Back Issue #26 Preview by TwoMorrows Publishing

“ SS P P II EE SS A AN ND D T TO OU UG GH H G GU UY Y SS ”” II SS SS U U EE !! “

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Exclusive “Pro2Pro” Interview with

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PAUL GULACY and DOUG MOENCH

on Master of Kung Fu, Nick Fury, 007, and Their Longtime Collaboration SUICIDE SQUAD • JAMES BOND • AIRBOY • REDEEMER • SGT. ROCK • MS. TREE • AND MR. T! WITH KUBERT • COLAN • TRUMAN • OSTRANDER • KESEL • MCDONNELL • AND MORE!

Volume 1, Number 26 February 2008 Celebrating the Best Comics of the '70s, '80s, and Today!

The Retro Comics Experience!

EDITOR Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow DESIGNER Rich J. Fowlks

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

COVER ARTIST Paul Gulacy

FLASHBACK: Black Widow: The Gloria Steinem of the Jump-Suit Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 The amazing adventures of Marvel’s spy superheroine

COVER COLORIST Laurie Kronenberg

PRO2PRO: (Karate) Kickin’ It, Old School!: Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy . . . . . . . . . .8 The writer and artist kick back for a Master of Kung Fu dialogue

COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg

GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: The Shang-Chi/Nick Fury Crossover . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 Moench and Gulacy were thiiiiiis close to pairing Marvel’s martial artist and super-spy

CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Bob Brodsky, Cookiesoup Periodical Distribution, LLC

BEYOND CAPES: James Bond: A Comics History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 A look at the scattershot comics appearances of the most famous of secret agents

PROOFREADERS John Morrow and Eric Nolen-Weathington

WHAT THE--?!: Between a Rock and a Bizarre Place: Sgt. Rock’s Team-Ups in the DC Universe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 The WWII hero’s offbeat pairings with Batman, Superman, Swamp Thing, and others

SPECIAL THANKS Michael Aushenker Mike Baron Terry Beatty Lee Benaka Al Bigley Alex Boney Jerry Boyd Norm Breyfogle Michael Browning Pete Carlsson Dewey Cassell Howard Chaykin Steve Cohen Gene Colan Max Allan Collins Gerry Conway Tony DeZuniga Chuck Dixon Randy Emberlin Angela Fowlks Mike Friedrich Mike Gagnon Grand Comic-Book Database Robert Greenberger Paul Gulacy George Hagenauer Allan Harvey Heritage Comics Auctions Ben Herman Eric Houston Tony Isabella Geof Isherwood Dan Johnson

BEYOND CAPES: Keep ’Em Flying: The Story of Airboy at Eclipse Comics . . . . . . . . . . . .32 Dixon and Truman’s travails and triumphs in resurrecting the Golden Age flyboy FLASHBACK: The Suicide Squad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39 An in-depth, art-loaded examination of John Ostrander’s dastardly do-gooders OFF MY CHEST: The Painless Birth of the Suicide Squad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57 Series editor Robert Greenberger spills his guts on the origins of DC’s hard-hitting team INTERVIEW: Howard Chaykin on Atlas Comics: The Good, the Bad, and the Higher Page Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59 The superstar writer/artist discusses the Scorpion and the fly-by-night publisher of 1975 BEYOND CAPES: P.I.s Inc.: The Many Detectives of Don McGregor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63 McGregor’s film noir comics Detectives Inc. and Nathaniel Dusk, with art by Marshall Rogers and Gene Colan WHAT THE--?!: They Call Me Mr. T! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66 Pity th’ fool who counts out this comics-friendly ’80s icon GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: Joe Kubert and The Redeemer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71 The comics legend looks back at the series that didn’t—but might yet—happen BEYOND CAPES: The Mystery of Ms. Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75 The story of Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty’s tough-as-nails lady P.I. BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82 Reader feedback on magical issue #24, and a bonus for fans of Micronauts! 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, 118 Edgewood Avenue NE, Concord, NC 28025. E-mail: euryman@msn.com. Six-issue subscriptions: $40 Standard US, $54 First Class US, $66 Canada, $90 Surface International, $108 Airmail International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by Paul Gulacy. Black Widow TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2008 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing. BACK ISSUE is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING. S p i e s

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Mike Keane Scott Kent Randy Kerr Karl Kesel Jim Kingman Michael Kronenberg Joe Kubert Joe Kulbiski Dave Lemieux Marvel Comics Luke McDonnell Doug Moench Miss Moneypenney Albert Moy John Ostrander Michael Rankins Rose Rummel-Eury Paul Sager Jeff Singh Anthony Snyder John K. Snyder III Tom Stewart Timothy Truman John Yon cat yronwode

Allan Harvey

Marvel’s premier femme fatale super-spy, the Black Widow, aka Natalia Romanova, aka Natasha Romanoff, first appeared in a 1964 Iron Man story (Tales of Suspense #52) as a baddie. She later saw the error of her ways, defected to the West from her native Russia, and spent the remainder of the 1960s as part-time Avenger and occasional guest star—usually pursued by the smitten archer Hawkeye. In 1970, as a teaser for her forthcoming solo series, Black Widow (BW) guest-starred in Amazing Spider-Man #86, where she went head to head with an unwell wall-crawler in a classic Marvel misunderstanding. There she wore her trademark skintight all-in-one shiny black outfit for the first time. And very fetching she looked, too!

BLACK’S WIDOW’S AMAZING ADVENTURES

Debuting in August 1970, Amazing Adventures was one of the last of Marvel’s “split books,” where two features were combined to provide the reader with more bang for their buck, and allow a degree of market research for the potential popularity of fledgling characters. While the Inhumans took up the lead spot of Amazing Adventures, Black Widow settled down in the back as the first Marvel superheroine to star in her own series. Initially, the stories were written by Gary Friedrich and drawn by John Buscema. They introduced “international jet-setter” Natasha Romanoff and her chauffeur and confidant, Ivan Petrovitch. (BW’s origin changed over the years, but basically involved Natasha being orphaned during the War and cared for by Ivan until the Russian authorities took an interest and inducted her into their super-spy training program.) Bored of her rich lifestyle, Natasha takes to the skies as the Black Widow. Aided by her anti-grav shoes and S.H.I.E.L.D.-designed “widow’s web” line, she can swing across Manhattan with aplomb. Golden wristbands that power her “widow’s bite” stun beams and a spare equipment belt complete her outfit. Confident, almost arrogant, as Natasha, the mask slips when she’s in BW guise. She quickly becomes

She may have defected to the USA… …but we can find nary a defect in the beautiful Black Widow. Plate Four from Paul Gulacy’s 1982 Black Widow Portfolio, published by S.Q. Productions, Inc. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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unsure of herself and her abilities as she makes mistakes. Not least of her concerns is that, as the new costume has no mask, she’ll soon be recognized and lose her private life. A justified fear as it turns out. BW tries to help a gang of youths in Spanish Harlem create a center for underprivileged children. Unfortunately, the gang have taken over a building illegally and find themselves subject to court action to evict them. Natasha, caught in the middle, sees her reputation plummet as the newspapers turn against her, and the mafia plots to have her denounced as a communist insurgent.

It is around this time that changes in the strip began. Gene Colan drew Amazing Adventures #3 (Nov. 1970), with inks by Sub-Mariner creator Bill Everett. This pairing works beautifully, and the resulting few issues remain a joy to behold. It’s a great shame that Everett died a short time later, robbing us of further collaborations. “I loved Bill’s work very much,” says Colan. Although probably best known for his long run drawing Tomb of Dracula in the 1970s, Colan had a solid background in superheroes, with stints on Daredevil, Captain America, and Iron Man. Prior to joining Marvel he’d worked in romance comics, experience he was able to put to good use delineating the adventures of the delectable Ms. Romanoff. “I try to think before I draw that I’m drawing someone attractive and, as long as I keep that thought in my head, it turns out well,” he says. Roy Thomas succeeded Gary Friedrich as scripter, before relative newcomer Gerry Conway took charge of BW’s adventures. “I’d been writing for DC comics for two or three years,” says Conway, “working on features like Phantom Stranger, and scripting ‘mystery’ stories for comics like House of Secrets and House of Mystery, but, to paraphrase the joke about the actor’s ambitions to be a director, what I really wanted to do was write superheroes—specifically, Marvel heroes. Through friends I’d become acquainted with Roy Thomas, who was Stan Lee’s right-hand man at the time, and Roy offered me a shot at the Marvel ‘writing test.’ Stan wasn’t impressed, but Roy liked what I did, and began throwing some short assignments my way, including scripting over his plot on an early Ka-Zar, and ultimately, Black Widow.” Under Thomas the series had taken on a new tone, one continued by Conway: soap-opera melodrama replaced the political plots of Gary Friedrich. BW and Ivan became closer, with Ivan taking a larger slice of the action. Their relationship began to resemble that of the central characters of the UK newspaper strip Modesty Blaise. Like Modesty and co-star Willie Garvin, Natasha and Ivan are the closest of friends—but purely platonic. Conway: “Writing the Widow was a lot of fun. I’ve always had a weak spot for powerful, assertive women in fiction, particularly redheads (ahem). I also enjoyed the dynamic between the Widow and Ivan: playful, vaguely sexy, but ultimately more friendly than romantic.” Thomas and Conway started a subplot where BW truly begins to doubt herself following the death of a youth she’s trying to protect. Pursuing those responsible, Natasha’s anxiety leads her to delay a capture attempt and the culprits escape. With this failure witnessed by police, the Widow’s competency is called into question, and the mental strain weighs heavily on her. She even begins to believe that anyone who crosses paths with her is destined to die.

