Back Issue #24 Preview

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL WITH MICHAEL GOLDEN!

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DR. STRANGE TM & ©2007 MARVEL CHARACTERS, INC.

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MAGIC ISSUE: DR. STRANGE ( ZATANNA g ELEMENTALS ? AMETHYST K DR. FATE > PETER PAN with BRUNNER O COLAN K SIMONSON O SMITH ( and a tribute to MARSHALL ROGERS

Volume 1, Number 24 October 2007 Celebrating the Best Comics of the '70s, '80s, and Today!

The Ultimate Comics Experience!

EDITOR Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow DESIGNER Rich J. Fowlks COVER ARTIST Michael Golden

BACK SEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

COVER DESIGNER Robert Clark CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Bob Brodsky, Cookiesoup Periodical Distribution, LLC

Dan Johnson Stephen Kanzee Jim Kingman Mike Leeke Justin Leiter Paul Levitz Bruce MacIntosh Andy Mangels Marvel Comics Yoram Matzkin Don McGregor Bob McLeod Allen Milgrom Dan Mishkin Brian K. Morris Floyd Norman Kevin Nowlan Martin Pasko George Pérez John Petty Carl Potts Roland Reedy Rose Rummel-Eury Alex Segura Walter Simonson John SmallwoodGarcia Paul Smith Anthony Snyder Roger Stern Tom Stewart Roy Thomas Steven Tice Timothy Truman Gerry Turnbull Matt Wagner Mark Waid Len Wein John Wells Bill Williams Demetrios Williams Renee Witterstaetter

TRIBUTE: Marshall Rogers: A Look Back . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 Friends and collaborators Steve Englehart and Don McGregor remember the much-missed Batman and Coyote artist FLASHBACK: The Magical Art of Marshall Rogers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34 Steve Englehart, Terry Austin, and Roger Stern recall the late artist’s supernatural series, including Doctor Strange INTERVIEW: He’s a Magic Man: Frank Brunner’s Doctor Strange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39 A chat with the illustrator who pitted the Sorcerer Supreme against “God,” with never-before-published art DOCTOR STRANGE ART GALLERY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45 Six sizzling pinups by Michael Golden, Frank Brunner, Carl Potts, John Byrne, Kevin Nowlan, and Paul Smith PRO2PRO: Dr. Strange’s Artists Supreme: Gene Colan and Paul Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51 Magical artists from two generations compare notes on Marvel’s Master of the Mystic Arts INTERVIEW: The Strange World of Cary Bates’ Jonathan Lord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58 The Superman and Flash writer looks back at his offbeat series Silverblade, with art by Gene Colan GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: Peter Pan and Wendy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61 An examination of Andy Mangels and Craig Hamilton’s unpublished series featuring the forever-young adventurer FLASHBACK: Zatanna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67 We bend over backwards for the sexy sorceress in this enchanting history, with art by George Pérez, Gray Morrow, Dick Giordano, and others FLASHBACK BONUS: Conjura . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74 A look at Zatanna’s little-known “sister,” with rarely seen Joe Kubert art BACKSTAGE PASS: Hats Off to CAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75 Co-founded by legendary MAD cartoonist Sergio Aragonés, the Comic Art Professional Society celebrates a magical 30th anniversary FLASHBACK: The Elementals: Working Toward Oblivion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79 The ups and downs of Bill Willingham’s supernatural super-team, with recollections from Mike Leeke, Bill Williams, and BI’s own Michael Eury BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .86 Reader feedback on issue #22 FREE Preview of Rough Stuff #6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .88 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. E-mail: 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 Michael Golden. Dr. Strange TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2007 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing. BACK ISSUE is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING. M a g i c

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A Doctor Strange commission by Paul Smith, from the collection of art collector Gerry Turnbull. © 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Ceasar Alvarez The Ancient One Sergio Aragonés Roger Ash Michael Aushenker Terry Austin Cary Bates Spencer Beck Al Bigley Malcolm Bourne Frank Brunner Rick Bryant Aaron Bushey John Byrne Dewey Cassell Rich Cirillo Gary Cohn Gene Colan Ernie Colón Gerry Conway Ray Cuthbert Rich Donnelly Steve Donnelly Michael Dunne Steve Englehart Mark Evanier Tom Field Russ Garwood Keith Giffen Dick Giordano Michael Golden Scott Green Robert Greenberger George Hagenauer Craig Hamilton Allan Harvey Heritage Comics Auctions Richard Howell Don Hudson Adam Hughes Christopher Irving Robert Jewell

FLASHBACK: Orb of Nabu: The 1970s Revival of Dr. Fate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 Walter Simonson, Gerry Conway, Martin Pasko, and Keith Giffen discuss the return of the helmeted JSAer BEYOND CAPES: Paradise Tossed: The Reign and Fall of Amethyst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 A radiant retrospective of the Princess of Gemworld, with creative gems Ernie Colón, Dan Mishkin, and Gary Cohn

PROOFREADER Eric Nolen-Weathington SPECIAL THANKS

INTERVIEW: Golden’s Oldies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 An exclusive interview with artist Michael Golden, exploring BACK ISSUE’s favorite Golden back issues

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Michael Eury

condu cted April 1, 2007 and transc ribed by Brian K. Morris

Three decades ago, Michael Golden rode into town.

On a motorcycle, no less, packing little more than a pencil.

The nomadic artist has since perfected a habit of popping up all over the place: You might find him fluttering the Gotham rooftops, hopping through the cosmos in The Righteous Indignation, hiding out in the Microverse, or slogging toward Saigon. In whichever universe you first discovered Michael Golden, that universe undoubtedly took on a life of its own.

At the 2007 Emerald City ComiCon in Seattle, Washington, Michael Golden kindly interrupted his sketching to pull up a chair with me and look, up close and personal, at a handful of his earliest comics.

—Michael Eury MICHAEL EURY: Let’s start with The Micronauts. I understand that you weren’t the first choice as artist on the book, that George Pérez was supposed to be the Micronauts artist. Do you know anything about this?

MICHAEL GOLDEN: No, that’s the first I’ve ever heard of that, but George is a great artist.

EURY: So you never saw any Pérez Micronauts art floating around?

GOLDEN: No. Bob Hall’s is the only artwork I ever saw.

EURY: Bob Hall had done some art for Micronauts?

GOLDEN: Right. It was just presentation art that he had done—big splashes of the characters running around, and explosions, and that sort of thing.

EURY: So he did this art as a presentation for Marvel to get the Micronauts license from Mego, not necessarily as a tryout to become the artist for the title.

GOLDEN: I don’t think he was ever in line for the art, because ultimately he was the editor for the first couple of issues.

EURY: I’ve uncovered some photocopies of your Micronauts pencils, and I’d like to get your reaction to them. [gesturing toward art photocopies]. These pages are from issue #8.

GOLDEN: Yeah, this is eight. Seven was my Man-Thing issue, I think. So with eight, I finally just gave up and shifted over to making my work look even more like the Kirby stuff for that run.

Michael Golden at War! Golden’s realistic-yet-cartoony art made Marvel Comics’ The ’Nam a surprise hit.

This photocopy of the original cover art to issue #1 (Dec. 1986) was contributed by one-time Marvel artist Don Hudson (check out Don’s blog at Comiculture.com). © 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Beginnings:

misc. Batman stories (late 1977)

Milestones:

Man-Bat and Batman in Batman Family / miscellaneous Batman stories / Mister Miracle / The Micronauts / Bucky O’Hare / Star Wars #38 / Marvel Fanfare / Dr. Strange #55 / The ’Nam / G. I. Joe Yearbook / introduction of the X-Men Rogue in Avengers Annual #10 / Spartan X4 / Birds of Prey / Manga Bucky O’Hare / Michael Golden Monsters poster book / numerous covers on titles including Detective Comics, Nightwing, Ocean, Heroes for Hire, Iron Man, and Midnighter

Works in Progress:

Modern Masters vol. 12: Michael Golden (TwoMorrows) / Excess: The Art of Michael Golden—Comics’ Inimitable Storyteller and How He Does It (Vanguard) / Heroes and Villains sketchbook (Image/Eva Ink) / Creator Chronicles DVD (Woodcrest Productions/ Eva Ink) / Modern Masters in the Studio with Michael Golden DVD (TwoMorrows)

Cyberspace: www.evaink.com

michael golden Photo by Rich Fowlks.

EURY: Was that under editorial direction? Were they not happy with your art?

GOLDEN: The directive I got at that time when working for them was, “Do it like Kirby.” Now, that’s a quote. They wanted the Kirby feel.

Then it was from issue five to issue eight when I just gave up [chuckles] and just basically started doing a Kirby riff. They were pleased as punch with this. I got no more complaints, no more grief, although I would have liked to have given it a different look myself, although, of course, I do respect Kirby.

EURY: We look at your ’70s art now—you and a few other artists who started around the same time, like Marshall Rogers—and you were doing things a little differently. From the readers’ and the fans’ perspective, that was very cool, very exciting. But I’ll bet the corporate side of Marvel and DC was much slower to come around to that kind of thinking, to accept a different style.

GOLDEN: Yeah, definitely. At that point in time, when you went to DC, it was, “Do it like Neal Adams.” And like I said, at Marvel, it was, “Do it like Kirby.” [chuckles] Now, the problem was that they were hiring guys like me and Marshall Rogers, and Walt Simonson and Frank Miller … well, Bill Sienkiewicz was doing Neal at that time … and they were hiring guys whose portfolios already had a unique flavor and feel to it, and they were trying to bend us to their molds of these other artists. And I don’t know about any of the other

Microanuts TM & © Mego Corporation.

