Back Issue #15 Preview by TwoMorrows Publishing

THE ULTIMATE COMICS EX PERIENCE!

JOE KUBERT’S RAGMAN! MATT WAGNER’S THE DEMON! WEIRD THEPHANTOMSTRANGER! Andgoodol’ ’MAZINGMAN! HEROES!

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The Ultimate Comics Experience! Volume 1, Number 15 April 2006 Celebrating the Best Com ics of the '70s, '80s, and Today!

FLASHBACK: The Dead Zone: A Deadman History/García-López Interview . . 2 Explore the “life” of Boston Brand with José Luis García-López

EDITOR Michael Eury

INTERVIEW: Matt Wagner: The Man, the Myth, and the Demon!. . . . . . . . . . 16 The Grendel creator recalls his 1980s tour of duty in Kirby’s kingdom

PUBLISHER John Morrow

FLASHBACK: Follow Him . . . for He is the Phantom Stranger . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 Len Wein reminisces about DC’s mysterious man with a medallion, with art by Adams, Aparo, Dominguez, Mignola, and Schaffenberger

DESIGNER Rich J. Fowlks PROOFREADERS John Morrow and Eric Nolen-Weathington COVER ARTIST Arthur Adams COVER COLORIST Tom Zuiko COVER DESIGNER Robert Clark

BEYOND CAPES: I Was a Marvel Comics Werewolf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31 Werewolf by Night, through the eyes of series contributors Conway, Moench, Perlin, Ploog, and Thomas ROUGH STUFF: Gene Colan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40 One of comics’ masters hosts a gallery of his pencil art, including Batman, Captain America, Jemm, Night Force, and Wonder Woman FLASHBACK: Joe Kubert and the Ragman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 The Tattered Tatterdemalion’s first foray into comics, with Kubert and Redondo art BEYOND CAPES: Maybe I’m ’Mazed!: ’Mazing Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Co-creators Bob Rozakis and Stephen DeStefano and their likeable li’l do-gooder

SPECIAL THANKS Neal Adams GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: The Lost ’Mazing Man Story . . . . . . . . . . .64 Bob McLeod Terry Austin Bob Rozakis gives us a peek at the ’Maze story you didn’t see Modern Masters Jeff Bailey Mike Mignola Joe Barney INTERVIEW: Mike Ploog: On the Highway to Hell (Marvel Style) . . . . . . . . . .67 Doug Moench Massimo Bissattini Steve Morger Ghost Rider may be racing toward movie stardom, but artist Ploog remembers the Mike Blanchard Brian K. Morris Satanic Cyclist’s roots Brian Boggs Al Nickerson Michael Browning Becky Perlin INTERVIEW: Don Perlin: Revving Up with Ghost Rider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71 Ivan Cheung Don Perlin Perlin’s recollections of his ride with Marvel’s baddest biker Leonard Chuah Adam Philips Adrienne Colan Michael Ploog Gene Colan GHOST RIDER ART GALLERY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74 Carl Potts Jennifer M. Contino Roland Reedy Blazing art by Budiansky, Kane, Romita, Sr., Simons, and Starlin Gerry Conway Keith Richard Steve Davis Bob Rozakis GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: Grodd of Gorilla City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76 Lee Dawson Rose Rummel-Eury Super-gorilla Grodd almost got his own comic in ’77—and we’ve got the scoop Eric Delos Santos Mike Steckler (and unpublished art)! Stephen DeStefano Tom Stewart Arnold Drake Matthew Stock COMICS ON DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Ray Falcoa Roy Thomas New releases of interest to the comic-book fan Tom Field Matt Wagner Keif A. Fromm Len Wein BACK IN PRINT: The Astral Avenger and the Ape-Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 José Luis García-López Marv Wolfman Benny Gelillo Reviews of Wrath of the Spectre and Tarzan: The Joe Kubert Years Frank Giella Grand Comic-Book Database BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Dave Hennen Reader feedback on issue #13 Heritage Comics Don Hudson BACK ISSUE™ is published bimonthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. The Jack Kirby Collector Michael Eury, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor, 5060A Foothills Dr., Dan Johnson Lake Oswego, OR 97034. Email: euryman@msn.com. Six-issue subscriptions: $36 Standard US, $54 First Class US, Michael Wm. Kaluta $66 Canada, $72 Surface International, $96 Airmail International. Please send subscription orders and funds to Joe Kubert TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by Arthur Adams; cover art from the collection of Roland Reedy. Paul Levitz Werewolf by Night and Ghost Rider TM & © 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Batman, Deadman, and Bruce MacIntosh Gorilla Grodd TM & © 2006 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All Yoram Matzkin material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2006 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing. Brian G. McKenna BACK ISSUE is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING.

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R.I.P. The Dead Zone:

Bruce MacIntosh

A D e a d m a n H i s to ry — a n d a n I n t e rv i e w w i t h José Luis García-López

Deadman was a character born in 1967 in an attempt to

shake things up with Strange Adventures, one of DC Comics’ anthology titles. Although editor Jack Miller, writer

Arnold Drake, and artist Carmine Infantino originally intended the character as a “throw away,” they immediately handed the reins to Neal Adams, who within a year turned Deadman into an enduring icon who has had dozens of guest appearances and four miniseries of his own. In short, Deadman was a character that refused to die! In the late 1960s sales were poor for DC’s anthology series, because there were no central characters with whom the readers could identify and would cause them to continue to buy the titles on a monthly basis. Editor Jack Miller gave Arnold Drake the task of creating a character that could generate that reader interest and loyalty. Drake wanted to capitalize on the late 1960s’ interest in Eastern mysticism, and a character that was killed in his first appearance and returns as a ghostly apparition was exactly what could bring life to the dying comic. In spite of concerns that the Comics Code Authority would disapprove of a dead character that “possesses” the living (and whose very name contained the dreaded “D-word”), Miller ultimately signed off on the concept and Carmine Infantino was brought in for the artistic chores, the result being Deadman’s debut in Strange Adventures #205 (Oct. 1967). However, it was a time of flux at DC, and after only one issue Miller stepped down as editor due to his failing health, Drake went on to pursue other titles, Infantino was promoted into management, and Dick Giordano was brought in from Charlton Comics as editor of Strange Adventures. With Infantino assuming executive

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duties and unable to continue penciling the comic, Giordano leapt at the chance of assigning the artistic duties of Deadman to Neal Adams.

