Back Issue #19 Preview

Gerber & Colan talk “Pro2Pro” on Howard the Duck!

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BATMAN AND RELATED CHARACTERS TM & ©2006 DC COMICS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Decem

… DON NEWTON!

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The Art and Life of…

UNSUNG HEROES • DEFENDERS • CHAMPIONS • TV’S UNLIMITED POWERS CARLIN & FINGEROTH ON MARVEL’S ASSISTANT EDITORS’ MONTH

The Ultimate Comics Experience!

Volume 1, Number 19 December 2006 Celebrating the Best Comics of the '70s, '80s, and Today!

PUBLISHER John Morrow DESIGNER Rich J. Fowlks CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Bob Brodsky, Seastone Marketing Group

BACK SEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 FLASHBACK: BACK ISSUE Remembers The Defenders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 The history of Marvel’s “non-team,” including interviews with many of the series’ writers and artists GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: We Are the Champions?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Writer Tony Isabella reveals his unrealized plans for the’70s super-team comic PRO2PRO: Birds of a Feather: Steve Gerber and Gene Colan Discuss Howard the Duck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 The writer and artist waddle through memories of the irascible hero who was “trapped in a world he never made”

PROOFREADERS John Morrow and Christopher Irving

GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: Unlimited Powers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 As almost seen on TV: Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo’s live-action series starring the Flash, Green Arrow, Blok, and Dr. Occult

COVER ARTISTS Don Newton and Josef Rubinstein

BACKSTAGE PASS: Geppi’s Entertainment Museum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 A photo tour of pop culture’s coolest new attraction

COVER COLORIST Tom Ziuko

WHAT THE--?!: Interview with a Very Rich Boy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 “The Comics Savant” goes one-on-one with Richie Rich

COVER DESIGNER Robert Clark

PRO2PRO: Marvel Assistant Editors’ Month . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Danny Fingeroth and Mike Carlin relive this Golden Oldie

SPECIAL THANKS Dusty Abell Steve Lipsky Neal Adams Marvel Comics Tamara Asseyev Bob McLeod Danny Bilson Julie Meddows Kathie Boozer Don Perlin Mike Burkey John Petty Sal Buscema Rose Rummel-Eury Mike Carlin Brian Schatz Dewey Cassell John K. Snyder, Jr. Gene Colan Tom Stewart Barbara Crews Roy Thomas Jamie David Steven Tice DC Comics J. C. Vaughn Fred deBoom Len Wein J. M. DeMatteis Bob Wiacek Paul DeMeo Jay Willson Kim DeMulder Cory Everson Steve Englehart Tom Field Danny Fingeroth G-Unit Steve Geppi Steve Gerber Steven Gerding Geronimo Film Productions Keith Giffen Grand Comic-Book Database Ed Hannigan Harvey Comics Heritage Comics Image Comics Dan Johnson Wendy Kelman Barry Keller David Anthony Kraft

OFF MY CHEST: Mark of Excellence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Peter Sanderson’s guest editorial commemorates the tenth anniversary of the passing of influential Marvel writer/editor Mark Gruenwald NEW IN PRINT: In the Gruenwald Tradition.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Image’s Invincible Handbook, with peeks at art by Austin, S. Buscema, Frenz, P. Smith, and Zeck ART GALLERY: The Art of Don Newton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Full-page rarities from our featured unsung hero FLASHBACK: Don Newton: “He Showed Us How to Do It Right” . . . . . . . . . . . 51 An in-depth, art-rich retrospective of the Phantom/Batman/Shazam! illustrator FLASHBACK BONUS: Memories of Don Newton. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 An intimate portrait from a personal friend COMICS ON DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 The Flash, Superboy, and more releases of interest to the retro comics fan INTERVIEW: Lights, Camera … Bob Wiacek?? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Was that the Brave and Bold/X-Men inker we saw on the tube with rapper 50 Cent?

GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: She-Hulk the Movie. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 The scoop behind the Brigitte Nielsen flick you didn’t see GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: Ty Hardin’s Brave and Bold Misses . . . . . . . 80 Was this bearded dead-ringer for Oliver Queen the inspiration for Green Arrow’s makeover?

BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Reader feedback on issue #17

A 1970s Flash Gordon convention program illo by Don Newton, courtesy of Steve Lipsky. © 2006 King Features Syndicate.

EDITOR Michael Eury

BACK ISSUE™ is published bimonthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor, 5060A Foothills Dr., Lake Oswego, OR 97034. Email: euryman@msn.com. Six-issue subscriptions: $36 Standard US, $54 First Class US, $66 Canada, $72 Surface International, $96 Airmail International.

Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by Don Newton and Josef Rubinstein, with special thanks to Steve Lipsky. Batman and related characters TM & © DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © 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. ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING.

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Remembers by

Dan Johnson

They were the outsiders of Marvel Comics: the loners, the malcontents, and the misfits. Their original roster included several of the company’s most famous solo acts: Dr. Strange; the Incredible Hulk; Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner; and the Silver Surfer.

Strong and powerful on their own, they were unstoppable together as the world’s greatest nonteam: the Defenders.

According to Essential Defenders vol. 1, the earliest Defenders stories were a series of team-ups that spanned various issues of the non-team’s individual books, where they faced off against the Undying Ones in Doctor Strange #183 (Nov. 1969), Sub-Mariner #22 (Feb. 1970), and The Incredible Hulk #126 (Apr. 1970) and stopped the threat of a nuclear weathercontrol station in Sub-Mariner #34–35 (Feb. and Mar. 1971). Eventually, the decision was made to bring these heroes together officially.

Indeed, the Defenders weren’t christened until Marvel Feature #1 (Dec. 1971), and they almost didn’t have the leadership of the Sorcerer Supreme. “My original idea was to have the team composed of Hulk, Namor, and the Silver Surfer,” explains Roy Thomas, the man who created the non-team. “But Stan didn’t like anyone else writing the Silver Surfer much at that time, so he ‘suggested’ Dr. Strange replace him. It worked out very well, perhaps better.

The name Defenders was Stan’s also.”

With artist Ross Andru, Thomas wrote three Defenders adventures for Marvel Feature. “The Defenders sold well from its three-issue tryout,” says Thomas. “I’d have continued it, but was busy with The Avengers, so I turned it over to Steve Englehart, who did wild and wonderful things with it.”

Not Your Average Super-Team Original cover artwork to Giant-Size Defenders #1 (1974), by Gil Kane and Mike Esposito.

Unless otherwise noted, all art in this article is courtesy of Heritage Comics. © 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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NEW TEAMS FOR THE NON-TEAM

Ross Andru did not continue as the non-team’s artist when they moved into their own series with The Defenders #1 (Aug. 1972). The artist chosen to succeed Andru, Sal Buscema, became one of the defining illustrators for this group. “Comics is a hybrid medium,” offers Englehart. “I can write the world’s greatest script, and if the art doesn’t convey it, the reader will say that whole thing didn’t work.

I have a career because people liked my comics.

Part of the reason they [liked them] was because Sal Buscema is so good at conveying what it was I wanted to say. If I had a lesser artist, my books would not have been as well received and my career would not have followed the same trajectory.

I owe him in that regard.”

In Defenders #4 (Feb. 1973), Englehart added a member who would stay with the non-team up until the very end, the warrior-woman Valkyrie. “When you’re doing a book on a regular basis, you start to see what you need to keep it going,” says Englehart.

The Brave and the Belligerent (below) A page from the Defenders’ second outing, Marvel Feature #2 (Mar. 1972), penciled by Ross Andru and inked

by Sal Buscema. © 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Hang Ten! (above) The return of the Silver Surfer, from Defenders #6 (June 1973). Sal Buscema pencils, Frank McLaughlin inks. © 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc.

“[The Defenders] was a great concept, and they were great characters, but they were all men and they were all skewed to one side of the emotional spectrum. I figured a woman would give me something else to work with. Making her a kick-ass woman made her one of the team. She was the right person for that group, and she fit in with the kind of idea that none of them thought of themselves as a team, but at the same time she offered something very different with her background and her point of view.

It is difficult to do an ongoing series about a group of people who don’t want to be together, so Valkyrie was the sweetener to hold it together.”

Englehart also brought someone to the Defenders that Thomas had wanted from the beginning: the Silver Surfer. “It was common knowledge that Stan wanted to hold on to the Silver Surfer for himself,” says Englehart. “I knew the Surfer was [Stan’s baby], and I still went to him and said, ‘I’ve got this really good idea about the Silver Surfer, could I use him?’

To me, ideas have always trumped the rules, for better or worse. Stan had no reason to let me do what I asked him to let me do, except that Stan also believed in ideas, and Marvel in those days was very nurturing and encouraging of people taking it to the next level. So I used [the Surfer] the one time, and a couple of months later, I had another idea for the character. I wasn’t trying to get the Surfer in there on a regular basis, but he belonged in that group. Roy was right the first time, the Surfer

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To n y I s a b e l l a © 2006 Tony Isabella

We Are the

Editor’s note: The following article was originally serialized in three consecutive issues of The Comics Buyers’ Guide and is reprinted here by the permission of the writer.

One of the most baffling mysteries of my career is the regularity with which readers ask me about The Champions, a title I conceived and wrote for Marvel in the 1970s. It featured possibly the most awkward teaming of super-heroes ever: the Angel, Iceman, the Black Widow, Hercules, and the Ghost Rider. It ran 17 issues. I plotted six of its first seven issues and scripted five of them. Though I always gave it my best shot and did some decent work on the title, I don’t count it among my comics triumphs. Yet fans keep asking me about it.