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guys, but what I ended up finding out is that I could use some elements from these various artists with my own vision of things and still keep the unique flavor that I felt my work had at the time. That may have just been some sort of like rationalization in my mind, but ultimately, everybody was happy with the artwork.

But I also had to use that material. I mean, I’m not a draftsman anywhere near the par of Neal Adams, now or especially back then. And yet, when I was obliged to use elements of his style and his artwork in my own, I felt it obviously helped. As much as I may have griped and moaned and bitched about it at the time, looking back on it now, I can only say that it added immensely to my understanding of not only my own artwork and the style that I’ve developed over a period of time, but how I did it as well. It’s the whole mentality around it. Now I can do a pretty decent riff of both Neal and Jack Kirby when I need to. [laughter] And laughing at it, there’ve been moments when I’ve needed to do it and it’s helped a lot.

Even then, I've tried to keep my own style in the process.

EURY: So you were directed to draw Batman like Neal Adams. Did that extend to specific artist direction, like working from Neal Adams-drawn Batman model sheets?

GOLDEN: No, no. I think the expectation and, ultimately, the supposition then was much as it is now: They assume you’re a comic-book fan. It’s like, “Why else would you be doing this unless you’re a comic-book reader?” So it’s like I was handicapped right off the bat [chuckles]. So I had to go find this work and learn how to do it, because I wasn’t a student of the comic-book art form at that time. My only familiarity with [comics] was with the Jack Kirby stuff—I was a store manager in Florida and would see his work on the stands. The people who were trying to steer me going toward comic books were all connected to DC, so they were all saying, “You need to look at Neal Adams’ artwork and do it like this.” I don’t think they actually understood that you’ve got to have basic drawing skills to be able to do Neal Adams. So I had to learn all of this stuff after I was in the industry. For me, the learning curve had to be immediate so that I could pull it off and still get work.

EURY: Without that fan-based inspiration, what led you to draw comics for a living?

GOLDEN: Well, it’s actually a long story…. I mean, I’ve always been sort of a storyteller. You know, in little kid talk, I was—well, I was a yarn spinner. [laughter] EURY: You mean, a B.S.’er?

GOLDEN: Yeah, a B.S.’er, whatever. But I had been doing artwork, or a reasonable facsimile thereof, since I was a kid. I liked to draw, I guess, but although I don’t really define it as drawing—it’s just that I sort of had a natural inclination to design, let’s say, as opposed to drawing, because even to this day, I don’t really consider myself much of a draftsman. But during my teenage years, this sort of manifested itself in the sense that I would use artwork to barter things. [chuckles] There was a period of time in my late teens where I was traveling around the country.

EURY: On a motorcycle?

GOLDEN: Yes, yes, yes. You remember that story. Yes, several motorcycles, as a matter of fact, seeing as how one of them didn’t quite make it. [laughter] [Editor’s note: In a pre-interview chat, Michael Golden told Michael Eury about his “Easy Rider” youth—and a spectacular crash from which he was lucky to have survived.]

This was back in the hippie days … we’d all sit around in the park, and I would do a drawing and I’d trade it for food, sustenance, and gas for my motorcycles, or a place to sleep, whatever. That sort of turned into

doing [art for] skateboards and surfboards. You’re old enough to remember the van craze, I guess.

EURY: [singing] “I made love in my Chevy van.” [laughs] There was even a song.

GOLDEN: Yeah. And I started doing vans, and storefronts, billboards, murals, that sort of thing. [chuckles] Eventually I started getting paid for it, as opposed to just bartering it for something else.

And so it eventually turned into a commercial enterprise. And one day, I was doing work for a guy who wasn’t really connected to the comic-book industry, but had “friends of friends of friends,” that sort of thing. And I was doing what he defined as a “comic book” or a “cartoon” art style. It was a very contoured line, very little rendering.

I was doing store illustrations from The Lord of the Rings and stuff like that. He was looking at it and was going, “Ah, that’s very comic-bookish.” Okay, because it was very expressive, or whatever. And he started pushing, at one point, that he knew people in the comic-book industry and that I should be doing this.

And for a period of, like, two years, I just ignored it.

And then one day, I had another friend of a friend who just up and handed me a plane ticket—there’s a little more to that story [Eury laughs]—but basically, they just handed me a plane ticket and said, “Go, see what you can do.” I’d already talked to some people about [going to] New York and they had said, “Well, if you’re working for DC, you do Neal Adams.” So I like did a couple of samples of ripping off Neal Adams’ stuff and mostly, it was just my own storytelling that I did.

EURY: Did you actually work at Neal Adams’ Continuity studio?

GOLDEN: No, I never worked at Continuity. I’ve done work with Continuity and for Continuity, but I’ve never worked at Continuity.

EURY: Did you ever sleep on the Continuity floor?

GOLDEN: Not that I remember. [laughs] EURY: Dick Giordano told me that in the ’70s, a lot of people crashed there.

GOLDEN: I wasn’t one of them. [Eury laughs] But I went up to New York, went into DC one day, and got a Batman story right off the bat. It was a Batman story that I don’t remember.

EURY: For editor Julie Schwartz?

GOLDEN: Yeah. I went in and talked to Vinnie Colletta.

He was the art director at the time, and then he turned right around and walked me down to Julie Schwartz’s office. And Julie immediately gave me a Batman story.

I was doing the Batman story in motels, since I was moving and in transit, back and forth, for that three months. And [right after that] I remember doing a House of Secrets pinup intro page [for issue #148, Oct.–Nov. 1977] with the little fat character, whatever his name was.

EURY: Abel.

GOLDEN: Okay. So there was a friend of somebody I was staying with over in Brooklyn Heights who basically had a large closet that they’d set up a cot in, and that’s where I did that pinup, in that little closet….

EURY: But you don’t want me to title this interview “Michael Golden Came Out of the Closet and Walked into Comics.” [laughs] GOLDEN: [mock pained] No, because that would definitely give the wrong idea, especially if we’re talking about Brooklyn Heights at this point. [laughter] But the next day, the next morning, I went over to Continuity and met Neal Adams and the guys at Continuity. That afternoon, I went over to Marvel and met Marie Severin … I’m pretty sure she was the art director.

But anyway, Marvel gave me a little eight-page story that day and it ran like five years later. They finally published it. Over the next two days, I sat in that little closet and did that story. [Eury laughs] Yeah, it’s all coming back to me…. They wouldn’t let me into the office to turn it in.

EURY: Why wouldn’t they let you into Marvel?

GOLDEN: Because Marie wasn’t there that day, so there was nobody there to let me in. And so I turned it in at the front desk.

Microanuts TM & © Mego Corporation.

Toys Will Be Toys In Micronauts #2 (Feb. 1979), the tiny titans made their way to Earth. By Bill Mantlo/ Michael Golden/Josef Rubinstein. Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Comics Aucitons.

Microanuts TM & © Mego Corporation.

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by

Allan Harvey

TM

It’s the helmet.

That golden, face-obscuring headgear distinguishes Doctor Fate from the competition. It’s what people remember most about him.

“I’ve always been a fan of Dr. Fate,” says Gerry Conway, “probably because I think his mask is cool.”

Keith Giffen agrees: “That helmet’s one of my all-time favorite hero headpieces.”

Created in 1940 by Gardner Fox and Hal Sherman, Dr. Fate was a founding member of the Justice Society of America and starred in his own series for a time, in More Fun Comics #55–98 [reprinted in 2007 in The Golden Age Dr. Fate Archives vol. 1].

However, by 1944 he was gone; the gleam of his golden helmet a dim, yet fond memory.

While the Silver Age had seen revivals of the Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, and the others, poor, old Dr. Fate was left on the shelf. While most of the JSA membership was reimagined as the Justice League of America, there was no Dr. Fate analogue. Editor Julie Schwartz was a fan of science fiction, and magic got short shrift in his comics.

Eventually, of course, the original JSA was revived for annual team-ups with the JLA, and Fate was always along for the ride, but he was never given a solo outing. His appearances outside the group dynamic consisted of team-ups with Hourman in 1965 [in Showcase #55 and 56] and Superman in 1971 [in World’s Finest Comics #208]. Indeed, so ill defined was the good Doctor, that in the WFC story DC couldn’t seem to decide whether his alter ego, Kent Nelson, was an archaeologist or “one of the nation’s top surgeons.”

FROM CONWAY’S CORNER

In 1975, Gerry Conway, newly installed as an editor at DC, decided to change this state of affairs by putting together a proposal for a revival of Dr. Fate. But where to put the story?

“First Issue Special was a brainstorm of [DC publisher] Carmine Infantino,” explains Conway. “Because the first issue of any given comic always seemed to sell better than the subsequent issues, Carmine thought that a comic made up solely of first issues would be a

The Fickle Finger of Fate From the collection of Aaron Bushey comes this 1981 Dr. Fate commission by Walter Simonson. Those of you reading this issue in the downloadable PDF format can enjoy this amazing piece with Steve Oliff’s colors. © 2007 DC Comics.

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hit best-seller. It was a tryout magazine, though not as substantial as the original Showcase. If an editor had an idea for a tryout, he would pitch it to Carmine, who would either approve it, or not, for a First Issue.”

Having successfully pitched his Dr. Fate story, Conway’s next task was to choose a creative team to do the actual work. “I tried to get the best team I could, and as a fan of Walter Simonson, I was eager to see what he’d do with a magical setting. And I’ve always enjoyed Marty Pasko’s writing.”

Martin Pasko was then a relatively new writer making waves at DC, and keen to work on Conway’s brainchild. “I jumped at the assignment,” he recalls, “less for the character than for the chance to work with Walt Simonson, whom I had known for a couple of years. I would’ve said yes to Gerry’s offer no matter what the property was.”

