Back Issue #16 Preview

! Y ROM MICRONAUTS SUPER POWERS CAPT. ACTION! T! O WEIRD HEROES! Art by HAMA, S. BUSCEMA, GUICE, GOLDEN, KIRBY, TRIMPE, & MILTON KNIGHT! STORIES!

THE ULTIMATE COMICS EX PERIENCE!

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G. I. JOE AND TRANSFORMERS TM & © HASBRO. GUMBY TM & © PREMAVISION, INC. AND PREMA TOY CO. SKELETOR TM & © MATTEL. WONDER WOMAN TM & © DC COMICS.

TUFF”

GALLERrYt :of The Pencil A

MIKE ZECK

You’re never too old to read about toys! It’s our

The Ultimate Comics Experience!

TOY STORIES ISSUE!

Volume 1, Number 16 June 2006 Celebrating the Best Com ics of the '70s, '80s, and Today!

EDITOR Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow DESIGNER Rich J. Fowlks PROOFREADERS John Morrow and Eric Nolen-Weathington COVER ARTIST Mike Zeck COVER COLORIST Tom Ziuko COVER DESIGNER Robert Clark SPECIAL THANKS Arthur Adams Christian Voltar Alcala Ruben Azcona Mike Blanchard Jerry Boyd Mike Burkey Sal Buscema Dewey Cassell Joyce Chin John Cogan Gerry Conway Charles Costas Eric Delos Santos Kim DeMulder Mark Evanier Tim Finn Simon Furman José Luis García-López Mike Gartland Court Gebeau Grand Comic-Book Database Jackson Guice Larry Hama Allan Harvey Sam Hatmaker Heritage Comics Christopher Irving Tony Isabella The Jack Kirby Collector Dan Johnson Boyd Kirkland Charles Kiyasu

INTERVIEW: Arthur Adams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 A bouncy dialogue about Adams’ oddball 1980s’ Gumby comics FLASHBACK: Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 The Robots in Disguise as Marvel Comics superstars BEYOND CAPES: The Swivel-Arm Battle-Grip Revolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 How G.I. Joe recruited a new generation of comic-book readers FLASHBACK: Kirby’s Last Stand: Super Powers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32 Jack Kirby’s Kenner-style Justice League BEYOND CAPES: He-Man and the Masters of the Universe . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36 Paul Levitz, Paul Kupperberg, and George Tuska revisit He-Man’s DC days BACK IN PRINT: He-Man on DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42 Extras include exclusive art cards—with peeks at Alex Ross and Adam Hughes art

Milton Knight Paul Kupperberg ROUGH STUFF: Mike Zeck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 Phong Le The artist hosts a gallery of his pencil art, including Spider-Man, G.I. Joe, and Punisher Paul Levitz Andy Mangels WHAT THE--?!: Looking to Buy a Used Car? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56 Michael Mantlo Remember the Spider-Mobile and Supermobile? We do!

Bob McLeod Joshua Mossing OFF MY CHEST: Milton Knight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58 Stuart Neft The Hugo cartoonist wonders why some folks can’t laugh at humor comics Eric NolenWeathington PRO2PRO INTERVIEW: Sal Buscema and Jackson “Butch” Guice . . . . . . . . . .64 Denny O’Neil Kristen Palmer The Rom and Micronauts artists discuss working in Marvel’s toy box Michael Romanenko Steve Rude GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: Wonder Woman and the Star Riders . . . .74 Rose Rummel-Eury A behind-the-scenes look at the toy line that fizzled, with rare art by José Luis James Schafer García-López, Mike Vosburg, and Boyd Kirkland Rick Shurgin Louise Simonson FLASHBACK: Captain Action: The 9-Lives-in-One Super-Hero . . . . . . . . . . . .82 Ben Smith Commemorating the 40th anniversary of the original super-hero action figure Val Staples Tom Stewart BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .84 Rick Taylor Reader feedback on issue #14 Greg Theakston Roy Thomas Herb Trimpe BACK ISSUE™ is published bimonthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael George Tuska Eury, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor, 5060A Foothills Dr., Lake Mike Vosburg Oswego, OR 97034. E-mail: euryman@msn.com. Six-issue subscriptions: $36 Standard US, $54 First Class US, $66 Canada, Len Wein $72 Surface International, $96 Airmail International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the Andrew Wildman editorial office. Cover art by Michael Zeck. G.I. Joe and Transformers TM & © Hasbro. Gumby TM & © Premavision, Inc. Mitch Wilson and Prema Toy Co. Skeletor TM & © Mattel. Wonder Woman TM & © DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. All characters are Mike Zeck © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2006 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing. BACK ISSUE is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING.

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Run, Clayboy, Run! Collector Charles Kiyasu says of this 1996 Art Adams

conducted on February 1, 2006

“After receiving the sketch, I noticed that he forgot to put in the teeth detail. I asked him about it and he told me that the T-Rex is geriatric dinosaur.”

Art © 2006 Arthur Adams. Gumby TM & © Premavision, Inc. and Prema Toy Co.

interview

by Michael Eury

commissioned illo, which he contributed for publication:

Gumby TM & © Premavision, Inc. and Prema Toy Co.

Gumby TM & © Premavision, Inc. and Prema Toy Co.

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Comico (Ko-mee-ko) the Comic Company, under the

allied the clayboy and his pony pal with space bears, a

creative orchestration of Diana Schutz and Bob

werewolf babysitter, pirates, and the monsters of

Schreck, made fan favorites of such series as Mage,

Halloweentown to thwart an alien invasion, while Winter

Grendel, Elementals, Jonny Quest, and The Maze Agency

Fun took them underground, to the fiery pits of “Heck,” to

during the mid- to late 1980s [see BACK ISSUE #2 for a

rescue the captive “Ray Crabbe”—aka Santa Claus—from

detailed look at Comico’s history].

the clutches of the Prince of Darkness.

Among the company’s most unusual publications were

As the editor of Winter Fun, I had the good fortune of

Gumby’s Summer Fun Special (July 1987), written by

working with the amazing artist of both Comico Gumbys: Arthur

Flaming Carrot creator Bob Burden, and Gumby’s Winter

Adams. Nearly 20 years later, Arthur has heeded his former

Fun Special (Dec. 1988), written by Sam & Max:

editor’s call and dusted off his memories to discuss the pair of

Freelance Police creator Steve Purcell. Summer Fun

one-shots that truly were . . . fun and special. —Michael Eury

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MICHAEL EURY: May I have your permission to tape record our conversation?

ARTHUR ADAMS: Live it up, man!