The Champions were “conceived” in 1975. Marvel editorial has been ordered to add a bunch of new titles to the schedule and add them quickly. Though my memory is a wee bit shaky on this, I recall being given the go-ahead on three new titles in the same afternoon (Champions, Black Goliath, and a Tigra series for Marvel Chillers) and being told the very next day that I was already late on all of them. Can I get an “Arrgh!” from the congregation?

My initial pitch for Champions was very different from what I ended up writing. Iceman and Angel had just quit the X-Men and, since I always liked those characters, I tried to come up with something cool for them. What I dreamed up was a cross between Route 66 and The Odd Couple.

I saw Champions as a “buddy” book. Wealthy Warren Worthington and average guy Bobby Drake would travel across the country, driving each other crazy, getting in trouble, and helping just plain folks with not-so-plain dangers and villains. I envisioned one- and two-issue adventures with lots of clever dialogue, exciting action, and pretty ladies. I even figured Don Heck for the artist because he was a master at drawing expressive faces and gorgeous women… and he wasn’t too shabby when it came to the action either.

I was confident this would be a great comic book.

Then—cue the scary music from Jaws—the editors got involved.

I was told a super-hero team must have five members.

I was told this by the editor and writer of Fantastic Four.

I was told a super-hero team must have at least one woman member.

Having set up the Black Widow’s departure from Daredevil during my short run on that title, I chose her.

I was told a super-hero team must have at least one member with his own series. The editor suggested Luke Cage. I chose Johnny Blaze, figuring that, since I was writing Ghost Rider, I could keep Johnny too busy to attend Champions meetings.

I was told a super-hero team must have a “strong guy” on the team.

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It Could’a Been a Buddy Book The Champions #1 (Oct. 1975); cover art by Gil Kane and Dan Adkins. © 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc.

CHAMPIONS ?

I chose Hercules. If I had to play by these silly rules, I might as well go my editors one better.

That’s why I added Venus and a passel of Greek/Roman gods to the team’s origin story. By then, I was even kind of sort of looking forward to the challenge of making this nonsense work.

My plan was to establish the Champions as superheroes for the guys and gals on the street, agents of a charitable organization funded by the Angel’s money. It wasn’t a bad notion, but it was too big of a notion for me to manage with these mismatched characters and with the grandiose opening story arc I had come up with to get them all together as a team. I never did get a handle on it.

However, I did come up with a Russian tragedy involving the Black Widow When I plotted and scripted “The Man Who Created the Black Widow” for Champions #7 (Aug. 1976), I didn’t realize it would be my last issue of the title. I thought it was the first chapter of an arc which would change Natasha’s life forever.

My inspiration was a flashback in an earlier Widow story in which Ivan Petrovich told how he rescued young Natasha from a fire which claimed the life of the girl’s mother. It was a truly tragic moment … and I wanted to make it more so.

The Widow was attacked by villains gathered by the Commissar, who’d trained Natasha prior to her becoming a Soviet agent. Most of his team were old foes of the Champions or its members, but one of them was a new Crimson Dynamo. The new CD was Yuri Petrovich, Ivan’s son. My memory is foggy on some of my plans, but I remember a key element with crystal clarity.

During the arc, we and the Widow would learn Yuri was her brother and Ivan, her father. Having arrived too late to save the lives of his wife and— he thought—his son, Ivan considered himself to be unworthy to claim his daughter’s love. Though he’d remain as close to her as possible, as her chauffeur and confidant, he would never reveal their true relationship.

Determined to punish the father he falsely believed had abandoned him, Yuri intended to kill Natasha in front of Ivan. To save her, Ivan would reveal the truth he had hidden for so long. This would wound Natasha, enrage Yuri, and leave Ivan more alone than ever. I don’t recall if Yuri or Ivan survive my story. I’m an old softy, but I know you can’t have a great Russian tragedy unless something, uh, tragic happens.

After I scripted the issue, Marvel went through an editorial change. I went to DC. The last page of Champions #7 was changed to allow incoming writer Bill Mantlo to take the title in his own direction.

I think he did a fine job, but I’ll always regret never finishing the story my way.

Missed Opportunities Original cover art to Tony Isabella’s last issue of The Champions, #7 (Aug. 1976), penciled by Rich Buckler and inked by Frank Giacoia. Courtesy of Heritage Comics. © 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Birds of a Feather: Gerber and Colan Discuss

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Dan Johnson

cond ucte d on August 8, 2006

It takes more than talent to make a comic book that will be remembered 30 years after it is published. A writer has to be something slightly more than brilliant, and an artist has to be more than just incredibly gifted. Truly great comic books are made by creators who reach a point where they can operate on the same wavelength, and it doesn’t hurt if they happen to like one another as friends. Most of all, it helps if they love the comic book that they’re doing. This was the case when Steve Gerber and Gene Colan joined forces to put a certain fowl through his paces, and helped Howard the Duck navigate a world he never made.

—Dan Johnson DAN JOHNSON: Steve, let’s talk about the creation of Howard the Duck. Howard started out being a throwaway character in the Man-Thing feature in Adventure into Fear #19 (Dec. 1973). What kind of response did the character get that made Marvel realize that he had potential?

STEVE GERBER: Rather than “throwaway character,” I would use the term “sight gag.” The story we were doing for Man-Thing had to do with a collision of realities, and we already had a visual of a barbarian jumping out of a jar of peanut butter. That had to be topped some way or another, so Howard was the sight gag to top it. The Barbarian was sitting in the Man-Thing’s swamp and talking about how his life had become an absurdity, and Howard walks out from behind a clump of brush and says, “Mister, you don’t know the meaning of the word,” or something like that. He was fun to write from that very first line, but I don’t think any of us at Marvel anticipated Howard becoming a continuing character.

In fact, in the second half of that story, which appeared in Man-Thing #1 (Jan. 1974), Roy Thomas, Marvel’s editor-in-chief at time, gave me strict orders to get the Duck out of there. He felt, and was probably correct, that having a cartoon duck waddling around with a swamp monster would spoil the mood of horror. So, in the course of that story, we had Howard tumble off into the void, and I don’t think any of us ever expected to see him again.

Howard’s Happy Days A mid-1970s Colan illo from Jim Steranko’s magazine Mediascene. Courtesy of Tom Field. © 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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JOHNSON: The first couple of Howard stories leaned more toward the horror genre than the super-hero genre. In his first solo story you even had him squaring off with a vampire cow.

GERBER: “Hellcow” (Giant-Size Man-Thing [insert sophomoric pun here] #5, Aug. 1975) was the second story. The first was “Frog Death” (G-S M-T #4, Apr. 1975), with Garko the Man-Frog, which, sans duck, could have passed for a very typical EC-style horror short. Howard’s origins, after all, were in a horror comic book, and horror and humor are very close cousins.

I never saw Howard representing any genre—he’s sort of sui generis—but his horror roots were showing in a lot of the early stuff. You have to remember, at that time horror had become very popular in comics, much more so than it is today. Gene was doing Tomb of Dracula at that time, and Man-Thing, on a percentage basis, was one of Marvel’s best-selling titles. The idea of dropping the Duck into horror situations just kind of grew naturally out of that.

JOHNSON: You even had a “Frankenstein Monster” that was a giant gingerbread man, in Howard the Duck #6 and 7 (Nov. and Dec. 1976).

GERBER: Our gothic romance story, which I loved. That was another genre that was making inroads into comics at that time. Marvel wasn’t doing anything with it, but DC had several gothic romance titles, the best known of which was The Sinister House of Secret Love. The Duck story, of course, was titled “The Secret House of Forbidden Cookies,” and it somehow became a cross between Wuthering Heights and Frankenstein, with the monster being a giant gingerbread man. Don’t ask me to explain that one. Somehow, it happened organically.

JOHNSON: I liked Beverly Switzler as a character. I always thought she was the perfect Ying to Howard’s Yang. How did you come to create her?

GERBER: She was created over dinner with Mary Skrenes and Frank Brunner, who was going to draw the first issue, and had drawn the short stories in Giant-Size Man-Thing.

Mary came up with the name Beverly—actually, she intended it to be spelled “Beverlee”—and I wound up basing the character very loosely on Mary herself. Beverly was intended to be a throwaway character; she was created as the requisite half-naked female in distress for Howard’s barbarian adventure. Somehow, she survived to the end of the story, and in the process she’d become such an amusing character that there was no way I was going to let her go.

JOHNSON: Gene, how did you come to work on Howard?

GENE COLAN: I don’t quite remember how I got into it.

I was doing something else at the time; it might have been Tomb of Dracula.

GERBER: Gene was working on a couple of books at the time, including Tomb of Dracula. I can tell you a funny story about how Gene got involved with this: When Brunner left the book, Roy, or John Verpoorten, who was production manager at Marvel at the time, asked me who would be my choice to take over the penciling. The first two words out of my mouth were “Gene Colan,” which I thought would be impossible. Gene and I had done a few things, like a couple of Son of Satans and a Dracula story for Dracula Lives. The reason I wanted you to do the book, Gene, was that you drew human beings so well. If you could carry off the Duck, the series would look the way it was supposed to, with a three-dimensional anthropomorphized duck trapped in our reality.