Neal penciled every appearance of the character until Strange Adventures was canceled with issue #216 (Jan.–Feb. 1969); with the exception of George Roussos’ inks on issue #206, Neal inked his own work. He also scripted seven of Deadman’s first 18 appearances. Although these early Adams’ scripts are beyond the scope of this magazine and article, it is important to note the development of the character and how that changed in the 1970s and 1980s. In a 2005 conversation, Neal Adams made the comment, “The most important thing to remember about Deadman is that he is dead, man!” While that might just sound like a typically tongue-in-cheek Adams remark, he had a point: Deadman was angry . . . because he was dead! Faithful readers will recall that Boston Brand was a circus acrobat who had been fatally shot for reasons unknown by a man with a hook for a hand. (In his haste, Adams alternated between the right and left hand—whatever fit the panel composition.) Boston Brand, however, returned in spirit form as Deadman: He had been given a “special power” by the spirit of the universe, Rama Kushna, to find and destroy his own murderer. That special power, he learns, is the ability to temporarily inhabit and control the bodies of the living. Deadman spent each issue of his run in Strange Adventures (plus two appearances with Batman in The Brave and the Bold and three as a backup strip in Aquaman), chasing clues and people who might have had enough of a grudge against Boston Brand to want to kill him. Each issue concluded with the tormented Deadman learning that it was all a cruel coincidence: The man he had been

for the circus, Sensei mistakenly believes the man

pursuing that story was not his killer.

with the hook has failed his initiation assignment

As the first series of Deadman stories concludes,

and kills him. Having been robbed of his own

the ghostly hero learns that his death at the

revenge, Deadman nevertheless fails to achieve

“hands” of the man with the hook was merely a

peace: he is doomed by Rama Kushna to float as

graduation exercise for admission into a “Society of

a disembodied spirit for eternity, using his special

Assassins” (a group now known as the League of

power to “possess” the living and presumably

Assassins), headed by the a leader of dubious Asian

correcting injustice wherever it appears.

origin call the Sensei. Because Cleveland Brand,

Neither Arnold Drake nor Neal Adams intended

Boston’s brother, has assumed the role of Deadman

the series to continue indefinitely; after a dozen or so

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issues, Deadman was supposed to find his killer, and having fulfilled his mission on this mortal plane, Boston Brand would presumably obtain eternal peace. Although his killer was exposed, neither Deadman nor Neal Adams were satisfied: The man who ordered Boston Brand’s death, the Sensei, still needed to be brought to justice. In what turned out to be the final Deadman issue of Strange Adventures, Deadman follows Sensei to Nanda Parbat, a Himalayan retreat vaguely reminiscent of Shangri-La. However, unlike the James Hilton novel Lost Horizon, when people leave Nanda Parbat they do not age and die, they turn evil! In a strange twist, when Deadman enters the mountainous retreat, he returns to his corporeal form, no longer doomed to remain in spirit form. (Should he leave Nanda Parbat, he would become ethereal again, invisible to the living and only able to communicate to them by possessing someone.)

However,

Sensei wants to destroy this utopian society, the one place Boston Brand could find peace. Deadman must find a way to stop Sensei’s nefarious plan. Alas, it was not to be: Strange Adventures was prematurely canceled with issue © 2006 DC Comics.

#216 (Jan.–Feb. 1969), before the story could be finished, and the conclusion had to be hastily written into a guest appearance in The Brave and the Bold (B&B) #86 (Oct.–Nov. 1969). Andrew Helfer explained it thusly in his editorial for Deadman #1 (Mar. 1986): “I . . . was heartbroken when it came to an end. Seemed to me at the time, though, that it never actually did end—that we left poor Boston right in the middle of his biggest adventure yet—an adventure that saw print, oddly enough, as a Batman team-up in Brave and the Bold. Years later I learned from Dick Giordano that Deadman’s story in Strange Adventures had been cancelled in midstream, and the Brave and the Bold story had been quickly put together to give the readers some kind of a conclusion to

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the saga of Deadman’s arrival at Nanda Parbat. According to Dick, it wasn’t the whole story, but a condensed (some would say patchy) version, since faltering sales had already determined that it would be Dick’s last opportunity to do a fulllength Deadman story. Writer/artist Neal Adams

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was just about ready to break new ground with the character—only to be forced to tie up all his loose ends in a tiny twenty-page package.” In B&B #86’s rather contrived series of events, Batman and Deadman foil Sensei’s plan, with the latter vowing revenge: “Two costumed fools have destroyed my plan! Two costumed fools will pay for that act. You will both be laid to waste by my hand!”

DEADMAN LIVES AGAIN In the 1970s DC began to experiment with unusual characters that did not fit the mold of the traditional spandex-clad heroes that had been their mainstay for over three decades. Characters like the Phantom Stranger, Swamp Thing, and, of course, Deadman, tapped into not only a growing social conscience but also the interest of the youth in the occult and all things mystical. Because of the uniqueness of this character, and the fact that he tapped into the interest in the afterlife and spiritualism, Deadman constantly returned to comics for both guest appearances, backup features, and even several miniseries. In fact, although the late 1960s and early 1970 laid the groundwork for the character, comics of the 1970s and 1980s is when things really got good! Deadman made several less-thanmemorable guest appearances in the 1970s, most notably Justice League of America #94 (Nov. 1971), The Brave and the Bold #104, (Nov.–Dec. 1972, wherein he displays a dubious willingness to kill in the name of love),

From the collection of this article’s writer, Bruce MacIntosh, comes this 2004 Deadman/Phantom Stranger sketch by Michael Wm. Kaluta.

