob Smith (i) JSA GUEST STAR: The Flash (as Jay Garrick)

GREEN LANTERN #110

SYNOPSIS: When a construction site is destroyed before his eyes by an emerald energy blast, Green Lantern fears his power ring is responsible. He traces the lingering energy signature back to its source: Gotham City’s Chinatown. His confrontation with the Green Dragon Tong ends with GL felled by a blast of emerald light.

(Nov. 1978)

NOTES:

• Alan Scott has temporarily moved in with Jay and Joan Garrick. • The Green Dragons may be the descendents of the tong that clashed with Batman in Detective Comics #39 (May 1940).

GREEN LANTERN #109 (Oct. 1978) COVER: Mike Grell STORY: “The Green Dragon of… Death” – 8 pp. WRITER: Cary Burkett ARTISTS: Juan Ortiz (p) & Vince Colletta (i)

COVER: Mike Grell STORY: “The Doom of Dragon-Fire!” – 8 pp. WRITER: Cary Burkett ARTISTS: Juan Ortiz (p) & Vince Colletta (i)

Justice On Two Worlds — Part I

SYNOPSIS: Eons ago, the Guardians of the Universe gathered up most of the magic in the E1 universe and sealed it in the fiery interior of a star. Now a thief has stolen this Starheart, whose energies will destroy the universe if left unchecked. The Guardians summon the E2 GL, whose magic-based ring may prevail where the Green Lantern Corps’ science-based rings cannot. The two Earthian Lanterns and the E1 Green Arrow track down the thief—who fells them all with a blast from the Starheart. NOTE:

• This story’s credits include a nod to sciencefiction writer Roger Zelazny “for inspiration rendered.”

GREEN LANTERN #111 (Dec. 1978) COVER: Mike Grell STORY: “Dark Things Cannot Stand the Light” – 17 pp. WRITER: Denny O’Neil ARTISTS: Alex Saviuk (p) & Vince Colletta (i)

THE ATOM In the wake of the successful Flash/Flash and Green Lantern/Green Lantern teamings, Julius Schwartz chose The Atom for the next such experiment. In The Atom #29, readers learned that E2 Atom Al Pratt, who’d been a perpetual student in the Golden Age, was now a professor of nuclear physics at his alma mater Calvin College. Writer Gardner Fox and artist Gil Kane even gave the pint-sized powerhouse an “Atomobile.” But the Atom title had been slipping in sales, so only one more team-up occurred (in #36) before its cancellation. The E2 Atom nearly disappeared for the next decade, co-starring in DC Special #29’s “JSA” origin, getting captured by the title baddies in Secret Society of Super-Villains #15, and receiving his own 8-page installment of the “Whatever Happened to…?” series in DC Comics Presents #30 (which introduced his wife Mary), but otherwise making only a cameo appearance or two. He was front-and-center, however, in the 1980s, playing a prominent role in the All-Star Squadron and Infinity, Inc. titles;

WRITER: Denny O’Neil

ARTISTS: Alex Saviuk (p) & Vince Colletta (i)

NOTE:

SYNOPSIS: The recovered Green Lanterns and Green Arrow trail the Starheart thief to his home planet. Captured, they learn he is the planet’s “jacklord” or ruler, Zalaz, who plans to use the Starheart’s magic to cure his queen, M’La, of a fatal illness. The cure kills Zalaz and awakens the Starheart, which urges the Lanterns to reimprison it. M’La volunteers to serve as the Starheart’s eternal guardian.

• The Starheart, seeking to preserve its consciousness from the Guardians’ prison, sent a portion of itself into the E2 universe, where it fell in ancient China. The Green Flame of Life is thus a discrete portion of the Starheart’s mind, and the E2 Green Lantern its chosen champion.

in the latter he took a grandfatherly interest in Nuklon, the son of Al’s goddaughter Terri Kurtzberg Rothstein, until exiled to Ragnarok alongside his teammates in Last Days of the Justice Society Special #1.

THE ATOM #29 (Feb.-Mar. 1967) COVER: Gil Kane STORY: “The Thinker’s Earth-Shaking Robberies!” – 23 pp. WRITER: Gardner Fox ARTISTS: Gil Kane (p) & Sid Greene (i) SYNOPSIS: The Thinker commits crimes on E1, unaware his new-and-improved thinking cap forces reformed thief Artie Perkins, a friend of the E2 Atom, to commit identical robberies. The Atoms team up and capture The Thinker. NOTE:

• Al (The Atom) Pratt is now a professor of nuclear physics at Calvin College.

The Other Earth-Two Stories – Issue by Issue, 1961-1986

Next Stop—Tenure! (Above:) Guess a nuclear physics prof’s salary was pretty hefty in 1967—since in The Atom #29, the E2 Mighty Mite had his own “Atomobile.” We don’t even recall if he ever owned a jalopy as a Calvin College undergrad! Thanks to Betty Dobson. [©2010 DC Comics.]

Size Matters? (Above:) The two Atoms mix it up in The Atom #36—a clear result of Marvel’s influence on DC. By mistake or just to save time, Gil Kane penciled Al Pratt’s chest symbol as a simple circle rather than as a burst; and, despite the indicated short sleeves, the E2 hero’s arms got colored yellow. Well, the coloring of the original Mighty Mite never was terribly consistent— but the white cape in the final panel is a definite boo-boo! Thanks to Betty Dobson. [©2010 DC Comics.]

THE ATOM #36 (Apr.-May 1968) COVER: Gil Kane STORY: “Duel of the Dual Atoms” – 23 pp. WRITER: Gardner Fox ARTISTS: Gil Kane (p) & Sid Greene (i)

SYNOPSIS: The women of Calvin City begin aging unnaturally. The Atom travels to E1 seeking answers and finds its men—including his counterpart—rapidly growing younger. Despite this handicap, the Atoms discover the source of the strange radiation responsible and neutralize it, restoring all its victims to normal.

NOTES:

• Al Pratt is still a bachelor.

• According to the genealogy tables in the Graphitti Press edition of the Mark Waid/Alex Ross Kingdom Come series, Al’s blind date in this issue, Marion Thayer, is the same woman later known as Mary Pratt. However, it could also have been the same Mary James he dated all through his Golden Age career.

Justice On Two Worlds — Part I

THE SPECTRE “The Spectre is coming!” So promised a series of ads running throughout DC’s line of comics in the autumn of 1965. Maybe older fans knew what that meant, but younger readers hadn’t a clue who this hooded, ghastly-white figure was. We found out in Showcase #60 (Jan.-Feb. 1966), which starred the costumed ghost with fantastic powers created by Jerry Siegel & Bernard Baily for More Fun Comics #52 (Feb. 1940). The first JSA member to be reintroduced in a solo story, The Spectre got the royal treatment from writer Gardner Fox and artist Murphy Anderson (and of course editor Julius Schwartz). Jettisoning the silliness that had descended on the Golden Age strip after Percival Popp the Super-Cop joined the cast in More Fun #74 (Dec. 1941), this trio returned to an earlier format: Spectre and his alter ego, police detective Capt. Jim Corrigan, are separate manifestations of the same personality, one physical, one spiritual, each capable of independent action. Theirs was truly a Ghostly

Guardian—humanity’s last resort against cosmic evils from our universe and beyond, armed with the mystic might of the original but without the grim ruthlessness. After two more Showcase issues (#61 & 64), the character received his own bimonthly title. Fox and Anderson were still on hand for The Spectre #1 (Nov.-Dec. 1967), after which Neal Adams, Jerry Grandenetti, and a returning Anderson handled the title. Later editor Dick Giordano, to revive sagging sales figures, recast the hero as a narrator of short tales of suspense and horror, chained to the Journal of Judgment as penance for killing a crook and injuring Jim Corrigan. This change in direction could not save the title from cancellation following #10 (May-June 1969). During the period of his run, The Spectre also fought alongside the Justice Society in Justice League of America #46-47 (Aug.-Sept. 1966) and co-starred in The Brave and the Bold #72 (June-July 1967) and #75 (Dec. 1967-Jan. 1968). He next appeared in JLA #82-83 (Aug.Sept. 1970) as part of the annual JLA/JSA crossover, in which he had to be summoned by Dr. Fate before he could take a hand in the

Even Salvador Dali Only Melted The Hands Of Clocks! A new and relatively grisly (for the day) run of “Spectre” stories appeared in 1974-75, with stories by Michael Fleisher and art by Jim Aparo. On this cover of the initial episode, in Adventure Comics #431 (Jan.-Feb. 1975), the Ghostly Guardian melts the fingers of a hapless criminal. That’s gotta hurt! Thanks to the Grand Comics Database. [©2010 DC Comics.]

action. At story’s end, he sacrificed his supernatural existence to save the twin Earths, though E1’s Green Arrow assured us The Spectre was “too good to die.”

Towering Ambition In his Silver Age debut, The Spectre picked up where he’d left off during the Golden Age, rather than giving way to a dopplegänger as had Julie Schwartz’s previous revivals Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, and Atom. In Showcase #60, artist Murphy Anderson re-created two of Bernard Baily’s classic scenes from 1940 More Fun Comics covers. Thanks to Bob Bailey—no relation. [©2010 DC Comics.]

Adventure Comics editor Joe Orlando agreed. A new “Spectre” series was launched in #431 (Jan.-Feb. 1974) by the team of writer Michael Fleisher (aided by Russell Carley in early issues) and artist Jim Aparo. Their dark interpretation of The Spectre as a relentless spirit of vengeance hearkened back to the earliest days of the Siegel/Baily series. Jim Corrigan, now a captain of detectives with the NYPD, is The Spectre, a walking corpse forced to keep potential love interest Gwen Sterling at arm’s length. What made these stories memorable—and controversial—were the horrific deaths Spectre visited on the coldblooded killers he stalked, epitomized by the infamous scene in which he turns a crook to wood and runs him through an electric saw. A fan favorite, the strip was nonetheless cancelled with #440 (July-August 1975). Although Orlando and Fleisher never explicitly identified the series’ setting, their Spectre appeared alongside the E1 Batman in The Brave and the Bold #116 (Dec. 1974-Jan. 1975)—but then, The Spectre always was a character who could have traversed the gap between Earth-Two and Earth-One as if it were nothing more than the hyperspace equivalent of a mud puddle.

The Other Earth-Two Stories – Issue by Issue, 1961-1986

Making his first definite appearance on E2 in half a decade, The Spectre played a key role in Justice League of America #124 (Nov. 1975), the concluding half of that year’s JLA/JSA teaming. Once more the benevolent super-hero, he talked God into okaying the resurrections of six JSAers slain by the Injustice Society. Aside from a Jim Corrigan cameo in All-Star Comics #70 (Jan.Feb. 1978), The Spectre would not set foot on his home world again until America vs. the Justice Society #2 (Feb. 1985).

SHOWCASE #60

In the interim, Spectre guest-starred throughout the DC line. In some appearances, such as Ghosts #97-99 (Feb.-Apr. 1981), he was the bloodthirsty avenger of the Fleisher/Aparo stories. In others, such as Showcase #100 (May 1978), he hearkened back to the Fox/Anderson version. DC Comics Presents #29 (Jan. 1981), a Len Wein/Jim Starlin collaboration for editor Schwartz, depicted a truly cosmic Spectre who took his marching orders straight from On High. This approach towards the character as a transcendent being long since shed of any emotional connection to the living reached its apotheosis in Swamp Thing Annual #2 (Jan. 1985), by Alan Moore, Steve Bissette, & John Totleben, wherein an enormous Spectre is more unknowable force of nature than one-time super-team member.

(Jan.-Feb. 1966) COVER: Murphy Anderson STORY: “War That Shook the Universe!” – 24 pp. WRITER: Gardner Fox ARTIST: Murphy Anderson SYNOPSIS: The Spectre has been trapped within Jim Corrigan for two decades thanks to Azmodus, a demon who came to Earth in 1945. His powers cancelled out Spec’s, leaving both trapped within their host bodies. When Azmodus’ host body dies, both he and Spectre are freed. Spectre defeats Azmodus and exiles him to another dimension. NOTES:

• First appearance of The Spectre since More Fun Comics #101 (Jan.-Feb. 1945). • Jim Corrigan is now a captain of detectives with the Gateway City Police Department.

Roy Thomas acknowledged this later interpretation in AVJS #2. Spectre’s frightening “testimony” before the Congressmen investigating the “Batman Diary” allegations—he threatened at one point to destroy Earth-Two and take the JSA to a world more deserving of them—led Dr. Fate to observe that their old teammate was now “all ghost [and] no part man.” It was no surprise, then, that The Spectre was front-and-center in the battle against The AntiMonitor during the reality-altering Crisis on Infinite Earths maxi-series. He was also a player in two aftershocks of that greatest of cataclysms, combating the ultimate evil alongside DC’s mightiest magicians in Swamp Thing #50 (July 1986) and inadvertently triggering the Twilight of the Gods in Last Days of the Justice Society Special #1 (1986), the former courtesy of Moore/Bissette/Totleben, the latter by Thomas and artist David Ross. The Spectre paid for his mistake with his ethereal “life,” torn apart by the Spear of Destiny in Last Days. Resurrection, however, is old hat where The Spectre is concerned. In the 25 years since the Crisis, there have been four additional Spectre series, notably the 1992-97 run by Jon Ostrander and Tom Mandrake, and countless guest appearances, including his central role in Mark Waid & Alex Ross’ epic 1996 Kingdom Come mini-series. It seems to be fated that the DC Universe, whatever form it takes, will continue to be haunted by a Spectre.

Justice On Two Worlds — Part I

The Spectre carries Shathan back to the moment of the Big Bang, the energies of which scatter the demon’s atoms across the newborn universe.

SHOWCASE #64 (Sept.-Oct. 1966) COVER: Murphy Anderson STORY: “The Ghost of Ace Chance!” – 24 pp. WRITER: Gardner Fox ARTIST: Murphy Anderson SYNOPSIS: The ghost of murdered gambler and gigolo Ace Chance, fortified by the negative radiation emitted by evil deeds, takes over Jim Corrigan while The Spectre is away. Spectre must draw on the positive energy given off by acts of kindness, charity, and religious devotion to force the squatter out of Jim and back into Chance’s revived body. #61. Thanks to Betty Dobson. [©2010 DC Comics.]

SHOWCASE #61 (March-April 1966) COVER: Murphy Anderson STORY: “Beyond the Sinister Barrier!” – 24 pp. WRITER: Gardner Fox ARTIST: Murphy Anderson SYNOPSIS: People in mortal danger around the world sell their shadows to Shathan the Eternal in exchange for their lives, enabling the monstrous demon to enter the E2 dimension.

NOTE:

• First appearance of Mona Marcy, the world’s richest woman and, thanks to Ace Chance, Jim Corrigan’s fiancée.

THE SPECTRE #1

THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #72

COVER: Murphy Anderson

(June-July 1967)

STORY: “The Sinister Lives of Captain Skull!” – 23 pp.

(Nov.-Dec. 1967)

COVER: Carmine Infantino (p) & Murphy Anderson (i)

WRITER: Gardner Fox

STORY: “Phantom Flash, Cosmic Traitor” – 24 pages

SYNOPSIS: Diplomat Joseph Clanton is possessed during brain surgery by Captain Skull, the pirate Clanton had been in a previous life.

WRITER: Bob Haney

ARTIST: Murphy Anderson

ARTISTS: Carmine Infantino (p) & Chuck Cuidera (i) SYNOPSIS: While visiting E2, the E1 Flash is captured by The Ghost Pilot, the spirit of an American aviator killed in action on the last day of World War II, and is transformed into his phantom slave. Blaming his old squadron for his death, Capt. Luther Jarvis invades their reunion and challenges each to a final dogfight. The Spectre intervenes, convincing Ghost Pilot there is no honor in killing helpless old men. Instead, he and the Phantom Flash square off for the vets’ lives. During their aerial combat, Spectre returns Flash to normal. The Pilot disavows his vengeance and passes over. NOTE:

• This is the first E2-related comic not edited by Julius Schwartz; George Kashdan does the honors.

The Other Earth-Two Stories – Issue by Issue, 1961-1986

Charged with “megacyclic” energy, Skull makes life difficult for The Spectre. After a chase across three millennia involving four earlier incarnations, Spec imprisons the buccaneer within his proper body. NOTE:

• Among Clanton/Skull’s earlier incarnations are the Trojan prince Paris and the Roman emperor Commodus.

THE SPECTRE #2 (Jan.-Feb. 1968) COVER: Neal Adams STORY: “Die, Spectre—Again!” – 23 pp. WRITER: Gardner Fox ARTIST: Neal Adams SYNOPSIS: Stage magician and petty crook Dirk Rawley’s fear of death creates an “etheric double” of himself, an evil dopplegänger with vast mystic powers. The Spectre and Corrigan must strike the two Rawleys at the same instant to vanquish them. Jim nearly loses his badge in the process, but the double is destroyed and the real Rawley arrested. NOTES:

• The Spectre visits Arkham, Massachusetts, the “witch-haunted” (fictional) city featured in the horror fiction of H.P. Lovecraft.

• This is the last appearance of Mona Marcy. Although she and Jim are still a couple at the end of this issue, neither she nor their engagement is ever mentioned again.

THE SPECTRE #3 (March-April 1968) COVER: Neal Adams STORY: “Hang ’Em Up, Wildcat—You’re Finished!” – 24 pp. (includes 2nd chapter, titled “Menace of the Mystic Mastermind!”) WRITER: Mike Friedrich ARTIST: Neal Adams STARRING: Wildcat

SYNOPSIS: Wildcat worries that he’s getting too old for super-heroics. Small-time crook “Sad” Jack Dold, randomly saturated in extradimensional magic, goes on a crime spree as “Happy” Jack, humiliating Wildcat on live television. After reassuring Wildcat that Dold’s magical might is beyond what any mortal man could fight, Spectre tracks down Dold and removes his powers. Ted Grant decides to open a chain of gymnasiums in inner city neighborhoods.

Justice On Two Worlds — Part I

NOTE:

• This issue saw the auspicious scripting debut of Mike Friedrich, who went on to a long career as a comics writer, then as a “groundlevel” comics publisher, later as a comic creators’ agent.

Wildcat Strike (Right:) Though it was unclear whether mid-’60s “Spectre” stories were occurring on Earth-One or -Two, Ye Editor believes the latter was editor Julie Schwartz’s intention—since there was only one Spectre in the DC Universe, and since the ageing Wildcat was another 1940s JSAer. Ted Grant made such a dramatic debut in issue #3 that it’s surprising he didn’t get his own comic! Thanks to Bob Rozakis. [©2010 DC Comics.]

THE SPECTRE #4 (May-June 1968) COVER: Neal Adams STORY: “Stop That Kid… before He Wrecks the World!” – 24 pp. WRITER/ARTIST: Neal Adams SYNOPSIS: Little Hamilton Benedict gains immeasurable magical powers when he is infected by a space-borne plague of evil. Jim Corrigan insists the boy must die before it spreads, but The Spectre resists. His refusal to kill an innocent child obliterates the contagion, freeing Hamilton.

Did Neal Ever Draw Anybody Alive And Normal? Neal Adams in 1970, checking his rendering of Medusa and The Thing for the program book of the New York Comic Art Convention—and a 1969 Spectre sketch he did, probably for a fan. Neal would later draw the Inhumans in their own series—and of course he’d already made a name for himself illustrating “Deadman.” Thanks to Heritage Comics Archives and Dominic Bongo for the art; we found the photo on the Golden Age Comic Book Stories website. [Spectre TM & ©2010 DC Comics.]

The Other Earth-Two Stories – Issue by Issue, 1961-1986

THE SPECTRE #5

What Not To Bring Back With You From A Trip (Above:_ Looks like The Spectre picked up an unnoticed hitchhiker on one of his jaunts through the ether in issue #5! Thanks to Bob Bailey. [©2010 DC Comics.)

(July-Aug. 1968) COVER: Neal Adams STORY: “The Spectre Means Death!” – 23 pp. WRITER/ARTIST: Neal Adams SYNOPSIS: People inexplicably panic whenever The Spectre appears in public, hampering his efforts to combat a rampaging giant. Jim Corrigan tracks down the real culprit: The Psycho-Pirate, whose magic spell created the giant— actually Gat Benton, the gangster who murdered Corrigan, and now a drunken derelict. While Spec cures Benton, Jim turns the Pirate’s own powers against him.

THE SPECTRE #6 (Sept.-Oct. 1968) COVER: Jerry Grandenetti (p) & Murphy Anderson (i) STORY: “Pilgrims of Peril!” – 23 pp. WRITER: Gardner Fox ARTISTS: Jerry Grandenetti (p) & Murphy Anderson (i) SYNOPSIS: The ghosts of Zebabeb Dodson and his cult of demon-worshipping pilgrims appear for one day every hundred years to steal one of three mystic artifacts needed to return

Grandenetti Opera them to life and allow the monstrous demon Nawor to invade Earth. The Spectre discovers Nawor’s weakness to rowan wood and exiles him to his home dimension, releasing the souls of Dodson and company.

(Above:) When Neal Adams left The Spectre after four issues, Murphy Anderson returned with #6—but he was too busy to handle full art chores this time around, so veteran artist Jerry Grandenetti was brought in as penciler, with Murphy inking. Grandenetti’s offbeat layouts added to the strip’s outré feel. Thanks to Bob Bailey. [©2010 DC Comics.]

Justice On Two Worlds — Part I

“Be Original” (Left:) The autographed Grandenetti/Anderson cover for The Spectre #6 was offered for sale recently by original art dealer Mike Burkey (www.romitaman.com). Our heading above, of course, refers to the fact that the mag’s editor liked to style himself “Julius ‘B.O.’ Schwartz,” with the potentially offensive abbreviation standing for “Be Original.” [©2010 DC Comics.]