You may not remember this, and I’ll bet you’ll deny it, but when John first called you to ask if you would take the assignment, you hadn’t heard of Howard the Duck. John

Beginnings: Incredible Hulk #157, Marvel Comics (1972) (script over Roy Thomas’ plot)

Milestones: Man-Thing / Defenders / creation of Howard the Duck / co-creation with Mary Skrenes of the original Omega the Unknown / Phantom Zone miniseries / creation of Thundarr the Barbarian / creation of Nevada /creation of Hard Time

Work in Progress: Hard Time Season Two, DC Comics/Vertigo

Cyberspace: www.stevegerber.com www.stevegerber.com/sgblog (almost-daily blog)

Steve Gerber Photo courtesy of stevegerber.com.

Beginnings: Wings Comics for Fiction House in 1944

Milestones: Journey into Mystery / Kid Colt, Outlaw / Creepy / Eerie The Avengers / Silver Surfer / Iron Man / Sub-Mariner / Captain Marvel / Captain America / Dr. Strange / Daredevil / Tomb of Dracula / Howard the Duck / Phantom Zone / Wonder Woman Ragamuffins in Eclipse Monthly / Batman in Detective Comics Night Force / Nathaniel Dusk, Private Investigator / Jemm: Son of Saturn / Silverblade / Rob Zombie's Spookshow Spectacular / Hellboy: Weird Tales

Work in progress: Retired, but taking requests for commissions through his official website

Cyberspace: www.genecolan.com

Gene Colan Photo courtesy of Tom Field.

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had to convince you that you weren’t being demoted to working on funny animals.

John sent you some copies of the book, and you realized we weren’t doing “Ziggy Pig” or something. For whatever reason, you took to it immediately and understood exactly what I was trying to do. We had a collaboration on that book the likes of which I have never had with any artist since.

COLAN: I wish it had lasted forever. It was a lot of fun, and the best-written piece I’ve ever come across. You are very funny, and it comes across in your writing. I can’t think of another writer who could have pulled that off like you did, and I enjoyed every moment of it.

JOHNSON: I discovered Howard the same time I did the booming direct-sales market of the early 1980s. I thought Howard the Duck had the best of both worlds—there was a tie to the Marvel Universe, but it also had the humor of some of the indie books.

I would compare Howard to a really good martial-arts film. On one hand you have a tale with rich characters that plays to the arthouse crowd, and on the other hand you have a action-packed kung-fu film that will appeal to the mainstream crowd.

GERBER: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Duck. Howard was about as demented as anything being published at the time, including the underground comix.

COLAN: It was very, very different than anything else that was out there.

JOHNSON: Going back to the original question, when did Marvel know they had something that was golden?

GERBER: Right after we sent Howard tumbling into the void, in that Man-Thing story, the letters started pouring in, castigating us for killing the Duck. It went so far that some Canadian fans sent in the remains of their Christmas duck with a note tacked on to it that read, simply: “Murderers!” I never got to see that package—I was out of town at the time—but the story was told to me, with horror, over the phone. Certainly by that point, we realized we had struck a nerve someplace.

JOHNSON: At one point, wasn’t the first issue of Howard the Duck (Jan. 1976) the highest-selling modern comic book out there?

GERBER: On a percentage basis, which is how sales were calculated in those days— percent of print run sold—it could very well have been. In fact, the first issue was hijacked off distributors’ tables around the country by comic-book dealers. We’re not talking about the kind of retailers who run today’s comics shops. These were speculators who intended to sell the book at scalpers’ prices through the mail or at conventions. They swept down on the distributors’ warehouses before the book ever reached the newsstands and bought up most of the copies, which hurt the book tremendously. It was flattering, of course, to be that much in demand, but it was also infuriating.

It impacted the number of copies that got to the newsstands, and it put the book in danger. You simply couldn’t get that book anywhere. That’s the reason we did the reprint of it so early on in a Marvel Treasury Edition. The reprint was done within the first year of the book’s publication, specifically because readers couldn’t get their hands on that first issue at a reasonable price.

JOHNSON: Were Howard’s team-ups with other Marvel characters something the Marvel editors asked you to do, or was this your decision?

GERBER: In most respects, the content of Howard the Duck was entirely left up to me.

I wanted to bring in the super-heroes because it was very important to me to establish that Howard really did exist in the Marvel Universe. Using Spider-Man as a gueststar [in Howard’s first issue] was the perfect way to do it. If anything, there was probably some hesitation at first on the editorial side, until it became clear that Spider-Man, or any other guest star in the Duck book, would be handled the same way as in any other team-up story. We never demeaned the super-heroes who guest-starred; we never made them the butt of jokes. I could even argue that some characters—the Ringmaster comes to mind—were actually treated more seriously in Howard the Duck they ever had been before.

You know, for that matter, there are actually very few jokes in Howard the Duck. It was funny because the characters themselves, and, of course, the events of the stories, were funny. I was walking a strange and interesting little tightrope with that book,

Howard vs. Klout (top left) The Colan/Leialoha cover art to issue #5 (Sept. 1976).

Weird, Wild Stuff (left) From odd villains to Spider-Man cameos, you never knew what to expect in Steve Gerber’s Howard the Duck. Original cover art to issue #10 (Mar. 1977), by Gene Colan and Steve Leialoha. © 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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© 2006 DC Comics.

by

David Gutierrez An aged speedster. A bio-engineered man. A novice archer. A black mage. These four became a new Justice League in a world of dark politics and the absence of heroism, where “Batman hung up his cape” and “Superman departed for galaxies unknown” in the non-produced CBS pilot, Ultimate Powers. Unfortunately, their story would remain untold—until today.

Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo are no strangers to bringing super-heroes to the big and small screens. After paying their dues writing, producing, and directing B-movies for cult film mogul Charles Band, Bilson and DeMeo wrote and sold an adaptation of Dave Stevens’ The Rocketeer to Disney in the mid-’80s. This led to a development deal with CBS where the two would write a bold and inspiring pilot in 1989 that would never be made.

“THE RETURN OF THE FLASH”

“The Return of the Flash,” the Unlimited Powers pilot, opens with a bang. Barry Allen, the Flash, escapes from a 15-year-long suspended-animation prison sentence and runs out into oppressive Central City. Now a virtual police state run by Civic Governor Kendrick, the Flash is declared a fugitive. For the first time in his career, he experiences fatigue when he uses his powers. His age is catching up with him now that his body has outrun his mind.

The Flash liberates some clothing and hides out in the downtrodden area of the city known as Peddler’s Row. An advertisement featuring a “middle-aged man in a black mask and green body suit” selling Emerald Brand Batteries catches the Flash’s attention.

He sees his old colleague, Green Lantern, reduced to cashing in on his reputation to make a fast dollar. “My God,” asks the Flash, “What have they done to us?”

For ten dollars, Doctor Richard “Doc” Occult will tell a customer both their future and their past. Doc is described as a longhaired man in a black leather jacket. Manning a booth in Peddler’s Row, Doc’s levitation practice is interrupted by two angry men. The two men rough up Doc in an attempt to force him to use his precognitive abilities for their financial gain. Doc escapes a beating and runs out into the street. He trips over a bag lady’s shopping cart and receives the beating he just avoided. The Flash notices this from a nearby soup line and intervenes. In a flurry of punches and speed, the Flash saves Doc. The Flash collapses in exhaustion.

When he comes to, the people of Peddler’s Row stand in awe of what they’ve just seen—the Flash has returned. The Flash quickly darts off, leaving Doc alone and calling after him.

In a stark contrast to the downtown area of Central City, Governor Kendrick and a trio of his associates congregate in a posh cocktail lounge. He’s surrounded by Selina Kyle, described in the script as a “statuesque and shapely brunette in black, topped by a leopard skin pillbox hat”; a man in mirrored sunglasses; and the Prankster. Kendrick tries to convince his associates that the Flash’s escape is of no consequence or danger to his plans. The city will remain under his control. They identify their waitress, a “blowzy, overweight” woman, as none other than Diana Prince, Wonder Woman. Truly, the heroes of yesterday have fallen and fallen hard.

Former Kid Flash Wally West no longer exhibits the lean runner’s physique he did in his youth. Having hung up the costume, his midsection has grown and he’s gone corporate. Two men in suits visit Wally in his suburban home asking about the Flash’s whereabouts. He denies having seen his old mentor. The suited men leave. A small whirlwind of motion startles Wally. It’s the Flash. He and Wally quickly catch up on everything the Flash missed during his incarceration. Here, we are told of the Limited Powers Act—a worldwide action that forced super-heroes to retire in exchange for world peace. Wally supports the political action, believing it has bettered things and improved his life. The Flash doesn’t agree. “Are you nuts?” he asks. “I took a fast tour of our fair city. And I saw a good town gone to hell. An army of cops, crime running wild, spy blimps … even the air smells rotten. How can you expect me to quit now?”

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A second blur of motion interrupts the debate.

Wally holds a foot out, causing the blur to halt. It turns out that Tommy, Wally’s son, has inherited the gift of speed. West chastises his son for using his powers out in the open. The Flash asks the question that has weighed on him since his return: What has happened to Iris West, Wally’s sister and the Flash’s girlfriend? Iris became a civic attorney and is romantically involved with a policeman. After the Flash leaves Wally’s home, Wally calls his sister to tell her about the hero’s return.