The Phantom Stranger #33 (Oct.–Nov. 1974) and #39 (Oct.–Nov. 1975) through #41 (Feb.–Mar. 1976), B&B #133 (Apr. 1977), Superman Family #183 (May–June 1977), DC Super-Stars #18 (Jan.–Feb. 1978, in a visit with the Phantom Stranger to Rutland, Vermont, on Halloween night), DC Special Series #8 (1978), and Challengers of the Unknown #84 through #87 (1979, teaming up with Swamp Thing). Most of these appearances in the 1970s were canonical and served to reinforce and revisit Deadman’s origin and connection with Sensei. However, having already fulfilled his original raison d’ être (that of finding his killer and exacting retribution), Deadman is merely a guest-star. He simply

observes the proceedings or assists the other characters with his ability to possess the bodies of the secondary characters. In other words, Deadman is only a plot device and little character development takes place—his own story is never furthered.

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Matt Wagner: conducted on June 26, 2005

by Al Nickerson

The Man, the Myth, and

interview

Twenty years ago, I was introduced to my first Demon comic. No, it wasn’t Jack Kirby’s original series;

however, it was writer/artist Matt Wagner’s The Demon miniseries from late 1986. Wagner’s Demon brought a new depth and detail to the relationship

of Jason Blood, Etrigan the Demon, and Merlin. It also drastically changed (for a little while, anyway) the relationship between Jason Blood and Etrigan. —Al Nickerson

AL NICKERSON: How did The Demon miniseries come about? Did you pitch the idea to DC Comics or did they come looking for you? MATT WAGNER: I was at that point in my career where Mage was fresh on the stands and a hot new thing. I was at a convention in Atlanta and we all went out to dinner. The convention takes everyone out to dinner. Just by happenstance, I was seated next to Dick Giordano, who was the head of DC Comics at that point. Well, operating head, I guess. Jenette Kahn was President. We had a good

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Swamp Thing. I thought the Demon might be a ripe character to give the revamp treatment to.

Beginnings:

Additionally, the Demon was a favorite character of mine. I loved

Comico Primer #2 (first Grendel appe arance)

that series. I had done, I think in either eighth or ninth grade, an

Milestones:

acrylic recreation of the cover of the first issue.

Grendel / Mage / Batman/Grendel / Batman: Faces / Sandman Mystery Theater / Trinity / Green Arrow covers

NICKERSON: From the Jack Kirby series? WAGNER: Yeah. NICKERSON: Yeah, Kirby’s The Demon was amazing.

Work in Progress:

Batman and the Monster Men

WAGNER: Exactly. Like I said, I did a big painted recreation of the first cover. So, I have a history of the Demon going back for some time.

Cyberspace:

NICKERSON: I don’t suppose you still have that painting?

www.mattwagnercomics.com

WAGNER: No, I don’t. [laughs] My parents might have it stuffed away in the attic somewhere, but they live in Virginia and I live in Oregon. NICKERSON: Your version of The Demon seemed more medieval, more gothic than other versions that I have read, even to this day. Was that a conscious effort on your part? WAGNER: Yeah. That was all in the stages

Matt Wagner

of, comic-book-wise, where everybody was trying to do the big revamp, to put a more “realistic” spin on things. So I thought going with the medieval approach and downplay the super-heroic approach was a neat way to go with The Demon. NICKERSON: That certainly makes sense. I found that to be an important aspect to the story. WAGNER: Yeah. I had done a lot of research. In the storyline, Etrigan is the son of the demon Belial. NICKERSON: Right. WAGNER: That was based on an actual woodcut that I had found of the demon Belial. It’s from medieval days. He’s got fins for ears, little horns, and he’s even colored yellow. NICKERSON: I wanted to ask you about that because according to The History of the Kings of Britain written by Geoffrey of Monmouth, Merlin was the son of the daughter of the King of Demetia and the son of a demon (or incubus). Your spin with the Belial character where you made Etrigan and Merlin half-brothers was something you came up with on your own.

WAGNER: Right. I was really a neophyte in those days as far as

The tormented Jason Blood, from Demon #1.

comic-book production goes. I had sent in to DC Comics a copy of this print to include in the first issue. In the comic, Jason’s girlfriend, Glenda Mark, points to the print in a book, but the artwork of the

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print never made it through production. It never made it in the actual printing of the comic. So, as a result, if you’re pointing to a blank page, that kind of works as a magical sort of thing as well. But I had fully intended for readers to see this print so you could see what Belial had looked like. NICKERSON: Yes. I remember that. WAGNER: You remember that moment in the comic? NICKERSON: Yes. WAGNER: There’s actually supposed to be something there. [laughs] NICKERSON: I had thought there was something magical going on where Jason Blood couldn’t see the image of Belial. WAGNER: Yeah, that’s the only thing that saves it. [laughs] Otherwise, it just looks like a big, dumb mistake, which is what it was. NICKERSON: That’s so funny. I had thought it was intentional. WAGNER: Nope. It was a production error. NICKERSON: The major plot point to

The missing image from The Demon #1, page 5. Says Wagner, “The book I took this from claimed, ‘A 15th century German woodcut depicting Belial, by tradition the Devil’s advocate, as he confers with other demons at the jaws of Hell.’” Courtesy of Matt Wagner.

this story was the separation of Jason Blood from Etrigan. That was really shaking things up a bit. WAGNER: DC Comics didn’t like that. NICKERSON: They didn’t like the idea? WAGNER: No. They changed it back right away. [laughs] I think it was in Cosmic Odyssey. . . NICKERSON: Yeah, in Cosmic Odyssey they physically rejoined Jason Blood to Etrigan. WAGNER: Which happens very shortly after my series. Dick Giordano liked what I was doing, but the Powers-That-Be at DC didn’t like my approach very well. NICKERSON: And DC didn’t really realize what you were doing until the book came out? WAGNER: Yeah. The first editor that DC Comics had assigned me to was Len Wein,

From the collection of Mike Steckler, a Matt Wagner-drawn Demon convention sketch.