HORNING IN ON DAREDEVIL

At this point, the decision was made to remove BW from the ailing Amazing Adventures. The Inhumans took over the complete book, and Natasha was moved across to Daredevil, then in the safe hands of Conway and Colan. “I was looking for a way to re-energize the title,” says Conway, “and starting up a romantic and professional relationship between DD and the Widow seemed like a natural—particularly given my fondness for Natasha. 4

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Dan Johnson

Fads never last for too long, and yet sometimes the comic books they inspire become timeless. During the 1970s, anything that could be used as a hook to generate a comic book at Marvel Comics was up for grabs, with some efforts that fared much better (for example, motorcycle enthusiasm and Ghost Rider) than others (disco and Dazzler). Of all the 1970s fads that caught the creative eye of the folks at Marvel, one was a natural for a medium that thrived on fast-paced action: the kung-fu craze. It just so happens that at the same time Marvel Comics was ready to start kung-fu fighting, the company had also acquired the rights to Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu series of novels. Beginning in Special Marvel Edition #15 (Dec. 1973), writer Steve Englehart and artist Jim Starlin infused the world of Rohmer’s master criminal with a little chop-socky action by giving Fu Manchu a son who would become his greatest adversary… at least in the Marvel Universe. Thus Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu was born. Shortly after the series began, the son of Fu Manchu acquired a new creative team, writer Doug Moench and artist Paul Gulacy, and it was under them that the Master of Kung Fu series (as Special Marvel Edition was re-titled with issue #17) reached its creative zenith. It was they who ensured that Master of Kung Fu would become a legend long after Pet Rocks and mood rings were a thing of the past. – Dan Johnson DAN JOHNSON: Paul, Master of Kung Fu was one of the first projects you did for Marvel Comics. How did you get started with the company, and how did you come to work on this series? PAUL GULACY: [I came to the industry] through the coaxing of inker Dan Adkins, and before I began work with Marvel, I submitted a short story that I had drawn and written that involved this mystical Chinese fellow. Included in that story were some martial-arts themes which at that time editor Roy Thomas took note of. [When Master of Kung Fu came along] I was already doing some black-and-white horror stories and my first color work was “Morbius: The Living Vampire.” Tie all this in with Jim Starlin’s exit on Master of Kung Fu after three issues to work on another title and bingo, Roy gave me the call. JOHNSON: What were your thoughts in taking over the book when it was offered to you? Having worked previously on horror titles, it seemed like this series would be a big departure for you as an artist. GULACY: When you’re young and hungry, you’ll take anything they offer. If it was Captain Schmuck, I’d be all over it. But with this book, I had to do some homework. 8

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Door’s Open! Come On In! Paul Gulacy’s pencils for an unused Master of Kung Fu cover, similar to the layout Paul used for the cover of MOKF #55 (Aug. 1977). Very special thanks to Dave Lemiuex. © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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I had seen a few kung-fu movies, but not Enter the Dragon at that time. Martial arts was here and there in Bond movies and such, but this was at the crest of that new kung-fu craze. I remember being an art student and going to see the first martial-arts movie ever shown in this country called Five Fingers of Death. It was totally wack. JOHNSON: What did you think when you learned that Doug was coming in as the series’ new writer? GULACY: I didn’t know Doug. I can’t remember any of his work at that time. In fact, I didn’t know a whole lot about the industry in general. I read some comics, but not many. Bear in mind, when I was attending art school, I thought I might be ending up in advertising or as an illustrator after graduation. I got hired out of the blue, on a lark, while I still had a year of school to finish at 19. My ending up in comics was completely out of left field and unexpected. DOUG MOENCH: [In regard to Paul’s hiring,] I was in Marv Wolfman’s office and there was a stack of submissions and tryout artwork and Marv was showing them to me. We were looking through these and I came across pages by Paul, but I didn’t know that, they had no name on them. The actual drawing was not as good as it would soon become, and remember, this was really early on and this was his tryout stuff. On the other hand, the artwork was very dynamic and very exciting. As for the storytelling, it was the best I had seen in I don’t know how long. When I saw this stuff, I said, “Oh, my God! Who’s this guy? Give me this guy, let me write something for him.” And I went on and on and on, and Marv just stood there looking at me, and I said, “You’ve got to hire this guy!” After three minutes of me going insane like that, Marv said, “Already done.” Marv had already decided Paul should be hired. When they asked me to do Master of Kung Fu, one of the reasons I said yes was because Paul was, by then, on the book. JOHNSON: Before the both of you started working on the comic, how familiar were you with the Fu Manchu stories by Sax Rohmer? GULACY: [I think] maybe I read one or two books when I was in my early teens. It was good stuff. Very moody, atmospheric pulp writing. Very reminiscent of Kenneth Robeson’s work on Doc Savage. I remember Christopher Lee playing Fu Manchu in the films. MOENCH: I was really not that familiar at all with Rohmer’s work. I had seen a couple of Fu Manchu movies, too, and by osmosis, I knew what he was all about, but I had not read any of the novels. JOHNSON: What can you tell us about the deal that Marvel Comics had struck to use Rohmer’s characters? MOENCH: All I know is that Marvel paid a small fee, I think on a monthly basis, to Rohmer’s widow for the rights to use Fu Manchu, even though there would be many months and many issues where he was not featured at all. GULACY: Quite frankly, at that time anyone could have obtained the rights to Fu Manchu for a song. I don’t think the novels were exactly selling like hotcakes. I can’t even remember if they were being published at that time. JOHNSON: Sometimes when characters are licensed there are certain restrictions that come into play. Were there any imposed by Rohmer’s estate while you were working on the book? MOENCH: Not that I’m aware of, and I don’t think there was any problem whatsoever, or I would have heard of it. Nothing was ever changed or forbidden.

Beginnings: “Snow Job” in Eerie #29 (Sept. 1970), Warren Publishing

Milestones: Aztec Ace / Batman / Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight: “Prey” and “Terror” story arcs / many Batman graphic novels and special projects including Batman vs. Predator II, Bloodstorm, Book of the Dead, Crimson Mist, and Red Rain / The Big Book of Conspiracies The Big Book of the Unexplained / Creepy / Doc Savage (B&W magazine) / Eerie / Electric Warrior / James Bond: Serpent’s Tooth Master of Kung Fu and Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu / Moon Knight Outlaws / Planet of the Apes (B&W magazine) / Six from Sirius Slash Maraud / Vampirella / Werewolf by Night

Works in Progress: Five-issue Batman miniseries with Kelley Jones (early 2008) / working on proposals for several other comic-book projects and novels

DOUG MOENCH Photo courtesy of Doug Moench.

Beginnings: “Scarlet in Glory” in Dracula Lives (Nov. 1974), Marvel Comics

Milestones: Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight: “Prey” and “Terror” story arcs “Blood on Black Satin” from Eerie #110–111 / Star Wars: Crimson Empire / James Bond: Serpent’s Tooth / Master of Kung Fu and Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu / Outlaws / Sabre / Six from Sirius Spies, Vixens, and Masters of Kung Fu: The Art of Paul Gulacy Squadron Supreme: Nighthawk vs. Hyperion / Year One: Ra’s al Ghul

Works in Progress: Penance: Relentless sci-fi screenplay Shadowracer: Go

Cyberspace: www.gulacy.com

PAUL gulacy Photo courtesy of Paul Gulacy.

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That could just be a coincidence, or I did Fu Manchu just the way Sax Rohmer’s widow wanted it done. Whatever the reason, there was never anything that needed to be fixed. JOHNSON: What was the creative flow like between the two of you when you were working on Master of Kung Fu? GULACY: We just did our thing, and I don’t mean that in a smug way. We creatively played off one another. It was a good pairing, and other artists will tell you that Doug is a real joy to work with. He doesn’t dominate or throw his weight around. We were able to make good music together. MOENCH: The only arguments we ever had were about the direction of stories. There were never any problems with working together. In fact, this was one of the easiest working relationships I have ever had. The chemistry was perfect. Our sensibilities on storytelling and what comics should be as a form meshed perfectly.