At her office, Iris West receives an unexpected visit by her old flame. She and the Flash momentarily talk about where they stand in each other’s lives, but get nowhere. She suggests he enroll in a governmentsponsored program run by Governor Kendrick for helping super-heroes adapt to “normal life.” The Flash is stunned. He reveals to Iris that Governor Harlan Kendrick is none other than the super-villain and mercenary, the Icicle. Before Iris can voice her objections, the Flash kisses her. She responds in kind, but pulls away just before her boyfriend, policeman Bill Farrow, enters her office. Iris’ boyfriends, past and present, make introductions. Bill explains that while he will not arrest the Flash, he expects him to stay away from Iris. She suggests that the Flash visit another old colleague, Oliver Queen, who successfully completed Kendrick’s program. The Flash agrees and Iris walks him out. Seeing an opportunity, Bill quickly phones the Warden’s Bureau.

The Flash arrives at the Queen Estate for a meeting with his old comrade-in-arms, the Green Arrow.

Oliver’s teenage daughter, Ashley, greets him before being reunited with Oliver himself. Now sixty, Oliver still sports his trademark moustache and goatee. Sadly, Oliver now suffers from paralysis in his bow hand. The Flash voices his anger at what his world has become.

Every bit as fiery and opinionated her father, Ashley volunteers to help. Oliver dismisses her, causing her to storm out. Oliver believes his daughter is fully capable of taking up his mantle, but fears what would happen if the Wardens discovered her.

From atop the Queen estate, Ashley fires a grapplinghook arrow she’s drawn from an emerald quiver. She swings over to a library window and eavesdrops on her father and the Flash’s plan to expose Kendrick.

They hope to bring to light the conspiracy uncovered by the late Ted Kord, the Blue Beetle, revealing the forced retirement of heroes in the Limited Powers Act was secretly added by a group of super-villains. “Our enemies have infiltrated the highest levels of society,” explains Oliver. “I don’t know where or who they are.”

Ashley spots policemen surrounding the estate. The Senior Warden and his police force have confirmed the Flash’s presence. Ashley fires a flare arrow, blanketing

New Kid on the Blok Who’s Blok, you newbies ask? First seen as one of the Legion of SuperAssassins in Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #252 (July 1979), this concrete crusher soon joined the future super-team. Blok still had a thing or two to learn in the above panel from page 23 of issue #292 (Oct. 1982), from chapter three of the classic “The Great Darkness Saga” by Paul Levitz, Keith Giffen, and Larry Mahlstadt. © 2006 DC Comics.

the grounds in a familiar green. The Senior Warden and police storm the estate gates and bark out a warning, calling for the Flash’s surrender.

Ashley defiantly draws her bow back and orders the police to leave. The police aim their rifles back at her. Ashley releases an arrow that pierces the Chief Warden’s hat, pinning it to a tree. Ashley proclaims, “The Green Arrow lives!” The arrow explodes in a cloud of smoke. A second smoke arrow detonates on the estate grounds, confusing the policemen.

Ashley regroups with her father and the Flash. Now a fugitive, Ashley escapes down a hidden tunnel with the Flash. They drive off in a green car with the police in pursuit. Ashley makes quick work of one of the police cars by piercing one of its wheels with an arrow. An electrical pulse fired by a police zeppelin stops her and the Flash. They are pulled from their car and placed under arrest.

The Flash is separated from Ashley, shackled, and thrown him in a holding cell. Kendrick enters the cell to taunt the Flash, explaining that their roles have now reversed. The man who was once a hero, who represented law and order, is now an outlaw. Kendrick has the Flash moved to the maximum-security wing of the prison.

The Flash is moved into a steel-door vault, flanked by armed guards and a laser grid. He’s not alone in his cell. He quickly meets his cellmate, Blok, a “massive shape posed like a roughly-hewn version of Rodin’s ‘The Thinker’ statue.” Blok explains that he was bred in a laboratory to serve criminals and has been incarcerated for over a decade. Over time, Blok has rehabilitated himself through reading hundreds of books.

With nothing but time to kill, the two prisoners sit down for a game of chess when their cell door opens. Two guards have come to release them. One guard raises his helmet visor to show his true face—Doctor Occult. Doc has temporarily hypnotized the guard into following his orders and aiding them in navigating the prison. The Flash convinces Doc and Blok to help him spring Ashley from the Women’s Detention Ward.

Using the same hypnotic trick, Doc makes a female guard believe he’s escorting two female prisoners.

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Geppi’s Entertainment Museum: The Ultimate Pop-Culture Experience “Where does he get those wonderful toys?” pondered Jack Nicholson’s Joker in director Tim Burton’s Batman (1989). In the case of Steve Geppi, owner of Diamond Comic Distributors, his jaw-dropping collection of comic books, character-based toys and advertisements, movie posters, original comic art, animation cels, and related media hails from auctions, purchases of entire collections, and years of seeking out and acquiring the most pristine specimens available.

Geppi could have played the role of “greedy kid with the best toys” and hoarded them for himself, but instead he’s shared these treasures in Geppi’s Entertainment Museum (GEM), a 17,000-square-foot wonderland occupying the second and third floors (the Sports Legends at Camden Yards Museum is on the first floor) of the former Camden train station in Baltimore, Maryland. “When I see them in their place now, it’s almost like a puzzle I was putting together,” Geppi remarked on his search for collectibles while hosting an August 28, 2006 press tour of GEM (at which your wide-eyed BACK ISSUE editor was in attendance). “It’s a dream come true,” he beamed.

I was in a dream state throughout the tour, and over two weeks later as I pen these words, I’m still blown away by what I saw there. I suspect that by the time this sees print in November, I’ll continue to be dazzled by GEM. And why shouldn’t I be? Geppi’s Entertainment Museum showcases what is, no doubt, the finest collection of the coolest stuff imaginable. The museum also legitimizes character collectibles as a lens through which Americans observe their ever-transforming culture.

“There’s an order to what people collect,” stated GEM President John K. Snyder, Jr. at a luncheon prior to the press tour. Exercising that collector’s mentality, GEM’s contents are intentionally displayed in chronological order, allowing attendees to stroll through history.

But that stroll begins in a room dedicated to the art form from which so many merchandised characters emerged: comic books. How many of you have actually seen a copy of Action Comics #1? There are two copies at GEM … at least that’s how many I noticed. This room chronicles the history of comic-book publishing beginning with the precursors to comic books, including pulps and Big Little Books. This leads the museum-goer to a series of cabinets featuring significant comics grouped by eras, concluding with a selection of titles from the past two decades, including examples of the gimmick-ridden covers of the 1990s. Original cover art to some of the medium’s most influential comics also dots the room.

The hallway connecting the exhibit room is itself awe-inspiring: with 20-foot-high ceilings, virtually every square inch of available space is adorned with movie posters, original art, and cels, all smartly arranged and never seeming like wall clutter.

Beginning in the next exhibit room, “Pioneer Spirit (1776–1894),” the museum teaches us that toys were created not only for playtime but for “parents’ added value of educating kids,” according to Snyder. After an

array of vintage trains, dolls, marbles, and other early American toys, one discovers a collection of items featuring the Brownies, Palmer Cox’s multiethnic creations which were the first successfully franchised characters.

Following in their footsteps, in a room dedicated to characters from 1895–1927, the Yellow Kid and the Katzenjammer Kids are among the familiar faces selling everything from cigarettes to paper dolls. Subsequent rooms

by M ichael Eury explore 1928–1945, where the Great Depression and World War II gave way to escapist heroes like Mickey Mouse, Superman, and Captain America; 1946–1960, showing the emergence of television as the Experience medium that welcomed everything from singing cowboys to crazy redheads into our liv“Pop Culture with ing rooms; 1961–1970, where character merCharacter” at: chandising—from the Beatles to Batman— Geppi’s Entertainment mushroomed into ubiquity; and 1971–1990, Museum where comics, movie, and TV characters were 301 West Camden St. joined by then-new media sensations such as Baltimore, MD 21201 videogaming’s Pac-Man and fast-food celebs like Ronald McDonald. A retail store with character Hours: merchandise and trade publications (including April to October: Open daily from many fine TwoMorrows products!) completes 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM the museum (although it wasn’t open during November to March: Tuesday our press tour), with an accompanying array of through Sunday from collectibles from 1991 to today (yes, 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM SpongeBob SquarePants is there!). Snyder menAdmission: tioned that there are plans to offer classes on Adult $10.00, Senior $9.00, collecting, and that the items on display, while Student (3–18) $7.00, Child carefully selected to reflect the significance of (under 3) free each room’s era, are interchangeable and may Group prices and facilities rentals be rotated in and out. are available; for info, call Julie My only criticism of Geppi’s Entertainment Meddows at 410-625-7064.

Museum is that after witnessing these incredible For additional information, visit specimens, my own collection of much-loved ’60s www.geppismuseum.com toys seems mediocre … but at least I now have a deeper appreciation for their historical and educational value. Touring GEM is a family-friendly, fun, and educational experience you’ll long remember— and while you’re planning your trip, the next four pages provide but a mere glimpse of the wonders that await…

Camden Yards

GEM’s location is adjacent to Oriole Park.

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Your

to

Photo courtesy of Geppi’s Entertainment Museum.

start here!

!

Unless otherwise noted, all photos were taken by Michael Eury on August 28, 2006.

Steve Geppi, the man with a museum.

As you exit the elevator and enter the museum lobby, vintage movie posters pepper the walls.