who was on staff at the time. He pretty much told me outright, “I really prefer the former approach to yours. I always liked the fact that the Demon was a good guy but didn’t look like a good guy.” And I

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Tom “The Comics Savant” Stewart

A L o o k at D C ’ s S u p e r n at u r a l S w i n g e r w i t h a G o l d Me da l l i o n DC. 1968. It was the “1/3rd Era,” coming hard on the end of the “Checkerboard Era”; it was the era when the title logo of the book took up 1/3rd of the available cover space. In the late ’60s DC, the #1 super-hero publisher (I’m betting that Dell/Gold key beat most comics in sales up to the ’60s) had been losing ground the last few years, and was trying to make it up by a policy that seemed to be “throw everything against the wall and see what sticks.” This may be unfair—Lord knows, there were a bunch of good series being published—but most were given little chance to find an audience, much less an eighth or ninth issue. During this great experiment, new characters and titles were being created, old series dusted off, and then those were dumped for new, new characters, and new old series, some so old or short-lived that most fans had forgotten they had even been published. Such was The Phantom Stranger.

DC’S ORIGINAL GHOSTBUSTER The Phantom Stranger had made his first appearance in 1952, unannounced by any previous guest-starring or even special gueststarring appearance, smack in his own book, The Phantom Stranger #1. In that issue, he solves a phony haunting. In fact, he solves two phony hauntings and stops a mad magician from his

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at the right moment, issues a warning, then vanishes. On the penultimate page, he confronts the crooks, exposes their evil scheme, then fades away, a supernatural Lone Ranger. Which might have been the problem. In the ’50s, the Phantom Stranger was “maybe supernatural.” He was mysterious, sure, but did he crazy scheme of achieving immortality. The Stranger

really have any powers beyond that of being able to

would appear, out of the swirling fog, solve the ghost

make himself scarce at the wrap-up? He was a

problem by exposing the greedy relatives or

one-man Scooby-Doo gang without a Scrappy problem,

smugglers, evil businessmen, and assorted crazy

exposing Professor Hyde-White and then fading away

magicians and sorcerers, then vanish back into the

without having the humiliating fadeout “joke.” Well

ether from whence he came (you just have to use a

written, well drawn, but not all that different from

word like “whence” when talking about the Stranger),

what was being published at the time, and pretty

all in six-page stories written mostly by John Broome

tame even by those standards (remember, this was

and penciled by Carmine Infantino, over the span of six

the era E.C. was getting called on Congress’ carpets

issues. This Stranger had something in common with

for their horror titles). The Stranger faded into the fog

the radio shows of the decade before, The Mysterious

at the end of his sixth issue, never to return.

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The End.

I WAS A MARVEL COMICS WEREWOLF

Marvel Comics built its reputation on characters that

the world of horror is filled with examples of people

sometimes underwent horrific transformations and in

who are at heart good, decent folks who become

the process became unlikely heroes. Marvel’s idea of a

monsters beyond their control. Among the most

man becoming a monster-hero began with the

famous of these beasts in horror lore is the werewolf.

Fantastic Four when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduced

So, when you get right down to it, what made more

the Thing to the world. This notion was taken to an

sense for a new, tragic comic-book hero in the 1970s

even deeper level with the creation of the Incredible

than a werewolf? This was what the folks at Marvel

Hulk and was explored to varying degrees in the pages

were thinking when the Comics Code Authority

of X-Men. The motif was always the same: power equals

loosened up on their rules allowing, for the first time

misery equals tragedy equals audience sympathy.

in almost two decades, mainstream comic-book

Marvel wasn’t the first to hit on this notion. Indeed,

publishers to tackle the horror genre in earnest. W e i r d

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MICHAEL LANDON-MEETS-PETER PARKER

addressed the idea] of someone who doesn’t have

Marvel’s first effort was a character that was very much

power. A consequence [of gaining power] is that you

in keeping with the previous hero mode. Upon his

become ostracized because you’re suddenly more

The 1957 movie that inspired Roy Thomas.

eighteenth birthday, Jack Russell learns that his family

powerful. If you look at what goes on with teenagers,

is cursed by the mark of the beast. Like many super-

every new thing that they find that they can do has

heroes that had come before him, young Russell

a consequence to it that is not very attractive. That

found that he possesses a

also plays into it. You can drive, but you can get

power that made him far

killed driving. You’re now free to experiment with all

superior to others, but like

kinds of things you shouldn’t be doing because now

Peter Parker and the

you’re more capable, but those have consequences,

many of the young mutants

too. It’s not just the positive, it’s the negative things,

of the X-Men, it was a

too. The teen years are a tremendous time of growth

power that was seen as

and expansion of possibilities, but at the same time

more of a curse than a

it’s a pretty miserable experience to go through. I

blessing. Thus “Werewolf

certainly felt that way myself, and that’s what I

by Night” was born. The

brought to Werewolf by Night.”

idea of mixing teenage

Besides tapping into the agony of teens and

angst and lycanthropy was

pre-teens, the horror genre offered something new

something that had paid

for Marvel to explore at a time when they were looking

off previously in another

for some elbow room on the newsstand. “[Werewolf

medium, and it fueled the

by Night] came around the same time as Tomb of

creation of this Marvel

Dracula and the push towards expanding the Marvel

series. “Werewolf by Night

line,” says Conway. “Marvel had been doing ten to

was my idea,” Roy Thomas

12 titles a month and Stan Lee wanted to expand us

tells BACK ISSUE. “[It was]

to 20 or 30 titles. In order to do that, we needed to

inspired by a combination

come up with a bunch of properties quickly. [We

of I Was a Teenage Werewolf, a movie I’d liked since it first came out in the late 1950s, and Spider-Man. As reported elsewhere, I made up the notion of a first-person series I called ‘I, Werewolf,’ and my first wife, Jean, and I plotted the first issue, after which it was turned over to Gerry [Conway] to dialogue and to continue.” Gerry Conway, the series’ original writer, had this to say on the subject of I Was a Teenage Werewolf’s influence on Werewolf by