Early Gulacy Paul Gulacy inked by—of all people!— Silver Age stalwart Jack Abel. Page 25 of Giant-Size Master of Kung Fu #2 (1974), courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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We both loved the Jim Steranko, Will Eisner, and Harvey Kurtzman styles of visual storytelling. To me, that is the essence of comic-book form, to be able to work with an artist who gets that, as opposed to an artist who treats comics closer to illustrated stories. To me, if you just took a typesheet of the dialogue and read it, you should not be able to figure out what is going on, because without the art providing a key element of the narrative, its not really comics. The artwork should roughly follow what is going on, and [the story] should not be completely evident until you plug in the dialogue that complements the artwork. The two have to mesh together in this synergy and the whole is greater than the sum of their individual parts. JOHNSON: I have heard that you tended to go more for the philosophical aspects of the story, Doug, and Paul really handled the action. MOENCH: I think Paul was always, “Awww, this fortunecookie stuff! Let’s do it more like Bruce Lee!” And I would tell him, “Aside from your artwork, the biggest appeal to me was the philosophical stuff, the Eastern mysticism and so on, so shut up.” That’s the kind of thing we fought about, not about how we should work together. It was just specific disagreements on the emphasis. GULACY: If Doug let me stage the action, and I left him room for his balloons, we were off to the races. JOHNSON: I have heard that both you gents were big movie buffs. That seemed very apparent when it came to the famous people who were “cast” as characters in Master of Kung Fu. GULACY: I’m a huge fan of many actors, directors, and screenwriters, but I don’t consider myself a film buff. I know a few things, but not really extensively. I have my favorites, but, yeah, for the fun of it and sort of a tip of the hat, I would throw those personalities in there. I frankly can’t recall Doug ever suggesting a particular actor in the script, so I have to take humble credit for that. All tongue in cheek and for laughs. By the way, Clive Reston was a loose take on Sean Connery. My decisions were just off-the-wall, like I was playing casting director. “All right, I see David Niven playing this guy, Marlene Dietrich as the vixen, Charles Laughton over here…,” and so on. All for fun. Master of Kung Fu was a crazy potpourri and kaleidiscope of iconic pop-culture imagery intertwined with solid writing and a well-thought-out cast of characters, and that, I think, made it a standout. There was nothing like it at that time, nor has anything been done like it since then, in comics at least. JOHNSON: Doug, in speaking with you in the past, I know you tend to go more for realistic stories. MOENCH: As a reader, I liked the traditional superheroes as much as anyone, and it’s not that my characters couldn’t be superheroes, but I enjoyed it more when they were a little more off-beat. It suited me better. JOHNSON: Doug, of the three big series you wrote at Marvel in the 1970s—Werewolf by Night, Moon Knight, and Master of Kung Fu—Master of Kung Fu is the one that tends to veer more toward the real world, and I think really showcased your abilities as a writer. Also of the three, this seemed to be the one that was the hardest to wedge into the Marvel Universe. MOENCH: Yeah, and I never even tried. There were stories [featuring Shang-Chi] in Marvel Team-Up with Spider-Man and Marvel Two-in-One with the Thing, but I didn’t write those. I just wrote the actual [MOKF] series. I don’t think I ever brought in any other Marvel characters.

Dave Lemieux

The plot was approved. The creative team was lined up. ShangChi and the cast of Master of Kung Fu were poised to meet up with Nick Fury and his agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. for an epic battle against the combined forces of Fu Manchu and the Yellow Claw. Then, Marvel delayed the project by six months and this classic confrontation faded into a legend of what might have been, but never was.

ENTER SHANG-CHI AND THE MOENCH/GULACY TEAM

In the mid-’70s, writer Doug Moench and newcomer artist Paul Gulacy teamed up for a spectacular run of 26 issues on the Marvel title Master of Kung Fu (MOKF). Their collaboration on the series ran from 1974 through 1977 and included three Giant-Size specials. In fact, at the peak of the series’ popularity, Master of Kung Fu was ranked third in sales of all comics sold, behind only the Amazing Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian. While the comic had originally been influenced by the Kung Fu TV series and the martial-arts craze of the ’70s, Moench and Gulacy fairly quickly shifted the direction of plotlines to include espionage and international intrigue, and expanded the cast of supporting characters, and, of course, lots of martial-arts action. Gulacy’s version of Shang-Chi, the main protagonist, was strongly reminiscent of Bruce Lee (and not unintentionally so, as it turns out). Gulacy has previously reported in interviews that this was his way of keeping the memory of Bruce Lee alive and of paying homage to him. Fans responded quite favorably to Gulacy’s rendition of Shang-Chi and to his detailed, cinematic artistic style. The storylines by Moench (with significant co-plotting by Gulacy) were amazing. Even Stan Lee, Marvel’s founder, was highly complimentary of the team and supported Moench and Gulacy’s efforts on the book.

THE STERANKO FACTOR AND NICK FURY

Prior to this title, in the late ’60s, Jim Steranko had come onto the scene and shook the comics world with his unique and stylistic take on “Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.” That series was featured in both Strange Tales and then later in its own title. S.H.I.E.L.D. was, and still is, Marvel’s elite counterespionage and spy organization, charged with keeping the world safe.

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Steranko was highly creative and went beyond the limits of typical comic-book storytelling. At the time, who knew that his artistic style and cinematic storytelling technique would call out to the soul of budding artist Paul Gulacy. The influence is unquestionable. The two artists have been compared to each other throughout their careers. In the mid-’70s, their paths almost crossed directly on an unprecedented crossover of Master of Kung Fu and Nick Fury. Gulacy was to have been the artist and Steranko was scheduled to be one of the inkers (along with Dan Adkins). Just envisioning this potential collaboration of artistic talent is aweinspiring. Steranko, of course, had long before this time left the Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. book and comics as a whole. In addition, the S.H.I.E.L.D. book itself had been canceled in 1971. Lastly, the characters of Shang-Chi and Nick Fury had never before met in comics. This planned crossover would have been a landmark endeavor in many ways. Unfortunately, it did not come to fruition. Steranko’s role in this unrealized crossover was one of being both a strong influence on the concept of a crossover of the two series (as conceived by Moench and Gulacy) and of being tapped as one of the inkers. As Doug Moench recalls, “Before Paul and I ever met, we were both, as it turns out, obsessed with Steranko. I just loved his stuff and, of course, Paul did, too. So, when we were doing Master of Kung Fu and I took it in an espionage direction… it [a Shang-Chi/Nick Fury crossover] was an obvious thing to do. Here we were, two guys who loved Steranko so much, doing something that had this spy game in it. Well, what about Marvel’s spy organization… Nick Fury and the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.?” Moench adds, “It was an obvious thing to do… and who better to do it than ourselves? And I had the whole thing worked out.”

Old Enemies

though. In fact, a letter from a fan (Jackie Frost of Los Angeles) that was printed in Giant-Size MOKF #4 even commented about the fact that the Yellow Claw had, in fact, not appeared in Giant-Size MOKF #3, as was advertised. The fan further suggested the idea of having Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. as guest stars in a future MOKF issue. The editor’s response was as follows: “While we’re not denying the merits of your suggestion to feature Nick Fury as a co-star—it just so happens that the stellar stalwart of S.H.I.E.L.D. has very recently appeared in no less than three other series ("Man-Wolf" in Creatures on the Loose, Daredevil, and The Incredible Hulk). Therefore, for the time being, at least, we feel he deserves a rest, lest ye madcap minions of Marvel grow tired of seeing his cigar chompin’ puss.” Moench also reports that the planned ShangChi/Fury crossover was delayed by six months or more, which may have ultimately been the reason it never occurred. He comments, “It had been approved and everything. The editor said, ‘You can do it, but

The enmity of Nick Fury and the Yellow Claw—which began in this Steranko classic in Strange Tales #161 (Oct. 1967)— would have been revisited in the MOKF/S.H.I.E.L.D. crossover, with Fu Manchu thrown into the mix. © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

THE SERIES DELAYED: TOO MUCH FURY?

Doug Moench recalls having had editorial approval for this crossover, and it most likely would have been by Roy Thomas or Len Wein, based on the time frame mentioned by Gulacy and Moench. Roy Thomas was the editor of Giant-Size MOKF #2 (Dec. 1974), while Len Wein had become editor with Giant-Size MOKF #3 (Mar. 1975). Moench remarks, “The one thing you did need approval for was using other characters… you know, a crossover, a guest star. You definitely had to get that approved. There were just too many characters with various storylines.” Intriguingly, in Giant-Size MOKF #2, the next-issue box at the end of the story proclaimed, “Next Issue: The Yellow Claw! ’Nuff Said?” It never happened,

Tough Guy Team-Up (opposite page) A double-shot of Paul Gulacy art from the swingin’ ’70s: At left, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s top agent in a never-beforepublished illo done for a fan at the 1974 NY Comic Con; and at right, Paul’s Master of Kung Fu from the 1977 Marvel Comics Memory Album Calendar. Both are courtesy of this article’s author, Dave Lemieux. © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Grell, Mike Grell. Detail from Grell’s (with Dameon Willich) cover to the first issue of the miniseries James Bond: Permission to Die, published in 1989 by Eclipse Comics/Acme Press. James Bond TM & © 2008 Ian Fleming (Glidrose) Productions.