THE SPECTRE #7

THE SPECTRE #8

(Nov.-Dec. 1968)

(Jan.-Feb. 1969)

COVER: Jerry Grandenetti (p) & Murphy Anderson (i)

COVER: Nick Cardy

STORY: “The Ghost That Haunted Money” – 14 pp. WRITER: Gardner Fox ARTISTS: Jerry Grandenetti (p) & Murphy Anderson (i) SYNOPSIS: The ghost of bank robber Frankie Barron, killed on the job, refuses to rest until he completes his aborted crime. The Spectre uses his powers to free Frankie from this obsession and send him on to the spirit realm.

STORY: “The Parchment of Power Perilous” – 23 pp. WRITER: Steve Skeates ARTISTS: Jerry Grandenetti (p) & Murphy Anderson (i) SYNOPSIS: When a tired and careless Spectre accidentally injures an innocent bystander, The Voice decrees that he suffer random weaknesses as penance. During his battle with the cosmically powerful sorcerer Narkran, Spectre is

struck blind. Despite this handicap, he holds Narkran at bay until the villain is consumed by his own power.

The Other Earth-Two Stories – Issue by Issue, 1961-1986

A Late-’60s Happening—Grandenetti/Anderson Style (Above:) The Spectre again faces the mysterious Voice—clearly a stand-in for God—who gave him his formidable powers and afterlife back in More Fun Comics #52 (Feb. 1940). This time, in Spectre #8, the confrontation had a psychedelic, acid-trip look. Thanks to Bob Bailey. [©2010 DC Comics.]

Meet Frederick Foost—Any Relation To Felix Faust? (Above:) Bernie Wrightson (who then spelled his first name “Berni”) brought his own eerie touch to the middle story in The Spectre #9, not long before he would be celebrated as the artist/co-creator of Swamp Thing. Thanks to Bob Rozakis. [©2010 DC Comics.]

THE SPECTRE #9 (March-April 1969) COVER: Nick Cardy STORY: Untitled – 11 pp. WRITER: Mike Freidrich ARTISTS: Jerry Grandenetti (p) & Frank Giacoia (i) SYNOPSIS: Spectre, bitter over The Voice’s actions in #8, kills a crook in battle and injures Jim Corrigan while trying to force his way inside the detective’s body for a rest. Chained to the Journal of Judgment, Spectre is condemned to investigate the lives of those written of therein.

STORY: “Abraca-Doom” – 9 pp. WRITER: Denny O’Neil ARTIST: Berni Wrightson SYNOPSIS: Frederick Foost, a stage magician, sells his soul to Nicholas Scratch for real magical powers. Though he uses his powers for good, Foost learns the hard way that he’s struck a fool’s bargain. STORY: “Shadow Show” – 5 pp. WRITER: Mark Hanerfeld ARTIST: Jack Sparling SYNOPSIS: The Spectre rounds up a petty thief. NOTE:

• The Spectre acts as an observer and narrator, rather than an active participant, for the final two stories in this issue, and in the remainder of the series’ run.

Justice On Two Worlds — Part I

THE SPECTRE #10

STORY: “Will the Real Killer Please Rise?” – 8 pp.

(May-June 1969)

WRITER: Jack Miller

COVER: Nick Cardy

ARTISTS: Jack Sparling (p) & George Roussos (i)

STORY: “Footsteps of Disaster!” – 7 pp. WRITER: Mike Friedrich ARTISTS: Jerry Grandenetti (p) & George Roussos (i) STORY: “Hit and Run!” – 5 pp. WRITER: Steve Skeates ARTIST: José Delbo

SYNOPSIS OF ABOVE 4 STORIES: Guided by the Journal of Judgment, The Spectre encounters a career criminal haunted by memories of an abusive father, a car thief who sacrifices his life rather than run over an innocent child, a shoeshine man nearly driven to crime by the taunts of a sadistic customer, and a murderous ventriloquist.

STORY: “How Much Can a Guy Take?” – 5 pp. WRITER: Jack Miller ARTIST: Jack Sparling

WONDER WOMAN Wonder Woman presents something of a special case. Despite her status as the first of the true doppelgängers (i.e., basically identical to her E1 version) to appear among the E2 set, Wonder Woman did not play a prominent role in those early stories after her reintroduction along with others of the Justice Society in The Flash #137 (June 1963). Though some contrast was

provided when her E1 counterpart went through her depowered “Emma Peel” phase in the late 1960s, there was nothing memorable to differentiate the two heroines once the status quo ante was restored. The E2 Wonder Woman seemed destined to remain a background character. Then, on November 7, 1975, there debuted on ABC a TV movie titled at various times The New Adventures of Wonder Woman, The New Original Wonder Woman (to distinguish it from a production a year or so earlier featuring Cathy Lee Crosby as an unrecognizable Amazing Amazon), and simply Wonder Woman. Cheerfully campy but reasonably faithful to Dr. William Moulton Marston’s 1941 concept, it starred Lynda Carter as Princess Diana/Diana Prince, Lyle Waggoner as Steve Trevor, and Cloris Leachman as Queen Hippolyta. A weekly one-hour series followed. Sales on the Wonder Woman comic book had been moribund for more than a decade despite the best efforts of its creative personnel. In the hope that the show’s cachet would bump

Maybe TV Had Its Own “Earth-Two” Tennis star Cathy Lee Crosby (left) played a spysmashing Wonder Woman who bore little similarity to the original in a 1974 TV movie that garnered respectable ratings—but it took the more faithful 1975 series starring former Miss America Lynda Carter (seen in gag photo at right) to turn the Amazon into a household word. Both these pics appeared in DC’s “house fanzine” Amazing World of DC Comics #15 (Aug. 1977). For that mag’s exquisite Mike Nasser cover featuring both the comic book and Carter versions, see Back Issue #37, which came out this past December. [Stills ©2010 Time-Warner, Inc.; Wonder Woman TM & ©2010 DC Comics.]

sales on the comic, DC revamped the title, setting it during World War II and making several minor concessions to reflect the TV continuity: Diana Prince as a Navy yeoman, a dark-haired Trevor, Etta Candy as a WAC instead of a sorority gal, General Blankenship in place of Marston’s Gen. Darnell, et al. Despite these changes, it was clear from the outset that this was the E2 Wonder Woman, making her series DC’s first major experiment in “retroactive continuity.” The relaunch was entrusted to editor Denny O’Neil. Wonder Woman #228 (Feb. 1977), scripted by Martin Pasko and illustrated by regular WW penciler José Delbo, found E1’s Amazon accidentally transported to E2 circa 1943, just long enough to yield the spotlight to her doppelgänger. Pasko and subsequent writers

The Other Earth-Two Stories – Issue by Issue, 1961-1986

Middle-Age Spread—Or Golden Age Spread? Since the covers of Wonder Woman #228 & #229 were seen in BI #37 only a few months ago, we’ve chosen instead to repro three key pages from #228: the splash, with both Wonder Women confronting The Red Panzer—the page on which the E1 Amazon discovers she’s on E2 (and in 1943, yet)—and her encounter with the E2 Diana! The image of three 1976 JSAers depicted the E2 Flash with a bit of a spare tire, which he never displayed in JLA-JSA team-ups; after all, he got plenty of exercise! Thanks to Betty Dobson. [© DC Comics.]

balanced classic Wonder Woman foes (The Cheetah, The Duke of Deception, Mars) and new villains (Kung, The Red Panzer, Armageddon, Osira, The Bouncer, etc.), with Gerry Conway placing a greater emphasis on subplots and issue-to-issue continuity. JSA guest stars were plentiful, as will be seen in the individual issue listings which follow. O’Neil edited the series through #237, before handing it off to Larry Hama. A second “Wonder Woman” series featuring the same blend of Golden Age and TV continuity debuted in World’s Finest Comics #244 (May-June 1977), at a time when the comic contained 84 pages, counting covers. Among the run’s highlights are the first appearance of Baron Blitzkrieg, future arch-foe of the All-Star Squadron, and a team-up with Sgt. Rock against Dr. Psycho. E2’s Wonder Woman also starred in a pair of one-shots during this period: the 64-page Wonder Woman Spectacular - 1978 [officially DC Special Series #9] and the treasury-sized All-New Collectors’ Edition #C-54 (1978), both set during World War II. The tabloid-sized ANCE treasury (which will be highlighted next issue) featured a battle between Wonder

Justice On Two Worlds — Part I

Woman and the E2 Superman over America’s atomic research program, with Baron Blitzkrieg and Sumo the Super-Samurai providing the villainy. Regular readers could sense something was amiss in Wonder Woman #243 (May 1978), when events abruptly skipped ahead to V-J Day in 1945, leaving several subplots forever unresolved. Sure enough, the next issue saw the Amazon handing the spotlight back to her E1 counterpart—almost certainly because the TV series had abandoned the wartime setting when it switched to CBS for its second season.

Though she continued to pop up in “JSA” stories in Justice League of America, et al., the Golden Age Amazon would not make another significant solo appearance until Wonder Woman #300 (Jan. 1983), in which readers learned that Diana had finally married the longsuffering Steve in 1962—thereby forfeiting her immortality—and we were introduced to their teenage daughter, Hippolyta (Lyta) Trevor. A gracefully ageing Wonder Woman was a frequent guest star in pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths issues of Infinity, Inc. (which co-starred Lyta as the super-heroine Fury), as well as appearing in her wartime prime in the related

title All-Star Squadron. The story of the E2 Wonder Woman came to a fitting end in Crisis on Infinite Earths #12 (March 1986), wherein she and Steve were elevated to godhood and taken to live on Mount Olympus. A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: The “Wonder Woman” retro-WWII stories referred to above were also examined, with differing emphasis, in a study by John Wells in our sister TwoMorrows mag Back Issue (#37, Dec. 2009). We urge that you pick up a copy, the more so since we’ve tried to avoid duplicating art and information to the extent it was possible.

WONDER WOMAN #228 (Feb. 1977) COVER: Ernie Chua (p) & Vince Colletta (i) STORY: “Retreat to Tomorrow!” – 17 pp. WRITER: Martin Pasko ARTISTS: José Delbo (p) & Vince Colletta (i) SYNOPSIS: Wonder Woman is teleported to E2 in 1943 during a confrontation with The Red Panzer, a time- and dimension-traveling Nazi super-villain. She and her dopplegänger—who knows nothing yet about E1—scuffle briefly before teaming up to track the Panzer to his lair. While the E1 Amazon uses the Panzer-Ship to return home, the other tackles their foe.

You’re In The Army Now! (Above:) In the retro Wonder Woman #229 and after, Etta Candy is in uniform—and General Blankenship has, for reasons unknown, replaced the comics’ General Darnell. Thanks to Betty Dobson. [©2010 DC Comics.] (Right:) This sketch of Argentina-born Wonder Woman penciler José Delbo appeared in comics with a cover date of Sept. 1981, on the “Daily Planet Feature Page.” Whether José or someone else drew the pic, we've no idea. [©2010 DC Comics.]

NOTES:

• The Red Panzer, though a new costumed identity not seen previously in comics, is Dr. Helmut Streicher, the Nazi scientist who had played a bit part in the JSA’s origin in DC Special #29. • The ensuing WW issues through the end of this section all happen on E2.

• Roughly half of the “Wonder Woman” stories covered in this piece took place in 1943, half in 1942, with the final one set in ’45. Thus, many of them occur after tales in the 1980s series All-Star Squadron. The back-andforth timeline followed in this article is based on both specific dates mentioned in the stories, and on certain details therein.

SYNOPSIS: The Red Panzer overcomes Wonder Woman and escapes. On Paradise Island, Queen Hippolyte tells Diana that her foreknowledge of the war’s outcome, as revealed by her E1 twin, subconsciously held her back in battle. With those memories erased by the magic lasso, Wonder Woman cleans up the Panzer and his flunkies.

NOTE:

• This issue apparently takes place in “Winter 1942.”

WONDER WOMAN #230 (Apr. 1977) COVER: José Luis Garcia-Lopez (p) & Vince Colletta (i) STORY: “The Claws of the Cheetah” – 17 pp.

WONDER WOMAN #229 (Mar. 1977) COVER: José Luis Garcia-Lopez (p) & Vince Colletta (i) STORY: “Tomorrow Belongs to Me!” – 17 pp. WRITER: Martin Pasko

WRITER: Martin Pasko ARTISTS: José Delbo (p) & Vince Colletta (i) SYNOPSIS: The sight of Wonder Woman in action turns Priscilla Rich into the Cheetah once more. She lays a trap for the Amazon, but it’s Steve who walks into it. Wonder Woman saves the day and sends Cheetah to Transformation Island for rehabilitation.

The Other Earth-Two Stories – Issue by Issue, 1961-1986

WONDER WOMAN #231 (May 1977) COVER: Mike Nasser (p) & Vince Colletta (i) STORY: “The War Has Been Cancelled!” – 17 pp. WRITER: Martin Pasko ARTISTS: Bob Brown (p) & Vince Colletta (i) JSA GUEST STARS: The Atom, Johnny Thunder, Mr. Terrific, The Sandman, Starman SYNOPSIS: Osira, a godlike extradimensional who once ruled ancient Egypt, awakens and uses her alien technology to compel both Allies and Axis to lay down their arms. Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor locate Osira’s pyramid, where they find five Justice Society members held as comatose prisoners by the resurrected queen. NOTES:

• Wonder Woman #231-32 are based on a story by comics & TV writer Alan Brennert. • Osira is originally from the Earth-S universe, where the Golden Age Fawcett heroes such as The Marvel Family dwelled.

• This issue and the next once again take place in 1943.

WONDER WOMAN #232 (June 1977) COVER: Mike Nasser (p) & Vince Colletta (i) STORY: “A Duel of Gods” – 17 pp. WRITER: Martin Pasko ARTISTS: Bob Brown (p) & Vince Colletta (i)

Free The JSA Five! (Above:) The cover scene of Wonder Woman #231 (for which, see Back Issue #37) was echoed on the story’s final page, as the faux-Egyptian Osira unveils five captive JSAers. A few aspects of this quintet are mildly anachronistic for 1943: Sandman should be attired in his purple-andgold costume, and Mr. Terrific’s only JSA appearance would occur in 1945. Thanks to Betty Dobson. [© DC Comics.]

JSA GUEST STARS: The Atom, Johnny Thunder & The Thunderbolt, Mr. Terrific, The Sandman, Starman SYNOPSIS: Osira plans to use Steve as a host body for the spirit of Hefnakhti, her longdeceased husband. When Wonder Woman objects, the mad queen commands the captive JSAers to kill her. With the aid of Johnny Thunder’s Thunderbolt—who is not under Osira’s spell—Diana defeats them. Hefnakhti convinces Osira she’s wrong to force peace. She joins him in the spirit realm. The war resumes. #232. Thanks to Betty Dobson. [©2010 DC Comics.]

Justice On Two Worlds — Part I

WONDER WOMAN #233 (July 1977) COVER: Gray Morrow STORY: “Seadeath!” – 17 pp. WRITER: Gerry Conway ARTISTS: Don Heck (p) & Vince Colletta (i) SYNOPSIS: Circa June 1942, Wonder Woman investigates attacks on Allied shipping by whales and other sea creatures. The assaults are the work of Hyman Freidrich, a Jewish mutant with Aquaman-like telepathic powers who’s been forced to serve the Nazis. Captured by the sub U-211, the Amazing Amazon is shot out a torpedo tube into the waiting jaws of the monstrous Leviathan. Armageddon, a Nazi super-villain, captures Steve Trevor.

Live From DC Comics—It’s Saturday Night!? Col. Balushi, commander of the Military Intelligence unit assigned to the Armageddon case, and his aide Lt. Ackroyd (seen in WW #233) were obviously named for Saturday Night Live stars John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd— who by then may have been working on Steven Spielberg’s 1979 film comedy 1941. However, since there’s also a U-boat sailor named Radner in the comic, yet SNL regular Gilda Radner wasn’t in the movie, writer Gerry Conway may have intended no specific reference to a flick still two years away from release. (Incidentally, in #236 the Colonel’s name would be spelled “Belushi.”) [© DC Comics.] At right are images of Belushi (as Wild Bill Yonder) and Aykroyd from the 1979 graphic novel version of the Spielberg film. For more on this adaptation, see Alter Ego #63. [© Universal Studios & Columbia Pictures or their successors in interest.]

WONDER WOMAN #234 (Aug. 1977) COVER: José Luis GarciaLopez (p) & Vince Colletta (i) STORY: “And Death My Destiny!” – 17 pp.

WRITER: Gerry Conway ARTISTS: Don Heck (p) & Joe Giella (i) SYNOPSIS: Wonder Woman escapes the Leviathan but is captured anew by the U-211. Learning that Freidrich is motivated by fear for his children back in Germany, the Amazon breaks free, flies behind enemy lines, and rescues the kids. With them safe, Freidrich commands the Leviathan to smash the sub, killing all aboard, himself included. Steve escapes from Armageddon’s base, unaware the villain allowed him to.

Swashbuckling Swastikas (Above:) The Nazi called Armageddon sure knows how to make an entrance, in WW #234. The covers of WW #234-236 can be viewed in Back Issue #37. Thanks to Betty Dobson. [©2010 DC Comics.]

The Other Earth-Two Stories – Issue by Issue, 1961-1986

WONDER WOMAN #235 (Sept. 1977) COVER: José Luis Garcia-Lopez (p) & Vince Colletta (i) STORY: “The Biology Bomb!” – 17 pp. WRITER: Gerry Conway ARTISTS: José Delbo (p) & Vince Colletta (i) JSA GUEST STAR: Dr. Mid-Nite SYNOPSIS: One of Armageddon’s agents attacks blind physician Charles McNider to prevent his ordering tests on Steve Trevor. As Dr. Mid-Nite, McNider infiltrates Armageddon’s base and learns of his plan to transform Steve into a savage “muutor.” At a meeting with FDR and the Joint Chiefs next morning, Trevor

“hulks out” (so to speak), forcing Wonder Woman to battle him. The Army steps in and shoots the mutated Steve dead. NOTE:

• Dr. McNider is said to be an “intern” at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, DC, in this story—though he was an accredited physician in 1941 DC Comics. The term is probably a mistake, meant to indicate that he was a “visiting physician.”

“That Man In The White House” (Above :) That’s how President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s political and economic foes referred to him back in the 1930s and ’40s. A common theme in WWII-set retro comics is placing FDR in mortal danger—as in Wonder Woman #235, where he’s attacked by a malevolently mutated Steve Trevor. Thanks to Betty Dobson for the scan. [WW art ©2010 DC Comics.]

WONDER WOMAN #236 (Oct. 1977) COVER: Rich Buckler (p) & Vince Colletta (i) STORY: “Armageddon Day” – 17 pp. WRITER: Gerry Conway ARTISTS: José Delbo (p) & Vince Colletta (i) JSA GUEST STAR: Dr. Mid-Nite SYNOPSIS: A grief-crazed Wonder Woman wreaks havoc until Dr. Mid-Nite detects a heartbeat within Steve’s mutated body. Determined to obtain the antidote to the muutor serum, the Amazon tracks down Armageddon in time to prevent him from sabotaging an Allied weapons test. He escapes, but not before coughing up the antidote.

Doctoring The Evidence (Right:) In Wonder Woman #236, whose cover was seen in Back Issue #37, Dr. Mid-Nite knows Wonder Woman’s secret identity, but, rather illogically, she doesn’t know his. In vintage All-Star Comics, the members of the JSA all knew each other’s alter egos—except perhaps those of Superman and Batman. Thanks to Betty Dobson. [©2010 DC Comics.] (Above:) Rich Buckler only got to draw Dr. Mid-Nite quite small (and in a monster’s mammoth mitts) on the cover of WW #235. But in the early ’80s Rich penciled Doc in All-Star Squadron #1-5—and here’s a powerful sketch he did in 2006 for collector Raymond H. Riethmeier. [Dr. Mid-Nite TM & © DC Comics.]

Justice On Two Worlds — Part I

WONDER WOMAN #237 (Nov. 1977) COVER: Rich Buckler (p) & Vince Colletta (i) STORY: “The Secret Origin of Wonder Woman!” – 17 pp. WRITER: Gerry Conway ARTISTS: José Delbo (p) & Vince Colletta (i) SYNOPSIS: The real Diana Prince—an Army nurse whose memory was erased in 1942 by the magic lasso so that Wonder Woman could use her American identity—returns, intent on exposing her “imposter” as a Nazi agent. While Wonder Woman explains her origin and Diana’s role in it, Kung, the Assassin of 1,000 Claws, stalks Gen. Douglas MacArthur. After sending Diana on her way, the Amazon and the Japanese shapeshifter clash. NOTES:

• The Diana Prince plotline parallels the events of Sensation Comics #9 (Sept. 1942), though with significant differences in detail. See that story reprinted in The Golden Age Wonder Woman Archives, Vol. 1.

• First appearance of Kung. Even so, this story occurs chronologically after his appearances in various 1980s issues of All-Star Squadron.

Animal Magnetism (Above:) Kung, who can take the shape of various beasts (including a humanoid praying mantis!), battled the Amazon in WW #237-238—and, later, the equally retro All-Star Squadron in its 1980s title. He attacked General Douglas MacArthur in WW #237—and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in All-Star Squadron #8. The cover of the former was seen in Back Issue #37. Thanks to Betty Dobson. [©2010 DC Comics.]

WONDER WOMAN #238 (Dec. 1977) COVER: Rich Buckler (p) & Vince Colletta (i) STORY: “Assassin of a Thousand Claws” – 17 pp. WRITER: Gerry Conway ARTISTS: José Delbo (p) & Vince Colletta (i) JSA GUEST STARS: The Sandman & Sandy

SYNOPSIS: A wounded Kung seeks out his sister Nancy. Wonder Woman recruits Sandman and Sandy to help her guard Gen. MacArthur during his inspection of the Brooklyn Naval Yard. Kung attacks. During the subsequent battle, he sacrifices his life to save Nancy’s.