EURY: Of course, you realize that there’s probably someone else listening in on our conversation . . . hello, Mr. President!

ADAMS: Oh, come on, like he cares what we’re saying. It’s that Cheney guy, he’s the evil one.

EURY: A lot of people have said that.

ADAMS: I really don’t think these guys are evil—they’re just misguided.

EURY: [laughs] Do you think that Gumby and Pokey could be terrorists?

ADAMS: Not on purpose, but they might accidentally do something where high jinks might ensue.

EURY: Like what?

ADAMS: They might accidentally get some plastique mixed in with their bodies, you never know.

EURY: That would be pretty cool: Gumby, living bomb.

ADAMS: Exactly. He doesn’t know it, but we, the audience, know it.

EURY: There’s your third chapter in the Gumby trilogy.

ADAMS: Oh, my God, at any moment, Gumby could go off! [laughs] EURY: I understand you had a traumatic childhood experience of being physically abused by a Pokey . . . is this true?

ADAMS: [laughs] It’s only marginally true. We don’t quite need to put it into the category of abuse. [laughs] But I did have a neighbor, a slightly older boy . . . let’s see, I would’ve been three or four, and he was probably four or five, so he was a big kid. I was outside playing with my Gumby and Pokey, and he got a hold of my Pokey and ran away and wouldn’t give it back, and I was chasing and chasing, but I was too small and I was crying, and I was calling, “Rusty, Rusty, bring back my Pokey!”

Finally, he was fed up with my whining, and he threw Pokey at me, right at my head! It bounced off my head and went into this big bush, and I couldn’t reach Pokey. It was gone forever.

EURY: Were you bruised by the impact of Pokey to the head?

ADAMS: Oh, no, it was a rubber toy. I think it was mostly my soul that was bruised.

EURY: And the kid’s name was Rusty.

ADAMS: Rusty, that bastard! [laughs] EURY: Is there anyone named Rusty who’s nice?

ADAMS: How could they possibly be? Although I think there’re some nice strippers named Rusty.

EURY: [laughs] I’d love to volley with a snappy comeback, but it’s impossible after that one! So let’s move on . . .

Let’s go back to 1986. How did Arthur Adams, artist of Longshot, become the artist of Comico’s Gumby’s Summer Fun Special?

ADAMS: I’ll bet you’ve heard this story before, and probably others have, as well . . . but why not? It’s such a timeless story.

EURY: [laughs] Pull up the kids around the campfire—here we go!

Beginnings:

Farrah Foxette pinup in Captain Carr ot and His Amazing Zoo Crew (1983)

Milestones:

Longshot / Action Comics Annual and covers / Gumby’s Summer and Winter Fun Specials / Uncanny X-Men Annuals / Fantastic Four / Godzilla / Creature from the Black Lago on / Monkeyman & O’Brien / The Authority / “Jonni Future” in Tom Strong’s Terri fic Tales

Work in Progress:

Modern Masters vol. 6

ARTHUR ADAMS

The title splash to Comico’s Gumby’s Winter Fun, courtesy of Eric Delos Santos.

Gumby TM & © Premavision, Inc. and Prema Toy Co.

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Gumby TM & © Premavision, Inc. and Prema Toy Co.

Gumby TM & © Premavision, Inc. and Prema Toy Co.

ADAMS: We-l-l-l-l, it was early on in my career, and I was working on issue #2 of Longshot. In the upper right-hand corners [of the original art pages], for whatever reason, probably because I thought it was funny, I started drawing Gumby dressed as different super-heroes.

There was a Superman Gumby, and a Batman Gumby, and a SpiderMan Gumby . . . the way they used to print those books, a lot of those probably got cut right off the page.

So after doing these little drawings of Gumby—just for fun, not for any special love for Gumby—I would show these pages around to various friends, and one of those was Diana Schutz, who at the time worked at a comic-book store called Comics & Comix in Berkeley. The late, lamented Comics & Comix. At some point she moved back east and got a job at Comico.

One of the first things she did was call me up and say, “Hey, we can get the rights to do Gumby!

Why not do some Gumby comics?”

And I said, “Why do some Gumby comics?”

EURY: [laughs] How did Diana respond to that?

ADAMS: Well, she was pestering me to draw Gumby, and I said, “I don’t want to draw Gumby. It was fun doing those cute little things, but I really don’t need to spend months doing a comic about Gumby! That’s silly.”

So me, thinking I was so smart, I said to myself, “I’ll try to get Diana to get a writer who I know doesn’t have time to write this thing, because he’s working on his own project,” and he’d told me before he was busy, busy, busy, working all the time on this. So I said, “If you can get Bob Burden, the creator of Flaming Carrot, to write a Gumby comic, I’ll be happy to draw it,” rubbing my hands together and going, [diabolical laughter].

She called back about ten minutes later and said, “Oh, yeah, Bob would love to write it.”

EURY: [laughs] You were stuck!

ADAMS: I was stuck. [laughs] Of course, I was thinking, “If you can get Bob to write it, why don’t you get Bob to draw it, too? That’d be great. I’d buy that!”

EURY: Oh, so you actually tried to pass off the art on Bob? ADAMS: Well, not really, but a lot of [Summer Fun] was influenced by his drawing style. Come to think of it, he actually designed a lot of the characters in it.

EURY: Burden obviously designed the eye-popping aliens, the Hysterians.

ADAMS: I think them, and the robot kids were designed by him—and possibly their parents, I don’t quite remember.

EURY: So the robot family was created specifically for this comic.

ADAMS: I don’t think they ever appeared anywhere else.

EURY: I have to admit, I’m not exactly well versed in Gumby lore . . .

ADAMS: Oh, there’s so much of it—who could be? [laughter] EURY: Thank you for rallying to my defense.

ADAMS: No one could know the whole Gumby tome.

EURY: On Summer Fun, did you do full pencils first, then ink it, or did you do breakdowns or some halfway method? I remember the second Special that you did what looked to me to be full pencils, I’m guessing to make licensor approval corrections easier, if needed.

ADAMS: Well, when I’m inking myself, for some people they might call it full pencils, but for me they’re loose pencils. It’s just that I’m fussy with my own stuff, and I pretty much need to know what it’s gonna look like when I put inks to paper.

EURY: Did the Art Clokey camp insist upon many changes in Summer Fun? I don’t recall their doing so for Winter Fun. ADAMS: I don’t remember their asking for changes. I think they were just mildly amused, if they were even aware, that these Gumby comics were even being done.