Walter Simonson had been a professional artist for just a few years, and the Fate story would provide him with one of his first full-length art jobs. Prior to this he had mainly produced short backup tales for anthology comics. The exuberance of an artist finally being allowed to cut loose is visible on the completed pages.

“I think it was probably my second full-length story after the final Manhunter tale,” says Simonson.

The Pasko-written/ Simonson-drawn splash to First Issue Special #9 (Dec. 1975). © 2007 DC Comics.

“It felt great. Marty and I thought we had a story that deserved some length and we got it. The whole experience was a lot of fun.

“There was probably some additional cachet about doing a full-length story back then as well. At the time—at least at DC, where I had been doing most of my work—the company brought you along slowly.

You started out doing short stories, say, in the horror/ mystery comics or war books or whatever. And, as you paid your dues, you sort of moved up into longer material. Doing a full-length story was a little like gaining a certain level of professional acceptance or acknowledgment for your work. You had kind of made the grade.”

Pasko: “I would never want to seem so grandiose or arrogant as to take any credit for Walt’s later success as a writer-artist, and I don’t, but I do hope my enthusiasm for Walt’s storytelling skills helped give him the impetus to stretch later on. I actually said to him, ‘What do you need me for? You should be doing this yourself.’

“I remember that after I finished my second job with him (on Metal Men), I told him I’d learned more about scene structure and pacing in our brief collaboration than from any of my editors or colleagues, or from my own trial-and-error.”

Having chosen his team, Conway sat down with Pasko and Simonson for a story conference to discuss ideas and decide upon a direction for the revived hero.

They didn’t feel the need to be too reverent to what had gone before.

“We could have done a lot of research,” says Pasko, “and, yes, the bound volumes in the library had all the old stories which we could have read—but there wasn’t much point. I think the consensus among Gerry, Walt, and me was that if Fate were anything we needed to be strictly faithful to, DC would’ve been exploiting it more by then, the way they had gotten so much mileage out of other JSA properties like the Flash or Green Lantern. I guess you could say we approached it as a ‘demi-retconning.’”

“We had a fine time working together,” says Simonson. “I’m guessing that we worked plot-first style. I know that I very rarely worked from full scripts back in the day. And I know that Marty and I did some collaborating on the plot, which probably means I kibitzed here and there.”

Pasko concurs. “I work full-script exclusively today, but that Fate story was done plot/pencils/ dialogue, probably the only one of the very few jobs I’ve done that way that I’m still happy with.

The retconning wasn’t done in a separate, formal document, but if you were to edit together my story conference notes, my typewritten page breakdowns, and a transcription of Walt’s marginal notes, you’d get the equivalent of a series bible that any other writer could have made an ongoing series out of, with the First Issue Special as the pilot.”

THE CURSE OF ANUBIS

The resulting comic was finally published as First Issue Special #9, cover-dated Dec. 1975. The tale opens with the escape of a murderous Egyptian mummy from a sarcophagus held within the Boston Museum of Egyptology. Called Khalis, it soon attacks Dr. Fate, who finds himself helpless before a powerful foe.

Overwhelmed, Fate collapses, and Khalis tears the Amulet of Nabu from his chest. Alarmingly, it seems that Fate’s Amulet is the source of Khalis’ power.

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by

Jim Kingman

In The Dictionary of Imaginary Places by Alberto Manguel and Gianni Guadalupi, there is a space between “Gem of Truth Island” and “Geneliabin” where an entry for “Gemworld” should be placed, for the Gemworld is a wondrous home of magic as splendid as the landscapes of Narnia, Wonderland, Oz, and MiddleEarth. It’s not a land easily stumbled upon, however, as its history, recounted in the pages of Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld, has been relegated to white storage boxes in comic-book shops, personal comic-book collections, antique-shop shelves, and the tops of flea-market tables. And the adventures of Amethyst, once the stuff of fairy tales and epic fantasy, is now a practically forgotten account of paradise tossed.

The chronicles of Amethyst spanned three comic-book series published by DC Comics during the 1980s. The first, Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld, was a 12-issue maxiseries that ran from February 1983 to January 1984. The second series, again entitled Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld, was an ongoing title published from late 1984 through the spring of 1986, and was preceded by an Amethyst Annual released in 1984 and concluded with an Amethyst Special. The third and final series, Amethyst, was a four-issue miniseries published in late 1987.

Amethyst, as set forth in Amethyst #1, was in “our” reality young Amy Winston, living with her parents, Herb and Marion, in the town of Hudson, New York. On her 13th birthday, Amy was mysteriously given an amethyst, then kidnapped by an ogre and taken to another dimension known as Gemworld. There she immediately transformed into a 20-year-old, both physically and mentally. After being rescued from certain doom at the hands of the villainous Dark Opal, the self-imposed despotic ruler of Gemworld, Amy soon learned that she was the heir to the decaying Amethyst kingdom, and that she had been taken to Earth as an infant years before to escape Dark Opal’s villainous clutches. But even though Amy’s adventures as Amethyst began with this opening sequence, we are still slightly ahead of the princess’ true beginnings.

CHANGING THE CHANGELING

The concept of Amethyst began in our reality of the late 1970s in the creative minds of writers Dan Mishkin and Gary Cohn, friends since the eighth grade.

Originally Amethyst was called the Changeling, but when Marv Wolfman and George Pérez revived the Teen Titans in 1980 and changed Beast Boy’s name to Changeling, Mishkin and Cohn’s character needed a new moniker. After some thought, “Amethyst” was agreed upon, and this sparked the expansion of the concept to incorporate other gems as character and place names.

Amethyst’s development remained on the writing duo’s mental back burners as they sold their first story to DC, a three-page short for Time Warp; were assigned the “OMAC” feature in the back of The Warlord; picked up “I … Vampire” in House of Mystery; and even squeezed in solo stints, with Mishkin writing Wonder Woman and Cohn scripting a new series, “The Barren Earth,” for the back of The Warlord. When editor Dave Manak requested an ongoing series for Ghosts, Mishkin and Cohn proposed Amethyst. Manak thought it was so good that he encouraged them to develop it into its own series.

Soon after the Amethyst proposal was brought before then-editorial director Dick Giordano and publisher Jenette Kahn, the project was green-lighted. Mishkin and Cohn wanted Ernie Colón to illustrate the series, as both admired his work on Atlas Comics’ short-lived Grim Ghost series published in 1975. Colón, however, was editor of several DC books at that time, but high praise from Cohn and Mishkin convinced him to pencil

© 2007 DC Comics.

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and ink the series. Growing pains held up the series for a spell as Colón found his comfort zone, which led to some revising of the early issues, but writers and artist eventually struck a complementary stride and the results were magical.

Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld #1 was published in February 1983 (with a May cover date), but her first appearance actually came a month earlier in a special Amethyst preview inserted into the center of Legion of Super-Heroes #298 (Apr. 1983). In the story, Amethyst and her friend Granch, Dark Opal’s deformed firstborn son, traveled to a cave in the Bog of One Thousand Despairs to steal a portion of the Well of Vision for Amy’s new mentor, the witch-mother Citrina.

It was a difficult mission, and tested Amethyst’s developing powers, but the pair did emerge successful, retrieving the water while in battle with Dark Opal.

This episode occurred sometime during the first half of the maxiseries.

ADVENTURES IN GEMWORLD

At last we return to Amethyst #1 and subsequent issues of the maxiseries.

Most heroic fantasy adventures involve a quest of some sort, and while Amethyst was no exception, the difference was that it was the villain, Dark Opal, Lord of the House of Opal, who required a material object to achieve his goal of absolute control over the other eleven Houses of Gemworld (Garnet, Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Turquoise, Topaz, Diamond, Aquamarine, Moonstone, Sardonyx, and Amethyst). Over the 20 years since he murdered Lord and Lady Amethyst and assumed rule of Gemworld, Dark Opal had been collecting fragments of the various gemstones from each kingdom to place on a breastplate that once forged and worn would give him unlimited power to vanquish once and for all any challenges to overthrow his rule. But with Amethyst’s return, Opal’s mission became two-fold: to destroy the heir to the Amethyst throne and to attain the last gemstone fragment he required, which happened to be an amethyst. The first four issues of the maxiseries focused on Opal’s failed attempts to kill Amethyst.

Since time in the Gemworld was not on the same continuum as time on Earth, Amy’s first 13 years measured 20 in Gemworld. Upon each arrival in the Gemworld she physically aged seven years, while on returning to Earth Amethyst reverted to 13 years of age. While her mental faculties underwent the same radical shift, she almost always thought of herself as Amy at 13. Throughout the first half of the maxiseries Amy traveled back to Earth and forth to Gemworld in-between captures, escapes, and rescues. Once she decided to remain in Gemworld to lead the revolt against Dark Opal, Amethyst proved a sharp learner during a number of training sessions. She developed into a strong warrior, leader, and practitioner of magic.

Also during the course of the first six issues, several supporting characters, including Citrina, witch-mother loyal to the House of Amethyst, and Carnelian, Opal’s adopted son from Earth, were introduced. Other kingdoms made their first appearances, notably Topaz and Emerald, with their intriguing political ties to Opal’s continued dominance, but all additions to the main story were at a controlled pace that never confused or overwhelmed the reader.

How Carnelian received a mechanical hand in place of the one destroyed in Amethyst #6 was explained in Amethyst’s team-up with Superman in DC Comics Presents #63 (Nov. 1983). This episode took place before events depicted in Amethyst #7 (Nov. 1983).

With the arranged wedding ceremony of Prince Topaz and Lady Sapphire in Amethyst #7 (arranged in Dark Opal’s favor, of course), the series kicked into high gear and never let up (even a brief respite explaining how the Gemworld’s origins were tied to our planet Earth was impressive). Amethyst made her first public appearance at the ceremony before all the gathered rulers of the Gemworld Houses, and her dramatic announcement that she would lead a revolt against Dark Opal and his minions inspired Prince Topaz to abort the wedding and side with Amethyst.