Also in the lobby is this rare Golden Age artifact, promoting the original Human Torch series.

In the comics wing, Geppi (in the white shirt, second from right) discusses his cabinet of significant Golden Age titles.

Note the original EC cover art above the display.

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Tom “The Comics Savant” Stewart

conducted by

The Original Paris Hilton The cover of Richie Rich #1 (Nov. 1960), by Warren Kremer and Sid Couchey. Courtesy of Heritage Comics. © 2006 Harvey.

TOM STEWART: Well, we should start at the beginning.

Where were you born?

RICHIE RICH: At the Richard Rich Hospital, in the Regina Rich Pediatric wing, grounds of the Rich Estate, sometime in the 1950s.

STEWART: Really.

RICH: Yes, really. This is the point where you make some rather lame joke about how “well preserved” I look.

STEWART: Uh, let’s just say I made it and move on.

RICH: Let’s.

(Note to editor: This guy looks freaking TWELVE!) STEWART: So, how did you get started in comics?

RICH: I started as a backup to Little Dot… STEWART: Yes. How did you get that gig?

RICH: Talent.

STEWART: Yes, of course, but I’ve heard that your father— RICH: Talent.

STEWART: Okay. So … how was it working with Miss Dot? RICH: All right, once you got past that sick dot obsession of hers.

STEWART: Obsession…?

RICH: Of course they cleaned it up for the comics.

We were selling to kids, you understand?

STEWART: Of course.

RICH: Of course. Did you know that she chased cars?

STEWART: Nooo…

RICH: Tires. They look like dots.

STEWART: Of course.

RICH: She disappeared for a week once. Almost missed an issue! We had Little Lotta standing by just in case…

STEWART: Really! What…?

RICH: We found her finally. She was holed up in coin vault #2,104. She’d had been in there the whole time, stacking coins…

STEWART: Ah… RICH: “Dots.”

STEWART: Yes. Well, after working with Dot, you got your own title.

RICH: Well, it was obvious she was too far gone to keep doing all those books. Stretched too thin, and with her fragile condition…

STEWART: Riiiight…

RICH: So I stepped in with my own book.

STEWART: Now, here again I’ve heard— RICH: Talent.

STEWART: Talent. Yes, of course. Uh, now, it seems that most of the Harvey comic characters had certain … “obsessions”?

RICH: Yes, some did.

STEWART: Yes. Dot with uh, “dots.”

RICH: Yes. STEWART: Little Lotta with food.

RICH: She always claimed she was big-boned.

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STEWART: Really.

RICH: Gluttony. Is that funny?

STEWART: Well, she was popular.

RICH: I can see her featured in one story, maybe, maybe two, but there were reams of the stuff!

STEWART: Well, I thought— RICH: And the mountains of food! Good Lord, man!

STEWART: About your own— RICH: And the belches out of her! That’s not comedy!

STEWART: About Richie Rich #1…

RICH: Yes. I thought we should start out slow, then branch out into other titles.

STEWART: Well, you had quite a few titles.

RICH: Yes, that was part of the strategy—move out slowly into the market, see what was selling, then give the public more of it.

STEWART: Sure.

RICH: Sound business planning.

STEWART: Again, I heard that— RICH: Talent.

STEWART: Talent.

RICH: And popularity.

© 2006 Harvey.

Cheaper Than Gas Today…

Original cover art to Richie Rich Inventions #5 (1977), artist unknown. Courtesy of Heritage Comics. © 2006 Harvey.

STEWART: Of course. Now, while you expanded your titles, some of your fellow Harvey characters lost some books.

RICH: Again, business.

STEWART: Little Dot lost most of hers…

RICH: Hmmm…

STEWART: Little Lotta became a secondary character in the back of Dot’s book, I believe.

RICH: I’ve already stated my feelings about Lotta...

STEWART: Characters like Hot Stuff, Stumbo, Spooky, and even Casper lost books.

RICH: Now really! I should feel bad about this? It’s business! If people wanted their books, they would have bought their books! What they wanted was Richie Rich! Richie Rich Cash! Richie Rich Millions, Billions!

Zillions! Gems! Diamonds! Bank Books, Vaults, Vaults of Mystery, Gold and Silver!

STEWART: Super Richie?

RICH: That was for tax purposes. In short, they wanted Richie, they got Richie!

STEWART: That’s a lot of Richie.

RICH: It wasn’t all me, though. I did do the team-up books.

STEWART: Richie and Jackie Jokers…

RICH: Great guy, a prince.

STEWART: …Professor Keanbean…

RICH: [laughter] Oh, yes! Nice man.

STEWART: …Billy Bellhops…

RICH: Good kid. I ran into him the other day!

STEWART: Really?

RICH: Yes. I gave him a good tip.

STEWART: Cadbury…

RICH: Good fellow! We were just talking about doing a new project together, soon!

STEWART: …Gloria…

RICH: Just friends.

STEWART: Friends?

RICH: She just could never get used to the whole money thing.

STEWART: Uh … Reggie?

RICH: Tax fraud. Should be out in two years.

STEWART: I have here a document I wanted to show you before the end of this interview...

RICH: Wait a minute, this wasn’t in the approved questions…!

STEWART: It’s a sales statement showing millions of comics purchased by one company…

RICH: What? I never agreed to this!

STEWART: I have proof that that company, the R Rules Company, was wholly owned by a Mr. D. Dollar...

RICH: I don’t see— STEWART: Mr. DOGGIE Dollar! Your own dog!

(Inaudible remarks. Several lawyers appear as if from nowhere.)

RICH: This interview is over!

STEWART: But we haven’t covered Richie Rich meets the New Kids on the Block!

RICH: (expletive deleted)

© 2006 Harvey.

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Danny Fingeroth

Conducted February 2, 2006 transcribed by Steven Tice, and copyedited by Mike Carlin and Danny Fingeroth

In 1983, Marvel Comics readers were tantalized by house ads and Bullpen Bulletin notices about something called “Assistant Editors’ Month.” Based on the practice among department stores of having “assistant buyers’ months,” the idea was that the Marvel editors were out of the office at the San Diego Comic-Con and meetings in Los Angeles, leaving the assistant editors in charge. The comics that came out of this period were all over the map, some barely taking notice of the special occasion, others indulging the freedom that the assistants and freelance writers and artists allegedly had while their bosses were away.

Danny Fingeroth was then the newly promoted editor of the Spider-Man line. Mike Carlin was assistant to Mark Gruenwald in the Avengers office, and was the assistants’ “ringleader.” He also wrote the AEM issue of Marvel Team-Up and a story in Daredevil that month.

Danny and Mike sat down in Mike’s glamorous office at DC Comics and revealed some of the shocking secrets that were the real story behind Assistant Editors’ Month…

May Day Aunt May as Golden Oldie in a certified Carlin classic.

Original cover art to Marvel Team-Up #137 (Jan. 1984), penciled by Ron Frenz and inked by Mike Esposito. Courtesy of Heritage Comics. © 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc.

DANNY FINGEROTH: So what the heck was Assistant Editors’ Month, anyway, Mike?

MIKE CARLIN: Well, depending on who you talk to, it was a lot of fun or a giant fiasco. The legend I had always heard, after it came out, people looked back and said that it was Marvel’s worst-selling month ever!

Hyperbole, I’m sure … but I never checked—as I didn’t want to know the awful truth.

For the assistant editors, it was definitely a hoot to actually get a chance to have some fun, though I guess the reality was, we weren’t really editing regular Marvel comics. Part of the instruction was to make them a little more offbeat than they normally would be, so they would feel different. It wasn’t, like, an audition for our days when we’d be real editors, because then we would have done straight stories and really tried to cough up Watchmen or something.

FINGEROTH: It might have been the first line-wide programming stunt that any company ever did, and certainly the most irreverent one. You and I both seem to remember it as [editor-in-chief] Jim Shooter’s idea.

CARLIN: I think he generated it, although he might have just come across it somewhere. But Macy’s would have sales where their assistant buyers would be in charge of buying all the stuff that they’d sell. So the idea was that Jim was going to be taking all the editors out to the Comic-Con in San Diego—all the main editors were going to be out of the office at the same time—and wouldn’t it be funny if the books that came out the month that they were traveling to San Diego reflected the fact that the editors were gone. That, to him, meant that the books wouldn’t be quite normal. [laughs] FINGEROTH: That was the hype, but of course the reality was that it was the most carefully planned, plotted, and strategized stunt that we had probably ever done, up to that point.

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Beginnings:

writer: recap splash pages for Marvel’s British weeklies, then co-writer of Avengers #207–208 (1981) editor: uncredited editing on Captain Britain, then editing some fill-ins on Man-Thing and Star Wars

Milestones:

editor: New Warriors, Moon Knight, Alpha Flight / Spider-Man group editor writer: Dazzler / Darkhawk / Deadly Foes of Spider-Man / Avengers: Deathtrap: The Vault / Superman on the Couch: What Superheroes Really Tell Us About Ourselves and Our Society (Continuum) / founding VP/editor in chief of Byron Preiss Multimedia’s Virtual Comics / senior VP for Creative Development at Visionary Media, home of WhirlGirl

Works in Progress:

editor in chief of TwoMorrows’ Write Now! / Disguised as Clark Kent: Jews, Comics, and the Creation of the Superhero (Continuum) / teaching comics writing at New York University, the New School, and Media Bistro

Cyberspace:

WriteNowDF@aol.com www.twomorrows.com

Danny Fingeroth © 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc. From Marvel Team-Up #137. Art by Greg LaRocque and Mike Esposito.