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Alan J. Porter

Bond, James Bond. Star of 30-plus novels and over 20 movies. Yet despite his immense popularity, the world’s greatest spy has had a checkered career when it comes to the funnybooks. The story of Bond in comics starts in 1957 when the British newspaper The Daily Express approached Bond creator Ian Fleming with a proposal to develop a daily comic strip starring 007. Fleming was reluctant until the Express editors let it be known that the proposed adaptations would be written by Anthony Hern, the paper’s literary editor. Bond made his comics debut on July 7, 1958 in Hern’s adaptation of Casino Royale, illustrated by John McLusky. The James Bond of the comic strip is subtly different from the Bond of the novels. In order to produce a strip that was accessible to a wider audience, many of the novel’s edgier scenes were toned down or restaged. For the second strip, Live and Let Die, the writing assignment was switched to Henry Gammidge, who introduced the idea of having Bond narrate the story. While this worked in places, in others it presented Bond as an “omniscient” narrator with knowledge of events he shouldn’t have. In the next strip, Moonraker, Gammidge took the device even further by having Bond address the readers directly. This technique was scaled back in Diamonds Are Forever and used for the last time in From Russia with Love. In 1962, James Bond faced a peril far greater than any of his colorful villains—the wrath of a publisher scorned. Just as Thunderball started to appear in The Daily Express, the rival Times newspaper approached Ian Fleming for permission to print The Living Daylights in the debut issue of their new color magazine. Lord Beaverbrook, the publisher of the Express group of papers, was furious and ordered that the Bond comic strip be withdrawn immediately. The result on the Thunderball strip was that the last two-thirds of the plot were basically reduced to just six panels. The following year, Bond made his first foray to US shores and comic books by a somewhat circuitous route. Wishing to cash in on the release of the Doctor No movie, the British arm of the Dell publishing

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McLusky, John McLusky… …drew the first Bond comic strips (left), written by Anthony Hern. (below, in circle) Manga Bond. Courtesy of Alan Porter. James Bond TM & © 2008 Ian Fleming (Glidrose) Productions.

company obtained the rights to produce an adaptation. This was produced by Norman J. Nodel, a former military field artist and mapmaker better known as a children’s book illustrator. Judging from the art, his adaptation was primarily based on photographs taken during the film’s production. Some sources suggest that Dell may have in fact only optioned the screenplay rather than the actual movie. The story first appeared in the British Classic Illustrated line (#158A) and in several European countries under the “Detective Series” label with a Dell copyright. However, when the US publishers of Classic Illustrated declined to produce a US version, the idea was floated that Eon Productions could publish their own comic book for the American market. With no comic-book experience they approached the largest comics distributor, Independent News, which at that time shared a parent company with DC Comics, where the Nodel adaptation was eventually published in Showcase #43 (Apr. 1963). One unusual aspect of the DC version when compared with the European was that several racial references were omitted and skin tones changed so that non-Caucasian characters, including the Asian Doctor No, became white. The contract between Eon and DC Comics included an option for the rights to an ongoing James Bond series.

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However, the Showcase issue proved to be a one-off appearance. DC did little to promote the book, which had basically been forced upon them, and the flat artwork with typeset word balloons looked unlike any other DC comic. It looked positively amateurish compared to their dynamic superhero titles. Two other strikes against it include the facts that DC published the book too soon and it had disappeared from the newsstands long before the movie had opened in the US; in addition, it didn’t help that the issue’s cover sent a somewhat mixed message with a small handlettered box on the lower left of the cover stating that it is “based on the novel and now a United Artists film thriller.” Perhaps if it had been released a few months later with a Sean Connery photo cover, it might © 2008 Ian Fleming (Glidrose) Productions. have been a different story. As it turned out, Bond wouldn’t officially reappear on the American newsstands for another 18 years. While Bond himself was absent from American comics, his spirit lived on when Marvel took the more fantastic elements of the Bond movies and the Man from U.N.C.L.E. TV show and built upon them with Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., whose Strange Tales stories would occasionally give Bond a name check. For instance, in Strange Tales #162 (Nov. 1967), the S.H.I.E.L.D. equivalent of Q issues Fury with an invisible car (a full 35 years before Pierce Brosnan would get one in Die Another Day), with the quip, “Wait till that guy Bond gets a load of that baby.” The implied idea that Fury and Bond knew each other, and maybe occasionally worked together, was reinforced a few issues later, in Strange Tales #164, when a familiar figure in a tuxedo turns up at the door to the barbershop that serves as the secret entrance to S.H.I.E.L.D.’s HQ, only to get the door firmly shut in his face (see lower left). In 1964, the Japanese comics studio SaitoProduction Co. Ltd. produced a series adapting four of the Fleming novels. In truth, the adaptations had little to do with their source material. While the names of the major characters, location, and basic plot are Fleming’s, the surrounding material is nearly all original story. The manga Bond first appeared in serialized form in an anthology title Boys Life from Shogakukan Inc., and were later collected in 1966 under the Golden Comics imprint.

Jim Kingman

Writer Robert Kanigher maintained throughout his thirty years of chronicling the military missions of DC’s Sgt. Rock that the leader of the combat-happy joes of Easy Company did not survive World War II. In the letters column of Sgt. Rock #340 (May 1980), Kanigher clearly stated, “…1945. That’s the year Rock is killed in action. On the last day, in the last hour, in the last minute—in a place he never should have been. And only because Rock is Rock with his last breath.” Writer Bob Haney, who scripted six of the seven Batman/Sgt. Rock team-ups in The Brave and the Bold from 1969 to 1977, maintained otherwise, and in so doing had Rock participate in some of the most outlandish adventure stories written in comics. Yet Kanigher also wrote, “Character is continuity, not the dead wood of previous plots” (Sgt. Rock #397, Feb. 1985), so hopefully Haney’s scripts, not to mention anyone else’s involving the legendary sergeant, didn’t offend him too much. Though Haney certainly tried. Haney threw continuity out the window and left no outrageous plot device unturned. What mattered to Haney was an action-packed, thrill-a-page story told in one issue. In that respect, Haney always delivered. In “The Angel, the Rock and the Cowl,” the first Batman/Sgt. Rock team-up published in The Brave and the Bold #84 (June–July 1969), Batman looked back on an earlier case in his career involving Sgt. Rock. The problem was that the adventure was set during World War II, and the Batman recounting it was the then-modern rendition of 1969, with yellow insignia and illustrated by Neal Adams. It is revealed that Bruce Wayne had been Batman since the 1940s and in appearance he hadn’t aged a bit in almost 25 years! Near story’s end Sgt. Rock makes the modern scene, having clearly survived World War II, a big Kanigher no-no, while appearing significantly older than Bruce Wayne. In the follow-up story published two years later in The Brave and the Bold #96 (June–July 1971), with art by Nick Cardy, millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne was assigned as US ambassador to an

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Throwing Continuity to the Wind (above) An undated passport photo of Brave and Bold scribe Bob Haney. Courtesy of Randy Kerr (www.blueroadrunner.com). (right) Batman meets Easy Company, from B&B #84. © 2008 DC Comics.

unnamed South American country by President Richard Nixon. The actual US ambassador had been kidnapped, right under the nose of the noble Sgt. Rock. Wayne was to continue negotiations as Batman hunted for the ambassador, while an unknown enemy sought to discredit Sgt. Rock. Rock looked much younger than he did in the previous team-up. In fact, he didn’t look a day over 1945 (actually, he looked better than with the weathered features regular Rock artists Joe Kubert and Russ Heath gave him). B&B’s #84’s adventure was noted and referenced in this story, tying it snugly into Haney continuity but again disregarding Kanigher’s. Two years later, in The Brave and the Bold #108 (Aug.–Sept. 1973), blessed with outstanding art by Jim Aparo, Batman and Rock teamed up again in “The Night Batman Sold His Soul,” but now Rock looked older and there was no mention of Batman being around since the 1940s. The story had a clever plot: that Rock has been hunting a very-much-alive Adolf Hitler for years. But Batman was eventually convinced that this wasn’t Hitler, but the Devil himself, and that he had sold his soul to him. I can’t imagine Denny O’Neil’s Batman at this time believing that. The implication at story’s end was that Hitler was one of the Devil’s many guises, and that while evil could be confronted, battled, and held at bay, it could never truly be defeated. A downer ending, but 1973 was a very cynical time in American history, and every now and then a comic book of the time reflected that. A year later, in The Brave and the Bold #117 (Feb.–Mar. 1975), also with art by Aparo, Rock believed he’d seen the ghost of a man he had court-martialed

and executed for cowardice during World War II. It turned out Rock wasn’t seeing a ghost. The soldier was actually a spy for the US Army and his execution was faked so he could continue his job in secret. The soldier remained a spy well into the Cold War, and to keep Rock from getting too close to the truth the Army had him arrested for crazed behavior and put on trial for a dishonorable discharge. Fortunately, Easy Co. knew its loyalty and recruited Batman to help save Rock, and the world’s greatest detective came through. Actually, this story has no bizarre twists, but it does raise a legitimate question regarding the actions of the US Government. Sgt. Rock truly believes he is seeing a man he executed for cowardice during World War II. Instead of simply telling Rock the truth, the US Army chose to lie to him, discredit him, and put him up for trial. While I do understand that telling Rock the truth would kill the story, it’s still disturbing to see a respected and decorated military man treated so harshly by his own country.