Here’s Sand In Your Eye! (Above:) Since Sandman and Sandy didn’t appear on the cover of WW #238, here’s an interior glimpse of the Delbo/Colletta version. Sandman’s wearing the right outfit this time! Thanks to Betty Dobson. [© DC Comics.]

The Other Earth-Two Stories – Issue by Issue, 1961-1986

WONDER WOMAN #239

WONDER WOMAN #240

(Jan. 1978)

(Feb. 1978)

COVER: Rich Buckler (p) & Vince Colletta (i)

COVER: José Luis Garcia-Lopez (p) & Dick Giordano (i)

STORY: “A Duke Named Deception!” – 17 pp. WRITER: Gerry Conway ARTISTS: José Delbo (p) & Vince Colletta (i)

STORY: “Wanted: One Amazon— Dead or Alive!” – 17 pp. WRITER: Gerry Conway

JSA GUEST STAR: The Flash

ARTISTS: José Delbo (p) & Joe Giella (i)

SYNOPSIS: The Flash helps Wonder Woman guard Gen. MacArthur. Mars sends The Duke of Deception after Diana. Using his powers of illusion, Deception causes her to see an American naval base as a Nazi invasion force. Mayhem ensues.

JSA GUEST STAR: The Flash

NOTE:

SYNOPSIS: The Flash, detoured by The Duke of Deception, arrives too late to prevent Wonder Woman’s arrest. The Duke recruits gangster Napoleon Jones as an accomplice. Seigfried the Speedster—who will turn out to be The Flash in disguise—crashes the Amazon’s arraignment intent on assassinating her as “an enemy of the Reich.” Deception orders the now superpowered Jones to kill her. She defeats him, and her lasso forces him to expose the Duke’s scheme. Wonder Woman is cleared.

If There Were So Many Super-Fast Guys Around, How Come The War Lasted Six Years? (Left:) Wonder Woman #240 introduced “Siegfried the Speedster, hero of the Fatherland”—who turned out to be the Fastest Man Alive in disguise. The issue’s cover was seen you-know-where. [©2010 DC Comics.]

WONDER WOMAN #241 (Mar. 1978) COVER: Joe Staton (p) & Dick Giordano (i) STORY: “Three Roads to Destiny” – 17 pp. WRITER: Gerry Conway ARTISTS: Joe Staton (p) & Dick Giordano (i) JSA GUEST STAR: The Spectre

SYNOPSIS: Japanese Emperor Hirohito and General Tojo order Sumo the Super-Samurai—who is dying of the radiation poisoning he contracted in All-New Collectors’ Edition #C-54—to assassinate Wonder Woman. He walks into a running battle between the Amazon and The Bouncer. When that mutant supercriminal takes a child hostage, Sumo uses the last of his strength to kill Bouncer and free the girl. The samurai dies with his honor intact.

A Spectre Of His Former Self In the manner of the last issues of his own earlier title, The Spectre narrates the events of Wonder Woman #241, but takes no active part in them. Guess he was just too darn powerful for most writers to handle! Thanks to Betty Dobson for the scans. For the cover, see Back Issue #37. [©2010 DC Comics.]

Justice On Two Worlds — Part I

WONDER WOMAN #242 (Apr. 1978) COVER: Rich Buckler (p) & Vince Colletta (i) STORY: “Tomorrow’s Gods and Demons” – 17 pp. WRITER: Gerry Conway ARTISTS: José Delbo (p) & Vince Colletta (i) JSA GUEST STARS: Dr. Fate, The Spectre

SYNOPSIS: Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor’s celebration of V-J Day (Victory over Japan Day, officially Sept. 14, 1945) is interrupted by the Cerberons, identical and endlessly self-replicating extraterrestrials intent on “improving” humanity by remaking it in their image. They transform Steve into the first of these Ultimate Men. Hippolyte forbids Diana to interfere until Dr. Fate and The Spectre warn of the dire consequences should the aliens proceed. Wonder Woman persuades the Cerberons to abandon their plans, restore Steve, and leave Earth.

The Conquest Of The Earth Will Be Televised… (Left:) Dr. Fate and The Spectre pop up on Queen Hippolyte’s Magic Sphere: “We interrupt this program to save the world!” Little did Princess Diana’s mother suspect that, in the late 1990s, she, rather than her daughter, would be shoehorned into the continuity of the WWII-era JSA as the Golden Age Wonder Woman (complete with skirt). This was done by writer/artist John Byrne because her offspring had been retroactively declared, after the 1985-86 Crisis on Infinite Earths, never to have donned her red, white, and blue (and yellow) costume until recent years. [©2010 DC Comics.]

Maybe A Spectre Is Haunting The JSA?

WONDER WOMAN #243 (May 1978) COVER: José Delbo (p) & Vince Colletta (i) STORY: “The Five-Sided Square” – 17 pp.

(Above:) In WW #243, the Amazon rejoins her JSA comrades right after the events of All-Star Comics #27 (Winter 1945), which would indeed have been on sale around V-J Day… and in that case, as per usual pre-ASC #38, she hadn’t really been “in on the action.” By then, however, The Spectre had been gone from the JSA for a full year (since #23, Winter ’44). Otherwise, the membership was correct, since Wildcat had mysteriously taken The Atom’s place in #27. Thanks to Betty Dobson for the scan. [©2010 DC Comics.]

WRITER: Jack C. Harris ARTISTS: Jose Delbo (p) & Vince Colletta (i) JSA GUEST STARS: Dr. Mid-Nite, The Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Johnny Thunder, The Spectre, Wildcat

SYNOPSIS: The Angle Man accidentally teleports to E2 in the 1940s, where he clashes with both that reality’s Wonder Woman and her E1 double. As the latter pursues him back to their home world, Diana, Steve, and Etta vow not to let the end of the war split them up.

The Other Earth-Two Stories – Issue by Issue, 1961-1986

WONDER WOMAN SPECTACULAR [DC SPECIAL SERIES #9] (1978) COVER: José Luis Garcia-Lopez (p) & Dick Giordano (i) STORY: “The Cosmic Quest for the Disc of Mars” – 62 pp. WRITER: Jack C. Harris ARTISTS: José Delbo (p, pp. 1-9, 15-17, 2831, 35-37, 39-41, 48-52, 54-56, 61-62), Russ Heath (p, pp. 10-14, 32, 45, 60), Steve Ditko (p&i, pp. 18-23, 33-34, 43-44, 47), Dick Ayers (p, pp. 24-27, 38, 42, 46, 53, 57-59) & Vince Colletta (i, pp. 1-17, 2432, 45-46, 48-62) SYNOPSIS: Aphrodite warns Queen Hippolyte of the Disc of Mars, an

enchanted talisman that will prolong the war as long as it remains on Earth. Wonder Woman teams up with a new super-hero, The Bombardier, against The Red Panzer and Baroness Paula Von Gunther, unaware that her new pal owes his explosive super-powers to the Disc. The god Mars orders the Harpies and Valkyries to attack Paradise Island. Wonder Woman and Bombardier are sent behind enemy lines to recover stolen plans for the Cyclosonitron, where they destroy a working prototype. The Amazons drive off their attackers. Possessed by Mars, Bombardier turns on Wonder Woman. She destroys the talisman, freeing his mind but robbing him of his powers. NOTES:

• Baroness Paula Von Gunther, as played by Christine Belford, was the only “Wonder Woman” villain to appear in the TV series.

• According to this story, all the mythological gods of E2 live in the same inter-dimensional world; Olympus, Asgard, et al., are just each pantheon’s own name for the same place. • The Bombardier is a persona imposed on Congressman Thomas Cole by Mars, and goes out of existence at story’s end, though Cole himself survives. • This story takes place sometime during or after 1943.

Bombardiers Away! (Above:) The cover of the Wonder Woman Spectacular was depicted in Back Issue #37—so here’s the E2 hero Bombardier, who was created for that giant-size comic—and never appeared again. Though his outfit suggested an aviator, he had no airplane, but flew anyway (with the secret aid of Mars, god of war). Thanks to Betty Dobson. [©2010 DC Comics.]

WONDER WOMAN #300 (Feb. 1983) COVER: Ed Hannigan (p) & Dick Giordano (i) STORY: “Beautiful Dreamer, Death unto Thee!” – 72 pp. Chapter 2 “My Sister, My Self!” – 6 pp. (pp. 11-16) WRITERS: Roy & Dann (then Danette) Thomas ARTISTS: Ross Andru (p) & Dick Giordano (i) SYNOPSIS: In 1983, the E1 Wonder Woman accidentally flies her jet through a dimensional warp to E2. Her dopplegänger invites her home for dinner. The E2 Diana has publicly revealed her true identity and is married to her Steve Trevor, by whom she has a teenage daughter, Lyta. The E1 Amazon heads home, wondering if her future holds the same kind of happiness. NOTES:

• The encounter between the two Wonder Women is a single chapter within a larger story otherwise not relevant to E2 history.

Next Issue: More on Wonder Woman—and the other heroes of Earth-Two, 1961-1986!

Flash Of Three Worlds A Brief Peek At Flash Comics #105 (March 1949)—Yes! by Roy Thomas

he most important comic book in the life of Barry Allen was Flash Comics #105.

No, not The Flash #105 (Feb.-March 1959), the comic book that ushered in regular publication of Barry’s adventures as Earth-One’s Fastest Man Alive. That was a big one, all right, coming on the heels of his quartet of appearances in issues of Showcase… but, of course, the young police scientist himself was merely a character in that 10¢ periodical. Rather, I’m talking about Flash Comics #105 (March 1949)—the mag that Barry’s probably shown reading on the second story page of Showcase #4 (Oct. 1956). You know: it’s the one whose white-framed cover art depicts the original Scarlet Speedster running (actually, it looks more like he’s flying!) and clad in a shirt whose chest symbol consists of a smallish lightning bolt against a white circle. That cover’s upper-left inset cameo depicts The Flash’s head instead of Hawkman’s; it sports a “January” cover date (rather than “March”) and is numbered, so far as a reader can make out, as if it were Flash Comics #13 or maybe #15 rather than #105. Okay, so writer Robert Kanigher and penciler Carmine Infantino and inker Joe Kubert and the letterer got a few details wrong in ’56—and the errors slipped by editor Julius Schwartz’s eagle eye, to make it into print.

“What A Character Flash Was!” This cover of an issue of Flash Comics never published on EarthPrime was first seen (as per left) on page 2 of the Silver Age Flash’s origin story in Showcase #4 (Oct. 1956)—then again (as per above) on page 7. (It’s also glimpsed very small on the splash page, and its top half is pictured in black-&-white on p. 3.) Note that the second digit in the two-digit issue number has been deliberately rendered unreadable as three horizontal lines…but Ye Editor is pretty sure it was actually Flash Comics #105! Script by Robert Kanigher; pencils by Carmine Infantino; inks by Joe Kubert; editing by Julius Schwartz. Thanks to Bob Bailey. [©2010 DC Comics.]

And, as far as Barry Allen was concerned—fictional history, at that. Jay “Flash” Garrick, Barry believed in Showcase #4, had been a mere figment of the imaginations of his creators—which, whether or not he then knew their names, had originally consisted of scripter Gardner Fox (or, as Barry referred to him, “some writer”), the feature’s first artist Harry Lampert, and editor Sheldon Mayer, who together in 1939 had developed the hero for the first issue of Flash Comics (Jan. 1940).

Even so, make no mistake: the Earth-One Barry is most likely perusing a then-7½-year-old copy of Flash Comics #105—either that, or an even later issue, since the Gerbers’ invaluable Picto-Journal Guide to Comic Books displays no 1940s Flash (or All-Flash) cover from #1 through #104 that resembles the one pictured in Showcase #4. Nor could it be a 1956 issue… since the first words we read out of Barry’s mouth are, “What a character Flash was!”

Still, the four-color human hurricane had clearly made quite an impression on Barry as a youngster back in the ’40s. For, when a freak 1956 combination of a lightning strike and a random mixture of spilled chemicals bestowed on him the gift of super-speed, the level-headed man of science adopted a masked alter ego as “The Flash.”

“Was,” not “is.” The Mercury-helmeted super-hero on that cover is definitely spoken of in the past tense. Flash Comics may have been published for several more issues on Earth-One than on Earth-Prime (or whatever Earth we live on), but in The Flash #123 Barry Allen said that “the magazine was discontinued in 1949.” By mid-’56 it was clearly history.

(Of course, some have theorized that Barry received velocital powers instead of, say, the ability to shoot electricity out of his fingertips, because his keen mind—which still had that vintage issue of Flash Comics on its back burner—was a third and crucial element that interacted with thunderbolt and chemicals. Or was it because an other-dimensional imp named Mopee decided to… but no, we won’t go there.)

A Brief Peek At Flash Comics #105 (March 1949)—Yes!

Whatever the truth of the matter, it seems a fitting addendum to this first of several Alter Ego issues dealing with Earth-Two to examine the contents of Earth-One’s pivotal Flash Comics #105… reproducing panels from all five of the issue's features, most of which are seen here for the first time ever on Earth-Prime. To wit:

News “Flash” (Left:) The “Flash” leadoff, penciled by Carmine Infantino, brought King Arthur and several of his knights to the mid-20th century. In these panels, the costumed Jay Garrick grabs a bullet-shattered swordblade in mid-air and puts it to good use against a modern-day hoodlum, as one of the Round Table stalwarts looks on, incredulous. Well, wouldn’t you? Reportedly, this epic was once earmarked for Flash Comics #106, but was moved forward an issue. Scripter and inker uncertain. Thanks to Heritage Comics Archives & Dominic Bongo. [©2010 DC Comics.]

Wholly Ghost (Right:) These panels from the issue’s “Ghost Patrol” tale show the deceased but eminently lively ex-aviators Fred and Pedro battling a gang-boss named Hijack who’s trying hard to live up to his name. Their ectoplasmic (and endomorphic) buddy Slim will show up in a page or two. Art by Arthur Peddy (pencils) & Bernard Sachs (inks); scripter unknown. This effort was once scheduled for Flash Comics #110. Thanks to Heritage Comics Archives & Dominic Bongo. [©2010 DC Comics.]

Canary Row (Above:) In our world, this “Black Canary” story (“Special Delivery Death!”) and one other of her adventures that had been gathering dust on the shelf since Flash Comics got canceled first saw the light of day in DC Special #3 (April-June 1969), then later in the hardcover Black Canary Archives, Vol. 1 (2001). But on Earth-One this tale was published in 1949’s Flash #105. [©2010 DC Comics.]

Flash Of Three Worlds

Madam, I’m Atom (Left:) The Atom was in a carnival mood in his six-page exploit “Danger in the Totem’s Eyes!” Script by Arthur Adler; art by Peddy & Sachs. Repro’d from the “100-Page Super-Spectacular” Batman #238 (Jan. 1972), the only place it ever saw print on Earth-Prime. One is tempted to wonder: if Barry Allen had been reading about the Mighty Mite instead of the Fastest Man Alive just before the lightning-and-chemicals admixture struck him, would he have turned into a nuclear-powered do-gooder instead of a super-swift one? Thanks to Bob Bailey. [©2010 DC Comics.]

Hawking Their Wheres? (Left:) To close out the issue, Hawkman and Hawkgirl encountered hostile denizens of the sunken continent of Mu who re-surfaced to menace humankind. Art by Joe Kubert; scripter unknown. According to art researcher Shane Foley, the Feathered Furies were originally drawn on this page wearing latter-day versions of their winged/beaked headgear; an unknown staff artist must’ve been directed to redraw those more ornate helmets into the simple cowl-masks the pair had first donned in Flash #98 and All-Star Comics #42. Special thanks to Ethan Roberts. [©2010 DC Comics.]

So there you have it: prime specimens of art and story from all five action features in Flash Comics #105. That leaves Ye Editor with only one last lingering question regarding that intriguing panel on page 2 of Showcase #4: Does anybody know if the Rene’ Milk Co., Inc. actually existed—on any Earth?

“I Graduated From Plato And Aristotle To Superman And Batman” DC Golden/Silver Age Editor GEORGE KASHDAN Rattles A Few Skeletons In The DC Closet

Interview Conducted by Jim Amash

Transcribed by Brian K. Morris

eorge Kashdan (1928-2006) was a writer and editor for DC Comics from 1947 until sometime in the 1970s, and finished his comic book career with Western Publishing. At both companies, he dealt with many major DC characters, including Batman, Superman, Tomahawk, Blackhawk, Aquaman, Green Arrow, Teen Titans, Sea Devils, and Metamorpho, among others. When some of those DC heroes became Saturday morning cartoon features, George also wrote them for Filmation.

While many Golden and Silver editors have given interviews over the course of time, George was the only one who really opened up about what it was like to work in the DC offices. His takes on many of the people with whom he worked are surprisingly blunt, and, at times, unflattering. Originally, he was a bit hesitant to talk about individual personalities in detail; but when former DC romance editor Phyllis Reed passed away during the course of my interviewing him, he changed his mind. What he tried to do was to give me an honest look into the

private side of those who made the comics. I know he held back some stories from me, as was his right, but I also know that, as the sole surviving DC editor of his era, he felt a moral responsibility to relate—from his point of view—an honest oral history of the company and the people whom he knew. As I was listening to him telling these stories, I seldom detected malice in his voice. Some of his observations may lead you to think otherwise, because we can’t reproduce vocal inflection with cold type. But I got to know him well in his final days, and I never thought he was settling old scores or wanting to hurt anyone. I asked him for honest assessments, and he did his best to co-operate.

“Do You, Mera, Take This Aquaman…?” George Kashdan (right), in a driver’slicense photo circa the 1980s… and the cover of Showcase Presents Aquaman, Vol. 2 (2008). All or nearly all of the stories in that 528-page volume were edited by George between 1962 and ’65. At various times, he also wrote and/or edited the four-color adventures of several other DC heroes depicted by Nick Cardy in this cover drawing done for Aquaman #18 (Nov.-Dec. 1964), including Superman, Batman, Hawkman, and Green Arrow. [Aquaman art ©2010 DC Comics.]

It was not easy for George to do this. He was a bedridden stroke victim, paralyzed on his left side, who often had trouble formulating words and phrases. At many times he spoke haltingly, with long pauses between words and sentences, which led to occasional disjointedness in his answers, as he pushed his mind and body to talk to me. We did this interview over the course of many sessions—some as short as three minutes. George called me as often as I called him. “We need to finish this. It’s important that I tell these stories so the history won’t be lost,” he said more than once, believing he was going to get better, but fearing death was around the corner. “I suppose some of what I say may not sit well with some people, but this is how I saw it.” —Jim.

“The Opportunity To Write Comics Presented Itself” JIM AMASH: When and where were you born, George? GEORGE KASHDAN: In the Bronx, New York City, on May 1928. JA: Did you buy comics as a kid? KASHDAN: Oh, yes. I liked “Superman” very much, and “Batman.” JA: In 1941, you were a prize-winner in a Superman contest. Tell me about it. KASHDAN: It was a matter of taking some pictures of

“I Graduated From Plato And Aristotle To Superman And Batman”

The Magician And The Mariners Above are late-’40s splash pages from four series that Kashdan wrote early in his career, though he probably didn’t write all of these particular entries. (a) “Zatara” from Action Comics #136 (Sept. 1949)—with the mustachioed Mandrake wannabe reciting one of his patented “backward spells,” with art by Joe Kubert. Scripter unknown. Thanks to Jim Ludwig. (b) Sometime “Robotman” and “Human Torch” artist Jimmy Thompson drew this “Captain Compass” from Star Spangled Comics #84 (Sept. 1948). Scripter unknown. Sent by Tony Oliva. (c) This "Boy Commandos" story from Detective Comics #130 (Dec. 1947) is credited in the online Grand Comics Database to George K.—though there's no way to verify that now. Pencils attributed to Curt Swan, inks to Steve Brodie. Thanks to Bruce Mason. (d) The “Aquaman” script for Adventure Comics #145 (Oct. 1949) is credited by the GCD to Otto Binder, who in those days was also writing heavily for Fawcett’s “Captain Marvel”-related mags; art by John Daly. [©2010 DC Comics.]

DC Golden/Silver Age Editor George Kashdan Rattles A Few Skeletons In The DC Closet

Superman in Action [Comics], and giving them titles. I won a hundreddollar Bond. JA: Did you grow up wanting to be a writer? KASHDAN: Oh, yes. My progress took many unexpected turns. When I was at the University of Chicago, I did a lot of heavy reading in Philosophy in my courses. It was a very humanistic education. I got a Bachelor of Arts degree with a heavy Liberal Arts background. So you might say I graduated from Plato and Aristotle to Superman and Batman. My plan when I went to college was to be a writer. I began writing short stories, and then the opportunity to write comics presented itself. You might say I was an old childhood fan. When I got home from college in 1947, my brother Bernie, who worked in the business department of National Comics Publications—back then, they were called Detective Comics, Inc.—Bernie told me that he heard the editors needed more writers. “Why don’t you come down and talk things over with them? So I came in and met Mort Weisinger and Jack Schiff. Mort hired me as a freelance writer. The first script I wrote was for “Zatara.” When I started at DC, I had been an editor/writer for a trade paper in the liquor industry called The Beverage Times, and I wasn’t happy there. It seemed like a dead-end. JA: Did you have to submit a written plot first? KASHDAN: A brief synopsis was first submitted. Back in those days, if an editor liked an idea, he sat and chatted with the writer about it, and out of that came a good verbal storyline. That would be an assignment. I’d go home and write a script. Every editor at DC worked this way. After “Zatara,” I went on to other characters like “Captain Compass,” and “Aquaman.” “Captain Compass” was really more of a filler, to give a book the look of variety. I subsequently graduated to “Superman” and “Batman.” JA: When you wrote these series, were you the regular writer on these assignments?