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MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE:

by

IN THE 1980S

Christopher Irving

Original art to the cover of Transformers #12, by Herb Trimpe.

Courtesy of Ruben Azcona (www.ComicBookArtGallery.com).

Transformers TM & © Hasbro

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In 1982 American toy company Hasbro forged an agreement with Japanese toy company Takara to license both their Diaclone and Micro Change toy lines. Diaclone was a series of robots that transformed into vehicles, complete with small driver figurines, while Micro Change was a spin-off of the Microman line (known as Micronauts in the U.S.), which transformed into objects like guns, Walkmans, and microscopes.

Hasbro merged both toy lines into their new Transformers concept, with a plan to introduce Japanese toy sensibilities to American children.

Hot off of the recent success of the revived G.I. Joe toy line, Hasbro decided to approach Marvel Comics about not only creating names and personalities to their new Transformers line, but also in producing an accompanying comic book and cartoon. The story has it that both Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter and editor Denny O’Neil created a rough treatment of The Transformers, and that editor Bob Budiansky was given the assignment of fleshing it out further. “[Shooter] needed somebody who had a little time on their hands who could write something,” Budiansky told www.bwtf.com. “I was not the obvious candidate . . . so he came to me, and I came up with a bunch of names, characters, and a bunch of character biographies and they liked it; they were really happy with it with very few changes as I recall to that initial two dozen or so Transformers in that lineup.”

The Transformers #1 hit the stands on Sept.1984 with an impressive Bill Sienkiewicz cover featuring an abstract version of the heroic Optimus Prime.

The first appearance of Megatron from Transformers #1, page 2, in a scan made from a photocopy. Courtesy of Charles Costas.

Transformers TM & © Hasbro

Written by Bill Mantlo and Ralph Macchio, penciled by Frank Springer, inked by Kim DeMulder, and edited by Bob Budiansky, it was the first chapter in a bimonthly four-issue limited series.

The Transformers were the noble Autobots (who transformed into cars) led by Optimus Prime, and the Decepticons (who became everything from jets to a gun to a Walkman) were led by the evil Megatron—all “Robots in Disguise.” While on a mission aboard their spaceship the Ark, the Autobots are boarded by the Decepticons. With certain defeat at hand, Optimus Prime sends the Ark hurtling toward the third planet of the solar system they are flying through—Earth, where they crash in the side of a volcano.

Awakening in 1984 from a dormancy of over four million years, the Transformers are reactivated by the Ark’s computers, and programmed to adapt to what the ship mistakenly thinks the dominant life form on Earth: vehicles.

September 17, 1984 marked the premiere of the syndicated Transformers cartoon; the initial three episodes recapped the same essential story as the comic book.

Interestingly enough, the Transformers in the first issue of the comic book looked exactly like their toy counterparts, but then inexplicably took on the appearance of the cartoon versions with the second issue.

Charles Costas provided a closeup of this panel from page 13 of issue #1, featuring the first appearance of the Decepticons.

Notice the degree of cutting and pasting; most of this page was statted and redone, presumably due to last-minute editing.

Transformers TM & © Hasbro

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A double-page spread from issue #1, introducing the Autobots, with stats galore. Scanned from a photocopy and contributed by Charles Costas.

“When I started inking this, the marketing of Transformers in the U.S. hadn’t actually started or had just barely started,” inker Kim DeMulder reveals. “And the cartoon series had not started showing here yet. So originally we had no access to any reference other than the toys themselves.

Marvel actually gave me several of the toys as the only reference I had! Just after I had left the book, all the Transformer artists got those wonderful clear model sheets that the animators were using.”

Transformers #3 (Jan. 1984) featured Spider-Man in his symbiotic black costume . . . and in one of the more bizarre Marvel team-ups in recent history. The fourth and supposedly final issue of The Transformers had the Autobots victorious against the Decepticons, only to be blown away by long-lost Decepticon Shockwave on the final page.

Transformers TM & © Hasbro

Transformers TM & © Hasbro

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THE SWIVEL-ARM BATTLE-GRIP REVOLUTION TM

How Recruited a New Generation of Comic-Book Readers

by

ng Christopher Irvi

G.I. Joe arguably recruited more children into the ranks of comic-book readership than any other comic of the latter 20th century. While Star Wars had ushered the comeback of the action figure (albeit in a smaller 3-inch format) and pioneered a multi-media approach to merchandising, G.I. Joe went one step further and created a model for nonfilm properties to survive in other mediums.

Hasbro decided to jump on the bandwagon in the early ’80s by bringing G.I. Joe back to toy shelves. In the post-Vietnam world of 1977, Star Wars revived the toy soldier in the guise of Luke Skywalker and company. G.I. Joe had started as a 12-inch doll in 1964 and was shrunk down to the 8-inch Action Joe line by 1978. Not only would he shrink further down to Star Wars size for this new incarnation, but would also be micro-managed into a team of soldiers.

Hasbro’s marketing plan for the new G.I. Joe was revolutionary, and set the standard for action figures.

The G.I. Joe comic book came about, unsurprisingly, as an excuse to have animated commercials. “[Hasbro] wanted an angle on being able to advertise it, which is how the Marvel connection came in,” writer Larry Hama reveals. “There were only a few seconds of animation you could have in a toy commercial, and you had to show the toy, so people wouldn’t get totally deluded. Somebody at Hasbro (who was actually sort of a genius) named Bob Pruprish realized that a comic book was protected under the

Real American Heroes Herb Trimpe’s cover pencils to Marvel’s G.I. Joe #1 (June 1982), courtesy of Bob McLeod, the cover’s inker.

G.I. Joe TM & © Hasbro.

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first amendment, and there couldn’t be restrictions based on how you advertised for a publication.”

Hasbro’s plan for G.I. Joe: By having Marvel produce a comic book based on the toy line, they could have fully animated commercials for the comic book, which would also advertise the toy. Not only would Marvel produce the comic book, but would also create the characters’ personalities.

“Their deal with Marvel was, ‘Can you do the comic, and we’ll produce and pay for animated commercials for a year?’” Hama says. “They had these ten figures and said, ‘We need to come up with what they are, and who they are, and have a comic.’

“They showed us the drawings, and that’s all they had! We looked at these and said, ‘We’ll come up with the characters and personalities,’ and I suggested we do dossiers, like in the military, and make them look authentic with specifications. They thought it was a cool idea. I ended up on the project because no one else wanted to do it. I was the last guy on the row of editors that they asked, Action Figure and nobody wanted to Not a doll, but a 12-inch action figtouch it with a ten-foot ure—1964’s moveable fighting man, pole.”