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Eric H ou s t on

In 1987, Eclipse Comics’ Airboy tied Miracleman as the publisher’s number-one title. With high sales figures, a talented creative team, a cadre of passionate, outspoken fans, and an assortment of miniseries and oneshots, it seemed that Airboy’s publishing future was certain. Yet within only two short years, the book would be cancelled, its publisher going out of business soon after, and, instead of becoming highly soughtafter collectors’ items, its back issues now languish in convention quarter bins. What happened? How did a Golden Age hero rise from the ashes, reaching truly dizzying heights, before falling to Earth once more?

FIRST FLIGHT

Military Comics’ Blackhawk ruled the four-colored skies of World War II, but he was content to share the wild blue yonder with a spate of other costumed aviators. Among them, few were better or more popular than Davy Nelson, better known as Airboy. Initially appearing in the pages of Hillman Periodicals’ Air Fighter Comics, Airboy was the daring teen pilot who flew the miraculous, bat-winged plane Birdie. Beautifully drawn by the likes of Fred Kida and Charles Biro, Airboy’s Golden Age adventures were always exciting and were some of the best stories the era had to offer. Air Fighter Comics was quickly renamed Airboy Comics and the book became increasingly popular, with Davy and his fellow flying heroes, like the Iron Ace, the Flying Dutchman, and Skywolf, enjoying a long publishing life. Still, when World War II ended and the evil Nazi and Japanese pilots that had been Airboy’s bread and butter vanished from the skies, Airboy Comics’ sales plummeted and, as of 1953, young Davy Nelson was grounded and all but forgotten. There were, however, a faithful few who remembered the boy aviator, among them a handful of future comics professionals. Tim Truman, at this writing the writer of Dark Horse’s Conan, recalls his own introduction to the Air Fighters: “One of [Jim Steranko’s History of Comics volumes] featured a huge chapter on aviation comics, centering on the Hillman material. I’d read

“Take that, ya airhog!” Tim Conrad’s dizzyingly dazzling original cover art to Eclipse’s Airboy #39 (May 1988), courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). Airboy TM & © 2008 Todd McFarlane Productions.

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and re-read that chapter over the years, completely awed by the concept and information.” Chuck Dixon, former Detective Comics writer, also recalls reading about Airboy in his youth: “I remember even, as a fan, drawing pictures of Birdie and Airboy and idly dreaming that I might one day write a story about them.” cat yronwode, meanwhile, discovered Airboy through comics reprint publisher Ken Pierce and recalls seeing the name again one fateful day: “I was the editor-in-chief over at Eclipse and I was looking for things that we could do that were in public domain. I had a list that had actually been provided to me by Alan Light, former publisher of the Comics Buyer’s Guide, and Airboy was on that list.”

PHOENIX

Once it became clear the Air Fighters existed in the public domain, cat yronwode and Eclipse set out to make their own Airboy comic. yronwode approached Tim Truman, who was already working on Eclipse’s Scout, to spearhead the new book. “Scout was probably their top seller then,” recalls Truman. “I was pretty easy to work with and I always delivered the art and story on time. I had a really great relationship with Eclipse and they knew I could pull together a bunch of folks who would deliver the goods. It seemed like something that would work out for everyone, so they asked me to be creative director for the Airboy project— put together an art and writing team, come up with new concepts for the launch of the series, and the like.” Truman selected young comics writer Chuck Dixon to script the book, while Truman himself would serve as editor. From there, the two men worked with cat yronwode to decide exactly how to bring Airboy into the 1980s. “We talked a lot about the possibility of it being the same character, just brought to the present,” remembers yronwode, “the way Captain America had been, but we decided that was not the way we wanted to go. Eventually, Tim came up with a proposal that involved [our Airboy] being the son of the Golden Age Airboy.”

BACK IN ACTION

Using Truman’s idea as their basis, Truman and Dixon built Davy Nelson, Jr. into a relatable, three-dimensional character, introducing him and much of his supporting cast in their very first story arc. We first meet Davy as he practices karate with an elderly Japanese man named Hirota, the original Airboy’s first “kill” turned trusted family friend. Then, we are re-introduced to David Nelson himself, the original Airboy, only to find that the bright-eyed, heroic youth of the second World War has long since disappeared, replaced by a broken man who runs a weapons manufacturing company, living in seclusion from everyone he loves, even his own son. Suddenly, the scene erupts into chaos as a group of heavily armed mercenaries attack the Nelson Estate. Our heroes ably defend themselves, but with one great loss: David Nelson dies saving his son. Hirota quickly takes Davy away, telling Davy for the first time of his father’s heroic history, while giving Davy the red, gold, and blue uniform of his father’s Airboy. From there, Davy and Hirota begin their mission of revenge, bringing the old band back together along the way. The first man they meet is Skywolf, an ally of David’s from World War II, now a grizzled old warrior who has traded in his bizarre “semi-plane” and wolf-pelt mask for a grim leather uniform and attack helicopter. Luckily, Skywolf knows where the mercenaries came

Early Flights Air Fighters Comics vol. 2 #8 (Fall 1944), a classic Golden Age Airboy cover by Bob Fujitani, and Eclipse’s Airboy #1 cover, featuring Timothy Truman art.

from, the South American nation of Bogantilla. He also happens to know the whereabouts of David’s most faithful ally from the war, the miracle plane Birdie. Dixon and Truman (and Davy and Skywolf) waste no time updating Birdie, giving “him” a new jet engine and updated armaments. Dixon and Truman were also quick to give Birdie its own subtle personality, making the plane almost more man than machine and a supporting character in its own right. Once in Bogantilla, the story begins to twist and turn as Davy and his friends learn that the mercenaries are not their enemies but freedom fighters, combating a corrupt government. Worse, Davy learns that this government is backed by arms made by Nelson Aviation. Davy quickly joins the Bogantilians in their plan to attack the capitol. Davy hopes to absolve his father’s sins, but remains unaware of the whole truth. A visit to a local shaman, aided by the mysterious Heap— a tragic, misshapen swamp creature who was also an ally of David’s and whose original appearances predated both Swamp Thing and Man-Thing by decades—reveals that David had been in the thrall of his old enemy Misery for decades, while the supernatural foe held David’s lover, Valkyrie, hostage.

NAZI SHE-BITCH

Valkyrie was easily the most popular supporting player from Airboy’s Golden Age run. Valkyrie started life as the leader of the Air Maidens, an all-female Nazi flying circus. After a single encounter with Airboy, however, she defected to the Allies, falling madly in love with David. She would come to join David on many of his adventures, sitting on his lap inside Birdie’s cockpit. Still, she remained an effective femme fatale, as Truman describes her, “sort of like Veronica from Archie as a lovable Nazi she-bitch.” Given her popularity, both with Golden Age readers and with the entire creative team of this new revival, Valkyrie’s return was practically inevitable.

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M ic h ae l Brown in g

It’s been twenty years since John Ostrander’s Suicide Squad first appeared in the pages of Legends, and comics are still trying to catch up with this concept that was so far ahead of its time. Legends spawned other major titles like the Mike Baron/Jackson Guice Flash and the famous (or infamous) Keith Giffen / J.M. DeMatteis / Kevin Maguire Justice League. Ostrander’s Suicide Squad, however, didn’t take hot characters or the name of a very popular superteam to make a successful book. It took the name of a long-forgotten DC adventure team that had made only a few appearances in The Brave and the Bold (B&B) in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Created by writer Robert Kanigher and artist Ross Andru, the original Suicide Squad, consisting of Rick Flag; his girlfriend, Karin Grace; Dr. Hugh Evans; and Jess Bright, first appeared in B&B #25 (Aug.–Sept. 1959) and lasted through #27, with a three-issue follow-up in B&B #37–39. After those few appearances, the Suicide Squad faded into relative obscurity and wasn’t to be heard from again until 1987, when the idea for a revamp of the team was given to writer John Ostrander, who was slated to write the Legends miniseries. The team’s third incarnation (there was another, World War II version of the Suicide Squad that appeared in Secret Origins vol. 2 #14, May 1987, that provided a bridge from the first SS team to the Ostranderpenned group) first appeared in Legends #3 (Jan. 1987), written by Ostrander and drawn by John Byrne and Karl Kesel. The Suicide Squad’s ongoing series lasted only 66 issues—beginning with Suicide Squad #1 (May 1987) and ending with issue #66 (June 1992), with one annual and a Doom Patrol/Suicide Squad Special along the way—but has a loyal fan following to this day.

Dirty Dozen Minus Eight Nightshade, Deadshot, Vixen, and Bronze Tiger, four of the Suicide Squad’s most popular members, are featured in this awesome commissioned illustration by Geof Isherwood. From the collection of Michael Rankins. © 2008 DC Comics.

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Suicide Squad Promo Art Scans of Xeroxes of the original art used to promote the Squad, where the images of the various characters were cut-and-pasted together into a bulletin board-like setting. “As I remember,” shares Karl Kesel, who sent us these scans, “this was done long before any interior art was done, and it’s clear Luke McDonnell and I were both unfamiliar with each other and the characters themselves.” Karl adds an interesting sidenote: “As much as I loved what John did with Captain Boomerang as a character, it still bugged me no end that Boomerang would just keep producing an endless array of boomerangs seemingly from nowhere. While trying to figure out where he might keep his weapons, Stephen DeStephano suggested a bandolier (missing in this promo art, you’ll notice). Not only did this give Boomerang a clear place to store his weapons, it also established a limited number of weapons, with the possibility that he could actually run out—always good for drama. It also added a nice asymmetrical element to Boomer’s design. This is why Stephen DeStephano is a genius!” © 2008 DC Comics.