Three To Get Ready… We’ve printed this early-’40s photo before, but how else to depict a trio of major early DC editors in one fell swoop? (Left to right:) Mort Weisinger, Bernie Breslauer, & (seated) Jack Schiff. Comics historian Joe Desris, who supplied this pic, says it was probably taken at the offices of the Thrilling/Better pulp-mag group, where all three worked before migrating into comics.

KASHDAN: In those days, there were no “regular writers” on series, as you put it. We were part of the writing crew. If an editor needed a story, like Jack Schiff, then he’d have me write some “Tomahawk” stories. When I first started writing, I thought I’d like to write “Superman,” which I did get to do. JA: You also wrote “The Shining Knight”—and I have you in 1947 and ’48 writing “The Boy Commandos,” “Vigilante,” and “Johnny Quick.” Do you remember doing any of those? KASHDAN: I remember “The Shining Knight,” but I don’t think I wrote the feature. “Green Arrow” was a series I wrote in the 1950s, though I wasn’t what you’d call the regular writer. I don’t recall writing any of the others.

“I Moved Into [Bernie Breslauer’s] Desk” JA: Were Mort and Jack Schiff co-editing the books? KASHDAN: Basically, yes. Co-editing meant Jack might fill up one of his books, and then he’d call out to Mort, “Hey, Mort! I need a ‘Green Arrow’ story to close the book,” and Mort would get him a “Green Arrow” story. Or Jack and I would buy a “Green Arrow” from someone else, or Jack might tell me to bring in some plots for “Green Arrow,” and then I’d write the story. Both editors handled the art, and would work with the artists of the story that he purchased. JA: At the time you started there, would you consider them to have been equals in terms of rank? KASHDAN: Jack Schiff was basically the managing editor of all the books, but he still had responsibility to get out a few of them on his own. When I say “managing editor,” he didn‘t have any veto power. JA: Did they have assistant editors when you started? KASHDAN: No. I became one.

Did They Let Two Georges Do It? George Kashdan had no memory of ever writing “The Shining Knight,” “Johnny Quick,” or “Boy Commandos,” but he does recall scripting “Green Arrow” in the ’50s. Here’s a George Papp-drawn splash from Adventure Comics #153 (June 1950) with no writer attributed by the GCD—so who knows? [©2010 DC Comics.]

JA: How long were you a freelance writer before you became an assistant editor? KASHDAN: I’d say about two years. There was a small emergency there. One of the editors with whom I had worked was Bernie Breslauer. He was a very nice man, an Old World gentleman. He was in the hospital briefly,

“I Graduated From Plato And Aristotle To Superman And Batman”

KASHDAN: Whitney was in charge of all the books. He was in charge of the office and rules of behavior. He often came in to participate in conferences, like a cover conference. We all did things like that. [Everybody basically answered to Ellsworth], but he gave us a pretty free hand. JA: Would all the editors get together to discuss the covers? KASHDAN: Only the group in our unit. There was Mort, Jack, and I, and Murray Boltinoff. We might sit around: “How about a cover showing Superman swooping out under a tank and lifting it off into the air?” [After a while, we’d come up with an idea for the artist.] The other editors were not involved in our books in an editorial way. JA: Who would assign the artists to the covers? Sometimes Win Mortimer would do a “Superman” cover, sometimes Wayne Boring. KASHDAN: We had a bunch of old pros there [to draw the covers]. Mort and Jack made cover decisions for their books. Often, for “Batman,” Bob Kane did it and we had inkers on that. We had one of the best inkers in the business, a man named Charlie Paris.

“DC Needed A Strong Guiding Hand, Which Whitney [Ellsworth] Provided” JA: So Ellsworth wouldn’t interfere with what anybody was doing unless he had a real problem with something? KASHDAN: That would be correct. People got along with Whit, although I was unhappy about his drinking problems. He had a great sense of humor. If there was a problem, he would do his best to help solve it. He was in the office every day until he went out to Hollywood to work on The Adventures of Superman television show. He built a career for himself out there.

The Dynamic Trio DC editor Murray Boltinoff (photo supplied by P.C. Hamerlinck)—and the “Batman” splash page from Detective Comics #284 (Oct. 1960). The indicia lists Jack Schiff as editor, with Murray Boltinoff and George Kashdan as associate editors. Scripter uncertain; art by Sheldon Moldoff. [Page ©2010 DC Comics.]

and Mort called me. He said, “Hey, we need an editor here.” Bernie came back, and I remained, basically as a copy editor. I wasn’t buying stories or giving out plots, or giving out assignments of any sort. Bernie died a year or two later, I guess—around 1950. I moved into his desk. Bernie had been editing some of the other characters: “Green Arrow,” “Green Lantern,” and he bought some stories for “Aquaman.” [NOTE: Off tape, George said he probably was in editorial as an assistant/copy editor by 1949, but he wasn’t fully integrated into full assistant editor until Breslauer was unable to work any longer. Of course, after the turn of 1949, there’d been no more solo “GL” stories for anyone to edit—and through 1948 the “GL” editor had been Sheldon Mayer, with Julius Schwartz perhaps briefly succeeding him right before Green Lantern was cancelled. —Jim.] JA: So Breslauer was editing features, but not necessarily whole books? KASHDAN: I’d say that’s right. He was a patient and encouraging man; very quiet, very intellectual and scholarly. Many writers enjoyed working for him. He had a bad heart. It finally destroyed him. JA: You said Jack Schiff was the managing editor. What was Whitney Ellsworth doing?

JA: In the late ’40s up until the late ’50s, his name was the only one listed in the indicia as the editor. KASHDAN: I wouldn’t know why that was. But he came in and set the policy. I know while World War II was on, he went along with requests of government agencies to show the Japanese as ugly, evil monsters, and showing them like bug-eyed monsters. I think he was very happy to do that. JA: I’d never heard that was a request by our government. Did it bother the other editors that Ellsworth’s name was on a book that they edited? For instance, Mort was editing the “Superman” books, but it was Whitney Ellsworth’s name listed as editor, and I was curious if that bothered Mort. KASHDAN: Well, Mort had a big ego involvement in his work, and he demanded to be given the “Superman” books as his own baby. When he finally got that, the Ellsworth name disappeared. [NOTE: George was right that Weisinger demanded sole control of the “Superman” books, but he is in error regarding the credits of Ellsworth and Weisinger, because Mort was in charge of the “Superman” titles long before he was listed as editor in their indicias. —Jim.] But there wasn’t any resentment. DC needed a strong guiding hand, which Whitney provided. JA: So you wouldn’t classify him as an autocratic type of editor-in-chief. KASHDAN: No, he wasn’t autocratic. [Mort Weisinger] was rather autocratic with the

A Place In The (Red?) Sun DC’s managing editor Whitney Ellsworth— probably during the Hollywood years of the 1950s.

DC Golden/Silver Age Editor George Kashdan Rattles A Few Skeletons In The DC Closet

writers and artists. I got along well with Mort. I used to tell him to take it easy on so-and-so, don’t insult this writer or that writer.

JA: How heavily involved was he in the plotting?

JA: Would he take your advice?

KASHDAN: He only came up with helpful suggestions. And he didn’t heavily edit my scripts.

KASHDAN: Sometimes he did.

JA: Did any of the other editors heavily edit final scripts?

JA: There’s a story that someone tried to throw Mort out a window. Do you know if that’s a true story?

KASHDAN: Many of them gave me scripts to edit. I did what was necessary to make sure that it moved, that the transitions were smooth, and the dialogue was clear and not too heavy. You know, writing for the comics was a skill that needed specific dialogue. Dialogue balloons had to be short, terse, and understandable. We were told to use small words, and they had silly fears about words that could be considered dirty language.

KASHDAN: I think that was David Vern, who was one of our writers. He was fooling around, not really trying to push him out. Mort screamed for help, and some of us ran over and tore Dave away from him. JA: I know someone tried to do the same thing to Kanigher. KASHDAN: Kanigher owed Vern payment for a story, and told Vern he’s not paying him. Kanigher used to do that sort of thing. He would withhold money and say, “I’ll give you a check when you fix the dialogue in that panel.” And Vern said, “I want my payment! Don’t you give me that crap!” And he grabbed Kanigher in a bear hug, pinning his arms to his side. He said, “If you don’t give me a check, you’re going out that window!” It was an open window in the old offices. Kanigher said, “All right, let go of me. Give me time and I’ll give you that check.” And the story went around the office. Kanigher came into our room, telling Mort, Murray, and me, “I fully expect David Vern to end his life in an insane asylum.” [NOTE: This incident was not the only one involving Bob Kanigher. Another artist did the same thing to him, and was talked into putting him down by Julie Schwartz. When I asked Julie about it, he denied this had happened, but the man who tried to throw Kanigher out the window insisted that Julie was there, along with a couple of other people. Julie finally said to me, “Aw, it’s not important,” so I suspect he just didn’t want to tell a tale out of school. Because of promises made to the artist who admitted to the encounter, and to an eyewitness to the event, I cannot at this time reveal who that man was. —Jim.] Bob had an ego problem, but he had a sense of fairness. He used to edit romance stories, and bought a few from me.

Kanigher & Crew (Above—from left to right:) DC editor/writer Robert Kanigher, writer Cary Burkett, and writer/artist/letterer Morris Waldinger enjoy an outing, probably in the 1970s. Thanks to Bob Rozakis. (Right:) Beside writing for comics he himself edited, such as Wonder Woman, Metal Men, and the war titles, Kanigher also scripted for other DC editors— such as this “Viking Prince” epic, originally from The Brave and the Bold #14 (Oct.-Nov. 1957), edited by Julius Schwartz. The credits were added for its reprinting in The Best of The Brave and the Bold #5 (1988). [©2010 DC Comics.]

JA: Did you deal with the artists at all when you became an assistant editor? KASHDAN: Sometimes, if an artist made a mistake, we would point it out to him. Like once, when I was editing Aquaman, which was drawn by Nick Cardy, there was a panel or two in which Aquaman was leading his fish army against an enemy. I had to tell Nick, “Make this fish army more formidable-looking. Show some swordfish and sharks.” He’d take it home with him and make the change. The same sort of thing was true of “Superman.” If Superman was racing around, beating up, catching crooks, we’d sometimes say, “Show bullets bouncing off him.” JA: Since you were an assistant and not a full editor, did Mort and Jack treat you like a junior partner, or like an equal? KASHDAN: Oh, there were times when I felt I was kind-of being treated like the boy wonder. Now I’m an old man. [mutual chuckling] Mort and Jack were old friends. Their experience harkened back to the glorious days of pulp magazines. Jack began his writing career as an author of pulp

“I Graduated From Plato And Aristotle To Superman And Batman”

fiction, and they all had memories of some of the famous names of pulp fiction, like Cornell Woolrich. They used to talk about the old days.

“Jack [Schiff] Was Very Much Involved In Politics” JA: What was Jack Schiff like? Arnold Drake described him as DC’s “house radical” because of his political opinions. KASHDAN: Schiff was a high-strung man; excitable. Jack was very much involved in politics. I wouldn’t have gone so far as to call him the “house radical.” JA: I think the implication was that he leaned so far to the left in his politics, that some people accused him of being Communistic. KASHDAN: Jack had very strong opinions, and he and many of the writers argued about “Who are you voting for? Why are you voting for soand-so?” But Jack would research a man’s background and his history as a politician. He was always well-informed. Whenever he had an opinion, he expressed it. JA: Someone once described him as “Schiff on skates,” because he’d go from one place to another place to another place to another place. KASHDAN: Oh, he was all over the place. Jack kept himself in shape, and even invited me to bowl with him on some lunch hours. JA: He seemed to have gotten along with most of the people who worked for him. KASHDAN: He got along well with them. A lot of them couldn’t take his high-strung behavior. He was quiet when he was working. Arnold Drake wrote for him and they got along well. Jack believed in giving the writer his head of steam, and once the story was plotted, let’s see what he comes up with. Jack had confidence in his writers, more so than Mort did. JA: Schiff was the one who did those one-page public service ads for DC.

When Career Choices Were All That Smallville Had To Worry About

KASHDAN: Jack enjoyed doing them. I think maybe Whitney Ellsworth was queried on it, and he said, “Why don’t you talk to Jack Schiff? He might be interested,” which was an understatement. [laughs] Jack was interested.

JA: I’m under the impression that Jack Schiff was a very compassionate type of person. KASHDAN: Yes, he was. He was always getting writers out of trouble with their wives, and with bill collectors.

“Bill [Finger] Would Be… Begging For An Advance” JA: You mean like Bill Finger? KASHDAN: Yeah, Finger. He certainly did [have those troubles]. He spent a lot of money. One afternoon, he sat down with Whitney Ellsworth, who said, “Okay, Bill. Let’s see your bills. We’ll help you pay them off. You’ve got to come in, and write your stories. Don’t ask for advances.” And Bill said, “Yeah, yeah, okay.“ They went down the list, and one bill was for a set of golf clubs—one of the higher-priced ones—for four to five hundred dollars, and a suit from one of the fancy men’s stores. Bill had no concept of saving money when you try to buy something. So DC paid it off, and then Bill would be in there, begging for an advance, which he promised never to do.

Bill. Bring in a piece of that story, and maybe I’ll give you an advance.” He and Finger would get into fierce arguments about money. Bill became annoying to all of us. He was a very unhappy man. His first marriage, to Portia, was a bomb. They got divorced, and reached an alimony agreement. One of his problems was getting enough money to pay her alimony. Afterwards, Bill had a live-in girlfriend, and talked about marrying her. He was always arguing with her. Sometimes, he’d get on the phone and call her, and there’d be a real screaming match. But we kept our noses out of his business. JA: So he sounds like he was a little bit of an argumentative person. KASHDAN: Not over stories. When he plotted a story and you told him, “Look, I don’t think this thing is working. Why don’t you change the sequence here, and bring in such-and-such a character?” he would say, “Yeah, yeah. Good idea. Thank you.” He’d do it, but it sometimes took him six months or so. JA: Why was he such a slow writer? KASHDAN: He was always getting himself involved in things, like when he had a date with a woman. JA: So he would ignore his deadlines.

JA: Would he get the advance?

KASHDAN: He often did.

KASHDAN: He might, yes. Or sometimes, Schiff would say to him, “No,

JA: Did you think he was a good writer?

DC Golden/Silver Age Editor George Kashdan Rattles A Few Skeletons In The DC Closet

was a pre-World War II character, and it was the same problem [DC] had with Siegel and Shuster on Superman. They didn’t give contracts back then. JA: So the remuneration that Schiff was talking about was only in page rate, not any money for actually creating the character. Am I correct? KASHDAN: A high page rate, which came for creating the character. And they should have said “Created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger” [in the comics]. I don’t know why they didn’t. I can’t speak for them. Bill preceded my arrival there. JA: I’ve heard that Bob Kane was able to work out a legal contract where he actually had some ownership of “Batman.” KASHDAN: I remember Kane came up to the office with his mother, a scratchy, loud-mouthed woman. [chuckles] They went in to see Jack Liebowitz, and I guess she threatened him that she would bring a lawyer in, and he’d have another Siegel & Shuster case on his hands.

A Clock Has Hands—A Writer Has Fingers Bill Finger eyes a splash panel he wrote for Batman #187 (Dec. 1966-Jan. 1967), as drawn by Sheldon Moldoff. Back in A/E #84, we showed pages from several stories featuring clock-motif villains scripted by Batman’s co-creator; but we didn’t have room for this art. Thanks to Bob Bailey. The sketch of Bill Finger, based on one of the handful of photos we’ve seen of him, was done by Bill Schelly for the cover of A/E #20. [Batman page ©2010 DC Comics; Finger profile ©2010 Bill Schelly.]

KASHDAN: He had a great comics skill. He turned comics writing into a craft. Bill was the first man you could call a born comics writer. He had a style which we found too heavy-handed at times. You know, he had his own book of gimmicks, which was a little compilation of things he would see in the movies, which he would adapt for comics. He [did a lot of research]. I remember his son Freddie was trying to sell his father’s gimmick book, but I don’t know whatever happened to it. JA: The picture we have today of Bill Finger is that he felt very wronged by Bob Kane. KASHDAN: Well, he was right. Kane took all the credit for creating “Batman,” which was basically Finger’s idea. I think most people would agree to that. I would say Finger was responsible for more than 50% of the idea. The bat, a creature of the night, and Batman in that costume, looking like a huge bat, was Bill Finger’s idea. Then it came out as “Batman by Bob Kane,” with his signature all over it. JA: Bob Kane always claimed that he had the initial idea for “Batman,” and then he brought Bill Finger in. KASHDAN: It was his idea, he [Bill Finger] said, and Robin was his idea. Kane may have had a basic idea of a night-flyer, something like a bat. He may have thrown it at Finger, and Finger said, “Hey, let’s call him ‘Batman.’” Finger had a much more creative mind than Kane had. JA: Did Bill Finger ever discuss Batman’s creation with you? KASHDAN: No, he never did. I heard him talk about it in his battles with Jack Schiff. He sometimes made remarks, reminding Schiff that he created “Batman,” and it was taken away from him. Schiff would say, “We’ve remunerated you for it adequately.” JA: Do you think that was true? KASHDAN: They paid him high page rates back in those years. Batman

“They Gave [Jerry Siegel] A Settlement on ‘Superboy’” JA: Are you talking about the 1970s or the ’40s? KASHDAN: Well, a lot of these things happened [at different times]. When Siegel and Shuster came in with “Superman,” which had been rejected by King Features, Jack Liebowitz and Harry Donenfeld agreed that “We don’t have to give these kids contracts, we’ll just give them good money.” And they started paying them good rates. Jerry Siegel got a page rate which was way above the norm for that period. That was [after] 1938. And of course, Superman was a monstrous success. Apparently what happened was that when Jerry Siegel went into the Army, he met a lawyer who said, “You’ve been ripped off, my boy. Go get a contract from them.” Liebowitz, ever the shrewd vice-president—I believe he was the vice-president then—said, “We don’t have to give you a contract. You know, you signed over ownership to us, you sold us the copyright,” which is what I can gather. So Siegel sued, and he really didn’t have a case. JA: Well, he obviously did on “Superboy.” KASHDAN: Oh, yes. They gave him a settlement on “Superboy.” He had a good case. See, on the back of each check to the freelancers, there was a statement that they will not demand anything more for the story they just wrote or drew. I think what it came down to was that Siegel and Shuster were a pair of youngsters. They had no legal advice when they sold Superman to Detective Comics, Inc. JA: Was this something that was discussed in the offices very much? KASHDAN: That I don’t know. If it was, I wasn’t around there for it. JA: Jerry Siegel was writing “Superman” again in the late ’50s, and ’60s, for Mort. How did that come about? KASHDAN: I don’t know. Liebowitz had great faith in Mort, whom he considered a genius, although an eccentric one. When Detective Comics became National Periodicals, I think they decided they didn’t need the publicity, the image of the big corporate monster devouring these two pathetic little boys. So they made a settlement. JA: In the 1960s, Jerry Siegel sues DC again, or tries to. Do you remember that?

“I Graduated From Plato And Aristotle To Superman And Batman”

Atta-boy, Atom Man! (Above:) Although a radiation-powered, post-World War II Nazi called The Atom Man battled Superman on the latter’s radio show in 1945, it was Crossen/Spark Publications that brought out two issues of an Atoman comic book in 1946—four years before the Columbia movie serial Atom Man vs. Superman (the actual title) was released in 1950. Jerry Robinson drew the above splash for Atoman #1 (Feb. ’46). The serial’s Atom Man turned out to be none other than Luthor (no “Lex” yet) under that lead helmet through which even Superman’s X-ray vision couldn’t see. [Atoman art ©2010 the respective copyright holders; Superman TM & ©2010 DC Comics.]

Don’t Call Me “Cub”! (Left:) “Superman” co-creators Jerry Siegel (writer) and Joe Shuster (artist) also birthed the “Superboy” concept in the early ’40s—but, due to a juxtaposition of unfortunate circumstances which have oft been related, they wound up suing National/DC over both features in the late ’40s. During happier days, however, Jerry and Joe received a credit on “Superboy,” as per this splash page from Adventure Comics #120 (Sept. 1947); art by Al Wenzel & George Roussos. Happily, Jerry and Joe received a stipend and creative credit again, beginning in 1977. [©2010 DC Comics.] (Right:) The photo of Joe (at the drawing board) and Jerry (hovering right behind him) appeared in a 1940s issue of Independent News, the official publication of the company that distributed (and was basically created and owned by) DC. Thanks to Jack Adams & Michael Feldman.

DC Golden/Silver Age Editor George Kashdan Rattles A Few Skeletons In The DC Closet

Kane & Company Bob Kane, surrounded by images of Batman and his buddies—and a latterday sketch by Kane. A/E’s editor suspects that Kane probably deserves more credit for Batman’s creation than George Kashdan gave him—but less than he took unto himself, at the expense of Bill Finger. Art donor, alas, unknown. [Batman & related characters TM & ©2010 DC Comics.]

KASHDAN: Yes, I believe he tried to, or maybe he did again, and they reached an out-of-court settlement with them. [NOTE: Of course, there were other, later, financial agreements between DC and Siegel & Shuster, but George was not at DC then. —Jim.] JA: Were there any other lawsuits that you were aware of? KASHDAN: There was one funny lawsuit. There was once a movie serial called Superman vs. The Atom Man [sic], and a few years earlier [Ken Crossen/Spark comics company had published] a character called “Atoman.” When the Superman serial came out, he sued DC. Of course, DC’s lawyer tore the guy suing apart. A funny thing happened there. This guy spelled [the hero’s name] A-T-O-M-A-N. DC’s lawyer, Abe Mennon, said, “What kind of name is that? That’s not ‘Atom Man,’ that’s ‘At-ohman’.” [Jim laughs] And he kept saying, “At-oh-men,” and the judge would say to the plantiff, “Oh, you’re referring to At-oh-man?” [more laughter] Mennon had the judge calling it “At-oh-man.” The judge ruled for DC. JA: Was Ken Crossen the one who sued DC? I believe he owned that character. KASHDAN: Oh, no, Ken didn’t sue. It was a young man who claimed creation rights. I don’t remember his name. I knew Ken. He was a nice fellow. Ken was a creative guy. He wrote pretty good novels under differing names. When I lived in Levittown, New York, he had a house out there, so my wife got to know him and his wife. That would be, I guess, during the early ’50s. And finally, Crossen and his wife agreed that they should get a divorce. He moved somewhere and his wife Martha moved to Greenwich Village. When I ran into her once, she told me she was remarrying.