G.I. Joe, from Hasbro.

While Hasbro had designed the initial wave of G.I. Joe figures, they apparently hadn’t given G.I. Joe TM & © Hasbro. thought to an important narrative part of the G.I. Joe comic book, as Hama illustrates: “At the meeting, one of the things that we brought up was, ‘Who are the bad guys?’

“Hasbro said, ‘What do you mean, bad guys?’

“We said, ‘What are these guys gonna do, just march around and go on bivouac? They have to have somebody to fight.’ “‘We don’t have anybody for them to fight.’

“We said, ‘We’ll have somebody for them to fight in the comic, and you can run with it if you want.’

“I think it was Archie Goodwin who said, ‘We’ll have some sort of semi-fascistic, para-military organization, and we’ll call them COBRA or someCover © Marvel Characters, Inc. thing.’ We just threw it all together.”

G.I. Joe TM & © Hasbro.

Interestingly enough, the G.I. Joe comic book was

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offered to two pencilers who turned it down: Marvel legends Joe Sinnott and artist Don Perlin. The third time is the charm, as Marvel found out, when staffer Herb Trimpe accepted the assignment to draw the new G.I. Joe comic book. In retrospect, Trimpe, a military and history buff, seems a natural choice.

“The first job I had ever done for Marvel was drawing Phantom Eagle [in Marvel Super-Heroes #16, Sept. 1968], with [writer] Gary Friedrich,” Trimpe recalls. “That concentrated on airplanes . . . one of my chief interests. I think the G.I. Joe thing came about the same way. I wouldn’t say that I had a reputation for being interested in military things, but I think it was a known fact at that point. Larry was an expert in the field, and really knew his stuff. Considering people that were working for Marvel at the time, and the resources that they had, I was probably the most likely candidate to draw G.I. Joe.”

GO, JOE! G.I. Joe, A Real American Hero (hereupon G.I. Joe) #1 hit the stands with a June 1982 cover date, a printing on high-grade Baxter paper, two stories, and a whopping $1.50 price tag (when comics only cost 65 cents). The Joes’ first adventure, “Operation: Lady Doomsday,” was by Hama, Trimpe, and inker Bob McLeod. The issue opens with the abduction of scientist Dr. Adele Burkhart

by COBRA agent Baroness and her troopers. After an assessment by General Flagg, we’re introduced to Codename: G.I. Joe, a crack military team who operate in the subterranean base “the Pit,” located under the cover of the Fort Wadsworth motor pool.

Led by General Hawk, the team includes the Ranger Stalker, Emma Peel-ish Scarlett, the mute and black-clad commando Snake-Eyes, laser soldier Flash, communications officer Breaker, infantryman Grunt, bazooka soldier Zap, mortar soldier Short-Fuse, tank driver Steeler, machine-gunner Rock ’N’ Roll, and LASER soldier Grand Slam.

As fate would have it, since around 1979 Hama had actually been developing a concept for Marvel called Fury Force—one which would be transformed into the new G.I. Joe. Fury Force was, according to Hama, “an elite counter-terrorist unit, like Delta, and it was led by Nick Fury’s son . . . Fury Force [also] had an underground secret base under a motor pool. The basic concept was very similar.”

Eerily similar, actually: Early versions of Hawk, Stalker, and Scarlett are pretty dead-on to their future versions. The prototype for Snake-Eyes, dubbed Spook, wore a hooded cloak with a pair of eyes peering out from the shadows beneath. With less than a year’s difference between Hama’s development of

Fury Force and the start of G.I. Joe, one can see where Hama transferred one concept to the other.

Back in the first issue, the Joes infiltrate a Caribbean island inhabited by COBRA to save Dr. Burkhart. The COBRA forces are led by the blue-clad, hooded Cobra Commander, and his right-hand woman, the Baroness. At this point, the Commander and Baroness were the only two distinctive COBRA agents, leading an army of fanatic storm troopers.

The backup story, “Hot Potato,” by Hama, penciler Don Perlin, and inker Jack Abel, follows Rock ’N’ Roll, Scarlett, and Snake-Eyes on a mission in the Middle East against the jihad of generic Arabian villain Colonel Sharif. The story would later be adapted into a ViewMaster reel in another example of cross-marketing.

“Lady Doomsday” does an admirable job of introducing all of the team members, with the characters often referring to one another by code name, lettered in bold, sparing the headache of excessive captions. Hama also balanced the “screen time” for each of the characters judiciously, as they split in smaller groups to take a portion of the island.

Given that the comic was essentially a toy commercial printed in four colors, “Lady Doomsday” is a solid story that combines military fare with classic Marvel style super-spy technology.

Hama would be presented by Hasbro with only the

Fury Force Larry Hama’s G.I. Joe prototype team. The scan of this ultra-rare image is courtesy of teacher and writer Tim Finn, who is penning a comprehensive book on the 1980s/1990s’ Joe. An additional thank you goes to Ben Smith at GothamCityArt.com, the official source for Larry Hama’s original artwork and archives.

Art © 2006 Larry Hama. G.I. Joe TM & © Hasbro.

image and specialty of each character. It was then up to him to give them a code name, and to also supply background material in the form of a small “military dossier” file card that came with each action figure.

Basically, Hama had devised everything from a character’s birthplace to military specialties. Early dossiers even had psychological evaluations.

“At first, [Hasbro] didn’t think that writing the dossiers was anything special,” Hama observes. “In fact, in the second year, they decided to can me on them and get somebody in-house to write them. In two weeks, they called me back. It wasn’t as easy as they thought. You had to boil stuff down into two paragraphs, and it was hard to get it succinct and still have

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Cover © Marvel Characters, Inc. G.I. Joe TM & © Hasbro.

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THE KING’S LAST STAND: by

Tom “The Comics Savant” Stewart

JACK KIRBY’S FINAL SERIES

Bring on the Bad Guys!

Kirby’s pencils to the first issue of the first Super Powers miniseries, courtesy of The Jack Kirby Collector. © 2006 DC Comics.

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In 1984, DC and Kenner Toys entered into an agreement to produce a line of toys based on DC’s characters. The Justice League of America (or the Super Friends, depending on how and where you look at it) was coming to toy shelves everywhere to stand alongside Kenner’s cash cow Star Wars line. Kenner tapped into DC’s history, bringing to plastic life heroes and villains that had never felt the joy of gathering dust on a collector’s shelf, of the pain of being lost in the dirt pile in the backyard. Only one problem.