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They say suicide is painless, and creating this comic-book series certainly fit the category. I had recently experienced my Crisis on Infinite Earths follow-up, Crisis of the Soul (see BACK ISSUE #9), blowing up in my face in late 1985. Around early December, executive editor Dick Giordano told me we were hiring Mike Gold and he was being asked to step into the breach and create a new crossover for the company. He was going to be working with his First Comics colleague John Ostrander, whose Grimjack I liked a lot. Penciling would be John Byrne, already on board with the Superman revamp, and Len Wein, just leaving staff for fulltime freelance, would dialogue. I would interface between Mike and John in Chicago and the rest of DC editorial in New York. One of the goals for the new project, Legends, was to revamp a few key franchises such as a new Justice League of America, in addition to returning the Flash to his own title. But in the post-Crisis DC Universe, it was also a time for new beginnings. Legends was being designed to spin off at least one or two new series in addition to the revamps. I was getting a consolation prize of editing one of the new projects, which I would develop with Johnny O. The interesting thing is, over a year earlier, John and I had already met. I was DC’s sole rep at the Atlanta Fantasy Fair, so I was awfully lonely at the booth, especially in the mornings. John and I struck up a conversation that rapidly morphed into a friendship. We got to know one another by phone and this newfangled thing called e-mail. Initially, John wanted to do a revamp of the Challengers of the Unknown, but I had to say no; some newcomer named Jeph Loeb had been given a crack at the team. We talked about the kinds of series he liked and the kinds of stories he wanted to tell. As we chatted, it became apparent we both liked things with an edge to them and to set readers’ expectations on their ear. A theme for Legends was the nature of heroism and the role of government, so we thought that dovetailed nicely with what we had in mind. At the time, DC published books filled with good guys battling bad guys. People who lived in the gray spaces, that moral limbo, didn’t really get a lot of attention at the time (John Constantine didn’t earn his own series until 1988). We wanted to mix things up, taking good guys and bad guys, sending them out together on those suicide missions, a staple in storytelling dating back to the Dirty Dozen if not earlier. Would heroes sink to new depths or would villains rise to the occasion, earning their presidential pardon? Editors were more than happy to offer us recurring bad guys from their titles and later, as we gained popularity, the title got to use bigger guns starting with the Penguin and later Poison Ivy.

Robe rt G re e n be rge r

From the Squad’s “Personal Files” This Luke McDonnell cover for Suicide Squad #8 (Dec. 1987) was bumped for a very similar one by Jerry Bingham, so we’re happy to share with you this previously unpublished version. © 2008 DC Comics.

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Mike Gagnon

Scorpion’s Sting Oh, the humanity! This amazing Chaykin cover to The Scorpion #2 went unpublished! At least we can enjoy it here, thanks to art collector Jeff Singh’s generosity. © 1975 Seaboard/Atlas.

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In 1974, a new comics company, called Atlas Comics, was launched into the expanding market. Although short-lived, the events and conditions surrounding the company are still both glorified and vilified today by writers, historians, and collectors. Because of the people behind the creation of Atlas Comics, the roots of the long-defunct company will always be entwined with the early history of comic-book powerhouse Marvel Comics. Marvel Comics founder Martin Goodman sold Marvel to a new firm in 1968, and left his management position within Marvel in 1972. By 1974, Goodman had started a new operation called Seaboard Periodicals, which published a new line of comic books called Atlas Comics. These events made Goodman look like a smart businessman for many reasons. Primarily the big stroke of genius was that Atlas already had built-in name recognition. Prior to being known as Marvel Comics, Goodman’s original venture was known as “Atlas Comics.” Goodman still retained the legal rights to the Atlas name after the publisher made the change over to Marvel Comics in 1961, seven years before Goodman sold the company. Another wise tactic employed by Goodman at the time was to produce a number of comic-book series that were seen as imitations of successful Marvel characters. In order to produce these books, the new Atlas Comics was offering better payment rates to the established artists that were currently working for Marvel and DC. This led a number of creators to switch over to Atlas, thereby giving fans one more reason to check out these new superhero comics being done by some of their favorite artists. Although Goodman was able to pique the interest of some readers, fans proved to be loyal to the more established and popular characters at Marvel and DC. This choice by the comic-buying public led to low sales at Atlas, and the comic line crumbled after roughly only a year in business. In the decades since, these comics have become known as Atlas/Seaboard comics, to differentiate them from the pre-Marvel Atlas of the ’50s. These comics have caught the imagination of a number of collectors worldwide. The back issues have become attractive to collectors because they present an opportunity to look into the past and see the early work of some of today’s favorite artists, and also easily and affordably collect an entire set. None of the series lasted more than four issues, and most issues trade on today’s collectible market at roughly half the cover price of a new comic book found in specialty stores or on newsstands. This makes them highly affordable and collectible. Over time, the subject of these Atlas/Seaboard Comics has not only caught the interest of collectors, but many historians and writers. Some recollections have painted Goodman’s actions as an attempt at revenge or spite against his former company. Others have envisioned the defunct publisher in the opposite way, as a pioneer in the arena of creator’s rights. In my time I have been a collector of Atlas Comics, read a number of pieces about them, and written a number of pieces through my own research. One of the most popular series published by Atlas/Seaboard, and indeed the most original of its titles, was called The Scorpion. The Scorpion was created by a young Howard Chaykin, who’d been working in the comics industry for just a couple of years at the time. I’ve had the fortunate opportunity be able to talk to Mr. Chaykin via telephone and speak to him about his experiences with the Atlas Comics of the 1970s in an attempt to set the record straight. In the process I discovered that the truth about the company may not be heroic or villainous, but somewhere in between. – Mike Gagnon T o u g h

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Beginnings: Assisting Gil Kane, Wally Wood, Gray Morrow, and Neal Adams

Milestones: “Iron Wolf” in Weird Worlds / Sword of Sorcery / “Cody Starbuck” / The Scorpion / Star Wars / miscellaneous Batman projects / American Flagg / Black Kiss / The Shadow / Blackhawk / The Flash TV series / American Century / Mighty Love / Challengers of the Unknown / City of Tomorrow / Hawkgirl / Blade / Guy Gardner: Collateral Damage / Punisher #50 /

Works in Progress:

Double Vision?

Wolverine / Batman and Catwoman in The Brave and the Bold / Phantom Eagle, with Garth Ennis (Marvel Comics)

Atlas editor Larry Lieber, as caricatured in the line’s publications and in a photo.

Howard chaykin Photo credit: Scott Kent.

MIKE GAGNON: Thanks for your time and being able to discuss Atlas Comics. HOWARD CHAYKIN: No problem. GAGNON: Is it true that there was pressure from the management of Atlas Comics to produce Marvel-style characters, or perhaps rip-offs of Marvel characters? CHAYKIN: There might have been; but I was never aware of it. That pressure never came to me. GAGNON: So you were never pressured in your work? CHAYKIN: You have to remember, in those days, I was never “one of those guys” [known for superhero material]. So no, I never felt any of that pressure. It never came down on my shoulders. GAGNON: At one point Martin Goodman hired Larry Lieber, Stan Lee’s brother, to be head editor of Atlas. Did you ever have any experiences dealing with Larry? CHAYKIN: I never dealt with Larry, I barely ever spoke to him. I didn’t ever really know him. My guy was Jeff Rovin. I mean, let’s face it, Martin was Larry’s uncle, which is one reason why Larry got the job. GAGNON: Is it true that you walked away from your Atlas series The Scorpion? If so, why? CHAYKIN: Yes. I walked away because I was running late. I was very behind on the book. What I had no idea about at the time was that someone in the [Atlas] office told Alex Toth that I was no longer on the book, and that he had carte blanche to do whatever he wanted with it. Ultimately what was published as The Vanguard, an Alex Toth strip that you may remember, was supposed to have been published as a Scorpion story. As I recall, I think Larry came in and did a couple issues and turned the series into a Spider-Man imitation before it was canceled. And that was that.