A “warm-up sketch” of Werewolf by Night by Mike Ploog, obtained by its contributor, Ivan Cheung, at the 2005

Night. “I had never seen [the film] and Stan Lee had never seen it,” says Conway. “But it certainly was an easy sell. This was something that Marvel does well: teenagers with powers. The book also hit upon another element that made Marvel a popular sell to

U.K. Comic Expo.

youngsters, the idea of the loner forced to deal with

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a world that can not or will not accept them. [It also

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believed] there were only a certain number of

a new look to Marvel Comics via the artwork of

super-heroes that you could do—of course that’s

Mike Ploog. “Mike was so good at doing [books like

been proven wrong—and the thought was there

Werewolf by Night and Ghost Rider],” says Conway.

wasn’t many more characters amongst the bullpen

“He was very imaginative, a great storyteller, and

at that time that could be tossed into their own

pretty fast, which was the criteria back then. He was

books. They had already given Sub-Mariner and Iron

one of the first artists to break away from the Marvel

Man and others their own titles.”

mode. Everyone else was trying to draw like Kirby

At the same time that Marvel was looking for new

and Romita, and to a smaller extent Ditko, but Mike’s

properties to publish, horror was already experiencing

stuff had no prior influences at Marvel, unless you go

a huge resurgence. In the early 1960s there was a

back to the ’50s and the horror books. Mike is a

horror comeback that was fueled by magazines like

cartoonist, and I mean that in the best possible way.

Famous Monsters of Filmland and toys like the Aurora

He doesn’t try to draw in a style that mimics reality

Monster Model Kits. In the comics industry the

Warren line of black-and-white magazines that included Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella had been offering up thrills and chills for several years without that pesky Comics Code Authority getting in the way. In the end, once the Code’s restrictions on horror were lifted, it was only a matter of time before comic books gravitated to it. “In the early 1970s there was this mini-renaissance of fantasy and horror titles from both Marvel and DC,” says Conway. “The notion was this is an area that we could go into that is fairly fresh ground. [The Code restrictions being loosened] was one of the reasons we could do some of this stuff. The Code had been applied in a pretty much arbitrary manner and you had all these restrictions that made no sense. Denny O’Neil said it best: ‘In the code you couldn’t have zombies, but you could have ghouls, which means you couldn’t have the walking dead, but as soon as [the dead] sat down, you could eat them.’ Werewolf by Night was certainly no more scary than Lon Chaney’s Wolf Man movies. They were fairly tame, especially in comparison to what is available to kids today.”

A NEW BREED OF MARVEL SUPER-HERO Right from the start—the character debuted in Marvel Spotlight #2 (Feb. 1972), and after three Spotlights was awarded his own series beginning with #1 (Sept. 1972)—Werewolf by Night offered a number of new twists for fans of Marvel Comics. For the first time since the Comics Code Authority was enacted, a Marvel hero was shown as being capable of killing, and Jack Russell did just that to several of his early adversaries. Werewolf by Night also brought

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Gene Colan

d, Tom Field, to Bob McLeo (Special thanks . il photocopies) o for the penc and Jim Cardill

Anything atmospheric always made my day. Doing Drac gave me that on almost every page. I almost didn’t get the opportunity to do Tomb of Dracula [see BACK ISSUE #6 for details]. 4 0

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TOMB OF DRACULA MAGAZINE #1 (1979)

ns by Art and captio

RAWHIDE KID #149 (1979)

I vaguely remember this one. Seems like I was struggling with it. W e i r d

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!"# $%&#'( )*+ (,# by

Jennifer M. Contino

Rory Regan was the son of a junkman who went off to serve his country during the Vietnam conflict. He returned home, not to ticker-tape parades or the respect and admiration of those around him, like the soldiers of World War II and the Korean War experienced. His return wasn’t marked with praise and pride. He came back to a country that wasn’t impressed with his military record or sacrifices he made overseas. He was back in a world that seemed very different from what he had left a few short years earlier. One thing that was constant and unchanging was the love and pride his father felt for Rory. Gerry Regan wanted to give his son the whole world on a silver platter, but didn’t have the means to do such a thing. So, for Rory’s birthday, Gerry and his friends created a suit out of rags and planned to gift the younger Regan with that attire. However, tragedy struck before they all could celebrate. Gerry and his pals found a stack of “dirty” money hidden among the junk in the Regans’ Rags ’n’ Tatters junkyard. When the thieves returned to retrieve the money, Regan refused to say where the fortune was hidden. He wanted the money to be Rory’s heritage and future. He wanted it to buy Rory everything the man had ever wanted, but was unable to have in this life—at least so far. The gangsters weren’t ready to lose all that money, so they proceeded to torture the men, trying to get one to crack and spill the beans on

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that missing bounty. All refused, sticking to the plan of letting young Rory have a grand future, even if it cost them their remaining days in this world.

Rory walked in on the torture of his father

Joe Kubert and Robert Kanigher thought their

and friends. The group was being electrocuted

“Tattered Tatterdemalion” would be a smash in

by a fallen electrical wire and he was horrified.

the mid-’70s when the hero made his debut.

He attempted to use a rubber tire to free his

The multitalented Kubert was an editor at DC

father from the arc, but the plan fell apart and

and believed the line he was responsible for

Rory found himself in mortal danger as well.

could use a new title. Thinking about how to

The criminals left, figuring the men as good as

flesh out the DC Universe led Kubert to one

dead and their loot lost. But they didn’t count

man: writer Robert Kanigher.

on Rory surviving the shock.

The Kubertdesigned, Redondo Studio-finished briskly paced inset sequence on page 2 of Ragman #1 (Aug.–Sept. 1976) builds to the weird hero’s reveal on page 3. Original art courtesy of Benny Gelillo.

“I called Bob in and we discussed the need

After he recovered, Rory found the costume

for a new title,” Kubert recalls. “Initially we

his father left him and took that as a sign that

thought that I would be doing the artwork,

he should protect his neighborhood from those

which I would have enjoyed.”

evil men and others of their ilk. He wanted to be

However, other responsibilities prevented

another force in Gotham City to help those

Kubert from penciling their creation. Although

frightened of the things that go bump in the

Kubert continued to draw the covers for the

night. The enigmatic Ragman seemed a

series, Ragman’s sequential art on issues #1–4

welcome addition to Batman’s turf. Creators

was handled by the Redondo Studio, working

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Maybe I’m ’Mazed!