Some of the best villains, the most savage, wickedest bad guys ever to infest a comics universe, were over at Marvel. The Joker may be a dangerous homicidal manic, but he looks like he could be handing out balloons at a birthday party.

Even a Lex Luthor with his robot super-suit (you know, the one that didn’t allow him to turn his head) really wasn’t, well, evil-looking enough.

Kenner wanted more. They might not have known it, but they wanted Jack Kirby.

Or at least, the Kirby villains and heroes of the New Gods: Orion, Mister Miracle, Mantis, Lightray, the Para-Demons, Kalibak, and of course, the ruler of Apokolips, Darkseid. Jack Kirby had spent his life in conjunction with Joe Simon and Stan Lee coming up with some of the most important and culturally pervasive characters in the newly recognized (okay, barely recognized) field of pop art. It was this record that caused DC to ask him to make the jump from Marvel back in the ’70s, and it was this power and imagination that attracted DC heads Jenette Kahn and Paul Levitz to renew ties with Kirby. Jack had left DC in 1975 and returned to Marvel after plans with the former [DC Publisher Carmine] Infantino regime ground

to an unsatisfying end [see BI #14’s Kamandi article]. Jack wanted out of comics, his heart no longer in it, but his need for work and his Depression Era take-any-job-to-feed-your-family ethic wouldn’t let him walk away. He escaped into animation, first with Hanna-Barbera, then doing concept drawings for Ruby-Spears. He had the first health-care plan of his life. He was out of Marvel, out of DC. He started doing independent comics, Captain Victory and Silver Star for Pacific Comics, concepts and characters that he’d be kicking around, sometimes for years. He was essentially working two fulltime jobs, doing the huge detailed presentation and character drawings at Ruby-Spears during the day and working late into the night, with the sound of Spanish television in the background, on his own comics. Why would he want to go back to doing Marvel’s or even DC’s version of comics?

To super-heroes? Jack had moved on and he didn’t like to go backwards.

Kirby’s Powers In 1984, Captain Victory and Silver Star came to an end along with their publisher, Pacific Comics. Jack had been there as usual, on the cutting edge of the new independent comics movement, trying out more ideas in one 20page comic than most creators can fit into an entire 50-issue run. Now DC was calling. They had just started a new royalty agreement, the first in the business, and had grandfathered Jack’s New Gods into the agreement. Kahn and Levitz respected Jack and his creations, appreciated the value that Kirby’s ideas could have in DC’s future, and wanted to maintain a good relationship with him. At this time, Jack was involved in a bitter battle with Marvel over the ownership of thousands of pages of his old artwork. He saw that artwork as his legacy to his family, and nobody messed with his family. The fight was taking physical and mental tolls on the nearly 70-year-old Kirby, a distraction from his drawing and earning a living. Jenette Kahn and Paul Levitz had signed a petition calling for the artwork to be returned to Jack. A big comics company being nice to him must have come as a very welcome relief. They wanted ideas for Super Powers? Jack gladly did new concept drawings for the toy line, earning some extra money and qualifying some of his

New Gods characters for royalties. He might have felt a bit beholden to DC when it was proposed he do the Super Powers miniseries as a tie-in. He was busy with the DC proposed “ending” to the New Gods saga, and the follow-up, the aborted, barely published Hunger Dogs graphic novel. Jack plotted the first four issues of Super Powers (with Joey Cavalieri scripting), then wrote and drew the final issue, with Greg Theakston inking. It was Greg’s first time inking a full Kirby issue, getting the job after impressing Editorial Director Dick Giordano with his inking on the cover to #4.

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Greg Theakston lightbox-inked Kirby’s second Super Powers miniseries, preserving the King’s pencils. This is page 14 of issue #2, courtesy of Heritage Comics. © 2006 DC Comics.

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by

Michael Eury

on DVD

(above) Adam Hughes’ rough for his art card from The Best of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.

Art © 2005 Adam Hughes. He-Man TM & © Mattel.

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© 2005 Entertainment Rights PLC.

Why am I devoting a “Back in Print” column, which normally covers reprints of comic books, to DVD collections? Because BCI Eclipse’s collection of Filmation’s He-Man and the Masters of the Universe cartoons—which, as of this writing, contains two 6-disk sets collecting the first season’s 65 episodes, a 2-disk The Best of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe set featuring the top ten fan-selected episodes, and the rarely seen He-Man and She-Ra: A Christmas Special—sizzle with extras specially designed to attract the eye of the comic-book fan.

Comic-art collectors take note: Each of BCI Eclipse’s He-Man DVDs features two exclusive, 4" x 6" full-color art cards featuring He-Man characters rendered by some of comics’ most popular artists. In addition to Adam Hughes and Alex Ross, whose He-Man roughs are shown here, Bruce Timm, Bill Sienkiewicz, Earl Norem, Gilbert Hernandez, Phil Jimenez, and David Mack provide card art, with Frank Cho and Emiliano Santalucia on tap for Season Two, Volume One, scheduled for release on June 6, 2006.

Mike Zeck

I’ve always done fairly finished preliminary sketches before moving on to final pencils, and I still work © 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc.

the same way today. This is an early example (1979) of a cover prelim. I was a Bruce Lee fan and a fan of kung-fu cinema in general at that time, and that influenced my handling of the character and the series. I tried to inject a little

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© 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc.

© 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Bruce Lee into Shang-Chi whenever possible.

Master of Kung Fu was my first series work at Marvel, and

Issue #101 was my final issue before moving on

looking back, I still see an artist learning his craft. On the

to take over the Captain America penciling chores.

plus side, Doug Moench’s plots were highly detailed and

I didn’t figure I had a whole lot more to bring to

descriptive, even to the point of describing mood and

the martial-arts table, so after three years of jump

character emotion in most instances. The thick plots

kicks and elbow punches, I was ready to jump

were daunting at first, but in retrospect a very good

into the super-hero ring to experience a new type

writer for a developing talent to be teamed with.

of storyline and a different style of action.

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MASTER OF KUNG FU #86 (1979) and 101 (1981)

Art and captions by

© 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc.

MARVEL SUPER HEROES SECRET WARS (1984)

This was the first art produced for Secret Wars, and I rendered it twice-up knowing that it was also going to be used as an advertising poster. Shortly after, it was decided that a couple of the mutants wouldn’t be part of the series, and they were dropped from the art [see inset for published version]. The rest of the cast made it to the poster, but the top tier of characters were deleted for cover art purposes in order to make room for the logo.

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Looking to Buy a Used Car?