Amethyst #12 (Apr. 1984) presented a stirring climax and conclusion to the maxiseries as Amethyst led the united Houses in an assault on Dark Opal’s kingdom (that did not include whole armies, only the rulers of each House). Sardonyx had crossed over to the good side after Opal had sacrificed him to the other-dimensional emissaries of Varn. On closer scrutiny, each page ends with dramatic force, beginning with Sardonyx’s escape from the Varn emissaries, then shifting to the siege on Fortress Opal, and, finally, the fall of Dark Opal at Carnelian’s hand. With Dark Opal’s passing there was the inspiring return of beauty and peace to the Gemworld, and the

The covers to Amethyst’s preview insert from Legion of Super-Heroes #298 (Apr. 1983), and a behind-the-scenes look at the then-new series in Amazing Heroes #20 (Feb. 1983). Art by Ernie Colón.

Amethyst TM & © DC Comics. Amazing Heroes TM & © Fantagraphics.

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Marshall Rogers: A Look Back

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When Marshall Rogers passed away during the weekend of March 23, 2007 at the age of 57, he left behind a varied and impressive body of work. Marshall broke into comics in the late ’70s. “I admired Marshall because he didn’t immediately get accepted into the industry,” says artist and editor Al Milgrom. “He kept bringing up samples and getting rejected. In those days, a lot of the guys broke in at 20, 21. He kept knocking on the doors and bringing back new and improved samples until he finally got in. I think he was 27 before he actually started getting work.”

That dedication led to him drawing a two-part “Daughters of the Dragon” story in Marvel’s Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #32 and 33 (Jan. and Feb. 1977), with writer Chris Claremont. It also led to his first work with inker Terry Austin.

Austin recalls that their first project together was a backup story in Detective Comics #466 (Dec. 1976), featuring Green Arrow against a new villain called the Calculator [Editor’s note: See BACK ISSUE #12 for a Calculator history], followed by a second backup featuring Hawkman.

These backups led to a book-length story in issue #468. “I think Jim Aparo was supposed to do it,” says Austin. “Something happened to Aparo, and they gave it to us.

“We got a lot of flak for it from folks up at DC. I remember being screamed at by one guy in particular. Marshall got called into this guy’s office first, and he was livid.

He basically thought that we were going to bring the company down because we had done this terrible thing to poor Batman,” Austin laughs. “I remember Marshall stumbling out of the office white-faced after being screamed at for about half an hour. Then it was my turn. I walked into the office and the guy looked at me and said, ‘There’s nothing you can do to save this. Get out!’ He was so tired from screaming at Marshall that I got a pass that day.

“Later, I was up at DC and Paul Levitz told me that the Batman we had done had gotten a lot of response. We were going to be the new team on the book. I ran back to Continuity [Associates studio] to tell Marshall.”

Marshall’s run on Detective with writer Steve Englehart and inker Terry Austin became his best known work. He often returned to Batman during his career, including a Batman newspaper strip (1989), Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #132–136 in 2000, and even a Batman parody in Marvel’s Howard the Duck Magazine #8 (Nov. 1980). Coinciding with his Detective Comics run, Marshall also illustrated a four-issue run on Mister Miracle.

In the early ’80s, Marshall began a long association with Eclipse Comics. His first work for them was the one-shot Detectives, Inc.: A Remembrance of Threatening Green (May 1980), with Don McGregor. This murder mystery was intended for adults and the characters’ sexuality played a large part in the story. “Marshall never flinched when it came to sexuality in the book, straight or gay, he illustrated it honestly and daringly,” remembers McGregor.

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Roger Ash

“I couldn’t know, then, how lucky I was on another front, because Marshall had such a background in architecture, but I wanted the New York boroughs to be an integral part of the series,” McGregor continues. “If you want to see Manhattan and environs in the 1980s, just look at Marshall’s renderings of the Weather Castle in Central Park, or a housing tract in Queens, or 42nd Street.”

Other work for Eclipse included such stories as the “Coyote” series in Eclipse, The Magazine and the title Scorpio Rose, both written by Steve Englehart. “Slab” in Eclipse, The Magazine #1 (May 1981) introduced Marshall’s creation, Klonsbon the Foozle, an odd bird-like creature. The Foozle eventually joined forces with Cap’n Quick, a young boy with magic shoes, in the pages of Eclipse Monthly and three issues of their own series, Cap’n Quick & a Foozle (1984). The series was an odd romp that featured space pirates, rat businessmen, a sleazy salesman, flying gloves, and more.

There was also an unpublished Foozle story. Englehart and Rogers had planned to work on a series called SunDancer, which was based on what Englehart had planned to do with Star-Lord at Marvel. A man from Earth would visit each planet in our solar system, having adventures that would make him into an incredible being. “I wrote a 60-page script of SunDancer on Mercury and the Foozle was in that,” says Englehart. “But nothing ever came of it.”

Marshall worked on other projects during the ’80s, including Marvel’s Doctor Strange, G. I. Joe, and Silver Surfer, and an adaptation of Harlan Ellison’s script for Demon with a Glass Hand for DC. He left comics to work on other projects for most of the ’90s, but returned in the 2000s with such books as Green Lantern: Evil’s Might (2002) and Batman: Dark Detective (2005), the latter of which being a new story reuniting the creative team of Englehart, Rogers, and Austin.

At the time of his death, Marshall was working on Batman: Dark Detective III. “I wrote all six scripts,” says Steve Englehart.

“He had done most of the artwork on the first issue. DC told me that they do not plan to go ahead with it. I think that’s too bad for a couple of reasons.

“One is Marshall was really into the Batman. He wouldn’t have been happy about the book not coming out. Secondly, it’s a good story, if I may say. Thirdly, this goes under that section of cosmic weirdness, when I wrote the first one back in the ’70s, the final page of the final story ends by saying, ‘He is gone.’ I was deliberately referring to me as well as Batman because I was leaving comics—I thought—and the country—I knew. In this third Dark Detective, by total happenstance, it ends with the words ‘He is gone.’ This time, it seems to mean something that it didn’t mean a few weeks ago.”

MARSHALL ROGERS ART GALLERY (left) Marshall Rogers’ late-1970s run on Detective Comics was so popular that the artist was hired to produce a Batman portfolio in 1981, published by S. Q. Productions.

Scan courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions. (below) Rogers teamed with writer Max Allan Collins on the Batman newspaper strip, revived in 1989 during the Dark Knight’s moviespawned wave of popularity.

Original art from the Nov. 8, 1989 daily, signed by the artist and writer and courtesy of George Hagenauer. © 2007 DC Comics.

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Marshall Rogers made a name for himself in comics with his landmark run on DC’s Detective Comics with writer Steve Englehart and inker Terry Austin in the late ’70s. That was followed by the adult urban mystery graphic novel from Eclipse, Detectives Inc.: A Remembrance of Threatening Green, with writer Don McGregor. By the early ’80s, Marshall changed his focus from the darkened streets and alleyways for a place very different, but just as dangerous. He moved into mystical realms.

His first venture into stories of magic began with writer Steve Englehart. Their Batman stories were very successful, so “DC was trying to find things that they could do with us,” recalls Englehart. “I forget the complete specifics of it, but they said, do this one issue fill-in for Madame Xanadu. So that’s what we did.”

To capitalize on the Englehart/Rogers team, according to Englehart, the story was moved from a fill-in issue to a special issue and Madame Xanadu #1 (1981) was a reality. In the story, Madame Xanadu first stops a junkie named Joseph Greene from robbing her home then assists him in getting help at a nearby clinic. The next morning, a lady named Laura Grant arrives. Her aunt used to practice witchcraft and Laura found a strange and powerful book among her possessions. Using her Tarot deck, Madame Xanadu predicts the book will only bring disaster and asks her to leave it. She refuses. Laura and Joseph meet and are smitten with each other, but the book begins to corrupt them. In the end, they are saved with help from Madame Xanadu.

DC did not want this to be the end of Madame Xanadu.

Englehart says DC approached him about doing two more issues so they could turn it into a three-issue miniseries. “I said, ‘It was a complete story. There isn’t any more to it.’ The editor I was dealing with said, ‘Well, I will pay you more than your going rate if you’ll do this.’ At the end of the day, I am a freelancer, so I said okay. I came up with a way to turn this into two more parts and then wrote it.”

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Dr. Strange © 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

MADAME XANADU AND SCORPIO ROSE

by

Roger Ash

(right) Rogers was famous for panel-packed pages that remarkably, to the artist’s credit, never seemed crowded, like this one from DC’s Madame Xanadu one-shot.

From the collection of Yoram Matzkin.

Madame Xanadu © 2007 DC Comics.

When Englehart went to turn the scripts in, he learned that the editor didn’t have the authority to offer him that much money, so he would not be paid what he was promised. He took the two scripts, along with a Superman/Creeper script he had written for DC Comics Presents, and left.

“Marshall was good friends with the Mullaney brothers, Dean and Jan, who were just getting their company, Eclipse, off the ground,” Englehart recalls. “They wanted to do comics. They said, ‘We will pay you the rate that DC promised you if you’ll do the stories for us.’ Marshall said, ‘Let me take the Superman and Creeper story and see what I can do to turn that into something, and you go see what you can do with Madame Xanadu.’ Marshall then did a story where the Creeper turned into the Foozle, a character that he’d had in mind for a long time [‘Slab’ in Eclipse, The Magazine #1]. Meanwhile, I turned Madame Xanadu into Scorpio Rose. I created the complete history of Scorpio Rose and worked out all the details of an actual, freestanding character. It was a weird combination of circumstances, but that’s how Marshall ended up with the Foozle and I ended up with Scorpio Rose.”