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GAGNON: What, if any, were your personal experiences with Atlas publisher Martin Goodman? CHAYKIN: I’ve never met Martin in my life. Let’s face it, there’s very little reason for the publisher to interact with the talent, that’s what editors are for. When you work in comics you don’t deal with a publisher, you deal with an editor. The jobs are two completely different functions. A publisher has very little interest or reason to handle matters that concern the creators. They have other day-to-day matters that they handle. GAGNON: Were you a fan of the original Atlas comics? CHAYKIN: I was unaware of them. I’m not that old. [laughs] GAGNON: Neither am I. [laughs] CHAYKIN: Atlas was Marvel Comics, right? Before it was called Marvel? GAGNON: Yes… CHAYKIN: I was shown a lot of that stuff later on. A lot of the guys from EC ended up at Atlas Comics. The legend was that Atlas Comics was the best publisher after EC [closed shop], because a lot of them went there. A lot of the legends that I admired were there: Alex Toth, [John] Severin, Ed Davis. GAGNON: Did you feel enticed or wooed into working for Atlas Comics, perhaps over working for other companies? CHAYKIN: They were offering fairly high rates for the time. Again, we’re talking 30 years ago? I’m just going by memory, but from what I recall they were offering high rates, comparatively speaking, and paid as on time as any of the other companies. Comics have always been a fairly fast turnaround. In any other graphic art, you’re looking at at least a 30-day turnaround, more often 60 to 90 days. In comics it’s more like two weeks. What Atlas really did was to serve the purpose of raising the rates paid in comics across the board, across the industry. Which was good for the creators at that time. Nobody had any idea how long it was going to last, but we didn’t think of it in that way, in those terms. GAGNON: Is it true that Atlas was a pioneer in creator’s rights? CHAYKIN: I don’t remember that. I’m not even sure what that means. GAGNON: Like offering things like ownership of your creations and things like that? CHAYKIN: I don’t own anything I created for them.

Don McGregor does everything with a passion. Creates, writes, talks, I’ll bet he even sits passionately. One of his biggest passions, his loves, is his characters. Black Panther, Killraven, Saber, Ragamuffins, and detectives Nathaniel Dusk, Ted Denning, and Bob Rainier. It’s those last few we talk of here: Nathaniel Dusk, McGregor’s ’30s hard-boiled dick he did for DC Comics; and Detectives Inc., a series that goes back to before Don’s first job writing horror stories for Archie Goodwin and Jim Warren, and to one of his oldest passions. “I created Bob Rainer and Ted Denning (of Detectives Inc.) for me and Alex Simmons to play,” McGregor reveals. “I got a camera from my dad and we were filming ourselves as these characters. We would be our own stunt men, using real knives! Alex would take a swing at me with an axe, I’d duck… we thought that’s how they did it! What did we know?” Don and Alex took the characters and made their own photocopied comic, with Don scripting and Alex drawing, staying up into the wee hours to staple the Pepto-Bismol-color covers on the package to hand out the next day at the New York Con. It was 1969. To find out where Detectives Inc. landed, we’ll have to skip forward a few years, past the job Don got at Warren Publishing by insulting Jim Warren (great story—sorry, another time), over his memorable run at Marvel with Black Panther (in Jungle Action) and Killraven (in Amazing Adventures), to Eclipse Comics and Dean Mullaney. After leaving Marvel, Don was invited by Dean to be part of the Eclipse lineup. Don wanted to try something new, but wasn’t sure if his audience would be there. His series Ragamuffins, following a group of kids in the ’50s, was near and dear to his heart, but he didn’t think it should be the first thing he tried: “The business has a very short memory. They knew me at first as a horror writer, from my Warren stuff, and now as a heroic fantasy writer. I wanted to do something that had some kind a chance for a market…”

Tom “The Comics Savant” Stewart

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Michael Aushenker

Now how ya gonna have a “Tough Guys” issue without including the pop-culture icon who is the epitome of tough—with a capital “T”! I’m talkin’ about that mohawk-sportin’, weird-bearded, gold chain-wearin’, fool-pityin’, ass-kickin’-without-name-takin’ bad dude! I’m talkin’ Mr. T, sucka! Even back in the day, Mr. T was a mystery. A celebrity oddity. He dressed like a rapper but he didn’t rap. He was from our planet and yet, as out there as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. He was definitely different. Well, here we are, 25 years on from when T (Laurence Tureaud on his birth certificate) hit superstardom. But before you count out the erstwhile “Bad Ass” Baracus and one-time Clubber Lang, you better make time for this jibba-jabba, punk! See, Mr. T is not merely an enduring ’80s TV icon back with a reality show… he’s also an enduring comic-book presence who has toplined various comic-book series in the ’80s, ’90s, and, yes, as recently as 2006!

THE 1980s: SOME T & A-TEAM

You might say the British really enjoy their “T” time. The enigmatic African-American character actor known as Mr. T—best remembered for his early ’80s roles in The A-Team and Rocky III—enjoyed his first foray in comics as part of an A-Team feature that ran in the English children’s magazine Look-In. Soon after came Marvel Comics’ (mercifully) short-lived The A-Team (Mar.–May 1984), lasting three issues. While Mr. T was not the star of the book, he was definitely the star attraction, functioning like he did on the hit NBC series (1983–1986) that inspired it. Across 98 episodes of the Stephen J. Cannell-produced TV action-adventure, The A-Team followed the exploits of a special unit of ex-military soldiers— framed for a crime that they did not commit; forced to go underground as mercenary heroes for hire. Mr. T was the colorful sidekick character that stole the show with his gruff attitude, eccentric appearance and irascible one-liners… much as the Fonz usurped Happy Days or Vin Diesel hijacked The Fast and the Furious from their respective ensemble casts. Naturally, Marvel’s A-Team capitalized on its popular source material; its lead characters drawn as dead ringers for their TV inspirations—Col. John “Hannibal” Smith (played by George Peppard), Lt. Templeton “Faceman” Peck (Dirk Benedict), Capt. “Howling Mad” Murdock (Dwight Schultz), Amy “Triple A” Amanda (Melinda Culea), and Sgt. Bosco Albert “B.A.” Baracus (our man T!). These characters look a tad too self-conscious of their television counterparts (you can picture the artists drawing while eyeing taped-up publicity photos). The ostensible plots of these selfcontained adventures involve the A-Team on missions to stop a friend of Baracus gone traitor (#1); to rescue 6 6

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THE 1990s: BACK IN FULL FORCE

By 1990, Mr. T’s star was fading fast. NBC had canceled The A-Team. Rocky IV had come and gone without a Clubber to clobber. No studio in Hollywood was fast-tracking D.C. Cab 2. But 1993–1994 saw Mr. T’s grand return to la bande dessinée with Mr. T and the T-Force, published by Now Comics (the company behind Speed Racer, Married… with Children, and other comics based on licensed properties). This may be a completely subjective reflection of my own personal “T-ology,” but T-Force appears to be the most realized of all Mr. T comics. Sure, T is credited as the “star, creative director.” But T-Force delivered top-tier talent, and, despite its contrivances, packed solid visual punches and light, fun storylines. Contrary to what one might expect, Mr. T operated less like a mohawked Luke Cage and more like a hood Shadow. The sincere (if hokey) premise involved Mr. T saving misguided ghetto teens—one kid at a time—by making them part of his team following his confrontations with them. In each issue, after tangling with the criminal element, T would find at least one diamond-inthe-rough (not an evil kid, just a lad led astray) and slap a house arrest-type wrist device on him that would work as a tracer and a communicator between T and the teen. (This confining electronic bracelet seems dubious in light of T’s oftrepeated declaration that his own gold chains symbolized a reminder of the slavery that African Americans had struggled to overcome). Soon, T amassed a “B-team”—reformed gangstas, taggers, and Janie, a clinic nurse with her ear to the streets—to help him combat crime. Part of T’s appeal has always been his vulnerable side; his concern for kids and his community. T-Force delivered on its simple T-driven mandate of providing a message of hope

to inner-city youth struggling to stay clear of the influence of gangs, crime and drugs. T-Force’s letters column, “T-Time,” was filled with missives from young readers such as a struggling teen father who found inspiration in T’s self-affirming series. Emphasizing positivism, community, and self-empowerment in the face of adversity, T-Force stressed that violence was not the solution… even as the T-Force kicked serious thug ass! Mr. T ran around shooting bad guys—with a video camera—to non-violently deliver the incriminating footage needed to put them away. Master artist Neal Adams crafted the initial two issues (with Pete Stone), which boasted the “Adams Lite” art associated with his Continuity Studios work. Adams forcibly set the tone for the series, which “mélanged” Mr. T’s hardcore alpha personality with tender vulnerability. An entire splash page is devoted to Mr. T weeping over a crack baby. That pretty much sums things up. In #2, after the towering Incan villain (a patsy for a drug cartel) assaults Mr. T with a flurry of crack-filled hypodermic needles, a hallucinatory T puts his will power to the test as he must mentally overcome the vial’s vile effects. The sequence gives Adams a clever excuse to pit T against some fantastic and imaginative (if imagined…) Alien-esque creatures.

a pair of kidnapped Japanese brothers (#2); and to retrieve a stolen jet (#3). The art—by Marie Severin, Jim Mooney, and Alan Kupperberg, respectively—was flat. Nobody’s heart seemed invested in this slapdash licensed property, accelerating the comic’s demise. Yet the title had a few charms. The awkward caricatures echo those ’70s cameo-laden Hanna-Barbara cartoons (i.e., The New Scooby-Doo Movies, guest-starring Don Knotts, Sonny and Cher, etc.). There’s something entertaining about T’s recurring catch phrases and flying phobia. It’s almost comical (pun intended) how the spectacularly unfunny Murdock’s “out there” antics and “insane” non-sequiturs fall flat (remember, he was the loony tunes A-Teamer…). With #3, A-Team folded. But it would not be the last time Mr. T would grace a comic book. One thing would change: In every subsequent comic-book series, Mr. T would get top billing.