You Gotta Have Friends. . .

Brian K. Morris

When Sigfried Horatio Hunch III left the care of Bellevue Hospital, one can only assume it was with the permission of his doctors. After finding a place to live, Hunch spotted a trash pile upon which lay a golden helmet with two huge glass eye holes and a “W” at its peak. When Sigfried lifted the helm, the letter spun on its axis, making it an “M.” Knowing an omen when he saw it, Sigfried christened himself ’Mazing Man. Financially secure from winning the Publisher’s Reading House Sweepstakes, ’Maze patrolled Queens, equally willing to save a child from being run over by a truck, then preventing him from swallowing a discarded cigarette butt. “Heaven only knows what eating one of them might do.” Public reaction was divided, but not between “threat” or “menace.” To one bystander, “He’s the neighborhood looney-toon.” To another, “He’s great to have around, like Lassie . . . and we don’t have to clean up after him.”

FRIENDSHIP, JUST THE PERFECT BLENDSHIP In 1973 frequent letterhack Bob Rozakis received permission to tour the DC offices from DC editor Julius Schwartz. The comic-based crossword puzzles he created for a fanzine wound up in the hands of Sol Harrison, DC’s Vice President and head of its Production Department who told Rozakis, “If you can make up puzzles about Superman and Batman, we’ll buy them.” Nine puzzles later, Rozakis found his foot in the door. This led to a stint as Schwartz’s assistant, where he began selling scripts for Robin and the Elongated Man (in Detective Comics), The Freedom Fighters, and others. In 1976 Rozakis transferred to Production, succeeding Jack Adler in 1981 and remaining as Production Director until leaving DC in 1998. Just as Rozakis used to do, 13-year-old Stephen DeStefano began his comics career by writing letters,

Very early ’Mazing Man presentation art, penciled by Stephen DeStefano (contributor of all of this article’s artwork) and inked by Joseph Delbeato (who placed a cigar in Guido’s hand). © 2006 DC Comics.

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page after handwritten page, covered with drawings of himself and his dog. “To my astonishment and delight,” DeStefano recalls, “[Bob] began writing me back. Bob was not only patient with me, answering all of my dopey questions, but extremely generous.” When

Beginnings:

ished story: Assorted DC puzzle pages / 1st publ n) in Robi ring (star ” Trap n “The Touchdow Detective Comics #445 (1975)

DeStefano requested a job at DC because his father had been laid off,

Milestones:

found himself interning at DC, working in the export department,

t Society of ’Mazing Man / Freedom Fighters / Secre created Duela Super-Villains / Teen Titans (where he rman: The Dent) / Star Trek / Super Friends / Supe hen Secret Years / Hero Hotline (with Step ring the DeStefano) / over 400 scripts featu Atom, Calculator, the Elongated Man, the Green Arrow n, Robi irl, Batg , Aquaman, Air Wave Hero (with E. and Black Canary, Mr. E, Dial “H” For head of ming beco / rs othe and Nelson Bridwell), DC’s Production Department in 1981, where he developed new comic-book formats and introduced computer coloring and separations as well as computerto-plate printing to the company

Photo courtesy of Bob Rozakis.

Cyberspace: The Daily Trivia Contest at www.wfcomics.com/trivia

BOB ROZAKIS

“Bob wrote back, telling me he’d put me on the DC Comics comp list, which was an exceptionally kind thing to do.” At 15, DeStefano learning what Rozakis calls “the fine art of making Xerox copies.” With high school about to end, the 17-year-old set his sights on becoming a DC staffer. So with Creative Director Joe Orlando’s encouragement, DeStefano worked up samples for a series based on a friend in his school named Brian Mooney. As a gift to him, DeStefano drew tales of “Mooney Man” As the artist explains, “Mooney Man looked a lot like ’Maze, and he had a dog that would wise crack and make snotty asides.” Except for being naked, the canine looked a lot like ’Maze’s Denton. “It was all very silly, sort of a MAD-inspired parody, filled with in-jokes about our life at school.” Refining the concepts for a mainstream audience, “Mooney Man” received a name change, Denton got clothing, and the proposal gained a supporting cast, most of whom the artist, by his own admission, “didn’t really have a feel for who they were or what they did.” Orlando rejected DeStefano’s initial proposal. However, upon seeing his friend’s presentation, Bob Rozakis said, “I want to write this.”

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The Lost

Bob Rozakis

Story

“With ’Mazing Man . . . we’d work out a plot and get three-quarters of the way through and sometimes say, ‘No, this wouldn’t happen. They wouldn’t DO this.’” —Bob Rozakis, 1986 Writers, editors, and artists plot stories all the time. Good thing, too, because if they didn’t, there wouldn’t be too many comic books to read. When it was time to plot an issue of ’Mazing Man, editor Alan Gold, artist Stephen DeStefano, and I would head to a local Bojangles fried-chicken place and work out stories while munching on wings and thighs, biscuits, and fries. Sometimes we’d have an idea from the start. Other times we’d be looking for a jumping off point. In one particular case, Stephen had come into the city on the subway and had seen a magician moving from car to car doing tricks. He suggested that this might be something we could use in a ’Maze story. We worked out a basic plot and I went home to write it up. What follows is what I delivered to Alan a few days later. Though broken down into individual panels, Stephen was free to expand or

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contract the number he needed to move the action along. [Stephen and I worked in a variety

In the early 1970s Marvel Comics began to explore the

Code Authority were loosened. In his origin tale, stunt

world of horror in earnest for the first time since the

cyclist Johnny Blaze trades his soul to Satan to save the

mid-1950s’ introduction of the Comics Code Authority.