Allan Harvey

Benz, Rovers, Chevrolets, come send me your rears.

agency Carter & Lombardo. They wanted Spidey to build

Ha-ha, your rear fenders, that is!

a car to endorse Corona Motors’ new non-polluting

Welcome, one and all, to Alabaster Al’s Used Car

engine. Unfortunately, having built it, Spider-Man

Catalogue—your one-stop shop for all your second-

suddenly remembered he couldn’t drive! However,

hand car needs. Every one a winner, and all have

following a few lessons from Johnny Storm, he took to the

been previously enjoyed.

road, quickly becoming a menace to all road users in New

You are invited to bid on a wide range of vehicles.

York. Sadly, Spidey ended up accidentally dunking the

First up is our star item. At first glance, it may look

Spider-Mobile in the depths of the Hudson River (The

like a heap of debris, and, I’ll be the first to admit,

© 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Chief mechanic Gerry Conway can elaborate

However, a closer examination will reveal the fine

further: “I didn’t create the Spider-Mobile idea, and

curved forms of a classic dune buggy. Blue-and-red

thought it was pretty foolish. Marvel was approached

body with web-style detailing and a chrome roll bar.

by a toy company which told us they could market a

I’ll even throw in the optional signal lamp and web-

vehicle for Spider-Man if one existed in the comics.

shooters. Come now, ladies and gentlemen, haven’t

Stan [Lee] approved the idea. Roy [Thomas] may

you always wanted to drive a car that can climb

have objected, but not too strenuously, and I was left

walls? Well, now you can—with just a little mechan-

to point out that giving a vehicle to a guy who

ical work and a re-spray.

swings by web from building to building was a little

Still not convinced? Well, here at Alabaster Al’s we pride ourselves on a full and frank disclosure of our vehicles’ histories.

Designed by Spider-Man himself, and built with help

because, frankly, the idea seemed so silly I couldn’t

Man #130 (Mar. 1974). © 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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liked. So that’s what I did. I played the story for laughs imagine a way to do it seriously.

wheels in Amazing Spider-

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“Roy told me to do whatever I liked with the car; I could introduce it and get rid of it immediately if I

Mobile was originally the brainchild of advertising

The Wall-Crawler gets

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like tying an anvil to a butterfly.

from Johnny Storm, aka the Human Torch, the Spider-

What Were They Dune?!

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Amazing Spider-Man #126–141, Nov. 1973–Feb. 1975).

this car isn’t in the . . . ahem . . . mint-est of conditions.

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by milton knight

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Hugo: The Gathering, a line-up done for a prospective publisher and illustrated by Milton Knight (then 18) in 1981, more than a year before Hugo’s Fantagraphics debut. Pictured at opposite ends: Aloysius and Buttox (the Anarchist Brothers); between the fiends: King Adolph the Eleventeenth, Leonard the Stable Boy, Hugo; Princess Trish, Nan Marley (the Lady-in-Waiting). © 2006 Milton Knight.

I am a comic-book artist who has always favored humor comics. Rebellion has always been an important part of my artistic sensibilities, and I feel that the best humor comics, in their twisted, clownish way, boldly get to life’s truths, and freely put the lie to the false values traditionally sold by society . . . and “serious” comics.

I began my career in 1979 writing scripts for Harvey Comics, then illustrating for Marvel’s Crazy magazine.

Hugo, the star of my first independent comic book in

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1982, was around a long time before that. I began developing the character before I was a teenager in the early 1970s; he grew out of my lifetime love of the medieval “mystique.” As a youngster I was quite driven; I knew I wanted to tell stories with medieval animals. The narrative and graphic possibilities were heady to me, and I filled sketchbooks with experiments with a number of kings, knights, princesses, and scullery maids before arriving at the cast of characters in its present state. The

cast development proved to be very organic, with each character being originated to fill a need and then growing . . . like a human being. King Adolph, for instance, began life as a typical corpulent Beginnings: cartoon king; becoming more frank about allowing my life to Richie Rich Dollars & Cents “He Loves Me influence my art, Adolph changed into a frank caricature of my Not” script (1978) alcoholic father. As the character developed, he has become more Milestones: complex and human. He started life as a plainly functional caricature Illustrator-cartoonist for The Village Voice, of authority and has blossomed into being his own presence, as Family Weekly, Nickelodeon Magazine, communicative of my own thoughts as Hugo himself.

The Electric Company Magazine, National Lampoon, Heavy Metal, and others / Hugo / My chosen inspirations were numerous and some seemingly Midnite the Rebel Skunk / Mighty Mouse / unrelated, but most obvious and lasting were the influence of Slug ’n’ Ginger / animation design for Cool World, Terrytoons (with their lively, springy animation, their lusty antiquarian The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, and The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat sensibilities, and, sometimes, their sexuality) and the 1940s “funny animal” comic books (then called “animation” comics) Works in Progress: Graphic Classics / drawn by some people who played a part in the making of those serigraphs prints for films. Chief among them, in comics like Giggle and Cookie, was an Idavid Graficks ex-animation director named Dan Gordon, whose linework tended Cyberspace: to be somewhat heavy, as harsh and sarcastic as his characters. www.miltonknight.net Gordon’s comic work, although sometimes rushed and sometimes racist in the fashion of the day, inspired me with its comic honesty, and stood in the greatest contrast to the “accepted masters” of the genre (Barks, etc.) whose work was, to me, the palest shade of whitebread. Gordon and his New York peers seemed rebels to me, and I wanted to be one, too.

My epic dreams came true at Fantagraphics, and while their printing of the book was mostly satisfactory, and the distribution better than average, it was always clear that the most influential members of the staff had a problem regarding funny animal books.

“Why talking animals?” was a constant question, and I had no answer beyond their charm, elasticity, history (they were being used by storytellers centuries before comic books), and “camp” value. This was the first time I had experienced anyone having nervousness about a cartoon simply because it featured talking animals, and it soon became obvious that the publishers’ agenda was directed toward the more “realistic” (or, more accurately, less “fantastic”), confessional sensibility that they are now known for. It is hard for me to say where the Hugo series would have gone if I had continued at Fantagraphics, because the poverty I was experiencing and Fantagraphics’ laxness in promoting the book to make it more profitable made doing it a painful experience.

Looking back on the four initial Hugo books, I am pleased with their achievement, but certainly see them as achievements of an immature sort. At the time, I was impatient to convey the stories and gags; attention to rendering the art consequentially received short shrift. Many challenges I gave myself both in art and story were “solved” in too facile a manner. I was looking too much at comic books, and learning too many shortcuts from them. In addition, many of the visual interpretations of Trish seem especially gauche to me. But I was a horny kid. And, to the present day, that’s who comics tend to be for.