A-Team from the Makers of X-Men Detail from the cover art to Marvel’s A-Team #1 (Mar. 1984), penciled by John Romita, Sr. and inked by Marie Severin. A-Team TM & © Stephen J. Cannell Productions.

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Dewey Cassell

What if there was one man who had the capability to redeem all mankind? Someone who had the potential to ensure the salvation of the world. Someone who could be reincarnated through successive generations to fulfill his destiny. And what if he didn’t know? Such was the basis of the story The Redeemer, created by Joe Kubert in 1983. Kubert was well known and respected for his seminal work on characters like Hawkman (in The Brave and the Bold), Sgt. Rock (in Our Army at War), Tarzan, Tor, and Enemy Ace (in Star Spangled War Stories), but he had taken a hiatus from illustrating sequential comics for almost ten years, devoting time to his role as editor and cover artist for DC Comics, as well as heading up a school for aspiring cartoonists. With The Redeemer, Kubert planned to get back into the saddle and was looking forward to it. He explains how it started: “It’s difficult to really recall what provoked this whole thing, but nevertheless, I was always looking to do something with which I would be attached permanently. That is, creator-owned. I always felt that there would be an advantage to doing that. At that time, of course, DC was open for that sort of an arrangement with me. I came up with the idea of The Redeemer. I showed them exactly how I intended to handle this thing. They agreed and they wanted it.” The Redeemer was intended to be a 12-issue monthly maxiseries, published by DC Comics and distributed exclusively through the direct market (avoiding the Comics Code). The story was to be written, illustrated, lettered, and colored by Kubert. The title character, the Redeemer, was a man named Jim Torkan. Torkan would be reincarnated through many generations, each time striving to make the right choices amidst moral ambiguities. Kubert elaborates on his concept: “The premise of the story is that there is one character, the character that was the Redeemer, who exists in these different time frames, as the main character in the variety of stories that I was doing. In each story, the Redeemer kept coming in and the whole thing was a battle against evil. The evil character was sustaining and permanent throughout. Each time, the Redeemer was vanquished, but came back again. He came back again to change and alter and redeem the evil and pull it back to good again. That was the premise of the story. A constant battle between good and evil over a long period of time, with the same character.

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The character himself wasn’t aware that he was being reincarnated every time. Nevertheless, he was, in different roles as the ‘hero.’ The Redeemer’s job, his purpose in life, was to set things right.” While the Redeemer was unaware of his calling and with no certain recollection of his past lives, he did possess some sense that he had been in similar circumstances before, allowing him to “learn” from his previous incarnations. As Kubert tells it, “There was a feeling, a sense that he had. What I try to equate the story with was that each one of us is born with some sense of what’s right and what’s not right. Where that comes from, I’m certainly not sure. But I have a feeling that it’s there and every one of us have a tendency to try at least, consciously or subconsciously, to do the right thing. But there are people, apparently, who are devoid of that feeling and who attempt to get whatever they want in any possible way, and that is the incarnation of evil that the Redeemer is constantly fighting.” That “incarnation of evil” was manifested in the story as the Infernal One, an omniscient being who lived in a palace in a bitterly cold, remote part of the Himalayas, and who was bent on dissuading the Redeemer from his true purpose. The Infernal One was unable to directly hinder or harm Torkan, so through his minions, he would make every effort, in every incarnation, to tempt the Redeemer from the righteous path. Kubert explains about the Infernal One: “He was all-powerful, except that his power lies in the fact that he sets things on the road of the Redeemer to tempt him away from doing the right thing. It isn’t done in a physical way. It’s done in a very manipulative way. He doesn’t come up and twist the Redeemer’s neck and say, ‘Do this or else.’ As it happens to all of us, he does it in ways we don’t even realize.” In fact, Torkan would not have even been aware of the Infernal One. Kubert elaborates, “Perhaps at the end of the story, he [Torkan] would realize the kind of temptations that had been offered to him and that he had avoided, and was grateful for the fact that he did the right thing and continued on. He never completely and totally succeeds, of course, which is the reason he is reincarnated for the different stories.” The concepts of reincarnation, temptation, and redemption are common themes in many ancient and modern religions. However, Kubert indicates that he never intended to make a religious statement with the

Soul Man (left top and bottom) Joe Kubert’s production sketches of Torkan. (top right) An introductory panel of the Reedemer, from the first issue. (bottom right) DC Comics’ house ad for the unproduced series. Reedemer TM & © Joe Kubert. DC bullet TM & © DC Comics.

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Upon first glance, it might be difficult for a reader to take a comic book that uses a pun as its title seriously. For that matter, it might be hard to imagine the creators of a book called Ms. Tree taking their book seriously. Generally, puns are reserved for texts that joke, wink, and play. But when Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty created Ms. Tree in 1981, they were dead serious about the tone and direction of their title character. Michael Tree (yes, a woman) was a hard-edged, tough-as-nails private investigator who, while operating within the familiar framework of crime fiction, defied many of the expectations of the genre. For the next 12 years, Collins and Beatty crafted a narrative that directly engaged the hardest, most controversial social issues of the time. How they managed to pull this off and stay afloat in a medium dominated by teenaged, mutant, and ninja superheroes makes Ms. Tree… well, a mystery indeed. Collins and Beatty didn’t initially set out to craft a book that would join the surge of alternative comics in the 1980s. Ironically, Collins—a writer probably best-known in comics circles for his graphic novel Road to Perdition— hadn’t intended to be a comics writer at all. “I began as a crime novelist who also happened to be a comics fan,” Collins says. “I’d never thought about writing comics, though up through junior high I’d hoped to be a cartoonist, writing and drawing comics. It was discovering the mystery fiction of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Mickey Spillane that sent me down the road to perdition of crime writing, so to speak, and I dropped my comics aspirations but not my comics enthusiasm. My first two novels, Bait Money and Blood Money, had a secondary character who was a comics fan/aspiring cartoonist, and the novels are full of comics references. Those novels were what attracted the attention of the Chicago Tribune Syndicate editor, who was looking for a mystery writer to take over Dick Tracy. So my entry into the world of comics scripting was through my mystery/crime fiction, and my Tracy work attracted attention among comics fans and also editors, since it was grounded in both Gould and what’s now called noir fiction and film.”

Alex Boney

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While Collins found a way into comics through his work in another medium, Terry Beatty was more interested in the direct route. Like Collins, Beatty had been a long-time comics reader. And like Collins, Beatty was living in Muscatine, Iowa. As Collins explained in 1983, “Terry Beatty (24) and Max Collins (34) are both lifelong residents of Muscatine, Iowa, a Mississippi rivertown small enough to insure that two comic book fans— even if separated by ten years—were bound to run into each other; they were further entwined by fate due to Beatty’s father having been Collins’ junior high English teacher” (letters column, Ms. Tree’s Thrilling Detective Adventures #1, Feb. 1981). Beatty and Collins had known each other for a while by the late ’70s. And while their friendship might seem to have been accidental, their working relationship was not. Both Collins and Beatty had a common ambition to break into the comics business, and both recognized strengths in the other that would allow them to make it happen. In Collins’ case, the professional partnership he sought with Beatty was driven by his uneasy experience writing Dick Tracy. “I’ve never really talked about this,” Collins says, “but the whole relationship with Terry, which was a mixture of business and friendship (and still is), grew out of my troubled relationship with Rick Fletcher, the Dick Tracy artist. Landing Tracy was a childhood dream come true, but I soon found myself partnered with a gifted but unhappy man whose tragic relationship with Chester Gould—they were like father and son, but turned on each other—made me the brunt of all kinds of misery. Fletcher and I grew very friendly, though, toward the end; but it was rocky through much of the ride. The whole idea of getting something going with Terry was to have a positive, happy working relationship with an artist. That really was it. That and having a place to do the tougher, more dangerously topical stories that I couldn’t get past the Tracy editors.” Beatty was more than happy to be a part of the ride. He and Collins first collaborated on self-syndicated newspaper project called The Comics Page. The project never took off as well as the creators had wanted, but it did get the attention of editors at Eclipse Comics. “I just wanted to do comics,” Beatty says. “The fact that I was working with Max, and that crime stories were his thing— and that we were asked (by Dean Mullaney) to create a detective feature (for Eclipse Magazine)—is why we came to work on Ms. Tree. I suppose, left to our own devices, she might have ended up being created anyway. But we also attempted to sell ourselves as a creative team to the Tribune syndicate on several newspaper strips that were not crime stories. I’d been thinking I’d break in as a humor cartoonist—and in some ways wasn’t quite ready to draw an ‘adventure strip.’ But Max and I shared an enthusiasm for Spillane and Hammett and all that hardboiled stuff—so Ms. Tree seemed like something we could both enjoy working on.”

Then and Now (above) An undated photo of Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty at the Hollywood Bowl, taken by Alan Light and submitted by Terry Beatty. (left) One of Beatty’s unused cover roughs for the new Ms. Tree HardCase crime novel, Deadly Beloved. © 2008 Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty.

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