Beginnings:

DC Comics intern (1974) / jokes written for Will Eisner’s Scholastic Joke Books, then writer/artist for Marvel’s Crazy Magazine (1980s)

Milestones:

editor: Fantastic Four / Avengers / Superman group editor (ringmaster of the infamous “Death and Return of Superman” series) / DC Comics executive editor / JLA / Identity Crisis / writer: Marvel Team-Up / Peter Porker, The Spectacular SpiderHam / Star Trek / Superboy TV series / Ratman 2000 (Slave Labor)

Works in Progress:

senior group editor at DC / The All-New Atom / The Trials of Shazam! / Green Arrow / Hawkgirl

Cyberspace:

www.dccomics.com

Mike Carlin © 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc. From Avengers #239. Art by Mike Carlin.

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CARLIN: Sure. For everything to hit in August when everybody was out in San Diego, we had to be finished with the books two months before that.

FINGEROTH: I think it said January cover date, September on sale, which is kind of wild, thinking back to those days when the covers were so far ahead.

CARLIN: Yeah, the cover dates, they were from another universe. Comics used to time travel backwards from six months in the future and land on your newsstand.

FINGEROTH: You were Mark Gruenwald’s assistant at the time, right? How long had you had that gig?

CARLIN: I guess I had been his assistant for two years already, and we were pretty tight in our systems. Our working style was pretty in tune with each other, so he did trust me a lot, and I did ultimately get promoted pretty soon after Assistant Editors’ Month, so I think I was already on the track to knowing how to put a book out.

And Mark did let me come up with the ideas. Everything was run past, obviously, the editors and Jim Shooter before we even started the project, and based on where any given series was at the time, you had a little more leeway or a little less leeway. On Thor, Walt Simonson had just started on the book, three or four months before this, and we weren’t really interested in ruining his story, so the Thor Assistant Editors’ book really just consisted of a funny letters page that I did.

FINGEROTH: Walt did eventually make Thor a frog, so, I mean, what wilder thing could an assistant have done, anyway?

CARLIN: If I could have gotten him to do that two months earlier, I would have been the greatest assistant ever! [laughs] But he was in the middle of the Beta Ray Bill thing, and it really would have ruined the momentum on that. Captain America had a big storyline going on, so we did half an issue of a straight story, and half an issue of an oddball backup. But then there’s other books like The Avengers, where we really went all out and did a 22page story where the Avengers actually went on Late Night with David Letterman, which was a fairly new phenomenon back in the early ’80s. David Letterman was pretty hip and happening at the time. He had just moved from his morning show to his late night slot a year or two before that and it was pretty popular.

FINGEROTH: Was it your idea to try to get the Letterman show in The Avengers?

CARLIN: Yeah, it was my idea, because I was a big fan of it. Roger Stern, who was writing Avengers at the time, also loved Letterman. I called up Letterman’s agent and they said, “Sure.” It was that simple. We sent a letter, they signed it, and in the indicia we just had to say, “all the characters in this book are copyright Marvel Comics except David Letterman and Paul Shaffer.”

FINGEROTH: I guess there was some precedent. Several years before, Marvel had done the crossover with the Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time Players in Marvel Team-Up. CARLIN: And even before that, everyone forgets that Don Rickles was a character in Jack Kirby’s Jimmy Olsen comics. And Jerry Lewis and Bob Hope had their own comic books. So the big difference I guess would be that currently—“currently” being after 1970-something—we don’t pay the celebrities to be in our books. [laughs] Jerry Lewis and Bob Hope, I think, got a piece of the action. I don’t think John Belushi got anything from the sales of the Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time Players issue, FINGEROTH: Now, in the AEM Avengers issue, it’s not like there was a backup where Letterman met the Avengers and they shook hands. He was integral to the story itself.

CARLIN: The story involved a running villain, a lightweight villain for the Avengers, called Fabian Stankowicz.

by

Peter Sand

erson As of August 12 of 2006, it has been ten years since the sudden, unexpected death of Marvel writer and editor Mark Gruenwald from a massive cardiac attack at his country home in Pawling, New York. He was only 43 years old, and one of the very first of the Baby Boomer generation of comics professionals to leave us.

Mark was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, on June 18, 1953, and his boyhood was a lot like that of his contemporaries in comics, but he had two big advantages. His father, Myron, had not only been a super-hero comics fan back in the Golden Age of the 1940s, but, unlike most parents, encouraged his son to read them, too. Not only that, Mark’s mother, Norma, worked in a drugstore with its own comics rack! At first Mark read DCs and developed a lifelong affection for the Justice League. When he was nine he saw his first Marvel comic, and at age ten one of his fan letters was printed in Fantastic Four #20. In kindergarten Mark also started writing and drawing his own amateur comics. He was on his way!

He didn’t lose his passion for comics as he grew older, either. In fact, after college he moved to New York City, specifically in order to break into the comics business. To show what he could do, Mark created the most unusual of comics fanzines, Omniverse: The Journal of Fictional Reality, which took a serious approach to certain sciencefiction conventions in comics, particularly time travel and alternate universes. (Two of Mark’s heroes were Justice League of America editor Mark Gruenwald Julius Schwartz and writer Gardner Fox, who had pioneered the parallel-Earth concept in comics; they both make cameo appearances At his desk at Marvel Comics, circa 1983. in his Squadron Supreme series, and he long considered writing a All photos in this feature are courtesy of Mike Carlin. biography of Schwartz.) Now when I watch documentaries describing how scientists now believe time travel is possible, and that there may indeed be alternate universes vibrating at different rates of speed, I entries on Marvel and DC characters seem influenced by the format am amazed at how Mark’s fantasies may yet prove to be realities.

Mark sent a copy of Omniverse to Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, Mark devised. Even Mark’s original Handbooks are now back in print. who hired him to be an assistant editor in February 1978. Omniverse They may be dated, yet the concept has passed the test of time.

Mark’s foremost achievement as a writer of fiction may be the also brought me into Mark’s circle, as I became its assistant editor. It was Mark who is principally responsible for my career in comics. Maybe the Squadron Supreme limited series. I’ve been giving a lecture course connection between us was that I was an Ivy League academic who called “1986: The Year That Changed Comics” at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art in New York City. That was the was fascinated by the DC and Marvel Universes, and year that Alan Moore’s Watchmen, and Frank Miller’s The he was very much a scholar at heart.

Dark Knight Returns, and Art Spiegelman’s Maus came Omniverse led to Mark’s creation of The Official out. With that kind of competition, Squadron may have Handbook of the Marvel Universe, his encyclopedia of been underrated at the time. But in its quieter way, it too Marvel characters, alien races, gadgetry, and more. was a revolutionary work for the super-hero genre.

The Handbook embodied Mark’s belief that the fictional It also predicted the future of comics. Think of a cosmos and characters created by Stan Lee, Jack storyline in which Superman and his allies, with benign Kirby, Steve Ditko, and others, and their histories, intentions, assume control over America, and Batman deserved to be taken seriously and chronicled by teams up with Lex Luthor and other master criminals to pop-culture historians. The collected biographies of overthrow their dictatorship. Squadron Supreme did the characters in the Handbooks amount to a grand this story a decade before Kingdom Come. How about compendium of Marvel’s greatest stories, all interwoven a romance between Superman and Wonder Woman? into a whole. Mark brought me aboard as a Handbook You can see it in Kingdom Come or in Miller’s The Dark writer and researcher, and I ended up writing more of Knight Strikes Again, but Squadron got there first. What subsequent versions than he did. about a storyline in which a Justice League brainwashes The Handbook and similar projects such as DC’s one of his or her own teammates? Identity Crisis did it Who’s Who were popular in the 1980s but then fell in 2005, but Squadron did it back in 1986. from favor at both DC and Marvel. Yet today, a new Years before, Roy Thomas had conceived of the generation of comics historians is compiling new © 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc. Squadron as semi-serious parodies of the Justice Handbooks at Marvel, and similar projects, like DK’s League, who inhabited an alternate Earth: Hyperion Marvel Encyclopedia and Ultimate Guides to DC and Marvel characters, and Gina Misiroglu’s Superhero and Misiroglu and was Superman, Nighthawk was Batman, and so forth. Steve Englehart Michael Eury’s Supervillain Books, likewise carry on Mark’s tradition. later characteristically introduced a political angle to stories involving The forthcoming handbook for the alternative super-hero series the Squadron. With his love of the real Justice League since childhood, Invincible is intentionally being done as a tribute to Mark. Wikipedia you can see why Mark would be eager to work with the Squadron.

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Michael Eury

The Official Handbook of the Invincible Universe #1 and 2 Image Comics, Nov. and Dec. 2006 48 color pages • $4.99 U.S.

In the 1980s, Marvel Comics’ Mark Gruenwald catered to readers’ inner fanboy by developing the ultimate who’s who/what’s what guide to Marvel’s characters, The Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe. The series continued on for years through a number of permutations, and has been recently collected in Marvel’s Essential trade-paperback format as well as revived in a series of All-New Handbooks.