In addition to the lead story, Marshall also illustrated a Doctor Orient backup strip. The story was written by Frank Lauria and featured the psychic detective from his novels.

While Englehart created the story, the look of Scorpio Rose was Marshall’s. “If I did anything, I might have asked for her hair color, and I’m not even sure I did that,” says Englehart. “Certainly, the whole leotard thing was Marshall. He had a thing for leotards. In Batman: Dark Detective III that he was going to do before he died, we had a vampire in it and he put her in a leotard, which was an odd choice for a vampire, I thought.”

The story involved a young-looking gypsy woman who was being attacked by servants of a mysterious master who wants the “Book of Fleshe”

(far left) A 1981 promotional piece

by Marshall Rogers for the Eclipse Comics series he co-created with Steve Englehart, Scorpio Rose.

Courtesy of Yoram Matzkin. (left) Another Rogers-illustrated gem from the Yoram Matzkin collection: the original cover art to Scorpio Rose #1.

Scorpio Rose © Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers.

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TM

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Dan Johnson

In the early to mid-1970s, Frank Brunner, along with writer Steve Englehart, helped redefine Marvel’s Sorcerer Supreme. Under their direction, Dr. Strange was taken to whole new daring levels, and they created one of the company’s most famous storylines, where Dr. Strange met his maker … literally.

In May 2007, BACK ISSUE was able to sit down with Brunner, and we got the inside story on his time drawing Dr. Strange.

—Dan Johnson DAN JOHNSON: How did you come to work on Dr. Strange?

FRANK BRUNNER: I had done a tryout page of Dr. Strange back in 1969, and I sent a copy to Marvel.

Later, when Roy Thomas became editor, he gave me several short horror stories to see what I could do.

Then, when Dr. Strange was trying out in Marvel Premiere, Roy offered the book to me. The rest is comic-book history!

JOHNSON: Since you used Dr. Strange as the subject of your tryout, I take it then that you were a fan of the character right from the start.

BRUNNER: I always felt I was destined to draw Dr. Strange!

JOHNSON: You’ve always worked on books that weren’t the typical super-hero fare, but was there every any talk about you taking over one of the other Marvel characters before Doctor Strange?

BRUNNER: A book like Doctor Strange may not be a top title, but when an artist works on, say, Spider-Man or Captain America, he gives up his freedom and integrity for more money and popularity. With Doctor © 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. Strange, I could get away with a lot more, and my work was not being scrutinized by the higher-ups!

Sorcerer Supreme A never-before-published pencil commission of Dr. Strange by Frank Brunner, contributed by the artist, to whom we extend a BIG BI thank you!

Dr. Strange © 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Beginnings:

Fan club sketch in Creepy #10 (Aug. 1966)

Milestones:

Creepy / Eerie / Vampirella / Man-Thing / Doctor Strange Howard the Duck / Red Sonja / Warp! / The Seven Samuroid graphic novel / collected work over the years on Elric

Works in Progress:

Mythos: Fantasy Art Realms of Frank Brunner (art book from Vanguard Productions, shipping Oct. 2007)

Cyberspace:

www.frankbrunner.net

FRANK BRUNNER Photo courtesy of Frank Brunner.

FRANK BRUNNER DR. STRANGE CHECKLIST Key: cp (cover pencils); c (cover art); pl (plot/co-plot); p (interior pencils); i (interior inks); col (colors) Marvel Premiere #4 (Sept. 1972): cp, i #6 (Jan. 1973): p #9 (July 1973): c, pl, p (1st Steve Englehart collaboration) #10 (Sept. 1973): c, pl, p, col #11 (Oct. 1973): c, p, i (3-page framing sequence for Lee/Ditko reprints) #12 (Nov. 1973): c, pl, p, i (as one of the “Crusty Bunkers”), col #13 (Jan. 1974): c, pl, p #14 (Mar. 1974): c, pl, p Doctor Strange vol. 2 #1 (June 1974): c, pl, p #2 (Aug. 1974): c, pl, p, col #3 (Sept. 1974): c, p (1.5-page framing sequence for Lee/Ditko reprint) #4 (Oct. 1974): c, pl, p #5 (Dec. 1974): c, pl, p #6 (Feb. 1975): c #22 (Apr. 1977): c #28 (Apr. 1978): c #29 (June 1978): c #30 (Aug. 1978): c #33 (Feb. 1979): c © 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Years later, of course, I see John Romita on TV taking bows for his Spider-Man work. Yeah, that’s nice, but I know it was really Spidey the readers loved! No matter who drew it or how mainstream-mediocre the art was!

As for more popular titles, I was offered … yeah [there were] a few, but they were all monthlies, and I needed more time to craft my books.

JOHNSON: Since you were a fan of Dr. Strange before you became his official artist, let me get your thoughts on the men and the woman who worked on him before you. What did you think of the character’s co-creator, Steve Ditko’s, work?

BRUNNER: Ditko was the reason I was attracted to the character in the first place! His weird panoramics and lighting were just great, and way above his Spider-Man, good as that was!

JOHNSON: Ditko was really allowed to run free on “Dr. Strange”, and I think even more than Spider-Man, Doc was his creation. I’m curious, did you ever have a chance to meet Ditko or talk to him?

BRUNNER: Nope! He’s not really available for meetings.

JOHNSON: I was wondering, because I have spoken to several Marvel staffers who were there in the late 1970s and 1980s who did get the chance to get to know Ditko. I will never forget talking with Ann Nocenti one day, and Tom DeFalco the next, and both of them told me how Ditko would come into the Marvel offices and stay a while to chat with them over coffee [during the 1980s]. I will admit, I was certainly jealous!

BRUNNER: How surprising that Ditko later came out of hiding! By that time, I was living in California.

JOHNSON: What did you think about the Dr. Strange art of former EC staffer, Marie Severin?

BRUNNER: Marie was good, very good! But she did not really add anything new [to the character].

JOHNSON: How about Gene Colan?

BRUNNER: Gene’s work was absolutely great and added that touch of realism and surrealism that was essential to Doc’s world. Unfortunately, his Dr. Strange started wearing a silly non-descript mask, which I thought was unnecessary.

I like to think [that] I was a meld of Colan’s and Ditko’s work, but with a new Cosmic Awareness!

JOHNSON: How did you like working with Steve Englehart on Doctor Strange?

BRUNNER: Steve was my choice to write “my” Dr. Strange. Roy gave me the opportunity to pick a writer, and that is who I picked! Steve and I worked very well together, with me usually doing the plotting and he, the dialogue and characterization. It was a lot of fun while it lasted!

JOHNSON: Speaking of fun, tell the BACK ISSUE readers how your most famous “Dr. Strange” story arc, the Sise-Neg Saga [in Marvel Premiere #13 and 14], came about.

BRUNNER: It was during my umpteenth viewing of the movie Camelot, [and I was] rather stoned at the time.

All of a sudden, while Merlin was explaining he was living backwards in time, it hit me like a ton of bricks: What if you were immortal and lived all the way back to the beginning of the cosmos and time itself? The story possibilities were fantastic, I extrapolated. Then this immortal would be as God in the vast nothingness! And this immortal, Sise-Neg, also happened to be a scientist-sorcerer, and having absorbed all the magic and arcane wisdom he encountered on his journey could recreate the cosmos as he wished!

So the story quickly took shape once I explained the concept to my co-writer, Englehart, after he caught up with me, in the Vapors of Valtor, that is.

MICHAEL GOLDEN

Doctor Strange Art Gallery

The Sorcerer Supreme by Six Superstar Artists

Plate three (“Clea”) from our coverfeatured artist’s 1983 Doctor Strange Portfolio.

Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions. © 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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© 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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A 2007 pencil portrait by the 1970s’ foremost illustrator of the Master of the Mystic Arts.

Published with the kind permission of the artist.

by

Dan Johnson

cond ucte d May 16, 2007

When it comes to impressive magic acts in comics, the character of Dr. Strange has always had the ability to thrill his reading audience and leave them cheering.

Like all good magicians, though, Dr. Strange needs the help of his trusty assistants, in this case the writers and artists who crafted his adventures.

Of the men who have drawn the exploits of this character, two of the most talented are Gene Colan and Paul Smith. Recently BACK ISSUE brought these two together to discuss Dr. Strange, as well as their love for making the impossible seem all too easy.

—Dan Johnson DAN JOHNSON: First of all, let me thank both of you gentleman for sitting down with me today for this edition of BACK ISSUE. The theme of this issue is “magic,” and when it comes to comic books, you can’t talk about sorcery without discussing Dr. Strange.

PAUL SMITH: I’ll buy that!

JOHNSON: Indeed, Dr. Strange’s creation was a change of pace from the various science-based heroes Marvel Comics had created previously. After all, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Spider-Man, and even the X-Men were rooted in science in some form or another. Dr. Strange, though, really opened up a whole new territory for the company, and I think he brought in a whole new group of readers who really were into the fantasy elements of the series. To begin, I wanted to find out how each of you came to work on this character.

GENE COLAN: I don’t remember how I got [the assignment to draw Doctor Strange]. It was just something that had been offered to me by Stan Lee. But I enjoyed it.

Working on Doctor Strange took me to another level.

JOHNSON: Gene, one of the things Dr. Strange fans loved about your time on the book was that you brought a terrific gothic feel to the character.

COLAN: That was sort of how I pictured the series, but sometimes these things have an unconscious way [of unfolding]. The gothic feel was something that just kind of crept in, but evidently I was thinking of putting Dr. Strange into that form and it worked out very well.