“There’s No Substitute For [Bob] Kane!” JA: During your time as editor at DC, did Bill Finger have any relationship at all with Bob Kane? KASHDAN: They acted friendly towards each other. I don’t think they associated with each other. JA: Finger’s holding his grudge, obviously—well-deserved, I think. KASHDAN: Yes, he earned that grudge. [chuckles] JA: Did Finger ever try to get anything else out of the company for “Batman”? KASHDAN: Maybe he did. That I don’t know. JA: Do you think that added to his problems, emotionally? KASHDAN: I guess, emotionally, this was a man who could not think straight on the issue. DC did the same thing with him that they did with Siegel & Shuster. When comic page rates were rather low, they gave him a higher one for writing “Batman.” That’s why he stayed on. JA: Was he a liked man? KASHDAN: Finger? No, not really. He was very much like Jerry Siegel. There was a sneaky quality about him. You didn’t dare say anything to him that might be repeated to the boss. JA: Some say Finger had a drinking problem, and some say he didn’t. KASHDAN: Finger? No, he didn’t have a drinking problem. JA: I understand it was in Bob Kane’s contract that only he would get credit for “Batman.” Do you know if that’s true? KASHDAN: Oh, yes. It was contractual. Bob Kane was an overgrown

“I Graduated From Plato And Aristotle To Superman And Batman”

child, even in his 40s and 50s. I remember when Mort and Jack bought a story from Finger, and they delivered it to Kane. Kane had a ghost working for him whom he told us nothing about, and it was found out accidentally. About once every two or three weeks, an elderly delivery man came up there from King Features. Lew Sayre Schwartz was working there and [ghosting] “Batman” [on the side]. The delivery man said, “These are for Mr. Schiff from Lew Schwartz.” They opened the package, and saw these ghosted “Batman” jobs. [mutual laughter] So Mort got a little mischievous, called the syndicate, and asked for Schwartz. He started talking to Schwartz, saying, “We just received the ‘Batman,’ and it may need some revision. Your layouts are not very strong.” Schwartz said, “Oh, am I embarrassed.” Kane was furious when he heard about this. He nearly fired Schwartz. Kane was a big kid. When people spoke to him about Batman, Kane said, [dramatically] “I am Batman!” JA: Do you think Bob Kane drew “Batman” at all? KASHDAN: He drew it when they called him in for revisions. He was good at doing what they told him to. If they said, “This guy doesn’t look sinister enough, give him a more sinister face,” Kane could do that. One of Kane’s problems was that he had no sense of composition. I used to say things to Kane like, “Strengthen that arm,” or, “Make that grin more sinister.” He was a very unreliable character in many ways. Not in the [comic book] business. He was very, very conceited. He once said to Jack Miller, “I’m not just an artist. I’m a personality. One day, there’s going to be a Bob Kane Show, and I’ll get on there and tell some good jokes, maybe draw some nice pictures, and that’ll keep the audience happy.” I remember, one Christmas season, Arnold Drake promised the kids in his daughter’s class for their assembly that he’s going to have a surprise for them: a man will show them how he draws Batman. He’d invited Kane to come to the assembly, and all that morning, he called Kane and got no answer on his phone. He got very upset and went downtown and put on a Santa Claus uniform, and put on a production of Batman there. The following morning, Kane called in, so I started taking Kane to task. “What the hell’s the matter with you? Can’t you keep a promise to Arnold? He has egg all over his face for his daughter’s sake.” Kane said, “Oh, I was busy sleeping. I couldn’t get up.” I said, “Why couldn’t you call Arnold, and tell him to get a substitute?” And Kane said, “There’s no substitute for Kane!“ [Jim laughs] He had a fat ego.

had an Art Students League education. JA: You and Jack Schiff was working on Batman and Detective until Julie took over. Why were the books given to Julie? KASHDAN: [Those] books were selling weakly. DC felt that Jack was really more qualified to edit books like House of Mystery and Tales of the Unexpected. JA: I’ve heard that DC was thinking at one point of cancelling Batman and Detective Comics before the editorial switch. KASHDAN: That might be true. I never saw any evidence of that, but I heard the idea tossed around. JA: Under Jack Schiff, Batman became more of a science-fiction character. Why did the “Batman” stories shift to science-fiction and aliens? And then there’s Bat-Mite, Bat-Girl, Batwoman, and Bat-Hound. Why did they change “Batman” in this way? KASHDAN: Well, when Finger wrote in a plot idea for a story, that’s how it began to happen. He may have come up with a mad scientist. In a sense, The Joker was a mad scientist. JA: I thought it was an editorial decision to make “Batman,” in a sense,

JA: As far as you knew, Kane did revisions, but he didn’t actually draw the stories, did he? KASHDAN: He never drew them straight out. Probably the whole magazine, the Batman book, was done by somebody else. He probably drew the “Batman” that appeared in Detective Comics. That was like a 12page story. JA: So then Lew Sayre Schwartz, and later Shelly Moldoff, drew Batman. You think Bob Kane might have done some art on Detective? KASHDAN: Yes. He was doing well, financially. And then in came his mother, who got him that contract. JA: Bob Kane said that he and Bill Finger created The Joker. KASHDAN: As far as I know, Jerry Robinson was very responsible for The Joker.

“The Comics Code Made Everybody Nervous” JA: When Julie Schwartz took over the “Batman” titles, he had Carmine Infantino drawing some of the stories. I heard that Kane did not like that. KASHDAN: Carmine had a better sense of composition, the use of little tricks, devices. You’d watch Carmine draw a cover or something; he’d say, “Oh, down here, we have to irritate the eye to attract attention.” Carmine

The “Hand” Gives Batman The “Finger” One wonders what Bill Finger, who reportedly scripted this story, thought of “The Hand from Nowhere” in Batman #130 (March 1960), with its over-thetop science-fictional elements. Still, he remained inventive to the end—and it turned out that the “aliens” and their “Hand” were simply a criminal gimmick of Luthor’s, back when he was an evil scientist, not just a scheming tycoon. The “Bob Kane” art is by Sheldon Moldoff (pencils) and Charles Paris (inks). Repro’d from a reprint in the “Giant” Batman #218 (Jan-Feb. 1970). [©2010 DC Comics.]

DC Golden/Silver Age Editor George Kashdan Rattles A Few Skeletons In The DC Closet

more like “Superman,” more science-fictiony, and with all the supporting characters. Why did Jack Schiff start to go more into that direction?

JA: When The Adventures of Superman television series came out, it was an immediate hit. How did it make the people in the offices feel?

KASHDAN: I think Jack and Mort came up with it together. As I told you, he and Mort dated back to the great old era of pulp fiction, and that includes a lot of science-fiction tales.

KASHDAN: Well, Liebowitz used to get irritated by the sight of me sitting with the producer. He thought I was there too much. He said, “We’re in the comic book business. Don’t spend your time on television.” I think it was a matter of pride. He didn’t like to feel dependent on television. It wasn’t so much Superman; it was Aquaman and the Justice League.

JA: Do you remember the Two-Face character? KASHDAN: Oh, yes. That was a rather good idea. Plenty of sciencefiction in that. JA: When the Comics Code came about, we didn’t see Two-Face for almost twenty years. Was that because of the Comics Code? KASHDAN: The Comics Code made everybody nervous, and I think they found Two-Face too scary a concept. JA: The Joker didn’t appear as often, either. And you think the disappearance of him and Two-Face was because DC was afraid of parental groups? KASHDAN: Yes, there was that—and pressure groups like the American Legion and Dr. Fredric Wertham. JA: How scared did all of that make you? It seems like you must have been working in a little bit of a climate of fear with the Senate investigations, and Wertham being around. KASHDAN: Well, the New York State Senate and Assembly did an investigation. They had Bill Gaines testifying, and he defied them, told them he thought they were a bunch of censors, using undemocratic methods to control the publishing industry. It got us nowhere. JA: How did you feel about it, personally? KASHDAN: I thought it was censorship. JA: Did anybody at DC ever have to testify? KASHDAN: That I don’t remember. I do know I felt that the DC decision to help form a Code Authority, which they called “self discipline,” was really self-censorship.

“We Tried To Imitate The [Superman] Show” JA: Did the television series affect the tone of the “Superman” books, do you think? KASHDAN: Sometimes we tried to imitate the television show. [chuckles] On the TV show, Perry White used to say, “Great Caesar’s Ghost!” And Jimmy Olsen would address Perry White as “Chief,” and Perry blasted out, “Don’t call me ‘Chief!’” Mort used to tell his writers to do that. If they neglected to, he would add that. Or if I was doing the copy-editing, I would take the script or even the final artwork and add that business about “Don’t call me ‘Chief.’” I remember Mort ordered a story about the ghost of Julius Caesar coming back to haunt Perry White; that plot was used on the television show, too. Mort was sent out to California [as “story editor”] to help the writers out on the Coast. One trip he took lasted about four or six months. JA: While he was out there, who did the day-to-day editing on the “Superman” books? KASHDAN: Jack Schiff. He wrote [and bought] many “Superman” stories. JA: You were involved in the “Superman” books, too. KASHDAN: Oh, yes. But by then, I also edited “Aquaman.”

JA: You’re talking about the cartoons in the 1960s. I was thinking of the George Reeves show of the 1950s. The original producer of that TV series was Robert Maxwell. KASHDAN: He was the man who came up with great ideas… including “Don’t call me ‘Chief.’” [mutual chuckling] [In the early 1940s] Maxwell owned a radio series called House of Mystery. He produced the Superman radio show [which began in 1941]. After Superman, he went on to produce Lassie. He was a rather witty man. He wasn’t talkative; he was taciturn. But when he came into the office and sat down, he talked about his personal adventures... how he discovered he had dysentery while traveling through Mexico, telling us that when he came back, he was totally cured. JA: Do you think Maxwell had any influence on the company at all? KASHDAN: He used to suggest to Mort or Jack, “When you do a ‘Superman’ story, use that ‘Don’t call me Chief ’ business between Perry White and Jimmy Olsen. You have to do that.” JA: I know that Maxwell invented the Inspector Henderson character, and some people think he may have come up with the idea for kryptonite. KASHDAN: [Far as I know,] kryptonite was a brainchild of Mort Weisinger. [NOTE: George was apparently aware of the 1940 “Superman” story written by Jerry Siegel and drawn by the Shuster studio which had introduced kryptonite under the name “K-Metal.” Though this story was never published, the entire script for it still exists, and various finished pages from it have seen print in A/E #26, 37, 45, 51, & 79… with others repro’d very small in Jim Steranko’s 1970 History of Comics. —Jim.] JA: Did you like the television series? KASHDAN: I thought it was a fun series. I didn’t go out of my way to watch it. JA: The first season shows were pretty violent for the time. When Ellsworth took over as producer, they really toned it down. KASHDAN: They did. I don’t know if you know that George Reeves, the star, committed suicide

Great Caesar’s Ghost Artist The cover of Superman #91 (Aug. 1954) is credited to Al Plastino, then drawing (and quite capably, too) in the mode of Wayne Boring, who set the artistic style for the Man of Steel during the 1950s. There was a TV version of “Great Caesar’s Ghost!” as well. [©2010 DC Comics.]

“I Graduated From Plato And Aristotle To Superman And Batman”

Robert Maxwell… Good To The Last Drop (Left:) This photo, printed in A/E #37 thanks to old-time radio expert (and former DC colorist) Anthony Tollin, shows three men crucial to Superman’s pop-literary life. (L. to r.:) Robert Maxwell, producer of the Adventures of Superman radio series and the first year of the TV program… DC founding publisher Harry Donenfeld (with his wife)… and DC editor (and later a producer of the TV program) Whitney Ellsworth. The pic was taken at the Selznick Studios in Culver City, California, in July 1951, and appeared in the book Superman: Serial to Cereal. When Ellsworth replaced Maxwell after the TV series’ first season, the emphasis shifted from intense crime stories to more “child-friendly” episodes. Maxwell moved on to produce the long-running Lassie TV series and made a fortune during its four-season stint. (Below:) A publicity still of George Reeves as Superman, and Robert Shayne as Inspector Henderson… a character created, George Kashdan says, by Robert Maxwell for the TV show. [©2010 the respective copyright holder.]

because he couldn’t get [other] roles. Jack Larson, who played the Jimmy Olsen character, was constantly on the phone with Liebowitz, asking him for money and telling him, “Look, I can’t get work. You’ve got to give me some money, please. I helped you make money.” I imagine Liebowitz would give him something, and tell him to quit complaining and keep trying. [laughs] JA: There’s some debate whether George Reeves committed suicide or whether he was murdered. KASHDAN: Ellsworth said it couldn’t have been suicide. The circumstances of his death were very suspicious. I remember when the movie From Here to Eternity came out. George Reeves had a role in it. When he appeared on the screen, a little murmur and chuckle ran through the audience, and that’s what Reeves was facing in his career. Jack Larson had that same problem. JA: Did Ellsworth express an opinion on what he thought happened, since he thought Reeves was murdered? KASHDAN: Oh, no. He didn’t say that. He just said it was “suspicious.”

someone would say, “Well, if you were here, Clark, where was Superman?” And he’d say, “I haven’t the vaguest idea, Lois,” with a broad wink at the reader. We used to call it a “Clark Kent Wink.” [mutual chuckling]

JA: How did Reeves’ death affect the company?

JA: Do you happen to know what that high level of sales was?

KASHDAN: It didn’t affect the company.

KASHDAN: No. I know they were hoping [for great sales] when Aquaman and the other characters appeared on Saturday morning TV. I wrote the pilots for some of those shows. CBS bought the pilot from DC, and then we went for a conference with Fred Silverman. I can’t say that the Saturday morning TV helped sales of the characters, because they were watched by little kids who didn’t read comic books.

JA: They were so tied into the character—that‘s why I wondered how it might have affected DC’s publicity. Reeves’ death was a traumatic thing. KASHDAN: Yes. It might behoove you to contact Jack Larson. You’ll find him personable. When Ellsworth brought him up to the office, he met all of us and he was very, very friendly. But he still had that Jimmy Olsen— yeah, he was doing it in real life, too, to be an efficient Jimmy. JA: Do you think that the Superman TV show affected the direction of the comic books or sales? KASHDAN: When the George Reeves series came to TV, the sales of “Superman” comics went up, but not a lot. I think they leveled off to a nice high. George Reeves used to do a campy thing, a broad wink at the audience. You see, Superman could never tell a lie, and if

When Batman’s Too Busy To Answer Superman’s Phone Call… A cel from the late-1960s TV animation series The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure… perhaps the show for which Kashdan wrote scripts. [©2010 DC Comics.]

JA: Although I did! KASHDAN: You kept us alive. JA: Well, I tried! Why did it take so long to get a Batman show on the air? KASHDAN: I really don’t know. It might have been because of Bob Kane. I know DC had to deal with the problem of Kane.

“[Judge] Murphy Said, ‘I’ve Come Here To Clean Up Comics’” JA: Did Jack Liebowitz and Harry Donenfeld get along? KASHDAN: Liebowitz considered Donenfeld a necessary burden to bear. Liebowitz was running the firm, because Harry would not contribute anything to it. But Harry was shrewd. Liebowitz’s shrewdness is what brought him to the presidency. Notice that he had worked for Max Gaines as an accountant, and begun feathering his nest.

DC Golden/Silver Age Editor George Kashdan Rattles A Few Skeletons In The DC Closet

Here Comes The Judge! In 1955, Judge Charles Murphy, first head of the Comics Code Authority, displays a blown-up Joe Sinnott panel from a Timely “horror” comic—next to the altered, “Code-approved” version, with the old woman’s face made considerably less scary. There—now don’t you feel all better?

JA: In fact, Liebowitz and Gaines didn’t get along. KASHDAN: As far as I know, he and Gaines got along quite well. JA: I meant Max Gaines. KASHDAN: Oh, you mean Bill’s father. Liebowitz was refusing to talk to Bill, because he felt Bill was damaging the comics business, and was bringing about censorship because of his [EC] comics. Bill simply took the attitude that he’d publish what he wished without permission of anybody. EC did very well in sales. Finally, when the Code Authority was established, Liebowitz had to make peace with Bill in order to get him to cooperate with the Code. And those people down at the Code were ridiculous. When they formed the Comics Code, they dug up this judge, he may have been a magistrate, named Charles Murphy. Murphy said, “I’ve come here to clean up comics,” and he had a bunch of people working for him, mostly women, and they used to object to a lot of things. Did I tell you about a picture of a lion fighting Superman, who was smiling when it was happening? One of the women there returned the book, and they said they would not okay it, and the only form of okay was to get the Seal of the Comics Code Authority on the cover. That got Jack Schiff angry. He went in to complain to Liebowitz, “What the hell’s going on here?” Liebowitz called Judge Murphy, the Code administrator, and according to Schiff, Liebowitz said, “Look, Charlie, you’re destroying the Superman character by telling us you can’t show a lion biting Superman, and not hurting him. That’s not too frightening a scene for kids. That’s how it has to be, Charlie.” Liebowitz said to Schiff, “Think of a way to save it.” Schiff took it back into the office. He asked Mort to help him, and got no help out of Mort. And then Jack got the idea to show the lion’s teeth flying around as it bit Superman. Jack called the Code Authority, and spoke to Judge Murphy and said, “Judge, here’s what we did,” and he hung up, laughing. [laughter] He said Murphy liked it even better. He said, “That’s great. It’s a great idea.” It was all right to show bullets bouncing off Superman, but to show an animal crunching into his arm and losing its own teeth was good enough. [laughs] Often I had to go to Schiff and say, “Call up the Code, will you?” Some of the women there were really hardheads, hardnoses. [chuckles] There were a few reasonable women there. JA: Why were they all women, outside of Judge Murphy? KASHDAN: I don’t know; maybe Murphy liked being surrounded by women. [mutual chuckling] I argued with Schiff: “What the hell are you doing? You’ve always been at the forefront of anti-censorship. You used to say, ‘We don’t need a Hayes Committee in comics.’” He’s trying to get along with them, and he said, “Don’t you realize we had to do this for our survival?” Indicating this is not censorship, but self-supervision. JA: When they had the Senate Investigations, Bill Gaines testified, and didn’t come off too well. KASHDAN: Yeah, Bill was on some mind-altering drug and apparently, before the committee, he was kind of groggy.

JA: He was taking Dexedrine because he was trying to control his weight. You said nobody from DC testified. KASHDAN: Not as far as I know. If Ellsworth had gone, he’d have put the Committee in its proper place. He should have. I don’t know if he wanted to. JA: Well, by that time, he’s already on the West Coast. KASHDAN: Oh, yes. Whit was so contemptuous of those hearings that he would have refused to have cooperated with it. He might have been invited to testify, and he just refused to cooperate. It’s too bad, because Ellsworth cut a very good figure, and he could have made them look foolish. He was very opinionated, and sometimes he’d brook no arguments. We sometimes argued with him a lot, and he likely would say, “Go ahead, don’t say I didn’t warn you. I don’t like this cover idea.“ He had cover approval, and he was usually pretty good about it. JA: When the Code came into being, they forbade the use of words like “horror” and “terror” in the titles, which affected the most important of Bill Gaines’ books. Do you think it was an attempt to drive Bill Gaines out of business? KASHDAN: Maybe. I remember when someone at the Code Authority suggested that we include black people in any kind of group scenes, and that seemed to help sales. That was about 1959. JA: How much do you think the Code affected the stories that you bought? KASHDAN: It affected the way the stories were written. Bill, if he had a story about monsters that ate people, showed half-eaten men and characters staggering with their hands around their throats the blood gushing. We were told not to show too much blood. We told him, “Quit these things you’re doing.” So Bill came out with Mad magazine, and that was his answer to comic books. And Mad caught a big, older audience. He used some of our artists, like Morty Drucker. JA: When the Code came into being, did you or Schiff or Mort have an editorial conference to discuss with your writers the Code or anything like that? KASHDAN: We did, and we said, “Look, this is what the Code is about. Their big fear is the American Legion picketing them at the newsstands.” That was the excuse for the Hayes Committee years before, in the movies. Hayes did not approve of showing Joan Crawford in her underwear. JA: Although male viewers didn’t mind. Did Liebowitz feel the Code was necessary? KASHDAN: He felt something like the Code was necessary, some form of self-policing, not censorship of ourselves, or by other members of the Code.

“Harry [Donenfeld] Was Always ‘In’ With The Mob” JA: Of course, you know that Donenfeld, in the ’30s, had published those Spice Detective pulps. KASHDAN: He had some great old magazines like Stocking Parade, which showed numerous pretty girls. They hired these models and took photos of the models wearing the latest fashions. They’d say, “Here is a new number from Paris,” and the girls walking along would have their skirts lifted all the way to the top of their stockings. That was considered indecent. JA: Donenfeld got in trouble for some of those magazines [the “Spicy” line of pulps], and Herbie Siegel took the rap for him, and went to jail.