Artist Dusty Abell was a reader of those original Handbooks, and in their spirit has spearheaded a twoissue series debuting in November 2006 from Image Comics. “I’ve put together an homage to Mark Gruenwald’s original comic-book series from back in the early ’80s using the characters from the best super-hero comic on the stands today, Invincible,” Abell says. “It’s The Official Handbook of the Invincible Universe, an illustrated guide which attempts to detail the Invincible Universe and the diverse collection of characters in it.” A host of artists from the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s joins a lineup of contemporary names for a stunning collection of character pinups, with Jason Pearson, Dave Johnson, Herb Trimpe, Phil Noto, Ed McGuinness, Mike Wieringo, Brian Stelfreeze, Neal Adams, Rudy Nebres, and Craig Hamilton among their number. We’ll stop yapping now and let this sampling of Invincible Handbook artwork, courtesy of Dusty Abell, speak for itself...

Gruenwald’s Mark The running-character wraparound cover format made famous in Marvel’s Handbooks (and seen above in the original John Byrne/Joe Rubinstein art to Marvel Universe: Deluxe Edition #7, June 1986; courtesy of Heritage Comics) is replicated in Image’s Invincible version, with cover art by Dusty Abell and Kelsey Shannon.

Marvel Universe and related characters TM & © 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc. Invincible and related characters TM & © 2006 Robert Kirkman and Cory Walker.

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The Art of

(Gallery artwork courtesy of Heritage Comics, Jay Willson, Barry Keller, and Steve Lipsky.)

Don Newton’s model sheet for Nick Cuti’s “Dee Munn,” one of the characters considered to host a new early-1970s horror title at Charlton Comics. Newton and Cuti ultimately created Baron Weirwulf instead, in one-page strips that Don drew. © 2006 the respective copyright holder.

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Barry Keller

(Artwork and photographs appearing in this article are from the collections of Barry Keller, Jay Willson, and Steve Lipsky, to whom this magazine extends its gratitude.

Additional original art scans are courtesy of Heritage Comics, www.heritagecomics.com.)

The Ghost Who Sits A 1973 Don Newton Phantom cover for the legendary fanzine Rocket’s Blast Comic Collector (RBCC) #106.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, a number of young comic-book artists made a mark for themselves in the growing ranks of comic fandom publications.

They would quickly emerge as part of a new wave of comic artists that energized the industry with a fresh dose of exuberant talent. Most of these artists (Michael Kaluta, Berni[e] Wrightson, Jeff Jones, Dave Cockrum, Jim Starlin, etc.) spent a year or so in fandom before striking out for gold in the pros. But it didn’t always happen quite this way; it didn’t happen this way for Don Newton. In many ways, Don was not like the other breakout fandom artists.

Donald L. Newton was born November 12, 1934, in the small coal-mining town of St. Charles, Virginia.

After Don developed asthma at an early age his family moved to Arizona, where the hot, dry air was easier on their young son. Don grew up in the city of Mesa, outside of Phoenix. By the time he began his tenure in the world of comic-book fandom, Don was an elementary school art teacher in his mid-thirties.

Don wasn’t just another in a long line of comic-fandom artists; Don was the comic fandom artist. His work appeared in over 100 issues of 38 different titles, including seven issues of The Comic Crusader, eight issues of The Comic Reader, ten issues of The Collector, and an amazing 36 issues of The Rocket’s Blast Comic Collector.

Newton tried for years to leverage his connections in fandom into a job at DC or Marvel, but living in Arizona put him at a distinct disadvantage. Marvel in particular wanted their artists close at hand, and Don was unwilling to move from Arizona. For a brief period in the early 1970s, Don was an assistant to Captain Marvel artist C. C. Beck, with whom he had a tumultuous relationship (as detailed in Alter Ego vol. 3 #11, Nov. 2001), but it never resulted in actual published work.

Newton finally set his sights a little lower and sent sample pages to Nicola Cuti at Charlton Comics. Where the big publishers passed on Newton, the little one was excited to get its hands on such an artistic find.

© 2006 King Features Syndicate.

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Favorite of Fandom: Early- to Mid-1970s Fan Art by Don Newton

(above left) The Hood, from the fanzine Illustrated Comic Collectors Handbook vol. 4, where Don did 14 illustrations. (above) Newton’s rendition of the Man of Bronze, Doc Savage. (below) Newton was well known for his strip The Savage Earth, which ran in RBCC for over a year. © 2006 the respective copyright holder. © 2006 Condé Nast. © 2006 Don Newton estate.

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Jay Willson

I met Don Newton in the summer of 1975, at the apartment of Marvel Comics inker Dan Adkins. I was in high school at the time, and Dan Adkins had invited me over to his apartment to look at some of his artwork, since he was planning to leave Arizona to move back east. While I was there, Don Newton called Dan and dropped by to say hello. When he entered Dan’s apartment, Don sat down at Dan’s art table, and immediately began to draw goofy caricatures of things while talking to Dan and me. That single meeting resulted in nine years of friendship with Don. That was just Don—he had a comfortable way about him that made you just want to just hang around with him.

Don would meet me, along with fellow friends John Clark, Shane Shellenbarger, and later, Mike McCormick, for weekly Sunday night dinners at local Arizona Mexican restaurants during all of those nine years. We always ate at the same restaurants, and Don always ordered the same thing: a cheese crisp (or Quesadilla) and a small garden salad. I don’t believe that I ever saw Don eat anything else. Don and John had jokingly named our get-togethers “fan dinners,” and over the years, we would welcome guests to the dinners as well.

Comics inker Terry Austin, letterer Todd Klein, Charlton assistant editor Bill Pearson, and Another Rainbow/Gladstone publisher Bruce Hamilton joined us during visits to the Phoenix area. Each evening was filled with laughter and comics chat (usually about artists that we loved or hated), all while Don was drawing.

He was a fun, easygoing host. Don even requested an “inking sample” from Terry, and a “lettering sample” from Todd, and both gentlemen produced beautiful custom pieces for Don, works that hung on the walls of Don’s studio area until he died. Don produced art for each of them in return, including a painting of Captain Marvel for Terry that appeared as the cover of Alter Ego #28.

When Don’s original artwork was returned to him

by DC each month, the opening of the package would always create a moment of true wonder as we all looked through the stack of pages. Comments usually circulated around how well or badly an inker had done on Don’s pencils. When the evening was done, we would all walk out of his apartment with original artwork in our hands. That was just Don. Don was an incredible artist. He could draw anything, and it was always drawn well. He had an incredible memory for detail, and his classic art training enabled him to spot clothing wrinkles and shadows that always looked authentic and real. I never saw Don swipe another artist’s work in any way. He didn’t need to.

He would sometimes use photographs to reference specific cars and buildings, but otherwise, Don drew all of his comics artwork in the same way: sitting in a small, fully cushioned chair, socked feet up on the

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Don Digs His Friends Newton added his buddies Jay Willson’s and John Clark’s names to tombstones on this penciled splash from his first Batman story (from Batman #305, Nov. 1978). © 2006 DC Comics.

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Dewey Cassell conducted June 28, 2006

Comic books have much in common with film and television. In many ways, comic-book artists serve as director, cameraman, costume designer, set designer, and key grip for the stories they illustrate. But few artists take the idea as far as Bob Wiacek.

Bob Wiacek was born in 1953. After graduating high school, he attended the School of Visual Arts, which included instruction with legends Harvey Kurtzman and Will Eisner. After his third year of art school, Mike Kaluta got Bob an interview with Continuity Associates, run by Neal Adams and Dick Giordano. Adams looked at his portfolio and said, as Wiacek recalls, “His penciling was atrocious, but his inking was pretty nice,” and offered him an opportunity to get into the business inking backgrounds. Bob left art school and started work at Continuity as one of the “Crusty Bunkers.” He also did backgrounds for Bob Oksner, Tex Blaisdell, Dick Giordano, Klaus Janson, Mike Grell, and Wally Wood.

Over the years, Bob worked for both DC and Marvel Comics. Grell took him to Vince Colletta, who was then art director for DC, and encouraged Colletta to give Bob a shot inking Legion of Super-Heroes and later Batman.

Archie Goodwin was the editor-in-chief at Marvel who gave Bob his first work at the House of Ideas inking the “Guardians of the Galaxy” in Marvel Presents. He went on to ink the X-Men, Iron Man, Man-Thing, Ghost Rider, and many other titles.

Bob was a contemporary of Terry Austin, Bob McLeod, Pat Broderick, and Joe Rubinstein. About being an inker, Bob says, “I didn’t want the inks to push the pencils down, but rather to make the pencils shine through my inking.” He learned his attitude toward inking from Dick Giordano, whose inks were “as beautiful on Neal Adams’ pencils as on Mike Sekowsky’s.” Bob has done some penciling as well, including a five page “Silver Burper” story written by Stan Lee that appeared in What The--?!

In this exclusive interview, Bob talks about the later years of his career and his foray into acting.

—Dewey Cassell

Marvel’s Muck Monster An unused Wiacek penciled-and-inked cover for the 1979–1981 volume of Man-Thing.

All art in this article is courtesy of Bob Wiacek, unless otherwise noted. © 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Beginnings: Doctor Strange #4 (1974): background inks as one of the “Crusty Bunkers” / Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes #220 (1976): first credited inks

Milestones: inking Paul Smith on X-Men / inking Walt Simonson on X-Factor / inking Steve Rude on Spider-Man: Lifelines

Work in Progress: inking George Pérez on The Brave and the Bold (DC) / penciling and inking a Mike W. Barr-scripted Secret Agent X-9 story for overseas distribution

Cyberspace: www.theartistschoice.com

BOB WIACEK

© 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Universal Talent photo courtesy of Bob Wiacek.