The series could have been set in a regular place, but Greenwich Village was written in the script as being the place where Dr. Strange lived, and there was a description, too, of the kind of house he lived in.

[The house] itself was kind of crazy-looking, but it belonged in the Village.

SMITH: Dr. Strange’s house was one of those great “bigger on the inside than it is on the outside” [places].

Master of the Pencil Art We can never get enough of “Gentleman” Gene Colan’s gorgeous graphite art. This 2006 commissioned illo is courtesy of Gerry Turnbull. © 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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GENE COLAN DR. STRANGE CHECKLIST

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 Dr. Strange © 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. Art courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions.

Beginnings: Pinups in King Conan #7 (1981) and “Daredevil” story in Marvel Fanfare #1 (1982)

Milestones: Various animation projects including films with Ralph Bakshi / Marvel Fanfare / Doctor Strange / Uncanny X-Men / Nexus / X-Factor / The Golden Age / Leave it to Chance / Iron Man / Spider-Man/Human Torch / Kitty Pryde: Shadow and Flame

Work in Progress: On sabbatical and plotting his next move, but taking commission requests

Cyberspace: trhgallery.com

PAUL SMITH Dr. Strange © 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. Art courtesy of Gerry Turnbull.

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Key: cp (cover pencils); c (cover art); l/o (layouts); p (interior pencils); i (interior inks) Doctor Strange vol. 1 #172 (Sept. 1968): cp, p #173 (Oct. 1968): p #174 (Nov. 1968): cp, p #175 (Dec. 1968): cp, p #176 (Jan. 1969): cp, p #178 (Mar. 1969): cp, p #180 (May 1969): cp, p #181 (July 1969): cp, p #182 (Sept, 1969): cp, p #183 (Nov. 1969): cp, p Doctor Strange vol. 2 #6 (Feb. 1975): p #7 (Apr. 1975): p #8 (June 1975): p #9 (Aug. 1975): p #10 (Oct. 1975): cp, p #11 (Dec. 1975): cp, p #12 (Feb. 1976): cp, p #13 (Apr. 1976): cp, p #14 (May 1976): cp, p #15 (June 1976): cp, p #16 (July 1976): cp, p #17 (Aug. 1976): cp, p #18 (Sept. 1976): cp, p #19 (Oct. 1976): cp #21 (Feb. 1977): cp #23 (June 1977): cp #27 (Feb. 1978): cp #35 (June 1979): cp #36 (Aug. 1979): cp, p #37 (Oct. 1979): p #38 (Dec. 1979): p #39 (Feb. 1980): p #40 (Apr. 1980): p #41 (June 1980): p #42 (Aug. 1980): p #43 (Oct. 1980): p #44 (Dec. 1980): p #45 (Feb. 1981): p #47 (June 1981): p Dr. Strange, Sorcerer Supreme vol. 3 #19 (July 1990): c, p

PAUL SMITH DR. STRANGE CHECKLIST Doctor Strange vol. 2 #54 (Aug. 1982): p for 5.5 pages #56 (Dec. 1982): c, p #65 (June 1984): c, p #66 (Aug. 1984): c, p, i #68 (Dec. 1984): c, p #69 (Feb. 1985): p, i #71 (June 1985): c, p, i #72 (Aug. 1985): p, i #73 (Oct. 1985): l/o

COLAN: Yeah. I showed some of the actual architecture from the Village, some of the older buildings, and I mixed it in with my own view of the rest of it. You get a chance to make things up as you go along, so some of [Dr. Strange’s Greenwich Village] is real and some of it is not.

JOHNSON: Paul, how did you come to work on Doctor Strange?

SMITH: I had just gotten to Marvel, and had a couple of things in Marvel Fanfare, but I was in California at the time and I just showed up on Marvel’s doorstep and walked out with Doctor Strange.

JOHNSON: Now, this was after your initial tryout a few years before, right? I remember you telling me about that and the sign you got that indicated where you would eventually end up.

SMITH: That was with the Frank Brunner Doctor Strange pages. In 1975, my late brother, Willie, was graduating from the Kingsport Academy out on Long Island, and so the whole family went out for his graduation. Now, I was full of myself, and barely out of high school, and I took my portfolio with me and I was going to get a job at Marvel Comics. I never got through the front door, but a nice lady by the name of Irene Vartanoff came out to talk to me and she gave me a number of Frank Brunner pages to ink, which I did, and I did not get a job.

JOHNSON: Even if you didn’t walk away with a job with Marvel then, there is still a sense of what was destined to be with you being given Doctor Strange pages to ink.

In speaking with Frank Brunner, I get the sense that he knew he was going to eventually draw the character.

It seems the fates had a similar sign in store for you.

SMITH: I don’t know if that was official Marvel policy or just Irene’s idea. I know Frank seemed to be surprised [when he found out I had been given those pages as a tryout]. Irene may have just thought that we were both young, so maybe Frank’s work would be a better match for me. I don’t know why she would make a decision on my art—she hadn’t even seen it at this point.

I don’t know if it was predestination or not, but it is a funny story. It will get that Twilight Zone theme song gong through your head.

JOHNSON: So, when did you get a job with Marvel Comics?

SMITH: Every time I tried to get a job at Marvel, I got turned away! Finally, I am sitting at home one day, minding my own business and watching the fish tank, when Christy Marx calls me and says, “Marvel Comics wants you to work for them”!

COLAN: That’s terrific!

SMITH: I’m thinking, “How the heck do they even know I am alive?” It turned out Christy had gone to New York to get a job as a writer, and at the end of every one of her interviews, she said, “If you have another minute, could you take a look at this,” and she showed them a small portfolio of my work that she had taken to New York with her, unbeknownst to me.

COLAN: And they went for it.

SMITH: They didn’t all go for it, except for Al Milgrom. Al was the only guy who liked the portfolio, but he said there was no story work [in my samples] and he needed to see story work. Al asked me if I would do up three or four story pages. I told him that time was money, and I was working as a professional artist out in California, so I asked if I could do a story on spec. That way if he liked it, he could use it and he wouldn’t have to throw it out and have me start over again. So my first Marvel story ended up being a Daredevil story [for Marvel Fanfare #1 (Mar. 1982)].

So, Gene, we not only have Doctor Strange in common, we also have Daredevil, Iron Man, and Howard the Duck.

JOHNSON: Initially, Paul, you stayed with the book for just a couple of months and then you left to work on X-Men. Of course, you did return to the character eventually.

SMITH: Yes, I did wind up on X-Men, which I left originally to go do Green Lantern, but DC reneged on me and Steve Grant. So I ended up coming back to Marvel and picked up Doctor Strange again. [When I first worked on Doctor Strange,] it was so early in my career, I was mainly just trying to learn how to draw and tell a story at that point. Of course, I was so heavily influenced by Ditko, I don’t know if I ever brought anything original to the series like Gene did.

JOHNSON: I wanted to get your thoughts about Steve Ditko’s “Dr. Strange” and Marie Severin’s work on the series after he left.

COLAN: I knew Marie well, but I didn’t know Steve Ditko at all. I never met him. I’ve seen his work on the book and it was very unusual, but I tried not to be influenced by his work. The only artist I was ever influenced by early, early on in my career was Milton Caniff. Other than that, there wasn’t any other particular artist I was influenced by, but I must have borrowed an awful lot of stuff like technique and style even.

Style is like handwriting, you can’t hide it no matter what you think. Style can be spotted by people who pay attention to art.

JOHNSON: I always thought you and Paul both had pretty distinctive styles, myself. Gene, if you were borrowing from anyone, you certainly added your own spin to it and made it your own.

COLAN: Well, thank you.

SMITH: Before I get to my answer, I wanted to ask Gene a question, if I could…

Since you mentioned Caniff, which was so close to what my guess was going to be since you said you were only influenced by one artist, I was going to say it was Noel Sickels.

COLAN: I think they both worked together.

SMITH: They were similar, but you are more into Terry and the Pirates.

COLAN: I didn’t know about Sickles at that time … that was in the 1930s. I didn’t know about Sickels until one day during the war, I came upon Air Life Magazine, and a series of black-and-white illustrations— SMITH: Those were the ones I’m talking about!

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Baron in a Bowl Another previously unpublished Smith commission from the Turnbull collection. © 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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In 1985, Cary Bates had a choice to make. After years of writing Superman and the Flash, both of those heroes were revamped (or killed and revamped, or retconned or, well, you get the idea, changed from what they once were). Two of Cary’s biggest assignments were no more. I’ll let Cary himself explain it: “In the wake of losing Superman to the Byrne revamp and Flash to the Crisis [on Infinite Earths] (both in ’85), I had to generate new work for myself. After getting the Captain Atom assignment, I then created Silverblade for DC and Video Jack (with Keith Giffen) for Marvel’s Epic Line. While Keith was a co-plotter on Video Jack, with Silverblade I was the creator and sole writer, therefore every aspect of the book and the hero’s world was solely my invention since there was absolutely no continuity link with the rest of the DC Universe.

While this sort of autonomy is not that unusual for creators of books in the independent publishing world, it was very unusual at DC in these preVertigo years.”

It was the start of DC’s “New Format” titles: Baxter paper, fewer ads, and royalties (something that had been paid as “bonuses” before, if at all) paid to the talent. It was a time of innovation and change at what had been seen as one of the most hidebound companies. DC Comics would lead the Big Two where smaller companies already were or soon would be—all of which is very important, but we’re here to talk about one of the stranger limited series DC put out during this time: Silverblade, which ran from issue #1 (Sept. 1987)–12 (Sept. 1988).

In the series’ continuity, “Silverblade” is a movie title and the name of a heroic character played

by Jonathan Lord. It was the defining role of a former movie legend now living out his ageforced retirement in his mansion, Shangri-La, high in the hills above Sunset Boulevard. With his former child co-star from the Silverblade movie, Bobby Milestone, the one-time “Lord of © 2007 DC Comics.