“I Graduated From Plato And Aristotle To Superman And Batman”

That’s-a One Spicy Meatball! (Above:) When interviewed for A/E #26, the late Irwin Donenfeld, once copublisher of DC Comics, provided this photo of the bigwigs of the company’s self-owned distributor, Independent News. (L. to r.:) Herb Siegel, Harry Donenfeld (Irwin’s father), Irwin, Paul Sampliner, Harold Chamberlain, copublisher Jack Liebowitz, and Ben Goldberg. When Harry D. got in trouble with the law in the 1930s for publishing “obscene” pulp magazines, mostly with the word “Spicy” in the title, it was Siegel—no relation to the co-creator of “Superman”—who took the rap, claiming he’d been the mags’ editor and was fully responsible for their lurid content, and served a short prison term. He was rewarded with a full-time job. (Right:) H.J. Ward’s cover for the June 1935 issue of Spicy Mystery Stories, which, as per Frank M. Robinson & Lawrence Davidson in their 1998 tome Pulp Culture: The Art of Fiction Magazines, was “the most famous Spicy title of all, mixing sex and fantasy.” [©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

KASHDAN: Oh, yes. Herbie took the rap that way. He was a nice fellow; all the writers liked him. They asked him to please get a pay phone for the writers’ bullpen. That was all right with the writers. Herbie used to go out of his way for them. JA: The story I heard was when Herbie got out of prison that Donenfeld gave him a job for life. KASHDAN: He gave him more than a job. They made him a demipartner. [chuckles again] Whenever they needed a simple little “task fund,” Liebowitz would give it to Herbie. JA: What was his function in the office? KASHDAN: He never participated in policy discussions. Sometimes Liebowitz came into the editorial offices, wanting to see what was coming up. Nobody asked Herbie’s opinion. Herb had started out as a valet. He was Harry Donenfeld’s valet, and Donenfeld still treated him like one. He used to really humiliate him in public. Herbie used to pick up women, and tell them that he’s a partner in Superman, and Harry would bawl him out. Sometimes, in the office, we’d hear Harry yelling at Herbie, and Herbie would yell at him, “All right, that’s enough, Harry. You lay off!” He’d do things like that. JA: I had heard that Herbie had sometimes got women for Donenfeld. KASHDAN: He probably did that. I don’t think he was a high-class pimp. Sometimes, if Donenfeld wanted to meet a woman, he’d send Herbie over. Herbie had a little more suavity with women. When Harry Donenfeld died, poor Herbie was distraught. Once, in Arnold Drake’s presence, he pointed to Donenfeld’s office and said, “When that man died, my life ended, too.” JA: Julie Schwartz told me that one time, Harry Donenfeld sneezed, and Herbie ran down the hall, poked his head in Donenfeld’s office, and said, “Gezhundheit.” KASHDAN: I can believe that. Once, Herbie sent one of the office boys to deliver a bottle of whiskey to a woman whose acquaintance he had made. And when my brother Bernie had a little more power back there in the bookkeeping department, he quietly chastised Herbie for spending

corporate money, giving away corporate liquor, to his girlfriends. This was bad form, and Herbie, with a smile, tried to placate him. My mother used to call Herbie “a good boy.” My father and Donenfeld were old buddies. That’s how my father got to be a foreman of Donny Press. When Donenfeld had to go out and make money, he formed Donny Press, where they printed covers for the comic books. That was Harry’s means of staying in business. And with the death of my father... he was so fondly remembered by Donenfeld and Liebowitz that they gave my brother Bernie his job in the bookkeeping department, so he could start learning the comics business and work with auditors, and that sort of thing. He appreciated it. JA: How did your father and Donenfeld meet? KASHDAN: They were both from the old country. They lived on the same street in the Bronx. JA: Do you know anything about Harry Donenfeld’s younger days? KASHDAN: He was always a little ragamuffin, an overgrown teenager, always pursuing women and drinking heavily. Harry was always “in” with the Mob. That’s how he became a good friend of Moe Annenberg. The Annenberg family has a very suspicious past. Annenberg was originally a magazine distributor, and as a distributor he was probably involved with the Mafia. You’ve heard the stories about how they used to shoot down newsstand dealers who didn’t do what they told them. Annenberg was obviously part of that crowd. Now, there’s a school of Communication at Pennsylvania University with his name on it. I’m sure Liebowitz wasn’t proud of the association, but he did his best to placate Annenberg. I think DC began to hit the skids when Harry died and wasn’t around to butter

DC Golden/Silver Age Editor George Kashdan Rattles A Few Skeletons In The DC Closet

up these mobsters. It was Moe Annenberg and Henry Rosen. JA: Do you think that Harry Donenfeld’s death was one reason why eventually DC was sold to Kinney Corporation? KASHDAN: I think Jack Liebowitz saw the potential to grow by merging with Kinney. But of course, Kinney spread into other areas. They bought out another couple of companies, and then were merged with Warner. And of course, they’re now part of Time-Warner.

“[My Brother] Bernie Knew How To Keep A Secret” JA: How did your brother Bernie start at DC? KASHDAN: When he finished college, he went to the Baruch School of Business Administration, and got himself a Master’s Degree in Business Administration. In 1940, he got a job at DC as a rather glorified office boy, and carried some of his business college knowledge [with him]. They started giving him assignments in the Bookkeeping department, and he liked it. JA: He worked for the company from 1940 to 1976. When was he born? KASHDAN: Let me see, he died this year [2005] at the age of 85. He could have given you some interesting background [information]. He was a taciturn man, a very private man. He got along very well with Harry Donenfeld and Jack Liebowitz. Liebowitz considered my brother a protégé, as far as I recall. JA: Was he one of the few people Liebowitz trusted? KASHDAN: I think so, yes. Bernie knew how to keep a secret. He knew

where all the bodies were buried, but I doubt he’d have told you where they were. He was loyal to the company to the end. JA: Why did he retire from the company? KASHDAN: I think he felt there would be a conflict between him and the new editor-in-chief, Sol Harrison. I think Bernie felt that he was superior to Sol. When Bernie quit, he was Comptroller of the company, and later became a Vice President of Warner Communications, [then of] TimeWarner. He later went to work for a man named Carroll Reinstrom, who was in charge of the foreign sales of the magazines. And then I think he subsequently became a partner of Reinstrom’s for about five or six years, I would guess. Carroll was an Old World gentleman. He behaved like English royalty. In England, the King and Queen are expected to deal with the commoners as they would with another member of royalty. Apparently, Reinstrom had that attitude. He spoke very respectfully to the young man who worked in his department over there at DC. Whenever Reinstrom needed mattes to send to another publisher in Latin America or in the Middle East, he had this young man supply them.

“Irwin [Donenfeld] Felt Mort [Weisinger] Was An Eccentric Genius” JA: What do you think was the essence of the Batman character? KASHDAN: Well, there used to be arguments among the readers over who they liked better: Batman or Superman. Superman was a super-hero from another planet. The kids responded to the science-fiction aspect of him. Batman had to use his brain more than Superman did. It was easy for Superman to come in, and bounce bullets off his body. Batman had to come up with the Batmobile and the Batarang, the Batplane, and all his inventions. Superman never had to be inventive. At least that was how kids felt. Robin appealed to the kids. JA: How important do you think Robin was to the “Batman” comic books in terms of sales and in terms of reader identification? KASHDAN: I think he was very important in all the aspects you mentioned. JA: When Batman and Superman teamed up in World’s Finest Comics, I believe that was a Jack Schiff idea, wasn’t it? KASHDAN: He did come up with that one. JA: Did you find those stories harder to put together because of the differences of the characters? KASHDAN: They weren’t hard to put together. [chuckles] I think Schiff felt he didn’t want any rivalry between the two of them, [or to have] kids asking, “Which do you like better? Who do you think is more clever? Who do you think is more reliable?” That sort of thing. JA: Did Mort have any involvement in World’s Finest, or was that mostly Jack’s book? KASHDAN: Mort and Jack used to hit it together. They were co-editors [until Mort started handling the book on his own in the 1960s], and old friends from the pulp days. When Mort knew he’d be going into the Army, he asked Jack to come over and fill in. So Jack was Mort’s replacement during the war, and then they were back together again. They used to

“Your Two Favorite Heroes—Superman and Batman With Robin In One Adventure Together!” That was the somewhat awkwardly titled logo that appeared on the splash panels of dozens of “Superman & Batman” team-up stories that were launched following Winslow Mortimer’s cover for World’s Finest Comics #71 (July-Aug. 1954). Of course, the heroes had met before, in two 1940s issues of All-Star Comics and in Superman #76 (July-Aug. 1952). [©2010 DC Comics.]

DC“I Graduated From Plato And Aristotle To Superman And Batman”

complaining that Mort was a vicious, sadistic man. Irwin would say to them, “Look, he’s a genius, isn’t he?” And no one would argue with Irwin on that. [chuckles] JA: When a writer would come in with a plot, Mort would reject it and give him another plot that another writer had given him. KASHDAN: Yes. That was his reputation. JA: Was that just a function of power on his part? KASHDAN: Yes. He used to say he had to give writers plots if he didn’t like the plots they presented him with. Those things happened. JA: I take it the only person Whitney Ellsworth had to answer to was Liebowitz or Harry Donenfeld. Is that right? KASHDAN: I think they gave him carte blanche. Harry was more of a public relations man. He was in solid with some of the sub-distributors, like Moe Annenberg [the original publisher of TV Guide]. He didn’t have much to do with the day-to-day business. He was a very generous man, very easy to get along with. JA: Did you have much to do with him? KASHDAN: No, I never went in and asked him for an opinion of a cover idea. Often, Liebowitz would come into our offices and say, “What have you got for covers coming up?” And sometimes we would have arguments with him. I think he felt that he had to look in on the editorial offices, and hear what’s going on. We once had a big argument with him over a cover for the Daniel Boone magazine we were publishing. It showed Boone as a captive of the Indians, hanging upside down from a tree branch. His ankles were tied to the tree branch, and Liebowitz didn’t think kids would buy it if they saw Daniel Boone in such circumstances. We said, “That’s the way to get kids to buy a book. If they see the hero in trouble, how will he get out of it? They want to know.”

Shades of Erasmus B. Dragon! While anecdotes concerning “Superman” line editor Mort Weisinger’s taking a story idea proposed by one writer and giving it to another one as if he (Mort) had thought of it are legion, the closest Ye Editor can come to illustrating this from personal knowledge is the tale “The Dragon Delinquent” from Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #91 (March 1966). The original version, with a different title and no fake “hunchback,” was scripted by Roy Thomas while still a high school teacher in Missouri—and he believes the basic idea of Jimmy Olsen disguising himself as a juvenile delinquent was his idea, rather than Mort’s. After Roy quickly left DC’s employ in July of ’65, the concept was apparently given to veteran “Superman” writer Leo Dorfman. What Weisinger told Dorfman about its origins is, alas, unknown. Still, Roy feels that Mort Weisinger was a formidable talent; and, since there are way more than two sides to every story, Alter Ego will be proud and happy to showcase a reminiscence by his daughter Joyce Kaffel in a near-future issue. Art by Pete Costanza. [©2010 DC Comics.]

have blow-ups with each other. Mort sometimes felt that Jack was buying stories that he never would have bought. JA: But they would usually find a way to resolve their problems, right? KASHDAN: Oh, yes. [Schiff] was much more mild-mannered. Mort had a fierce temper. JA: Did Mort get along with the other editors? KASHDAN: Mort would read a comic, one of the humor ones, and he would be in Liebowitz’s office complaining about what’s wrong with this book. The other editors would tell him to mind his own business, stick to his own magazines. They didn’t like him behaving like the elder statesman of comics. I think he believed that he should be editor-in-chief. Irwin Donenfeld used to argue with Mort. Irwin thought Mort was an eccentric genius, and the big problem he had was writers who came to him

You see, comics were affected not by the quality of the product. What happened there was the disappearance of the marketplace. When I was a kid during the Depression, the marketplace consisted of corner candy stores. Kids would be hanging around, and in the event of a rainstorm or a snowstorm, they would buy comics for 10¢ apiece, and the War changed that picture altogether. Many of the comic books went out to the PXs, and they sold very well there. Soldiers and sailors liked comic books. So the marketplace turned into newsstands and supermarkets, and kids didn’t hang around there to see what’s coming out. That’s what changed the nature of the business.

Maybe Those Indians Captured Davy Crockett Instead? DC co-publisher must’ve won his argument with George Kashdan and his other editors concerning the cover art for an issue of Legends of Daniel Boone, ’cause there’s no cover in the 8-issue series showing the frontier hero captured by Native Americans, let alone “hanging upside down from a tree branch.” Or maybe it was scheduled for the neverpublished 9th issue? At any rate, the dependable Nick Cardy turned in a good cover for issue #2 (Dec. 1955-Jan. 1956). [©2010 DC Comics.]

DC Golden/Silver Age Editor George Kashdan Rattles A Few Skeletons In The DC Closet

“Among The Jewish Immigrants Like Ourselves, Roosevelt Was A God” JA: We haven’t talked about Julie Schwartz yet. KASHDAN: I liked Julie. He was a happy, jocular guy, full of jokes [outside of business hours]. A very meticulous man in every way. Julie was totally unfazed by Mort Weisinger. He was a private man. I know Julie enjoyed arguing politics with Jack Schiff, and it was always on a very earthy level, not intellectual. JA: I always thought Julie was a Democrat. KASHDAN: Oh, he was. JA: So what were the arguments about? Because Jack was a Democrat. KASHDAN: That would be safe to say. It’s always hard to decide what party each one supported. I grew up during the Franklin Roosevelt era. My father thought Roosevelt was great, and among the Jewish immigrants like ourselves, Roosevelt was a God. [laughs] JA: Jack Adler told me practically everybody at DC were Democrats.

KASHDAN: That would be an accurate statement. Jack Schiff, Mort, and I used to get into political debates. I’d say Julie was a moderate. He wasn’t a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat. I think Julie considered himself an Independent. JA: So that’s why he’d have the arguments with Schiff. Considering what happened during the McCarthy era, was there any discussion about not talking politics in the office since most of the people were Democrats? Was there any fear of that? KASHDAN: There was a lot of discussion about it. I remember during the Army-McCarthy hearings, somebody had the radio on, and we’d all go in and listen to McCarthy getting lambasted. McCarthy was such a hateful man. His behavior during the hearings was disgustingly disgraceful. He had the country in fear, but I never was in fear of him. I thought he was a passing phase in that his time would come. JA: So there weren’t people in the office afraid to talk about their politics if they were left-leaning during this era? KASHDAN: Left-leaning? Well, Democrats were considered a bunch of Communists. [laughs] JA: Right, that’s my point. [chuckles] And so many of you were Democrats, and you told me how political Jack Schiff was. Would this have affected anyone in the offices? KASHDAN: Schiff was kind of a classical model. He, like his parents and other generations going back into the past—he worshipped Roosevelt. I was in school when Roosevelt died, and there were teachers walking around with tears in their eyes. An assembly was called for memorializing of Roosevelt. It happened in a way that shocked everybody. My Aunt Manya worked in a hospital in the East Bronx—Lincoln Hospital—and she said the doctors were all going around, yelling, “Whoopie!!!” Doctors were part of the wealthy establishment, which felt that Roosevelt was trying to turn us into a Socialist country. It was such an irrational hatred of the man among the rich people. That’s the kind of stupidity you ran into in politics. JA: Was there anybody in the office who was a Republican who might have considered any of you guys Communists? KASHDAN: I think among the freelancers, there were some people like that. Bill Woolfolk was a good Liberal. So was his wife Dorothy. Actually, we were careful in the presence of Ed Herron. He was very apolitical. In the presence of the Wood brothers, we were all careful. These were a pair of empty-headed guys. The only time their heads were full was when they were filling it with booze. JA: What about Jack Liebowitz? KASHDAN: Liebowitz was private about his politics. When the writers all asked for raises and said they might have to form a union in order to do it, Liebowitz would say, “You know, I used to be a union man like you fellows, but I can’t agree with your attitude now.” That was his basic line. JA: Jack Liebowitz never struck me as being a union person. What did you think of him?

Brotherhood Week Brouhaha In this public service page that appeared in Action Comics #143 (April 1950), as well as other DC mags with overlapping dates, Superman stands up for tolerance... even if it’s never clearly stated that the folks named “Levy” and “Rubin” were Jewish. Script probably by Jack Schiff; art probably by Al Plastino. Thanks to Betty Dobson. [©2010 DC Comics.]

KASHDAN: I think he was an eminently fair boss. Liebowitz did a lot of things himself. For instance, he could have had messengers do his banking, but he felt it was healthier to walk by himself. I remember I was still in my forties... one day in the street, I came out of the building, and Liebowitz came walking up the street at a very brisk pace. I walked up in greeting. “Oh, hello, George. Come here and walk me to the bank.” He didn’t slow down his pace, just spun me around, and had me walking with him. [mutual chuckling] I had to walk to keep up with him. Remember the old stories about when Truman was in the White House, and took his morning constitutional? Reporters had to run to keep up with him. That’s practically how I felt when Liebowitz said, “Walk me to the bank.”

“I Graduated From Plato And Aristotle To Superman And Batman”

the window, isn’t it? [chuckles] Dave’s real name was David Levine. He was a very meticulous man. He didn’t believe in crossing out mistakes. Instead of X-ing out a bad line, he would retype the whole page, [mutual laughter] and his scripts were always immaculately neat. Early in his career, he wrote some pulps. When Jack and Mort moved into comics from the pulps, they invited Dave to write for them. He sold a science-fiction story to Collier’s or The Saturday Evening Post, I think it was, or to one of the men’s magazines. JA: In the 1970s, as you know, Julie got him to write “Batman” for him again, and the name he used was “David V. Reed.” KASHDAN: That would be correct. Julie always liked his writing. JA: He obviously didn’t seem to have much fear of Mort. Was he a fearless type of guy? KASHDAN: Yes. At least he put on a great performance of fearlessness. He delighted in irking Mort. Many writers were in terror of Mort. They called him a sadist. He used to say very insulting things to them. If a man brought in story ideas, Mort would say, “Oh, I’ve got to take this to wipe my ass with it.” Those were his favorite terms. Oh, he was vicious. JA: Was there a good side to Mort?

The Secret Origin Of David V. Reed & Ernie Chua Bruce Wayne wasn’t the only person in the lead story in Batman #269 (Nov. 1975) who had a secret identity! Of the three names in the credits, only Julie Schwartz’s moniker is real. “David V. Reed” was actually David Levine… and “Ernie Chua” was in truth Ernie Chan, as he’d soon be known to comics readers (but this was due to an immigration-service error, not because Ernie wanted a pseudonym). Levine filled a gap after Denny O’Neil and Archie Goodwin had moved on. Incidentally, George Kashdan’s brother Bernard is listed in the indicia of this issue as “Vice President – Business Manager.” Thanks to Bob Bailey. [©2010 DC Comics.]

He was a private man, unlike Harry Donenfeld. He had his own friends, and his own social circle. I suppose he must have had friends in the office, but it was nobody that I knew. He had a lot of old Mafia friends, but they were different than Donenfeld’s. Donenfeld used to like to show off his friends. I remember one afternoon he came in and bragged, “Hey, everybody! Here’s Jimmy Roosevelt!” [one of FDR’s sons]. You know, Jimmy tried to make it in show business, and to him, Harry was the essence of comic book publishing. Maybe he was thinking, “I could get this guy on my side.”

“Mort [Weisinger] Is So Busy With ‘Superman,’ He Believes In It!” JA: Some people describe Liebowitz as being very tight with money. Jack Adler thought that Liebowitz was generous. KASHDAN: “Tight,” is probably the accurate word. I do remember the time Mort Weisinger lent money to David Vern, and Vern never did pay him back. So one day Vern was walking past his office, and Mort yelled out, “Hey, Vern! Where’s that goddamn sixty bucks you owe me?” Dave said to him, “Will you settle for forty, cash?” And Mort said, “Yeah, yeah.” So Dave said, “Okay, I owe you forty cash.” Everyone liked to see Mort with egg on his face. [Jim laughs] Better than the threat to push him out

KASHDAN: None that I know of. I don’t think he was very generous when he’d give writers story ideas that he stole from other writers. He once got himself into hot water that way, and wound up worried. A young new writer [Jack Miller] was trying to sell stories to him. He hadn’t worked on any of the other editors’ stuff. So he came to Mort with an idea, and Mort said, “That stinks,” and he turned it down. We heard it happen. Then Dick Lederer came in. Dick was also writing stories for radio, and Mort said, “Hey, I’ve got a great idea for you to sell to your producer.” And he gave Dick the story idea, which he had turned down from Jack. Well, about six hours later, Dick came walking in announced loudly, “Mort, I owe you a lunch! I just sold that story idea you gave me.” And Mort said, “Oh, great, great.” You know, that was big, generous Mort, as he had appeared. When Dick left, Mort turned around to Schiff and said, “Hey, I got myself into hot water here.” So he called Jack Miller and said, “Hey, listen. I owe you an apology. Something went wrong here,” and Mort told Miller how Dick took his idea and sold it. Mort told Miller that he had given it to Dick, and Miller said, “Oh, you’ve gone too far, Weisinger. I’m not going to let you get away with it,” and he slammed the phone down on him. Mort was worried how Miller was not going to let him get away with it. JA: What did Miller do? KASHDAN: He probably called his producer and said, “Dick Lederer sold this idea to another show. It’s my idea, and I’ve got it copyrighted. I must tell you this.” Oh, Dick would have been deprived of the success he thought he had achieved—and Mort, oh, was he worried! [Jim chuckles again] JA: When I was in high school, there was an article about Weisinger in Parade magazine. He had talked about how he had gone to a psychiatrist because he had been the editor of “Superman,” and all this sort of stuff. KASHDAN: He was a pathetic character in many ways. In many ways, people sympathized with him. Women felt sorry for him. He used to tell these stories on himself. He began making money and decided he had to behave like a rich American playboy, so he got himself a girlfriend [on the side], and bought himself a toupee. It seemed whenever he took her out, he’d go over to her apartment, and he’d sit at her bedside and tell those stories about his great success as a writer. [laughs] You know, he sold articles to the major magazines. He figured he would impress her that he might be a wealthy guy. This went on for about a month or two. After a

DC Golden/Silver Age Editor George Kashdan Rattles A Few Skeletons In The DC Closet

so he gave her some things that I think Dave Stanley had handwritten, and my wife was the typist. I heard him arguing with Stanley when the book came out, and he put in “by Mort Weisinger, research by Jacqueline Kashdan.” Stanley called him up, “What the hell’s going on? Who did the research? I did it!” And Mort said, “She had to double-check your research, and she had to confirm what you did. She was a researcher.” I didn’t tell her about it, although there was once a theory that Stanley was the eminence gris behind Weisinger. It means “gray eminence,” like Richelieu was the eminence gris behind King Louis. JA: Why didn’t Mort write any “Superman” stories, if he was such a great writer? KASHDAN: In the early part of his career, he wrote some “Superman” stories to decide if he could be an editor, and Jack, I think, bought some from him. Some of the writers had contempt for Mort. One of our writers was Jerry Coleman, who said, “Mort didn’t write all those articles for Collier’s and Saturday Evening Post. He can’t write English!” And Jerry used to say, “Mort is so busy with ‘Superman,’ he believes in it!“ When you would talk to Mort about Superman, you could tell he believed in Superman and Bizarro. JA: Superman was like an alter ego for him, then. KASHDAN: In a way, he was. Yes.