life of the man who has been his “father” and mentor,

Such titles as Werewolf by Night, Tomb of Dracula, and

Crash Simpson, who was dying of an undisclosed

The Frankenstein Monster, which featured the legendary

disease. After the deed is done, Blaze finds out the hard

monsters of classic literature and motion pictures,

way that those who make deals with the Lord of Hades

began to appear on newsstands alongside The Amazing

never come out on the winning end. Crash doesn’t die

Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and The Avengers. Eventually,

because of the disease, but he is killed trying to break a

the denizens of the horror realm started making

world’s cycling record. When Satan comes to claim

crossover appearances with the spandex crowd and

Blaze’s soul, it is only the love of Simpson’s daughter, the

became full-fledged members of the Marvel Universe.

lovely and pure-hearted Roxanne, which keeps Johnny

Of all the Mighty Marvel Monsters that blurred the

safe and forces Satan to flee. Still, Blaze does not get off to share his existence with a fiery demon, Zaratho. Thus,

tryout in Marvel Spotlight # 5–12, the character went

the race was on for Blaze as he was cursed to ride the

on to his own title, which outlasted all of the company’s

highways of the night as the flame-skulled Ghost Rider.

other horror books, and his crossed paths with

Recently BACK ISSUE spoke with the artist who

Marvel’s super-heroes more frequently than the other

helped kick start Ghost Rider into existence, the

monsters (Ghost Rider was even a member of the

legendary Mike Ploog. Even though his run on the

short-lived super-hero team, the Champions).

series was short, he left a mark that is remembered to

Ghost Rider’s first outing told a story that surely

this day by fans everywhere of ol’ Skull Head.

—Dan Johnson

could have never done before the rules of the Comics W e i r d

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by Dan Johnson

totally unscathed. He soon learns that he will be forced

conducted on October 20, 2005

line between super-scares and super-heroics, none was more popular than Ghost Rider. After a successful

interview

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DAN JOHNSON: How did you come to work on Ghost Rider? MIKE PLOOG: When they asked me to do Ghost Rider, I jumped

Beginnings:

at it. In my mind, the first image that came to me was the

l Eisner) P.S. Magazine (with Wil

Frazetta Ghost Rider on horseback. It didn’t take long before I

Milestones:

figured out that [this Ghost Rider] wasn’t on a horse, he was on

Monster of Werewolf by Night / The / Man-Thing / er Rid ost Gh Frankenstein / Abadazad

Work in Progress:

a bloody motorcycle! But that was all right. This was a new twist and a new angle. It was fresh and interesting and it was something that I could start from the very beginning. I didn’t have to follow anybody else’s style.

The Stardust Kid

JOHNSON: It came about at just the right time. It combined super-heroes, which were big; horror, which was even bigger,

es Aren’t Hard to Find. Photo courtesy of Hero

and bikers and the biker lifestyle, which was coming into its own in the 1970s. PLOOG: [The biker lifestyle] was kind of romanticized in the 1970s. Bikers very quickly got a very bad rap, but in the 1970s, with The Wild One and seeing all the Hollywood stars on motorbikes, it

MIKE PLOOG

was the thing to do. I thought it was cool because in those days they were doing these beautiful choppers with the extended front wheels, and I thought, "That could be fun!" But I’ll tell you, every month you sit there and you draw motorcycles, it will drive you crazy! Bloody motorcycles!

But Ghost Rider was a good character. [Writer] Gary Friedrich never really just came out and said it, but I got the impression that we weren’t going to take this guy all that seriously. If you look back at some of the old Ghost Riders, it was pretty tongue-in-cheek. The whole story of [Johnny Blaze] selling his soul to save this guy and then goofing up the whole damn thing, talk about making a major mistake! It was like he made a contract and didn’t read the fine print. JOHNSON: Anytime you enter into a deal with the devil, you’re going to come out on the short end of the deal. PLOOG: Well, to be honest with you, over the years you sell your soul to the devil on a regular basis, in one way or another. The only thing about it is that you can get out of that. When you’re actually dealing with the devil, there probably aren’t that many ways to get out of it. You always had that hope

that Johnny Blaze could get himself out of this. You can’t go around the rest of your life with a flaming skull.

Marvel’s original Ghost Rider: Frank Frazetta’s cover to 1950’s Ghost

JOHNSON: When Ghost Rider first appeared, it was at a time when the Comics Code was loosening up quite a bit and Marvel Comics

Rider #3. Courtesy of Heritage Comics.

was able to do horror titles. Still, when you have a comic book where a major character

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A Chat with Don Perlin

interview

DAN JOHNSON: You came on to Ghost Rider after Werewolf by Night ended. How did you come to work on the title? DON PERLIN: That’s a funny thing about that one. Jim Shooter had become editor-in-chief at Marvel Comics by then, and he had me do fill-in books until he could find a book for me. I was sitting there working on the fill-ins and I was wondering what kind of book Marvel will come up with [for me]. I figured that I would like any book they had there, except one: Ghost Rider. I didn’t want to draw motorcycles. About 20 minutes into that thought, the phone rang. The call was from Shooter and he said, “Don, we have got a book for you. It’s Ghost Rider. I’m going to write it, and you’re going to draw it.”

bumped up to a monthly status. PERLIN: It started picking up in sales. All [the work] I had at the time was penciling that book, so I asked to ink an issue. After I did that, I got to pencil and ink the book. JOHNSON: You have always preferred to ink

by Dan Johnson

title, but as soon as you came on board it as

conducted on September 15, 2005

JOHNSON: The book had been a bimonthly

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your own work, right? PERLIN: Well, the thing is at Marvel you would have a plot and once it was penciled, the story would go back to the writer. Then they would add the captions and the balloons. After they look at your pictures, the writers might have slightly different ideas than before. What would happen is that you would leave a lot of

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(Art for this gallery contributed by Michael Browning, Matthew Stock, and Heritage Comics.)