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Tom “The Comics Savant” Stewart

© 2007 DC Comics.

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A CARY BATES PRODUCTION

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The Boy Who Would Never Grow Up Craig Hamilton's Peter Pan and Wendy cover painting.

All art in this article is courtesy of Andy Mangels.

All art copyright to the respective artists.

Dewey Cassell

“Second to the right and then straight on till morning.”

If you have children, or were once one yourself, you are likely to recognize this line from the Disney animated film, Peter Pan. However, the credit for writing the memorable dialogue does not lie with Walt and company. It was Scottish playwright and novelist Sir James Matthew Barrie who penned the phrase in his original story, from which the animated film was derived.

Barrie reportedly based the play Peter Pan, first performed in England in 1904, and its subsequent novelization in 1911 on his own childhood, as well as his relationship with the children of Arthur and Sylvia Llewelyn Davies. When Barrie’s older brother David died in a skating accident at the age of 13, their mother became inconsolable and was perpetually haunted and obsessed by the memory of her dead son—the boy who would never grow up—to the exclusion of James. As an adult, Barrie was married for a time, but never had any children of his own. While walking his dog in Kensington Gardens one day in 1897, he met four-year-old George Davies and his brother John (along with their nanny) and they became fast friends.

In the years that followed, Barrie would often visit with the Davies family, telling the children, including younger brothers Peter, Michael, and Nicholas, stories about fairies and pirates and fantasy islands.

Fly forward several decades to 1987 and writer Andy Mangels. Ever since he was a child, Andy Mangels wanted to work in the comic-book field. In high school and college, he studied art. He got a twoyear art degree and was in his third year of college when he realized that he was better at, and preferred, writing to drawing. Mangels quit college at the end of his third year and began making a name for himself writing for publications about comics such as Amazing Heroes and Comics Interview. Working for the magazines gave Mangels an opportunity to meet various creative people in the industry. In late 1987, he approached Eclipse Comics editor Fred Burke about doing a miniseries based on Peter Pan. Why Peter Pan? Mangels explains the appeal: “I wanted to do Peter Pan, or, as it was called, Peter Pan and Wendy, because it had been one of my favorite books as a child, and continued to be as an adult. Peter Pan is not just the children’s fantasy that Disney put on film, M a g i c

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nor the musical stage version. It’s actually a fairly adult children’s fantasy.

It doesn’t shy away from topics such as death, and abandonment, and how children relate to their parents, and the love/hate relationship that they can have with them. And there are some moments of real terror in the book, as well as moments of real, very strong emotion.” The timing was right for doing an adaptation of Peter Pan. Before his death, Barrie bequeathed the copyright ownership and royalties of Peter Pan to the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children in London. The copyright was set to expire in 1987, 50 years after the author’s death. Being in the public domain would make the story easier to publish, although Mangels insisted that any contract include a provision for a royalty to be paid to the Hospital.

Mangels had a clear idea of how he wanted to adapt the story: “I’d always envisioned it as a three-part, what at that point was called ‘Dark Knight’ format (because they hadn’t come up with the title ‘Prestige Format’ yet) miniseries of 48 pages each. The reason that I didn’t want to do it all in one volume was because the Classics Illustrated condensation-type stories, where you take one story and fit it into 22 or even 48 pages, really left out a tremendous amount of material. I wanted this adaptation to be as faithful as possible to the original source material while still adapting it for the comic-book field. The original source material included not only the original novel, but also the original stage play and the shorter novella—Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, which was a prequel.” The novel Peter Pan includes an epilogue depicting an adult Wendy telling the story of Peter to her daughter Jane, which Mangels wanted to use as a framing sequence for the miniseries. Mangels continues, “There was also some discussion, even from the earliest stage, about eventually doing a Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens graphic novel, as well as doing a sequel story of Peter Pan Returns.”

Mangels readily admits that the reason the unpublished Peter Pan miniseries is remembered to this day is because of Craig Hamilton’s artwork.

However, Craig was not the first choice to illustrate the miniseries.

When Mangels submitted his first detailed proposal to Eclipse on June 17, 1987, it included sample pages from a fan artist named Mike Reidy.

Mangels also had several pages illustrated by Donna Barr and he pushed for her to do it. Eclipse did not believe Mike or Donna were right for the project. Subsequent possibilities discussed included Art Adams, Cynthia Martin, Tom Artis, Shawn McManus, and Craig Hamilton, all of which were dismissed. Craig’s work on DC Comics’ 1984 Aquaman miniseries was beautiful, but he was originally eliminated from contention because of concerns regarding several projects that he had been working on that were canceled or withdrawn due to lateness.

Rafael Kayanan and Jill Thompson were both approached with the project and turned it down. So, at the San Diego Comic-Con in 1988, Mangels and Eclipse sat down and brainstormed other artists, ultimately deciding to approach Craig Hamilton after all. When Mangels contacted Hamilton, it turned out that he had already been working on Peter Pan sketches for himself and he was a tremendous fan of the property, so he entered into contract negotiations with Eclipse. Editor Fred Burke had used an inker named Rick Bryant for a project called Total Eclipse and suggested that Bryant ink Craig’s pencils on Peter Pan and Wendy, which was fine with Craig as the two had worked together before.

Julia Lacquement, who had worked with Mike Grell on Green Arrow for DC Comics, was always intended to be the colorist for the miniseries, and Todd Klein was tagged to be the letterer. The covers were to be illustrated by the likes of P. Craig Russell, Charles Vess, Michael Kaluta, and Kevin Nowlan.

The contracts were written in October 1988. With the creative team on board, Eclipse announced Peter Pan and Wendy as a project for 1989.

By the time the press release came out, Mangels had finished writing book one of the miniseries. And the artwork was remarkable. Mangels describes his impressions of the art. “It became obvious from day one that

(above left) Donna Barr illustrates her proposed version of the duel between Peter Pan and Captain Hook. (left) Channeling Aubrey Beardsley, Donna Barr illustrates a moment of discovery from Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens.

All art copyright to the respective artists.

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John Wells

As far as Gardner Fox was concerned, Zatanna’s story was over. She’d rescued her father and there was nothing more to tell. For readers whose collections stopped at the end of 1969, Zatanna never appeared again. But Fox had left his audience wanting more, and a whole generation of teenage male comics readers desperately wanted an encore.

Zatanna, for those who came in late, was a magician—a real one—who could make pretty much anything happen as long as she spoke her commands backwards, not unlike her father Zatara, no slouch in the magic department himself. Holding forth in 185 comics stories between 1938 (Action Comics #1) and 1951 (World’s Finest Comics #51), Zatara had been created

by Fred Guardineer and primarily scripted by Gardner Fox from 1939 to 1944. Zatanna may not have been the first Silver Age chip off the old block— that honor belongs to Scribbly, Jr. in Sugar and Spike #30—but she was the first to have legs.

Very nice ones, too, sheathed in fishnet stockings and high heels that accompanied a top hat, tails, and vest that mirrored her father’s look.

Beyond the visuals—initially supplied by Murphy Anderson in Hawkman #4 (Oct.–Nov. 1964)—was a brilliantly innovative ploy that carried the young heroine through four separate Julius Schwartz-edited/Gardner Fox-written comic-book titles—plus a retroactive fifth—in an unfolding search to find her missing father that climaxed in 1966’s Justice League of America #51 with Zatara’s rescue from the elemental sorceress Allura.

With a unique multi-title story and a charismatic heroine, one might have expected an early follow-up. Whether it was something as simple as Fox feeling more kinship to Zatara himself— who he guest-starred with the Elongated Man in Detective Comics #379 (Sept. 1968)—or something more, Zatanna’s next performance seemed to be a disappearing act.

Super-Hero or Performer…? …who cares, so long as she’s drawn by George Pérez! A big “knaht uoy” (read it backwards!) to Robert Jewell for contributing this wonderful commission.

Zatanna TM & © 2007 DC Comics.

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ANNATAZ RETFA XOF

“After you reunite [Zatanna and Zatara],” a California fan enthused back in 1964’s Hawkman #6, “I sincerely hope you give them their own magazine, or at least a try-out in Showcase.” Each successive Zatanna appearance won another rave from that fan, Mike Friedrich, who even theorized in Green Lantern #44 that, if Zatara wasn’t on Earth, he must be on the other-dimensional Earth-Two, home of the 1940s Flash. That didn’t pan out, but it seemed altogether fitting that the Mistress of Magic finally made her return in The Flash #198 (June 1970) with a script by fan-turned-pro Mike Friedrich.

Zatanna’s return had an almost fairy-tale quality that required her deduction that she need only kiss an extra-dimensional mage to exorcise the demon who possessed him. “I had an affinity for Zatanna,” Friedrich told Michael Eury in The Justice League Companion (2005), and that was readily apparent when the writer brought Zatanna back in Justice League of America #87 (Feb. 1971). She was “ever calm in the midst of a stormy world,” Friedrich declared. “The bearer of peace.”

Even Superman privately felt, “Just by being near her, I feel so comfortable, at ease.”

Officially, Zatanna had popped in to commemorate the League’s rescue of her father five years earlier, but she was really there to serve as a counterpart to the Scarlet Witch analog in Friedrich’s faux team of Avengers (part of a sneaky company crossover of sorts that paralleled a simultaneous Squadron Supreme tale in Marvel’s Avengers #85). Though she started off the climactic battle fighting the Silver Sorceress, Zatanna wound up risking her life to save one of the other “Justifiers,” an act of compassion that demonstrated the Justice League’s good intentions and stopped the senseless conflict.