What Took Them So Long? While writer (and sometime editor) Jack Miller is best remembered for his late-1960s “Deadman” scripting done for tales drawn by Neal Adams, he had earlier authored many other features. The first “Aquaman” story credited to him in the 2003 hardcover Aquaman Archives, Vol. 1, whose splash is seen above, appeared in Adventure Comics #270 (March 1960), and introduced Aqualad to be the Sea King’s Robin. Art by Ramon Fradon. [©2010 DC Comics.]

while, he asked if he could get into the bed with her and she said, “Are you kidding? Get lost!” I remember one morning, he came in without his toupee. I said, “Mort, what happened to your toupee? Where is it?” He said, “I decided not to wear it. It wasn’t me.” And that was the excuse he gave for not wearing it. JA: Did he really write all those magazine articles, or did people write them for him? KASHDAN: We never knew who wrote what. His book called A 1001 Things You Can Get Free was a little catalogue of premium items. All you had to do was send in your name and address with a boxtop from Jell-O or something like that. It sold very well. JA: It did, and there were many printings, I know. KASHDAN: The big rumor about it was that the idea was given to him by Dave Stanley, an off-stage mystery man—that he used to call on Stanley to do some ghost-writing for him, and Stanley gave him those items for his catalogue. I guess Mort jotted down some copy for it. I know he asked me if my wife was available to do some spare time work for him. I didn’t know anything about Stanley’s involvement. JA: Was your wife a writer? KASHDAN: She was a teacher and was looking for some spare-time cash,

Illegal Aliens Beginning in 1960, Jerry Coleman scripted a number of “Superman & Batman” stories. This story from World’s Finest Comics #109 (May ’60) was penciled by Dick Sprang, and inked by Sprang and Sheldon Moldoff; Jack Schiff was the editor. Repro’d from the 2005 hardcover World’s Finest Comics Archives, Vol. 3. Coleman also scripted various “Superman” stories for Mort Weisinger around this time. [©2010 DC Comics.]

“I Graduated From Plato And Aristotle To Superman And Batman”

The World’s Mightiest Maid of Steel Otto Binder—seen in 1960 editing his science-fact magazine Space World—wrote scripts, at different times, for both “Captain Marvel” and “Superman.” He also authored the introductory stories of both Mary Marvel (in Captain Marvel Adventures #18, Dec. 11, 1942) and Supergirl (in Action Comics #252, May 1959). But, was cloning a younger female version of the Man of Steel his idea—or editor Weisinger’s? We’ll probably never know. The art is repro’d, respectively, from The Shazam! Family Archives, Vol. 1 and The Supergirl Archives, Vol. 1. Photo courtesy of Bill Schelly, from his acclaimed 2003 biography Words of Wonder: The Life and Times of Otto Binder. [Comics pages ©2010 DC Comics.] Incidentally, comics historian Will Murray recently reported: “I’ve come into possession of a copy of a previously unknown Weisinger interview. In it he credits Otto Binder with coming up with the idea that Superman’s powers derive in part from Earth’s yellow sun, Krypton having a red sun, of course. Was this known before?” Not by us, Will—but we’re overjoyed to hear of Mort giving Otto credit for the notion.

JA: Do you think maybe that was because Mort had no real identity of his own? KASHDAN: That’s probably the reason. He wrote a novel [The Contest]—which was ghost-written. The one about Miss America. He [originally] gave it a name, Princess America. Most of it was written by Bill Woolfolk. You know Bill used to write “Captain Marvel.” He was not in awe of Mort, and Mort would sit with Bill and say, “You’ve got to come up with new ideas. I have to give writers new ideas.” I’d hear Mort saying something to Bill, an idea he gave to Dave Vern, or words to that effect, and Bill would say to him, “That’s a new idea? I wrote it six times for [Captain] Marvel.” [Jim laughs] And Mort would sit there, puffing on his cigarette, and it would drive him crazy that Woolfolk didn’t say, “Yeah, that was a good idea. I wish I had thought of it.” Many writers went through that. They knew they had to brown-nose him. JA: Later on, after “Captain Marvel” was no longer being published by Fawcett, I noticed that some of the ideas in “Captain Marvel” showed up in “Superman” stories. And I know that Otto Binder had written for Mort after he wrote “Captain Marvel.” KASHDAN: Oh, yes. Otto got rich on “Captain Marvel.” There’s an old

joke about Otto; the word was that he never got out of his bathrobe when he got out of his bed. He sat at the typewriter to write. “Captain Marvel” was a hot property. It paid very well, especially during the war. JA: Do you think that Mort was intentionally taking some of the ideas that Binder and Woolfolk had done in “Captain Marvel” and transposing them in “Superman”? KASHDAN: That’s possible. He would then give it to Otto as an idea, and Otto would say, “Oh, good idea.” [Jim chuckles] He wouldn’t say, “I wrote that for ‘Captain Marvel’ once.” Otto followed the rule of not antagonizing Mort. It made him so tense. You know Otto had a drinking problem. He told the other writers that he had a rule at home: when he came back from his meetings with Mort, no one was to talk to him until he sat and relaxed. Relaxing consisted of mixing himself a good, stiff martini, and reading the newspapers. JA: Mort gave Superman the Fortress of Solitude, but that concept came from the Doc Savage pulp novels. KASHDAN: [groans in pain] Mort would take something from the old pulps, or where ever he could find. He had a pride about the way he could

DC Golden/Silver Age Editor George Kashdan Rattles A Few Skeletons In The DC Closet

Teen-Time George Kashdan’s long career as both editor and writer lasted through the early 1980s. Offered for your consideration: Nick Cardy’s title splash for the Kashdan-edited Teen Titans #4 (July-Aug. 1966)… and a page from the GKscripted tale “The Righteous Ones” in Time Warp #1 (Oct.-Nov. 1979), as illustrated by Dick Giordano. You’ll see more of both comics—and a whole lot besides—in the next two issues of Alter Ego! [©2010 DC Comics.]

steal ideas. I remember, one lunch hour, we were walking past a theatre that had some adventure classic translated into movies. He said, “Let’s stop here and see what we can steal from the stills.” If he saw a picture he liked, that would be the splash for another “Superman” story. JA: Did he have any hobbies? What did he do besides his editing job? KASHDAN: He did a lot of writing. As I told you, he wrote a lot of articles. He once wrote a romanticized version of Alex Lewitt’s successes, and Lewitt liked it. I don’t know whether Mort wrote it himself or not, but Lewitt liked the article so much that he became a buddy of Mort’s, and invited him to a party at his home in Great Neck, which is a millionaire community. JA: Mort did marry and have children. Did that change him at all? KASHDAN: He certainly gave the impression of being a dedicated father and husband. He had a fierce temper, which he often let out on his wife. Jerry Coleman told me a story of how Mort invited him out to his fancy home in Great Neck. When it was time for Jerry to leave, he asked, “What’s the best way for me to get back to Brooklyn?“ Mort’s wife Thelma started explaining, and apparently made one mistake. Jerry said Mort started shouting at her, and humiliated her in the presence of his guests there.

Jerry was a high school English teacher. He smoked himself to death. Emphysema. Jerry used to talk about how Mort said to him, “Why are you wasting your time teaching? You can make so much money in comics. I’ll give you plots. You just come in once or twice a week, and I’ll keep you busy.” He talked Jerry into trying that, so Jerry took a sabbatical from his teaching job, and he called Mort and said, “I’ve taken your advice and quit teaching for a while.” So one morning, Jerry came in and Mort said to him, “I used to be in your power, now you’re in my power!” That was a typical sadistic crack of Mort’s. JA: Where was Jerry teaching? KASHDAN: In Madison High School in Brooklyn. He was a very scholarly man. A good writer. He wrote for me, too, and gave me some nice stories for House of Mystery, and science-fiction for Tales of the Unexpected. He had an inventive mind. He had a mustache, and he looked like a worried man. His forehead was always wrinkled. But when he sat around with the boys and relaxed, he was good company. He could talk literature and poetry, and Shakespeare. He had a good sense of humor. Jim Amash’s interview with George Kashdan will be continued in A/E #94.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

The Truth About Comic Books!! by Michael T. Gilbert

ack in July 2000, loyal Mr. Monster fan Kevin McConnell mailed me this fascinating mid-1950s anti-comics pamphlet, written by Ruth I. Johnson. Pretty neat cover, no?

Johnson’s piece was inspired by a November 1953 Ladies’ Home Journal article by Dr. Fredric Wertham entitled “What Parents Don’t Know!“ (Wertham’s most famous tome, Seduction of the Innocent, would be published the following year.) It also referenced Poison Peddling!, a book from the Van Kampen Press. These articles (and many others) encouraged American parents to burn little Jimmy’s precious comic collection, while The Truth about Comic Books added even more fuel to the fire. The tiny 3½” x 6¼” religious pamphlet, reminiscent of Jack Chick’s religious minicomics, claims to tell the “truth” about comic books. So, does it? I could tell you, but how fun is that? Instead, we’ll present the evidence and let YOU decide!

The Truth About Comic Books!!

Murder, She Shoots! (Top of this page, top of opposite page, & following:) Because The Truth about Comic Books was never copyrighted, Ye Olde Crypt is reprinting its actual (numbered) pages. We’ve added related illustrations at the bottoms of those pages to underscore pointed related to the text, from our own perspective. For example… (Left & right, on this page:) Fredric Wertham’s 1954 book Seduction of the Innocent claimed that comic books taught children how to commit crimes. As Fox Comics’ Murder Incorporated #1 (Jan. 1948) demonstrates, nothing could be further from the truth. After all, it says “Living Proof That Crime Never Pays!” right there on the cover! [Art ©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Too Hot To Handle! Crime comics often featured cringeinducing images like the Charles Biro cover at near left, from Crime Does Not Pay #24 (Nov. 1942). Of course, Biro’s comics were aimed at older audiences that bought pulps like Gangland Detective Stories. Hmm! Do I detect a pattern here? (Far left:) The Sept. 1940 issue of Gangland Detective Stories, with Alan Anderson’s fiery cover art! [©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

The Truth About Comic Books!!

Hung From A Tree! Nothing here to give the kiddies nightmares—or is there? This gruesome Johnny Craig Crime SuspenStories cover (#22, April 1954) made quite a splash at the 1954 Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency hearings (mentioned on p. 52). But detractors like Congressman Estes Kefauver failed to mention that comics like EC’s Shock SuspenStories also preached religious and racial tolerance. Not that you could tell by this grisly Wally Wood Shock SuspensStories #5 cover (Oct. 1952). [©2010 William M. Gaines, Agent.]

The Truth About Comic Books!!

That’s all for this month, kids! Special thanks to Robert Hack, Kevin McConnell, and Janet Gilbert.

Guns And Gals These comics definitely offended their critics, but how could any impressionable child be damaged by these harmless images? After all, a big shield under Phantom Lady’s ample breasts above clearly states: “Crime Never Pays!” (Covers from top of page:) Phantom Lady #23 (April 1949), Phantom Lady #16 (Feb. 1948), and Crimes Incorporated #1 (June 1950), all courtesy of publisher Victor Fox. [©2010 the respective copyright holders.]

Next issue: More disreputable goodies from the Comic Crypt! Till next time…

In Memoriam

Joe Rosen (1920-2009) “Comics Letterer Par Excellence” by Ken Selig A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: It was my privilege to have both Rosen brothers—first Sam, through the early ’70s, and later Joe Rosen—letter my work for Marvel Comics. Both men provided the exactly the kind of lettering I loved—dependable, incredibly free of typos (even often correcting my own), and, most of all, small. Joe, according to Wikipedia, worked first for Fawcett Publications, from 1940-43, was next a staff letterer of DC’s production department through the mid-’50s, then switched to Harvey for the rest of that decade. Particularly after his brother Sam suffered a nervous breakdown circa 1972, he also lettered for Marvel, almost exclusively so by the 1980s. His brother Sam is reported to have passed away in 1992. Jim Amash arranged for Joe’s Harvey Comics colleague Ken Selig, who was interviewed in A/E #89, to write a brief reminiscence of his longtime associate and friend:

discovered early on in my cartooning career that anything created in our business owes some large part of its success to its lettering. So said, in that same career a certain name comes to mind—

Of Spooks And Cimmerians Alas, we’ve been unable to locate any photos of the late Joe Rosen—but his work is preserved both in the original comics he lettered, and in numerous reprinted editions. Seen here are splash pages from Spooky #106 (1968), one of the “Casper the Friendly Ghost” titles—and from Conan the Barbarian #115 (Oct. 1980). With thanks to Mark Arnold and Jerry Beck for the former, and to Roger Holda for the latter. [Casper art ©2010 Harvey Entertainment, Inc.; Conan art ©2010 Conan Properties International, LLD.]

Joe Rosen—comics letterer par excellence. I first encountered Joe Rosen down at the old Herald Trib[une] syndicate office on 44th, off Broadway. He to pick up lettering work on John Spranger’s The Saint, me to pick up my reject on a daily-Sunday that didn’t fly. A lady friend who was exec secretary to one of its editors brought me down gently as she could and informed me that, though they liked it, its continuity format was not in league with their needs. There in the anteroom as I sat mulling over my folly was, seated across the room from me… Joe. He had a pile of Strathmore on his lap. He looked at the pile on mine, and something was said like, “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t!” We exchanged curiosity over each other’s stack of paper. And then, observing his finely honed lettering on Saint, I mentioned I was mighty uncomfortable with the flaws in my own effort. He looked at it with that practiced eye he had and exclaimed thus, which I have found to be memorable down the years since—“Don’t change it! Keep it going! It’s not good lettering, but it’s got personality to it!”—adding this beauty of a comment—“Remember, Dick Tracy wouldn’t be Dick Tracy without THAT lettering!” I walked out of that office a lot straighter than I walked in. Joe Rosen, with that sure hand of his, went on to produce very remarkable lettering for hosts of comics outfits, prominently Harvey. As I think back to that ’55 meet with the real pro that he was, I’d like to also think that Joe is keeping it going. ADDENDUM: Joe Rosen, all the time I knew him, from ’55 to ’81, used an array of Speedball ‘B’s,’ always sharpened on a sandpaper block. When Leon Harvey, well-intentioned as he was, in the late ’50s, tried to get Joe to switch to the new-out ‘Rapidograph’ (he had a fistful of them that he offered Joe), Joe good-naturedly replied, “Thanks, but no personality to them—I prefer The Horse.’ And he was right. It got him where he wanted to go every time on time.

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“very best wishes” on the sketch you ran on page 15 described in the caption as “Marvel Girl’s ‘go-go costume,’” I’m in a position to correct that. That sketch was done at the 1971 Phil Seuling comic con; Dave included an original sketch for everyone who popped for the $10 to buy a copy of his portfolio (talk about bargains!). At the time it was done, long before visions of X-Men danced in Dave’s head, it was, in fact, his idea for a costume redesign for Legion of Super-Heroine Saturn Girl. That’s not to say Dave didn’t eventually recycle it (or elements thereof) for a revamp of Marvel Girl’s costume, but at the time it was drawn (in the ballroom of NY’s Statler-Hilton Hotel on 33rd Street over the July 4th weekend), Dave was definitely thinking Saturn Girl. Paul Kupperberg Thanks, Paul. So there were more connections besides just Nightcrawler between prospective Legionnaires and later-realized X-Men than we knew! James H. Burns is an actor and writer who has scribed for such magazines as GQ, Esquire, Heavy Metal, and Twilight Zone—and he has his own Cockrum anecdotes: Roy—

oy here—beneath a fine drawing of Alter Ego and Captain Ego that looks vaguely familiar somehow, though I can’t quite place the layout. Well, thanks anyway to Shane Foley for this hyperbolic heading to our letters column. [Alter Ego hero TM & ©2010 Roy & Dann Thomas; AE’s costume designed by Ron Harris; Captain Ego TM & ©2010 Roy Thomas & Bill Schelly, created by Biljo White.]

For some reason, although we received a mountain of favorable e-mails on Alter Ego #78 and its coverage of “Legion of Super-Heroes”/“X-Men” artist Dave Cockrum, most of them (while very welcome, make no mistake!) didn’t add much information to the coverage, so we’re concentrating on a couple of letters which did—the first being from longtime pro comics writer and editor Paul Kupperberg: Roy, Another fine cover-to-cover read of an issue, with particular emphasis on the tribute to Dave Cockrum. Dave was, no question, one of the truly good guys and deserves all this recognition and more. While we only ever worked together professionally once, with me as his editor on a Wonder Woman Annual he drew (at the suggestion of then-WW writer John Byrne), he loomed large as a presence in my comics-related life as far back as my fan days, including contributing the art to Etcetera #1, the fanzine I edited for Paul Levitiz’s TCR Publications, long ago and far away in 1973. That illo of David Innes was a presentation piece Dave did as a pitch to draw the ERB “Pellucidar” series for DC. Dave’s art was also scheduled to grace the cover of Etcetera #4—a beauty of a piece featuring Captain Marvel Jr. taking a spin around the world astride Sputnik—but Paul and I got out of the fanzine business before that issue was published. The cover did see print in an ad in The Comic Reader #100 (sorry for the quality of the attached art, but my only copy of that issue is in a bound book). And, speaking of fan-art, as the “Paul” to whom Dave inscribed his

The Calm Before The Storm Probably at some time in the latter 1970s, Dave Cockrum drew this illo of the X-Man called Storm—clearly intended as a gift for colleague Frank Thorne, who was then illustrating Marvel’s Red Sonja comic. The 1970s was a decade when super-heroines and their ilk came into their own in comic books. Thanks to Dominic Bongo. [Storm TM & ©2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Dave Cockrum, apparently, loved Star Trek. The original version, anyway. Back at some point in the late ’70s, Dave saw me at a Star Trek convention and asked me if it would be possible for me to get a painting he had done to Nichelle Nichols (who played Trek’s communications officer, Lt. Uhura): Now, back at that time I was only an early teen. I had begun writing professionally not long before that. Dave was far more famous, already, than almost anyone who was on that hospitality suite floor of the hotel. I pointed out to him that I’d be glad to help, but since I didn’t really know Nichelle (at that point), all he’d really have to do was introduce him to one of the folks running the convention, who, I was sure, would be happy to introduce him to the actress. My memory’s foggy, here, but I think I brought Dave over to one of

re:

Dave Cockrum, Etc. Dave Cockrum’s Tarzanic cover of the 1973 Etcetera #1—and a Captain Marvel Jr. (an early favorite Cockrum subject) that was once intended for that fanzine’s 4th issue. At right Dave and wife Paty enjoy themselves at a comics convention a few years back; photo courtesy of Clifford Meth. The fanzine art was provided by Paul Kupperberg. [Shazam hero TM & ©2010 DC Comics; other comic art ©2010 Paty Cockrum.]

the convention organizers. Crystal clear to me, even then, though, was the remarkable modesty of this fellow, who didn’t seem to have an inkling that they would be thrilled that he was actually there, attending their event. And I was also touched that this established professional loved something so much that, really, just for the joy of creating it, he had taken the time to paint a huge, lovely canvas of Star Trek’s only continuing female lead. Come to think of it, here’s a related thought which may be a henceforth unremarked pop culture connection: When Dave and Len Wein relaunched The X-Men, didn’t Wein somewhere say that many of the new lineup came from characters that Dave had been sketching/noodling with for years? If Cockrum loved Star Trek and Nichelle Nichols so much that he was moved to create a painting of her—I wonder how far the actress, and her portrayal of Lt. Uhura, could have been from his mind as he doodled the delight that would one day become one of Marvel’s, and later Hollywood’s, first significant female super-heroes.

Cockrum art, informs us that the Giant-Size X-Men #2 page has Len Wein’s (not Dave’s) notes in the border—and that “the Jean Grey costume drawing, which was personalized later, is from Dave’s original X-Men design sketchbook, not a fan drawing.” Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., tells us that the story “Keen Judgment” mentioned in the Al Williamson article is from Heroic Comics #93 (Oct. 1954). Send any plaudits or poison pen letters to: Roy Thomas 32 Bluebird Trail St. Matthews, SC 29135

e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com

And be sure to be here next month for “Earth-Two, Part II”—or should we say, “Part VI,” counting the four All-Star Companion volumes in the mix?

Monthly! The Original First-Person History!