Also typical of a kid at this time was my lack of self-doubt. It was 1986, during the “boom” period for small black-and-white comics publishers, and I knew it was probable that I could improve my former working conditions elsewhere. I did, at least monetarily, with Blackthorne Publishing, an outrageous,

MILTON KNIGHT

© 2006 Milton Knight.

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Marvel’s Toy Story: ’s Sal Buscema and

Interview

by

Dan Johnson

13, 2005 conducted December

’ Jackson Guice Attempting to spin off a successful comic-book series from any line of toys is never child’s play. Still, Marvel Comics managed to do quite well with two titles, Rom: Spaceknight (which ran 75 issues from 1979–1986, with four Annuals) and The Micronauts (which originally enjoyed a 59-issue run from 1979–1984, with various continuations in later years).

Recently BACK ISSUE sat down with two of the men who helped make these books wildly popular with comics fans: Sal Buscema, the artist who lent a hand in giving Rom a proper launch, and Jackson “Butch” Guice, the artist who came on board in time to help bring the original adventures of the Micronauts to a conclusion.

—Dan Johnson DAN JOHNSON: Tell our readers how you each came to work on your respective books.

JACKSON GUICE: Actually, Micronauts is my first credited work in the industry. Ironically enough, a year prior to that, I had ghosted a chapter on Rom Annual #1 for Pat Broderick. Both were breaking points for me getting into comics. I had been doing a little bit of fanzine work, and at the time I was designing patches and emblems for a small company in North Carolina.

[One day] I came home from work and there was a phone call from Al Milgrom. I guess Bill Mantlo, who had written the Rom Annual, had seen some of my

And you thought The Graduate’s Dustin Hoffman knew how to bust up a wedding . . .

Page 19 of Rom #15, penciled and inked

by Sal Buscema. From the collection of Michael Romanenko.

Rom TM & © Parker Brothers.

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Beginnings:

Beginnings:

Milestones:

Milestones:

Works in Progress:

Works in Progress:

Penciler on Micronauts #48

Inker on 10-page Gunhawk story

ctor / Micronauts / New Mutants / X-Fa on Flash / Doctor Strange / Badger/ Acti X-O / rior War nal Comics / Eter s of Manowar / Resurrection Man / Bird d sifie Clas JLA / Prey / Ruse

The Avengers / Sub-Mariner / Captain America / The Incredible Hulk / The Defenders / Rom / Iron Man / The Amazing Spider-Man / Peter Park er: The Spectacular Spider-Man / Fantastic Four

ng Artist for various Humanoid Publishi / ket) Mar an ope projects (Eur Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis

Inker for Spider-Girl / Artist for The Official Handbook of the Marvel Univ erse covers

Cyberspace:

Cyberspace:

theartistschoice.com/guice.htm

Spider-Girl message board at comicsboards.com

JACKSON “BUTCH” GUICE

SAL BUSCEMA fanzine work as well, asked Al to track me down. When I spoke with Al, he told me there was an opening on Micronauts and they were going to try out several different artists over the course of the next three or four issues and he asked if I would be interested in doing one. I jumped at the chance and immediately went out roller skating that night, fell and broke the elbow on my drawing arm. Thankfully when they put the cast on, they had the arm bent, so it was more a case of drawing from the shoulder. It was quite a baptism of fire to start off my career.

SAL BUSCEMA: It just shows you what us comic-book guys are capable of.

JOHNSON: How about you, Sal? Tell us how you started on Rom. BUSCEMA: The reason I started doing Rom from issue number one was because no one else wanted to do it. Several other people were asked to illustrate the book and they didn’t want to because they didn’t think it was going to fly. As a matter of fact, the Rom action figure was given the nickname “the Toaster.” Everybody thought he looked like a human toaster. I took on the book and it turned

JOHNSON: Rom and Micronauts both managed to outlive the toy lines that spawned them. Indeed, there are comics fans today who aren’t even aware of the toys. I read that Bill Mantlo, who wrote both books, had seen the promotional video that had been presented to Marvel about Rom. This was the same video that had been used to promote the toy line at various toy fairs. I was wondering, did you gentlemen ever get any feedback from the toy companies about your work on the comics?

BUSCEMA: I didn’t get any feedback. The only thing I got from Parker Brothers was a Rom action figure. My children were very young at the time and they were thrilled with it. I thought it was kind of silly myself because it really didn’t do anything. That was about the extent of my involvement with the parent company.

JOHNSON: As I recall, Rom was Parker Brothers’ only attempt to put out an action figure.

BUSCEMA: Probably. They should have stuck to board games. I did admire them for going to Marvel and saying, “Hey, we would like to do a

out to be reasonably successful, but the toy bombed completely. The toy was gone after one year, but I we did the book for five years.

comic based on this character. What can you do for us?” Marvel came up with a very interesting concept and it was a fun book to do.

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Micronauts figures weren’t the only things available in toy stores in 1979— Whitman bundled three issues of Marvel’s Micronauts for toy-market sales.

Micronauts TM & © Mego Corporation.

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JOHNSON: How about you, Butch? By the time you came onto Micronauts, the toy line may have already been history.

GUICE: Yeah, the toys had probably already bombed by the time I started on the book. I can’t recall ever having heard anything from the toy company itself, and by that time there wasn’t really any thought process towards connecting the comic to the toys. When I started on Micronauts, Bill was essentially wrapping up his run on it.

We spent the next ten or eleven issues wrapping up his stories and then the title was cancelled. We were one of the first three Marvel direct sales books and after it was cancelled, it was relaunched a year later with Peter Gillis writing it and Kelley Jones, who had inked my pencils on the book, was penciling it then. I know that Bill was pulling his whole storyline together, and he wanted the heroes to have a final showdown with Baron Karza, the main villain, and sort of pull the cast back together.

A killer Butch Guice splash page (inked by Danny Bulanadi) from his first Micronauts issue, #50. Courtesy of Mike Blanchard.

Micronauts TM & © Mego Corporation.

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JOHNSON: Speaking of Bill Mantlo, you each had the chance to work with him while on these books. What can you tell us about him?