When she wasn’t turning the world on with her smile, DC’s answer to Mary Tyler Moore was saving it in her first solo series (backing up Supergirl in Adventure Comics #413–415, Dec. 1971–Feb. 1972). There was little room for peacemaking here as Zatanna found herself and her manager thrust by Zatara himself into another dimension, there to battle sinister tribesmen, a cloaked chieftain named Varnu, and a male counterpart to Medusa dubbed Gorgonus. Fighting her way back to Earth and finding it imperiled by her own father, Zatanna pointed her finger at him and shouted, “Zatara—die!!” He seemed to do just that and the elemental Allura (responsible for his 1960s disappearance) emerged from his body only to be immediately imprisoned in an enchanted flask. Astute readers noted that Zatanna hadn’t spoken her command backwards, so her no-longer-possessed father wasn’t really dead. She’d just used sleight-of-hand to temporarily tranquilize him.

In a collective 21 pages, writer Len Wein defined Zatanna’s private life for the next decade: Shadowcrest, the mansion she shared with her father (and subsequently placed outside Gotham City); her insistence on practicing more demanding stage magic in her theatrical act rather than genuine enchantments; her long-suffering manager—and would-be love interest—Jeffrey Sloane, who’d rather she ditch the parlor tricks and perform really spectacular stunts with true magic.

It was all rendered by artist Gray Morrow in a moody naturalistic style that gave a real-world integrity to the fantastic nature of Zatanna’s world and makes it easy to forgive the mustachioed Jeff Sloane’s tinted glasses, puffy shirt, and ascot.

The impact of the story can be measured in the fact that Morrow is known to this day as perhaps the definitive Zatanna artist despite the fact that he’d return to the character only a handful of times in his career.

As fondly as that arc is remembered by fans, Wein admits to recalling little about its origins and suspects that his reasons for doing a Zatanna story were as much pragmatic as they were nostalgic. “They were very early in my career,” Wein says, “so I have to assume I was looking to find characters other writers weren’t using, so I’d have something to sell to my editors.”

Gorgonus returned in the Dick Giordano-illustrated #419 while Steve Skeates wrote #421’s final Adventure episode. Elsewhere, Wein maintained Zatanna’s relationships with the wider DC Universe through cross-promotional cameos in World’s Finest Comics #207 (where Doctor Light tapped her powers) and 208 (where she advised Superman on his vulnerability to magic). Wein also made it a point to include Zatanna in the gala Justice League of America #100. “While I did and do like

Jeff Gets Stoned Bad news for Zee’s boyfriend in the Len Wein/Gray Morrow Zatanna backup from Adventure Comics #414 (Jan. 1972; original art scan courtesy of Ray Cuthbert). But watch her rescue her dude in distress in this page from #415 (art courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions)! © 2007 DC Comics.

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Brian K. Morris

Working Toward Oblivion The war begins on a mansion on the coast of Washington State. Soon, the theaters of conflict would move into outer space and even beyond reality.

Foes would become allies and allegiances would change before the war’s end.

But like many wars, not everyone who started in combat would see the end of the battle.

Including its creator.

In 1980, Bill Willingham’s travels led him to TSR Hobbies, the original publisher of the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game, where he worked as staff artist for a year and freelanced for another. During this time, he drew attention for producing a series of comic ads for D&D that ran on the back covers of many Marvel/Epic comics, as well as art for various gaming modules.

While illustrating a portrait of an elemental being, Willingham thought about how the concept of the four elements given human form might apply to a super-hero team. His ideas evolved over the next couple of years as he worked to break into the comics market, eventually hooking up with writer/artist/ publisher Mike Gustovich, the creative force behind Noble Comics and the Justice Machine. Willingham followed Gustovich in getting some comics work at First Comics starting with Warp #8 (Nov. 1983), and then doing fill-in issues at DC Comics.

In 1983, Gustovich licensed his creation to Texas Comics, co-publishing the first Justice Machine Annual.

It contained not only an appearance of the T.H.U.ND.E.R. Agents, but also the first appearance of Willingham’s Elementals and their foes, Mr. Saker and Shapeshifter, the latter of whom tested the mettle of the team in this 20-page tale.

A new Justice Machine title promised for that October, with The Elementals to follow a month later, was not to be as Texas Comics folded.

However, the two super-titles would find a home in 1984 at Comico [pronounced “Ko-mee-ko”] the Comic Company of Norristown, Pennsylvania.

Originally publishing the work of its founders, Comico, with its commitment to quality and creative freedom, swiftly attracted talent like Mike Baron, Sam Kieth, William Messner-Loebs, Chuck Dixon, and others.

Dead, Yet Alive Artist Mike Leeke’s powerful pencil rendition of the characters he drew through thick and thin, the Elementals. Courtesy of the artist.

Elementals TM & © Comico.

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(below) Detail from Bill Willingham’s cover art to the 1988 Comico trade paperback The Elementals: The Natural Order.

Elementals TM & © Comico.

In 1984, Elementals #1, edited by Diana Schutz, hit the direct-sales market. The initial story arc began with the team’s capture and year-long (in comic time) confinement. During the tale, the reader learned Mr. Saker’s origin: Torn from “the gates of the Promised Land” two millennia ago by a demon-sired “prophet,” Saker was left an immortal battery of mystic energies. Honing his dark talents, he built an army not only of soldiers, but of scientists and paranormals—also called “the Supernature”—all in constant training on Nacht Island, near the Bermuda Triangle, in preparation for the day when Saker would become the world’s savior.

“Through me,” he claimed, “[humanity] shall have access to the Universe. If my plan is not the world’s true destiny, let the world prove it by defeating me.”

Saker had grown so powerful that the Natural Order could no longer ignore him and took direct action—and as mythology demonstrates, “direct action” from the gods usually means getting mortals to do their dirty work for them. Dividing their collective power among the four elemental foundations of existence—Aqua the Serpent, Terra the Beast, Aier the Eagle, and Ignis the Angel—they bequeathed this power to four mortals with only one thing in common: each of them died on the same day, their bodies never to be discovered.

L.A.P.D. homicide detective Jeanette Crane was resurrected with the ability to generate and withstand intense amounts of heat and flame. Vietnam veteran and Coast Guard helicopter pilot Jeff Murphy could fly at unbelievable speeds, using the winds themselves as his weapon. The son of a prominent archeologist, 14-year-old Tommy Czuchra could transform into a mighty stone giant. And Becky Golden could breathe, control, and even become water. Together, they became Morningstar, Vortex, Monolith, and Fathom—the Elementals.

Although the Elementals appeared to be human (except for Fathom’s sea-green skin color and webbed fingers), prolonged contact stirred an unease in most humans, “a wrongness . . . as if they were still a little bit dead.” Interpersonal contact with most humans ended badly, so the quartet spent most of their time in mundane activities, as if sleepwalking through existence until they heard action’s call.

Living near Seattle, Washington, the team trained in their new abilities monitored by Porter Scott, an agent of the Federal Intelligence Security Headquarters; Becky’s father David; and the estate’s caretaker, Lawrence Catrajel, who seemed unaffected by the unease that repelled most humans.

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We hope you enjoy this FREE

ROUGH STUFF #6 PREVIEW! ROUGH STUFF magazine celebrates the ART of creating comics! Edited by famed inker BOB McLEOD, each issue spotlights NEVER-BEFORE PUBLISHED penciled pages, preliminary sketches, detailed layouts, and even unused inked versions from artists throughout comics history. Included is commentary on the art, discussing what went right and wrong with it, and background information to put it all into historical perspective. Plus, before-andafter comparisons let you see firsthand how an image changes from initial concept to published version.

So enjoy these excerpts from issue #6, which presents galleries of NEVER-BEFORE SEEN art by: BRIAN STELFREEZE • BUTCH GUICE IAN CHURCHILL • DAVE COCKRUM COLLEEN DORAN Plus a STELFREEZE interview and new cover, a look at “rough stuff” from independent comics, and more!

(100-page magazine) SINGLE ISSUES: $9 US SUBSCRIPTIONS: Four issues in the US: $26 Standard, $36 First Class (Canada: $44, Elsewhere: $60 Surface, $72 Airmail).

ROUGH STUFF #1 ALAN DAVIS • GEORGE PÉREZ BRUCE TIMM • KEVIN NOWLAN JOSÉ LUIS GARCÍA-LÓPEZ ARTHUR ADAMS • JOHN BYRNE WALTER SIMONSON Plus a NOWLAN interview, and a new TIMM COVER!

ROUGH STUFF #2

ROUGH STUFF #3

ROUGH STUFF #4

PAUL GULACY JOHN ROMITA JR. • MIKE ALLRED MICHAEL KALUTA • GENE COLAN BRIAN APTHORP • ALEX TOTH JOHN BUSCEMA • YANICK ANDREW ROBINSON • HOWARD FRANK BRUNNER PAQUETTE • P. CRAIG RUSSELL CHAYKIN • JOHN TOTLEBEN JERRY ORDWAY • MATT WAGNER LEE WEEKS STEVEN BISSETTE Plus a PAUL GULACY interview, professional art critiques, and a new GULACY “HEX” COVER!

Plus a JOHN ROMITA JR. interview, looks at the earliest work of some of your favorite artists, and a new ROMITA JR. COVER!

Plus a JOHN TOTLEBEN interview, art from the Wonder Woman Day charity auction, and a new KALUTA COVER!

TwoMorrows. Celebrating The Art & History Of Comics.

TwoMorrows • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 • E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com

IAN CHURCHILL This was towards the end of issue 5 and for one reason or another the scheduling was a little off so to save time I thumbnailed a few pages ahead of time to meet the deadline. This was one that I kept for some reason.

IAN CHURCHILL

Batman and Supergirl TM & Š2007 DC Comics