Ghost Rider #2 (Oct. 1973). Cover art by Gil Kane and John Romita, Sr. 7 4

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Jim Kingman During the 1970s, DC Comics’ Gorilla Grodd, one of the Flash’s greatest foes, made only one appearance in the Scarlet Speedster’s own comic book (The Flash #209, 1971). And yet, Grodd made many prominent appearances in other corners of the DC Universe, notably in several issues of Secret Society of SuperVillains in 1976 and 1977. The highly evolved super-ape from Gorilla City was so high profile in 1977 that you would almost think he was being primed for his own series. This idea isn’t so far from the truth, as a proposal for an ongoing title featuring Gorilla Grodd had been completed in 1976 and put “on hold” for several months before being written off in November of 1977. It’s a shame that Flash fans didn’t get to see one of Barry Allen’s greatest rogues in a series of his own, but it makes for an interesting tale of a comic book, Grodd of Gorilla City, that never came to be. According to The Comic Reader #131 (1976), “Elliot Maggin and Cary Bates have written a story called ‘Gorilla City,’ illustrated by Joe Barney and Carl Potts. Where it will appear has not yet been decided; apparently it is set in Grodd’s home town.” As far as I know, this was the only time in print that Grodd of Gorilla City was ever mentioned. I collected and read all of DC’s super-hero books in the late 1970s and not once do I recall the series being plugged in a DC title published at that time. Grodd of Gorilla City was indeed written by Cary Bates and Elliot S! Maggin, penciled by Joe Barney and Carl Potts, and inked by Terry Austin and Bob Wiacek. That’s quite a list of creators to pack into the credits box, and the book’s origins are as intriguing as the reason so many creators were gathered to complete the proposal. “I believe the Grodd project was initiated by Cary

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Bates,” recalls inker Terry Austin. “Cary rented office space at Continuity Associates (the commercial art

business in New York City owned by Neal Adams and Dick Giordano), in an effort to help some of the new kids at Continuity, who were his friends, get their foot in the door at DC. These were pencilers Joe Barney and Carl Potts, inkers Bob Wiacek and myself.” “I was working at Continuity Studios at the time,” remembers penciler Carl Potts. “At the time, Continuity was run by Neal Adams and Dick Giordano. They had a number of young artists working there, helping out on various comics and commercial projects. This crew included Joe Barney, Terry Austin, Bob Wiacek, and myself. Cary Bates rented an office at Continuity and asked Joe and I to co-pencil the project and Terry and Bob to ink it. “Cary may have felt the only chance he had of getting the project done in a reasonable amount of time was to have several of us working on it,” Potts continues. “Neither Joe nor I were known as speed demons when it came to drawing comics. For some reason we could turn out storyboard frames with relative ease but comics was what we were really into so we tended to sweat over every panel. That lack of speed, combined with the fact that we were already involved with other comics and commercial projects, probably prompted Cary to have multiple artists on the Grodd story.” “I had been at Neal Adams’ Continuity Associates for about a year doing comics, storyboards, and animatic penciling,” remembers Joe Barney. “I was only 20 years old, and very green; this was my first solo penciling assignment (well, somewhat; Carl Potts and I penciled separate pages on the book). Cary Bates, who came up to Continuity fairly frequently,

“Carmine would have been publisher at that

and later rented a space in Larry Hama’s room (after

time,” says Austin. I don’t remember if Grodd of

Ralph Reese left the studio), asked Neal if there were

Gorilla City was intended as a one-shot or first issue

any artists who had the free time to tackle a story he

of a continuing series. The first issue was completed

and Elliot Maggin had written for a proposed new

but I don’t think I ever heard why it wasn’t used. I

book. Neal suggested Carl and myself—we were sort

don’t believe the time period before it was eventually

of the first of a whole group of aspiring artists that

written off is significant. Work that was killed was

Neal took on as assistants, for a time nicknamed ‘the

kept around in the editor’s files in case a use could

Goon Squad.’ I was excited about the project, aside

be found for it later, since it had already been paid

from the opportunity to show some chops and

for. Periodically, I believe, the editor would search

become a real professional.”

his files and if no home were apparent for an

I wondered if the series was proposed at the tail end

orphaned project, it was written off (I assume the

of Carmine Infantino’s tenure as DC publisher, or just

money paid to the creators would be taken as some

as Jenette Kahn took over the position in early 1976.

sort of tax loss), and the art returned to the artists.”

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Michael Eury In January 1974 (cover date), Hawkman quit the Justice

Fleisher and Aparo’s original Adventure tales (one of

League and the Legion of Super-Heroes’ Bouncing Boy

which was penciled by Frank Thorne, two others

and Duo Damsel said “I do,” but the big story that

penciled by Ernie Chua, with Aparo inks on each).

month at DC Comics was one of its super-heroes

Also included are three stories written by Fleisher in

turning killer! In editor Joe Orlando’s Adventure Comics

the mid-1970s but shelved when DC’s then-publisher

#431, one of DC’s weirdest heroes, the Spectre,

Carmine Infantino pulled the plug on the controversial

returned from limbo—and in the process returned to

“Spectre” series with Adventure #440, but eventually

his long-abandoned roots as an executioner of criminals.

illustrated by Aparo in the late 1980s.

Adventure #431’s “The Wrath of . . . the Spectre,”

Long-time readers mostly recall this series for its

courtesy of writer Michael Fleisher and artist Jim

Spectre-created acts of carnage (including the Ghostly

Aparo, recast the Ghostly Guardian from his previous

Guardian cutting a man in half with giant scissors,

Silver Age role as a cosmic crusader into the vengeful

rapidly aging a woman into a shriveled corpse,

enemy of “the vermin of the underworld,” as he was originally conceived in 1940 before his stories were softened by DC. Forget turning apprehended felons over to the authorities: In this tightly plotted, spellbindingly rendered 12-

pager, the Spectre disposes of a pair murderous robbers by melting one, like wax, and reducing the other to a skeleton. Ghastly demises— and downright shocking to audiences of the day. In

trade

paperback

appropriating the name of

W rath of the Spectre

that first tale (which was also used as the title of a 1988 reprint miniseries), Wrath of

DC Comics, 2005 • Softcover • 200 color pages • $19.99 US

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