The prototype for Storm, as I recall, was one of the characters that Dave had been drawing for ages. James H. Burns Dave clearly subscribed, James, to that hoary but hallowed motto of the comic book creator: “Never throw anything away”—especially ideas! Just space for these couple of additional corrections re A/E #78: Rich Donnelly, who sent us scans of a couple of pieces of original Dave

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

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Captains Billy

[FCA EDITORS NOTE: From 1941-53, Marcus D. Swayze and Marvel was a top artist for Fawcett Publications. The very first Mary The celebrated cover Marvel character sketches came from Marc’s drawing table, and for Whiz Comics #22 he illustrated her earliest adventures, including the classic (Oct. 1941). Swayze: origin story, “Captain Marvel Introduces Mary Marvel “The two together … (Captain Marvel Adventures #18, Dec. ’42); but he was a super-hero and his alter ego? Yes ... primarily hired by Fawcett Publications to illustrate Captain when rendered by Marvel stories and covers for Whiz Comics and Captain their creator … C.C Marvel Adventures. He also wrote many Captain Marvel Beck!” [Shazam hero scripts, and continued to do so while in the military. After TM & ©2010 DC leaving the service in 1944, he made an arrangement with Comics.] Fawcett to produce art and stories for them on a freelance basis out of his Louisiana home. There he created both art and and the others had seen in it that escaped my vision? stories for The Phantom Eagle in Wow Comics, in addition to drawing the Flyin’ Jenny newspaper strip for Bell Syndicate (created by his friend “It isn’t Captain Marvel,” he had said. Meaning, one could assume, that and mentor Russell Keaton). After the cancellation of Wow, Swayze the artists had failed to achieve a satisfactory likeness of the hero. The produced artwork for Fawcett’s top-selling line of romance comics, thought brought to mind a place that features a constant array of including Sweethearts and Life Story. After the company ceased magazines. Perhaps a solution might be found among them. publishing comics, Marc moved over to Charlton Publications, where he ended his comics career in the mid-’50s. Marc’s ongoing professional In the comic book section of a massive newsstand just off the Times memoirs have been a vital part of FCA since his first column appeared Square area, the super-heroes on the covers appeared to be clamoring in FCA #54, 1996. Last time, Marc spoke of his love for dogs and among themselves to outdo one another for topmost attention. When integrating one four-legged friend in an unpublished newspaper strip. Captain Marvel was eventually spied, high among the display racks on a This issue, he recalls words articulated to him by C.C. Beck in 1941, as Whiz Comics cover, I was disappointed ... and a bit the two artists reviewed peeved at him. He seemed so detached and unconcerned Captain Marvel artwork with all the dramatic action taking place around him. pages. —P.C. Hamerlinck.] After a thorough tour of the comic book display, I paused once again at the Whiz Comics magazine bearing ee what I mean?” he the face of Captain Marvel. I was surprised … he seemed was saying. “It just so different this time! Same magazine, same cover, same isn’t Captain Marvel!” character … yet, somehow, so changed!

“S

The words were those of C.C. Beck, co-creator of Fawcett’s top-selling comic book super-hero. The year was 1941. Beck had been explaining to me, a new employee, how the company had obtained artwork by contract with local artists, and how the disappointment from that experience related to my being there. The two of us had been standing at a large table upon which were spread several pages of comic book art. As he strode away I said nothing, but I was confused. The artwork looked good to me. What was it that he

Then came the realization that the “difference” was not in Captain Marvel … but in me … my own interpretation of what I had seen. Captain Marvel, Fawcett Publications’ number one super-hero, the World’s Mightiest Mortal, would not have ignored a nearby scuffle if his participation was of any particular significance. Nor would he have worn an expression suggesting disinterest. The situation recalled an expression first heard from editor France E. “Eddie” Herron: “getting to know the character!” It also brought to mind the words of C.C. Beck: “It just isn’t Captain Marvel!”

Metallic Reflections of a Super-Hero To quote author Stanley Kauffman, Fawcett editor circa 1942: “Swayze art can be identified by a faithful acknowledgment of the reflective light on Captain Marvel’s metallic cuffs!” Marc Swayze cover to Whiz Comics #38 (Dec. 1942). [Shazam hero TM & ©2010 DC Comics.]

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“Who Reads The Magazine Comics?” Fawcett’s Mid-’40s Research Of Readers

“L

by P.C. Hamerlinck

argest Circulation of Any Comic Magazine” was distinctly proclaimed on Captain Marvel Adventures cover corner logos during much of the 1940s. That somewhat accurate spatter of hyperbole was orchestrated by Fawcett Publication’s circulation manager, Roscoe K. Fawcett.

It was twelve years ago on a crisp autumn Saturday afternoon. I found myself in the den of Captain Billy’s youngest son, thumbing through his mass collection of bound volumes of ancient inter-company marketing magazines and brochures, such as Fawcett Distributor and others. Roscoe pointed out to me in the periodicals various sales charts, research studies, and circulation figures—all with a gleaming sense of pride and accomplishment.

On the front cover, Beck depicted a large, diverse group of children and adults gathered together to read a giant copy of Captain Marvel Adventures #33 (March 1944). The booklet opens with a Beck one-page specialty strip (“Captain Marvel Turns Research Expert and Finds Out Who Reads the Comics”), in which the World’s Mightiest Mortal pays a visit to the Fawcett Publications and the office of advertising director Elliot Odell. (Those of us ardent enough to have studied the indicia inside Fawcett’s comic books—that postal paragraph at the bottom of the first printed page, or sometimes the inside front cover—will be familiar with Odell’s name.) Cap, while holding issues of Whiz Comics and Captain Marvel Adventures, cites the numerous Captain Marvel Clubs nationwide, and

Like the publications shown to me by Roscoe, another analogous Fawcett objet d’art was unearthed last year in a Hake’s Americana auction. Entitled Who Reads the Magazine Comics? (they’re never referred to as “comic books” in the investigation), the red-plastic comb-bound, 36-page, duo-colored booklet delineates a study presented by Fawcett’s Market Research Department, dated January 1944. The special publication’s exclusive illustrations and charts are drawn by none other than Captain Marvel cocreator and chief artist C.C. Beck.

hankers to know just “who reads the comics?” before Odell sends him out with questionnaires to find out the answer. The extremely limited-distributed booklet goes on to include a survey revealing that a staggering 72% of homes at the time were filled with comic book readers. Further findings are broken down according to age groups, sex, and by readers in the armed forces. The heavily researched study also divulges the averages of comic books read per month, the economic status of readers, their education, employment, and so forth. Beck’s lucid layouts and chirpy specialty spot drawings of Captain Marvel exhibit the content in a hearty manner—with scenes of Cap filling out surveys and watching young fellows trade comic magazines… all during his mission to learn who’s reading the scores of four-colored narratives.

Roscoe In Full Accord Joe Katzev, owner of the Sunset News Co., Los Angeles, looks over an array of Fawcett product (including Magazine Digest, Motion Picture, and True Confessions) with Fawcett Publications’ Vice President and Circulation Director Roscoe K. Fawcett, in a photo from Fawcett Distributor (“Published in the Interest of Independent Magazine Wholesalers and Dealers”), Sept. 1944 issue. FCA editor P.C. Hamerlinck visited and interviewed Roscoe Fawcett in 1998 (a year before his death), where he perused bound volumes of Fawcett Distributor in Mr. Fawcett’s library. When this snapshot was taken, Roscoe had just transferred to the West Coast from previously being stationed at Camp Stewart, Georgia, during World War II.

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America]

office window with a heap of questionnaires tucked under his arm. The one-page introductory strip concludes with a caption: “The following pages show the results obtained through personal interviews with 5,030 people in all walks of life and contain authoritative data on the amazing readership of the comics!”

Purpose Of Study

As Captain Marvel begins his journey, the purpose of the study is defined: “Working with the Market Research Company of America, Captain Marvel set out to learn all he could about who reads magazine comics … how many they read a month … how education, economic status, city size and other factors affect comics readership … how many people read each copy, and any other pertinent information that would help him—and you—to know more about magazine comics fans … not just his own … but all magazine comics fans! Here’s what he found out …”

Home Readership Captain Marvel strolls through neighborhoods and asks each American household how many of them have comic readers. The circulation and popularity of comics during the ’40s was nothing short of astonishing:

Captain Marvel Turns Research Expert Captain Marvel shows up one day at Fawcett Publications and heads up to the office of Fawcett’s advertising director, Elliot Odell. “Well, well! Captain Marvel, in person!” says the surprised man seated at his desk. “What’s on your mind, Cap?” Captain Marvel gets right to the point. “I want your help on a problem, Mr. Odell.” “What?” asks the flabbergasted Fawcett executive. “Captain Marvel, the World’s Mightiest Mortal, coming to me for help? What’s your problem, Cap?” As Captain Marvel holds up issues of Whiz Comics and Captain Marvel Adventures, he articulates his dilemma: “My problem, Mr. Odell, is … for several years, I’ve been featured in these Fawcett comics magazines that you folks print by the millions each month! I get tons of fan letters and know all about the Captain Marvel Clubs all over the country and their hundreds of thousands of members! But that’s not enough! What I really want to know is - who reads the comics??” “That’s a fair question, Captain Marvel!” concurs Odell. “As a matter of fact, we’ve been wondering the same thing and are just about to start a survey!” Odell rings for his secretary, Polly, and asks her to “get Captain Marvel those questionnaires we had printed up.” The advertising director hands Cap a large stack of papers. “Now, Captain Marvel, you take these questionnaires with you and fly all over the country and interview all kinds of people! Then bring them back here and we’ll have the answer to your question …” Odell wishes Captain Marvel “good luck” as our hero flies out of the

“Of all homes covered, whether with or without children, some 72% or nearly 3 out of 4 have one or more family members who read comic magazines.” Further on, the study shows the influence of children in the home on adult comics readership.

“Who Reads The Magazine Comics?”

Influence Of Education Readership By Age And Sex Captain Marvel is not kidding above. When readership of comic magazines by age and sex was examined, more eye-opening results were revealed: 95% of all boys and 91% of all girls ages 6 to 11 read comics regularly; 87% of all boys and 81% of all girls ages 12 to 17 read comics regularly. The statistics naturally spiraled downwards a bit for adults, but the numbers were still extraordinary for the 18-to-30-year-old crowd, where 41% of men and 28% of women read comics regularly; the numbers were cut a little over half of that for both men and women 30 years and older. But a whopping 44% of our armed forces read comics on a regular basis. “Comics magazines appeal to every age, although their appeal decreases slightly with increasing age and women are a little less interested than men. Note that readership among the armed forces coincides with that of their largest comparable civilian age group.”

Number Read Per Month “Did you ever see anything like this! They read them by the carload!” That was Captain Marvel’s overstated response to the survey results of the average number of comics magazines read per month. Children 6 to 11 of course led the way, with boys reading 14.1 and girls reading 10.9 comics per month. The numbers were still high for children in the 12 to 17 age group, with boys reading 13.7 and girls reading 11.0 per month. With more men than women in the workforce, allowing fewer opportunities to enjoy comics reading, adults 18 to 30 had more women (8.8) than men (6.5) reading comics per month. A turnaround occurred with adults 30 and over, with men leading the way with 7.5 comics magazines read per month, and women at 5.7 per month. Again, our armed forces showed their great support of the medium, with 7.6 comics read each month. “The range from which these averages are obtained is wide. 50% of the boys read 10 or less such magazines a month; an additional 25% read between 11 and 15 and another quarter read from 16 up. Similar wide spans were found among other groups, While the average for young women is higher per month than for young men, this is largely due to some extraordinarily high readership in this group.”

Economic Status Captain Marvel receives responses from the wealthy and working class alike (see illo at right) as the influence of economic status on adult comics readership is probed. Low- to mid-range earning households averaged between 15-20% regular comics readers, while mid- to high-range earning households averaged between 25-29% regular comics readers. “While regular adult readership of magazine comics increases slightly in the lower income groups, occasional readership varies only 2% from high incomes to low.”

Next, Captain Marvel approaches the smart—and the not-so-smart— to ascertain the influence of education on adult comics readership … with a rather unforeseen outcome. At the grammar school level, 25% read comics regularly, while 12% read them occasionally; there was a slight increase at the high school level, with 27% regular readers and 14% occasional readers; but a decline for college students, with just 16% regularly reading comics and 13% occasionally reading them. That figure eventually changed over the ensuing years. “Educational background has some effect on adult comics readership, but not as much as one might expect. However, it was noted that not only do less college men and women read magazine comics, but they read fewer per month on an average.”

Influence Of Occupation Captain Marvel is sandwiched between the butcher and the baker as the influence of occupation on adult magazine comics readership is assessed. People in the workforce made more time for comics reading. The number of comics readers are broken down into seven occupational groups: urban housewife (17%); sales/clerical (24%); skilled labor (29%); unskilled labor (38%); executive/professional (13%); teachers (12%); proprietor/managerial (37%). “Certainly comics magazine readership is not closely related to occupation. While it is highest among unskilled labor and lowest among executives and teachers, an astounding number of readers are found in all occupational groups.”

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America]

“Children in the home are definitely a contributing factor to adult magazine comics readership, although magazine comics are found in a surprisingly high proportion of childless homes!”

Adult Attitudes Influence Of City Size “Gosh! They all read ’em!” Captain Marvel says as he flies above a city skyline. Whether big city or small town, comics were enjoyed (mostly by children) all over the country. The influence of city size on magazine comics readership broke down like this: in cities with over a million population, 88% of children read comics regularly, while 26% of adults were regular readers; in cities of 100,000-1,000,000 children still ruled regular readership with 83%, while adult readers were at 21%; cities of 10,000-100,000 had a gigantic 90% of their children as regular comics readers, while the adults clocked in at only 19%. But towns under 10,000 beat out everyone: a colossal 93% of the children were habitual comics readers … and even the regular comicsreading adults tallied in with a remarkable 37%. No doubt the folksy themes and humor frequently found in Captain Marvel’s yarns were particularly pleasing to the escapist desires of those experiencing the simpler life found in small towns across America. “Adult readership is high in the very large cities, but highest of all in towns of under 10,000 where 37% of the adults read magazine comics. These towns are also the highest in children’s readership. However, it was noted in these towns that, while more people read them, they do not read so many.”

Child Influence On Adult Readership The influence of children in homes on adult magazine comics readership that was studied uncovered that comics were read by adults in 1 out of 3 homes with children (33%). That information wasn’t surprising to Captain Marvel, of course, but he was rather floored by the fact that even in childless homes comics were read in nearly every 5th home (18%).

Unlike the later assertions and rantings of Seduction of the Innocent author Dr. Frederic Wertham, an overwhelming majority of adults held positive attitudes toward comics magazines. 77% of adults were in absolute agreement that comics were good clean fun for everybody (“Nearly 4 out of 5 adults …” as Captain Marvel is quick to point out); 71% of adults felt that comics taught a good moral lesson, while just 53% of adults agreed that comics were educational. “Generally speaking, women were found to be a little less favorably impressed than men, and young adults more favorably inclined than older people. College people were found to be a little more censorious than others, but the differences were relatively minor.”

Comparative Readership “Does your mother know you read ’em?” the World’s Mightiest Mortal asks two jovial youngsters. The comparative readership study looked at the self-admitted comics reader vs. second-hand reports from other family members by age and sex. Each respondent was asked, “What other members of your family read comics magazines?” The charts indicate that children 6 and up were completely honest with their comics addictions, which were generally substantiated by other members of their family … at least the ones that actually knew what the children were up to. The same could not exactly be said of the adults, whose results (while closely corroborated by fellow family members) indicated a slight resistance in admitting their love of comics reading. “Second hand reports of readership are considerably lower for children 6 to 11 than their own first hand reports. This suggests that not all the elders in the family are aware of what the small fry are doing. Men 18 to 30—with more interests outside the home— also show up lower on second hand reports, but these exceptions are logical, and a high degree of accuracy in reported readership is indicated by this cross-check.”

Child Influence On Family Purchases Captain Marvel knew that if kids saw him in a product advertisement, they were going to want what he had … and the parents would usually cave in and buy it. The influence of children on family purchases was as prevalent back then as it is today. Children were queried, “Do you ask

“Who Reads The Magazine Comics?”

your parents to buy advertised articles?” which resulted in 34% replying with a resounding “Yes!” Then parents were asked “Do your children ask you to buy advertised articles?” Their assenting answers brought a slightly higher mark of 38%. The parents who couldn’t refuse their little tikes were then asked “Do you continue to buy the same brands?” and 47% said only occasionally, 24% purchased regularly, while 19% were just one-time purchasers. Needless to say, the ads in comics worked like a charm. “Children do read advertising… particularly copy slanted to their level. Breakfast foods, candy, soft drinks, chewing gum, and even cheese and soup are bought at the youngsters’ requests according to both children and parents who freely admitted the influence of children on family buying habits.”

Advertised Products Continuing with more studies of the impact of advertisements in comics, another chart breaks down advertised products asked for by children. 66% of kids reported that they had asked their parents for food items; 20% asked for toys and sporting goods; 6% toilet articles and 8% miscellaneous. The parents reported similar numbers, but with food items lower at 47% and miscellaneous at 23%. A grinning Captain Marvel gives a wink and a helpful tip to food manufacturers: “Don’t overlook the kids!” I think Captain Tootsie would agree with you, Cap. “But food is by no means all. Dolls to permanent wave sets … B.B. guns to Barbasol, the 6 to 17 year olds speak up when they see their wants in the advertising columns!”

Disposal Of Comics Magazines The title of the next study, “Disposal of Comics Magazines,” may make today’s Golden Age comics collectors cringe—and while very few did indeed hang on to their comics, the reality was that the majority of comics back then weren’t tossed into the garbage, but instead were part of a popular practice of being passed on to other individuals, and were a much more temporary possession than they are today. The “pass-on” was the predominant, commonplace activity of all age groups: adults, boys and girls 6 to 18, and our armed forces passed on between 95-97% of their comics. Pretty much everyone just wanted to read them, and when they were done reading them they didn’t feel the need to keep them. C.C. Beck had once told me basically the same thing. So when Captain Marvel observes some boys swapping comics, he concludes that “Gosh! The Pass-on is terrific!” “Magazine comics are loaned, sold, given away … and traded,

singly, through clubs and in dozen lots.” Some 85% of both children and adults said that they always pass them on and many among the remaining 15% said “sometimes.”

Secondary Readership At this point, Pauline Arnold, of the Market Research Company of America, steps in for a protracted dissertation regarding the secondary readership phenomenon: “There is no accurate way of determining complete secondary readership. We approached it quantitatively by several methods, but as only the immediate relation before and after the respondents acquisition of the book can be traced, all efforts to put a figure on total pass-on proved so inadequate as to be laughable. “For instance, only 8% of the adults and 2% of the children report that they throw away their copies when they have read them. All the rest handle them so that they can get into someone else’s hands. If one considers that this applies also to the copies that have been acquired from others, as well as those they themselves purchased, one gets the impression of an endless chain of a constantly augmented stock of comics magazines in circulation. “The number of times such transfers take place is impossible of measurement. Individual case histories indicate that one can guess readers per copy at anywhere from 5 to 200 and not be too far wide of the mark. “Children, particularly, do not usually trade individual magazines; they trade them in a bunch, or in clubs, turn them in at stores for others, pass them around and get them back for a permanent collection. According to reports of the interviewers who have talked to thousands of readers, it is the rare copy that finds its way to the trash heap until it is practically unreadable. The loss of the outside cover is a minor incident. Only when

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America]

it falls to pieces will it normally be thrown away. “The trading, exchange or collection possibilities of comics seem limitless. Such remarks as these are common: “‘I traded him 24.’ ‘We swapped 12 even.’ ‘I gave Austin 10 and he gave me 5 so he still owes me 5.’ “Typical quotations from the reports of interviewers expand the subject … “‘No child could definitely say, I traded this Batman or Bambi to Johnny which I received from Bill. There was some Batman in the lot, some Captain Marvel or some Jumbo, but whether an original purchase or a previous trade, there was no way of telling—just so many for so many.’ “‘In a few localities, some stores would take back two old ones for one new or if a new one was bought, the old ones were exchanged for one old one which the shopkeeper had on hand.’ “‘At two USO centers, the hostesses assured me that the comics always left the tables first.’” Incidentally, one of the accredited field interviewers had traveled to Kalispell, Montana, and actually followed the pass-on of magazine comics “accurately and methodically, verifying each step in the chain.” The numerous steps are charmingly illustrated in a diagram by Beck, with Captain Marvel looking on in amazement.

Summary Captain Marvel returned to the Fawcett offices and was back at the desk of Elliot Odell as the two reviewed the findings of the questionnaires.

“And that, Mr. Odell, is what I found out about comics readers,” Captain Marvel concluded as he sat in front of the large pile of papers on the advertising director’s desk. “What an audience for food manufacturers! What a medium for sporting goods, soap, confections, beverages or what have you!” “Cap,” Odell began, “I’ve sat by while you performed wonders that left mere mortals trembling in their shoes (…while they delighted in every one of your notable feats). But no one deed eclipses in the breath-taking department the facts you brought home on this comics survey. I’m glad Market Research Company of America, et al., were around to make a completely honest man out of you!!” [Many thanks to Alex Winter and Terence Kean at Hake’s Americana – hakes.com.]

MR. SCARLET BLACK TERROR • AVENGER PHANTOM LADY • CAT-MAN DAREDEVIL • CRIMEBUSTER CAPTAIN FLASH SPY SMASHER • MINUTE MAN SKYMAN • STUNTMAN THE OWL • BULLETMAN COMMANDO YANK PYROMAN • GREEN LAMA THE EAGLE • IBIS

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(NOW WITH 16 COLOR PAGES!) Marvel’s NOT BRAND ECHH madcap parody mag from 1967-69, examined with rare art & artifacts by ANDRU, COLAN, BUSCEMA, DRAKE, EVERETT, FRIEDRICH, KIRBY, LEE, the SEVERIN siblings, SPRINGER, SUTTON, THOMAS, TRIMPE, and more, GEORGE KASHDAN interview conclusion, FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT and MR. MONSTER, and more! Cover by MARIE SEVERIN!

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