BUSCEMA: Bill and I worked together fine. I thought Bill was a very talented writer. We did have a bit of a falling out at the end of my run on Rom. That was simply because of a misunderstanding between us. I think Bill wanted to exercise more control over the illustration part of the book, and if I prided myself on anything, it was that I was a good storyteller. I didn’t consider myself the greatest draftsman in the industry by any stretch of the imagination, and I felt I was competent, but my greatest strength was storytelling and we were butting heads too much. Bill was asking me to do things that I knew, in my experience, would not work. We were on the book for a long time, and I worked with Bill on other books, and I thought we had a very successful and amiable relationship. It was just at that particular time, for some unknown reason, that happened. I was getting tired of doing the book anyway, and I wanted to go on to other things, so it worked out well.

GUICE: My own experience [with Bill], just getting into the industry, it was the first time I had worked with a writer for any period of time. I had a great time working with Bill. In fact, after Micronauts was cancelled, we went on to do Swords of the Swashbucklers for Epic. Gradually, I left that title and then I don’t think Bill and I ever had the chance to work together again.

At one time, while I was at DC, he contacted me and he was briefly talking about wanting to get back into comics. That was after he had left the industry for a little while.

BUSCEMA: He studied law, didn’t he?

GUICE: Yeah, he went to law school and he became an attorney. He just called me up out of the blue one day and said that he missed comics and he was thinking about getting back into the business. We talked about some possible projects and it never really came together.

We didn’t get our heads together fast enough and I believe it was just a couple of months later that he had his accident. [Editor’s note: See Tony Isabella’s sidebar.]

BUSCEMA: Was it really?

GUICE: It was fairly close, right prior to his accident. As far as working with Bill, I do remember giving him a hard time about [some of the plots I was] getting, via the Marvel method of plotting which was still popular at the time. As a new artist, I was somewhat taken aback the first time I got a plot that said, “Pages 5 through 15, the Micronauts fight.”

Andy Mangels

by

“Five Young Women, unbelievably strong and mesmerizingly beautiful, must defend the universe! Solara, child of the blazing sun! Starlily, gentle champion whose touch makes deserts blossom! Wonder Woman, Amazon Princess! Dolphin, denizen of the deep blue seas! Ice, ruler of frost and snow! Together they are . . . Wonder Woman and the Star Riders.”

So pronounced a catalog headline in 1993, when an exciting new line of toys was announced by Mattel. With DC Comics also creating mini-comics, and Warner prepping an animated special, Wonder Woman and the Star Riders appeared to be destined for success. But along the path to saving the universe, the Star Riders stumbled and fell, and Wonder Woman was forced to face the truth as the project was cancelled on every level. But history would not disappear, and like the shadows of DC’s multiple Earths, neither would this Greatest Story Never Told.

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(left and below) José Luis GarcíaLópez’s roughs for presentation art. © 2006 DC Comics.

THE TOYS The origins of the Star Riders project (hereafter referred to as WWSR) are unclear even to some participants, but accounts seem to indicate that DC President Jenette Kahn approached Mattel about doing a girls’ line of dolls based on the DC heroines. A set of presentation art was completed, through DC editor Joe Orlando’s “Special Projects” division. Colorist Rick Taylor recalls, “Jim McCaan or Janice Walker called me to color some super-heroine drawings that one of Joe’s students had done. I remember being asked to color drawings of Dr. Light, Arisia (the Green Lantern), the Bumblebee, and a few others, overnight.”

The eventual group of characters would include Wonder Woman as its only familiar face and costume. Ice and Dolphin were substantially altered in appearance, and JLA member Fire’s name was changed to Solara so as not to teach little girls to “play with Fire.” Taylor notes that fifth teammate Starlily (sometimes StarLily and Star Lily), an African-American character, “was invented to add diversity, as none of the DC AfricanAmerican heroines resonated with the folks at Mattel.” Although Wonder Woman had her own cat villainess in Cheetah, a new cat-based villainess was created in Purrsia.

“Once the heroine lineup had been ‘cut’ to Wonder Woman, Dolphin, Starlily, Solara, Ice, and Purrsia, José Luis García-López did full pencils of each character,” Taylor says. “I was asked to ink, color, and make them presentation quality. I bought silver and gold markers and glitter, then inked the drawings, colored them and ‘finished’ them with glitter and metallic markers.”

García-López says, “I just adapted the dolls’ photos I got from licensing to a drawing style suited for young girls. My bet is that the dolls were designed at Mattel, because if they came from

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Tom “The Comics Savant” Stewart

The 9-Lives-In-One Super-Hero!

Captain Action was the world’s coolest action figure, a comics lover’s dream of a figure that could change into Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Captain America, Aquaman, the Phantom, the Lone Ranger (and Tonto, but you’d need two Caps to have the set!), Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Sgt. Fury, Steve Canyon, and the Green Hornet (whew!). Cap was Ideal Toys’ answer to G.I. Joe, and in fact, had the same guy behind him, an idea man named Stan Weston. It was Stan who first came to Hasbro’s Creative Director Don Levine in 1963 with the idea of an articulated soldier. Don and his Hasbro team took the concept and ran with it, making a huge splash in the toy pool with G.I. Joe. Merrill Hassenfeld offered Stan a choice: he could take a lump sum of $75,000 up front, or a 1% royalty on the Joe line. At this time, the life of the average toy line was only a few years, then it was off to the warehouses, basements, and attics of forgotten amusements. Weston thought $75,000 was an odd figure. $100,000? Done deal. Turns out, Stan missed out on millions.

Stan Weston took his settlement and started his own licensing company, representing DC Comics (then known as National Periodical Publications—sounded more “classy” without “comics” in the title), Marvel Comics, and King Features.

Weston’s company Leisure Concepts took the idea of a new 12-inch articulated action figure (not a doll, thank you) to Ideal Toys, which was looking for an answer to G.I. Joe. Stan proposed “Captain Magic,” a many-in-one hero that could adopt the guise of several characters (which, it just so happened to turn out, were represented by Leisure Concepts!). The name was changed to Captain Action (to point out the potential action inherent in the toy). The figure hit the market in 1966, part of a wave trying to get some of that “Joe” magic.

The figure itself had a rather sad and worried expression (looking a little like George H. W. Bush) and more detailed musculature than Joe. The original wave included Cap in his blue-and-black uniform, with a lightning sword and ray gun, and Superman, Batman, Lone Ranger (red shirt and black pants), Phantom, Flash

The Original Super-Hero Action Figure This Kurt Schaffenberger-drawn ad appeared in many DC titles in 1966. © 1966 Ideal Toys. All characters TM & © the respective copyright holders.

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Gordon, Captain America, Sgt. Fury, Steve Canyon, and Aquaman costumes (with assorted accessories), each sold separately. The next wave in 1967 added Buck Rogers, Green Hornet, and Tonto, with a blue-suited Lone Ranger variation (collect them all!).