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DEWEY CASSELL: How did you get away from doing comic art in the late ’90s?

BOB WIACEK: The last thing I did for Marvel was a Steve Rude Spider-Man job called Spider-Man: Lifeline.

I was also doing a few things for DC at the time and I was caught in the implosion, when the business went through tremendous bad times. They were trying a lot of new guys coming in and they just wanted to stay with them. Marvel was not using me. DC was still using me occasionally—I was inking Walt Simonson on Orion—but there was a shortage of work. These things happen. You’ve got to roll with the punches. You have to go out and look for other work, which is what it forced me to do.

CASSELL: That must have been difficult. What did you do?

WIACEK: You’ve seen a lot of delis and places with illustrations on the windows, where the artist actually painted the window? They’re all over New Jersey and New York. I saw an ad from Mia Rodriguez for an artist to work in her studio. I answered the ad and she liked what I had done. I did a little bit of painting, but mostly grunt work. A lot of other little minor illustration jobs came in, too.

CASSELL: Like what?

WIACEK: About a year ago, I did illustrations for simple scientific experiments for grades 3–5 and 5–7. It was doing line drawings with computer tone work of experiments or projects for kids of that age.

It was for [publisher] Byron Preiss and, unfortunately, they filed Chapter 7, so the drawings were never published. They are hoping to sell the project to another publisher. I also did an illustration for the Gerber Tours Company. Ernie Colón helped me get the job. It was a place that did tours of New York City. This particular illustration was for a tour of Broadway. I even did an illustration for a drop cloth company of a guy in coveralls.

CASSELL: So how did you get involved with the rapper 50 Cent?

WIACEK: Again, it was a matter of looking for work. I was calling different studios in California and some in New York, trying to get storyboard work. It was very hard to contact people. Occasionally, I would see these ads for extras in a movie. You’d get paid $100–500 for being in a movie, in the background, walking around or passing by on a street or something like that. I realized that to get on a set of a movie or TV show would be good. In the movie industry nowadays, everybody knows about comic books, more than ever. If they didn’t know who I am, they would probably like to see my work, so I could catch them on a break and say, “I’m Bob Wiacek. Here’s my card.” Maybe show a couple of pieces and say, “This is the kind of work that I do. I’m looking for storyboard work.” It could be a way to break in.

CASSELL: So did you pursue it?

WIACEK: I did a few things. I went to Universal Talent in New Jersey. I got my picture taken. You let them know you are available and they call you up and say, “Go on this set and let them know who you are.” So I got on the set for a HBO movie called Undefeated, with John Leguizamo. It was a boxing movie. When they fought, I was one of the people in the audience watching.

You know, they don’t use that many people. I and a few other people are sitting next to these cardboard cutouts of people. It was really strange to see them taking these cardboard people out of boxes and putting them next to you. Then for closeup shots, to get audience reaction to the fight, they would put me

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Andy Mangels

[Editor’s note: While this article was originally intended for last issue’s “Big, Green Issue” theme, She-Hulk’s secondbanana status to her better-known cousin—plus her on-again, off-again publication history—also makes the Jade Giantess one of comics’ unsung heroes…]

“Nerves of Steel … and a body that’s even tougher!

Brigitte Nielsen—She-Hulk—A new kind of hero.” It was the summer of 1991, and hundreds of press people milled on the beach at the Cannes Film Festival, clamoring to get a photo of Brigitte Nielsen, the Teutonic film actress who had just been announced to play the role of Marvel Comics’ jade giantess in a major motion picture from New World International.

Full-color fold-out brochures given out at Cannes showed Nielsen in full-body makeup, a skimpy green lamé outfit, and emerald hair teased high to the heavens.

But despite its auspicious headline-grabbing debut, the She-Hulk movie was never to be. Fifteen years later, Brigitte Nielsen as She-Hulk is a comic-book trivia question … and the perfect basis for the greenest Greatest Story Never Told.

SAVAGE

Although Marvel had previously protected its best interests (and trademarks) in 1977 by creating Spider-Woman—after Filmation Studios had debuted a short-lived animated heroine named Web Woman— it wasn’t until the popularity of NBC’s live-action The Incredible Hulk television series that Marvel developed The Savage She-Hulk for comic-book and entertainmentindustry exploitation.

She-Hulk was lawyer Jennifer Walters, who developed her super-powers after getting a gamma-irradiated blood transfusion from her cousin, Bruce Banner.

Unlike her male counterpart, She-Hulk retained her intelligence, eventually coming to enjoy her alter ego as much as—or more so than—her prim lawyer self.

Although some discussions of a television spin-off for She-Hulk took place, the jade giantess had her first non-comic adventure on NBC’s animated The Incredible Hulk and the Amazing Spider-Man series in 1982. In the eleventh episode, called “Enter: She-Hulk,” her origin was briefly recounted. The character was voiced by Victoria Carroll, but was never seen again.

Red Sonja Sees Green Brigitte Nielsen as She-Hulk.

Unless otherwise noted, all images in this article are courtesy of Andy Mangels. © 1991 New World Entertainment.

She-Hulk TM & © 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Crushin’ Cousin (above) Story page 15 from She-Hulk’s first outing, The Savage She-Hulk #1 (Feb. 1980). Art by John Buscema and Chic Stone; courtesy of Heritage Comics. © 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc.

SEDUCTIVE

Danish-born model Brigitte Nielsen had already proven herself as an action heroine in 1985, playing Red Sonja in the movie of the same name.

So when producer Tamara Asseyev was looking for a face to play She-Hulk in a proposed New World movie, the 27-year-old Nielsen seemed perfect.

“Brigitte was so right for it,” says Asseyev today. “She was tall, and was hot from the Tony Scott film, Beverly Hills Cop II.” Asseyev was also comfortable with the actress, having executive-produced her in a 1989 CBS telefilm, Murder by Moonlight (aka Murder on the Moon).

A deal was struck with Nielsen, but in lieu of test footage, a detailed photo shoot was put together. Asseyev recalls that the flashy She-Hulk costume was created by Trashy Lingerie on La Cienega Boulevard in Hollywood. Other shots featured Nielsen as a more proper Jennifer Walters, looking studious in a law library, while wearing a brown wig that covered her traditionally close-cropped platinum hair.

While posters for She-Hulk were first spotted during the American Film Market on February 28–March 8, 1991 at Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, the feature wasn’t officially launched until Cannes, from May 9–20, 1991. “We showed up at Cannes and it was incredible,” says

Costuming by Trashy Lingerie From the She-Hulk film brochure. © 1991 New World Entertainment. She-Hulk TM & © 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Ready for a fish fry, Speedy?

Almost-Batman Ty Hardin, looking oh, so Ollie Queen-like. © Warner Bros.

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Andy Mangels

With his starring role in television Westerns Cheyenne (in 1958) and Bronco (1958–1962), handsome Paramount contract player Ty Hardin graced several Dell comic-book covers of the Silver Age. But Ty almost had an even closer tie to DC comic books, as shown in the following almost-unknown set of near misses…

In 1964, executive producer William Dozier was casting about for the heroic lead for a half-hour comedy series based on National Periodical Publications’ Batman. As he later said in an interview in Joel Eisner’s The Official Batman Batbook, “My first choice for Batman was Ty Hardin, but he was shooting spaghetti Westerns in Italy, so was unavailable. His agent came in to tell me that Ty couldn’t try out, and then he showed me an eight-by-ten. He said, ‘What do you think of this guy?’”

That guy turned out to be actor Adam West, who screen-tested for the role of Batman, as did Lyle Waggoner. West, of course, won the role, while Waggoner would later become Steve Trevor, the Air Force hero and love interest on ABC’s Wonder Woman series.

And while Hardin’s near-miss for the role of Batman was more publicly known, it was while this author was pawing through stills at a decrepit Hollywood still store that another comic-book link was forged. When I pulled out a photo of Ty Hardin with bleach-blond hair and a distinctive blond goatee and moustache, with a bow and quiver slung over one arm, I saw a shocking resemblance. Ty Hardin was Oliver Queen/Green Arrow!

The publicity photo—and several others—was from the 1963 Warner film PT 109, in which Hardin played the real-life Ensign Leonard J. Thom, the second-in-command of a PT boat commanded by pre-President John F. Kennedy in World War II. Hardin didn’t use a bow in the film; the shot was purely a publicity still published in magazines of the day to play on Hardin’s beefcake appeal.

Six years after PT 109, in Aug.–Sept. 1969’s The Brave and the Bold #85, artist Neal Adams debuted a redesigned Green Arrow teaming up with Batman.

The letters page acknowledged the change, with the editor stating, “Because of a climactic upheaval in his personal life, Green Arrow’s costume, facial appearance, and behavior pattern (to use a head-shrinker’s phrase) were affected.” The revelation about the upheaval came soon, in Nov. 1969’s Justice League of America #75, which revealed that Oliver Queen had been cheated out of his fortunes.

While the story elements that changed Green Arrow were clear, less so was the physical look of Oliver Queen. So, with the photos of Ty Hardin in hand, this author tracked down Neal Adams for a quick interview.

Was Hardin the physical model for Green Arrow’s redesign?

“Of course I saw and watched the PT 109 film,” says Adams, “and I have been a passive fan of Ty